DTAH

"Death to all humans."

New York, 1965.

"This room...should not look like this. Look around you. We shouldn't be sitting in the basement of Danny's mom's apartment. We should be in a dining hall or the office of some towering building."

The young woman flipped her hair and swept a critical glare across the room. Her audience consisted of ten men around her age. They sat below her, their eyes rapt with attention, hands braced against their knees or tucked across their chests. The following week there were only eight men. One had gotten married and the other had decided to attend school.

" They have monuments to their forefathers. They have the god damn white house for their elected officials. And what do we have? I'll be lucky if I can get my great grandfather into a decent nursing home."

The following week only five remained, amongst them a young Jim Hopper. Every time their eyes met, a smile lit across his face. He was proud of her and disgusted by the DTAH members who abandoned them. He was keenly aware of the shrinking support for their cause. Every week, the number of folding chairs that they set out decreased. Her lectures drew less applause. Her appearance became haggard, feral at times, but still she persisted.

" My great grandfather," she spat as she spoke. Her eyes rolled loosely between the four men sitting in front of her. When they flashed upon Jim, he quickly looked away. "When I was in school they asked me to write a report on a family member who inspired me. Do you know who I wanted to write about? My ancestor Richard who held off three human hunters while he was transformed. And he killed 'em all! But noooooo. Elder Zen said I had to choose a human so that I wouldn't expose myself. "

That following week, there were only three left. Her, Jim, and a fellow DTAH member named Q. At the end of the meeting, Q rose from his seat and clapped Jim on the shoulder.

"Take care of her, Jim."

"You're not coming back?"

Q stuck out his bottom lip and shook his head. He shot a quick look at the girl over his shoulder. That girl's cuckoo crazy, his eyes said. Jim jerked his shoulder away from Q's hand and called him a coward and a traitor.

"What have humans ever done for you?" He asked him.

"Nothing. And you know what? Maybe it's better that way."

The next and final week, the girl came and sat down next to Jim. She rested her cheek against his shoulder and blew a lost strand of hair away from her face.

"Hiding, hiding, hiding, Jimmy. All we do is hide," she croaked. "And for what? Because they can't handle the thought of werewolves. What do you think they'd do to us, Jimmy? Enslave us? Lock us up and study us? Try to drain our power?"

"I don't know."

"No you don't. And neither do I. But I do know this...what if…." she straightened up and fixed him with a mischievous gaze. "What if...there were only werewolves on this planet? We'd be at the top of the food chain, wouldn't have to hide or compete for resources. We'd be free to honor our own existence without fear of repercussion."

"I mean yeah I guess." Honestly, Jim couldn't imagine a world with just werewolves. It seemed like it would be a very small world. Besides, there were humans that he was fine with. She was looking at him then. Her sunken eyes sparkled with a hopefulness that he hadn't seen in a long time. So he leaned in and kissed her. But her body stiffened against his touch and he immediately knew that he had done something wrong.

"Whoa. Okay. Jimmy." She placed a hand between them and leaned back a few inches. "I want you to know that I see you as a brother...alright?"

"...yeah of course. I just um…" He felt as if everything beneath his skin was slowly melting. "You know I'm just really inspired by what you're saying."

"You are? I mean, that's great. A systematic operation is what we need. A revolution. A genocide , even."

"A what ?"

"Nothing. Not that. No. What I mean to say is...I guess we need to scare them a little bit. Remind them that there's a power higher than their own." Suddenly she perked up. The wind slid through the single open window and whistled around them, blowing her hair in wispy strands across her face. The room was quiet save for the creaking of the tenants upstairs. The conspiratorial tone of her voice both excited and worried him. "I've always had this idea, Jimmy. There's these humans that stay out in that little abandoned lot near the water. Druggies, I think. Anyway they're squatters, I don't think anybody ever really checks on them. And I asked Zen about 'em, he said they're not one of us. What if...what if we go there and unleash the wolf on them."

She jerked back and clapped her hands across her mouth. The idea was beyond exhilarating to her, he could see that much. But there was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn't like feeling at odds with her. After all, he was all that she had left.

"Unleash the wolf?" He laughed awkwardly, hoping that maybe she'd laugh with him and admit that it was all a silly joke. She nodded, her hands still covering her mouth.

"You know. Like. Rough them up a little bit. Scare the pants off them. What are they gonna do, tell the police that they were attacked by a wolf? What's the likelihood of that? Cops'll probably think that they're on something. Oh, and I found out that if you bite a person before the full moon they'll turn like that." She snapped and he jumped. "Oh come on Jim! This could turn into something. Just for one night let's see what it feels like to have all of the power. Then maybe you'll believe me, maybe you'll understand our right to a revolution."

