So did Brandon, but for all of a different reason behind it. Is Jimmy going to let me help him? Is he going to let the others help him as well? The thoughts felt heavy. He could only hope that everything would happen just as it was all meant to be.
16
He watched Rachel leave the front door and head to her car. He watched the freak’s friend come down the steps behind her. He watched both of them get inside the car together.
He then watched the car back up and head off down the street away from him. He watched everything from down the street. Seeing the bag, and seeing their actions, it all told him that they were off to find the freak again.
For Gary, it meant that the hunt was back on. He couldn’t wait. He needed to finish what he started. He needed to end all of this, especially for what he now knew. How could he have not seen it? How could he have missed such a thing? He read it all in the journal that he found at Collins’ place, and after seeing it, he couldn’t believe it. He had him there the entire time, and missed it. Now knowing it, he knew what he had to do. He knew how to end his pain, and he would do it soon enough. It was only a matter of time to set everything right.
When Rachel’s car drove around the corner, he started his engine and pulled out from the corner of the intersection, and followed them, keeping a good distance as he watched them, head down the road just ahead of him. He had to keep his distance. He had to follow them without them seeing that he was there.
When he noticed they were heading north, not south, his mind flew into every direction. Where in the hell are they going? They’re heading away from the city. They’re heading in the wrong direction. Seeing it, he now knew that there was more going on that he didn’t know about. That was a good thing as far as he felt concerned about it. They might lead him to more freaks. They might lead him to a more fruitful hunting ground. The idea gave him excitement. It gave him hope. He may, just may, be able to take more of them out. He took great joy in that idea.
The hunt was on. The time was now. He was happier than he has been in months.
17
Behind Gary, he never noticed the long black Cadillac following him as he followed Rachel down the highway. He never noticed it, as they all now headed north. If he did, he wouldn’t have paid any of it any mind. It would have been just another car in the sea of cars, moving down the road behind him.
They too had to keep back. They too didn’t want anyone to know they were there. They had to keep their distance. They had to find Kalima, and stop him from causing any more damage than he already caused. This was their only hope. They had to end this all once, and for all.
18
It took Rachel and Brandon only three hours to make it into the Adirondack Mountains from Redford Forge. It took another hour to make it up to the small resort hamlet of Old Forge New York. The small motel that Jimmy told her about was just outside of town. The summer day now looked to be in full swing. The entire area was bustling with people. Old Forge was a summer resort town, she knew that, but she still didn’t expect all of the people that she saw. Arriving at the motel, she worried some that she might not be able to find a room. Thankfully, with the look of the place being somewhat rundown, the thought vanished all too quickly. She saw very few cars in the parking lot. The area around it looked quiet. It looked almost serene.
She pulled into the parking lot, just in front of a small orange colored door marked with the word Lobby over it, and parked. She did so quietly. She shut down the engine just as quietly, and took a deep breath. “This is the place.” She looked around the lot. She looked around the area, but saw nothing. She saw no one there, and that meant that Jimmy wasn’t there either.
“Where is he?” Brandon also looked around. Not seeing Jimmy made his heart continue on skipping beat after beat. He didn’t like the fact that his friend wasn’t there. He needed to end his pain. His body already started to burn again. He needed his fix. He needed to have Michael give him what he needed. Michael? He thought, looking back inside the car, and more towards the inside part of his own mind. Where have I heard that name before? He didn’t know, but he knew he did. He couldn’t place where he knew it from, so he just blinked.
Rachel turned her attention from the lobby to Brandon on her right. The look on his face made her cringe some. He looked scared all of a sudden. He looked confused. As for Jimmy, she knew he wasn’t going to be there, so she didn’t feel worried about him, but when she saw Brandon’s face, that made everything else feel worse. Nothing she saw, she liked. “Brandon? What is going on with you? You’ve been acting really strange over the last couple of days.”
At first, he didn’t hear her. The name Michael kept flying through his mind again, and again; and he didn’t know why.
“Brandon?”
“What?” He blinked. He brought himself back to where he was. He turned and looked into her eyes. It took several seconds, but he did manage to do it.
“What is going on with you?” she asked again. She kept her voice calm and collected. She felt none of both.
“Nothing.” He said with confidence.
The statement sounded almost like a lie to her, and she didn’t know why. It just did. He’s lying to me. Why would he do that? “Nothing? You didn’t bother me once to stop to eat. When we went to New York last month, you wouldn’t go an hour without complaining about being hungry. This time, you didn’t say anything. You’re not acting like you, Brandon. I can feel that something’s wrong with you. I can feel it, so you better start telling me something, Brandon. You better start now.”
He listened but found the need to look out the window to his right as she talked. He couldn’t bring his thoughts together long enough to really try to answer her. In fact, he didn’t even have any answers. He knew nothing. He just couldn’t think about anything.
“Brandon?” His turning from her only made her feel more determined to get to the answers she needed. “Something’s wrong Brandon. What is it?”
