by Nem Rowan
"Yeah, but what if it's not?"
"If we see or hear anything, we can get the hell out. No hanging around. We'll take a look about, scope out the area and if you can smell them then we'll know for sure. If we keep moving instead of standing around, we won't be a pair of sitting ducks," he replied as he put his hand on my shoulder to reassure me once more.
"Okay," I agreed, but I still wasn't 100% certain. "But how are we even meant to get in with the door barricaded like this?"
"I guess we can try the back, or we can climb through a window," Ceri pondered, turning to head around the corner of the wall.
I looked at the wooden boards; they looked brittle, perhaps too strong for a human to tear away, but possible for someone like me. I braced my knee against the concrete wall and grabbed hold of the panel before leaning back and starting to pull. It took some effort; with a gasp, I felt the wood beginning to give and suddenly, it ripped free, shedding clumps of moss and damp splinters until it landed with a clatter on the dirty ground. When I looked up, Ceri had stopped and was grinning at me, his hands in the pockets of his jacket.
"Well, okay. I like this method better." He smirked as he approached and examined the glass door that had been hidden behind it. "Think you could put this one through as well? Careful, though. Don't cut yourself."
"Watch yourself," I warned as I picked up an iron bar that I had spotted lying in a cluster of rotting thorns. Holding my breath, I threw the rod at the door and in a single strike, it went straight through the glass, vanishing into the shadows beyond where it clanged on the hard floor as it landed. Ceri knocked the other shards out of the window pane, both of us cringing at the noise as he opened it up wide enough for us to step through. I was nervous that all the sounds we were making would summon monsters out of the shadows, monsters that had made regular appearances in my nightmares over the last couple of months.
The stink of werewolf urine and body odour clouded around me, almost palpably, as I bent my head and crept into the dark foyer before me. I felt my hackles start to bristle, the hair on the back of my neck standing on end. Something scurried away from us in the shadows, the humped shape of a rat vanishing into a hole in the wall where a pipe had been broken off from its brackets. In front of us was a lichen-covered counter, still littered with pens and drooping cardboard folders, as though the workers had just stood up one day and walked off, never to return. Beams of hazy light shone through the gaps in the boards that covered the windows, creating pale spots on the walls mottled with mould. Wind whistled through a crack somewhere. Ceri shuddered and headed for the nearest door which had been propped open with a rusty fire extinguisher, his boots barely audible despite the debris that covered the ground. I followed behind him, listening intently as my heart began to thump and my fingertips began to tingle. I didn't like the look of this place, the smell of other wolves assaulting me from all sides.
"They've been here," I whispered, my voice sounding so loud in the silent corridor.
"Are the scents fresh?"
"Don't know..." I murmured, glancing this way and that as though expecting one of them to come leaping out of a doorway. "Hard for me to tell. I would say yeah. Pretty fresh, but not sure how fresh. Maybe within the last week or two."
Ceri grunted. He didn't smile, but the expression he wore was one of triumph. "All right. I guess we'll have to be more cautious now. Let's have a little look around but keep your ears open. Why don't you take the lead."
He paused so that I could move in front of him, and he followed at my shoulder, watching my every move as I stepped past open doorways into small, empty offices. Tables were flipped over, chairs broken, and old copying machines were smashed and infested with weeds. Most of the rooms looked as though no one had been here for a very long time. Holes in the ceiling were created by the chalky panels having collapsed, either because water had leaked down through the roof and soaked them or because structural decay had allowed the framework to sag. I sucked air in through my nostrils, picking up Wallace and Darnel's familiar smells; there were no other wolfish scents here, and the scents that might have been left behind by the human workers had long since faded.
At the end of the hallway was another doorway, the doors hanging off their hinges and glass smashed through them. A sign screwed onto the wall was so heavily plastered with moss that it was impossible to read the writing on it, and water had scored long, meandering lines down the plasterwork, enabling fungus to make its home there. One of the doors creaked plaintively when I pushed it aside and held it back so that Ceri could step through. The hallways seemed to form passageways around the many rooms that were central to the building, and I saw at the very end of this stretch of hallway was another exit into what might have been a stairwell. As we made our way along it, I thought I heard a sound and I stopped abruptly, Ceri accidentally bumping into my back.
