Howl

  Chapter 4 – See Grey No More

  My body had a dull ache and I didn’t want to open my eyes. Feeling the grass under myself I snapped my eyes open returning to reality. Above me was Christopher, peering down into my eyes. And the sunlight behind his head was so incredibly strong, it actually hurt to have my eyes open. “Morning, sleeping beauty,” Chris’s smile was peaceful and utterly calm.

  The memory of last night flooded into my mind suddenly, and I remembered clutching Chris and then him running away. “You—” I coughed. My voice was surprisingly gruff as if I’d been screaming at the top of my lungs—and who knows I might have. “You came back.”

  Chris sat with one leg bent and the other straight beside me. He leaned back on both his hands to prop himself up. “I wouldn’t leave.”

  I lifted my head carefully feeling it throb.

  I moaned. “I feel like I have a hangover.”

  “And you would know how that feels?” Chris teased.

  “What happened to Scarlet? What about my mom? She’s going to kill me,” I kept my serious tone.

  Chris patted my shoulder. “Relax, it’s all taken care of.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “What are you talking about?” Realization was starting to set in. “Why did you leave me here all night? There’s something wrong with me, I need to go home or to the hospital. And why are you so happy?” I hugged myself. “What did you do to me?”

  Chris sighed. “Halle, I’m not going to beat around the bush with you.” He was totally serious now, and that scared me even more. “But, you have to listen to everything I say, and you have to listen carefully.”

  I shook my head, giving him my best what-the-hell look.

  “You do not have the flu. You are a werewolf.”

  “What?” I sat up quickly, despite my aching body. “Christopher, what the hell are you talking about?” My stomach burned. I lifted my shirt halfway to reveal a large scratch; it was exactly like the ones on the trees surrounding me. “You’re full of it.”

  He brushed his hair back out of his face. “Don’t you think it’s just a little bit ironic that last night was a full moon?”

  I glared at him unhappy that he actually came up with a reason why I could be a werewolf. He was annoying me with his stupidity that I didn’t have time for.

  “And you passed out and can’t remember a thing. You howled last night—inhumanly.” His eyes narrowed accusingly at me. “Do you need more proof?”

  “Right now you’re not making sense, so if you have proof then go ahead, Christopher.” I refused to believe him. It was something I couldn’t comprehend and I just wanted to go home. His accusations were frightening and crazy. I didn’t know him enough to know if he was actually going to say he was joking or if he actually was just a crazy lunatic… either way he was going too far.

  “Let me guess...” He let out a long sigh and hugged his knee. “About one month ago, you were bitten or scratched by something.” He rolled his eyes. “Since then, things have taken a turn for the worse. Your muscles swelled, your head has been pounding every second. You’ve been passing out—getting ill—and you’ve been seeing in black and white…” He his silver eyes turned to slits and his voice lowered. “All of these things happened because you were making the transition from human to werewolf.”

  I looked away from him so I could assess if there were any way possible he could know that so that his gaze didn’t distract my already flighty mind. Everything he said was right on target. How could he know these things? I told no one of the swelling following the animal attack, not even Scarlet. The only ones who knew were my parents and Logan—which to my knowledge he hasn’t been around them. Otherwise, I would have just passed the other information as being rumor someone else told him. But this was something more, and I needed to find out more before I believed him. All of the pieces fit. I turned my pounding head back toward him. “So I’m always going to be ill?”

  Chris shook his head. “No, you should be completely fine by now. Nevertheless, you’ll still ache until that heals up.” He motioned towards my stomach.

  “What happened to Scarlet?” I asked again.

  “I’ll get to that in one minute.” He picked a flower from the field and twirled it between his fingers. “Halle, I didn’t come here exactly like I said before.” His gaze shifted from the flower to me. “I came here to watch over you.”

  My lips parted as I sucked in a breath of air and let it out again. “So you lied?” I accused.

  “Not really, I just left out some parts.” He was so sure of himself, like he thought I would let it slide. “My parents are split up and my dad did buy me the house and all of that what-not. But I came here for you.” He paused and his expression softened slightly. “We don’t leave our own kind to transform by themselves and then wake up in the morning lost, scared, and alone—”

  “So you think you’re a werewolf?” I realized.

