Silverweed: a supernatural fairy tale

by Vann, Dorlana

  “She’s wearing a dress,” Scarlet offered. “Are you sure she’s not going to wake up and attack us, again?”

  “Why are we putting it in Granny’s bed?” Aiden asked. “Shouldn’t we be throwing it outside and locking the doors? How’d it get in here, anyway?”

  “Just help me,” Diesel said through clenched teeth.

  Aiden eyed the monster, clearly more afraid of touching the thing than of Diesel. “Maybe we should make sure its dead or call animal control or something.”

  Diesel breathed unsteadily, and his eyes darted from Scarlet to Aiden, and then stopped on the monster. He wiped his forehead, smearing blood that had dripped from his scalp. In a low voice said, “It’s Granny. Apparently it’s true. I saw the full moon. She’s a Lycanthrope. Werewolf.”

  Scarlet’s heart, which had finally found its normal rhythm, started beating frantically, matching her sudden anger. “Oh, you’ve got to be… You have really gone off the deep end, Diesel. You’ve gone freaking insane! Come on! You know as well as I do that this thing here, werewolf or whatever, isn’t your granny. Even though it probably did kill her.” She looked around for any hint of her. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or not by the fact that she didn’t see any massive amounts of blood or… body parts.

  Aiden walked a little closer to the werewolf. “Weird, it does look like the same nightgown Granny had on earlier. If it did kill her, why would it put on her nightgown. Just weird.”

  “Come on, dude!” Scarlet said. “Not you, too! There’s another explanation. There’s not even such a thing as werewolves.”

  “Then what is it? Aiden asked.

  Scarlet had known Diesel and his family to come up with some wild things in the last year, however, this way beyond insane. Beyond comprehension. Beyond their silly superstitions. “Wait a minute, Diesel. Did your granny call you? Is that what happened? She called you to come here, didn’t she? I bet she’s hiding. This thing here on the floor is just a man dressed up to look like this,” she said, even though she didn’t buy it herself. “She’s playing you… somehow. Can’t you see that?” The anger had begun to build up in her chest and burned through her throat. “I can’t believe this! She’s playing you, and you’re falling for it.”

  Diesel didn’t say anything. He stood hunched with his head bowed.

  Scarlet walked to the closet, opened the door, and searched behind the gowns and housecoats. “Come on out, you old bat! I know you’re hiding in here somewhere.” She went inside Granny’s bathroom that smelled of menthol. When she walked out, the two boys merely watched her without stopping her or helping her search. “She’s somewhere,” Scarlet said.

  Diesel said, “Aiden, help me get Granny back into bed.”

  “No, Aiden. Don’t play their games. Believe me, it never ends. The superstitions, the ridiculous omens, and stupidity—”

  “That’s enough,” Diesel said. “Why don’t you go downstairs and wait for me.”

  “No!” She crossed her arms.

  “Then, shut up.”

  He would pay dearly for that comment. However, for that second, she did as he said.

  “Grab her feet, and I’ll get her arms.”

  “What if she wakes up?” Aiden asked.

  Diesel stood over the werewolf, his dark eyebrows drawn together. “I hit her with two darts. She’s out.” He pulled the darts out of the fur and shook its shoulder. Diesel stopped, tilted his head, and stared at the werewolf for a second before he put his ear up to its face, checking for breathing, and then put his hand on its neck, checking for a pulse. He stood up abruptly.

  “Is it dead?” Scarlet asked, trying to ignore the tears that seeped down Diesel’s cheeks.

  Aiden took a step forward and stared down at the werewolf. “Are you sure?”

  “You can check for yourself.”

  Aiden shook his head and stepped back again.

  Diesel turned around, his back to them, twitching and shaking.

  “Are you crying?” Scarlet asked, appalled. “What the—”

  Diesel turned and roared at Scarlet, “Shut up! Just shut up! This is your fault. If you had left it alone—left me alone…”

  Scarlet opened her mouth to protest, but then Diesel snapped his attention to Aiden. “And you,” he said through his teeth. “All I asked was for you to give her the muffins. Where’s your mom, my dear aunt who didn’t even bother to show up for her sister’s funeral?”

