J.T. Gould-

Whelan Hersch – Beginnings

Whelan Hersch – Beginnings received an Honorable Mention in the 2019 Writers of the Future Contest and is presented here as a sample of my fiction.

Unexpected Growth

I usually don’t go on a killing spree the night after my birthday but, really, I had no choice. At least that’s what my mom said. “It’s not your fault,” she chuckled nervously. “This is one thing about our family that you are going have to get used to from now on.” She pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and sat down with her cup of morning coffee. “It’s part of the curse of our bloodline.”

Out on our lawn, the remains of the neighbor’s chickens were scattered all over, like some sort of morbid art project. Feathers and blood were everywhere. I quickly closed the living room curtains of our trailer.

“You really need to try and control that, you know.” My mom puffed on a cigarette and waved her pointed finger up and down at me. “It’s only going to get worse for you if you don’t learn to control the beast inside you.” She chuckled quietly as if there was some sort of joke that I should know about.

The only reason I had even listened to my mom’s daily ranting that morning was because I had found myself in my underwear, covered in blood, lying on the floor. Oh, and I had a chicken foot in my hand. She had woke me up to tell me I should close the curtains and clean up.

With the curtains now drawn, I felt that the weird part was the chicken foot I still had clenched tightly in my hand. I ran to the kitchen cupboards below the sink and buried it deep in the trash. Behind me, my mom let out another chuckle.

“I thought for sure you would be free of it, because I hadn’t seen you change on the night of your sixteenth birthday.” She stopped to take another long drag on her cigarette. Ever since the doctors had forced my mom into a mental health institution when I was ten, she hasn’t been the same.

Sure, she was still my mom. Sure, she still ranted on and on about werewolves being real. But there was something about how she talked now and how she giggled all of the time. Her irregular giggle fits left even me feeling a little unnerved.

“What are you talking about, Mom?” I grabbed a washcloth from the drawer and started washing the blood from my arms. “Don’t tell me that this is because you think I’m a werewolf now.”

“Not just a werewolf.” She got up from the table, leaving her cigarette smoldering in it’s tray, and took the washcloth from me. “You’re so much more than just a werewolf.” She emphasized the words, almost as if mocking me. She rinsed the washcloth in the running water in the kitchen sink, wrung it out, and then started washing blood from my face.

“Mom, am I going crazy, like you?” As soon as I had said it, I knew I shouldn’t have. But I was scared. I didn’t know what to do or think.

She stopped for a moment. The washcloth warm against my cheek as she teared up in front of me. “I thought you might actually believe me now.” She started to wash my face again as she absent-mindedly rubbed a scar on her neck with her free hand. She wiped the tear from her eye and then rinsed the washcloth again.

“What did you mean you hadn’t seen me change on my sixteenth birthday?” I got another washcloth and started washing my chest off. “Were you watching me all night?”

Her head hung and she sighed as if trying to remember something. When she looked up, her brow creased together. “I told your father; he should have listened to me. I didn’t need the doctor’s help.” She dropped the washcloth in the sink and sat back down at the table.

A nervous chuckle escaped her lips again as I sat down with her. “I used to remember all of the rules.” She exhaled smoke away from my face. The smell was horrible, but I had gotten used to it over the last couple of years. “I used to know what to do. What I should do.” She stopped and pointed at me again. Her cigarette waved between her fingers as she spoke, sending a twirling smoke trail into the air. “I forgot that it was the night of full moon after your sixteenth birthday that I was supposed to be watching you.” She put out her cigarette in the palm of her hand.

“Mom!” I grabbed for her hand quickly. I had never seen her do that before. This was a new level of crazy, even for her. She held her hand up for me to see. As the cigarette butt rolled out of her hand, the deep, red burn started to fade. Then it was no longer there.

“Rule about getting hurt: Born in nature, bound by nature. Born as man, bound as man.” She chuckled again, but this time she seemed genuinely pleased that she had remembered something straight. “We can only be hurt and bound by things made by man.” She pointed at the cigarette butt on the table. “That comes from the earth. It can’t hurt us bad.”

The front door opened and my step-dad, Stan, came into the trailer, breaking mom’s train of thought. “The game warden is out on our lawn checking out some animal tracks.” He stopped and looked at me sitting at the table in my underwear and laughed. “Go get some clothes on, Whelan. I invited her in for coffee.”

#

Usually, I would have been embarrassed for that jerk to see me in my underwear. Mostly because he seemed to take every chance he could to humiliate me. The fact that he hadn’t, caught me off guard.

Okay, so there was the fact that I still had some blood on me that he couldn’t see from his angle, and I wanted to get away from the game warden. I saw Mom going to the kitchen sink as I headed back to my room. Hopefully to clean up my bloody mess around the sink.

I grabbed some clean clothes out of my room and dashed to the bathroom. After locking the door, I looked at myself in the mirror. My thighs still had blood on them and some parts around my neck and abdomen.

“Don’t spend all morning in there,” Stan’s voice boomed at the door, and I jumped despite myself. “Game warden wants to talk to you when you’re done.”

Despite being freaked out, I took a record shower – even by my standards. I glanced in the mirror to double check I hadn’t missed anything. My blond hair fell across my face in wet locks like a mop put up to dry. I picked it up and looked closely around the edges of my face. When I realized that nothing was caught in my stubble, I quickly dried, dressed, and made my way out to the kitchen again.

“Ah, there he is!” Stanley got up from the table and wrapped an arm around my shoulder like he did whenever any police officer was in the house. It was a total farce. The guy hated me and I hated him, but we put on a charade for anyone official so I wouldn’t get taken out of the house. It was the only way I could stay with my mom. It was also the only way he could claim me as a dependent and claim me for more money.

“Hi, Officer Reegan,” I said, extending my hand. She stood up and my teenage hormones started raging. She stood a little shorter than me and the uniform she wore was fitted perfectly.

“Morning, Whelan,” she smiled at me and I wanted to melt as she took my hand and shook it. “Just Stephanie. I hate it when friends call me by that title.”

And just like that I was friend-zoned. The smile on my face dropped a little as I plopped into the seat across from her. She sat down and sipped her coffee.

“So your mom said you were up early this morning. Did you happen to hear or see any animals outside?”

I glanced at my Mom and back then back to Stephanie. “Not anything different,” I lied. Mom smiled across the table at me. “The Phillips’ dog was a little loud, but that’s all.”

“Loud enough to be in your yard?”

“No, just like he was barking at something,” I lied again. “Why are you asking about dogs in our yard?”

“Didn’t you look out your window this morning?” She pointed a thumb over her shoulder towards the front door. “There are torn up chickens all over your yard and large canine tracks.  I took some pictures, so you’re free to clean it up, but I’m a little unsure of the tracks in your yard. I haven’t seen anything like them in the Faith area. If I had to guess, I would say it was a wolf, but there aren’t any wolves in South Dakota.”

I got up and walked to the window. I didn’t have to feign disgust as I slid open the curtains. The idea that I might have done that disgusted me. Stephanie’s hand on my shoulder pulled me from my thoughts.

“It’s probably long gone by now.” She had a consoling tone to her voice that sounded rehearsed. “Lone wolves have a history of making a kill or two in an area and moving on until they find a pack to join with.”

“Are you sure it won’t stick around?” Stanley asked. “I could help you catch it if you need me to. Long as I can keep the pelt, that is.” And there was the catch. Stanley never did anything for free. If you asked for help on homework and he even thought he was helpful, you’d owe him extra chores or five bucks. That’s just the loving kind of step-dad that he was.

I let their conversation hum in the back of my mind as I turned to the mess on the lawn. Even from inside I could smell the blood and feathers. It was a sickly, pungent smell with a hint of down. It felt sort of chalky in my nose, like it wouldn’t go away. I bet he makes me clean it up.

#

I had been right. It took me a good hour to get the feathers and bits of chicken out of the lawn. I used some gloves that Stephanie had given me to handle the chickens and feathers. When most of it was up, I used the hose to spray what was left into the gutter. As I was finishing up, Sylvia, pulled up in her beat up Chevy truck. She was the closest thing to a best friend that I had.

“So it’s true?” she asked, climbing out the window and landing gracefully by the curb. Her red hair glowed in the light of the morning sun. “Your step-dad finally went off his rocker and killed the neighbor’s chickens.”

That was the problem with a small town like Faith; word got around quickly. Unfortunately, word also had a way of changing – especially if it was something out of the ordinary.

“You dork,” I couldn’t help but laugh, “it was some animal passing through. At least that’s what the game warden thinks.”

She giggled and tossed her hair over her shoulders. She looked like she had just gotten out of the shower and rushed over to see me. She pulled a hair tie off of her wrist and put her hair up into its usual ponytail.

