Hidden Realms

by Dean Murray

  The second the latch clicked, I whirled on Jason. “What is he doing here?” I spat, pointing my finger at Max. “He’s in league with Dan, I saw them sitting together.”

  “Hey!” Max interrupted. “I’m not in league with him. I could tell he was a wolf, so I tried to talk to the guy, then I realized that he’s completely nuts.” He crossed his arms, looking like a grumpy elf.

  Wait, a wolf? “Don’t tell me you’re one too,” I groaned.

  “Well yeah,” Max answered, holding his head high, “but I’m not a bad one, I’m here to help.” His head remained high, proud to not be a “bad one”.

  I turned back to Jason as he started pulling things out of a dark blue backpack to show to us: a length of shiny silver chain, two sets of handcuffs, and a medical case. Lucy looked ready to pass out.

  “What’s in the case?” I asked.

  “Tranquilizers,” Jason answered, shifting his focus from his “supplies” to acknowledge me. Taking in my shocked expression, he elaborated. “First we’ll chain her up. The chains and cuffs are solid silver. Then if she starts to change, we tranquilize her. It won’t stop the change, but it will slow it down and stop her from hurting herself.” He opened the medical case and showed us several syringes and vials of clear liquid.

  Lucy had now gone from pale to green. Allison noticed and sat Lucy down on my bed. Jason looked questioningly at Lucy, deep blue eyes pinched with concern.

  I didn’t feel too hot myself. I do not like needles. Even thinking about getting a shot makes me queasy, and getting blood drawn, forget about it. I can’t even watch people get shots on TV. There is a very justified reason why my ears aren’t pierced.

  “Well it’s only 5:00 right now,” Allison announced, taking everyone's attention off the tranquilizers. “What time is she supposed to change at?”

  “Full dark,” Max responded. “Around 8:00. We shouldn’t do it here though. Jason found a place.”

  We all looked at Jason still squatting on the floor beside his backpack. He stared back.

  “Lead on,” I said in a booming voice, dramatically thrusting my arm toward the door.

  Jason chuckled. He was the only one. At least someone found me amusing.

  Jason gathered the supplies and shoved them back into his backpack, then we all trooped out of my room and downstairs single file. I told my mom we were staying at Lucy’s. Luckily I hadn’t mentioned to my mom that Lucy’s parents weren’t in town. At her further questioning I answered that of course the boys were going home by nine, and out we went into the crisp evening air.

  Jason’s nifty car was waiting out front for us. Apparently my wish for a ride was about to be fulfilled, if not in the same fashion I had imagined. Jason opened the car door and lowered himself into the driver’s seat, unlocking the other doors as he did so. I snagged the front passenger seat, leaving everyone else to pile into the back. Lucy ended up squished in the middle between Allison and Max. Jason started the ignition and the David Bowie CD that was in his player started to play. A man after my own heart. Away we went, into the unknown.

  Chapter Ten

  We drove away from town to the mostly abandoned industrial district, passing by empty lots and dilapidated buildings as we went. The slowly eroding buildings were all a depressing gray that caused them to blend in with the murky sky. The district has the feel of a ghost town. Only transients and other seedy characters dwell there these days.

  I glanced at the door to make sure it was locked, then looked at Lucy’s face in the rear view mirror. She had her eyes pinched shut like she was trying to pretend that nothing was happening. I couldn’t imagine how she felt. I was scared enough just being involved in the situation. Lucy had to face the fact that she might become a werewolf in a world where we would have never imagined such things existed.

  The crunch of gravel on asphalt along with the slowing of the car brought my attention back to our surroundings. Jason had pulled into the back lot of an empty, cavernous warehouse and was driving into an already opened bay. Once inside, he parked, then we all got out to survey our surroundings. Jason walked back to shut the bay door behind us while Max took several electric camping lanterns out of the trunk of Jason’s car.

