by Tim O'Rourke
“And what’s that?” I breathed.
“Family,” he smiled. Then, glancing briefly down at the man we had both once loved as a father, Jack fled the room.
With the sound of his feet thundering down the stairs, I raced after him. From the top of the staircase, I shouted, “Jack, what is the name of this person who understands how to pass between the different layers – times and whens?”
At the bottom of the stairs, Jack paused and looked back at me. With his eyes glowing fiercely in their sunken sockets, he said, “Her name is Lilly Blu. If you can find her – you’ll love her!”
“Why?” I shouted.
“Because she’s one of us,” Jack grinned back at me. “Lilly’s a wolf!” Then he was gone, racing out of the front door and into the night.
I ran back into the bedroom and to the window. I looked down to see Jack spring into the air, changing into a giant wolf in a blaze of glistening hair, claws, and razor-sharp teeth.
Hidden by the trees which sat opposite the house, Jack turned on his giant paws and looked back at me. Throwing his head back, he released a deep, booming howl into the night. Then he was gone, leaving me alone at the window.
Moments after seeing Jack’s long, bushy tail disappear between the black knotted tree trunks, the police van trudged to a stop outside, and I watched Murphy and Potter climb out. I couldn’t help but feel anger and hatred for the both of them.
Chapter Six
Kiera
I sat in the chair, my father dead at my feet, and waited for Murphy and Potter. The lamp continued to shine its murky light from the corner.
I took a deep breath and tried to gather my thoughts – gather my nerves – for the confrontation I knew was about to come. I heard the sound of the front door swing open below. The hinges made a wailing sound like a baby lost in the dark. There was a moment’s silence.
“Kiera!” It was Murphy who called my name.
I didn’t answer. I sat silently, taking shallow breaths. Tiny plumes of breath escaped my mouth and floated away into the dark.
“Kiera!” This time it was Potter who called, but his voice sounded laboured, as if in pain.
Again, I didn’t answer.
I heard them moving around downstairs, and I tracked the sound of their footfalls as they passed from the living room, to the kitchen, and back again. Then, as I expected, I heard the clomping sound of their boots on the stairs, growing louder as they got higher. They stopped on the landing, just outside the door. There was a moment’s silence, then the door came crashing open as Murphy came storming into the room, his long claws brandished before him. Potter stumbled in behind him. He looked stooped somehow, and one arm cradled his ribs. His face was covered in blood and the left side of his face was swollen out, black and purple coloured. His right eye was almost swollen closed, and the other was bloodshot. Murphy glanced around the room to see if there was any hidden danger.
Then, seeing me sitting in the chair with my father stretched out at my feet, he said, “Kiera, are you okay?”
“Where are Kayla and Sam?” I asked, ignoring his question.
His lips opened and closed as he fought to find the right words. “They’re missing.”
“Missing?” I asked.
“The teen-wolf has taken her,” Potter mumbled from the open doorway. “I knew we should never have trusted a wolf. Scum, the lot of them.”
“Scum?” I breathed, cocking my eyebrow at him.
“Yeah, scum,” Potter wheezed. “Look what they did to me...”
“We’d better go and find them,” I said, cutting Potter dead.
“Hang on a minute,” Murphy said, looking down at my father. “What’s gone on here? Who killed your father?”
“Jack Seth,” I said, staring back at Murphy, searching his face for any flicker of emotion.
“See, nothing but murdering scum,” Potter spat, shuffling away from the door towards me.
“Don’t!” I barked, not looking at him, but raising my hand in the air, as if to warn him off.
“Don’t come near me.”
“Why did he kill your father?” Murphy said, peering at me from beneath his bushy white eyebrows.
“Perhaps Jack killed him because my father killed his?” I said, refusing to take my eyes off Murphy.
Murphy glanced down at the body on the floor, and in that moment, I saw a flicker of recognition on his face, and that was all I needed to know Jack had been telling me the truth.