“So how is my big sister doing these days?” she asked as she watched me wrap up the hose and stuff it under the porch. Stephanie lived two houses from Sylvia and her parents, but she hardly ever visited them. It was like being close was good enough. If something bad ever happened Stephanie would show up, but she distanced herself from her parents right after she moved out.

“She was looking hot,” I joked, and Sylvia punched me in the shoulder just like she had since we were little and I would tease her. “No, seriously. You should have seen her,” I poked and ducked her next swing.

It felt good to have Sylvia around. She always seemed to help me soothe my troubles. It was like she was the sedative to my pain. I started to forget about the crazy conversation I’d had with my mom earlier.

She tackled me on the wet lawn and pinned my shoulders down with her knees. “You’re going to regret that,” she grinned as she pushed my head into the wet lawn and started tapping my collarbone.

I laughed and pushed back a little until I could grab her waist. I started to tickle her and she fell onto her side, laughing hysterically. That’s when I noticed something I had never noticed before.

All of this time that we had been friends, and I never once thought that Sylvia might actually like me more than just a friend. As I tickled her, she started tickling me, and a scent strong and clear came from her that almost overwhelmed my senses.

It smelled like desire, wanting, and joy. It was pleasing and intoxicating like that smell of fresh baked cookies, where you could smell the love in the air. It was as if this smell was meant for me alone. Then the smell of the chickens came from the lawn and shook me out of my trance. I must have quit smiling.

“What’s up, Whelan?” Sylvia asked as she sat up and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear that must have escaped during our tickle fight. “Why the serious face?” She glanced quickly at my trailer and back down again, her face closer to mine as she asked quietly, “Is Stanley hitting you again?”

The pain of years of abuse swelled in my chest, but it couldn’t drown out the feeling of fear from my mom’s words to me this morning. I shook my head slowly and Sylvia raised a skeptical eyebrow. “No.” I sat up as she got closer. “It’s just- you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Sylvia’s slender hand grabbed my knee firmly. “Whelan, we’ve been friends since you moved here in second grade. There’s nothing you could tell me that I wouldn’t believe.”

“Not here,” I said, standing up and pulling her up with me. “Let me go tell my mom I’ll be out and then I will meet you at King’s Drive-In.”

“You sure you don’t want me to wait and give you a ride?” she asked as she pointed a thumb back at her truck on the curb.

“Nah, I’ll ride my bike over in a minute.”

She nodded and climbed in the window of her old blue rust bucket. She had been driving it since she was thirteen and she made climbing through the window look effortless and graceful. Before she pulled away, she smiled sweetly and then let the gravel fly.

#

My mom wasn’t keen on me going out before I talked with her more, but with Stanley home I didn’t really want to be there talking about werewolves as if they were real. I still didn’t want to believe it myself. Stanley tried to tell me something as I was leaving, but I just ignored him as I grabbed my backpack and bolted out the door.

I ran down the steps to our shed and pulled my old Trek twenty-one speed mountain bike out. Seeing that Stanley hadn’t chased me out of the house, it must not have been important enough for him to follow. I strapped in my toes, started pedaling and shifted gears quickly just in case he decided to change his mind.

It was a quick ride, just three blocks in South Dakota heat, to King’s Drive-In. I was relieved to see Sylvia sitting in her truck, waiting for me to get there. She waved me over. I balanced on my bike as I held on to her window to talk to her. “Just toss it in back, I already ordered for us.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” I protested, but inside I was really hungry. My stomach growled loud enough for both of us to hear and we both laughed.

“That’s not what your stomach is saying.”

“Sylvia!” The waitress had the window at the counter opened and was calling out the order. Sylvia climbed out her window and dropped in front of me with the grace of the gymnast she used to be.

“Get in. I’ll be right back.” She punched my shoulder lightly, like she always did and headed to the counter. That smell from before was still there. Not as strong, but still there. I had a hard time not watching her walk away.

I unclipped my feet from the pedals and laid my bike in the back of her truck. I walked around to the passenger side and opened the door. Why Sylvia didn’t just go in and out of this door baffled me, but that was just the way Sylvia did things – her own way. I liked that about her.

“Take these,” Sylvia said, pushing two large shakes in the window. “I’ll be back with the rest.” I took the shakes and put them on the dash as she ran back to the counter. She came back with two white sacks. I could smell it before she even handed it to me: fries, Kings’ famous homemade dough-nuts, and chicken sandwiches.

I took the bags as she climbed in. “Really?” I tried to lay a heavy amount of sarcasm in my voice as I pulled out a chicken sandwich. “Chicken?”

She giggled and took the bag from me to fish out her food. “So what did you want to tell me that you didn’t want Stan hearing?”

“If I tell you,” I asked as I took a bite out of my chicken sandwich, “you’re seriously going to think I’m crazy.” And I felt pretty sure she would. That was what worried me. Being the son of one of the craziest people in town, the rest of the kids seemed to steer clear of me, just in case it was contagious. Sylvia was the only one who had been there for me and didn’t think I was too weird.

“Come on, just tell me, Whelan.” She held up her pinkie finger, “I’ll even pinkie swear before you do, that I won’t call you crazy.” We hooked pinkies and I held her hand there like we always did when we were telling secrets.

“I’m pretty sure that I killed those chickens.”

She jerked her head back a little and stared at me with a raised eyebrow. “I’m not buying it.” She shook her head and her ponytail bobbed from side to side. “You’ve never even killed an ant before. You won’t even let me kill a spider! You have me catch them in cups and let it go outside.”

“That’s not all of it.”

“Okay…” she trailed off, waiting for me to fill in the blank.

I took a deep breath and just blurted it out, “I woke up this morning covered in blood, my mom helped me clean up, and she said I was a werewolf like her.”

I was sure that Sylvia would have laughed or got mad at me – something, anything – but she just locked my pinkie harder and pulled me closer to look me in the eyes. If I was showing anything, it was fear. I didn’t want to lose my best and only friend, but a part of me felt that what Mom had said was true.

“So, I can understand your mom telling you you’re a werewolf,” she said, snapping up a fry and eating it. She squinted her eyes at me. “She’s told you that your whole life that you might be a werewolf like her.” Sylvia picked up her shake and took a sip. She squeezed my pinkie harder. “It’s the ‘covered in blood’ part that I can’t wrap my head around. Are you sure it wasn’t ketchup or paint?”

“I’m sure it was blood. It smelled just like the chickens I cleaned off of my lawn this morning.”

She let go of my pinkie and picked up her chicken sandwich. “Were you sleep walking or something? You could have been dreaming about taking out Stanley and killed your neighbor’s chickens or something.”

She watched me as she ate her sandwich. I couldn’t take her looking at me with those crystal blue eyes like that. It was different. Like I was a puzzle she was trying to solve. She almost had me convinced when I remembered what her sister had said.

“What about the wolf tracks then?” I stuffed my mouth with fries so she knew I wasn’t going to offer more of an explanation.

She sipped her milkshake and then replied, “Could have been a stray or something snooping around your mess. All I’m saying is I don’t believe your mom and I don’t believe you’re a werewolf any more than I believe that I’m a mermaid.” She laughed and my tension eased a little bit.

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe I was sleep walking.” I wanted to believe her so bad it hurt. Sylvia must have noticed the doubt in my eyes.

“I’ll tell you what,” she smiled and put her hand on my knee. “I’ll come by tonight and stay up while you sleep. If you turn into a werewolf, I’ll snap some pictures or something. If you sleepwalk again, I will get a great video for my latest Vine.” She slapped my knee and laughed. I couldn’t help but laugh along.

“The only problem is, Stan and my Mom don’t let me have girls over after nine,” I reminded her.

She smiled at me out of the corner of her eye and suddenly that smell of belonging and desire came back. “Who’s to say that we have to let them know I’m there?”

I felt myself blush a little. To say that I was confused would have been an understatement. Sylvia was my best friend. As I looked her over – quickly I should add – I realized that I had neglected to see how truly beautiful she had become over the years.

From head to toe, she was the definition of awesome. How had I missed this up until now? Her regular summer outfit of cut-offs and a t-shirt showed off more than I had reckoned for in that quick glance.

“Well,” I said and then took a big bite of my sandwich to stall for time to think more. It was hard with that intoxicating aroma filling the cab of her truck more and more the longer we sat there. I took a drink of my milkshake and then continued, “I guess they don’t have to know. You could always climb in my window around eleven tonight. They should both be in bed by then.”

“It’s a plan then!” Sylvia smiled at me and I noticed that her cheeks were a little blushed this time.

Did I just invite a girl to sleep over at my house? I asked myself.

Yep, and you’re dead if Stanley finds out, my conscience replied.

Shut up Conscience, I don’t need any more grief today. And just like that, I had myself a sleepover planned with Sylvia.

