Disclosure

by Thais Lopes

  “Some crazy guys decided to rob one of those big and shiny stores downtown.” That was what we called the stores in a rich neighborhood. “They took hostages, and the police was trying to negotiate when those people showed up and made identical gestures. The weapons the guys were holding fell almost out of the store, and then four wolfs come out of the blue and jumped them. It happened so fast I don’t think anyone understood what was going on until it was over. Two brown wolfs were sitting on the guys, and this huge white wolf was writhing on the floor, apparently tied up in some clothes.”

  “That’s why they asked for Felipe. Few of us can shapeshift while getting dressed.” She said, nodding as if that was exactly what she expected. Well, maybe it was.

  “He didn’t even need to get dressed.” I didn’t resist saying that, and she laughed.

  “Behave!” Camila was still laughing when she said that, but her smile died when she looked at the TV. “Have you been watching the news since you arrived at home? What happened around the world?”

  “The demons are the only ones missing, it seems. Every supernatural, fantastic of mythological creature I ever heard about already showed up, and some that I had never heard of.

  Sighing, she turned away from the TV to stare at me, looking serious. “That’s all? You won’t have the ‘this is all a huge joke’ or the ‘you’re all monsters’ moment?”

  “No.” I shrugged. How could I doubt, after watching Felipe shapeshift? And how could I call them monsters after more than two years living together? She should know me better. But knowing that shapeshifters existed did give me some really good ideas. “And maybe you could introduce me to someone who...”

  “I get it!” She put her hands up, laughing again. “Were you still at college when it all started? Did you hear what people what saying about this?” I nodded, wondering why she wanted to know that. “Great. I have to pick Felipe up at the farm, and I could bet that Ivan will want to know what the human reaction was.”

  “Ivan?”

  “My alpha.”

  “Ok, werewolf hierarchy. Do I need to dress nice?”

  “He’s married.” She narrowed her eyes. “And his wife is a half demon.”

  A few minutes later we were already in the car, going in the direction of one of the city exits. The streets seemed empty, and people walked too fast, as if they were afraid of what could happen. Like there was a huge catastrophe waiting for the perfect moment to blow up. The same thing had happened in college, and I really didn’t get the reason. If people from the Otherworld had lived among us all the time without giving any trouble they wouldn’t start now.

  Camila also noticed what was going on, and I saw when she tightened her hands on the steering wheel, her knuckles white and her fingers leaving deep marks. How did she hide that strength all the time?

  And that scared me – realizing that maybe I didn’t know her and Felipe as well as I thought I did. What else could they have been hiding all that time?

  But that didn’t matter now. I had caught a ride with Camila a couple of times when she was furious, and she got reckless. I needed to distract her. “So… Did you dye your hair white because you turn into a white wolf?”

  “What?” She glanced my way, smiling, and I saw some of that tension leave her hands. “No, I’m a red wolf. This is me showing how much I envy Felipe.”

  I laughed. I could understand that.

  We didn’t say anything else along the way, and I saw Camila massaging her temples. She probably had the mother of all headaches, if she were as worried as she seemed to be.

  When we were outside the city, she found a small dirt road, the kind that I would never even notice. Few minutes later we saw a barbed wire fence with a wooden gate. There was a big sign saying “Private Property, Do Not Enter”. Camila stopped the car and got out to open the gate. I jumped to the driver seat and drove through, while she locked the gate behind us.

  “Wouldn’t it have been easier if you had asked me to open the gate?” I asked when she got back, jumping to the passenger seat.

  “Not really. We have traps and wards here. This is a shapeshifters’ property, and I’m allowed to come here. You aren’t.”

  Ten minutes later, she parked before the biggest house I had ever seen. We got out of the car, and Camila didn’t even bother turning the alarm on.

  “Let’s go through the back. They’re probably in the kitchen.”

  I didn’t need to ask how she knew it, even I could smell the food. We went around the house, and I saw a big wood burning stove and a long table covered with dishes filled with food, even though only three people were there.

  “You’re early, Camila.” Felipe said, turning in our direction. “Luz, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

  I smiled. “What? After you dare to dress while shapeshifting on air? Couldn’t you wait?”

  Felipe pretended he didn’t hear me, while the woman sitting at the table smiled.

  “Ivan, Dara, this is Luiz, our roommate.” Camila made the introductions, sitting down and taking a piece of cake. “Luiz, these are our alphas.”

  “Welcome.” The man said, looking at Camila with a question in his eyes.

  “He was at college when everything hit the news. Information about humanity’s reactions.” She answered, shrugging before concentrating on her food.

  I sat down, understanding her words as an invitation to speak. And even though almost everything I usually said was some kind of joke, I knew that it wasn’t the time for anything like that.

  “Between what I saw at college and on the streets on the way here…” I hesitated. “I don’t understand why you decided to do this, and I don’t think you’ll have any good results. People are too afraid, and I heard many comments college about people who thought all of you were animals they should study.”

