by Mia Archer
I wheeled around in time to see the second werewolf finally making its way in. It was down on all fours, still sniffing the air, but growling. It seemed pretty happy about its chances. At least until I whirled around and pointed the gun at it.
The thing was so close that it didn’t seem possible that I could miss. I only had one chance at this, and I’d been pretty good at shooting on the one occasion I’d tried it which had surprised the dude trying to impress me with his lackluster shooting ability back when I was still deluding myself and dating guys. So I pulled the trigger.
Nothing could have prepared me for what it felt like firing that weapon. The thing was like a hand cannon! It went off and nearly knocked me on my ass.
The damage was far worse for the werewolf. The shot hit the thing in the shoulder, which caused it to rear up and let out a nasty snarl. Its claws came out, and I had no doubt my life was about to end.
If I didn’t manage to end this thing’s life first, that is. I squeezed off another shot. I didn’t want to empty the gun into the thing. I had no idea how many silver bullets Kirsten had, and I didn’t want to waste ammo.
This shot landed more center of gravity, and the gun was big enough and powerful enough that it knocked back the hulking monstrosity. It let out a nasty yelp, then stumbled back and fell to the ground.
I stared in disbelief as it slowly transformed back into human form. I’d done it. I’d actually shot a werewolf and killed it!
I was starting to feel better about my chances, but more screaming drew me back to hellacious reality. I turned just in time to see someone else getting dragged out the front window. This time it was a big basketball player who was doing his best to punch the werewolf dragging him, but all his muscle wasn’t enough to stop the werewolf.
That poor bastard was dead the moment the werewolf got him. It dug its claws into his face and his side, and he let out a pained yell as he was ripped into the darkness.
“Would you please stay the fuck away from those fucking windows?” I bellowed, which had people taking nervous steps back. “Okay. We’re going upstairs. I need everyone to move fast, because we don’t have much time.”
“You expect us to go past that big hole in the wall when those things are out there?” some girl asked.
It was a fair question. Usually I wouldn’t want to take that sort of risk, but unfortunately it was the only option available to us. I heard more snarling from the kitchen. We didn’t have much time. So I held the gun up and tried to look intimidating.
“This is the plan,” I said. “If you want to stick around and die then that’s your business, but you need to come with me if you want to live.”
Blank looks. I rolled my eyes. Athletes.
A couple of the players, and one guy who I was pretty sure was a cheerleader, moved for the stairs. They were careful to give a wide berth to Kirsten who seemed to have gotten the upper hand with the werewolf. She had it down on the ground pinned with its arm behind it as it let out a pained howl.
She’d actually pinned the fucker. This girl was amazing!
I positioned myself by the massive hole that had so recently been added to the wall. I held the gun out in front of me and looked at the shadows. There was just enough light coming from the streetlamps that I’d be able to see something coming from either direction, I hoped.
Those things could move fast, after all. I wondered if they’d be able to catch me before I had a chance to fire a shot. I pushed those thoughts away. They weren’t helpful.
More screams came from the kitchen. I glanced in that direction just in time to see a fountain of blood go flying through the door onto the living room carpet. Some of it landed on a girl who suddenly looked like she was doing her best impression of Sissy Spacek in a completely different Stephen King movie. She stared down and screamed, and then started moving faster towards the stairs.
I turned back and caught movement by the street. A werewolf had appeared there. It would’ve been pretty fucking terrifying, were it not for the fact that I was carrying a massive hand cannon loaded with silver bullets.
At least I hoped it still had silver bullets in it. I had no idea how many rounds this thing could carry, and how many had been fired. It was possible I was empty, but the werewolf didn’t know that.
I raised the weapon. The werewolf was far enough away that I didn’t want to try the shot. Not with only the light from the streets silhouetting it. The werewolf seemed to get the idea. It raised its paws like it didn’t want anything to do with what was happening here, and backed away.
“That’s what I thought,” I said.
Though I did glance over my shoulder to make sure there weren’t any werewolves sneaking up behind me. After all, if we were operating on horror movie rules then this would be the moment I got slammed by the werewolf that’d been sneaking up behind me.
Thankfully there was nothing lurking back there. Maybe they weren’t in the backyard after all.
A girl could hope.
I looked down at the weapon in my hand and grinned. I was starting to understand why so many American werewolves did their deadly business in countries with stricter gun control laws.
I heard another crunch from behind me. I turned to see Kirsten slam her fist down into the werewolf one more time. It was a bloodied and beaten mess.
Kirsten stood, covered in blood, but from the way she stood there with her shoulders heaving and a determined look on her face, like some sort of Amazon goddess of war come to life, I didn’t think any of that was her blood.
She held her hand out. “Gun.”
I sheepishly handed it to her, but not before checking one final time to make sure there weren’t any other werewolves lurking in the shadows. The last thing I wanted was to have one of those fuckers jump me as soon as I gave up my only method of defense.