He bowed his eyes to the top of the door’s frame. He took a deep breath. He began to shake his head as he exhaled.
“You can tell me Brandon? I want to help you, if I can.” She reached out with her right hand and took his left shoulder into her palm, and squeezed it some. With feeling him, she gasped. His body felt cold. It felt almost like she had just taken a cool package of sandwich meat out of the drawer of her refrigerator and held it in her hand. The feeling gave her a chill. He felt almost lifeless. He felt almost like he was dead. Feeling him, she didn’t know what to think and now wasn’t even sure if she wanted to know it. “My God. You’re so cold.” She rubbed her left palm over his shirt. His entire body felt cold. He felt clammy. She could even feel it through the cloth of his shirt.
He looked from the window and turned back to her, and in doing so; his movement broke her grip. “Something happened to me a couple of days ago.” He talked quickly. He felt rushed. It felt like he had a secret that he’s been dying to tell for days, but it wasn‘t his secret to tell, and that thought made him feel even more dumfounded as he already felt. It made him feel controlled somehow. He felt completely like he wasn’t the one in control of himself.
“What?” That brought her mind to full attention. She now felt more than just curious, she felt almost scared now as well.
“I don’t remember that night.” He conceited and slouched some into the back of the seat. The leather of the seat cracked some, giving in to his body’s weight, so he huffed as he did it.
She shook her head. “Did this involve something else?” She looked to the side of his face. She wanted to see his eyes, but couldn’t.
He just looked straight ahead. “Did one of them come to you?” It would explain a lot. It would explain his actions, his movements. He acted just like Jimmy did, back when he told her about being bitten by something. Thinking that, she nodded to herself. It’s the only thing that made any amount of sense.
He shook his head. “I don’t remember anything. I got out of bed to go to work. I
went out into the living room, and the next thing that I can remember is waking up on the floor with this God awful feeling rumbling through my head.” He looked back to his right.
She shook her head, trying to remember what Jimmy told her about the night he was bitten, and in doing so, she could remember him saying something about being sick, but that was it. “Did you get ill? Did you get sick?” She had to ask the thought.
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I just know that it had something to do with the side of my neck.” He huffed.
She looked straight to his neck. “Which side?” She looked closely, and saw nothing but skin and the veins beneath it.
He looked back to the center of the car. He looked at the dashboard, but didn’t see it. “My left side.”
She looked closer, and still saw nothing there. That alone didn’t surprise her. With the healing capabilities of the wolves, she didn’t expect to see anything there anyway, but still, she had to look. She sighed with all of it. “What happened after that?”
He looked straight to her. His bright green eyes sparkled. “I needed to find Jimmy. I just have to.”
She nodded. “That explains the hurry.” She smiled.
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“Brandon? I can help you. If you need to find him, we’ll do that as soon as we can.” She reached again to his cold shoulder and squeezed. The feeling of which brought her mind to confusion all over again. Jimmy’s touch always felt warm, almost hot. He never felt cold. He never felt dead. It made her concerned somewhat, but that was all it did.
He felt the squeeze and nodded with her offer. He would take it. He would get anything he could get.
She released him and opened her car door. “First let’s get a room and settle in. Then we’ll go and get something to eat.” She turned back to him just as her left foot came into contact with the stone pavement of the parking lot. “You’ll feel better with the rest and some nourishment.” She smiled.
He accepted her smile. He turned and opened his car door and stood outside.
She followed him and closed the door behind her. She left her side of the car and made her way to the door of the lobby, opened it, and turned back around.
Brandon stayed with the car. He looked around them, and in doing so; he saw nothing around them. The smell in the air came back to him as nothing but pure. He turned and looked back to her, and smiled.
She smiled to him one more time and walked inside the lobby.
The door closed behind her as soon as she vanished inside it.
When she left, he looked back behind him, and off across some distance, he could see a long black car sitting there with three heads visible through the tinted windshield. He looked to all of them. It would be soon. He would have to get her to leave him, and then he would take the drug. He had to take the chance. He needed to do it. He did know that he would wait for the right time to get it and bring it to them. She wouldn’t even know that he did it, until it was too late.
Rachel didn’t take all that long to get a room. She took the keys and walked back out to the car. They found their room and Brandon walked to it as she went back to the car and pulled it to the front of the door to the room. She gave the key to Brandon and he opened the door for her.
She went inside the room first. “I’m going to go and get something to eat for us.” She set her bag to the floor by the first bed on her left. The second bed sat right next to it, on the other side of the room, closer to another single door at that back.
Brandon came in and went to the second bed. “I think I’m going to lie down for a little bit.” He turned back to her and sat down on the bed. “You’re right. I need some rest. I haven’t slept all that well lately.” He smiled.
She turned around to a small, long; waist-high dresser behind her, just to the right of the front door, picked up her bag from the floor, and placed it on top of the dresser. “What do you want to eat?” she asked, still facing the dresser. With a single window in the center of the wall in front of her, she looked outside at the front of her own car.
