Cursed

by Brent Miller

  “Well, I’m significantly less confident than I was a few seconds ago,” he laughed. “Why do you ask?”

  “I don’t know. She has been pretty distant these last couple of day, that’s all.”

  “Well, you know girls.”

  “No. No, I really don’t.”

  “I’m sure she’s just fine,” Chase sighed. His expression screamed to Garrick that he was trying to be a good friend and avoid lying, but there was something he was hiding.

  “It’s probably just not a good time of the month,” Chase added with a laugh. There was something forced about that laugh. Chase was choosing his words carefully, attempting to avoid divulging some piece of information.

  “I don’t know,” Garrick groaned. He didn’t want to push Chase, he’d already asked him for a lot. Anyway, of course he was going to be more loyal to Hayden – they’d known each other far longer. Garrick just wished Chase would come out and say that he wouldn’t talk about it.

  “I’ll talk to her,” Chase offered. “I mean, I’m not as close with her as you are, obviously. But maybe it’s just something that she doesn’t feel comfortable telling you, you know?”

  “Is that normal? For girlfriends to hide things?”

  “Just breathe, Garrick,” Chase comforted. He was trying his best to make his friend feel better, but it was just making things worse. Garrick could see that there was something that he knew about. He just wished there was some way for him to find out what it was.

  “Maybe it’s just the full moon,” Chase suggested. “It makes people crazy.”

  Present

  3 days until the full moon

  Garrick lazily strolled toward his car, not in any particular rush to get anywhere. The ten-minute drive home was the worst part of his day. He wasn’t typically bothered by driving alone, but specifically driving home from school had become something he’d done with Hayden. That trip, every day, just adding to the ever-growing list of things which reminded him of her. Recently, even things completely unrelated to her started to make him think of her. He would either mourn the fact that they’d never done something together, or he would momentarily cherish the fact that something didn’t remind him of her – only to realize he was thinking about her again.

  He unlocked his door and slumped into the seat. As he started the car, he heard someone softly say, “Garrick, wait for me.”

  The voice sounded like a whisper right into his ear, and his head shot up and darted around. How had he missed someone getting that close to him? Garrick spun his head in each direction, scanning the car in a panic, but there was no one within a ten-foot radius. Just as he was beginning to accept that he was losing his mind, he noticed through his peripheral vision that Chase was walking toward him. He shook his head, scolding himself silently as he saw the smirk forming on his friend’s face. Garrick wondered if he’d ever get used to the sensory changes which accompanied the full moon. As foreign as the concept still felt to him, he was still surprised that he hadn’t understood the second he’d heard Chase. He caught his breath, sitting sideways in the seat with one foot on the ground and the other on the frame of the car, as Chase closed the distance between them.

  “You know, people are going to think you’re crazy if you keep talking to yourself,” Garrick teased as Chase approached.

  “Whatever,” he laughed. “If that’s the one thing about me deemed crazy, I’d say I’m doing something right.”

  “Can’t argue with that logic,” Garrick shrugged. He waited a second before adding, “Need a ride home?” He desperately hoped that Chase would say yes, but tried to bury that feeling in a friendly question. Any company would be great, and it would distract him. Chase’s house was in the opposite direction, so it would make his trip alone longer, but it wouldn’t be a trip home from school alone. That practically semantic difference meant the world to Garrick.

  “That would be great,” Chase accepted gratefully. He walked around the car and sat in the passenger seat, closing the door a little too hard behind him. “Thanks,” he told Garrick, his friendly tone starting to become forced. Garrick sighed, once again surprised that he hadn’t caught on to what was actually happening. Chase never asked for a ride home, so there was clearly some ulterior motive. Turning around, Garrick closed his door, hoping it would allow Chase to actually say whatever what was on his mind.

  “You need to come with us,” Chase blurted out the second the door closed. It had worked even better than Garrick had expected. Garrick was silent for a moment as he shifted the car into gear and started driving toward Chase’s house. He waited a few minutes, Chase’s comment lingering in the air, before he finally gave it a response.

