Get Bent!

by Rick Gualtieri

  However, the one getting ready to kick my ass stood down instead. It relaxed its body stance and backed up. The hell? Several more of the monsters stepped to the side revealing two massive werewolves, even larger than the one I’d thrown.

  Holy shit! It was like these things came in large, extra-large, and fucking enormous.

  “I think you pissed them off,” Riva whispered, her voice sounding close to breaking.

  “Ya think?”

  Both beasts approached us, each well over seven feet tall. Their fur was jet black in color, mixed with hints of salt and pepper grey. Everything about them was even more exaggerated than the rest – bigger teeth, longer claws, far more terrifying, that sort of stuff. We’d just learned these monsters existed and already were meeting their jacked-up cousins.

  Could this night get any weirder?

  Yeah, I had to ask.

  One of the uber-wolves stepped forward and growled at the one I’d tossed. They made chuffing sounds back and forth at each other. Mind-blowing as it was, it seemed like they were actually conversing. That told me these things were probably intelligent, but I couldn’t help but feel that still didn’t bode well for us. Somehow I doubted we’d be able to talk our way out of this.

  After a few seconds, the smaller beast stepped away and approached the downed werewolf. It bent low and began to sniff it, occasionally prodding it with its nose, all while the bigger wolf looked on.

  It wasn’t just the big guy either. All of them were intently staring at the one still lying unconscious on the ground.

  It was now or never, while they were all otherwise occupied. This was the only chance Riva was going to get to...

  A low whimpering began to come from the one with a broken arm. It was finally waking up. Great. As if we didn’t have enough of these things to worry about.

  “Riva,” I whispered again. “On my mark, get ready to...”

  The words died in my mouth as one of the wolves turned toward the big one – the pack leader perhaps – and made a sound that was actually understandable, if just barely.

  “Alive.”

  “Bent,” Riva said, “did that werewolf just...”

  “Talk? I’m ... not sure.”

  That was the truth. Its voice had been low and guttural, uttered by a mouth that didn’t appear designed for human speech. For all I knew, it could have just come out sounding familiar, like how some dogs could be taught to bark Christmas carols.

  Either way, an answer didn’t seem to be forthcoming. Several of the wolves converged on the beaten one and began gently helping it up. It appeared they were showing actual concern. If so, then maybe there was a shot they’d be too worried about their friend to notice us slipping away.

  Unfortunately, we were very much still on their radar, though. My friend’s sharp intake of breath from behind alerted me to the fact that the second of the two mega-wolves was approaching us.

  There was an air of authority in its gait that the rest didn’t seem to have. The other big werewolf appeared to be giving the orders, but the way this one carried itself told me it must have had some substantial rank within the wolf hierarchy – High Lord Ass Sniffer, at the very least.

  I lifted my head, hoping to maybe stare the creature down, but then saw its eyes widen almost as if in surprise. It was by far the least aggressive thing I’d seen any of these monsters do so far. I hate to admit it, but if it had tilted its head to the side like a dumb dog, I probably would have laughed.

  The massive beast continued to approach until it stood directly before me, casting me in shadow by virtue of its size alone.

  “Tamara,” Riva whispered.

  “I’ve got this,” I said without breaking my gaze.

  The wolf glared down at me and gave a sniff. Then it looked back, toward where the others were still helping the one I’d beaten the snot out of.

  It did this a few times, looking back and forth between us, as if contemplating what had happened. It was a very human-looking gesture for something so utterly alien.

  As curious as I was to where this might be going, I also realized there likely wouldn’t be a better time to make a move.

  The wolf glanced back toward the others one last time and I picked that moment to act. I wasn’t sure what sex this thing was, having not properly studied its wolf crotch, but I’d watched enough Animal Planet to know that packs were generally led by males. That was good enough for me.

  I brought my foot up with everything I had and its eyes opened comically wide at the moment of impact. It let out a whimper that was unmistakably that of a male whose testicles had been flattened by a size six.

  The werewolf fell over onto its back, its hands, or paws, grasping at its groin.

  I opened my mouth to scream for Riva to run when the other big wolf let out a roar.

  This time, there was no mistaking the meaning. It was aimed squarely at us, and it sounded angry.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  “Run!”

  “I’m not leaving you!”

  Oh, I could have gladly pummeled her right at that moment ... or given her a big hug. Scared out of her wits as she was, she still refused to leave me behind.

  Sadly, that was all the thought I had to spare. The lead wolf stalked toward us, looking far less friendly than its buddy had a few moments earlier. There was no mistaking its gait. It was readying to attack.

  My years of training took over and I lowered myself into a defensive crouch. This was by far the most lopsided sparring match I’d ever found myself in, but if this thing thought I was going down like some screaming damsel in distress, it was sorely mistaken.

  Or at least it would have been.

  Just as the massive werewolf was almost within striking range, something big hit it from the side. It was hard to tell one of these things from the other without nametags, but it looked like it was the other big wolf, the one whose balls probably still had my boot imprint on them.

  What the frig? Was it so pissed off that it was willing to fight for the right to kill me?

  Either way, the two massive wolves ended up sprawled on the ground, snarling and clawing at each other.