Although I could feel hot tears starting to burn in my eyes, I refused to shed them. I was too angry and hurt to cry.
With my eyes fixed on Murphy, I pointed down at my father’s body and said, “To me he was Frank Hudson – my father. But to you he was known as Paul Murphy. He was your younger brother, wasn’t he, Jim?”
Murphy raised his head and looked at me, and I could see not fear in his eyes, but sadness.
“Yes, he was my brother,” he whispered, then swallowed hard.
“Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on here?” Potter suddenly wheezed, then coughed, standing halfway between the open doorway and where I sat.
Then, turning to look at him, I whispered, “I’m scum.”
“What that’s s’posed to mean?” Potter said, hacking out a stream of coughs. He covered his mouth with his hand, but I could see the blood he had coughed up running between his fingers.
“All wolves are scum, right?” I glared at him.
“You know it,” Potter said, wiping the blood from his hands onto his trousers.
“Then I must be scum, too,” I said, unable to hold back the tears now. “I’m a wolf – half Lycanthrope.”
“What’s going on?” Potter said, glancing over at Murphy.
Dropping his head, so his chin almost touched his chest, Murphy said, “It’s true.”
“What a load of old bollocks!” Potter barked, his chest rattling. Then looking back at me, he added, “You can’t be a wolf – you don’t have a hairy tongue!”
I jumped up from the chair and said, “I can’t deal with you right now, Potter.”
“What have I done?” Potter groaned, pressing his hands against his ribs.
“What have you done?” I roared at him in disbelief. “How about you and that teacher?
What about her?”
Potter looked at me, his eyes wide like a rabbit that had been caught in the headlights of a speeding car. “I thought that was you...” he started.
“Liar!” I screamed at him, tears streaming down my face. “I saw you! Jack showed me.”
“That sonofabitch!” Potter shouted.
“You’ve got to believe me, Kiera. She was a wolf.
She did some of that mind-fucking with me.”
“It looked like it was you who was doing all the fucking! ” I hissed.
“It never got that far!” he yelled back at me, then took a deep breath as if refilling his punctured lungs. “I figured her out before anything like that happened.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out sooner,” I sneered, wiping the tears from my cheek with the back of my hand. “Couldn’t you feel her hairy tongue? After all, she had it shoved far enough down the back of your throat.”
“You’ve got to believe me, Kiera,” Potter said, shuffling towards me.
“Back off!” I spat, raising my hands.
“Don’t you dare touch me.”
“I thought it was you – honestly,” Potter said. “Jack Seth set me up. You saw only what he wanted you to see. He wants you to hate me.”
“And what about Eloisa Madison?” I roared. “Was he lying about her, too?”
Potter looked at me as if he had been slapped across the face.
“It’s true then?” I cried. “You and she were lovers – that’s why you ripped her heart out!”
“I had sex with her once,” Potter said. “It was before me and you ever met.”
“So you killed her to stop me finding out,”
I said,
glad that he was hurting.
“No!” he yelled at me. “I killed her because she was a child murderer. Just like that teacher and all of the other wolves – they have a way of getting into your head and messing with you. She tricked me into believing that someone else was the killer while she escaped. She looked into my eyes and made me forget about her. At first I did, but then I remembered. I remembered that night in the hangar just outside of Wasp Water. She was a danger to us – she was a killer.
That’s why I ripped her heart out.”
“It’s true,” Murphy said from behind me.
I span around to face him, my fist clenched. “Why should I believe a word you tell me? You’re nothing but a liar, too!”
“I’ve never lied to you, Kiera,” Murphy said, and for once his voice wasn’t gruff or angry sounding, it was soft. “I might have kept secrets.
But I’ve never...”
“Secrets!” I gasped. “You’ve let me live a lie ever since I walked into your police station back in the Ragged Cove.”
“I’m not proud of that fact,” he whispered. “But I did it to keep you alive – just like I saved your life the day I plucked you from the dead waters.”
