The Skinwalker's Tale

by Christopher Carrolli

  “I can’t believe this,” he said, turning his head to the others. “This would make a really great joke right now, but I’m speechless.”

  “A most welcome first, Sidney,” Susan said, causing a break in the tension that spawned a gaggle of nervous giggling.

  “You changed into a hawk?” Dylan’s question begged for clarity. His tone projected astonishment.

  Brett described the other shapes he’d experienced: the hawk, the dog, and even the snake.

  “Most recently, I’ve been changing into a wolf.”

  Brett watched as Dylan’s reaction had been quick. Something he’d said had sparked something in Dylan’s mind.

  Then, Leah let out another gasp of surprise, a sudden, but late realization.

  “That explains the vision I had,” she said. “Back when Sidney had voiced concern about how quickly you found Tahoe, I decided to ask Tahoe about it. Strangely, he avoided the subject, which was unlike him. After he left my house, I had a vision of a hawk with a huge wingspan. I couldn’t figure out what it meant.”

  Then, Leah came to yet another conclusion.

  “So, Tahoe knew?” she said.

  Brett nodded and felt the surprise in the room turn electric.

  “Tahoe has known from the beginning,” he said. “He saw right through me, literally. When he arrived at my apartment, he confronted me. He insisted that I tell you all. He said that you all needed to know. Now, it turns out that he was right.”

  “Why didn’t he say something?” Leah said.

  “I’d asked him not to,” he said. “I didn’t want anything to interrupt our investigation of Cedar Manor. I knew how important it was to you. It wasn’t the right time.”

  “You didn’t have to do that,” Leah said, her eyes sympathetic to his.

  “I had to,” he said. “I wasn’t ready. I needed more time.”

  “So, why now?” Susan said. “Is it because of Uncle Jack, or is there more?”

  “There’s a lot more,” he said. “Over the past year, this thing has become a bigger part of my life than I could’ve ever imagined.”

  Brett went on to describe how the shifting had amounted to sporadic occasions throughout his life, and how over the past year, the urges and the building emotions that preceded it were more intense, more pronounced than they’d ever been. At his current age, he was becoming unable to avoid it. The change would occur in an instant, and the animal would roam or fly free through a world that would declare Brett Taylor as missing.

  “But there’s something I’ve noticed as of late,” he said. “When I’d searched for Tahoe, I brought on the shifting, or the change, at will. That only happened once when I revealed myself to Uncle Jack and Aunt Viv. From that time, it always occurred on its own. Now, not only have I initiated it, but I can’t stop it either. That’s why I left the gathering at your house.”

  He explained to them that the raging emotions had surged through him all evening. The shock of Cedar Manor, his secret nearly being unveiled by a demon, and the mind-numbing incident that killed Cory Chase, all had combined to position him on the edge of release.

  “It was overwhelming,” he said. “I had to leave. After I left, I roamed through the woods as a wolf.”

  “Now I get it,” Sidney said. “Shifter! The demon was referring to you that night. I’d asked the demon who it saw in the room, which was stupid now that I think about it. It saw all of us.”

  Their unwavering stares prompted Brett to continue.

  “I stayed silent because that night had not been about me,” he said. “And like I said, I wasn’t ready. I’d just tested the extent of my ability when I searched for Tahoe.”

  “Okay, so let me get this straight,” Sidney said. “You said you can change into a wolf. So, are you a werewolf?”

  The others jeered Sidney with scowls of reprimand, yet Brett laughed, having considered the same question himself.

  “No, Sid, I’m not a werewolf. When I shift, I become the animal. It’s like my soul is still there, like it’s a part of the animal, but my physical being is no more. I assume the identity of the shape when I change.”

  “That’s interesting, Brett,” Susan said. “In my parapsychology studies, we examined the shape-shifter from various aspects. The Native Americans gave rise to the theory of the skinwalker. The theory being that some humans are able to possess the body of an animal and therefore, assume its shape.

