The Enigma (The Loup-Garou Series Book 1)

by Sheritta Bitikofer

  Katey sat herself heavily down on the couch, holding her head in her hands.

  “Ok, what else did they say? They said the word ‘change’ a whole lot. And control. That was dropped a few times. They also said ‘bite’. Oh, be still my heart.” She groaned and leaned back against the couch staring up at the ceiling. “This can’t be good. What have I gotten myself into?”

  Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket. The suddenness of the sensation made her jump with a shriek. After a few calming breaths, she wrestled with her jean pocket to release her phone and glanced at the caller ID. It listed itself as blocked, so she put the phone down and waited anxiously until the notification tone chimed to let her know that a message was left.

  She tapped a few buttons and listened.

  “Katey, it’s Logan. Where did you go? I couldn’t find you anywhere around the school? Are you ok. Why didn’t you stay? If it’s about the arm, don’t worry. It’s already healing. Please pick up. I still want to talk to you. Please… oh what the hell am I doing?”

  Katey’s heart skipped a beat when she heard Logan’s muffled and crackling voice. How did he get her number?

  This was getting all too weird for Katey. And what was worse is that he knew where she lived. Katey prayed that he wouldn’t come over. She couldn’t handle seeing him again. There was no telling what she would do, as edgy as she was.

  Katey whined miserably. “Where am I going to find answers?” she asked the infinite universe.

  The idea suddenly struck her that perhaps the Internet would hold some answers. “Of course!” she exclaimed, hurrying to her bedroom. “Google has all the answers I’ll ever need.”

  Katey spent hours combing through articles and websites, trying to find the answer she wanted, but it eluded her. Instead, the only match she found to what she overheard in the classroom was “werewolf”.

  Katey grimaced as she scrolled through image after image of beasts and monsters in the moonlight. Her eyes skimmed over fables, myths and legends from all over the globe that told of strange creatures that turned from man to wolf. She didn’t want to believe it. She would have rather taken the explanation that she was insane and imagining the whole thing.

  The images, as frightening as most of them were, didn’t quite faze her in the way she expected. Instead, a skepticism took hold. Not about the fact that werewolves weren’t real at all, but about how they were being portrayed. Some might have called it instinct, or an intuitive knowing, but she somehow didn’t want to believe the horror stories. She had no preconceived notions about werewolves at all, so the notion was unfounded by her recollection.

  Like vampires and all other mythical monsters, she felt indifferent. They were the stuff of nightmares and Hollywood blockbuster hits, not teachers at a high school and certainly not handsome strangers wandering in a graveyard on a full moon.

  She admitted there were similarities, though. Logan’s obvious display of speed, agility, and heightened reflexes was a definite clue. That, along with the flash of gold she saw in his eyes at lunch time all pointed to the idea that he wasn’t human. But that was all she had to go on, nothing more.

  However, what the internet could provide her in the way of information was sketchy at best. There were thousands upon thousands of search results and some of them were blog posts written by people who believed they saw a real werewolf.

  The stories, as well as the myths, had little in common besides the obvious full moon obsession and the transformation bit.

  Just before sunset that evening while she was wasting more time browsing through the millions of werewolf depictions and artwork online, her phone rang one more time. Katey saw it was the same blocked number again. She let it ring and waited for the voicemail.

  “Katey, it’s me again. Umm… I’m not going to come over unless you want me to, but I do want to talk to you. Please pick up. Please call me back. You have my number… please?”

  Katey shook her head. “No, I won’t call… I need some time.”

  She deleted both messages from her voicemail box and decided to take a break from her research. Her eyes burned and head ached with the ferocity of her searching. She heard her stomach grumble a bit and set herself to making macaroni and cheese for her dinner.

  About halfway through her meal, the phone rang again. Katey sighed when she saw the blocked number. Katey rejected the call and turned off her phone.

  “I’m sorry, Logan, but you have to give me space to process this.”

  Katey didn’t want to think that her favorite teachers and the guy she was infatuated with were monsters from some child’s nightmares. She wanted to believe they were completely normal guys. She couldn’t handle any more weirdness. What seemed worse than that, though, was the mystery of not knowing what truly was going on. Was she crazy or about to stumble down a rabbit hole?

  ***

  Katey ran, or tried to run. She was using up all her energy just to take a few steps and she couldn’t get far enough. She was being followed. She didn’t know who was chasing her, but Katey just knew she had to run. She dodged past the trees and jumped over logs and bushes that tried to run into her instead of her running into them. They whipped against her skin, tearing at her clothes from every direction.

  Finally, she had the sense to look back at what was behind her. All she could see was pure blackness with menacing yellow eyes coming closer and closer, snarls and growls emanating from the unknown monster on her tail. Katey cried out in fear and continued running.

  All of the sudden, she tripped and fell forward. But she didn’t fall to the forest floor like she expected. She fell for what seemed like an eternity into nothing, but blackness.

  Katey screamed and continued to fall and fall until she landed softly in the middle of the darkness. She called out, “Hello?” and looked around, but could see nothing.

