Forever and Always

by H. T. Night

  “Very funny.”

  “Seriously we should go down and drag race later,” I said, laughing.

  “All right, Josiah, if you don't like it, I can take it back.”

  “Listen, Kenickie, it’s awesome. I love it.” Tommy was a good guy and I was just giving him a hard time.

  “Hey, you're Kenickie, Blondie. I'm Zuko,” Tommy stated.

  “I am so more Zuko than you are.” I said, pointing out the obvious,

  “What are you talking about? Kenickie has blonde hair and Zuko has black hair.”

  “All right, you can be Zuko.” I said. I looked at both of us in the mirror and we did look good even if we looked like we were about to break out into the ‘Greased Lightning’ song

  “Thanks Tommy,” I said. “The jacket is awesome. Again, I’m sorry about hitting you in the face.”

  “It's cool. It didn't hurt.” Tommy snickered at me.

  “I'm sure it didn't.” I said, as I turned around and left the room.

  I went back to my room and relaxed until it was time for my party. Yari told me to stay away and not do anything.

  People started showing up around 9:00 pm. And by 11 o’clock our new home had become a full blown, raging, crazy-ass-vampire bash. The funny part about it was I didn’t know hardly anyone at the party. I counted seven people out of about 120 that I had met or at least seen before, one thing was for sure, they all knew who I was and wanted some alone time with me. I felt like Don Corleone in the Godfather.

  It was like everyone wanted to say the right thing to please me. To be honest, it was making me feel uncomfortable. I wasn’t good with unprovoked adoration. I wasn’t even good with provoked adoration. I was happy that everyone had accepted me and seemed to be on board with whatever was to come. It was clear that there were two sides growing. Krull had his crew and now I was slowly getting mine together. All my instincts were pointing to a shit storm of epic proportions coming very soon and I knew we all needed to be ready.

  I purposely didn't consume any alcohol because I didn’t want to be drunk when Lena showed up. Tommy, on the other hand, was throwing back shots and beers like they were Tic-Tacs.

  I was nervous in the anticipation of Lena showing up. I really wanted her to be here with me. I wanted to share this party with her. All the adoration from everyone else didn't mean a thing to me without having her by my side.

  I wanted to make a statement that we were together. That this was the person I chose to be with. I knew I could have any woman at this party. Shit, I could probably have most of the men if I swung that way. I didn’t want anyone else. I only wanted Lena. And unfortunately, it was now past midnight and there was still no sign of her.

  I went out to the front yard and looked in all directions for a red hawk. There was nothing. ‘It's my party and I’ll cry if I wanted to’ seemed to be appropriate right about now.

  I was now leaning towards drinking, and if I was planning on doing any kind of alcohol intake tonight, there was only one guy to party with, and that was Tommy.

  I went inside the house and looked for him and I couldn’t find him in the house. Eventually I found him in the backyard sitting by the pool at a table surrounded by Wyatt, Hector and Cyrus. I walked out to the backyard and made my way over to them.

  “Look guys!” Tommy yelled out. “He honors us with his presence!” Tommy was very drunk and saluted me like I was a five star general.

  “At ease soldier,” I said. “Have you been behaving around all these vampires?”

  Tommy stood up and said, “Why is it that whenever any of you Mani dick-holes talk to me, you find it necessary to always point out that I'm a werewolf?”

  “Sorry brother,” I said taking a sip of his beer. “I wasn’t aware that you didn't want me to recognize.”

  “Oh, you best recognize, homey!” Tommy said taking the beer from me and sat back down.

  “Trust me, I always do.” I said, laughing. I pulled up a chair at the table. “Are you guys having a good time?” I asked the others.

  “There’s a lot of hot Mani ass here,” Cyrus said.

  “You better not let Yari hear you talk like that,” Wyatt said to Cyrus. “She pissed her circle around you.”

  “Is that why none of these hotties are even looking at me?” Cyrus asked.

  “I wouldn't doubt it,” I said “Yari can be possessive.”

