He stopped and turned back to the shelf. He couldn’t believe how old the book felt. He couldn’t believe how it smelled. It smelled like the age of time. He put the book back where he found it, and looked down to the next shelf and saw that there were several VHS tapes there.
The very first one, the one on the farthest left of the shelf was also marked with The Beginning in black ink along its edge. Seeing the two words, he went for it first.
He looked around the room, looking for something to play it on, and moved without thinking. He just simply moved through the motions. He found a television set neatly tucked in the corner of the room, just to the left of the large bookshelf at the back wall, walked to it and pulled it away from the corner. He noticed that it was plugged into a wall socket behind it, so he looked under the TV to the shelf underneath it and saw that a VHS tape player was there. It also looked plugged in, so he put in the tape and turned both the player and TV set on.
Collins came on the television. He wore a simple blue t-shirt and looked to be sitting on something in front of the camera. He looked simple. He looked the same way as he remembered him back at the labs.
At the bottom of the screen, in white letters, he saw the date December 1989.
“My name is Timothy Edward Collins,” he began, speaking with a solemn soft voice that sounded rather different. He spoke with an accent. He spoke Irish, or maybe old English, Jimmy wasn’t sure. To him, he sounded almost free. He must have made this a long time ago, before going to the labs. They didn’t hurt him then. He was right, and he felt it. He winced as he continued to listen.
“I was born near Dublin, Ireland on August 23, 1736.”
Jimmy took a soft breath. He needed to sit but he couldn’t find a chair, so he was forced to stand instead. His legs felt weak enough to spill him to the floor, so he hated that he had to do it.
“I’ve been thinking of how best to do this. I wasn’t sure how much I should say. My eagerness to keep a journal convinced me that it would be all right to do it this way. If someone is watching this, you already know what I am. You might even have been bitten yourself.”
Jimmy swallowed again. He couldn’t believe what he just heard.
“From the beginning is the best place to start.” Collins picked up a glass from somewhere below him and drank a quick sip. The glass looked like it had water in it. When he finished, he returned the glass back to where he had picked it up. “I was bitten back in Ireland, not that far from where I was born. I lived on a small farm back then. We all did. I never in a million years thought that I would become what I had.”
Jimmy breathed. He sounded just like him. In a way, it connected him to his long lost friend more than nothing else could have ever done.
“I took in a stranger one night not that long after my Alice died. I guess I was lonely. She was too young to leave me. She died during the birth of our first child. The baby didn’t last, so, I lost them both. In the process, I lost myself.”
Jimmy could feel tears swelling up in his eyes. He should have been surprised to hear what he was, but wasn’t. He just felt for the man. Somehow, in some way, it all made sense to him. If felt like a memory that he forgot. It felt like a memory that seems to have forgotten him.
“Anyway, I took him in. It was such a cold night, that I didn’t want to turn him away. He introduced himself as Charles Mallon. A name that somehow I knew wasn’t real, but made me not really care. He was such an old looking man, that I truly didn’t feel threatened by him anyway. He looked helpless. He looked normal, if that’s a good word to use about him. I never thought in a million years that he was what he was. Anyway, we talked all night. He told me his story and I told him mine. I guess that’s why he felt sorry for me. I was married to Alice for only a few years before she died. I was in love with her from the first moment I saw her. I miss her so much. Anyway, he told me that he could take away my pain. He could take away my hurt. I didn’t know what to do, so I let him.” Collins paused on the tape and had to wipe his eyes with the back of his hand.
The pause gave Jimmy the time to think some too. In all actuality, he didn’t. He just stared at the screen with a hollow feeling inside his mind.
“He turned right in front of me. I had heard the stories from old men so many times before, about those like him, but when he changed, I wasn’t afraid. It was funny really. In a way, I guess I was hoping that he would simply kill me and end my life. When I woke up the next morning, and found nothing but a bite mark on my left arm, I broke down and cried. That’s when he told me all about what he was. He told me about his real name, Kalima. He told me his story of how, like me, had lost his love and child back before the written age began. He told me about the walkers. He told me why he did what he had to do. He was so old that his life was ending. It was his time to pass on himself. The human body can only survive for so long before it can no longer regenerate. When that happens, they have to pass on their soul to another. He chose me. Kalima chose me. He died only a few hours after that. Without the wolf in us, one cannot live on. We need them, just as much as they need us. I buried him outside in the barn.” Collins winced some. He had to wipe both of his eyes again. “I had to go on. My life had to go on.”
Jimmy too had to wipe his eyes, feeling the tears building up in both of them. Even though this was the first time that he heard any of this, he still felt like it was nothing more but his own memory. He not only felt for Collins, but he could almost feel everything he felt. He couldn’t explain it. He didn’t even try to, so he just left it alone.
Collins began talking again, before he could think of anything else. “I left for America a few years after that. I knew what I was, of course, and didn’t feel safe where I was. Ireland was very different then. It was more superstitious. They believed in witches, spooks, and goblins. One man even tried to hunt me down once, before I was forced to stop him. I hated having to do that.” Collins chuckled some under his breath.
