Chapter Thirteen

The sun washed through the treetops followed by the gentle breeze that was dragging the summer season slowly to life. Late afternoon and deep in the woods, the temperature was far from hot. It was pleasant and a dip in the hot springs would be a welcome one.

Mary Cardwen ran ahead of Darwin playing the role of the flirtatious school girl; ducking behind the trees and dropping an article of clothing each time she momentarily disappeared. Darwin walked in stride like a predator that was ready to pounce on his innocent prey. He grinned at his she-wolf; knowing she would soon become like him and he knew he should tell her soon.

Darwin had not returned to the hot springs since the night of his rebirth when he cast off the remaining traces of his humanity. He was uncertain how returning to the woods would make him feel. The two nights of December had forever changed him…much like the night in the woods of his youth.

The forest was an enchanting place. Even as a human it had a feel to it that Darwin could sense almost like electricity in the air. The trees watched and the rocks plotted together in one harmonious vibe. The trails weaved their way through like veins delivering nourishment to the devil’s hide. People could get lost in the woods very quickly. Paths taking you into the heart of the forest could offer no route out. Only the savviest visitor could find their way out moving against the flow of the trickery.

It was the solstice; June twenty-first. The woods greeted Darwin’s return with enthusiasm. His memory of his night returned to him vividly and the way to the unknown hot spring was an easy one to locate. The foliage had bushed out and the snow had gone but still, Darwin could smell the way to the healing waters beyond the killing woods.

At the spot where he had killed Jason and permanently plucked the flower of Tina Darwin paused, remembering his own death at that moment. He had given in to his urges—in a big way—and there was no going back. He wondered if it was even possible to stop killing. Barely a day went by when the urge to slaughter was not at the forefront of his mind. The conflict raged silently in the rear of his thoughts.

Do I? Don’t I? Should I? Why wouldn’t I?

Watching his work in progress pouncing freely ahead of him he smiled, knowing soon that he would preserve what remained of Steve Cardwen in his sister Mary. How would he tell her what she would soon become? Would he let her learn of the gift on her own? What if she didn’t become infected through sex as Cindy had? Would she resist?

“This is where they were killed, isn’t it?” Mary asked as she hopped up and down, allowing her supple “C” breasts to roam freely.

“What makes you say that?” Darwin asked, wondering how she could have been so perceptive.

“I can feel their spirits. They’re trapped here…it’s in the land,” Mary replied, losing her smile as she was pulled in.

“What else do you sense?” Darwin asked.

“It’s old. What exists here is old. It has many faces. It shows itself only when it chooses to; it’s responsible for the murders.” Mary seemed lost as her mind continued to be sucked into the void. “They were murders, you did them. I see you now, what you are…”

Like a shock zapping through her body Mary’s eyes bolted open and she tensed before quickly relaxing; her smile returned.

“Are you okay?” Darwin asked, rubbing his hands on her bare arms.

“I’m fine, silly! I just feel so at home here. Why?” she asked.

“You seemed to be elsewhere and said some things about the animal attacks. Do you remember what you said?” Darwin asked.

She concluded, “I didn’t say anything. I haven’t said anything in awhile. Why, what do you think I said?”

Darwin huffed a little wondering if she was lying, but his sense from her was honesty. “Hard to believe, but you did say a few things. Maybe I’ll just keep what you said to myself,” Darwin teased.

Mary slapped his chest and begged to be let in on the secret. “Please tell me!” she whined to him.

Darwin smirked and rolled his eyes before finally admitting, “You said you wanted to swallow my load right now!”

“Pig!” she proclaimed before spinning around and continuing onwards to the springs.

“It was worth a shot!” Darwin hollered down the path to his distancing beauty. “I’ll do you too, babe; I’ll even lap up your squirt.” Darwin’s stomach turned a little at his suggestion, but sometimes sacrifices had to be made in pursuit of a good blow job.

Darwin continued on walking, watching the distance between him and Mary continue to increase until she couldn’t be seen at all. Darwin could still smell her but even her footsteps were becoming increasingly difficult to hear. He released his worries and let her go, knowing he could find her if need be.

Nancy Betmin…

He had forgotten. Nancy escaped and had yet to be found. He heard nothing from his scout and time seemed to slip away. It had only been a week or two—he couldn’t recall exactly how long. What seemed so important at the time simply didn’t matter anymore. Nothing bad had happened. The military had not come with their Dreamland scientists lusting over a possible new super soldier. The public and media had not been alerted or even a hint of medieval lynch mobs.

Mary wouldn’t leave him. Nancy feared him, and rightfully so. Mary was falling in love with Darwin and as shocking as it was, Darwin felt in his own soul a foreign body taking hold of his will.

Was it love?

He felt giddy when he thought of spending time with Mary. When he imagined her he smiled. It was pure and utter joy that had not been felt inside Darwin since his time with Steve. The underlying difference was he had never been physical with Steve. If he had, Darwin knew he would have felt the way he did at this moment.

