by Night, H. T.
What was I thinking? How could I be so careless? I had let Tommy out and whatever happened would be my fault. I went through the cabin looking for him. I yelled out his name. Nothing. I went outside and looked in every direction. Nothing. I decided to head up toward the woods, I don’t know why that made the most sense, but it did.
I yelled out his name as I hurried deeper into the woods. I heard rustling in the bushes ahead of me and then I heard a familiar growl.
“Tommy!” I yelled. “Stop whatever you’re doing! STOP!” I was praying there wasn’t something awful behind that bush. I ran around the bush to see the potential massacre. There he was, Tommy—by himself. And he had obviously relieved himself. He looked at me as if to say, ‘Really dude?’
“Let’s get back, Tommy.” I said in a command. As we walked back, I said to him repeatedly, “I didn’t know, bro.”
When we got back to the house, it was 4:30 a.m. The sun was going to be up in two hours and I would have to wait a whole month for another full moon. So, Tommy and I needed to get to work. If my vision was right—or if I interpreted it correctly, Tommy should be able to transition the way Mani could.
Right now, there was an immense amount of trust between us. He went outside and didn’t have the need to kill. As far as I could tell—he didn’t even harm a small animal, not even an insect. I truly believed in my heart of hearts that he had been tamed to a certain extent.
I looked at Tommy. How was I going to take this up to the next level? How was I going to get Tommy to a place where he can transition the way a Mani can? Everything up to this point had just come to me. Almost as if the Triat was speaking through me. Now, I felt like I was dangling. I hadn’t a clue.
I sat on the couch and just closed my eyes. Tommy jumped on the couch and lay next to me with his giant werewolf body. The only thing that made any sense to me was to talk to him as Tommy my friend—not Tommy the werewolf.
“So, what now?” I asked him. Tommy looked up at me and seemed desperate for me to have some answers as if to say, ‘You don’t know? We have accomplished all of this, and now you’re stumped?’
“I know, Tommy. I am stumped,” I said.
I looked at this werewolf. He was quite the creature. If I didn’t know it was Tommy, I’d be scared to death. This killing machine looked ready to tear anything from limb to limb. Are we supposed to go out and fight? Or are we supposed to bond in another way? I had no idea. Well, that question would be answered soon enough.
Tommy’s ears pricked up and he ran to the door. Suddenly, I heard howls, but they were not coming from Tommy. I ran to the windows and saw something awful outside. As the full moonlight landed on the earth I saw what it was. It was five werewolves as big or bigger than Tommy creeping up to the cabin and I could see a sixth one in the distance. One of the werewolves was almost twice as big as the others. These must be the Carni from the other night. And the gigantic black one must be Goliath. He was already scary-as-hell-looking as a Carni, but as a werewolf, he looked like something out of the book of Revelations.
I looked at Tommy, “What should we do?” I whispered.
“I don’t know,” Tommy said back.
At first, I didn’t realize what had just happened. Then it became very clear to me. I’d just heard Tommy’s voice, or did I imagine that?
“You didn’t imagine anything, Josiah,” Tommy said to me. He was staring at me. His mouth wasn’t moving. I could hear his thoughts.
“We can read each other’s minds?” I asked Tommy in my head.
“You always had the ability to read my mind, but now I can read yours,” Tommy said through his thoughts.
“This is fucking huge,” I whispered out loud. “But we really need to talk about this later.”
“Josiah, talk to me in your head. They will hear you. Werewolves have keen hearing.”
“How do they know we’re here?” I thought to Tommy.
“This place wasn’t exactly a secret,” Tommy replied, looking at me.
“We have two choices. We can run, or we can fight.”
“I choose fight.” Tommy said. He wanted payback. Who could blame him?
“We are horribly outnumbered,” I said, still in my head. “If we choose to fight, we’ll need to isolate them.”
“We cannot allow them to attack us a pack.” Tommy agreed. We were on the same page. This wasn’t going to be a Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid going out in a blaze of glory. We needed to be smart about this.
