by K. R. Smith
“How are you feeling, B?” Grandfather asked.
“Fine.”
“Do you remember what happened last night?” Dad asked.
I tried to joke, “either I went to one hell of a party,” I inferred my missing clothes and dirty skin. “Or I turned into a Werewolf last night.”
“Can you remember what happened to the window?” Grandfather asked next.
I vividly recalled Mum’s look of horror on me, her daughter, changing into a monster, yes. I remember that I felt so sickened at frightening my mother that way that I had to run away from her. Since she was in the bedroom doorway, the window seemed the only other option. My eyes watered as I felt everybody’s unhappy expressions which seemed to look on with disappointment.
Do they always look like this when a new Werewolf is created? Or is it just me that’s earned this? Are they really angry with the way I behaved last night?
“Mum looked at me like I was a monster… the same way you’re all looking at me now. I couldn’t bear her disgust, so I jumped out the window.” My voice wavered.
“You’re not a monster B.” Dad said sadly as he put his hand on my shoulder. “But you are the very first female Lokoti Werewolf in the history of the tribe.”
“And you’re a Circulator.” Grandfather frowned. “Last night you ran away from us in the speed of light.”
I did?
“It’s going to make it harder for us to help you control the bloodlust because we can’t contain you.” Grandpa said gravely.
I looked back in surprise at them before I echoed, “I ran at the speed of light?”
“You did.” Grandfather verified. “I’ve only seen your mother and your grandmother, other Circulators, move that fast.”
This was news to me! So last night I didn’t just change into a Lokoti Werewolf, but finally my abilities as a Circulator were also kick-started! No wonder I was able to outrun them last night.
“It’s why we had to lock you in the bathroom.” Dad said seriously. “If we can’t catch you, we can’t stop you.”
“Stop me?” I gave him a funny look. “Stop me from what?”
“Bianca, you were running right for Alma.” He said gravely. “You were hunting human. You would have attacked the town folk, if Declan hadn’t of caught up to you.”
This hit me like a physical slap in the face; I was hunting HUMAN? That was the delicious smell last night? I nearly killed a townsperson? Declan was the only one who was able to stop me?
I nearly killed last night… I nearly became a murderer… I nearly cannibalized a human being stop the horrible pain!
*Eat!* My stomach hurt so bad, I whimpered as I bent over in pain. *FEAST! FEED! RED MEAT! FRESH MEAT! HUMAN MEAT!*
Like a blow to the stomach, my legs suddenly gave away and I landed on my arse on the floor. I felt all the blood drain from my face as I stared at my broken window in horror. Mum was right to be afraid… because I’m a killer.
Dad knelt on the floor beside as he tried to put his arms about my shoulders, but I pushed him away.
No wonder they all hate me… I’m dangerous! I felt worse than horror, I felt worse than terror, I even felt worse than wretchedness or guilt. I felt like the Judge and Jury in a high-profile murder case, listening to the sins of the convicted. I was surrounded by evidence that I was now a murderer! And like any murder trial, which I now found myself in… it was time to accept my charges. It was time for my punishment and since bars probably wouldn’t hold me for long, it was time to consider capital punishment.
When I thought Declan was going to eat me last night, I realized it was because I was thinking that I deserved it. The bloodlust… it hurt me, tormented me, made me lose my self control. If it wasn’t for Declan’s actions last night, I could be very well covered in blood as well as dirt.
I’m a killer… I’m a stone-cold killer… I’m even an abomination to the other Lokoti Werewolves!
“Dad!” I grabbed his arm as I looked at him fearfully. “You’ve still got that hunting rifle, haven’t you?” He looked on, askance. “You have to shoot me in the head!” I cried out. “I nearly killed a person last night! The voice and the pain and the hunger… it nearly made me do it! I very nearly did it!”
My father’s eyes watered as he looked on worriedly. “We know about the hunger B, and the cold voice that comes from it. It’s called the bloodlust. We can teach you to control it -”
“No! No!” I shook my head as I dug my fingers into his arm. “You don’t understand - you don’t know how powerful it is!”