  A spotlight beamed down upon her, but she could still see nothing beyond the circle of light that trapped her against the black. Katey looked above her from where the light was coming from.

  As soon as she turned her eyes upward, the light disappeared and was submerged in darkness once again. A moment later menacing golden eyes, four pairs to be exact, pierced the darkness and they inched forward growing larger and brighter with each passing second.

  They surrounded her as she tried to crawl away, but it was no use. Katey covered her face with her hands and began to sob, but her crying couldn’t drown out the growls that grew louder and louder, roaring in her ears.

  When she looked up again, she saw that lit candles now floated against her black prison, giving off enough light to notice that she was trapped inside a large cage. The candlelight also allowed her to identify the encroaching creatures. They were not creatures at all, but men.

  Her teachers and Logan squatted down just outside her cage, staring at her with evil golden glares. Logan chuckled, revealing razor sharp teeth.

  “What’s going on?” Katey asked, but they ignored her. They silently stood up and walked away into a cloud of black fog.

  Katey screamed for them to come back, but her cries went unheard. Once she gave up, Katey looked down at her hands just as thick white hairs began sprouting from every pour in her skin and slowly spreading up her arm. Her shoes ripped open to show paws where toes once were. Katey screamed, trying to tear at the fur to make it stop.

  “Somebody help me!” she cried into the darkness as the candles drifted closer and her cage dissolved into the light. She looked around frantically for any aid.

  Then she saw her; the woman in white from her dreams. The woman seemed to glide with each step, her face illuminated by a kind and gentle smile.

  The woman stooped down and caressed Katey’s cheek with her soft pale hand.

  “Do not fear. All will be well,” her angelic voice whispered.

  Katey turned away and was confronted by a mirror. Her face was deformed, twisted and animal-like. Katey screamed as loud and high as she ever had before, but her human voice didn’t co
me from her mouth. Instead, the angry roar of a monster shattered the mirror, sending the shards exploding towards her face.

  Chapter 12

  Katey woke up in a cold sweat on the couch. She shot up, panting heavily and tears stained upon her face, streaking the makeup she had neglected to wash off the night before. Her hands and body shook violently with the fear that gripped her heart so tightly.

  She checked the time on the digital clock sitting on top of the TV. It was just after three in the morning and she was still wearing the clothes she had worn the day before, her hair a tangle mess from tossing and turning against the upholstery. The house was as silent as the grave and just as dark except for the glow of the digital clock.

  She stood up and stumbled in the dark to reach the light switch. Once the room was bathed in light, she examined her arms and hands closely for any white hairs. Katey rushed to her bathroom and stared at her human face in the mirror, touching her cheek to make sure it was real.

  She leaned against the bathroom sink counter and took long deep breaths to still her racing heart. “It was just a dream,” she whispered, trying to convince herself that it was true.

  Katey reasoned that she must have done too much research about werewolves the evening before that it polluted her mind into thinking they were real. But were they? Katey’s mind teased her with the memory of Logan and her teachers talking the day before. She shook her head and squeezed her eyes against the idea.

  She didn’t want to go to school that day. She didn’t even want to leave the house. The idea of going to school and facing all of them after what happened was unbearable. The very thought of facing Logan alone was terrifying. What if they were real? What if I’m crazy?

  Katey forced herself to put aside everything she felt. She had to go to school; there was no real excuse not to go. It was all speculation she was making, no hard facts besides what she overheard. And even then, maybe she heard them wrong or they weren’t talking about her at all.

  She splashed her face with cold water to rinse off her sweat, tears, and makeup and decided to take a shower. She threw her dirty clothes in the laundry and showered for a long time, making sure every inch of her body was cleansed, as if that would wash away her troubles.

  When she got out, her fingertips were withered and waterlogged. Katey started to get ready for school with a heavy heart. It was like something was gripping her lungs in an iron fist and she could hardly breathe. The anxiety of knowing what she would face at school was overwhelming.

  She still had an hour left until she really had to go to school, but she left anyway at about half past four. When Katey walked out of her house, she looked around in the dim light of the morning and felt the icy chill in the air. The streetlamps were beginning to turn off one by one.

  Katey glanced down the road as she walked along the driveway and saw Darren, taking his morning jog around the neighborhood. She began to panic and ran to her car. She had never met him out in the street before. Sometimes they would narrowly miss crossing paths, but nothing ever as close as this.

  But Darren was coming around the curve too fast to avoid and he had seen her.

  “Hello, Miss Katey!” he called out.

  Katey grimaced before turning to face him as she stood at the driver’s side door. “Hey, Darr- Mr. Dubose.” She caught herself.

  “You’re leaving early. Did you sleep ok last night?” he asked, stopping just a few feet from her and leaning his hand on the hood of her car, as if exhausted or in need of rest. Their hot breath steamed around their mouths in the cold morning air.

  Katey felt suddenly intimidated by him and took a tiny step backward. She noticed he was wearing an outfit of shorts and a short-sleeved shirt and wondered if he was even cold.

  “Yeah, I slept fine. I just want to get to school early today. I don’t have much to do around the house so I might as well get a head start while I can.”

