by H. T. Night
I was pulling into the driveway of our house when I saw Yari on her limb in her bird form, looking into Josiah’s bedroom. I thought she just liked the fact that Josiah was eye candy. This whole nonsense about him being something important in the Mani world was just a ploy so some old perverted vampire could check out a man in his physical prime.
As a matter of fact, I was going to call her on it. I stopped my motor, stepped out of my car, and said boldly to the bird, “Meet me across the street.”
I stepped across the street in the exact same spot Yari had spoken to me previously. Yari flew over in her hawk form.
“Why are you here tonight?” I said to the bird.
“Is that why you brought me over here?” Yari said, transitioning into her beautiful redheaded self. She was wearing all black. Very tight. She looked like Catwoman.
“Well, why are you stalking my friend?”
“Quit saying that. I’m not stalking him. You know yesterday was his birthday. Did you two do anything together?”
“Josiah and I don’t celebrate birthdays,” I said.
“Maybe you should. The doom-and-gloom routine the two of you have going on is getting pretty old. I’ve seen him with more girls than I think is humanly possible in one month. And you, you hardly even jerk off.”
“You’ve seen me jerk off?”
“Actually, no. You’re pretty discreet. I know when you’re doing it because suddenly you’re discreet.”
“Is there some kind of Mani police I can report you to? You are seriously creeping me out.”
“I’m doing nothing illegal,” Yari said.
“So, stalking isn’t a Mani law?”
“What you call stalking, I call waiting. There is a reason why I’ve been led here. You may not know it, but I’m a pretty important person.”
I looked at Yari and decided I’d had enough. “Look, this thing you say that is supposed to happen better happen soon, or I will just physically remove you each time I see you.”
“Is that a threat?”
“I don’t threaten girls. Even ones who could probably do some damage, like you. I want to know what is so special about Josiah. I think you just like checking him out.”
“I like checking him out?” Yari laughed. “Don’t be too hard on yourself, big boy. I love checking you out too. It’s a perk of the job. But trust me, this is about important things. Things I don’t even completely understand. If I was just a perverted old vampire, then I’d say, by all means, shoo me away.”
“But you’re not?” I said.
“No, I’m not. I’m a friend. I’m someone who cares. Someone who has seen both of you very broken at times. Just know that I’m on both of your sides.”
Was she flirting with me? Man, her eyes were piercing through me like razor blades.
I looked at her, and, with a confident grin, I said, “Apparently you’re too headstrong to be persuaded otherwise. Just do me a favor. Don’t make me regret not shooing you away.”
“Oh, there are lots of ways I could make you not regret shooing me away or not regret any other mistake you have done in your life.”
Yari was something else. She took flirting to a level that was almost embarrassing. But damn. She was hot!
On a different note, I needed to speak to Josiah. I felt we needed a man-to-man conversation. Josiah was making some questionable decisions and I needed to know where his head was. Why? Because he was going to be my responsibility for the rest of my life.
I said goodbye to Yari. She winked at me, then transitioned and once again flew away into the night. This time I didn’t bother staring at her until she disappeared. I walked across the street and went through the front door. It was unlocked. The door was usually unlocked unless we were both home sleeping.
I entered the house and Josiah was sprawled out on the couch, watching Family Feud. He loved that show. The Game Show Network played it all day long, so Josiah usually got his fill each day. He yelled at the TV as if he were with the families. I thought it was something he’d done with his family.
“How’s it going, Jo?” I asked.
“I just got back from a massage at the mall. It wasn’t that soothing. I think it had something to do with all the people walking by and staring at me as if I were a zoo animal.”
“Why did you get a massage there?”
“I had a free coupon. Mike gave it to me. Told me to get some relaxation in.”
“Mike said that to you?”
“He is my trainer.”
“Technically, yes. We both know who your real trainer is,” I said, looking at Josiah and implying myself.
“What are we, Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed? We can’t be in each other’s corners forever. Eventually, I plan on fighting your ass and taking that belt you are about to get.”
“Why not get it before me?” I asked, egging him on.
“Because you’re the Commission’s flavor of the month.”
“I am?” I protested. “I’m not the one all over YouTube.”
“Right now, I’m a gimmick. A novelty. I will get my shot. You. It is your time. The Commission will have eyes for you until you’re champion, and then they will be looking for their new flavor of the month. That’s where I come in.”
I looked at Josiah and shook my head.
“What?” he asked.
“A Josiah compliment goes as follows: ‘I think you will be champ. Only because the Commission has a hard-on for you. But once they do, I plan on taking the belt from you, so it doesn’t matter anyway?’”
Josiah looked at me and laughed. “You’re right. That sounds pretty dickish of me. You’ll probably lose the belt before it’s my turn. Sorry, I didn’t clarify,” Josiah said, with a smug look on his face.
I needed to know something. Josiah and I like to dance around the subject. But tonight, I wanted to know exactly what was going on in Josiah’s head in regard to how he felt about MMA, me, and the prospect that we may face each other in the next couple of years.
“Josiah, come to the kitchen with me. Help me get dinner ready,” I said.
