by Tim O'Rourke
Morten shot me a sideways glance with his milky stare. “Why?”
I didn’t want to tell Morten how I’d woken in the night by an intruder and that I was now no longer sure who to trust, so I said, “I think Trent might just have been trying to be kind to me by not telling me the truth about what really happened – he might not have wanted to scare me. But for my own sake, I need to know.”
“It was ugly,” Morten said quite brutally. “To be honest, I was of the opinion as were the others that you were going to die, Julia. You were bleeding from your eyes, your nose, mouth, and ears. I’d never seen anything like it – I don’t think any of us had. It wasn’t only that, the sky looked like it was being torn apart and then stitched back together again. I think we were all in awe but also very scared, too.”
As we continued to walk across the park and into town, I kept watch on Morten from the corner of my eye and said, “Did the magic scare you?”
“You scared me,” Morten said.
“I scared you, how?”
“Like I’ve already explained, I thought you were going to die, Julia. I didn’t want to see that happen,” Morten said. “None of us wanted such a thing to happen.”
Although I was touched by Morten’s reply his words did little to reassure me. And why would they? I’d woken in the night to find one of those who had allegedly been so scared for me, creeping around in the dark. But perhaps in some small way, Morten was right and none of the werewolves I travelled with wanted to see me dead. There was a world of difference between breaking into my home and killing me. It wasn’t like one of the werewolves had made an attempt on my life – to try to kill me. Trent told me that each of them had taken it in turns to sit with me while I’d laid unconscious those two weeks. If one of the others were truly my enemy, they’d had plenty of time and opportunity to have killed me if that’s what they had wanted. And they would have gotten away with it, too. If what both Morten and Trent had said was true, I had been close to death because of the amount of magic it had taken to cast the spell over Shade. Perhaps I was being too judgemental – too suspicious of the werewolves? Maybe I’d grown as paranoid about having an enemy as Rea was paranoid about me enticing Trent away from her. But whatever the true intentions of the burglar, he or she certainly held a certain level of malice toward me.
By the time we had reached the edge of the park, a difficult silence had fallen between us. I was keen to keep the conversation going now that I had Morten alone. So as we cleared the park and headed along the narrow streets that led into town, I mustered up my courage and asked Morten the question of uttermost importance in my mind. “Why did Calix bite me?”
“To save you,” Morten said, wasting no time in answering my question.
“But do you think that was a wise thing for him to do?” I came back just as quickly.
Morten fell silent once more and I could see a frown creep across his brow beneath the rim of the bowler hat. It was as if he was contemplating for the very first time the suggestion I had put to him. I gave him time to ponder my question. The sound of our footfalls over the cobbled streets echoed back off the vacant buildings that lined each side of the road.
Reaching the entrance to a narrow alleyway, Morten stopped and looked at me. His pale, watery eyes seemed to be reading me in some way. Then, as if being able to read my mind, he said in his broken and rasping voice, “Julia, do you fear that Calix’s bite will change you in some way?”
I said nothing and looked at him. Morten was right, I was terrified that Calix’s bite might change me – turn me into a wolf. I wanted to throw back my hood and reveal the bite-mark to Morten. But what would be the point? I’d cut the hairs away. Other than some discoloured flesh and two small puncture wounds, there was nothing to see. Perhaps I should have left them so that he could’ve seen that there was a very good reason for me to fear that Calix’s bite would turn me into something I was not.
As if my silence had answered the question he’d asked me, Morten said, “I don’t think you have anything to fear, Julia.” He then turned and headed into the alleyway.
“How can you be so sure?” I asked, following him. The alleyway was far too narrow for us to walk side by side so I followed close behind him. It seemed suffocating somehow. I took a deep breath and spoke once more. “Have you ever heard of a werewolf biting a Wicce before?”
“Not that I can recall,” Morten said without looking back at me.
“Then how can you be so sure that I will not be affected?”
