Again, the boy nodded. “I see.” He winced in obvious pain too. “Why did you save me?” he had to ask, and now was the right time to do it.
Collins chuckled with this. “I didn’t.” He leaned back to his right elbow and stared at the boy’s eyes. “I just defended myself from them.”
“Why didn’t that monster half of you eat me then?”
He shrugged with that. “I don’t know to be honest with you. I guess he has his reasons.”
The boy truly felt confused.
He could see it in his eyes.
“I don’t understand. Are you not him?”
“I am me. He is he. We are as different as the way we look.” He chuckled again.
The boy would surprise him yet again. “I understand.” He wasn’t sure if he did, but with him dying like this, he didn’t care. He left it at that.
I’m beginning to see why you like this boy. He didn’t know what to say next.
The boy did. “Am I going to die?”
He didn’t know how to answer this, but did so anyway. “Probably.”
“Good.” The boy kept still. The pain stayed away as he did so.
This surprised him too. “Why would you say such a thing?” He truly wanted to know.
The boy had tears now strolling down both sides of his face. “My mamma passed on last winter. My papa died the summer before that. I have nothing left.”
Again, his beloved’s face passed before his eyes. He suddenly understood the boy completely without having to hear anything else. Why Kalima did what he did suddenly made sense too.
“I see.” He sat back up. “What is your name?” He saw the hint of the sun now coming up straight ahead of him. It meant that it wouldn’t be long before the other diggers would come out to the fields. It would also mean that the night was over for him and it would be time to move on. He didn’t stay in one place too long.
He stood up.
The boy watched him stand. “Samuel…Samuel Goodson.”
Collins moved to his feet, stopped and turned back and faced him. Inside him, the wolf came back.
Make him.
He truly didn’t know what that meant. What?
The wolf sighed. He is a lot as we were once. We found each other, just as he has now found us.
He still felt confused with this, and now he was also getting a little annoyed. You want him to join us. How?
The nightwalker was right my friend. She was right about us being alone.
The memory of the dead vampire, now just behind him, crossed over his eyes. What she had said about him coming to her and her group alone came in with the memory. With it, he now felt the wolf nod. He felt it shrug. He became more confused than ever before.
You never spoke of wanting others to join us. Why now? What has changed? He needed to know, now that he had an idea of what all of this meant. He wanted him to change this young human into a Moonwalker like them. He wanted him to become a group. He wanted them to become a family. He had never wanted this before, so something had to have changed. In fact, he feared making more like them. What happened to the fear?
The wolf knew every thought he had, so he tried hard to explain this with words and not images. His friend deserved so much.
A time will come when all of this world will become dangerous again. I cannot tell you all of it because I do not remember everything, but I do know that it will happen. One day, this world will turn dark again. If we are to survive it, we cannot stand alone.
He understood this, but it didn’t answer his question, did it. Why now?
The wolf looked hard back on to the human and he felt a smile cross his face. He is as we were. He is what you have become. He will be strong with us.
He knew that he was going to have to accept it as this. When the wolf’s mind was made up on things, he could never change it. He was just as stubborn as he ever was. Fine then. He too looked down at the boy. What do I have to do?
You must bite him. Our saliva carries a substance that will change him from the inside. When he does, it will make him strong. It will make him immune to the humans. It will make him a black wolf.
He nodded.
There was more, but before you do this, before you bite him and change him, you must let him make the choice. He must choose to become what he will.
How do I do that? How do I explain such a thing?
The wolf smiled again. The sight of it blazed through his own mind like thunder rolling over a plain. He felt it as strong as ever.
You know how my friend. Remember what I told you when I came to you all of those many years ago. Use that which I have already given to you.
He nodded again, as the memory of that day came crashing back into his mind. He saw the hooded figure coming down the road to his home. He was drunk that day, just like he was every day after his beloved wife took her last breath. The hooded figure, Kalima, came to him and offered him the chance to start his life over again. He promised him a new beginning and thus an end to the life he lived. He didn’t promise him to take away his pain, but only to give him new hopes. Together, they could help each other heal the pain within both of them.
With this memory fading, he stood over the boy.
He could smell the smoke continue to spread out over the field. A burnt type of flesh tasted heavily in the air, with the hint of pine strongly within the scent.
The boy looked up.
Their eyes met.
“Who are you again? What is your name?” Collins asked.
The boy with the bright blue eyes winced in obvious pain. “My name is Sam. My family called me Samuel. What do you want with me?”
“I am going to offer you something Samuel, something that no one else could ever give you. I can feel your pain—the pain for everything that has happened to you in your past. I can help you to heal from it. I can give you a new beginning.”
The boy blinked. “How can you do that?”
He bowed his head. He did it quickly, and then looked up again. “I can make you what I am. I can give you a fresh start to your life.”
“You want to make me into that thing.” He saw the blackness of the wolf, as it stood over him. With the pain, with the agonizing hurt flaring through his chest, he saw so little that he wasn’t ever sure if it was real or not. He did see it. Some of him knew that he did.
“The wolf is something that this world has never seen before. It is strength that no human ever had. It is power that can heal you. It is power of a long and fruitful life. You can live forever. You can have the time to correct everything that has done wrong to you.”
The boy did think about this. In the end, he didn’t want to die, which he felt sure he was. He did want to do so much more than what he has done so far over his twenty years’ worth of life. He wanted to change the world. Maybe as the wolf, maybe with its strength, it could give him that.
“Can it help me to change the world?” This was why he joined this great army. This was why he fought this great war. He wanted to do so much.
“It can do anything you want it to. I can help you discover everything else.”
The boy watched him closely.
He could see his eyes lightened, almost brighten, to an overwhelming acknowledgement of everything that was about to happen. He now understood what the wolf also knew, but didn’t tell him. He only felt it. He felt the boy’s strength. He felt the boy’s warmth. He would make a great friend.
He held out his right hand. “Take my hand. I’ll help you, Samuel. I will give you the chance to live like you have never lived before.”
The young man reached up and took his hand.
Journal of Timothy Collins
I bit him after he took my hand. He changed that night for the first time, after he malted and healed from his wounds. Watching the wolf emerge, it made me feel stronger than ever. I had never seen the wolf before like that. I didn’t expect how it made me feel, but after I felt it, I knew it was real. I knew how strong it really was.
Samuel and I became inseparable. We did everything together. We became a family. We became a pack—a group that wouldn’t stay as just the two of us either for long. It took a few decades, but I came to want something else. I wanted to love again. I wanted to find a mate. It took me that long to decide who that was going to be. When I found her, the world would change again. It would change for the better. It would change forever. It would become stronger than it ever was before.
Antietam 1862: A Werewolf's Saga Extras Page 3