Promise Me Anthology

by Tara Fox Hall

  * * * *

  Theo sat up. It was late afternoon. His mouth tasted of blood. Worse, it covered him, and the ruined human body lying right next to him.

  It hadn’t been a dream.

  Theo swallowed his bile, trying to think of what to do.

  There was a phone just inside the cabin across the lake. Police could be here within a few minutes, via helicopter. But would they believe his story? Doubtful. He’d be carted off to an insane asylum at best.

  His father had said a day would come when Theo would have to rely on himself. Here it was. Theo had wished for that day the moment he’d heard his father say the words only a week ago. Now all he wanted was to have his father alive and right here. His father would know how to handle this.

  The disgusting evidence was only a few feet away, staring him in the face, the blood on his hands and in his mouth undeniable. Somehow, he, Theo, had become a cougar and killed that kid. It hadn’t been a hallucination; it had really happened. But no one would believe that. If they did, they’d put him in a lab and experiment on him.

  He had to find a way to cover it all up. But before he left this wilderness, Theo swore to get that thing that had attacked his family and made him a monster. And then, somehow, he had to find a way to get to Casey. She would help him. Together, they could solve this.

  * * * *

  Theo hid the kid’s body in the brush, then used the boat to go back across the lake. He showered off the blood, checking again for bite marks and for a new knife wound. There was none.

  “You’re a were-cougar,” Theo said aloud to his reflection. “Welcome to your new life.” He tried to force a smile but couldn’t.

  Theo called the owner of the house next and asked to reserve it for another week. “Just put the charges on the same card, please.”

  “Sure,” the owner said eagerly. “You and your family having a nice time?”

  “The best,” Theo managed. “Thanks. Bye.”

  He ate a large meal, then slept. In the morning, Theo packed some supplies, then headed back out, reaching the scene of his campfire from the night before. The bodies of his parents lay as before. At the sight of them, his rigid façade crumbled. He looked away, then swallowed hard a few times.

  You have to be strong. You can only count on yourself now. Stop crying, and do what you came here to do.

  Theo sat down near the campfire, laying the gun down, then the pack. “I’m sorry I can’t bury you,” he whispered softly. “If I do, they’ll know I survived. I need them to think that I died, too, at least until I can figure out how to fix this—”

  “There’s no fixing it,” a happy voice said from the tree line. “Trust me, kid.”

  Theo reached over and clicked the safety off the gun discreetly. “Come in, if you want.”

  A dirty, naked man slowly ambled in, his expression overjoyed. “I’m so glad to see you,” he said, sitting down cross-legged across from Theo. “Tell me your name, please.”

  Find out all you can. “Theo. Who are you?”

  “Professor Ed Staples,” the man said, his tone changing slightly, becoming refined. “At least I was once.”

  “What happened to you?”

  “I was out west, doing research on the local populations of elk and mountain lions, studying their reliance on one another. I was attacked by a mountain lion, when I got between her and her cubs. Later that night, when I’d almost made it out of the wilderness, I changed form for the first time.” Ed looked up at Theo. “It happened when I was angry, just like the Incredible Hulk. I tore a man to pieces.”

  Ed laid another log on the fire. “I couldn’t go back and risk my wife and kids. So I just disappeared. I buried my clothes and wallet, left everything else and melted back into the wilderness.”

  Keep him talking. “Why come here?”

  “Cougars aren’t a protected species,” Ed said, a hunted look in his eyes. “I was tracked and hunted, even though I didn’t bother any livestock. After getting injured by several bullets, I decided I’d had enough. So I dug up the remains of my wallet, and used the last of my funds to come here. I knew there was enough land to get lost in and hopefully stay lost. Here no one expects to find a cougar. I’m usually laughed off as a large bobcat, when the locals believe that the campers weren’t just drunk—”

  “Why attack us?” Theo growled. “That doesn’t fit with laying low.”

  “I came here years ago,” Ed whispered. “So many years now I’ve lost count. I see people, and they look strange. I used to be able to follow conversations I overheard. I can’t any more—”

  He’s insane. “You attacked us because you couldn’t understand us?”