“Get dinner ready? Wow. What’s the special occasion?” Josiah’s sarcasm was in rare form.
“No special occasion,” I said. “I just want to have a man-to-man talk to you. Leaving egos at the door.”
Josiah smiled at me. “Okay.”
“How about we both sit at the kitchen table?”
“Okay,” Josiah laughed. Family Feud was over and the Miller family apparently just won $20,000. Josiah turned off the TV and sat at the head of the table where his father usually sat at meals.
Big power move.
This kid was top notch.
I sat at the other side. That was where Josiah used to sit. I had no idea what this was a metaphor for, but it was well played because I started the conversation flustered.
“How good do you think you could be in our sport?” I asked Josiah.
He was quiet.
“Well?”
He was still quiet.
“Why are you being quiet?” I asked.
Josiah looked me eye-to-eye and said, “I’m already the best the sport has ever seen.”
If I had water in my mouth, I would have spit it out. That was the most arrogant, most confident statement to ever come out of a person’s mouth that I had ever heard. I looked at my younger friend in awe because he believed it.
“You will run across a guy like me very soon. Someone who is a master on the ground. I need to teach you counters at the very least. I don’t have to teach you the submissive move because I know you rather make their face look like a Play-Doh toy.”
Josiah looked at me and simply asked, “Why do you feel the need to teach me anything?”
“Because you can always be the kind of great that I am. I can never be the type of great you are. If you want to be the best, you train more and talk less.”
“Let me ask you this question, Tommy.”
“Okay,” I said. I looked across the l
it kitchen and stared at my buddy.
“Why do want to teach me? If fighting on the ground truly is my kryptonite, then why would you allow me to have it in my arsenal?”
“Because you’re not the enemy. You’re my friend. One of us will be the middle-weight champion this time next year. I know it. I just want you to have the best shot. Until you learn how to fight off a ground game, the second you hit the floor, you will be a fish out of water.”
Josiah stood up and said, “I’ll take my chances. Is that all? I’d like to shower up. Watching game shows all day has made me sweaty.”
“Go do your thing, dickhead.”
Josiah said to me, “Tommy, make no mistake. I would die for you, but I won’t lose an MMA match to you. Know the difference.”
“I know the difference, Josiah,” I said.
Josiah went into the bathroom and got ready for his shower. I made us some chicken stir-fry teriyaki.
Chapter Twelve
Keeping so many secrets wasn’t new to me.
But the secrets I had to keep these days didn’t compare to life’s novelties of secrets past. I needed to grab my cage from the storage unit. I wanted to put it in one of the rooms at my grandma’s cabin. She never used the cabin and wouldn’t be asking any questions. Maybe, if I played my cards right, I didn’t have to go up north every time the change came over me. I would miss my pack, but it wasn’t the same after Dave vanished. And it was time to stick closer to home.
My unit was at a location in Perris. Mainly, I heard they didn’t ask questions as long as you don’t blatantly break the law, like run a meth lab out of one of their units. Holding a cage large enough for a couple of human beings wasn’t illegal, but it was definitely in that don’t-ask-questions category. I rented a moving truck on Saturday morning and, by myself, I hauled the damn thing to my cabin. When I arrived at the cabin, it took all of my strength to haul it up the front steps. I dragged it into the house and stuck it in the bedroom on the left. It was the easiest place to put the large cage, and luckily, it was the most private.
I was exhausted. I hadn’t seen Maya in six weeks, but I wasn’t anticipating seeing her here because she never saw me close to my turning each month. The last time the turning landed on the time she would have seen me, she’d waited eight weeks to reveal herself to me. So I was expecting the same.
This weekend was about my cage and me. It would be a full moon on Sunday, so I was looking at Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights as werewolf-on.
I had one problem. How could I lock myself inside the cage? I could do it the obvious way—lock it and have the keys close by. I had no idea how smart I was in my werewolf form. So I decided to come up with this elaborate way I could get my key. I could only do so if I had absolute cognitive ability. I was pretty sure I didn’t have that.
I spent Friday and Saturday at the cabin alone, getting ready and giving myself a little wiggle room to head up north just in case I chickened out. Josiah was at the house and I told him I was going to my Reserves and probably wouldn’t be back till Wednesday. It was going to be an intense few days. He didn’t ask any more than the information I gave him.
It was Sunday and I saw something that surprised me. I was out grabbing breakfast food in town and on the way into my cabin’s driveway, I could have sworn I saw Yari in her bird form. She was camping on my front steps, and when she saw my car, she flew out of sight.
I decided that I was probably just imagining things and I didn’t have time to worry about Yari. I decided to rest up before the full moon. I had spent the early morning setting up ‘the key’ situation.
The cage was in a bedroom with a lone rocking chair that was to the front of the cage. The rocking chair faced the cage, although the cage took up most of the room. The bars were so tight together that I wasn’t going anywhere once I turned.
I had gone into town on Saturday and grabbed a couple remote control cars at the nearest convenience store. All they had was a red Corvette from the eighties and an ugly green Army Jeep.
