by Ava Hunt
“Yeah, I smoke and jog and sometimes I smoke while I jog.” Henson said sarcastically, trying again to make himself laugh but succeeded in making Jacinda laugh. “Oh, did you like that?”
“It’s good to see you have a sense of humor. The other day I wasn’t sure if you had one or not.” Jacinda said. “You were quite angry, at me no less; I didn’t do anything to you.”
“You’re in my way from my normal life.” Henson said, immediately irritated and angry again as all the emotions he was trying to hold back rushed to the surface, “If you’d just sign these damn papers…”
“No, Henson.” Jacinda replied sternly, “You’ve got to get healthier mentally before I sign those papers.”
“So you’re saying to get control over my supposed anger issue, huh?” Henson said in as calm of a voice as possible. “I’m calm right now. The number one thing that pisses people off is being told to stay calm when they’re already fine. On top of that don’t you think that having a normal job to do every day would be useful in returning to a more stable life?”
“Prove that you’re ready for social interaction again.” Jacinda said, leaning forward in her chair.
“And just how do I do that?” Henson asked, still keeping eye contact with her. “Isn’t not beating up the jerk at the bar a good enough show that I’m ready?”
“Not really, no. I mean, I want to say that that’s all it would take but you’ve got prove it over and over. One time isn’t going to cover it.” Jacinda said and when she did Henson felt a weight drop on his chest, feeling like it dragged down to his gut.
“How much longer is this session?” Henson said, looking up at the clock as flashbacks of running low to the ground and tackling people running for their lives from him started going through his head. He winced and lit up another cigarette. “It seems like it’s taking longer than usual. Why does time do that?”
“I’m a counselor not a theoretical physicist, Henson.” Jacinda said in a joking tone. “What do you think is making it take longer?”
The things running through my mind about you, Henson thought as he took a drag off his cigarette before he spoke out loud. He didn’t want to tell her about the running low to the ground flashback, not sure how she would take it. “I don’t know, doesn’t time seem to take forever to you sometimes?”
“Yeah, usually when I’m bored.” Jacinda replied, tilting her head to the side. “Are you bored?”
“No, I just really don’t want to be here.” Henson replied honestly. “I wanna go back out for a jog.”
“Newfound love for jogging, eh?” Jacinda asked as she sat back in her chair and looked out the window. “It is a nice day out, but I’m not into jogging.”
“The adrenaline rush was fun though.” Henson said without hesitation before he chuckled, “Plus, it’s healthy.”
“Quitting smoking would be healthier.” Jacinda suggested with a half-smile half-serious look on her face.
“Yeah, and then I could win the lotto.” Henson replied sarcastically with a grin on his face. “How much longer is this damn session? You didn’t answer last time.”
“We only have a few more minutes left. Anything you want to talk about?” Jacinda asked.
"Were you always a counselor," he asked, not sure why it popped into his mind.
"No, actually I was a nun when I was younger. I left the convent and went to finish my degree and that led me to being a counselor. I guess you could say, this is what I was meant to do." She replied, looking through the window.
"I'd have never pegged you for a nun, Ms. Liberty," Henson said as he looked at the stunning features of her. How could anyone look like that and be a nun?
"There's a lot of things people never thought they'd end up being, don't you agree Henson?" She asked, seeing him nod. “Alright, well I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Chapter Four
After his session with Jacinda, Henson decided to go try and find any more traces of the wolf shifters in the town and casually just walked around, trying to be as nonchalant about his searching as possible. He knew they could be anywhere around there and didn’t want to take the chance of scaring them off, or worse, provoking an attack. Wolf shifters never roamed alone; they were part wolf so it was completely natural for them to travel in packs.
Henson kept an eye out, casually walking around the entrance area to the city but didn’t find anything. He sighed and lit up a cigarette, even as Jacinda’s words about quitting smoking being healthier than jogging ran through his head. He sparked the cigarette up and walked out of town, looking for any more fur around the gates. He wasn’t sure if the wolf shifters were actually covering their tracks or not but hadn’t really ever known them to do that. He knew that things could get extremely dangerous if a wolf shifter was loose in town. People wouldn’t really be able to catch them since they could attack as a wolf, run off and shape shift into their human forms with nobody being the wiser.
Henson kept looking for signs of the wolf shifters even as it started to get dark. He didn’t really care too much, he was right next to the city anyway where various smells come from and to the wolves he would just appear like a normal person wandering outside the town. Just as Henson decided to head back into town he noticed the tall grass rustling in the distance by the nearby wooded area.
Henson headed over towards the sounds in the brush and made it seem as casual as possible. He walked into the woods and kept his senses heightened, keeping track of every movement in the immediate vicinity. He crept through the woods, making sure to make as little sound as possible and kept an eye on his surroundings.
