The Bear Shifter’s Game

by Martha Woods

  He nodded, slowly, rubbing his hands together nervously. “I think… I think it’s about time that I told someone though, and if you want to hear it… I’d like it to be you.”

  “Well in that case, go ahead,” She said, pulling his hand into her lap and lacing their fingers together, “And no matter what you tell me, I’m not going anywhere, you understand? Nowhere. I’m your friend, and I’m staying here, with you.”

  Jamie smiled, squeezing her hand once and taking a deep breath. “Me and my family used to live out in the forest, back out west, kind of in the middle of the country somewhere I think. We lived with a couple of other families, had our own little community, territory you know? Farming, living off the land, a real frontier fantasy, I think they call it now. Crap what would Megan call it… ‘Hillbilly chic’?”

  She snorted a laugh, taking some of the tension out of his shoulders. “Megan’s my sister, she’s the one that paid for me to come here. She always had trouble keeping her mouth shut.”

  “Where is she now?”

  “No idea. She sent me the money with a note telling me not to ask where it came from, and that’s it, the last time that I heard from her. That was a few years ago now, I don’t even know if she’s still alive or what. Anyway...”

  Smiling softly at the feeling of her hand in his, he looked over to see her watching him with total rapt attention. He knew enough that he knew that he was doomed.

  “Anyway, there was this other community that lived out there too, been living there just as long as we had, maybe even a little longer, and they wanted us gone. And things had always happened between the two of us, you know people getting hurt, going missing, but when I was a little kid suddenly everything just… went up, you know? Suddenly we’re not allowed to walk through the forest anymore because everytime a group comes back one of us is gone, or they’ve slipped in during the night and left one of us in pieces, it was… it was horrible. Then I got the word that we had to start paying them back, and I get told that I have to go out there with everyone else and start pulling my own weight. My father was telling me this.”

  “Jesus...” She whispered, “How old were you?”

  “I was ten,” He answered, “And I was ten when I got into my first fight with that other family, and that’s where I got… this.”

  Watching his hand as it grabbed a fistful of his shirt, she gasped as he pulled it upwards and revealed the long, lancing scar that went from his waist to his chest, like he’d been pulled apart like a wishbone. It wasn’t her first time seeing it, but it was the first time she’d been able to look at it so directly, to see the exact extent of the damage, and knowing exactly what had caused it. “You were… ten?”

  “I won that fight too,” He said, “My dad was so proud of me, said that I was his little warrior, no one could stand in my way, I was ready for the big leagues. I wish I knew back then just how full of shit he was, I really do.”

  Shuffling them back until they were laying back against the pillow, Rachel pushed herself onto her side and kept watching him, stroking her thumb along the back of his hand to let him know that she was still there, that he wasn’t alone while he was remembering everything. There was no possible way that she could know just how much he appreciated it.

  “Me and my siblings all started fighting, every day we were going out and getting more and more scars, doing worse things and hoping that we’d make it through the other end. We always did, but sometimes… sometimes I wished that I didn’t, you know? And I know I wasn’t alone in that, Shane had… he had some bad luck out there more than once, we all lost friends but he lost everyone more than once. I just wished that the whole thing would end, whether that meant they killed all of us or if they just gave up, I didn’t care anymore, I just wanted it to be over. Do you know what I mean? Have you ever felt like that?”

  “No…” She said, looking away, “I don’t think I have.”

  “Oh,” He said, staring up at the ceiling, “Well, honestly, let’s hope that never changes, it sucks. Anyway, eventually they killed my dad, and he killed a few of their dads, and something just… broke in everyone, and they just decided to all give up, every single one of us, just like that. I guess everyone that wanted to keep going just ended up dying sooner or later, probably should have happened sooner, it would have saved us a lot of trouble.”

  It was strange hearing someone have such a… non-reaction to their father dying, but Rachel could guess that from everything else that had been said that Jamie wasn’t that much of a fan of his father. Given that the sight of his son grievously injured had evidently brought out pride rather than worry was telling in that regard.