  “I can’t. You know that.”

  “It isn’t safe out here. Aldric has told us a lot more about the hunters. He’s scared for you. Mad, yes, but scared too. He wants us to get you to come back. Of course, he’d never say that and risk his pride faltering, but he doesn’t want you to get hurt, Garrick.”

  “Didn’t you see my picture?”

  “Yeah, that looks great. But I really don’t think that it’s going to work. I showed Aldric and he just rolled his eyes. He told me they’d catch you.”

  “Thanks for the concern,” Garrick replied, trying to hide the anger and sarcasm. He was genuinely glad to have friends who cared about him, but he wasn’t even convinced that hunters existed. Anyway, no amount of concern would change the fact that Aldric refused to do anything to protect innocent lives. Maybe his pride truly was the issue, and he was just angry that Garrick found a solution to the problem that Aldric hadn’t been able to solve. He flipped his blinker on and turned left through a light. His phone vibrated. Assuming it was a text from Tyler, he let it beep without checking it. “But I can’t go back there. I don’t think anyone will find me, but even if they do, I’d rather risk myself than innocent campers.”

  “Then I’m going to change with you,” Chase demanded.

  “No. Let me at least do it once, make sure it’s safe,” Garrick argued.

  “I’m not letting you do this alone. I told you we could start our own pack if you found a better alternative. Well, let’s do it.”

  “Next month, Chase,” Garrick implored as he pulled up to Chase’s house. “I just want to know that it will work. And I want to test my theory that hunters won’t come after me. I don’t think I’m wrong, but I’m not confident enough to bet your safety on it.”

  “Okay,” Chase resigned. An air of silence filled the car when Chase didn’t get out. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. He took a deep breath and checked his phone, clearly trying to procrastinate the remainder of the conversation.

  “Hayden’s a mess, Garrick.”

  “Please, Chase. I can’t.”

  “I know.”

  “I have to go to Tyler’s,” Garrick changed the subject as he checked his phone. “We’re working on something.”

  “He knows?”

  Garrick blanked for a second. He didn’t realize that the rest of the pack didn’t know that Tyler had learned about him. The thought that it was a secret simply hadn’t crossed his mind. Although he knew his face gave him away, he desperately searched his mind for any possible explanation. Garrick wasn’t sure what Aldric would do if he found out Tyler knew.

  “It’s a school project,” Garrick said, almost inquisitively. He tried to sound convincing, but he’d never been a good liar. Chase shook his head, not even pretending to believe the weak attempt at an excuse. With them being so close to the moon, their wolves were pushing their way out, and Chase would be able to hear his heart.

  “Your heartbeat raced when I asked that,” Chase explained. “What are the two of you working on?”

  “A cure. It’s far-fetched, but there are tons of ideas in the books we’ve found. Most of them are pure mythology, but it’s still worth a shot. Maybe, somewhere hidden in all the myths, we can find a way to stop the change.”

  “Let me help.” Chase didn’t give Garrick room f
or an argument. Garrick just sighed and put the car in drive, heading to Tyler’s house. “So, how did he find out?”

  Chase had agreed to ask Aldric what may cause a change outside of the full moon. He seemed to be convinced by Garrick and Tyler’s theory as well, but they all decided it would be better to see if Aldric knew of a way. Of course, Chase was going to exclude any of the bits that involved Garrick – which was basically everything. He was going to have to find a time for it to come up, because there was no question Aldric would put it together if Chase just asked it as a random question.

  In the meantime, he wanted to help find a cure. He was lying on his back on Tyler’s bed surrounded by open books and holding one above his face. Tyler sat at his desk, leaning over his own book and studying it intently. That left Garrick to skim the books they’d already searched, hoping they’d missed something. At the moment, he sat in a chair and tossed a ball in the air, catching it absentmindedly. Even when his eyes drifted away, he didn’t miss the ball once. He wasn’t sure if he could just sense its presence or subconsciously hear the wind displacement.

