“I, uhhh, have to run this by my sister,” I said. I knew that the only thing Charlotte would like less than a pair of angel girls coming to our apartment, would be a pair of Erinyes showing up. “She’s really not feeling well.”
“She can just stay in her room if she is all icky,” Rose leaned into me some more, and I realized that I couldn’t see past the three angel girls that stood around me. Their feathery wings had formed a kind of cocoon that I couldn't see past.
“I feel like this was my idea to interview Sherman, but somehow you two are going to his home tonight to bring him dinner and dessert. I want to come too,” Kristen pouted.
“You can come!” Lily assured her, but I noticed Rose’s mouth drop its smile.
“I, uhh, really have to ask my sister.”
“Can you text her now?” Rose asked.
“Uhhh, I don’t know.”
“Oh, come on, Sherman! We know you are new in town. You don’t have any support. We are your new friends, let us take care of you. Charlotte won’t mind. I promise. Just send her a text.”
“Okay, I’ll text her,” I said as I reached for my phone. As soon as I had it out of my pocket, I realized that the angel girls were still practically wrapped around me, and they might catch a glimpse of a message or missed call from Satan if they looked at the phone. “Can I have a moment?” I asked them.
“Sure!” Kristen said as she stepped aside.
I squeezed out from the circle of angel girls and stepped to the other side of the room. I kind of didn’t want these girls to come over, or to even ask Charlotte, but I realized that they were just being nice to me since I was new at school. It was a weird feeling, since most of my life people just hadn’t seemed to care that I existed. Now there were all these pretty girls asking to bring me dinner.
Wait. Did they like me? The idea struck me as quite odd, and I dismissed it as soon as the thought came to my mind. Charlotte has seemed to think that they did, but girls didn’t like me. Well, the succubus did, but we had been through a bunch of crazy stuff together, and she’d made it obvious in the elevator that she wasn’t interested in me romantically. Or at least, she had made it obvious that she’d get mad at me if I kept trying to tell her how I felt about her.
The bell rang just as I was reaching into my pocket for my phone. I sighed with relief and turned to look at the three winged angels.
“Woops! I have to go to class. I’m sure we’ll be okay for the night. Thank you so much for offering to help us! I’ll try to come visit you at lunch tomorrow!” I said as I stepped toward the door.
“Wait! Did you text her?” Lily asked.
“I didn’t get a chance; let’s just talk about it tomorrow, or something.” I opened the door to the hallway, and the three girls objected.
“Just text her and let us know after school,” Rose said.
“Uhhh, okay! I gotta go!” I said as I stepped out of the room.
“Wait!” I heard one of them say, but I’d already moved past the closing door.
I forced my aching legs to walk as fast as they could without running, and then I turned the first building corner I could. I was actually going the wrong direction, but I figured that I could swing back around after I lost the three girls.
Dang. I really dodged a bullet there. I didn’t need to ask Charlotte to know that she wouldn’t have wanted the three angels at our home. Then again, the pretty succubus girl was sometimes surprising. She might have been okay with a free meal and dessert. At any rate, I knew she was resting, and I didn’t want to bother her with something like this. I’d be able to cook us dinner when I got home tonight. Then I could bring it up with her tomorrow.
The most important goal right now was figuring out how to kill Dr. King and pin it on the vampire teacher that I’d seen yesterday. Ideally, I needed to get it done before I had to do this podcast. Or the wrestling match in three weeks.
Hopefully, Charlotte would heal in time.
There was no way I could do any of this myself.
Chapter 9
“I’m gonna walk you to your car again. Oh yeah. I told Mr. Hellsig about the hellspawn yesterday,” Dr. King said to me after wrestling practice that night.
“Oh. I, uhhh, actually walked to school today. I couldn’t get a ride.”
“The powers of evil will not be successful. Our power and honor comes from the strength of the Earth and then the endless power of the Sun’s majesty. They will fall to our strength, just like the cliffs crumble into sand from the endless torrent of the ocean’s waves. Justice will have its revenge, like the Earth--”
“I think Sherman understands that we’ve got his back. Oh yeah,” Dr. King cut off Coach Hellsig with a smile.