“You tried to drown me!” I reminded him.
“You were already dead – or so I thought,” Murphy tried to explain. “But the moment I heard your cries I went back for you – I saved you, Kiera.”
“Can someone please tell me what the fuck is going on here?” Potter spluttered.
“Shut up! ” both Murphy and I roared at him at once.
I turned back to face Murphy.
“I could have left you to die,” Murphy continued. “But I didn’t. I took you in my arms and...”
“Let me live a lie,” I cut in.
“No! ” Murphy insisted. “I kept you away from that woman – that wolf – Kathy Seth.”
“My mother,” I shot back.
“She wouldn’t have been a mother to you, Kiera, not a good mother,” Murphy said. “She would have destroyed you just like she destroyed Jack. The woman was pure evil. You’ve got to understand that. She would have ruined your life.”
“My life has been ruined,” I told him.
“Has it?” Murphy asked me. “You grew up with your father – my brother. He was a good man and loved you more than anything.” He glanced over at the body on the floor, then back at me. “Jessica Hudson was a good woman, until Elias Munn destroyed her.”
“And what about my brother – Jack?” I sniped.
“Brother?” Potter cut in.
I shot him a hard look, and he closed his mouth before saying anything else. I turned back to face Murphy. “You helped to make Jack what he is today.”
“And don’t you think I feel guilty about that?” Murphy said. “But I had my brother to think of. I know Jack was only a boy, but I couldn’t risk him destroying the new life my brother had with you. But I tried to make amends.”
“How?” I snapped.
“Years later when I arrested him for killing those women,” Murphy started to explain.
“The moment I saw him, I knew who he was. The curse might have eaten him up, made him look older, but I recognised him at once. I felt as if I had his victims’ blood on my hands, too.”
“How come?” I asked.
“Because perhaps you are right,” he sighed deeply. “Perhaps I did help to make him the killer he is today. But that’s the real trick. That’s what the Lycanthrope are good at.”
“They’re good for something?” Potter groaned, collapsing into the seat where I had earlier chained Jack.
“Shut it, Potter,” Murphy said gruffly.
Then looking back at me, he added, “I did what I thought was best, Kiera. I did what I thought was best for you. But like I said, the wolves make you feel as if you have blood on your hands. The wolves have caused me nothing but heartache for as long as I can remember.”
“What do you mean?” I asked him.
“I lied to Jack because I thought I was protecting my brother from...” he trailed off as if remembering something that had hurt him very much.
“From what?” I pushed, desperate to understand why Murphy had tricked Jack and kept secrets from me for so long. I wanted to understand so I didn’t have to hate him.
“Although it pains me to say it, I do understand why Potter gave into those wolves like he did,” Murphy said. Then, looking at Potter he said, “And there is a reason I keep giving the wolves a second chance. I freed Jack from prison because I felt guilty for what I had done. That is the truth of the matter.” Murphy paused for a moment then swallowed hard. “To love a wolf is like no other love. They somehow take hold of you. You do stuff – take risks – give up everything you know to be right. I did what I did to try and save my younger brother.”
“Save him from what?” I whispered.
“The pain of falling in love with a wolf and having your heart broken," he whispered back at me, his face looking suddenly grey and old. “I was in love with a wolf once, but no good came of it. It ended in heartache and murder.”
Turning his back on us, Murphy went to the window. With one quick swipe of his claws, he pulled the curtains free. He crossed the room, and kneeling down, he covered his brother’s body with them. Murphy lowered himself onto the chair and took his pipe from his trouser pocket. I sat on the floor, my back pressed against the wall, drawing up my knees beneath my chin.
With the wind howling outside and snow pelting against the window, I watched a cloud of blue smoke drift from the end of Murphy’s pipe.
His usually bright blue eyes looked clouded over and dark. Not looking at either Potter or me, Murphy looked thoughtfully ahead as he sucked on his pipe. Then slowly, he started to talk. This is what he said.
