The Bear Shifter’s Game

by Martha Woods

  “Orson?” Jamie replied, attracting the attention of Rachel, who absolutely recognized that name from their conversation last night. How could you forget it when someone had uttered it while they were completely pouring their heart out? “What’s going on, how’d you get this number?”

  “Frank and Helga gave it to me, but that’s not really important. What is important is why they gave me this number.” There was a pause in the line, enough for Orson to pinch the bridge of his nose, a move that Jamie still remembered him doing when he was frustrated or stressed. “Jamie, have you heard from Megan or Shane?”

  “No, not since we moved away. Megan sent me some money a few years ago, but I haven’t heard a word, why’s that?” He clenched his fist, knuckles white against the surface of the table. “Orson, what is happening?”

  “The three of you were right about me, I wasn’t the right person to be leading. Things got worse, we tried to make them better, only made them worse, and finally… I tried to make a deal with the wolves, so that we could both actually still keep living, even if we didn’t like each other,” He laughed, a hollow, bitter sound that dug into Jamie’s ear like a knife, “It worked with one of them, we were planning to do some really great things, but then the wolves betrayed her, and the bears betrayed me, and they were planning to go to war.”

  “You said planning, past tense.” Jamie couldn’t move, could barely even breath. It was amazing he still had the power to speak. “What did you do Orson?”

  “What I should have done a long time ago, burned the fields, gave us no reason to keep living there, it was about time we moved on anyway. They tried to kill me but… things went bad, and one of them ended up dying. I’ve beaten myself up a lot over it the last few weeks, believe me, but there’s no changing it. I had to do it anyway, they were planning to kill you.”

  “Me?” He asked, looking around the cafe to make sure he wasn’t being watched, Rachel doing the same even though she didn’t know what she was looking for, “Why would they try to kill me? I left!”

  “They figured that if they killed me you, Shane and Megan would come back and try to avenge me. If they’d actually asked me if that was going to happen I would have told them no, I would have actually been pissed off if you did, but they figured that it was inevitable, so here we are. Since the fields burned and one of them died they’ve doubled their efforts trying to find me, which would have diverted some of them away from the three of you, but they’ll still be looking.”

  Jamie didn’t reply, staring down at the linoleum tabletop as though it could answer any number of the questions racing through his head, yet he was still coming up blank. When he spoke next it was with all the anger that he’d suppressed for five years, all the fear and all the sadness making way for something so indignant and so cold that Rachel shrank away from him, the fear that she’d been certain she wouldn’t feel very much gripping her at that moment. It was enough to convince her that whatever was happening on the other side of the line was the real deal, and if it was the real deal then they had something very serious to worry about.

  “I left five years ago, five. Years. You selfish asshole! I left, I wanted nothing to do with any of this, and even now because of you not being able to help yourself, now I’ve got someone coming after me again? Do you know how hard I’ve tried to run from what we did?”

  “I know Jamie,” Orson said, not indignant, or challenging, just accepting. He knew that whatever Jamie was feeling was completely justified. “I’m sorry, there’s nothing that I can do to make up for this, but I can at least try and protect you through everything that’s coming. Even if all I can do is send you a warning to try and give you a head start.”

  “A head start? To what, run away again, as though I haven’t started building a life here?” It was frankly incredible that the phone hadn’t snapped in half with how tightly Jamie was gripping it, but he was putting too much effort into not breaking the table in half to pay much mind. “Fuck you Orson.”

  He disconnected the call, tossing the phone onto the table and leaning forward on his elbows, gripping fistfuls of his hair and suppressing the scream that he desperately wanted to let out. But they were in public, and while an angry phone call was hardly anything new in this state, yelling and screaming was the sort of thing that people tend to notice.

  “Are you ok?” Rachel asked, after giving him a moment to breath and get his wits back, “Was that… your brother?”

  Jamie inhaled slowly, letting the air push down his throat and fill his lungs, chest swelling as he held onto the air and slowly let it back out through his nose, clenching his fists tightly and forcing himself to relax somewhat. There was a lot to explain, none of it good, and it wouldn’t do to try and explain any of it in anger. “Yes, that was my brother,” He said, “Orson, I think you remember me telling you about him.”

  Rachel nodded, saying, “He was the one in charge of everything right? Why’s he calling you now all of a sudden? And… what was that about people coming after you?”

  “I don’t want to go into the details, but apparently things went bad back home, they were trying to kill him, they wanted to kill the three of us too, and now it’s all gotten a lot worse, if you can believe that.” He deflated, almost sinking into the vinyl seat and letting his head drape over the headrest. “I can’t believe this, things were actually starting to go well again…”

  “They don’t have to stop being good!” She said, intensely aware of how naive that sounded but knowing that him sinking into a depression wasn’t going to help either of them, especially him, “If we just take a moment to think about this I’m sure that we can come up with something, you’re one of the smartest people that I know!”

  “I don’t know if I’m smart enough to get myself out of this though, I… you have no idea the kinds of things that I saw, or did, I know what’s coming after me. The only thing that I could do is fight.”

  Rachel sighed, knowing exactly what that meant. “And you don’t want to do that, do you?”

