The Howling Trilogy

by Gary Brandner

  “I don’t know about you,” she said, “but I’m tired.” She tucked the sheets in around the boy and smiled down at him. “See you in the morning.” She paused in the doorway and looked back. In a talking-to-herself voice she said, “Damn, I wish I knew what to call you.”

  “I’m Malcolm.” It was a dry croak, barely more than a whisper, but to Holly it was like a shout.

  “Malcolm?” she repeated, trying not to sound too excited.

  He nodded.

  “That’s a good name. Do you remember mine?”

  The green eyes watched her.

  “It’s Holly,” she said. “Holly Lang.”

  “Holly,” the boy said in the same dry whisper.

  “That’s right. Do you have a last name, Malcolm?”

  The boy looked confused.

  “Well, that doesn’t matter now. We have one name. That’s enough to start with. Do you want to talk some more?”

  The boy’s eyes drifted off to a corner of the ceiling.

  “That’s all right,” she said. “You get some sleep, and tomorrow we’ll start fresh.”

  Malcolm looked back at her and nodded again. Holly left the room, elated.

  She was in early the next day, eager to begin with Malcolm, but as she passed the reception desk the young woman there called her over.

  “Dr. Qualen said for you to come to his office as soon as you got in.”

  Holly frowned. “Did he say what for?”

  “Not to me.”

  Dr. Qualen stood up behind his rich mahogany desk and greeted Holly formally. “Ah, Dr. Lang. Good of you to stop by. I won’t take much of your time.”

  She hid her impatience, waiting for him to get to the point.

  “How are things going with the boy?”

  “I’ve learned that his name is Malcolm.”

  “I see. Not what we’d call a significant breakthrough.”

  “That depends. I still have today.”

  “I wonder if perhaps another approach might speed things up.”

  “Apparently Dr. Pastory has talked to you.”

  “As a matter of fact, he has. He tells me you were rather abrupt with him yesterday.”

  “I was ticked off. He was upsetting my patient.”

  “The very point I wanted to make. The boy is not officially anyone’s patient. As I told you, I am not convinced that the case falls under our jurisdiction.”

  “I remember. You mentioned the Youth Authority.”

  “That remains an option; however, Dr. Pastory has some thoughts of his own on the boy.”

  “What does he want to do, dissect him?”

  “That’s not very professional, Doctor.”

  “No, I suppose it isn’t. I’m sorry. Is the case still mine, at least through today?”

  “Yes, of course. I hope there won’t be any more friction between you and Dr. Pastory.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “Fine, fine. I’m glad we had this little talk.” Holly swallowed her opinion of their little talk and left the office.

  * * *

  The boy was waiting for her.

  “Good morning, Malcolm.”

  The boy turned away from Aquaman on television and looked at her. “Good morning, Holly.”

  “You remembered my name.”

  “I always knew it.”

  “Well, good.” She came over and sat down. “Today let’s see what else you can remember.”

  A tiny frown line creased the boy’s brow.

  “Don’t worry. I’m not going to hook you up to a machine or give you shots or anything like that. We’re just going to relax and talk.”

  Gavin Ramsay stuck his head in the door. “Is it safe to say good morning?”

  “Hi, Gavin,” Holly said. “Come on in and meet Malcolm.”

  Ramsay gave her a brief questioning look, then came into the room and walked to the foot of the bed.

  “Hi,” he said to the boy.

  Holly said, “Malcolm, this is Sheriff Ramsay.”

  The boy looked to Holly for reassurance, then back at Gavin. “Hello, Sheriff.”

  Ramsay stuck out a hand. The boy took it and they shook hands gravely.

  “Glad to see you’re talking again, son.”

  “We were just about to find out what else Malcolm can remember.”

  “Oh?”

  “I thought we might try hypnotism. Do you know what hypnotism is, Malcolm?”

  “You put somebody to sleep.”

  “Not exactly. It’s just a way to relax and let things come back that we misplaced somewhere.”

  “Does it hurt?”

  “Not a bit. In fact, a lot of people say that it makes them feel better. Do you want to try it?”

  The boy looked at Ramsay. “Is he going to stay?”

  “Not if you don’t want him to.”

  Malcolm considered for a moment. “It’s all right; he can stay.”

  Ramsay pulled a chair back against the far wall and sat down out of the way.

  “Now Malcolm,” Holly began, “I want you to take three deep, deep breaths. All the way in and all the way out. That’s good.” She breathed in and out with him. So did Ramsay. “I bet you’re feeling more relaxed and comfortable already. I know I am.” She spoke in a slow, soothing tone.