"What is it?" he whispered to me in the dim light. I turned to face him, my eyes wide as my ears strained to pick up on any movement. All I could hear was the heavy pounding of Ceri's heart close by, drowning out any other sounds.
"I thought I heard something," I uttered, and just as I had spoken, I heard something creak behind me, causing me to turn sharply and look back the way we had been walking.
That's when Ceri cried out. I spun on my heel, my mouth dropping open and my hand reaching instinctively to grab hold of him as he was lifted off his feet into a gap in the ceiling above; his legs kicked as he thrashed to try and free himself from his attacker, forcing me to leap onto his torso and try to weigh him down in the hopes that our combined weight would be too heavy to lift. Ceri's screams of terror filled the hallway, deafening me so that I didn't hear the footfalls approaching from behind, and when two hands took hold of me by my shoulders, I startled, releasing my grip.
Shrieking, I was torn away from him and thrown to the ground where I landed on my side and went sliding several metres into the wall, my hand squeaking on the linoleum as I tried to find something to grab onto. Before I had a chance to stagger upright, a foot made impact with my neck, slamming me face first into the wall, my skull bouncing off it and sending me ricocheting backwards to the ground. I could no longer hear Ceri. The figure before me blocked my view, giving me no choice but to look up at the face of the stranger above, and there I saw the angular visage of Wallace Reed staring back.
"Leave Ceri alone!" I howled at him as I wiped the blood from my nose and struggled to my knees. He didn't give me a chance to rise; his foot knocked my hand out from beneath me and I fell again before the sole of his boot squashed my head to the ground, preventing me from getting up.
"It's been awhile, Leona. I thought you'd be happier to see me." He chuckled light-heartedly as I snarled back.
"Fuck you!" I spat, blood spluttering from my lips. Suddenly, his boot rammed into my belly and a wheezing gasp escaped my open mouth as I was thrown several feet, landing with a slap on my back. I groaned, clutching the agony in my guts and curling into a ball.
"When will you realise, darling? I'm your friend. I care about you so much. Just like I care about Darnel, and Christine and the others. You're going to be my family. We can all love each other for eternity," he said as he bent to look down at me, his hands on his hips.
I squinted up at him. His salt and pepper hair was dishevelled, and his clothes were covered in grass stains and earth. Quite different to the preened dandy he had been when we'd first met.
"Ceri doesn't belong in our family. You shouldn't have brought him here, darling. Now we're going to have to kill him. Do you think if I got rid of him, you'd be able to understand that you belong with us?" he smiled apologetically as he peered down at me. "Do you know why I chose you? All of you?"
"I really don't give a shit," I grumbled, closing my eyes as I was unable to look at him. That's when he kicked me again, two of my ribs making a loud crunch as I was sent sliding along the ground once more with a stifled gasp.
"You used to be so kind. What happened to you? Where's th
e sweet, amicable Leon that I know?" he questioned disappointedly.
"I've never been sweet." I whimpered as I rolled onto my side, my face creased into a suffering grimace.
Darnel appeared beside him, dragging Ceri's limp body behind him by the neck of his jacket, and the two of them looked upon me with pity.
"I'm assuming you've met my good friend, Darnel?" Wallace nudged me with the toe of his shoe.
"Yeah... A couple of times..." I wheezed.
"I tried to reason with him," Darnel told Wallace in a hushed voice. "He wouldn't listen to me, right. I tried my best."
"That's all right, my boy." Wallace clapped him on the shoulder as he gazed at him with obvious pride in his twinkling eyes.
"What we doing now?" Darnel questioned, gesturing to Ceri, whose head lolled to one side. Blood dribbled from his nostrils, droplets clinging to the hair that grew on his jaw. I held back a sob of anguish, knowing I needed Mecky here with me if I planned to fight them both.
