Masonic Werewolves

by James Livingood

  Jacob nodded his head and Brandon walked off, scratching his beard and shaking his head. Jacob could hear Brandon repeating a word, “Stupid” several times while walking away. Jacob was relieved that he wouldn’t be kicked out and it was indeed stupid. Why did he let petty revenge cloud his vision so much? Wasn’t he smarter than that?

  Brother Scott Ywett walked up to Jacob and put his arm around him. “Trouble with your new clique of friends?” It was easy to hear the man’s sneer in his voice. “You know I used to be in charge of the largest order. I kept things in line and was respected. My order in the brotherhood is shrinking, while theirs just keeps growing. If you were smart, you would do well to keep clear of them. They have some trouble coming down on them that will certainly even things out in numbers.”

  Jacob looked at the man. “What do you mean?”

  Brother Scott did not go into more detail. Instead, he left Jacob's side and went to speak to more of the people from his order. This left Jacob in an odd situation. He wanted to talk to Brandon about the ominous warning, but at the same time, he knew he wasn't on the best of footing. He decided that the time might be best during dinner. Perhaps he could make an off-handed remark to see if Brandon knew anything?

  Loud pounding at the door interrupted Jacob's thoughts. Who was pounding at the door this time of the evening? He knew that it must be an outsider because everyone inside the lodge (and even some branches outside) knew when the ceremonies would be held.

  Jacob heard yelling and more pounding at the door. Several of the guys from the moon moaner order looked sharply at the door. Their ears must have picked up something that most people couldn't have. Jacob stretched his keen sense of hearing towards the door.

  “We know they are in here. You’ve harbored unnatural beasts in this devil’s den. We’ll root out the lot of you from this town!” came the voice of an angry woman. Sounds of agreement and yelling were coming from beyond her. Jacob turned towards his order and mouthed the words, “mob?” with a confused look on his face.

  He was indeed right when the group burst past several doors into the inner chamber of the Masons.

  Brother Scott Ywett walked over to the woman in charge. After a few words, he pointed towards the group of moon moaners. He had a look on his face of triumph. He had felt excluded enough to do something rash. What he didn't anticipate was that two strong men would grab him shortly afterward.

  “What, what is this? I am not one of them.” Brother Scott Ywett said.

  The men shrugged, but one said, “You may not be one of them, but you certainly helped harbor them. That makes you just as bad. Good men who do nothing are just as guilty as the bad guys.”

  Instead of confronting the mob, Brandon made a hand gesture to leave out the back. He started walking towards the woman as if he were going to talk to her. He twisted and bolted out the back door, just like the rest of his group. They would serve better if no one knew for sure what they were. If there were even a shred of doubt, they would use it. Other Masons would be saved because nothing could be proved. At least, that's what Brandon hoped for.

  He wasn’t expecting to see that the building was surrounded. When they swung open the door, part of the group was waiting for them. They quickly shut the back doors and retreated down the basement. They had doors down there that could lock. Perhaps they could wait out this storm. It was the hope of a panicked group of men, wondering why everyone was so angry.

  They got to the basement and locked the doors. “What was that?”, “How did they find us?”, and “Why are they so angry?” were asked by nearly every man in the room. None of them had the answers, but they still asked each other.

  A loud knock came at the door. “Come on out and we’ll talk. We aim to root you out of this town, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t go elsewhere. We just don’t want your kind next to our good folk.” Came the woman’s voice, hard and not willing to negotiate.

  “Can we just wait them out, in here?” One of the order asked Brandon. He shook his head.

  "No, they will eventually take the door down. Or worse, they could set the building on fire. We need to come out. Listen though; we are not children about to be scolded by our moms. This is our home, don't be pushed into SHIFTING into their game." He looked around and met their eyes, lingering on Jacobs for an extra moment.

  Brandon opened the door and various people escorted them all out to the parking lot. When the group was finally out, they saw a mix of people.

  At the very center of the crowd were the noisiest haters. They yelled slurs about dogs and being a werewolf. By the amount of religious jewelry, it was easy to tell they must go to a particular church. The other onlookers, forming the outer ring, were merely curious. Jacob recognized a few from the outer ring. He had either gone to school with them or bought vegetables from them, or had his car oil changed by them.

  A man pushed himself forward. That man pointed at Jacob and the woman signaled Jacob to be pulled out from the rest of his order. Jacob had confusion on his eyes, until he saw the man who was staring back at him. Zan stood there, angry and fury written plainly on his face. He looked over at a woman, whom Jacob had seen at the park. The two of them holding hands. Apparently, Zan was dating a member of the werewolf hating mob. For a moment, he caught Zan looking at his girlfriend in disgust. That gave him an insight into Zan that maybe he was being forced here.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  A woman stepped in the middle of everyone and began to yell, "My name is Abigail Smith. I am a tax-paying, seventh-generation daughter of our fair town. I go to the Harmony Church every Sunday morning, and I teach high school biology at John Ivers. I regularly go to town hall meetings and I am not afraid to say my mind.”