  “It was all over?” She asked, “No more fighting?”

  “Not in any way that mattered, there were a couple that wanted to keep going, on both sides, but one way or another they got… dealt with. I was too busy being glad that I could sleep again to really notice that properly at the time, I only remembered that after I left.”

  “Why did you leave? It was all over, so you should have been able to enjoy… well, maybe not enjoy, but at least be able to relax, right?”

  “Well, you’d think so,” He laughed, genuinely laughed at the memory, “Unfortunately I guess that everyone in my family, including me, is just a massive dumbass that doesn’t know how to handle things like adults. Or maybe we were just too screwed up from everything that we’d done to really be able to do anything else other than lash out, that’d explain a lot. Really make us our father’s children.” Tapping his fingers together, he shrugged and explained, “Our brother Orson was the one that took over after dad died, and for a few years things were… alright, I guess, but eventually crops weren’t growing properly, people were leaving, things just weren’t going great. But he just wouldn’t listen, and eventually we all got to arguing, we all said some things that we regretted, and I just walked out, grabbed my bag and left. I think I was… sixteen, maybe seventeen. I can’t remember, everything’s kind of hazy until I got to Florida.”

  “You just left? Walked out into nowhere and tried to make it on your own?” She had to admit, the thought made her smile a little. She’d considered herself to be rebellious for some of the things that she’d done, but just packing a bag and hitting the road like it was no big deal? Maybe she shouldn’t have been smiling, but it was… an interesting look at what many had mistaken as such a meek boy. “How long was it until you enrolled here?”

  “I took a few months to walk around the city, get a feel for anything, check out the alligators, then I got a package in the mail from Megan. Still no idea how she knew where I was, and as for how much money was in the package, she definitely did something illegal, but it was enough to afford the tuition here. And..” He scratched at the back of his neck, blushing slightly. “I also… paid to get a forged highschool diploma.”

  “You did what?” She almost shrieked, sitting up and shaking him by the shoulders, cackling at the top of her lungs, “How have you been holding out on me for so long? You’re like… the quietest little rebel that I’ve ever come across! You got a fake diploma to come here?”

  “Please,” He drawled, trying to stop his head from shaking back and forth, “Yell it louder so that everyone can hear it.”

  “Sorry, sorry! It’s just… wow, you know? I mean you’re a runaway, and in a few months of that you’re living here and going to school like it’s no big deal at all. Oh shit so that means that when we first met you’d been on the run for like… four months at that point?”

  “Around that, I was just glad to have somewhere to sleep where I wasn’t going to get stabbed in the middle of the night, came close a couple of times!” He sighed, “Well, that’s me, that’s my story, kind of a weird one to think about huh? Probably thought I was just some weird nerd from like, Wisconsin or something like that.”

  “I wasn’t going to say Wisconsin, but You’re right about the rest,” She laughed, her smile faltering as she looked at him again before she looked away. I
t was a telling enough look that he knew exactly what she was thinking, it was the same look that he’d seen in the mirror many times over the last few years.

  “You’re wondering if I killed anyone, aren’t you?” He asked, squeezing her hand when she froze, smiling in understanding at the look on her face, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell you unless you want to know. But I have a feeling you do, don’t you?”

  She nodded, shaking so much that she didn’t notice how hard he was trembling as well. He blew a shaky breath through his lips, squeezing her hand tightly, before he uttered a single, “Yes.”

  It was a strange feeling, to be sitting next to him as he admitted to such a thing, such an admission should have shattered her world completely, maybe even driven from her room completely, but somehow… somehow it just made her feel sad for him. How long had he been carrying this burden all by himself, being forced to do such things from such a young age, when everyone around him should have been protecting him, rather than using him to protect themselves. How many were still alive that had used him so callously? How many still went to sleep at night never thinking about what they had done?