  “No. I’ve had enough of it, of all of it, I don’t… I don’t want to be that person again, even if it kills me. If they come for me, if they’re actually coming for me, then I won’t fight it, I… I can’t.” Reaching over, he squeezed her hand with all the care in the world, making sure that she could see the genuine regret in his eyes when he said, “I’m sorry.”

  “You don’t have to apologize for anything,” She said, “Not one single thing, I can’t even imagine what you went through, but I don’t want to see you die, can you understand that? You don’t have to fight but, but what about running? Can’t you do that, just get out of here and make a new life somewhere else?”

  “I could,” He said, “I could. But I don’t want to. My life is here, as small as it is. My life is with you, with Josh even, as strange as that is, I don’t want to throw all of that away to try to find it again, if I’m going out I want to… I want to go out enjoying something, you know?”

  “I know.” Rachel squeezed his hand back, sighing and letting herself deflate right alongside him. “What a shitty phone call to get out of nowhere, we were actually having a good time today.”

  Jamie huffed, blowing a breath of air out of his nose and biting down the chuckle in his throat. “You haven’t run away yet, I suppose I’m still having a pretty good time in that case. I wouldn’t blame you if you did though, considering that I’m probably going to be killed soon, I don’t think I want to see that.”

  “Yeah well, tough shit,” She said, “You’re my best friend, do you have any idea how much I care about you? I’m not going anywhere, if they leave me be after that then fine, if not, fine, but I’m not letting you go alone, do you understand?”

  Jamie didn’t know what to say, looking down at their linked hands and not quite able to get a word out, mouth flapping up and down before he closed it completely, instead just nodding and offering a silent thank you. What else could you possibly say to a declaration of protection like that?
To know that when the end came for you, that you weren’t going to be alone… that was a comfort not afforded to many people, there was something intensely sacred about that, and having it come from someone that he valued so completely and so wholly, who had been with him through everything and had accepted him for who he was… it was a bittersweet feeling nonetheless, but he wasn’t blind enough to deny how intensely blessed he was for having it either.

  “You still want to go to the party tonight?” He asked, almost laughing at the utter ridiculousness of what he was saying. When she looked over at him like his head had been turned around completely and let her mouth fall open in shock he couldn’t hold it any longer, his arm wrapping around his stomach as he leaned his head back and nearly cackled in the silence of the cafe. “What? There’s no point in worrying about anything anymore, we may as well go and have some fun.”

  “You… well, at least you have a clue about how insane you sound right now,” She said, shaking her head in both fondness and exasperation, “But yeah, I suppose that we can still go to the party. Do me a favor though? At least let me try and think of a way to stop all of this, even if it ends up going nowhere? I know I said that I’d stay by your side if things end up… going that way, but I’d prefer not to have to bury you anytime soon, if you can understand that.”

  “I don’t have any problems with that,” He said, “Just don’t put yourself in any danger, I don’t want you getting hurt because of this as well, that’s for me and me alone. But… if you need help with anything, you need to find out how something works or what something is called, you come to me, ok? We’re friends, you can count on me.”

  “This is an intensely weird friendship,” She laughed, “But sure, we’ve got a deal. Now help me finish this bagel.”

  To say that it was intensely weird to be preparing to go to a party after finding out that there was a kill order out on him was… definitely understating the obvious. But he’d really struck a chord when he’d said that there was no point in worrying too much about what may or may not happen, so the two of them had struck out in search of drink and clothing for that night, ready to dress as gaudy as they felt (Or at least as much as Jamie could physically will himself to) and drink whatever expensive drink they could afford. They had no idea when the hammer was going to fall, which meant that they would have to treat every meal and every day like it was the last.

  Jamie didn’t mind too much about that, he still had some money squirreled away in case of emergencies, and what could possibly be more of an emergency than this right?

  “This is the weirdest party preparation that I’ve ever done,” Rachel said, holding up two bottles of alcohol and grimacing at them both, “I think this tastes like crap, but I don’t know.”

  “Well what tastes good?”

  “None of it, it’s alcohol,” She laughed, “You just find the least crappy tasting one and hope that it’s cheap enough for you to buy a lot of it. You act like you’ve never been to university before.”

  “Maybe I’m a little inexperienced, I can admit that. I have spent the last three years more or less trapped in my room, so I think I’ll delegate to you on this.”

  “Good, because I really don’t have any clue what I’m doing.” Pinching her lip between her teeth, she shrugged her shoulders and put the two bottles into the basket by their feet, pushing it along the aisle as she scanned the shelves for anything that seemed expensive and ridiculous enough to bother buying. “How much money do you have for this by the way?”

  “Enough, trust me. Whatever you get I can cover it.”

  She clicked her tongue, staring at him disapprovingly. “And here we’ve been getting cheap lunches for the last three years, you could have treated me to five star dining.”

  “I mean there’s still time, I’ll have enough after this probably.”

  “Seriously, it’s weird hearing that you’re like, secretly rich or whatever.” Picking up two more bottles and adding them to the basket, she placed her finger underneath her chin and hummed in thought, “I wonder what everyone else’ll be bringing. If you show up with something crazy then you’ll probably be the life of the party.”