Jimmy really didn’t think what he said was all too funny.
“Besides, it felt like the right thing to do. America was so new back then. It was all for the taking. I arrived here, and went up to Albany in 1765. There, I lived for the first time since Alice left me. It felt so right. I felt so much like I was home. I couldn’t believe how it made me feel. I found a small track of land and there I settled down. The hunting was good. Very few people being around me, made everything feel right.”
The sounds of footsteps came up the front steps, just behind Jimmy, and it caught his attention with a flash. He then heard the front door open and the floorboards above him begin to creak. Dust came down from the ceiling just behind him, and the footsteps continued towards the area of the stairs.
Hearing them, he held his breath. He listened to the sounds. He turned to the staircase and watched them intently. He didn’t know what to expect, but new that he didn’t fear it. His mind seemed too far away to help him think of anything else.
Sasha came down the stairs and stopped just at the bottom step.
Seeing her, he exhaled. He blinked. Somehow, he knew who it was, before he even saw her. He knew that she would come back. A voice in the back of his mind, justified that feeling entirely.
Sasha smiled. She could see what he was doing. She could see Collins’ face behind him on the television screen. She heard his voice before she came in. She sighed with all of it. “I miss him.” She pointed past Jimmy.
He stopped the tape and turned off the TV. “Yeah.” He stood back up and put his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. Seeing her again, he had no idea where to begin. He felt bad for everything that he said. He felt terrible at how angry she felt before she left. Seeing her again, made his heart simply skip a beat within his chest.
“I’m sorry Jimmy.” She bowed her head. “I should have expected your reaction, being that you’re so new to this.” She lifted her eyes, and smiled. She took the time over the past few hours to think about everything that happened. With the time, she could rememb
er the first time when she found out what she was, and how she felt. She had the benefit of others to help her understand everything, something that he didn’t have. He had no one. How else would she have acted if she were in his shoes?
His heart melted some, just by the sounds of her voice. “I’m sorry too.” He gave her a smile as well. It felt halfhearted but he meant it all the same. “I didn’t think I’d see you again so soon.”
She put her hands in the back pocket of her jeans, and shrugged her shoulders just before they came to rest. “I had to come and talk with you. Something’s happened that you should know about.”
Hearing her, he didn’t know what else to say, but, “What is it?”
“You caused quite a stir coming back.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. “What do you mean?”
She shrugged her shoulders again. “We have to talk.” She motioned with her left arm for him to come with her. She wanted to take him back upstairs. She wanted to talk. She wanted and needed to tell him everything. She wanted him sitting on the sofa before she did it too.
He watched the arm. He didn’t like anything that he heard and now saw. What now? I’m not sure of how much more I can take. He wanted to say but decided against it, so he moved to her quietly and followed her back upstairs.
In the hallway, he then followed her to the living room.
She moved to the sofa, and sat down.
He followed her there, and sat down right next to her.
She began, softly at first and then her story picked up speed as she told it.
He did nothing but listen along.
21
Harold left the others a little after nightfall. Everything that happened still felt strongly on his mind. Had he made the right decision, standing up to Samuel and joining Marie and Sasha, he wasn’t all that sure. Everything happened all too fast to think about it. However, it still made him feel weighted down by it. He was so much younger than the others were. He was all so new to all of this. He never had a family before. He never had friends that he cared for so strongly before now. He didn’t know how to think about losing them. He didn’t know how to act. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what to do. What he did know, was that he had to think that he made the correct choice. All he knew was what he felt. It felt like he did the right thing. He couldn’t see himself standing without them in his life. He loved all of them. He loved smelling them near him. He loved their taste. He loved the sounds they made. He loved everything about them. He knew that he would never be able to live without them by his side. They were his friends. They were his family. So yes, he made the right choice. He didn’t think about it after that.
With everything settled on his mind, he still had to do his part for the pack. He was their scout. He was there lead. He had to leave, head out, and look for a new hunting ground. The last one they used up rather quickly. They had to do it often. When the police started to get suspicious with all of the bodies they found in an area, they knew it was time to move on. They didn’t trust humans. Once they felt they were about to be exposed, that was when it was time to start fresh. That time was now. It was his job to find that place. He did his job well. He loved what he did. It made him feel needed. It made him feel strong. Besides, it felt nice to be out on his own. He missed it. He was always good by himself.
When he was still human, he loved being alone within his thoughts. He loved to draw. He loved sketching. He loved painting. He was a loner through and through. When he became ill, all of that changed. Because he was what he was, he had no one that cared to be with him. He didn’t have a family. He had no one to watch him die, except when Sasha came to see him. Then, everything changed. He found a friend. He found a family. With it, he found a life. It made him complete. It made him whole. It, in a way, made him perfect beyond words.
Walking along the sidewalk, he could hear music playing off in the distance. He could easily tell that it wasn’t that far away. He felt drawn to it, almost like a moth to a flame. Hearing it, he had to find it. It felt powerful. He could almost feel the bass in his feet. He could almost feel the air pounding the tones out towards him. With it all, it sounded promising.
