She Howled, They Came

by Gabrielle Demonico

  Tina’s head snapped in the direction of the older of her two stepsisters, Elle. The younger one, Becca, remained silent for the moment.

  “Ohh, go fuck yourself, wouldya Elle?” Tina replied without a moment’s hesitation. “Jesus, you are such a dumbass. You have no idea what is going on here, so why don’t you shut your trap?”

  As with her stepfather, tensions between Tina and her stepsisters grew as the years went by, but things weren’t always that way. There was a time when the three of them were close, very close. They weren’t separated by more than ten years combined but now, all those good memories seemed like they belonged to someone besides Tina.

  “Shut up, Tina!” Becca yelled. She leapt to her feet and threw a glass of soda in Tina’s direction. Caught off guard and unable to sidestep the liquid, Tina turned her head and raised her arms in front of her face as the ice cold, sticky beverage coated her.

  “Becca!” Tina’s mother, Louise, yelled. “Apologize to Tina. Now!”

  As her mother scolded Becca, Tina scooted her chair back across the beige linoleum floor. She jumped to her feet and started to head around the table when Albert intervened and inserted himself between Tina and his younger daughter.

  “Sit,” he said to Tina.

  With her eyes on Becca, Tina extended her arms to shove Albert out of her way. Thin though he was, he was plenty strong enough to stop Tina cold. His hands wrapped around her upper arms and squeezed tight. Tina recoiled in anguish as he tightened his grip further and then squealed as he began to force her backwards.

  “Let go!” she demanded.

  “Albert!” Tina’s mom yelled.

  In the midst of the chaos, Tina took note of her mom’s attempt at an intervention. Albert had a violent streak which mirrored his inability to deal with life. For some reason, Tina’s mom tolerated his weakness. Things weren’t going his way at the moment. His last chance to influence the pack and achieve status for himself was on the verge of leaving forever if Tina walked out the door.

  He yanked her close.

  “I told you to sit down,” he warned.

  His lanky, off-colored arms and putrid breath sickened her. How her mother could stand to be with him was beyond her. Yet his grip was hard and left her with little choice. So she did the only thing she could in the moment.

  She spat in his face.

  Without hesitation, Albert changed their relationship for good in the next instant when he slapped Tina across the cheek.

  Upon impact she staggered back, fell into her chair and then collapsed to the floor. Tina looked up at him through water-filled eyes. Her cheek thumped and a high pitched ring echoed in her right ear, the one closest to where he struck her. Otherwise, the room fell silent. Albert crossed a line even Tina never imagined possible. As she looked over her right shoulder towards her mother and stepsisters, all of them had the same look of disbelief in their eyes.

  Albert lingered over her without apology.

  Tina’s lip quivered as her mouth fell open.

  “You… will never… survive without us.” Albert said while he turned and started to walk away.

  As he did, Tina kept her eyes on him while she slapped the floor to her left in search of her purse. Her fingers slipped inside the leather and scanned the smooth interior with frantic, fitful grasps. At last she felt the cool steel slide into the security of her palm.

  Before he could make it out of the room, she fired.

  ***

  Without thinking, Tina wrapped her hands around the sun-heated black leather.

  “Shit!” she said as she recoiled from the sharp, burning sensation against her skin. Next, she jerked backwards into the car seat, which also singed her.

  “Ahhh! Damn!” she said. “What the hell?”

  Tina shook her hands in front of her face and blew on her fingertips to cool them. She leaned forward with her back off the seat, her hands off the wheel and turned the key in the ignition. As she started the engine, the air conditioner breathed heat upon her like an angry, ancient dragon.

  “Jesus,” she said as turned her head away from the stream of hot air.

  She grasped the air conditioner dial and turned it down. As much as she wanted to wait for the cool air to kick in, she was already late. Left with no options, she would have to roll down the windows and make the best of it until the Gods of Freon saw fit to bless her with some relief.

