Silverweed

by Dorlana Vann

  Scarlet was mumbling now about how she wished Aiden would hurry up. She had her arms wrapped around herself, moving her hands up and down for warmth.

  That’s when he realized, he felt warmer, like a heater was turned on low and blowing against his face.

  Scarlet stopped pacing and peered at him through squinted eyes as a frown of confusion swept down her eyebrows.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, but at the same time felt a blow to the stomach and needles in his arms, legs, and then face.

  He heard Scarlet scream, but the pain that shot through his body was so intense he lost sight of her. His eyes burned with fiery tears as he felt his teeth being pulled out of his gums and daggers being shoved under his fingernails. He thought he heard his muscles and ligaments ripping, felt his bones and skin stretched from the inside out. It was happening, and he couldn’t believe it.

  He blinked and wiped at his eyes, only to see his arms covered with long, dark hair. He felt heavy and hungry. He was aware of being alive but thought he was dead. He panted from exhaustion and wanted to bend to all fours. Where was he? In the cage with Scarlet.

  Gradually, his sight cut through the darkness: not becoming brighter, just clearer. Scarlet had her mouth wide open, screaming. He took a step toward her, to comfort her. She ran to the bars, shaking them and banging on them, screaming for help.

  “It’s me,” he said. “I’m not going to hurt you.” But he heard what she heard, and it wasn’t words. He had barked at her, roared at her, and Scarlet was terrified … of him.

  Before he saw him, Diesel heard Aiden running down the stairs. Diesel backed up slowly until he was against the wall. He watched as Aiden picked up the gun, and then he waited for the inevitable shot.

  “GET ME OUT! GET ME OUT!” Scarlet screamed.

  Diesel knew where Aiden’s thoughts would go. Where they had to go: “If I open the door, the werewolf will get out, too.” Diesel prepared for the puncture and pain of the thick darts. It was what had to be done. It was the same thing he had done to Granny when she had turned into the same monster.

  Aiden’s eyes were big with fright but at the same time Diesel perceived something more. Sympathy?

  Diesel wanted to tell him it was okay. That he understood that he had to shoot him. “Aiden,” Diesel said, but it came out a growl. He gave up and lowered his head, ready to go down. Ready to be put down like an animal.

  Diesel looked up when he heard rattling. Aiden had found the key and opened the cage. Scarlet tore out of there and into Aiden’s arms. She turned after a second and yelled, “Shoot him! Shoot him!”

  “Wait, wait, wait,” Aiden said.

  “Give me the gun,” Scarlet said frantically. “Give it here!”

  He didn’t hand it to her, but she grabbed it out of his hands. Diesel cringed again. He knew she wouldn’t hesitate. She was way too scared.

  “Where’s the darts? Give them to me!”

  “Scarlet,” Aiden said calmly, “look at him.”

  She had the gun out in front of her, her other hand out, waiting for the darts. “I know, I know! Give me the darts!”

  “No, Scarlet,” Aiden said gently. “Look at Diesel.”

  Diesel could see and smell the scent of Scarlet’s breath, rapid puffs of shimmering saliva, in and out, her sobs true and panicked. “He’s not doing anything,” she finally said. “Why does he look like that? Like he’s afraid of us?”

  “It’s the silverweed,” Aiden said matter-of-factly. “The muffins didn’t keep him from turning, but it kept him from losing himself. You gave him gobs of the stuff. So he’s fine. Well, not fine, but you know what I mean.”

  She shook her head. “He’s not going to hurt us? But he looks exactly like his grandmother did, but bigger and scarier, and she wanted to hurt us really bad.”

  Aiden said, “I found a diary Aunt Rose had written years ago. It’s all in there. She did research on Granny for like a year before letting her out of that cage. I don’t think Diesel’s going to do anything. I think he already would have.”

  She put her hand over her chest. “You’re sure?”

  “Aunt Rose said that the silverweed caused Granny to stay Granny in her mind. Only her body changed.”

  “He knows us?”

  “Diesel,” Aiden said, “if you understand me, nod your head.”

  Diesel felt so relieved that he stood up straight and exhaled; Aiden and Scarlet took a large step back but watched as he feverishly nodded his head.