  “I’m sorry,” She said, leaning over and wrapping her arms around him, squeezing with all her might until she could feel his bones shifting under her arms, doing her damndest to make sure that he felt every ounce of love and care that she had in that moment, to make him know for a certainty that there was no way that she was going anywhere, that she was staying right here, with him, no matter what. “They shouldn’t have been able to do that to you. I’m so sorry.”

  “You know, if your plan is to make me cry like a little wimp then…” He sniffed, wrapping his arm around her chest and pulling her in tighter. “Dammit… it’s working…”

  They sat there in silence, arms wrapped around the other and their feelings pouring out of them, the sheer love and care that they had for each other so readily apparent that not even the most oblivious of people would possibly be able to miss it. Well, except for the two of them, but there were more important things for them to be focusing on at that moment, rather than the way that their heat was mingling and their hearts were beating, the breaths against their necks and the tears that dipped below collars. They may not have noticed it, but they certainly felt it, on some level they knew.

  And in many ways, that terrified the both of them more than anything else that they could think of.

  Chapter 3

  “I can’t believe that you’re still coming to work after all of that, I would have figured that would have wiped you out completely, you told me basically your whole life story and then we got a microwave burrito from the vending machine.”

  “Yeah, I’m kind of regretting that now, I think it was old.” Jamie flicked his tongue out a few times, as though that was the universal test for determining the age of food, before he slipped his hands back into his pockets. “And besides, this is exactly what I need to get my mind off of everything, an honest night’s pay for an honest night’s work.”

  “Your idea of getting your mind off everything is going back to the place that made you think of it in the first place?” She asked, slowly, as though she was talking to a toddler, “What’s your grade average again?”

  “Probably higher than yours,” He fired back, bumping his head against her shoulder, “And sure, maybe it’s one of those ideas that doesn’t make sense on paper, but trust me, this’ll work. And I’m still not a hundred percent convinced that you and Cliff weren’t just seeing things, so this’ll be a good way to see if you two are actually crazy or not.”

  It sounded like denial even to him, but he’d lived in Florida long enough to know that it was… just kind of a strange place to begin with. A tweaker jumping over a fifteen foot wall with no harm done to him honestly wouldn’t be the weirdest thing he’d heard about even within the last month. Perhaps on second thought he should think twice about where he was actually living.

  “Whatever you say detective,” Rachel said, mock saluting, “You’re not going to be washing dishes or anything, Cliff’s nice by he’s not going to risk a health violation. You’ll probably just be sitting out the back waiting to see if anything comes along.”

  “Oh no, getting paid to sit around all night, that sounds terrible.” He shrugged, smirking when she rolled her eyes. “Come on, it’ll be fine. I’ll even treat you to a movie or something, would you like that? It can be as shitty or as good as you want, and I won’t complain about it.”

  “You’ll complain about it.”

  “I promise, even if it makes my head explode, I’m not going to complain about it. Or I’ll have to pay for the next one too.”

  She couldn’t exactly argue with a deal like that, so instead she stuck her hand out and shook his twice when he offered it, grinning at the thoughts of the hell that she was going to put him through. She could tell he recognized instantly what a terrible idea he’d just come up with, but the handshake made it final and trapped him into honoring his word, whether it killed him or not. Knowing the quality levels of some of the things that they’d watched, he wasn’t certain that she wasn’t going to end up killing him somehow.

  “You just dug your own grave,” She said, holding the door of the diner open for him, “Now come on, let’s earn some money.”

  “Shit,” He said, rubbing the back of his neck and bowing his head, readying himself for his punishment, “Alright, guess it’s about that time, isn’t it?”

  Stepping through into the diner and seeing the smiling face of Cliff greeting him, Jamie almost forgot that he wasn’t here to actually work properly as their coworker, somehow he’d ended up as some… glorified paranormal detective on the case for whatever their mystery trash searcher was. What bothered him was that he knew for a fact that it could in fact be paranormal, and while most of these ‘detectives’ were either stunningly stupid or just fraudsters looking to make a quick buck, he was going into this knowing that there could be a kernel of truth to this whole mess.

