By: Anonymous CHAPTER TWO The trip to Philly was plenty long enough for me to mull over in my mind the predicament I was in. It was hard to ...
By: Anonymous
CHAPTER TWO
The trip to Philly was plenty long enough for me to mull over in my mind the predicament I was in. It was hard to fathom that I was the victim of a kidnapping. I had watched enough of the news to know that kidnapping victims were very often killed. I shuddered at the thought. How was I going to get out of this alive?
The air was chilly, and even with the MIT sweatshirt I was wearing, the wind-chill on the freeway was making me cold. I wished I had a jacket like my captor's. It felt really strange to be holding on to this possibly insane criminal around the waist. Of course, his butt was firmly against my crotch, making my thoughts turn sexual, which felt even stranger.
Relief passed though me when I saw the skyscrapers of Philadelphia for the first time, glad to know this ride would soon be over.
We rode to an old-looking, urban house not far from 2nd Street and finally came to a stop. He parked his bike in front and started to dismount.
"Give me the helmet," he said.
I pulled it off and gave it to him.
"We're going into the house," he said. "I don't want any fuss."
I was too scared to try and think up an escape plot, so I did as I was told. I followed him up the front steps and he began to knock on the door.
It opened, with a large chain lock separating us from the inside. The eyes of a man looked at us from within.
"Yeah?" he said.
"I'm Will. From Baltimore." Will. He didn't seem like a Will to me. Wills were supposed to be dignified and professional. Will was a gentleman's name. Not the name of an insane, biker slash kidnapper.
The guy inside nodded, and shut the door. In a second the door opened fully, sans the chain. The man standing in front of us seemed reassuring to me. He was young, probably in his mid twenties. He was Asian, and had a handsome face and short spikey hair. He looked to be a little taller than me; I'd guess 5'9." But he was much more built than I was. His neck looked really thick. He wore a black shirt, brown pants, and a long brown leather coat.
He didn't smile, but nodded appreciatively at Will. "I'm Cougar," he said. Then he looked at me. At first he seemed amused by my appearance. Then, his face changed into one of terror. "Holy shit."
"It's cool. He's weak," said Will, not hesitating to insult me. "He's new."
The guy, Cougar, nodded as if this made perfect sense to him. "Come in."
Will pushed me inside the house. The interior looked sort of trashy, like an old frat house that nobody had bothered to keep up. Paint was peeling, the tile floor was chipped and dirty, and the lighting was dim. The place smelled like alcohol and cigarettes. I noticed that all the windows facin the street had been covered with curtains. It looked like the kind of place where kidnapping victims might be taken and held for long periods of time.
The place did have one thing going for it--it was big. From the entry way where I stood there was a big living room to my right and an office type room to my left, as well as a stairwell going up. I figured it must have once been the house of a wealthy family before it succumbed to dilapidation.
Cougar led us into the living room. There were two grungy, vomit-colored couches and a large TV set with all sorts of videogame gear hooked up. It seemed ironic to me that such awful furniture would be paired with such expensive electronics. Lounging in one of the couches was another man. ESPN was on the set but he was watching us.
"That's Mathew," said Cougar. "This is Will, and, hey, what's your name, man?"
"Who, me?" I asked.
"No, the fucking lamp, yes of course you."
"Rick," I said, not appreciating the insult.
"Rick," said Cougar. "Rick ain't too quick." How clever that he could rhyme. I considered pointing out my MIT sweatshirt, or sharing with him my SAT scores, but thought it best not to.
"Howdy," said Mathew, raising a bottle of beer up as a toast. "Welcome to our little shithole of a house." He had a bit of a southern drawl.
Mathew was really attractive. He was about 6 feet tall, and muscular in a lanky sort of way. That is, his didn't seem broad, but his muscular body still made him seem quite sturdy. He had buzzed blonde hair and a buzzed blonde beard to match. His jaw was really square, he had an elegant nose, and a great smile, which he wasn't afraid to display. His teeth were super white, contrasting with the tan color of his skin. He looked to be about thirty. He wore a torn pair of jeans and a loose white shirt.
"You'd better get the others," Matthew said.
"Yeah, fine," said Cougar sharply. "Go ahead into the dining room and have a seat," he said to us, pointing towards the kitchen.
I followed Will into the kitchen, which was big enough to have two refrigerators but looked as run-down as the rest of the place, and into the dining room. We sat down at the large but cheap-looking plastic table.
"You've never been here before, have you?" I asked Will when we were alone.
"Nope."
"What is this place?"
He didn't answer me. Instead he looked away, out the window into the sunlight of the backyard.
Cougar came back in the room and sat down. "They're coming," he said.
A big, hulking man came in through the kitchen. He was black, with really dark skin, probably about 6'6," broad and buff. He looked to be about thirty. His hair was shaved short, and he had a broad nose and big, scary eyes. He was wearing just a pair of sweatpants, showing his huge, bare torso. I glanced at his bulging abs and huge pecs. This was an intimidating man. The fact that he came in smiling at us didn't make his seem any friendlier, just wicked.
"I am Malcolm," he said. It sounded like he had the tiniest touch of a Caribbean accent. "You boys come far?"
"Baltimore," said Will.
Mathew walked in and sat down too, and behind him came another huge man, though not as big as Malcolm. He looked like he was half black and half white, his skin was a really light brown. His head was shaved bald, he had a wide chin, a wide nose, and a pair of sunglasses on. He was probably 6'3", and built big, like Malcolm, with huge muscles. He wore black pants and a black vest, without a shirt on underneath. He looked a bit younger than Malcolm and Mathew, maybe in his late twenties.
"Where's Russ?" he asked. He had a really deep voice.
"He's coming," said Cougar.
"My name's Case," said the man. He didn't smile. "I'm the alpha here."
"I'm Will, and this is Rick. I was the alpha in my pack in Baltimore."
Case nodded at me. "How much does he know?"
"Nothing, as far as I can tell," answered Will. "He just walked right into the restaurant I always eat at. Didn't even look at me."
"So he can't even--" started Mathew.
"Nope. Can't do shit, as far as I can tell."
"He might have been acting subconsciously. Something in him knew that you were there and led him straight to you." This came from another man who had come in from the entrance behind me.
"That's Russ," said Case. "He's our beta. He's smarter than he looks."
Russ sat down. He was about as tall as Will, had brown hair that was cut short, almost like a military cut, and with a widow's peak. He wore a pair of camouflage print cargo pants, combat boots, and a dark blue T-shirt. He was as sturdy as the rest of them, although he looked older, maybe in his late thirties. His skin was tan; he had a small mouth, and a strong nose. His eyes were big and piercing, and his face had a permanent stoic, poker face expression, but his eyebrows were always lowered, as if concerned or angry. The only thing that lightened his features up were his protruding ears that gave him a small hint of goofiness.
