I'm pretty confident that this will be my longest chapter so far. At least two, maybe three flashback sequences will be included.
Chapter 12
Well, here we are, folks: Thanksgiving Day. The first thing we did after breakfast was sit down as a family and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV. When that was over, Dad, Lincoln, and Luan went to the kitchen to start cooking (after Dad, Lincoln and Luan were the two best cooks in the house). Me and the other girls were free to do whatever we wanted until Lori and our other guests arrived. Lori had called while we were watching the parade and told Mom she was on her way to Royal Woods, and she was bringing her boyfriend Bobby with her. Lynn, Lana, and I were sitting on the couch watching the Thanksgiving football game when the doorbell rang (getting the loose wire in the doorbell fixed was the only way to keep the pizza delivery service from suing us over not paying for the deliveries).
Lori and Bobby stood on the porch, both dressed in festive fall colors with wide smiles on their faces. Lori wore a yellow short-sleeved blouse tucked into an orange skirt with a white belt and an orange vest. Bobby was a tall Hispanic boy with spiky black hair, a lanky frame, and the beginnings of a mustache/goatee combo. He wore a hunter-green dress shirt with the very top unbuttoned and the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, slim denim jeans, light brown dress shoes, and a brown suede John Wayne vest (I only know who John Wayne is because he's in Pop-Pop and Lincoln's favorite Western movies). In his hands was a large crock pot of his grandmother's Chicken Tortilla soup.
"Hi, everyone!" she exclaimed joyfully. "Boy, is this place a sight for sore eyes! Where do you want us to put the soup, Mom?" After the happy reunion, Lori spent the next hour recounting her crazy college experience. "...and that is why you should read each dorm building's brochure carefully before you just pick one and set up a room," she concluded, Bobby having added a few details of his own. "So, has anything interesting happened here while I was gone for three months?" Before we could answer, the doorbell rang again.
There on the porch stood Sam and Sandra, the former holding a large basket of dinner rolls and the latter holding a steaming butternut squash dessert casserole. Sam wore a denim vest over a black sleeveless Blue Oyster Cult T-shirt tucked into denim jeans torn off slightly below the knees with his wolf's-head belt. Sandra wore a matching vest over a scarlet form-fitting dress that came down to her knees, fishnet stockings, and black Mary Janes.
"Hi, Luna! Are we late?" Sam asked.
"Nah, dude, you're just in time!" I replied. I saw Lori and Bobby's confused looks. "Oops! Sam, meet my big sister Lori and her boyfriend Bobby. Guys, this is Sam Sharp, the newest member of my band and a very close friend of mine," I hastily gave introductions. Sam and Sandra shook each of their hands, then we all sat down in the living room and made small talk for the next hour or so until Dad and Lincoln announced that dinner was ready.
While we ate, we told Lori and Bobby the story of how we first met Sam and all of the events that transpired afterward. Sam himself admitted the truth about being a werewolf, but it seemed like they didn't believe him, even when the rest of us backed him up. When all of us had eaten our fill, with the swollen bellies and loosened belts to show for it, we all went back to the living room. It was a tradition in the Loud family to have Thanksgiving Dinner for lunch, lounge around for a few hours while the food settled in our stomachs, then have dessert in place of dinner. If we had nothing to talk about, we agreed on a movie to watch. That, or the younger ones watched a movie to stave off the boredom while us big people talked about things that didn't concern them.
This time, though, I noticed Sam and Lisa whispering to each other, then shaking hands like they were agreeing on something before Lisa went upstairs. She came back down carrying her dream-scanning invention I had seen her use to try and find out about Sam's life before we met him. Sam then cleared his throat to get our attention.
"I'm sure most of you have been curious to find out what life was like for me while I was growing up. Most of it is still too painful for me to talk about, so with the help of this invention Lisa told me about, I'm going to show you instead," he said. Lisa piped up when he finished speaking.
"I have been planning something like this for a few weeks now. This machine was initially designed to scan the subject's brain activity during the REM sleep cycle, allowing their dreams to be viewed as a televised program. With a few minor modifications, the machine is now able to scan memories in the same manner. Once I, ahem, hook him up, as people say, Sam will enter a sleep-like trance that will, hopefully, spare him the emotional turmoil of viewing his tragic past. Be warned that some of what you are about to see will be fairly graphic."
Sam sat down in the armchair and made himself comfortable while Lisa attached the electrodes to his forehead. The moment she flipped the switch to turn the machine on, he lost consciousness and slumped to one side slightly. The screen flickered to life, and the first memory began to play...