  Max turned on each lantern as he placed them around the expansive, creepy, dusty room. I looked up and everything was black, there was no telling how high the ceiling was. I felt the darkness pressing down on me, inciting panic, like reverse claustrophobia. I took slow breaths, in and out, hoping no one noticed. I drew my hand over the beads of cold sweat that had formed on my brow.

  As Max’s lanterns filled the warehouse with a dull glow, I took more of a look around. Trash and what appeared to be old clothes littered the floor, giving off an unpleasant, mildewy smell. The area where Max was setting up the lanterns had been swept clean of debris. I tried to distract myself by attempting to make out some of the graffiti that covered the walls until Max walked back toward us.

  “You ready?” Max asked Lucy, who was huddling next to me looking terrified.

  “B-but, it’s only 6:00,” Lucy stammered.

  Max shrugged. “Better safe than sorry.”

  I put my arm around Lucy’s shoulders, acting calmer than I felt, and walked her to a metal-framed folding chair that Max had placed in the center of the lanterns. Jason approached with the chains and cuffs.

  Jason faced Lucy. “Go ahead and sit down,” he told her.

  Lucy slowly sat on the black canvas seat of the rickety metal chair, then looked up at Jason with huge, terrified eyes. “What next?”

  “Hold out your hands.” Jason set the chains and cuffs on the cement floor and demonstrated by holding his hands in front of him, wrists side by side. Lucy slowly complied, but was trembling so badly that she could barely hold her wrists together.

  Jason picked up one set of cuffs and knelt by Lucy. He gingerly cuffed her hands together, running the cuff on her right hand through a link of the chain before locking the cuff down. He then put the second pair of cuffs around her ankles and attached the other end of the chain, kind of hog-tying her. Then, using a big padlock, he attached the loose ends of chain to a metal loop coming out of the concrete ground. I hadn't noticed the loop before, and wondered what its original purpose was. Finished, Jason backed away to survey his handiwork.

  “Is that it?” I asked. “It doesn’t seem very . . . restraining.”

  Jason turned his attention to me. “It will be when she’s in wolf form. She’ll be a lot bigger than she is now. We don’t want the chains to hurt her when she changes.”

  Oh, well that made sense . . . I guess.

  Lucy watched us with big, terrified eyes. I went and sat on the bare concrete beside her, taking her hand in mine. The cold from the ground seeped into my body. Everybody else sat in a semicircle in front of us.

  “How did you know Dan was crazy?” I asked, turning to Max.

  He gave me a confused look.

  I elaborated, “In my room, you said you tried to get to know Dan and you realized he was crazy. How’d you know?”

  Max hesitated. “Um, you know, just by the kind of things he talked about . . . ”

  I fixed him with a stubborn stare, crossed my arms, and raised my eyebrows, urging him on.

  “He told me to stay away from Lucy, because she was his. He told me I could have Allison if I wanted.” Max paused at an ‘as if’ noise from Allison.

  “What about me?” I interjected.

  That confused look crossed Max’s face again.

  “What?” I asked snarkily. “You said that Dan claimed Lucy and you could have Allison, what am I, chopped liver?”

  Jason chimed in with a smirk on his face, “You're mad that no one claimed you as property?”

  I gave him a petulant look. “It’s the principle of the thing.” I turned back toward Max. “Well?”

  “He didn’t include you because you can’t be turned,” Max replied.

  Now it was my turn for the confused expression.
/>   Max went on, “Only humans can be turned.”

  Jason gave Max a sharp look. I looked back and forth between Max and Jason, trying to understand the warning look on Jason’s face and the confused one on Max’s.

  “She doesn’t know,” Jason said softly.

  “Oh,” Max murmured. “Sorry.”

  “Ok, someone needs to tell me what’s going on here,” I interrupted.

  “I don't think you want to know,” Jason said softly.

  “Try me.”

  Jason turned to me, looking resigned, he explained, “Supernatural beings are usually equipped with a way to tell their own. To a werewolf, humans have a certain smell, and anything not human will smell different. They may not be able to decipher what type of being you are, but they can tell if you aren’t human. You don't smell human.”