“We need to split up,” I said. I figured Tommy and I could use our thoughts as walkie-talkies.
I peeked out the window. The werewolves were making their move on the house. “I’m going to transition to the eagle and fly out back. You go upstairs and climb out the window and get on the roof.”
“Josiah, whatever happens. Please don’t leave me here.”
“Tommy, there would be no way I would. I’ll die here tonight if I have to.”
Tommy nodded and headed quickly upstairs.
I ran out the back and transitioned into the eagle as I hit the back porch. I flew up by gliding my wings just high enough that the wolves couldn’t see me. I circled and looked down. I saw Tommy climb out his bedroom window and leap in one quick motion to the roof by bouncing from the tree at the side of the house to the roof—like a ninja.
“This is a good plan,” I thought.
“I doubt all of them will come here at once,” Tommy thought back.
“Good, we can still hear each other. I see a wolf by himself about three houses down, he must have pulled back to be some kind of look out. I’m going to go down to him.”
“Be careful,” Tommy said in his head. “I’m going to see how I measure up to one of the assholes at full werewolf.”
I spread my wings and felt the wind underneath me. Damn, it felt awesome to be an eagle. I sped down in a quick motion beak first and I aimed my mouth directly into the giant dog’s back. I nailed him like a linebacker blitzing a quarterback. The beast flew forward. The wolf was black and white in appearance and I was having trouble seeing him in the dark. I needed to remain an eagle because my eagle eyesight was off the charts. So, this fight was going to be ‘eagle vs. wolf.’
The wolf turned around and I flew up about 20 feet over his head. I once again sliced down and pierced him hard, this time in his left front leg tearing into his flesh down to bone. He fell over in pain, crying and howling like a puppy that got spanked for peeing on the carpet. The wolf hobbled into the middle of the street when a giant truck came flying down the street. My heart sank as the truck slammed into the black and white wolf. As this happened, I flew up again and watched the wolf lie in the street. I didn’t like killing anything, but now I had no choice. It was kill or be killed.
Nonetheless, I flew down to try to help it. I was too late. The wolf had vanished. Dammit, I killed him. The truck driver stopped his semi and stepped out to see what he had hit. He seemed bewildered when he saw there was nothing there. The werewolf disappeared just as Atticai had months earlier.
I flew up and I saw Tommy on the roof. There was a white wolf crawling up the side of the house, ready to leap from the drainage pipe. As far as I could tell it was just one. Tommy was highly aware of the beast as the white wolf slipped up the side of the house and made its way to the top of the roof. Tommy didn’t let him get situated, he slammed into the wolf with a fierce throttle and the white wolf did a backwards somersault, falling off the roof. The wolf landed on its back on the grass below. I flew down and grabbed the injured wolf with my talons. I flew away as fast as I could. I thought about dropping him in Arrowhead Lake, but watching the last one die made me nauseous. I dropped the wolf into some brush. Maybe the brush broke his fall, maybe it didn’t. At least this way I was giving him a fighting chance.
Back to the house. The wolves now were down to four. I glided up to the roof where Tommy was. I landed next to him, “Good job, Tommy!” I thought.
Tommy panted proudly, “Where’s Goliath?” he
said in his head.
“I don’t know.” Suddenly, I saw two more wolves going up the side of the house.
“Tommy! Watch out!” I yelled out loud.
Tommy saw that there were two of them. “I might need your help.”
“I’m already on it.” They were both brown, so I could see them reasonably well. I transitioned back to my Mani form to be more agile. Both wolves jumped on the roof at the same time. I flew up in the air as a Mani to have elevation on them. Tommy held his ground in the center of the roof.
The first brown wolf leaped on top of him, with the other not too far behind. Not on my watch. I flew down and kicked the second wolf right in the face before he could land on Tommy. I fell backwards on contact and slipped on the roof.
