After putting Andrew and Lisa to bed I sack out on the couch. I lay there a while trying to figure out what Lisa meant. Finally I gave up, and let myself fall asleep.
The first thing I heard when I woke was some one trying, unsuccessfully, to sneak past me. I open one eye and saw Mr. O'Seamus covered in dirt, grass and some other things I couldn't identify. I opened my other and sat up. Mrs. O'Seamus was also filthy and had twigs and other things stuck in her or hair.
"What happened to you two?" They both looked a little flustered, but Mrs. O'Seamus had clearly prepared for questions.
"We were camping."
"Camping? I thought you were going out for dinner." She raises one eyebrow at this, a feat I have rarely seen.
"If we were going out to dinner, we wouldn't be out all night." I acknowledge this point with a nod and let it go. But I knew that there was something going on here. Too many things didn't add up. No one had said about camping and they definitely hadn't brought anything with them. After they paid me, I said my goodbyes and went back to the Magyk Shoppe.
I rolled my eyes as I did every time I saw that ridiculous fluorescent pink sign. Inside, my mother was precariously balanced on her crutches, trying to hold a box half her size. I sprinted over to her and grabbed the box. Then I staggered backwards due to the weight of it. My mom took a deep breath and relaxed, if anyone can relax on crutches. Almost immediately she started to dictate where I was to place the contents of the box. After a few moments of silence I finally spoke.
"Well, you sure know how to pick 'em."
"What?" I sigh, and explain myself.
"I mean, that this is one weird little town you have here." She doesn't even look up, and just continues to rummage through the box.
"How exactly is it weird?"
"For one thing, the place was almost deserted last night. It was like a ghost town from out of one of those old westerns. Then I got lied to, to my face. And I thought I heard wolves howling. Are wolves even native to North Carolina? Oh, and then there's the fact that you live here, and that means that there's definitely something strange going on."
"You're just paranoid." I huff at this, but otherwise ignore this comment.
"I'm not an idiot, Mom. Somethings up. I want answers!" She hobbled over to me and sneered.
"And I want a million dollars, a trip to Hawai'i, and a decent cup of coffee. It doesn't look like either of us are going to get what we want." I dropped the box and placed my hands on my hips.
"I don't even know why I came. You clearly don't want me here. You've been glaring at me since I've arrived." Only my mother can look intimidating on crutches. She got so close to me we were almost nose to nose.
"Listen, Tiffany, I honestly have no idea why you ended up here. Something is going on, something that I haven't completely figured out yet. But when I do, be assured that I will not tell you." At this she backed down, but I wasn't done.
"You know exactly why I came here! To help, you since you fell out of a freaking tree!" I was waving my arms now and I could feel my face getting redder.
"Maybe that's it, maybe it's not!" She drew herself up as far as she could and stared me down.
"Why can't you give me a straight answer for once?" I just about scream with frustration. My mother gives me a mocking look.
"And what would be the fun in that?" I clench my fists and consider the conversation so far. And I finally found a hole in her defense.
"You didn't fall out of a tree did you?" She presses a hand to her forehead and refuses to meet my gaze.
"You didn't fall out of a tree!" I crow triumphantly. Then in all seriousness, I ask: "Then how did really break your leg?"
"If you're so smart figure it out on your own!" My mother moved as fast as she could out of the shop, leaving me to unpack the merchandise. I had grown use to my mother's immaturities and proceed to clean up her mess. After that was done I turned on her dinosaur of a computer. My .mother has a strange relationship with technology. She owns an iPhone and an awesome stereo, but her computer is bulky, slow and slightly outdated. I have no idea why she still has it.
Even though her computer is evil, it still has internet access, no matter how slow. And at the moment at least the internet can answer some of my questions. I looked up wolves in North Carolina.
It turns out that there are, indeed, wolves in North Carolina. Red wolves are native to the southeastern seaboard of the U.S. The look very similar to coyotes and are much smaller than their cousins the grey wolf, also known as the timber wolf. They are endangered, with less than 300 left in the wild. I kept on searching and found that the nearest place to see red wolves was up in Ashville, which was some ways away from Litchfield.
Even though I had learned that those wolf howls were easily explainable, I still felt that there was something weird about this place, and it wasn't just my mother.
The following week was uneventful. My mother was still mad at me and the tension in the Magyk Shoppe was palpable. My work at the clinic was primarily paperwork and cleaning out cages. Still it was steady work, which was more than could be said when I was part of the music group. But, I still missed being able to play my violin every day, and being surrounded by people who understood me. I missed my music and my friends. Everyday, I counted how much time I had left here. I was miserable.