  The whole time Katey was talking, it was like Darren was in some trance, looking deep in her eyes with an interest that made her uneasy. It was like he was looking for something, searching for some hint that eluded him. She had no secrets to hide, but Katey knew that he must have had plenty.

  “Well that’s good. You butt-monkeys need to get to school early every day. I’ll see you in first period then?” Darren stepped closer and Katey felt a weird urge to snap at him, but she kept herself on a short leash and stood deathly still as he patted her shoulder and continued jogging on his regular path around the subdivision.

  Katey let out the breath she was holding and quickly jumped into her jeep. She turned the heater on high and let the engine run for a while, watching Darren in her side mirrors.

  Once he was out of sight, she quickly sped down the road and towards school, all the while trying to calm her rattled nerves.

  ***

  Katey sat in her car, waiting for the first warning bell to ring, simply biding her time until she had to go inside.

  She had come to realize that the idea of seeing Logan and being face to face with him was more distressing than actually being with him. When she was in his presence, there was a charm about him that made her forget that she was every afraid or worried. The only exception to this was at lunch the day before when some unknown terror made her shy away from him. Besides that, being with Logan was always a joy and never a burden.

  She glanced at the clock and saw it was almost five minutes until the tardy bell would ring. Katey quickly grabbed her bag and halfheartedly walked into the school, her eyes roaming for any sign of Logan or the teachers in the hallways. Anyone who would have noticed might have thought she was paranoid, constantly looking over her shoulder and keeping her head on a swivel as she walked.

  Katey stepped into the classroom, just in time for the bell to ring. Logan was in his seat. As soon as she crossed the threshold, his back stiffened and if he had long ears, they would have stood erect at attention.

  She shot a glance up to Darren, who was giving her the weirdest smile, like he knew something she didn’t know. Those smiles seemed to be pretty common around here all of the sudden.

  Logan turned to regard her as she made her way to her seat beside him. Katey noticed he didn’t have the bandages around his arm from where she had bitten him yesterday, neither was there any mark to testify that he had been wounded at all.

  She took her seat and Logan faced the front again, but they had no time to chat as the bell rang to announce the beginning of another school day. For Katey, it might have seemed like her first day in hell.

  “Ok, turn to that page next to the other page so we can get started,” Darren called out as the class pulled out their own textbooks.

  “That’s not very specific Mr. Dubose,” complained one student in the back.

  “You all are the best and the brightest… wait… never mind, this is first period. You all are my brain dead class,” Darren quipped and everyone laughed except for Katey.

  Katey scooted her chair as far from Logan as she could until her knee hit the leg of the desk. Katey avoided eye contact with Logan as much as possible and tried to keep her breathing under control. She knew the conversation about the day before was inevitable, but she hoped against it with every part of her being. If only wishing could do the job.

  Darren lectured about indoor air pollution, saying how most of it came from sleeping. “So this room should be really polluted because you all do nothing but sleep in here,” he said.

  And just then, Darren’s nose wrinkled, along with Logan’s. Katey glanced between them and wondered what was happening now.

  Darren walked away from his desk and towards his back counter on the opposite side of the room from them and grabbed his can of air freshener from underneath the sink. Then he walked to the back of the room and sprayed under one of the desks of a burly football jock.

  “Next time you decide to fart, go to the bathroom. You’re polluting my environment.”

  The class had a good laugh, but Katey’s thoughts were on t
he fact that she didn’t even smell the gas. How could Darren and Logan smell it when she couldn’t? Then she remembered what she read about werewolves having extremely heightened senses. Perhaps that was why they could smell the gas first and not anyone else.

  As he made his way back towards the front of the class, the phone rang.

  “Time to play ‘Who’s Getting Sent Out’. Your prize is a one way ticket to the discipline office!” Darren cried out as he walked over to the phone in front of Katey and Logan.

  “Hello?…” Darren sighed in disappointment. “Yeah, she’s here…” Darren turned his back to Katey and his voice softened a bit, but she could still hear him. “Ok…after school?… Ok… Alright, thanks… bye,” Darren hung up the phone and glanced to Logan before he walked back to his desk.

  Katey fought against the irrational fear that her teacher was talking about her over the phone. Either way, she didn’t want to know what was going to happen after school. With luck, she’d be long gone off campus by then.

  Darren resumed his lecture for the rest of the class period. Katey tried to focus on taking notes. Her grades depended on her attentiveness, but her mind repetitively wandered.

  About halfway through the class, she felt a gentle tap on her thigh. She looked down and saw Logan was passing her a folded up note. She took and unfolded it under her desk, knowing exactly what it would say.

  You skipped out on me yesterday. What happened?

  Katey glanced at Logan taking notes and scribbled out her speedy reply.

  I wasn’t feeling well and really needed to go home. I couldn’t wait.

  Katey passed the note back to Logan. He read it briefly and then stuck it in his pocket before going back to taking notes as she was. It seemed strange how he didn’t press the conversation further. Or perhaps he was saving it for later in between classes.