The woman took another step back to her right. The man’s face looked like it was completely covered with dead skin. His eyes even seemed to flash to an almost yellowish glow. He looked beyond weird—he looked almost frightening. How could she have been so wrong about him when she first came inside? Then, he looked pleasant. Then, he looked almost like a model. That perfection all faded as soon as he turned. Now, she knew that he had to be a leper or something else like it. He looked hideousness.
“Mister, are you all right?” The little boy stepped up to the counter on the other side of him, to his left, having to pull himself up with the stool so he could reach the counter top. Watching his mother told him that he had to see the man that made her gasp for his self. Closer to him, he could now see the back of his neck, and everywhere he looked, he saw what looked like dead skin. He looked like he had a bad sunburn and now his skin was starting to peel from it.
Jimmy turned from the woman and to the boy, as a new sweet smell flared around his face. It smelled fresh. It smelled fantastic. His stomach responded to all of it with a flip and a gurgling sound. Hearing it, he turned back to the bar’s countertop and saw his hands. Oh fucking God, I’m peeling. He gasped. His heart raced, and his mind flew. Oh God, it’s starting. I’m changing. Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! His head started swimming. His legs felt numb. Fear gripped him fast.
“Bobby, get away from the man please,” the woman ordered her son. The feeling of dread coursed through her veins. A foul smell oozed from his direction. It smelled noxious. It stunk like must.
Jimmy saw and heard enough. It was time to go. It was time to run. This was a mistake. I should have stayed to the trees. I should have stayed away from people.
The heavyset, older man came back from the kitchen and approached the bar. He saw the young man with the skin coming off his forehead, and now felt horrified. “Buddy, are you okay?”
Jimmy raced his right hand to his face. He could feel the skin of both his fingertips and his cheek slush between them. My God! My God! My God!
Quickly, he stood up from the stool.
All around him, he could hear their hearts racing. He could feel their bodies beginning to sweat. He could smell it. They were growing afraid of him. He had to get out of there. He had to run.
He reached into the front pocket of his jeans, and with his right hand, he took out a twenty, and threw it to the bar. “Thanks for the dinner.” He turned before anyone could say anything else.
He left the diner and never looked back.
The old man watched him leave. He didn‘t know what to think about anything. “I wasn’t going to charge him.” He turned to the woman with nothing but concern in his voice. As far as he could tell, the kid must be sick. There seemed to be no other reason for what he saw.
2
Jimmy ran out through the front door and ran across the parking lot as fast as he could run.
He flew across the road and headed straight for the trees.
His heart thundered, and his chest started burning, as his mind grew numb. He could feel the eyes at the back of his mind begin to move. They made his thoughts grow rash and sent everything in him to a blur. It’s coming. I have to move. I have to get away. I have to get to some place where it won’t attack the woman and the boy.
The eyes started burning. They moved, coming fast.
The cool night air rushed over his face and it made the peeling of his forehead feel cold. It also made his entire body begin to itch. The feeling swarmed over him, making it feel like he had a thousand—a million—ants now coursing over his legs and arms. When he found a clearing within the trees, he ran to the center of it, and the ants forced him to stop.
There, he ripped off his shirt and undid the belt on his pants. He tore them down to his ankles, with his underwear moving next.
With hunger, he dug his nails into his skin, scratching and digging every part of his body. It felt wonderful, quenching that need, so he dug faster and peeled the skin from his chest. It came off him in small sheets, and he tossed the sheets to the ground all around his feet. When he finished with his chest, he turned his attention to his legs.
He tore at his thighs. The skin came off in flakes. It felt magnificent. It felt like heaven on earth as he continued peeling and digging until the itching stopped, and then, he took a deep and heavy breath. He looked down to his pants, saw a shadow pass over him, and could see his shadow bend and twist along the ground. Seeing it, he looked up.
The full moon came out from behind the clouds, as its halo twinkled, and sparkled to his ever-wanting eyes. It looked so beautifully beyond words. It grew brighter and seemed to reach right down to his face, and covered his soul. The eyes came forward, and he could feel them shining at the brightness. Instantly, his mind went blank, as he began the change.
Suddenly, and ferociously, he screamed. The sound echoed through the trees. It carried on the wind and rattled the earth.
Instantly, his body burned from within. His legs cracked hard, and spilled him to his hands and knees.
He screamed again as he could feel his spine bend hard under his skin. His entire body rocked with fire as his muscles flared into a thousand different directions.
He looked down to his hands and noticed his normal pinkish colored fingernails turn instantly black. He watched as they began to grow long, protruding out into long thick claws. He lifted his hand to his face and watched as his knuckles buckled and moaned. He watched the skin on his hands turn black as charcoal, and then felt the pain flare up his arms and down his chest.
It felt beyond intense. It felt like he was just slammed into a wall. He felt every bone in his body break. He felt his heart burn from within, tripling its pace. His mind flared as his teeth became jagged and his breathing turned low, sounding like he was now gasping for air, until it reached down into a growl.
