by T M Caruana
“No, we should go to the hospital. Jolie isn’t well,” Jaden suggested.
“Or the police,” I added as I thought Jaden shouldn’t get away with murder.
Although, Jaden had killed to survive, it was still murder in my eyes.
“I want to ‘freakin’ go home,” Tony added agitatedly and looked over at Alfred.
Alfred slowed the car down at a red light and looked as if he was pondering on his options. As the light turned amber, he looked over his shoulder at them all.
“I know you must all be tired, but this isn’t over yet. Dacry only had a wound to his shoulder. He will soon be on his feet again, and more determined than ever, to kill us. If we go to the hospital you will all be admitted for malnutrition and Dacry will find you on your wards and kill you. If we go to the police, do you really think they will believe us? Com’on. ‘We have escaped from a top secret experiment where the government is responsible for covering up hundreds of deaths after the power plat explosion, and now they are after us to kill us’. They will call Sir John to confirm the story and we would be stuck in a cell as an easy target. And Tony, do you really want to lure murderers to your family’s doorstep?”
No one argued with his reasoning and eventually all agreed Liz’s idea was the safest option, until they had figured out if Dacry was working alone or if he had more people in his team.
“Liz, lead the way, please.”
Her face turned bright red at his instruction.
Did she fancy my Alfred?
The warehouse was a two-story tin-can looking building, painted in white with blue gutters. The windows had been shattered and the walls had been dented in several places. The side-door was flapping open with the wind and wouldn’t quite shut. As we all walked inside we found multiple rooms and stairways running along the sides.
“Let’s take shelter upstairs. It will be easier to protect ourselves if we hear someone enter,” Tony suggested.
Alfred sighed, as he was carrying Jolie.
“Do you want me to take over?” Tony asked, looking at Jolie’s lightweight body.
Alfred met my gaze and I could see his alpha pride had been challenged.
“No, I’ve got it,” he murmured.
The obvious tension between the two red wolves prompted me to smile.
“We should hide the car,” Alfred suggested.
“And also, someone should try to find a place to buy some food. I’m so hungry,” Joanne moaned, but she did seem to have perked up a bit.
“You and I can go shopping,” Sarah offered and looked over at Joanne.
She was an older woman and likely wouldn’t attract attention as much as the men would in this neighbourhood.
“I’ll hide the car,” Jaden offered.
They went off whilst we sat down on boxes and on the floor to rest and care for our wounds and weaknesses. After half an hour, Jaden came back.
“I parked it in a shed on the side, and covered it with empty cardboard boxes,” he explained, looking exhausted.
He sat down next to me. I detested the sight of him so got up and moved to look out of one of the broken windows.
After another ten minutes or so later, I heard noises from the stairs and I signalled for Alfred to raise the gun I had handed over to him. Joanne appeared with a huffing and puffing wiggle, as she ascended the stairs. She was carrying two heavy carrier bags with food that she had bought with the money Alfred had given her from his brown leather wallet, always stored in his back pocket. I knew this because, Liz had sneered at the fact it was leather.
“Where is Sarah?” I immediately asked.
“She said she needed to use the toilet for a while and that I should go back to you with the food.”
She placed the bags on the floor and started pulling out bread, water, chicken salads and a variety of quiches, including vegan ones for Liz. She also had some paper plates and plastic cutlery and cups. She opened up the containers and started loading her plate, without offering any to the rest of us. She really was starving and obviously needed food right away.
Everyone got their own fully loaded plates and managed to devour part of the food, and as hunger was assuaged, the conversations started to become more light-hearted.
“Alfred, we should go back to the supermarket and see if Dacry is still there. Perhaps we can kill him once and for all. Or at least tie him up and torture him to see if he will talk. How will we otherwise ever know if we can come out of hiding?” Tony advised and took a swig of his water.
“I’m not leaving Tasha here with Jaden,” Alfred replied. “I saw you on the cameras,” he said accusingly, pointing at Jaden with his plastic fork.
Jaden got noticeably agitated.
“I only killed because I had to, to survive. Here, there is no such threat. I’m not a murderer in general,” he defended, at the same time admitting to his crimes.
“I’m not going to take any chances. I won’t fail to keep Tasha safe ever again.”
“What? You love her or something?” Jaden mocked, and laughed.
“In fact, I do,” he answered concisely and harshly.
Everyone stopped eating and looked at him.
“What?” I blurted out.
“Yes. That is how it is,” he stated bluntly and carried on chewing in silence.
“Well, I fucking do too,” Tony joined in, “and where were you when we were locked in the supermarket together?”
“You have no right to ask me…”
“I have every right to ask…and challenge,” Tony stated.
“I’m your alpha and I…”
“Boys, stop!” I shouted. “We don’t want to let out noise and…testosterone. And no shifting. We might be detected.
“I’m going for a walk. I have lost my appetite,” Tony declared and looked at his plate, which was empty anyway.
Not long after Tony had walked away we could hear him shouting.
“Hey guys, come and see this!”
We all moved to the landing and looked down to the bottom of the metal steps where he stood. I could see what he was looking at. The three bottom steps had some red drops on them, next to a red smudge of half a footprint. Tony hunched down to touch it. It stained his fingers. It was fresh. He smelt it.
