Cursed

by Brent Miller

  “Okay. We’ll get us a cure,” Chase offered, his tone so convincing that Garrick actually believed him. He knew there had to be something that they could do. Watching the two of them work so hard gave Garrick determination to pursue a cure more – he couldn’t give up if they weren’t. He still had a dozen books back at home that he’d checked out from the library, so he resolved to get back into reading after he made it home from his awkward conversation.

  “Do you need a ride home?” Garrick asked Chase as he stood and stretched.

  “Nah, I’ll walk, thanks,” Chase said. “I’m going to stay here for another few hours and try to figure this out.”

  Tyler nodded absently, devoting rapt attention to the book.

  “Do you guys need my help?” Garrick asked, hesitating at the doorway before he left. He felt awful leaving them to try to fix his problem. Aside from that, he was procrastinating dealing with Samantha.

  “You’re no help,” Tyler joked, finally peeling his eyes from the book and turning to Garrick. His tone shifted as he gave his friend sincere advice, “Honestly, though, Garrick Elliott, we’re alright. You’ve been depriving yourself of sleep for weeks, desperately searching for any morsel of information, and it’s wearing you down. Give yourself a break, go talk to the girl, figure out your personal life without the wolf weighing you down. Then go home and go to bed, because we’re going to need you functional.”

  “Thanks, guys,” Garrick smiled. Tyler nodded, waving him on. Steeling himself with a few deep breaths, Garrick headed outside, hoping the words would come to him in the car. All that presented itself was more confusion. He knew he didn’t want to date her, but part of him wondered if the human side did, and what that would mean if he found a cure. A larger part couldn’t imagine ever loving anyone else – and if he found a cure he’d share it with Hayden, and all of their issues would vanish. Except, of course, the fact that he needed her support, and there was a piece of him angry at her for not being the one where Chase was.

  Regardless of whether or not he wanted to date Samantha, though, he cared about her. At the very least, he wanted to make sure he didn’t hurt her, but that seemed inevitable. If he told her they couldn’t even be friends, she’d probably be devastated, but she’d be safe. Otherwise, he was putting her at risk – and he didn’t want to bring more people into his world.

  Confusing thoughts racing through his mind, Garrick drove to the coffee shop and parked outside. Waiting for Samantha, he realized he hadn’t even begun to think about what to say, so he tried running through the conversation in his head. Every scenario he imagined ended with her angry at him, and most ended with them never talking again.

  “Hey,” she greeted as she got in his car. Garrick hadn’t actively noticed her approach, but he wasn’t startled as she opened the door and got in. Subconsciously, he must have known. If he’d been thinking about it, he would have heard her footsteps before she even left the shop.

  “Hey,” he replied awkwardly.

  He started the car and drove to her house. They spent the entire drive in silence, but she just sat in her chair after he stopped.

  “I’m really sorry,” she finally found her voice.

  “Really,” he told her. “It’s fine. I’m just going through a lot of confusing stuff right now. It really isn’t about you, as horrible as that is to hear.”

  “Want to talk about it?”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s… complicated. I don’t think you’d understand.”

  “I’d understand a lot more than you may think,” she implored, hurt. “Try me.”

  “I’m not over Hayden yet, you know? And I don’t know what that means for us. You don’t want to be friends, and I get that. I don’t know if I do either. I just don’t think I’m ready for anything more. And I don’t want you to wait. I don’t know if I ever will be.”

  “You will be,” she comforted, setting her hand atop his. His instincts screamed to pull his hand away, but the conversation was going far better than he’d anticipated and he didn’t want to ruin that. “I’m not going to push you, Garrick. I really am sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I’m sorry for being so hard to be around.”

  “Well, you are kind of difficult,” she joked.

  “Do you want to hang out sometime?” Garrick asked after a few minutes of silence. He knew that he shouldn’t have asked it, but she looked so hurt, and she was just sitting there awaiting some response. He wanted to do anything he could to get that look off her face.

