Through the Woods

by Cassandra Johnson

  “Well, when it was originally built, it just let out into the woods, but as New Haven grew, and the times changed developers came along. My father came down here once when I was a boy to check it out. He always believed in there being a backup plan. I just wish I remembered or knew what that back up plan was.” He laughed somewhat to ease the tension of the situation. Gallen didn’t want to tell them that they were really lost down here and the only choice they had was to keep walking until they found a way out. Or froze to death.

  “As cold as I am, I’m trying to remind myself that we could be deep fried and extra crispy right now if we weren’t down here,” Elle commented through the chattering of her teeth. “Wait,” Pausing Elle looked around. Behind them, ahead. “Where’s Gregory?” She asked, fumbling as she went back to the brick wall.

  “I don’t think he came with us, Elle,” Marik said following her and peering down the tunnel.

  “What do you mean he didn’t come with us?”

  “There was so much happening at once, I didn’t see him…”

  Setting her laptop down on the ground she began to crawl back inside the tunnel.

  “I have to go back. Gregory's trapped.”

  “Elle, what do you think you’re doing?” Marik wrapped his arms around her waist and hauled her back out. “You can’t go back to the house, it’s probably completely in flames by now.”

  “Elle, I’m sorry. We missed him.” Gallen said looking back at Elle and Marik

  “No, he’s been through so much already, he can’t just die in a fire. I have to go back and find him.”

  “Elle! He’s gone! We can’t go back.” Gaerik snapped as she squirmed in Marik’s arms like an unruly two-year-old.

  From further inside the tunnel, they heard a yip coming from up ahead. Gregory stood there.

  Relief flooded through Elle as Marik released her and she grabbed her laptop from the ground, walking to Gregory.

  She thought that he had gone upstairs earlier, but as she thought back, she hadn’t seen him in Marik’s bedroom. Elle just assumed that he was with them when they went through the secret room down into the tunnels.

  “Where were you?” As if Elle expected him to reply to her. Though crazier things had happened before.

  “He must have slipped out of one of the windows or something,” Marik said slowly moving up behind them and leaned forward, running his hands along the dogs back. “There isn’t a scratch on him.”

  “That’s great, now can we get moving? I don’t want to spend the rest of the night down here in the temple of doom. Maybe the guardian knows which way is out since he found us down here.” Gaerik said, impatient as always.

  “It still doesn’t explain how he found us,” Elle noted in confusion looking at the guardian. For now, she would allow herself to just be happy that Gregory hadn’t been burnt to a crisp in that fire. Everything happened so fast, and since Elle had woken up, he’d barely left her side. She just took it for granted that he was right there with them when they closed themselves up in the pantry.

  Another yip was issued from the guardian as he turned back the way that he’d come. Leading them down the tunnel, the faint hum of electricity in the lights above them carried as they followed the black dog until he took a right leading to an older part that had been forgotten. The lights flickered, and cobwebs hung from the ceiling above their heads and down the sides of the walls until he stopped at another brick wall, like the one that they had climbed through. The whole was only large enough for the beast to jump through, forcing the four of them to dig their way out as cold gusts of wind hit them in the face as the hole got bigger.

  “There has to be a way out through here,” Gallen grunted, tossing the last brick aside and crawled through. The ground was cold and damp as they worked their way out and up the steep slope. It appeared they’d come out of some forgotten drainage culvert. Snow was piled on the ground, somewhere between frozen and slush.

  “I think we’re almost out,” Gallen said as he crawled out and came face to face with the barrel of a twelve-gauge shotgun.

  “Stop right there.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Harriet Ceville lived alone. At ninety-three years old she was as blind as a bat, but she’d never been ill a day in her life. She was also a werewolf.

  She’d just shut off the burner of the stove and carefully laid a dry dish towel over the handle of the hot kettle. Harriet felt the brim of her mug, the tea bag safely nestled inside before she guided the pot to it, feeling the heat radiating from it as she slowly filled the cup with the hot water. During her life, she developed techniques since her childhood that helped her perform all the tasks that those with sight took for granted.

