by Lee Taylor
“Why have we wasted time and resources on the cattle you had us collect?” The Venetian elder asked; his loose skin glistened under the lamps adherent glow as he slowly padded forward.
“Ha, Master fifth Tenebre, the reason was simple enough. I needed to be sure of your commitment to your cause and mine. Besides, it would have brought the new breed to us as soon as he learned the whereabouts of the aforementioned cattle. Of course, luck would have it fashioned another way.”
“So it would seem.” The elder turned his back to George and began to speak in a low harsh dialect.
“Come then, let us go pay a visit to our guests downstairs.” George said. Jin by this point had stopped with his cries of outrage, and recomposed his self as best he could, avoiding eye-contact as he cursed and groaned. Healing for a Lycan was relatively simple; growing back an appendage of any sort was difficult.
Chapter 22
Kitty and Lycaon’s plan was stupid and dangerous. I just thought that I should make that part clear before I carried on. I was totally okay with it, by the way, but what it entailed had me a tiny bit worried. Kitty was basically going to knock me out, and in a normal situation I had been knocked out so many times recently that it was very blasé. So it was no big shock to be established. It would mean that I was helpless, and in a time and place where that was a really bad thing to happen. Oh you must be wondering why I had to be knocked out. Well that part was simple; when your mind goes into a deep sleep, it lets our subconscious process the data that it has accumulated. It meant I could dream.
Of course Kitty said, “Sod’s law is they will catch us with our pants around our ankles.” To which Mike smiled at her analogy and turned to explain what she meant to me.
“She’s saying that they will catch us off guard.” And that would mean that Mike, Lycaon and Kitty would have to fight the whole time, whilst Ivan sat back keeping me out of harm’s way.
I wouldn’t be catching up on beauty sleep; I was already as refined as I could be at my age. I would be exploring my so eloquently named ‘perverts paradise’ by my friend Kitty, looking for a name, or to be more specific the name of my dark passenger. She did this so that I could tap back into my abilities, those of which I was really going to need if any of George’s friends were as tough as Damon or Kaitlyn.
There was no other available option, and I was useless to my friends as I was. So if I got lost in my mind and the dark passenger, who would be a little more than distressed, found me before I learned how to properly officiate with him... Well, then I would be well and truly boned. Actually I think a better way of explaining my situation would be to look at a few lines from Full Metal Jacket. They would all involve eye gouging, and a few unpleasant actions to shortly follow.
Lycaon twitched his nose, turning to perch himself by the door, ready if the handle so much as jiggled. As Mike stepped up beside Kitty and tried not to gawp at her... It was so obvious that Mike had a thing for her that it was kind of funny.
“Right then, Kit the Brit, work your mojo on me,” I said with a wink. I didn’t get the response I was expecting as Mike scowled and Kitty... Well Kitty slapped me.
“Umm... Kitty if that was supposed to be your mojo working then...’
“Shhhhhhhhhhh!” Kitty exclaimed.
“The slap was because you were getting on my tits; now zip it, and let me concentrate or when you wake up, the mojo that I cast will be to remove your dangly bits, and to make you lay a pineapple out from your bottom every half an hour, understand?”
Kitty snarled... Quite understandably my face blanched and I grew quiet for a few seconds.
“Thanks for that, Kitty... I mean there is no pressure, I get it. But the next time you want to say something as that out loud, can you do me a massive favour?” Kitty glowered, her pale eyes looking blank and cold as her drawn in expression flicked to my own.
“I want you to stick the thought in a box and label it “not very comforting”, and file it under inappropriate comments? Yeah? Is that ok—” I was pretty sure that Kitty was about to give me a black eye as Ivan, who had been cradling my head, gave it a sudden jolt. It was one of the worst feelings physically that I had suffered, like a mental foot to the crotch. Colours seemed to drift by like I was sitting in a car, racing to a destination, passing vibrant trees, smoothing together into a paste. The room and the faces dissolved around me, the colours collapsing in on them until nothing was left but black. I was unconscious again.
