by Tim O'Rourke
“That they’ve been pushed,” I said, peering out from beneath my cap and into the distance. Something suddenly grabbed my attention, and I started off along the tracks.
“This place is dead,” Nik called after me. “Apart from us and those others back at the station, there isn’t anyone else here.”
“I’m not so sure,” I told him, moving forward on my long thin denim-clad legs.
“What do you mean?” Nik panted as he ran to catch up with me.
“See that?” I said, pointing into the distance.
“See what?” he said, screwing up his eyes.
With one long bony finger, I pointed into the distance. “Look, can’t you see that thin line of black smoke?”
Nik screwed his eyes almost shut. “Just about,” he said.
“That’s a fire,” I said, looking back at the tendril of smoke way off on the horizon. “Someone has lit themselves a campfire, which means we are not so alone in this world.”
Opening his eyes again, Nik looked at me. It was then that I noticed for the first time that the fire had gone out of his eyes.
Chapter Two
Like me, my younger brother Nik was a killer. He had a wolf living in him too. We had both endured the Lycanthrope curse. We were nothing more than werewolves, plain and simple. At least that’s what we had been in the old world – but here, I was beginning to wonder if we still were. You didn’t have to witness a person change into a wolf to know that they were a Lycanthrope – you only had to look into their eyes to know. Our eyes glow a brilliant yellow, like two hot suns. Sometimes when the curse was strong upon us, our eyes would seethe like hot coals, as if our very brains were on fire deep within our skulls. Our victims could see their own deaths if they looked into our eyes. They could see themselves being tortured, dismembered, and fucked by us. But our stare had the power to fix our victims in a trance. They would enjoy the butchery they witnessed. And just like us, it would turn them on. They would be so aroused by what they saw in their killer’s eyes, they would readily give themselves to us, even though in their hearts they knew they would be slain.
But as Nik stood between the tracks, staring at that thin wisp of black smoke on the horizon, I could see the fire had gone out of his eyes. They were no longer the colour of a burning star, but a golden hazel – the same colour as Ki… hers. We were related to her – so it would only make sense that our eyes were the same colour once the fire had gone out in them. The three of us had all shared the same mother.
But why had the fire gone out? Had the wolf left, too? Had the curse been lifted? Was this mine and Nik’s reward for sacrificing ourselves for her and her friends? I didn’t know and couldn’t be sure. Pushing my cap to the back of my head, I took Nik by the shoulders and stared into his eyes.
“What’s wrong, Jack?” he asked, sounding confused.
“Your eyes,” I barked at him. “There is no fire in them.”
My brother stared back at me, his brow creasing. “Nor in yours, Jack,” he said.
“My eyes are not burning?” I asked, feeling excited, but fearful all at once.
“No,” he said with a shake of his head.
Releasing my brother, I staggered backwards, nearly tripping over the tracks. I rubbed at my eyes with the balls of my long emaciated hands.
“What does it mean?” Nik asked me.
Lowering my hands, I looked at him, his long brown coat flapping about like a sheet in the warm breeze. His white blonde hair was snatched back from the sides of his face by a sudden gust. He looked youthful; he looked his age. Sometimes it seemed like we had been alive forever as we fell through the layers. I had to remind myself that Nik was just eighteen. I was older not by much – in my mid-thirties if I did the math – but I looked a lot older. The anger and hate I had let live deep within me had eaten away at me from inside out. I was nothing more than a collection of bones held together by a thin covering of skin. My unnatural height only made me look thinner and more stretched. Unlike Nik’s thick hair, mine had grown thin – dry, like straw. Nik had lived with the curse for less time than me, and the damage to him hadn’t been so great. So if the fire had gone out of my eyes, then perhaps… no, I wouldn’t dare to think of that. I would never regain my youth – that had been taken with every life I had snuffed out.
“So?” Nik asked, breaking down my own personal thoughts.
“So what?” I eyed him.
“Why do you think the fire has gone out of our eyes?” he asked, a parched piece of scrub rolling past in the wind.
Without answering him, I looked into the distance. The smoke still trailed up into the now darkening sky. It was at least a day away. Depending on which direction the fire starter was traveling, then we might catch up with them sometime tomorrow, but not today.
“C’mon,” I said, turning my back on Nik. “Let’s try and cover some ground before it gets dark.”
We walked in silence. My long legs striding out beneath me, my cap pulled once again down over my eyes. Nik trailed behind, lost to his own thoughts, just like I was lost to mine. I had wanted to answer Nik’s question. I had wanted to tell him that I believed the Lycanthrope curse had been lifted from us. I wanted to tell him that we were now free men in this new world we had been pushed into. But I couldn’t tell him that because I didn’t know if it were true. I had raised Nik since he was just ten years old, and that seemed like several lifetimes ago now. He had been young enough to grow to love me like his own father – and I had accepted that role. So, I didn’t want to lie to him – give false hope to the boy I loved as if he was my own son. I would wait. I didn’t even know where we were. She would have said it was more important to know when you were… I pushed her from my mind.