I couldn’t tell you about what we talked about after that. My conscience kept battling me as we finished lunch. When we were done eating, she dropped me off at my job at Lynn’s Dakotamart and she took off for her job at the pool.

#

As soon as I got off work, I changed in the bathroom, rolled up my uniform into logs like my dad taught me, and shoved them to the bottom of my backpack. I put on my shorts and Doctor Who t-shirt and grabbed a couple of candy bars at the register. I paid Shannon, the assistant manager, who had taken over after my shift, and ran outside to grab my bike.

I got home a little after eight and stole a couple of slices of pizza off of the table. It must have been Stanley’s night to cook, because that’s all he ever made. Mom was already snoozing in her chair. Whenever she went on a babble spree, Stanley would slip her sleeping pills just before or during dinner. Must have been one of those days.

“Don’t eat all of that,” Stanley’s voice broke the silence. He must have been in his bedroom on the other side of the living room. “I only got one piece. Your mom ate the rest.” He marched to the table and snatched up a slice of pizza. He took a bite and stared at me. I looked over at Mom. It was like he could read my thoughts, “Yeah, she was on another rant today.” He walked to the fridge and pulled out a beer. He cracked it open and took a swig. “She wouldn’t lay off of the idea that you might be dangerous. She said that you were a werewolf like her.”

I tried to laugh and not make it sound as fake as it felt. “That’s Mom alright. You sure she got all of the pieces with sleeping pills? I’d hate to miss the end of my book,” I patted my backpack as if there was something in there other than my clothes. Although I didn’t want to believe my Mom’s ranting this time, part of me was really worried she might be telling the truth.

“Yeah, I put all of her favorite toppings on top of them.” He grabbed another slice and tossed it on a paper plate, then flopped in a chair in the front room and turned on the TV. I wondered if he hadn’t taken some too. He was acting a little drowsy for a guy that only pulled in odd carpentry jobs from time to time.

I grabbed a couple more slices and tossed them onto a paper plate and dashed back to my bedroom to wait for Sylvia. I would have to find a way to kill time and not fall asleep. Actually, just kill time. The idea of Sylvia in my room after dark got my heart racing. The more I thought about her, the more I realized that we were good for each other.

Now if this werewolf thing turns out to be my mom’s delusions, then I’ll feel a lot better. But there was something about waking up covered in blood I couldn’t shake.

#

A tapping noise at my window startled me from a nap. I must have dozed off after I turned out the lights. If I didn’t have them off then Stanley would have come back before he went to bed to give me an earful about how electricity costs money.

I pulled the curtains open and saw Sylvia on her tiptoes, peeking in. The smile on her face broadened when she saw me. “I thought you were out cold for the night,” she said as I opened my window and pulled out the screen.

“Nah, I just dozed off trying to get Stanley off of my back by pretending to go to bed.”

“Well, I guess it worked,” she whispered as she climbed quietly onto the garbage can by my window. “The whole house is pitch black.” She handed me her backpack and then climbed in the window. I couldn’t help but notice that she had put on perfume. It was vanilla scented and made me instantly hungry again.

“You smell nice,” I commented. Even in the darkness, I could see her blush.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t want to stink your room up with chlorine from the pool. Your Mom would know I’d been here for sure.”

“Good idea,” I said as I sat down on my bed. Our trailer wasn’t large, and I had one of the smallest rooms. There was my bed, a built in closet and dresser, and maybe another two feet of floor between my bed and them.

Sylvia plopped down next to me and took her backpack from me. From it she produced a small, fancy-looking, digital camera. “I borrowed this from Stephanie.” She turned it on and the screen was all greens. “It’s a night vision camera that she uses to look for poachers. She’s not on duty tonight, so she let me borrow it. She thinks I’m looking for owls.”

“Well, we’ll just have to- AAAH!” I fought back a cry of pain. I felt my back twist sharply. Sylvia jumped off of the bed as I twisted again. Moonlight was coming through my window and I threw myself on the floor, trying to reach its heavenly beams.

I heard Sylvia whisper again and again, “Oh my God! This is really happening!” I pulled myself into the light and that’s when I heard it.

A soothing voice spoke to me inside of my head. Don’t fight it. Just let me take you where you belong- into the wild. It was smooth and I wanted to do what it said. We’ll just kill the girl and drag her somewhere else. Then no one will know our secret. And that’s when I started to fight it.

I turned and saw Sylvia holding a hand over her mouth. She was tough and doing her best not to scream, but I could tell she was about to lose it. She smelled scared and delicious.

Yes! Delicious! Let’s just take care of her like we did those annoying chickens!

“I will not eat her!” I mumbled under my breath and Sylvia’s eyes widened. I felt the wolf inside of me growing. I looked down and hardly recognized myself. I was standing now, but I had paws where my feet and hands should have been. I reached up and felt my face. A long muzzle was there instead. I licked my chops absent mindedly and I heard Sylvia fumble for the door.

Before I could think about it, my paw fell hard on the door, blocking her escape. She’s ours now!

“Get out of my head!” I growled as I leaned over Sylvia and her shaking body. I felt a release, like someone had just let go of a choke hold on me. I looked around, almost expecting to see someone there with us. Then I looked back down at Sylvia. “Are you all right?”

She had the camera between her face and mine. It was on and in its glow I could see that she was shaking pretty hard. I must have looked pretty frightening. I honestly didn’t blame her. I was pretty freaked out myself.

“Wh-Whelan?” she whispered as she slowly lowered the camera. “Is that you?” Fear pulled at the corners of her eyes widening them like someone was pulling back on her face. I had never seen her so scared.

“Yeah, it’s me.” I realized I was still over her, so I backed up a little. She kept her free hand on the doorknob.

“How do I know it’s you?” She asked skeptically. “I heard you fighting with yourself. It was like watching The Two Towers scene with Gollum.”

I did the only thing I could think of. I held up my paw and watched it slowly turn into a crude hand. I held my pinkie out toward her hand. “I pinkie swear it’s me.”

She slowly hooked her pinkie with mine and then sighed as I locked pinkies and gently shook her hand. “Oh, jeez! Whelan, you’re huge!” she whispered. Suddenly, as if remembering she had it, she took up her sister’s camera and filmed me up and down.

“What are you doing?” I asked, nervously.

“I’m filming this so you can see it later. You have got to see this for yourself.”

“It’s not going to end up on Youtube is it?”

“Are you kidding me?” she chuckled a little, and I could smell that she wasn’t afraid anymore. “This doesn’t fit any of my channels.” It was good to hear her laugh.

I laughed too, and then brought up the elephant in the room. “Oh, shoot! Am I going to be stuck like this all night?”

“If you try to change back, let me know first.”

“Why? So you can get it on camera, too?”

“No,” she pointed at my lower body, “so I can turn my head while you get some more clothes on.”

I looked down and found that my shorts had torn in half and my underwear were stretched nearly to their limits. Good thing I thought to wear clean ones. My shirt was also gone. “Aww! Man! That was one of my favorite shirts! It was the 50th Anniversary Edition!”

#

Sylvia turned around while I tried changing back into a human because, let’s face it, I found myself a little creepy to look at also. I felt my body shrink back to its normal size. I dug out some pajamas I didn’t care about much and changed into them. When Sylvia turned back around, she laughed at my choice of clothes.

“What? I don’t want to wear anything I care about- just in case I wake up in the front room again.”

“I get it,” she stifled another laugh and I saw her turn off the recorder in her hand. The room went instantly dark, except for the moonlight coming in straight down at my floor in the narrowest of beams. “I just didn’t realize how into Pokemon you really were.”

We both laughed and sat down on my bed. I leaned my head back against the wall. Everything started to slide into place in my mind and I turned to Sylvia with a sense of fear. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

“That you’re going to need a really big flea collar?” I couldn’t help but laugh along with her.

“Besides that,” I chuckled again, but this time with a little less sincerity. I looked down at my lap, trying to keep my smile, but I felt it fade as I continued. “If I’m a werewolf, then that means she is. And if she’s a werewolf, then…” I trailed off, not wanting to finish my own sentence.

“Then her stories are all true.” Sylvia put her hand on my knee for the second time in one day. I turned to see that her smile was gone as well. The seriousness of it all had smacked us both in the face. “Even the bad ones.”

We looked at each other in the darkness of my room for what seemed an eternity. I suddenly smelled that inviting smell that I had smelled on her earlier.

“Sylvia,”

“Yeah?”

I wasn’t sure what to say next. Every inch of me felt like it was being pulled toward her in slow motion. She leaned in closer, the space between us almost gone.

A squeaking of the floorboards in the kitchen quickly reversed the polarity of our mutual attraction. Before I could say a word, Sylvia was half-way out the window. She could move quick! I stood up between the door and the window and pretended to stretch just as the door opened.