...
Seven-year-old Sam, with much shorter hair and wearing only a pair of navy-blue swim trunks, took a deep breath and dove beneath the surface of Lake Nokomis in Colorado. None of his body hair had developed yet, and he was so skinny that his ribs showed when he stretched. He also had none of the scars that his present self was covered in. The glassy surface of the lake was still for a few moments, then Sam emerged gasping for air, with a wriggling salmon almost as big as he was clutched against his chest in a bear-hug.
"Dad! I got one! I got one!" he shouted triumphantly. The "camera" panned over to the sandy shoreline, where a tall, muscular man with close-cropped blond hair, an olive tank top, camouflage cargo shorts, and brown sandals knelt next to a plastic tarp that contained a handful of tools.
"Hey, good job, son! Bring it up here!" the man, Simon Sharp, said with a grin. Once unceremoniously deposited on the tarp, the fish went still after Sam's dad bashed its head with a hammer. "See if you can get another while I clean this one." Sam nodded eagerly and dove back into the lake. A small time-skip occurred, then Sam was shown riding on Simon's shoulders as they walked down the trail to their cabin. In Simon's hands was a large Tupperware box filled to the brim with salmon fillets, and on his back was a backpack with the tarp and tools.
Sam and his father reached the front door, and Simon handed the Tupperware box to Sam long enough to grab him under the arms and put him back on the ground. Simon then opened the door, revealing Sam's mother, Shannon Sharp, sweeping the hardwood floor. Like her husband and son, Shannon had blond hair, but she wore it down her back in a long ponytail. Her slim-fitting jeans and T-shirt did absolutely nothing to cover her enormous baby bump.
"Mom! Mom! Look at all the fish we got!" Sam shouted, proudly holding up the Tupperware box for Shannon to see.
"Ooh, that is a lot of fish!" Shannon said, stopping her work and bending down to Sam's level with a smile on her face. "Did you catch them yourself, or did your dad help you?"
"I caught them all by myself! All three of them!"
"He really did. He caught them, and I cleaned them," Simon added before noticing the broom in Shannon's hands. With a mock frown, he asked, "Hey! Now what kind of cruel man makes his pregnant wife do housework?" The Sharp family then cooked some of the salmon and ate it for dinner. Simon looked up at the skylight and noticed that it was starting to get dark. His gaze shifted to the calendar that hung on the wall next to the dining table, and he sighed. "Sam, I hate to do this to you, kiddo, but it's that time of the month," he said, and Sam's face drooped.
"Aw, Dad, do I really have to?" he whined.
"Sammy, sweetie, I know you don't like to do it, but it's for everyone's safety," Shannon explained, gently rubbing her son's back. "You don't want the Wolf to hurt your baby sister, do you?"
"No. Fine, I'll go," Sam grumbled and walked outside the cabin, making sure to lock the door behind him. The picnic table on the small patio hid the bottom half of his body as Sam stripped down to his birthday suit and waited for the sun to go down. When the first beams of moonlight struck his young body, Sam screamed and fell to the ground like a toddler throwing a tantrum, the view of his transformation blocked by the picnic table. Moments later, the fully transformed Wolf, while only half the size of its present self, hopped onto the table and howled at the moon before scampering into the forest.
...
I looked over at Lori and Bobby as soon as the feed cut and the screen went to static. They both stared transfixed at the screen with twin looks of shock. I turned my attention back to the screen as the feed started up again...
...
Sam was now fourteen years old, and lay on the couch of his family's cabin, shivering slightly with an electronic thermometer hanging out of his mouth. A camouflage-patterned wool blanket was pulled up to his chest, leaving his hairy arms free, and his skin was pale and clammy. Sam's seven-year-old sister, Simone, walked into the room with a tray laden with a steaming bowl of soup, a glass of water, and a bottle of pills. She had a peppy smile on her face and curly straw-colored hair held back in a loose ponytail that bounced slightly with each step. She set the tray down on the coffee table and plucked the thermometer from between Sam's lips. She took one look at the tiny screen and clicked her tongue with a shake of her head.
"Boy, Sammy, whatever sickness you have sure is stubborn! Your fever was better this morning, but now it's sky-high again!" she stated matter-of-factly. "I bet this soup will make you feel better, though!" Almost too weak to move, Sam started to reach for the bowl, only for Simone to lightly slap the back of his hand. "Nuh-uh; medicine first!" she said, placing a pair of white pills in his open palm. One at a time, Sam popped each pill into his mouth and swallowed them with the water Simone placed in his other hand. Simone then proceeded to spoon-feed him the soup despite his weak protests.
