Red Rider's Hood

by Neal Shusterman

  She had the gun aimed directly at a wolf that was baring its fangs at her, snarling. I couldn’t be sure, but something about its expression made me think it was A/C.

  She took aim, unaware that directly behind her another wolf was getting ready to pounce. It opened its mouth wide, and I saw a glint of gold. It was Marvin!

  “Grandma!” I screamed as Marvin started his leap. “No!”

  I reached her first and pulled her down off her bike. Her gun fired wild, the bullet ricocheting harmlessly off the building behind A/C. Marvin leaped over our heads, his slathering mouth right where Grandma’s neck would have been if I hadn’t grabbed her. I don’t think she ever saw him—all she knew was that I had ruined her clean shot.

  As Grandma and I were rolling on the street, Marvin scrambled to a stop, and A/C prepared to leap on us, but I spun around. From behind Grandma’s back, I aimed my laser pointer at them, first at Marvin, then at A/C.

  “Marvin! A/C!” I shouted from where I lay hidden. “Hunters!”

  A/C and Marvin backpedaled, looking around wildly. They turned tail and ran the other way.

  “Red!?” Grandma shouted at me when she finally caught her breath. “Are you trying to get me killed? Get out of my way!”

  I had no time to explain what had really happened. I scrambled to my feet and ran in Marissa’s direction. She was all by herself, and I was afraid she’d need help.

  Sure enough, as I rounded the corner, I saw Marissa facing off with one of the wolves.

  It was the biggest, meanest wolf yet. And I knew at once it was Cedric. It didn’t matter that he was in wolf form, his profile was unmistakable, the sneer on his lips, the scorn in his eye.

  I ran toward them, trying to aim the crossbow as I ran.

  As Marissa raised her arm to throw a balloon at Cedric, and Cedric poised to leap on her, I screamed, “NO!”

  I stopped running, took aim at a point between Cedric’s eyes, and pulled the trigger.

  The arrow flew straight and true, until it veered toward Marissa at the last second. Time seemed to slow down. I watched in horror and disbelief as the arrow came close to her, then whisked past her and out of sight, narrowly missing her forehead.

  Marissa stumbled back a step, dropping the balloon. It seemed to float in midair for a second before plummeting to the pavement, where it burst, the chemical droplets splashing harmlessly on the ground.

  Cedric turned and looked in my direction, his menacing snarl twisting into a cruel grin. He looked directly in my eyes and howled.

  He knew at last whose side I was on, and it wasn’t his!

  Cedric turned back to face Marissa, ready to finish her off, but before he could move, another wolf leaped from the shadows, reaching toward Marissa with its gigantic jaws. Again I saw a glint of gold coming from the wolf’s open mouth.

  Marvin? Was Marvin going to devour his own sister!?

  I had no more arrows, but I started running toward him anyway.

  Marvin caught Marissa in his jaws, his huge mouth grabbing her by the waist, and he raced away with her. He ran down the street, carrying his sister, with Cedric right behind.

  I chased them as far as I could, for about three blocks, but they were much too fast for me. I lost them.

  Then I heard a gunning motorcycle directly behind me.

  I turned around as Grandma caught up to me, looking at me with disbelief and fury.

  “You tried to get me killed, Red. You’re not even a Wolf yet, and you’re serving me up to them!”

  “That’s not what happened, Grandma!”

  “You’re a traitor to your family!” She spat out the words. “I don’t know you anymore. And I don’t want to.”

  Grandma gunned her motorcycle and took off down the street, leaving me alone.

  As soon as she was gone, I heard the sound of heavy paws running toward me down the street. I turned to face the werewolf. I had nothing to protect myself with, but I wasn’t going to die without seeing my attacker.

  The wolf ran at full speed in my direction. I looked around for anything to defend myself with, but had nothing. Then I remembered the arrow I had fired, the one that had narrowly missed Marissa. It was behind me in the street.

  I turned and ran for it, sliding into the gutter as I grabbed the arrow.

  I turned to face the wolf, holding up the crossbow and fumbling with the arrow as the wolf was nearly upon me, but I wasn’t fast enough.