  “And you’re right,” she continued. “As a result, there is a distinct difference between a shifter and a ‘were.’ ‘Were’ means ‘man.’ And in the case of a werewolf, it means half-man, half-wolf.”

  “Which I’m not,” Brett said.

  “I’ll bet there’s a great deal that Tahoe may be able to shed light on, as far as the skinwalker legend is concerned,” Susan said. “We should call him in Arizona.”

  “Tahoe is on his way, here,” he said.

  “What?” Surprise accompanied the word that was uttered more than once.

  “Yeah, he called me and left a voicemail,” he said. “Something’s up, and he knows whatever it is. He’s taken a flight and arriving tonight.”

  “Wait a minute,” Dylan said, wagging his finger and switching the subject from Tahoe. “Last night at Larson’s Farm, right after the fireworks, some people heard a wolf howling in the distance. It was on the news this morning. Larson’s Farm isn’t far from—”

  “Uncle Jack’s farm,” Brett said. “Yes, it happened last night. I ran in the night and watched the fireworks through wolf eyes. It was amazing.”

  Brett’s voice sounded of slight euphoria.

  “This is getting stranger by the minute,” Leah said.

  “Which brings me to what I have to tell you,” Sidney said to Brett. “Your Aunt Viv spoke to me today.”

  Brett’s eyes grew wide. Aunt Viv had spoken to Sidney before, when Brett first met him. It was how Sidney had demonstrated his clairaudience to him and Dylan. He felt his heart sink down to his stomach, feeling almost certain that Aunt Viv had issued some ominous message for him.

  “What did she say?” His heart was pounding again.

  “Nothing,” Sidney said, “outside of ‘shifter.’” Sidney described the sudden deafness, and then Vivian’s voice repeating the word that the demon had used. “That’s when I deduced that the demon that night could’ve been referring to you, but I wasn’t sure why.”

  Brett must have given his next thought away. He didn’t need to ask; Sidney understood from his expectant stare.

  “She didn’t say anything about Uncle Jack,” Sidney said, “only that one word.”

  Brett looked away, and then Susan spoke.

  “Something here is not right, Brett,” she said. “Sidney is hearing your Aunt Vivian, and Tahoe is on a spontaneous flight from Arizona, leaving you voicemails that sound like warnings. Need I remind you how dangerous your wild excursion last night could’ve been? What if the rest of the world had exposed your little secret?

  “I have a feeling that you’re timing in telling us couldn’t have been more crucial. I think we need to stay with you until Tahoe arrives, and then see what this is all about. Jack wants to see us, as you said. We all need to be there, so we’ll stay there and wait for word from Tahoe. We will help you, Brett. We’re you’re family now.”

  “That’s right,” Sidney said. “I’m sure you already know that. As the saying goes, ‘all for one, and one for all.’”

  He wrapped his arm around Brett’s shoulder and squeezed.

  “Really?” Brett turned and looked Sidney in the eyes. “Are you ready to watch me shift, Sidney?”

  He turned and faced the rest of them.

  “Are you all ready to watch me shift?”

  They stared back at him with stupefied expressions.

  Chapter Five

  Jack Taylor’s farm was situated upon a vast forty acres of land that spanned beneath a backdrop of rolling rural hills. It housed the two-story, red-brick farmhouse with black shutters, w
here atop of, a rectangular smokestack puffed thick clouds of roasting hickory through the air every autumn. The absence of that invigorating woodland scent this time of year often caused Brett to regret the fact that it was summer. He looked out across the land that was about to become his: the adjacent barn that no longer housed the menagerie it once had, a connecting structure that once served as a stable, and the huge silo that towered seemingly up to the sky.

  The team stood behind, absorbing the sight along with him. They’d all driven from the university, and now the endless green of the countryside stretched out before them. Endless plumes of fresh air fanned across the green, bathing them all in nature’s sweet kisses.

  “Don’t you just love the countryside?” Susan breathed deeply and then sighed.

  “It is beautiful,” Leah said.

  “It must have been awesome growing up, here,” Sidney said to Brett, as they walked.

  “Yeah, pretty much.”