  She pointed around the crowd, "I am not one to judge lightly, but my daughter obtained irrefutable evidence. Beyond that, once you hear of his behavior, you'll know the truth! Sugar pop, show them your online video."

  Zan’s girlfriend tapped on her phone and then looked up at her mother. “Mom, there has to be, like, 50+ people here. Are they all supposed to crowd around my phone? Can I just tell them where to go?”

  Abigail rolled her eyes and nodded her head. Zan’s girlfriend began, “Ok, everyone, on YouTube go to youtube.com, forward slash, watch. That’s like an Apple Watch. Then a question mark, v like victory, equal sign.”

  Several people had their phones out, and a few of them were already confused. Murmurs of “do I type just watch or apple watch in here?” and “what’s a forward slash? Like this?” ran through the crowd.

  Abigail’s daughter continued, concentrating on her task, “lower case j, lower case c, upper case Y. Again, that’s Upper case Y.” The confusion continued to grow. Zan rolled his eyes and put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

  Zan interrupted her and yelled out, “Just go to YouTube and search Werewolf to Naked Man. It’s the first video.”

  Although this helped the crowd out immensely, Abigail’s daughter was having none of it. She hit his arm hard, causing him to flinch. She then stuck a finger in his face and began to talk in heated tones. His body language switched to groveling and pleading. He stuck out a hand to try and show the people around him. She slapped him in the face as hard as she could and stormed off.

  All the while Abigail looked on, smiling and nodding at the young couple. She shrugged to Zan and said, “I raised a fierce woman”.

  Zan rubbed his cheek. It was then that Jacob saw the dark circles around Zan’s eyes were not from being tired. He had been hit. Zan looked ashamed and shrunk back into the crowd.

  Abigail continued to the crowd in a loud voice, “As you can see from the video, this man here.” She pointed at Jacob, “Transforms from a wolf into a naked man in the park. It could be a fake, yes, but that would require the production budget of a major motion picture. This is not some prank posting, trying to gain internet fame.”

  Abigail stuck out her finger in the air, “Furthermore, here is what I know of his behavior. He joins a secret
society that is highly suspect. The whole lot of them are probably werewolves!” Her finger pointed at the lodge and the group of men gathered near it.

  Brother Scott chimed up, “Hey now Abigail, this isn’t what we discussed in church. I thought I told you that there is an order within the lodge…”

  Abigail nodded, but continued, "Also, and tell me if you can deny this, you dog-napped my daughter's boyfriend's dog! You probably would have eaten him if you weren't stood up to." She got in front of Jacob and began to yell. "You are a demon wolf. Admit it!"

  She then slapped him in the face. Jacob could feel the wolf in him get angry. It needed an outlet. All this frustration of letting down his brothers and then being confronted by a crowd. He was backed into a corner, and now this woman was hitting him. Zan had beat him down, twice, and this woman would probably do it a third time. He had the power to stop this. He could shift and bite her. It would serve her right for being a miserable person.

  She slapped him again, and yelled a second time, “Demon wolf come out! I compel you to come out demon wolf!”

  Jacob was about to turn when he caught the eye of the local auto-mechanic. He shook his head slightly. Jacob wasn’t sure if he had seen that right. Another person in the crowd was looking not at him, but at the people gathered. Jacob felt some kind of instinct that his secret was not so secretive. Other people knew what was going on in this town. They looked ready to defend him. Jacob’s dog, “Sir Licks-A-Lot” came to his head. A sly thought crossed Jacob’s mind. He would give this woman a wolf.

  Jacob ducked his arm over his head, the goal being to mess up his hair. He yelled out, as loud as he could, "I am changing! I am changing! I am becoming a wolf!"

  He fell on the ground. Jacob began to make loud grunting noises and even let out a fart. He yelled out again, “My teeth are growing! I am becoming a wolf!”

  Abigail, not catching on to what was happening, continued her rant at top volume. "Yes, Demon wolf, come out! We will smite thee Demon wolf when you prove to us your true shape!"

  Jacob jumped up on his feet and stretched out his back as far as possible. He made his eyes go cross-eyed, just for added effect. In the dumbest, loudest impression he could make, he howled. He then proclaimed, "I am a wolf!"