  Tommy then stood up again. “How come you guys always have to say I'm a werewolf?”

  “Didn't we already have this talk?” I said.

  “Listen, Choseniah, I wasn't finished talking.” Tommy walked over to me.

  “Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were done,” I said, as condescendingly as possible to a drunk without him realizing you were indeed being condescending.

  “I'm not your gay friend.” Tommy said to me.

  “No one said you were,” I said, surprised at the absurdity of his statement. “But, I could bust out our matching T-bird jackets and people might think differently.”

  “You know, what I'm saying. Don’t act like you don’t.” Tommy looked down at me and took another swig of his beer.

  “Actually, I have no idea what you are saying,” I said to him.

  “You know, whenever a group of friends have a gay friend they always have to bring up that he’s gay all the time. Well, I'm not gay. I’m a werewolf. Not that there is anything wrong with that. You know, being gay and all.” Then Tommy busted up laughing. “Get it, Josiah? Seinfeld.”

  “I got it, Tommy.” I said rolling my eyes.

  “Believe it or not,” Cyrus said. “I understand what he’s trying to say.”

  “Actually, so do I,” I said, laughing.

  Tommy collapsed back in his chair and said, “Hey Josiah!”

  “What buddy?” I said to Tommy.

  “Where’s Lena?”

  “That’s a good question.” Tommy must have been drunk to bring her up to me.

  “I think she didn’t show up because she’s doesn’t want to face the truth.” Tommy said.

  “What truth would that be, Tom?”

  “Hey Tommy! Shut up!” Wyatt said. Wyatt knew Tommy was about to say something very stupid. What Wyatt didn’t know was that I was intimate with Lena the night before and there was really little Tommy could say to me that would set me off.

  “Tommy, why don’t you slow it down?” Cyrus said to Tommy.

  “I’m not that drunk. I’m just having some fun.”

  “Okay, then answer my question. What truth would that be?” I asked.

  Tommy looked at me and his wheels were spinning. I knew he wanted to say something, but even as drunk as he was, he filtered it out and didn’t answer me. “Nothing, Josiah. I was just talking nonsense.”

  I looked over to the back door and Rubidoux walk out and I called him over to us.

  “Hey buddy, I said. “What’s going on? When did you show up?”

  Rubidoux shook my hand and gave me a bro hug. “I got here about a half hour ago. I heard you’re living here now.”

  “Yup, it’s a pretty nice set up.”

  “I bet,” Rubidoux said. “Hey, there was some weird guy outside looking for you.”

  “Where?”

  “Right outside.”

  “What did he look…?” I looked up at the backdoor way and Yari came walking out with the smallest cake I had ever seen. It had one lone sparkler on top. The cake was the size of a Hersey bar. “I’m sorry hold on.” I said.

  Yari walked over to where I was sitting, “All right everyone! It’s time for the cake!”

  No one was paying attention. So she walked on top of the diving board and screamed, “MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION!”

  Now everyone stopped talking and listened. There was probably half the party in the backyard.

  “This is Josiah’s 21st birthday,” Yari continued to yell. “And I got him a cake.”

  “Way to go all out on the cake, Yari!” Tommy yelled out laughing.

  “Well, considerin
g you and Josiah are the only two that can eat it, why splurge?”

  “True dat, home-girl,” Tommy sat back down.

  “All right everyone! Let’s give Josiah our Mani birthday chant!”

  Then the entire party that was in the backyard did a weird birthday chant that sounded like some kind of Mani war cry. It sure wasn’t the Happy Birthday song, but it definitely was heartfelt. I closed my eyes and wished for happiness and blew out the candle.

  “Anyway, Rubidoux, what were you saying?”

  “There is some weird guy out front that wanted to speak to you.”

  “Weird, how?”

  “Well, he’s in a costume,” Rubidoux said, laughing.

  “A costume?”

  “Yeah, and he's a little person.”

  “A little person?”

  “You know, like a dwarf.”

  “Oh shit! It's Goshi!” I yelled. “Where's he at?”

  “He's in the front yard.”