I looked around at all of them. I had never sat at a table with so many great looking guys. But I wasn't gawking, I was too scared. Any one of these guys could certainly kick my butt without a problem.
"I almost killed him when I found him," said Will. "Then I thought I'd better take him somewhere safe instead."
Needless to say I was really confused.
"What about your den?" asked Case.
"Obliterated. I was the only survivor. They killed every wolf in Baltimore and in DC."
Wolf? Was that some sort of code name for their group? It sounded extensive. Had I gotten myself mixed up in some multi-ethnic mafia?
"They've killed almost every wolf in the world, Will," said Case. "How did you escape?"
"I'm tough," he answered. "What about you? Sure, some wolves survived, but you're the only den that wasn't discovered. Why is that?" He seemed suspicious.
"We're strong, small, and secretive," answered Case. "There was another pack up in Jersey, and another in West Philly. Both of them were three times the size of us. But they're all dead now."
"Of course, the vampires must have had an inside guy," said Will. "Word is that he is in Africa. But you never know, do you?"
Vampires? I assumed that he was being metaphorical.
"That's right," answered Case, looking very tough. "You never know. All I
can say is that I know my men better than I know myself."
"That's good. I need a place to stay," said Will. "I need somebody to watch my back. A lone wolf is a dead wolf."
"You're welcome here," said Case. "But I don't care about that alpha shit. Here, you start at the bottom."
"Christ, do you know how old I am?"
"I don't give a fuck how old you are. You're new here and new to us. There's a sixth bedroom upstairs you can sleep in. Fights are every Friday. You give any of your superiors any shit, and we'll either kill you or kick you out of the city, got it?"
"It's clear. What's the order here?"
"I'm first, then Russ. Malcolm's third, then Mathew, then Cougar's last.
He hasn't been a wolf for too long. He's just 24."
"Jesus, Case, why'd you have to tell him that?" snapped Cougar.
"Because, there's no secrets between us."
"What about the boy?" asked Malcolm. "What do we do with him?"
He was talking about me. I hated when people called me `boy.'
"Well, we can't just let him go," said Russ. "Not after everything he knows, especially."
Malcolm stuck a toothpick he had been holding into his mouth. "I say we kill him now," he said.
I tensed up. I sensed some sadistic urge in Malcolm to hurt me.
"That's a bad idea," said Russ. "He's much more valuable to us alive. Hey, kid. You got any little brothers?"
"No," I answered.
"Your dad's dead, right?" he continued. "Do you have any male relatives on
your dad's side that would be younger than you?"
"No. How'd you know that my dad was dead?"
He didn't answer me. "If we kill this one, another will just pop up somewhere. Maybe that one will be stronger. Maybe that one will come after us."
Malcolm raised his hand in a forceful gesture. "So what? We just kill that one too."
"No," said Case. "This kid hasn't done anything wrong, hasn't hurt anyone. We'll keep him here, safely."
"We'll just have to keep him under supervision at all times," said Russ.
I raised my hand.
"Yes?" asked Case.
"Can someone explain to me what's going on?" I asked.
"You, new guy," said Case, pointing out Will. "You'll be in charge of him for now. Tell him everything he needs to know."
"I'm not much of a babysitter."
"I don't give a fuck," said Case. "You'll do as I say. Kid, listen to me. I don't want you to feel like you're a prisoner here."
"So I can leave?" I asked.
"No. Not without supervision. It wouldn't be safe for you alone out there. I'm just saying, we'll treat you like you're one of us. Got that everyone? He may be last in the order, but he's still family. Treat him with the respect he deserves. Meeting adjourned."
Everyone got up and left the table, except for me and Will. I knew that the strange group of kidnappers just decided to keep me alive, but beyond that, I was hopelessly lost.
Once we were alone again, Will turned to me. "I bet you have a shitload of
questions to ask."
"Yeah." I started with the obvious one. "Who are you? Why do you call yourselves wolves?"
"We, my friend, are werewolves."
I laughed. "You mean metaphorically?"
"No, I'm being totally literal."
I shook my head in disbelief. These people were obviously crazy. "Oh yeah? Then why don't you just transform into a wolf or something? Or do you need to wait for nightfall so you can howl at the moon?"
He shook his head. "You mock me again and I swear you'll won't do it a third time, understand?"
He was threatening me again. "Case said to treat me with respect," I said.
"He said to treat you with the respect you deserve. You need to earn your respect around here, kid."
"So, you really expect me to take your word for it that you are a werewolf? You look like an ordinary guy to me."
"Just shuttup and I'll show you."
He took off his leather jacket and held out his bare, muscular arm. I couldn't help noticing how thick and hairy his forearm was. As I watched, his arm seemed to grow longer and thicker. I looked up. His other arm was growing too. His whole body was. Hair started sprouting out from everywhere, and his wifebeater became tight from the pressure of his expanding body.
Then his face started to change. It was like his bone structure was re-creating itself. Looking at it was terrifying to say the least.
Then, before his shape took anything definite, the process started reversing. His face returned to normal, as did his body.
"Is that enough to satisfy you? If I would have kept on going I would have ripped through my clothes."
I was beyond speech at that moment. This went against every scientific reasoning that I had learned to frame my view of the world around. What I had just seen was impossible. Werewolves weren't possible.
When my reason seemed lost, I wavered back towards my religious upbringing. Demons. These must be demons.
He laughed at me. "I've never seen anyone's eyes wider. Look, there's no need to be afraid. We aren't monsters. We're human on the inside. All of us were human once."
"You don't kill people?"
"Not if they don't bother us. Well, except when the moon's full."
"What?"
"Better not breach that subject just now." He stood up. "Let's check this place out," he said. "Follow me."
He led me into the office, which had a computer in it and not much else. "A computer. That's nice. My Baltimore den didn't have all this luxury."
I looked at the computer. It looked old, and the room in general was filthy looking.
We walked back into the entry way, and he led me up one flight of stairs. There were five doors in the 2nd story hall. He opened the first one, which opened up into a small, grungy bathroom. Malcolm came out of one of the other doors.
"There's four bedrooms on this level," he said, smiling. "This is mine."
We looked inside. It was a pretty large room with a double bed.
"Nice," said Will.
"You should see Case's room. We switch rooms if we switch positions. But that hasn't happened in a long time. That, number six, is your room." He pointed towards the far door. Will pushed the door open. It was barely as big as a closet; with just room enough for one twin bed, no dresser, no table, and no window. The mattress on the rickety bed looked as if it hadn't been used in decades.
"It's shit," said Will.
"I don't make the rules here," said Malcolm. "If it was up to me, hey, you're the new guy, you could take my nice room, and I'll take the shit room. But that would be against the rules."
"So, what's with this order thing?" I asked.
"Every wolf den has its order," said Will. "The first, the alpha, that's who's in charge of most things."