"You know I don't like to be coddled like this," he grumbled hoarsely between sips from the spoon.
"I only do it because I love you, big bro," Simone replied with a smile, softly kissing Sam's sweat-soaked forehead before continuing to feed him.
Another time-skip occurred, fast-forwarding the feed to almost exactly a year later. Sam and Simone were playing marbles on the floor one evening while their parents were out, presumably shopping for groceries. They played one game after another, steadily losing track of time until the skylight in the roof went dark. It was then that the cabin inexplicably lost power, plunging the siblings into pitch darkness. Without warning, the full moon broke through the clouds, bathing Sam's form in silver and causing him to go into convulsions.
Simone's eyes widened in terror, and she dashed over to the front door. She attempted to pry it open, but the summer heat and humidity had caused the wood to swell, jamming it against the door frame. She kept struggling to open the door while the sounds of Sam transforming played in the background. Everything suddenly went dead silent, and Simone let out a choked gasp, pressing her back against the door and hardly daring to breathe. The power returned to the cabin, revealing the Wolf in all its glory, staring transfixed at Simone with shining yellow eyes and bared, gleaming white fangs dripping with drool.
Hunter and prey stared at each other unmoving for several seconds.
The sound of a trash can rattling shook the Wolf out of its trance, and it pounced with a loud snarl. Simone screamed and dove to the side, causing the Wolf to ram head-first into the door, which rattled the whole wall. The Wolf pursued Simone around the cabin until the girl slipped on her own marbles and landed flat on her back. In a manner far too gruesome to put into words, the Wolf tore her body apart and messily devoured large chunks of it, clothing and all. Simon and Shannon soon returned, arms laden with bags of food. They were able to put up more of a fight, but nonetheless shared the same fate. Time passed while the Wolf finished its meal, and the first beams of sunlight reverted Sam back to his human form, lying dazed and spread-eagled face-down on the blood-splattered carpet.
Pushing himself to his hands and knees, he could only stare in horror at the carnage surrounding him, the dismembered corpses and broken, overturned furniture. His gore-caked hands clenched into fists, and he threw back his head.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he screamed in absolute anguish, then the screen went black.
...
Lisa turned off the machine, rousing Sam from his artificial slumber with a start, while the rest of us (except for Lucy, who could watch the scariest slasher flicks without even a flinch) desperately sought to still our quaking bodies and hammering hearts. Luckily, Mom had the foresight to send the twins and Lily outside to play.
"Wow. That...that was intense," I said after calming down just enough to coherently speak.
"Yeah. Try being there in person," Sam said. "Now you all know how I ended up where I am now. After I came to my senses that morning, I cut my arm and left enough of my own blood at the scene to trick the detectives into thinking I was dead too. I could never show my face around there again, so with nothing but my dad's dog tags to remember them by and the clothes on my back, I roamed wherever my feet would carry me, scrounging and scraping to survive, never staying in one place for long. Until I ended up here and met all of you; that was when my life changed for the better."
"Man, I can't believe you dealt with all of that by yourself!" Bobby exclaimed. "If that had been me, I would have committed suicide long before now!" Sam let out a dry chuckle.
"Believe me, pal, I tried," he said, pulling his collar down to reveal a particularly deep scar on his neck that was alarmingly close to his jugular vein. Everyone was silent.
"Welp! Bobby and I better hit the road back to Great Lakes City before it gets too late," Lori said suddenly. "Before we go, didn't you want to give them something, Bobby?" The Hispanic teen facepalmed.
"Oh, yeah! I was at this exotic plant shop in the city, and I saw some flowers you might like," he said and made a quick trip out to Lori's car. He came back inside carrying a potted shrub covered in little blue flowers. The moment the scent of the flowers hit the air, Sam paled, and his face took on a faint greenish hue.
"Whoa...all of a sudden...I don't feel so good," he said, wobbling a bit where he stood. He retched into his hand and ran upstairs to the bathroom.
"Uh, Bobby, what kind of flowers are those?" Lincoln asked. Bobby stared at his gift in puzzlement.
"I have no idea. The name on the tag was in Latin. Aconitum napellus," he said. Lincoln shared worried glances with me, Lucy, and Lisa, the only others besides himself who knew what the flowers were.
Aconitum napellus.
Otherwise known as wolfsbane.
