by Ava Walsh
Every time she entered the house, Selina kept stumbling upon new rooms and secret treasures. Just yesterday she had opened what she thought was a closet to reveal a large study, the stately, antique furniture covered in white sheets.
“What is this?” she had asked Michael, as she realized there were entire rooms in the house that people had forgotten.
“Don’t know,” Michael responded, popping his head in. “My grandfather’s study, maybe. You can turn it into anything you want,” he offered. Instead, she had closed the door and tried to forget the room was there.
She parked her car in the garage and entered the silent home. Michael didn’t keep a full-time staff. A cleaning crew came by once a week to go over the many rooms in the house and he had a housekeeper, but she didn't live on the property and tended to be gone when Selina came home.
Once in the house proper, she walked down the long hallway that led to the front. Portraits of the previous members of the Fort family glared down at her. They were far from a cheerful bunch. She stopped in front of the picture of Michael's grandfather Lester Fort. He was a miserable looking man. His face was set in a permanent sneer; his white hair was messy on his head. Family legend said he was a genius, but a real son-of-a-bitch.
He was the main reason that Selina had declined Michael’s offer to change the room. She wasn’t one of them. She didn’t come from a good family. Her father was a plumber and her mother a church secretary. Sometimes all of this wealth felt like too much. She never knew what she was supposed to do, or how she was supposed to act. Changing anything felt like sacrilege.
“Checking out the old man?” Michael asked. His feet were bare, so she hadn’t heard him coming. His slipped his arms around her waist and she allowed herself to lean back and rest on him.
“Did he always look this miserable?” she asked as she raked her hands up and down his strong forearms.
“I never saw a different expression on his face, so I would have to guess yes.” He spun her around and said, “But he’s dead now, so you don’t have to worry about him.”
She smiled up at him and then stood on her tiptoes to kiss him deeply. He wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her tight before letting her go. She could have stared at him all day. Selina still wasn’t sure what she had done to land such a catch.
He was tall, over six feet and muscular. He shaved every day, revealing a jaw cut from marble. He had sparkling blue eyes that she was always getting lost in. At the moment he was wearing a dark pair of jeans and a black sweater straining around his strong shoulders.
“Look, I know we talked about this, but you don’t-”
“No,” she cut him off. “I’m ready. I love you and I can handle this. Trust me, ok?”
“Ok,” he said with a nod. He glanced behind her and out the window. It was growing dark outside; nightfall would come soon. He looked alright, calm, with just the hint of a frown on his face. But when she touched him, she could feel the strain in his muscles. He was tense.
She smiled up at him and kissed him on the cheek. “Don’t worry,” she said as she took the stairs up to the master bedroom. This one room was bigger than her old apartment. She slipped out of her shoes, pulled her hair back and looked around at the huge room, the giant four-poster bed, the windows facing the sea.
Selina was nervous. She was doing her best to hide it, but as the shadows grew longer, her fear grew with them. She changed out of her work clothes, into a pair of jeans and a sweater. They would be in the basement, the secret basement that no one knew about. It was cold down there and at night it would probably be even colder.
Michael watched her from the door. He loved her body and reminded her of that fact every opportunity he had. Even now, with what was coming, he couldn’t help but stare as she undressed. She took her time sliding out of her clothes. Letting the garments fall to a pile at her feet. In the reflection of the mirror she could see Michael’s gaze on her body. He was drinking her in, looking at her like a thirsty man looks at a glass of water. Once she was ready she turned and walked towards him. Her every step felt momentous and important. Tonight would be a first and the gravity of the situation was settling on her shoulders.
He took her hand, pulling it up and kissing the back of it. Together they walked down the long, lonely hallways of the mansion. Selina still got a little scared when she was alone in this house at night. The house was huge and it made a lot of noise, doors opening and closing, floorboards creaking. Selina spent a lot of time reminding herself that the house was old and old houses made a lot of noise.
They walked through the dining room to the working kitchen. In the kitchen was the door to the basement. They walked down the long, steep steps to the basement, slowly, taking their time. They didn’t speak at all during this march through the house, giving everything an ominous air. It felt a little like they were going to a funeral.
The basement bottomed out at a furnished space. It had previously been the apartment of the live-in help, but Michael had done away with all of that. He thought, and Selina agreed, that it was silly to have more servants in the house than actual residents.
In the servants’ quarters was a locked closet. Only Michael and now Selina had a key. He unlocked the door, opening the thick latch with a loud click that seemed to echo around them. Michael took a deep breath and then swung the door open, motioning for Selina to go first.
A light automatically came on, revealing another set of steep, spiral steps. They took those down as well. The air grew cold and the sound of their feet on the stairs echoed around them. This basement wasn’t as nice. It was unfinished, the floor and walls nothing more than plain cement. There was only one bare bulb hanging from the ceiling.
The bulb cast a brutal, bright light over the stark space. Selina stepped down onto the cold floor and examined the long line of bars that cut across the center of the room. They were steel, bolted into the foundations from the floor to the ceiling. The only way to break them would be to tear the house down.