When I woke up, I was still in the cold and empty darkness. A pin prick of light was off set, out of reach, and I tried my best to head toward it, seeing it as the only way I could go. It was unnerving, the fact that there was no sound. Not even my footfalls made a noise as I paced forward or my own breathing as I drew in rasping breaths, and yet was still faced with utter silence.
I couldn’t help but think of all the times I was told that my head was a big and empty place. They were totally right. I felt like I was going to go insane, even the rhythmic beating of my heart was muted. The hairs on my arms stood on end as the air seemed to chill around me. I pressed on, running now as fast as my legs would allow.
Just head to the light, just head to the light... I kept telling myself.
Fear was snaking its way down my spine, tying my organs up with its frigid grip. The cold pulsed its way down to my feet, stopping me as I ran and solidifying as it reached the tips of my toes. My body was motionless. Ice was crystallizing in my veins; I could feel my blood vessels burst with the trauma; I writhed and screamed in blind agony, yet still no sound to be heard. The creeping darkness enveloped me, accosting my nose and mouth, more ice forming in my head now. My breathing had already stopped. I couldn’t fight the darkness as it continued to swarm over me. Thoughts and images flickered in my head in my last fleeting moments. My mom and dad clinked their glasses together on my third birthday with me dressed in my Tigger outfit. I was so happy, and so innocent. Images of my first real girlfriend, Rose Hancock, and the secret rendezvous we had, getting Mike Involved by ringing the front doorbell asking if her dad wanted cheap tires or some other crap, while I sneaked in the back. Creeping upstairs where I would dive on the bed and try and be quiet... the time Rose’s dad had caught us and threatened to launch me out the window, chasing me out the house with his three iron. I remembered my first love, Tessa... wait, no, that can’t be right. My eyes closed, and I drifted into the void. It felt like an eternity passed by.
I was just waiting for death to grip me as the familiar aroma of my mom’s infamous BLT’s had me up and out of my funk in an instant. My eyes pinged open, and I was lying in my bed at home. Hope and despair clashed together in an instant.
My eyes perused my bedroom as I lay naked under the sheets. Wriggling my toes I was relieved that all the cold had gone. Thoughts flooded my skull.
Please don’t tell me that all of that... all of those people... were part of a fucking dream... no not that shit. I was seething with anger. I know I should have felt relief, but waking to find that everything I had faced wasn’t real, had me feeling sick to my stomach.
“NO!” I cried out...”No, no, no no!” I refused to accept it, and as I went to stand a cool, gentle hand slid across my pillow, resting on my shoulder.
“What’s wrong?” The colour drained from my face... The sudden fear of a stranger in my bed had alarm bells ringing furiously. Cautiously I began to shift myself, pulling my duvet into me as I rolled over to face who was lying in my bed next to me. It took me awhile to recognise who it was. The hand that was just touching me was grey, and suddenly that sick feeling was back as I realised that I could have quite possibly been lying next to a corpse.
Oh shit, oh shit! I mentally warbled. The figure propped herself up on my pillow, her face was clear to me now, and although I hadn’t seen her real face before, part of me knew her.
She smiled at me, her doughy eyes were a glistening violet, and her dark obsidian hair framed her delicate features. It gleamed in the morning glow, radiating f
rom the windowsill. Her small fragile nose, scrunched up as she smiled. Her high cheekbones brightening, her eyes sparkled at me like stars twinkling happily on a clear night. Her luscious black lips curled up to almost like a feline’s pleased expression, and a dimple notched on her pale face. Until slowly her look shifted and she began to gaze at me quizzically, my odd reaction was apparently comical to her.
“What’s wrong, Winnie, you have a bad dream or something?” Her voice. I recognised her voice.
“Hello? Is anybody there?” She asked. Realisation dawned on me, and I hurried to answer.
“Tessa?” I asked; she smiled again, and stuck out her lower lip in a pout.
“You didn’t hope it was someone else, did you?” Her playful gesture had me blushing in record time.
She had my sheet pulled tightly around her.
