by H. T. Night
“She’s hot,” Steve said.
“Too good for your ass,” Albert laughed.
“I’m not asking about her looks,” I said. “I’m referring to that night. Did any of you get the feeling she was leaving something out?”
Steve spoke up. “To be honest, I did.”
“Why don’t you just ask her what really happened?” Eli said as he stared at the rain outside. “This rain is going to suck. Hopefully, we’ll find shelter out there.”
“Do our werewolf instincts know to do that?” I asked.
“I forget you’re still a rookie when it comes to turning,” Albert laughed.
“Well, answer the question,” I said in a tone that sent the message that I was by no means messing around.
“The answer is yes,” Steve chimed in.
“Going back to what you were saying earlier,” Evan said, “you should sit your girlfriend down and just ask her plainly what happened. It couldn’t have been that easy. She painted a pretty rosy picture for us.”
“Didn’t she?” I agreed. “I haven’t confronted her because I was afraid of what I might hear, that it might be too much to bear.”
“Then that’s on you, if you fear the truth,” Albert said.
“I guess it is.” I decided to rest on the den’s couch and maybe get a nap in.
Chapter Two
The moon rose and we all turned. I had no idea what we did all night. None.
When it was morning, I woke up wet and freezing, lying in the middle of an open field that was on the north side of the ranch near the barn. To my right, I could see the barn, big enough for all five of us to fit in. Then, one by one, each of my friends walked out of it.
Why the hell was I outside, freezing to death, when all of the others were in the warm barn?
None of the other guys were even wet. I was soaked from head to toe. I might have even had a fever.
“Kyro? Why are you out in the rain?” Steve laughed.
“Trying to prove you’re the toughest by staying outside?” Eli asked.
“You know I can’t remember a damn thing when I turn. Obviously, my werewolf brain isn’t as intelligent as you guys. Why in the hell would I be in the middle of a field in the pouring rain?”
“I think you build instinct over time,” Eli said. “You haven’t been a werewolf too long. In werewolf years, you’re still a baby.”
“Maybe I’m still behind in intelligence, but I sure as hell am not one when it comes to fighting and strength.”
“Did your fighting skills come in handy against the rain last night?” Albert laughed. “How did your mighty werewolf strength help you while you were shivering in the rain?”
“I think I’m sick,” I said. “I have a fever and my throat is sore. So, cut me some slack, Albert. What am I going to do? I can’t spend three nights in a row in the rain.”
“Tomorrow night,” Steve said, “why don’t you start off in the barn when the full moon hits? Then, if you leave, and go out in the rain, we can assume that you’re not that bright when you turn into a werewolf.”
On night two, it was pouring harder than the night before. I stayed in the barn when the full moon lit up the sky, through the rain clouds. Hopefully, I’d stay in there and not leave.
My next conscious awareness was the next morning—I was once again completely soaked, lying in the middle of the freaking field in almost the exact same spot. I had somehow found the barnyard door and made my way outside, and didn’t have enough sense to come in out of the rain. This time, I didn’t want to deal with the guys.
I headed straight for the house. I was very sick and I couldn’t imagine another night outside in wet, cold weather. My fever was 103 degrees. I was now coughing and had a bad runny nose. This was about as crappy as it got.
I crept up to the room where I usually stayed and decided to call Maya and tell her the situation. She’d called yesterday, and I decided to spare her the details of my nighttime fever rain dance. But, right now, I needed some tender loving care, even if it was only over the phone.
She answered on the first ring. “Tommy!” She seemed extremely happy to hear from me.
“Hey, babe.”
“Is something wrong? It’s 7:00 in the morning.” Maya was a morning person. So, I knew she’d be okay with me calling her this early.
“I’m sick,” I said plainly. “Real sick.”
“How so?” Maya sounded extremely concerned.
“I have a fever, a runny nose, congestion everywhere, and a huge headache.”
“Have you eaten anything?”
“Not yet.”
“Get one of your friends to make you some eggs and toast. You need juice.”
“I also have a pretty bad sore throat.”
“I’m so sorry, honey,” Maya said. “Do you know how you became this sick?”
“Have you checked the weather reports? It’s raining cats and dogs out here.”
“Well, stay out of the rain,” Maya laughed.
“Don’t laugh. Apparently, my werewolf self loves the rain and when I turn, I can’t get enough of it. I keep waking up outside. Soaking wet. In the mud.”
“Can’t you go inside somewhere?”
“Last night, I tried to do that, but somehow, my werewolf mind thought I’d have more fun outside. I was in a barn and the door was closed. Apparently, I must have opened it because for the second straight morning, I woke up on my back in the middle of the rain.”
“You poor thing. I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t say anything. Just stay on the phone with me.” Man, I felt pathetic.
“Oh, sweetheart, is this how you act when you’re sick?”
“How am I acting?”
“Like a little boy who needs his mommy.”
“Little boy?” I said, offended. “How about, I’m a man reaching out to his girlfriend when he is sick?”
“Is the barn the only place you can stay?”