I had a feeling I wasn’t going to do nearly as well in a fist fight against one of these things as Kirsten had.
She took the gun and fired a single shot into the werewolf’s head.
The werewolf didn’t make any noise. Its body convulsed as Kirsten stood over it looking like an avenging angel, and went still. A moment later it started transforming back into its regular self, and its regular self turned out to be a girl I was pretty sure I’d seen hovering around the party tonight.
I walked over and spat on her.
“Bitch tried to lock me out,” I said.
“And she tried to kill me,” Kirsten said, spitting on her as well.
More growling from outside drew my attention. It was coming both from the front of the house and from the hole. Which I figured meant things were about to get a hell of a lot more interesting in here.
“Get everyone upstairs,” Kirsten said.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
“I’m going to kill these werewolf fuckers. Now get everyone up there and out into the backyard.”
“But I heard snarling from back there, and there were people getting killed in the kitchen,” I said. “We’ll be trapped if we try to go for the backyard!”
“Don’t worry about the werewolves in the back,” Kirsten said.
She searched the bodies in the room until she pulled out an odd device that looked like a lightsaber if you squinted at it just right, and I gasped when she twisted her wrist just so and a blade shot out of the thing. It was like magic materializing in front of us, and it seemed to glow ever so slightly.
Not like a lightsaber, but the metal was definitely glowing slightly.
“I’m going to make sure they’re all distracted. You worry about getting everyone out. Got it?”
Under normal circumstances I would’ve protested. I would’ve tried to explain that there wasn’t a chance a single person was going to hold them off once she managed to draw them in.
Only…
Looking at her with that sword in one hand, gun in the other, I suddenly got the feeling she was going to cause some serious damage to these werewolf motherfuckers before
the night was through.
“I’m on it,” I said.
19
Kirsten
Cara took the stairs two at a time. Despite all the craziness, I took a moment to enjoy watching her walking up the stairs.
Hey, so sue me. I might be in the middle of a life and death situation here, but I needed a break. Not to mention the way she moved up those stairs was enchanting in those impossibly tight shorts.
I was really glad Carrie had dragged her out here tonight, and I was even more happy that Carrie had convinced her to wear some of her impossibly tight party wardrobe.
Then she was around the corner and gone. I breathed a sigh of relief.
If I was going to have someone around in a fight then I wanted it to be someone who had a good grasp of how this whole horror situation worked, don’t get me wrong, but at the same time it wasn’t like I could do my best work when I was constantly worrying about my friends, or whatever the hell Cara was to me, getting their asses killed.
Now it was just me all by me onesies, though, to quote Captain Jack. Which meant it was time to get to work. I wasn’t sure that my plan was going to work, but I had to try.
Something hulking appeared in the hole in the wall. Cara had been doing a pretty good job of keeping them from coming through, but they were getting more bold.
I suppose not having a girl standing there holding a massive gun that could end them would do that. Though the wolf did hesitate when it peered into the room and realized it was just me standing there with my sword in one hand and my gun in the other.
I was no Cary Elwes. I wasn’t exactly a fan of having to use my sword lefthanded, but while there was still some distance between me and these wolf motherfuckers I was going to keep my gun in my preferred shooting hand.
“Hi there,” I said, giving a little wave. At least as much as I could wave with a gun in my hand. “Are you here for the party?”
The thing let out a growl as it lifted its nose and sniffed at the air. Then it looked down to one of the two bodies that had bullet holes in them. It let out a low growl.
“Oh I’m so sorry,” I said. “Was that one of your friends?”
The thing looked up at me. Its glowing yellow eyes darted to the sword, then to the gun. It seemed to be weighing its chances with what little human intelligence was still calling the shots, and then it ducked back out through the hole in the wall.
I cursed under my breath. Sure a werewolf running away was the ideal outcome for people who were terrified of the things, but I wanted to draw them in.
So I walked over to that hole in the wall. Looked to either end and saw werewolves standing there. Cara had been right about werewolves waiting back there, and that would mean trouble when they tried to escape.
“What are you waiting for you cowardly bastards?” I shouted. “Are you going to run, or are you going to bring the fight to me?”
Both of them stared for a moment, and then they let out enraged snarls and stalked towards me. They were still moving slowly, cautiously, but they were moving towards me. That was something.
I really hated that I was going to have to do this next part, but it had to be done. So I looked between the two of them, let out a terrified shriek, and disappeared back into the house. The snarling got even louder..
If I was dealing with humans they might’ve realized I was totally over-the-top in my acting. They might’ve stopped to consider that they were being led into a trap considering I’d killed two of their friends already without breaking a sweat.
That was one of the convenient things about dealing with a werewolf. They were too stupid to stop and rationally think about things because of the animal rage.
I moved to the kitchen entrance and stuck just the tip of my sword through the door, glancing behind me to see the other two werewolves standing at the hole in the wall looking at me with a predator’s gleam in their eye. They were on the hunt now, and nothing was going to stop them from chasing me.