We reached the end of the alleyway, and I found myself in the street where the Weeping Wolf pub stood. It was the place where Trent and Rea had set up home together. Just like the rest of the streets in Shade, it was deserted. Standing alone together, Morten placed his brittle hands on my shoulders. His thin, bloodless lips twisted upwards into a smile, which didn’t look cruel, but kind.
“How could Calix’s bite be a bad thing? It saved your life, didn’t it?” Morten said like a knowing father.
I wasn’t convinced by what Morten had said. He hadn’t seen those hairs sprouting from the scar that Calix had left behind. But Morten was right about one thing; it seemed that Calix had saved my life. If I’d been bleeding out like Trent and the others claimed, I surely would’ve died casting my magic to protect the werewolves.
Sliding his hands from my shoulders, and with that smile still playing on his lips, Morten said, “Unless you start howling at the moon and pissing up lamp posts, I really wouldn’t worry, Julia. Now cheer up and let’s go and join the others.”
Without saying anything more, Morten strode past the Weeping Wolf and in the direction of the hill and the woods where we had all first entered the town of Shade. And although I knew that Morten in some kind of backhanded way was just trying to reassure me, I couldn’t help but reach beneath my hood and gently touch the bite-mark with my fingertips.
Chapter Three
I followed Morten up the hill and through the woods. Just as the passageway running alongside the Weeping Wolf had felt claustrophobic, so too did the woods. Each tree trunk was black and gnarled-looking. The branches that reached upwards were so dark they looked charred as if they had once been burnt. But this couldn’t have been so, for each of the branches was covered in leaves. The ground was uneven and littered with twigs, dead leaves, and roots that forced their way up out of the ground like serpents. We walked in silence toward the wooden wall that surrounded Shade. I let Morten lead just ahead of me. For such an elderly man, he walked sprightly, often leaping over fallen tree trunks and stooping low to avoid overhanging branches.
Near to the wall, the trees started to thin out and through them I could see Trent and the others gathered together. As always, Rea stood next to Trent, the butt of a thick cigar smouldering in the corner of her mouth. She wore her thick, dark hair loose about her shoulders and as I came into the clearing with Morten, I knew that she was watching me. Rea was always watching me. I was used to that by now. The brothers, Rush and Calix, were talking to one another. On hearing our approach they stopped talking and turned to face us. I looked at Calix and thought of the breakfast we had shared the previous morning. He’d quickly left after I’d raised the subject of his parents but not before giving me a warning about Rea. I smiled at him and he smiled back.
Stepping away from his brother, Rush came forward and said, “Good morning, Julia, it’s good to see you up and about again. I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
I wasn’t so sure that I was feeling better, but instead of telling him this, I smiled and said, “Thank you, Rush, it’s good to see you, too.”
I turned to face Trent, who was still standing next to Rea. I ignored her hard stare and looked straight at Trent. As the weather was a little warmer, he wasn’t wearing the long, dark coat he usually wore. He was now just dressed in a blue denim shirt that was open at the throat and the sleeves were rolled up to the elbows revealing his muscular forearms. He still wore the same dark jeans and boots and had the gun
belt with pistols slung about his waist. He looked good, but then again he always did. And however hard I tried to not think like that – feel like that – I found it difficult not to. Without doubt, I found Trent attractive, but I’d felt the same for a werewolf once before and he was now dead because of me. I suspected that Trent had feelings for me too – he had said as much when we were alone after I’d woken from my bout of unconsciousness. He had asked me whether the embrace we had shared in the crypt beneath the church had meant something to me. But I’d lied to him and said that it hadn’t. I couldn’t help but recall how crestfallen he had looked when I told him that being held by him had meant nothing to me. Of course I had lied to him and to myself.
Knocking a lock of hair from his brow, he nodded at me. With a smile, he said, “Did you oversleep?”
