Walking Wolf Road (Wolf Road Chronicles Book 1)

by Brandon M. Herbert

  I gathered my backpack in my lap and jumped up when the bell finally toned and everybody broke for the door. However, instead of bolting for my locker and out the door, I fought the tide and slipped into the auditorium.

  I wrapped myself in shadows as I snuck down the rows of burgundy-upholstered chairs, and slipped behind the bunched curtain on the far end of the stage from the drama teacher, Mrs. Cartwright’s, office. I waited for her to shut down the lights and leave before I stepped out and looked around. I pulled my wolf into me and my eyes dilated; milking every last bit of green light from the emergency exit signs.

  “Corwin?” I asked the green-tinted darkness, but only the room’s reverb answered. “Corwin…?” I tried again. This time after a few moments delay I felt a slight shiver and a chilled tendril of air in the already cool room.

  “J-Jimmy?” at first the voice was directionless, but then he coalesced from the darkness of the back-stage; half-transparent in the eerie green light.

  “Corwin, you’re… uh…” I faltered, not wanting to commit some sort of otherworldly faux-pas.

  “You can say it, I’m dead,” he muttered and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

  “Yeah, the Ouija board sorta gave it away; I just didn’t want to believe it… So this is what you meant by ‘I’m no longer a part of their world’?”

  “Yeah, I’m not part of the living world. I can almost reach Loki, but either she doesn’t understand, or she doesn’t w-want to.”

  “Then how is it that you can talk to me?”

  He sighed and sat down on the edge of the stage and rubbed the side of his face as he thought. I moved to sit down by him, and then froze when I noticed that I could still see the edge of the stage through his thighs—maybe I’d just stay standing… “That’s just another part of the puzzle isn’t it? There are so many questions surrounding you, it’s impossible to know where to start.”

  “But why? I’m nothing special—”

  “Oh, but you are Jimmy… You were destined for this, probably before you were even born. So many paths were broken and twisted to lead you here; don’t you d-dare write it off as circumstance.”

  I snarled in frustration and paced the stage. What was the big deal; I was just another freak, nothing more than ‘the Pup’ to the Pack. Why was Corwin making such a big deal out of me? When no answers popped out of the ether, I asked one of the questions that’d bothered me instead. “Corwin, why haven’t you passed on? What’s keeping you here?”

  At first he didn’t answer, but then he sighed and hung his head. “There are things I need to say, but the people who need to hear them either ignore me or can’t hear me.”

  “So, ‘Unfinished Business” like you said?”

  “Eh, s-sort of. It’s not something I have to do—but it’s something I’ve needed to do since that last flash of regret when it was already too late. I’m keeping myself here, in the hope that I can atone and salve the wounds I left.”

  “I think, somehow, Fen knows you’re still here. He’s afraid that you’ll… ‘unbecome’ if you stay here too long.”

  He snorted, “Fen thinks it’s his fault I killed myself. The truth is—well, I guess it sorta is his fault, but it’s not his alone.” Ouch. “I’ve tried to reach him in his sleep before, but the dream became a nightmare for him.”

  I was thinking, “So, those dreams—and that raven before Halloween—that was you?”

  “Yeah, I can only manifest my animal form outside of here; I can only appear human near where my body died.”

  “Wait, you mean… you weren’t a wolf?”

  “Nope, that was where it all started to go wrong after Fen bit me.” He trailed off. “I was supposed to be you…”

  What the hell was that supposed to mean?

  “Tell me what happened, tell me everything…” My mind reeled, but something told me that Corwin held the keys to several puzzles.

  He looked away from me, “You m-might not like what you hear.” I raised an eyebrow, and crossed my arms. He sighed and looked around the room. “Loki and I were Freshman, and I met Fen in—” He stopped and he looked quickly to the side.

  I waited for him to continue, “What are—”

  “Shh!” He hissed at me, his eyebrows knotted with concentration. His form faded a little as he stared off through the wall. “Jimmy, you have to go, you have to go now.”

  “What? Why? I finally get to squeeze some damn answers out of you—”

  “I don’t have time to explain, I promise I’ll tell you everything later…”

  “When?”

