The sound seemed incredible. It sounded powerful. A siren sounded, pulsating, crashing off the walls around him with such intensity, that it crashed into the sides of his head like a hammer. Sasha was right about that as well. It hurt. It burned his ears. The sound raked through his very fiber of his very being.
He rushed both of his hands to the sides of his face, and braced his head between them. He covered his ears, and winced with all of it.
Around him, from behind him, a loud shriek flowed throughout the building, sounding like a dog yelping, and crying from pain.
He looked back to the corner and back down the hallway to his right. The yelping grew stronger, became louder, and was coming from that direction.
He forced his feet to move. He forced himself forward, stepped back to the corner, and stepped out from it and out into the hallway.
Down it, near a window at the far end of it, he saw movement, and watched as a large black mass leapt out of one of the doorways to his right. He could see that it had its arms near its head. It howled as it turned to its right, and ran towards the window.
He watched it run away from him, and then heard the sound of wood breaking and the sound of glass shattering as the mass vanished through the window and disappeared.
He headed after it, running down the hallway, and stopped on broken glass. Behind him, the siren went out. Flashing blue lights caste shadows all around behind him. He looked out through the window and could see a large black fur covered beast running through a parking lot one story down from where he was. He watched it run to the trees that lined the lot. He looked from it and down.
The pavement led up to the side of the building, and he could see that there was actually another floor underneath this one. It looked as if the building was built into the side of a hill. Seeing what he was, he looked back to the trees.
The wolf was already there. Fuck, I’m losing it! If he was going to chase it, he had to do something, and he knew what that something was. He had to jump. He had to do it, before it got away.
“Fuck it.” He climbed up onto the broken out window frame, and took a deep breath. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to make the jump, but he pushed that thought aside quickly. If he hurt himself, he would heal from it. He had to do what he had to do.
He flung himself out of the window, feeling the cool night air rush over his face. He landed onto the pavement while still on his feet. He bent some at the knees. He stood himself back up straight and caught his breath.
“I’ll be damned.” He looked at the tops of his shoes. He felt nothing. He felt normal. He felt almost like all he did was jump out off a chair.
He looked back to the trees, now ahead of him, and saw that the wolf was gone. Now, he had to find it.
He left the back of the building, ran across the parking lot, and made it to the trees. Once there, he took a deep breath, and smelled the air. Instantly, he noticed that the mustiness was already gone. The slight summertime breeze was now behind him, and with it, he lost the scent.
“Damn it!” he huffed. Now what? He looked right, and saw nothing. He looked left, and again saw nothing there. He turned and looked back straight ahead. I lost it. How could I do that? He took another deep breath. Now he wouldn’t know who it was. Now he wouldn’t have the chance to stop it once and for all. With it gone, he felt hopeless. He felt almost lost. With it gone, he had nothing left to do, but leave and head back out front.
44
Jimmy made it out front when he heard the sounds of sirens getting closer, coming towards them. Hearing that authorities were coming, he figured that he didn’t have the time for long good byes.
Rachel, Sasha, and Brandon all watched him return, back to them at Rachel’s car. They saw that he was alone. They saw that he was still clothed. Seeing the blankness on his face, they knew that the wolf had gotten away.
He told them that much when he finally reached them. “It got away.” He bowed his head. He lifted it again, hearing the sirens getting even closer. “I’ve got to get out of here.” He looked to the main road across the parking lot, and knew that at any moment, he was going to see those sirens turn into flashing red lights. He didn’t want to be there when they arrived. He was still supposed to be missing, and he wasn’t ready to be found yet.
Sasha nodded. She too had to go. She too couldn’t stay any longer, and knew that she had to go with him. “I’m coming too.” She left Brandon’s side and made it to Jimmy’s, standing to his left.
Rachel nodded. “I’ll take care of Brandon.” She looked to Jimmy. His face looked so soft. His eyes almost looked searching.
The sirens increased as flashing red lights came from the left side of the road. A fire truck came to the entrance of the clinic. Another one was just behind it.
Jimmy looked at it and gave Rachel a final smile and turned, taking Sasha under her right arm with his left. Their hips touched.
Rachel returned his smile, and watched as he practically carried Sasha off across the parking lot away from the sight of the fire trucks and headed straight to the trees. They were gone so fast.
When they were, she looked back to the fire trucks pulling into the parking lot, and seeing them, her thoughts went blank. She had no idea of how to explain everything that had just happened. She could only hope that something would come to her before they arrived. She gave herself the time. It was all she had left.
45
Two days went by, and with them, she didn’t see him since that night in Castleford. She wasn’t really worried. She trusted that he was all right. She took the time getting Brandon back on his feet. His arm wasn’t broken, but he did suffer a dislocated shoulder, so he was in a great amount of pain for most of the time they were there. Something he reminded her of every chance he had.