Chapter Seven
Murphy
I lived in a small house, deep in The Hollows with my mother and younger brother, Paul. My father had been one of those who had decided to go exploring in the vast wastes of the Talles Varineris canyon and had never returned. It was believed he had been transfixed by its beauty and had wandered into the canyon’s great fissures and been lost forever. My mother had loved him deeply, and was never the same again. She suffered from melancholia and spent most of mine and my brother’s childhood staring at the wall, as if unable to move or function until our father’s return.
My brother and I were, therefore, often left to do as we pleased. Paul was more studious than I was and often spent his time with his head in books which had been brought down into The Hollows from the world above. He was interested in the art and the films made by the Vampyrus named Burton. I on the other hand, was interested by the world above, but not by the books and works of art – but by the adventures I hoped to find there. With my mother pretty much comatose most of the time, it didn’t take much effort on my part to sneak away from home through the tunnels and the wells and out into the world above. I had found a tunnel which brought me out just on the outskirts of a great forest. You have to understand that for a boy of fourteen, this new world with its giant trees, lakes, and a sky that spread high overhead like a giant blue ocean was like climbing out of The Hollows into a fantasy land that promised adventure and excitement.
Like other young Vampyrus, I had heard the stories of the dangers that lie over our heads and how we should keep away from the humans because of their fear for anything different. I’d listened to the stories spread about by the Elders, that if the humans were to discover that a world of living, breathing winged creatures lived beneath them, they wouldn’t be able to help themselves from coming below and capturing us – experimenting on us – killing us. But just like any human teenager, I thought I was immortal and that I would live forever. I never for one moment thought that I would ever face any danger or threat that could frighten me, let alone kill me. I believed I could take on the world.
My first few excursions above ground lasted only minutes, as I dared out of the tunnel I had found, and ventured into the new world
I had heard so much about and was so desperate to explore. But with every trip above ground, my stays got a little bit longer. Ten minutes, twenty minutes, a full hour, half a day, then a full day and night. I didn’t do much at first. I would tentatively wander into the forest, checking constantly back over my shoulder, checking that I could still see the hole that led back home should I need to head below ground quickly. As I grew more confident, I would sit and stare up at the sky and watch how the sun glinted and sparkled off the leaves of the trees which towered above. I could sit for hours on the forest floor, my back against the trunk of a tree and stare upwards, watching the clouds lumber lazily overhead. I’d sit there like that until my neck went stiff. As my confidence grew, I ventured further into the woods, until one day, I came across a vast lake. Its waters were red, almost black, and it seemed to stretch for miles in either direction. Never before had I seen such a thing. It was surrounded on all sides by fir trees and willow trees, which seemed to stoop over the lake as if taking a drink of water. I visited this lake every day for almost a year and never did I see anyone or anything other than my own reflection staring back at me from the dark red waters. Then one day, that all changed, and I spied the most beautiful creature I had ever seen.
The wolf came out from the shade of the trees, its paws gently trampling over the pebbles which covered the shore. Its long, sleek body was covered in fur so bright and golden, it looked like the wolf had somehow soaked up rays of the sun I had so often watched springing through the canopy of leaves in the forest. It came forward, sniffing the air as it approached me. Although my heart raced, it wasn’t through fear, but wonder and curiosity. Along with the stories about the humans, I had also heard the stories of the murderous race known as the Lycanthrope. Surely such a beautiful creature as the one which stood before me couldn’t be one of them. I had always imagined the Lycanthrope to be evil-looking monsters, with rows of jagged, flesh-infested teeth, and long, black, pointed tails and claws as ragged as a set of rusty nails. This creature looked nothing like those nightmarish images I had conjured. Its eyes shone as bright as its fur. The wolf circled me, making soft, short woofing sounds in the back of its throat. It’s long, silk-like tail brushed against my legs, and I felt a tingle of excitement travel through my body. As the wolf circled me, it continued to sniff the air.