  “No! You don’t understand!” Ed said plaintively. He reached his arms out to Theo beseechingly. “I couldn’t stand being alone any more. There’s no one here like me. No one to talk to. I couldn’t go on.” His tone turned ominous. “And I can’t die. Go ahead. Use that gun you’ve been trying to get into position. You’ll see.”

  Theo grabbed up the gun in a smooth motion, pointing it at Ed. “I planned to.”

  Before Ed could reply, Theo squeezed the trigger, the recoil knocking the wind out of him even as it blew Ed backwards, the body twisting to fall in a bloody heap.

  Theo got up, ejecting a shell as he moved closer. Ed hadn’t moved.

  Theo fired another shot, this one into Ed’s back. Again, Ed jerked. Then he began twitching and shaking, blood pooling beneath his sprawled form.

  Taking out a serrated knife, Theo severed Ed’s head. To his horror, as soon as he removed the knife, the cut began trying to heal, flesh stretching over the slice, trying to close the wound. Worse, the large hole in Ed’s back was also trying to close, even now flesh building in the void before Theo’s eyes, the wound becoming smaller and smaller as new flesh appeared at the sides.

  Kill him! You hit his heart, and he’s still coming back like a damn vampire!

  With an inspired cry, Theo sawed at Ed’s healing neck, his strength decapitating the man in a few strokes. Standing, he threw Ed’s head as far as he could away into the bushes. Then he took off the silver cross his mother had always worn, and put it on Ed’s ruined chest, his eyes wide as he settled nearby to wait, his knife at the ready.

  Theo kept vigil all night. But Ed did not come back to life. Nor did the silver burn the were-cougar’s flesh, or do anything but wink softly in the moonlight shining down from above.

  * * * *

  The next day, Theo inspected Ed’s body. The body had stopped trying to heal and was clearly dead now. The flesh had a bluish cast to it. The blood had dried. The wound was still open, now also drawing flies in the weak morning light. To Theo’s sadness, his parent’s bodies were also decomposing. As terrible as it was to be a monster, he would have been so much less scared to know his father and mother had joined him in this new life. Angrily, he wiped away tears, telling himself he should be glad that they were dead, that they hadn’t become what he had.

  Theo buried Ed and his parents. He also buried the kid’s body, too, even though he knew it made more sense not to. Now that he’d enacted his vengeance, Theo just wanted it to be finished. When it was done, he said some words over the unmarked graves, then stood a moment, thinking.

  The earth here was thick, yet he’d dug the graves in record time, using only a shovel. His strength last night in severing Ed’s head had also been extraordinary. In addition to the strength, Theo had gained enhanced hearing and smell. There was a whole host of scents to everything in the world now, the aromas so complex in information that the normal wilderness surrounding him took on a whole new depth. His ears could pick out a number of forest animals roaming the field to his right. A female weasel was in the treeline, her fear overpowering. Belatedly, Theo realized she was afraid of him. Then he noticed his mouth was watering at the thought of warm flesh. Afraid, he packed up his things and jogged back to the lake house.

  The rustic setting with its lavish furnishings was surreal. Nothing wo
uld be the same from this moment on ever again. Theo’s whole world was changing. Yet his mother’s sweater was still draped over a chair, her half-finished letter to her best friend on the table. It would never be finished now.

  You can’t afford to collapse now. You have a lot to do and not much time. Now get busy

  The first item on the list of Urgent Things To Handle was food.

  Hurrying to the refrigerator, Theo opened the door, the immediate scent of meat irresistible. The steak was raw, yet he couldn’t stop himself from gobbling it in great chunks, blood oozing down his chin. When he finished that, he ate a package of hamburgers, then two hot dogs. Sated, he wiped his face, then sat on the couch, his face in his hands.

  Second item on the list of Urgent Things to Handle was how to get to Casey.

  Theo would inherit all of his parent’s money and property, according to their will. Yet with how things were, he would likely be suspected of killing them. He couldn’t go back to school. He couldn’t go back to his life. That was over, just like Ed had said. He had killed that kid just by getting angry. The cougar within had come out in an instant. He would have to do what Ed had done and stay away from everyone.

