“All of you freaks need to die.” He smiled. His face lit up. He loved the sound of his own voice.
A single tear formed in her right eye. She brought the eyes at the back of her mind forward, and began the change. With it, and knowing that he knew how to stop them, she also knew that the wolf wasn’t going to be enough. She had to do something else. She had to survive. She had to live. She couldn’t just stand there and let herself die.
So, she rushed him fast. She could feel his determination. She could feel his need to kill her, plainly. She had to do it. He wasn’t all that far away. If she went to him quickly, he might lose his aim. She flung her body forward as fast as she could move.
Gary watched her come. She came fast. She felt determined. She came at him with a blur of movement, which even surprised him. He pulled the trigger, aiming in her general direction. It wasn’t hard to do, and when he did it, a shot of heat and flash of light flared from the tip of the barrel of his weapon.
Sasha was able to get in front of him. She was able to get her hands on his shoulders. She screamed, feeling the impact of what was more than likely the bullet strike her side. The pain flew through her back. The heat of the missile flared through her body with a thunderous agony of pain.
Gary winced, feeling her grip strongly on his shoulders. He felt the pain, it seemed intense, but it didn‘t last long. As soon as she grabbed him, he felt her grip relax. The bullet must have found its mark. He could smell gunpowder all around them. He looked deeply into her yellow eyes, and instantly, he could see the yellow fade and her eyes flare back to a lightened green. Seeing it, and understanding it, he knew the bullet did the job.
Sasha blinked. She winced. She breathed. She stumbled back, releasing her grip. Her hands fell to the front of his shirt, and slid down it to his belt. She felt something there, and tried to grab it. She did everything she could do to keep from falling further back, but she failed.
Whatever she grabbed a hold of came with her as her legs flushed with heat, and her mind flared to a subtle blankness, as the eyes at the back of her mind fell away. The change stopped, and the wolf disappeared with it.
Gary’s heart sank down into his chest, as his mind flared towards her as he watched her die. With it all, he took a deep breath after he did it.
The young girl fell away, falling to her knees and then to her back. The slight grade behind her carried her down back towards the running water behind her. She fell to the side of the creek. She went motionless once her roll stopped.
With it, she looked still. Only then did he breathe. Only then did he relax. She put up one hell of a fight. He didn’t expect that, but at least, she was gone, at least it felt over.
He turned and walked back the same way he came to the creek. He had to get back to town. He had to get back to the hunt for the freak. He walked with an extra stride in his steps. He felt wonderful. He felt free. He wanted that feeling to continue, and the only way he knew how to do that was to kill the freak and finally put his nightmare to an end forever.
31
Rachel drove as fast as she could go.
Jimmy didn’t say much during the drive. He just kept to the directions on how to get there. When they pulled up onto the dirt road, he felt even more rushed. He had to get to his friend. He had to get there and fast.
Seeing the mobile home at the top of the field, his heart sank further in his chest. It looked different. It felt even more different from that. Something happened, that feeling said.
Rachel slowed the car down at the bottom of the field.
“Go up to the house.” He pointed through the windshield, and in doing so, he pointed to the house.
She nodded, pressed the gas pedal, and pushed the car up the slight hill to the side of the mobile home.
Once the car stopped, he flung open the door, and stood outside with a flash. Instantly, the smell of mustiness came to him heavy in the air. With it as strong as it smelled, he knew instantly that a wolf had to be there—somewhere. He felt sure of it. The smell of lavender also seemed to be still there as well, but he could tell that it seemed to be fading. In fact, it now seemed to be nothing more than just a wisp on the air.
She put the car in park, and opened her door when Jimmy already started running up to the house’s front side door towards the steps. “Jimmy wait,” she shouted, climbing out and holding the top of her car door. She knew he had to stay cautious. As long as he couldn’t change, he was in danger, and she knew it. Watching him run with abandon like he did, told her that he didn’t.