  She pinched the steering wheel with her fingertips, put the car in reverse and pulled out of the nearly empty parking lot, her first day now behind her. As she picked up speed, air swirled in from the rolled-down windows. A mixture of heated wind and tiny dust particles blew about in the front seat of her car.

  She waved her right hand back in forth in front of her face to clear the air. As she did, Tina caught a glimpse of her scrubs for the first time since earlier in the day. Covered in a kaleidoscope of colored fur and assorted fine animal hairs, they stank in a way unfamiliar to her. As much as she loved animals, this… wasn’t going to work. A change of clothes would probably have to go with her from now on… or else the only friends she’d have would be her co-workers.

  A few minutes later, Tina merged on to the expressway. In the distance, heat radiated upwards from the road in hypnotic, semi-transparent waves. The evening rush underway, Tina weaved in and out of traffic as she attempted to make up for lost time. She chewed her lip as she alternated between checking the clock and the rear view mirror.

  Mercifully, the air coming from the vents began to cool. As she pulled close to the rear of the car in front of her, her eyelids drifted shut for a moment. Against her perspiration-kissed skin, the chilled air felt like a cold compress. She inhaled deeply as the sensation worked its way down her neck and underneath the cotton fabric of her scrubs.

  “Mmmm,” she said. “Much better.”

  For a few delightful moments, Tina’s mind eased. The pause was long enough for her to sense the aches in her muscles; but not nearly enough to inoculate her from the realities of life just beyond her rolled-down window.

  “Yo, yo!” a strange male voice called out from the next lane over on the passenger’s side.

  Her moment of bliss now ruined, Tina lifted her head, bit her lip and kept her eyes locked on the car in front of her.

  Undaunted, the offender upped the ante and honked his horn. As it serenaded her with the sultry sound of “La Cucaracha”, Tina reached up with her left hand, pinched her fingers together at the bridge of her nose and shook her head in disbelief.

  “Yeahhhhh, chica!” the man exclaimed as he slapped the side of his car door. “I know joo ear me, baybee!”

  Without so much as a glance in his direction, she deftly reached down and began to roll up the passenger side window.

  “Ohhh, come on!” the man bellowed. As the glass made its way upward, the last sound she heard before it sealed closed was his car horn blow once more in a final protest.

  “Unbelievable,” she said.

  Aggravating though it was, the truth was that she wasn’t surprised.

  Not at all.

  Beauty favored Tina. Delicate features, wide emerald eyes and thick auburn hair grabbed the attention of plenty of men. But she was far from the slimmest shifter in her pack. In her experience the types of men that found her the most attractive had more in common with the driver of the purple Monte Carlo next to her than hunks like Chuck. Usually, they only wanted one thing from her. For others, her size was a novelty, a thing to be trifled with but not taken seriously.

  In any case, none of it left her satisfied. Over the years, she’d cried about it, gotten angry over it and sworn off men of all types probably two dozen times or more. But with each successive attempt at dropping them like a bad habit, she became more and more aware that those emotions would lead her to a lonely, desperate existence. Among the many promises she made to herself, the most important was that she wouldn’t give up on love and settle for less than she deserved, not ever again.

  Yet at the
moment, that commitment proved more difficult than she imagined. She hadn’t made any new friends since she arrived in town, except for one… Allison. A vet tech like herself, Allison worked at another clinic across town. They met when Tina interviewed there. After a brief chat, they went to lunch the same day and a friendship began. Aside from the things they did have in common, like a love for animals and coming from less-than-stable homes, there was one thing they didn’t share a bond over.

  Exercise.

  Overweight as a child, Tina found herself less and less interested in anything that had to do with getting in shape or physical effort in general. It’s not that she was lazy. Tina was one of the busiest people she knew. It’s just that when it came to exercising for the sake of it, Tina wanted to do it about as much as she wanted to learn how to repair her furnace, which was somewhere between not at all and oh, hell no.

  But…

  Circumstances were different now. She’d put herself through school, paid her own way to her new life and found the courage to leave the pack.