"That's Case," I said.
"Right. But beneath the alpha, there's still a hierarchy. Malcolm, here, is third right?"
"That's right. That means I have authority over Mathew and Cougar, as well as you two."
"Right," said Will. "And me, since I'm new, I'm sixth. But that still means you gotta do what I say." He turned to Malcolm. "So where's the rest of the house?"
"Case and Russ's rooms are upstairs. Downstairs is everything else. Through the kitchen pantry."
The kitchen pantry had another door in its back that led down a flight of cement stairs. I followed Will into the darkness, and he switched on a light.
The basement was roughly finished, cement floors and walls. It looked to be a small gym, with mats on the floor, weights, benches, etc. To one side, there was a partition creating a second room. That turned out to be a large shower, with several showerheads.
There was another flight of stairs going down. In the second basement, there was what appeared to be a sort of jail. Most of the room was sectioned off with sturdy looking bars. There was a gate with a substantial lock.
"What is this, a prison?" I asked, wondering if they were going to lock me in here.
"No," answered Will. "A kennel."
"How did they manage to build this under the house?"
"We have our ways. The one in my old den was much larger than this."
I looked at him in the eye. "So, who killed all the other wolves in Baltimore?"
"Vampires."
"Vampires? Are you kidding?"
"Look, can we just forget the `are you kidding' or `you can't be serious'sort of comments? They're annoying as fuck."
"Yeah, sorry," I said.
"The vampires have always been our enemies. Before this year, we always had them on the run. See, we can smell them, and they can't smell us. Soit's easy for us to pick them out of a crowd, but they can't do the same for us. But recently, things changed. An army of them came at us. Swept across the whole world. They went from city to city, invading all the dens and killing all the wolves. So now we're all fucked. Mostly, the ones who survived are alone out there." I could tell the subject really upset him.
"How did the vampires know where all the dens were? From the outside, this house looks like any other."
"Exactly. How did they know the location of every den in the world? Only a werewolf would have access to that information. That's why it must have been one of us that let the vampires in on the secret. And since a werewolf working with the vampires likely wouldn't have been killed by them, it seems pretty damn certain that one of the survivors is the mole."
There was so much information so fast; I was finding it difficult to keep
track. "And what about me? Why do you want me?"
"You are a different creature altogether. You are `gifted.' It means that you might get certain powers. Or you might not. But others of your kind in the past have really kicked some wolf ass. So when I smelled you today in that restaurant, I was worried."
Me, gifted? Beyond my IQ, that is? "So is that why, um, Russ, was asking me about my family?"
He nodded. "Your gift is passed on genetically through the male line. He was making sure you didn't have any male family members left."
This was incredible. "But I don't have any special powers, I'm just normal me."
"No, you don't. That's why I didn't kill you. So you'll stay here with us."
"At the bottom."
"Yeah, at the bottom, where you belong."
I considered for a moment. "But, technically, you and I were initiated into this group simultaneously. Why couldn't I be sixth, and you be seventh?"
"Well, you could, I guess," he said. "But then I'd have to fight you. And I really don't think you want that. See, that's how you move up in rank. You challenge the person above you to a fight, and if you win, you switch positions with them. But most of the time, guys don't challenge their superiors, cause if you challenge them and you lose, they're gonna be extra tough on your ass."
Suddenly, Cougar came trotting down the stairs. He pointed at Will. "You, big guy, go get us dinner. We want pizza. And none of that bake it yourself shit either." He turned and ran back up the stairs.
"Oh, he'll get it come Friday," said Will. "I'm not gonna be pulling any punches. After I beat him, then we'll see who's giving orders to who."
"Couldn't you challenge them all on Friday?"
"No, just one fight a day."
"Oh," I said. "So, I guess you're just gonna make me go get the food instead, since I'm the only one under you?"
He laughed. "Nope, that would reassignment. It's against the rules to reassign a chore one of your superiors has assigned you. Anyway, not like I'd give you an order to leave the house alone, now would I? You must think I'm some sort of idiot. No, I'll get the food, but while I'm doing it, you're gonna do something for me. I want you to drag that shitty thing they call a mattress out of my room, take it outside, and beat all the dust out of it. Then put it back."
That seemed like a major task. "Are you serious?" I asked.
"Yeah! Get the fuck moving!" Apparently he wasn't kidding.
He hit me in the back of my head, and I was running up those stairs a second later.
Was I really gifted in some physical way? The idea excited me. Before, when I tried to envision my life in the future, I was always sure it would be dull. I'd probably end up working long, boring hours at a lab for the rest of my life. I'd have money to spare, but nothing to do with it. Now my future was starting to seem hazy. Sure, I was still scared. But I was also a little excited.
I was pulled out of my contemplations by the task at hand. The mattress was a pain to get down the stairs by myself. Cougar passed me in the hall, but instead of offering to help, he just laughed at me. By the time I had it beaten and dragged it back upstairs, Will was long back with the pizza, and I was starving.
I went to grab a slice of pepperoni, but Mathew stopped me.
"Wait, kid," he said. "We eat in order. Wait your turn."
This meant that Case got to go first. He picked about three quarters of one pizza and said that was enough for him. Then Russ went. He made everyone wait while he ate all of his pizza, then finally left the table. Afterwards, Malcolm ate a couple of slices, took a whole pie for himself, and told Mathew to go ahead. Mathew took several pieces and finished. Then Cougar made Will and I wait while he ate excruciatingly slowly. Talk about rubbing it in. When he started there was about one and a half pizzas left. He purposefully stuffed himself, eating every last piece, glaring at Will.
"Oh, too bad," he said to him sarcastically. "Looks like you should have gotten more."
"Oh no, don't worry, there's still another one in the kitchen," said Will, matching Cougar's sarcasm. He retrieved another large pizza and set in front of Cougar. "You go ahead and finish it if you can."
Cougar looked at the pizza like he detested it more than anything, and left, saying he was done. Laughing, Will dug into the pizza, leaving me the last one standing.
I thought I would cry when he grabbed the last piece and started to eat it. As he ripped the last piece of cheese off the crust, he handed me the leftovers.
"No thanks," I said.
"Eat it." His tone was forceful.
I took it from him and started to eat the crust, a little grossed out.
"Good. Eat the rest of the crusts too, and clean this place up."
With that, he left the room. The leftover crusts, once I got passed the disgust, actually filled me up.
As I was finishing cleaning the kitchen, Russ came into the room. "Kid, I'm about to go to bed. Make my bed for me upstairs before I do. Move it."
I was dead tired myself, and the last thing I wanted to do was make someone else's bed. But that angry look in his eye told me that he wasn't fooling around. I went upstairs to the 3rd floor. There were two doors off the hallway, but one was wide open, and I peered into this room. I figured it must be Russ's. It had a queen-size bed, a couch, a TV, a desk--everything. It even had its own bathroom. I was making his bed when
he came into the room.