"Let's take them to the basement," Wallace declared. I whimpered as he bent and grabbed me by my throat, his muscular form pinning me down to the ground. "Now you listen to me, darling. You're going to walk with us. You're going to behave. The moon is coming tonight, and I want you to let go of your past life. Your life is here with us, being a mother to my children. You'll understand soon, what your purpose is. What I need you to do is listen to me now. Okay?"
"Go fuck yourself." I spat a mouthful of blood in his face.
His expression didn't change, didn't lose its reassuring smile even as the gob of red liquid began to slide down his cheek. Slowly, he wiped it away in his sleeve, and I half-expected him to let me go, until he lifted his hand and in one unstoppable sweep, sent his fist hammering into my jaw. I felt the joint spring apart, the blood seething into my gum as one of my teeth was sent firing out of my mouth to ping across the hard floor and the riot of shooting pain that shot up into my brain and left my eyes rolling in their sockets.
"Leona? Leona? Listen to me, darling," he cooed to me comfortingly as I lay there reeling.
My mouth hung open, the stiffness of the dislocation preventing me from closing it. All I could see were flashes of light as the pain pierced through any distinguishable thought; it was a minute or two before I was able to hear Wallace speaking to me, and when I came around again, he was forcing my mouth shut. I screamed as he pushed my jaw bone back into its socket until I heard it grind deep in my ear canal, and with a pop, it went back into place. Unable to control myself, I writhed in his grasp, tears streaming from my eyes as I shrieked. Wallace waited until my cries had died back and I lay there panting, my chest rising and falling heavily and my head aching.
"Leona. Listen to me, darling. I'm bigger and stronger than you, because I'm the pack leader. So do as I tell you, okay?" he smiled down at me with such kindness that it made me want to be sick.
"Here," Darnel said as his hand appeared in my field of vision, something small and white pinched between his fingertips.
"Oh, thank you," Wallace replied gratefully as he accepted the tooth from him. "Open wide, Leona, and we'll put your tooth back in."
My desire to rebel clashed with the need for my tooth to be returned to me. Begrudgingly, I opened my mouth and allowed him to search for the hole where the tooth had initially come from. I groaned as he forced the root back into its rightful place.
"There we go. It'll heal up all right, don't worry," he assured me as he stroked my hair back from my bloody face. "Now, are you going to be good and do as I ask?"
I would have bit my tongue if my jaw wasn't hurting so much. Instead, I nodded.
"Great. Come on, I'll help you up," he rose to his feet and offered me a hand. I stared at it, baffled by his behaviour, before finally reaching out and taking it.
Twenty-Nine
The basement had two levels, and it was a long walk before we reached it, passing through a maze of windowless corridors and a multitude of gates and doors. Ceri remained unconscious as the blood dried on his face, and I gazed at him longingly as Darnel pulled him along in front of me. My instinctual need was to reach for him, to hold him. I felt helplessly overpowered, a prisoner, unable to embrace him when he needed me. Neither Wallace nor Darnel spoke as they took me down into the bowels of the moribund building, into the foundations where the freezing air reeked of stagnant water and mould.
Many of the large rooms here had been emptied apart from a few rusting filing cabinets and damaged furniture. I was brought into a large concrete-lined room off one of the corridors and I saw there were chains on the floor; they must have changed here previously, hidden themselves away in this cellar where no one could find them. Shed hair and claw marks covered the floor and the corners stank strongly of stale urine. In what was surely a remnant of human habit, Wallace went to an upturned cabinet on the other side of the room and switched on a battery powered LED lamp, its yellow glow doing nothing to cheer the gloom that filled this horrid space.
"You're going to stay down here for the night, okay?" Wallace beamed at me encouragingly as he gestured to the chains that had been padlocked to the steel brackets on the wall. "I know it's hardly five-star accommodation, but I just want you to be safe. You won't be alone, either. Your beloved Ceri will be spending the night, too."
"You... can't leave him... down here... with me..." I stammered, my throbbing jaw making it difficult to speak properly.
"That's the point, my love. You either eat him, or you make him one of us. Fate will decide," he declared as he undid one of the padlocks using a bunch of keys he had procured from the pocket of the black coat he was wearing.
