Black Friday

by Jan Stryvant

  "Oh shut up and watch the door."

  Tuesday at School

  Sean was on pins and needles all day at school, Tuesday was his heavy day, with the most classes. He was constantly on the look out, to the point where he was having a hard time following just what his teachers were going over.

  "Something the matter, Sean?" Professor Cruz asked him as he left his last class of the day.

  Sean sighed, "My mother's house was robbed and now she's missing and her next door neighbor, a close family friend, was found shot dead.

  "Oh, and my girlfriend's father, who's a sheriff, thinks I should drop out and lie low until the police figure out just what the hell is going on."

  Sean looked at the shocked expression on his professor's face.

  "You're not kidding, are you?" Professor Cruz asked.

  Sean shook his head, "I wish I was."

  "I think you should take his advice. You obviously feel in danger."

  "But there's only a few weeks in the semester until finals?"

  "Five is not a 'few', Sean."

  "One of those is Spring break," Sean pointed out.

  "What are you taking this semester?"

  Sean ran down the list, he had four computer science major courses, two social science electives, and a history course.

  "Drop the history course and the social sciences. You can do those any time. All of us in the comp-sci department post our lecture notes after each class. You've been doing well enough that I'll let you take the final online. I'll talk to your other instructors. Do you have a detective I can call to verify your story?"

  Sean dug out Detective Schumer's card and gave it to him. "Do you think they'll let me do it?"

  "If you've been carrying a good average in class, I don't see why not."

  Sean nodded and suddenly felt a lot better about things.

  "Thanks, Professor. I appreciate the help."

  "Eh, you're not the first student to come through here who was having problems like these. This may not be Vegas, but with all the gambling, Reno gets its own share of gang problems."

  "Well, thanks anyway," Sean said and after checking his phone for messages, he left, heading home for the day.

  He was attacked ten feet outside of the building.

  Sean was down on his knees before he'd even realized what was happening, having been hit in the back of the head with a club. The only reason he was even conscious was because of his new lycan stamina. He fell forward and tried to start crawling away, as people started yelling, when he suddenly felt paralyzed. Some sort of force was holding him still, not allowing him to move. He almost shifted, but there were people screaming and yelling and running around, so the last thing he wanted to do was become the target in all of the confusion.

  Which a huge lion would definitely be.

  Instead he closed his eyes and let his body collapse to the ground and started listening. He could hear people yelling to call an ambulance, and to 'catch that guy', so his best guess was that other students were getting involved.

  "I'm a doctor! Let me through!" someone called, and Sean sighed, hopefully by the time the police and an ambulance showed up, whatever this effect was that was paralyzing him would wear off.

  He heard a siren then, surprised at how quickly they had gotten there, but then, there had been an increased police presence on the school grounds again today, so they must have just had one in the area.

  "Out of the way! Coming through!" Someone was calling.

  He felt them roll him onto his back, and then a couple of people picked him up and put him on a stretcher.

  "Hey, aren't you going to use a backboard?" someone in the crowd yelled.

  "It's head injury!" the doctor said and Sean felt the straps across his body and his legs tighten down then, and suddenly they were rolling off.

  He felt the jolt when they put him in the back of the ambulance, and heard the doors close. A moment later he heard the front door close and the ambulance's engine start up and the ambulance start to move off.

  "We clear?" the doctor asked.

  "Yeah, we're clear. They bought it," said a second voice.

  "Did our guy get away?"

  "Scott? Yeah, he took off after he hit him, by the time anyone realized what was going on, he had a big head start."

  "Now what?" Asked a third voice.

  "Now we take him back and let the experts take him apart. That's what." the second voice said.

  "Can I drop the paralysis spell?" the doctor asked. "It's pretty tiring.

  "Yeah, these straps are pretty tight, even if he comes to; he's not getting out of that!"

  Sean felt the spell release him, opening his eyes he looked around; there were three of them alright. None of them had guns out; only one appeared to have any kind of suspicious bulge.