  The glances exchanged around the table made me almost sure that they had already discussed that a lot of times before. And, apparently, what I had just described was a setting they had considered.

  “We don’t have any other option.” Dara sighed. “Only hope for the best and control ourselves even more than we usually do.”

  5. Felipe

  Three years later.

  I had never imagined things would become like this. But the truck was parked in front of our building, and had just finished loading all my stuff. Many of our neighbors were watching from the apartments’ windows, not even bothering to pretend they were doing something else.

  “Get away from here” Camila shouted, from the building’s doors. “You lying monster! I could kill you myself for that!”

  It wasn’t easy, but I managed to hide my admiration. Camila had become quite the actress in the last years, and I really doubted that anyone there would even imagine that all that was staged. It was necessary.

  For three years we thought the worst wouldn’t happen. Everyone had expected problems, but it seemed that the Otherworld would be accepted by humanity without any big problem. Most of humanity was awed and curious about us, they wanted to get to know us and have us by their side. It was almost like being a celebrity, and it was nice while it lasted.

  We only realized our luck had run out when the news about heinous crimes committed by people from the Otherworld came out. They had reports from all around the world and a number of atrocities to talk about. Soon there were also some careful declarations about how selfish we were, and how we didn’t want to share our “gifts” with humanity, and that’s why no one had agreed to join the scientific experiments. In a couple of days the mood had completely changed, and violence started rising.

  And then came what became the final blow in many countries: religions turning against the Otherworld. We were the embodiment of Evil, sons of the Devil, temptation turned flesh. In some small towns houses were being burned, and the persecution had already started. It wouldn’t take long for the madness to reach the capitals.

  Keeping that in mind, everyone from the Otherworld had new orders: go back to o
ur compounds and safe houses. Only a few chosen from each people would stay among humanity, pretending to be like them, to act as our eyes.

  The fairy people were the first to disappear, their wards going up around all the areas they considered their territory. I was sure some people were really surprised when they woke up one day and saw a shimmering wall surrounding places they usually went to everyday.

  The vampires were next, and even I was surprised when their stables had gone with them. But maybe I should have expected it, the venom in a vampire’s bit was addictive, and most of their stables were just like that: addicted.

  And now the shapeshifters were retreating. Our compounds had been reinforced, we had several new security protocols in place, and the witches had strengthened our wards.

  We had always known that if that happened Camila would be one of the few people left behind, so we had acted as if she had no idea it was really me who had been recorded shapeshifting those years ago. Everyone who knew her knew that she almost never watched television and didn’t believe in most of what was said on the news, so it wasn’t so hard to pretend that I had deceived her. And now she made a scene and threw me out of the apartment. Perfect. I just hoped that it was enough.

  She closed the door with a loud bang and I got into the truck. The witch that was driving made a strange gesture, and I felt his power spreading around us. I didn’t understand the reason for that, but I wouldn’t complain.

  “Monster” I heard the scream and turned in time to see a tomato splash against an invisible wall a fraction of an inch from the window. The boy who had thrown it was on the door of another building, and had another tomato on his hand. But he didn’t have time to throw it.

  And now I understood why the truck driver was a witch.

  “It won’t take long, now.” He said.

  “What?”

  “A new witch hunt.” He shook his head, looking almost sad.

  “Aren’t you being too pessimistic?”

  “The shapeshifters may not remember, but the witches don’t forget. What do you think happened in the Middle Ages?”

  “The witch hunts were because the Otherworld tried to show itself?” I asked, not wanting to believe that we were living a repetition of the past.

  Slowly, the witch nodded.

  6. Luiz

  Camila locked the apartment’s door and fell on the couch, hiding her face in her hands. “I really hoped we would never have to do something like this. I let myself believe this whole madness would never happen.”

  I didn’t answer. Say “I didn’t” wouldn’t help at all. That whole madness, as Camila put it, was what I had expected since the beginning. Considering what I had heard at college and at the lab I worked the Otherworld had a lot of time of peace.

  “It will only get worse.” I knew this didn’t help, either, but I couldn’t keep silent.

  “I know.” She raised her head. “We are receiving threats from the big companies and the government, again.”

  “Again?”

  “Why do you think we chose to disclose our existence?” She sighed, getting up and going to her bedroom.

  Blackmail. Than that had been the reason. I should have guessed, considering how people were still raving about the shapeshifters’ regeneration capacity. It was easy to imagine what would be their next step. That was probably why the news went on and on about how selfish people from the Otherworld were. They would end up in the labs – willing or not.

  But I didn’t think things would move so fast from there.

  It had been a little bit over one month since Felipe had moved back to the shapeshifters’ compound. I took the bus home feeling a new tension in the air, as if everyone was waiting to see what would happen next. I heard the sound of the TV before unlocking the apartment’s door, and that was enough to worry me. Camila just watched the news if she really needed to.

  She was sitting on her favorite couch, a completely empty expression on her face. I had only seen that once before, when Felipe had received the order to go back.