“Ugh… there’s gotta be something around here.” Henson thought as he looked around. He could see some critters in the woods but nothing either small enough to have been hidden by the brush or any that were large enough to part it how it had been. “Maybe they smell me…”
Henson slowly got down on the ground, pressing his chest into the dirt and rolled around. He covered himself with dirt as he rolled and did his best to cover his scent while keeping as quiet as possible. He rolled back onto his belly and slowly pushed himself up to a crouching position. He looked around the woods, still seeing the same creatures he had seen before; some deer, some butterflies, a frog or two, but nothing that could have made the noise. A fox trotted by and Henson sighed, making more sound than he had when he had rolled in the brush.
“Damn it… a fox… a damn fox made that sound!” Henson thought angrily as he gripped his fists from pure frustration and sighed again, trying to dispel it without smoking a cigarette or drinking a beer. “I don’t need those… they just mask the shit anyway. Wait… what the?”
The breeze blew a scent of wolf to Henson’s sensitive nostrils and he glared off in the direction it had come from. He intently stared in the direction he had smelled the wolf in and its surrounding areas, trying like Hell to spot the offender through the brush.
During his time in the military he had found that looking around as fast as possible wasn’t actually the best way of finding something. Instead he stared at one spot and used his peripheral vision to spot any abnormal movement in the woods. He moved his ears to hear behind him better, intentionally not moving to look around to give something the chance to sneak up on him.
“Who the Hell are you?” A man’s voice called before Henson heard a gun cock. “I’ve got a bead on ya so don’t try anything funny.”
“There are wolves around…” Henson replied but the guy cut him off.
“I said who the Hell are you? I didn’t ask about the wildlife around!” The guy said, taking a step towards Henson. He had gotten in range of Henson’s arms at full stretch and in an instant Henson spun around, swatted the man’s gun out of his hands and just glared at him. “What the?! How’d you… how’d you move so fast?! You’re… you’re a shifter!”
“I only mean harm to those who mean harm to others. I don’t want to hurt you, but I will.” Henson said, not blinking a single time as he yelled at the ma
n. He kept his ears as far back on his head as possible, listening to behind him as best as he could. “What makes you approach people in the woods with a gun aimed at them?”
“Trespassers; this is my land, my woods.” The guy replied arrogantly, but got Henson’s attention.
His woods? Before Henson could even respond he heard something running up from behind him. As he spun around the man punched him in the back of his head. Henson winced but that was about it. He saw a wolf charging towards him and his shifting took over. Henson backhanded the wolf back as hair began growing out of his skin at extraordinary rates. He screamed in pain as his body began to shape shift and mold into that of a bear. As Henson shifted, the man that had punched him tried slashing him with a sword. Henson stomped his foot backwards and caught the man in his chest, flinging him backwards. A wolf bit into Henson’s back as he shape shifted and he roared in pain, violently swatting backwards trying to knock the wolf off of him.
As Henson swatted at the wolf it just spun its body to the side, evading his attack while tearing at his flesh at the same time. Another wolf jumped up and bit Henson in his left shoulder, stealing his attention. Henson grabbed the wolf, puncturing its skin with his long bear claws and yanked it off of him, taking a chunk of his skin along with it. The wolf spun through the air and landed with a thud but was charging back at Henson as soon as it could. Henson kicked back and stomped the wolf off of his back and swatted the wolf charging at him from his front. It yelped when Henson hit it but the growls of other wolves now surrounding him caught Henson’s attention. He glanced around and tried to guess how many wolves were around him, guessing there was about six or seven but they were moving in a circle to make it difficult to count.
Two wolves darted in and nipped at Henson’s back legs, making him spin around to swat at them but in doing so he opened up his side to other wolves to attack. Henson roared loudly as wolf fangs bit deep into his side and rage began to take over. He stabbed his claws into the wolves side and yanked it out of him, roaring as he did. Henson spun around and clawed a wolf right out of the air as it jumped at him. Two wolves jumped on his back and started thrashing their heads back and forth trying to tear chunks out of Henson. He roared in pain and rage and reached back. He could grab one by the scruff of its neck so he did and yanked it off of him before he slammed it down so hard on the ground that it bounced. Henson stomped on the wolf just as it was about to land on the ground again and killed it instantly, shoving his clawed foot through it with ease. Henson roared as he turned around, taking his foot out of the wolves corpse and readied to get attacked.
He hurt all over, his legs, his arms, his sides, his back and all he wanted to do then was kill them all. He had to in order to both survive and protect the nearby citizens. He knew if these wolf shifters got into the town the casualty rate would skyrocket. All five wolves charged after him at once and Henson had a split-second to make a decision. He clawed into one of the wolves as he spun, slamming it into another as it yelped loudly in pain. Henson threw both of the wolves away, knowing one of them was dead and felt another wolf bounce off him just before a third wolf latched hold of his shoulder. Henson roared and stuck the wolf with his claws as he grabbed hold of it, quickly flinging it into the two remaining wolf shifters charging after him. He only managed to hit one but his rage and adrenaline had him ready for the wolf he missed. In one swipe Henson slashed its throat and knocked it to the ground before he glared over at the last wolf shifter. It was already quickly scurrying off through the brush off to lick its wounds.
