Darren: I’m really sorry but I have to cancel tonight. ☹
Hot tears of embarrassment swam behind my eyes. I thought of a couple responses and began typing only to stop halfway. Getting upset and showing it was only going to make me seem pathetic. Annoyed that I got all dressed up and came to this party only to be stood up, I decided to go to the bar for an actual drink.
It didn’t take long for my five vodka lemonades to make me feel woozy. Although I was overweight, I was a lightweight who only needed two cocktails to feel the effects of alcohol. Five double-shot drinks were overkill. Five was enough to make me realize it was time to go home and go to sleep. Knowing I would need to find Miranda in order to avoid driving home drunk, I begrudgingly headed out the door of the party, thankful to get my hearing back once I was out of the loud club and outside in the chill night air. I walked away from the loud crowd of people, fully intent on waiting in my truck and calling Miranda from there. But wait…wouldn’t Miranda already be inside at the party with Matt? Would she be nearby? I shook away the drunk thought. All night I hadn’t seen Miranda. The last I had seen Matt was when we had spoken. I started aimlessly walking the sidewalk outside the club only to nearly ram into Jamie’s shoulder.
He was bleary-eyed and similar to a few others in the club, not wearing a costume. Which was annoying considering he was the one who told me to wear a costume. Jamie wore a long-sleeved red flannel, jeans, and one of his ball caps on top of his shaggy black head. Jamie watched me for a few moments. “You’re drunk,” he accused with a grin.
“Takes one to know one,” I muttered stupidly. My brain was slow with my reaction time. The comment came two seconds later than it really should have. Jamie offered me a sip from his flask. I swaggered in place and nearly fell over. Alcohol was not my friend.
“C’mon,” said Jamie, pulling my elbow. A few moments of walking led us toward a staircase connected to the building behind the club.
“Where are we going?” I mumbled as I started to follow him up the stairs.
“I’m taking you to the group.”
I obediently followed behind my coworker, too exhausted and numbed by the alcohol to argue. My walking was slow and sloppy, and I was barely making it one step at a time. Alcohol and heels weren’t a good mix to walk with. We were in a building that looked to be a large studio apartment. I followed Jamie through the dark, knowing it was stupid to follow a near stranger into an unknown area while being mentally impaired. My senses were dulled not only from the alcohol but also from Darren’s rejection. Reality was setting into my mindset and making it hard to function. Negative thoughts haunted me. Darren probably realized he didn’t want to go out with his chubby coworker at the very last minute, but he didn’t want to hurt my feelings, therefore he was ghosting me before things got more complicated.
Now I was filled with the hollow feeling that I wasn’t good enough for him. That feeling simply magnified and made me feel that I was not good enough for anyone.
I never had good luck with boyfriends or crushes. This was just one more guy to add to the overflowing list of romantic failures. Adding my weird moment of thinking I was going to kiss Matt made things worse.
I begrudgingly followed Jamie, unknowing and slightly uncaring for where we were going. It wasn’t until I heard a low growl from somewhere in the dark that I paused my steps. Did I hear that or had I imagined it? I started dragging behind in my walk, no longer certain following Jamie was a good idea. I slowly came to a stop, a dreaded feeling filling me suddenly. Tiny hairs slid up on the back of my neck while goosebumps tickled the flesh of my arms. Impulse told me to run. Fear rooted me to the spot.
“Are you coming, dude?” asked Jamie over his shoulder. He was perhaps more intoxicated than me; he hadn’t heard the growl.
I hesitated walking but only for a moment. A dim light slowly came into view. I followed behind Jamie to find most of our coworkers were on the rooftop overlooking the city. A fire pit was lit, the only light on the darkened roof. I stayed hidden in the shadows as Jamie went forward to take a seat on a nearby fold-up chair. He slapped hands with someone as he went to sit. There were a few people already out there, all coworkers from the set-up department. I saw the faces of Cale and Bobby, Nico and Chaz. Terrence stood nearby quietly sipping his beer. A strong breeze of wind came from nowhere, ruffling my hair and chilling my skin.