  I ran through the house and everyone followed me to the front yard. There he was! Goshi was standing in the middle of the grass He was wearing a white robe, and if this dude ever looked like Papa Smurf, it was now.

  “Goshi!” I yelled out to him.

  “Josiah,” Goshi said, with his arms extended out to me. I ran up to him and hugged him.

  “You showed up!”

  “Yes, I did. “

  “Wow, how did you get here?” I asked.

  “You’d be surprised how many people don't ask questions when you look the way I do. They tend to go out of their way to make me feel accepted.”

  I turned to the party and said, “Everyone, listen up, this here is the toughest Mani I have every trained with.”

  I heard some giggling.

  “You think I’m kidding! I am not. This is my...” I looked at Goshi and said, “We never established what you are to me.”

  Goshi said, “Guidance counselor?”

  “Huh?” I said.

  “I don't know, how about mentor?”

  “This is my mentor!” I yelled to the crowd.

  Everyone cheered in a drunken fury.

  “You want a drink?” I asked.

  “I'm sorry Josiah, this meeting isn’t of the hospitality nature.”

  “Oh, it’s not?”

  “It’s time,” he said.

  “Right now?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “You want to do my final training at this moment?”

  “Yes.”

  “Right here in the front yard?” I asked.

  “No, there's a place near here that I have been told about. We should go there.” Goshi said.

  “Where do you want to go?” I asked.

  “You all refer to it as Flatlands.”

  “You want to go to the Flatlands? You’ve heard of that place?”

  “Yes. I think that would be an appropriate place for our final training.”

  I turned and faced the party. “Listen up, everyone! I'm going to need to leave the party!”

  “Josiah, wait!” Goshi interrupted me.

  “Yeah?”

  “Let everyone come! Let's have everyone see your final training session. Let's have everyone witness you becoming all that is in you. You should share this last part of your journey with all your friends.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Hey everyone!” I yelled. “We’re moving the party to Flatlands.”

  Everyone cheered, mainly because most of them were very drunk and would have cheered anything I would have yelled out.

  Chapter Twenty

  A sea of drunken ravens and hawks made their way to the Flatlands. Hector, Wyatt, Cyrus and myself all transitioned and dug our claws into Tommy’s clothes and air lifted him to Flatlands like air cargo. Under any other circumstance, I wouldn't have allowed such a bold visual to take place over the San Bernardino Mountains, but I needed to make an exception on this one.

  Everyone had made their way up to the Flatland parking lot. We let Tommy go from a few feet up and he landed safely. Tommy looked over at me as I transitioned and said, “Talk about sobering your ass up!”

  “Did you lose your buzz?”

  “Yeah,” Tommy said. “I think I lost it for the rest of my life.”

  Soon all the Mani that were at the party had arrived. Everyone had transitioned and we all stood on one side of the Flatlands facing Goshi. Goshi made his way out to the middle of the group and said, “Meet me out here, Josiah.”

  I walked out to where he was standing. I turned and faced the Mani crowd. There was now over 150 Mani watching this take place. These were my people. This was my crew. I felt like it was graduation, but this wasn't a graduation, it was my final test and I needed to be on my game. I looked at Goshi and asked,” “So what exactly are we going to be doing?”

  “You and I are going to...” I stopped Goshi from speaking as a red hawk made her way down and landed near the back of the group. I watched as the hawk transitioned. It was Lena.

  “Hold on Goshi!” I made my way over to Lena. She seemed nervous and apprehensive.

  “Where were you?” I asked.

  “Please don't embarrass me, Josiah,” she said.

  “Are you ok?”

  “Yes, please don't let me interfere with what you guys are doing,” Lena said.

  I reached out my hand and took hers. She took my hand and warmly smiled at me. “Please Josiah, do what you need to do. You need to focus. Please go back out there.”

  I nodded my head and looked back at Goshi. He seemed particularly interested in Lena, but then turned his focus back to me.

  “Come back to me, Josiah,” Goshi announced. I turned around and walked back over to him. “Like I was saying,” Goshi said to me. “You and I are going to battle.”