Henson knew he needed to find them but he was too wounded to chase after them. He healed faster than normal but not at a super-fast rate and knew if he shifted back to his Human form he wouldn’t heal as fast. Not only that but he also knew that the shifting process would push blood out of the still open wounds; he had to at least heal some but was hardly Phillips to stay standing. He knew it would take him too long to heal up to make his next session with Jacinda and growled uncontrollably. His frustration started to boil as he realized he could kiss his normal life away. He looked around in the woods for somewhere to hide as he stumbled about forcing himself to stay conscious.
He found a cabin deep in the woods and broke in, unable to follow his basic moral code in his time of need. It was luckily abandoned, or had been being used by the wolf shifters; either way it was empty at the time and Henson wasn’t going to give the place up to anyone. As he licked his wounds he realized that some were worse than he thought and that he wasn’t going to be able to make it to a session with Jacinda for days. He roared with rage but all that did was allow flashbacks to poured in like reality and made him forget where he was for a moment. He began thrashing about in the cabin, smashing everything around him as he believed he was back at war. To Henson he was still in the fields fighting against faceless enemies. They were countless in numbers it seemed but he just kept fighting. He fought until he was exhausted and then everything went black.
Chapter Five
The next day when it came time for Henson’s session with Jacinda, he didn't show up. Jacinda wondered if Henson had just given up on going after his new life, knowing how he saw going to talk to her as the one obstacle in his way. She knew that he believed he didn’t need the help, but she also knew that most everyone who needs it doesn’t realize it. She pulled out his release forms and read them over, reading his background to find possible AWOLs he may have gone on. She wanted to know if it was typical of him to go missing at times so she knew if she should be worried about him missing their appointment.
What she found scared her and made her wish she hadn’t read it. Henson was very punctual and had rarely missed a scheduled event, but it was why he had missed those events that scared her. The two sessions he had missed early on with military psychiatrists posing as fellow soldiers was because he had been captured. She found that, without some major reason, Henson wouldn’t miss appointments; it was just a thing about him.
“Stacy, would you come in here please?” Jacinda asked, calling for her attendant as she thought about sending her out to look for Henson.
“Yes ma’am?” Stacy replied as she walked into Jacinda’s office.
“Could you send for the guards for me? I need to speak to them.” Jacinda replied without looking up from Henson’s records.
“Yes ma’am.” Stacy said before quickly heading off to contact the guards.
Where are you? Jacinda wondered as she reread Henson’s history.
“Uh, Ms. Liberty? You sent for us?” A guard asked as he walked into the room, “Everything all right ma’am?”
“No, a client of mine has missed his appointment and I have reason to think something is wrong. His reports say that he doesn’t miss appointments; he’s made every scheduled appointment except for two and both of those two where missed for reasons he had no control over.” Jacinda said without delving into Henson’s personal history. “His name is Henson Phillips and what I need for you to do is to look for him.”
“We’ll make a house call and will put the word out to look for him amongst the rest of the guards.” He replied before walking off.
“Stacy, how many other appointments do I have lined up for today?” Jacinda asked.
“You have several, why?” Stacy replied. Jacinda sighed, wanting to go out and find Henson herself but figured she would wait until the guards got back and tell her if he was just at home.
“I might take the rest of the day off.” Jacinda replied, sitting back in her seat as she contemplated putting off the appointments to go after Henson, “I’ll have to push all appointments back until tomorrow.”
Jacinda loudly exhaled and pulled up Henson’s records before flipping back to a portion dedicated to Henson’s military past. She started reading but couldn’t see most of his records since they were blacked out. She was frustrated by the lack of information on her patient and thought about contacting his military counselor to ask just why she didn’t get that information. What she could gath
er from what information that was there Henson was a part of some group within the military, but it didn’t explicitly state whether or not it was sanctioned. It made her wonder just what Henson had done in his time in the military.
“Ma’am?” A male voice called. She quickly recognized it as the guard she had sent to check on Henson and looked up, it was. “Ma’am, he wasn’t home, but we have guards keeping an eye out for him all over the city.”
“Thank you.” Jacinda said with a nod of her head before she looked back down at Henson’s file and kept reading as the guard left.
“Stacy, start sending patients home for the day and push my appointments back until tomorrow please.” Jacinda said as she put Henson’s file away and got up. “I’m going out, close the office up when you leave, okay? Thanks Stacy.”
Jacinda walked out of her office despite the confused looks coming at her from clients. She walked out into the streets and headed for the guard post. She wanted to know if anything unusual happened the night before. As she walked in the guard she had spoken to at her office was there speaking with the lobby officer sitting behind their desk.
