Hearing him say it made her heart flutter and the weight on it lift off her with one giant exhale of air. “Are you sure?” She huffed that exhale back in again, and just as strongly let it out.
He nodded to the windows. He watched his reflection nod. “When can you get up here?” He saw his own face smile.
Rachel closed her eyes. She swallowed. “I can be there tomorrow afternoon.” She looked back to Brandon.
He smiled back to her. He took the time to listen to everything they said. In all fact, he could hear every word. He could hear Jimmy’s voice over the phone with absolute clarity, and hearing the entire conversation, he nodded to himself. He knew what he had to do. He had to go to the Adirondacks with Rachel. He had to see his friend again. The need to do it felt more than just overwhelming; it felt downright like life and death itself. With it, he knew he had to go. He didn’t have the choice.
Rachel turned her attention back to Jimmy’s voice. “Where do you want to meet me?” She heard herself ask. Her mind fluttered, and her heart calmed all at once. He’s going to choose me. He wants me and not the wolf. With the thought, it brought every fear she had to vanish from her almost without a trace left to it.
Jimmy turned from the window and back to the others. He didn’t want Rachel to come there. In his memory of their journey up there, he could remember seeing a motel back in the little town of Old Forge as they passed it. He nodded again. It looked somewhat out of the way, which made it seem perfect. It also looked like a small place. In fact, he already planned to take Sasha there after visiting with Kenny to get some rest. “There’s a motel back in Old Forge, the Clearwater Inn. Get a room there. I’ll meet you there tomorrow night.” He confided. He confirmed. He replayed the memory over again in his mind as he spoke it.
Rachel nodded. She reached for the end table to her left, grabbed a small notebook from the table, her address book, and placed it squarely on her lap. She opened it, taking out a pen from the binding of the book, and wrote the name of the motel on the pad. As she did so, she recorded the name firmly in her mind. “I’ll be there.” She closed the book and set it to the coffee table in front of her. In doing so, she brushed the side of the book to her cup of tea, causing some of it to spill to the side of the book. She never noticed the spill. It didn’t even register on her mind.
“Good.” Jimmy looked back to the counter. He followed the phone line back to the base on the wall just to the counter’s left. “I’ll be waiting.”
“Jimmy?” Rachel sat forwards some. “Be careful.”
He heard the sound. “I will.” He moved the phone’s receiver back to the base and hung up. Staring at it for a moment, he now felt numb all over. He even felt a little scared. None of which, he knew the reasons as to why he was. Wasn’t this what he wanted? Wasn’t this what he was looking for? Part of him should feel excited. Part of him should have expected this to happen, but the other part of him still wasn’t sure. He didn’t know what to think or how to feel.
Rachel likewise hung up the phone, pressing the red off button on her cordless. Finished, she let the phone fall into her lap. Her mind now blazed. She couldn’t wait to leave. Her heart jumped. She looked down to her tea and noticed the spill, but didn’t care. He’s still going to let me help him. She smiled to herself, but it showed and lit up the room. How far will he let me do it? The smiled vanished. She looked up to Brandon. To answer herself, she only knew she had to wait and see when she saw him again. With that, she needed to see him, but more importantly for him, she knew that he needed to see her. He needed to know how she felt. He needed to know what might happen, if he chose to end what he was. She couldn’t do this from here. They needed to be together. They needed to be by their sides.
Brandon watched her with full attention, and once the phone came away and left her hand, he stepped forward to her. His mind was likewise on to getting with Jimmy again. “What time are we leaving?” he asked with a solemn grin.
At first, she didn’t hear him. Her mind didn’t even seem to be in the same room.
“Rachel?” He asked again.
This time she looked up. “What?”
“When are we leaving?” He smiled.
She caught the smile. She caught the sounds of his voice, and with it, he sounded too overly eager. She kind of understood that, but she also understood there was more to him for wanting to go. She just didn’t know what that was. “I don’t know Brandon.” She stood up from the sofa, left it, and headed back towards the center of her living room. She stopped right beside him. “Maybe I should go alone?” she paused. Before, she felt like she needed him to come with her, but with him acting this strange, the need for it was no longer there. Now she felt like he would just be a burden. He would interfere with them. It was only an idea, but now it made sense to her, more than it ever did before.
Brandon shook his head no. “I’m going to go. He needs me.” He brought his head around to hers with a flash.
His look to her came so quickly that it startled her some. “Brandon?” She crossed her arms over her chest. She now felt somewhat afraid; something she knew she shouldn’t be but was. He felt scary to her some. He felt so different, so much so, she now felt almost sure of it. “Jimmy’s fine. I need to go, but you don’t have to.” She smiled, trying to push any of those feelings outside of her mind.
Brandon could feel her heart race. He could feel her breathing grow shallow. If he didn’t know any better, he could have sworn that she was afraid of him. “I have to come, Rachel.” He lowered his voice. He calmed his face. He tried to relax. He didn’t want her to fear him. He couldn’t bring himself to do such a thing. “I need to come.” He smiled.