  Besides, there was something about the way Allison explained it that made it sound as if it would not be horrible, but maybe even fun. Plus, Allison said that some of the hottest guys anywhere went to her gym, so if nothing else, Tina looked forward to some calorie-free man candy. And even though the thought of exercising in front of a room full of people made her stomach sink, she promised Allison she would try.

  Tina leaned across the center console and reached into her bag. She felt around the assortment of spandex within it until she located her perfume. She might get sweaty, but damned if she wasn’t going to smell her best while she did. After a few seconds, her fingers wrapped around the hourglass-shaped bottle. Tina popped the cap and with a few discreet pumps, the sweet floral bouquet of roses and jasmine filled the small confines of her car.

  Prior to leaving work, she gulped down a half cup of six-hour-old coffee to get her energy up. The caffeinated beverage did its job but the remnants of the bitter liquid remained unwelcome on her taste buds. To take the edge off, she grabbed a couple pieces of gum and popped them in her mouth. Within seconds, the minty burst turned the tide of flavor and reinvigorated her to face the next hour or so.

  She’d need all the help she could get.

  ***

  Ten minutes later, Tina arrived and parked, just down the street from the gym.

  As she locked her car and got out, a large city bus roared by and sputtered a haze of gray exhaust in her face. Tina turned her head away, but the fumes slipped into her nostrils and down the back of her throat. Her nasal passages filled with the aroma of sweet diesel mixed with hot, still summer air.

  Tina coughed in an effort to expel what she could while she moved towards the curb. As she stepped up on it, the sound of labored breath and heavy footsteps came up from behind her with great speed. In the next instant, a deep male voice boomed, “Heads up!”

  An anxious half turn later and the source of the sound came in full view. A tanned, shirtless, tattooed hunk of a man, nothing short of physical perfection, ran in her direction. Tina leaned back against her car and stared in slack-jawed awe as she watched his muscular, sweat-glistened chest and chiseled abs approach.

  “Thanks,” he said, in between large gulps of air.

  A fraction of second later, he jogged past and continued down the block. Her head moved on a swivel as he passed. Up ahead, she saw the long, lean form of Allison walk towards her. Tina watched while Allison high-fived the man as he passed by her. A bit confused, Tina tugged her bag over her right shoulder and smiled at Allison.

  But as Tina stepped up on the sidewalk one more time, several more people appeared on her right, from what seemed to be out of nowhere. Each of them huffed and puffed and ran in the same direction as the tattooed man did moments before. Tina counted a half dozen in total, each of them drenched in sweat. Men and women alike, the fearsome legion roared past her in a stampede of fitness. And just like before, a number of them slapped hands with Allison as they ran.

  A deep pang of nervous anticipation hit Tina and in the next instant, her stomach dropped straight into her butt out of pure fright. That better not be what she was here to do. No way. Nothing about any of that looked like fun.

  At all.

  “Hey!” Allison chirped as she stopped in front of Tina a moment later.

  It was the first time Tina saw Allison wear anything other than scrubs. Her long, curly blond hair sat in a twisted, neat bun on top of her head. Tight fitting stretches of red and pink spandex cut across her chest and fit snugly against her lean, muscular legs. In sharp contrast to Tina and her fur-covered, grimy work clothes, Allison looked like a superhero in the late afternoon sun.

  In fact, Tina was half-tempted to look for the phone booth Allison popped out of. But instead she lowered her head, crossed her arms at her chest and glared at her statuesque friend. Allison’s snow white smile melted away into a look of confusion and then, concern.

  “What?” Allison said. “Is something wrong?”

  “Yes,” Tina replied.

  Allison looked Tina up and down. “Well what? What is it?”

  “Oh I don’t know… Maybe just that,” Tina said as she pointed past Allison’s shoulder in the direction of the last sighting of the exercise horde. “What… the hell… was that?”

  “What was what? Those guys running you mean?”

  Tina nodded and tapped her foot with impatience.

  Allison smiled and put her hands on her hips. “Wait a sec. Are you afraid?”

  “Psshht… No.” Tina lied.

  Allison chuckled and hugged her. “Come on. You’ll love it. I swear.”