He ignored her calls for him. He climbed the front steps and came to the open door of the house, and in fact, he instantly noticed that the door wasn’t even there. “Kenny?” He stepped inside. The home looked eerily dark. The little light inside it came from a lamp lying on the floor at the side of what looked like the sofa across from him. He couldn’t be sure of what it was; being that it looked bent in, and crushed.
The many things that were once in neat and organized masses, lining the paths of the floor, were now strewn all over the place in jumbled messes. The home looked ransacked. It looked almost like a fight occurred. Seeing it that way, he feared for his friend. With not seeing Kenny with everything else, the feeling multiplied a thousand times over. “Kenny?” He took a deep breath. The smell of death seemed heavy in the air. The smell of decay flowed all around him. It smelled bad. It smelled even worse than that.
Rachel ran from her car and joined him at the front door. She wasn’t sure what she was going to see, Jimmy told her so little of it, so she knew she had to hold her breath when she did see it. She had to prepare for anything.
“Kenny?” Jimmy looked to the kitchen, but saw nothing there.
He looked back to what was left of the sofa, and still didn’t find him. He looked to the left, to the hallway at the far wall, and there, something on the floor caught his attention, so he looked at it next.
It looked like blood. It looked like a stream of it leading to the hallway from the sofa.
“Kenny?”
Rachel watched him leave her, and watched him as he headed into what looked like a hallway towards her left.
He followed the blood to the back room at the end of the hallway, and once he reached it, he looked into the room, and from there, he saw him, lying on the bed with his feet towards him. “Kenny?” He rushed in, climbing on top of the bed and reached for his friend.
“Kalima?” Kenny winced. The pain he felt shooting through his body felt beyond agony, it felt downright terrifying, if not more than that. He knew he was dying. He has been here, in this moment of time, so many times before that he was getting rather used to the feeling. It felt like coming home again after a long trip. He was almost there in fact.
Jimmy looked over his friend and took his head into his arms. His right hand went under his neck. His left arm reached for Kenny’s hands that were on top of his chest. Blood was everywhere. His flannel shirt was torn and it looked ragged over and under the blood. “Oh God Kenny, I’m here. I’m here with you now.” His eyes instantly began to tear over and flood over his face. “Who did this?”
Kenny looked up to his friend. His eyes looked and felt glazed over, but he could still see the tan hue emanating around the wolf. “It was a black wolf,” he tried to speak, without much success. His words sounded gagged over some by an iron taste covering the inside of his mouth. He didn’t know how long he had left. His life seemed to be fading so fast. “It was a black wolf,” he winced.
Jimmy blinked. It felt hard to do with the tears in his eyes making his eyelids feel heavy and hard to close. He squeezed his friend’s hands into his own. “I’m sorry Kenny.”
“I tried to fight him, but he was,” He gagged. It seemed oh so hard to form the words. “So strong. He was so powerful.”
Jimmy heard him having difficulty in trying to talk. “Don’t try to talk.” He began to sigh. A thought then rolled into his head. “Rachel?”
She heard him, left the living room
and followed his voice through the hallway to a doorway at the end of it, and there, she found him with another man lying on top of a bed. The other man looked covered in more blood than she had ever seen before in her life. “My God?”
Jimmy turned to her voice. “Help me please?”
She left the doorway into the bedroom and joined the two of them on top of the bed to the other man’s right side. She looked over what she saw. She could see bite marks everywhere. Long gashes crossed his chest. He looked mauled. He looked like a large and massive animal attacked him, and seeing that, it made her wince. He looked just like Sasha did after her attack in the barn back in Castleford.
Jimmy watched her come in. “Can you help him?” His sobbing came out strongly now. It made it difficult for him to understand what he even said. “Please help him.”
“Is he a wolf?” Rachel looked up from his many wounds. Her eyes met Jimmy’s tear strewn face.
He shook his head. “No.”
