The Blue Werewolf
C/By Kenjaje
Chapter 7: Scar
October 31; 7:14 PM; Playing Chess in the kitchen
"Checkmate!" Lilo cried in triumph, "Beat ya again!" Stitch stared, puzzled, at the checkerboard; the chess pieces scattered across the blue and white squares. Lilo nodded, awaiting his approval that she had beaten him, and took joy at seeing his gaping eyes scanning the pieces, making sure she didn't cheat or sneak a move in; which she didn't.
"Ju shata-"
"Don't say anything, I won fair and square." Lilo snapped, knowing he was going to say something along the lines as 'you're cheating'. Stitch grumbled and lifted his nose, snuffling loudly. "Sore loser." Lilo said, sticking out her tongue. "Help me put it away, I'm getting bored of board games."
"Oketaka." Stitch said, as he gathered up the pieces he and Lilo had each conquered from each other and put them in the plastic bag, wherein they dumped the rest and closed the box, stacking it atop four more games they had used to pass the hours that seemed to crawl against their favor.
"What do we do now?" Lilo asked, as Nani came into the kitchen.
"Naga chishiba." Stitch said, shrugging.
"Looking for something to do?" Nani asked rhetorically. Lilo turned and nodded. "You two can carve the pumpkin for me. I'm running late on making dinner, and it would be a big help. Besides, you're going to enter it in the Aloha competition aren't you?"
"Of course; we do it every year. Except...that one time when I tried to light a firework for a candle..." Lilo trailed.
"At least you apologized to that nice couple for nearly burning down their house." Nani commented, leaving the kitchen after grabbing her keys. "I'll be back in a bout an hour, no horseplay or destruction until I get back." With that the door slammed shut.
"Look's like we're on pumpkin duty." Lilo smirked. Quickly she ran to a drawer on the far side and opened it up, rummaging through its contents, tossing out the occasional item in her search. "Aha! Here's one." She exclaimed, pulling out a sharp knife. Stitch immediately had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"Um...Lilo, ju suga akota-ka michi..."
"Yes, I'm sure its ok. Nani said it's up to us right? And we need a knife right?"
"E...eh..."
"So...let's go." She uttered, motioning for Stitch to follow her. He adjusted the stack of board games so it wouldn't fall, grabbed a bowl of the table, and leapt out of the chair to follow her as she exited through the back door. Their pumpkin lay, bathing in the sunlight. Bleached, like Nani had wanted, it's vivid orange color was now softened and slightly fuzzy looking. Like a giant peach rather than a pumpkin. "Ok, hold it for me, would you?" Lilo asked, stepping to one side of the ball. Stitch placed the bowl on the ground and went to the opposite side of Lilo, and clasped his hands around the pumpkin, keeping far away from the sharp object in the little girl's grasp.
Lilo pointed the knife toward the black line Nani had drawn earlier, and plunged the blade in with a satisfying shluck. She drove it down to the base, and gripped her hand around the protruding handle, and tugged hard. The knife refused to come loose.
"Lilo..." Stitch muttered, "Isa naga padooka..."
"It's just..." She grunted, trying to pull up again, "Stuck!"
"Here." Stitch said, easing his hand toward the handle, offering to get it out for her.
"No, I can do it, it's just stubborn." She grunted, rapidly tugging on the immobile object. Stitch began to feel uneasy, no matter what happened that knife was going to hurt one of them if she pulled it out with as much aggression she was using, and Stitch wasn't about to let that happen. "Hey! Stop!" Lilo yelled, as Stitch reached his hand on hers and tried to wrestle her grip free. That only made her tug harder, and they began to fight for control of the knife in the pumpkin.
The knife began to give way, and slipped free of the orange stone's clasp. Lilo flew back and landed on her rear, but not before she heard Stitch's cry of pain. Lilo's heart skipped a beat and her spine flooded with cold water as she heard a sickening slock come from Stitch. He clasped his arm; his hand wrapped around his bicep, and his mouth let loose tiny grunts of pain.
"Oh man," Lilo panicked, "Stitch are you ok?" His eyes winced several times before he looked away from his hand, a speck of blood leaked down his arm.
"Isa...nagitcha..."
"Let me see, maybe we can treat it." She put a hand on his, and he leaned back into a sit. Reluctantly, she let him pry his hand from his wound. Lilo breathed in through gritted teeth as she peered at his arm. "Looks, kind of ok..." she muttered, "hold on, wait a second..." Stitch heard a tone of curiosity in her voice. "No way..." She exclaimed, "There's no way..."