  “My dad—”

  “Doesn’t matter.” Diesel glanced at the werewolf, his shoulders moved upward, and he put his hand on his stomach before quickly looking away. “I used two darts. Mom said one… I panicked and used two.” He doubled completely over and dropped to his knees. “I killed her… I killed her. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…” He cried into his hands.

  Scarlet scratched her head. Now what was she going to do? If they didn’t leave soon, she would never get out of there. Driving there had been difficult; the roads were getting slick. She decided not to mention this to Diesel. It would just give him another reason to not go.

  She slid over to Aiden, grabbed his wrist, and pulled him to the corner. He smelled of fear and adrenaline. She whispered, “Obviously, he’s lost it. Look, I need your help. I need you to tell him that you’ll take care of it. When we are on our way, I’ll make the calls for you to the police, fire department, animal control, whoever you want. I’ve got to get him out of here. Understand? This will be best for all of us. That monster’s dead, so it won’t hurt you.”

  Aiden scowled, and she continued, “This is your fault, so you can help fix it. Just, just hold the dart gun on it until the cops get here. I’ll tell them that Granny is missing, too.”

  “I… You’re not going to leave me here by myself.”

  “Look, we saved your ass, so you owe us. That thing would have ripped you apart if we hadn’t come back.”

  Aiden fidgeted with his blue t-shirt, the armpits soaked with fear, and finally crossed his arms. “I don’t live here. I don’t know anything about this. I barely know them.”

  “I understand that you’re scared.” Scarlet spoke slowly, directly, and didn’t let go of his stare. She had to stay calm so she could convince him. “We’re all scared, but Diesel… he’s freaking flipping out. You understand? I don’t know what he’ll do. You know he blames you. He has a dart gun, and he killed that thing. Don’t you think that it would be best if I got him away from here, away from you? He thinks that’s his grandma! He thinks you made him kill his precious granny.”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Aiden said firmly.

  “He thinks you did. You don’t know him. He’s mean.”

  “Scarlet, what are you doing?” Diesel asked, his voice rough.

  She turned toward him quickly. He was standing back up now. “Are you all right? I think it would be best if we go on to the airport now.”

  “No, I’m not—”

  She put her hand up. “Just listen, please. Aiden said that he would stay here and take care of everything.”

  “I did not,” Aiden said in a low yet firm voice from behind her.

  “I think it would be best if you’re not here when the police get here,” Scarlet said. “I mean, you did shoot and kill…” She put her hand out, gesturing toward the werewolf, and cleared her throat. “…your granny.”

  “Stop it,” Diesel said. “I know you don’t believe me.”

  “I do, and Aiden does, and we want what’s best for you and for her.” She took a step toward him. “We still have enough time to catch the flight if we leave now.”

  “No one is leaving,” Diesel said calmly, his face clear of tears. He bent down beside the werewolf. To Aiden he said, “Now grab her feet.”

  Without hesitation Aiden stepped up, and together they managed to pick it up and place it on the bed.

  Aiden wiped his hands on his pants. “Now what happens?”

  “We wait,” Diesel said.

  “No! Diesel…” Scarlet squeezed her eyes
together, trying to keep the weak tears away. “This is stupid. There’s no reason to wait. It’s dead. We’re going to miss our flight! Please, don’t do this to me. I swear I’ll leave without you.”

  “No one is leaving.”

  She quickly turned away to wipe the tear that had defiantly escaped.

  “Scarlet,” Diesel said. “I can’t go. Not yet. I have to see for myself. ”

  She felt his warmth behind her, the room’s temperature suddenly apparent. He petted her hair. “Please,” he said. “One hour… and if she doesn’t change back… if it doesn’t happen like my mom said, we’ll talk about calling the cops, and we’ll get out of here, and I’ll never look back. I promise.”

  Scarlet winced away from his touch. Diesel picked up on the hint and gave her some space. She looked at her watch and saw that their flight left in less than two hours. If they waited the hour, they would miss the flight. She also knew that leaving at that moment would be useless. Diesel would be a brooding mess and forever blame her for not staying, for not believing, and she’d have no proof that he was wrong. If she stayed for the hour, he would have to face reality, and they could leave without regrets. She turned around. “Fine,” she said. “One hour. Then we go to the airport and stay until the next flight to anywhere but here.”