The group of young men instantly stopped talking once the breeze blew through. They looked around in wonder, but it was Cale who found me in the dark. “Why is she here?” he hissed.
I couldn’t tell if it was my own nerves playing tricks on me or whether it was reality that suddenly all eyes were upon me. “She made it one whole month,” said Jamie with another stupid grin. “She’s one of us now.”
Bobby nodded his head in a strange agreement. Terrence held up his beer bottle toward my direction as a show of polite acknowledgment. Nico grinned at me while Chaz looked indifferent. Jamie wasn’t wrong. It had officially been one full month since I had first transferred. The entire month had been a complete blur of ignoring my coworkers while also trying to learn a job no one was training me in. It was only Cale who suddenly looked aggravated. “You fucking moron. She can’t be here!”
Jamie looked uncaring as he took another sip from his flask. “If someone runs with us for a whole month, they’re one of us. Wasn’t that the cardinal rule?”
“That rule is for guys—”
“That’s a rule that’s been overdue for updating,” defended Nico. He was usually very quiet and reserved. Never had I heard him speak so many words in front of me. The most we had ever conversed this last month was when he dropped his iPod and I picked it up for him. He mumbled a thank you and that was it. “She’s pretty cool for a girl. I say we give her a shot.” It was such a surprise for me to hear him speak. We never spoke to one another, and I often avoided looking at him because I didn’t want to be caught looking at the long, gnarly facial scar he had.
Cale suddenly looked wild-eyed and worried. “It doesn’t matter if she’s fucking cool. The rules have always been in place for a reason. We don’t have girls as a part of it!”
“He’s right; she’s not one of us,” Chaz said. He was the tallest and burliest of all the guys there; his sandy brown hair was a curly bush on top of his head. Anytime I had seen him, he had it pulled back with an excellent man bun. Even though Chaz was one of the youngest at eighteen, he was also one of the biggest in size in height and weight. His hands were ham-like fists atop of stocky arms.
If I were honest, I was barely listening to the young men around me. The vodka drinks had been enough to make me sincerely tired and ready to nap. I tried to take a step backward but staggered and nearly fell. The doorway caught my stumble.
“And you brought her drunk,” said Cale through gritted teeth. “Awesome. What if something happened to her up here?”
“You don’t like her anyway. Why do you care?” snorted Jamie. He took another sip from his own bottle. “She’s kinda cute.”
Chaz snorted and waved his hand as if to silently say Jamie’s comment was up in the air. I found I would have been offended, but I was so drunk the odds weren’t in my favor I would remember this conversation tomorrow.
“I say we vote,” said Bobby with a roll of his shoulders.
“There’s no females for a reason,” warned Cale crossly. “You already know what I say.”
“It’s a no from me as well,” said Chaz with a sigh. “We don’t know how she’d fit in.”
“Well, it’s a yes from me,” said Bobby.
Being one of the quietest, Nico looked uncertain before he gave a slight nod. “Keep her.”
“Hell, put her in. We could use some fresh meat.” Terrence grinned.
“I recruited her, so I say keep her,” said Jamie with a stupid smile.
“Look at that, four against two. We win,” said Bobby with his own triumphant grin toward me. “Welcome to the pack—”
“No,” growled
a new, very familiar voice. I was leaning against the wall but looked to see Matt was suddenly in the doorway overlooking the group. He snarled a low string of profanities under his breath that caused two of the closest guys to flinch. “I leave you morons alone for ten minutes and you’re recruiting the new girl!” I watched him with weary eyes, admiring his strong posture as well as his cheek bones in the dim lighting. He was really a very attractive man…
I staggered to remain standing while ignoring my inappropriate thoughts regarding my sister’s boyfriend. “Sorry, Matt,” said Jamie, even though he didn’t look or sound the least bit apologetic. “It’s four against three. Evie’s in.”
I thought Evie was a stupid nickname, but I was too tired to argue. Exhaustion was winning over, and all I wanted to do was go to sleep.
