by H. T. Night
“Yes, I’m Josiah.”
The man walked over to me. “Are you related to Mr. Jensen?”
“I’m pretty much all he has. What’s going on?”
The doctor paused. “I’m sorry. He didn’t make it.”
I’ve been hit hard in my life, but never have I been hit harder than that. All the air left my lungs, and I struggled to find words.
The doctor went on, but his voice reached me as if speaking from a deep well. “Mr. Jensen was pronounced dead ten minutes ago.”
“His name is Tommy. Please call him Tommy.” My voice sounded strange to my ears. Panicked, strained, high-pitched.
“I’m real sorry.”
I took in a lot of air. I could tell I was close to hyperventilating. “But...what happened?” I managed to say.
“He had bite marks all over his body. It appears he was attacked by multiple animals. But that’s for the medical examiner to determine.”
“But this doesn’t make any sense! He was on his way home from a professional fight.” My brain spun. For all, I knew I was spinning, too. I wished like hell that there was something nearby to hold onto. I would have used the doctor, but I didn’t think his frail body could support me. “What kind of animal was it?”
“I have no idea. The bites were deep and unmistakable. The medical examiner will look into it, along with the police.”
“He’s seriously gone? Dead?”
“Yes, I’m sorry.”
“Just like that? One minute he’s full of life kicking ass in the ring, and twelve hours later, he’s…dead?” I wasn’t making sense, and I knew it. Who could make sense at a time like this?
“If you need grief counseling, we can provide you with that—”
“I don’t need grief counseling.”
I fell to my knees. I couldn’t think straight. What I needed was a hospital bed of my own.
Chapter Eighteen
I made my way to a chair in the waiting room. I leaned back my head and couldn’t believe that this happened to me again.
Fuck this!
I got up and stumbled toward the door.
What the hell was going on? Tommy? Dead!
I pushed my way outside and looked up into the morning sun. I dropped to my knees. My heart felt as if it was going to rip from my chest. I needed to get out of here. I went to my truck. But I didn’t trust myself to drive, not right now. So I started running. I ran past cars in the driveway and people walking to their cars. I got to the sidewalk and started sprinting down the street, heading the opposite direction of traffic. The sidewalk soon ended and I was now in the street, running in the direction of approaching cars. I didn’t care. Let them hit me. I didn’t care.
Fuck them. Fuck everything.
I kept running as fast as I could make my body go. Cars swerved around into the next lane. Horns honked everywhere. Tires screeched. And still I ran. Now, a car was coming straight for me. I refused to move over. It screeched to a stop, smoke billowing up around its tires. But I didn’t slow or deviate. Instead, I ran up onto its hood and ignored the shocked expression of the middle-aged driver. I ran over the roof and down the trunk, leaving massive footprints in the sheet metal. I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything.
Eventually, I turned a corner and found myself in a dirt parking lot. Some cars followed me in. I dropped to my knees, sucking air, trying to breathe, trying to die. Whatever came first, I didn’t care.
A guy in a big, black Ford truck got out of his vehicle and began yelling at me. “What the hell were you doing, you stupid asshole!”
I ignored him, hardly saw him. He was just background noise.
Another guy jumped out of a white Mazda. A chubby Asian dude. “You stupid piece of shit...what the hell were you trying to do?”
God, I was in so much pain. I didn’t care if these two guys wanted to kick my ass or not. I was going to let them just have at me. I dropped my chin against my chest. My heart was racing so fast. Finally, I just let out a long, bellowing wail. It was shocking, the level of animalistic grief in that long wail. It was a primal sound, one that I was freaked out came from within me. It woke me up, in a way, and I asked myself where I was running to. Tommy wasn’t out here. He wasn’t anywhere. He was gone.
One of the annoyed guys asked me if I needed help, but I didn’t respond. Eventually, they both got in their vehicles and drove off. From above, I heard the beat of Daphne’s wings and an occasional screechy squawk. I don’t know what it was about that bird, but she was attached to me. The morning sun beat down on my neck. Its heat comforted me.