It was my mom. She looked a little wild-eyed. I couldn’t recall seeing her like that before. To tell the truth, it was kind of scary.

“Mom?” I feigned a sleepy yawn. “What are you doing up so late?”

“Where is your father?”

“You mean, Stanley?”

Her eyebrows crinkled like they did when she was confused. She shook her head and looked at me through squinted eyes. “Who’s Stanley?”

What the hell did he give my mom?

“Whelan,” she put her hand on my shoulder and she was shaking a little. “Where is your father?”

I decided to get straight to it. This was bringing up too many memories already. “He left us six years ago, Mom.”

Her hand fell from my shoulder and to her side. Her other hand went up to cover her eyes. She shuddered and sobbed a little. Then Stanley walked into the doorway.

She turned quickly and looked him over. She looked back at me, and then back at Stanley. I could see the years fall into place in her mind like some morbid Tetris game as she looked back and forth between us. Stanley didn’t look surprised.

“Mom?” I reached a hand out and she pulled away. Over her shoulder, for the first time ever, I saw a look of concern from Stanley’s face. The guy who liked to beat me regularly for everything and anything was slowly shaking his head at me.

“May,” his voice was soft and calming. She looked up at him and stopped shaking. “May, it’s all right. It’s me, Stanley.”

“Stanley.” It seemed like she was trying on the name like an old pair of jeans. “Stanley.” She reached out to him and she looked really tired.

“Let me get you to bed, May.” He put his arm around her and she fell into him, clutching him like he was the only thing stopping her from falling.

“What’s going on?” I asked and he shot me a more typical Stanley look that was more angry than relieved that he had calmed my mom down from whatever psychotic episode she was on now. They disappeared around the corner. A minute later he was back in my doorway, alone.

“Get back to bed.” Stanley wreaked of alcohol and now that the threat of my mom was gone, I could focus on the whole picture. He was gripping a belt in his hand, ready to use it. He stood in my door to block any exit and he looked like he wanted me to challenge him.

“Why was my mom acting like that?” I wanted an answer. After all, he looked like he had dealt with this side of her before. What if he left us? I deserved some kind of answer.

“She does this every time I drug her up. It must be some effect with her other meds or something. I don’t know. Just get your butt to bed before I decide I’m going to put you there.”

“Or what?” I challenged him, taking a step forward. I felt the wolf in me ripping at my insides, ready to get at this piece of garbage. “You’ll go to fists with me? Like all of those other times you couldn’t find your belt?”

Something changed in the way that he normally looked at me. His eye twitched and he gripped the belt tighter as he reached for my doorknob. “Just get back to bed. This is still my house and you’ll live by my rules if you want to live here.”

Before I could respond, he slammed my door. A waft of something other than alcohol floated in my door from his direction. It smelled almost like the same scent near the chickens. It smelled like- 

Fear. Stanley is afraid of you now. The voice was back, trying to egg me on. You could make him disappear. It doesn’t have to be messy like those chickens.

“Get out of my head!” I whispered into the darkness of my room. The dark corners of my room lightened, the details clear as if daylight had come in. I looked all around to be sure I was alone. I flopped on my bed, exhausted from everything I had just endured, put my pillow over my head to block out the bright light of the moon, and felt myself drift to sleep.

Then This Happened

#

“Stanley! Stanley! NO!”

My mother’s screams woke me from a dead sleep. The sun was up and I ran out my open door. I stopped and looked back at it. That was closed last night. Something didn’t feel right. Then I smelled it- blood. Lots of blood.

I turned and ran out to the kitchen. Lying on the floor, near our opened front door, my mom was cradling the bloody remains of a body. I ran to her side and tried to pull her away from it, but she only clutched him tighter.

“STANLEY!” she bellowed. His neck and stomach were shredded. I pried her off of him and pulled her back to the kitchen. I sat her shaking body in a chair and turned back to the gory scene at my front door. I felt my arms start to tremble. I looked down and saw the blood on me. I didn’t know if it came off of my mom, or if it was already there. Fear and dread sunk into my heart and I found it hard to step closer to his body, but at the same time something pulled me slowly towards it.

A siren in the distance shook me from my zombie walk. I could hear the siren getting closer and louder. I turned back and looked at my mom. She cradled her body and rocked in her chair. She was mumbling, but I couldn’t make it out over the siren that was quickly approaching.

I walked over to the front door and looked for clues to what could have happened. There were wolf tracks through the blood going in and out of the door. I tried hard not to look at Stanley’s body. I never was very good with seeing someone else hurt, let alone a dead body.

As I glanced around, I could taste the scent of fear in the air from his body. It was much stronger than from the chickens. It was sort of bitter and metallic, like putting an old corroded penny in your mouth. My mouth curled into a closed frown and I blew air out my nose to try and clear the scent.

Suddenly, the sirens went silent and I heard the sound of tires braking hard in gravel. The cops were in the drive. I stepped out on the porch and Deputy Barnes freaked and drew his gun on me.

“Get on your knees, Whelan!”

“This isn’t what it looks like, Brant!” Brant had been trying to bust me for everything bad that happened in Faith ever since I started growing hair on my chest. I guess he figured that he could get me and mom out of town if he got me thrown into the juvenile detention center. “Some animal killed Stanley.”

“Shut your mouth, boy!” he yelled at me as he came up the squeaky steps of our front porch. He must have been really nervous, because he kept glancing at my shirt and the open door, where our normal white tiles were now a deep red. “From where I stand, you’re covered in blood and I have the body of a man everyone knows you hated. That’s probable cause to put you in custody. Now put your hands behind your back before we have to make this physical.”

I lowered my hands and he was quick to grab my left wrist and twist it behind me. I felt the cold steel of his handcuffs click into place around my wrists. Once I was cuffed, he shoved me into a sitting position, up against the rail of our porch. He grabbed a zip-tie from his belt and secured the cuffs to the post behind me.

He smelled of coffee and cheap cologne. It was a welcome scent compared to the scent coming off of Stanley’s body. He stood up and pushed a button on his shoulder mic. “This is Officer Barnes. I have a possible 10-15 over at the Charles’ residence. Requesting backup.”

“10-4 Officer Barnes.” A man’s voice squelched over the radio on his shoulder. A second later the same voice came back on the radio. “Available units, 10-54 to the Charles’ residence in Faith.”

Brant stood barely taller than me and his tight-cropped brown hair grew out in spikes on his head. He waved his gun back towards the door as soon as he got off the radio. Sweat trickled on Brant’s forehead, though it was probably barely over sixty degrees out. That’s when I smelled the bitter metallic scent of fear again. This time I could tell it was Brant.

He walked slowly towards the body lying in our entryway. The door was only half open. I watched as he kicked the door open the rest of the way. A rush of fear blew my way from Brant so strong I couldn’t handle it anymore.

“There’s nothing to be scared of, Brant.” He turned back and pointed his gun at me and then back in the door. His head still faced my direction and he backed up about a step. I could tell that if I wasn’t careful, I might end up with a bullet in me. “It’s an animal attack and I don’t know where the animal went to.”

The sound of a rushing vehicle spooked him and he jumped back and then leaned over the rail in front of me. A gray Game Fish and Parks truck skidded to a halt in the gravel of our drive. I was so glad to see Stephanie jump out.

“This kid is so messed up!” Brant holstered his weapon and jumped down the stairs as he ran to intercept her.

“Stephanie!” I yelled, “Get me out of these cuffs! It was that wolf again!” Inside I really hoped it wasn’t the same wolf, because then I really was guilty. I wondered if there was another wolf in the area or not.

“Jeez! Brant! What the hell’s going on here?” Stephanie pushed past Brant and charged up the steps towards me.

Brant grabbed her shoulder and pulled her around before she could reach me. “Don’t you dare go near my suspect!”

“Brant,” she stood shorter than him, but her attitude made up for what she lacked in height. “So help me, you touch me one more time and you’ll be the one in cuffs!”

“Steph,” he held up his hands. “This is serious! Whatever he did to Stanley, it’s messed up!”

“I didn’t do anything, Brant!” I yelled at him. “Stephanie, just look at the prints in the blood and the wounds.”

I don’t know if it was because of what I said or what Brant had said, but she didn’t uncuff me right away. Instead, she flew to the open door and stopped dead in her tracks. She put a hand up to her mouth and gasped, but quickly recovered herself.

She squatted by the door and focused on the blood there. Then, very carefully, she stepped in the trailer. I could only guess she was stepping over Stanley’s body. Brant stayed outside and glared at me. What a fat lot of help he was being.

“Let him go, Brant,” Stephanie said as she came out of the house.

“You’re not my boss, Steph. I can’t just let you take my suspect and run.” Brant stood his ground between her and I.