“Until the Sun stops burning, and the planet turns into a lump of space ice!” the orc growled as he raised both of his massive arms in the air.
“I’ll give you a ride home in my Madness Machine. Let’s go,” the werewolf said as he gestured toward the door.
“May your rest tonight be filled with the endless screams of your enemies and may you rise tomorrow with the lava of justice running through your veins!” Coach Hellsig said as he patted me on the back. Every fiber of my being was sore from the two practices today, and I tried not to faint when the giant orc touched me.
“Thanks,” I said to the green-skinned man. Then I followed the werewolf out of the gym.
“Sherman!” a girl’s voice rang out in the night air, and Dr. King let out a low growl before he realized who had shouted my name.
It was Kristen, and she was joined by Rose and Lily. The three girls looked to be waiting for me to get out of practice, and I tried to keep from letting out an exasperated moan when I saw them.
“Hello, beautiful ladies,” Dr. King said to the three girls. “Young women should not be at school this late. It is dangerous. Oh yeah.”
“We wanted to see Sherman and bring him dinner. His sister is sick, and he just got into town. His parents aren’t--” Kristen started to explain, but Rose cut her off.
“Lily actually made him dinner, I made him desert, and Kristen didn’t want to feel left out so--”
“It was my idea to interview him in the first place,” the gold-haired girl scrunched up her nose at Rose.
“I was about to give him a lift home in the Madness Machine. Yeah. Do you three need a ride? I think the three of you will fit in the back, but one of you might have to sit on Sherman’s lap. Oh yeah,” the werewolf said as he stroked his chin.
“We each have a car,” Rose said. “I can take Sherman home, Dr. King, I know you must be really busy.”
“He can ride with me. I’ve got the food in my trunk,” Lily said with a shake of her silvery hair.
“I have the desert. That’s more important than the dinner,” Rose smiled, but her voice had taken on a bit of an edge that I wasn’t used to hearing when angel girls talked.
“How is desert more important than dinner?” Lily asked as she rolled her eyes. “He is a wrestler. He needs to eat the right nutrients so that he’ll--”
“Sherman should probably ride with me, since I was the first one to talk to him and his sister,” Kristen stated.
“Are you pulling an ‘I saw him first’ move, Kristen?” Rose asked with a bemused smile.
“No, I’m just pointing out that I--”
“I think you’ve got a problem. Oh yeah,” Dr. King leaned down to whisper in my ear.
“Uhhh, what should I do?” I asked him as the three girls continued to argue with each other.
“I’m gonna help ya out. Oh yeah,” the werewolf whispered again in my ear before he stood at his full height to address the three angel girls. “Ladies, Sherman here is gotta be training for the upcoming battle. Yeah. We’ve got some talking that we need to do and the walk here is how we need to do it. I’m gonna drive him back to his place. You three can meet him there if there is no more of this grandstanding. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Dr. King,” the three girls apol
ogized quickly.
“Good. Now let’s get it going. Oh yeah!” He gestured toward the parking lot, and the five of us set off in that direction.
We didn’t talk during the short walk across the school, and each of the girls walked to their own cars in the parking lot. Rose drove a white Mustang convertible, Lily had a white Volvo station wagon, and Kristen drove a white Honda Civic with a wing on the trunk.
“We’ll follow you there!” Kristen shouted as she opened her door.
“Uhh. Okay,” I said after I climbed into Dr. King’s Jeep.
I fumbled for my phone as the werewolf started the howling engine. A few seconds later I was texting Charlotte: 911. Dr. King is driving me home, and the angel girls are following. They are trying to bring us dinner because you are sick.
Dr. King pulled out of the parking spot and then accelerated onto the street. It was night, so there weren’t a lot of cars on the road.
“Sherman, when you are choosing a woman, you gotta pick a real good one. Oh yeah.”
“A real good one?” I asked as my eyes darted back and forth from my phone to the wolf man.