“Blood,” he confirmed.
My heart started beating faster as we joined him, to follow what we could now see were two sets of bloody footprints. They split into two directions half way to the door that led outside. The footprints aligned with a streak of blood, looking as if they came from a body that had been dragged. They carried on to the right, and then went on outdoors. We sneaked along as quietly as we could, following the blood streaks on the floor that turned to the right. We all looked around the room to see if there were ‘dangers’ lurking behind objects. I gazed, searching at the metal work-desks, the glass sheets on shelves, the pile of planks alongside one wall and the scrap metal from an old car in the room’s centre. It seemed no one could detect any movement or any sound. However, someone could still be hiding in-between the piles of junk that were scattered across the entire floor.
The blood trail led to under a metal plate leaning against the wall. Tony grimaced and pointed. We walked over and could see a pair of feet sticking out at its bottom. A body.
23
MURDERER ON THE LOOSE
Tony went over and removed the sheet. We could all see Sarah’s body with a knife sticking out from her chest. Her face had turned white, and it was evident she was already dead.
“Shit,” Tony called, and hunched down, in an attempt at hiding in case the murderer was still near.
He looked up at Jaden.
“Jaden let me see under your shoe.”
Tony lifted Jaden’s foot up and appeared confused.
“Can you explain why there is blood under your shoe?” Tony asked, as he stepped closer to Alfred, who was the one with the gun.
“What?” Jaden queried, and reached down with his hands to angle his shoe towards him
. “I don’t know, I swear. What is this?”
Everyone gasped in horror and Jolie started crying. She had been the one closest to Sarah.
“You honestly think that I would be so clumsy as to walk in her blood after murdering her? Surely I would want to hide it?”
“Perhaps you don’t want to hide it. Perhaps you want to put terror in all of us so that we turn on each other,” Alfred added to Tony’s accusations.
“This is ridiculous. I understand your suspicions because you know I have killed before. But I didn’t kill Sarah.”
“I also don’t think you would admit it if you were the murderer,” Tony said and turned to Alfred. “Cover me whilst I tie this bastard to a chair.”
Tony tied him up to one of the legs of the metal workbenches, using some duct tape.
The day went by and everyone tried to make themselves comfortable for the night, using boxes and anything else they could find. Alfred approached Liz, who was standing still quietly looking out of the window, as the rest of us moved about. It seemed she had a lot on her mind.
“What is it Liz?” he asked her.
“I can’t help thinking this is all my fault.”
“It is all of our faults. I shouldn’t have made that bet.”
“As soon as Sir John heard me mentioning the project, he would have told Dacry anyway. There was no escape from death from there on.”
“Yes, perhaps he would have killed us, but not them,” Alfred admitted and pointed at us. “That is my fault.”
“You didn’t know.”
“No, I didn’t. But, I don’t think you knew how bad this would turn out when you suggested we should activate the project either.”
Liz bit her tongue and looked pensively at Alfred.
“You knew?” Alfred asked rhetorically.
“I’ve known about this project since I was young. It was time. We needed to act. I still think we need to act. Yet, I feel so guilty when the necessary sacrifices are made.”
“Necessary sacrifices? This isn’t you speaking. You don’t want harm to come to anyone. You even fight for the bloody pigs. Who are you working for?”
“What? No. No one.”
“Liz, are you working with the rebellion? Do you know of people who can help us?”
“The rebellion has worked long and hard on pushing for the project. They won’t risk detection, not even to save you,” she murmured and crossed her arms with her eyes staring straight out of the window.
“How do you know?”
“I know.”
“Well, if we…”
Joanne’s loud scream echoed within the metal walls. Liz and Alfred looked at each other and started running down the stairs. I quickly followed them. As we arrived downstairs we met all the others staring at Jaden. Another victim, with a knife stuck into his heart. Joanne had blood all over her hands as she tried to pull the knife out.
“He’s gone, Joanne,” Tony stated, and lightly pushed with his foot on Jaden’s, to see if he would have any reflexes left.
Joanne cried and forbade his death.
“Do you think Dacry is in here?” Joanne asked, and looked around.
“Everyone, upstairs,” Alfred shouted, and pointed his gun around.
The last one upstairs to shut the door was Alfred, protecting his temporary pack with his gun. As he closed the door shut, a wire yanked at the door handle, under his hand. Before any of us could realise what was happening, I saw the wire, which was tied to a large box at the bottom of a large pile of cardboard boxes, upend the pile. Without the boxes to stand on, Jolie was now dangling by her neck from a rope attached to the ceiling, making warning noises from behind duct tape.
“Shit,” Alfred shouted, and tried to reach her feet to help reduce the pressure on her neck, but couldn’t reach her.
“Tony, help!” he bellowed and tried to pile the boxes on top of each other again.
As he climbed on top of them he was too rough and they weren’t strong enough to hold his weight.
“Tasha, you are lighter!” he shouted for me to come over.
I had stood paralysed but now sprang into action. I balanced on the piled-up boxes but didn’t have the strength to hold Jolie up and I fell to the floor after having lost my balance.