"Get those goddamn wrinkles out," he said, pointing to the bedspread.
So I smoothed them over one by one. "Good," he said. "Now get out."
I left the room, and he shut the door behind me. He seemed like a total fascist.
I figured I could sleep anywhere I wanted as long it wasn't in any of the bedrooms, so I chose one of the couches downstairs. I found a blanket in the closet, and took it into the living room. Mathew was sitting there watching TV again, so I laid my blanket out on the couch that he wasn't on, and spread myself out on top. The couch wasn't exactly comfortable; it felt lumpy and hard.
"Careful, there's rats in that couch," said Mathew. Grossed out, I flew up off of it, and he started laughing. "Just fucking with you," he said.
Up anyway, I grabbed my kit and went upstairs to take a shower. I found a towel that smelled clean in the closet, and went into the filthy bathroom. The shower looked so dirty I wasn't sure at first if I wanted to step intoit. I stripped and got into the shower, turning on the water.
I was washing my hair when the bathroom door opened, and Cougar stepped in, a towel around his waist. His torso was taut with muscles, and I couldn't believe how hairy he was. A huge rug of black, straight hair covered his chest. Hair surrounded the contour of his abs, and disappeared into his towel. He looked pissed off again.
"Uh-uh," he said, intruding into the bathroom. "Do you have a fucking bedroom upstairs?"
"No," I said.
"Then why the fuck are you using the upstairs bathroom?" he asked.
He opened the shower door, grabbed me by the neck, and pulled me, naked, out of the bathroom.
"Use the one downstairs, dumbass," he said, tossing me my kit and towel before shutting himself in the bathroom.
I heard a whistle. Malcolm's door was open and he was laughing at me. Embarrassed, I quickly wrapped the towel around my waist and headed downstairs.
All alone in the dreary, cold basement, I felt a little scared. I didn't like the openness of the showers, it reminded me of school. But, it was this or nothing, so I washed up there and then went back to the couch for bed.
I would have gone right to sleep if Mathew wasn't watching TV. It was a couple of hours before he went to bed, and he left the TV on when he did.
"I'm hitting the hay," he said. He walked over to the front door and hit a button on an alarm panel on the wall. "The alarm's on. You open a door or a window and it'll go off." With that, he went up to bed.
I guess that meant I wasn't going to escape during the night. And the possibility of making a phone call was ruled out by the fact that there was no working land line in the house. All the guys just had cell phones. I got up, turned the TV off, and got back on the couch.
As I started to drift off, I tried to reflect on the day and its significance upon my life. Today had definitely been the weirdest day I had ever been through. But somehow, I wasn't as upset as I had been the night before. Before, I had been terrified of facing reality. Now, it was like reality had been tossed out the window. I had been kidnapped by urban werewolves because I was somehow magically gifted, for god's sakes. It didn't make any sense rationally. And so it was almost like one of my novels. The hero was always taken aback at first when put into a situation that seemed alien to him. But eventually, the hero always found contentment. Maybe it would be the same way with me.
*****
But, as I realized the next day, that contentment would not necessarily come easily. After I got up, all the resident werewolves made me do their laundry. Carrying a hamper in each arm, I went out into the garage which was on the back of the property. The ancient-looking washer and dryer were there along with a bunch of new-looking motorcycles, and an old Chevy Blazer.
Doing the laundry of six big men takes a lot of time. I was at it all day long.
After lunch, when I had a break while I was waiting for a load to finish drying, I sat down on the couch to take a short breather. Nobody was in the room besides me, in fact, it seemed like nobody was on the first floor at all. Will had been out all day running errands for the rest of them, and I knew Malcolm and Case went out for something together. Strangely enough, the front door was wide open.
I got up and walked towards it. Sunlight was spilling brightly into the otherwise dim house. The alarm must have been off. If I ran now, no one would notice me go.
Possibilities flashed through my head. Where would I run to? The police station? They wouldn't believe me if I told them I had been abducted by werewolves, but maybe I could leave that detail out of the kidnapping story. They'd probably send me back to my family or to MIT. I didn't want to go to either place.
I shut the front door before walking back to the garage. The dryer would probably be done by now.
When I finally finished all the laundry, I brought it up to their rooms in several trips. As I hauled Russ's to his door, he told me to come in. She was in a pair of shorts and a green T-shirt.
"Where should I put it?" I asked.
"On the bed," he said. "And shut the door." I shut the door behind me and put his clothes on his bed. I turned to go.
"Hold on a second, kid," he said. "Let me ask you a question, and you'd better tell me the truth. Did you have any weird dream recently? One in which you were dying?"
"Dying? No, nothing like that."
He looked angry. "You must have had some dream like that. It would have been really vivid, like it wasn't a dream at all, like you were really experiencing it."
"No, I haven't."
He grabbed me by the shoulder and squeezed until I felt pain. "Don't lie to me, kid. I know you're lying." I thought about it really hard, wanting to come up with something. "Well, I did have a really weird dream a few weeks ago, but I wasn't dying in it."
"Tell me."
"I dreamt I was in this, confined space, and there was, someone else in there with me."
"Tell me all of it."
"The dream was sort of sexual, but the really weird part is that I was biting the other person. I was drinking their blood."
He looked at me strangely for a second. "That is weird. Anything else?"
"No. I woke up then."
"Alright, you can go now." He said, turning away from me. I got the hell out of there, wondering what the significance of that conversation was.
Later on, when I was carrying another load up, the bathroom door opened and Malcolm stood there, sticking his head through the doorway. He was dripping with water, and obviously naked in there.
"You have my towel?" he asked.
I did. I grabbed his white towel from the stack and handed it to him. He started drying off behind the door, so I began to move on.
"Wait," he said. "Take my towel to my room." I turned back towards him. He still had his head through the door.
"Hold on, let me dry my dick." I could see by the movement in his shoulder that he was really rubbing himself vigorously. His face took on a look o dazed pleasure for a moment. Then he pulled his towel through the door.
"Here you go," he said, tossing it over my head. He laughed maniacally as he shut the bathroom door again. Even though he had just showered, I could detect a musky smell from the towel. I thought I could guess its source.
I took it off my head, and dropped it in his room.
By the time I was done with all the laundry, dinner was being served. This time, Will had gotten Chinese food, and plenty of it. We ate in sequence like before, but by the time it was my turn, there was still plenty of chow mein and broccoli beef for me.
"Thanks Will," I said as he left the room. He didn't respond.
That night, after such a hard day's work, the couch felt softer under my achy back, and the blanket felt warmer than before. I realized that, in spite of all the work, I was getting comfortable here. I imagined that I was destined to come here, that my chance meeting with Will in that coffee shop wasn't really chance at all. For the first time, I felt I belonged somewhere.