  “I don’t know, just… l-later!” He jumped up from the stage and glanced to the side again, like he heard something I didn’t, “Shit, just go, you h-have to h-h-hurry!” His stutter got so bad he could barely speak. He moved as if to push me, but all I felt was a wash of cold air.

  I scowled and swung my backpack onto my shoulder, then huffed up the aisle and out the door, glancing behind to see an empty stage before the door closed.

  I stopped at my locker to grab my coat and growled softly as I slammed the door. I turned toward the exit, and heard Corwin’s voice, faint and directionless. “N-no—l-library…” his voice faded in and out, like bad reception on a radio.

  I turned on the ball of my foot and headed for the exit near the library. I grumbled and didn’t even look up as I slipped my coat on under my backpack and shoved the bar on the door, the cold air rushed around me.

  I heard a sound and raised my eyes, but it took me a moment to realize what I was seeing. Two sets of eyes glared at me, one pair looked with fear and hope. Jack and Malcolm dominated the small cowering form that uncovered its tear-streaked face and cried my name.

  “Oh, so you know this freak, eh half-pint?” Jack grabbed Jacob by the collar of his coat and lifted him off his feet. My little brother bawled with fear, struggling and kicking.

  “Put him down now!” I yelled and my blood pounded in my temples as I walked toward them. My wolf snarled within me as my skin crawled, every instinct screaming to protect Jacob.

  “Or else what faggot? You gonna be the big man and ‘beat us up’?” Jack mocked, sounding just like his father. My eyes were locked on Jacob’s, and his on mine, pleading. I felt so weak, terrified that I couldn’t protect my brother.

  Malcolm grabbed my shoulder to keep me from getting any closer. “You put my brother down… right now… whatever issues you have with me… stay with me…” I couldn’t remember how to speak; my brain stopped working in words as my wolf smashed against the invisible wall inside me.

  “Oh, so this is your little brother? Coulda fooled me, guess your mamma fucked the mailman huh? How sweet, is big brother gonna save you?” Then Jack head-butted Jacob’s face, splitting his lip and bringing out a scream of agony that pushed my wolf and I over the edge. His little hands quickly covered in blood while Jack laughed.

  Without thought, my backpack swung around and cracked Malcolm in the head with the combined mass of my textbooks. He reeled back and I tackled Jack to the ground. He dropped Jacob and I reached out for him, but Jack grabbed my leg and tripped me. I fell hard, and lost my wind when Malcolm jumped on my back. I tried to claw my way forward, but Jack pulled my arms out from under me and crushed my face into the frigid concrete.

  “Jake, run home! Run!” I screamed.

  “Jesus Jack, why’d you do that to the kid?” Malcolm grunted as he pinned me.

  “Shut up Malcolm!” Jack snapped, and then leaned in close to my ear, “Does that feel good faggot? Yeah, you like that don’t you… It’s payback time you god-damned fudgepacker!” His knuckles collided with my cheek and bounced my skull of the concrete with a dull thunk that sent the world spinning. “You owe me big time for October! You cost me the finals, my scholarship, my girlfriend,” Jack’s knee rammed into my ribs and drove the air from my lungs, “you fucked everything up for me. But there’s no teacher around to save you now; you’ll be lucky if you make it out of this alive.”

&nbs
p; My wide roving eyes landed on Jacob, curled and fetal, holding his face. His tears mixed with blood as they dripped off his chin. My wolf boiled inside me, frustrated with my weakness, he raged against the wall and I felt him bleed through into me.

  The growl began low in my throat, and my lips pulled back from my teeth as I tried to push myself up off the ground.

  “Keep him down!”

  “You ain’t goin’ nowhere asshole!” Malcolm growled as they shoved me back to the ground. My gaze crept from my little brother to Jack’s eyes, and I felt my wolf spill into them as I pushed up again, my breath fogging in the cold air.

  “What the fuck?” Jack grimaced with confusion and fear.

