“You haven’t had any yet, Sherman,” Lily said.
“Oh, sorry! It looks delicious! I’ll try some now.” I took a bite of the casserole and then smiled at the blonde angel girl. It really was great, and my stomach reminded me that I hadn’t eaten nearly enough in the last two days.
“It’s wonderful!” I said after I gulped down a second bite. The tall angel girl’s cheeks seemed to turn a bit red and then she looked down at her plate of food.
“How was school today, brother?” Charlotte half asked, but her voice sounded a bit strange. It was almost like she was angry with me.
“It was good. I--”
“He beat up Mitch in Street Fighter. That was entertaining.” Rose chuckled.
“Huh?” Charlotte raised an eyebrow.
“Mitch is the school photographer,” I explained to Charlotte.
“But he prefers ‘Photojournalist,’ ha!” Lily said.
“He’s a nice guy, just a little too wrapped up in his art,” Kristen said.
“Aren’t we all, though?” Rose laughed.
“So, you played video games against him?” the succubus asked.
“Yep! Sherman creamed him,” Kristen giggled.
“He was saying yesterday that he didn’t believe that Sherman was a pro,” Rose said with an eye roll. “Why would anyone lie about that? Especially someone’s sister. He was just being jello.”
“Can I ask you three a question?” I said. “In the gym, there is a wrestling trophy. It looks like it is made of silver. Looks like a tower or something. Do you know what I am talking about?” I saw Charlotte's eyes dart from mine to look at the other girls.
“Oh, yeah! The old silver trophy. When I started running the paper last year I did a story on it. The misprint on the thing makes it hard to track down, but I think we got it back in 92. The school was still using microfilm then, and my predecessor didn’t transfer the scans to the computer archives.”
“It is made of silver?” Charlotte asked as she leaned forward. Her face was still white, and she still looked like she was in a lot of pain.
“Yeah. Kind of cool. The weird thing is that the article I found said that the school got it for the championship the year before, but the paper started the first year that the school actually had students.”
“That is strange. Sounds like it might be magical.” Charlotte smiled, and I saw her look at me out of the corner of her eye.
“Ha! Might be,” Rose laughed. “I’ve got a key to the case if you want to look at it closer.”
“You have the key?” I asked before Charlotte spoke.
“Sure. Well, it is in our media team possession.” Rose gestured to Lily and Kristen.
“We might need to take a picture of a trophy, or clean them, or whatever. We’ve got keys to all the display cases in school,” Kristen said with a shrug.
“Don’t let Lincoln High know,” Rose said. “I bet those assholes would just love to steal our trophies. Especially that Giant Gene guy. He lives down the street from our school.”
“He does?” I asked.
“Yep. Rumor is that he applied for the job at the same time as Dr. King. Those two have a crazy history. Have you seen some of the wrestling promotional videos?” Lily asked.
“Videos?” I shrugged.
“Yeah. They did pro wrestling stuff against each other. Had a bunch of drama. It looks over-acted, but I guess it was actually for real. The two don’t get along at all.” Lily shrugged, and then took a bite of her food.
“That’s kind of crazy,” I said. Then I looked across the table to Charlotte. “Giant Gene is a lot like Dr. King. Giant Gene also has a friend that is named Fabulous Morgan. He looks like he, uhhh, doesn’t really like the sun. No tan. You haven’t met either one of them yet.”
Charlotte nodded after I spoke and a slight smile spread across her pale lips. She actually looked like she was getting some of her color back again, and the glow of perspiration on her forehead was now absent.
“Do you know where Gene lives?” Charlotte asked the girls.
“Yep, everyone does. It’s a really gaudy place. He’s got a Hummer that is raised twice as high as Dr. King’s Jeep.” Rose laughed.
“I’m feeling a lot better. Do you all want to go for a drive after this? I’d love to see this guy’s house,” Charlotte said.
“But, we haven’t had dessert yet. I made a cake for--” Rose frowned as she spoke.
“After cake, of course!” Charlotte let out a laugh. “After all, I was sick today.” The four girls laughed, and I wondered if there was something I had missed from the conversation.