  It leaped toward me—I braced for impact—but the wolf never came down.

  Of all the crazy things I had seen that night, this was by far the craziest…

  …because in midleap the werewolf began to change shape. It seemed to shrink in size, its wolf body collapsing to the size of a fox. Its front legs stretched, becoming flaps of skin, which turned into wings. Its rear legs and tail shrank to next to nothing.

  The furry thing flapped its wings and sailed over my head. I craned my neck back to see where it was going. It flew crazily, as if it were just getting used to the feeling of flight, and then veered and took off to the north. I watched it until it flew out of sight behind a building.

  I put my head back on the pavement and breathed out. I didn’t even realize I had been holding my breath. I didn’t want to think about what I had just seen, or what it meant. I just wanted to breathe in, and breathe out, assuring myself that I had made it through the battle, and that somehow I was still alive.

  17

  Chupacabra

  I holed up that night in an empty Dumpster—maybe the same one Marvin had tossed me into weeks before, I don’t know. I didn’t sleep. I couldn’t. Marvin had Marissa, and who knew what he had done with her; Grandma had lost her faith in me, and I had betrayed the Wolves. Playing both sides left me with no sides. I was now everyone’s enemy.

  I didn’t know what the morning would bring…but when the sun rose, birds took to the skies, the sounds of morning filled the air, and it was as if the insanity of the night before never happened. I crawled out of my Dumpster to a disgustingly normal day. Buses came and went, full of people on their way to work. Tina Soames was playing out in front of her apartment building with her friends.

  I decided I’d go home, if just for a few minutes, to clean up and unscramble my brain. The surviving Wolves would all be sleeping off the night somewhere, which meant I had a little bit of time before they came after me.

  When I got home, the phone was ringing. I let the machine pick it up.

  “Red? Where are you?” It was my dad. He and Mom were the lucky ones, off on their carefree Mediterranean vacation. “We’ve been trying you for days. We’ve been trying your grandma. Is something wrong? Where are you?”

  I had to pick up. “Hi, Dad,” I said, trying to sound as normal as possible.

  “Where have you been? We’ve been calling and calling!”

  I gave them lots of one-word answers, which I had become pretty skilled at. “Fine…Good…Yeah…Fine…Okay…”

  They were coming back in a week. How could I tell them that a week was as long as a lifetime now? “Great…Fine…Yeah…Miss you, too. Bye.”

  I took a shower, pretending that I could wash away the memory of last night along with the dirt. Then I made myself a bowl of canned soup, because it was the closest thing to “comfort food” I could find in the place. But before I could take a single spoonful, someone started pounding on the front door.

  “Open up, Red! I know you’re in there.” It was Cedric.

  Boom, Boom, Boom. The whole apartment shook with his pounding. I thought werewolves couldn’t resist the urge to sleep after changing back to human! That’s what Grandma had said. I had to think fast. I grabbed my mom’s shower cap from the bathroom, and a pair of pink fuzzy slippers.

  Boom, Boom, Boom.

  I raced into my parents’ room and pulled down the shades.

  Boom, Boom, Boom.

  I dove under the covers, pulling them tight around me.

  Boom, Boom, CRASH! The front door tore loose and
smashed to the ground. I heard Cedric stomping around, until he appeared, a large silhouette in the doorway.

  “Red?”

  “How dare you break into our home!” I said in a high-pitched voice. “Red’s not here. Now go away, you hoodlum, before I call the police!”

  Cedric slowly strode in. “So, you’re Red’s mother?”

  “I said leave!”

  Still Cedric strode closer. “My, my, ma’am. What big feet you have,” he said. “You barely fit in those slippers of yours.”

  “I’m warning you—I have nine-one-one on auto-dial.”

  “My, my, ma’am,” said Cedric. “What broad shoulders you have.”

  “Runs in the family. I’m picking up the phone.”

  I reached for the phone, but Cedric grabbed it first. “My, my, ma’am, what nail-bitten fingers you have.”

  “From worrying about my Little Red.”

  Cedric hurled the phone across the room. It shattered against the wall in a hundred pieces. Then he grabbed the covers, tore them off, and pulled off my shower cap.