  “I said… you ain’t going… ugh!” Malcolm fought to keep me down, but my wolf was stronger. I lifted both of them with me as I pushed myself up. My growl grew louder and this time it didn’t even faze me when Malcolm punched me again, and again; I was already fading out. Jack’s eyes widened with fear, and a red curtain drew from the edges of my vision until all I could see was crimson, and the sound of screams seemed so very far away…

  The pounding ache in my head registered even before I woke up. I cracked my eyes, and tried to pull the blurry vertical line of the ground into focus. Half my face was on fire; the other half was almost completely numb. I pushed myself up and lifted my hands to the sides of my face, but stopped when I saw they were red… and sticky… A fluttering sound drew my eyes up to the edge of the building, where a large black raven watched me. I nodded at Corwin in response to his eerily human-sounding call, and he faded from sight.

  I looked back down to my hands, and swallowed down bile.

  What did I do…?

  I looked around, and aside from a few splotches of blood and the pool where I was lying; there was no sign anything happened, nothing but my backpack lying about ten feet away. No bodies, no sign of Jack or Malcolm… and no sign of Jacob.

  Where was… oh God! Please let him be home!

  Near shock, I staggered over and grabbed my bag. My vision distorted as I stumbled the familiar route to my house on autopilot. I crashed through the front door and let my bag slide off my shoulder. My mind focused on only one thing.

  “Jacob…” my voice broke, “Jake!”

  “We’re in the kitchen!” Mom yelled.

  I almost fell, and caught myself on the door jamb as I turned toward her voice. I grabbed the doorway as I entered the kitchen to keep myself upright, and despite everything, one thing stood crystal clear. The absolute horror on Jacob’s face as he looked at me and recoiled, my stomach clenched and I thought I would throw up right there on the floor.

  What did I do? Please God, don’t let him hate me; I don’t think I could take that. I could survive losing anybody but him…

  The room blurred, and before I knew it, I was on the floor and my mother’s face swam in my vision. Time distorted, and I felt something warm touch my face. It took me a moment to realize it was a wet washcloth in my mother’s hand, scrubbing something that looked like rust off my face. She spoke in a steady stream, and I couldn’t understand her words at first, but it didn’t matter. Just the sound of her voice was comforting. I looked up and saw Jake, but after meeting my eyes, he jumped down from his chair and ran from the room.

  Sensation slowly returned to the numb side of my face as my mother’s scrubbing woke a fierce burn in my forehead. I gradually recognized her words.

  “—Swelling up pretty good. You’ll probably have a purple cheek for Christmas, and you’ve got a nasty gash on your forehead here…” She prodded the area with her fingers and I winced. Once my words worked again, I managed to croak out a question.

  “Is Jake all right?”

  “He’s pretty shook up, but he wasn’t hurt too bad. He won’t need stitches, but he’ll have a fat lip for a while. Honestly, I’ve seen him do worse than that to himself just being a little boy. I’m just glad they didn’t break his nose…” Her voice was calm, but the purse of her lips betrayed the seething anger she hid.

  “I stayed late, and when I went outside, I saw them picking on him.” I rambled, my mind too scrambled to make much sense. My voice rose in volume as I grew frustrated with myself. “Why was he at the high school anyway?”

  “Shh, settle down Jimmy, don’t be upset with him. He wanted to surprise you. I don’t think you’ll need stitches either, but this cut on your forehead is a doozie. Nothing bleeds like the scalp, it’s no wonder you were covered in blood.” She made me follow her finger and used the little LED flashlight on her keychain to check the dilation in my eyes. I numbly performed her other tests, and finally she sighed and seemed satisfied. “I don’t think you have a concussion. Come on Jimmy, let’s get you to your room…”

  She helped me down the stairs and I laid down on top of my sheets. Dizzying and worrisome thoughts circled in my head like sharks. I wondered what Jacob saw, how much hell Mom and John would rain upon me for letting Jake get hurt, what might have happened with Jack and Malcolm—and what did they see of my wolf?

  Just after I started Middle School, I came home one day and Mom hugged me with a huge smile on her face. We lived in Corona California, a nauseatingly hot and dusty sub-city near L.A., and Mom told me she was going to have a baby. I resented them for it. I felt abandoned all over again; I wasn’t good enough, so they’d given up and wanted to start over. I raged, I sulked, and I made John’s life a living hell when he decided that our home in Corona was too small for a family of four.