  "Ah, awake I see. You've been giving us a hard time, Mr. Valens; you've been giving us a very hard time."

  Sean identified him as the second voice; he was the one with the gun. The 'doctor' was sitting by his head; the third person was sitting down by his feet. Sean was being held down to the stretcher by two straps, which he guessed was locked into place. The three men were sitting on a bench seat on the other side of the vehicle from him, about two feet away. Probably where real paramedics would have sat.

  And it was a real ambulance. He could see all of the gear was in it, the oxygen regulators, everything. He wondered where they had stolen it from.

  "If you let me go now, I won't kill all of you," Sean said, embracing his lion. He had no doubt after hearing that 'take him apart' line that whatever they had planned for him, he wasn't going to like it.

  "You are hardly in a position to talk!"

  "Sure," Sean growled and started looking at his options. "So, are you with the Litho's, the Vestibul-whatever the hell, or are you a new player in this party?"

  The man laughed, "I gather the Litho's have gone home to lick their wounds. Showing up at the mall was really a bad idea. We're with the council of Gradatim."

  "More Latin, right?" Sean said and tested his bonds.

  "Don't bother; you're not going anywhere, Mr. Valens."

  "You know my father left me nothing, right? And that we were stripped of everything we had?"

  "That may be, but we will still make sure. Don't worry, it'll be painless, I promise."

  "I won't be," Sean growled and embracing his lion he let the rage he was feeling fill him as he shifted.

  It felt different. He wasn't in the back seat this time, he was front and center, but so was his lion. There wasn't any separation between the two of them, and it felt, right. He sat up as the belt around his chest snapped, and reaching down with a large fur covered hand he sliced the belt over his legs with a finger.

  Rolling onto his left side, he kicked out his right leg with his claws out and effortless disemboweled the one sitting at the back as he struck the man who had been talking with his right fist.

  The man grunted, but apparently he was wearing body armor of some sort, because Sean's hand didn't go through his chest. Meanwhile, the 'doctor' at the head of the bench shrieked like a little girl and then started beating on the partition door to the front.

  The man he'd hit was fumbling with his gun as Sean growled and pulled himself closer to the man.

  "Use your paralysis spell you asshole!" the man yelled and started to chant something as well, as Sean opened his mouth wide and roared in the mans face as he grabbed for the man's hand. Sean missed, his body was definitely a lot bigger now and he misjudged the grab, but they were nose to nose now. So opening his mouth he took the man's head in between his jaws and bit down. Hard.

  Hot blood and a foul taste filled his muzzle as the man's body jerked and the gun went off. Sean didn't feel any pain, so obviously he'd been missed. Spitting out the crushed remains of the man's head he turned and faced the 'doctor' who was gibbering in fear now.

  "Don't kill me! Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"

  "Where's my mother?" Sean
growled.

  "Don't kill me! Don't kill me! Please don't kill me!"

  Lashing out, Sean punched him in the throat, crushing it. He'd been aiming for the mouth to shut the man up. He was definitely going to have to spend some time in this new form to get a better feeling for this new body.

  The man fell to the floor, choking. Sean looked around for the gun, he figured that guy was as good as dead anyways. He found the gun in the other man's grip and quickly pried it out. It wasn't going to fit his new hand, but he couldn't stay like this much longer. He had to get out of the ambulance, and a huge lion man would be noticed.

  Shifting back was a moment's thought, then picking up the gun he turned and looked at the partition door. Sliding forward to it, he opened it.

  "What the hell are you doing to that kid back..." the driver said and turned to look at Sean, his eyes widening in surprise just as Sean shot him in the head.

  The ambulance suddenly took off as the dying spasms of the man pushed the accelerator to the floor, and then it started to rock side to side, throwing Sean, the dead bodies, and any gear that wasn't strapped down all over the back of the ambulance. After a few moments, it must have hit something, because there was a loud noise and suddenly it rolled over onto its side and went sliding along the ground, everything inside falling to the left side of the ambulance as the sounds of scraping and tearing metal filled the insides.