  “I knew it!” he said. “You’re busted!”

  I braced for the last and most painful moment of my life.

  “After what you did last night you think you can just go back home, like nothing happened?”

  I said nothing.

  “You saved my life, man!” Cedric said. “That changes everything.”

  Saved his life? I was still speechless, but now for a whole different reason.

  “The way you stopped Marvin’s sister when she was about to silverize me. The way you knocked down your own grandma when she was about to get A/C. You showed true loyalty, man. True loyalty.”

  He thought I was shooting at Marissa! He had no idea I had been aiming at him. I couldn’t believe it! I didn’t know whether to laugh, or barf.

  “You were right—there were dozens of hunters, coming after us from all directions. Little red laser spots everywhere! We should have been more careful.”

  I tried to speak, but my voice came out squeaky, like I was still imitating my mother. I cleared my throat and tried again. “How many Wolves did they get?”

  “Too many.” Cedric shook his head angrily, his hands balled into fists. He smashed a hole in the wall, then recited the list of those who got silverized. The honored dead. Warhead, Roswell, the Tank…eight in all.

  “So there’s still fourteen left,” I said.

  Cedric smiled in spite of his anger. “Fifteen,” he said. “Tonight, you get made—and you’ll be a full-fledged werewolf.”

  I suppressed a shiver. “Just what I’ve always wanted.”

  “I know.”

  “What about Marvin? What happened to him?”

  Cedric’s face went red. I thought he might punch another hole in the wall. “That low-life stinking traitor knows better than to show his ugly face around here again. His sister joins the wolf hunters, and he saves her, instead of fighting for us. Don’t you worry, Red—we’ll find Marvin, and when we do, he’s gonna suffer for what he did last night.” Cedric took a deep breath, releasing his anger with it.

  I thought back to the fight the night before, and how it ended. If I was on Cedric’s good side, maybe I could ask about it.

  “Cedric—I saw something strange last night. Even stranger than a pack of werewolves, I mean. Whatever it was, it flew over my head.”

  “We’ll talk about that later,” he said. “You deserve to know, and so you will know.”

  Then Cedric clamped his hand down on my shoulder like a brother. “Last night I learned who my true friends are.” He grabbed my hand and pressed a set of keys into them. “You did good, Red. You take your car back—it don’t matter if your grandma sees you riding around in it now, since she already knows you’re on our side. And if there’s anything else you want, all you gotta do is ask.”

  I couldn’t believe my luck. In one minute I went from being werewolf chow to being a decorated hero. I was behind the wheel of my car again, and I was so tempted to take off and leave all of this behind. The car was full of gas, and I had good reason to leave…but that meant I was leaving Marissa and Grandma at the mercy of the Wolves. Or was it the Wolves being left at their mercy? After all, they had taken out eight of them without my help, making the Wolves think there were dozens of hunters on their tail.

  But running away was something I had never done. It just wasn’t in me. In the end, I drove around town until I had the feel of my Mustang again. Driving around town gave me a little bit of comfort. A sense of my territory. Then I went to the Wolves’ new hangout, which Cedric had told me about. It was one Grandma didn’t know about, and I’m sure the Wolves weren’t too happy about its location, because it was beyond Abject End Park, smack in the heart of the Canyons. Apparently we had permission from the Crypts to be there, thanks to my little mission of diplomacy last week.

  Dead storehouses and factories loomed above me, as they had the last time I ventured into the Canyons, but this time I had wheels. Cedric had claimed an extinct dance club as our new hangout. Dust covered a wooden dance floor. A disco ball still hung at its center. Chairs and tables were stacked and pushed to the side. Some tables still had salt-and-pepper shakers, left exactly as they had been the day the club closed, probably long before I born.

  “We’ll lick our wounds, and we’ll go out again tonight,” Cedric told us. “We’ll do it in spite of the hunters.” And then he said, “I want them to know they’ve failed.”

  The others all sat in groups, some still sleeping off the night, others reliving the worst of it. Through all of this, Loogie sat off in the corner by himself, not talking, not wanting to be near any of us. He watched. Not just watched, but leered. I could feel his eyes like they were drilling holes in everyone he looked at, as if he was looking at the world through a new, more intense set of eyes.

