by Tim O'Rourke
Wiping the tears from my face, I didn’t want her to see that I had been crying or know what had happened to Father Paul or my dad. I knocked on the front door and waited. I could hear footsteps approaching from inside, and my stomach knotted. The door swung open.
“What do you want?” she snarled at me.
“I’ve got a message from Father Paul, and as you have stopped having anything to do with him, he asked me to deliver it.”
“I’m not interested in anything he has to say,” she sneered, closing the front door.
I quickly shot my arm out, stopping her from shutting it. “I think it’s important,” I insisted.
She knocked her dark fringe from her eyes and stared at me. “I’m not interested.”
“But he says I must tell you,” I said, staring at her, my heart racing.
“Be quick,” she said, not inviting me in and keeping me out in the cold.
“Father Paul said that the Vampyrus had come across that grave where Dad buried that baby,” I lied, and kept looking straight into her eyes.
At once, they flashed orange, but she tried to hide it by breaking my stare.
“Father Paul said you should know because it might be the evidence they need to finally bring Joshua to justice,” I said. “Apparently the Vampyrus cops are going to start digging tomorrow to look for evidence – anything which might prove who killed that baby.”
“Your father killed the baby,” she snapped at me.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Just passing on the message,” I said and walked away. I listened for the sound of the front door shutting, and when it came, I darted across the street and hid behind a row of snow-covered bushes.
I didn’t have to wait for very long before my mother appeared from inside the house.
“Kara, keep an eye on Nik for me. I have to go out for a while.” Then she closed the front door behind her and set off in the snow, in the direction of the forest.
With the snow now ankle-deep, I knew I could follow her at a distance; her footprints would lead the way. With the collar of my coat pulled up around my throat, and my senses feeling numb, I followed her tracks at a safe distance. I made my way up the hill where the forest lay. Just once I saw her figure in the distance, just barely visible through the falling snow. I reached the tree line and saw her tracks disappear between the trees.
There wasn’t as much snow on the ground in the forest, and I guessed the deeper she went, the less snow there would be. I quickened my step and went after her. With every passing minute, I followed my mother deep into the forest, until at last she stepped into a small clearing ahead of me.
She glanced back, and I ducked behind a fallen tree trunk. My mouth felt dry and the hairs at the base of my neck stood on end. I waited several moments, then dared to peek around the tree. I could see my mother in the clearing. She was on her knees, digging away the snow and earth with her claws. With my heart racing in my chest, and a lump in my throat, I stepped away from my hiding place and into the clearing.
“It was you who killed that baby, not my father,” I said.
Startled, my mother jumped to her feet, clumps of black earth covering her fingers up to the knuckles. “Jack,” she gasped, trying to hide her shock at seeing me there.
“You killed that baby,” I said again, walking slowly through the falling snow towards her.
“You don’t know what you are talking about,” she said, trying to smile at me, but I could see the sudden fear in her eyes.
“It was you who murdered that landlord, not my father,” I said.
“Jack, you are mistaken. Who has filled your head with such lies?” she said, wiping the mud from her fingers.
“Only you would know where that baby was hidden,” I whispered, now just feet from her, my heart thumping.
“Your father…” she started.
“You told me that only my father knew where the baby was buried,” I reminded her.
“Oh, Jack,” she sighed, as if trying to make out that I was confused in some way.
“You’re mistaken. You haven’t remembered what I told you…”
“I could never forget what you told me and Kara that day,” I whispered. “It’s like it was only yesterday. I don’t stop dreaming – having nightmares – about what you told me. You killed the baby.”
“Jack,” she said, and although her lips were smiling, her eyes weren’t. They looked cunning and bright.
“Carry on digging,” I told her, pointing at the ground where she had already started to claw away the earth.
“No, Jack…” she started.
“Dig!” I suddenly screamed at her, the anger and hate I had been suppressing finally starting to take hold of me. “I want to know the truth. I want you to face the truth of what you’ve done!”