“Other than trying to find a tree to sit under, the barn is pretty much it. The man who owns the ranch has one strict rule. No one is to be in his house when they turn. Regardless of the circumstance.”
“Can you lock the barn? Make it as hard as possible to leave?”
“I could run down to the store in town and grab some locks and chains to make the barn Kyro-proof.”
“Do that, sweetie. Then in the morning when you wake up, I’ll drive to pick you up, so you can rest and sleep on the way back.”
“You’d sincerely do that?”
“Why wouldn’t I? My man is sick. I would do anything for you.” Then Maya’s voice turned into a loud whisper. She said calmly, “I’d do anything for you.”
“I’m going to try to get some sleep.”
“Have you taken anything for your cold?” Maya asked.
“I’m scared to take anything. I’ll take something once the third turning is over with.”
“Okay, I’ll bring up some medicine for you.”
“Sweetie, I don’t want you to drive up here in the middle of the night. Tell Josiah I’d give him 50 bucks if he drives with you.”
“What do I get?” Maya joked.
“You get a sick Tommy who loves you with all his heart.”
“That, my love, is priceless. One question?”
“What is it?” I asked.
“What do I tell Josiah about you?”
“Make sure you arrive after the sun comes up. Just tell him my reserves unit was meeting up north and I became sick and needed a ride back.”
“Okay.” Maya didn’t seem confident that Josiah would buy that story.
“Why don’t you just break down and tell Josiah what you are? You know, try the truth?”
“I’m afraid for him to know. He is still so young and, well, impressionable.”
“Josiah cares about you, Tommy.”
I was quiet. The reality was, I cared about him too. So, I said, “I want to protect him from this. The less he knows, the safer he st
ays. That is why I’m going to keep it from him.”
Chapter Three
I eventually got off the phone. I took about a six-hour nap. I stumbled out of my room and made my way to the kitchen. Everybody was up, eating cereal.
“Kyro!” Steve called out. “The walking dead lives!”
“Please don’t talk so loud. Everything hurts from the chest up.” I walked over to the refrigerator and found what I was looking for. Some apple juice. I sat in the only empty chair at the table and slowly drank my apple juice. Every swallow hurt. My throat felt like I had swallowed barbed wire.
“So, how was it?” Eli asked.
“How was what?” I said.
“Running around outside in the rain, on four legs.” Eli laughed.
I was quiet. I was extremely disappointed in myself. Why was my werewolf mind prone to go out in the rain? My werewolf body must be sick, just as my human body was. Why weren’t my werewolf instincts smart enough to stay inside, out of the rain?
“I’m going to the local store up the road and grab a couple of locks and chains. I’m so sick that I think another night in the rain would kill me. I’m going to lock myself in the barn and when I turn, I won’t be able to use the key without opposable thumbs.”
“Makes perfect sense to me. Why don’t you go back to bed?” Steve said. “Albert and I will go for you. Just give us the money and we will get what you need.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t have said it if I wasn’t,” Steve said.
“We need to have each other’s backs when one of us is sick,” Albert said.
I nodded my head and went to my room to grab my wallet. I pulled out sixty bucks and brought the money back to Steve. “Please bring me back change if there is any,” I said.
“This should cover it,” Steve said. “Now, go back to bed.”
“All right.” I went back to the bedroom and closed the door.
I woke up about an hour before the sun was to go down. I would soon be howling at the moon. Hopefully, on this night, I wouldn’t see the moon. Hopefully, I would be locked in the barn.
I made my way to the barn and the guys had already made a blockade in front of the door. They had pushed everything out of the way so I could enter. Then, the five of us made a blockade that would have made Les Misérables jealous.
At the front of the door were chains wrapped in locks. Steve locked the locks. Now it was time to wait to turn. Turning feels like it does when I fall asleep. Except there is no dreaming. There is nothing but the morning sun to wake you. In this case, though, I was greeted by clouds and rain.
It was about a minute before the full moon was to appear. I reclined in some hay. That was my last memory I had.
I woke up the next morning… outside… for the third straight morning. What the hell? Again? I looked at the barn and there was a giant hole in the barn that was about the size of my body. I stared at the hole from the field. Then, one by one, my friends stepped out of the barn through the hole that I had obviously created. Soon, all four them stepped through it and stared at my soaked body.
There was a light rain coming down. The four of them were quiet and so was I. I was quiet, mainly because I had become sicker. The four of them reached where I was standing in the middle of the field. Still, no one said a word. We all, in unison, looked back to the barn at the hole in the wall and just started laughing. The claw marks were ridiculously obsessive. I had obviously wanted to go outside. Badly! I must have had to relieve myself. At least, that was what I was telling myself in order to wrap my mind around why I kept wanting to go outside. Looking at the hole in the barn, I wanted ‘out’ awfully bad.
I was too sick to laugh. But it was so damn funny. I had made my own doggie door! My werewolf body apparently would do anything to get outside. Even if it knew that it was sick. It was strange to think about myself as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde—A man with two personas. I guess we all were. It was just that their werewolf bodies seemed to have more common sense than mine.
