Wild

by Meghan O'Brien

  “Do you…know where your clothes are?”

  Selene exhaled, then shook her head. She knew exactly what the man thought had happened to her and realized that she wasn’t likely to convince him otherwise. She didn’t know what she would rather have him believe. “No. I’m not sure.”

  The man hesitated, then said, “I’m going to take off my shirt now. But I am not going to hurt you. I just want to give you something to wear, okay?”

  Selene nodded, shamed by the kind gesture. Here this man thought she was a victim of assault, when in reality she’d been the baddest monster stalking the park last night. “Thank you.”

  Stepping closer, the man held out his shirt and scanned her body. He was obviously trying to be subtle, but she curled in on herself slightly. She couldn’t imagine he would see anything that might give away her true nature, but the scrutiny made her feel vulnerable and unsettled.

  “Do you know who did this to you?” The man dropped the shirt next to her, then backed away, averting his eyes as she pulled it over her head. He folded his arms over his bare chest, as though shielding her from the sight of his skin. “We need to call the police.”

  “No!” The ferocity of her refusal caught Selene off guard, so she wasn’t surprised when the man flinched, too. While she appreciated his genuine concern, she certainly didn’t want the police to start asking questions about why she had woken up naked in the park. “Please don’t. I don’t want to talk to the police.”

  “But they need to find the guy who…hurt you.”

  To get him to back off, she had to appeal to his obvious good nature. He clearly didn’t want to upset her, so she let her emotion come to the front. Standing up, she tugged down the hem of his shirt, thankful that it covered the top of her thighs. “Please. After the night I just had…I just want to go home. I’ll be fine there.”

  “But—”

  “It’s my decision.” Selene played up the genuine guilt she felt at her deception, knowing he would interpret it as embarrassment or shame. “Please.”

  The man glanced helplessly up and down the path before nodding reluctantly. “Okay. It’s your decision. But at least let me make sure you get there all right.”

  “That won’t be necessary. Really.”

  He sighed and shook his head. Gripping the back of his neck, he asked, “You always this stubborn?”

  “Most of the time.” Selene smiled. It was ridiculous to try to convince him that she was okay, but she needed him to believe she could at least make her own way home. She didn’t want him to know any more about her than he already did. It was bad enough that he’d seen her like this. “Listen, I live near the park. I promise I can get there myself, no problem.”

  The way he stared at her made Selene worry that he was growing suspicious of her behavior. After all, if she wasn’t a victim of something terrible, if she really was all right, why would she be out here like this so early in the morning? But then his eyes softened and he dropped his hands to the waistband of his sweatpants. “Let me at least give you these.”

  Selene shook her head. She was lying to a man who would literally give her his pants. This was a new low. “No. That’s okay.”

  “I’ve got running shorts on underneath.” The man raised an eyebrow. “Look, you want me to let you go alone, I get it. But I can’t in good conscience leave you to wander through the park without panties on. I just can’t. So either take the sweats or allow me to walk you home. Your choice.”

  It wasn’t worth arguing over. And the longer Selene stayed in the park, the greater the chance someone else would see her there. She had no idea what kind of devastation she’d left in her wake, and she didn’t want to be connected in any way with whatever her beast-self had done.

  “Okay,” Selene said. “I’ll wear them.”

  The man blinked. “Yeah?” At her nod, he slowly pulled them off.

  Selene took them quickly, tugging them on, then cinching the waist tight. “I hate to take your clothes.”

  “I’ll be fine. My car isn’t far from here.”

  “Okay, then.” Selene glanced behind her at a stand of trees. She had no idea where in the park she was at the moment, but she didn’t want her Good Samaritan to know that. As soon as she was able to get her head on straight, she’d figure it out. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” The man laced his hands in front of his shorts, glancing away. “Take care of yourself, okay? Think about calling the police.”

  “I will.” Selene hesitated, then said, “Is there some way I can return these clothes to you?”

  “Don’t worry about it. Just…what’s your name?”

  “Michelle.” Selene hated to lie, but she couldn’t let him know even that much about her identity.

  “I’m Clarence. Just be safe. Okay, Michelle?”

  Selene nodded. “Okay.”

  Clarence stared at her a moment more, then gestured to his left. “So I’ll just be going…”

  “Thank you. Again.”

  With a nod, Clarence jogged down the path. Selene exhaled as she watched him go. She appreciated the clothing—it would be harder to avoid drawing attention if she were naked. Worst-case scenario, she could have shifted into a dog or even a bird for the journey home. But it was better she didn’t have to. Shifting right after the full moon took a lot out of her. And doing so in public, even when she sensed she was alone, meant risking exposure. She rarely shifted these days, too concerned about keeping her abilities a secret to enjoy using them.

  Home. Selene winced and looked at the sky. The morning was gray and overcast, and she couldn’t see the sun through the clouds to know what time it was. Had Renee already come back to her house to find her bonds broken, the room destroyed? She had to get back there quickly if it was possible Renee hadn’t discovered the evidence yet. If she could meet Renee at the door and concoct some story to explain why she was out of her restraints, it would be far better than letting Renee see the destruction she’d left behind.