  I expected the rest of the pack to dogpile us, and not in a good way. But to my surprise, they gathered around the two battling werewolves until the combatants were hidden from my sight.

  A hand fell on my shoulder and I spun, fist raised, causing Riva to jump back with a shriek.

  “Don’t do that!” I snapped.

  She nodded, wide-eyed, then looked past me. “What are they doing?”

  I glanced back, realizing this was exactly what I’d been hoping for. “Providing us the break we need.”

  There was no way of knowing if it would be enough for us to get out of these accursed woods, but I was willing to give it a try.

  I grabbed Riva by the hand and dragged her with me away from the circle of werewolves.

  Their snarls and cries followed us as we ran.

  I could only pray the rest of them didn’t as well.

  CHAPTER 6

  “What is wrong with you?” I whisper-yelled at my friend. Probably a pointless effort since dogs possessed hearing that was far superior to any human’s. No idea if werewolves did too, but it seemed a safe bet.

  “What’s wrong with me?”

  “Yeah. I told you to run.”

  “So you could get yourself killed?”

  “Trust me, that wasn’t my ideal outcome. But better for one of us to make it out of there than neither of us.”

  “Oh?” she snapped. “So it’s fine for you to sacrifice yourself, but you don’t like it when I do the same for you?”

  I didn’t know whether she thought the danger was over, or if shock was setting in, but either way, Riva appeared to be much more her old self now that it was just the two of us fleeing through the woods.

  “It’s not that,” I said. “It’s just...” I trailed off as I realized I had no idea where I was going with that thought. We’d just escaped from a p
ack of monsters, but only now was it starting to sink in. Surreal didn’t begin to describe it. Whatever words had been on the tip of my tongue dissolved into laughter.

  “Are you ... okay?”

  “It’s just...” I stopped and leaned against a tree. “We just survived an attack by freaking werewolves. Not how I expected this night to go.”

  She stood there staring at me for several moments. Then, finally, she joined me in laughing. It was music to my ears. “We did, didn’t we?”

  I stepped forward and hugged her long and hard, although not as hard as before. I had no idea what was happening to me or whether it would last, but breaking my best friend’s ribs seemed a poor way to top the night off.

  Riva stepped back after we’d both gotten it out of our systems. She took several deep breaths, no doubt to steady herself, then dug into her pocket and pulled out her phone.

  “Pretty sure the service out here sucks,” I said.

  “It does, but the compass app should still work fine.”

  “Good idea.”

  “You’re the brawn. I guess that leaves me to be the brains.” I laughed again as she pulled up the app. After another moment, she turned and pointed. “Says that way is north, so if we head in the opposite direction, we should eventually hit Crossed Pine Road.”

  Smart. There was little chance of finding our campsite again by wandering blindly. We’d gotten too turned around, but Crossed Pine Road bisected the entire area. If we made it there, it would be a minor issue to orient ourselves and then find Riva’s car. Even if we couldn’t, Chief Johnson sent regular patrols to cruise that stretch. I was pretty sure it was more to catch parked kids than to battle werewolves, but I would’ve been happy to see the boys in blue nevertheless.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Once the snarls of the werewolf pack finally faded away in the distance, the normal sounds of the forest returned. Soon, it was as if there were nothing out of the ordinary in these woods. It was almost as if we’d accidentally strayed into the Twilight Zone before stepping back over some invisible boundary to our own world again. It all felt so ... unreal.

  “How did you do all of that stuff?” Riva asked after a while. By then, we were moving briskly but conserving our strength in case we needed to run again.

  “I wish I knew. I’m still surprised I did anything other than keel over and die. The last thing I expected was...” I made a fist and slapped it into my palm.

  “Do you think we somehow, I don’t know, dreamt it all?”

  “Like a shared hallucination?”

  “Yeah. That, or maybe your parents have been buying the cheap stuff.”

  I chuckled. “Wouldn’t that be something? To find out Dad has been spiking the booze with LSD. It’s always the quiet ones.”

  The humor dropped out of her voice. “Seriously, though. Do you think maybe we imagined it?”

  I stopped walking and curled my hand into a fist. “Guess there’s only one way to find out.”

  “Are you sure you want to?”

  “Not really. Just spare me the ‘I told you so’ until they reset the bones.”

  Bracing myself for the hurt if I was wrong, I hauled off and backhanded the nearest tree. The impact was like a shotgun blast in the woods. Bark and splintered wood flew from the gouge I somehow carved in the trunk. I pulled my hand back and together we examined it under the light of her phone. Dirty, but otherwise undamaged.

  “This is crazy,” she said in awe.

  “You’re telling me.”

  “I mean, how does that even work? One minute you’re dying, the next you’re a superhero.”

  “Not sure I’d go that far.”

  “I’m open to suggestions.”

  I shrugged and continued walking. “No idea. Maybe I died and this is some sort of afterlife hallucination.”

  “Then how does that explain me?”

  “A figment of my imagination, maybe. You’re probably still back at camp performing CPR on me. Or maybe you’re here, too, meaning you died from grief over losing such an awesome friend.”