We all went to the house and I changed out of my wet clothes. I put on some dry ones and waited for Maya and Josiah to show up. I had texted Maya the address.
Maya and Josiah showed up around nine in the morning. All of the others had already left to go home.
I heard a knock at the door, and my very sick body, with my suitcase, made my way to the front of the house and opened the door. Sure enough, there stood Josiah and Maya.
“You look horrible, man,” Josiah said. I wasn’t sure if he was making fun of me or if he was genuinely concerned.
“I feel worse than I look,” I said.
Maya softly came over to me and gave me a big, huge, long hug. She had no idea how badly I needed that. I smiled and kissed her on the cheek. I didn’t want to give her my flu germs—or whatever my body was harboring.
Maya touched my forehead. “You are burning up. Do you think we need to take you to the hospital?”
“Definitely, let’s not do that,” I said. “Let’s just get in the car and go home.” I looked at my young friend. “Josiah, guess what?”
“What?” Josiah asked.
“You get to drive the Mustang home.”
“Awesome.” Josiah was very pleased. He cracked a huge smile that reeked of possibilities.
“Just stick close and follow us. No showboating or acting a fool. It’s my Mustang, bro. Just remember, it has eight cylinders but you don’t need to prove it to anyone!”
“Right.”
Josiah had recently received his license, but this would be the very first time I would let him drive my car. I was confident he’d be okay.
So, I tossed Josiah the keys. Then I slipped into the passenger seat of Maya’s car and closed my eyes. She started the car and we were off. I looked back to make sure Josiah was following close behind. He was.
“On the floor is about seventy-five dollars’ worth of over-the-counter medicine. I wasn’t sure what you might need.”
I reached down to the passenger side floor and picked up a plastic bag. Maya wasn’t lying. There was a crapload of medicine in a Walgreen’s plastic bag. I decided to take some ibuprofen and drink some Nyquil. I chased it down with a bottle of Gatorade. Within minutes, I was asleep.
Chapter Four
We made it home and I was bedridden for the next five days. There were many times that I was tempted to go to the E.R. because my fever was so high. I decided against it because I didn’t know if my physiology would betray me—that I was no longer completely human—and I allowed Maya to take care of me.
Eventually, I was feeling better and started to be my old self again. How did I know that? Because I was horny as hell. When I was sick, the last thing I wanted to do was to have sex.
Maya had been gone for a while… shopping. She also went down to Fullerton Community College to enroll in some classes for the fall. She wanted to take some classes and eventually earn a bachelor’s degree. She didn’t know what she would major in yet, but that was what community college was for: to figure out what you wanted to do. You took a little of everything until you figured out what field fascinated you the most. In my case, it was Theater Arts. Maya was interested in everything. She soaked up knowledge like it was chocolate.
Maya came home, and I was ready for some lovin’. She came through the door, super excited about getting all the classes she wanted, at the times she wanted them.
She went on and on about the classes she enrolled in. I just stared at her. I was listening, but the second she stopped talking, I would take her by the hand to the bedroom.
Maya recognized my look. She had seen it many times. “Tommy? Is that look on your face what I think it is?”
“The look on my face is majorly and exactly what you think it is. Babe.”
She giggled in that way I loved. “So, does this mean you are better?”
“Better at what?” I teased. I leaned in and brought Maya close to me. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her deeply on t
he mouth. Maya loved kissing and I hadn’t been able to do that with her for about a week. So, we stood there in my living room, kissing each other in a way as if we were discovering each other’s lips for the first time. Our kisses became more passionate. Before I knew it, we were both taking off our clothes. I still had my jeans on and I said, “Hold on, let me close the blinds. Don’t want to give the neighbors a free show.”
Soon, Maya and I were both completely naked. We lay on the living room carpet and made love multiple times over a three-hour period. It felt amazing to have her so close once more. When we made love, we would read one another and at times, it was slow and romantic, at other times, it was intense and fast. Both were nice in my book.
When neither of us could go anymore, we went to the shower and showered off. I put on a pair of sweatpants and a white tank top. Maya slipped on a pair of white shorts with a turquoise tank top. My favorite thing she was wearing was that just-loved smile. We both went to the bed and lay down together.
I decided this would be a good time as any to ask Maya what happened that night at Marcos’s kennel.
“Sweetie, I need to ask you something. I want you to be completely honest with me.”
Maya looked at me, very concerned. “Of course I’ll be honest,” she said. “What’s up?”
“Okay,” I said. “What truly happened that night at Marcos’s kennel?”
“I told you guys what happened.”
“All of it? Everything?” I asked.
Maya was suddenly quiet. “I didn’t lie. But yes, I left out one detail.”
“What was it?”
Maya paused and tears began to drip from her eyes. “Remember last week on the phone, when I said I would do anything for you? I truly meant it.”
“Okay…” I was allowing her to get out what she needed. This was obviously extremely hard for her to talk about.
“When all of you turned, Marcos’s guys were more organized than I let on.”
“How so?”
“All of his men, including Marcos, only went after you. There were so many of them and they were all attacking you.”
“Wow, that’s insane.”