by Gary Lewis
Vance spread his arms as he spoke up. "Couldn't find them."
"We know," Sarah said. "That very night, when it tried to go after Janice-"
"Oh, she would have been just fine," Vance's loud voice set fire to Janice's chest as her fists tightened. "David was there to save her."
His laughter was interrupted by David. "Well, where the hell were you at?"
After the room fell back into silence, Sarah's agitation carried with her voice across the historic hardwood walls of the church interior. "David and I found the remnants of David's trail cams along with scraps of Vance's bear traps in a clustered pile. It was laying in Janice's ditch."
Janice's heart skipped a beat and she turned her face toward Vance, meeting his look of surprise with hers. "How come..." Janice paused for a brief moment. "Why didn't y'all tell me?" Her open palms held out toward Sarah, to her left, as she looked her in the eyes. Sarah silently looked back as if she didn’t know what to say.
"We didn't want you to worry," David spoke up from the other side of the chair they all encircled.
Sarah cleared her throat loudly. "It had to have been someone who was in that room with us that day."
"But, wait," Terry said. "You've all known each other forever." He slowly swept his hand around the group. "Wouldn't you know if one of you was..." Terry paused for a second before saying the word. "A werewolf?"
"Probably just happened," Vance said.
"But how?" David asked. "How does someone just become a werewolf?"
"Who knows," Sarah said, shaking her head with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Maybe they don't know either," Janice added.
"Alright," Terry said to the others. "Let's take a break to consider everything." Everyone looked quietly at one another, the gaps between them growing larger than the air they occupied. "Then I have a game that might help us figure out exactly who it might be."
Janice watched everyone sit and contemplate as they continued to stare at one another. The distrust combined with a paranoia that overshadowed even the candles that still wisped flickers of orange around the room, but the darkness in the farthest reaches of the corners seemed to spread out toward them as it fed on their silence.
Chapter 9
The stained-glass church windows continued to flicker to the flaming candles within and the parking lot glowed with a similar shade of orange from the dying streetlights that were spread throughout the center of town where residents now locked their doors, hiding from the chill that spread in spite of the warm summer night. Inside the church, five friends contemplated the secrets that locked them together in a state of distrust that attempted to propel them apart.
#David#
"Alright, everyone. Here's what we'll do." Terry's words jarred David's attention from the others. "We each secretly write a name on one of these cards." Terry handed them off one by one as he walked around the group. "The name of the one you suspect." He turned to face everyone and adjusted his glasses. "Then shuffle them around in the box. Someone draws them and with each name we all take turns explaining how it could be that person."
It was actually a good idea, David thought. "I'll draw the names when we're ready," he said, eager to join in as he quickly jotted down the name of his suspect. He noticed everyone else taking their time with secreted glances at one another.
Everyone had written the one they most suspected when Terry began shaking the box. He turned to gently place it on a pew as they all gathered around. An eager sense of excitement pumped from David's chest into his hand as he felt around the sharp edges of crisp index cards within. He took a quick glance at all of their faces, each staring at him through the orange glaze of candlelight that swept through the shadows where they stood. The corner of one card felt just right and David quickly drew it out.
A block of disbelief plummeted from his chest. "It's me. It says David." He looked around the room, peering into the dimly lit faces and Terry began. "You're the only one who's actually claimed to have seen it."
"So? That should clear me, right?"
"If anyone could vouch for it," Sarah followed up. "When we went to the cliffs, you tried really hard to prove it was there. Even pointed out the remains of Brad's attack and pretended not to recognize his jacket just so you could make it seem like those tracks were from your night up there."
"You can't be serious," he said angrily. "First of all, that wasn't the reason I told you it might not be his." He paused as Sarah's eyes and mouth loosened a little wider. "Are you the one who wrote this shit?" He waved the card in the air. Sarah's forehead tensed as she glanced away silently.
"Is it my turn?" Janice asked. Her tone of amusement caught David off guard. Everyone looked in her direction. "You were the only one who survived after running into it. Why?"
"I don't know. Maybe because I got away in my car?" David held out his palms before turning back to Sarah. "And of course I had to prove it to you. You don't trust any damn body."
"My turn," Vance said with a smile. Everyone listened while he waited. The candlelight glared against his face as it took on a devilish glow. "You snuck off to the woods alone at the old rec. What were you burning out there?"
David's skin rushed hot with fury. "You were following me?"
Everyone remained quiet as Sarah and Janice stabbed him in the heart with the intensity of their stares.
"I don't have an answer. Sorry."
Janice continued to stare at David as if she wanted to pry the information from him herself. He couldn't take the suspense anymore.
"Okay," Terry said. "Who's next, David?"
"What do you mean?"
"The next name, David," Sarah said, rolling her eyes.
"Oh… yeah." David reached for the next card, now worried whose name could be next. What if it's mine again? David placed the next card firmly onto the table. "It says Vance," he said with satisfaction as he slid his hand from the card. "I'll start. It's him because he's an asshole."
Vance laughed as if it were a compliment.
Terry took his turn next. "You're mixed up with the fires."