  “Brett, you should be very proud of how Jack and Vivian sustained this land all of these years.” Susan’s eye roamed across the forty acres, marveling at the scenery.

  “I am, always,” he said. “It would’ve been nice if they could’ve kept it going as a producing farm, but Uncle Jack wanted to retire of all this, especially after Aunt Viv died.”

  “I take it that hill leads up into the woods behind Larson’s Farm, right?”

  Dylan’s comment was playful, but the ensuing laughter that it generated from him and Brett was of the nervous kind.

  “It is,” he said. “And I’ve asked you all to walk with me this far for a reason. This place is remote, secluded. No one sees anything out here. Uncle Jack is asleep right now. The nurse is inside.”

  He looked at them and felt the nerves of his face twitching.

  “I’m now ready to show you all what I’ve been hiding for so many years.”

  He felt sure that they could see the tension building inside of him not only from the twitching, but a jitteriness that had caused the slight shaking of his hands.

  “You’re going to shift for us,” Leah said, stepping toward him. “Right here, right now?”

  They all looked at each other as if this was the moment that would confirm whether Brett was serious or bonkers. He turned around and away from them, facing out toward the rolling hills. And then, he turned back to them. He’d forgotten one little detail but was instantly reminded the moment Leah had stepped forward.

  “There’s more. I forgot one little thing,” he said, nervously searching their faces.

  “More?” Sidney asked. “Good God, what more could there be?”

  “Just for a moment,” Brett said. “You both are going to have to turn around.”

  His eyes motioned to Leah and Susan, and both ladies quickly noticed. Their eyes met each other’s and then refocused on Brett.

  “Why?” Leah said, squinting in confusion.

  Brett could feel the heat of embarrassment burning his face a bright red. He sighed.

  “Because my clothes...they don’t exactly shift with me.”

  He lowered his eyes. The brief silence that ensued was abruptly broken by the sound of Sidney’s laughter that reached a crescendo. Leah made a swan-dive motion with her head so that her eyes searched and met Brett’s with a serious focus.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me?” she said.

  Brett turned away from them again, his fingers fastened in the front of his jeans.

  “I’m not kidding, Leah,” he said. “Unfortunately, my ability comes with a strip show.”

  “So, you think that after everything I’ve seen in my life, I’ll be put off by a pair of scrawny ass cheeks?” Leah’s voice remained staunch, feministic, and ready for an open debate.

  “Come on,” Brett whined, turning back around. “It’ll only be for a second.” He sighed again. “It’s not much of a problem when I shift into the hawk, but I don’t feel myself going that way right now.”

  “I don’t believe this.” Leah scoffed, her eyes rolling upward.

  Susan, whose reaction differed from Leah’s, held her index finger across her lips to camouflage a cracking grin. She closed her eyes lightly.

  “Leah, be it far from us to dispel Mr. Taylor’s modesty,” she said, reaching her arm around Leah’s shoulder.

  The two females turned around, the younger of whom, locked her arms crossways in a jilted stance. As their backs were turned, Brett whipped his shirt off, unfastened his jeans, and let them fall to the ground. He felt his nakedness in the form of the light summer breeze that caressed his bare skin with a chill, yet it only lasted seconds as the shifting overcame him.

  The heat surged him with a flash. He felt his body morph into a familiar shape, and like always, it felt like his physical body was being squashed, distorted, and then fitted into the shape that took over. And then, he was the shape, as though he always had been. He’d shifted into a shape that stood on four legs, but this time, it was not the wolf.

  * * * *

  The gasps of the two men caused Susan and Leah to turn around and face the sight.

  “Dear God!” Dylan exclaimed.

  “Ho-l-y shit...” Sidney had drawn out the word “holy,” making it sound like “wholly.”

  Susan couldn’t believe her eyes. She heard Leah heave with shock, standing next to her. A beautiful brown Labrador sat in front of them. The sheen of its silken fur glimmered in the sunshine as its tail wagged, and its muzzle motioned upward at them several times. They watched as it licked its snout and sniffed the ground in front of them.