"But...but...the bite...the wolf...what you're trying to do is kill someone!"

"Noooooo," she rolled her eyes and fluttered her chapped lips. She reached out and folded his hands in hers. "When you transform after the bite, you're still semi-lucid. Like, conscious in the wolf's body."

"Gnarly."

"Righteous." She lifted his hands and pressed them to her lips. "That's why you're gonna bite me and I'm gonna spook them. Come on, Jimmy, don't be a sack of shit."

"I'm not!"

"Then let's do it. Tonight. No, now."

" Now? "

"Now."

"O-okay."

Jim didn't know what he was doing or why he was doing it as he took her hand and let her lead him to the doors. Once outside, the sudden gusts of wind lifted their hair and planted patches of snow on their jackets. They slid into her car and sped down the quiet street. She was ecstatic, frighteningly so. She switched between flipping through the channels and complimenting his courage, her hands shaking all the while. It occurred to him that what they were about to do could have grave consequences but Jim wasn't a punk, and he'd be damned if he let her see him as such. "We make a great team, Jimmy. And when the world is finally ours ...gosh, you'll thank me."

She turned the car into an empty lot housing a few run down trailers. Beyond, the water roared and lapped viciously at the boulders bordering the lot. A single nocturnal creature jumped and skittered across the dusty pavement, scattering gravel and trash behind it. Inside the middle trailer, a single yellow light glowed stoically amongst the ruin. He could sense the people inside. The smell of something burning wafted through the air and made him wrinkle his nose.

"Ready?" She smiled at him again and pulled a pocket knife from her coat.

"What's that for?" He asked in alarm.

"Just in case things go south of the equator...which they won't. Okay so...we're gonna knock, say it's an emergency and - oh I don't know, tell them that I was jumped or something and that I need to use their phone. Then, once I'm inside - wham - you bite me and watch me work. Got it?"

"Got it," he answered dryly but she was already out of the car, walking towards the trailer. Her boots made a dull crunching sound as they met the gravel and for some reason the sound irritated him. He quickly hopped out and followed her towards the light. She was fake-limping, her shoulders hunched in pretend agony as she approached the door. She raised her hand to knock but then suddenly turned around and looked him dead in the face

"You do this for me...and I don't know, maybe you'll be less of a brother and more of a rugged neighbor next door type."

She knocked before he could respond. There was the sound of a sudden startling within then all was quiet. Then, a reedy female voice called, "Who's there?"

"Oh my gosh, can you help me? I've been hurt!" The girl called then gave Jim a pointed look. He cleared his throat and yet when he spoke his voice was weak with fear.

"It's...it's my girlfriend! We were jumped and I think they broke her leg!"

The silence that followed seemed to stretch on into eternity. Then, a woman with mousy brown hair nosed her way past the newspaper curtains and fixed them with a cautious scowl.

"She don't look hurt to me."

"Please, can we just use your phone? We'll stand outside."

"Don't got a phone here. Go next door, they may be able to help."

Jim could see her gritting her teeth as she tried to come up with a new plan. Then, suddenly, the door creaked open and the mousy haired woman stuck her arm through the crack.

"Here," she said and shook a roll of gauze at them.

"Thanks," the girl said and then added, "do you have any tape?"

The arm retreated and in less than a second the girl had flung her weight against the door and forced it open. Jim watched in horror as she tumbled on top of the woman, then he rushed in after her. There was a scream and an overweight man lifted himself up from the tattered couch.

"Alright assholes, nobody move!" The girl retrieved another knife from her belt and brandished it wildly at the couple. The woman flinched and the girl swung clumsily at her arm, leaving a bright red line along the top of her elbow. "Me and my partner here will gut you like a couple of human fishes if you try and act crazy! Hopper!" She flung her arm back and he backed away instinctively. "Bite me!"

"Huh?"

"Don't be a bitch! I said bite me! Hard! NOW !"

Hypnotized by her rage, he crept forward and sunk his teeth into the soft skin on her wrists. The man and woman watched in horror as her back arched to the point of breaking. Then, as she shuddered and fell to all fours, Jim noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned to look and there, peeking around the corner of the door, was a little blonde haired girl around the age of six. "Shit," he muttered. "Danny?"