The wolf, dazed, turned and leaped on me. It was trying to bite me. This creature was ferociously strong, but I was stronger. I reversed the wolf MMA style and was on top of him—riding him like fucking bull. I slammed my elbow into the back of the wolf’s neck. It reached back to claw me from behind. I grabbed the wolf by its neck and had an amazing hold—choking him out. I knew I could have killed the wolf with my bare hands, but didn’t want to see him die. I threw him off the roof and didn’t bother to look down. The creature sealed his fate coming here. The Triat would allow me to defend myself when I was clearly outnumbered.
I looked over and saw the fourth wolf make his way to the roof. Still no Goliath; that big ape probably couldn’t climb up the side of the roof. The fourth werewolf was the smallest of the bunch and was completely white. Child’s play. Still, Tommy was outnumbered 2-1. I transitioned back to the eagle in midair. I darted down again with more force and speed than I ever had before. I was really feeling it. Tommy was doing a great job of fighting the other brown wolf one-on-one. So my only goal was to spear this white wolf in his back. My beak was more powerful than a sword at this speed. As I flew down, the wolf leaped out of the way, I hit the roof like a pile of bricks and slid as I hit the shingles falling off the roof landing right in front of Goliath. Holy shit! He was huge!
I quickly transitioned back to a Mani and Goliath seemed to like that. His eyes sparkled like I was a steak. I wasn’t as hurt as I thought I’d be falling twenty-five feet. Eagles were pretty tough I guess, but I needn’t have worried about that at the moment because I was now a Mani. This was definitely your classic David vs. Goliath matchup. I was tiny compared to the mammoth werewolf. I looked over and saw a motorcycle parked next door. I needed to use everything I had and this was as good of time as any to do try to do that moving shit with my mind business. I looked at the motorcycle, connected with it, and with a quick glance I shot the motorcycle across the grass and rammed right into Goliath’s back. Woo Hoo! I controlled it! Goliath yelped. The motorcycle did some major damage. Goliath wasn’t moving at all but he was definitely still alive. I left him there yelping and made my way back up to the roof to help Tommy. Thank God Tommy was holding his own, battling the two werewolves.
“It’s about time you showed up,” Tommy said, shooting a look in my direction.
I yelled out loud, “Sorry, I was just throwing an 800-pound motorcycle at Goliath with my mind.”
“Impressive,” Tommy then smacked the white wolf with his left claw. “Take the one on the right, I got this little shit.”
“Always leave me with the hard work,” I said charging the wolf on the right. As I ran forward, the wolf also charged into me. It was going to be ‘Mani versus werewolf’ in an old school football collision. We collided into each other like a car crash. I bit down with my razor-sharp incisors and chomped him in the neck on contact. He never saw it coming. And with my left arm, I uppercut the wolf in the chin. The first brown wolf stumbled backwards, nearly falling off the roof, but stopping just short of doing so. He turned around and I greeted him with a roundhouse kick. The wolf fell to the ground below. I turned my head to not watch him die. I turned my head back to Tommy where he was fighting his wolf that was like something reminiscent of the Lion King.
Tommy was able to bite the wolf in the front of its neck. The wolf yelped as they did when they felt pain. Tommy didn’t let up. He bit down and with his right claw he punched the wolf as hard as he could with his claws extended. Tommy’s claws went deep into the wolf’s stomach. Blood poured from his mouth and abdomen. Within seconds—the wolf disappeared.
There was just Goliath left. I looked up at the sky and I saw the sun was coming up. Goliath and Tommy will turn back, shortly. Sure enough, Tommy was lying on the roof in his boxers, soaked.
“Let’s get out of here, Tommy.” I transitioned into the great white eagle and grabbed Tommy with my talons and headed down the mountain with Tommy in claw. I didn’t see Goliath as we exited. It was probably better that way.
Chapter Sixteen
As I flew down to my house, I gently dropped Tommy on my front lawn and landed beside him—transitioning back into a Mani. The morning air had dried Tommy off, but he still stunk of sweat.
“Well, Tommy. How do you feel?”
Tommy looked at me and didn’t say anything. “Are you answering me in your mind?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Tommy laughed.