They made it back to their hotel in New York City after dealing with what happened at the Castleford Clinic, and there they waited for Brandon to be well again before they left. With it, she didn’t care. It gave her the time to think. It gave her the time to come to grips with everything that happened. Least of all, it gave Jimmy the time to find her if he wanted to. By the third day, it started to look like he wasn’t going to try to do it.
Disappointed, she and Brandon were getting ready to leave. They both had to get back up to Redford Forge, because both of them had to get back to work. She had to get back to finding a cure for stopping Jimmy’s change. If that’s what he still wanted anyway. She wasn’t even sure about that anymore either.
With Brandon at her side, they checked out of the hotel, and headed out. The sun looked bright. It felt so warm. They took their bags to the back of her car, and she popped the trunk open and put hers inside it first.
“Going home?” Jimmy asked her, seeing her long black hair dangling some over her shoulders made him melt, as she leaned over the trunk. It made her look even more beautiful than she already was.
She heard his voice, turned back to the sound, and couldn’t believe that it was him she heard. Seeing him again, standing on the sidewalk just in front of a yellow cab, one car behind hers, made her heart melt and her mind explode with excitement, all at the same time. He looked strong. His smile made her flash with one of her own. She knew that he wouldn’t let them leave without saying goodbye first. “Where have you been?” She loved his look. She felt his strength. She loved him so much.
“Sasha and I went to a place of hers. We’ve been there for the past few days. She needs to get her strength back before we can go anyplace else.” He put his hands into the front pocket of his jeans and shrugged his shoulders with a bashful glee. He felt open all of a sudden. Maybe it was because he knew that she was leaving, or maybe because he knew that he would see her again, but for whatever reason, he felt completely exposed seeing her there like this. In fact, it made him feel awkward all too fast.
Rachel loved his look even more. “We’re going back up to Redford Forge.” She nodded and smiled.
Jimmy looked to Brandon at the side of her car,
and saw that he was wearing a sling on his left arm. He looked drawn out and pale. He looked like he was in real pain. “How’s the arm?” He gave him a smile.
Brandon returned it. “Not bad. I’ll live.”
Jimmy nodded.
“Jimmy?” Rachel stepped up to him on the sidewalk.
Brandon took her place at the trunk and put his bag into it behind her.
“I’m going back and work with Ross. Try to find a cure.” She bowed her eyes to the concrete beneath her shoes. “Do you still want me to?” she had to ask.
He bowed his head as well. He knew what he wanted to say, but at the same time, he didn’t. He was getting comfortable with what he was, but at the same time, he wasn’t. He could only give her one answer. “Find out what you can.” He looked to her and nodded.
She smiled and nodded as well.
He melted completely by the sight of her alone. “You better get going.” He removed his right hand from his jeans and waved it towards her car. “It’s a long drive.”
She lifted her head, hearing what she wanted to hear. “What are you going to do now? Gary’s still out there, and so is the wolf that came after us.”
Jimmy nodded watching Brandon close the lid of her trunk. “Sasha wants to take me to this guy that she calls a wanderer. I guess he has something special to help me with what I am. It can’t hurt to meet with him and see what he can do.”
She nodded. “Let me know what you find out.” She stepped one more step towards him.
He moved closer until they were now standing right in front of each other. “You do the same.” He took her shoulders into his hands and pulled her to him. He kissed her lips gently, and released them just as slowly. “I’m going to miss you.”
She smiled and melted from his kiss. “You better.”
He let her go, turned, and headed back up the sidewalk. He stopped when he was back at the side of the cab that he had used to get there. “What happened that night at the clinic after we left?” He smiled.
Rachel laughed some before she answered him. “We told them that an animal, probably a bear, got inside.”
Jimmy laughed with that, and then turned his attention back to Brandon. “Hey Brandon?”
Brandon reached the passenger door and looked back up to his friend with his eyebrows up.
“Take care of her and keep her out of trouble for me, will you?” Jimmy smiled.
Brandon laughed. “Are you kidding?”
Rachel opened her driver’s door. “Thanks guys.”
Jimmy laughed, and climbed back onto the backseat of the cab.
Rachel turned and watched the car pass by her.
The cab went down the street and disappeared back into the mass of cars that scrambled over the city’s streets, on that warm summer day. With all of the other cabs there, she lost sight of his quickly. When she did, she climbed inside her car.
Together, both she and Brandon closed their doors. They headed off down the street, and with that, they headed home.
46
Gary watched the hotel from across the street after getting back from Castleford, and waited. It wasn’t long before he realized that Rachel was waiting for the freak. After the first day of watching, he realized that the freak wasn’t coming. That didn’t surprise him really. He figured as much, after all that’s what he would have done if he were the one being hunted. He would have gone into hiding. He would have disappeared. It made sense, but it also made him worried. Not knowing where he was, meant that he had to stay cautious. He knew that sometimes the hunter could also become the prey. It was a possibility that didn’t sit too well with him, and with every day that went by, it only made things worse. He had to find him. He had to get him back in his sights.