  Selene ran onto the walking path and set off in the opposite direction of Clarence. She would be able to orient herself once she had the presence of mind to trust her senses, but in the meantime, she wanted to put some distance between them. Hopefully she’d be able to avoid seeing anyone else.

  Only thirty feet down the path, Selene was hit by the sickening smell of fresh blood. It stopped her mid-step, and, for a moment, she felt like vomiting. That smell—she knew exactly what it meant. It was the same one that had covered her when she was sixteen and had slaughtered those sheep. That heady, pungent scent left no doubt that she’d killed again.

  The thought sickened her. But she didn’t know what it meant yet. Perhaps she’d torn open a squirrel as a meal—not acceptable, for sure, but not nearly as horrible as killing a human being. Selene scanned the trees and bushes surrounding her, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. She stepped off the path, letting her nose lead her to the source of that terrifying scent.

  She would have given anything not to follow this trail. But her feet moved of their own accord, even as she dreaded what she might find. She couldn’t run away. She was most likely responsible for whatever was bleeding. If it was still alive, she couldn’t just leave it to suffer.

  As a human, Selene had senses much more acute than those of a normal person. She preferred tracking as a dog but could easily follow a scent trail even in her natural form, especially when she had such an overpowering odor to work with. Selene brought a hand to her nose as the smell strengthened, then skidded to a stop when she saw the body lying at the base of a large eucalyptus tree.

  At first she saw only the blood. Not the age or gender of the corpse, or even the nature of the injuries. Just blood, soaking into the ground, smeared over every bit of skin visible. Selene gagged, then forced herself to take a breath and look closer. Maybe the person was still alive and needed help.

  It was a woman. In her thirties, maybe, with dark skin and hair, possibly Latina. Definitely beyond hel
p, she stared with sightless eyes up at the sky. Was the last thing they saw an inexplicably enormous creature, fierce and unrelenting, under the full moon?

  Selene stumbled backward, losing her balance and falling on her ass. Numb, she simply sat where she landed. For all these years this had been her greatest fear. If killing a couple of sheep had made her a monster, she had no idea what she was now. A murderer. A demon. Selene covered her face with her hands and moaned quietly. Even as her beast-self, could she really have murdered this woman?

  She didn’t know enough about how an animal attack would look to say whether she was responsible. Multiple deep slices covered the woman’s body, but it was hard for Selene to determine whether her teeth or her claws could have made them. The sheep had looked torn apart in a way this woman didn’t, almost as though whatever killed her had used more precise instruments of death.

  Who was she kidding? She stood with effort, weaving on shaky legs. What were the chances that someone else had killed this woman when Selene had woken up the morning after a full moon not even three hundred yards from her body? It seemed naïve to hope that she wasn’t the culprit. Then again, with this much blood, why wasn’t she covered in the stuff?

  No matter what had really happened, she had to call the police. With that thought, her feet were already moving, walking her back to the path like she was on autopilot. Calling the police was the right thing to do. Turning herself in might also be right, but she wasn’t ready to take that step yet. Not before she was absolutely certain of her own guilt. She’d spent too long in hiding to throw everything away only on probability, no matter how strong it was.

  As Selene drew closer to the sound of early morning traffic, she finally recognized where she was. Maybe a half mile down the road from her house, which did indeed border Golden Gate Park—but on the other side. She sighed. This would be a long walk without shoes. It would be so much easier as a cat or, better yet, a bird.

  Not having a watch, she could only guess how long it took her to hurry back to her house. It felt like hours but was probably only twenty minutes. She was out of breath when she reached her front door, but she was relieved to see it still in one piece, and locked.

  Obviously she’d escaped from her spare room somehow, but not out the front. Thank the universe for small favors. Did her human concerns guide her beast-self? As much as she feared terrible destruction, those few times she did get loose she’d caused only minor damage. Almost as though her beast-self knew to be cautious.

  Selene walked to the side of her house. A windowsill jammed at an awkward angle showed that she’d broken a pane and wrenched the window open. Taking a quick look around, she pulled over a garbage can and climbed up, boosting herself up and easing inside.

  Now in her bathroom, she surveyed the minor mess—a towel lying on the floor, toothbrush and facial wash in the sink, knocked off the counter. She’d been in a hurry, but at least she hadn’t trashed the place. She quickly tidied up, then walked to the spare room, steeling herself.

  The wooden door was ripped off the hinges, no surprise. A steel door would have been better at keeping her in, but she couldn’t afford that type of modification when paying San Francisco prices, especially when it probably wouldn’t have held her, either. Her steel table was still bolted to the floor, but she had torn the cuffs from its surface and thrown them into a corner. The ineffectual rope lay scattered in pieces across the floor. One wall had a hole she’d need to patch.

  “Damn it,” Selene muttered. To her horror, tears welled in her eyes. Not for her table or door or window, but for the poor dead woman in the park, and for herself.

  She gave herself exactly ten seconds to experience the full scope of her grief and self-pity, then forced the tears back. Sniffling, she walked to her closet and withdrew a wad of bills. The rest of Renee’s payment. No matter how the evening had turned out, it wasn’t Renee’s fault. She hadn’t understood the rules of the game they’d played, let alone the stakes. Selene was solely responsible for the breach.

