chapter four – spencer

There wasn’t really much to do the next day. Hockey practice was cancelled due to the fact that the ice had decided to melt on this 80 degree day, and everyone at the rink was too stupid to keep the air on.  Of course, everything else ruined my day, too. The new girl wouldn’t even look me in the face. Well, she did once, but her look had me shivering, so I didn’t bother to see if she was even looking at me again. In retrospect, I felt the need to ask her what her problem was, but I knew girls were moody and I was scared to walk into a deathtrap.
I had a load of homework so I didn’t bother to go out to find that white wolf again. It was raining, too, so I wondered if it was even out. Didn’t all girls – human or not – hate the rain, anyways? I didn’t really know why I cared.
Of course, right when the wolf crossed my mind, it stopped raining, and a news report came on about the sightings again. Some fraud claimed they caught it, and I swear I saw a smile threatening to show on the woman’s lips. She obviously knew it was a bunch of crap.
I smiled, too, and realized that I should probably be out there. But the woman put a hand on her ear and gasped.
“Sorry, we’ve just got more recent news.”
My forehead pressed against the TV screen.
“It turns out that someone has actually gotten a hold of this wo-“
Before the words were completely out of her mouth, I heard the blood curling howl. I fell onto my knees and threw my head to the floor, hands cupping over my ears. Dear God, my ears had to be bleeding. My mom ran downstairs to check on me, and I was writhing in pain from the ear piercing howl. She freaked, as usual, and tried to pry my hands from my ears, but I stood up before she got too far. I shook out reflexively and sighed, straitening out my clothes and hair. I looked towards my mom, and before she could lift a finger, I was out the door.
I left my phone in the garage, just incase my mom decided to trace me. I took my bike and sped out, my mother screaming after me, but hopefully not following. I headed towards the same area as before, the cold forest where I had seen her only yesterday. I hopped off my motor bike and it collapsed in a parking space. And, just as I expected, there she was.
She was writhing in agony, though I couldn’t see the source of it. She clawed at her leg, ripping fur and meat off the bone, causing blood to splatter everywhere. Some even got on me before she noticed I was there. I bent down to try to help her, and then I realized the problem.
Someone actually had gotten to her.
I put my hands on the metal trap, but she only howled in pain once more, quickly growling in my direction and kicking me off to the side. I was thrown into a tree, and though it should have knocked me out, I fought to stay awake.
“Stop! I’m trying to help!”
“I don’t need your damn help, mortal!”
“Obviously you do. You’re not getting out of this without loosing a leg!”
“We’ll see.” She curled her upper lip and growled at me again, her eyes turning from gold to red. It was then I finally took her word for it and let her be.
She started writhing again, ripping apart her right hind leg, scratching and tearing. It was a disaster. It wasn’t long before she fell silent, the only sound being her blood dripping onto the dried leaves. I twitched, and hid behind her damaged leg, crouching and watching just around her leg.
I saw two men, each with lanterns, walking towards her. She growled and barked, their positions wavering a bit, but then they’d walk forward again. I couldn’t tell what was in their other hands until they got about three yards away from us, and dropped their lanterns.
I gasped right as the gunshot echoed through the trees. I heard a yelp, and then pure silence. Where was she hit? What happened? Was she dead?
My eyes overflowed with tears, and I began choking. Please, Lord, don’t let this be real! I struggled to keep my head, but suddenly, the wolf infront of me growled. She wasn’t whining in pain, nor was she struggling to survive. She was okay? Or maybe she just had a will from hell. I moved away from her and she collapsed infront of me, a large bullet hole in her left hind, her perfectly white fur being bloodstained.
I struggled to get up as she was knocked unconscious, and I worked my way to the edge of the forest where the street was. Only, that was as far as I made it. It wasn’t long before my sobs eventually took all my energy.
After that, I wasn’t really sure if I was unconscious or not. I felt as though I was being lifted, but my eyes never opened and my body never moved. At first it was cold, so cold that whatever touched me felt like a fire. I didn’t know what was exactly touching me, and I kind of freaked out because of it. Though, nothing really happened physically.
“Spencer!” I heard someone shout. It sounded like they were going to say more, but their words were cut off by choking. The girl – her voice gave her gender away – had a familiar voice, though I couldn’t pinpoint it. I didn’t have enough brain power to understand.
“Ugh, Spencer! Can you hear me?! Please, tell me you can!” I heard her words mix in with her constant sobs. I heard something fall over. It sounded like a tree or something. I was scared, and I was suddenly reminded of the wolf that had gotten shot. Sweat dripped down my forehead and I began hyperventilating in my sleep. Only, I wasn’t sure I was sleeping anymore.
