"You see. I think it would be a terrific idea if we got out of here. I don't think I want to try to explain my miraculous recovery to any of the doctors. Not to mention, I feel fine. In fact, I feel better than fine. I feel better than I've ever felt in my entire life." With the giant smile still on his face, he stood up.
Stephanie frowned. She didn’t disagree with his statement about getting out of here, but about him saying he felt better than he had ever felt before. Because, it was how she felt. Never had she felt more alive, more vigorous, and stronger than she did today.
She was sure this was a by-product of the change she had gone through last night. If Jason felt that way now, as well, not to mention their strange connection they had, it was possible he was somehow changed now as well.
It was too much to take in, either way. The first thing they needed to do was to get out of here. Stephanie went to the bag at Mike's feet and grabbed him some clothes and tossed them over.
"We'll wait outside." She kissed him. "Make it quick."
Mike, Beth and she stepped outside the room and waited for Jason to get dressed. She didn't think they would have too much difficulty getting out of here with Jason dressed. It was the patients trying to leave in gowns they would frown upon she imagined.
It didn't take too long for Jason to get dressed and he was with them shortly. They made small talk as they walked down the hallway, keeping Jason on the far side away from the nurse's station. They ducked into the stairwell and made their way out. They agreed to meet at Stephanie's and Beth's place, so Jason went with Mike who followed Beth there.
When they were all in the apartment it was Mike who had come up with a new idea and started the conversation.
"So, Jason and I were talking on the way over, and we are in agreement, you have some form of lycanthropy." Stephanie and Jason sat together on the couch and Mike took the recliner, while Beth occupied the ottoman.
"What is lycanthropy?" Beth asked.
"Lycanthropy is basically what makes a werewolf a werewolf," Jason chimed in. "It was supposed to be some sort of blood disease which caused people to take on the form of a wolf, or in this case, a fox. Which is why, I believe, I almost died."
"So, it was my fault?" Stephanie cast her eyes downward in shame.
"Not really, sweetie. It was more mine than yours. You told me to get away, and it was I who didn't listen. I held you so I was close enough for your claw to dig into my skin. You weren't conscious at the time." Jason tried to convince her.
Feeling a little bit better, Stephanie asked. "So, why did you almost die?"
"Well," Jason began. "Well, lycanthropy is supposedly a blood disease. So, when you cut me, you infected me. I believe my body attempted to fight it off and failed. So, in response, it shut down, instead. However, the hospital was able to revive me, so I survived the infection… basically."
"So, that means, what?" Beth asked him.
"It means I am now, most likely, the same as her," gesturing towards Stephanie. "I am now also a werewol...er fox."
"Oh, god," Stephanie groaned out. "I am so sorry, Jason. I didn't mean for any of this to happen."
Jason patted her hand. "I know you didn't, Stephanie. You had no control over the situation. What I don't understand though, is where you got it from and what triggered the change, since it was not a full moon which caused it." He was doing a fantastic job at making her not feel like a total monster. Even though she was sure this meant she had destroyed his life. No matter what he said, she didn't think she would forgive herself.
"I wish I could tell you something to explain it, Jason. But I have no idea how or why I would have this lycanthropy. I don't think I've seen a red fox, and I'm positive I have never changed into this thing before." Shaking her head, she was frustrated she didn't have any answers.
Mike leaned forward. "Have you ever been hurt, Stephanie? Or sick?"
At first, her response was to say of course she had been sick. But it occurred to her, she couldn't think of a single time she had been sick. Perfect attendance all throughout high school and there was no time in grade school which came to mind. Never got hurt, either. In of itself, it wasn't odd. Lots of people go through their entire life without breaking anything. She had cut herself a few times, but those had always healed up nicely. In fact, she didn't think she had a scar.
"I've always had this disease!" She realized. "It’s why I never got sick. It wasn't until you asked, Mike, I also realized I had never broken anything. Plus, anytime I had cut myself, I never scarred and always healed rapidly. But, why haven't I changed until now?"
No one gave her an answer. After a moment of silence, Jason spoke up.
"The nice thing is, I don't think we need to worry about anything until there is a full moon."
"Why?" Beth asked.
"Well, it would be the mythology of lycanthropy, right? We must assume since evidently, lycanthropy is real, the mythology holds a bit of truth. I can't speak for last night, other than perhaps it happens for the first time is when you reach a certain age, or certain part of the season. One could never know. But what is commonly agreed upon is, when it comes to lycanthropy, it commonly occurs on a full moon." Jason continued, "So, I believe we are safe from any changing for a week or so."
Stephanie wasn't convinced. "Can we risk it? This is all supposition. We have no idea for sure about any of this." She threw her hands into the air. "Hell, I could be moments away from changing again and killing all of you." That got their attention. "We don't know. And I, for one, am not willing to risk your lives, or the lives of other innocents on a guess."
So excitedly sure of himself, Jason deflated under her rationale.
"So, what are we going to do?"
"I told you. I'm going to return home and try to stay as far away from people as I can."
"What about me?"
"What about you? Jason, I almost killed you the last time I changed. I can’t bear the thought of causing you any pain, let alone killing you. I can't risk having you near me." She pleaded with him. Hoping he would understand. The expression in his eyes told her he wasn't going to give up.