She got a crooked smile on her face, like whenever she was winning a card game. Then she pointed a thumb over her shoulder. “Unless your suspect has four legs, large paws, and wolf teeth, you’re going to look pretty dumb when your ‘boss’ gets here.”

“You know as well as I that Whelan wanted this guy dead, Steph!”

“Quit jumping the gun, Brant, and next time take a closer look at the body before you go around cuffing whoever is standing there!” Despite the slight tremble in her voice, Stephanie sounded cool and calm.

Brant slowly walked towards Stanley’s body as if it might try to get up and attack him at any second. The stench of fear made my mouth and nose want to curl up, but I fought it back as best as I could. Brant pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket and covered his mouth as he leaned forward. He quickly came back out of the door with a pale face.

Nothing ever really interesting happened in Faith. The only dead bodies that we normally get are elderly people who pass away in the night. This must have been a shock for him. Brant jumped off of the porch and pulled out a knife from his belt. He popped the zip-tie and took the cuffs off of me.

“Sorry about that,” he mumbled.

I quickly stood up and rubbed the feeling of cuffs off of my wrists. They had felt pretty painful, but when I looked there was hardly a mark.

“Whatever,” I told him and then went in the trailer to find my mom.

Another siren blared in the distance as I wrapped my mom in a hug. “I couldn’t let him do that,” she mumbled into my ear. The siren was outside the house now and shut off abruptly. I pulled away from her and held her arms as I looked into her eyes. She looked like she was in a far-away place, like when she was heavily medicated- here, but not. “I couldn’t let him hurt my cub no more.”

#

Brant and Stephanie had quickly filled in Police Chief Don on what they had discovered – leaving out the fact that Brant had cuffed me – and Don had quickly verified their findings. Don doubled as a coroner, so he pulled a body bag and camera from his truck, snapped a few pictures, and bagged the body. They put it in the back of an ambulance that had showed up.

By now, it was a side-show and everyone in town who wasn’t working had swung by at least once to see what was happening. Another ambulance showed up and the crew pulled me and mom into it to check us out. I was fine, but after a few moments in the ambulance, Greg came out and put a hand on my shoulder.

“She’s in shock, Whelan,” he said rather somberly. Greg was a local teacher and hated to see kids and families hurt. “We’re going to have to take her to the hospital and, depending on what they say, she might not get to come back for some time. Do you have somewhere you can stay?” He knew me and he knew full well I had no relatives that my mom ever spoke of.

“I can stay here, can’t I? I’m sixteen and I can take care of myself until mom’s back.”

“It’s not that easy,” Greg went on. “This is a crime scene and there are no adults here to take care of you if something serious like this happens again.”

“I can take him in,” Stephanie broke in, putting an arm around me and squeezing me tight.

I almost cried at the relief of her rescue. “Thanks, Steph.” I looked back at Greg. “How- how long do you think she’ll be in this time?” He had been there when mom was taken the first time, and it was several months before we had gotten to see her again. I was afraid this would be worse, especially after all of the things she had been muttering.

“It’s hard to say. I’m just an EMT, not a doctor,” he always said that when he didn’t know a real answer. It was better than nothing though, and at least I knew he was being honest with me.

“Go pack your bags, I already called Sylvia and she’s bringing her truck around to take you over to my place,” Stephanie said as she gave me a gentle push towards my house.

Don quit taking photos long enough for me to get through the door and then went back to work. The smell of blood tinged the back of my throat so bad I almost wanted to throw up. Walking back to my room, I hung my head and noticed wolf prints going right to my door. They stopped outside my door and then circled back to the kitchen.

“Looks like you were lucky your door was closed,” Don spoke up behind me, making me jump. He squatted and took pictures of the prints by my door. “You were about two inches from being desert.”

“Yeah… Lucky,” I muttered, remembering how my door had been open when I had woken up. Don went back to the kitchen and the flashes on the wall let me know he was busy documenting this horrid event.

I ran a hand through my hair, pulling it away from my eyes, and walked into my room. I took a breath and looked around. I slid open my closet and pulled out my old duffle bag from my Mat Rat wrestling days. It still smelled of campfire from when I went camping by myself a few weeks ago to get away from Stanley.

I pulled open my drawers, changed out of my pajamas, and quickly stuffed the bag with all the clothes I owned. I tossed my bloody pajamas in the hamper. At the bottom of my sock drawer I saw it. Staring up at me, lay a picture of my family at a Christmas party back when I was about six.

We looked happy. My real dad stared back at me through the faded gloss finish. He was smiling and I was on his knee in my Rudolph sweater. His arm was wrapped around Mom’s shoulder in a tight hug. It was one of the last times she had been truly happy. One of the last that I had felt happy.

The scent of vanilla pulled me out of my daydreaming. I stuffed the picture in my bag before Sylvia came in. I stood to meet her and she rushed in and wrapped me in a tight hug. The grief that I had pent up let loose and I collapsed into tears on her shoulder.

“I don’t think I’m going to see her again,” I sobbed.

Sylvia put her hand on my head and whispered to me. “What happened, Whelan? Was it you again?”

I shuddered at the thought. “Man, I hope not.” I whispered back and then told her what my mom had said.

“So it could have been either of you or both of you?” she asked as she bent down and picked up my bag. She shouldered it and took my hand.

I looked at her fingers entwined in mine. A little ray of sunshine to my dreary day. Almost enough to get me through this. “I guess so, but I’m not sure how it all works.”

“How much did your mom tell the EMTs?”

“By the sounds of it… everything.”

Don poked his head in the door. “You want to say goodbye to your mom, boy? They’re about to pull out.”

Sylvia led the way out to the ambulance. The back door was opened on the right side and I could see her lying on a cot. I choked back tears as Sylvia gave me a gentle push, helping me up into the back of the ambulance.

I felt a cool rush of air as I climbed in and was blasted by the AC fan. From one of the bars overhead an IV dripped into a tube that led to my mom’s arm. I looked down at her and she smiled softly. She had restraints on her wrists that tied her to the cot. Memories of the last time this had happened rushed to the surface and I sobbed a little. Greg got out of the chair next to the monitoring device.

“I’ll give you a minute alone.” The door shut and I looked up at the cab. It was empty too. For a moment, I was tempted to jump in the front and take off.

“Whelan?” Mom whispered softly.

“I’m here, Mom.” She had been cleaned up. They were probably checking her for wounds also. “I’m here.”

She looked around and then she laughed. “I had another family – a pack family. I want you to find them in Seattle.”

“Werewolves in Seattle?”

“No, not werewolves. They are the Hounds of Heaven. I…” she broke off and sobbed. She looked completely heartbroken all of a sudden. “Look at my collarbone.”

I pulled down her shirt and saw what looked like a brand in her neck, right on her collarbone. It was two snakes intertwined and eating each other. I had never seen it before because she had always worn tight collared shirts.

“What is this?”

“I…” she sobbed again and then collected herself. “I betrayed my pack. It’s the Mark of Loki – the mark of a traitor. They won’t let me back, but they might take you in.”

“Mom, you’re coming back. Don’t talk like this.”

“They think I’m crazy. They think I let the wolf in.”

“Then show them what you are.”

It was like I had smacked her sober for a moment. The fog lifted from her eyes long enough for her to chew me out. “Never! I will not be responsible for letting the world know about who we are and what we do!”

“Not even if it gets you out of the hell hole they are sending you to?”

“Whelan, you have so much to learn. Please promise me you’ll find the Hounds of Heaven in the Seattle area.” The fog crept back into her eyes and they glazed over for a moment.

“I- I won’t promise, but I will try one day. Steph said I could stay with her until you come back.”

“Steph… Sylvia’s sister…” she mumbled. Greg opened the side door of the ambulance, surprising me a little.

“She should be getting pretty sleepy by now,” he said, pointing to the drip.

“What’s in there?”

“Just a sedative, buddy. I had to give her something to calm her down. She was trying to climb out of here and kept babbling things.” He sat down in his seat next to her and pressed a button on the machine at her side. Air filled up the cuff on her arm. I leaned over and gave her a kiss on her cheek.

“Come back to me, Mom.” I whispered in her ear and squeezed her arm.

I climbed out of the ambulance and watched it drive away with my mom in the back. As quickly as they were gone, the numbness subsided and I collapsed on the ground in tears.

Not again. Don’t take my Mamma again.

The words were there, but wouldn’t come out of me. Sylvia came rushing from her truck to my side and she helped me to my feet. Stephanie also helped me into the truck. The two went around to the driver’s side and whispered a little before Sylvia climbed into the cab and got us on our way.

I wanted her to follow the ambulance and save my mom, but I knew she would only fight me on it. I pulled my bag to my chest and squeezed it as we pulled away from my house.