  “Yeah,” she beamed. “I’d love that. I work pretty much all weekend. Is Monday good?”

  “Monday is actually really bad for me,” Garrick said cautiously. She looked confused, probably wondering why he’d ask her to hang out just to decline her invitation. “Tuesday, though, I’m free.”

  “Okay,” she replied. “Tuesday.” She got out and walked to the door. He watched as she went inside, making sure she got in okay. Then he drove off, heading home and thinking about how much of a complete moron he was.

  Chapter 10

  Fourteen months ago

  Not for the first time, Garrick watched the clock tick away to the end of the school day. As usual, he couldn’t bring himself to focus on the teacher’s dull lesson, but now he couldn’t even keep his attention on his own daydreaming. He was lost in his head – something completely typical for him – but in a way which was completely unfamiliar. Normally, his thoughts gave him hope and comfort, and he dreamed up scenarios where he could be a hero, or just live out his own dreams. Recently, all of those thoughts involved Hayden, so even that wasn’t a new concept. However, that day he hadn’t been able to conjure up a positive thought. Stubborn doubts and fears pushed their way to the forefront of his mind, and no amount of internal screaming could drown them out. Garrick had convinced himself that he knew what Hayden’s evasive attitude and her avoidance of him over the past few days meant. As much as he wished he didn’t, he knew.

  The bell rang, and he stood up groggily, wishing that he didn’t have to move on with his day. Although anyone else would say school was a complete bore, it wasn’t too bad for him. It gave him a chance to sit and stare off into space – to wallow silently, and an excuse to ignore the constant vibrating of his phone. Communication with another human being took far more energy than he could muster, and at least class gave him a reason to give people for his absent responses. With the dismissal of school, he had to go home, where he was under no social obligation to pretend to be okay, and he knew that would just lead to an even deeper well of tears and self-pity. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and trudged toward the door.

  Garrick watched his feet as he walked, keeping his eyes pinned to the ground in front of him. A vibration from his pocket demanded his attention, and he finally pulled his phone out with a groan and flipped it open. He had four texts. One from Tyler, making sure he was okay – claiming that Garrick had been acting strangely the whole day. He’d hoped he’d been able to mask it, but he knew himself well enough to know that there was no chance he’d actually pulled off any sort of ruse. Garrick was horrible at lying and acting, and Tyler had known him his whole life. Another was from his mom, letting him know that she’d be home late from work again. The other two were from Hayden, one asking him to meet her somewhere, and the other just saying she had to talk to him. It was evident what was coming, and he planned to procrastinate it to a time when he was alone and could break down as he saw fit. Whatever her texts said, he wasn’t going to meet her; he was just going to go home and send her a text acknowledging that he understood. Looking at her as she broke his heart wasn’t something he could handle.

  As he rounded a corner, he heard her voice muffled by the sounds of people rushing past. He couldn’t make out the words, but the tone was a whispered rage. Garrick inched closer to the noise, trying to avoid being seen. A voice in his mind screamed that he didn’t want to know who she was talking to or what was being said
, but his curiosity took over. Knowing full well the knowledge could do nothing but hurt him, he gave in to his lust to learn everything there was to know.

  “I have to tell him,” she whispered. “He deserves to know.”

  “No, he doesn’t,” a familiar voice argued. His stomach churned, but he tried to maintain his composure.

  “I hate lying to him.”

  “You knew what it meant when you made your choice,” Cailean scolded her. “There’s no taking it back now.”

  Everything started to fall together in his mind. She’d been avoiding him for days, and he’d seen her going to Cailean’s house the other day. She just refused to talk to him about what was going on, probably unable to formulate any adequate story on the spot. The pieces of the puzzle just fell into place, though, and everything became painfully clear.

  “I’m not going to let you risk everything, Hayden. Stop thinking about yourself. I don’t care how lying to your boyfriend makes you feel – I won’t let you ruin my life over it. And I definitely won’t let you ruin Brooke’s.”

