She Howled, They Came

by Gabrielle Demonico

Tina resisted as he started to pull her.

  “Jericho, stop!” She said as she turned her attention to Chuck. “There’s nothing to tell… Jericho and I were having an argument… that’s all. Not everyone’s sibling relationships are as close to perfect as the two of you… unfortunately.”

  “Bullshit… Don’t try and turn this around on me, Tina,” Chuck warned as he inserted himself between them and the first few stairs. “And just so we’re clear… you aren’t going anywhere. Not yet.”

  “Chuck… what is going on here, man?” Max asked.

  Chuck motioned for his brother to stand next to him.

  “What’s the deal, bro?” Max asked he moved closer.

  Without a word Chuck pointed towards Max’s arm. The long scars stood in jagged relief under the dim light overhead. They seemed longer than Tina remembered the first time she saw them at Giovanni’s. The violence that caused them made her wonder how any one person could have survived the attack, let alone the two of them.

  “You wanna tell me what you know about this?” Chuck said as he looked at Jericho.

  Tina felt the blood rush from her head as she looked at her brother.

  “My scar?” Max asked.

  “Yeah,” Chuck said as he glared at Jericho. “And not just yours… mine as well.”

  “What?” Max said. “How would he know anything about them? We didn’t tell her how we got them.”

  “I know,” Chuck replied. His eyes never left Jericho. “Yet he seems to know quite a bit.”

  “Huh?” Max said as he looked at Chuck. “You aren’t making any sense.”

  “Look,” Jericho replied. “It’s in your best interest to let us go.”

  “What do you mean?” Chuck said as he stepped closer. “You mean like the night your kind let all of us go at the base?”

  “What!” Max yelled. “They are… like those… creatures? You can’t be serious!”

  “Oh, I am,” Chuck nodded.

  “Do you have any idea,” Max stammered as he stared at Tina. “… the horror of what we lived through that night?!”

  “Max,” Tina begged. “Please.”

  “Well, do you? Answer me, goddamnit!” he yelled.

  “No!” she screamed as she moved behind her brother. “I don’t. I wasn’t there!”

  “No, you weren’t,” Chuck said. “But your kind… was.”

  Jericho’s fingers closed in tight by his sides. “That’s the second time you said that… her kind? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

  “You know exactly what he means, asshole,” Max replied. “Wolfman… whatever the fuck you are. Look at our scars… we were the only ones that made it out of there alive. Marked for life!”

  Fed up, Max brandished a pistol from behind his back and aimed at Jericho’s forehead.

  “I should have known,” Max said as he pointed the gun at Tina’s brother. “I didn’t trust you from the moment I laid eyes on you.”

  “Fuck you, Max,” Jericho replied.

  Max lurched towards him but Chuck stretched his arm across Max’s chest at the last instant.

  “No,” Chuck said as he looked at him. “Not yet.”

  “And now it’s clear who’s got the brains in the family,” Jericho said.

  “You fuck!” Max said as he made another attempt to get at Jericho.

  “Max!” Chuck yelled as he pushed his brother back. “Fuck, man… wait. Just wait for a second.”

  Chuck exhaled and looked at Tina.

  “Tina,” Chuck began. “Max and I… we trusted you, respected you. How could you… lie to us like this?”

  “I didn’t know anything about it… I swear.” Tina replied right away. “Please, you have to believe that. I would never do anything to hurt either one of you.”

  Chuck bit his lip. For several seconds, he remained silent.

  “I heard something else… when I was at the top of the stairs,” he continued. “Jericho… you called us a name… you said we were ‘dormants’. Now, you either tell us what that means or so help me, Max will empty that cartridge in your skull.”

  “It’s simple, really,” Jericho said. He gestured back and forth between himself and Tina. “You… both of you… are just like us. You should consider yourselves fortunate.”

  “What!” Max exclaimed. “How is being whatever it is you are… fortunate?”

  “Hey!” Jericho snapped. “I didn’t do it to you. I wasn’t there. We tracked down those responsible and took care of them. Now you can choose to believe me or not but that doesn’t change the facts. Neither Tina or I had anything to do with what happened.”