“Something like that,” I said. I looked away and back at my companions gathered by the wall and couldn’t help but wonder yet again which of them had been into my house the night before. Which of them had stolen the spell book and where had they hidden it? Part of me wanted to ask them outright – have it out with them – demand to know which of them had been creeping about my house while I’d slept. Perhaps I could do a trade-off? After all, they wanted to know how to leave Shade if they needed to. They wanted to know how to pass through the magic I created around the town. Maybe I should only agree to tell them if the person who had stolen my spell book gave it back to me. But what if none of them took a step forward? And if that happened, what then? Some kind of standoff between all of us? That was the last thing I wanted. I still needed the werewolves to be onside if I was ever going to find a truce and peace in this world. The only option was to wait and see – watch. And when I felt I knew who had stolen the spell book, I would speak with Trent about my suspicions. I sensed that if I could trust anyone amongst the group, it would be Trent. After all, it was Trent who had taken my advice on several occasions. I believed that I’d also managed to get him to consider the idea of trying to find a truce with the vampires instead of attacking them. Why would he have done such a thing if he secretly harboured bad feelings toward me? I doubted very much that it would have been Trent who had stolen the spell book. It was Trent who was the first to realise that my magic could be of benefit and assistance in the struggle with the vampires.
Pushing any temptation to accuse my companions of stealing from me, I stood before them and said, “You want me to show you how to pass through the magic wall that I’ve created, but why would you want to do such a thing when your enemies lay in wait on the other side of it?”
Trent came toward me, stepping away from the others. “There is no reason why we should want to leave,” he said. “But what if something should happen to you and we needed to flee this place? How would we do so?”
I fixed my eyes on his cool blue stare. “Is something going to happen to me?”
Rea spoke up from behind Trent. “You’ve nearly died once already, what’s to say that next time it won’t happen for real?”
I peered over Trent’s shoulder at her. “Is there going to be a next time?”
“Who knows what might happen,” Rea said, taking the butt of the cigar from the corner of her mouth and crushing it beneath the heel of her boot. “Maybe we won’t be around to save you next time.”
I glanced at Calix. I wasn’t so sure they had saved me. Yes, I was still alive but what was the price I might have to pay for that?
“Are you okay?” Rush asked me.
“Yes, I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be okay?” I shot back at him perhaps more fiercely than I’d intended.
“I think what my brother is trying to say,” Calix said, “is that you seem to be a little on edge today.”
I fought the urge to scream at them and ask if there was any wonder why I might be on edge. How would any of them feel if they had woken in the middle of the night to find someone creeping about their home and stealing from them? Knowing this trigger-happy bunch, they would’ve probably wasted no time in shooting the intruder dead. But of course, I didn’t say this, I bit my tongue and instead, said, “I didn’t sleep very well last night, that’s all. Take no notice of me.” I looked away and caught Morten watching me. He partially knew the real reason why I was so cranky. He knew I was worried about Calix’s bite-mark and what it might do to me. But he didn’t say anything to the rest of the group, he kept our conversation to himself and I was grateful to him for that.
“So will you show us how to get through the wall?” Trent asked, his voice soft and unthreatening.
“Yes,” I said, taking a deep breath and trying to relax a little. The air I breathed in rattled down my throat and into my lungs and again I was reminded of how hollow I felt inside. Without those wispy tendrils of magic weaving back and forth deep inside of me, I felt somehow empty. It was like a part of me had been sucked out and had left me feeling deflated like a withered balloon.
Brushing past the others, I headed toward the wall, near to where Calix and Rush had been standing. I could see the planks that Trent had pulled aside when we’d first entered Shade. But of course that wall wasn’t there anymore; not really. It looked as if it was but the wooden planks that had once been erected all around Shade had now been fused with magic. They were no longer solid and impenetrable. The planks of wood could now be passed through – if you knew how.
With my hands at my sides, I twisted my fingers but they didn’t tingle with magic. But it didn’t matter. The magic had already been cast. It was now just a matter of teaching the werewolves how to pass through it.