The white sky had now turned gunmetal grey, and the first spattering of stars had appeared overhead. It was cooler now, but the wind had picked up and the sand was whipping about us. Tiny grains jabbed at my taut skin and stung my face. I pulled the bandanna up, covering the lower half of my face. The smoke in the distance was now blurred away behind the growing sandstorm, and I knew if we walked much further, we might stumble off course. Whoever had lit the fire wasn’t going anywhere tonight. We could pick up the trail again tomorrow. Whoever they were, I hoped that they might be able to tell us a little bit more about this bleak and barren world Nik and I found ourselves in.
Chapter Three
We hadn’t gone much further when we came across an old wooden structure set back from the tracks that we had followed across the desert. It was nothing more than a small shack, with a door and window set into one side. The wind blasted sand against the small building, and it shook from side to side. It stayed standing, even though it leant to one side. It would offer us shelter for the night.
“This way,” I roared at Nik over the howl of the wind.
Nik came towards me, bent at the waist, his hands covering his eyes.
As he reached me, I yanked open the door. He followed me inside. The tiny structure rattled, its corrugated roof lifting up at one corner, then falling back into place.
“Do you think this place is going to stay upright?” Nik asked, brushing sand from his hair and the folds of his clothes.
“Dunno,” I said with a shrug of my bony shoulders. I glanced about the shack and realised what it was. It was a signal box. Along one wall was a row of levers. Above them was written the words PUSH and PULL.
Nik saw them too and crossed the signal box in one brisk stride.
“Don’t touch!” I hissed, watching him reach for one of the levers.
Nik flinched backwards at the sharpness of my tone. “Why not?” he said, glancing back at me.
“Just don’t,” I said, remembering the levers I had pushed in the other world. “It might not just be the levers you’re pushing.”
Nik looked back again at the levers, then turned away. As the wind continued to buffet against the outside of the signal box, Nik slid down against the wall and sat on the dusty floor. He drew his kne
es up.
Although the day had been seething hot, the night was bitterly cold. Nik pulled his coat tight about him.
“Try and get some rest,” I said, sliding down the opposite wall. “We’ll get going again at first light.” I closed my eyes.
“Jack,” Nik said.
“Yes?” I said, keeping my eyes closed.
“Do you think we could still change into wolves if we wanted to?” he asked me.
“Why would you want to?” I said, opening one eye and fixing him with a beady stare.
“It would prove if the curse really had been lifted,” he said, looking back at me, his face pale in the weak moonlight that sliced through the window.
“I don’t think being a wolf is something we can really control,” I told him, remembering how I used to be. “It wasn’t something I could switch on and off. It consumed me, Nik. Even when I didn’t look like a wolf, I felt and acted like one. Looking like a wolf doesn’t really matter – it’s what you’re feeling inside that counts.”
“And how do you feel inside?” Nik asked me.
“Confused,” I said, closing my eye again and drawing a deep breath. I felt the first twinge of pain behind my eyes. I rubbed my temples with the tips of my fingers, trying to massage the pain away. The fact that it was there at all wasn’t a good sign, I feared. But perhaps I was worrying for nothing. Maybe my head had started to hurt because I was tired.
“Confused how?” Nik came back with another question.
“Shut the fuck up!” I suddenly burst at him.
Nik pressed himself back against the wall. I could see that my sudden burst of anger had shocked him.
“I’m sorry,” I said, seeing the concern in his eyes. “I’m just tired, that’s all.”
“Sure,” Nik said, never taking his eyes from me.
Swallowing hard, I said, “Nik, I don’t know any more than you do about this new world we’re in. And I don’t know if the curse has been lifted. I guess neither of us really know until we come into contact with others…”
“Is that why you are following the smoke?” Nik said.
“How do you mean?” I asked him.
“Because that smoke will lead us to someone – perhaps more than just one person,” Nik said.
“And if I don’t kill them within a heartbeat, then the curse must have been lifted, right?” I said, looking across the signal box at him. “I’m setting myself some kind of test?”
“Maybe,” Nik said. “Perhaps it’s a test we both need to pass. I’m a killer, too, Jack.”
“And how do you feel?” I asked, the pain fading slightly as I made small circles against my temples with my fingertips.
“Like there is something missing,” he said thoughtfully.
“The wolf you mean?” I asked.
He looked at me and said nothing. Then rolling onto his side, Nik pulled his coat up beneath his chin. “I guess we’ll soon find out,” he whispered and closed his eyes.
I was still awake at first light, propped against the wall and watching the soft rise and fall of my brother’s chest as he slept on the floor. I regretted shouting at him, but he had asked too many questions. Questions I didn’t have answers to. I wanted those answers as much as he did, but I was scared of what they might be. See, even killers get scared. But was that sudden burst of anger the wolf creeping out of the pit of my black heart and coming to the fore again? I had kept awake just in case. It was like I had been keeping watch over my soul during the night – to prevent the wolf sneaking up and taking it prisoner again. The pain in my head had gone, and was now nothing more than a dull thud at the back of my mind like another heartbeat. Two heartbeats in one body…
Shut the fuck up, Jack! I roared inside. I couldn’t risk those crazy, paranoid thoughts taking hold of me again. Everything always seemed worse at night. It was like the blackness distorted your fears. The dark gave your worst nightmares a safe place to flourish and grow. Daylight made them shrink back – scuttle away in search of darkness and cover. Standing up, I pushed open the signal box door and flooded it with light.