  “I know I am.” Chris nodded his head. “I don’t know who bit you originally, but I assure you, it was pure accident. It really is a curse… a poor, unfortunate curse.” He raised a hand lazily and shook his head. “But there is so much to say about it, I’ll answer some of your questions now.”

  I stared down at my trembling hands trying to regain my thoughts. Absolutely overwhelmed by everything. “What happened to Scarlet and the others?”

  “They’re fine. They are continuing their day like they normally would. Here’s how I set it up—” He flashed a dazzling smile. “—You made it easier on me by going to this party tonight, you were already out in the forest—where you should be—and all was fine. When I left you, I brought the firewood back and told Scarlet that you weren’t feeling well, which you haven’t been for ages so of course she believed me.”

  “What about my parents?”

  “You already took care of that, telling them you’re going for a sleepover at Scarlet’s.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “There’s no way you could know that?”

  Chris chuckled. “Werewolves have great hearing, especially after you learn to use it. I was kind of—I guess you could say I was spying on you... watching over you. Yeah, I was standing outside your house for most of the night listening to your conversions.” I opened my mouth to speak, but he spoke right over my voice. “It was necessary for your safety.”

  “How do I even know that anything you’re saying is true? It’s even more likely that I just got sick and passed out here last night and you’re some kind of psychotic weirdo who injured me—” I motioned towards my stomach. “—and then proceeded to freak me out with weirdo tales. ” I was worried, scared and he didn’t do anything to help with that feeling. Everything about this whole situation made me feel so uneasy. Part of me wanted to believe what he was saying, because it really did make sense. But the other part of me was sickened by the probability of what most likely happened. “Wait. If you’re a werewolf, why didn’t you transform?”

  Chris sighed. “And this is the only thing I can’t prove. You can’t resist becoming a werewolf all night long, but it is possible to delay this. It takes a lot of will and a lot of practice, but it can be accomplished. I did transform last night too, just not as early as you, and to be honest you lasted longer than I thought. And the pain during the transformation process gets easier to tolerate.”

  Oh boy was he ever a sly talker. “You said you don’t let your kind transform alone, why did you run from me?”

  “I could only stay so long. While you are in your werewolf form, you attack all but your own kind. I was still in my human form, so if I stayed around any longer you would have killed me.”

  That was stupid, as if I’d kill anyone. “But you could have just let yourself transform right there, no one would have been hurt then.”

  “No one was hurt, Halle!” he seemed frustrated by my logic. “That’s why we transform in the middle of nowhere. And plus I still had to tell Scarlet w
hat happened to you.”

  “Oh, yeah, that’s right.” I felt the grass beside me with a free hand. It was still early, early morning, I could tell by the delicate, golden color of the sunlight. “How long was I a werewolf then?”

  “Typically werewolves transform for five hours. It’s the full moon that does it to you, and the moon doesn’t stay out all night long, it usually makes its full transition from east to west by midnight.”

  I hugged my knees with my arms and rested my head on them. I was so tired, physically and mentally. Chris watched me with his beautiful eyes, completely analyzing me and making me feel even more uncomfortable. “You don’t believe a word I say, do you?” He asked.

  I shook my head. “Honestly? I feel like you could have drugged me and you probably took advantage of me or something.”

  His face flashed severely. “Really, Halle? First of all, I would never do that. Second of all, you didn’t drink anything and you didn’t eat anything and I didn’t even touch you, so how could I have?”

  I sighed. “Right.” So what now then? I was out of questions and just wanted to get out of here. “What time is it?”

  “Uh...” Chris looked up into the sky. “It’s about four or five in the morning give or take a little…” I closed my eyes for a moment, this couldn’t be happening to me. Out of all of the people in the world, why me?

  Suddenly, Chris stood. He looked really tall towering above me; he had a lot of muscle, which I guess was the reason why I mistook him for the jock type. Who would have guessed he was actually the “werewolf” type. I was so glad to finally see him completely in color and to have my vision back. His eyes were a grey-green color, but I think they were greyer than anything else. His hair was a soft, feathered dark blonde that was long enough to look just barely over being perfectly kempt. “There’s still more to learn, and there’s plenty to do today, so we should get ourselves cleaned up before school starts. We don’t want people asking questions.”