  Max lowered his weapon.

  “So now what?” Chuck asked. “What happens to us? Do we start howling at the moon and running through the forest?”

  Jericho scoffed.

  “No, you jackass… you watch too many movies. It’s nothing like that at all. Right now, you’ve got a genetic mutation but it’s not active. There’s zero risk to you to ever fully become one of us unless…”

  “Unless what!” Max yelled, his impatience now tinder dry and ready to explode. “Get to it!”

  Jericho glared back at him. Wordless, he shifted his focus towards Tina.

  Chuck shook his head. “Tina? What does she have to do with it?”

  “Any contact with a female wolf will trigger the mutation.”

  “What does that mean?” Chuck asked. “Are you talking about sex or even something as simple as a kiss?”

  “Yes,” Jericho replied. “Even a kiss.”

  Tina cast frantic glances between Chuck and Max as they stood in silence and contemplated the meaning of Jericho’s words.

  “Did you do anything with her?” Chuck asked as he looked at Max.

  “No,” he replied. “You?”

  Chuck shook his head. After a few seconds, he stood to one side, clear of the stairs and gestured for Jericho and Tina to go.

  “Why, Tina?” Max said. “Why did you do this? You should never have kept it a secret.”

  Chuck nodded. “Max is right. All you had to do was tell us.”

  “When? How?” Tina said. “How the hell am I supposed to tell you something like that? I mean, look at how you are reacting now. I’m telling you the truth now… we both are… and you’re throwing me out!”

  “That’s because you have no choice in the matter, Tina,” Chuck said. “There’s a difference between telling the truth when it’s right and when it’s convenient.”

  Tina choked back tears as she looked at them.

  “Please… I know it’s probably impossible to understand. I hate that I am what I am. All I ask is that you don’t hate me as well.”

  Chuck looked away from her and stood in silence for a moment before he replied.

  “Don’t ever come near our gym… our dog… or anything else having to do with us again,” he said, as he looked away from her. “Just go.”

  A lone tear spilled from her right eye and ran down towards her mouth. She wiped the salted streak across her lips. Just then, Jericho put his arm around his sister to lead her away.

  Tina thrashed at him.

  “Get off of me!” she screamed. “I hate you, Jericho! You couldn’t just leave me alone. All I wanted was to be free of my past. I don’t want to be part of the pack anymore! I don’t care if they come and kill me! Fuck the enforcers! Let them come!”

  She jerked free of him and ran up the stairs.

  “Tina!” Jericho yelled as he gave chase. As she reached the top of the stairs, she turned to run back in the direction of her car. From behind, she heard Jericho’s heavy footsteps as he gained on her.

  “Tina, wait!”

  A few seconds later, she slowed. There was no chance she’d outrun him in her human form and shifting was well, out of the question.

  “Tina,” he gasped as he caught up to her.

  Jericho pulled her to him and as he did, she shoved against his sternum and punched at his upper body with haphazard strikes.
/>   “Don’t,” she sobbed. “I just want to be left alone… please Jericho… please.”

  Her brother absorbed her physical blows and her grief. He held her close as she wept under the hazy orange glow of the street lights and the semi-transparent white cover of a vengeful moon.

  ***

  Days passed.

  It might have been a week… or two.

  At this point, Tina didn’t care to figure it out.

  Monotony dominated her existence. In the span of one awful evening, all the momentum drained from her outlook on her life. Gone was the optimism for all things new and the adventures she imagined for herself.

  She couldn’t work out, or even go to the gym, and to try to explain the reasons behind it to Allison was all but impossible. So, she avoided her friend’s calls and instead filled all her time with work. Tina took extra shifts, worked weekends and did almost anything she could do to not have to think about the last time she spoke to Chuck and Max.

  As unrealistic as any sort of romance might be with either of the brothers for obvious reasons, she’d enjoyed the time she spent with them. And up until the night of the party, their actions led Tina to believe that they felt the same towards her.