Michael walked over to them and put one hand heavily on the bars. “They won’t break,” he said, but he wasn’t looking at her, he was staring at the space on the other side.
“I know,” she said with a nod. She walked over to him and put her hand on his. “I’m not worried,” she was unsure if it was a lie or the truth.
She checked her watch. 5:45. How had the time passed so quickly? She thought she would have more time to get ready, but this was it. She put her hand on his cheek and kissed him. He looked at her for one moment as he opened the bars and stepped over to the other side. He closed the door behind him and she walked over and set the lock, just like he had shown her.
He leaned his forehead against the bars and let out a long sigh. She did the same, their faces and hands touching for one final moment before he pulled away from her. He would be different soon, dangerous, and she had to protect herself.
He backed away from her and pulled his shirt off, revealing his strong chest. Handing her his shirt between the bars, he slipped out of his pants next, and then his boxers. She took all of them, folding them neatly and putting them in a corner of the room.
“You don’t have to watch,” he said, his voice echoing around the cavernous basement.
“I won’t leave you,” Selina said, and she knew it was the truth.
She looked at her watch. It was 6:10. When would it happen? How long would it take? Selina felt as if she should say something, but nothing came to mind. Just empty clichés that wouldn’t offer comfort to either of them.
Suddenly, Michael gasped and doubled over in pain. With a yell, he fell down onto all fours. Selina raced towards the bars, but stopped. She couldn’t enter the cell. There was a reason he was on one side of the bars and she on the other.
With a sickening crack he screamed and she winced as his knees reversed. His jaw jutted out and there were tears in his eyes. This looked so painful for him. She wanted to run to him, comfort him, but there was nothing she could do but
watch. She was ready for horror; she was ready for fear. She hadn’t been ready for this. She couldn’t just stand by and watch him be in pain.
She gripped the bars tightly and then he stopped yelling. Thick hair sprouted from his back and spread along his body. Suddenly, he turned and looked up. He bared his fangs and lunged toward her with a ferocious growl.
Chapter Three
The wolf howled and threw himself at the sturdy iron bars over and over again. He opened his massive jaws and let out a howl that echoed painfully around the room. He growled at her, bared his fangs, gnawed fruitlessly at the bars. He was a wild animal trapped and he did not like it. He stalked her from the other side of the bars, pacing back and forth and glaring at her. He had a strong, animal scent. It filled the room as he scratched and clawed at the floor, trying any route to escape.
Selina stayed back, pressed against the cold cement walls and close to the door. Even when he lashed out at her, swiping his massive paw between the bars, she was well out of his reach.
At first, her body had a primal reaction to the wolf. She wanted to run and hide, put as much distance between her and it as possible. But she forced herself to stay. She trusted the bars. The giant wolf had thrown himself at them and chewed on them, but they hadn’t budged an inch. He couldn’t get out.
As he paced back and forth, Selina tried to look into the wolf’s eyes. Could she see a glimmer of Michael in there? She searched for a hint of compassion or love in the dark eyes of the wild animal. But no, when she caught the beast’s cold glance, he only narrowed his eyes and showed her his teeth. Michael was gone. There was only the wolf now.
He had changed in front of her before, but those times Michael had been in control. He transformed into a massive wolf, but instead of being wild and angry, he acted like a household pet. He had put his nose on her hand and she had run her hands through his thick, dark coat. He had warned her the full moon was different. On the full moon, he couldn’t control the transformation and the wolf was in charge.
It was a long night. After a few hours Selina left the wolf in the basement and went back upstairs to warm up. Wherever she went in the house, she could still hear him down there. He howled loudly and beat against the bars. His efforts reverberated through the thick walls of the house and every time he howled Selina had to close her eyes and count down the seconds until his angry wail was finished.
By morning, all the strength had gone out of the wolf. He was still angry about being locked up, but he was tired. Half an hour before sunrise Selina came downstairs to find him curled in a ball in a corner of the cell. He lifted his head to growl one last time but that was all. She waited, watching the second hand on her watch tick around the face. Soon it would be sunrise.
The wolf yawned and then his eyes grew heavy. He blinked slowly a few times, and then his eyes closed. His breathing grew even and slow. Selina approached the bars. The sun was rising outside; it would be over soon. The transformation back was easier. His knees reverted, the coat was pulled back into his body, his claws turned into fingernails, his teeth retracted back into his head, his jaw shortened. Then it was Michael, naked and curled up on the floor.
The moment he was himself Selina unlocked the bars and raced towards him. She put her hands on his warm back and for a heart-stopping moment he didn’t move. Then he was up and yawning, looking sheepishly at her.
“Is everything ok?” he asked. He sounded tired and she could see his eyes were heavy. He could barely keep them open.
“Everything is fine, let’s go upstairs and get into bed,” she whispered, running her hand over his back. She was so glad to see him. It was just Michael, no sign of the wolf anywhere. The animal was back in his cage, trapped until the next full moon.
They slept the day away in bed. They were both beyond exhausted. Heavy curtains blocked the bright sun and Selina, wrapped in Michael’s arms, lay down with her head resting on his chest.
“It wasn’t so bad,” she said to him through a yawn.