TO BE CONTINUED...
The trip to Philly was plenty long enough for me to mull over in my mind the predicament I was in. It was hard to fathom that I was the victim of a kidnapping. I had watched enough of the news to know that kidnapping victims were very often killed. I shuddered at the thought. How was I going to get out of this alive?
The air was chilly, and even with the MIT sweatshirt I was wearing, the wind-chill on the freeway was making me cold. I wished I had a jacket like my captor's. It felt really strange to be holding on to this possibly insane criminal around the waist. Of course, his butt was firmly against my crotch, making my thoughts turn sexual, which felt even stranger.
Relief passed though me when I saw the skyscrapers of Philadelphia for the first time, glad to know this ride would soon be over.
We rode to an old-looking, urban house not far from 2nd Street and finally came to a stop. He parked his bike in front and started to dismount.
"Give me the helmet," he said.
I pulled it off and gave it to him.
"We're going into the house," he said. "I don't want any fuss."
I was too scared to try and think up an escape plot, so I did as I was told. I followed him up the front steps and he began to knock on the door.
It opened, with a large chain lock separating us from the inside. The eyes of a man looked at us from within.
"Yeah?" he said.
"I'm Will. From Baltimore." Will. He didn't seem like a Will to me. Wills were supposed to be dignified and professional. Will was a gentleman's name. Not the name of an insane, biker slash kidnapper.
The guy inside nodded, and shut the door. In a second the door opened fully, sans the chain. The man standing in front of us seemed reassuring to me. He was young, probably in his mid twenties. He was Asian, and had a handsome face and short spikey hair. He looked to be a little taller than me; I'd guess 5'9." But he was much more built than I was. His neck looked really thick. He wore a black shirt, brown pants, and a long brown leather coat.
He didn't smile, but nodded appreciatively at Will. "I'm Cougar," he said. Then he looked at me. At first he seemed amused by my appearance. Then, his face changed into one of terror. "Holy shit."
"It's cool. He's weak," said Will, not hesitating to insult me. "He's new."
The guy, Cougar, nodded as if this made perfect sense to him. "Come in."
Will pushed me inside the house. The interior looked sort of trashy, like an old frat house that nobody had bothered to keep up. Paint was peeling, the tile floor was chipped and dirty, and the lighting was dim. The place smelled like alcohol and cigarettes. I noticed that all the windows facin the street had been covered with curtains. It looked like the kind of place where kidnapping victims might be taken and held for long periods of time.
The place did have one thing going for it--it was big. From the entry way where I stood there was a big living room to my right and an office type room to my left, as well as a stairwell going up. I figured it must have once been the house of a wealthy family before it succumbed to dilapidation.
Cougar led us into the living room. There were two grungy, vomit-colored couches and a large TV set with all sorts of videogame gear hooked up. It seemed ironic to me that such awful furniture would be paired with such expensive electronics. Lounging in one of the couches was another man. ESPN was on the set but he was watching us.
"That's Mathew," said Cougar. "This is Will, and, hey, what's your name, man?"
"Who, me?" I asked.
"No, the fucking lamp, yes of course you."
"Rick," I said, not appreciating the insult.
"Rick," said Cougar. "Rick ain't too quick." How clever that he could rhyme. I considered pointing out my MIT sweatshirt, or sharing with him my SAT scores, but thought it best not to.
"Howdy," said Mathew, raising a bottle of beer up as a toast. "Welcome to our little shithole of a house." He had a bit of a southern drawl.
Mathew was really attractive. He was about 6 feet tall, and muscular in a lanky sort of way. That is, his didn't seem broad, but his muscular body still made him seem quite sturdy. He had buzzed blonde hair and a buzzed blonde beard to match. His jaw was really square, he had an elegant nose, and a great smile, which he wasn't afraid to display. His teeth were super white, contrasting with the tan color of his skin. He looked to be about thirty. He wore a torn pair of jeans and a loose white shirt.
"You'd better get the others," Matthew said.
"Yeah, fine," said Cougar sharply. "Go ahead into the dining room and have a seat," he said to us, pointing towards the kitchen.
I followed Will into the kitchen, which was big enough to have two refrigerators but looked as run-down as the rest of the place, and into the dining room. We sat down at the large but cheap-looking plastic table.
"You've never been here before, have you?" I asked Will when we were alone.
"Nope."
"What is this place?"
He didn't answer me. Instead he looked away, out the window into the sunlight of the backyard.
Cougar came back in the room and sat down. "They're coming," he said.
A big, hulking man came in through the kitchen. He was black, with really dark skin, probably about 6'6," broad and buff. He looked to be about thirty. His hair was shaved short, and he had a broad nose and big, scary eyes. He was wearing just a pair of sweatpants, showing his huge, bare torso. I glanced at his bulging abs and huge pecs. This was an intimidating man. The fact that he came in smiling at us didn't make his seem any friendlier, just wicked.
"I am Malcolm," he said. It sounded like he had the tiniest touch of a Caribbean accent. "You boys come far?"
"Baltimore," said Will.
Mathew walked in and sat down too, and behind him came another huge man, though not as big as Malcolm. He looked like he was half black and half white, his skin was a really light brown. His head was shaved bald, he had a wide chin, a wide nose, and a pair of sunglasses on. He was probably 6'3", and built big, like Malcolm, with huge muscles. He wore black pants and a black vest, without a shirt on underneath. He looked a bit younger than Malcolm and Mathew, maybe in his late twenties.
"Where's Russ?" he asked. He had a really deep voice.
"He's coming," said Cougar.
"My name's Case," said the man. He didn't smile. "I'm the alpha here."
"I'm Will, and this is Rick. I was the alpha in my pack in Baltimore."
Case nodded at me. "How much does he know?"
"Nothing, as far as I can tell," answered Will. "He just walked right into the restaurant I always eat at. Didn't even look at me."
"So he can't even--" started Mathew.
"Nope. Can't do shit, as far as I can tell."
"He might have been acting subconsciously. Something in him knew that you were there and led him straight to you." This came from another man who had come in from the entrance behind me.
"That's Russ," said Case. "He's our beta. He's smarter than he looks."
Russ sat down. He was about as tall as Will, had brown hair that was cut short, almost like a military cut, and with a widow's peak. He wore a pair of camouflage print cargo pants, combat boots, and a dark blue T-shirt. He was as sturdy as the rest of them, although he looked older, maybe in his late thirties. His skin was tan; he had a small mouth, and a strong nose. His eyes were big and piercing, and his face had a permanent stoic, poker face expression, but his eyebrows were always lowered, as if concerned or angry. The only thing that lightened his features up were his protruding ears that gave him a small hint of goofiness.
I looked around at all of them. I had never sat at a table with so many great looking guys. But I wasn't gawking, I was too scared. Any one of these guys could certainly kick my butt without a problem.