Chapter 10
“I have to talk to my brother real quick. We’ll be down in a moment,” Charlotte said to the three angel girls. We had just finished cleaning up after the cake, and the succubus had asked them to drive us around town for a bit.
“Great! We’ll be down waiting. We’ll take Lily’s car. Charlotte can sit up front, and Sherman can sit next to me,” Rose said.
“And me. He can sit in the middle,” Kristen said.
“How come I have to drive?” Lily pouted.
“You have the bigger car,” the other two girls said at the same time.
“Be right down,” Charlotte called to them before she shut the door.
“Don’t ever pray to God again,” she seethed. Her eyes glowed a bright purple and she pushed her pointed finger into my sore chest.
“What? I’m sorry, I didn’t--”
“You could have killed yourself. Did you know that? No, or else you wouldn’t have done it. How are you still alive?” she asked. My back was against the door now, and her finger was digging into my ribs.
“I, uhh, what’s wrong? I’m fine. It was just a prayer. What was the big d-d-d-deal?” Her sudden anger had caught me off guard and I felt my body struggle with a flush of adrenaline.
“Your soul, mind, and body belong to Satan,” she hissed. “If he hears you praying to God, he can, and will destroy you without a moment’s warning. Your words gave me a killer migraine and made my bones want to turn into jelly. I can’t pray over my meals. Neither can you. What were you thinking?”
My jean pocket buzzed, and we both felt it because Charlotte had somehow straddled my thigh when she was speaking to me. She sighed heavily and then stepped back away from me so that I could pull the phone out.
“Hi Saa--,” I almost whispered the Lord of Evil’s name when I answered it.
“Sherman, Sherman, Sherman! How are things? How’s school? How’s Charlotte? How’s the killing of the werewolf going? I’ve got the next mission all lined up for you.”
“We’ve run into some… challenges. We are working on it right now, though,” I said.
“I don’t like the sound of that Sherman. That sounds like code for ‘I haven’t killed the werewolf yet.’ Is that what is going on?”
“We are going to need a few more days to--”
“Did you ever hear the joke about the bear, Sherman?” Satan asked on the speaker of my cell phone.
“Uhhhh. The bear?”
“Yeah, the bear. Is Charlotte there? I don’t think she’s heard this one.”
I looked at the succubus, and she shook her head as she made a waving motion with both of her hands.
“She, uhhh, isn’t here right now,” I lied, and the irony of the situation didn’t escape me.
“So there are these two guys hiking in the forest, and the first one says to the second one ‘I’ve got some bear spray. Just in case one of them attacks.’ The second guy says ‘I’m not worried because I’m wearing my running shoes.’ The first guy says ‘You’re an idiot. I don’t care how fast you run, you can’t outrun a bear.’ Then the second guy goes ‘I don’t need to outrun the bear.’ Ha! Do you get it, Sherman?” Satan asked.
“Uhhh. I just need to outrun the guy?”
“Well, yeah, but I wasn’t talking about you. This is just a joke.”
“Satan, I kind of thought that you are telling
me these as metaphors because I’m--”
“Sherman, Sherman, Sherman. I love ya like a son, but I’m sorry. You just aren’t mean enough to be the metaphorical bear here. So I don’t want you to look too deep into this. Just a joke, okay?”
“Okay. Uhh, yeah. That was pretty funny,” I forced my mouth to smile when I spoke.
“Good. Now can you please go kill this fucking werewolf before I get mad at you? Ohh! The bear joke reminds me of this demon bear snake I had thought about making a few years ago. I was gonna call it a ‘co-brah-air.’ Pretty cool name, huh? I’m gonna go work on that now. Talk to you tomorrow. Toodles!”
The line on my phone went dead, and I looked up to Charlotte.
“Why is he so--”
“Shhhh. Just don’t ask,” she said as she raised a finger to her lips.
“Okay.”
“This Giant Gene guy is a werewolf?” she asked.
“Yeah, and he is even bigger than Dr. King. Could there be two alphas in the city?” I asked.