“No,” she said, looking suddenly startled by the anger and rage in my voice.
“Fuck you then!” I screeched at her.
“I’ll dig and make you see what you have done!”
With one swipe of my arm, I knocked her to the ground. I dropped to my knees and began to claw away at the earth with my fingers. I hadn’t dug very deep when the smell of rotting meat wafted beneath my nose. I gaged, arming away the spit which swung from my chin. How did the body smell so bad after all this time? Shouldn’t it be just a bunch of bones?
“Please, Jack!” my mother suddenly screeched. “Stop!”
Deaf to her pleas and just wanting to know the truth once and for all, I clawed and dug away the earth with my fingers. They felt cold and raw in the wet ground. The stench became stronger with every handful of mud that I clawed away. I saw the bones of that baby, then, I felt something, soft and spongy. I forced the earth to one side and then howled in disbelief and revulsion. What was left of the face staring out of the ground at me was almost black with rot and swollen with maggots, but I knew it was Lorre. I fell backwards in horror and sprayed vomit from the back of my throat.
I crawled on all fours away from the shallow grave, my vomit melting the snow around me. How much more could I take? I felt as if I were going fucking insane.
“What have you done?” I screeched at my mother. “What have you fucking done, you bitch! You killed my sister! ” Then the final words my father had uttered rang in my ears.
Your sister… he had said. Your sister is dead was what he had been trying to tell me.
“I don’t know what you’re getting so upset about,” I heard my mother say. “She was a human. Big fucking deal. So what? Who gives a shit?”
“I give a shit!” I roared and sprang through the air at her. I wanted to rip her eyes out.
It was only as I clattered into her, throwing her several feet back through the air, I realised what I had just done. How had I managed to jump so far through the air? And why did my body feel as if it were burning up from inside out?
“So there is some wolf in you after all,” I heard my mother say as she leapt to her feet. Her eyes were now a bright orange and her claws seemed longer – sharper looking somehow.
“Why did you have to kill Lorre?” I panted, trying to rein in my anger – fearful of what might happen to me if I just let go of it.
“She finally realised she was human,”
mother said with a wry smile. “That’s why I had to break up that silly little fling she had going with the posh wolf-boy. If Lorre hadn’t have figured out she was a human, he certainly would have.”
Then sticking out her tongue, she seductively licked her lips. She flicked her tongue upwards and I was shocked to see that the underside was covered in a fine, black fur.
“Oh please, Jack,” don’t look so disgusted. There’ll be a day when you’ll come to understand what pleasures the female Lycanthrope tongue can give.”
“So what if Lorre figured out she wasn’t one of us?” I demanded.
“She would have gone looking for her real parents, of course!” she barked. “She would have discovered she had been stolen away by me. She would have hated m
e, reported me to the Vampyrus, and…”
“What you really are would have been discovered,” I breathed, seeing how deep her deceit went. Then looking at her, I said, “Did Father Paul know about what you did to Lorre? Is that the secret you shared?”
“No,” she said with a smile. “He knew nothing of this or anything else.”
“So what was this secret that you shared?” I asked her, fearing what it could be.
My mother looked at me, and the nastiness and hatred seemed to vanish for a moment. “I did love Father Paul, may be too much, and that was my problem.”
“What is the secret?” I snarled, not wanting to feel pity for her.
Then staring at me through the falling snow, and with what looked like tears building in her eyes, she said, “Me and Father Paul had a…”
“What’s going on?” someone suddenly asked from the other side of the clearing.
Both me and my mother spun around to see Kara standing at the edge of the tree line. She looked at me and my mother, then at the shallow grave. Seeing Lorre’s bloated and maggot-infested face sticking up from beneath the ground, Kara covered her face with her hands and began to scream.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Jack
“What’s happened to Lorre?” Kara cried out. “I thought she was a nurse.”