"I almost killed him when I found him," said Will. "Then I thought I'd better take him somewhere safe instead."
Needless to say I was really confused.
"What about your den?" asked Case.
"Obliterated. I was the only survivor. They killed every wolf in Baltimore and in DC."
Wolf? Was that some sort of code name for their group? It sounded extensive. Had I gotten myself mixed up in some multi-ethnic mafia?
"They've killed almost every wolf in the world, Will," said Case. "How did you escape?"
"I'm tough," he answered. "What about you? Sure, some wolves survived, but you're the only den that wasn't discovered. Why is that?" He seemed suspicious.
"We're strong, small, and secretive," answered Case. "There was another pack up in Jersey, and another in West Philly. Both of them were three times the size of us. But they're all dead now."
"Of course, the vampires must have had an inside guy," said Will. "Word is that he is in Africa. But you never know, do you?"
Vampires? I assumed that he was being metaphorical.
"That's right," answered Case, looking very tough. "You never know. All I
can say is that I know my men better than I know myself."
"That's good. I need a place to stay," said Will. "I need somebody to watch my back. A lone wolf is a dead wolf."
"You're welcome here," said Case. "But I don't care about that alpha shit. Here, you start at the bottom."
"Christ, do you know how old I am?"
"I don't give a fuck how old you are. You're new here and new to us. There's a sixth bedroom upstairs you can sleep in. Fights are every Friday. You give any of your superiors any shit, and we'll either kill you or kick you out of the city, got it?"
"It's clear. What's the order here?"
"I'm first, then Russ. Malcolm's third, then Mathew, then Cougar's last.
He hasn't been a wolf for too long. He's just 24."
"Jesus, Case, why'd you have to tell him that?" snapped Cougar.
"Because, there's no secrets between us."
"What about the boy?" asked Malcolm. "What do we do with him?"
He was talking about me. I hated when people called me `boy.'
"Well, we can't just let him go," said Russ. "Not after everything he knows, especially."
Malcolm stuck a toothpick he had been holding into his mouth. "I say we kill him now," he said.
I tensed up. I sensed some sadistic urge in Malcolm to hurt me.
"That's a bad idea," said Russ. "He's much more valuable to us alive. Hey, kid. You got any little brothers?"
"No," I answered.
"Your dad's dead, right?" he continued. "Do you have any male relatives on
your dad's side that would be younger than you?"
"No. How'd you know that my dad was dead?"
He didn't answer me. "If we kill this one, another will just pop up somewhere. Maybe that one will be stronger. Maybe that one will come after us."
Malcolm raised his hand in a forceful gesture. "So what? We just kill that one too."
"No," said Case. "This kid hasn't done anything wrong, hasn't hurt anyone. We'll keep him here, safely."
"We'll just have to keep him under supervision at all times," said Russ.
I raised my hand.
"Yes?" asked Case.
"Can someone explain to me what's going on?" I asked.
"You, new guy," said Case, pointing out Will. "You'll be in charge of him for now. Tell him everything he needs to know."
"I'm not much of a babysitter."
"I don't give a fuck," said Case. "You'll do as I say. Kid, listen to me. I don't want you to feel like you're a prisoner here."
"So I can leave?" I asked.
"No. Not without supervision. It wouldn't be safe for you alone out there. I'm just saying, we'll treat you like you're one of us. Got that everyone? He may be last in the order, but he's still family. Treat him with the respect he deserves. Meeting adjourned."
Everyone got up and left the table, except for me and Will. I knew that the strange group of kidnappers just decided to keep me alive, but beyond that, I was hopelessly lost.
Once we were alone again, Will turned to me. "I bet you have a shitload of
questions to ask."
"Yeah." I started with the obvious one. "Who are you? Why do you call yourselves wolves?"
"We, my friend, are werewolves."
I laughed. "You mean metaphorically?"
"No, I'm being totally literal."
I shook my head in disbelief. These people were obviously crazy. "Oh yeah? Then why don't you just transform into a wolf or something? Or do you need to wait for nightfall so you can howl at the moon?"
He shook his head. "You mock me again and I swear you'll won't do it a third time, understand?"
He was threatening me again. "Case said to treat me with respect," I said.
"He said to treat you with the respect you deserve. You need to earn your respect around here, kid."
"So, you really expect me to take your word for it that you are a werewolf? You look like an ordinary guy to me."
"Just shuttup and I'll show you."
He took off his leather jacket and held out his bare, muscular arm. I couldn't help noticing how thick and hairy his forearm was. As I watched, his arm seemed to grow longer and thicker. I looked up. His other arm was growing too. His whole body was. Hair started sprouting out from everywhere, and his wifebeater became tight from the pressure of his expanding body.
Then his face started to change. It was like his bone structure was re-creating itself. Looking at it was terrifying to say the least.
Then, before his shape took anything definite, the process started reversing. His face returned to normal, as did his body.
"Is that enough to satisfy you? If I would have kept on going I would have ripped through my clothes."
I was beyond speech at that moment. This went against every scientific reasoning that I had learned to frame my view of the world around. What I had just seen was impossible. Werewolves weren't possible.
When my reason seemed lost, I wavered back towards my religious upbringing. Demons. These must be demons.
He laughed at me. "I've never seen anyone's eyes wider. Look, there's no need to be afraid. We aren't monsters. We're human on the inside. All of us were human once."
"You don't kill people?"
"Not if they don't bother us. Well, except when the moon's full."
"What?"
"Better not breach that subject just now." He stood up. "Let's check this place out," he said. "Follow me."
He led me into the office, which had a computer in it and not much else. "A computer. That's nice. My Baltimore den didn't have all this luxury."
I looked at the computer. It looked old, and the room in general was filthy looking.
We walked back into the entry way, and he led me up one flight of stairs. There were five doors in the 2nd story hall. He opened the first one, which opened up into a small, grungy bathroom. Malcolm came out of one of the other doors.
"There's four bedrooms on this level," he said, smiling. "This is mine."
We looked inside. It was a pretty large room with a double bed.
"Nice," said Will.
"You should see Case's room. We switch rooms if we switch positions. But that hasn't happened in a long time. That, number six, is your room." He pointed towards the far door. Will pushed the door open. It was barely as big as a closet; with just room enough for one twin bed, no dresser, no table, and no window. The mattress on the rickety bed looked as if it hadn't been used in decades.
"It's shit," said Will.
"I don't make the rules here," said Malcolm. "If it was up to me, hey, you're the new guy, you could take my nice room, and I'll take the shit room. But that would be against the rules."
"So, what's with this order thing?" I asked.
"Every wolf den has its order," said Will. "The first, the alpha, that's who's in charge of most things."
"That's Case," I said.