He wasn’t going to take no for an answer, she could feel that, so she turned from looking at his face and looked back towards the bay window at the front of her house. Everything seemed calm. Her mind turned from doubt to something that felt more like fate. What could it hurt to bring him? What would it matter now? Jimmy would want to see him again. He knows everything. What could it hurt? From the window, she turned back and faced him again. “All right, you can come.” She smiled and gave him a subtle shrug.
“Great!” He exploded with excitement. He couldn’t believe that he was going to be able to see his friend again, and now, he couldn’t wait to do it. He couldn’t wait to end his pain. He slapped his hands together in front of him and began to rub them together just as strongly as he ever did before.
Seeing his reaction, she smiled. She saw him do this before, so many times in the past, that it made her instantly relax some. His boyish excitement hadn’t changed. Seeing it, it made her accept it. She looked down to the wristwatch on her left arm, and saw that it was now a little past eleven. It was getting late. Tomorrow meant they had a long drive ahead of them. “We should get some rest before we go.”
He smiled. “I’m not tired.” He looked to the bay window at the front of her living room. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to head out for a little while.” He turned back to her. “I’ll stop by tomorrow morning.” His grin almost consumed his face.
She nodded. She wasn’t about to let him stay there anyway.
He left her and headed back to the front door. He let himself out.
She watched him skip to the door. He looked like a little boy that was heading off to play, and seeing it, it made her smile. It told her that maybe she was just imagining everything else about him. Maybe, just maybe, it was all in her head. That alone made sense, so she thought nothing more about it, left the center of the living room, and walked up to her front door. She locked the deadbolt lock just above the knob, walked to the sofa and turned off the lamps besides it. When she finished, she left the living room and headed down the hallway to her bedroom. She closed the door and proceeded to go to bed. As she did so, she kept thinking about Jimmy. She let his face consume her mind. She nodded off that way, thinking of him.
11
Gary watched the front door open and watched as the freak’s frien
d stepped outside onto the front porch. Just as fast as he closed the door, he ran down the steps and to the sidewalk that ran along the street. He watched him run down the sidewalk just as fast. He watched him disappear and turned his attention back to the house. Something’s going on. I can feel it. He decided with that simple thought what he had to do. He would stay there watching it, waiting for her to make her next move. How long he had to wait was now entirely up to her. He would wait forever if he had to. He would wait until the ends of time. It’s all up to her. It’s up to her to lead me back to the hunt.
12
Jimmy left the counter and joined the others by Kenny’s sofa.
“How is she?” Sasha was the first to ask him. She gave him a full and hearty smile, and seconded that with a quiet nod.
Jimmy smiled. “Fine. She’s coming up here tomorrow.” He looked over to Kenny on his right.
Kenny also gave him a smile. “She’s a strong and determined young woman.” He and Sasha both heard the conversation, but he was the only one that felt it as well. He also heard more than what he said. He could not only feel Jimmy’s love for this woman, but he was also the only one that could truly understand it. He was human after all.
Jimmy nodded. “Yes she is. I’m not sure of what to do about her though. She scares me sometimes.” He laughed. It felt like a half-hearted one at that.
“She’s stronger than you will ever know.” Kenny placed a solid warm grip to his right shoulder. He squeezed just as solidly. “Everything will happen as it was meant to be.” He gave him a smile. “You have to have faith in that.”
Again, Jimmy shrugged. “I wish that I could understand that.” He bowed his head. The clutter on the floor looked back.
That one made Kenny laugh with him. “You will my friend. Women are like the stars, themselves. They look bright. They feel warm, life giving even, but—sometimes—they can also burn you with it.”
What he said made Jimmy raise his head up again. “Burn?” He exhaled this time stronger, making him sound almost winded. “That’s what I’m afraid of.” He shrugged.
Kenny gave him another full and hearty smile. “Fear nothing, my friend. Everything will show itself to you in good time. Everything will happen on its own. Have faith in what you are. Have faith in what she is.”
Again, Jimmy nodded, and then shrugged again too. He added another slight nod in for good measure. “I’ll try.” He now felt that he had to get his thoughts off everything else, and had to get them back to the matter at hand. Besides, he couldn‘t think anything more about what he just heard anyway, so why bother doing it. He was there for a reason. He felt that much, so it was time to get back to doing it. “So,” he began, looked to the television and then to the camcorder set up on top of the tripod just in front of it. “What’s with the camcorder?” he felt that he needed to ask, so he did. He had no idea what they were up to, so now he figured it was about time that he found out what that was.
“Technology is a wonderful thing these days. In the old days, before any of this, we would have to go a very different route to do this. But now, things are far simpler.” Kenny smiled, and released his warm grip. “The best way to accept what one has become is to see what that is for themselves.”
Sasha finished connecting the cables, left the back of the television, and made her way to Jimmy’s left. She stopped almost behind him.
Jimmy watched her come, listening, and then looked back to Kenny. “What do you mean?”
“Come here.” Kenny waved his right arm towards the sofa. “Sit, and find out.”
His smile looked so large that Jimmy could almost see every pearly white tooth in his mouth. He looked to Sasha, gauging her reactions to what was going on.
She paid him back with nothing more but a smile of her own.