#

The rest of the day I sulked around Stephanie’s house while I’m sure rumors galore brewed outside. The phone rang several times, but Sylvia said that Stephanie didn’t want me to answer it. It would probably be people calling to confirm some gossip anyway.

A couple of hours before I was supposed to be at work, I called Lynn’s Dakotamart and talked with Jake, my supervisor. He was always a pretty somber guy and didn’t even bother to find out what was going on.

“I heard you had some trouble today,” he had said in his soft baritone voice that reminded me of a math teacher for some reason. “Just take all the time you need. We’ll figure something out.”

“Thanks, Jake.” And that was all it took. I was exhausted. I threw a pillow onto Stephanie’s couch, flopped down, and crashed. Sleep was my escape for now.

The darkness surrounded me and I could hear panting from far away, but it was moving in closer. It had a sort of steady rhythm that almost reminded me of a train. I tried to see where it was coming from, but it was everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

The panting stopped and a deep voice penetrated the darkness. “Whelan,” it spoke my name as if it were enticing a child. The moment it spoke, I felt my muscles tense and a chill ran through my bones. “Whelan. What are we going to do about your mother? Don’t you want to go help her?”

“Of course I do!” I shouted into the darkness. Then I fell to my knees and held my head in the palms of my hands. “But it’s too late. They’ve already taken her, and by now they think she’s crazy. They’ll never let her go.”

“You could always make them give her back,” the voice insisted. “Like your mother made Stanley leave you alone.”

“You mean, like, hurt them?”

“Call it what you will, there is only one way to get her back now. Come with me,” the darkness solidified into a wolf shape with red eyes. “Let me tell you what to do. Together, we will do many… wonderful things.”

The way he emphasized wonderful made every muscle in my body tense up. I didn’t know what to do. A part of me wanted to give in to the wolf. But then, I thought of Sylvia. Of how she would be disappointed that I even considered it.

A ray of light pierced the darkness and the black wolf jumped away from it. “NO! He’s MINE!” the wolf screamed. As I looked at the beam of light, I watched it grow and I wanted to be in it, so I stepped towards it.

“Whelan, STOP!” the black wolf commanded me, but I ignored him and found myself running to the light. At the edge, I stopped and looked around. The wolf paced on the other side of the light. The beam grew bigger and brighter. The wolf circled around and made a move to grab at me with its mouth, but I stepped into the direct beam of the light and the dark wolf’s muzzle sparked with embers and then I smelled the stench of its burnt hair.

At first, I was scared because the dark wolf paced around staring at me, but then the light grew so bright that I could hardly see anything but white.

The light dimmed a little and I looked up to see the source of the light. Before me was the moon – bigger and brighter than I had ever seen it. I felt like I could almost touch it. It sort of sparkled and then someone appeared, all in white.

“Whelan,” came a man’s voice. It wasn’t like the wolf’s voice. This one was pleasing to my ear. It was like the sound of a soft creek. I strained to see his face, but he was brighter far than the moon somehow. “What your mother said was true. You need to find her pack. They will guide you and help you come to know who you truly are.”

“How am I supposed to find them? Seattle is a big place! I doubt they’re in the yellow pages, the way my mom talked about them before she left.”

The personage chuckled softly at my response and I found myself laughing along. “I will guide you as you search them out. It will not be easy, but I will help you to where you need to be.”

“What about my mom?”

There was a long silence. I was about to ask again, when the person spoke up. “What is coming will not be easy, but you will see her again. I must warn you, it will test your very being – nearly as much as the Hound of Hell has just tempted you.”

“Hounds of Heaven, Hounds of Hell… What have I gotten into?”

“Born into,” the voice spoke with authority that somehow made me feel bad for speaking up. “This much I will tell you, Whelan.” His voice was much softer now, like when my dad used to make me feel better after I had fallen. “You and your kind exist to fight off the Darkness. Your mother gave you enough to help protect yourself. Now get up, prepare yourself. Trouble is coming.”

#

I sat up on the couch so fast, I startled Stephanie who was just coming in the door. She fumbled with some pizza boxes and I managed to catch one that she dropped before it hit the floor.

“Oh, jeesh! Whelan, you scared me.”

I brushed my long hair out of my face as I set the pizza on the table. Stephanie turned on a light in the kitchen and I went and closed the door. I turned back and she was already in a chair, pulling out a slice of supreme pizza.

“Did you get a three meat?” I asked as my nose picked up the savory scents of beef, sausage, and pepperoni.

“Bottom box.” She said, pulling two boxes off the top of it.

“Three pizzas? That’s a lot for just the two of us.”

“Sylvia should be swinging by for dinner pretty soon.” She tilted back in her chair and pulled a beer out of the fridge. “Want something?” she asked, still leaning back.

Looking in the fridge, I could see she had an assortment of sodas. “Anything. As long as it’s not fruity.”

She rocked back as the fridge closed and she dropped a root beer in front of me. A knock on the door drew my attention away from this relaxed version of Stephanie. It was a side of her I hadn’t seen before.

“Come in! It’s open,” Stephanie called as she pulled another slice out of the box. Sylvia came in with a little smile on her face. She looked like she had just gotten off work. Her red bikini bottoms peeked out from under her matching wind breaker.

“Where’s the Canadian bacon and pineapple?” Sylvia never wasted any time. She sat down and tossed a duffle bag on the couch where I’d been napping. Stephanie scooted a box in front of Sylvia and Sylvia wasted no time in starting to eat.

She smelled of chlorine, sunscreen, and her vanilla perfume. Every part of me wanted to just hold her. That same inviting scent from before started to permeate my senses.

I must have been staring too long at her because she blushed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Just then, my stomach growled loud enough for everyone to hear. I looked down at the slice of pizza I had pulled out of the box, but hadn’t started eating yet and the girls laughed at me.

“You can eat any time,” Stephanie poked at me. I saw her look back and forth between Sylvia and I before she smiled and went back to eating.

I glanced at Sylvia to see if she’d noticed what her sister had done and she was already eating again. I thought I saw the corners of her mouth turned up into a small smile as she chewed, but I couldn’t tell for certain.

I bit into my own pizza and soon found myself plowing through it. As I picked up the last slice, I sat back in my chair and savored every salty bite. I picked up my root beer and took a small sip. I realized that it had gotten quiet and I looked up to see both girls staring at me. I felt my cheeks heat up.

“What?” I asked as I grabbed a napkin and wiped my mouth.

“When was the last time you ate?” Stephanie asked, as she set down her beer. I looked over and realized that she had over half of her pizza left and that Sylvia had barely started hers.

“Um, well,” I fumbled for what to say. “I don’t think I ate lunch.” Both of them laughed at me as I closed my box and brought it to the trash under her sink.

Stephanie’s work cell phone started ringing and she sighed heavily as she set her beer down and picked up the cell. “This can’t be good,” she said as she got up from the table and walked into the front room.

Sylvia slipped her hand into mine as I stood behind her. When her sister turned back around, Sylvia took her hand back quickly. Stephanie wasn’t smiling at us. Her brow was crinkled and she put her cell phone into her cell holster on her belt.

“What’s wrong?” Sylvia beat me to the punch.

Stephanie shook her head. “That was dispatch.” She got her work coat off the rack by the door and turned back to me. “The ambulance your mom was riding in got in a serious wreck. It rolled just before the I-90 on-ramp by New Underwood. None of the crew survived the wreck.”

I felt like someone had smacked me in the face. “You’re kidding, right? I mean, how does an ambulance just crash that bad? What about my Mom? You said none of the crew survived.”

Stephanie came over and put a hand on my shoulder. “They can’t find your mother. There’s a chance she’s still alive somewhere.”

“So why did they call you, then?”

She shook her head and looked back at me with a look of concern I’d never seen before. “There were wolf prints on the scene. I’m going out to see if I didn’t miss something.”

Before I could say anything, she grabbed a slice of pizza and ducked out the door.

Where to Now?

#

Sylvia dropped her pizza as soon as Stephanie had shut the door and she jumped up right in my face. “You don’t think your mom did that, do you?” I caught a hint of fear off of her as she spoke.

I didn’t know what to think. All I could do was shrug my shoulders. Could that ambulance really have crashed because of something my mom did?

“Are we safe?” Sylvia asked, just a little bit more on edge than I had expected.

“I guess so,” I lied. The truth was, I had no idea if we were safe or not, but I knew it was what she wanted to hear. If my mom had killed Stanley, a man she had feelings for, could she do something to me? No, I’m her son. She would protect me if anything.

“Let’s at least lock the doors.” Sylvia ran over and locked the front door and then she ran to the back door and locked it. On her way through the trailer, she turned on every light in the house.