  After her husband had passed and her children were grown and moved out beginning their own journey, having children themselves she was alone, and Harriet found that she didn’t mind being on her own. It was quiet and peaceful. That peace was pierced by the sharp howl that erupted outside of her house.

  Harriet knew that howl. It had been years –her children were young and living at home the last time the cry of a guardian pierced her ears.

  Placing the kettle down onto the stove, she picked up her walking stick, tapping until she reached the door and swung it open. The animal blew right past her legs, barking as it turned around and round inside her kitchen, hearing its paw frantically clicking on the linoleum.

  “God damn it. I’m not Lassie’s mom. Slow down.”

  Since she was about eighteen she could sense light dimly, sometimes a blurred shadow crossing her path at times, but as her white eyes stared into the open space the vision of her kitchen slowly came into focus around her like the fog clearing from a misty lake.

  “Son of a bitch.” Harriet blinked rapidly, stumbling back into her hutch. Looking around at the appearance of her kitchen, even with her meticulous habits she was disgusted to see a thin layer of dust sitting on her counter tops, but she’d have no time to go into a cleaning frenzy with that guardian yipping at her like a maniac in frantic, shrill tones. Get a move on, he was telling her.

  The guardian lunged at her, snapping her attention to him, forcing her to focus. Looking at the black dog, she nodded quickly.

  Howard used to keep a shotgun, mostly for attention-grabbing purposes. Heading out of the kitchen the gun cabinet was in the hall, she passed what was once her two children’s bedrooms and stopped in front of the old gun cabinet, flicking the key to open it. Harriet reached inside taking out the twelve gauge and grabbed a handful of shells out of the box that always sat at the bottom of the cabinet, loading the gun.

  Nowadays she’d be locked up if she had children, gun control laws were becoming stricter because of school shootings among other things. The fact was, both of her kids knew if they were ever caught playing around with that gun that Howard would have worn them out with his belt. They knew very well that a gun wasn’t a toy. They didn’t need stricter laws, they just needed to put the fear of god back into some ignorant kids who’d never been taught otherwise. Life wasn’t one of their little video games where you could hit the reset button.

  The guardian had followed her down the hall and was bouncing off its forepaws and panting.

  “I’m coming.”

  Harriet hadn’t ‘seen’ since she was four years old and those images had long since disappeared from her memory, it wasn’t every day one was gifted with sight again after eighty-one years. Keeping the shotgun at her hip she walked into the kitchen, finding her boots beside the door where she always left them and threw a jacket on over her housecoat. Snapping her finger, Harriet pointed.

  “You know where you’re going.” She said to Gregory.

  Harriet stumbled after the Guardian, following as quickly as she was able to. Something was happening, she’d heard the rumors, whispers but there was always talk of something going on. People took for granted that Harriet was still listening. Just because she was blind didn’t mean she was also deaf too. Something terrible must hav
e been afoot for a guardian to show up on her doorstep in the middle of the night.

  There wasn’t much land to her property, and she found herself skirting through the back alleys and yards of her neighbors before she came to the opening. When she was a little girl, they’d played here, and she even got left alone down in that hole once. Neighborhood kids thought that it was fun playing a game of hide and seek and leaving her there. People felt that they were the monsters? Humans were the real beasts.

  “Somebody down there?!” She called as the black blur of the guardian dashed down inside. Peering into the darkness, she lifted her nose into the air. Sniffing her senses were filled with the scent of smoke, and it wasn’t from someone’s chimney. “Fire.” She breathed looking back down into the opening she could hear the guardian barking, and she took a few steps closer.

  Harriet saw the beam of a flashlight bobbing from deeper inside, her boots inching closer, almost sliding on the ice that packed down the snow.

  Once more the guardian came back out, climbing the incline and yipping back at the near snow clogged opening. Next, the beam of the flashlight hit her in the eyes, and she staggered backward, clumsily aiming the gun as a face slowly came out of the tunnel.