Grandpa knelt down besid as he looked rueful, “we know exactly how powerful it is, Bianca Grace Wisetail. And we’re going to teach you how to control it and in battle, to use it when you fight for your people and your land.”
Maddeningly, I shook my head. They don’t get it! They don’t see my point at all. I’m more dangerous than them!
“But how can you teach me self control when you can’t control me and I can’t control IT?!” I yelled.
“Bianca Grace!” Grandfather growled fiercely, as his blue eyes flashed brighter in anger. He walked over and knelt by my other side and he cupped my face to force me to look at him. He growled fiercely, “you will NEVER talk that way again! You are now the fifteenth member of our pack. You are one of us! What happens to you affects us all. We felt you change last night. We feel your fear now. We CAN help you and we will! And one of the ways you can start learning to control what’s happening to you is to stop fearing IT and yourself!”
Uncle Julian came over to crouch beside his father. “We’re all in this together, B.” He put his hand on my leg. “The Lokoti Werewolves are more than animal. We’re more than human. We are one, it’s how we stay strong.”
“Welcome little wolf.” Grandpa smiled sadly as he reached out and stroked my dirty, matted hair.
No! I don’t want this, I don’t! The immense power and the freedom that I felt last night as I ran through the woods in the speed of light, using my Werewolf reflexes to weave between the trees? The exhilaration which rushed through me because of it, no longer seemed worth it.
“I don’t want this!” I turned to Dad. “Activate someone else! I don’t want this! You were at Uncle Ian’s house last night, I thought Leaf was going to turn, not me!”
“We can’t control whose genes are activated and whose are not.” My father said tearfully. “The spirit of the Lokoti Wolf that’s combined with the spirit of Aru, the tribe’s first Lokoti Werewolf, are the ones who pick the warriors to make up the pack, just as they did in the beginning.”
“But it wasn’t much of a choice then.” I remembered the story of old. “Aru picked the remaining fourteen warriors who were still alive. There are way better choices than me.”
“Maybe and maybe not.” Grandpa disagreed as he exchanged a look with Grandfather. “Em told me that the Circulate once had a rule that no other Circulators were meant to be born after 1985. But your Great Great Gran, Elisha broke this rule when she gave birth to your Great Gran, Alexandrina, another Circulator. Alexandrina had your Gran Arabella, another Circulator and your Gran had your mother, Jessica yet another Circulator. Now Jess and Arabella tell us that you will be the last Circulator in human history. Perhaps this is the reason why the Lokoti Wolf picked you to become the first female Lokoti Werewolf.”
Grandfather nodded back and then he, Uncle Julian and Dad looked on with grave expressions.
“B? B!!” Mum’s frantic cry interrupted us, as suddenly she came rushing into my room with Gran right behind her. Both women also crouched down beside with Mum almost knocking Dad out of the way as Grandfather considerately moved aside for his mate. Mum pulled me into her arms and squeezed tightly in relief.
“Mum!” I cried in her arms. “I’m a monster, Mum! I’m a monster!”
“No you’re not sweetie,” she instantly disagreed, as she released me to look on with motherly love. “You’re not a monster, you’re a Circulator. Now you’re a Werewolf too? Some adjus
tments have to be made, that’s all.”
“Adjustments?” I raised my eyebrows.
“Let’s find out first what we’re dealing with here.” Gran said firmly as she looked from me to Mum. “Let’s take B to Circulate HQ and get her checked out by Vincent.”
“Good idea.” My mother nodded enthusiastically.
She and Gran instantly acted upon their idea as they stood up and then they too pulled me up from the floor.
“We’ll come with you.” Grandfather said.
“OK.” Gran gave a nod. “Gentlemen?”
The Lokoti Werewolves were well used to Gran and Mum’s mode of travel as Circulators. They had the ability to instantaneously phase to anywhere and anytime of their choosing. As Gran and Mum placed their hands on my shoulders; Dad, Grandfather, Grandpa and Uncle Julian placed their hands on theirs.