On Friday, I was looking forward to getting off work since, that was when I had scheduled dinner with James. James was one of the few things I liked about Litchfield, him, Lucky and the scenery. Then about half an hour before closing time, a huge storm rolled in. The clouds had looked dark and ominous all day, but I hadn't expected the torrential downpour they preceded. I stared at the window at the rain, as Lucky came over and dropped a stack of papers on the desk.
"Here, do these and you're done for the day." I looked at the papers and then at Lucky.
"There's no way I'm going to finish these before six." Lucky opened her mouth to argue with me bit the phone rang. She picked it up and gestured to me that we would continue in a moment. Lucky spent several minutes on the phone, her expression getting graver and graver. Finally she hung up and started to put on her coat.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"I got a call to come down to one of the farms. Something happened." She replied as she opened the door. Lucky got a blast of wind and rain in her face when she tried to go out. She staggered backward and shoot a pleading look at me.
"Could you please stay here until I get back?" I sighed, but said:
"Fine, I'm going to miss my date anyway."
"Thank you!" Lucky looked incredibly grateful as she ran out the door. I sigh, for what seems to be the millionth time today and pick up my phone to call James. He didn't answer until the third ring.
"Hi James, this is Tiffany."
"Hi, I was just about to call you." He sounded extremely frazzled.
"Yeah, listen. I'm up to my neck in paperwork right now, and Lucky had to make a house call. I'm really sorry, but I'm not going to make it tonight."
"Well, everything works out now. I can't make it either." I feel a tinge of disappointment even though I was the first to cancel.
"How about we reschedule for tomorrow?" I ask.
"Sounds good." Then James hung up on me. I feel even more depressed now, and the weather was not helping. I stared out the window and watched the storm rage on.
I had fallen asleep when a clap of thunder awoke me. I looked around groggily until I realized where I was. When I was fully awake, I picked up the pile of paperwork I had completed. I looked at the clock. It was ten thirty. I groaned and muttered obscenities under my breath. Then the door swung open, letting in water, wind and cold air. Three men came in, carrying something I couldn't make out. I recognized Mr. O'Seamus immediately due to his fiery red hair and immense girth. The other two I didn't know, one barely taller than me, with hair so blonde it bordered on white and the other with jet black hair and with slanted eyes that announced Asian origins. I rush over to them. The blonde turns to me.
"Where's Lucky?" He asks with his eyes glancing around wildly.
"She's not here. What's wron..." I trail off because I can see what they're carrying.
It's a wolf. A wolf with luxurious black fur and silver markings on its face and back. Definitely not a coyote like red wolf. Then I notice the long gashes down one of the wolf's flanks.
"Holy shit." I mutter.
"Where's Lucky? We need her right now!" The blonde demanded again. I drew myself up to my full, meager height.
"Lucky is out right now, so you're going to have to deal with me." The blonde glared, but nodded.
"Alright move it in here." I gestured toward the examination room. They did so and I washed my hands to prepare for treating the, erm, dog. I pulled on gloves and walked over to the animal.
"He bites." The dark haired one warned.
"That's what sedatives are for." I said mostly to myself. After injecting what I hoped was enough to keep the poor thing under I began to clean the wounds. They were fresh, but there seemed to be some sort of infection, because there was pus oozing out of the gashes. I cleaned them with alcohol and started to stitch the sound as. The dog moaned in his sleep, and my heart went out to the unconscious creature. After I finished stitching I stuck a cone on the dog and turned towards the men.
"I'm going to keep him overnight for observation. I would appreciate you telling me what happened to him." The blonde crossed his arms and scowled.
"We don't know you, why should we trust you?"
"Because Lucky left me in charge " The blonde growled at me. That was it. I had had a crummy day, and I was sick of people walking all over me. My anger boiled over.
"That's it! Out!" I pointed the door. The blonde or really grumpy guy as I was thinking of calling him, raised an eyebrow.
"You can't be serious, little girl." I marched over to him and tried to look him in the eye. I really hate being short.
"You heard what I said, out!" I knew I was being unreasonable, I mean it was their animal after all, but again I was sick of having no control. The blonde opened his mouth to say something but, Mr O'Seamus intervened.
"Come on, Richard. Lucky trusts her and so do I." He turned tome. "We were just leaving." I glared at them until the exited into the harsh elements, for it was still storming. When I was satisfied they were gone I sank into my chair, where I fell into a blissful sleep.
When I finally woke up the first thing that I noticed was that the storm had stopped. The second thing was that the dog was awake and had somehow managed to maneuver the cone off himself. I stretched and grievances before standing up to go over to the dog. He was huge, coming up past my waist. I didn't even want to think about how much he might weigh. He came over and nuzzled me. I sank my fingers into his long, soft fur as I had secretly wanted to ever since I saw him. I knew I should check his stitches but, I didn't want to think about that at the moment. He whispered and rolled over on to his back. I did the only thing I could. I knelt down, rubbed his tummy and started crooning, who' s a good boy? You are, oh yes you are. I stopped when I heard someone cough uncomfortably behind me.