  “Stop right there,” Harriet growled, her eyes flickering gold in the dark night.

  ~

  “Oh shit.” Gallen stopped dead in his tracks. Those behind him pressed close to his back as he raised his hands into the air, not knowing of their new-found trouble.

  “Ouch! Who stepped on my foot?” Elle gripped from behind Gallen, unable to see the reason for his sudden stop.

  “Sorry.” Marik murmured from her side.

  “Can you two please move? I want out of this hole.”

  “Who is that? Whose down there, Gaerik is that you boy?” Harriet tilted her head listening though she had yet to lower her weapon.

  “Harriet?” Gaeriks features contorted in confusion. Elbowing past Elle and Marik, he worked his way towards the opening and around his father. “Harriet what the hell are you doing out here?” Concern biting in his tone as well as suspicion. Why would a hundred-year-old blind woman be out in the cold in the middle of the night unless there was something to be worried about. Edging past his father, Gaerik looked up into the barrel of the shotgun. “Shit give me that before you go and blow someone’s head off, namely mine! What the hell are you doing with a gun?”

  “Is that really you?” Harriet squinted as she let the gun be taken from her.

  “You hear my voice, don’t you?” He snapped. Over the years he’d carried out various insignificant tasks for the old woman, it never occurred to him to be surprised by what she could do even with her handicap. Harriet was entirely able to take care of herself, though after her husband was dead and gone Gaerik had taken to checking up on her. Now and then he’d bring her groceries, hire landscapes to tend to her lawn in the summer, clean out her gutters, silly little nothings like that.

  Turning from Harriet he held out his hand to his father, helping pull him up the slick embankment followed by Elle and his twin.

  “But I can see you, all of you.” Vapor poured from her lips in wonder while she watched each of them climbing out of the hole like they’d just dug themselves a tunnel from China. Harriet would have sworn she was dreaming, but she could feel the cold nipping at her toes inside her boots. She never had dreams this real. Now, Harriet was staring at four faces. She hadn’t seen people since she was a little girl.

  “See?” Gaerik paused for a second before glancing off into the direction of their house seeing smoking rising into the night skin. “Harriet, we’re in trouble.”

  Harriet took her gun from Gaerik, tucking it under her arm. “Follow me.” She told them leading the group through the snow back to her house.

  Elle remained huddled against Marik's side until the soothing warmth of the old woman’s kitchen washed over the five of them, and Gregory laid down by the door.

  “What the hell is going on?” Harried asked her gaze landing on each of them. “I was making my bedtime tea when a guardian starts barking at my door and leads me to you four, climbing out of a hole.”

  “It’s been a very long night,” Gallen said brushing his hands through his hair tired and frustrated. He knew Harriet, yet it had been years since he spent any time in her company, even when he was a young man she seemed to be the age she was now. She was almost like an ancient and to his knowledge the oldest living werewolf in the state. Harriet kept to herself, but he always felt like she knew a lot more than she let on.

  “Well, I can see that.” She replied, her tone thick with sarcasm. Clasping her hands together she looked Marik over a second, standing shirtless in her kitchen. “First things first, let me get you something to put on. I have some things that should fit you.” She said and motioned for Marik to follow her.

  Harriet went down the hall, she could hear the other three pulling out chairs at her kitchen table.

  Entering her bedroom, she stood in the doorway, staring. If she was upset by the dust on her kitchen counters, it was nothing in comparison to her bedroom. Dust coated her nightstand and dresser, there were spider webs in the corners and partly covering the lamp beside her bed.

  “In here.” Harriet slid the door open and took out a faded flannel shirt. “I never gave away Howard’s clothes because then, it would mean that he really was gone.” Her mouth creased into a frown as she handed Marik the shirt that was slightly stiff in the shoulders from sitting on a hanger for so many years. Harriet rarely spoke about her late husband, sometimes it was just more comfortable when she didn’t think about him being gone.