  John packed us up and shipped us down to Miami right in the middle of the school year. I prepared myself to hate this child, the spawn of John. The day finally came the next spring, and I went into the maternity ward to see this nearly hairless red potato of an infant in my mother’s arms. I pretended to be happy, and she held it out for me to hold. I took the little bundle into my arms and something strange happened.

  The rage and resentment I’d chosen to feel for this creature washed out of me.

  I couldn’t help but smile as his warm stubby little digits wrapped around my finger in his sleep. My baby brother. I swore to myself that I would protect him. I wouldn’t let him live my life; I would guard him and keep him free of my darkness. In a lot of ways I helped raise him, almost like a third parent. I didn’t have any friends so I spent most of my time looking after him, especially after the accident that scarred my leg.

  As he grew older, he started to idolize me. I realized that if I wanted to protect him from my life; I had to force him away. It killed me to sever that bond, but I had to for his sake.

  I wanted to protect him so badly; I wanted to keep pain away from him…

  Something roused me, and I forced the slits of my eyes open and brought my room into focus. My right eye refused to open wider than a squint. At first the room seemed empty, but then I saw Jacob sitting on my stairs, eyeing me.

  I took a deep breath and forced myself up onto my elbows. A dull ache throbbed down my forehead into my cheekbone, but I forced a crooked smile around the swelling. “Hey…”

  He didn’t respond except for shifting his position and averting his eyes. Acid scorched a line across my heart, and my eyes drifted down and took in the red line on his puffy lip.

  I failed him; I failed him when he needed me most…

  “Are you okay buddy?”

  “Are you evil?”

  “What?” The question took me off guard.

  “He said you’re a demon, and that you’ll… You… You aren’t, are you?”

  “Oh Jake; no I’m not evil. I can’t remember what happened, but whatever I did; I did it to protect you. If that makes me evil, fine. I think they’re evil for what they did to you. Why, do you think I’m evil?” I held my breath, fearing his answer.

  “No, but…”

  “But?”

  “You scared me really bad…”

  Oh God… “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

  “No, but… Your eyes weren’t right.” I let out a mental sigh of relief; s
caring him was bad enough, I would have killed myself right then and there if I’d actually harmed him. “And that bird was scary too…”

  “What bird?”

  “That big black one that came out nowhere while you were fighting them, remember?”

  “No buddy, I don’t remember anything after they pushed me to the ground and I told you to run away. Um, would you mind telling me what happened,” I asked sheepishly, “After I started to get back up?”

  “That was when your eyes went all scary.” He muttered and looked away again, “They sorta changed color and stuff, and it’s like it wasn’t you anymore. You grabbed the shorter one and threw him into the wall.”

  “I what? C’mon Jacob, this isn’t funny.”

  “But you did!” He looked at me, his eyes earnest, “You threw him and he hit the wall, like fwoosh!” he mimed swinging an imaginary opponent. “And he hit the wall and didn’t move, and it was really cool, but really scary too…. You’re not like that, you don’t throw people. You don’t hurt people…”

  I stayed quiet but nodded, hoping he would continue.

  “Then you jumped on the one who hurt me and knocked him over. You growled like a dog and tried to bite him. That was when the bird started attacking you, flapping around your head and stuff. The guy you threw against the wall woke up and they ran off. He yelled that you were a demon, and you were evil, and that hell’s going to swallow you up…” His eyes glistened and he sniffed, “I didn’t know if you were really you or not, and I was afraid that you would hurt me, so I ran home… Jimmy… you… you’re not going to get swallowed up by hell are you?” and he started crying.

  Thank you Corwin, thank you…

  “Oh Jake, come here…” I held out my arms, and for a painful second I thought he wouldn’t come. But he sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve, and then walked over and sat down on the bed next to me. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and flopped back on the bed, taking him with me like I used to when he was a toddler. It hurt my bruised ribs, but I needed to hold him, to know he was okay. We sighed one after the other, while my mind worked and his sniffles subsided.