Lucky was standing in the door, her hair askew and with this ridiculous grin on her face. If dogs can look embarrassed, this one did. He sat up and whimpered a little.
"What happened?" I asked, standing up.
"Clearly nothing as interesting as what happened here." She walked over and bent down so she was eye level with dog. "Isn't that right, good boy?" The dog growled in response.
"Mr. O'Seamus and two other guys brought him in. The poor fella needed stitches, which I should probably check right now." Lucky blocked me.
"No need for that. Let me do it." I moved around her.
"They're my stitches, so I should check them." I practically dove for the dog, my stomach churning with expectation of what I might find. The wounds had healed perfectly and completely, just as I had dreaded. I had no idea how I was going to explain this to Lucky. I turned around slowly, trying to think of some reasonable explanation, but Lucky beat me to it.
"Now, Tiffany, I want you to listen to what I am about to say. It may be hard to believe, but it is true." She took a deep breathe and continued. "The reason that creature healed so quickly is because it's not a dog. It's a werewolf." The first thing that ran through my head at this statement was Oh thank God, it wasn't my fault. The second thing was, Did she just say werewolf? I backed away slowly, eyeing both Lucky and the so called werewolf with caution. Lucky advanced forward.
"I know you don't believe me but, I swear it's true. I'm a werewolf, and the one over there is James." She turned around to face the dog. "Might as well turn now. She's never going to believe me otherwise."
What I saw next will haunt me the rest of my life.
Bones cracked as they rearranged themselves. Muscles tore and attached, while skin stretched and changed shape. The canine features morphed into those of my friend. The body of the wolf moved in ways that could not be possible, until it became the body of James. I closed my eyes, more to preserve my sanity than to save James's dignity. Lucky tossed a blanket to James.
"There are some clothes in one of the cabinets." As James got dressed Lucky came over me.
"I must be going crazy."
"No you're not, Tiffany. This is real all of it is real." Lucky said soothingly.
"Oh God! Why does this stuff always happen to me?" I moaned. Then I did the only thing one can do when faced with something life altering. I ran.
I dashed out the door and into the street, with no idea of what I was going to do. I'll I knew was I couldn't go back to the clinic or to the Magyk Shoppe.
"Tiffany!" I looked behind me. It was James. His dark hair was tousled and I could see nothing but concern on his chiseled face. He was wearing a buttondown and in his hurry to get dressed he had buttoned it wrong, so the shirt was lopsided. I might have teased him about it, if the circumstances were different.
"Tiffany, I know this is a lot to take i-" I cut him off.
"I would think so!" I started to move my hands about frantically. "I just found out werewolves existed! What's next? Vampires? Fairies? The Easter Bunny!" James winced at the volume of my voice. "You are going to leave me alone for the next few days, so I can decide exactly how I feel about this whole business." I knew that James was considering disobeying my wishes and dragging me back to the clinic to try and talk some sense into me, but I was having none of that. "Until then, adios!" I spun on my heel and marched off with no idea where I was going and leaving a very flustered James behind.
I wandered to the edge of town with so many thoughts racing through my head. Finally, I just sat down on the ground and put my head in my hands. Then I heard a twittering noise. I looked up. There was a bird in front of me, it's wing bent in an angle that could not be natural. The storm had knocked down tons of branches, leaving a massive mess around the town. The poor thing had probably been injured in the storm.
I picked the bird up gently, trying not to hurt it even more. Standing up, still cradling the bird with the injured wing, I considered what to do. There was no way it could fly in this condition, and I couldn't go back to the clinic and face Lucky just yet. But I couldn't let the poor thing suffer.
"How horrible," I said to the bird. "For a thing of the sky to be trapped on the ground." And then I knew what to do. Suddenly I felt very tired, and very dizzy. I stumbled backwards trying not to drop the bird, which was cooing in alarm.I didn't want to hurt the bird, so I act on instinct. I threw the bird into the air.
The bird flew.
Author' s Note
Phew, I am so glad to get that chapter off my chest. Over 3,000 words! I am just going to add that this chapter started off extremely lighthearted and slightly funny. But Tiffany had all drama queen on us. Don't tell Tiffany but, her mom is my favorite character. Unfortunately, you can't see how awesome Mrs. Donovan is, because Tiffany ruins her moments. Man, I am messed up. Griping about a character I made up. Moving on I like to thank Vamp4eva for being my first reviewer. I would greatly appreciate it if you followed Vamp4eva' s example and reviewed. So, until whenever, sayonara.