“Oh yeah. She’s gotta be your moon, and your stars, and your sun. She’s gotta support you and take care of you. You’ll come home all beaten up from the endless battle of the squared circle. A good woman is gonna patch ya back up and then love you to full health. Don’t mess around with the ones that are into the showboating. You want the ones that are gonna be your partner in love, business, and life. My wife, Lady Bella, was my manager during my pro-wrestling career. She was real good. Yeah. She takes care of everything now. I just love her a lot, and she is a fine woman. Oh yeah.”
“What if there is a girl you really like, but she has kind of hinted that she doesn’t like you, but then she does things that make you think she might like you, but then she gets you all confused when you try to tell her how you feel?”
“Huh. That sounds like quite a pretzel that has turned into a pickle. Yeah. I’m gonna tell you that when you are the cream of the crop, there are gonna be a lot of women that want your time, Sherman. So you have to find one where it will be easy.”
“Easy?” I asked as we turned on the street that was half a mile from my apartment complex.
“Oh yeah. The squared circle requires a lot of strength. Not just up here,” the man said as he flexed one of his biceps. The thing was probably the same diameter as my skull, “but in here also. This is the important part.” Dr. King tapped on his head next to his sunglasses. “So your woman shouldn’t be tough.”
“Oh, she is tough. She’s strong,” I admitted with a laugh, and then wondered if the werewolf would think about the succubus attack from last night.
“I’m not talking about that. She’s gotta be strong. Yeah. She’s gotta be able to fly in the sky with you. I’m talking about the relationship. That shouldn’t be hard. No sir. It’s gotta be easy because everything else in life is real hard. Yeah. Even if it wasn’t hard. You’re the kind of chicken hawk that will just go around looking for ducks who are confused about their identities. If you know what I mean. Oh yeah.”
“I, uhhh, think I do,” I said as the hairs on my neck tingled. Did the werewolf know that I could see the real identity of Earth’s Soldiers? If so, did that mean that he knew why I was here? Did he know Charlotte and I were working together, and that she’d actually been trying to kill him last night?
We pulled up to the apartment complex and I saw the other three angel girls park on the street. The werewolf looked at me with a wide grin and the pointed to their cars.
“You’ve got to get to practice tomorrow morning. With all these women around you might get distracted. That’s one thing that separates the amateur, versus the professional, versus the champion. The champion doesn’t get distracted. Oh yeah. I’m not gonna tell you what to do. I’m just gonna say that you need to keep your eye on the prize and your body on the level. Oh yeah.
“Okay. I’ll see you at practice tomorrow. Thanks for the ride,” I said as I fell out of the Jeep.
“Oh yeah!” he howled before he sped off.
I saw the three angels girls get out of their cars, and my phone buzzed in my pocket.
Don’t let the werewolf near the apartment. The girls can come, though. I’ve been bored all day and I haven’t made us anything to eat. Angels can cook.
Charlotte’s text surprised me, and I re-read it three times to make sure I hadn’t gone crazy.
“Hi Sherman,” Rose was the first one to me and she had a cake shaped box in her hands.
“Hi,” I greeted her and then smiled at the trio of girls. “Charlotte’s fine with you guys coming over.” The words tumbled awkwardly out of my mouth, but the three winged angels just nodded at me.
“Great! Where is it?” Lily asked. Both Kristen and her were carrying casserole looking dishes, and I reached out to take one of them.
I nodded for them to follow me, and we walked up the stairs to our apartment. Charlotte opened the door when we made it up the stairs, and the beautiful succubus girl gave the four of us a big smile. She was wearing sweatpants and a tight white t-shirt. I couldn’t see any of her injuries from this morning. Save for her wing, which still had a three-inch tear in it.
“Hi!” she said as she gestured for us to enter. “You all are saving us from starvation.”
“It’s no problem! Sherman said you were sick. I just felt so bad that you all don’t have parents looking after you. Where should we set this?” Lily asked, but I was already putting my dish on the kitchen counter, and the other girls followed my example.