"Stephanie. Even if you don't believe you have lycanthropy, you should at least believe whatever you have, I now have. There is no other explanation for the fact my wound disappeared. So, whatever you do, I am doing it with you. If you are going home, I'm going home with you."
She wanted to argue with him, but the truth was, she felt alone. Realizing she wasn’t like everyone else now, and although she had terrific friends, there was no way for them to understand what she was going through. Hell, she didn’t understand what she was going through.
She needed Jason. Not because she needed a friend now more than ever, but she needed someone who was going to be experiencing everything she went through. Someone who would understand. In the end, she decided it was best not to argue with him on this and nodded her agreement he could accompany her to her home.
Smiling at her, Jason squeezed her hand. She turned to Beth and Mike.
“You two on the other hand, I need to say goodbye to now.” Raising a hand to forestall Beth who was about to say something. “Now, don’t argue. It’s all nice and well to assume we are all safe till a full moon, but as I mentioned before, we have no proof. I will not risk your lives on a guess, no matter how logical it is.” Stephanie stood up. “Jason and I leave tonight. If you could make yourself scarce, in case I change in the next five minutes or something?”
Standing, Beth nodded slowly to her and was suddenly hugging her hard. “You take care of yourself, little sis.”
“I will, big sis.”
“You better,” Beth insisted as she disengaged herself.
“Or what? You’ll break my legs? They will heal right back up.” The joke rang a little hollow, since she wasn’t quite used to the idea yet. Beth smiled at her all the same.
Beth turned to Jason. “And you! That’s my little sis over there, and if you allow anything to happen to her, I will ge
t a gun with a silver bullet and shoot you myself!”
Gazing at her, Jason just smiled then hugged her as suddenly as she had hugged Stephanie. At first Beth was stiff in his arms but hugged him back.
“I will do my best, Beth, I promise,” Jason whispered and released her.
“Well, okay,” Beth told him.
Stepping around Beth, Mike held out his hand for Jason. Jason took it and shook it vigorously.
“You’re a decent man, Jason, try to be careful. And, good luck.”
“Thanks, Mike. You’ve been a terrific friend. Don’t worry, you guys, we’ll keep in touch. We’ll call you when we get to Pennsylvania,” Jason told them.
A day later they were in Brookville, Pennsylvania. A few hours north of Punxsutawney, the town made famous by the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day. Stephanie remembered when she was younger making the drive down there for Groundhog Day to see Punxsutawney Phil. It was one of her fondest memories she had of growing up.
They stopped attending the event after her mom died. Her mother had drowned in the farm’s lake when Steph had just turned ten. It was hard after that. Her father had never been a loving dad. A farmer, he worked hard and long. He didn’t have time for her or her sister which was what wives were for. It was the kind of mentality which didn’t surface much anymore, but her dad was old-school.
He left them alone to raise themselves, and to deal with the grief of the loss of their mother, as well. Her sister, Caroline, was only seven, so it was up to Stephanie to take care of things. Teaching herself how to cook, she made sure Caroline and she ate well. Her father, she left to fend for himself; after all, it was what he was doing to them.
It wasn’t the taking care of them which hurt Stephanie the most. It was dealing with the grief which was the hardest. It was why she always resented her dad and why she left as soon as it was obvious Caroline would be okay on her own.
Working hard in school, she received a scholarship, including boarding. The day before she left for school, she told her dad where she was going. She remembered it vividly.
Sitting on the sofa, her dad was watching TV. Having come in off the fields, he was falling asleep with a beer in his hand. Her father was a rough seeming man. Dark, tanned skin, creased and marked by age lines from too many years in the field.
He seldom smiled, though she always believed it was because of his bad teeth more than he was never happy. Stubble covered his chin and cheeks. It appeared he never shaved, but she knew he had; only it was so early in the morning, by the time his work was done at the end of the day, he needed to shave again. Stretched out on the sofa, he sat with his long legs sprawled out before him. Some might say her father was lanky, though to her, lanky always meant weak. Her father was not weak. It was true, he was tall and skinny, but his biceps were corded lumps which stood out, even at rest. He was all skin and muscle, not an ounce of fat on him.
Sparing her a glance when she sat, he looked back to the TV. She let him know she was leaving in the morning for the University of Pittsburg where she would be staying and going to school. She wasn’t sure when she would be back.
She remembered his reaction like it was yesterday. Taking a sip of his beer, his eyes never leaving the TV, he told her, “Well, good luck.”
Stunned, she sat in the chair for a moment before slowly going up to her room. Packing all her clothes, she cried the entire time.
Morning came and when she went to leave, she saw her father out on the fields working. Hugging her sister long and hard, she told her to find a way out as soon as possible.
To her credit, Caroline nodded and hugged her back. Stephanie felt she was abandoning Caroline, but there was no help for it. She had to leave. Her friend, Clea, gave her a ride into town where Stephanie boarded the bus to Pittsburg. In the two years she was at school, she hadn’t been back. Until now.