“No,” he said, kissing the crown of his head, “It was bad, but you’re very strong, so you didn’t notice.”
She wanted to do nothing more than spend the entire weekend in bed with him, but they sadly did not live in a vacuum. They had family obligations and it wasn’t long before they were required to put pants on. They had told Michael’s parents they would meet for lunch on Sunday, so by midmorning they were forced out of each other’s arms and into the bright sunlight.
“We could skip this one,” Michael offered as Selina put on and then took off another dress that wasn’t good enough. “The full moon was last night; my parents will understand.”
“No,” Selina said with a shake of her head. “It’s fine. I want to go.” She didn’t, of course, but she refused to be the thing that separated Michael from his family. They didn’t approve of her, she knew that, but she wasn’t going to go quietly into the night. She was going to show up for lunch with a smile on her face and conversation topics at hand. She was determined not to give them a single thing to complain about. She would charm them into liking her.
His parents lived in a stunning bungalow near the bay. In a few weeks, they would be traveling to their house in the Hamptons where they preferred to take their summers. Selina had been counting down the days until they would be gone and these insufferable lunches would be over.
“Oh, my darling,” his mother, Evelyn, said as she opened the door to greet them. She was a stylish older lady, her white hair set into a perfect bob. She was always wearing a sweater set and pearls. She took Michael's face in her hands and looked at him for a long time, then kissed him on the cheek.
“Hi, mom,” Michael replied, pulling away and putting his arm around Selina's waist.
“Selina,” Evelyn said, with a curt nod, and then they were allowed inside. Michael gave her an apologetic look, but Selina just shrugged. This was how Evelyn always treated her. It was a sort of new normal.
“Michael, Selina, we’re so glad you’re here.” Richard, Michael’s father, was far more pleasant than his wife. There had been many lively debates between him and Selina about the Seahawks’ chances in the upcoming season, and if RG3 could really go the distance. He shook Michael’s hand and then pulled Selina into a big bear hug. “Lunch is on the patio!” he said cheerfully, and he led the way through their beautiful house and towards a grand back deck.
“How was Friday night?” his father asked quietly as they moved through the stately and modern house. “Fine,” Michael answered tersely.
“The bars in the basement still holding up?”
“Perfectly well,” Selina answered.
“Good,” Richard said. “I must say, Selina, I feel better knowing that someone is with him. Don’t worry about your safety, you can trust those bars. I watched the men put them in. An elephant couldn’t rip those out of the wall.”
They sat down to a meal of salmon and frisée salad, fresh-squeezed lemonade and little cucumber sandwiches, all prepared by the family’s live in cook. As they sat around the small circular table, Michael put his hand on Selina’s thigh and gave her a squeeze. She smiled up at him, hoping that this would be over quickly.
“How’s the business?” his father asked. “That Hal project coming along?”
“Nicely,” Michael answered. “I thought it was going to be more of a hassle, but it’s really been quite simple.”
“Well, I’m sure that lovely Lois has been helping you out a great deal,” his mother interjected. “It was a great decision for you to hire her.”
“It wasn’t my decision,” Michael scoffed. “You knew her mother from the club and wouldn’t stop badgering me until I gave her a job.”
“But isn’t she excellent?” Evelyn asked.
“She’s fine,” was Michael’s response. He squeezed Selina’s thigh again, and she focused on keeping a smile frozen on her face.
“Well, she comes from an excellent family,” his mother said. “The Packerds came over on Mayflower. It’s
just a shame they lost so much during the crash in ‘08, but I’m sure they’ll bounce right back. They’re good people. The right kind of people. They have the kind of class that can’t be bought or learned, only born into.”
Ignore it, ignore it, Selina repeated in her head. She ignored so many insults, first from Lois and now from this woman. It was getting harder and harder for her to bite her tongue. Soon she was going to have to give everyone a piece of her mind. Her anger swelled in her chest. It was like a fire eating away at every good thought she had.
“I’m sure Lois is great,” Richard interjected, sensing the tension in the air. “But Selina is here and she was there last night and I think we could probably take a moment to appreciate her and what she’s given to our son.”
Evelyn sniffed and picked up her glass, taking a deep sip. She avoided everyone’s eyes and instead stared out into the ocean. “Yes, of course,” she finally said. “We’re very happy that you and Michael are together.” She spoke tersely and through closed lips, as if every word was a torture for her.
Stupid, old, rich hag, Selina thought, as the smile remained on her face. “I’m very lucky to have found him,” she said.
The two women stared at each other. There was an unspoken agreement between them. Evelyn didn’t like Selina and Selina didn’t care. She knew that Lois would never have survived that night in the basement. She would never be able to accept Michael’s affliction. She thought he was perfect, a handsome rich man with no secrets in his closet. Lois didn’t want to deal with the real Michael, but Selina did. She loved Michael, warts and all, and she wasn’t going to give him up.
Chapter Four
“I’m exhausted,” Selina said, as Michael drove them both home. It felt like she had just finished a marathon, when in reality she had only attended a lunch. Dealing with Evelyn was a torture. Everything with her was two steps back, one tiny step forward.