  “Huh.” Scarlet stared at him and stepped closer.

  Diesel suddenly felt embarrassed. He put his head down, eyeing his shredded clothes. He wanted to drop down, his chest and arms felt heavy, but didn’t want to look even more like an animal.

  “Don’t be afraid. I’m not going to shoot you.” She set the gun down before she walked into the cage.

  “I’m not, you know, I’m not sure if that’s a good idea,” Aiden said. “Maybe we should lock him in here for a while. I mean, I’m sure he would understand. I just meant we shouldn’t shoot him.”

  When Diesel peeked at Scarlet, she was easing her way toward him. Curiosity, more than fright, covered her face, now. When she stood inches away, she reached out and almost touched his arm but seemed to change her mind right before she reached his fur.

  “Diesel?”

  He wanted to smile but didn’t want to show the teeth that felt sharp in his mouth. He wanted to talk but knew he couldn’t. He needed to show his girl that he was still there. His girl. His face had distorted into the likeness of a hideous beast. He was covered in animal fur, but he tried anyway. He dramatically squeezed his right eye shut.

  “You winked at me!” Tears streamed down Scarlet’s face. “I’m nobody’s girl. I’m my own woman … and yours.”

  Diesel heard his own whimpers as Scarlet reached out to him once again.

  “This is so crazy.” She lightly touched his chest, her eyes animated with excitement. “This is crazy. So freaking crazy. I wonder how long it will last.”

  “I don’t know,” Aiden said, still standing outside of the cage. “Granny changed back after, you know, she’d been shot with the dart gun.”

  Scarlet put her hand up to her mouth. “The sleeping powder. Maybe it wasn’t just to help Granny sleep. Rose might have used it to put her to sleep once she was a werewolf. I know I wouldn’t want to be awake during that. Perhaps Diesel can sleep it off now. We can give him more of the powder.”

  “Is there some left?” Aiden asked.

  “Plenty. I only used a few tablespoons and it worked earlier. There’s still a whole jar full.”

  Nice, Diesel thought. That must have been why he was out-of-it and fell asleep so easily earlier. But seeing the state he was in now, he couldn’t really say Scarlet had overreacted.

  Scarlet spoke slowly and softly to Diesel, “Come on, we’ll go upstairs, and I’ll give you something that will make you sleep, and by the time you wake up, you should be yourself again.”

  Diesel nodded.

  “Um,” Aiden said. “Are you sure about this? We could bring it down to him.”

  “It’s fine,” Scarlet said as she led the way out of the cage. “You were right. It’s him. I know it. He’s not going to hurt me.”

  Diesel followed them up the stairs. Walking in his new skin felt powerful yet contained. Suddenly, he was burning up and wanted to be outside in the snow, in the coldness, and fill his lungs with fresh air. He had to fight the urge to run. So help him, he wanted to drop to all fours. The night called him, and he wanted to answer, holler, scream at the top of his lungs … he wanted, needed, to howl.

  When they made it out of the basement and into the kitchen, all his senses came to life. But mostly, he was starving. He wanted to eat everything and knew it would taste delicious. After a couple of clumsy attempts, he opened the refrigerator. A second later, he tore open the package of ham with his teeth, barely getting the meat down before he started groping again. He dumped the leftover spaghetti
into his mouth and then went for the milk.

  “At least he’s doesn’t want to eat us,” he heard Aiden saying.

  Then he smelled something pungent and peculiar, something with a strange familiar odor.

  Something with an animal scent.

  Chapter 19

  The Grandmother Came Out Alive

  “Why is he gawking at us like that?” Scarlet asked Aiden.

  Diesel, who had been quite engrossed with the contents of the refrigerator, suddenly stopped what he had been doing and stared at them, sniffing the air. Food and drool hung from the corners of his mouth, and his sharp teeth curved over thin brown lips. As he gave a low, throaty snarl, his bright-yellow eyes widened, and his pointed, hairy ears perked straight up.