  “Battle?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Goshi answered.

  “That’s it?” We’re just going to spar?”

  “Not spar. Fight.”

  “Fight?” I asked.

  “We are going to fight to the death.”

  “What?” I asked, flabbergasted.

  “You and I, Josiah, will battle one another till one of us kills the other one.”

  “You can’t be serious?”

  “I have never been more serious in my entire life.”

  “I don't want to kill you,” I said. I looked at the group of Mani and they all seemed just as shocked as I was.

  “You need to attack me and try to kill me!” Goshi said, loudly to me. “You need to separate who I am and what I mean to you. For the next few minutes, I will be your enemy and you will need to try to finish me. And whatever happens to either of us will be in the Triat's will.”

  “To either of us? Are you going to try to kill me?” I asked.

  “Yes. I will be trying to kill you, also.” With that, Goshi flew into me and kicked me in the face. I somersaulted backwards onto the hard rocks.

  Damn that fucking hurt!

  From my back, I threw my body forward and stood up. I shook off Goshi’s kick.

  Like it or not, this shit was on!

  I got into my warrior stance where I could fly, fall, go left or right in a blink of an eye. Goshi came at me again striking me in the face with a haymaker punch.

  What the hell happened about not attacking an opponent first without warning?

  He threw a rapid-fire, five-punch combination, and as he did so, I leaned back and focused on my task. I looked at Goshi and I knew what I had to do. This was where my brain goes into Goodwill Hunting mode, where everything happens in slow motion. Each punch came at me and I easily deflected his little hands off me with my arms. The last deflection I was able to catch his momentum and threw him to the ground by pulling his arm forward.

  He got up and I came at him returning an eight-punch combination of my own, with the last punch hitting him so hard he flew ten feet in the air.

  Damn, I had gotten strong!

  Goshi hurdled through the air and got control of his body before he hit the grou
nd and was able to land on his feet.

  Okay, that was a sweet recovery.

  He made a motion for me to strike him. I shook my head remembering the first rule he had taught me. If I was to attack him I had to play by his ethics. I didn’t think his ethics would be that bad, but I was considering this whole match as a test and I wanted to show that I had taken everything he said to heart.

  We circled each other and got closer and closer to each other’s space. There was a difference between striking your opponent first when you’re squared up the way we were. Your opponent has an equal chance to strike you, and I knew I was well inside the honor code for attacking him first. “Ok Goshi,” I said. “This is where I earn my stripes.”

  I swept his legs with a sweep of the leg. I tripped him up and he lost his balance. I flew up over his 3 foot body and grabbed him from behind and tackled him to the ground.

  I had my hands wrapped around his neck. His body felt strong even though he was tiny. I pressed my fingers deep into his neck and he gasped for air and dropped to his knees. I had him where I wanted him, but I didn't want to kill him. I could feel him weaken and it was breaking my heart. I wasn’t sure what it would take to kill someone so small. I really didn’t want to kill him. He was my friend. I couldn't do it and I let him go and pushed him to the ground. He slid backwards into the rocks.

  “Get up!” I said.

  “You need to kill me, Josiah,” he said, trying his best to breathe.

  “I can’t do it, Goshi. Please don’t make me.” I said, pleading with him.

  “You need to kill me, Josiah. If you don't, I promise you I will kill you first.” Then once again he flew at me and kicked me in the stomach.

  Damn, that hurt! He knocked the wind out of me. I hunched over trying to catch my breath and the little fucker grabbed me by my neck.

  Holy shit, he was strong!

  He was digging his hands deep into my Adam’s apple. I couldn’t allow this to happen. I flew up into the air while he was still choking me. We were now 30 feet up in the air and he still had his little hands around my neck trying to choke me out. I began to feel dizzy, and I needed to do something fast. I started throwing punches at him and landing them all over his face. I must have thrown 30 punches in a row, and finally, he let go of my neck. We both fell to the earth and I landed on top of him and landed on his back.