  If nothing else, the isolation… and loneliness… just brought the state of her life into sharp relief. She wasn’t a part of the human world but neither did she belong to her wolf heritage any longer. But, much more so than the former, the latter clung to her like a psychic anchor and dragged her down with each day that passed.

  To his credit, Jericho gave her space… and time… to think.

  Yet the threat of enforcers was all too real and like it or not, time was not on her side. The longer she stayed in one place, the easier it would be for them to find her and deliver their swift “justice”. There were plenty of times, dark minutes of regret, when Tina wished they would show up and do whatever they’d been sent to do.

  And as if all that wasn’t enough, Bosco was due for his follow up visit with Doctor Hurley that afternoon. As the time for their appointment neared, Tina alternated between flicking her fingernails, tapping a pen on the desk and checking the clock on the wall about three or four times a minute.

  “Tina,” her supervisor, Bianca said. “Would you please stop fidgeting? What’s the matter with you, anyway?”

  “What?” Tina asked. As she turned towards her boss, the pen slipped from her finger, shot across the desk and right into Bianca’s styrofoam coffee cup. The impact was enough to send the cup into a spiral. Before she could react, Bianca recoiled as the hot black liquid emptied from the cup and streamed in all directions.

  “Tina!” Bianca said as she tried to get clear of the coffee.

  “Oh!” Tina said. She jumped to her feet. “Oh, I’m so sorry! Wait, let me get something to clean it up.”

  After a brief trip to the kitchen to get some paper towels, Tina spent the next several minutes mopping up the remnants of the accident. Some of the coffee spilled on Bianca’s clothing as well, so she’d gone to restroom and tried to remove it.

  It was just about that time when both brothers appeared through the front door of the clinic. Unable to sneak away and brush her teeth in the wake of the coffee spill, she slipped a stick of gum in her mouth. She turned her head to the side as a horrid mix of tuna fish salad from lunch and cinnamon blended together on her tongue.

  She recovered soon enough though and after a quick check of her makeup in a pair of chrome scissors, she peered up over the edge of the desk. Side-by-side, Chuck and Max shared the burden of toting the dog’s kennel as they twisted their way through the entrance. To the brothers’ right, a small Chihuahua in an elderly woman’s arms caught a glimpse of Bosco through the kennel and barked in protest.

  “Hi there, Bosco,” Tina said, as she stood up from behind the desk and peered into the crate. In an effort to keep the focus where it belonged, she continued, “How have you been doing sweetie?”

  Chuck cleared his throat.

  “He’s doing great… getting stronger every day… I’m sure Doctor Hurley will be pleased.”

  Max smiled as he listened to his brother, but didn’t speak.

  Still avoiding direct eye contact, Tina reached down and grabbed Bosco’s file off the desk. Her tongue flicked out and moistened the tips of her thumb and forefinger as she began to leaf through the paperwork. Out of the corner of her eye, Tina saw Bianca return from the restroom.

  Without glancing back towards them, Tina said, “If you’ll have a seat, someone will be right up to take you back to the examination room.”

  Tina sensed Max lean over the front desk.

  “Can you do it?” he asked. “We’re kind of in a hurry.”

  “Sir,” Bianca interrupted. “Please have a seat. It will only be a moment.”

  “Hey,” Max snapped. “Was I talking to you, lady?”

  Bianca’s eyebrows arched upward in disbelief.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Um,” Tina said as she turned towards her boss. “I can do it… It’s fine.”

  Bianca pursed her lips and shook her head as she typed on her keyboard. Tina took her lack of a response as tacit approval. Tina stood, straightened and smoothed her scrubs walked around the front of the desk.

  “Follow me,” she said to the brothers.

  The three of them made their way down the hall, Chuck spoke up from behind. “So, you’re not talking to us?”

  Tina lowered her eyes but instead of response, she focused her attention on the door to the examination room.

  “Seems like a ‘no’,” Max said.

  A few seconds later, she wrapped her fingers around the smooth, cool brass knob and twisted it open. Tina gestured for them to enter and after they did, she remained in the doorway.

  “Doctor Hurley will be right with you,” she said.