“Are you feeling better?” Kristen asked Charlotte. “Sherman said you were sick.”
“A little. I might not be going to school tomorrow.”
“Oh, do you have the flu?” Lily asked.
“No. It isn’t contagious,” Charlotte said, and the other three girls nodded. The action seemed odd to me. I was a bit surprised the angel girls didn’t ask for more details. Maybe it was a girl thing?
“I’m surprised at how organized your place is,” Rose said as she looked around. “Last time my family moved, we had boxes everywhere for two years.”
“I was a little bored all day. We don’t have TV or internet access yet. I even started reading a few of Sherman’s comic books,” Charlotte said as she smiled at me.
“You did?” I squeaked. Some of the manga I had brought with me were not meant for girls, and I hoped that she didn’t find the ones I had kind of hidden away at the bottom of the boxes.
“Yep. I liked them.”
“I brought stuff to eat with. I didn’t know if you had any plates or forks or whatnot,” Lily said as she began to unpack everything. The other two angel girls began to help her, and a few minutes later everyone was sitting around our small kitchen table.
Lily had made a lot of different entrees and there was enough here to feed a dozen people, but the angel girls didn’t touch their plates until we were all seated. Then Kristen cleared her throat a bit and looked at me.
“Sherman, can you lead us in prayer?” she asked with a hopeful expression on her beautiful face.
“Oh! That would be wonderful,” Lily said as she reached her hand out to Charlotte. The succubus’ purple eyes opened wide when the angel girl wrapped her fingers around hers, and she looked at me with an expression that was the closest I’d ever seen to terror.
“I bet Sherman will do a nice one,” Rose said as she linked her fingers with mine.
Kristen was on my other side and she grabbed my right hand before she joined hands with Charlotte.
“Uhhh. I don’t think--” Charlotte began.
“Oh, is it your turn to say grace?” Kristen said with her eyes wide. “I’m so sorry. I just got excited about Sherman saying it.”
“It is definitely not my turn, I uhhh, uhhh,” Charlotte stuttered. “Think, that, maybe one of you should say it.”
“But we are guests. We don’t want to--”
“I can do it.
It is okay,” I interrupted Kristen. I guessed that Charlotte couldn’t do it because she was a creature of Satan, and while I had never actually said grace, I’d watched enough TV to get the idea.
“Sherman, you can’t--” Charlotte started to say, but I closed my eyes and bowed my head a bit over the plate of food.
“Uhhh. Heavenly Father. God in Heaven. Thank you for this food, and the wonderful people that made and brought it to us and are here today as our guests. My sister and I appreciate everyone’s help, and uhhh. Thanks again. In Jesus’ name, amen.” The three angel girls all said “Amen," at the same time as me, and then we unlinked hands. Well, except for Rose, who gave my fingers a tiny squeeze before she let go.
“That was great!” the short-haired woman said as she winked at me.
“I agree!” Lily said.
“It was very heartfelt. Gave me butterflies in my stomach,” Kristen smiled at me.
The three angel girls began to eat, and I noticed that Charlotte was sitting very still. A wet sheen of perspiration was on her face, neck, and arms. Her skin was normally a bit pale, but she now looked as white as poured milk. Her purple eyes were opened to almost half the size of her face, and she stared at me as if I was some sort of monster. The three angel girls hadn’t seemed to of noticed that Charlotte wasn’t eating, and I gave her a concerned expression.
The brown-haired succubus girl shook her head slowly and then raised a trembling hand to her fork. It looked as if she didn’t have the strength to even lift a bite of food.
“Charlotte, are you okay?” Rose asked.
“Oh. Uhh. Just had some…” Charlotte looked at me and then back to the red-head. “Cramps.”
“Ugh,” the three angel girls said with a slight shake of their wings.
“Worse,” Kristen said.
“Feeling,” Lily signed.
“Ever,” Rose finished.
“Yeah. I’ll be okay.” The succubus looked at me again, and her eyes narrowed slightly. She actually looked kind of mad, and I shrugged at her.
Werewolf!: Hell High Book 3 Page 10