  There it was. What could she possibly tell him that would ruin Brooke’s life? Garrick leaned against the wall to prevent himself from falling over. Even though he’d started to suspect something, he didn’t think it would be so drastic. Everything pointed to it, he saw that now, but he’d been blinded by his unparalleled hope and his desire to trust her.

  There was a sudden break in speech, and he could hear the shuffling as they both jolted their heads toward him. He hadn’t thought he’d made a significant amount of noise, but maybe he’d fallen into the wall harder than he’d realized. Garrick stumbled backward, trying to find a place to hide and avoid detection as he heard Hayden’s footsteps approaching him. He walked into someone, who pushed him forward and glared as they walked by. The crowd behind him was large enough to just blend into, but his balance was still off from being pushed, and he couldn’t recover quickly enough. Hayden turned the corner, almost running into him, and he watched the expression on her face morph through a dozen expressions before she settled on remorse.

  “Garrick,” her voice broke as she spoke. There was pain in her tone, but he couldn’t bring himself to feel any pity for her. Maybe he should have felt guilty for eavesdropping, but the only thing he could bring himself to think was that he was vindicated. Hayden’s gaze dropped from his eyes to the floor as she fumbled for the words to say to make anything better.

  “What did you hear?” she finally asked meekly.

  “Enough,” Garrick said. He forced anger into his voice, even though all he could feel was sadness. If he spoke any more, he was worried he’d just choke up. He couldn’t let her see that, though, so he tried to sound powerful and angry. Breaking down was for another time – not with her in front of him.

  “It’s not what you think, Garrick. I can explain everything, I promise. Please,” she said. Her eyes lifted back toward him, sparkling as the light reflected from the tears brewing within them. The same shine that always filled him with comfort and joy now brought forward pain and anger.

  “Don’t bother,” he interrupted, turning his back to her. He wouldn’t be strong enough to leave if he stayed for another second. He already felt his legs trembling, but he forced himself to walk away. If he allowed her an explanation, he might forgive her, but he refused to let himself. He had to be stronger than he’d ever been, because he wasn’t going to let himself be a victim. Garrick Elliott wasn’t going to be someone who got cheated on.

  One step at a time, he forged his path home. As he did, he found himself coughing, choking on the tears. Keeping his gaze on the ground in front of him was all he could do to stop himself from collapsing to the sidewalk and sacrificing his ability to move. When he was safe in the privacy of his room, he could allow himself to feel, but he didn’t want to cry as he walked down the streets. To distract himself, he started daydreaming about fighting Cailean. He wished he had the guts to do it. He knew things wouldn’t end up the same way that they always did in his head. He probably wouldn’t even get one good hit in before he was completely unconscious. But at least then he wouldn’t be a coward.

  Present

  The night of the full moon

  Garrick walked down the street, heading to the abandoned station, granting himself the leisure of wandering around the woods a bit rather than taking the most direct path. He was nervous for his first change alone, so he’d given himself plenty of time to make it to the cabin. As he watched the sun set, his confidence grew, and he knew he could manage. He walked to his sanctuary – the building Garrick hoped would be his refuge from the beast. All of his hopes were placed in that one structure – one which could keep him from being heard or hurting someone else, but also eliminate the risk of running into Aldric. After he was confident his plan was working, maybe he could actually convince Hayden, Cailean, and Brooke to come with him. Aldric would have no choice if his whole pack decided together that this was a better plan. Of course, Garrick hoped it would solve his problems with Hayden, but at the very least it would prevent anyone else from dying.

  He climbed the steps and pushed the door open. It squeaked, once again protesting Garrick’s entry. He walked through the darkness, his eyesight barely faltering in the darkness. Able to discern at least the shapes surrounding him, he quickly navigated to the cellar door. Cautiously, he opened it and stepped inside. As soon as he was secure inside, he closed and locked the old wooden door behind him, exhaling deeply. For the first time all month, Garrick was starting to feel relaxed. He’d actually managed to do what his pack claimed was impossible.