Hearing him, she reached for the man’s chest, and for his shirt. She had to see how deep the wounds went, before she would ever be able to answer his question.
Kenny felt her touch, and took her hands together with his right. “No. There’s nothing that can be done for me now. I’m fading,” he whispered. “You must be the one.” He coughed nothing but blood.
Rachel bowed her head.
Jimmy didn’t like the sounds of his voice. “You have to let her help you Kenny. Please let her help you.”
Kenny tried to shake his head but couldn’t. The bite to the side of his neck made it too difficult to do it. “It’s too late for me.” He looked from the woman and back up to his friend. “Jimmy?” He closed his eyes into slits, biting the pain, and then opened them again. It felt absolutely useless to try to stop it.
Jimmy nodded.
Kenny took a deep and gurgling breath. “You must end me.” He winced again before continuing on, “You have to end my life.” He tried to swallow, but couldn’t. Blood started filling his mouth with its bitter taste. “You must let Kalima take me with his bite.”
Jimmy shook his head strongly. “No. I won’t. I can’t.” How could he say such a thing? How dare he? He couldn’t lose his friend. He couldn’t lose the one person that knew everything about him. To do so would end all of his hope for understanding everything he was. He couldn’t let that happen. He had to help him. He had to try everything he could do to save his life.
Kenny brought both of his hands back to Jimmy’s grip and squeezed. It felt like nothing but a feathery touch. “When a walker takes a wanderer,” He tried so hard to talk, but had to swallow again to keep his mouth from filling up with even more blood, “…they absorb their gifts. If I die by the black wolf’s bite, he will gain them.” He swallowed again. His mouth filled up faster with each word he said, and he had trouble in trying to keep up with it.
Jimmy looked to Rachel. He then looked back to Kenny again. “I can’t.” His sobbing stopped, but he still found it hard to form his words together.
Kenny stared deeply into his face. He looked deeply into his eyes and likewise into his soul. “You have taken the drug then?” He saw it all. He might have been dying, but he could still see everything clearly, and with it, he hated what he saw.
Jimmy looked back to Rachel, and nodded to her, but meant it for Kenny.
Kenny saw the nod. He closed his eyes again. “Then the black wolf will gain,” he swallowed, “all of my gifts. He will be stronger than even you.” He opened his eyes again.
Jimmy looked down to his face. He felt shame. He felt awed.
Kenny felt him. He heard him. “This is not your fault, Jimmy. Kalima did this.” He winced. The pain raking through his body started to subside some. After having death overtake him on so many occasions, he knew what it meant. He started to die. He had only a minute or two left.
Jimmy’s face grew open. His eyes grew large. “What do you mean? Why would Kalima do this?” He couldn’t believe what he heard. He didn’t make any sense.
Kenny winced. “He did something—something that he shouldn’t have done.”
Jimmy looked up to Rachel and then back down again to Kenny.
“He took a life—he didn’t take the other.” Kenny looked up to the woman, and then his eyes went back to Jimmy. “You have to help him set it right.”
Again, Jimmy’s eyes began to water over some. He could feel Kenny’s heart start to slow its pace. His breathing grew shallow. His life, he felt slipping away. “I can’t lose you Kenny,” he cried.
Kenny subtly laughed. It sounded more like a whimper than a laugh. “I’ll be back. This is only the beginning.” He smiled.
Jimmy could feel his heart stop beating. He could feel his lungs grow soft. He looked to his friend, as he watched his eyes widened. His face went pale. His smile faded away.
“Kenny?” He rushed his left hand to his face. He took his right from under his neck and placed both palms to the sides of his head. He held his face to his. “Kenny?”
Rachel took Kenny’s right wrist between her fingers, and felt for a pulse. She felt nothing there. “I’m sorry Jimmy.” She looked up to him. “He’s gone.”
He looked at her with two streaks of tears now flowing down both sides of his face. In fact, his face now felt completely drenched.