But it was too late. Danny was rising on all fours except she was no longer Danny. Ashen grey fur had sprouted from her skin with a tremendous snapping and creaking of bones. Her lips were twitching and shortening. Her snout opened wide around a still-human scream and she stumbled forward on shaggy legs. The family screamed and Jim shook his head, suddenly dizzy. Through his wavering vision, he saw the wolf lunge and snap it's teeth at the petrified couple. The little girl was crying now, her words garbled in horror at the sight of what Danny had become.

"Hey!" Jim yelled and only then realized that he had been covering his ears. "Hey," he said again and spun around to confront the girl. She bunched her fists and screamed at him again. The sight of her mouth open and strung with pearlescent saliva did something to his heart and he took a step forward, still brandishing his knife in his hand.

Shut up or she'll hurt you , he wanted to say but there was the sound of something crashing and he spun around again. The Grey wolf had the father's arm clamped in her jaws as he struggled to get away. As Jim watched, he grabbed a lamp and smashed it mightily against the broad head. The wolf shivered, released her grip, then clamped down even harder as the mousy haired woman watched helplessly. Her hands found a nearby wrench and she swung it at the wolf. It found her head with a deep thunk and the wolf barked in surprise. The man had fallen limp, his eyes empty with shock, and the wolf turned towards the woman. It was then that Jim realized that Danny meant to kill her and that perhaps she had meant to kill them all along.

"Not my mommy!" The little girl cried in dismay as the Grey wolf crouched, its yellow eyes set on the woman. He had to stop it, he realized. It was now or never.

"Whoa, Danny, whoa!" He called. The grey wolf paused and turned the heat of its gaze on Jim. He could still sense her, the human within, and the disappointment in her eyes was like an arrow in his gut. Then, she sniffed the air, and set her gaze towards the girl. All the air seemed to get sucked out of Jim's chest and he straightened his arms between them.

"You don't want to do this, I know you can hear me!"

The wolf lunged and Jim caught it by its broad neck just in time. Her warm body thrashed in his grip and he struggled to hold on. He lost his grip and suddenly they were both on the ground: he, on his back and her scrabbling for a foothold so that she could get the girl. For a moment he lost his hold and she escaped him but he was up in less than a second. Blindly , he reached out and caught a grip of the only thing near him: her tail. The wolf yelped, twisted back, and sunk all of her teeth into his hand. Blackness descended upon his vision then as he gripped his hand in pain. He could sense the mousy haired woman flying over him, hear her cry out as the Grey wolf attacked either her or her daughter and he knew that he had to stop her. He was the only thing standing between them and a slow, painful death.

He braced his hands against the floor and threw himself blindly towards the commotion. Again, his strong arms wrapped around the wolf's body but this time he sunk his teeth into her neck.

"Go! In the bathroom! Bathroom!" He cried against the gushings of blood and saliva filling his mouth. The woman lifted her daughter and carried them bodily into the small enclosure where she locked the door with a loud clunk. The Grey Wolf threw its neck and attempted to throw Jim off with a sudden buckle of her back but Jim was too strong. For he had become resolute in his course of action. Though she whined and bit and scratched, Jim held her down.

Hours passed as the half moon slowly gave way to the pre-dawn glow. He didn't know when he woke, or what had happened. But when he opened his eyes he was covered in blood and Danny lay beneath him, naked and pale. Slowly, gently, he pushed himself up and surveyed the small trailer. Everything was a mess: the small couch and tv had both been upended. Blood spattered the walls. Glass had been shattered, and at some point, plates had been thrown. Still, the father lay unmoving in the corner. Jim stood on wobbly legs and pressed his fingers against the man's neck. No pulse.

Still shaking, he made his way to the bathroom and knocked lightly on the door.

"Is it over?" A raspy voice called. He could hear sniffling and the quiet muttering of the little girl. He didn't respond and instead walked to the middle of the room, fingering a tuft of greasy hair. He tried not to look at Danny or the man or anything really as he uncovered a phone buried beneath the junk on the kitchen table.

The man on the other end of the line was quiet as he listened to Jim speak. When all was said and done he simply thanked Jim for his courage and promised to be there soon. Jim couldn't bear to wait inside of that tiny trailer so he pushed the crooked door open and stepped outside. The sound of waves and cooling sea breeze was refreshing but not enough. So he sat upon the steps and buried his face in his hands. After a few minutes, he heard a door inside the trailer opened. Then, he heard the scream.

Jim couldn't have been more happy to see Elder Wolf Zen arrive on his old, beat up motorcycle. In tow were a few more of their kind, all grim and well-past Jim's age. Zen surveyed him with a pensive look then sighed.