“I can’t hear you anymore,” I said. “Can you hear my thoughts?”
Tommy focused on me. “No,” Tommy said.
“The sun is out and my skin is beginning to sting.” I opened the door and Tommy and I entered the house. Wyatt and Hector were asleep on the living room floor.
We walked to the back of the house. Yari was sleeping in Tommy’s room, and Lena was asleep in mine. “What a couple of Goldilocks!” Tommy said, laughing.
I smiled. “Let’s go talk in the kitchen.” We walked to the kitchen and sat at the table.
“You hungry,” I asked
“I’m starving.”
“I’ll make us a couple of omelets.” I opened the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of eggs, milk, cheese, and some lunch meat. I opened the bottom cabinets below the stove and took out a skillet. “You want three or four eggs?”
“I’m starving. Give me five.”
“You want lunch meat?”
“What kind?”
“Turkey.”
“Sure.”
I proceeded to crack the eggs open and make us both a couple of omelets. Tommy put out a couple of plates and poured us some orange juice; it felt like old times.
“I miss this,” I said as I put the hot plates on the table.
“We sure had our times, didn’t we?” Tommy dug into his omelet. “Damn, Josiah, this tastes great.” I took a bite of mine. It was pretty damn good. One thing I could do was make a mean omelet. Mastering my Mani abilities was another story.
“So,” I said, “it’s obvious we connected on a far greater level than either of us expected.”
“It appears to be that way.” Tommy continued to eat his omelet.
“What I need to figure out is why the Triat felt it was important for me to train you further as a Carni, while I remain stagnant in my abilities.”
“Maybe by helping me, somehow you grew yourself. Maybe the Triat wanted to see you do an unselfish act.”
“Maybe, I hadn’t thought about that.” I continued to eat my omelet. I took a drink of my orange juice. “I do, however believe the Triat wants me to go away and be trained also.”
“Trained? Where? By whom?”
“You’re going to laugh.”
“I doubt that, Josiah, we have experienced too much crazy shit for any of this to be too damn funny.”
“Okay,” I said. “The Triat wants me to go to Dracula’s Castle and get trained by a blue gnome.”
Tommy stared at me blankly, then cracked a smile and laughed out loud. “Were you sure it was a vision, or did you smoke some herb before going to bed?
“No, it was definitely a vision.”
“What makes you so certain?”
“I had a couple visions where Dracula’s castle and the little blue gnome were in both of them.”
“Sort of. He looks as if the Travelocity guy and Smurfette had a kid.”
“And this guy is supposed to train you like some Yoda?”
“I don’t know exactly. I don’t know if he is going to do the training or I’m supposed to just meet him there to be trained by someone else. I know it’s what I’m supposed to do.”
“Why?”
“It is why I trained you. I was told by the blue gnome to do so, and looked what happened. You now have cognitive thought as a werewolf.”
Tommy nodded his head. “So, when do you plan to go?”
“Very soon.”
“Wow, now Dracula is mixed up in this mess,” Tommy laughed. “This just gets better and better.”
Yari came into the kitchen. “Why are you guys here? I thought we were coming to you at the cabin.” She looked pretty hot wearing red plaid pajamas.
“We had a little bit of trouble,” Tommy said.
Yari sat down at the table. “So, which of you is cooking?”
“Josiah made his famous lunchmeat omelet. It’s pretty ghetto, but it’s damn good.”
Yari smiled. “I like ghetto.”
“You can’t eat an omelet, can you?” I asked.
“Maybe, if I dipped it in blood.” Yari laughed.
“Sounds delicious,” I said.
“So, what kind of trouble did you get into?”
“Tommy and I made a ton of progress in our training exercises. We were able to do things neither of us anticipated.”
“Like....?” Yari asked.
“When I’m the gray wolf, Josiah and I are able to communicate through our thoughts.”
“Bullshit!” Yari scowled.
“We’re not kidding.” Tommy looked to me for confirmation.
Yari looked over to me. “He’s telling the truth.”
“How did you figure that out?”