My plan was simple. The first remote control, which I put just outside the cage, was for the Army Jeep. In the cargo of the Jeep was the remote control for the Corvette. When I awoke in my human form, I’d reach out of the cage and grab the first remote control. I’d use that remote control to send the green Jeep my way. When I got the Jeep, I’d take the remote control out of its cargo and begin activating the sweet red Corvette, which was placed on the floor at the opposite corner of the room of the cage. On the hood of the remote control Corvette would be the keys to the cage. They will be duct-taped to the hood. That baby wasn’t coming off.
It was nearing about forty-five minutes until the full moon was to appear and I decided I would head into my cage. I locked it and put the Jeep’s remote control where it needed to be, and I lay back and just looked at what I had been reduced to. How did this benefit me in any way, shape, or form? Being a werewolf felt like more and more of a curse each time, and seeing what it took for me to just change my location was enough to question anybody’s sanity.
I closed my eyes and, for the first time in days, I felt Maya’s presence. It was so strong, so comforting. I lay back in the euphoria that was Maya when, suddenly, I heard her voice. “Tommy?”
I opened my eyes and Maya was looking at me. She was outside the cage. Why would she do that?
“Tommy?” she repeated. “I can’t believe you did all of this alone.”
“It wasn’t like I could ask Josiah to help,” I said, smiling at Maya. She looked so beautiful. She was once again wearing a white gown and she was breathtaking. Her beauty was enough to make me feel dizzy.
“Do you think your little remote control car plan will work?” Maya asked. “I was wondering what you were thinking at first, and then I thought it was pretty genius.”
“I think it will work,” I said. “You know better than anyone how smart I am when I’m a werewolf. Can I figure out how to get the key in my werewolf form?” I asked Maya.
Maya laughed. “Your big fat paws won’t be able to hold the remote control, let alone control it. You did good. A simple plan.”
“I thought you said it was genius.”
“It is simple and genius. Like gravity.”
“Like gravity?” I laughed out loud.
“I was never good at metaphors or comparisons.” Maya smiled at me.
I looked at Maya and we shared a moment like the way we used to when she was alive. “Can you come in the cage?” I asked. “So I can be closer to you?”
“I think it might be a good idea if I stay out here today,” Maya answered.
“Why? Did you get in trouble last time?” I was referring to the fact that somehow I was certain we had touched. I felt it. It was her entire body touching mine. I knew she had to have felt it also.
“Why would I be in trouble?” Maya asked, playing ignorant.
“You know why,” I said.
Maya turned her head, and looked out the window. The room’s window was to the left where I was standing. “The moon will be out in less than twenty minutes,” Maya eventually said.
“Yep,” I said.
“You came up with a good idea here.” Maya was referring to the remote control car idea again.
“Why won’t you answer the question?” I asked. “Did you feel my body in the same way I felt yours? Please tell me. I need to know that it was mutual.”
Maya stared at me through the bars of my gate. “Tommy, my sweet Tommy. I don’t know what we’re going to do. If we allow ourselves to break the basic rules that separate our two worlds, I have no idea how my superiors would come down on me.”
“So, no one knows it happened?” I asked Maya, surprised.
“No. That is a good thing. This whole matter of touching is something that I am certain we should not test. So, for this meeting, I choose to stay out here. I can see you just fine. You can see me.”
Maya’s world was something I couldn’t pretend to understand. I guess I was being greedy.
How many people were able to see their lost love? I needed to remind myself of the reality of what was actually happening. My very dead fiancée was revealing herself to me as my guardian angel. That should be enough.
At the present moment, I was in a cage and my dead fiancée in her angel form was right outside the cage because she was afraid we might touch again.
“Maya,” I said. “I’m wondering about a lot of things in my life lately.”
“You are?”
“Yes. The whole immortal werewolf thing. Aside from not aging and not being able to die a human’s death, I’m not exactly sure what good it does for me. I’m feeling it has started to become a hindrance more than something that will benefit me in the long run.”
“Be patient with all things, Tommy. Like I told you before, none of us know what is over the horizon. You might be surprised at the kind of power you might have.”
“Do you know something?” I asked Maya.
“All I know is my superiors are breaking tons of rules allowing us to see each other as much as we do. At first, it was because I thought they were all romantics and they knew how in love we are.” Maya stopped talking and was quiet.
“But now you think it has a higher purpose than that?” I asked plainly.
Maya nodded her head.
“Who the fuck am I?” I said to Maya, straight up. “I don’t want some higher calling. I just want to live and let live.”
“None of us choose, Tommy. If I had a choice, I would be very much alive and very much your wife.”
I wanted to say more, but I bit my tongue. Maya had paid the ultimate price. Here I was bitching about having to make preparations so I didn’t go on the loose when I turned all werewolfy.
I heard there was some group of humans whose sole purpose was to find loose werewolves and kill them on sight. The elite Tandra werewolf fighters were actually a group of bounty hunters who were hired by the elite Carni on the down low. The bounty hunters knew if they killed actual Carni, a Carni’s body would disappear and there would be no evidence of anything. And if anybody said anything, the paid Tandra switched the conversation from wolves to Bigfoot real fast. People were much more apt to believe in Bigfoot than a world where werewolves and vampires existed.