“This isn’t a debate,” snarled Matt. “You can’t rope her in here when she has not the faintest idea of what’s going on—”
“What, are you guys drug dealers or something?” I mumbled. My body slowly sank to the ground to sit. I rested my back against the wall and crossed one ankle over the other. I shivered from the cold. Matt looked down at me sympathetically.
“If only.” He chuckled sardonically. After a moment of watching me, he removed a jacket from a nearby chair. Bending down, he wrapped it around my shoulders. Matt moved to help me up and off the ground before Jamie spoke.
“You’re not in charge, pal. Let the boss decide if she joins.”
“No,” said Matt firmly. “The coded rules were made for a reason; she doesn’t belong here.”
“Told you,” said Cale in a sing-song voice. He looked pleased with himself as he shot me a cocky smirk. It was enough that it caused me to throw my hands in the air.
“I wanna join the club,” I slurred in a mumble.
Some of the others snickered as Matt’s eyes widened. As he looked down at me, I flinched from his suddenly angry expression. “You’re not joining, and that’s final.”
“You’re nooooooot the boss of meeee.” I glared at him. Or rather, I attempted to glare. It came across as awkwardly squinting at him.
“Stubborn little thing,” he breathed before looking up at the dark sky. He murmured more long profanities. I jumped from how fast he bent down and grabbed my forearm. He simply held it up and then dropped it, seemingly testing how much control I had over my body. My arm tingled in his grasp. I didn’t have that much control. My arm fell awkwardly and hit the hard ground as he let it go. It was a proverbial wet noodle. This alone caused Matt to glare at the rest of the group. Nico and Bobby winced.
“So she’s a little drunk,” waved off Jamie defiantly. “She still knows what she’s doing.”
“I can’t lifffft my arm up.” I giggled stupidly. I had a random case of the giggles I couldn’t control. Laughter took over me as I watched everyone’s expressions.
“Yeah, that’s clear consent right there,” snarled Matt. As he and Jamie engaged in a verbal sparring session that involved name calling, the others looked torn. Cale was obviously team Matt. He started berating Jamie while Nico started angrily ranting in Spanish. The others alternated between looking indifferent or unsure of whose side to take as the arguing commenced. “You’re such a tightly wound spaz,” said Jamie.
“You have no idea how dangerous it was to bring her up here!” snarled Matt. Harsher name calling was made. Soon enough, the fight escalated. As soon as someone said that Jamie was an airhead, Jamie took ahold of his beer bottle to chuck at Matt’s head. Given the short distance and it being a glass bottle, it should have hit Matt square in the face and caused massive injury by either breaking his nose or cutting his left eye. But it didn’t. No impact to his face was made.
Matt caught the bottle easily before it hit the bridge of his nose. The glass didn’t shatter upon his catch, either.
Next, a low, horrible grumble sounded from Matt’s throat. The startling noise caused my breath to hitch. Suddenly, a frightening snap of jaws and more growling was heard from all around. Given the music from the club next door was so incredibly loud, it was doubtful anyone else could overhear them if they weren’t on the rooftop with us. More snapping and snarling took place that sounded like a growling pack of dogs. Before I could comprehend what was happening, I had many sets of piercing yellow eyes watching me tremble on the ground. Too many things were suddenly happening at once. Cale made a sudden movement for me. It was faster than normal, easily at a supersonic speed that would be impossible for anyone that was human.
He leaped over a table, sending bottles of beer crashing into shards all over the floor. His mighty leap had him suddenly perched right in front of me. But right before Cale could reach me, he was body slammed into the ground by Matt. The fight was easily won with Matt as the victor. Cale was flat on his back and very angry. He had a boot pressed against his throat as he thrashed against the ground, desperate to get back up. A growling snarl sounded next and halted everyone’s movements. I saw that the familiar faces of the boys had all disappeared. No longer were any of the boys resembling a human. All were now horrifying hairy animals with protruding snouts and muzzles dripping saliva. Before I dropped to the ground in an unconscious slump, I saw Matt’s face was no longer pale and handsome. It resembled the face of my other coworkers, monstrous. His face was now furry with a long, pointed muzzle. His hands, just like the others, had fur covering the outsides of them as well as long fingers that had sharp talons protruding from them. Simon had been accurate in his bizarre theory that my supervisor was a werewolf. Only, he hadn’t known that every one of my coworkers were one as well. Matt wasn’t a lone wolf; he was part of a pack.