Then it was Sarah's turn. "You're a hunter and well at home in the outdoors. You also had it out with Brad just before he was attacked."
"Had it coming," Vance said nonchalantly, still holding his cocky grin.
"It's impossible to get ahold of you at night," Janice said. "Any night. Ever."
David noticed Vance's smile finally drop along with his eyes.
Feeling a bit optimistic, David reached into the box to grab the next card. This time he didn't even hesitate as he slapped it onto the table, looking first at everyone else. Janice and Sarah both turned their faces and even Vance looked away. A dreadful suspense drove David's eyes to see. Scribbled onto the card was the name Tony.
"Is this some kind of sick joke?" David asked, darting his eyes from one person to the next. "Who was it?" He lifted his hand in the air, raising his voice to the silent group. "After everything he's done to help everyone, now he's the only one of us still missing out there."
Terry cleared his throat from the side as he stepped forward. "The whole point of this game is so that everyone can have the chance to offer their opinions anonymously and we can all put our heads together."
David continued studying everyone's reactions to no avail. He had no idea who would do such a thing. Must have been Vance. He continued studying each of their eyes. But if it was... then who wrote mine?
After a pause, Terry again spoke up. "I'm assuming that David will be sitting this one out. It's understandable. What do you have, Sarah?"
"He was acting a little strange and then the note." Her words came out so quickly, as if she'd rehearsed each accusation. David began to wonder why he trusted her so much. Even on the night they were stranded in the forest, they lost one another on more than one occasion. She never even mentioned that part.
Janice's face turned around at each of them with wide, round eyes when Sarah was finished. "I can't imagine it being Ton
y," she said in a meek voice. "I'm sorry." As much as that should have relieved David, he wondered why she didn't say the same of him.
Then Vance opened his mouth. "Y'all seen the pounds he's been packing lately? Could be from all those missing teenagers." He tilted his head to the side as he lifted his hand. "He always wanted to be a chef, right?"
"Douche." David's words came without hesitation or thought.
"Relax, dweeb," Vance said with a light smile. "Nah..." Vance shook his head as his face slightly dropped. "Truth is... I think he's dead."
David readied his voice to shoot back when Vance's next words stopped him.
"Sorry, man," Vance said to finish his turn. It wasn't a response that David expected, so he left it at that.
David cautiously reached into the box once more as Terry reached to touch his arm. "Wait." Everyone looked at Terry as he hesitated to speak. "I didn't want to say, but we should all put everything out there."
"What is it?" Sarah asked.
"Before my brother and I headed back to the truck last night..." A silent moment sucked the air from the room. "Well, we didn't want to leave Tony there, but he insisted. He wasn't worried about himself a bit."
"Tony never worries about himself," David said.
"He always thought of others," Janice added.
"Not only that," Terry continued. "He’s the one that told us the way back to the truck, down that trail. The trail we were almost ambushed on. And now there's no sign of him."
David didn't want to hear anything else. He pulled out one of the last two cards still in the box and flipped it onto the table. Once again, he was met with a stir in the pit of his stomach. "Janice? It says Janice? Come on," David said in protest.
"It's okay, David. I don't have anything to hide," Janice said. "We all have to clear up any suspicions so we can move on." Her words were always so pure and genuine. She was right, but David still didn't like it. The name was written in neat cursive. It had to have been written by a girl, he thought. That only left one person. Sarah's eyes bared down on him.
"Well, David?" Sarah asked.
His eyes pressed back to her. "Get real. It's not Janice."
"Try to think of something, David," Terry said as David looked toward Janice's soft face.
"I'll go," Sarah spoke up, lifting the burden of his turn. "You've been keeping to yourself. It's understandable after what happened last year. But nobody can account for you during any of the attacks."
Terry stepped forward. "I don't really know you as well as the others, Janice. I'm sorry to ask, but how exactly did your father die?"
David's eyes jumped across the room toward Sarah as she stared back with a sternness that stung the surface of his skin.
"That morning, Dad was getting ready," Janice said softly. "We were going to go fishing at Moss Lake and I wanted to try out my new camera on the fall scenery. But I was really sick and he went without me." David could hear her voice beginning to become unstable and of course Vance reached out toward her shoulder. "It's okay," she said, pulling away. "I'm fine." Vance shrugged and shook his head as she continued. "There was a bad storm the night before and the boat had some kind of electrical problem." David watched her press her eyelids shut tightly as a glistening sparkle leaked from their corners and she tilted her head to the floor. "They said the deck was wet and it probably made the shock worse."
"It can't be Jan," David said. "It was outside her house while I was with her." He was ready to challenge anything that anyone had to say, but they all just looked toward him.
"Final name, David," Terry said.
"Here we go," David said as he pulled the final card from the box. "Tony again."
"Well, I guess that's it," Terry said, rubbing his chin. "I'm still at a loss." He twisted slowly around, seemingly examining each of them, one at a time. "It must be someone who was in the room during your first meeting. Janice, David, Sarah, Tony, or Vance."
Vance turned slowly away. "Then it can control when it transforms." David strained to see him as the darkness was closing in to devour the remaining candles. "It's pretty late and we're all still alive," Vance said, walking toward the entrance. “Only thing I came to figure out.”