  I went over to him and sat down next to him. He didn’t say anything for a while.

  “Freaky,” he finally said. Nothing else. Just “Freaky.”

  “What’s freaky?”

  “Everything,” he said. I noticed that he looked even paler than he had the day before. I wondered if there was some werewolf sickness going around that I didn’t know about. His skin was downright pasty. Almost green.

  “Where’s Cedric?”

  “Negotiating,” was all he said.

  I turned away from him for just a second, and when I turned back, he wasn’t there anymore. Instead, he was sitting on the other side of me.

  “What the…”

  “See, didn’t I tell you? Freaky.”

  A/C came to sit down next to us. “Man, Loogie, you got that Bobby Tanaka look.” At the mention of Bobby Tanaka, a couple of the other guys came over.

  Loogie gave a bitter laugh. “Oh, I guess you could say that.”

  I glanced around, and no one was saying anything. No one could even look at one another. “What happened to Bobby Tanaka, anyway?” I asked. “And don’t give me that ‘some things are worse than death’ line, because I don’t buy it.”

  No one would talk.

  “I don’t know,” said Moxie.

  “Me neither,” said El Toro. “It happened before most of us became Wolves.”

  “I know,” said Loogie.

  All eyes turned to him.

  “Don’t talk about it,” said A/C. “Cedric hates when anyone talks about it.”

  Loogie shrugged, not caring. “But Cedric’s not here, is he? And even if he was, not even he can stop me now.”

  By this point most of the remaining Wolves had pulled up chairs. It was like Loogie’s presence was a black hole in the room, drawing everyone to him. I wondered if it was just my imagination.

  “It happened a couple of years ago, when the Wolves were just starting out,” Loogie began. “There were about ten of us then. Cedric didn’t like the idea that there was another gang in town almost as powerful as us. He was just as power hungry then as he is now. He decided we should make the Canyons our territory,
too, and take on the Crypts. So one full moon, already in werewolf form, we stormed into the Canyons. But the farther down the abandoned old streets we got, the denser the fog got. It wasn’t a normal fog. It was thick and stunk like swamp rot. It wasn’t a city smell—it was unnatural, like the whole place was built on rotting dirt from some other dark, faraway place.” Loogie turned to me. “A stench like that is unbearable to a werewolf,” he explained. “We got supersensitive noses. Anyway, the smell was so strong it made us howl in agony. That’s when they came. Dropping down from the ledges of the old burned-out factories.”

  “The Crypts?” Moxie asked.

  “Bats. Dozens of bats, swarming us, clawing at us, screeching in our ears, but no matter how fast we moved to swat them away, they were faster. In the end, they attacked one of us, and only one. A dozen of them bit into Bobby Tanaka. Why they chose him, I don’t know. They could have gone after any of us, but he was just the unlucky one.”

  By now everyone in the room was listening to him. I was so drawn into Loogie’s tale, I couldn’t look away.

  “If you think nothing can scare a werewolf, you’re wrong, because when one of those bats turned into a girl—you’ve never heard wolf howls so loud. It was Rowena, the Crypts’ leader. She just stood there, smiling at us as the bats behind her drained every last bit of Bobby Tanaka’s blood in a minute flat. Then Rowena turned back into a bat herself and flew off with the rest of them.”

  “Wow,” was all I could say.

  “That’s not the worst of it,” said A/C, picking up the story. “The Crypts drained his blood and left him there wailing in agony, because, see, he was a werewolf—he couldn’t die…But to be alive without any blood left inside you…it was horrible. He said it felt like someone had sliced open his gut and sewn it full of stones.”

  Some of the other Wolves reached down to their own stomachs and held them, as if they could feel a gut full of stones themselves.

  “It went on like that for two days,” A/C said, “with Bobby screaming in pain, until Cedric finally silverized him, to put him out of his misery. We all knew the Crypts had done it as a warning. ‘Mess with us, and you’ll all end up like Bobby.’ So we never messed with them again.”