  “Where’s Brett?” The fearful sound of Leah’s voice told Susan that the young seer had not seen everything she’d thought she had.

  “I think we’re looking at him, Dear,” Susan said.

  “Shifter...” Sidney repeated the word again, the strange admonition that had been uttered by both Vivian, and the demon in Cedar Manor. The dog looked at Sidney when he said the word. Its head turned slightly as if to question what it heard.

  Then, Dylan moved a few steps toward the dog.

  “Brett,” he said, cautiously.

  The dog stepped backwards, away from him, resistant to any attempted touch.

  “Brett,” Susan called to the dog. “I wonder if he can hear us.”

  The dog backed away again, turned slowly, and ran through the vast acres, out of sight. Susan was mystified. She’d heard and studied these things but never knew them to be true. Now, here before her was one of her own, afflicted.

  Surely, it had to be an affliction, some kind of recessive gene dating back to a prehistoric age when such a thing could’ve been prevalent to some extent; or could it have been a curse of some kind? She felt both sides of her brain battling for logic.

  Tahoe...this is the reason he’s on his way here. He sees something.

  Susan was sure of it, as sure as she was that she’d just seen a dog run away from them. She, like the rest of the team, hadn’t moved; the ripples of shock had rendered them all immovably stunned into place. She was the first to break the stillness with the soft sound of her footsteps moving through the grass. She looked out over the vast acres from the other side of the house. Neither the dog, nor Brett, were anywhere in sight.

  “Okay, the first thing we need to do is rid ourselves of the shock,” she said, turning back toward them. “We’ve got to help Brett. I don’t think he understands just how much.”

  She stepped closer to face the three remaining investigators.

  “Tahoe is on his way here for a reason.” Her voice was pleading. “Brett is so wrapped up in this that I’m afraid he’s not thinking clearly.”

  “No,” Sidney said. “Obviously, he hasn’t been for some time.”

  “I’m almost positive that Tahoe sees something that is going to happen to Brett. We may not have time to wait. Leah, is there anything you see, anything at all?”

  Leah shrugged.

  “I must admit,” she said. “I hadn’t paid much attention to Brett’s strange beh
avior for the obvious reasons. I had seen the vision of a hawk, but I haven’t seen anything similar since then.”

  Leah walked a few steps through the yard, looked up at the sky, and then down. She closed her eyes. After seconds of silence, she shook her head.

  “No,” she said, “at least, not right at this moment.”

  “I can’t believe this,” Dylan said. “After all of the years that I’ve known him, I noticed nothing until recently.”

  “And we certainly didn’t suspect this,” Leah said.

  “But you all must understand,” Susan said. “Brett is still Brett. He’s still the person we’ve known and loved all these years. From what I know, a shape-shifter can only temporarily change its form, not its soul.” She pointed to the house. “In that house is a man that’s about to die. We are about to become all that Brett has.”

  Susan reiterated a fact that they knew all too well, stressing the magnitude of that reality.

  “We’re going to have to learn everything we can to help him,” she said. “We’ll begin by hearing what Jack has to tell, and then we’ll wait for Tahoe’s arrival.”

  After more discussion on the matter, Susan and the three investigators turned their attentions toward the sound of an approaching gait that ran through the yard.

  It was the dog.

  The brown Labrador slowed its pace and approached Brett’s discarded clothing. It sniffed the garments with its hind end facing them. They watched as the dog’s form altered, elongated, and stretched out in the open grass. It quickly morphed and changed into that of a man, a sprawling, naked man they knew as Brett Taylor.

  “How long has he been gone?” Susan asked.

  “It’s been about fifteen minutes,” Dylan said, checking his watch.

  They looked on as Brett scrambled for his jeans and quickly jumped into them, but not before Sidney acknowledged the sight of Brett’s naked behind with a famous whistle.

  “Whoot-woo!”

  “Sidney, really!” Susan scolded.

  Brett pulled his shirt down over his torso and turned to them.

  “Yeah, funny, Sid,” he said. “There—that’s my secret. Now, you all know.”