In a bright flash of light, all seven of us disappeared from my bedroom in Alaska to find ourselves standing instead, in the Medical Lab of the ultra-futuristic Circulate HQ.
We were inside the habitation dome on the green surface of Mars. The HQ was constructed using 25th Century technology, ironically 250,000 years in the past when the planet still had vegetation. This little hypocrisy, were one of the many that these time travelers could revel in.
Usually I loved to travel by phasing or instantaneously phasing with Mum or Gran. I loved the feeling of having my biological body turned into light as even my very molecules were altered. I liked the rush of warmth and the tingling sensation. I loved the momentary floating feeling of being free from such constraints as gravity or even the laws of physics.
Just as much as I enjoyed traveling like this, I also enjoyed my visits to Circulate HQ. I liked to marvel at the technology of the future integrated with the smooth lines of the uber-modern lay out of the base. Aside from the black floors, glass was everywhere as it was used for doors and of course, the dome that the HQ was inside, allowing as much natural light to come through. Even the computers here were glass-like with specialized crystal chips which had computer programs etched into them that were accessed by concentrated beams of light.
Once upon a time the Circulate was made up 696 people, with two thirds of its members being Calculators and one third were Circulators. This figure increased when Elisha Worthall began a female lineage joining the ranks. What was truly marvelous about this, was the fact that the ability to circulate or even to calculate was not an ability which can be passed down genetically.
‘Mother Nature’, ‘fate’, ‘destiny’ or whatever you wanted to call it, decided on which minority of humans on planet Earth could turn their biological bodies into ones made of light to pass through time. Spread across all cultures and races, Circulators and Calculators were born different. This was supposed to ensure that the Circulate remained an elusive and highly exclusive club. Did this stop Elisha who bore Circulators and even changed a man into a Circulator? Nope! With her ongoing light, she continued to rewrite the history books as she recreated the future.
With the onset of World War Three, the Circulate departed Earth as they evolved from their human existence to one of an eternal nature inside of the space time continuum. As their parting gift to mankind, they were able to dissipate over a quarter of the nuclear blast which protected their remaining human families from fall out.
Our Calculator Vincent Moher, preferred to spend the most of his time here alone, as he and the Circulate Mainframe monitored the timeline of human history. With Vincent as the only Calculator left, he had the task of watching over the last three Circulators in Gran, Mum and me.
Vincent Moher was named after his forefather Vincent Worthall whom Elisha became romantically involved with. In an alternate timeline, Elisha married and procreated with the World War Two Spitfire pilot. However Elisha decided not to follow that timeline and she instead married Jarrod Worthall, a Med student she met at Cambridge who was Vincent Worthall’s Grand Nephew. Elisha was such a strong force in the timeline with her bio-electromagnetic frequency being in temporal flux; her progeny to Vincent Worthall didn’t cease. They continued to exist apart from the timeline, almost in temporal flux themselves. The good thing about this was that Gran, Mum and I have a Calculator now in our distant cousin.
Within a minute of our arrival, Vincent who must have foreseen this next walked through the automatic doors of the Lab to greet us.
“Arabella and Jess? I need to talk to you…” he began but he pulled up the moment he saw my disheveled appearance, “…good god B, what happened to you?”
The male Werewolves glared dangerously upon our blonde haired, blue eyed English cousin.
“What’s the wrong Vincent, can’t you ‘see’ what happened to B?” Dad growled out.
“Funny you should say that, Hunter.” Vincent growled back. “But no I can’t. That’s what I need to talk to Arabella and Jess about.”
“Well what a stroke of luck, coz we came here to talk to you about B.” Mum sung sarcastically.
Vincent became aware that all seven unhappy faces were aimed his way.
“What did I do?” He asked, taken aback.
“What didn’t you do more like!” Dad fired up. “You call yourself these girls Calculator? Why didn’t you see this happening to B?!”
“And if you did see it, why didn’t you tell us?” Gran asked in a low voice.
“Hold up a minute people.” He held up his hands. “Before we all tie the Calculator to a stake and burn him for either Witchcraft or Heresy, how about I hear the charges first?”