“I dunno. It is possible. They would probably be fighting each other all the time for dominance.”
“That sounds like exactly what is going on! Gene has to be an alpha. Also, his friend, Fabulous Morgan, is a vampire.”
“That was what I guessed. This could work for us.” Charlotte smiled.
“We get this trophy, kill Giant Gene with it, and then stash it in Fabulous Morgan’s house. It will totally work!” I said with excitement. This seemed like the perfect solution to our mission. I really liked Dr. King, and didn’t want to kill him. I also didn’t see how Charlotte would be able to get the jump on him again.
“We need to figure out where this Morgan guy lives, then we need to get the trophy. I need to kill him with it, get it to Morgan’s house, and then we have to get a werewolf to find out that Gene is dead so he can follow the scent back to Morgan’s house.” Charlotte stepped up to the door and peered through the keyhole to make sure the angel girls still weren’t outside.
“There are a lot of ifs, and Satan isn’t giving us a lot of time. Do you think the wolves will be convinced that Morgan killed Gene if we plant it at his house? Seems like a bit of a stretch,” I asked.
“They are the coaches of the other wrestling team right? What if we got both of them together here for whatever it is when they all wrestle together.”
“A tournament,” I clarified.
“Yeah. Or maybe you can have one sooner. It would be easier to do it then, and slip it into Morgan’s bag or something,” the girl shrugged.
“Then you would have to steal the trophy and kill him without anyone seeing you,” I said.
“Right. That would be hard. Let’s just see where this guy lives, and maybe we can get a look at the trophy tonight,” Charlotte said.
“Tonight?”
“Yes.” She winked at me. “Don’t pretend like you don’t enjoy these angel girls hanging out with you all the time.”
“I don’t really--”
“It’s okay, Sherman, I uhhh, well, we’ve got to do the mission and stuff. Just don’t get distracted, okay?”
“Charlotte, I’ve already told you that I have, uhhh.” I felt my heart hammer in my rib cage and I thought about not saying the next words. “Have feelings for you. I really care about you, but in the car and elevator, you made it seem like--”
“I know what I said.” She raised a hand to interrupt me. “It is for the best. You can’t say any of that stuff in front of Satan. Do you understand?” she asked.
“Yeah. I know. You said that.”
“Sherman, look.” The beautiful succubus took a deep breath and reached out her hands. I was surprised when her fingers found mine, but I didn’t shy away from her touch. “I know you feel that way about me, and I’m flattered. I’m not allowed to return those feelings. I’m not supposed to. Satan can change his mind any second now, and tell me I’m not your partner. That would… that would be terrible, but it would be worse if I let myself share your feelings.” Our eyes met, and I saw a deep sadness in the beautiful purple orbs.
“But, you can just make yourself not feel things you don’t want to feel?” I felt my voice quiver a bit when I asked her the question.
“No. I can’t. That is why I’d prefer it if you stopped telling me how you felt about me. Those angel girls are pretty--”
“I’m not interested in them, and we are leaving when we are done,” I said.
“Or there are plenty of my sisters in Hell that would enjoy uhhhh… stuff with you.” She looked down when she spoke.
“And you’d be okay with that? You’d want me to date someone else? Kiss someone else? Do… uh… other stuff with someone else?” I squeezed her fingers tighter, but Charlotte didn’t look up.
“We have to go. They are waiting,” she whispered as she pulled her hands away from me.
I thought about pressing her. I thought about yelling my love for her again, or telling her that I’d never want to be with anyone but her, and that I was only working with Satan so that I could have her freedom, but there was a knock on the door.
“You two coming?” Rose asked after I opened the door.
“Yeah, sorry,” Charlotte said, and then she walked past me out the door, and down the stairs of our apartment.
“Ugh. I can totally get like that sometimes, too,” Rose said to me after the succubus walked down the stairs.
“Get like what?” I asked.
“Oh, nothing.” the pretty redheaded angel smiled at me, and then she reached down to hold my hand. The gesture felt alien when compared to Charlotte, but I didn’t think the winged girl would appreciate it if I yanked my arm away from her.