Decided on what he had to do, he started his car and drove away from the curb, and headed back up north. He could think of only one place to start looking. He drove to 157th Street, found the house again and the red door, and parked across the street. He climbed out of the car and made it up to the front door, and like before, let himself inside.
The living room was quiet. He knew that it would be. He wouldn’t come back there, if he were the freak, so he expected it. He would have stayed away. It was the first place that he would have looked, and the freak would have known that too.
Walking into the living room, he stopped by the sofa at the front of the room, and there looked around. The sunlight coming into the room through the bay window at the front of the room helped. It showed him the entire room. Now all he had to do was to find something, anything that would help him find his answers. He looked to the fireplace, and looked at the pictures on its mantle. He saw nothing. He knew of nothing, so he looked down at the coffee table and there, in the middle of it, were several dusty old books. They looked like journals of some kind, and seeing them, he knew that he found something, so he picked the top one up and opened it up.
It was hand written. It was by Collins, it had to be. He thumbed through several of the pages, and saw that it was all in a narrative, so he slammed it back shut. He read enough. He didn’t want to read his life’s story. He didn’t care to know how he felt. He bent down, was about to replace it when something caught his eye about the next journal on top of the others on the table. There was a date there, 1934, and it was all that he needed to see. Seeing it, he took it into his hands, and tossed the other book back to the others. He then opened the book.
All he saw was something about New York. There was something about Central Park, but he couldn’t read anything more, because the sound of a car door slamming came from out front. The sound of someone talking followed it, and soon, footsteps came, sounding like they were coming up the sidewalk towards the front door. Hearing them, his heart sank. Someone was coming.
He turned, closed the journal and reached to his hip. His holster was gone. He had forgotten it and left it in the car, and being that way, he was unarmed. It instantly made him feel helpless. He hated himself for doing it, but now it was too late.
The footsteps became louder, until they seemed to reach the front door.
He left the living room quickly, ran to the stairs, and at the side of the stairs, he saw a doorway that looked like it went down to the basement, so he stopped. He turned to the front door, and could see the knob turn, and seeing it, he saw enough. He stepped into the doorway at the stairs and quickly closed the small gray door back shut. He stayed there, trying to keep his breathing subdued. He tried to quiet his heart. He now felt trapped. There was nowhere to go. He made another mistake, but again, it was too late. He could only hope that he would live to fight another day.
47
Jimmy was going to head back out of the city, but before he did, he decided to head back to Collins’ place one final time, before he left. He wasn’t sure if it was the right decision or not. Gary was still looking for him. He would be there in all likelihood, but he had to take the chance. He wanted to get the journals that he left on the coffee table, and wanted to take them with him. He needed them. They were worth more to him than any danger seemed to bring from it.
He stood out of his cab, and told the driver to wait for him. The driver agreed, so he closed the car door and made it up the sidewalk and to the steps.
He opened the door and walked inside.
The smell was instant. It smelled so strong. It smelled musty. It smelled like home, and with it, he hated the idea of never smelling it again.
Leaving the front door, he walked into the living room and went straight to the coffee table, grabbed all of the journals there, and once they were all safely in his arms, he turned and headed back to the front door but stopped just under the archway. He turned to the stairs, turned to the thought of the door under them, and took a deep breath. Should I get the videos? He thought idly, wondering if they would tell him anything more than the books in his hands. It seemed like an idea. It felt like a chance for something else, but he wasn’t sure. What he did know was that his hands were full. He had at least seven
books to go through, so it should be enough to start with, and besides, he could always come back to get the rest of it some other time. Being that, he decided, turned and headed back to the front door.
He opened it and locked it behind him, trying hard to keep the books under his arm firmly while trying to do it. It worked, because none of them spilled. Finished, he headed back down the stairs and back to the cab.
48
Gary waited, hearing the front door open and close again. He heard footsteps on the hardwood floors. He heard those footsteps move to the living room. Is it the freak? Did he come home? He didn’t know. He wasn’t even sure if he should open the door to take a look, so in the end, he decided just to keep still. He decided just to keep where he was. He listened as the footsteps left the living room and headed away from him, and could tell that they were heading back to the front door. He confirmed his answer when he heard the front door open again and the footsteps vanish from the floor. The door then closed. Whoever it was, they were gone. It only took seconds, but it felt longer without a weapon at his side.
He waited a few more moments before he felt that it was safe enough to leave. When enough time passed, he opened the gray little door, looked out into the hallway towards the front door and took a deep breath. All sounded quiet. The sun at the front of the house cast no shadows. No one was there, so he relaxed.
He left the little room under the stairs and made it to the front door and out of the home quickly. He took the chance and it paid off, but it was enough to tell him that he wouldn’t take another chance like that again. He felt foolish. He felt lucky. He was, at least, safe.
A Werewolf's Saga Books 1, 2, & 3 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets) Page 54