“How will we get her down?” I screamed in panic.
“I’ll get the knife,” Joanne said and ran down to get it.
“Hurry!” I urged, as I had noticed that Jolie had started to go purple in the face and she had stopped making the panicked noises from behind the tape.
Joanne came up again, and I felt relieved, but that was until I saw Joanne shoot Tony with the gun Alfred had put down on the floor to help Jolie down. In slow-motion I saw Tony’s body fall to the ground.
“Joanne!” I shouted.
Alfred and Liz, who stood just behind her, turned and then held up their hands in surrender as they were cowered behind the door.
“Joanne, what are you doing?” Alfred asked, looking as if he had hoped it was all a misunderstanding.
“I’m with Dacry,” she said contentedly. “I’m an important player in this mission. Anne thought I was feeding her information about the case. Stupid bitch. She didn’t realise that everything you and she told me, I reported to Dacry. He should be the grey wolves alpha, as he is not a coward. He dares to make the decisions that Anne can’t. I’ll gladly join the alpha who realises that wolves need a bigger part in this world. We shouldn’t need to hide our identities.”
After she had explained her purpose and her devious intent, Dacry stepped into view.
“Good, you are all here,” he acknowledged.
I realised that the people in this room were the only ones left who knew about the project, the bet and the murders. Dacry was here to kill us off and I had no doubt about his capabilities. Alfred turned my way to give me a long and passionate kiss.
“Aw, aren’t they cute,” Dacry said sarcastically, “Thank you so much for your help, Joanne,” he then said before coldly shooting her in the head.
Joanne fell to the floor and her head landed on my foot. I started crying hysterically.
Shit, this was so fucked up.
Alfred embraced me and placed his mouth next to my ear.
“Tasha, you must just trust me. I want you to order Dacry to drop his gun. If my suspicion of who you are, is correct, he won’t be able to defy your orders.”
He pulled away and looked at me hopefully.
“You have made such a mess of all this, Alfred. And Liz, I really didn’t want to kill you, nor your mother, but you have left me with no choice.”
Dacry raised his arm to point the gun at Liz.
“Now Tasha!” Alfred commanded.
“Drop your gun, Dacry!” I shouted my demand.
I could see his hand shaking. His teeth bit together, his brows furrowed and there was an intense concentration manifesting in violent fits along his body. He was trying to fight my command, but it was impossible. He dropped the gun to the floor and shouted, as if attempting to refuse my order was painful. He looked raging. He glared at me and then over at Alfred.
“A Wolf Fae? How can that be? I was assured you and your parents were dead,” he said, and his eyes were filled with disbelief.
“You were assured? You had them murdered?” I screamed at him hysterically with the tears running down my cheeks.
“Well, I gave the orders. It wasn’t my teeth that bit them dead. Your family were the last of your kind. The last ones who could ever control wolves. The last ones who would threaten my power. I suppose I will have to finish the job myself.”
He growled showing his teeth at the same time as his body hunched down and transformed into a huge grey wolf. I stumbled backwards, frightened to death. He looked menacing with a darker grey fur coating along his spine down to his entirely dark grey tail. He had white fur circling around his eyes, which made his yellow eyes bright. Bright with anger.
In the next second he jumped at me and I screamed. Ly
ing on my back with my chest pinned to the floor by his front paws I covered my face with my arms. Memories of my parent’s murder scene came flashing to mind. Blood. Open flesh. Angry growling.
What were Wolf Fae? What was I?
Suddenly, the pressure from his paws was removed. I looked up and found a red wolf attacking the grey one.
Was that Alfred?
He was a wolf. He was larger than Dacry, his fangs sharper and his growl more aggressive. His jaws clenched around Dacry’s throat. Dacry shook himself out of Alfred’s grip and jumped over him, digging his teeth into his back. Alfred howled and bit Dacry’s back paw to pull him down, slamming him to the floor. He then aimed for Dacry’s face. They both roared and barked, and both got to their feet at the same time, snarling at each other. They moved so fast that it was hard to guess who would win the fight. In one moment the grey wolf was in control and in the next the red wolf rose high. The vicious fighting had me frozen still. My brain couldn’t function from the terror and I stood gasping, watching them. A part of my brain tried to speak to me.
Pick up the gun. Scream. Do something.
I bent down to pick up the gun that Dacry had dropped, but before I rose back up I heard a gunshot. It hadn’t been from me.
If it wasn’t me, then who had made that shot?
I twisted my head up to find myself staring at the two wolves who were lying deathly still in a heap together on the floor.
Were they both dead?
I detected movement coming from the door and turned to look that way. From behind the door another man stepped into view.
“Father!” Liz shouted, and threw herself into his arms.
“I told you not to mention this project,” he told her bitterly. “But I knew you would anyway. You are my daughter after all. I had to come to London to ensure your safety.”
He lovingly tapped her chin.
“I wanted to change the world,” Liz sniffled and hugged him harder.
“I know darling.”
Although I was surprised to learn that the great and feared grey pack alpha had shown up personally, proving Liz was his daughter, I fazed them out of my hearing. I was more concerned about the two wolves and sprinted over to them. Before I reached them I could see some movement.