His skin bubbled all around his bones. Deep black fur pushed out and covered every part of his body. His ribs broke, protruding his chest out into a long oval shape. His stomach turned, and his abdomen tightened, pushing up into his body. His hips burned, growing narrow and lengthening out behind him. His face flushed with heat and cracked his jaw. His ears turned pointed, growing tall at the sides of his head. His nose and jaw flushed out, growing longer until it formed into a snout. His tongue flapped out from his mouth, growing nearly eight times its normal size. His teeth caught fire, growing longer until they formed long and strong fangs. Drool fell everywhere beneath his face.His feet stretched out from their ankles, growing into long and powerful paws. Clawed nails came out from his toes.
Suddenly, everything stopped. The pain vanished and the burning went away.
Finished, the wolf pushed itself up onto its hind pawed feet, and roared a deep bellow out into the nighttime breeze and howled a huge call to the moon as it flowed over him.
It was over quickly.
The change only took a minute or two to complete.
3
Johanna O’Neil—well not anymore, but Fairbanks now—parked at the front of her motel room after finally getting the keys to the room. She turned off the car’s engine and breathed heavily. The trip had been too long. It took hours to get there, and as far as she was concerned about it, it was too long to spend with her only son alone. She had him every other weekend, which for the most part seemed fine with her, but this time it was different. Usually, they just stayed home. That way she could still work, but still have the time to spend with him. Why she ever agreed to take him Upstate, she’ll never know. It sounded fun at first— he really seemed to want to go—but now, she regretted it. She should have told him no. She should have fought him. Usually she did, but this time, she didn’t. He talked her into it. And now, thank God, they finally made it. She felt too tired to continue. She wanted nothing more but to get to her room and finally get some rest.
“Bobby, would you stop doing that please?” He already started getting on her nerves. She was becoming annoyed. She was also getting angry. He was getting whiny. She knew the gam
e that he was playing, and now she was determined to win it.
She stood out of the car, closed the door, and walked around the hood of her Mercedes until she stood on his side.
“Ma! What’s the freaking point of coming all this way if we’re not going to see anything?” Bobby stayed in the car, meaning to put up a fight. He hated not being able to get his way, and he wasn’t about to give up now. He needed to know that they would do something more tomorrow. He had to have her word. He needed the reassurance. He didn’t trust her with anything else.
“Don’t say that word, Bobby.” She reached the passenger door and flipped the handle up expecting it to open, but it didn’t. He locked it on her yet again. “Bobby, God damn it! Open the door!” She tried not to scream. She hated causing a scene, but now she was too tired to care that she already started one.
“Not until we go someplace else!” He shot back from behind the slightly tinted glass. He felt like sticking out his tongue at her, but decided against it at the very last moment. Even that would have been too childish, even for him.
“It’s too late to go anywhere now. It took us all Goddamn day just to get here.” She could hear her voice beginning to whine, and she hated the sound of it. “We’re going tomorrow.”
He hugged himself tighter to the seat. He felt disappointed. She promised to take him out to the country. She promised that they would walk through the trees. He wanted to feel the coolness of the shadows against his skin. He wanted to smell the dirt under his shoes. He wanted everything that nature had to offer him. It was all that he had left since the divorce—his dreams—his longing to be back where he loved to be. He hated having to move back to the city. He wanted his home back. He wanted his lawn back. He wanted everything back to the way that it was, and he hated her for taking everything away from him.
Seeing him hug himself told her that she was beginning to win the fight, so now all she had to do was to finish his little game. “Bobby? Let’s get into the room and get some sleep. Then we’ll get up early and go for the hike tomorrow—bright and early.”
Her saying that made him sigh. She did what he wanted. She agreed to take him on the hike, so he uncrossed his arms and reached for the handle of the door slowly. Just as slowly, he opened the door.
Seeing it open and watching her son step out of the car made the night come to a complete end. She backed up and allowed him to step outside, and with it all, she shrugged, hearty and rundown. “Good.” She nodded. Her arms felt heavy, and her mind felt weak. But at least, he was getting out of the car.
He closed the door, but stayed by the front fender and didn’t move. He just kept his eyes down to the stone covered lot.
She left and headed to the trunk. She opened it, removed his duffle bag and her suitcase, and placed both of them to the dirt parking lot at her feet. She closed the trunk‘s lid, retook the bags, made it pass Bobby, and to the motel room door. She opened the door to room Four and walked inside.
Bobby watched the sneakers on his feet move to the door. He couldn’t bring his eyes up as he stepped inside the room.
“Shut the door would you Bobby?” She walked to the first of the two double beds and set the two bags down on top of it. She placed her hands on her hips. The bed looked too generic for her to like all that much. It looked cheap. It looked almost dirty, but at least it was something. She would have to shower again before they left the place, but at least she knew that she could do that easily enough. She would have no other choice.
Bobby listened, was just about to close the door, but noticed something off across the road. A single, large deer stood there, standing directly opposite from him, and it stole his breaths away. It even looked straight at him. It looked marvelous. It had a set of horns, or antlers, if that’s what they were called, and they stretched out on top of its head. It had a pure tan colored coat, and he could almost see the white on the front of its chest, just under its neck. With the full moon overhead, he could see everything clearly. As far as he was concerned, this is what he came there for. This was what he wanted to see. He couldn’t believe it. It just felt all too spectacular to behold at once.