  About the only part of Tina’s body not coated in anxious perspiration was her mouth. As they walked towards the gym, Tina tried hard to generate even the tiniest amount of saliva. Her gum, long since stripped of its minty essence, did nothing to help the situation so she quietly spit it into her hand and flicked it towards the curb.

  A few seconds later, Allison and Tina approached the entrance to the gym. Only it wasn’t an entrance in the traditional sense. It was an opening to an old garage, or something like that. Tina glanced upwards and noticed a rope dangled from a large overhead door. To her left, an eight-foot-high industrial fan blew air inside upon a scene the likes of which she never imagined she’d witness in any gym.

  There was no reception desk, no spa-like atmosphere and no one lingering on a leg press machine. But there were also no mirrors, no scales and nothing else that would require her to “look good”. In fact, as she scanned the room, “looking good” appeared to be the last thing anyone there was focused on.

  Survival seemed to be the top priority.

  But, did they all look good!

  Incredible, really…

  Loud music thumped in Tina’s eardrums. The concussion of bass from the large speakers overhead pounded against her chest. In between beats, the grunts and moans of sweat-drenched participants riveted her attention.

  Muscled, sweaty bodies of men and women hoisted bars of weight overhead. Elsewhere, two men jumped up and down off of tall wooden boxes. Off to the side, three women stood on their hands, upside down, with their feet pressed hard into a cement wall blackened with streaks from sneakers and God only knew what else.

  For a few moments, Tina watched in amazement as the spectacle continued in front of her. That is, until she realized she wasn’t there to watch but… to participate. And just like that, the nervousness and anxiety returned to her stomach. She took an unconscious step back and as she did, Allison turned in her direction.

  Tina glanced down at her soft curves.

  “I… There’s no way I’m going in there.” She said.

  “What? Why not?” Allison asked.

  Tina’s mouth drifted open as her eyes returned to the spectacle once again. Unable to speak, she shook her head in slow disagreement from one side to the next.

  “Look, don’t worry about it.” Allison said as she rubbed
the small of Tina’s back. “I promise you’ll love it. Everyone is really nice.”

  In spite of Allison’s reassurances, Tina’s eyes wandered in discomfort and disbelief. What the hell was she doing here? How could she ever hope to do even a fraction of the things these people were? Her wolf, maybe but shifting wasn’t exactly an option…

  Then as she watched, a voice yelled out from behind the large fan.

  “Let’s go guys… twenty seconds!”

  Tina peered her head around the side to see if she could catch a glimpse of the source of the encouragement.

  “Ten seconds! Come on! Come on!”

  The collective effort of the exercisers reached a crescendo. Bodies bounced from one exercise to the next in a desperate attempt to do as much as possible before time expired. With half an eye on the action, Tina edged a bit closer around the side of the fan.

  “Three… two… one… and done!”

  As he barked out the final word, Tina bumped up against a small trash can and lost her balance. She crashed to the hard rubber floor beneath her with a terrific noise. As she hit the ground, she bit her lip and while she attempted to right herself, the salty, sweet taste of blood trickled within her mouth.

  “Tina!” Allison said as she rushed over to her. “You okay?”

  More embarrassed than injured, Tina felt a warm rush of shame fill her chest. As Allison helped her to her feet, she glanced around the room with the full expectation that all eyes would be riveted upon her. But instead, everyone lay flat on their backs, gasping for breath, making the summertime equivalent of snow angels on the floor with their sweat-covered bodies.

  “What happened?” Allison asked as Tina stood and brushed herself off.

  “I…” Tina began as she turned towards her. But as she did, a presence appeared at her feet. Bosco, the Dogo Argentino stopped in front of her, opened his mouth and as he’d done earlier that day, slipped his jaws and warm tongue around Tina’s hand.

  “Bosco!” a male voiced boomed from behind the fan. “Drop it.”

  As the dog released Tina, she drew her eyes up in the direction of the voice. For a moment, his face lay hidden behind the shadow cast by the fan and then, he appeared.