  “We’re going to start our relaxing way down there with the tips of your toes. Think about your toes. Do you have a picture of them in your mind? Now if you try, you can feel them start to tingle and relax, one at a time. Little toe first, then the next, and the next, and now the big toe. Doesn’t that feel good? Nice and comfortable. Now your feet, Malcolm. Relax your feet and let that nice warm feeling flow slowly up your ankles. It’s like easing your legs into a tub of nice warm water. So comfortable… so relaxed…”

  Ramsay was leaning back, enjoying the relaxed, comfortable feeling in his legs, when Milo Fernandez stuck his head through the door and hissed at him.

  “Sheriff… hey, Sheriff.”

  Holly looked up and put a finger to her lips. Ramsay got up and stepped out into the hall. In a moment he returned and spoke softly to Holly.

  “I’ve got to go.”

  “Trouble?”

  “It could be. I’ll talk to you later.”

  When he was gone Holly turned back to Malcolm, who sat propped against the pillows, a dreamy expression on his face.

  “All right, Malcolm. Let’s go back now into the forest. There are trees all around. Tall and cool. A soft wind is blowing, making the branches sway and rustle. Let’s go back there and remember, Malcolm. Listen to the sounds. Sniff the air. Remember the forest…”

  4

  Memories of the forest came back to him in fragments.

  The cushiony feel of pine needles under his feet.

  A whisper of rain in the high branches of the trees.

  Dappled sunlight filtering down on a summer afternoon.

  Fresh smells of evergreen and of flowers.

  Night-sounds: monotonous song of a tree frog, the hoot of an owl, the cry of some small creature caught in its talons.

  A childhood in the forest village of Drago, with carefree days, deep, dark nights, surrounded by people whose faces were blurred now in memory, but who loved him and cared for him.

  Then, without any warning, childhood ended. The years that followed were a jumble of strange schools, narrow beds, cold faces of people who were paid to teach him and feed him and give him a place to sleep. The memories were jagged, like pieces of a broken mirror. A face, a schoolbook, a forbidding house in a strange town. Nothing fit together. It was a lost time.

  Then the lost time was over and he was back. Back in the forest. Back in Drago. But it was not the same. The days were troubled, and the nights full of danger. Malcolm was apart from the others of the village. They possessed some secret knowledge that had been withheld from him. Knowledge wondrous and terrible, knowledge he must have. This much he learned when he was brought before Derak, the leader of the village.
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  Malcolm could not even guess at the age of Derak. Not old, certainly. Not in years. Yet it seemed he had always been there. Derak was strong and vigorous, but there was in his eyes something older than time.

  The house where Derak lived was small. It was his alone. The other people of Drago lived in groups––four or six or eight of them to a house. Derak lived alone because he was the leader.

  Sometimes a woman stayed there with him. Malcolm seemed to remember a woman from before. When he was little. The woman was dark and lithe and smelled of warm wildflowers. Her eyes were the same deep shade of green as Malcolm’s. She was gone now. He wondered about her, but he was too timid to ask.

  Malcolm felt ill at ease sitting alone with Derak on a sofa in the small house. He perspired, and he did not know what to do with his hands. Derak smiled. When he spoke, his voice was soft, but Malcolm could sense the strength within the man. A strength that could have broken Malcolm like a dry twig, had he wanted to do so.

  “Relax, boy,” said Derak, as though he had read Malcolm’s thoughts. “I’m not going to hurt you. No one here will hurt you. This is your home. Do you understand that?”

  “Y-yes.”

  “Good. I suppose you want to know why you have been brought back.”

  “I don’t even know why I was sent away.”

  “It is the way of our life. You have seen, I suppose, that there are no children in Drago, except the very young.”

  “Yes.”

  “You, too, were here when you were very young.”

  “I remember. A little bit.”

  “A child reaches an age where he asks questions. Questions with answers he is not ready for. When that time comes we have to send him away. To the outside, where he can learn about the world out there. When he is ready to know about us and about Drago, we bring him back.”

  “Am I ready now to know those things?”

  Derak smiled at him. A strange, sad smile. “You are more than ready, Malcolm.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Have things been happening to you? To your body? Things you can’t explain?”

  “Y-yes. Sometimes… in the night.”

  “It is usually in the night at first. Or when you are afraid. Or hurt. Or very angry. We always try to bring the child back and explain these things to him before the changes occur. Because of troubles here, we could not bring you back at your proper time. So you are late, Malcolm, through no fault of your own. You have already experienced some of the things that will happen to you, things that you cannot understand.”

  “Will there be more?”

  “Oh, yes. Much, much more.”

  The boy’s throat constricted with a rush of emotions. Finally he got out, “Why?”

  “It will all be explained to you, Malcolm. Who you are, what you are. What we all are, and what our lives must be.”

  “When?”

  “Tomorrow. There is a ceremony. Nothing big, just our people––your people––gathering around you to show you our secrets and teach you our ways. You will spend tonight alone. After tomorrow, you will know who you are, and you will never be alone again.”

  “Why do I have to wait? Why can’t we do it now?”