“Bobby? Shut the damn door.” She turned, seeing the back of her son. The door was still open, and like always, he wasn’t listening to her, and knowing that, it made the heat in her chest rise hard up to her face.
“Wait.” If he did that, the deer might run away. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t take his eyes off it long enough to move. The large animal just stood there, solidly locked in place. Watching it, with his eyes locked onto it, his heart raced and his mind froze strong. He continued holding his breath.
“Bobby?” She looked back into the room, and could see the bathroom door and more importantly, the shower behind it. It almost looked like it was calling to her. She couldn’t wait to feel the heat of the water rush over her body. She couldn’t wait to get lost within it, and let it wash away the day. Only, if she could get him to shut the door, she could get to what she wanted to do the most.
“A deer.” He kept his eyes forward. The deer didn’t move. He could even see it breathing. It looked so strong. It looked beyond powerful.
“Bobby, please. You’re going to let in every bug there is outside.” The thought alone made her cringe. She hated nature and all of the bugs that lurked within it. They always seemed to creep her out the most. They felt unnatural. They felt disgusting. She didn’t want to have to deal with such things.
“Mom?” Bobby turned, looked back to her, and saw that she wasn’t moving towards him. She wasn’t coming to see the deer. Why wouldn’t she want to see it? In fact, she didn’t even seem to care what he even said.
She huffed and shook her head. She had no choice but to turn from the bathroom door and make her way back to the front door of the room. She saw him and nothing else. A few bugs were fluttering around his head. If seeing what he was talking about was going to get him to shut the damn door, she had to do it before those bugs came in with him.
He watched her as he heard a solid thud come from behind him, not that far away.
Over his head, she could see a black mass run across the road with a flash. It stunned her some, but not knowing what it was, she didn’t think all that much about it. Nature always did that to her. The shadows, the bugs, the endless darkness of poorly lit streets played with her mind in so many ways that she quite frankly didn’t understand any of it. She hated all of it. She couldn’t trust herself to see anything right.
He turned just in time to see the leaves of the trees across the road wiggle some in the moonlight. To top it all off, the deer was gone. It must have run back into the trees. He never saw it run away, so when his mother reached him, he knew that she didn’t see it either.
“What are you talking about?” She saw nothing but the trees flutter in the gentle breeze. Nothing else was there.
“You missed it.” He turned back to her with disappointment heavy in his voice. Yet again, she missed the whole point of what he tried to show her. She always missed everything he liked. She always balked at everything he did, and here, she did it again. She didn’t care. She hated everything he was.
She winced. “Can you please close the door now?” A large black bug fluttered around her head, just in front of her face, and seeing it, she screeched some, and swiped at it with the back of her left hand. She didn’t feel that she hit it, but that didn’t matter. She didn’t intend to. What she did do seemed like enough for her at the time.
Bobby winced now as well, and closed the door to the world outside. What was the point anymore for keeping it open? The deer was gone, and with it, there was nothing left for him to do about it anyway.
4
He could see himself moving through the trees. The night felt so wonderful around him. It felt like magic. It felt so strong against his fur. The wet earth squished through his toes, making everything feel so right. It all told him that it felt so wonderful to be alive.
He ran until he came to the side of a
long building that stretched out towards a long dark road, and there he stopped. The smells in the air seemed like a wonder to the mind. Everything smelled so sweet. Everything smelled so tasty. Along the side of the building, he heard a sound come from the building behind him, making him turn to it with wide eyes. An animal crouched there, moving towards him, coming along the sidewall, creeping—slithering close to the ground. It looked so small. It looked almost like him. He turned, and faced the dog and tilted his head.
The animal moved slowly. It growled deep and low as it moved. It showed its teeth. It looked like it wanted to strike.
He stood up and turned his voice down low, and snarled.
The dog winced instantly, turned quickly with its tail between its legs, and disappeared back under the building.
He felt its fear, and enjoyed the feeling.
Satisfied, he turned back around to a new sound of voices, off in the distance, coming from an area near the front of the building, towards the road. He peered around the corner and saw a woman moving under the moonlight. She walked on the stones of the lot. He could feel her heart beating. He could hear every breath she made. He kept his eyes fixed on her lovely sweat scent. The woman stood by the bright metal carriage that she used to get there, and he could see that she was talking to someone inside it. He took a deep breath—she smelled so sweet. She smelled so fresh. Her scent came strong and seemed almost overpowering to his mind. He brought himself down towards the green, moist grass, and there he watched her.
A clicking sound came towards him, and he watched the bright metal glare of a door opening up towards her. The moonlight twinkled off its glass, and a new smell came with the bright metal swinging in the moonlight overhead.
This new smell caught his attention almost instantly. It smelled even stronger than that of the woman. It smelled tender. It smelled so young.
A Werewolf's Saga Books 1, 2, & 3 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets) Page 30