  Aiden thought for a second that when he had said, “At least he doesn’t want to eat us,” he had given Diesel-werewolf a horrible suggestion—a suggestion his animal appetite couldn’t ignore. No sooner had the thought to grab Scarlet and run away occurred to him than he realized Diesel wasn’t looking at them at all. He was glaring past them and into the living room.

  Scarlet had observed the same thing, and slowly they turned their heads in the direction Diesel was growling.

  “Ooooh, crap,” Aiden said under his breath at the sight of the werewolf in his granny’s pink nightgown. She was upstairs, right outside her room, not dead. A funny feeling of relief overwhelmed him for a moment. Granny was alive!

  Diesel growled behind him.

  “Shhh,” Scarlet said, and moved further into the kitchen, trying to tell Diesel not to give away their location.

  It was too late. Granny howled out in excitement and jumped over the banister.

  “Run!” Aiden shouted, but he couldn’t move—he stood in stuck-panic as Granny came galloping toward him, front legs, back legs, front legs—and when Granny pounced, Diesel shoved past Aiden and lunged, meeting her halfway in the air, landing on top of her. She fought back, and round and round they rolled on the living room floor.

  The grunts from the werewolves were loud and grotesque: fur flew, blood slung, teeth snarled. It was difficult to tell if one was stronger than the other. Diesel had his wits about him, so he was aware that he fought his grandmother. Granny didn’t know who she was—she had no silverweed in her system—she was full animal.

  Aiden ran to where Scarlet stood in the corner, her hand over her mouth, in a frozen daze. He grasped her wrist. “Come on,” he said, guiding her toward the entrance to the basement and pulled her downstairs. His eyes had adjusted to the more candlelit upstairs, so despite the lantern, the darkness had again taken over the basement. “We need the gun,” he said, searching like mad around the room.

  Scarlet got down on floor. “It should be right here.”

  Finally, after crawling around the floor blindly for a second, Aiden found it.

  He grabbed the dart out of his back pocket, barely able to load the gun in the dark while he shivered in fear. He intended to go back upstairs, but a mighty ruckus arose at the top of the stairs, followed by two dark, hairy figures tumbling down toward them. Scarlet took cover behind Aiden and the gun.

  Aiden aimed the gun at the two werewolves who fought and rolled one over the other on the basement’s concrete floor.

  “You have to pump it,” Scarlet yelled over the noise.

  He pulled the wooden pump at the bottom of the pistol barrel and pumped until it wouldn’t move.

  Aiden aimed at the blurry masses of fur, trying not the think about the fact that one of the wolves was his grandmother and the other one was his cousin. He had to think about Scarlet and what would happen if Granny killed Diesel.

  “Shoot!” Scarlet yelled.

  And so he did. The small kick of the gun sent an instant regret through his veins. “Oh NO!” he cried, after he watched Diesel flinch and hold his thigh. “I shot the wrong one!”

  “The other dart, Aiden,” Scarlet said. “Get another dart!”

  Diesel kept fighting for a few seconds, even with the dart in his leg, but his enthusiasm soon wavered.

  Aiden struggled to keep watch as he tried to take the last dart out of his back pocket, but he couldn’t find it.

  Diesel finally stopped and dropped, landing sprawled out on the floor.

  The room immediately fell into an eerie silence.

  Granny turned on all fours, and her glowing eyes focused in on Aiden. Unlike before, he knew this large animal in front of him was his grandmother. His mom’s mom. The frail old lady who had told him stories about his mom when she was a little girl.

  Aiden gulped, and with a trembling, forced voice said, “Granny … it’s me, Aiden.”

  “Hurry, Aiden.” Scarlet whimpered from behind him.

  The werewolf in the pink nightgown rose to her hind legs. She lowered her neck and growled, moving only her mouth, revealing daggered teeth. Granny wasn’t home.

  Aiden realized there was no time, even if he found the dart, to load and pump. He reached behind him, grabbed hold of Scarlet and swiftly guided her into the cage. He was right behind her. He had to let the dart gun drop to seize the door with both hands.

  Granny pounced.

  Scarlet was by Aiden’s side and they tried to pull the door closed, but Granny was wildling trying to get to them.

