13 Bites Volume II (13 Bites Anthology Series Book 2)

by Adam Bennett

A year’s worth of hell has landed me here… hiding in an airport bathroom waiting for my next flight to complete my journey across country to my Aunt and Uncle’s.

  A tall man in a business suit pokes his head in the bathroom door and looks around until his eyes fall on me leaned against the counter.

  “Are you Nolan?” he asks.

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, some lady out here wanted me to check on you for her. She said that you have been in here a while and she is getting worried.”

  I sigh.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Tell her I will be out in a minute.”

  His head disappears and the door closes back in place.

  I look into the mirror in front of me and see a clean-cut 16-year-old looking back at me; straight blonde hair combed just right, dark green eyes and strong, chiseled features. I have grown up hearing how handsome that I am, but looking at myself now all I see is my mother’s chin and lips, and my father’s nose and eyes. My constant reminder of who they once were.

  I shake my head and turn to leave the bathroom. Something catches my attention out of the corner of my eye, but when I turn there is nothing there except the line of questionably clean urinals. I take a deep breath and go to find my chaperone.

  A worried 30-something-year-old woman with short dark hair watches me come out of the bathroom. I see her eyes soften some when I walk over to her without a hassle.

  “Nolan! I was starting to get worried about you. Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine.”

  I am not sure why my aunt insisted on me traveling with a chaperone to Louisiana, but she did. Now I am stuck traveling with an overly concerned woman who must feel like I am just as suicidal as my parents were.

  Lucky for me, she sleeps through most of the flight. There is a rental car waiting for us when we land and I only have to deal with a few hours of her small talk, as if the fact that I had normal interests and hobbies and everything that my parents did in the last year had no effect on my social life at all. I can’t be happier when the rental finally pulls into the long driveway of my Aunt and Uncle’s home.

  “Well, here we are!” The chaperone says cheerfully. “Are you ready?”

  I nod my head in response. I have spent the last three days of travel avoiding conversation with this woman… I don’t want to see chatty now that I am in the home stretch of getting rid of her.

  My Aunt Sherri comes rushing out the front door at the sight of the car coming up the driveway.

  “Nolan! Nolan! Oh, my dear!” I hear her fussing over me as she hurries towards the car before it is even stopped. I take a deep breath and open the car door. I am barely out of the car when my Aunt Sherri hits me like a truck, grabbing me up in a bone-crushing hug.

  “We have been so worried about you! Oh, you poor thing! We have a room made up for you and everything! I just don’t know what could have been going through your parents’ minds, leaving you all alone! This is all just a shame!”

  All of her comments and concerns blur into my mind as soon as they hit my ears. I don’t lift my arms to match her hug, she must take the hint because she pushes me away gently and gives me a sad smile. Then she turns her attention to the chaperone.

  As soon as her back is turned to me I roll my eyes. My dad had always talked about visiting his sister and her family, but life, work and school was always in the way. So I had never actually met my Aunt and Uncle.

  Their home is an old, white plantation-style home. Settled in a massive lawn, a few acres at least, and surrounded by huge oak trees with Spanish moss draping their branches. The grass is lush and immaculately cut and there is a large dog roaming the far side of the lawn.

  It really is pretty here, but nothing compared to the sunny, modern California home that I am used to.

  I suddenly have the eerie feeling that I am being watched. I glance behind me at the women that are now so caught up in a conversation about my well-being that they seem to have forgotten that I was there at all. I let my eyes glide over the lawn again. The dog that was happily playing earlier is now standing at attention, watching me. A shiver runs through me as its once friendly eyes are now blood red, and drool drips from its mouth. I nearly jump out of my skin when my Aunt touches me on the shoulder.

  “All right, dear, let’s get you inside and settled.”

  I try to keep an eye on the dog as I get ushered into the house, but I look away for a quick second to avoid tripping up the porch steps, and when I look back the dog is gone. I shake my head and try to listen to my Aunt go on about the room, school and how they hope that I will be happy with them.

  The next few weeks seem to go by in a blur. I start at the local school; my Uncle Willie comes home from his business trip and instantly falls right into my Aunt’s lead of trying to make me happy. I go straight from home to school and back home again. I miss the friends that I had in California, but under the circumstances, none of their parents have really wanted them to stay in touch. I haven’t heard from anyone in about a week now. I don’t see myself making new friends here anytime soon. As soon as one parent learned the reason behind my move here, they told another who told another. Before long the whole community knew why I was there and what had happened to my parents. Rumors were everywhere. I walk the hallways and the other kids part out of the way for me. I have heard stories about how I had been the one who killed them, I had them killed or that maybe I was just as crazy as they were and was on the verge of killing myself or one of them.

  It doesn’t help my nerves that weird things keep happening to me. Seeing shadows out of the corner of my eye, but turning to see nothing there… and the red eyes. They seem to be following me everywhere. My first day of classes, I got the eerie feeling of being watched again. I looked around to see the kid across the room from me staring me down with the same red eyes as the dog. I could literally feel them boring into me. As soon as the bell rang, I jumped up and practically ran from the room. I saw the kid in the hallway before lunch and he looked normal, with a friendly smile and vivid green eyes.