"Where do you think you're going?" David asked.
"To howl at the moon, what do you think?" Once he reached the large entrance doorway, Vance turned back to look at David. "We going to nail this bastard or what?"
David didn't like the idea of working with Vance, but he couldn't argue with a proposition like that.
"Way I see it, this thing is a beast," Vance said. "Maybe it was a person once. Who knows? Maybe it can change back and forth. But it's just a beast now." He firmly nodded his head up and down. "I say we meet this weekend and lay a trap for it."
"That's a problem if it's one of us," Sarah said. "If we all know, then it either won't show-"
"Or it will have to," David said to interrupt her.
"Then it's on." Vance held up his fist. "Saturday, blood will be drawn. Ours or his."
###
There wasn't much to say after Vance left. They had each learned so much, but so little. It seemed that the only thing they ever gained was an increasing paranoia about one another as they struggled to uncover the truth. The light within the church began to die as Terry stayed behind to extinguish the candles while Sarah and David rushed to bring Janice home. Along the entire ride down dark, empty, country roads surrounded by forests and pastures, the weight of all the things they each had to say crushed the air into a lip sealing silence until they dropped Janice off safely at home.
#Sarah#
The passing trees were black silhouettes that flew by in the wind as Sarah drove David toward the cliffs.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Sarah asked. David's silence didn't offer much to work with. "We could always wait until morning to get your car, David." Turning her face to meet his, Sarah clamped her jaw as she was met only by the back of his head.
"Just bring me to my car," David said to the glass window beside him. She knew something was on his mind and it turned in her stomach like a lightbulb sandwich.
"You're not thinking about telling her, are you?" Sarah asked.
"Of course not. Are you?"
"No. Just wondering why you're being so quiet." She waited only to be answered by the puddles that her tires splashed through along the way. The silence grew even more overbearing as the moonlight twinkled across the surface of Moss Lake and they continued onto the bumpy dirt roads that engulfed them deep in the woods.
"What the hell is it?" Sarah asked with a burning determination.
"Really, Sarah?" David asked. "Janice?"
"What in the hell are you talking about?"
"You know what I mean," he said. "Why would you write her name down? After everything she's been through, especially knowing-"
"You better watch it, David!" She stopped him mid-sentence, aiming her finger square in his face. "I don't know where you're coming up with this shit, but you're wrong," she said sternly. "I didn't write her name."
"Looked like a girl's handwriting to me," he said.
Sarah's anger exploded into her words. "First of all, I'm a woman. If you want a girl, keep hitting up Janice and see what that gets you."
"I knew it," David said. "So, you're angry with her?"
"I already told you, if you'd listen. I wrote someone else's name," she said, furious that he wouldn't listen to her.
"God. Can I just go back and change mine to Sarah?" David's obvious attempt at bringing the argument back down to playful remarks had no effect on her.
"Go ahead. I'm the only one that has nothing t-" Sarah stopped herself. It seems everyone does.
"Then who?” David asked. “Whose name did you write? Was it mine?"
"I don't want to say," she said, focusing through the darkness.
"It was. I knew it."
"Dammit, David. What the hell?" Sarah paused for a moment. "Fine. You really want to know?" She could feel
David's silent attention weigh in the side of her face as she hesitated. "I wrote Tony."
David's face scrunched more spitefully than before. "Tony? But why?"
Sarah ignored his question. "A girl's handwriting,” she said. “You know, Terry isn't the most masculine of guys." She paused for a second. "And neither are you, to be honest."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" David said loudly in a higher pitch, seemingly proving her point.
"Quit being so critical." She could feel a light smile stretching across her cheek. "I didn't say it was a bad thing," Sarah said with some amusement.
"I still say that was a girl's handwriting and y'all were the only two there."
"God, David." She shook her head as she gave the steering wheel a light smack. "It's still not obvious to you who wrote it?"
"You're saying you know who it was?"
"Think about it, David." She waited for him to process it for himself.
"You're not honestly suggesting that Jan wrote her own name, are you?"
"Oh. Of course not, David. Poor, little, innocent Janice never puts herself in a position to get attention." Sarah dropped the sarcasm like a mic to fall on David's head. "Really, David."
"Well, I don't buy it. Even if she did, maybe she didn't want to accuse anyone else." David's state of denial swept through the car, leaving the mood in the same shape as the washed-out roads littered with remnants of the storm.
"Careful we don't get stuck," David said as they passed a downed tree that had been dragged from the muddy dirt road.
"They sure did a bang-up job clearing it all." Sarah injected her words between the holes and cut limbs that she dodged and straddled along the bumpy drive.
"It's only been a day or so," he said, still denying her so much as a glance.
After a long, slow trip up the mountain, David's car finally came into view. It sat abandoned, alone in the dark. The gloomy woodland surroundings held a silent stillness tonight. While it should have been a welcome respite from the turmoil of the night before, Sarah felt as though they just didn't belong.
"Hurry and see if it starts," she told him, anxiously sliding her hands up and down the steering wheel. "I don't want to be here any longer than I have to."