  Kind of took the wind out of his sails a little, but he wasn’t a coward. He was scared, but he wasn’t a coward, that much hadn’t changed from when he was a child.

  “Come on through here,” Cliff said, patting him on the back and guiding him towards the small cupboard that they’d designated a changing room, “I got you a temporary uniform, right from the cleaners. You can keep it after tonight, but just call that our little secret.”

  Jamie looked up at him, arching an eyebrow and not even trying to hide the little amused smile that was crossing his face. “Are you just trying to make this into an extended recruitment, is that it?”

  “Well, I wouldn't call it that,” Cliff said, grinning and holding a finger up to his lips, “But I’m also not not calling it that, so make of that what you will. Just hang around in the back until you’re sure you’ve seen all you want to see, I’ll make sure you’re paid for a full night’s work, and give me a holler if you see anything you need help with!”

  “Will do Cliff, thanks!” He shut the door behind him, slipping into the uniform which, somewhat disturbingly, fit him perfectly. Apparently Cliff was good as sizing people up at a glance, who would have known? “Alright, I’m in my outfit, I’ve got a pocket full of Mentos and a magazine, I’m ready for guard duty.”

  The first hour went by without incident, but the sun was also still lighting up the horizon, it wasn’t until it sank down completely and the sky turned dark that things really turned weird around here. The second was no different, but it was also a busy time of night, people coming and going from work, slipping into bars and strip clubs as patrons and workers, too much traffic to go around creeping into random alleyways with no one noticing. Though the time waiting was evidently getting to Jamie, given how high he jumped in the air when Rachel walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder, almost dropping the coffee that she’d brought him when he spun around and dropped low in preparation for a fight.

  “What… the fuck are you doing?” She asked, not
noticing the drop of hot coffee that had splashed onto her fingers from stepping back, “I just brought you coffee, not cyanide.”

  “Sorry… sorry,” He panted, “That was my bad, sorry about that. Thank you for the coffee.”

  “If you’re like this when nothing’s shown up then I can only imagine what you’re gonna do when something does show up.” Staring through the door to the outside and squinting her eyes to get a better look, she shook her head and sighed, “Maybe we were going crazy and it was just some hobo, what kind of cryptid would run away from a gun?”

  “A lot of them,” He answered, too quickly and certainly to play it off as a complete joke. Instead, he figured a logical explanation would do to deflect. “I mean, how many of them do you think have even seen a gun before? Do you think they even know what it is? Or are they just seeing something shiny and going ‘Oh crap!’, and running off?”

  “You think… you think the Trashman, the infamous Trashman, is scared of small, shiny objects? Would jingling my keys work to drive away the Trashman?”

  “It’d be worth a try, but I’d try running away first personally.” Sipping at the coffee that she handed him, he fell back into his seat and groaned, turning from side to side and popping his back. “How’s work going? Any weirdo’s showing up tonight?”

  “No more than the usual, Cliff’s there anyway if any of them get handsy, no need to worry.”

  “I could help out if you need it too, just give me a yell.” Sipping the last of the coffee, he placed the cup next to his chair and stood back up to stare out the door, smiling at her as she turned to walk away. “Thanks for the coffee Rachel, good luck.”

  “Good luck yourself,” She said, pausing before adding, “Yell if you need help.”

  Around the fourth hour he was considering this whole thing a wash, when suddenly it seemed as though the entire experiment had paid off, a rustling of metal and plastic echoing from around the corner that immediately caught his ear and made his heart race in his chest, first instinct to shout out for Cliff going unanswered as he pushed the door open and stepped out into the darkness. He still knew how to fight, there were some things that you never really forgot even if you wanted to, but he was still convinced that it was just going to be a strange hobo that he was going to have to drive off. It might not even be the same one that they’d seen the previous night, this could be just someone else who was hungry and in need of food.