“What are you, five?” I asked when she got back to the front room and immediately regretted it. The look of pain on her face drew a quick apology. “I’m sorry, Sylvia. It’s just that I guess you forgot that I’m here and that I’m a werewolf, or Hound of Heaven, or whatever they call them now.”

She broke down crying in my arms. Her tears were hot streams on my skin. The stench of fear rose more clearly than before. “That’s what I’m afraid of, Whelan.” She looked up at me as she backed up and plopped on the couch. “What if this werewolf thing is just like in the movies, where you can’t control your actions and you do something horrible?”

“Come on, Sylvia. You saw me last night.” I sat down next to her gently. “You know I can control this.”

“I know you can, but what about your mother? What if there are others out there in town that don’t know they’re werewolves like your mother? Maybe… Maybe she bit someone and they’re doing this to get even!”

I felt horrible for her. She was grasping at straws, trying to make sense of a world she wasn’t a part of – a world I was just starting to understand. I could see now why my Mom warned me about not letting outsiders into it. Sylvia was breaking down quicker than I could build her up.

“Listen,” I squeezed her tightly, “I’m here and I won’t let anything happen to you.” She took a deep breath, leaned over, and then put her head on my shoulder. The smell of fear let up a little. She put a hand on my chest and patted it. “Do you want to watch a show? Doesn’t your sister have Netflix or something?”

“Yeah, that’s a great idea! Just nothing spooky, all right?” she asked as she hopped up and grabbed the remote from next to the TV. She plopped down a little closer to me than before. “Mind if I pick?”

“No, go ahead.” I wrapped an arm around her and she snuggled up close as she scrolled through the shows available.

Eventually, we ended up watching some romantic comedy about a girl who wrote love letters and stashed them in a box, only to have them get mailed out to all of the guys she wrote them to. It was cute, but I was tired and fell asleep about half an hour into it.

#

“Whelan. Whelan! Wake up!” It was Sylvia. Her voice was at a whisper, but her lips were pressed against my ear. She might as well have been yelling.

I must have slid down in my sleep. I was lying with my head on Sylvia’s shoulder, her arms wrapped around me. There was something in her voice that seemed unsettling. Then I realized the house was dark. Her arms were trembling and the stink of fear was in the air. “Something’s here. I just texted my sister.”

“What happened to the lights?”

There was a tremble in her whisper as she recounted what had happened. “I don’t know. I fell asleep with you on my shoulder. I woke up just a minute ago. I was going to get us another pillow when the lights went out.” Her body shook hard for a second and she continued. “I had my phone on the coffee table, so I texted my sister right away and woke you up.”

“Maybe a storm knocked the power out or something,” I tried to rationalize the darkness to calm her down. From the glow of her phone, I saw her glare at me.

“Do you hear any winds?” she asked me and we both stopped to listen.

Just then, her cell phone buzzed sending us both into the air a little. “Oh geez!” I whispered.

“It’s Stephanie. She says the streetlights are on around your trailer so she’s heading straight here to check it out.” We both sat up and Sylvia’s phone buzzed again. “She found a couple of calves dead with paw prints around them not far from your house. She said they are fresh kills.”

“Stay right here.” I got up and went to Stephanie’s windows. She sometimes worked odd hours, like tonight, and had black-out curtains on all of her windows in case she needed some extra sleep during the day. I pulled back an edge and peeked out. “The streetlights and your neighbor’s porch light are all on. It’s just us that are sitting in the dark.”

Sylvia got up off of the couch and stood next to me. I moved aside and she looked out for herself. She turned her head, looking towards the back door and then jumped away from the curtain. “What the!”

“What is it?”

“Something big and dark moved by the back porch!” Sylvia’s voice was starting to rise above a whisper. Stephanie’s back porch was covered and came out away from the house and was surrounded by a deck. When I looked out at it, all I saw were shadows.

“I don’t see anything.” I turned away from the window to look at Sylvia. Her eyes went as wide as I’d ever seen them before and she clasped a hand to her mouth, her other hand gripped my shoulder so tight I thought she would cut me with her nails. When I turned back, I caught a glimpse of fur moving away from the window.

I shut the curtain quickly and Sylvia pulled herself next to me. “It was huge!” She had dropped her voice back to a whisper, but I could tell she was on the verge of tears.

Is this what hysteria is like?  

“It… It, uh, it was looking right in the window. It popped up right after you turned away from the window.” A tear dripped from her right eye. “You, uh… You’ve got to wolf-out, or whatever you call it, like, now!”

“What if your sister comes back and sees me? She said she was on her way, right?”

“I don’t care, Whelan! That thing looked like it was from the pits of hell.” She looked down and sobbed, “Please. For me.”

I was just about to try and argue again, when we heard a car pull to a sudden stop in the gravel driveway. “There’s Stephanie, I’ll get the door.”

“Wait! Don’t!” Sylvia pulled on me as I started for the front door. “What if it’s waiting for you to open the door, like Stanley did?”

“What if your sister is trying to get in?”

The handle of the door jiggled and we both jumped back. “Hey, it’s me. Open the door.” Stephanie’s voice called from outside.

“See.” I went to the front door, unlocked it and swung the door open.

Stephanie had her keys and a flashlight out. “I’m going to check the breaker box,” she said as she started to come in. In a sudden blur of fur, she was gone. Her keys and flashlight hit the floor and Sylvia screamed hysterically. I slammed and locked the door, and then put a hand over Sylvia’s mouth.

“SHHH! Listen!” I whispered loudly in her ear. The night hung silent around us as we tried to hear anything outside. I leaned closer to the door and put my ear against it. Nothing.

Sylvia snatched up her sister’s keys. “Maybe we can get to Stephanie’s truck? We could get away! She also has rifles and shotguns in there!”

“Did you see how quick it grabbed your sister? Do you honestly think we can make it to the truck in time?” As soon as I said it, Sylvia broke into tears again.

“What are we supposed to do? Sit here and wait to die?” Her crying was getting to me.

“Listen,” I took the keys from her and peeked out the window, towards Stephanie’s work truck. I looked at the key fob and saw hope. “Hey, it has a remote start.”

“Yeah, it does. So does her Durango, but it’s out back, the way that thing took my sister.”

“Where are those keys?”

Sylvia opened a small cupboard near the door and pulled a key fob off of a hook. “Here.”

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“That we’re going to die if we don’t get out of here soon?” She stopped and put the pieces together herself. “That might work!”

Something hit the front door and we jumped back from it. It sounded like something was tearing at the door. I quickly hit the button to start the Durango and the sound stopped immediately.

I unlocked and flung the door open. The remains of a body with a Ranger uniform fell in when we opened it. Sylvia put a hand over her mouth and jumped over the remains of her sister’s body as we ran for the gray pickup. We heard a loud crash and popping noises from behind the trailer where the Durango was parked.

We hopped in the cab of the truck and started it up. I locked the doors and looked down. “Crap! Switch seats!” I yelled. Sylvia looked down and swore as she and I switched places.

“Really? The first thing I’m teaching you when this we make it out of this is how to drive stick!” She yelled as she buckled up and threw the truck in reverse.

I heard gravel hitting Stephanie’s trailer as she stepped on the gas. Just before we hit the road, she flipped on the headlights and we saw it. A huge, black wolf ran out from behind the trailer, straight for us. It was almost as big as a cow and it ran so fast it looked like it wasn’t even touching the ground.

Sylvia swore some more and tore down the street, leaving rubber and smoke in our wake. “Behind the seat!” she yelled. “Can you reach the rifles?” The seat was stuck and I couldn’t get to it, but in the rear window hung a pump shotgun.

“Only this,” I said as I opened the chamber to see if it was loaded. Thank heavens Stephanie and Sylvia talked me into that gun safety course last year. I looked around the cab, then felt under the seat and found an ammo box.

“I don’t see it in the mirror! Maybe we lost it!”

I looked, all around as fast as I could. We hit Highway 212 and headed east, towards the center of town and lots of light. As we turned, I spotted it.

“Crap! It’s hopping on roofs, following us!” We turned down Main Street and caught the attention of the police.

“Stephanie, why are you speeding like that?” Brant’s voice came over the radio as his squad car lights came on. He was in his cruiser tonight. He pulled out after us as I picked up the radio.

“Brant, this is Whelan! We’re being chased by an animal that killed Stephanie!” I yelled into the mic.

“Whelan! Pull that truck over right now! We can work this out.”

Sylvia spun the truck around and floored it right past the charging cruiser. “He ain’t listening!” Her eyes were teared up. “We need to find someone who will!”

“Where are you thinking?” I couldn’t think of anyone that would believe our story.

“If that thing is following us, we might as well head to Sturgis! It’s in the shadows, which means it doesn’t want to be seen. Let’s get to Sturgis. They’re getting ready for the Motorcycle Rally. There will be plenty of lights there and hopefully people who will listen to us.” She spun west onto 212 and floored it, shifting gears rapidly.