"Wipe the blood off your face, boy." He said as the others climbed into the trailer to take stock of the situation. Jim could hear the woman demanding to know who they were and what they were doing there. He tried to block out the sound of her voice. Zen hitched up his pants and kneeled to a squat before Jim. "You did the right thing," he said simply as he pressed a handkerchief against Jim's nose.

"What's gonna happen to them?"

"We place some of our kind in the police force for a reason. We'll say it was an attack by a rabid dog, accompanied by methamphetamine-induced hallucinations of two human beings transforming into wolves. We'll monitor them for a couple of years and, assuming there'll be no trouble, that'll be that."

"And Danny?"

"Don't worry about that. But, Hopper, speaking of the police. You showed a lot of restraint last night and I am very proud of you. We need more young werewolves like you in the human police force. Good to keep an eye on things."

Right at that moment a pair of men stepped out of the trailer, Danny's nude body hung between them. Jim watched her lifeless hand flop beneath her and then his eyes quickly cut to the little girl standing in the doorway. Her brow was furrowed as she sucked upon her thumb. He could see it in her eyes as they followed Danny: questions forming that were not yet ready to be clothed in words. Then, her eyes met his and his heart skipped a beat. He had hoped that maybe, just maybe, she'd smile or show at least some form of relief. But instead her eyes seemed to darken as they crossed his and she spun around, her face twisted in horror as she ran for her mom.

X

Berkeley, California 1984

The Berkeley sanctuary had been established as a sort of emergency gathering place for werewolves in the Bay Area. Its prime had long since passed, however. Nowadays, Elder wolves moped around, watching the tides of their world and interfering as necessary. Hopper sat awkwardly at a lopsided wooden table, his eyes rolling over the heavy black binders bending the metal racks that held them. Somewhere, amongst the yellowed and rancid-smelling pages, was his name preceded by the names of his family and others just like them. Centuries of information. He could pluck a book down and track the bloodline of a wolf in Antartica. Which he would have gladly done just to get away from this meeting.

The woman in front of him stirred her tea slowly, her face long-since set in sadness. "You could have at least brought me some of whatever you've been drinking. I'm so sick of dandelion tea."

"I haven't been drinking, Danny."

"Your breath says otherwise. And anyways. Everyone here knows you've become the town drunk." She raised her eyebrows and sipped her tea. Whenever she moved, the shackles on her ankles jangled. "Fucking Indiana. How's that?"

"Awww, man." Jim reached in his pocket for his cigarettes, caught the disapproving eye of a passing Elder, and proceeded to light one anyway. "How'd you know I moved to Indiana?"

She swallowed and circled her finger in the air. "I know about everyone here. That's all they do. Talk. 'Oh, so and so transformed for the first time' or 'so and so didn't give birth to one this year.' Yeah, it's pretty fucking boring. This has been the longest deliberation of my life. So anyway. Heard you lost your daughter. Sucks."

Hopper cracked his knuckles slowly, one at a time. He was used to people bringing up his daughter in order to catch him off guard. But for some reason, the thought of Danny knowing irked him. Of course, werewolves knew everything about each other but the way that she mentioned it seemed hostile. It was obvious to him that she was jealous. She had been a prisoner within the Berkeley sanctuary ever since the incident. While he had grown, graduated, and ultimately lived a productive life in the outside world she had withered into a powdery, and pathetic pulp of a person. Her life was sorting through binders and listening to old werewolves saying the same names over and over again. To say that she was living vicariously through literally every other wolf was an understatement. As if seeing the disappointment in her eyes she snickered and plucked the cigarette from between his fingers.

"You know…" She exhaled sensuously and dragged her finger along the stains blooming around the table. "When I first heard about it, the first thing that I thought of was that little girl in the trailer. How we almost killed her."

"Now you know damn well know that had nothing to do with me."

"Didn't hear you saying no when we walked into the trailer. Didn't hear you saying no when I handed you the pocket knife ." She grinned and sucked her cheeks in as she took a drag of the cigarette "No, Jimmy, we almost killed her. And you know what? Maybe there's a part of her that killed your daughter. Because, you know, karma is a reallllll bitch and I wouldn't be surprised if that's how you got yours."

Jim shot up and threw a sparkly Hallmark card on the table between them. "Merry Christmas, asshole. And don't you ever let me hear you talking about my daughter again."

He turned to go. Danny quickly stood up, her chair making an awful screeching sound as it was dragged against the wooden floor. She was laughing, but the chains prevented her from following him. "I don't need your pity, old boy! You should be in here with me! You're just as responsible for the death of that little girl's dad as I am. Thanks for the cigarette, hypocritical filth! I'll catch up to you one day!"