I glanced back at my mother. I feared now that Kara knew the truth, my mother might turn on her, too. “Kara!” I howled, running towards her. “Get away from here! Run! Run!
Run!”
She looked past me, her streaming eyes fixed on my mother. “What’s happened to Lorre?”
Kara sobbed, looking small and delicate in her long, mauve coat and flowing blond hair.
“Your father murdered Lorre,” my mother told her.
I wheeled round, and glaring at my mother, I roared, “Stop! Just stop it now! You can’t go on lying like this! Tell Kara the truth.”
My mother looked at me, then back over at Kara, who had now stepped from beneath the trees and into the clearing. “Okay,” she said. “This might be hard for you to understand, but Jack killed Lorre. I caught him here, digging up the grave. Just take a look at his hands.”
Unable to comprehend what I had heard, and raising my mud-covered hands, I looked at them, then back at my mother. “You’re a liar!” I barked at her. “You killed Lorre, just like you killed that baby. Just like you stole Lorre and Kara away from their human mothers.”
“What’s he talking about?” Kara sobbed, her bottom lip trembling and tears rolling down her ashen face. “Tell me it’s not true. I love you, Mum.”
“She’s not your mother!” I roared at Kara, just wanting to impress on her the danger she was now in. “Run, Kara! Run!”
“Don’t believe him, Kara,” my mother said, her voice soft – controlled. “He’s gone mad.
The curse has taken hold of him.”
Kara glanced between me and my mother as she stood in the falling snow. Her pretty face looked scared and confused. Then I felt a burning sensation cut across my back. Howling in pain, I spun around to see my mother swiping at me with her claws. Her fingers were long, hooked, and each of them was capped with an ivory-looking blade. Her long, dark hair flowed out behind her and her eyes seemed to spin brightly in her face.
She leapt through the air at me, forcing me back towards the trees.
I cried out in agony as my back slammed into one of the giant tree trunks. I hit it with such force that a shower of broken splinters and bark sprayed up into the air. Dazed and in pain, I dropped to the floor. My whole body began to burn inside. It felt like my blood was boiling in my veins. I looked at the shallow grave, at Kara who now stood sobbing, then at my mother. She looked just like she had at the Lycanthrope safe house the day she had attacked that woman, enraged and terrifying. I hated her. I hated her more than I thought possible. As these feelings rushed over me, I began to shake uncontrollably and I cried out in pain. My stomach felt as if I had swallowed a thousand blades and they were now slicing through my intestines. With my arms and legs jerking and twitching, and my fingers feeling like they had been stamped on, I felt as if I was dying.
The pain was all-consuming, and my brain felt as if it were on fire inside my skull.
Lying on my side in the snow at the foot of the tree, I opened my eyes. The world looked as if it was on fire. The trees, the snow, the grave, Kara and my mother looked orange, gold, red, and yellow. The world seemed to shimmer with seething heat. Then, I saw my mother head towards Kara, her arms open as if to comfort her, but I could see the hatred in her eyes. I knew that she was going to kill Kara, just like she had Lorre.
“No!” I roared, and my voice came out sounding deep and booming.
My mother looked back at me, and she had that all-knowing smile on her fucking face.
She turned to look back at Kara, who was unaware of the true danger she was in. She loved my mother – they were so close – so why would she fear her? Kara had been deceived just like Father Paul had, like I had. I saw my mother reach out for Kara and the world seemed to have slowed somehow. The shadows seemed to stretch long and black from between the trees, the snow stopped falling and floated in the air, the maggots writhing around in Lorre’s face paused.
Then, like a volcano erupting inside me, my whole body became consumed with fear and hate. Before I knew what was happening, I was bounding on all fours towards my mother. I was on her in an instant, throwing her clear of Kara with two giant paws.