CHAPTER 11
The next morning, I woke up groggy and weary. My eyes blurred. They slowly readjusted to the daylight pooling in through my bedroom window. In my head there was a dull throbbing, a rocking headache that could slay a walrus. My entire body felt sore and tired. It took a few long moments to get my head together. Removing my comforter from my body, I found I was still dressed in my too-revealing dress. My cape was off, as were my earrings and sky-high heels. They were neatly folded on top of the wardrobe across the room. I pulled myself out of bed and into a stretch before I realized something bizarre. I had no recollection of taking any of those things off of my body the night before. Walking over to my vanity mirror, I found my hair was a proverbial rat’s nest. My curls were mangled, and my makeup was smeared. I clearly hadn’t run a brush through my hair or even taken off my eyeliner and foundation when I got home last night. My eyes soon grew wide with horror. It was watching my frightful face in the mirror that inspired me to try hard to recollect how I even got home, but my mind was coming up empty. I couldn’t recall anything other than my bizarre nightmare involving all my coworkers morphing into monsters. I tried to qualm my panic as I hurried into Simon’s room. He was still fast asleep under his blankets, his digital clock saying he had an hour to go before it was time to wake up. After trying to politely wake him up only to fail, I finally shook him to wake him.
“Geez, I’m up, I’m up!” he grumbled as he stirred awake. “What the hell…?” It was seeing my frightened face that caused him to sit up. “What’s up?” He yawned as his eyes slowly adjusted into focus. He was wearing a ratty Rugrats t-shirt, and his hair looked just as bad as mine did.
“How did I get home last night?” My voice was barely a whisper.
“I’m assuming you drove,” said Simon with a yawn. “That’s typically common with people who have cars.” His tone held his typical amount of teenage snark as he rubbed his eyes. He yawned. When he looked back at me, he could obviously see that something was wrong. “Why…?”
I spent the next twenty minutes dissecting the party and everything I could recall. I explained all about Darren standing me up to my getting drunk. By the time I got to the part about my coworkers’ transformation right before I passed out, it appeared I had lost Simon. He had taken to pacing his room and looking out his bedroom window. After my final detailing, he look
ed near eye rolling. “Wait…so all of your coworkers turned into werewolves, and not only did none of them turn you into shredded meat before eating you, they instead brought you home safely and tucked you into bed.” It wasn’t a question but more of a statement. Simon showed no emotion. He then nodded seriously, and that was how I could tell he was mocking me.
“Why aren’t you believing me?”
“I just find it hard to believe that all of that happened.”
“It did!”
Simon nodded once more. “To top that, the werewolf boys then happened to park your truck in the front yard drunkenly.” My brows furrowed. I had no idea what he was referring to until I hurried to his window. He wasn’t wrong. Parked outside in the front yard was a bizarre scene. Next to my mother’s wooden swing and her dying flower bed was my truck. But that wasn’t right. It shouldn’t have been there. I had no recollection of anything after the incident on the rooftop, let alone driving home.
“I didn’t drive last night!”
“And your truck just happened to drive itself back home?” Again, there was more snide mocking in his tone.
“Simon, I swear I didn’t drive home drunk! I was headed outside to call Miranda to get me. Before I could reach her, Jamie found me. I don’t know how the truck got here!”
Simon looked to hold an overwhelming amount of doubt until he saw the panic on my face. His skeptical look started to fade. “You seriously don’t remember driving home?”
“That’s what I’m saying!” I covered my face with both hands as I tried to recollect the night before. “I don’t remember anything other than the boys turned into monsters! One minute they were my human coworkers, and the next they were snarling creatures…” I slowly slid down the edge of the bed until I was sitting on the floor. All I could do was stare off into space as the memory of the boys morphing still replayed in my head. I didn’t realize I had started crying until Simon’s hand was patting my shoulder.
The Wisconsin Werewolf Page 8