“Let’s go!” she said, and we walked down the stairs.
Chapter 11
“There is his house!” Lily pointed as we drove by the McMansion style home. It was on the other side of the school from where our apartment was, so it only took us five minutes to get there.
“Wow, it is huge,” Charlotte said, and I guessed that she was faking a bit of the amazement.
“Yep. You’d think that Giant Gene was the wrestling champion, and not Dr. King,” Rose commented. She was sitting on my right side, behind Charlotte, and Kristen was on my left.
“Why do you say that?” I asked.
“Dr. King’s house is a lot smaller,” she shrugged. “Not that size matters, or anything,” the girl said quickly.”It is what is inside that matters.”
“He’s super nice, and his wife is also nice, and really pretty,” Kristen said.
“You’ve met her?” I asked.
“Just once. She goes to most of the sports events that Dr. King is at. One time I got lucky, and sat next to her. She is great. I’d love to have her on the podcast one day. Maybe I’ll ask her for the next show.”
“Do you all want to go get some coffee or something?” Lily asked from the driver seat.
“I kind of want to see this trophy Rose was talking about,” Charlotte said.
“Oh, uhhh. Maybe tomorrow?” the redhead asked. “It is kind of late to be at the school.”
“We aren’t allowed on campus? Is there security or something?” the succubus asked with a twitch of her wings.
For a second, I wondered how their disguises worked. It seemed as if the four girls were all sitting a bit forward in their seats because of their wings, but it would have looked strange if one couldn’t see the wings. Did the girls see everyone sitting without wings but still leaning forward against empty space? I guessed not, since it would have meant that they all could have guessed at each other’s true form easier. I would have to ask Charlotte when we got a moment alone together.
“There isn’t any security. It is just against the rules,” Kristen said.
“Huh? Won’t it just take a few minutes?” Charlotte asked.
“We’d have to get the key from the media room cabinet, and then walk all the way over to the gym,” Rose said.
“Yeah, so just a few minutes. It will be fin
e,” Charlotte pointed to the road up ahead, “That’s one of the entrances to the parking lot, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but we really shouldn’t it’s just so late,” Lily said.
“Yeah, I guess we don’t want to get in trouble. Probably not a good idea anyways. The moon is nice out tonight, and someone might think that the five of us are sneaking around campus for some sort of romantic rendezvous or something.”
“Romantic rendezvous?” Lily had slowed down her station wagon, and glanced over to the succubus.
“You know, a guy and a girl alone in the dark hallways of the school. Or in an empty classroom, or the gym. All sorts of romantic stuff could go on. Nothing too serious, of course. That has to wait until marriage, but--”
“Sherman, you are waiting until you get married, too?” Kristen asked.
“Uhhh--” I started to say.
“That’s really cool,” Rose interrupted me. “Not a lot of guys are like that. They are so into sex. I mean, that sounds like a lot of fun, but we want to wait to do it with the one we love.” The three angel girls sighed in unison.
“Yeah, but kissing is all sorts of fun. Don’t you all think?” Charlotte prompted.
“Ummm. Yeah,” Lily said, and the other two girls shifted in their seats next to me.
“So turn in here,” Charlotte ordered as we came up to the parking lot. “Will just take us a few minutes to see this trophy. Then maybe we can head back to our place and play a board game or something before we have to go to bed. If you three still want to hang out with Sherman, that is. We can probably stay awake for a few more hours.”
“Yes!” the three angel girls said in unison, and I wondered if Charlotte had used some sort of magic that spun the girls around so suddenly.
Lily turned her station wagon into the parking lot, and then parked the Volvo near the building with the media room. There were no other cars parked at the school, and the moon was casting an eerie glow on the buildings. It was as if the colors and textures of the school were flipped, and we’d stepped into a mirror world.
A few minutes later, Kristen was unlocking the door to the media room. Rose fished a set of keys out of one of the side cabinets, and then she jingled them at us.
Werewolf!: Hell High Book 3 Page 11