  Tyler caught Chase up on the methods they had already discussed, which was practically everything they could find. As he spoke, Garrick pondered each solution. Chase and Tyler would look to Garrick any time they had a question, apparently expecting him to have any more answers than they did. Tyler seemed particularly interested in the idea of drawing blood from a wolf, but also admitted that it was too dangerous for any human to attempt.

  “What about this,” Chase suggested, turning the book toward Garrick and Tyler as he held his finger under a bold heading. “Exorcisms. I mean, we are, in a sense, possessed by a beast, right?”

  “It’s worth a shot,” Garrick conceded. There was no counter-argument that made sense in his mind. The only thing that he felt was that sometimes, the wolf didn’t feel so much like an evil presence. Those moments were always fleeting, and he repeatedly fell back to the conclusion that it was malicious – but something still felt wrong about performing an exorcism on it.

  “That also says running water would stop a werewolf, though,” Tyler combated, squinting as he read the paragraph.

  “We have crossed a few streams,” Chase joked. “If I remember correctly.”

  “I know I’ve woken up on opposite sides of them. I don’t know if I used a bridge, but I don’t think the wolf would have gone out of its way,” Garrick added, not acknowledging Chase’s joke. Garrick was too focused on determining the validity of the source.

  “Still, it doesn’t discredit the entire article,” Tyler empathized as Chase’s chest fell with a heavy sigh. “Just because not every piece of information is correct.”

  “No,” Chase acknowledged hesitantly. Still, when he turned the book back around, he flipped through the remainder of the pages with significantly less enthusiasm. Garrick’s faith in that source began to waver as well, and he found himself questioning whether any of the books could actually hold an answer.

  At some point, Garrick left and found his way to the woods. All he wanted was to rest in silence and solitude, hoping it would help him concentrate. Maybe he could find some way to fix everything that was going wrong in his life if he just gave himself a few minutes to think about it. Even if not a cure, he hoped he could just find solutions to the personal dilemmas plaguing his mind. Every waking minute his head swarmed with thoughts; he couldn’t help but think all he needed was a minute to quiet it all down.

  But he didn’t really do much thinking. He actually just let the sounds of nature calm him, and he almost felt himself drifting off to sleep. For the first time in as long as he could remember, his mind went completely blank, and he didn’t have the burden of thought pressing down on it.

  Placing his elbows on the fallen tree behind him, he leaned against it for support. The crunch of the leaves beneath him startled a bird, which flapped its wings violently as it flew away. Garrick breathed deeply, accepting fresh air into his lungs as he admired the trees in front of him. The air felt cleaner – purer – than anything he’d experienced, and with each exhale, he could feel the stress and anxiety leaving his body.

  Suddenly, Garrick noticed a shape dart out behind a few trees in his peripheral vision. He didn’t even have to wonder for a second what it was. The beast was too large to be an animal in that forest, and it was far too fast for its size. It was the wolf. He looked around, wondering where he actually was. This couldn’t be real. It never was.

  Still, he was terrified. No amount of logic or rationalization could quell the now intense beating of his heart. Garrick lurched forward, staggering to his feet, and ran as fast as he could, uncertain of where he was going. He just kept trying to get away from the sounds of rustling branches and breaking leaves behind him that indicated that he was being chased. He darted past a few trees, ducked under branches, and jumped over fallen logs. Despite his best efforts, he could hear the wolf gaining on him, rapidly closing the distance.

  In an instant, the sounds of the pursuing creature were silenced. He broke the line of trees and stumbled into a clearing. There was a single tent set up, but it was torn to shreds. Two human bodies lay not very far from the site.

  He dropped to his knees, staring at the image that continued to haunt him. Blinking furiously, Garrick willed the vision to dissipate. He even repeated “it’s just a dream,” fully aware that he couldn’t be witnessing this again. It was to no avail – regardless of what he told himself, the tent wouldn’t move. The bodies wouldn’t vanish. He could feel his heart rate climb as his breathing became more shallow and he descended into panic.