  Sean flew forward and hit the front bulkhead, when quite suddenly and with a very loud 'Bang!' the ambulance came to an abrupt stop. Hitting his head he groaned in pain as several portable oxygen bottles slammed into him, breaking his arm as well as several ribs.

  It took him a moment to gather his wits, there was a piece of metal trim sticking into his leg, grabbing that with his good arm, he pulled it out and looked around for an escape route. The side door was up above him now, getting to his feet, he tried to avoid getting any blood on him, as he reached up with his good arm and unlatching the door he pushed it open.

  That was when he heard it. A hissing noise. No, actually it was more like a whistling noise, like a bomb....

  Reaching up with both hands, Sean grabbed the door and hauled himself out onto the top of the turned over ambulance. Amazingly his arm seemed fine now. And the hole in his leg from the trim was gone. Even his head felt fine!

  They were off the road a ways now and suddenly he heard the sound of a fire igniting as the hissing noise got louder. He knew that oxygen didn't explode, but gasoline sure did, and if this thing was going to burn, he wanted get as far away as he could. Jumping off the ambulance he turned and ran away from the road, deeper into the brush and scrub, going just as fast as he could. He'd lost his shoes, they'd come off when he'd shifted. Surprisingly his pants and shirt were fine. Other than being covered in blood and gore of course.

  But that could wait; the first thing was to get away. There were already people running down from the road to investigate, and some of them looked like they had fire extinguishers. Also the sounds of sirens were starting up in the distance.

  Sean shook his head; sirens seemed to be the theme song of his life these days.

  Eventually he figured out just where he was and remembering that there was a lake in San Rafael Park, he started to run that way. By the time he'd gotten to it, just about everything had dried on him, but he didn't care, right now he wanted it all off. So taking out his phone and setting it down with his wallet he dove into the water.

  It was so cold that he nearly screamed! He was surprised he didn't have a heart attack! Then again, maybe he had and his lion had healed it? His lycan-ness had sure dealt with the other injuries he'd gotten quickly enough.

  Surfacing he started to tread water as he worked all the dried blood and gunk out of his hair. Going under the surface a few times, he finally got it all out, when he realized he had another problem.

  There were people waving and yelling at him from the far side of the lake, some of which were now coming around to where he was!

  Sighing he swam over to the side and pulled himself back up out of the water, wondering if they thought he was drowning or something? It's not like the water was deep, or even all that fresh! But it still beat the hell out of what he'd been drenched in before.

  Picking up his phone and wallet he left the park, heading back to the road. At least now he didn't look like a refugee from a slasher movie, he just looked like a wet, filthy, shoeless bum.

  At least nobody looked at bums.

  Looking at his phone he saw several unanswered calls. He had his phone in silent mode while in class, it didn't even vibrate. He hadn't thought to check it until now though. The first one he called back was Roxy.

  "Sean, are you okay?" were the first words out of her mouth.

  "Well I am now. Though I'm in desperate need of a shower and a change of clothes. Where are you?"

  "I'm back at the apartment. Jolene is here too. We heard about what happened at the school."

  "What's Jolene doing there?" Sean asked, his mood lifting. Hopefully she'd stay the night; he definitely wanted to get his claws into her again tonight. As well as a few other things.

  "She learned a few things and you need to hear them."

  "Okay, has anyone heard about the ambulance crash?"

  "That was you?" Roxy said surprised.

  "Yeah, the attack was a setup to kidnap me using an ambulance. I suspect it was stolen."

  "Yeah, it was stolen alright. They're saying meth-heads on the news right now."

  "Well, that's good. I'll be there in about an hour. It's a long walk and I'm tired."

  "Okay, we'll be here."

  "Order me a lot of food, please?"

  "How much is a lot?"

  "Oh, five or six meat pizzas will probably do it."