I started to feel as though I was flying, but the air under me was much too hot. Like lying in an oven. The next morning I was traumatized, scared some old man was going to jump out and shoot me. I wobbled when I walked, and I was very relieved that it was Friday, so very close to the weekend.
I woke up too late to have breakfast and I flew out the door, hoping to talk to the new girl today. After looking back on my weird afternoon, I finally recognized the voice that was speaking to me last night, and I recognized the fire. I was ready to ask her some questions, and I was dead set on talking to her. Bad mood or not, she would give me an explanation.
Only, after I rode to school, I couldn’t see her bike anywhere. I looked towards the bus lot, and my eyes widened.
Her right leg was extremely bandaged, her left in a cast, the blood seeping through even the cast. She winced at every movement, and her crutches didn’t seem to be helping. I felt so rude now, and all anger towards her evaporated. I ran over to her, but she gave me a nasty look. Her amber eyes looked violent, seeming to edge towards red…
I ignored her look and kept walking, putting a hand on her shoulder in sympathy. She let go of her crutch for a short second to slap my hand off her shoulder, though it felt like some boulder smashed my hand. I heard a crack, and I wondered if a finger was broken. My pinky finger throbbed and I clung to it for dear life.
“I don’t need your damn help.” She nearly growled it at me, and my eyes opened slightly. Why did those words seem so familiar? She snickered sarcastically as she heard the gears in my head click together. My jaw dropped, and I almost collapsed. How had I missed it before?
“Breathe,” she whispered, eyeing her surroundings, noticing how many people were flocking because of her injuries. I worked hard to keep my breaths even, and I slowly walked off to English, only to hear the clicks of crutches behind me.
“What’s the face for?”
“You’re not human.”
“What? Where’d you get that crazy idea?” Strange, her voice didn’t sound as though she was lying. I began to waver in my thinking.
“How’d you get those injuries?” I pointed at her legs with my index and middle finger.
“Bike wreck. My left leg got caught under my bike, both of them burned badly from road rash. Missing a lot of skin, naturally.” She sighed.
Her story seemed so true! I felt as though I was shaking, and when I looked back at her, she had a blonde eyebrow quirked.
“What’s wrong?”
“Have you….uh, heard about those wolf sightings?”
“Actually, yeah I have. Pretty scary. Some giant white wolf runnin’ around. Heard she got shot yesterday.”
“Was it on the news? I didn’t notice.” I thought my mom would have texted me about that by now…
Unexpectedly, I caught her bluff. She froze, blinked a couple times, but then continued within a matter of a second. She must have thought I didn’t notice.
“It was on really late last night. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were asleep or something.” Finally, her voice began to shake.
I chuckled with victory, and she completely stopped, grabbing her crutches tightly, standing there until the bell rung a few seconds later. She froze, her face a mixture of anger and indecision. I was scared she was about to pull out a gun or something. I twitched reflexively when she shifted her crutches into one hand, standing perfectly straight on both legs.
“I heard you’re into mythology, Spencer.” Her voice was more serious, and it scared me a little.
“Y-yeah.”
“Hmph. I feel like a complete jerk off doing this. Follow me.”
I went without a word, catching her crutches when she tossed them at me, telling me to carry them. She still walked a little slow and with a limp, and despite that the words all clicked together in my head earlier, I was lost. What was she doing?
We stopped in the forest outside of the school, a few miles before the neighborhood began. I leaned her crutches up against one tree and leaned against another, watching her face, noticing every detail. Now that I actually had a good look at her face, I realized it was perfect, and possibly too perfect.
“You’re the second one to get a feeling that I’m not human. After I tell you this, I’ll probably leave, and you’ll end up never seeing me again. It’s the way I’ve been surviving for almost a century.” She ran her hand through her hair, and I blinked a few times. Was my guess seriously right?
“What do you think I am?”
“A, uh, werewolf.” I swallowed loudly, and she chuckled.
“People are smarter now than they used to be. Back in the 1600’s, people knew we existed, but ignorance was bliss. These days, everyone has to know everything.” She chuckled, obviously amused. She backed up until she leaned against a tree casually.
“1600’s?!”
“Yes.” She sighed, and then looked me in the eyes with grief. “I was born in the early 1600’s to a werewolf father and a human mother. I was born a twin,” she held up her hand when my mouth opened, “who doesn’t go to this school. We were so strong that we killed our mother, and so our father committed suicide because of it. Ever since, we’ve been surviving within society normally. We’re frozen at seventeen since that’s when we both matured emotionally and physically. It took us a while to understand what we were. We had to research from legends and rumors and of course from our first transformation.” She looked up, and sighed once again.
“Vlad handled it better than I did. I tried to commit suicide multiple times, but my body wouldn’t let it happen.”