He moved along, sliding along the alleyways, trying to keep out of sight as he walked. He couldn’t let anyone see him. It felt all so dangerous. It felt all so exciting. He loved the hunt and he lived for it. He needed it. It was all a part of him.
As he came closer to the sounds, voices were also there in the background, just behind the music. The sound made him excited. It gave him strength. He had to force himself to slow his stride. This area was so new to him; he had never been this far south before, so knowing that, it made him also feel nervous. He had to stay cautious. That alone, made him feel excited to his very core.
Before he even came to the street, he could tell that the bar had to be crowded with people. The club sounded like it was, in fact, full. He could smell all of them. He could place several distinct scents. There were mostly men there. Their particular scents came strong. Human men always smelled musty, almost rustic. Not like they, themselves did, but with a more stale scent around them. With that staleness, they always smelled sour. They always smelled overly sweaty, and that made them unique.
With the men’s scents strongly filling his nose, he could also tell that the men were not alone. There were also women there. There wasn’t as many women as there were men, but they were still there. That seemed like a good thing. The pack tried to avoid females for the most part. Kalima taught them that some time ago. Women caused problems for them. They needed them for the human species. Hunting a woman, and taking them in their prime, meant a possible decline in their prey. That was a bad thing, but men were another story entirely.
As far as they were concerned, they were fair game. They were their prey of choice. If he was going to choose this place, he had to make sure that the women weren’t going to be put into danger first. He had to keep everything separate. He had to keep everything recorded deep inside his mind. First, he had to see if this place had promise to it. If it did, he would know that quickly. He just couldn’t waste the time.
The club was typical of its type in the city. It looked like a small family owned, for the lack of a better word, joint. It looked nice and, and better yet, small. It also looked full of people when he came up along the side of the building towards the front side. The front of the place had windows covering it, which allowed him to get a good look inside it. Seeing it, he concentrated on looking at the bar. Several men were there, sitting on stools along the counter. Their backs were towards him some. One, a heavyset man wearing a long flannel shirt, and a baseball cap with stubble growing up and along the sides of his face, stood out to him more than all of the others did. The man looked drunk. He looked like he was talking to the bartender in front of him. He looked like he knew him personally. He had to be a regular patron. It meant that he was there more likely than he was at home. He could see that the bartender, a middle-aged man with a heavy white beard, wasn’t really paying all that much attention to him. That made him even happier. He could go missing, before anyone really noticed that he was gone. It would give them the chance to take him. It would give them the opportunity to hunt him at their leisure.
Feeling confident that he found what he was looking for, he left the front windows and made his way back to the alleyway that ran along the side of the building, stepped back into the shadows, and kept out of sight. He kept quiet. He stayed away from the crowd.
The alleyway was quiet and dark with only the lights from the street shining behind him. That too looked promising. If they had to take him there, no one would notice it. With the sound of the music, they wouldn’t hear his screams. Yes, this was a great place to hunt.
He continued on, with the sound of the music now far behind him and it seemed to be filtering fast. Soon, it vanished as he turned the back corner of the building, and came to the next corner in the alleyway.
He turned it, and he
aded to a new direction. Pride swelled up in his heart and his mind as he moved. He knew that Marie would like the new place. They would all be happy that he found a new hunting ground. He always felt this way for doing what he did. He loved doing his job best.
As he walked, the air seemed calm around him, with only a slight breeze flowing around his face. The hint of the city was in the air. The smell always seemed hard to describe to someone without their senses, but to him it smelled like home. It smelled like the burning of tires. It smelled like exhaust from a hundred thousand different cars. It mixed in with the smells of people. There was always the hint of a body’s odor in the air. There was always the hint of something cooking off around you. It all smelled so complex. It made it feel all so surreal.
He smelled it all, until a hint of mustiness came to him from his right. He knew the smell all too well. Someone had to be there. A wolf had to be close by.
“Who’s there?” He stopped and turned. To his right, he could see a narrow alleyway there, dark and calm. He tried to look into it but couldn’t see anything. It was just too dark. It looked as black as black could be.
The musty smell came stronger, and billowed all around him, until it filtered out to all of the other smells.
“Sasha? Is that you?” He stepped closer to the alleyway, and stopped only a foot or so from its entrance. It had to be her. She left them before he went out on his search. “Sasha?”
Wolves had a succinct smell. They smelled musty. They smelled like they were covered in earth and mist. Smelling it now, it had to be one of them. There were no other wolves in the city. They were the only ones. This was their territory, so it had to be her.
No one answered. He could see nothing but the blackness in front of him.
“Sasha?” He stepped closer, when a new thought popped into his head. Why wouldn‘t she answer me? That didn’t make any sense, but then a new thought came in as well. If it isn‘t her, then maybe it’s Samuel? He left quickly, so it has to be him. “Samuel?” He took a deep breath. The mustiness came stronger yet. “Samuel is that you?” His mind raced. Why is he doing this? It’s almost like he’s hunting me. Why would he do that? He wouldn’t do that. He was family. They were friends. None of them would ever hurt someone in the pack. “Samuel, are you there?”
A Werewolf's Saga Books 1, 2, & 3 (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets) Page 41