"Right. But beneath the alpha, there's still a hierarchy. Malcolm, here, is third right?"
"That's right. That means I have authority over Mathew and Cougar, as well as you two."
"Right," said Will. "And me, since I'm new, I'm sixth. But that still means you gotta do what I say." He turned to Malcolm. "So where's the rest of the house?"
"Case and Russ's rooms are upstairs. Downstairs is everything else. Through the kitchen pantry."
The kitchen pantry had another door in its back that led down a flight of cement stairs. I followed Will into the darkness, and he switched on a light.
The basement was roughly finished, cement floors and walls. It looked to be a small gym, with mats on the floor, weights, benches, etc. To one side, there was a partition creating a second room. That turned out to be a large shower, with several showerheads.
There was another flight of stairs going down. In the second basement, there was what appeared to be a sort of jail. Most of the room was sectioned off with sturdy looking bars. There was a gate with a substantial lock.
"What is this, a prison?" I asked, wondering if they were going to lock me in here.
"No," answered Will. "A kennel."
"How did they manage to build this under the house?"
"We have our ways. The one in my old den was much larger than this."
I looked at him in the eye. "So, who killed all the other wolves in Baltimore?"
"Vampires."
"Vampires? Are you kidding?"
"Look, can we just forget the `are you kidding' or `you can't be serious'sort of comments? They're annoying as fuck."
"Yeah, sorry," I said.
"The vampires have always been our enemies. Before this year, we always had them on the run. See, we can smell them, and they can't smell us. Soit's easy for us to pick them out of a crowd, but they can't do the same for us. But recently, things changed. An army of them came at us. Swept across the whole world. They went from city to city, invading all the dens and killing all the wolves. So now we're all fucked. Mostly, the ones who survived are alone out there." I could tell the subject really upset him.
"How did the vampires know where all the dens were? From the outside, this house looks like any other."
"Exactly. How did they know the location of every den in the world? Only a werewolf would have access to that information. That's why it must have been one of us that let the vampires in on the secret. And since a werewolf working with the vampires likely wouldn't have been killed by them, it seems pretty damn certain that one of the survivors is the mole."
There was so much information so fast; I was finding it difficult to keep
track. "And what about me? Why do you want me?"
"You are a different creature altogether. You are `gifted.' It means that you might get certain powers. Or you might not. But others of your kind in the past have really kicked some wolf ass. So when I smelled you today in that restaurant, I was worried."
Me, gifted? Beyond my IQ, that is? "So is that why, um, Russ, was asking me about my family?"
He nodded. "Your gift is passed on genetically through the male line. He was making sure you didn't have any male family members left."
This was incredible. "But I don't have any special powers, I'm just normal me."
"No, you don't. That's why I didn't kill you. So you'll stay here with us."
"At the bottom."
"Yeah, at the bottom, where you belong."
I considered for a moment. "But, technically, you and I were initiated into this group simultaneously. Why couldn't I be sixth, and you be seventh?"
"Well, you could, I guess," he said. "But then I'd have to fight you. And I really don't think you want that. See, that's how you move up in rank. You challenge the person above you to a fight, and if you win, you switch positions with them. But most of the time, guys don't challenge their superiors, cause if you challenge them and you lose, they're gonna be extra tough on your ass."
Suddenly, Cougar came trotting down the stairs. He pointed at Will. "You, big guy, go get us dinner. We want pizza. And none of that bake it yourself shit either." He turned and ran back up the stairs.
"Oh, he'll get it come Friday," said Will. "I'm not gonna be pulling any punches. After I beat him, then we'll see who's giving orders to who."
"Couldn't you challenge them all on Friday?"
"No, just one fight a day."
"Oh," I said. "So, I guess you're just gonna make me go get the food instead, since I'm the only one under you?"
He laughed. "Nope, that would reassignment. It's against the rules to reassign a chore one of your superiors has assigned you. Anyway, not like I'd give you an order to leave the house alone, now would I? You must think I'm some sort of idiot. No, I'll get the food, but while I'm doing it, you're gonna do something for me. I want you to drag that shitty thing they call a mattress out of my room, take it outside, and beat all the dust out of it. Then put it back."
That seemed like a major task. "Are you serious?" I asked.
"Yeah! Get the fuck moving!" Apparently he wasn't kidding.
He hit me in the back of my head, and I was running up those stairs a second later.
Was I really gifted in some physical way? The idea excited me. Before, when I tried to envision my life in the future, I was always sure it would be dull. I'd probably end up working long, boring hours at a lab for the rest of my life. I'd have money to spare, but nothing to do with it. Now my future was starting to seem hazy. Sure, I was still scared. But I was also a little excited.
I was pulled out of my contemplations by the task at hand. The mattress was a pain to get down the stairs by myself. Cougar passed me in the hall, but instead of offering to help, he just laughed at me. By the time I had it beaten and dragged it back upstairs, Will was long back with the pizza, and I was starving.
I went to grab a slice of pepperoni, but Mathew stopped me.
"Wait, kid," he said. "We eat in order. Wait your turn."
This meant that Case got to go first. He picked about three quarters of one pizza and said that was enough for him. Then Russ went. He made everyone wait while he ate all of his pizza, then finally left the table. Afterwards, Malcolm ate a couple of slices, took a whole pie for himself, and told Mathew to go ahead. Mathew took several pieces and finished. Then Cougar made Will and I wait while he ate excruciatingly slowly. Talk about rubbing it in. When he started there was about one and a half pizzas left. He purposefully stuffed himself, eating every last piece, glaring at Will.
"Oh, too bad," he said to him sarcastically. "Looks like you should have gotten more."
"Oh no, don't worry, there's still another one in the kitchen," said Will, matching Cougar's sarcasm. He retrieved another large pizza and set in front of Cougar. "You go ahead and finish it if you can."
Cougar looked at the pizza like he detested it more than anything, and left, saying he was done. Laughing, Will dug into the pizza, leaving me the last one standing.
I thought I would cry when he grabbed the last piece and started to eat it. As he ripped the last piece of cheese off the crust, he handed me the leftovers.
"No thanks," I said.
"Eat it." His tone was forceful.
I took it from him and started to eat the crust, a little grossed out.
"Good. Eat the rest of the crusts too, and clean this place up."
With that, he left the room. The leftover crusts, once I got passed the disgust, actually filled me up.
As I was finishing cleaning the kitchen, Russ came into the room. "Kid, I'm about to go to bed. Make my bed for me upstairs before I do. Move it."
I was dead tired myself, and the last thing I wanted to do was make someone else's bed. But that angry look in his eye told me that he wasn't fooling around. I went upstairs to the 3rd floor. There were two doors off the hallway, but one was wide open, and I peered into this room. I figured it must be Russ's. It had a queen-size bed, a couch, a TV, a desk--everything. It even had its own bathroom. I was making his bed when
he came into the room.