  Chapter 8

  Little Red Drifted From The Path

  Aiden sat on the floor with his back against the wall and struggled to analyze the bizarre events and the might-as-well-be stranger who had told him the creature in the bed wearing his granny’s nightgown was actually his grandmother, who happened to be a werewolf. Diesel… malevolent and rough, with his slick, dark hair and intense eyes, reminded Aiden of a Greaser, one of the characters straight out of that book he’d had to read in school, The Outsiders. Pure thug.

  Aiden had already had Scarlet’s number, even before she tried to manipulate him. She was intelligent, conniving, and hot… which made her very dangerous.

  And thinking about dangerous, he returned his awareness to the werewolf in the bed. Aiden scooted up the wall. Something about it seemed different.

  “What is it?” Scarlet asked.

  Aiden heard her and Diesel stir but stayed focused on the werewolf and took a step closer. The hair on the beast seemed be getting thinner… and thinner. The nose grew shorter, the teeth less protruding, and the ears smaller. The long hands and claws reduced in size, leaving wrinkled, tiny, nail-less fingers.

  They all dared a step closer, meeting at the bed. But then the werewolf began to shake wildly as it shrank in length and mass. They all took a step back. A long tongue leaped from its open mouth and then sank back.

  Aiden couldn’t stop watching. Even though fear told him to run, his feet stayed planted. His thoughts dissolved; he could only see the werewolf, which was obviously transforming into a human. The reasons as to why this could not be possible had left him.

  When it stopped moving, all the final changes happened at once. The body fur vanished. His granny almost looked herself again, except for being completely bald. It didn’t take long before her gray hair began to grow, seemingly one by one, out of her skull, followed by her eyebrows. Small, clean nails appeared at the tips of the fingers.

  The room silently spun. Aiden didn’t want to see the expression on Diesel or Scarlet’s face; it would only prove that what he thought had happened, really happened.

  He didn’t remember walking out of the room, going into the hallway, down the stairway to the foyer, and into the guestroom, but there he stood, his chest heaving in and out with panicked and labored breaths. I must have run. He had no idea how long he had stood there staring at nothing before he eventually came to his senses, the dizziness, lightheadedness, and pain causing him to shake his head and sit down.

  He needed something he knew was real; he needed to talk to Summer. He needed to hear her voice, even if she hung up as soon as she heard his. He grabbed his phone out of his jacket pocket and selected her name. Nothing happened. “Ahhhh!” He had forgotten to charge it. He rummaged through his bag looking for his charger. Once he had it, he plugged it in the wall outlet with increasingly shaky hands. No signal. “No!”

  What do I do? What do I do? “House phone.” He set his phone down on the bed, and he ran to the living room. He spotted a little, white cordless phone on a small corner table by the French doors. He walked the length of the room in a daze and picked it up from the charger… nothing.

  “It happens all the time,” he heard Diesel say. “First real snow, everything goes.”

  Aiden turned his head slightly to the right to see Diesel at the hearth, lighting a match and putting it inside the fireplace. It lit up—hoosh—like magic.

  “So I’m guessing you don’t have any service on your cell, either?”

  “We’re lucky we still have electric.”

  “So how long before the phones are back up?”

  “We’re not exactly top priority way out here.” Diesel blew into his hands and then held them in front of the fire.

  Aiden noticed how cold it actually was and figured it must have been his adrenalin keeping him warm. This made him think about how, just a few minutes ago, he had thought he was going to die. If Diesel hadn’t shown up… Scarlet had been right about that. No matter what he thought about his cousin, he had saved his life.

  “Thanks, man,” Aiden said to Diesel’s back.

  After a moment, Diesel said, “For what? Killing Gran?”

  “I didn’t mean it that way. I just meant, I think she would have killed me. So just thanks for saving my life.”