“No!” I howled, spinning around in the snow, catching sight of a long, black tail swishing behind me. Every one of my senses prickled with heat, as did the fur that now completely covered my body. “Run!” I barked at Kara. She staggered backwards, her eyes wide with fear as she stared at the wolf which now stood before her.
Then I was thrown backwards. I span through the air to see my mother rushing towards me. She still looked somewhat human, other than her giant claws, her mouth full of jagged teeth, and the crazy yellow stare in her eyes. Blood sprayed up from my back as she tore a huge lump of flesh and fur from me. The pain was like an explosion of intense heat. I rolled over and made a yelping sound. My mother came at me again. I sprang to all fours, and snarling, I bared my teeth at her.
Then everything hit me at once. It was like I’d been run over by a train. I saw my dad dying in my arms. I felt the grief while I hid in the shadows at the back of the church looking at Father Paul’s coffin, the anguish and disgust I had felt every time my mother had told me one of her stories. I saw and felt the fear in Kara’s eyes, and the bloated face of my murdered sister Lorre, and the hate that consumed me.
I leapt into the air towards my mother, and with my huge paws, I sent her flying back across the clearing. She landed on her back and howled, but I was on her.
“I hate you! I hate you! Hate you!” I roared over and over again. Then lunging forward, I ripped away her face with my jagged teeth. Her blood covered my snout. The smell and the taste of it drove me on. In a frenzied wave of hate and loathing for her, I ripped her throat open. She made a screeching-gargling sound, which excited me. Then I felt hands on me. I was being punched, then kicked.
“Don’t kill my mum!” someone was screaming. “Don’t kill my mum!”
I swung my colossal skull around.
Howling, I swiped at her with my paw. I didn’t want Kara to see this. Kara flew backwards and into the snow. I turned back towards my mother, and pinning her body to the ground with my paws, I buried my snout into her chest. I ripped and tore at her with my teeth, until the snow and the nearby trees were covered with strips of her flesh. When she looked like nothing more than those raw, bloody lumps of meat my father had left for her, I sauntered away, snarling, woofing, and licking her remains from my snout with my long pink tongue.
I felt a massive sense of relief – euphoria – orgasmic even. I bounded around in the snow, howling up at the moon which was now just beginning to rise. I felt alive. I didn’t feel like that scared little
boy anymore – I felt powerful. I felt invincible. It was as I leapt and bounded around, enjoying the sensations of my first kill, that I saw Kara lying in the snow.
“Kara?” I woofed, bounding towards her.
As I drew near I could see that the snow surrounding her body was pink. I could smell the blood even before I reached her.
“Kara!” I howled and those feelings of agony washed over me again. I licked her upturned face with my long, fleshy tongue.
“Kara!”
She looked back at me, her eyes open but blank. I sniffed her, prodded her with my snout, but she didn’t stir. It was then I saw the opening in her coat and the gapping claw marks running the length of her chest and stomach.
“No!” I roared, realising with grief and horror at what I’d done. I had sliced her open with my claws when I had pushed her away. “No!” I howled again.
I sunk into the snow beside her, tears burning in my eyes. I held her head in my paws, and as I did, they started to change. I pulled her tight in my arms, my body turning back into the fourteen-year-old boy again. Holding Kara in my arms, I cradled her like a baby against me. “What have I done? What have I done to you?” I screamed in anger at myself. “My sister, my beautiful sister,” I sobbed into her hair and the scent of it reminded me of the times as children we had picked petals, bottled them, and made perfume.
“I’m so sorry,” I sobbed against her. “I never meant to hurt you.” As I lay her body down into the snow and looked upon her beautiful face, I truly knew how powerful a thing as hate was. No one could have hated me more than I hated myself for what I had done to my sister, Kara.
In the distance I could hear the sound of howling, as other wolves approached from deep within the forest, drawn near by the smell of fresh meat and my howling. Leaning forward, I kissed Kara gently on the cheek, then stood up. I looked back once at the shallow grave.
“Goodbye, Lorre,” I whispered.