“Why not?”
“We naturally have a will that keeps us alive. We’re made like that so we can never slack on our duties. We’re frozen at our matured age, frozen in time until the human race ends. We’re protectors, actually, and as long as evil lurks in the shadows, we’ll survive and keep the human race alive. It’s a curse, really; at least, I think so. Vlad seems to find it a thrilling gift.” I saw a tear roll down her cheek, and I remembered a discussion I had with the white wolf.
“So, you’re not a normal wolf?”
“No.”
“Why are you so huge?”
“It’s a curse.”
I gulped, but she didn’t miss a beat.
“So, it’s come to this millennium now. Ignorance is no longer bliss, and though most people gave up on mythology, those who are like you are the ones who find out who we are. Otherwise, we do an amazing way of hiding just because of the normal instincts of a human. Despite the sense of security you feel around us, the instinct that we’re dangerous makes you run.  It’s a reflex reaction.”
She grinned and wiped at the tears on her cheek. “Of course, people like you are chosen from the gods to like mythology. You know that right?” She chuckled, and I blinked.
“You’re fated to find out who we are. I ran to this state for a reason. My instincts were leading me here to meet you and tell you my story. The gods work in weird ways, though.”
“What do you mean?” I was so confused.
“Hmm, how to explain…” She looked upwards, then back at me, her grin never leaving her face. “A weird process happens. When a werewolf is born or created, there is automatically a person selected to either join their race, or know of them. Usually those people are of the opposite gender so that they can live together. It’s a process to make a better race of Lycans. It’s very complicated. I prefer to think of it as destined love.”
I scratched the top of my head, a blush forming under my cheeks.
“I wouldn’t get nervous. There are multiple people chosen for one werewolf, so you might not be mine. “
I totally changed the conversation, hoping I wouldn’t be the ‘destined one’. “How’d you end up in Colorado? You sound foreign.”
She nodded. “I am foreign. Born in Russia, and when Vlad and I came of age, we came over to the states. We were originally in North Dakota as of two years ago to restart high school, but some, uh, issues came up that caused my instincts to take over. Out of my family, I was the most volatile because I hate what I am. I’m so willing to let go of this life that my instincts have to wrap around me tightly to keep me contained. I get angrier easier, and I’m a larger, stronger Lycan because of it. “
“So, you’re the white wolf that shows up on the news?”
“Yes, I am. I didn’t want to talk to you that first night, so I just walked off. I got angry with you because you wanted to ask me questions, but I knew I’d tell you eventually. You were getting impatient. When you came last night when I howled, I was angry because you were getting yourself deeper into this mess. The more you interact with me, the more protective and clung to you I become. It can be dangerous in some situations. Although, after last night, I did get free to the trap, and I began running laps around your house to make sure no one was coming to hurt you. I carried you to your house when you passed out. Then I had to run to a close family friend to get healed.”
She crouched down and sat, unrolling the bandages on her right leg. With each roll that came undone, more and more scars tore at her flesh. About half way up her calf, I saw the stitches, obviously keeping her lower leg attached to the rest of it.
“Of course, getting free wasn’t fun. I had to carry my foot in my mouth and run as fast as I could. On my way back I cleaned up the evidence.”
“What about the two men who shot you?”
“I played dead, and they got too close. That’s when I ripped free and killed them.” Her eyes glazed over as though she wasn’t focusing on reality anymore. “It wasn’t fun. I’ve killed a lot of people before.” Her eyes focused back on the present and glanced up at me through her lashes. I must have seemed scared because she chuckled, but her face was stoic and unreadable. She didn’t seem to be herself anymore.
“So, what does this mean now?”
“I’m not exactly sure.” She frowned, and then she looked in another direction, as though someone had screamed her name. I tried to listen for something, but nothing came. Her ‘Lycan senses’ must be tingling.
“Did I mention that the gods curse anyone who knows without their permission? You won’t be cursed because you were chosen for me, but anyone who you tell will be. A run of bad luck perhaps, or maybe pneumonia. It probably won’t be pretty. And whoever tells them is doomed, too.” She added a sly grin in my direction, and I shivered. Did she ever seem so deadly before?
I tried to change the subject as best I could, hoping not to scare myself by brining up another deadly topic.
“So, a secret, hmm?
“Very much so. You better be good at keeping promises, Mr. James. Or, you’ll feel the wrath of the Gods.”
I gulped loudly, eyeing her. “What’s your brother like?”
Her grin faded, and her eyes turned red. Her jaw tightened and I could see the teeth in her mouth growing longer.
“Sorry!” I screamed, taking steps back and running behind a tree for protection.
“How dare he bring his sorry ass here!”