Chapter Four
Perhaps I was showing off, perhaps I wasn’t. Without doubt there was a part of me that felt disgruntled, and although I didn’t want to be difficult with my companions, I wasn’t going to make passing through the wall easy for them – for one of them at least. It wasn’t that I was being cruel or unkind. I wanted them to respect magic. But was it more than that? Did I want them to respect me? I knew for sure that one of them didn’t, and on second thought, perhaps knowing this was eating away at me more than it should have.
I looked at Rea and fought the urge to smile. “You see the hole in the fence, don’t you?”
“Yes, I see it,” Rea huffed. “But it seems impossible to pass through it. Don’t you think we have tried?”
“Let me see you try,” I said as if throwing down a challenge before her.
A knew Rea wasn’t the sort of woman that would want to be outsmarted by someone like me, and even less, look timid or scared. So flicking her hair from off her shoulders, she strode toward the hole in the wall. Raising one hand, palm facing upwards, she attempted to place it through the gap. The light seeping through from the other side almost seemed to warp out of shape – flowing over the back of her hand and through her fingers like liquid light.
“You need to push harder,” I urged.
Gritting her teeth and screwing up her eyes, Rea pushed her hand against the hole. Again, the light seemed to ripple and waver but not break.
“Harder!” I hissed.
Raising her free hand, stooping forward, knees bent, Rea pushed with all her might against the gap in the wall. I could see sweat breaking out on her forehead and her usually pale face was now flushed scarlet. She pushed and heaved with both hands against the hole. Realising that she was beat, Rea finally gave up by stepping away from the wall and gasping in several deep breaths. She looked like she had just run a marathon and had come in last. “It’s impossible,” she gasped.
Light sparkled between the gaps in the wall and from beneath it. I tried once more not to smile at the sight of Rea huffing and puffing before us. I looked at the others, and in a tone I had once used as a teacher, I said, “Who can see what important lesson you have learnt here?”
“What lesson?” Rush said, frowning.
“All I could see was Rea making a tit of herself,” Calix smirked.
“The lesson learnt is, that’s not the way of passing through the wall,” I said, staring directl
y at Rea and trying to hold back the smile that threatened to crack across my face.
Realising that I’d made her look foolish, Rea narrowed her eyes at me and under her breath, whispered, “Silly little bitch.”
Raising his hands in the air as if trying to keep the peace before it was broken, Trent said, “Okay, okay, enough of the fun and games, we’re not all back at school.” Then looking at me and I think understanding the reason why I wanted to score a point against Rea, however childish it might seem, Trent added, “We really need you to show us how to pass through the wall, Julia. Do you think you can do that?”
“Of course,” I smiled. I then turned to face Rea, and added, “I’m sorry, I was just teasing, you know, trying to have some fun, that’s what friends do together, isn’t it?”
Rea regained her breath and stood tall. “I didn’t realise we were friends.”
“If not friends, what then?” I asked her.
“I thought you were meant to be our saviour?”
I turned away and under my breath I muttered, “Not your saviour, but my own.”
Rush must have overheard me, as he said, “What did you mean by that?”
“Nothing,” I said, “Now let me show you how you pass through the wall.”
“At last,” Calix sighed.
With my companions’ eyes fixed on me, I slowly approached the wall. A silence fell over the group that wasn’t caused by the fact that we had stopped talking. It seemed like the whole world now stood still – so still that not even a sound was made. Placing one foot in front of the other, my hood up and peering straight out from beneath it, I approached the wall, and as it drew close I didn’t stop. I just kept on going. As a feeling of being stretched and pulled out of shape consumed me, I closed my eyes and let it wash over me.
“Fuck me,” I heard Calix gasp. “Did you see that!?”
Although I could hear Calix clearly, his voice sounded slightly muffled as if it was coming from the other side of wall. I turned around and could see that I’d passed through the wall in one piece and intact. I was no longer in Shade. I was now on the other side of the wall. I heard Trent speak from the other side of it.