I gently toed Nik in the ribs. “Get up,” I said.
He groaned and rolled away from the beam of bright light, shielding his eyes with his hands. I left the signal box and stepped back out into the desert. The sandstorm had passed, and once again, I had a clear view across the floor of the red desert. The campfire in the distance had long burnt down and just faint wisps of grey smoke hovered in the air like a minute rain cloud.
“C’mon,” I said over my shoulder. “We’ve got to move on again if we want to catch up with the fire starter.”
“I’m thirsty and hungry,” Nik said, stumbling bleary-eyed into the light. I checked his eyes for any sign of the fire, but there wasn’t any. Nik caught me staring hard at him, and as if understanding what I was searching for in his eyes, he half-smiled at me and said, “You’re looking good, brother.”
“Thanks,” I grunted, unable to ignore the sense of relief that washed over me.
“I mean you look kinda different,” he said, pulling me back by the arm so he could take another look at me. He stared up into my face as I towered over him.
“What do you mean different?” I asked him.
“Well…” he started as if searching for the right words.
“How different?” I pushed.
“Not so much like a pervert, I guess,” Nik said.
“What’s that s’posed to mean?” I growled.
“Don’t take offense or nothing…” he started.
“Just spit it out,” I cut in.
“Well, it’s just that most of the time you walk around looking like a living and breathing mug-shot,” Nik tried to explain. “You know, like a wanted poster.”
“So how do I look different?” I asked.
“You don’t look so freaking creepy, I guess is what I’m trying to say,” he said, turning his back on me and unzipping his fly.
As Nik stood and took a leak against the signal box, I said, “Do I look younger?”
“Maybe,” Nik said, shaking himself and re-zipping his fly. He turned back to face me. Then hooking his thumb in the direction of the black splash marks against the signal box, he smiled and added, “And don’t worry about that. I wasn’t marking out my territory or anything – I really did need to take a piss.”
Before I’d had a chance to say anything more, Nik was heading off across the desert in the direction of the smoke. Looking back at me and waving one arm in the air, he said, “C’mon, Jack, whoever lit that campfire might have left some scraps. I’m freaking starving!”
Daring to believe for the first time in my life that the Lycanthrope curse had finally been lifted, I set off across the desert in pursuit of my brother.
‘Hollow Pit’
(Jack Seth Trilogy)
Book One
Now available from:
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More books by Tim O’Rourke
Kiera Hudson Series One
Vampire Shift (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 1
Vampire Wake (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 2
Vampire Hunt (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 3
Vampire Breed (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 4
Wolf House (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 5
Vampire Hollows (Kiera Hudson Series 1) Book 6
Kiera Hudson Series Two
Dead Flesh (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 1
Dead Night (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 2
Dead Angels (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 3
Dead Statues (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 4
Dead Seth (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 5
Dead Wolf (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 6
Dead Water (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 7
Dead Push (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 8
Dead Lost (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 9
Dead End (Kiera Hudson Series 2) Book 10
Kiera Hudson Series Three
The Creeping Men (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 1
The Lethal Infected (Kiera Hudson Series Three) Book 2
The Jack Seth Novellas
Hollow Pit (Book One)
Seeking Cara (Book Two) Coming Soon!
Black Hill Farm (Books 1 & 2)
Black Hill Farm (Book 1)
Black Hill Farm: Andy’s Diary (Book 2)
Sydney Hart Novels
Witch (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 1
Yellow (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 2
Raven (A Sydney Hart Novel) Book 3 Coming Soon!
The Doorways Trilogy
Doorways (Doorways Trilogy Book 1)
The League of Doorways (Doorways Trilogy Book 2)
The Queen of Doorways (Doorways Trilogy Book 3) Coming Soon!
Moon Trilogy
Moonlight (Moon Trilogy) Book 1
Moonbeam (Moon Trilogy) Book 2
Moonshine (Moon Trilogy) Book 3
Samantha Carter – Vampire Seeker Series
Vampire Seeker (Samantha Carter Series) Book 1
Vampire Flappers (Samantha Carter Series) Novella
The Vampire Watchmen (Samantha Carter) Book 2
The Tessa Dark Trilogy
Stilts (Book 1)
Zip (Book 2)
Werewolves of Shade
Werewolves of Shade (Part One)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Two)
Werewolves of Shade (Part Three)
The Mechanic
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Unscathed
Written by Tim O’Rourke & C.J. Pinard
Flashes
Flashes
You can contact Tim O’Rourke at
www.kierahudson.com or by email at [email protected]