  I gave Chris a quizzical look as to what he meant by “get ourselves cleaned up”, but now that he mentioned it, he did have a few cuts, and appeared as though he had been rolling around in the dirt. I figured I must have looked about the same—If not worse. He extended his hand towards me as to help me get up, which I thought I would not need, but when I tried to push myself up off the ground, I failed. My muscles were incredibly stiff and even painful. I put on a strong face so he wouldn’t see me as weak. This particular part of the forest was especially dense and I had no idea how to get out from here, so I was glad Chris was leading the way. If there was anything to make my life any worse than it already was, it would be to get lost in this forest.

  “It’s a good idea to remember where this place is. You’ll want to come back here for the next full moon, that way you don’t hurt anyone.” Chris held a branch back for me to walk past.

  “Oh, because you’re so much better?” I questioned.

  Chris raised his eyebrows. “I transformed here too, Halle, it’s not just you.”

  “That just sounds inappropriate,” I said under my breath.

  Chris flashed me a knowing smile. “You have a dirty mind.”

  “No, I just had the guts to say what you were thinking,” I teased.

  “Yeah, sure,” Chris said in a sarcastic tone.

  There was a moment of awkward silence between us. I searched my mind for something to say to him, but couldn’t find anything logical. I wanted to trust him, but at the same time nothing seemed right. I hoped that he had something to say, but I had a feeling he had the same problem I did. I spotted the familiar dirt path in front of me, the one I used to get to the party last night, and was relieved at the familiar sight. Even though my eyes were cured, I still had myself trained to look down and watch my every step carefully, which I was sure I’d get over eventually.

  “How did you find me?” I paused thinking of a way to reword that. “I mean, how did you know I was a werewolf, how did you... find me? Do werewolves have some sort of top secret lab place or something that tracks down all werewolves?”

  Christopher laughed. “Well, kinda sorta, but nothing too fancy or high tech. Word of mouth usually spreads when something so out of the ordinary occurs. You know, Wolf Point has a… uh, history with werewolves, hence why it’s called ‘Wolf Point’.”

  “I’ve heard so many stories and not one of them mentioned anything about werewolves,” I said honestly.

  “Well, the very first werewolf to ever come to be lived right here—I forget his name, it was some Indian name, I could never pronounce it properly. You can search the story online for him later. But, anyways, to answer your question, about 98 percent of the time, the victim goes to the hospital, and us werewolves have connections with the hospitals to look for those diagnosed with, uh, Hyperglyocious.”

  “So the hospitals knew I was a werewolf then?”

  Chris smiled. “Nope, they don’t, actually humans are so stupid it almost makes you ashamed to call yourself one, to them Hyperglyocious is a name for a virus strain—just like they told you—and you get over it eventually. But we have them keeping the records for us, we call in every month to check and see if anyone has that flu, and if they do, we head on over to them.”

  “That is stalker-ish.”

  “But, it’s better than transforming alone, like I said earlier, waking up lost, alone, and confused. Anyways, a friend of mine works at the Trinity Hospital here—”

  “By friend you mean werewolf or actual friend?”

  “I mean werewolf, David Lawrence is his name. He informed me about you, and that’s how the information got to me. If that answers your question.”

  “Yeah, it does, mostly.” It was more like Christopher was telling me a well put together fictional story rather than fact. I was still waiting for him to shout, “The End!” but somehow I knew this would not happen. I almost pushed last night from my mind completely, and it wasn’t even reality at all. I replaced the real story with “I’m just walking in the middle of the woods with a great story teller”. If anything else it would keep me sane.

  By now we were nearly half way up the street, and I noticed Christopher looking slightly shiftier than he was when we were back in the forest. He peeked around each corner before we walked by, and he kept checking behind himself. At first I thought he was looking at me, but then I realized his gaze went beyond me, but I still didn’t know what he was looking for.

  We turned the corner onto the street we both lived on. I could see the edge of my property from here. It was so great to be able to see the glorious orange leaved trees again in full color. I loved how the leaves changed colors in autumn, it has always been my favorite season just for that reason.

  “Where are you going?” Chris yelled to me suddenly.

  I turned around to see Christopher already halfway up a driveway. Looking closer I realized it was his driveway, his property, and his house. I didn’t recognize it at first. It was a very large building, almost larger than my own house, the house its self was an off white color, and the trim was a hunter green color.

  “Halle?” Chris questioned. His voice was hurried and uneasy.