  I gave him a smug look, despite my sudden loss of breath. I managed to suck in enough air to reply, “Of course I’m human, my mom’s human, and as far as I know I’ve never been bitten by any sort of supernatural beastie.”

  “You never knew your dad,” Allison countered, catching on to what was being implied. “Your mom’s human, but you have no idea what your dad could’ve been.”

  “For someone who was still skeptical about the werewolf thing, you seem all too ready to believe that my dad was some sort of . . . non-human,” I shot back.

  Allison frowned. “Just think about it, Xoe.”

  The superior look faded from my face. “But . . . I’m sure my mom would have known if my dad had been less than human, and if she knew, she would have told me.” It sounded a weak defense, even to me.

  “Would you have ever guessed that Max wasn’t human?” Allison asked quietly.

  A stab of fear entered my heart. “No, but I don’t really know Max. My mom knew my dad. He had to have been human,” I said in a last ditch effort to prove them wrong.

  Jason wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I am sorry Xoe, but . . . your smell begs to differ.”

  “Well, then . . . what am I?” I asked no one in particular.

  Max shrugged. “Not sure, it’s not a smell I know.”

  We all sat in silence. If my mind wasn’t already spinning, it sure was now. I had just begun to accept the idea that supernatural beings existed. Now I was supposed to believe that I was one?

  “So that’s it?” I asked, frustrated. “You tell me that I’m not human and have no explanation other than that I smell funny?”

  Jason shifted to sit in a more comfortable position. “Has anything strange ever happened to you, or have you ever been able to do something you should not have been able to do?”

  “Not that I know of,” I answered hesitantly.

  “Then there is no way to tell,” Jason stated. “You may simply go on like a regular human.”

  “Is there any reason why I wouldn’t?” I asked. “I mean, if I was going to exhibit any non-human traits, wouldn’t I have done so by now?”

  “Not necessarily,” Jason answered. “Mixing human bloodlines with supernatural is a roll-of-the-dice process. There is no way of telling what might happen. Humans have dominant and recessive traits. The supernatural traits are no different from the others. They may be recessive to the human ones . . . or the supernatural traits may only reveal themselves with time.”

  “Oh,” I answered. What else could I say?

  “What time is it now?” Lucy asked the room anxiously. I wanted Jason to continue his explanation, but I couldn't blame Lucy for changing the subject. I'd just have to ask him later.

  Max glanced at his watch. “6:25.”

  Lucy cringed. “When did you say it was going to happen again . . . the change?”

  Max watched Lucy worriedly. “Around full dark, it’s not exactly precise. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

  Lucy was silent for a moment, then asked hesitantly, “Will it hurt?”

  Max smiled sadly. “Do you want the truth?”

  Lucy seemed to think about it, then nodded her head slowly, as if she might regret learning the answer.

  “Yes,” Max replied, “it hurts.”

  Lucy nodded her head somberly. I squeezed her hand, and we settled in to wait.

  Only a few minutes had gone by when a horrible thought dawned on me, and my mouth went dry with fear. I turned toward Max. “Um, aren’t you supposed to be turning into a werewolf tonight too?”

  Max smiled. “I can control it. I have to turn each month, but I can do it any of the three days that the moon is at its fullest.”

  Allison looked green. “Are you sure?” she asked.

  Max nodded, perfectly at ease. We had no choice but to take him for his word and hope that it held true. Well, that, or kick him out the bay door, but that would be just plain rude.

  The next hour went by incredibly slow. My mind was completely preoccupied with the idea that I might not be human. Conversation was kept to a minimum, not by choice, but what do you say when you just found out you might not be human, all while waiting for your friend to turn into a wolf? It was almost 8:00. There was no light left outside to shine through the bottom of the bay door where it met the ground.

  Suddenly Lucy started to whimper. “Something’s happening,” she spat through gritted teeth.

  I let go of Lucy’s hand and stood. Jason ran to his medical kit and started filling a syringe. Lucy’s knuckles were white as her hands curled into tight fists. Sweat began to bead on her brow. Jason came running with the syringe and unceremoniously stuck her in the arm.