Tessa... Tessa is laying naked in my b...bed... I had to say the thought mentally, just so that I could confirm that my brain wasn’t disagreeing with the astonishing view in front of me, even then I stammered...
“Ursine, Tessa, breakfast is ready; get your lazy butts down here.” My mom’s voice managed to wash all the teenage thoughts that were swirling around in my head. My mom was here too, and she knew about me and Tessa? This couldn’t have been right. I told you about my mom and her “Sex Ed” speech she had with me. This just couldn’t be happening. Tessa arose dropping the sheet on the floor as she began to pick up her garments, still smiling to herself over my reaction as she got changed. I had to keep telling myself that my mom was downstairs to stop my other brain from taking over. To be safe, I stayed in bed pretending to stretch and yawn, when all I wanted to do was pant and howl, staring wide eyed in awe. Tessa was huge too... not in the way you are probably thinking. I tried to remain gentlemanly and face the other direction, in part to act the gentleman, but mainly so I wouldn’t get a nosebleed. She stood a good foot taller than I did, and she looked natural; there were no super elongated limbs.
I thought it would be safer to move if I gave it an extra minute before I ran around like a lunatic to get dressed. These were the sort of dreams I didn’t mind. No weird masks, no grizzly grizzlies snarling in my face. The ground; I reached my leg out from under the cover, was firm. No fissures or quakes. I bounced around my room like a puppy chasing a ball. Pulling on my boxers, some jeans and a black tee that said “head shot” with a picture of zombie stickman getting splattered. My taste in clothes never changed, not even in my dreams.
Shuffling toward the door the aroma had me captivated. My mom’s BLT’s were legendary. I didn’t even care if it blocked all my capillaries and ventricles with cholesterol as the taste was worth the pain. Hot-footing it downstairs, I skidded to a halt in the kitchen. Tessa was now as I knew her in her “human host” adorning a smile; she exchanged a polite conversation with my mom about how nice her food was. I had to shake my head to tell myself this was a dream... and I had totally forgotten what I was meant to be doing there. Everything felt so real. I glanced at the grill, and without drawing attention I ran my finger over it, and it burned my skin. So I ran my hand under the cold tap, and I could feel that, too. Turning in an instant, I grabbed hold of my mom and held her. It was pretty close to a bear hug, but I managed to do it without hurting her, she returned the hug and Tessa clucked in-between bites of her sandwich.
“You’re oddly affectionate today, Ursine. What’s come over you all of a sudden?” I had frozen in the hug, not knowing what to say. I inhaled through my nose and my mom smelt different, almost repugnant. My mom usually smelt of roses or white musk, but she didn’t now. She smelt mossy like the deer I woke up with. I pulled back from her eyeing her oddly.
“Tessa what have you done to my son? He’s acting like he’s half drunk,” My mom said teasingly to Tessa, she shrugged and chuckled lightly.
“I don’t know, Jeany. He had a weird dream when he woke up. He was as pale as a sheet, like he had just seen a ghost.” They carried on a little exchange of words, teasing me, but I was speechless and so utterly confused that even my feet hurt.
I tried to figure out why my mom smelt so rank... sitting down with the BLT that my mom had made for me, as the door rang.
“Get that would you, sweetie,” my mom said, perching herself beside the beautiful Tessa. Begrudgingly I set the sandwich aside and headed to answer the door. Whoever it was was sounding really impatient with the incessant chiming going on. I swung the door open and was stunned again to see Ivan. He was cut and bruised, panting heavily. He pushed past and slammed the door behind him.
“Ivan... What the hell is going on, are you alright?” Ivan’s breathing was laboured, he looked around his surroundings as if choosing a safe area to talk, and my mom walked toward us as she heard the commotion with the door.
“Ursine, you must wake up. I cannot stay for long. The others... They have come for us... George is-” Ivan choked for a moment, flickering on and off like a light-switch he was gone and back in an instant.
“You have to find its name so you can summon it onto you...” Ivan vanished and reappeared.