“I’m not really hungry right now, maybe later.” Brandon watched her bag. He concentrated on it with wide eyes. He couldn’t see it, but he knew it was in there. If she left him alone, he could get what he needed sooner than he thought.
“Are you sure? You haven’t eaten anything all day.” She turned back around and faced him with a smile.
He nodded. “Maybe later, but right now,” He turned back to the bed, took his right hand, and brought it down to the top sheet with a slap. He then petted it, almost like it was a long lost friend that he hadn’t seen in ages. “This bed is calling my name.” He chuckled.
Watching him intently, she shrugged her shoulders again. “All right, I won’t be long.” She smiled and looked back to the open door of the room. She said nothing else and just left the room quietly. She closed the door behind her when she went back outside and headed to her car.
He watched her leave. When the door closed and he could hear her opening her car door, he stood up from the bed and made his way to the window at the dresser. From there, he watched her get back inside the car and drive off. He waited until the car left the parking lot, and then he turned to her bag. He turned it over, opened it quickly by the zipper, and flipped open the flap at the top of it. Clothes were there. He pulled at them to get to what was underneath them, and found what he was looking for. There were three vials there. He took out one of them, and brought it out in front of him. The fluid inside the vial looked clear. It looked like water, and seeing that it did, it gave him an idea.
I’ll empty the vial and replace it with water. He looked back inside the bag. He saw several other vials in there and some of them looked empty. He also found what looked like syringes underneath the vials. He took one of the empty vials and pulled off the cap. He did the same with the one he already had and poured the contents of it into the empty one, and when he finished with it, he left with the now empty vial and walked to the back of the room. He found the bathroom and went straight to the sink. He filled the empty vial with water and returned it to the dresser. He replaced both of the caps, making sure that he knew which one was which, and when he finished with that, he replaced the water-filled vial back inside the bag. He then replaced the clothes on top of all of them and zipped the bag back shut. It all only took a minute to do it. For him, it felt like an eternity. He felt nervous. He felt scared. Now what to do with it came heavy on his mind. He had no answers for it. Quite frankly, he just didn’t know.
He took the vial, looked out the window one last time to make sure she wasn’t coming back, and seeing she wasn’t, he walked back to his bed. He placed the vial onto the nightstand at the head of his bed and between his and hers, and set it there. He then sat down. He was about to pull his feet to the top of the bed, but then nervousness gripped him all too fast. Don’t be so fucking stupid Brandon. He sat back up straight. She’s going to see it sitting there. He couldn’t let that happen, so he picked it back up, and brought it over his lap. He had to hide it. He had to try. Only one place came to him quickly.
He stood back to his feet, and with a trembling hand, he put the vial into the right side front pocket of his jeans. He then sat back down. He then took a deep breath. He looked back to the front door, and heard nothing. She wasn’t back yet, and realizing that, he took a deep and cherished breath. With it, he lay back to the top of the bed and brought his feet up on top of it with him, and closed his eyes.
Now what? He thought, looking up to the ceiling above him.
We will come to you.
What? He opened his eyes. He heard the voice. He heard the sound. It sounded male. It sounded strong. It sounded like him, but it wasn’t.
“Did someone say something?” he spoke to himself, looking around the room.
No one was there. The room stayed quiet.
He looked back to the ceiling, and blinked. The voice, or whatever it was, now seemed to be gone. Now seeing the ceiling, he
wasn’t even sure if it was even there in the first place.
I’m losing my mind. He closed his eyes again. The feelings faded. He felt himself fade away, and thought of nothing else for the rest of the time he found himself alone.
19
Gary pulled up at the side of the motel in time to watch Rachel and the freak’s friend stand outside of her car. He watched as Rachel went to the lobby and then returned quickly. He then watched them make it to a room at the far side of the motel, and watched them go inside the room. He watched it all from down the street. He watched with pride oozing through his soul. He found them. He stayed with them. With the way they acted, they didn’t see him once. Seeing it, it made him finally breathe. It made him finally relax.
He watched Rachel come back outside, and watched her get back into her car and back up from the front of the building. He watched her alone. The freak’s friend had to be still inside the room.
She pulled off, heading away from him and headed down the street.
She must be off to find him. He watched her closely. He knew what he now had to do. I have to follow her. I have to stay with her. I have to find him.
He let off the break, crept the car back out onto the main road, and there, he waited until she was several hundred yards away from him before he sped up and caught up to her along a winding road.
She slowed as she pulled into the parking lot of what looked like a small diner, and watched her park out front. He watched her get out of the car and watched her as she made her way inside it.
He breathed again, and calmed even more, with watching her. He would wait there to see where she led him next.
20
Michael had Joshua wait until their new friend was alone. As soon as the woman left the room of the motel, he told him to drive up to the motel and park. He couldn’t wait anymore. The time had come to start this.
A Werewolf's Saga Books 1, 2, & 3 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets) Page 66