  Lucy panted heavily, her eyes half closed. Then the screaming started.

  Jason came up behind Lucy and quickly tied a thick piece of cloth around her mouth to dull the noise of her screams. It didn’t help much. We just had to hope that no one was in hearing range of us. Loud popping noises emanated from her limbs and there was a sickening tearing sound coming from somewhere in her body. Her skin began to ripple like something alive swam underneath. Her bones pulled apart at the joints under her skin. Her body twisted and reshaped as her form started to look more wolf than human.

  Harsh reality set in. It was real. It was all real. Werewolves and who knew what else . . . existed. I was frozen with terror as I watched Lucy change. Fur erupted all over her mostly wolf body. It was like freeze frame animation, every time I blinked, the picture changed.

  A few heart-pounding minutes later, Lucy’s screams were cut off into a guttural howl. My limbs unlocked and I ran to a corner and threw up. Hot tears stung my eyes as I crouched in the corner, not wanting to look back to the thing that was formerly Lucy.

  When I had regained enough composure to turn back to the scene, a giant wolf had taken Lucy’s place. It was growling and thrashing around, trying to free itself from its bonds. The warped chair was lying several feet away from the wolf. Large gleaming teeth snapped at empty air as the wolf strained against the chains. The gag had fallen to the floor. The wolf’s fur was the same black as Lucy’s hair.

  Chapter Eleven

  The wolf continued to thrash and snap at the air. Jason herded us away, back toward his car. “She’ll be like this the rest of the night. I’ll stay with her. Max can take you guys home,” Jason stated, annoyingly calm.

  “Will she be like this every month?” Allison asked breathlessly. Her eyes were too wide and I half expected her to bolt out of the building at any second.

  “No,” Max answered, his hand on Allison’s arm, offering comfort. “She’ll slowly gain control of herself in wolf form. Once she’s a little less dangerous, I’ll take her to shift in the woods. Eventually she’ll be able to go out on her own and not risk eating any humans.”

  “How long?” I asked.

  “I don’t really know,” Max replied. “The only experience I have to go on is my own. It took me about five months, five shifts. Those first few months . . . I don’t really remember much of what happened . . . ”

  Max’s far-away gaze made him look like a lost little boy. I realized that I knew barely anything about Max. I had a
lways just kind of . . . overlooked him. He had gone through everything that Lucy had, but he had been completely by himself. Until now, he had lived in a world where no one was like him—alone. I felt a wash of love and gratitude for my friends. With them I would never feel that lonely. I needed to stop taking that for granted.

  I shifted my attention to Allison as she nodded, numbly accepting Max’s answer, then slid into the backseat of Jason’s car.

  “I’m staying,” I stated matter-of-factly. “My mom thinks I’m at Lucy’s and I’m not leaving her. She’ll be scared when she turns back.”

  Jason looked unsure, but finally nodded his assent. Allison stayed staring blankly in the backseat, looking pale. I put Allison’s seatbelt on her without her really noticing, then grabbed a piece of gum from her purse while I was at it to get rid of the taste of vomit in my mouth. I gave Allison one final worried look, then shut the car door.

  After Max and Allison drove away, Jason and I sat cross-legged on the floor, a safe distance from Lucy. Jason had taken a brown leather aviator jacket out of his car before Max drove away. I had assumed it was for him, but as we sat down he draped it over my shoulders. I was freezing, so I didn’t argue. I put my arms through the sleeves and wrapped the jacket close around me. His jacket smelled like him, the scent smelled like a pleasant mixture of trees and vanilla. The cold didn’t seem to faze him.

  I was the first to break the silence. “Tell me more about werewolves.”

  He looked up at me, his face half in shadow. “Max would really be the one to ask. I have already told you most of what I know: they must turn once a month, but once they gain control they are able to change at will; they have superhuman strength, even in human form; they are not much stronger than humans in the beginning, but the strength grows as time goes on; and they are very hard to kill, depending on how powerful they are. Like I said, silver only works on newer werewolves.”