  He saw the wolf walk powerfully out from the trees in front of him and to his left. It moved diagonally toward him, almost as though it were being careful to avoid the campsite. The beast paused for a moment at the body and looked down, seemingly only noticing the bodies in that moment. It inched and nudged the corpse, which obviously didn’t respond. The wolf whimpered a bit, but it wasn’t distracted for long. As quickly as it had been distracted, its attention shifted back to Garrick and it continued its path toward him.

  He could see himself reflected in its eyes – a broken boy collapsed to the ground, his will shattered.

  “What do you want from me?” he asked angrily. The wolf, presumably incapable of speech (but who knew, in his twisted head?) didn’t respond. Projecting his anger at himself, at the weakness he could see in the image in the wolf’s eyes, he raised his voice. He yelled, “What do you want?”

  It just motioned toward the site, its eyes downcast. If he didn’t know better, Garrick might believe the wolf was showing remorse. Unwilling to humanize the beast in front of him, he refused to accept that. Still, there was a sadness in its eyes. Garrick’s expression softened as he looked back down at the wolf, catching its gaze.

  “You didn’t do this, did you?” He didn’t know who he was talking to. The wolf wasn’t even there, not really. It was all in his head. But he felt a need to speak his thoughts out loud. The wolf looked innocently at him. Then, as quickly as his own expression had changed a moment ago, the wolf’s did. Its mouth opened in a snarl and it dove at Garrick.

  “Garrick?” Chase prompted, shaking him awake. Garrick’s eyes shot open and he twitched violently as he tried to sit up. Chase, whose hands were on Garrick’s shoulders, let go of his friend and moved backward, holding his hands up. “You looked like you were having a nightmare.”

  “Sorry,” he muttered absently. He tried to gather his thoughts and stabilize his breathing as he sat up and looked around Tyler’s room. “I must have fallen asleep.”

  “You did indeed – about four hours ago,” Tyler retorted. “I made the executive decision to allow you to get some rest.”

  “I’m sorry,” Garrick repeated.

  “Don’t mention it,” Chase sympathized.

  “Did you guys find anything?” Garrick asked groggily, stifling a yawn.

  “Not really,” Chase sighed. “I found a few people claiming they had a way
to prevent it. Not really a cure, but it can supposedly stop you from changing. I don’t know. It was a lot of meditating and talking to your inner beast. It was really weird.”

  “Thanks anyway,” Garrick accepted. “Sorry.”

  They both just brushed it off and buried their noses back into their respective books. Garrick hadn’t realized the two of them were so focused. For Chase, it made sense. If they actually found an answer, it would change his life forever. The curse, though, didn’t affect Tyler directly. To him, it wasn’t anything more than helping a friend who had a problem once a month. Garrick found himself speechless, honored to have such good friends. They’d been researching for hours, and he’d already found himself losing hope, then drifting off. The two of them, though, just kept going – trying to find an answer despite the odds.

  He checked his phone to see a text from Samantha

  “Garrick, can we talk?” She asked.

  “Are you at the coffee shop?” Garrick replied.

  “I get off in an hour.”

  “I’ll meet you there.”

  “Guys,” Garrick spoke to the two people actually in the room. “I need to talk to Samantha. I have no idea what to tell her, but I can’t just keep ignoring her forever. I hoped we’d have cured it by now, but that was a little ambitious,” he admitted.

  “Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m an authority on this subject,” Tyler joked. Garrick wasn’t sure if that was just his way of getting out of giving advice or if he was acknowledging his imperfect relationship history.

  “The girl from the coffee shop?” Chase asked skeptically.

  “It’s a long story,” Garrick sighed.

  “My warning still stands,” Chase said menacingly, squinting at Garrick with feigned malice.

  “At this point it might be a mercy,” Garrick groaned. “Don’t worry, I’m figuring it out.”