  The red eyes keep popping up randomly — teachers’ eyes, students, even a squirrel outside of the classroom window. No one else seems to notice them, and I fall into a lonely rhythm of life, always wondering when the eyes will show themselves next.

  The bell rings and snatches me out of my thoughts. The other students get up and leave the room, some of them give me a weary look out of the corner of their eye but no one speaks to me.

  I walk through the hallway to the lunch room and everyone parts out of my way. No one dares to bring attention to themselves as I walk by. Even the lunch lady avoids looking at me as she hands me my tray of food. I have found that even the adults seem to think that I am some kind of crazed lunatic killer just waiting to pounce on my next victim. I find my usual seat in the back of the cafeteria. There are a few other kids there when I sit down, but it doesn’t take long for them to leave the table. I sigh to myself and start eating in silence.

  “Hey!”

  I jump out of my skin as a girl from one of my classes plops down in the seat across from me. Long blond hair, big plastic-framed glasses, and perfect make-up stares back at me. I know her; Amber. She is one of the most popular girls in the school. I have first block with her. I look around me to see if there is anyone else that she could be talking to besides me, but when I don’t see anyone I look back at her. She has one eyebrow raised as she looks at me.

  “Your name is Nolan, right?” she asks.

  “Yeah…”

  “My name is Amber. I heard about your parents.”

  I sit there and just look at her. I don’t really know what to say to that; everyone has heard about my parents. What does that have to do with her talking to me?

  She sits there and looks at me. When I don’t respond, she continues.

  “I am sorry that happened to you, but it is why I am approaching you.”

  “Okay…” She is really starting to irritate me; whatever she is getting at, I wis
h that she would get on with it.

  “Do you see it too, then?” she asks, her expression full of anticipation.

  “See what?”

  She leans forward over the table. So close I can see every perfectly curled eyelash and smell her soft powdery perfume.

  “The Rougarou.” She whispers.

  “Is this some kind of joke?” I feel angry. Why is she over here mocking me? As if I don’t deal with enough in this piece of crap school.

  “No! No, I promise that I am being serious. Just listen to me for a minute.” She looks panicked as I get to my feet. “The Rougarou follows bloodlines. I looked into what happened to your parents; it has all the classic signs of an attack. Please… I just need to know if you are seeing it too.”

  I look down at her. It is almost like she is serious, but I can’t handle more ammunition for people to throw back at me.

  “Look, I am not crazy like my parents were. So whatever you think that you know about me is wrong. You don’t know anything about me… just… leave me alone.”

  I try to keep my voice even; I don’t want to seem like someone that could be a killer. I hate when people say that about me. I turn on my heel and march out of the cafeteria, trying to ignore the whispers and stares that follow my exit.

  I go into the bathroom and call my aunt. I tell her that I am feeling like everyone is judging and talking about me, and that I just can’t handle it today. She tells me that she will come check me out immediately, and for me not to worry about anything.

  The next bell rings, but I don’t even bother to go to class. I go to my locker to gather up my book bag, and when I close the locker, I see Amber rushing up the hallway towards me. She keeps looking around her and over her shoulder as if someone is following her. I turn away from her and start walking up the hall towards the office.

  “Nolan, please wait.” She says as she grabs my arm. “I know that I upset you. I am so sorry. Hopefully things will be clearer for you before it is too late. If what is happening to you is what I think it is, then things will start escalating. When they do, call me.”

  She puts a piece of folded paper into my hand. She turns and hurries back up the hallway the way she came, still looking around her as if someone is watching. I stare at her until she disappears around the corner.

  I look down at the piece of paper in my hand, and unfold it to see her name and a phone number in perfect handwriting. I look back up toward the corner where she disappeared and my heart drops. Standing there, as still as a statue, is one of the big football players that I know from class, his eyes blood red.

  I look around to see if anyone else is seeing what I am seeing. Everyone else is going about their usual business; the only stares are directed at me, not him. I look back over to where he is, but I find him gone.

  Amber’s words rattle through my mind: “Things will begin to escalate.” I hope to hell that she is wrong. Just then the intercom comes on and pages me to the office; my Aunt must be here to get me. I turn and walk up the hallway, trying to push what just happened to the back of my mind.

  My Aunt fusses over me as soon as I see her. I know that she means well, but it really stresses me out for her to go on and on about how she is going to fix everything. If she only knew that she can’t fix anything for me.

  As soon as we get home I make an excuse and rush up to my room. I want to forget Amber’s conversation with me, but it just keeps replaying over and over in my mind. I turn on my computer and do a Google search for rougarou. Pages and pages of results pop up. I go through multiple pages and read everything from spirits to werewolves to Bigfoot. This can’t be what she was talking about; there is nothing here about blood red eyes.

  “Werewolf,” I say out loud to myself in a chuckle.

  “Oh, I am so much more than that,” a chilling voice says from behind me.

  I jump up and turn to see my uncle standing in the door of my room. His eyes are blood red, and his usual kind expression has been taken over by a chilling smirk. He takes a step towards me, and find myself backing away from him.