  “Do I want to be the life of the party?”

  “I think it’d be cool for you to be the life of the party, yeah.” She grinned. “It’ll be like one of those eighties comedies about nerds or whatever. Except, you know, without all the weird racism and dubious consent.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about and I don’t want to know what you’re talking about,” He drawled, picking up a bottle that was sitting all by itself on the counter, “How about this?”

  “That’s champagne,” She said, before smirking at the image in her head, “You know what, sure, put it in the basket. If things get too boring you can shake that up and spray it on everyone, that’ll be pretty funny.”

  “Awesome to hear that your party fantasy of me is me being an asshole,” He laughed, staring out the window and seeing that the sun was starting to die down, “It’s been getting dark pretty early lately, huh? It’s only like… four thirty.”

  “Yeah, a bunch of weird stuff’s been happening when it gets dark too, but I guess you got the message on that at the diner.” She turned, hand on her hip and her eyes glancing up at him in concern. “Do you still not remember what happened? What if it was something to do with the people that are coming after you?”

  “I don’t think it- ah!” Jamie clutched at his head, temples pounding furiously as a light danced in front of his vision, a blotch of black and red covering everything for a moment as he almost doubled over. “Ah, shit!”

  “Jamie?” Rachel asked, holding onto his shoulder and debating whether to shout for help, “Jamie, what’s happening?”

  He panted, heavily, uncontrollably, heart pounding in his chest and the image burned into his retinas. “I think…” He said, voice shuddering, “I think I saw what attacked me, but… that’s impossible.”

  “Impossible?” She asked, “Why’s it impossible? People remember things all the time.”

  “No, I mean…” He laughed, incredulous, barely believing that what he was about to say was actually coming out of his mouth, “I think I saw a vampire.”

  Chapter 6

  “A… a vampire?” She asked, holding her finger up and staring off at the wall, “When you say vampire… do you seriously mean vampire?”

  “When I say vampire I’m pretty sure I mean vampire, yeah.”

  “Like fangs, cape, bats and shit?”

  “Well really only the fangs, other than that he just looked like a homeless person.”

  “You don’t think that maybe it was just a homeless person?”

  “Rachel, I know the difference between a homeless person and a… creature of the night, that almost tore me open and threw me face first into concrete. That’s a pretty important distinction that I’m not sure I could mistake.”

  “Right, right, because I’m sorry but it’s been a very long day of finding out that you can apparently turn into a bear and everything,” She said, rubbing at her arm and sighing heavily, “I guess I’m just not ready to have to accept that vampires are an actual thing that exist in not just the world, not just in this state, but outside my place of work. That’s just not something that I think I was prepared to hear today.”

  “Well, if it’s any consolation, I think he was just content to rifle through your trash. Although… I think he did have blood on his face when I found him, so I’m not sure what to make of that.”

  “Oh wonderful, not only does a vampire live behind where I work, but also apparently he’s been feeding recently, that really makes me feel better about all of this. I don’t know if I want to go back to work now, that’s a real doozy of a thing to have on my mind when I’m trying to pour cups of coffee.”

  “It wasn’t just that either, when he grabbed me…” Jamie clutched the side of his head, another flash going through his mind that made him fall to his knees, barely able to see
through the flashes. “I’m ok, I’m ok… just… remembering more.”

  “You look like you’re having a seizure,” Rachel said, picking him up and checking his pupils, “You look fine, but it’s pretty clear that you aren’t, I think we need to accept that.”

  “I’m fine, really, my brain isn’t melting, I’m not going to drop dead. Every time I remember something I feel a little better than I did before, and this… I think that he might have been trying to warn me about something, something about my blood, or blood that he smelled, it’s so weird…”

  “You’re telling me,” Rachel huffed, “Come on, I’m gonna get this paid for and we can talk more back at the dorm ok? If you end up passing out I want it to be on a bed, not… in the middle of the aisle at a liquor store. There’s more glamorous ways to go out.”

  “Can’t argue with that,” He said, but he couldn’t quite ignore the persistent tapping on his temples, like something was just waiting to come out.

  “Alright, spill it,” She said, pushing him onto the bed and sitting next to him, “Everything, tell me everything, I want to know what happened with Nosferatu when you went out back.”

  Jamie nodded, by now having a near complete picture in his head except for one or two small details, he couldn’t quite tell what it had looked like, or how long he’d been held on the roof, but those details seemed inconsequential to what else was going on. “When he grabbed me, I thought that he was just going to rip straight into me when I saw his teeth, but instead he just… sniffed me. Then he got angry, said that Florida was his territory, not mine, and me and my friends can’t take it away from him.”

  “You and your friends?” Rachel asked, “What could me and Josh possibly do against a vampire?”

  “See that’s what I was thinking at first, but then I kept asking about it and he acted like he’d seen other people like me, you know, shifters. I’m only really starting to understand that, but I think maybe the shifters have been in Florida for a while now, trying to find me to… take me back to the camp, or kill me, or whatever it is that they wanted to do, they just haven’t managed to find me yet.”