Nocturnesque Chapter 8
by Jeff Lewis (aka The Werewolf!) © 1985
Sometime after calming down to the point where I wasn't speeding
anymore, I was ready to just be scared out of my wits. What kind of
monsters lived in that town? God, people who could change shape! What do
you call them? Werewolves? That's just not possible. I saw it, and it
still isn't possible.
God, my arm hurts. I pulled back the sleeve and saw the puncture marks
in my arm. They weren't human; they looked like a dog's teeth marks. No,
no, no, no, no.
Oh no! She was one of them! I still wanted and needed her but she was
one of them. I'd made love to her, to a wolf. Oh God, that's sick. I
felt dirty, soiled, cheated, raped.
I drove on in the night passing small towns until I was so exhausted
from non-stop driving and non-stop adrenaline that I was weaving about
the road and nodding off.
I stopped in the next town and found a motel. I checked in and spent the
next hour in the shower. I couldn't wash the awful feeling from me. I
watched TV for a while then passed out on the bed.
My sleep was rough and punctuated by sudden awaking, screaming from
flitting memories of dreams so horrible that even those wisps made me
shiver.
I would look at my arms and watch for new hair. When I went into the
shower, I stopped at the mirror to look at my face and see if my teeth
had changed to fangs. They hadn't. I was still completely me with dark
saggy bags under my eyes, a ringing headache and an arm that felt as if
it were about to burn off.
I was growing very concerned about the arm. I began driving and made it
into the city just as the throbbing in my arm became intense. I went to
a hospital near my apartment and checked into emergency. When I told the
nurse that I had been bitten by a dog, she took one look at the arm and
led me to a cubicle. The doctor asked if the dog was rabid and I said
no. She asked if I was sure and I said very sure. She injected an
antibiotic and an anti-tetanus shot, then wrapped a gauze bandage about
it. She gave me a prescription for penicillin and sent me home with the
warning that if it got any worse, I was to come back right away.
I assured her that I would and then finally made my way back to my
apartment. The shot seemed to help, because the pain was subsiding. I
began moving things from the car trunk to the suite and suddenly
realized that all of her stuff was still in my car. I couldn't throw
them out, so I carefully collected her bags and dropped them off at her
place.
Her landlord was surprised to see me alone but I didn't give her a
chance to ask any questions. I headed back home and finished unpacking.
I didn't have the faintest idea as to what I could do about all this,
but as long as I could keep myself busy I wouldn't have to think too
hard about any of it.
Finally, after unpacking, cleaning my apartment twice and washing all my
clothes and ironing them and even doing my income tax, I had run out of
things to do.
I made a very large drink and flopped into my easy chair. I was tired
and confused. I sat there and for a while allowed my mind to idle. I
still wanted her and still needed her. I could feel it like a physical
ache, but there was no way I could have anything to do with creatures
like that. Hell, I didn't even like dogs! Good God! I really am going
round the bend.
I took a long pull at my drink and look once again at my arm. I was
finding those teeth marks to be a kind of holding on point. You know how
you pick at a scab when you know perfectly well that doing that may
infect it? Or how sometimes you find yourself humming a song you can't
stand?
Half of me wanted to look and not see them, and half of me was glad it
was still there, just to prove it really happened and that I wasn't
insane.
I felt restless and weary at the same time. It was only eight o'clock
but I decided to try and sleep.
The sound of dogs barking woke me in the morning. Mother came in and
gave me breakfast which I ate. I came downstairs and joined my parents
in the living room.
Mother took my hand and reminded me that my love was already one of the
clan before we had met. He just had his gift weakened by force. I was
known that many people throughout the world had the gift but during the
middle ages, because of the persecution of the church many of our people
took to being strictly normal and either married out of the clan or
carefully prevented the changes.
She told me of the ways of passing the gift to someone who doesn't have
it and reminded me that a bite is the most dramatic but also the most
effective way as the hormone that triggers the change accumulates in
saliva.
She looked at me as if I should see where all this was going. Everybody
learned about this in high school. Then it hit me. He was bitten! That
meant the changes were taking place right now and he had no one to guide
him. The biting techique was so cliche and so excessive that almost no
one ever used it anymore. I had almost completely forgotten about it.
This was terrible! He would start changing within a couple of days and
would have to learn how to cope with the new body he'd have. He would
have to deal with new senses and awareness. In the olden days many a
newcomer would go insane. That's what caused the werewolf scares of the
middle ages.
I knew I'd have to go find him and that I'd need help. I called Steve up
and told him the problem. He told me to wait and he'd be right over.
He arrived within fifteen minutes and hurried in the front door. Jenny
was with him. He was right, she had filled out very well. The two of
them made a striking couple. She walked up to me and gave me her hands.
I felt her sadness for me and thanked her. Steve quickly agreed to come
and Jenny would come along with us. Having been separated so suddenly
from my own life-mate, I couldn't even think about keeping them apart.
I thanked my mother and father and they told me to bring him back as
soon as he agreed to and then they could give him the full measure of
help he would need.
Steve led me to his car and we all got in and began our trip back to the
city.
The night was filled with strange images and sights. I rolled back and
forth as fire burned my gut and ice numbed my head. I sweated and
shivered, wrapped tightly in my sheets.
I tried to stand and reeled as the room spun end over end around me. I
had to get to the washroom before I threw up. Ahead of me, bands of
brilliant coloured light rippled over the wall and furniture and small
spasms did the same over my skin.