Seeing it, Jimmy looked back to Kenny. Slowly he moved towards him, almost having to force his own legs to move. He had no idea what he was supposed to do. He had no idea what he was supposed to say, so he just moved. He took his time. It seemingly took everything he had to do it.
Kenny lifted his left arm back up to him and touched the back of his shoulder blade, almost leading him to where he wanted him to go.
When Jimmy reached the sofa, he turned back and faced Sasha. “Have you done this before?” He swallowed. He felt nervous suddenly. He even felt a little scared. Knowing that the camera was there, the idea of what they were about to do came rushing out to the forefront of his thoughts. He’s going to film me. He’s going to have me watch myself change. Some of the thought felt intriguing. Some of it brought even more fear up and into his throat. He didn’t truly know what to think about what he was going to see. Some part of him wanted to see it, but another part of him didn’t. He had no idea how he was going to react to watching himself turn into something that he had never seen before. He had no idea of how he was going to feel with the sight of it. In a way, it had to feel like a victim from some sort of an accident that was about to see what it did to their face. It felt like a frightening idea. The possibilities seemed endless, and the fear could only grow with it.
Kenny walked to him as he sat down. “It’s going to be all right Jimmy. Trust this. Trust me.”
He looked up to him almost feeling like he was a small child being told that he was bad and needed to take a time out. “I don’t know if I can do this,” he grimaced.
“Trust this Jimmy.” Sasha walked back to the back of the tripod and to the camera, and stood there softly. “Trust him.” She smiled and turned the camera on with the switch at the back of it.
Kenny sat down beside him. “First, I want to film you as you are now. Kalima is just as nervous about seeing you as you are of seeing him.”
Jimmy followed him down with his eyes. The rest of his head couldn’t move. Hell his whole body felt completely locked in place. “He has seen me before.” He started to feel numb to his very core.
“He has, but not as you are now.” Kenny looked to Sasha and gave her a quick nod.
She understood it and pushed record.
Kenny stood up and walked out towards the kitchen and there he stopped and turned back around. He couldn’t believe what was about to happen. He was about to see Kalima again. He was about to be near him again. He couldn’t wait for it. He couldn’t control his own excitement. He missed his friend. He missed his touch. He missed everything about him and was now only a minute or two away from feeling him again—feeling him by his side.
Jimmy noticed the small red light shining on the front of the camera, and knew that it was now recording him. “What do I say?” he felt dumfounded enough to ask.
“Whatever is on your mind, Jimmy? Speak what you want to say to him. Say what you feel.” Kenny placed his hand to the hips of his jeans.
Jimmy swallowed. At first, he couldn’t come up with anything to say, let alone think. His mind seemed just about as blank as his body felt. He looked to the camera and locked his eyes onto the front of it and then to the lens. “I’m not sure of what to say,” he spoke the absolute truth. “I guess you probably already know who I am. I know that you saw me the night you bit me. I know you did this because you wanted me to join with you.” He looked from the camera and looked back up to Kenny.
Kenny nodded to him gently. “You’re doing fine.” His smile grew stronger.
Jimmy smiled back, half subdued. He turned and looked back to the camera. “I don’t know why you did choose me. I’m not sure why you did this.” A single tear formed in his right eye. The emotions of talking to something he had never seen before, but yet knew what it was, was strongly there inside him, and feeling it, it became almost unbearable. It felt surreal. It felt awkward. It made him almost feel ashamed somewhat. “I’m trying to learn everything about you, about us. I want to learn everything I can. I need to know. I need to know what we are together.” He brought a trembling right hand to his eyes and wiped both of them with his index finger and thumb, and felt both of them as they came back moist. “I don’t know wh
at else to say.” He looked back up to Kenny.
Kenny passed him a solemn smile. “That’s fine.” He turned his smile towards Sasha. “I think that’s enough for now.”
Sasha looked up from the camera. Tears were not only in both of her eyes but now they were streaking down both cheeks of her face. She felt so touched from the sounds of Jimmy’s voice. He sounded so innocent. He sounded so pure. She knew how he felt. After all, she lived through this herself. She didn’t know what to say back then, and surely, didn’t know what to say now, so she said nothing at all.
The red light at the front of the camera went out, so Jimmy turned back to Kenny. “What now?”
Kenny exhaled loudly into the staleness of the room. “I think that it’s time.” He looked to Sasha and back to Jimmy again.
Jimmy swallowed hard, with the sound of the popping of his own throat echoing some in the room.
Kenny easily heard him. He easily felt him. “There’s no need to fear this Jimmy. There‘s no need to fear him.” He smiled again.
Jimmy swallowed again. “I,” He looked from Sasha and back to Kenny again. He knew that Sasha wouldn’t be in danger, but as for Kenny, he wasn’t all that sure. He didn’t know what Kalima would do with him there. He feared that. He hated the unknown. He hated it when he didn’t know what was going to happen. He hated the situation that he now found himself.
Kenny chuckled some, feeling his new friend’s heart began to bounce wildly behind his ribs. “It’s quite all right. He won’t hurt me. He never has.” He bent down some towards him. “He never will.” He smiled so firm that his face almost seemed to go red.
A Werewolf's Saga Books 1, 2, & 3 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets) Page 63