  Aiden knew Granny’s claws were ripping the skin on his hands and arms, but he had to ignore the pain. He had to use all his thoughts, strength, and adrenalin to shut the door half-an-inch. When it seemed there would be enough slack in the chain, Aiden yelled, “Lock it!”

  Scarlet let go of the door to get to the lock.

  Right when Aiden thought the werewolf had gained control of the situation, the locked chain caught and kept it from opening. But then pain shot through Aiden’s arm; the werewolf had latched on like she was going pull him through the bars. “Ahhh!” he screamed, fearing his arm was going to be ripped from his shoulder.

  “Let go of him!” Scarlet grabbed hold of Aiden’s waist and pulled in the opposite direction.

  Suddenly, Scarlet let loose of him, and Aiden’s face smashed against the bars. He felt something wet and opened his eyes to the bloody, foamy mouth of the werewolf.

  “Where’s the dart?” he heard Scarlet scream beside him.

  Granny let go of Aiden, and he dropped hard. His face hit the cold floor, and his aching arm was still on the outside of the cage.

  The werewolf snatched the gun from Scarlet, pulling her with it.

  Scarlet’s head banged against the steel bars, and she fell beside Aiden.

  As Aiden’s eyes followed her down, he saw the dart right outside of the bars. He reached and grabbed hold of the end of the red tip. He had it!

  Aiden didn’t hesitate. He reared the dart back over his shoulder and brought it down with as much strength as he had left into Granny’s big, hairy, yellow-clawed foot.

  The werewolf let loose a howling scream, managing to remove the dart but stumbled backwards. She came toward the cage again. Aiden grabbed Scarlet under her arms and pulled her out of the way of Granny’s groping claws.

  Scarlet blinked her eyes, coming back to consciousness, and held onto her head. She sat up and scrambled back even more when she saw the werewolf.

  Granny-werewolf growled and howled for a few seconds longer until finally swaying. She stumbled back then went down to her knees, finally collapsing.

  Both werewolves were laid out on the cold floor. Aiden couldn’t see them breathing, but he figured since Granny had survived two darts, they were both alive.

  With their backs against the far cage wall, Aiden put his arm around Scarlet, pulling her closer, and she cried silently against his chest.

  Chapter 20

  They Filled the Wolf’s Belly and He Fell Dead

  When Aiden woke up, Scarlet still snuggled close to him. A beam of light from outside shone through a small window. It was morning. “Scarlet,” he whispered and gently shook her.

  He then noticed Diesel standing outside the cage, fu
lly dressed with his hair pulled back. He looked normal, not even a scratch, except for a new sincerity in his eyes.

  “It’s so cold,” Scarlet said as she stood up, hugging herself.

  “Come on,” Diesel said. “I’ll get a fire going. Sorry to leave you guys, but I was naked and really cold when I woke up and had to go get something to wear.” He pointed with his head to his ripped-up clothes on the cage floor.

  Aiden stood up and fished the key out of his front pants pocket.

  He and Diesel helped Granny, who was herself again but still groggy, upstairs to the living room where she slept another hour.

  They briefed her after she woke up. There were no tears shared between the four of them, just a complete breakfast of eggs, bacon, and silverweed muffins.

  It didn’t need to be said that they would keep what happened a secret. Aiden wasn’t going to tell anyone. The family secret was safe with him.

  The storm was over, and he hoped the clearing of the roads would begin soon. The sun peeked in through the curtains, and the clanking of silverware against plates made Aiden feel almost comfortable.

  After breakfast, Aiden walked upstairs with Diesel and Scarlet to get Granny settled in her room. He admired her for her strength and hoped some of it had been passed down to him.

  “Don’t worry, Granny,” Diesel said, kneeling beside her bed. “I’m going to find a cure. I’m going to go through all of Mom’s notes and go from there. And …” He glanced at Scarlet, who was by the open door. “I’ll never run off and leave you like that again.”

  Scarlet made a tiny sigh and walked out of the room. Aiden followed her down the stairs to the living room where she was wiping tears.

  “Are you all right?”

  Scarlet shrugged. She wore jeans, an over-sized t-shirt, and no makeup. She seemed disheveled and not the same put-together girl he’d met earlier that weekend.