A clawed hand flashed out and smacked the sword. Knocked it out of my hand. I grinned as I stepped into the room.
The werewolf in there was holding its hand and letting out some snarls that were probably the werewolf equivalent of cursing, but it didn’t have to worry about the pain of touching my silver blade for too long. Not when I drilled it between the eyes with a shot that sent it stumbling back over the corpses of the poor bastards it’d killed in here.
“Thanks for the help,” I said, cheerful.
I picked my sword and moved to the stove. I opened up all the knobs as full as they’d go without sparking them off.
I moved to the back door which was off its hinges and raked with claw marks. There were more corpses on the back porch, and there were several werewolves out there enjoying a feast.
I also heard movement from up above. Like an entire party’s worth of people were moving around up there. One of the werewolves looked up from their meal.
That wasn’t going to do. I grabbed my sword and banged it against the doorframe. That drew their attention.
“Hey you furry bastards!” I shouted. “Are you ready for some fun?”
That got their attention. They growled, their glowing eyes narrowing, and they got down on all fours as they moved on me.
I wasn’t going to wait around, though. I had two behind me, at least three coming at me from the back, and that meant it was time to get the hell out of there.
My next stop was the basement.
The stairs leading down were nice and narrow. Which meant those werewolves would probably end up tangled trying to make their way down. Doing a complex maneuver like turning on their side and slowly making their way down the stairs in single file wasn’t exactly the kind of thing they’d be capable of even if they weren’t blinded by rage and their prey instinct as they chased me.
Down in the basement I was greeted by the sickening sight of a werewolf chewing on Brad’s head.
I shook my head. The bastard had come to the party after all. I didn’t think he quite deserved that fate, but I also couldn’t say I was sorry to see him go. His presence down here was also exactly what I needed.
The werewolf turned and looked at me, and cocked its head to the side. The other werewolves were snarling in the kitchen above making the kind of racket that said they were having exactly the kind of difficulties I’d been hoping for.
Werewolf heads broke through the grimy small basement windows you’d expect on a house that’d been built around the turn of the last century. They tried to claw their way in, but they had a harder time of it than they would’ve in, say, a big suburban home with egress windows like what I had growing up.
At least what I had when I moved into my grandmother’s place.
They snarled and stuck their heads into the windows, and it was clear the pack was really pissed off and trying to get down at me. I smiled. After all, that meant they were so taken by the bloodlust that they were getting their furry asses caught in those windows.
I held a gun up and the werewolf across the room stared at me quizzically. Then it did something that was downright hilarious. It actually held its hands up. I figured as long as it was being nice and staying at the other end of the room that was just fine.
Besides, my target on this end of the room. It was a gas furnace that had ancient copper lines running off of it. That probably violated a few codes, but it’s not like officials cared all that much about what landlords did with their ancient houses unless they got a complaint, and even then word around campus was the city was inclined to ignore college kids complaining.
I held my sword up and slammed it down on the piping. The room filled with a sickly sweet smell that told me there was gas pumping into the room. The werewolf growled again, but I held my gun up.
Not that I was eager to fire it off now. Not when that gas was hissing into the room. Ideally I wanted to set off an explosion after I got out of the room.
“Make my day,” I said.
The werewolf seem
ed to think I wasn’t worth going after, because it backed into the corner and let out a low whine. That was refreshing. It was nice to have one of these monsters that was actually appropriately afraid of me, and not trying to hunt me down.
“Thanks so much,” I said, walking over to one of the windows that didn’t have a werewolf currently stuck in it. It was near the back, and I hoped that meant the werewolves weren’t back there. That I’d managed to draw all of them into the house and they were now stuck on that stairway.
I pulled myself up to one of the windows not occupied by a werewolf, thankfully it’d been left open to let some air in, and shimmied through. Something tugged at me, and I turned to see that werewolf who’d been behaving so well there glaring at me.
I shook my head. I held my gun up, but didn’t fire. Not yet.
People treat gas like it’s dangerous the instant it starts leaking out, but that’s not exactly the case. There’s actually a minimum and a maximum amount of gas required for a big boom. Go under or over and the gas won’t ignite and explode.
I was going to have to eyeball this one, but I was pretty confident I’d be able to get the explosion I needed.
“You’re going to regret that Wolfie,” I said.
The thing growled and tried to jump up at me, but it wasn’t able to get out through the window any more than the werewolves stuck in the windows had been able to get into the basement.
I paused and listened. The whole house was filled with snarls. I could hear them coming from the open door that led into the kitchen, no doubt drifting up from the basement stairs. I could also hear them from inside the house, along with some screams.
I looked up to see a few people still up top like they were afraid to make the jump. I gestured frantically for them to get down, but then I saw why they were hanging around up there screaming rather than getting the fuck down.
There were a couple of werewolves up there with them. One wolf grabbed someone and pulled them into the house as other people stared on in horror.
“What the fuck are you waiting for?” I shouted.