  “Thank you, ma’am.” Marik took the shirt quickly, grateful for it, though now that they were inside the cold didn’t bother him so much anymore.

  “How do you know my brother?” He asked, shrugging his arms into the sleeves.

  “He brings my groceries on Saturday’s, does some yard work in the summer. Got a coon out of my attic a few years ago.” Harriet shrugged, straightening the blankets on the side of her bed.

  “My brother does all that?” Marik asked sounding stunned. Who knew that his brother went around helping little old blind women.

  “You gotta’nother brother?” Harriet quipped stepping around him.

  Marik followed her back down the hall and into the kitchen shocked to see his brother moving around Harriet’s kitchen like he knew every nook and cranny.

  “I re-heated the water for the tea and helped myself,” Gaerik said as he sat a fresh mug down in front of Elle, his hand brushing her shoulder as he turned back to the stove.

  “I should kick your ass.” Harriet sounded off, glaring at him. “Why didn’t you tell me how dirty my house was?”

  “Because I didn’t want to get rooked into cleaning it for you.” Gaerik smarted off.

  “Gaerik!” Gallen looked up from his cup stunned by his son’s disrespectful speech.

  “Don’t scold the boy.” Harriet laughed. “That’s just how we get along, and I like it that way, people think because you’re old they have to tiptoe around you, gets on my nerves.” She explained looking at their faces stuck somewhere between awkward discomfort and shock.

  “So, someone was going to tell me what’s going on?” Harriet’s lips puckered to the rim of her mug looking around expectantly.

  “It’s a long story,” Gaerik said as he glanced around from his father to his brother and eventually to Elle where his eyes lingered the longest.

  “Probably not as long as you might think. I’ve heard some things that I don’t quite approve of.” Harriet told them waiting for the details, and finally, she stopped her wandering gaze on Marik perched against her counter looking stiff and ready for attack.

  “You’re an Alpha.” Harriet surmised with a nod.

  “Yes, ma’am. I am.” Marik still felt strangely admitting it. It just didn’t feel real to him.

  “He is too.” Harriet turned to point at Gaerik, sniffing some as she drank he
r tea.

  “What?” Elle spoke up for the first time as she looked from Marik to Gaerik.

  “He’s an Alpha too.”

  “If I smelled whiskey on your breath I’d say you were drunk, but I don’t so,” Gaeirk trailed off, but he was hinged on every word she said.

  “Maybe not fully yet, but you will be.” She clarified with a cock of her head at Elle and she inhaled deeply. “She’s a gypsy. I remember smelling her kind back when you two were still shitting in your diapers.” Cracking her back gently she landed her gaze on Gallen. “Your family is in a lot of trouble. The Council wants you gone.” Harriet summed up for them most of what she had already been hearing through the grapevine. “Did I miss anything?” Harriet asked, blinking. “The only thing I’m not sure of is why and how all this got started.”

  “The Council tried to frame Gaerik for murder, this young woman was kidnapped because of it, and now they are recruiting outside of the packs. Their biting young men in and coming after us.” Gallen said, Harriet was already aware of what was going on, it wasn’t going to hurt anything to fill her in on the shadowy details.

  “They want us dead, Harriet and I’m not exactly ready to go down like that,” Gaerik smirked slowly as he turned around looking for something in the cabinet that was a little stronger than the tea that was served. Taking an old bottle of whiskey out, he sloshed some into the mug he was drinking. “I honestly can’t think of a better way to end this shit of a day,” Gaerik muttered. “Harriet, we need to get out of town.”

  “You know where the keys to Howard’s truck are,” Harriet said as she stood up, taking her cup to the sink. “I can only assume that this might very well be the last time that I ‘see’ you for a little while since the guardian gave me sight.” She didn’t know if it would last or if it was only temporary to help them, but she did know one thing was for sure. She was grateful. Harriet wasn’t stupid, she heard talk about Gaerik, but she still stood her ground. He was just a boy, but she had a feeling that Gypsy was going to make one hell of a man out of him.