  She began to pull the door closed but as she did, Max blurted out, “Really? You have nothing to say?”

  Tina placed Bosco’s paperwork into a wall mounted file holder and looked at them.

  “No,” she replied as she pulled the door closed.

  About fifteen minutes later, Doctor Hurley appeared from the back and approached Tina at the front desk.

  “Tina,” he said as he approached. “Here’s the file on Bosco. I’ve decided on another round of antibiotics. Can you have that filled and return it to the examination room?”

  Tina’s eyes scanned her immediate surroundings in hopes she’d find a substitute to deliver the meds for her. Before long, Doctor Hurley would be on vacation, so the office brimmed with last minute appointments. Because of that, the staff was stretched thin. Everyone had something to do.

  “Tina?” he said. “Did you hear me?”

  “Y… Yes, sir,” she replied. “I’m so swamped up here right now. Do you mind if I send another intern in the back to do it?”

  Doctor Hurley clicked his pen closed and slipped it into the pocket of his coat.

  “Me?” he shrugged. “I don’t mind… no.”

  Tina smiled and turned away from him.

  “But, it seems as though Bosco’s owners do. They’ve asked for you.”

  “Oh,” she said.

  “All right, so you’ve got that handled then?” he asked.

  “Yes, I do,” she said.

  Tina tucked Bosco’s paperwork under her arm and made her way to the lab to get the prescription. As it was being filled, she ducked into the ladies room. Tina tugged at a handful of paper towels and then ran them under a stream of cool water. She stood over the sink and dabbed at her cheeks and forehead. The temperature of the towel on her face settled her nerves a little.

  She couldn’t understand why they were so interested in talking to her. What could they want? After all, they told her to drop dead in so many words and now… this? She grabbed the handle, turned the water on and ran the towel underneath once more.

  It was time to find out.

  ***

  Tina entered the examination room wit
h the prescription in one hand and Bosco’s paperwork tucked under the other. As she came in, Chuck and Max stood from their chairs. She stopped in the doorway as their eyes met. It was her first good look at them that day and almost right away, she regretted it. They stood within a foot of one another, twin specimens of the male ideal. She looked away and made a half-hearted attempt to mention something about the medication when everything slipped from her hands and fell to the floor.

  “Damn!” she said as knelt down to pick it up. Her hands scraped around on the tacky flooring as she tried to gather up her mess. Chuck and Max walked over towards her.

  When they closed to within a foot or so, she glanced up at them.

  “No,” she said. “Please.”

  The men stopped.

  “Tina,” Chuck said as he looked down at her. “What’s the problem?”

  “Yeah,” Max added. “Why don’t you want to talk to us?”

  “Uh!” Tina said in a loud whisper. “Why don’t I want to talk to you? Really?”

  Tina clutched her pile of paper and medication in a haphazard bundle, stood and closed the door to the office. For a moment, she looked at them in silence, uncertain of what would come out of her mouth.

  “I don’t understand why…” she began. “The last time you said anything to me you told me I should never come anywhere near you again. As far as I know, I’ve kept up my end of the deal.”

  “Tina,” Max said.

  “No, Max,” she interrupted. “Let me finish.”

  He lifted his hands in the air. “Okay.”

  “I want you to know how sorry I am for what happened to you and the others that night on the military base. You’ve told me how much it affected you and changed you. I can’t even imagine. I’m sure it was awful. But even so, I wasn’t there and neither was my brother. And, up until that moment, I’d never given you any reason to not trust me. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  Both men nodded.

  “Yeah,” Chuck replied.

  “Look you don’t understand,” Tina said as she balanced the papers and meds in her hands. “In many ways, my wolf is the human survival instinct manifested in the most primal way. The trouble comes when it’s used for its own sake. For the power of it alone. Like the betas that attacked you… their wolves were misguided, enraged… a wolf without purpose will descend into depravity without hesitation. Much like a starving man will turn on the soul next to him. A shift carries with it great responsibility. You have to believe me when I tell you that what you experienced that night is not the true nature of a shifter. I know it isn’t mine.”