  "Okay, Love. You take care."

  Sean smiled; he really liked it when she called him love.

  "You too, Love," he said and ended the call.

  Next was Detective Schumer.

  "Detective? This is Sean Valens."

  "Ah, Sean! I just wanted to let you know that we're done processing your mother's house, as well as Mr. Sampson's. So you're free to go back there whenever you want.

  Sean nodded to himself and sighed. He'd have to see about going there and at the very least cleaning up the mess.

  "Thanks, Detective."

  "Oh, the casino had your mother's car towed back to the house. It still needs front tires however."

  "What about Sampson's car? They ever find that?" Sean asked.

  "No. We've notified all of the impound lots and scrap yards. It'll turn up eventually. We were contacted by his lawyer however."

  "He had a lawyer?" Sean was surprised to hear that.

  "Yes, and he had a will. You're his sole beneficiary; I gave his lawyer your phone number, so you'll probably hear from him eventually. Anthony Barton is his name."

  "Okay, I think I have a call from him to return as well. Thanks detective. Any leads on my mom?"

  "Sorry, Sean, we don't have any leads on that, but we found the gun that killed Mr. Sampson."

  "Really? Where?"

  "There was a van that crashed Friday night, you may have heard about it?"

  "Yeah, I saw it in the paper."

  "We recovered the gun from that wreck. So one of the dead guys in it must have been the one to have shot him. We still haven't figured out how their paths crossed, but I suspect once we find his car, we'll know."

  "Okay, thanks Detective."

  "Have a good day, Sean."

  Sighing Sean looked at the third call he had missed. Sure enough, it was the attorney.

  "Anthony Barton, attorney at law," A man answered the phone.

  "This is Sean Valens, you called me?"

  "Ah yes, Mr. Valens. I was the late Mr. Sampson's attorney. As the state has notified me of his death, I'm in the process of executing his last will and testament."

  "Okay, and what does that have to do with me, Sir?"

  "Well, simply put, y
ou are his sole beneficiary."

  Sean sighed, "I knew he didn't have any family, other than the trailer he lived in next to ours, did he have anything else?"

  "Not much, I'm afraid. His car, motorcycle, and whatever was in his house or on his property. I will need you to come by and sign some papers. But that's it."

  "Okay, I'm a bit busy dealing with a few issues right now. Do you know what's going to be done with his body?"

  "His last wishes were for it to be cremated and the ashes spread in the hills."

  "Okay," Sean checked his surroundings; thankfully it was just cars going down the road. "Could you text me your address and business hours? I don't know when I'll be able to stop by, but I will try to make it soon."

  "Of course Mr. Valens. And you have my condolences. I didn't know Mr. Sampson well, but he seemed to be a nice man."

  "He was. Thanks," Sean sighed and closing his phone he put it away and turned down a side street, then started cutting across some of the fields. He wondered how long he had until the next attack.

  "Oh man, do you stink!" Jolene said as he walked into his room. "What were you swimming in?"

  "The lake in Rafael park," Sean sighed and grabbed his towel. "I think we're gonna have to burn these clothes."

  "Oh, I'm sure we can clean them up, it's just the crap from the pond there, right?"

  "No, it's blood and guts. I jumped in the pond so I wouldn't look like a mass murdered and get arrested."

  "How many?" Roxy asked.

  "Four. These guys said there were from the Council of Gradatim, they also said that the Litho's had gone back home to lick their wounds."

  "Well go get cleaned up, we'll wait here."

  Sean nodded and dragged his butt to the shower and quickly washed himself off. Then rolling his stinky clothes up he wrapped the towel around his waist and ducked back into his room. Roxy took the clothes and ran down to the washroom in the basement with a bunch of soap and bleach, to see if they could be saved, while he sat at his desk and started in on the first pizza with a will.

  "So, what did you need to tell me?" He asked Jolene between bites.

  "Well first of all, your father didn't die in an accident, he was murdered."