  “Uh, yeah,” I responded. “Why are we going to your house again?” I folded my arms in front of myself, but I didn’t move. I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the idea of going to his house alone with him. After all, we just met a few days ago. I barely knew anything about him. He could still be some sort of pedophile for all I knew.

  “To get cleaned up.” Chris took a step towards me, flailing his filthy arm dramatically. “Halle, look at it this way, if we go anywhere else it definitely will raise questions. No offense, but you look like you’ve killed someone in the forest, and I’m sure I look about the same,” he said glancing down at himself.

  I stood my ground, I really didn’t feel safe going into a house all alone with a boy who claims him and I are werewolves, it just doesn’t make any sense.


  “Halle, I’m not going to harm you. You don’t have to worry about that. My only focus right now is that you and I look half-way decent. I give you my word.”

  “I barely know you, your word means nothing to me.”

  Chris sighed deeply. “Please just come inside, Halle. Get cleaned up and then you can go wherever you want.”

  “You’re not asking me, are you? You’re telling me.” I didn’t like his tone. I didn’t like how adamant he was.

  He shook his head. “I’m strongly suggesting.”

  But he was right, I did need to get cleaned up. I started walking towards the house with Chris. “I swear if you lay so much as a hand on me…” My guard was up; he wasn’t to be trusted.

  The yard was covered with orange leaves, which crunched under my feet as I walked on them. There weren’t too many of them, just enough to cover the ground. The place wasn’t exactly what I’d call well-tended, but it wasn’t completely abandoned-looking either. It was just untended enough that it was still easy on the eyes. We reached the front door and Chris opened it right away stepping aside for me to enter first.

  “You don’t lock your door?” I questioned thinking it was odd.

  “Not really,” Chris said leaning on the door, which I thought was an odd position.

  I scratched my head and stepped into the house just far enough to allow Chris into the house as well. The floor was made up of a light hardwood, and the walls were white. It really looked like a bright and welcoming house—not dark and grimy as I expected. Chris stepped around me, took off his jacket, and threw it onto the couch where it landed in a crumpled heap.

  “Make yourself at home,” Chris said opening his arms wide. “There are two bathrooms, three bedrooms, a living room, a study, a kitchen, and—” He gave a mischievous grin. “—a game room. How’s that for a tour?”

  I couldn’t help laughing. “Sounds like you’ve made yourself at home here.”

  I could tell he just moved in; the walls were absolutely barren—except for one single portrait that hung perfectly straight on the south side of the wall. It was a portrait of a man I did not recognize, but figured it must be of importance.

  “I’m going to take a shower in upstairs bathroom.” he pointed over his shoulder to the staircase. “You can take dibs on downstairs bathroom.”

  I waited for him to give me further instructions as to where it was located, but he just stared back at me, his expression unreadable.

  “Which would be… where?”

  “Which would be straight this way; the last door before the staircase.” Christopher pointed down a hall which was exactly across from the front door, then he walked down the hall himself, but stopped in front of the staircase. “Feel free to poke around; I don’t have anything to hide.” Chris continued up the staircase.

  Under normal circumstances I would have taken advantage of that, but I wanted to hurry up and get into the shower and get out before he could even have a second thought. I still didn’t trust him completely. I opened the door slowly to find a blue themed bathroom, and then I closed the door behind myself being sure to twist the lock and then pulled on the door handle to make sure it was secure. There was a small stack of grey full-sized towels sitting on the corner of the sink, a couple of blue hand towels hanging on the rack on the wall, and the shower curtain was a basic royal blue.

  I quickly disrobed. I let my shirt fall to the floor and caught my reflection in the mirror above the sink. I saw what Christopher meant, I was a mess. I had a streak of blood down my face—yet there were no visible scratches—my arms looked similar. I had a huge, deep scratch on my stomach and a couple of other scratches on my back. My face and body was full of dirt and my hair was full of leaves and tangled horribly. I looked as tired as I felt. My eyes were a grey/blue, and I didn’t remember them being that way before, then again, this was the first time I actually looked at myself in full color in weeks.

  I turned the single knob in the shower and watched the water flow hard and abundant from the shower head. The running water poured over my hand as I waited for it to warm up to an acceptable temperature. When it was warm enough and steam began to rise, I stepped in and let the hot water ooze over my body sending shivers up my spine. The water into the cut on my stomach and I whimpered as it stung, but I tolerated it in order to clean out the dirt.