The years that followed seemed much shorter than anticipated as we lived out our make-believe human lives in Crystal Falls, Michigan. With-in the first year of our return to the human world, we had knocked down the old logger's cabin and erected a larger-house made from timber we had purchased from the local lumber mill in town. The new house sat exactly where the old one had. Its large-paned windows faced out over the rocky cliff, giving us a wondrous view of the wilderness valley below.
We became quick and close friends with Rupert Jenkins, the town clothing merchant and Josephine, the first young human we had met in town. We later discovered Josephine was actually Rupert's late wife's daughter, whom had passed from cholera several years before we had arrived.
Life carried on like it always did, but this time we had managed to become part of it. People knew us as the wealthy cousin's from back east, which pleased me especially that we had finally found our place in society. Money wasn't much of an issue due to a magnitude of bank bonds Wesley had secretly kept from his human life. He had a stash of them, carefully wrapped tightly in a deer-skin pocket book that he kept on himself at all times. He spoke of other such monies that he had buried just before the civil war somewhere on his family's plantation. But I knew one day we would have to leave Crystal Falls. The money certainly wouldn't last forever and eventually people would begin to wonder why we never aged.
I feared that day. The day we would have to leave our home and begin again somewhere else. Wesley said it was part of who we were and that I would have to get used to leaving, but I didn't care to even think about it let alone go through with it.
We travelled some, visiting neighboring states and even Canada. Our trips were mostly due to our new diet and were usually relatively short. We frequented towns more and more as time passed, controlling our thirst seemed to come easier everyday.
The 1930's came and went calmly and uneventful. Our house, which had been inspired by my childhood home was littered with personal effects from books and furniture, to even a small baby-grand piano that I played frequently. Wesley had learned to speak without his southern accent, which excited him that he could turn it on and off to his liking. Things finally seemed right in our lives; we had finally found our place in the world.
It was late in 1940 that suddenly our comfortable life seemed to become jumbled. I could feel our time was coming to a close in Crystal Falls, which I dreaded like the black plague. Although Wesley was now one-hundred and four years old, he didn't look a day over twenty-five. He tried desperately to play the part; he even took up smoking a pipe to try to make himself look older. But we both knew to the humans he didn't look thirty-something. As for myself, I was physically seventeen. There was no mistaking that. It didn't matter what I did, what I wore or even how much makeup I caked on my face, I still looked young. I certainly didn't look twenty-five and everyone knew it.
Wesley didn't have to say anything; I knew what he was thinking without having to be told. Just the look in his eye gave me confirmation that we would be leaving soon, possibly after Christmas sometime. Our last winter in Michigan came early and became harsh very quickly. The snow seemed to come daily, followed by the wind that blew the fresh powder around and beyond our cozy dwelling.
It was less than a month to Christmas and I had just left town in our recently purchased Ford automobile. The roads were treacherous, the tree roots and snow drifts causing me to drive at a snails pace in fear of damaging the vehicle. It wasn't that I couldn't drive well in the dismal weather, I could see wonderfully. But I knew if I wrecked Wesley's new toy, I would be in for it when I finally made it home.
The three miles seemed to drag on as the wind and snow relentlessly threatened me. As the sky began to darken, I flipped the large headlamps on. The beams shown brightly out into the wilderness as I trudged along. It was at times like these that I was glad to be immortal. My superhuman eyes stayed focused upon the non-existent road before me as I followed the already covered ruts I had driven on earlier in the day. It was then, halfway there that I noticed something out of place amongst the snow. Something dark lay several hundred feet before me in the road, causing me to squint in the darkness. I let up on the fuel peddle, coasting to a crawl as I moved closer to the object. I stalled the engine once the headlamps caught what I had been eyeing in their glow and grinded the car to a stop. I pushed the door open against the wind, pulling my scarf over my hair as I stepped out into the storm.
My breath stopped as I approached, my frozen heart beginning to burn in my chest.
"Hello?" I called out, the wind whipping my words away as soon as they had left my lips. I moved closer, coming around to the front of the vehicle. I looked down at the dark form before me; my eyes growing wide as I finally realized what I was looking at.
A young woman, half frozen lay face first in the deep snow. I could hear her still breathing, but knew from her weakened heart beat that she was close to death. I knelt down next to her, pushing her over to her back. My breath shot out as my eyes fell to her face.
"Josephine!" I cried, my breath beginning to come more rapidly. The young woman didn't move as I touched her face, her eyes shut tightly.
A sweet sickly yet familiar smell hit me suddenly as I knelt there causing my senses to rage wildly within me.
Blood, I thought as my eyes looked down at the red snow almost hidden beneath Josephine's body.
I slowly reached down and pulled the young woman's coat apart at the front with my leather-gloved hands that were now shaking.
"Dear God." I murmured under my breath, tears springing from my eyes.
Blood oozed from her neck, her dark hair and once pale pink frock beneath her coat now saturated with her internal life. I lifted her chin slightly, grimacing as my eyes found what I was looking for. The one thing that I dreaded.
"Gunter." I hissed loudly as I pulled my scarf from my head and began to wrap it tightly around the woman's neck. The bite was larger than I remembered mine to be, but I recognized it all the same. Only one being could leave a mark like that. A werewolf.
I pulled Josephine from the frozen earth easily and lay her carefully in the backseat, covering her with a horse blanket. I moved quickly, knowing that at this very moment time was more precious than any person could realize.
I need you Wesley, I thought as I threw the new Ford into gear and slammed my foot on the accelerator.
The car screeched to a stop in front of our brightly lit house as I slammed on the brakes, the car sliding wildly to the right momentarily.
"Wesley!" I screamed as I jumped into the back seat and heaved the large door open from the inside.
Wesley was before me in a flash, his face more pale than I had ever seen it. He slipped Josephine into his arms carefully and ran to the house, his figure just a blur before me as I slammed the automobile door shut and followed not far behind. I could hear hysterical sobs distantly as I watched Wesley lay the bloody young woman down gently on the sofa in the parlor. I watched, my whole body shaking as Wesley sat down neck to her and pulled my sopping wet scarf from her neck.
"She's been bitten." Wesley cried appalled as he looked up at me, his eyes wide with disbelief.
I didn't recognize where the now louder sobbing was coming from until I finally found the words to speak.
"Werewolf." I cried, now realizing I had been the one sobbing all along.
Wesley disappeared momentarily, returning with a handful of medical supplies. I watched him pull a thick sewing needle out which in turn caused me to twist away as he began to go to work on Josephine's wound.
There was no sound as I moved to the hallway, pulling my bloodied gloves from my hands as I moved. I somehow managed to slip my heavy wool coat off and hang it over the coat stand by the door. I stared at the door blindly as my body continued to shake uncontrollably, the wind now hushed unsettlingly. I stood there for a long time as Wesley tended to the half-dead young woman, my eyes began to blur as tears saturated and stained my cheeks.
I felt Wesley's strong arms suddenly wrap around my waist as he pulled my back against him tightly and laid his chin atop my hair. I leaned my head back as I closed my eyes tautly from the light. The world seemed to stand still as my mind finally took everything in. Everything froze, just like I had and Wesley before me as reason crept into my thoughts. I knew this young woman, just barely sixteen and once full of life was now lifeless like we were. Her life was over. If she lived from her wounds, which I knew she would, she'd become like us. Forever young but forever doomed. Like us, she would be cursed until the end of time.