"Get those goddamn wrinkles out," he said, pointing to the bedspread.
So I smoothed them over one by one. "Good," he said. "Now get out."
I left the room, and he shut the door behind me. He seemed like a total fascist.
I figured I could sleep anywhere I wanted as long it wasn't in any of the bedrooms, so I chose one of the couches downstairs. I found a blanket in the closet, and took it into the living room. Mathew was sitting there watching TV again, so I laid my blanket out on the couch that he wasn't on, and spread myself out on top. The couch wasn't exactly comfortable; it felt lumpy and hard.
"Careful, there's rats in that couch," said Mathew. Grossed out, I flew up off of it, and he started laughing. "Just fucking with you," he said.
Up anyway, I grabbed my kit and went upstairs to take a shower. I found a towel that smelled clean in the closet, and went into the filthy bathroom. The shower looked so dirty I wasn't sure at first if I wanted to step intoit. I stripped and got into the shower, turning on the water.
I was washing my hair when the bathroom door opened, and Cougar stepped in, a towel around his waist. His torso was taut with muscles, and I couldn't believe how hairy he was. A huge rug of black, straight hair covered his chest. Hair surrounded the contour of his abs, and disappeared into his towel. He looked pissed off again.
"Uh-uh," he said, intruding into the bathroom. "Do you have a fucking bedroom upstairs?"
"No," I said.
"Then why the fuck are you using the upstairs bathroom?" he asked.
He opened the shower door, grabbed me by the neck, and pulled me, naked, out of the bathroom.
"Use the one downstairs, dumbass," he said, tossing me my kit and towel before shutting himself in the bathroom.
I heard a whistle. Malcolm's door was open and he was laughing at me. Embarrassed, I quickly wrapped the towel around my waist and headed downstairs.
All alone in the dreary, cold basement, I felt a little scared. I didn't like the openness of the showers, it reminded me of school. But, it was this or nothing, so I washed up there and then went back to the couch for bed.
I would have gone right to sleep if Mathew wasn't watching TV. It was a couple of hours before he went to bed, and he left the TV on when he did.
"I'm hitting the hay," he said. He walked over to the front door and hit a button on an alarm panel on the wall. "The alarm's on. You open a door or a window and it'll go off." With that, he went up to bed.
I guess that meant I wasn't going to escape during the night. And the possibility of making a phone call was ruled out by the fact that there was no working land line in the house. All the guys just had cell phones. I got up, turned the TV off, and got back on the couch.
As I started to drift off, I tried to reflect on the day and its significance upon my life. Today had definitely been the weirdest day I had ever been through. But somehow, I wasn't as upset as I had been the night before. Before, I had been terrified of facing reality. Now, it was like reality had been tossed out the window. I had been kidnapped by urban werewolves because I was somehow magically gifted, for god's sakes. It didn't make any sense rationally. And so it was almost like one of my novels. The hero was always taken aback at first when put into a situation that seemed alien to him. But eventually, the hero always found contentment. Maybe it would be the same way with me.
*****
But, as I realized the next day, that contentment would not necessarily come easily. After I got up, all the resident werewolves made me do their laundry. Carrying a hamper in each arm, I went out into the garage which was on the back of the property. The ancient-looking washer and dryer were there along with a bunch of new-looking motorcycles, and an old Chevy Blazer.
Doing the laundry of six big men takes a lot of time. I was at it all day long.
After lunch, when I had a break while I was waiting for a load to finish drying, I sat down on the couch to take a short breather. Nobody was in the room besides me, in fact, it seemed like nobody was on the first floor at all. Will had been out all day running errands for the rest of them, and I knew Malcolm and Case went out for something together. Strangely enough, the front door was wide open.
I got up and walked towards it. Sunlight was spilling brightly into the otherwise dim house. The alarm must have been off. If I ran now, no one would notice me go.
Possibilities flashed through my head. Where would I run to? The police station? They wouldn't believe me if I told them I had been abducted by werewolves, but maybe I could leave that detail out of the kidnapping story. They'd probably send me back to my family or to MIT. I didn't want to go to either place.
I shut the front door before walking back to the garage. The dryer would probably be done by now.
When I finally finished all the laundry, I brought it up to their rooms in several trips. As I hauled Russ's to his door, he told me to come in. She was in a pair of shorts and a green T-shirt.
"Where should I put it?" I asked.
"On the bed," he said. "And shut the door." I shut the door behind me and put his clothes on his bed. I turned to go.
"Hold on a second, kid," he said. "Let me ask you a question, and you'd better tell me the truth. Did you have any weird dream recently? One in which you were dying?"
"Dying? No, nothing like that."
He looked angry. "You must have had some dream like that. It would have been really vivid, like it wasn't a dream at all, like you were really experiencing it."
"No, I haven't."
He grabbed me by the shoulder and squeezed until I felt pain. "Don't lie to me, kid. I know you're lying." I thought about it really hard, wanting to come up with something. "Well, I did have a really weird dream a few weeks ago, but I wasn't dying in it."
"Tell me."
"I dreamt I was in this, confined space, and there was, someone else in there with me."
"Tell me all of it."
"The dream was sort of sexual, but the really weird part is that I was biting the other person. I was drinking their blood."
He looked at me strangely for a second. "That is weird. Anything else?"
"No. I woke up then."
"Alright, you can go now." He said, turning away from me. I got the hell out of there, wondering what the significance of that conversation was.
Later on, when I was carrying another load up, the bathroom door opened and Malcolm stood there, sticking his head through the doorway. He was dripping with water, and obviously naked in there.
"You have my towel?" he asked.
I did. I grabbed his white towel from the stack and handed it to him. He started drying off behind the door, so I began to move on.
"Wait," he said. "Take my towel to my room." I turned back towards him. He still had his head through the door.
"Hold on, let me dry my dick." I could see by the movement in his shoulder that he was really rubbing himself vigorously. His face took on a look o dazed pleasure for a moment. Then he pulled his towel through the door.
"Here you go," he said, tossing it over my head. He laughed maniacally as he shut the bathroom door again. Even though he had just showered, I could detect a musky smell from the towel. I thought I could guess its source.
I took it off my head, and dropped it in his room.
By the time I was done with all the laundry, dinner was being served. This time, Will had gotten Chinese food, and plenty of it. We ate in sequence like before, but by the time it was my turn, there was still plenty of chow mein and broccoli beef for me.
"Thanks Will," I said as he left the room. He didn't respond.
That night, after such a hard day's work, the couch felt softer under my achy back, and the blanket felt warmer than before. I realized that, in spite of all the work, I was getting comfortable here. I imagined that I was destined to come here, that my chance meeting with Will in that coffee shop wasn't really chance at all. For the first time, I felt I belonged somewhere.
TO BE CONTINUED...
COMMENTS