Eventually, I made it back to my truck and drove home. I opened the door and went straight into Tommy’s room. He kept his room meticulous, just as he did everything else in his life. He still had pictures of himself and my sister on his dresser, even though she had been dead for three years. He had pictures of them at Disneyland and one from her senior prom.
On top of his dresser was a framed picture of Tommy and me. We had our arms around each other after my first MMA fight. I had knocked the guy out in one minute, so Tommy and I were sporting the number one sign. We both seemed so happy. This picture was about a year old, which would have been two years after my family’s accident. Tommy and I knew, without ever talking about it, that we were bonded for life, brothers not of flesh, but of hearts. Now...he was gone. He had gone to heaven. Now I had my pops, mom, sis, and Tommy all looking after me. From above.
I sat on his bed and lay back on his pillow and stared at the ceiling. Up there was a movie poster of Never Back Down. Tommy had eaten, slept, and lived mixed martial arts fighting.
“So, what am I supposed to do now, guys?” I yelled out loud. “You guys think I can do this alone? Well, I have news for all of you...I can’t.” I rolled over, and I got up. I looked at myself in Tommy’s mirror above his dresser. “But it looks as if I have no choice.”
Chapter Nineteen
I felt lost. I didn’t know what to do. I just wanted to get out of here. Go somewhere far away. I needed to talk to someone. I needed to talk to someone I trusted. I needed to talk to Lena.
I got in my truck and drove over to her house. She answered the door immediately.
“Josiah,” Lena said, surprised. “Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not.” I said. “Can we go somewhere to talk?”
“Sure.” She grabbed her coat, and we both got in my truck. I drove around the corner and parked in a church parking lot. I suddenly found speaking exceedingly difficult. I collected myself and, with her concerned eyes on me, I blurted out, “Tommy is dead.”
“How do you know?” she asked.
Her question was completely out of left field. “What do you mean, how do I know? I was at the hospital when he died. A cop told me!”
“Oh, no. This can’t be happening.” Lena covered her face and looked away.
Okay, either this girl had no clue how to console someone hurting, or something else was going on. “What can’t be happening? Lena, do you know something about this?”
She looked back at me. Yeah, something was wrong. “What is it, Lena? Please. Tell me.”
“You’re not going to believe what happened.”
“Tell me.”
“Let’s go for a ride.”
So we rode. I pulled out of the church driveway and soon we were cruising on a mostly empty freeway, going nowhere in particular. Lena turned in her seat and looked at me.
“Josiah, how well did you know Tommy?”
“I knew him like a brother.”
“Then perhaps even brothers keep secrets.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Tommy had a secret, Josiah. A big secret.”
I was in no mood, and, quite frankly, she was beginning to irritate me. I needed to be consoled, not presented with riddles. It took all my power to bite my tongue, and simply growl, “How the hell would you know about Tommy’s secrets? You hardly knew him.”
“Josiah, this might be
hard for you to understand. This will be difficult for you to process.” She took a deep breath, touched my hand tentatively, and then retracted her hand.
“Just say it, Lena.”
She nodded. Tears were streaming down the side of her cheeks. This night was just getting weirder and weirder. “Josiah, Tommy is what’s called a Carni.”
“What the hell is a Carni?”
She was staring at me again. Even in my peripheral vision, I could see her lower lip shaking.
“Please, talk to me, Lena. I’m seriously confused. What’s a Carni?”
“They’re werewolves.”
I looked at her, and she was dead serious. She didn’t even blink. Her eyes were piercing right through me.
“Tommy’s werewolf name is Kyro. He’s one of the most notorious werewolves in the area.”
“Lena, listen to me. And listen to me good. You are freaking crazy. Atticai, Yari, Wyatt, Hector, all of you idiots are stone-cold nut jobs. Tommy was as normal as anyone I’d ever known. I was with him every day. I’ve never once seen him become a...” I couldn’t even say it. This was all far too insane.