The radio squelched to life. “I’m warning you, Whelan! Pull that truck over now or I’m going to start shooting!” There was silence and then, “Dispatch! This is Officer Barnes! Call the Chief and tell him I have a signal 18 on 212 West. I need his help on this one!”

We passed the last street lamp out of town by the preschool and Stephanie started crying again. “You don’t think he’ll really do it do you?”

I looked behind us and then back to Sylvia. “I don’t think so. It’s too dark. He might hit us.”

We got three miles out of town to the lit up turn-off north to Lemon. It was the street last light we’d see until Maurine School, another twenty minutes out. As we passed the turn-off, shots rang out and a loud pop resounded in the cab.

I looked to see if Sylvia had been hit when I noticed her fighting the steering wheel. “Damn! He actually hit our tire!” She yelled as she pulled us off the road. The truck rumbled to a stop, well out of the light of the street lamp. Brant’s squad car pulled up right behind us and he hopped out with his spotlight trained on the cab of the truck.

“Whelan!” His voice sounded strained, like he was actually nervous. “You, and whoever is in there with you, stay right where you are! I’m coming to you! Hands in the air where I can see them!”

“What are we going to do now?” Sylvia held up her shaking arms. The cab stunk of fear. I wasn’t sure if it was only hers that I smelled.

I raised my hands too and whispered to her, “Just speak calmly or we might end up with a bullet in us.”

Brant came up on Sylvia’s side with his gun out and flashlight held next to it. She almost jumped when he yelled at her. “Roll the window down, Sylvia!”

She reached over and hit the switch and then put her hand back up slowly. As the window slowly opened, Brant got where he could see both of our faces and keep his gun and flashlight on us.

All of a sudden the lights from his cruiser went out with a crashing sound. “What the hell!” Brant swung his gun towards his cruiser.

In the rear view mirror, I saw the flash of two large red eyes. They charged straight at the flashlight in Brant’s hands. He fired off a couple of shots and, in a flash of fur, he was gone.

Sylvia ripped the shotgun from my hands as Brant’s screams filled the air. She fired in the direction of his screams, then turned to me. “Really, Whelan?! Do you need a better reason now?”

She was right. I hopped out of my side of the cab and focused on the moon. This time it didn’t hurt. I heard my pants and shirt rip as I grew. My body rushed with heat as my new form took its proper shape. There were no voices tempting me to kill anyone, it was just me and the moon – full and clear in my mind, though my eyes were closed.

When I felt it had finished, I leaned down and Sylvia started to scoot towards me. A fur-covered hand pulled her out her open window and I hopped over the truck like I was hopping over one of the rails at school. I was surprised at how easy it was.

“Whelan!” Sylvia yelled as she reached for me. The large wolf holding her put its large hand over her mouth and stared straight at me.

“Whelan,” it was my mom’s voice and it was surprisingly calm. “This needs to be done. No one can know about us. It’s in the Law.”

“It’s Sylvia, Mom!” I pleaded. “She’s the closest thing you’ve had to a daughter! You said that yourself last week! Remember?”

The large wolf looked down at Sylvia and sniffed. “She’s no daughter of mine.” The wolf giggled and looked back at me. “Her scent is familiar, but she’s not like us Whelan. She can’t KNOW ABOUT US!” her yell echoed across the plains.

“Mom! NO!” I stepped forward and she hesitated, but then stepped back. “You don’t have to do this! She won’t tell anyone!” My voice came out louder than I had expected.

The large wolf’s eyes saddened like Mom’s did when she was consoling me after Stanley had beat me. “You’re right. She won’t.” I heard a snap and she dropped Sylvia’s lifeless body at her feet.

I hit my knees. I grabbed up Sylvia and looked at her face, frozen in fear, blood dripping from her mouth. I bent my head and cried. From deep within me I felt it forming. I let my head roll back and released a long sorrowful howl.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see my mom, still in half wolf form. “Come on, Whelan. The police will be here soon.” She chuckled like she did so often in one of her psychotic episodes. “We can’t let any more of them see us or we’ll have to kill them too.”

Rage built up inside me and I gently placed Sylvia on the ground, closing her eyes with one hand. I stood up to my mother. Towering over her, she stepped back with a slight chuckle. “Is that how you justify killing these people! The LAW! That man WAS THE LAW!” I pointed in the direction of the flashlight in the opposite ditch.

“Honey, we live by a higher Law. You’ll understand once you get to Seattle. I’ll help you find them, and then you’ll be safe!” She stepped forward and reached for my arm.

I closed my eyes and saw the full moon in my head. A voice softly reminded me, It will not be easy, but I will help you. I clenched my fists. Sirens in the distance let me know we only had moments. Strength welled up in me. Then words filled my head. Never kill the innocent.

“You say this is about the Law.” Tears fell from my eyes as I saw what needed to be done clearly in my head. I took her outstretched hand and recited the words that had come to me. “Never kill the innocent.” A moment of fear flashed in her eyes as I pulled her into my other hand. My claws had extended and I pierced her heart with them.

She chuckled a little as I cried and lowered her to the ground. “I knew you’d be the death of me some day.” She coughed a little and I let her fall to the ground next to Sylvia.

I ducked into the tall grass just as the Chief’s car crested the hill. It looked like he had a state trooper with him. I watched my Mom shift into her human form just before the cruiser came to a stop in front of the bodies.

I watched from the thick grass as they investigated the scene. I heard them rationalize with each other that the fur they saw near my mother’s dead body must have been the wolf that Stephanie had been hunting. As soon as the ambulance showed up for the bodies, they broke out searchlights and started for the grass on the opposite side of the road. I took that as my cue to split.

#

The bus was crowded and stinky. The more I used my wolf form, the more my senses seemed to come to life. I had slipped back to Stephanie’s house and grabbed my duffle bag. I took what cash I could find and shifted forms to travel across country. I hopped the first bus I could catch to Seattle.

This was actually the third bus I’d been on. The police had been searching for me in Spearfish. They had stopped the traffic looking for a cop killer. I faked being sick and made a run for it across the fields. I traveled as a large gray wolf at night and hopped short buses during the day.

The bus was just about to pull away from the station in Spokane, Washington when it stopped suddenly. Fear started to rise up in my chest. “You just barely made it!” The bus driver chuckled as he let on this muscular woman with blond, short cropped hair that looked as wild as her brown eyes.

“Thanks,” she said as she shouldered a backpack and shook the rain out of her hair. A scent caught my attention. It smelled familiar. It smelled like home.

The bus started moving and I suddenly realized that this blond woman was standing right next to me, pointing at the open seat. “Mind if I sit here?” She was looking at me as if she could see me for who I really was. Something about her felt good.

“Go right ahead,” I said, sitting up a little in my seat. She was a bit shorter than me when she sat down. She pulled her backpack onto her lap.

The bus pulled out of the station and made its way towards the freeway as she pulled open her backpack and started shifting through its contents. It was late and most of the passengers were settling down for a nap to pass the time. Like me, however, she looked wide awake.

As soon as we got on the freeway, she turned to me and offered me a piece of jerky. “Want some?” I had been saving my money by not eating so much. I didn’t know when I might have to buy another ticket. I snatched it up and her lips curled up into a thin, sweet smile. “I like you, kid. What’s your name?”

“Whelan,” I said between bites. I was far enough away from South Dakota that I figured I didn’t have to use a fake name.

“Whelan.” She repeated. “Name’s Diedre. Nice to meet you.” The smell of home mixed with something sweet and inviting like with Sylvia. She looked at me sideways and whispered quietly, “I have a message for you, Whelan.”

Fear welled up in me, but she put her hand on my white-knuckled grip on the armrest between us and said, “It’s all right. I’m here to help. I was told to find a lost Hound and tell them, ‘What your mother said was true. You need to find her pack. They will guide you and help you come to know who you truly are.’”

I eased up in my chair and looked at her in disbelief. Those were the exact words that voice told me when I chose light over darkness. Her eyes twinkled as she looked at me.

“I knew I’d be looking for a lost Hound, but I didn’t expect one so cute.” She laughed and pulled her hand back. She pulled a book out of her bag and handed it to me. “You like reading?” I nodded and she tapped the cover. “This will fill you in on a lot. You’re going to find this interesting.”

I looked down and read the cover. The History of the Hounds of Heaven. All at once, the fear of having to run fled. I looked over at Diedre and smiled. “Thank you. You don’t know how much this means to me.”

A tear rolled down my cheek as I remembered my mother and everything that I had gone through in the last week. I opened the book and began to read.

In the beginning there was Light and Dark. When God separated the Light from the Dark, He created balance in the universe as we know it. That balance needed a check system. We are that system…