  Diesel kept his attention on the fire. Aiden turned away, trying to think of what to do next when he saw the snow outside through the French door. He cupped his hands on the cold glass to peer out into the yard. For a second, he allowed himself to become lost in the fiercely falling whiteness, but the blackness of the evening clouded any would-be joy. He sat down in the recliner, still staring out into the night. “What are we going to do? I mean, she’s up there, and we can’t call for help. Maybe we should go find help or take her somewhere.”

  Diesel turned toward Aiden. “Let’s get one thing straight,” he said evenly. “I didn’t come back for you.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Diesel looked him up and down and then asked, “Do you need any bandages?”

  Aiden let the stinging of the scrapes on his face and neck and arms come into focus. A flush of fear suddenly raced from the pit of his stomach to his face. If werewolves truly exist, then the legends about them are also true. He felt about his body nervously for a second, forcing himself to recount the attack again. “No,” he whispered, greatly relieved, “she didn’t bite me.” He looked at Diesel. “That’s how it happens, right? I mean, that’s how it is in movies and books. They have to bite you in order for you to turn into one. Right?”

  Diesel stared at him, his eyes mere slits and his face sullen. He licked his lips. “I don’t—”

  The front door slammed, and Aiden heard loud footsteps in the foyer, followed by Scarlet shouting out curse words. As she walked into the living room, he noticed she was also crying.

  “I can’t believe this,” Scarlet screamed. “I’m stuck in this crazy place!” Snow covered her hair and red scarf. “I can’t believe this! I was such a stupid-ass to follow you back here!” She stomped over to Diesel and slapped him across the face.

  “Whoa.” Aiden winced.

  Diesel caught the next slap midair. They stood, eyes locked, for a moment.

  “I can’t get out of the driveway,” she sneered and jerked her arm away.

  “What?” Aiden thought he had whispered until Scarlet whipped around, an ugly snarl on her face, and said, “You heard me.”

  She started unwrapping the scarf with a vengeance, snow flying everywhere. “My car can’t make it up the freaking hill!”

  It felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. Aiden inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to regain enough control to talk. “The
re has to be some way. What are we going to do?”

  “Start pushing,” Scarlet said.

  Aiden looked at Diesel for him to confirm the plan. It sounded as good as any.

  Diesel slightly shook his head. “No one is going back out there tonight.”

  Scarlet plopped on the couch and started tugging at her boots, and Diesel turned back toward the fireplace.

  “Wait a minute.” Aiden stood up. “We really need to call someone about her, about Granny. Scarlet, does your phone work ?”

  “I accidently left it at home.”

  “A neighbor?”

  “Not for miles.”

  “Shouldn’t we at least try?” Aiden asked as he walked toward Diesel, stopping at a safe distance.

  Diesel slowly turned his head so that Aiden saw his profile. “It would be ridiculous to go out in this storm at night. Enough people have died. And cousin, even if we had a phone, no one is going to drive all the way out here in this storm. Besides… there’s nothing anyone can do for her now, except to make sure she has a safe passage. I covered her and cracked the window. She’ll be fine until morning.”

  “So that’s it?” Aiden glanced at Scarlet. She shrugged her shoulders.

  He could hear the howl of the wind outside behind him. He figured it couldn’t be any worse than a Texas thunderstorm: hail, tornado warnings, high winds, and flash floods. By the morning, despite the ground being a little wet, the sun would shine and the birds would sing.

  Until morning. Waiting for daylight did seem to be a reasonable decision. He looked upstairs, over the banister, at Granny’s bedroom door. He doubted he would be getting any sleep, but at least he could charge his phone just in case the signal got better.

  However, exactly like in a Texas thunderstorm, the lights flickered and then went out.

  Chapter 9

  The Wolf Knocked At The Door

  Sunday: Morning

  They had fallen asleep in the living room next to the fire, listening to the little AM radio. When Scarlet woke up, static had replaced the DJ’s voice, the candles were cold, and the fire was a mere smoldering pile of ash. The smell of breakfast food filled the room, and, except for the quilt, the chair Aiden had slept in was empty. She carefully removed the comforter and Diesel’s arm from her waist before crawling off the couch.