  “Humility, thy name is Bent.”

  “Hey, I punched out a werewolf tonight. Not exactly a grounding experience.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Finally! I spotted the road up ahead through the trees and was damned glad to see it. All jokes aside, the rush of what happened eventually faded as we walked and, soon enough, I was feeling spooked to high heaven again. It was probably little more than paranoia on my part, but I couldn’t help shake the feeling of being watched.

  People told stories about the hollows being haunted, but who’d have ever thought that would be so true – and by things far worse than ghosts?

  Regardless, I’d learned my lesson. Adult or not, it would be a cold day in hell before I came back here after dark again. Heck, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to be here in the daylight.

  Riva and I stepped tentatively onto the asphalt. I think we were both afraid it would turn out to be some illusion, and that we were both still lost in the woods.

  It was real enough, though, and a sigh of relief passed through her lips as surely as it did mine. We started looking for a mile marker, something that would give us an idea of where we were in relation to Riva’s car. By unspoken consent, we walked in the middle of the road. Screw it. I’d sooner risk being hit by a car than have a hairy claw suddenly reach out of the bushes and grab hold of me.

  “Over there!” Riva pointed to a sign on the side of the road warning drivers to slow down for curves ahead. We’d passed it shortly before finding our turnoff and parking. “We’re less than a quarter mile away.”

  “Let’s do this, then.” My tone belied the fact that we were potentially walking back into the monsters’ territory. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much we could do about it. It was either ten minutes to the car, or over an hour hoofing it back to High Moon and Riva’s house – longer if we went to mine.

  We didn’t spot any cop cars, but eight minutes of increasingly fast walking later did bring us to the turnoff leading to the little clearing where Riva’s car still sat.

  “Please tell me you have your keys,” I said, staring at the vehicle, as if half-expecting it to stand up, sprout fangs, and start chasing us.

  She let out a nervous laugh and pulled them from her pocket. “Don’t hate me for saying this, but thank goodness you forgot your meds. I only grabbed them from the tent because you were sick.”

  “Three cheers for terminal illness.”

  Riva unlocked the doors and made for the driver’s side.

  “Wait!” I made a circuit of the vehicle first, peering in all the windows. “Okay, now.”

  “What was that about?”

  “If I didn’t check, you just know one of those things would’ve been waiting in the back seat.”

  “Good point.”

  To normally call Riva a cautious driver would be an understatement. Most days, she drove like an old lady, not helped by her parents’ constant reminders that she was still on their insurance policy. That all went out the window in that moment. It was fortunate that Crossed Pine wasn’t a big trucking route, because at the speed we hit the road, anything coming at us from either side would have killed us several times over.

  It was only when we were accelerating away that she said, “You know we’re gonna have to go back to get our stuff. That’s my dad’s tent.”

  “We?” She turned to glare at me. “Kidding! We can discuss it tomorrow, when it’s light out.”

  “That works.”

  “Oh, and Riva?”

  “Yes?”

  “I know it’s horrible of me to say this but, just for tonight, if anything steps out into the road in front of the car, especially if it’s large and furry...”

  “Run it the fuck over?”

  “You read my mind.”

  CHAPTER 7

  It was decided, after we’d made it back to High Moon, that we’d head back to my house. Riva’s dad owned a gun, which he kept in his office saf
e. Tempting as it was to retrieve it, I had a feeling that would have ended with us getting spooked and shooting out a window, if not ourselves.

  She also brought up a good point. My meds were back at my place. I felt fine, the barest notion of nausea having long since faded away to nothing, but that didn’t mean my symptoms wouldn’t come back with a vengeance. At even the slightest hint of discomfort, I wanted them at hand.

  Years of habit told me I should take two the second we walked through the door but, dumb as it might have been, I decided to hold off to see how things went. Who knows? It had been a while since my last medical exam. Maybe I’d gone into remission.

  We reached my house shortly thereafter. There were no cars in the driveway but a light was on inside, although that didn’t mean much. Mom usually left one on when she went out.

  Unlike Riva, I hadn’t had the foresight to grab my keys when I was sure I’d been dying. They were still back in the tent. Fortunately, we kept a spare hidden on the porch.

  It was a breakneck pace to run from the car, find the keys, unlock the door, then turn on every light on the main floor as if a couple hundred watts of LED bulbs would be enough to scare off any monsters. The only snag in the plan was me forgetting about Mom’s goddamned garden gnomes and letting out a scream when I saw their freaky little eyes staring back from the bushes.

  I made a mental note to smash the stupid things to dust ... when it was light out again.

  My parents didn’t own a gun, at least so far as I knew, but we had plenty of sports equipment in the garage, courtesy of Chris’s ongoing quest to find something he didn’t suck at. After finding and pocketing my pills, we closed the shades, armed ourselves with baseball bats and field hockey sticks, and held vigil on my living room couch – cranking up the volume on the TV so as to make it feel like we weren’t alone.

  “What time is your mom getting home?”

  “No idea,” I’d been wondering that myself. Glancing at the time on the DVR, I saw it was late. Surely she wouldn’t have taken my brother to see a midnight matinee.