"No...!" I shook my head, unaware that I was backing away towards the door until Darnel prevented me from going any further. He grabbed me by my arm, twisting it behind my back so that he could force me towards Wallace as he stood there with a chain prepared.
"It's for the best," Wallace told me as I struggled against Darnel's grasp. He slipped the chain around my neck and clicked the padlock shut, lifting the loop up to my jaw to ensure that I wouldn't be able to pull it off over my head. I guess he had learned the hard way after Christine's escape.
They turned to go towards Ceri and I threw myself upon Wallace's back, cursing and shrieking as I crushed his throat in the crook of my arm, but he leaped backwards into the wall, slamming me into it and knocking the air from my lungs. He disentangled himself from my embrace and threw me down at his feet, his jovial smile becoming an expression of disappointment and regret.
"I'm sorry I have to keep hurting you. It's all right, I understand. I totally get it, I do. Fighting for survival is all you know, so of course it's natural for you to lash out at us when you don't realise how much easier your life is going to be from now on. Me and Darnel are gonna be your guardians from now on. You'll see how much we care about you," he whispered to me like he was trying to soothe a caged animal.
I growled and turned my head away as he stroked his knuckles over my cheek.
"You don't recognise me, do you. That saddens me. After all those times we said hi to each other, all those times we talked. It saddened me the first time, but it saddens me even more that all this time has passed, and you still haven't figured it out," he continued, ignoring my grunts of repulsion each time he touched my face.
Behind him, the chains rattled and clinked as Darnel chained Ceri up to the wall in the same manner, leaving him laying on his side like an unwanted doll.
"Wally," I grumbled, squeezing my eyes shut while his fingertips caressed my neck and behind my ear.
"Yes!" he exclaimed joyously, his smile turning into a broad, excited grin. "Surprise! How did you guess it was me?"
"I didn't... We figured it out together..." I muttered. Soon the pain in my jaw would go away as my body healed itself.
"Do you remember? When we used to talk?" he breathed with anticipation.
I nodded awkwardly.
"Do you remember the flowers I brought you? When you were sad, I would bring y
ou flowers and leave you pretty cards?" he spoke in an undertone as he leaned closer, his hands lifting my head so that he could hold it gently. "You never judged me. You were always so kind. I adored you. And then you disappeared. You didn't tell me where you had gone."
I made a muffled, scoffing laugh. "You were...just a neighbour..."
"Just a neighbour? You don't comprehend the depths of my love for you. The love I have for Mecky and Edith and Kelly. All of you were more than just neighbours to me. You never ignored me when I spoke to you. When I became immortal, I knew I couldn't spend eternity without you as my wives. And the children that had been so kind to me. Darnel, Christine, Scott. I want us to be a family. To share the love that you shared with me as humans. Forever," he spoke as he cradled my head in his hands.
I stared up at him speechlessly, unsure of what on earth I could say in response to that. So, it seemed I had made the mistake of being pleasant to the wrong person. All of us had made that mistake. We had been 'chosen' to be his family. Our actions had defined that choice.
"I know all of you have experienced suffering. I have, too. That's why we belong together, sharing in this power that was gifted to me. I want to be proud of you like I'm so, so proud of my son, Darnel. He is, to me, the image of perfection. You will be, too. Stop fighting the wolf inside you. Accept it as your true self," he purred to me. "Be my wife forever, Leona. I'm so happy that you've bonded with Christine and Mecky. It's more than I could have hoped for. All of you are going to be so fulfilled and loving life as members of my family."
"You...are one sick motherfucker..." I sniffed as I smiled up at him grimly. "Can you hear yourself? The crap that's coming out of your mouth?"
"I know that's what it seems like. Don't worry, darling. You'll understand soon." He patted the top of my head before rising effortlessly to his feet.
I watched the two of them leave the room, shutting the rickety door on me and disappearing along the hallway. I waited until I could no longer hear them before rolling unto my front and crawling towards Ceri, my body hurting in all the places Wallace had struck me. The blood that had been oozing from Ceri's nose had coagulated on his mouth and chin, staining his skin dark red. I sat beside him and bent close, kissing his eyelids as they fluttered.