  “Who are you?” I keep my voice surprisingly even for someone who feels like he might pee his pants. “What do you want?”

  I feel my whole body start shaking.

  He laughs. It is not my Uncle’s warm laugh; no, this is an evil laugh that sends ice running through my veins.

  “You know… your parents asked me the same thing.” He takes a step closer to me. “As I killed them.”

  He smiles at me with cold eyes.

  “I told them the same thing that I am about to tell you. I want payment.”

  “Payment?… Payment for what?” I press my back against the wall behind me, panicked that I am as far away as I can get from him in here.

  “Oh, you’ll know soon enough…” He winks at me and then suddenly the eyes are only my uncle’s.

  He looks at me backed against the wall, and around the room with a confused expression on his face. I try to look more like I am just leaning against the wall casually, rather than scared out of my mind.

  “Nolan…” his voice is only his own. “What was I doing up here again?”

  “You had come to ask me if I was all right after what happened at school today,” I quickly lie. “I told you that I was fine.”

  “Oh… okay.” He still looks completely confused. “Well, I am glad that you are all right.” He nods his head and leaves the room, closing the door behind him.

  I stare at the closed door.

  “Things will escalate,” I say to myself in disbelief.

  I pull the folded paper out of my pocket and dial the number into my barely used cell phone. It rings a couple of times before Amber picks up.

  “You change your mind?” she asks in a quiet voice, almost a whisper.

  “Yeah. You said that you had answers?”

  “I might. What happened?”

  I give her the complete rundown of what happened with the rougarou talking to me through my uncle’s body. She is especially interested in the payment part.

  “I think that I know why there’s payment,” she says finally, after quizzing me about every word that was said.

  “All right, explain what you are thinking.”

  “Well… It is rumored that old families here once traded their future descendants for fortune. The rougarou would leave them be for few generations, but would eventually hunt them down and cash in the debt.”

  “Are you kidding me? I got traded for money before I was even born?”

  “That’s exactly what I think happened. I have done a ton of research and I think that your family is one of the ones that made the deal.”

  “And… why are you doing research on this?”

  “Because,” I hear her sigh on the other end of the phone, “Eventually it will cash in on my family too.”

  I hear the sadness in her quiet voice, as if she already accepted her fate a long time ago.

  “Oh, I am so sorry, Amber.” I feel like such a jerk for making her say that out loud.

  I hear someone in the background of her phone.

  “Look, I have to go,” she says even more quietly than she has been speaking. “I’ll talk to you again soon. I have some more stuff I am gonna look up. Maybe we can find a way to stop this.”

  “All right.”

  She hangs up the phone and I sit down on the edge of my bed. So what now? If what she said is true, then what could I possibly do to stop this thing? My fate was sealed long before I was even born. There is no escape for me.

  I sit in silence through dinner while my aunt and uncle try to make small talk. I avoid them the best that I can and rush back up to my room. I can tell that they are getting more and more worried about me. They are good people; hopefully after the rougarou gets me, he’ll leave them alone. They don’t deserve the same fate as my parents and me.

  I try to sleep, but restless and terrifying dreams of the rougarou staring out of my Aunt’s kindly face haunt me. I eventually give up on
sleep and try to just pass the time until I can go to school. I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I stop and look at myself in the mirror, something that I haven’t really done since I was in the airport bathroom on the way here. It takes me a few minutes to recognize myself. The clean-cut young man that used to see is gone, and in his place stands a scruffy looking kid with unruly hair that needs a cut, and a face that needs a shave. My eyes are dull and have dark circles beneath them. I don’t even see myself; all I see is my haunted parents right before they died. Is that where I am now? The end?

  I leave the house early without eating breakfast, which I can see bothers my aunt just as much as the fact that I don’t want to talk to anyone. I get to school early; there is hardly anyone there yet. I see Amber sitting on a bench by herself. She keeps looking around as if she’s expecting someone any minute. She notices me and smiles at me. She stands as I walk over to her.

  “I think that I found the answer!” she says. She looks tired, and her usual peppy voice that I have become used to in class sounds worn down and exhausted.

  I nod my head at her and she continues.

  “I found out something that has worked before for other people, but it comes at a great cost.”

  “What kind of a cost?”

  She keeps glancing around us, like she is looking for someone.

  “We’ll have to make a deal with the rougarou, just like our ancestors did. We can pass this curse on to someone else, so that our payment will be paid by another.”

  I stand there and look at her. Really look at her. She looks just as haunted as I do. Her usually perfect hair is out of place in a messy braid that falls over her shoulder; her clothes are wrinkled and not her usual style, and she isn’t wearing makeup like normal. Like me, her eyes have dark circles under them.

  “I’d like to think that you’re joking, but I can tell that you aren’t,” I say.

  Her eyes stop on someone behind me. I see a mixture of panic and relief wash over her.

  “Tonight! Meet me tonight at Lookout Bayou at eight. I’ll bring someone for our payment.” She looks me right in the eyes. “All right?”