"Gaba?" Stitch asked, shifted his head to look at his wound. She parted his fur for him to see, and it took him a moment to understand what she was so amazed about. Blood smeared across his fur, and began to get denser as he found where his wound was, and was also confused at what he saw. There, where the knife had clearly penetrated his skin, was a fresh, pink, scar, as if it had just healed. Lilo ran her finger across it to make sure, and found that it indeed was healed.
Without a word she turned to find the knife, it lay on the grass, parallel to the ground. Lilo picked it up and looked at the blade. Of the six inches of steel, two and a half were red with blood; the knife didn't just brush past Stitch, it looked as though it went into him much deeper.
"This has never happened before...I mean, I've never seen you heal almost instantly before." She said; passing him by with the knife held safely away from them in her hands. Stitch was busy still gawking at the scar that shouldn't have been, and the hole in his skin that wasn't there. There was something unnatural about it, and again Stitch thought of the night where he had gotten bit. It occurred to him that that wound had also seemed to miraculously heal, except he didn't know how long it took. Was it the same instance? It was certainly the same place, the knife had almost exactly traced across the fang marks that Stitch remembered.
"C'mon, we'll finish this later, I want to talk to Jumba." Lilo said, looking off into the distance. The sun was almost past the horizon, a strip of orange lined the base of the sky, and the rest of the dome was an open canvas of cyan and aqua.
"Eh." Stitch agreed, and opened the door for Lilo to pass. She carefully cleaned the knife while he carefully cleaned his wound; which by now had stopped hearting altogether. Once done, he ran ahead to Jumba's room, Lilo came in to. "Lilo wants to talk to Jumba." He said, as he entered the open door.
"Yes, little girl?" Jumba asked, as Lilo came in slightly out of breath.
"Jumba, I have something to show you." She said, taking Stitch over to him. He stepped down from the rise, putting the oversized sheet that was his Halloween costume on the sewing table. "Look at his arm, right here," she pointed.
"Hm...looks like 626 has gotten big boo-boo." Jumba said. "It looks fine to me, if you're worried about the scar; no problem. Scars are natural after a few weeks of healing."
"That's what I wanted to show you, this didn't heal for weeks, it healed over seconds." Jumba put a hand to his chin, looking perplexed. "Stitch got cut with a knife, really deep, and when I looked at it, this scar was there. It happened just a little while ago. Does Stitch have some sort of fast-healing power too?"
"Well," Jumba thought scratching his chin, "not exactly. Is probability that 626 has faster recovery rate than little girl and Jumba. But, is impossible for anything to heal in seconds, as you have described." He eyed it closer, scrutinizing it with all four eyes. "Unless..." He began again, leaning away. "Unless that "growth spurt" we have discovered earlier has somehow had a play it...I'd say this occurrence was completely...unnatural. But, even with growth spurt, I am not thinking 626 would be able to heal a wound that quickly. How deep was the cut?" He asked, peering close at the wound again.
"I don't know...kind of deep..."
"Chicha zabitsuta." Stitch said, using to fingers to illustrate the size. "This big."
"What on planet's crust were you two doing with a knife in the first place? Don't you know little girl and highly dangerous destructive genetic experiment, plus highly dangerous and destructive sharp object, equals nothing but disaster?" He yelled, taking an authority. Lilo looked down at her feet.
"We were just trying to carve a pumpkin..." She trailed. Jumba chuckled.
"Leave it up to little girl and 626 to turn earth-custom into chaos." Lilo smiled, and Stitch laughed as well. Apparently Jumba hadn't been too angry with them after all, which was hard to say otherwise for Nani, whom was now pulling up to the house.
"Maybe if we're lucky, she won't find out..." Lilo whispered.
"Oh, big sister will be finding out. Am reporting bad behavior, but...will be waiting until after Halloween. Ok?" He winked.
"Thanks Jumba, but she'll find out anyway before you tell her. She always finds out things one way or another."
"This is true." He said matter-of-factly. "Well, I must be getting ready. Pleakley is going to be adjusting my costume, before we celebrate earth custom." Jumba said, ushering Lilo and Stitch out the door. "Be seeing you later tonight." He said, and the door shut quietly. Lilo looked at Stitch for a moment, and then at his wound. She sighed, running a hand through her hair and shaking her head with realization.
"Maybe...you are a werewolf..."