  She went to the kitchen and checked the clock—only six thirty. Renee wasn’t due for another hour and a half. That gave Selene time to clean up a little, then do the thing that most weighed on her mind. She had to call the police. Not with a confession, not yet. With a tip. Once the police found the body and examined the crime scene, maybe they would allow the media to provide some details about what had happened, especially whether it was an animal attack. Maybe by then she would know how to move forward if she really had done the unthinkable.

  If she made the call from the pay phone at the edge of the park, nobody would be able to trace it to her. She put on her shoes, propped the ruined door to her spare room against the splintered frame, and headed out.

  Chapter Three

  When the man in the ski mask tore out of the brush to her left, Dr. Eve Thomas truly regretted not listening to her ex-girlfriend about the dangers of Golden Gate Park at sunrise. Jac had never liked Eve’s early morning strolls when they were together, so Eve made them a daily ritual after they broke up. As the man intercepted her on the walking path, drawing back his fist with hatred in his eyes, Eve wished she hadn’t felt the need to flaunt her newfound freedom. Even with pepper spray in her pocket, she was outmatched.

  Eve was reaching for the canister when the man’s fist crashed into her nose. The blow tore the glasses from her face, stealing her vision, but she didn’t have time to panic before a second punch knocked her off her feet. Her world went into slow motion, up until the moment her back hit the pavement. Then everything sped up: The man grabbed a fistful of her hair and dragged her toward the trees, and Eve’s one recurring thought was that Jac would be so upset about what would probably happen.

  Once they were out of sight of the path, the man threw her onto the ground. Then he was on top of her, pressing the sharp edge of a knife to her throat. “Do I need to use this?”

  Eve shook her head and swallowed. He had her arms pinned beneath his bulk, and she would never reach the pepper spray before he sliced her jugular. Her best bet for getting through this alive was to cooperate.

  She waited for the inevitable assault to begin. But he stayed still, staring at her with piercing blue eyes that sent sick dread rushing through her. She yearned to turn her face away, but didn’t want to move. Not with that cold blade against her neck. Forced to look back up at him, Eve studied what she could make out of his appearance, already thinking about the statement she would give the police if she survived. He was Caucasian, she could see that much. Taller than her, and heavier.

  “I can do anything I want.” His tone made it clear that he wasn’t just talking about here and now, but in general. The way he looked at her, like she was less than an animal, made her certain that he wouldn’t hesitate to end her life. “Understand?”

  Eve’s stomach turned over. “Take my purse. Please let me go.” She doubted she could talk him out of whatever he had planned, but she couldn’t think of anything else to do. If nothing else, she would buy some time, maybe give someone a chance to discover them and intervene. It had to be almost seven o’clock by now, so foot traffic was bound to increase. She just had to keep him talking.

  “I don’t want your goddamn purse.” The knife left her neck and his free hand took its place. He dug his thumb into the center of her throat, restricting her breathing and sending bright pinpricks of agony to her brain. Just when her vision began to dim, the pressure eased and she gasped in relief. “I can do anything. Nobody will stop me.”

  Eyes burning, Eve whispered, “I have money. And an iPod.”

  “I don’t want your iPod.” The man blinked, then bent so close she could feel his breath through the black cotton mask. “I can fuck you. Kill you.” He eased back, meeting her gaze again. “Make you cry.”

  Terror invaded the pit of Eve’s stomach and squeezed painfully, loosening a wave of intense nausea. She’d never felt this before, this bone-deep fear: of pain, humiliation, maybe even her own end. She wanted to scream,
but the fear held her back. Possibly no one would hear. And she would surely make him angry. The corners of his eyes crinkled. He looked pleased.

  “Scared?” He dragged the knife over the center of her chest, snagging her shirt on its tip. Jerking the blade upward, he sliced through the thin material like it was nothing. Eve yelped, then whimpered when his hand shot up and caught her across the face. “Shut up.”

  Eve turned her head to the side and closed her eyes. Tears threatened to fall, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. He grasped the front of her shirt and widened the tear he’d made with the knife. She waited for him to maul her breasts, then stiffened when instead the wicked edge of the blade traced a path from her cloth-covered nipple to the bare skin that rose above the cup of her bra.

  The anticipation was the worst part. Imagining all the things he could do but not knowing which one would be her fate. He could strip her naked, rape her. Or maybe he got off on slow pain and would cut her instead. What if he skipped the pleasantries and just plunged the knife deep into her heart?

  A scream rattled at the back of Eve’s throat, the sound of pure, total terror, desperate to escape. Give it voice, and the man would probably just finish her quickly. Even that thought didn’t quell her urge to call out. How else to deal with his looming menace, with her sudden, sick certainty of pain, then death?

  “Look at me.” The man drew the point of the knife over her clavicle, then placed the edge against her throat. “Open your eyes and look at me.”

  She did.

  “This is easy for me.” He ran the knife down between her breasts. His hand was steady, but a trace of uncertainty flickered in his eyes. “All I have to do is push the knife in and you’re dead.”