“B’s a Werewolf!” Mum cried out.
Silence… Vincent blinked and then he blinked again as he looked on in disbelief.
“You’re a Werewolf?” He looked my way.
“She’s the first female Lokoti Werewolf in the history of the Lokoti tribe.” Grandfather advised.
“You’re a Lokoti Werewolf?” Vincent wanted to clarify as he stared in my direction. “So you weren’t bitten and changed that way?”
“One of the pack died and B’s Lokoti Werewolf genes were activated last night, the first night of the full moon.” Uncle Julian put his hands on his hips.
“I thought you understood from the SSIT notes on Lokoti Werewolves that our bite or blood can’t turn a human into one of us.” Grandpa’s eyes narrowed.
“I do remember that fact thank you, Fern.” Vincent said in annoyance. “But I also remember that females can’t change into one of you and that only the males in the tribe can.”
“Well don’t just stand there, examine her!” Dad demanded.
“Then if you lot get out of the way, maybe I will!” He snapped back.
The male Lokoti Werewolves all stepped aside from standing protectively around. This enabled Vincent to lead me over to the bench underneath the main scanner to begin his examination. I sat up on the bench and just before I laid down, he handed me a papery smock to wear. Then he helped me to lie in position underneath the scanner.
Vincent gave a curious look before he observed, “B you’re taller, plus you’re more bulky. I think your height and your weight have changed.”
“Has it?” I raised my head in surprise.
My Calculator pushed my head back down then he walked over to the control panel and activated the machine. It hummed to life as a green light ran over my body from head to toe, as the technology collected its readings of my physical changes.
“B, when you changed into a Werewolf last night, did anything else strange happen?” He inquired.
“She ran away in the speed of light.” Grandpa told him.
“That explains her higher bio-electromagnetic frequency.” Vincent thought out loud. “It appears when your Werewolf genes were activated, it also triggered your Circulator’s ability to phase.”
Gran and Grandfather stood together, holding hands as they looked on; Mum and Dad stood together holding hands as they looked on; Uncle Julian and Grandpa stood side by side with their arms crossed, listening in to the results.
�
�Aha!” Vincent remarked. “I was right! You’re now 10 cm’s taller. You’ve gone from 160 cm’s to 170 cm’s tall and your weight has changed from 60kg’s to 70kg’s with your new Werewolf muscle.”
“Am I fat?” Anxiously I raised my head.
“No, but you are bulkier.” He replied. “Even your shoulders look broader.”
“What, do I look masculine?” Now I sat upright in alarm.
“I wouldn’t say ‘masculine’ but definitely more athletic.” Vincent mused.
I looked worriedly to my parents, “but I don’t want to look athletic!”
“You’ve always been a bit of a tomboy growing up.” Dad gave a rueful grin. “You always played soccer with Derik and the other boys of the tribe instead of dolls with the other girls.”
“Do I look ‘butch’?” I looked Mum’s way in concern.
“Nah, of course not!” She was quick to reassure as she and Dad came to stand beside, as I was sitting up on the bench. “You’ve always given the boys a run for their money, so now you can always beat them at sport being a Werewolf.”
“Derik’s never minded that you were always as strong or as fast as him.” He tried to use as his consolation. “I’m sure he won’t look on you any less now that you’re stronger or faster.”
“Don’t worry B, it just means that a guy has to work extra hard to impress you.” Uncle Julian gave a wink.
Vincent next came back to where I was sitting as did the rest of my family.
“Well.” He took a deep breath. “From the read outs, I can see a change in her dental structure, her muscle tissue, the calcium deposits around her nails and even with her irises and her ocular sensory input, which confirm her change into a Lokoti Werewolf.”
“My irises?” I echoed confused. “My ocular sensory input?”
“It means that now you can see better in the dark.” Vincent put it simply.
“Oh yeah, I could see through the dark woods last night as if it were daylight.” I confirmed. Then something occurred to me which made me look at the other Lokoti Werewolves, “did my eyes change colour like yours do?”