  “What happened?”

  “Three kids disappeared, a boy and a girl from the shapeshifters, cats, and a witch girl. They had a mage with them, I know him, he is powerful enough that people trust their kids to them. But now he is in a coma. Tranquilizer darts, they say, but something new, developed to attack the Otherworld.” Her voice sounded as empty as her face was.

  “Kids?” I didn’t want to believe it.

  She shook her head, turning around to look at the television, where they were talking about some fight a couple of celebrities got into. Waiting to see if there was any news about the kids, I understood. Something like that would never be on the news, but I could imagine how desperate for any kind of information she was.

  “We don’t have rights, we are not even considered citizens.” Camila whispered, as if she was talking to herself. “We’ll be hunted like animals.”

  I didn’t answer, and I didn’t need to. She was right. People from the Otherworld had even less protection than animals, which at least had organizations fighting against their use in experiments.

  I found out what had happened to those kids on the next day. It seemed that was the only thing people in the lab talked about during lunch. A company with ties to the government was offering shapeshifter and witch samples for study. Anyone interested just had to fill a form and wait for their analysis. And, as I had imagined, no one questions where the samples had come from. Few people thought it was wrong at all.

  One week later all the media talked about was the carnage caused by a vampire and a shapeshifter. The official version was that they had attacked a group of soldiers in a routine exercise. I didn’t even need to talk to Camila to guess what had really happened.

  Almost daily we heard news about “unprovoked attacks” made by the Otherworld, from all around the world. At the same time, someone “leaked” information about the possible benefits to humanity that the preliminary studies with three “volunteers” from the Otherworld showed.

  It took only a couple of days for the chaos to start.

  7. Camila

  Three weeks later.

  I didn’t want to believe what was going on. Had we really gone back to the Middle Ages? It seemed impossible that, in the beginning of the 21st century, people were still capable of so much cruelty. But the bonfires didn’t let me doubt.

  I went home every day completely on edge. The streets full of people going on with their lives could almost fool me, but nobody was safe. The hunt had started, and the Otherworld was taking far more hits than I had expected.

  For how long could I still pass as human?

  “Are you sure it wouldn’t be better if you hid, Camila?” Luiz asked while I watched people run on the street below the window. A group of people was screaming “Monster!” and trying to hold a woman that wasn’t even from the Otherworld. Probably a pagan, I had heard someone scream “witch” a few seconds earlier.

  “It’s too late for that. They know where all our compounds are.” I turned away from the window before the temptation to help the woman became too much. I couldn’t do anything, I needed to keep the charade, keep pretending to be human. It was my only chance to survive.

  Years ago, when my alpha had asked me if I wanted to leave the compound and live as a human, I had said “hell yeah!”, even though I knew the risks. Later, when it was decided that we would reveal our existence, he asked if I wanted to go back. As the third in the female hierarchy of the wolves, I was the highest ranking shapeshifter living outside our compounds and would be asked to stay behind if the worst happened. Even then, I didn’t change my answer. I knew it would be dangerous, but living was dangerous. I would risk it.

  But I never expected what was happening.

  Those who were captured had two options: “volunteer” in one of the research projects or be killed. They had even gotten a special place and built a whole ritual around the murders. An artificial cave built in the last decades and used for
sensitive tests became a slaughterhouse. People from the Otherworld were kept locked there, in tiny cages and precarious conditions. And they didn’t bother to check if the people they arrested were really from the Otherworld.

  And on the waning moon… Death.

  The first time I heard people talking about what would happen to the ones who were arrested, I didn’t believe. I couldn’t even imagine that they would go ahead and have the barbarian executions they were planning. It was on the first waning moon that I realized how naïve I had been.

  I didn’t understand why no one reacted. The Otherworld wasn’t defenseless! But, for some reason, they had decided to stay in the defensive. If everyone got together we could stop this madness in hours, and have humanity apologizing in less than three days! And all the communications with the ones living as human had been cut, which meant that I had no idea of what was going on in the compounds.

  At the same time, there were rumors around that a North American company had found a way to id people from the Otherworld using some kind of serum. I had no idea if that was truth, but I knew the lab Luiz worked at was researching something along those lines. He was still trying to sabotage the project, but the risk was too big. Everything was too big a risk.

  Almost apathetic, I sat on the couch, glancing at the muted television. Blood, blood, and more blood. It was the same as always. I closed my eyes, trying to keep control, but it was hard. I wasn’t the kind of person who hid and waited until the storm was over. But I had no option. Any wrong move would mean my death.

  How long until the Otherworld decided to act?

  8. Felipe

  The four men standing on the other side of the fence were staring at me with hate in their eyes. It seemed they didn’t expect to find a wolf waiting for them. Invaders. The wolf wanted to jump the small barrier between us and attack them, but my human side needed to stay in control now. They couldn’t come in, the witches’ wards guaranteed that. But it was better if they knew we were alert.