“Look at your reflection,” Ivan blurted as his face warped, and he gained a black eye. With a grunt the door swung open again, and Ivan was thrown back out through it, vanishing for good.
It was one of the most disturbing things, and suddenly the thought of the uneaten BLT was enough to upset me that little bit more. My mom shrieked at the frightening vision, Tessa was up in an instant, looking around for signs of danger.
“What’s wrong, Jean?” Tessa asked, frowning with concern.
I ran over to my mom, and patted her on the shoulders trying to find out what was wrong. I knew that she wasn’t my real mom, only the mom in my head, but I still tried to protect and comfort her, because I did such a crap job with my real one.
I ran around Tessa who had frozen in place. I had to force myself to look away from her as I ran upstairs. I knew she wasn’t real, but still the idea of her getting hurt was horrible, and so I headed to the main bathroom. It was the room with probably the best lit mirror.
I stared at my reflection, my familiar face was looking back at me. Admittedly, I looked under the weather as my skin appeared to be pale and sickly, but I couldn’t complain as the amount of blunt force trauma I had been dealt was going to leave a lasting effect no matter how great my Therianthropic healing was.
There was nothing really that stood out, so in a panic I began to shed my clothes, going over my reflection. Still everything was the same, albeit backwards with the whole looking at my reflection thing, but I was identical.
Tessa walked into the bathroom, unlocking the door with a shot of violet and scarlet energy that broke the lock and nearly took it clean off its hinges. She turned to face me with a wicked grin and arched a brow as I stood there naked for the world to see. Blood rushed to my head, and I found myself feeling dizzy as she swung the door shut behind her. Humiliation rocked through me; Tessa, even though she was a figment of imagination, was stunning. I had to look away from her as my face was flashing a brighter red than a traffic light. She snickered at my flustered response.
Why did she always creep up on me when I was naked? I thought to myself trying to keep my mind from wondering off on a tangent and failing miserably. I slipped on the tiled floor as I picked up my discarded items of clothes and began to dress myself. Refusing to look at her as it would probably give her too much satisfaction; or as Kitty would say “I soldiered on”. Looking back into the mirror, I got within inches of the glass, pulling faces looking for marks of any sort any new scratch or scar that could be the clue I was looking for. Till suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around my chest in an embrace, and I miraculously became very, very aware of Tessa’s now naked body. She was distracting me, again. I tried to force my eyes forward, trying to avoid her siren’s call. I knew as a fact that if Mike was told about this later, he would never let me forget it, and I wasn’t going to give in to “peer pressure”. I wasn’t. My eyes rolled in my skull as she ge
ntly blew into my ear, and the breeze made everything on my body stand on end. Biting down hard on my lip, I looked where her arm was over my chest. It didn’t say “headshot” any longer or “tohsdaeh” with it being reversed in a mirror... Instead it was some other gibberish; I tried moving her arm to take a look, but she wouldn’t allow it. I even attempted to seem playful, gently taking hold of her wrist to move it away, but still she refused. Keeping it in place and began to squeeze, her face changed in the reflection from the face I had grown to recognize as her demon form till it morphed into Arkham’s... well at least that successfully got rid of any tension that I was suffering from in the trouser department. It would probably top off my therapy sessions into the next century, and shave years off my life, too. I watched my beautiful Tessa’s face flake away.
The dude was so ugly. With a glance he could make a porn star celibate. Now wrestling with him trying to break a hold of his grip, I dropped down, letting my legs turn to dead weight. He wasn’t expecting the sudden give, and as his hold altered again slightly, I kicked out, pushing back from off the bathroom counter. He let out a shriek that caused the mirror to crumble to pieces onto the floor; they rattled as they cascaded off the wall, into the sink and side until parts finally spilled over to the ground. Finally breaking free, I turned to face him; nearly all my strength was gone. I could feel it. It wasn’t the fact that Arkham was attacking me in the dream. It was that Arkham was attacking me out of it. I threw a handful of my mom’s make-up from off of the counter. It phased right through him.