I got off the freeway and got back on, going the other direction. I wanted Lena out of my car. She was only making a shitty night worse. I wanted nothing more than to dump her at her trailer park and never see her again.
“Listen to me. You never saw it, Josiah, because he can control it. Tommy is an advanced Carni. The only time they can’t control it is during a full moon.”
“What?”
“Think about, Josiah. Did Tommy mysteriously leave every month for about 48 hours?”
“That’s silly. Tommy was in the reserves. Of course, he would leave. He was on duty for the United States military. On rotation. Duty.”
“Other than his word, did you ever see proof that he was in the reserves?”
“In my world, someone’s word is pretty much enough. His was.”
“Josiah, the last thing I want to do is wreck your world. But you are going to have to open your eyes. Everything you know to be true is upside down. There is a whole world of Carni and Mani all around us. And by their mercy, they don’t kill the Tandra.”
“Tandra?”
“Yes. We are the Tandra...the mortals.”
I couldn’t wrap my mind around any of this. “How do you know so much?”
“Because they let me in. I don’t know exactly why, but Atticai says on my twentieth birthday next week, everything will be clear to me.”
“So who—or what—killed Tommy? That’s even if I believe this, which I don’t.”
Lena was quiet.
“Who killed Tommy, Lena, since you know so fucking much?”
“Atticai confronted him after the fight in the parking lot.”
“What?”
“Atticai approached him, and Tommy, of course, knows exactly what Atticai is. They got into a heated discussion. Atticai was defending you, saying a Carni had no business competing in Tandra sports. He told Tommy that if he continued to test the Triat, it would be to his demise.”
“What the hell are you smoking, girl? What the hell is the Triat?”
“The Triat is the unbinding force that allows the Carni and Mani to live in peace along with the Tandra.”
“You have fucking lost your mind, Lena. You’re making up a bad religion in your head to explain what you don’t understand.”
“Please—”
“Tell me what they did to Tommy!” I screamed, sounding as if I had lost my mind, as well. I pounded the dash and left a dent in it.
Lena shrank against the passenger side door. “Tommy challenged Atticai.”
“Where and how?”
“They went to old Rogue Field over by Wasserman. They knew it was isolated enough that they wouldn’t be seen by regular folks. Only Carni and Mani were invited. ”
I heard myself breathing. I heard my heart beating loudly in my ears. What the fuck was going on?
“Were you there?” I asked.
“Yes, I was.”
“So what happened?”
“Atticai and Tommy battled.”
“You’re lying. You’re crazy.”
She went on, ignoring me. “Your friend battled bravely, but Atticai had too much power.”
“Atticai killed him?”
Again, Lena got quiet.
“Did Atticai kill him?”
“In the Carni tradition, once a Carni loses to a Mani in a public fight, all the observing Carni mangles the remainder of the body.”
Honestly, how the hell was I supposed to respond to that? I decided to keep to the facts. “Who drove him down to the hospital? He was alive when he was dropped off at the door.”
“I don’t know who dropped him off, Josiah. He was left for dead.”
“But someone drove him to the hospital. Who?”
“I don’t know. Everyone left late in the morning. When we left, Tommy’s body was still out there.”
“I don’t believe you. I don’t believe any of this. Atticai killed Tommy because he’s a crazy, delusional, Goth-crazed psychopath.”
I exited the freeway.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to the Flatlands. I’m going to find Atticai.”
“Josiah, if you go there—and if you tell them that you know anything—they will kill you. Your ignorance of them is what keeps you alive. It’s what keeps all Tandra alive, by decree of the Triat—”
“Please, just shut your mouth.”
“Drop me off at my house because I don’t want to be a part of this.”
“I will gladly drop you off. But you were willing to be a part of it last night when Tommy got killed.”
She didn’t answer that, which was just as well. The more she opened her mouth, the more I started not liking her. After I parked in front of her trailer park, Lena got out and walked over to my window.