  The crowd began to chuckle. Abigail was about to hit him when Jacob dodged and stuck his tongue out. He ran his tongue up the side of Abigail's face. He wished he hadn't, because of the taste of makeup. However, the crowd's response moved from a chuckle to loud laughing. Jacob looked around and saw that the group was responding to his dumb joke. He doubled down and grabbed at Abigail's side. He then pretended to hump her leg. He closed his eyes and stuck his tongue out as far as it would go. The crowd continued to laugh.

  Abigail started hitting him and yelling for him to get off her. Some other person in the crowd yelled, "That's probably the most action she's seen in years!" and the crowd continued to laugh. While Abigail had been a church-going high school teacher, her loud opinions did not make her popular.

  Jacob let go of Abigail's side and smiled broadly. He found Zan in the crowd and even he was smiling. His girlfriend was hitting him for smiling, but it seemed like he couldn't help himself.

  Jacob then began to address the crowd as loudly as he could, "Listen, everyone, listen! Abigail is right. I was in the middle of a dare one of my lodge brothers gave me. I am new to this…" Jacob made quote signs with his hands, “ ‘secret society’.”

  He put his hand to the side of his mouth, as if about to tell a friend a secret, “Mostly we just have dinners and recite speeches.”

  Jacob pointed at Brandon and said, "My lodge brother Brandon dared me to wear a skinned animal in a public place. I was worried the bear would drag in the dirt, ruining the hide. I chose a coyote skin and ran around in the park late at night. I was so embarrassed that I just bolted."

  Abigail piped up and asked, “Then why were you naked?”

  Brandon caught the general mood of the crowd and stepped forward, “That was not part of the dare! We never dared him to go naked! That’s all him.”

  Jacob winked at Brandon and said to the crowd, “It was very liberating! You should all try it sometime.”

  A few more laughs came from the crowd and they began to dissipate. Jacob caught several of their eyes as they left, getting slight nods of approval. As he scanned the audience, he saw Zan.

  Both Abigail and Abigail’s daughter were yelling at him. No wonder he was such a jerk most the time.

  Brandon grabbed Jacob’s shoulder and whispered, “Good job.” He seemed about to say more, but Jacob still had more task to do. He walked up Zan and the women.

  “Zan.” Jacob said in a plain voice.

  “Yeah?” he said, the women around him going silent.

  “Why do you put up with this?” Jacob pointed to the two women beside him.

  Abigail’s daughter answered for him. “He’s a joke with no other place to go. He can’t even walk a dog. He’s always broke and if he didn’t live with me he would be on the street. My life might be better if he was a bum on the street instead of a bum on my couch!”

  That comment made Jacob think of his close friend Robert, playing video games on his couch. Jacob tried to look at Zan but Zan’s eyes were looking down. Zan believed what these women were telling him.

  Jacob sucked in a breath and made an offer, “Zan, I shouldn’t be asking this, because you have been a jerk to me. However…” Jacob let out the big breath he had been holding. “Do you want to be my roommate?”

  That comment stunned the women and Zan had a tiny quirk of a smile at the corner of his lips. Jacob tried his best to justify the offer, "I already have a friend who is over all the time, so I am used to that. Even if you paid practically nothing, it would still be more than he pays. He ends up using my video games and eating my food."

  Abigail’s daughter pushed him forward and scuffed, “If you want him, you can have him. Zan, have your junk out by tomorrow. Not the day after, not the week after, tomorrow.”

  The two women left talking to each other. Zan and Jacob stood there in the awkward moment. Zan finally replied, “You mean it? She’s right, I really can’t afford much. I am trying to go to school so I can’t hold a full-time job.”

  Jacob shook his head, "I don't care if you pay me anything. I mostly couldn't stand the thought of anyone being bullied regularly."

  Zan looked down at the ground. “I did beat you up. Twice. I am sorry about that… I didn’t, you know, know how to express.”

  Jacob put a hand on his shoulder. "I think I almost had you both times. Let's call it a draw, okay?" Jacob put his arm up and flexed his bicep.

  Zan smiled and nodded, “A draw sounds good. Do you guys really just hang out and have dinners in there?” Zan pointed toward the lodge.

  Jacob patted him on the back and said, “Why don’t you come in and see?”

  Zan asked, the smile growing on his face, “Will I have to call you ‘brother’? You guys seem to do that a lot.”

  Jacob shrugged as the two of them began walking towards The Grand Lodge of Wonderous Repute. "If you prefer, you can just call me ‘the Wolfman'." Jacob said with a wink.

  Brandon chimed in, “Or just ‘Pup’.”

  Zan smiled at Brandon. “I could call him ‘pup’.”

  Jacob stood there for a second while the two of them continued walking forward. “Wait, no, you guys. That’s not funny.” Jacob began running towards them to catch up.