I reached for the bathroom doorknob only to see my hand pass through it
and the door. I yanked it back and collapsed to the floor.
I must have passed out for a period because when I opened my eyes again,
the room was filled with light. I felt beaten and hurt all over but at
least the spinning had slowed to a constant rocking. Now I could stand
up.
I looked out the living room window and saw a dark sky. The stars were
like sharp daggers of light, each a different tone of music. The walls
of the room themselves cast a light that was a myriad flecks of colour,
changing and shifting.
I clutched at a chair as a particularily large wave rocked the apartment
and threatened to spin me to the floor.
The floor bucked and I was thrown. I landed hard on the carpet, on my
back looking at the ceiling. I was looking directly at a fly walking on
the ceiling and it was a little beacon of blue light.
I looked at my hand. There were two hands, one in the other. As I
watched, the inner hand lifted out of the darker outer hand and the
outer hand fell to my side. I pushed against the darker body and I was
free. I stood next to my old heavy body; it lay there glowing a dark
red. I should have frightened out of my wits but now I felt calm.
We had been driving in shifts all day and speeding a bit but we got in
to the city and arrived at his apartment quite late the same day. I
could feel that something was happening even from here. Steve and Jen
said they could feel it too.
We went up to his suite and found the door locked. We focused through
and stood in the dark living room. Our eyes adjusted to the lighting and
I was the first to see his inert body lying on the ground. I began to
run to it but Jen stopped me and pointed up to a corner of the room near
the ceiling.
There he was, sitting sort of cross-legged in mid-air watching all of
us.
It's happening faster than it should, Steve said. Jen, this is your
department.
She walked over to where the ghostly form was hovering and reached out
to him. He started and began to drift back through the wall. She gently
took his wrist in her hand and slowly pulled him back to where we were.
She touched his hand to the inert body on the floor and pressed it in.
The hand sunk in upto the wrist. He started to resist. I could hear him
say that he did not want to go back, but she slowly pressed more of him
back into the lifeless form.
He seemed to give up resisting and moved to a better position and seemed
to lay down into his body and snuggled his way in. The last of the
glowing form disappeared.
Jen moved closer and listened to his chest. His heart hasn't started,
she said. This is your department, Steve.
Steve move over and placed a hand on the still chest. A glowing hand
lifted free and plunged in. The muscles of his arm squeezed and then the
etherial hand was withdrawn. My love coughed and gasped. His eyes opened
and looked about with terror. Jen touched his forehead and he went to
sleep.
We lifted his sleeping form and carried him into his bedroom. Laying him
in bed, I undressed him and covered him with a blanket.
Jen looked at me and told me a wolf form would have to be paired to him
or else he would revert to a wolf protoform. She asked if I would like
to do it and I deferred to her wisdom. I could see that she and Steve
had the making an especially fine Elder couple.
We returned to the living room and Jen sat in a chair. As I watched, her
soul-form detached and did a strange turn and vanished. Moments later it
returned and was carrying a thin silver thread. She walked to the
bedroom and stood over the bed. She reached into his body and pulled a
silver thread from him and wound the two together. The thread she
brought in became diffuse and formed a cloud around his body and then
was absorbed.
I hope you like this form. I think he'll be very handsome. I hope he'll
be happy with it.
I'm sure he will, I told her. I know you have good taste, I said turning
to Steve. He grinned and blushed a little.
He's not ready yet, but this should get him through the worst of it.
He'll have to come back to the town soon, only the Elder has the skill
and power to handle this kind of thing. I've never worked a trapped gift
before.
I'll stay here until we reach the end, he told me. I thanked them and
gave them the key to my place. They could stay there until things start
to happen.
Steve and Jen got ready to leave and I thanked them for their help. I
kissed them both and walked them to their car.
I checked out his fridge and made up a list of things we would need over
the next few days. I knew he'd be sleeping pretty soundly for the next
few hours and so he'd be safe. I found his keys in his pants pocket and
headed out to get some groceries.
Running. Panting. Thick woods pulling against my face. I'm warm and
happy. I stop and smell the fresh musk of the forest floor. Turning
about to press the grass and twigs down, I lay in the brush and sleep.
I awake and look about. This isn't woods. What is this place? Things are
over me, I'm inside some place and it smells of humans. I have to get
out. I leap but the thing I'm on gives way and I fall to the ground. The
ground is covered in something that catches my claws and makes a ripping
sound. I run about this place and see no way out.
I look about and see stars and run for them only to be stopped by some
hard thing I can see through. I whine in my excitement. I want out of
this place. Before I can stop myself, I dribble urine on the ground and
start to paw at the hard stuff.
My want becomes desperation and suddenly I'm out in foul smelling air on
a cold hard ground. I look out over a ledge and see I'm high up over
ground. Again I become desperate and feel a tension grow in me.
Suddenly, I'm a few feet above the ground and falling.
I land on my belly and yelp as my groin hits the hard surface. I whine
and limp away. I can smell salty water in the air and follow the scent.
I unlock the door and knew in an instant that I'd blown it. I set the
bags on the counter and rushed to the bedroom. He wasn't there. Damn!
The door was locked, so he couldn't have left that way. I shifted and
sniffed the bed. I could detect two different scents on it, human and
wolf. This was bad, that meant he's done his first change.
I tracked his scent out into the living room. I scented a small trace of
urine and could smell the axiety and stress in it. I shifted back and
walked to his room again. I reached into his pants and withdrew the
medallion I gave him. The bond was still there, I could use it to find
him, even in a wolf form.
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