As Jason turned on the road which would lead them to the driveway of her home, she felt a moment of panic. Caroline had left for school in the early fall, getting away from here. Only her father was at the farm; her father who had so coldly said goodbye when she left. Hell, he didn’t say goodbye, just wished her luck. She wasn’t sure what she was going to say to him. How she was going to explain to him why she was there. Wasn’t sure he wanted her there. Stephanie hadn’t bothered calling, either. Just showing up with her boyfriend after two years…
“Let’s go somewhere else, Jason,” she uttered when they pulled into the driveway of her childhood home.
She felt Jason’s eyes on her as she stared down the long driveway to the house. Bringing the car to a halt, he turned off the radio.
“Okay, Stephanie, what is it? You have been quiet most of the way here and frankly, I could feel the tension elevate the closer we got. You worried about seeing your father?”
Stephanie stared out the window at the fields. She didn’t want to talk about it, and yet, she desperately needed to.
“I’m sorry,” Jason said after a moment of silence. “Hey, never mind, if you don’t want to talk about it, it’s fine. Just know, I’m here if you want to talk, okay?”
“No.” She considered him. “It’s okay. You should know a little about what you are getting into.”
She told him everything about her mother’s death, and the years afterwards leading up to her leaving home for college.
“So, you see? I’m not sure he is going to welcome us home. Plainly, he didn’t want me here before I left,” she finished.
Jason let out a long sigh.
“Well, I’m not sure what to say about all of that, but I think after coming all this way, we should at least stop by.”
Thinking long and hard on it for a bit, she decided Jason was right. She at least owed her father that much. Nodding her assent, he continued down the drive.
As she neared the house, all the comments Caroline made to her the last few years before she left started to come to mind. She had dismissed them because she still hurt and didn’t want to hear anything about her father, but they ran straight to her thoughts the moment they came close to the house.
It appeared dilapidated; as if no one lived there. The windows carried a sheet of dust from the fields so thick as to make them opaque. Shutters were either missing or almost falling off. Weeds and vines choked the landscaped bushes marking the front of her home, leaving them brown and skeletal. The front door screen was ripped from one corner and draped over the rest of the door, fluttering when the wind blew.
Caroline tried to tell her how bad it was getting at home, but Stephanie ignored it, not wanting to hear. Caroline tried to tell her how little their father did to maintain the house; even how bad he maintained the fields.
She glanced at the fields. Most of them were barren and appeared untilled this year. One section of the farm held some crops, and it appeared paltry, at best.
The car stopped, and she saw the front door open. Her father stepped out onto the front step, shading his eyes, trying to make out who his visitors were. It was strange to see him at the house during the daytime. He was either out in the fields, or in the shed working on the equipment, never at the house till dusk, or later.
At first glance, he appeared much like he did when she left, tall and thin, skin worn and leathery. At closer inspection, she saw how sunken his eyes were. He didn’t stand as straight as he used to. Now, he hunched over as if beaten into submission and forced to bow and scrape. His hair, which had never been neat, was wispy and disheveled. Several days of growth spread uncomfortably up from his chin to form a patchy, salt and pepper beard.
This was not the strong man she knew. This man appeared as if he had nothing left worth fighting for. For the first time in her life, her father seemed weak to her.
She stepped out of the car. Her father lowered his hand from his eyes and stared at her. They stared, unmoving, glaring at one another for what seemed like an eternity. She couldn’t take it anymore.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?”
When he heard h
er voice, he dropped to his knees and let out a loud sob, burying his face in his hands.
Stephanie stood there for a moment, dumbfounded. She never heard her father cry— not even at her mother’s funeral. Standing there, frozen, she was unable to move. The moment passed, and she crossed the distance to her father. When she approached, he threw his arms open wide. Barreling into him, he wrapped his arms around her and continued to cry against her stomach.
Stroking his hair, she held him. It took her a moment to realize he was uttering something, almost unintelligible. She strained to hear him, and when she at last did make out what he was saying, she began to cry as well.
He kept repeating “I’m so sorry.”
“So am I, Dad. So am I.”
Jason watched from the car as Stephanie and her father hugged each other and exchanged words. He felt it wouldn’t be right to interrupt the reunion as it appeared to be an emotional one. He inhaled deeply, contented, figuring the moment would be, and it was.
When Stephanie told him the story of her childhood, he knew she misunderstood her father. Stephanie and her sister lost a mother they knew for a decade. He lost his wife, friend and the partner he knew for twice that time- at least.
He knew many times children consider their parents as larger than life. As if the things which affect us, don’t affect them. We expect them to act above everything. Sometimes, when we are disillusioned with the belief, it can be painful, as it was with Stephanie.
Somehow, she expected him to be unaffected by her mother’s death, and yet, be sensitive to it with them, when in fact, he was devastated. Doubtless, he felt he had lost the one person who sincerely ‘got’ him, the one person who he had shared his life with for many years. Her father was only human, after all, and he couldn’t be expected to continue with his life as if nothing happened.
Jason didn’t excuse his actions, though. The man had two daughters who needed him. He should have done his best to deal with his grief and move on as best he could and take care of them. No. Jason didn’t excuse it, but he understood it.
The Awakening Box Set Page 43