  Walking down the stairs, Garrick took his shirt off and tossed it into a corner. He was actually happy, despite the fact that he was about to change and was completely unable to stop it. He was proving to himself, and to everyone, that he didn’t need Aldric. Even Aldric would have to recognize that he was stronger – better – than that pack gave him credit for, and he was going to be the only one who wasn’t at risk of killing someone that night. At the moment, that was enough of a victory. The cure could come later.

  “I thought I might run into you here,” a voice in the darkness said. Garrick panicked, not even concerned about placing a name to the voice. He wasn’t sure, and didn’t care, if it was a friend or a foe, all that he knew was that anyone in there was not just in danger; they were already dead.

  “No, no, no,” he groaned. Maybe if he said it enough, it would stop being true. More than anything, he wanted to believe that he had just been hearing things, but he couldn’t deny reality. He picked up his voice, speaking with more conviction as he added, “No, you need to get out of here.”

  “I thought we were friends,” Samantha muttered. He was going to kill her. The wolf struggled against Garrick, pushing its way to the surface. “Why do you so desperately want to get away from me?” If he were in any other condition, he would have noticed the peculiar tone in her voice, but it barely registered in his mind. At the moment, he was just focused on saving her life. Somehow, he had to get her out of there before he changed and put her at risk. Either she would get killed or she’d become a werewolf, and Garrick wasn’t sure which would be a worse fate to inflict on her.

  He knew she couldn’t see much, because he couldn’t. If even his eyes were struggling to adjust to the dark, barely able to make out her outline, he knew hers were useless with no light coming in from outside. Nonetheless, she was able to locate him, and she turned to face him as they spoke.

  “Sammi, there are things that I can’t explain to you right now; things that you probably wouldn’t believe if I tried to, but you need to leave.”

  “How naïve do you think I am, Garrick Elliott?” she mocked, stepping toward him as she followed the sound of his voice. A small window near the top of the basement, secluded in a corner, allowed the slightest sliver of moonlight into the room – but that sliver was enough to reflect from something dangling in Samantha’s hand.

  Before he could react, she drove the blade
into his ribs. Stunned, Garrick staggered backward, his hands clasping the wound. He fell to his knees and barely caught himself from falling forward. As he tried to process what exactly was happening, he felt her foot slam against his side, and he dropped to the ground, rolling over twice before colliding with the wall. He coughed, leaving blood on the floor in front of him.

  He didn’t know exactly what was happening; his mind was spinning with so much new information. What he did know was that she had betrayed him. The whole time that he was so worried about hunters, and he just let one get so close to him. He’d allowed himself to begin to believe they didn’t exist, and apparently they had to give him a neon sign that he was wrong.

  Garrick fumbled for the blade, his coordination absent in the pain. When he finally found it, he ripped it out of his body and threw it against the far wall, as far from Samantha as it could get. Garrick tried to force himself to stand, but he couldn’t manage. He placed his hand over the wound, pressing it down and willing it – to no avail – to heal.

  “What did you do?” He forced each syllable from his mouth with extreme effort.

  “Silver,” she said. “You may find that it has some unique properties.” She was now crouching down, right in front of his face.

  “Why are you doing this?” he asked, a fit of coughing punctuating his question. The words not so much a demanding, forceful question as a plea for help. “What did I do to you?”

  “Well, that one is for me to answer.” A different voice – a male voice, and much older. “You see, Garrick, your kind killed my brother. Samantha’s dad.”

  “I suppose you could say that I caught your scent,” Samantha taunted, caressing his face. “That first day I saw you. I knew something was off. And then you suddenly started covering up your beautiful arms. I tried testing you a couple times, but you never stuck around long enough for me to be absolutely sure. Then, when you told me about the things I wouldn’t understand and your unavailability of the full moon, I knew.”