She could say nothing else. She sat back away from the man on the bed, brought her knees to the side of it, and hung them off it with a dangling wave of motion. She sat there, and turned to an eagle statue that sat in front of her on the floor. She saw it, and then closed her eyes.
He cried. He let the feelings of his loss echo around the small room. He couldn’t believe his friend was gone. He wept for him. He wept for the world for what it just lost. He couldn’t stop it. He didn’t try to, so he sat there, holding his friend’s head in his arms, and cried. His lifeless body already started to turn cold. How could he let this happen? Why did he take the drug? Could he have stopped what happened, if he hadn’t? There were so many things running around inside his head that it felt hard to contain all of them at the same time. Slowly, thinking, bringing in everything, the sadness felt replaced with something else. He started to get angry. He started to get incensed. It felt like a building freight train coming at him from down the tracks. It felt unstoppable. It ran all on its own, until it came flying into his soul, and crashed into his mind. He opened his eyes and laid Kenny’s head back to the bed. He no longer felt in control. Kenny said that the black wolf had been the one to attack him. If it was the same black wolf that he saw coming after them at the clinic, then he knew what he had to do. He had to find it. He had to stop it. He had to end its life once, and for all. It now felt like his mission. It now felt like his destiny. He had no other choice in the matter.
She could feel him climb off the bed behind her, so she turned in time to see him stand to his feet. “Where are you going?” She looked at him, but already knew his answer. She could feel his rage flowing through him as she never felt it before. He looked the part. He felt even stronger.
“This ends tonight.” He turned from the bed after bowing his head to Kenny one final time. He owed it to his friend. He owed it to his life. He headed out of the bedroom, and made his way quickly back to the living room and then went back to the front door.
She watched him leave. She saw enough, and followed him, having to run after him to catch up to him. By the time she reached him, he already reached back to the front of her car. “Jimmy, you can’t do this alone.” She called out, trying hard to get him to stop. She meant what she said. He now seemed vulnerable. He couldn’t fight any other wolves. She had to stop him. She had to keep him balanced. She had to try to do it.
“I have to do something.” He did stop. He looked to the car, and stared endlessly and mindlessly at its hood. “I can’t let him die for nothing. This has to end. This has to stop.” He bowed his head. The rage within him still grew. He felt almost like he wanted to jump straight out of his own skin.
&nbs
p; “You can’t now. You don’t even know where to start looking for it.” She came down the steps and made her way over to where he stood. She stopped directly behind him.
“I can track him. I can still smell it. I can still follow him.” He took a deep breath. The smell of the beast still came strongly on the air. He could also smell it mixed in with a burning sensation. Smelling it, he knew he could follow it easily. “I have to try. I know his scent.”
“You don’t know who it is.” She reached out, and hesitantly took both of his shoulders into the palms of both of her hands.
“I know.” He turned around, breaking her grip. “I still have to try.”
She could see the burning in his eyes, even with just the moonlight hanging over their heads. “How? You can’t turn. You won’t be able to fight him even if you did find him.” She could only hope that what she said started to sink into his rage. She had to do anything she could do to try to protect him.
He nodded. “The drug will wear off.” He bowed his eyes, thinking. He did listen to everything she said, and like always, she did make perfect sense. He was in no way a match to take on another wolf as he was. He knew he couldn’t change. He wouldn’t be able to fight it, he knew that, and besides, Kenny did say something about the wolf taking his gifts. If that was true, then he might not be able to fight the black wolf even if he could change. He would have to think of how best to do what he now felt that he needed to do. He had to have a plan. He had to have a way to take it on. There had to be something he could use. He could also remember what Sasha told him at the clinic. A wolf will always act on instinct. It will always follow it, so it was best to stay human for as long as possible and only change when he needed to fight. Knowing that, he knew what he had to do. He had to keep his wits. He had to think first.
A Werewolf's Saga Books 1, 2, & 3 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets) Page 72