  But he couldn’t lose Casey, not when he’d lost everything else. Besides, he couldn’t stay here, even if he wanted to. His parents would be missed, and the police would find the bodies if they looked hard enough. He had to leave. Canada? He’d never been there though. He needed some place he knew well that was remote enough to hide until he figured out a way to get normal again.

  Resolute, Theo decided to go back to Heart’s Bells. There was enough uninhabited space to hide there. And if there was anyone who could help him now, it was Casey.

  * * * *

  Theo drove through the next day and night, worried with every cop car he passed that he would see the lights go on as it came after him. His father had carried little cash, only a credit card. Theo had used it at several banks to get cash advances until he reached the card’s limit, then left it behind in a truck stop bathroom close to the Canadian border. Someone would either report it or take it to use. Either way, the police wouldn’t be on his trail.

  He’d had to take his parent’s brand new BMW SUV. But he had switched the plates with another totaled SUV at a car repair shop late the next night. It was the best he could do. With all that he had already given up, Theo couldn’t risk losing his means of a quick getaway, too.

  Luck was with him. He made it to Colorado without mishap or even a close call. He drove up to Heart’s Bells and stashed the vehicle in the hidden spot that he and Casey had used so many times before. Taking his pack and remaining money, he got out and looked around.

  Now what was he going to do? Wait for Casey to come and find him? He dared not go into the college grounds to find her. Even if he could contact her, he couldn’t risk her being around him. But how would he tell her in a phone call what had happened and make her believe it?

  Some plan, jerk.

  His thoughts black, Theo walked into the hills, the setting sun illuminating the red mountains and setting them ablaze with color.

  * * * *

  The last weeks of August passed quickly for the rest of the world, as students entered dorms for the first time, teachers readied lesson plans, and families had one last party or trip before fall descended. For Theo, the days stretched long and lonely. Worst of all, he was starving.

  He had initially tried to change form and found he couldn’t. Even at night, with the full moon high above him, he couldn’t will a transformation. Fury filled him. Fury at the unfairness of the world, the sheer meanness of it, to have given him everything and taken it away all in the space of a few weeks. In his anger, he began screaming, the human wail of suffering becoming a loud roar that echoed down the mountain. Claws grew in an instant, fur sprouting from his skin, his mouth suddenly full of fangs. Chest heaving, Theo padded down to the amphitheater, turning his round yellow eyes up at the moon above. He sat down with a sigh. Anger fueled the change. Once it started, he couldn’t stop it. What hope was there for him and Casey?

  He would have to make sure she was safe from him before he went to her. He would have to tame the lion within.

  * * * *

  As a human, Theo was a decent shot with a scatter-gun. But it was hard to skin the animals with his pocket knife. The ammunition for the gun soon ran out. Starving, Theo forced himself to change to cougar, then used his new body to hunt. At first, he was awful, over leaping the prey every time. He caught a mouse, only to have it bite him. Shocked at the sharp pain, he shook his paw, flinging the creature into the lake. By the time he got there, it had swum to shore and gotten away.

  With practice and time, he got better. It wasn’t long before he could stalk his food easily, and keep himself fed, even if he was never truly full.

  The first week of September, Theo decided he had mastered his beast, at least enough to risk a visit to Casey

  * * * *

  Theo got up early the next morning, before dawn. Then he walked down to his hidden SUV, determined to seek out Casey and tell her everything.

  Instead, Casey was there, asleep inside the SUV.

  As Theo made to back up, a branch snapped under his heel. Casey opened her eyes, startled awake, then her jaw dropped as she beheld him. At first, she just stared at him as if he were a ghost. Then Casey threw open the car door and ran to Theo, wrapping her arms around him.

  “I thought you were dead! What happened? They found your parents murdered, and this decapitated guy—”

  Tell her right now, or you never will.

  “—they said it was a mountain lion or wild dogs—”

  “It was me,” Theo said softly. “I killed that man and cut his head off.”