  Derak looked out the window at the deepening shadows. “Tonight there is something else we have to do. After tomorrow all of our lives will be changed. You will join us then.”

  There was a finality in Derak’s tone that would permit no further discussion. Malcolm was taken to a small cabin at the edge of the village. There was a low cot of wood and canvas with a woolen blanket, a single candle for illumination, and nothing more. The door closed behind Malcolm, and he was alone.

  He could hear them outside, the people of Drago, as they walked toward the big building at the center of the village. The big building was sometimes a barn and sometimes a meeting hall. And there were times of celebration when the people danced and the music was something to hear. Tonight there was no music. The voices of the people as they walked were somber and subdued. Malcolm lay awake shivering on the stretched canvas of the cot and waited.

  Inside the building Derak stood in the center of the wooden door. The others entered and took their places in a circle around the leader. The quiet talk among them faded and finally died as they waited for Derak to speak.

  “My friends… my family. We have lived in Drago without trouble for many years. Longer than our people might have hoped when first they settled here. Our history is not one of places; it is one of movement. From the Carpathians to the Urals to the Andes. From the icy lands of the far north to the steaming jungles of the equator. Always there comes a time when we are forced to move on. Here in Drago we have lived well, but it is over. Now we must move again. There are people, outsiders, who suspect what we are. They fear us, and in their fear they will try to destroy us. As always before, that means we must go.”

  Derak turned slowly and looked at the people ranged around him in a circle. Shadows from the flickering lanterns danced and skittered over their faces.

  “But before we go,” Derak said, “we will give them something to remember.”

  And he began to change.

  Derak tore the shirt from his back and flexed the powerful muscles of his shoulders. His chest swelled and cracked as the bony structure within reshaped itself. His lips drew back to show the strong yellow teeth. The killing teeth.

  Around him the others followed the lead of Derak. They threw off their clothes while their bodies twisted and stretched in a jerking dance of metamorphosis. The faces, human a moment before, thinned and lengthened. The ears grew, the noses pushed forward into muzzles. Short, coarse hair sprouted on their bodies. The hair spread, thickened into fur. The human voices became low, muttering growls. And there was the howling.

  Malcolm sat suddenly upright on his cot in the small cabin. The candle flame guttered and died in a whisper of the night wind that seeped through cracks in the walls. The voices howling in the night were strange and frightening, yet they touched something deep within the boy. They spoke to him in a language he did not know. They called him. He longed to go to them.

  Then there were other sounds. The scrape of heavy booted feet, a crunch of brush, muttered curses. Malcolm began to sweat. He stared into the darkness, fearful of something he could not define.

  Inside the barn of a building, they heard the other sounds too late. There was a heavy scrape and a thud as the door was barred from the outside. Those within froze for a moment in wild attitudes of change… half-human, half-beast. They sniffed the air and caught the scent of men outside, then the biting odor of raw gasoline. An instant later in a blast of heat and light, the barn was afire.

  Panic.

  Three ways a werewolf can die. By a weapon of silver. By fire. And a third way that was never spoken of. The fire was all around them, and the fire was death.

  Inside the barn was hell. Humans, wolves, creatures in all stages between, stumbled into the beams and crashed the blistering walls, searching for an escape. Their voices mingled in an outcry of agony and rage. Twisted muzzles pushed through the boards of the walls for air but were seared and sizzled by the flames outside. Claws scratched frantically at the wood. The men with the torches had done their work well. The building was surrounded by a wall of flame.

  Some of the creatures in the barn broke through to the outside, their misshapen bodies afire, and ran till they dropped in a blazing, screaming heap. The men with the torches watched grimly as they died.

  Most stayed inside the building. They huddled together as the flames leaped up the walls and across the roof. Their terrible jaws gaped in helpless rage. The blazing roof fell, and the screaming stopped.

  But not all of them died. A few got away. A few always get away.

  At the sound of the agonized howling and the furnace blast of the burning barn, Malcolm bolted from his cot and stumbled out into the inferno that had been his village. Men ran from house to house with cans of gasoline and blazing torches. One a
fter another they were set afire.

  For long minutes Malcolm stood in frozen horror. The shrieks of the dying were all around him. The smell of the dead made him retch. His body twitched and jumped of its own volition. The smells around him were keener, his night vision sharper than ever in his life. The message was clear in his mind.

  Run!

  And Malcolm ran. Away from the carnage of Drago. He was faster and stronger than ever he dreamed he could be. The forest was his as he loped through the brush, darting among the trees, leaping easily over any obstruction. Faster and faster he ran, putting the night and the forest between him and the blazing ruin of Drago. He ran in a deep crouch, his hands sometimes clutching at the ground, helping to pull him along. In the midst of his grief at the loss of his village and his people, Malcolm felt something else. Freedom. Freedom and power.