“Don’t go away angry, Josiah. Please. For me. Try to forget all of this and just go back to your normal life.”
“What life, Lena? Tommy was the last of my family, and your family killed him.”
She shook her head and stepped back away from my truck. I reversed out of her community’s driveway, tires squealing pas the 5 m.p.h. sign, and headed to the Arrowhead Mountains. I was going to find and hurt Atticai.
My mind raced as I drove. What if, on any level, any of this was true? But how could it be? This wasn’t freaking Groovy Goolies Saturday morning cartoon show where vampires and werewolves were the norm. This was real life.
My head hurt. My heart hurt. Everything hurt.
And one way or another, Atticai was going to hurt, too.
Bad.
Chapter Twenty
My truck bounded onto the rocks at the Flatlands, where I soon skidded to a halt.
There was a small party going on out here, maybe about twenty guys total. But they were scattered around, more casual than the other night. I jumped out of my truck and looked around for Atticai. Everyone stared at me. I stalked toward them. There, he was. The tall goon was standing by himself near a bonfire.
“Josiah,” he said, and turned to face me. The firelight highlighted his gaunt feature. His striking nose, his small eyes. He said, “You might want to watch your every move from this point on.”
“Why? You going to claim I’m a werewolf and kill me, too?”
Atticai’s dark eyes, reflecting the firelight, focused on mine. “Josiah, you will turn around and leave.”
“Are you seriously trying mind-control on me? You’re not a Jedi knight and I’m certainly not a Storm Trooper.”
I continued forward. Atticai, amazingly, seemed a little confused. Did he honestly think he could mind-control me? The depths of his delusion were unfathomable. I cracked my neck by turning it until sounds like popcorn kernels exploded. Atticai was going to get the beating of his life. I said, “Did you kill Tommy, Atticai?”
He didn’t answer me.
I kept moving, stalking through the low
grass of the clearing. “Did you kill my best fucking friend, you worthless piece of shit?”
Atticai snapped his fingers. Suddenly, those people who were scattered throughout the Flatlands turned silently and left, getting into their various vehicles and leaving. I stopped in my tracks and watched them leave, one after another. All because Atticai snapped his fingers. Seriously, what the hell? Only Wyatt and about five others were left. The five guys walked over to the bonfire, which now separated Atticai and myself
“Only Mani are left?” Atticai asked Wyatt. Wyatt nodded. Atticai seemed pleased. “Josiah, what exactly are you intending to do here all by yourself?”
I got into a fighter’s position. That should have been answer enough for them.
“You seriously think you’re going to be able to fight all of us? We all saw what one Carni could do to you. I’d say you don’t have much of a chance.”
“I don’t want to fight everyone, Atticai. Just you, you disillusioned vampire fuck.”
“A disillusioned vampire fuck is it?” Attic repeated, laughing. “Wow, I have been called a lot of strange things over the last three hundred years, but that is one of the most amusing.”
“Three hundred years, my ass.”
“I’m glad you’re not a believer, Josiah, because that just might be what saves your life.”
“Because the supposed Triat will spare me?”
“Ah. So you know about the Triat. Your furry-face friend, Tommy, either let you in on his secret, or you’ve been talking to someone else. And since Yari knows better than to do that, well, that means you must have had been talking to Lena. Alone, no doubt.”
Atticai ran at me in a millisecond. He open-hand punched me with more force than I had ever felt in life. I flew backwards about ten feet.
“Did you put your grimy Tandra hands on her?” Atticai yelled at me as I rolled on the sharp rocks. Man, that was painful.
I got to my feet. “I haven’t touched Lena.” Atticai stared at me like a crazed animal. I didn’t know what to do. Atticai was the strongest human being I had ever felt strike me. I stared at his position. I needed for him to run at me again. If he did, I could drop my body to the left and use his momentum against him. It was a classic move, one that would allow me to get a good choke hold in.