  Casey recoiled from him, stepping away. “What?” she asked in disbelief.

  “He attacked my parents and me. He did something to me. Now I can change into a cougar. I know it sounds crazy—”

  Casey looked scared for a second, then resolute. “I knew it had to be something like that. They’d been looking for that man for years, Theo. His fingerprints were at a ton of murder scenes in that area. They called him the Tupper Lake Killer.” She put her hand on his, like she had done years ago on the day they’d first met. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You defended yourself.” She squeezed his hand. “He had just killed another person that same morning—”

  “No,” Theo whispered tortured. “I killed that kid, too.”

  “Then you had a reason,” Casey said fast. “I didn’t want to say it, but he’d been linked to some break ins at the lake houses near the ones your family rented—”

  “I needed his phone,” Theo said wearily. “I told him to call 911. He wouldn’t. I ripped him to shreds.”

  “No,” Casey comforted. “You couldn’t have—”

  Theo’s desperation turned to panic, then rage. “I did it!” he screamed. “It was me! It wasn’t an animal. It was me!”

  Casey’s eyes went wide, and she backed away. “Your eyes,” she choked out. “They’re yellow.”

  Theo shut his eyes, collapsing to the ground, trying to fight the change. “Please,” he said aloud. “Please, please stop. Please don’t. Please!”

  Theo fought his anger, the seconds ticking by into minutes. He breathed deep breaths, the air scents so familiar. Casey’s scent was there, too, though it stank of fear and anxiety. Theo pushed it aside, trying to concentrate on staying calm, on keeping his human form.

  There was a gentle touch of a hand taking his. “I’m here,” Casey said softly. “You’re okay, Theo. You’re going to be okay.”

  Theo gathered himself, then opened his eyes, praying they weren’t yellow. “I’m not okay,” he said. “I’m not ever going to be okay again.”

  “Yes, you will,” Casey said, hugging him hard. “I’m not losing you, not to this, or to anything else. We’ll find a way to get through this, just like we did everything else.

  “This isn’t the same,” The
o said, hugging her back gently. “There isn’t a cure, Casey.”

  “Then we’ll find a way to live with it,” Casey said firmly. “When I said I’d be your wife, that meant for better or worse, for the rest of my life. I’m not going anywhere.”

  With her in his arms, Theo closed his eyes, daring to believe that might be true.

  * * * *

  The next week was like old times. Casey would meet Theo at night and bring him takeout food, which he ate ravenously. But when she tried to hug him, Theo kept his distance.

  “Are you scared you’ll hurt me?” she said finally.

  “I’m scared that I’ll change you into what I am,” Theo admitted, grasping her hand and squeezing. “I don’t know why my parents died, and I didn’t.”

  “I don’t think kissing me will do the job,” Casey joked, hugging him.

  Theo let out a sigh, then grabbed her tightly in his arms, hoping he wasn’t squeezing too hard. “But sex might.”

  “Not protected sex,” Casey whispered. “I stopped at the store on the way here.”

  With just the mention of sex, Theo’s heart rate doubled, desire for Casey flooding his being. “Are you sure?” he protested feebly.

  “I’m sure,” Casey said, covering his lips with hers.

  * * * *

  Theo’s eyes opened to see Casey smiling up at him. “You wore me out,” she said, languidly kissing his nose. “I could get used to this, Theo.”

  He shifted uncomfortably even as he smiled. He had lasted inordinately long during sex and recovered faster than he ever had. In fact, he wanted Casey as much as he had yesterday, his body throbbing with need. But she was clearly too tired, already dozing in his arms.

  Fighting his desires, he closed his eyes. He could fight this if he tried. He had to, for Casey’s sake.

  * * * *

  As fall wound down into winter, tension grew between Casey and Theo. Though they had talked at length of what they should do, they could come to no good solution. Both of them were afraid of taking anyone in the medical field into their confidence. Food was becoming scarce, as Theo had devoured or scared off most of the local game. His own money had run out some time ago. He was depending more and more on Casey, not only for food, but other necessities. Yet with the worsening weather, the seasonal road to Heart’s Bells would soon be closed.