Someone once said, “To love is to be human.” Darwin had heard that once before, probably from an overrated poet. He knew he had dismissed the teaching long ago because he never felt love. His own youth had been devoid of love and he had watched everyone around him pair up and date, but that was never the case for Darwin.

Years of solitude play on a person’s emotions until one day they can only draw one conclusion…

There’s something wrong with me! I’m not likeable. I’m ugly. I’m fat. I’m too stupid. I’m simply not meant to love, or be loved.

In irony, Darwin had only begun to experience humanity only in its absence.

Blankly stumbling through the woods, Darwin welled up and his eyes began to leak. The memories continued to pain him. He felt robbed of life and it angered him-even though he had a new one in front of him.

Some wounds never heal.

At once Darwin’s foot and leg ceased to move, jolting his hip and then his entire body jerked to a halt. All Darwin could see was the gray of the stone as his forehead timbered to the ground and he disappeared into the cavern.

The trip had been instantaneous and Darwin recalled smashing his head into the rock but as he awoke, he was now on his back on the stone altar and it felt like a long time had passed. His head ached and spun worse than his first hangover but the nausea was still at bay.

Darwin raised his head to look down his naked body to find a visitor standing at his feet, watching him with an odd grin. Confused, Darwin shuddered a bit. The visitor before him was someone he had never seen before.

“Cup of tea?” The man asked politely before shoving off from Darwin’s feet to the silver tea service set up at the wall.

“Sure,” was all Darwin could get out of his mouth.

“I’d offer you milk and sugar, but it’s blasphemy to pollute your tea, so you’ll have it black,” the mystery man informed.

“I’ve never been much of a tea drinker, so I wouldn’t know the difference anyway.” Darwin swung his legs off the stone slab and sat up fully. “Sorry, who are you?”

“Who do you think I am?” The man replied as he approached Darwin with his cup and saucer.

Darwin scanned the individual, but could draw no comparisons to anyone he had ever known. “Normally you present yourself as someone I knew, except last time, only the voices sounded familiar, but I don’t know you.” Darwin accepted the tea and immediately took a sip of the hot scalding fluid.

“You know me. Give it some time,” the man replied. “How’s the tea?”

“It’s hotter than the rivers of hell, but really good. Is it Earl Gray?” Darwin asked.

The man laughed, “No it’s Menstea, a very old brew that people like ourselves enjoy from time to time. You won’t find it on the grocery store shelf, but I can tell you how to make it if you really enjoy it.”

“So, what do I call you?” Darwin asked.

“Call me John,” he said.

“All right John…what is it that I must learn this time?” Darwin asked confidently.

“My boy, have you heeded the warnings you have been given?” John asked, sipping his own tea.

Darwin answered, “I don’t know how to. I was only warned that destruction was coming. You didn’t give me much else to go on.”

“This hasn’t stopped you from prancing around town with this human bitch, or even letting one get away. You don’t listen. You’ve gotten lazy and now you stand at the precipice of destruction. We will not protect you. You were given the chance for revenge, to create a foothold in this world and to expand outwardly; but you stall. Why?”

“It’s not that I’m stalling—expansion takes time. Until New Haven can be on a paying basis and meet its food needs, the idea of expansion seems foolish. We have great ideas coming online, but reproduction can’t be rushed. I’m also trying to adhere to the principles; we don’t want to kill just anyone. It was you yourself who said sending the good to hell serves no purpose. Well, that’s what we’re trying to do. Our lust for flesh is making that a challenge. Innocence is being killed.”

“The children?” John asked with his odd, little grin emerging again.

Ashamed, Darwin looked to his lap for solace but found none.

“Yeah,” he replied softly.

“Why does it bother you to kill children?”

Darwin replied as though the answer was too obvious. “They can be the only true good, but yet we condemn them as though they are made from the same evils that their parents are.”

“When did you first learn the cruelty of children? You of all people should know that the innocence of youth is a crock. Children are not innocent because they are naïve to the ways of the world. When they attacked you, when they beat you emotionally day after day-do you really think they didn’t experience guilt for their crimes? If they experience guilt, they therefore know the wrong they do, and if they keep at it, then they are not innocent. Lest we forget Teddy?” John humbly replied.

“We’ve killed babies,” Darwin cried. “Our good is insulated with evil.”

“You’ve deactivated human machinery that lacked programming. A heartless way to look at it, but in the end those individuals could have been programmed to be anything to anyone. They are a subspecies, inferior to yourself.” John paused briefly swirling his tea around. “Having said that, why are you experiencing emotions, empathy, to the humans?”

“I don’t know. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to eat a human child, because I have. I want to do it again and again! Yet I feel! I feel remorse in what I do—it’s not consistent, but it’s there. Can you help me?” Darwin asked in frustration.

“You wished to be purged of your remaining human frailties?” John clarified.

“Yes!” Darwin shouted. “It hurts too much! All I think about is the joy and happiness that I never had. I want it to end. I want to forget about my past and see a clear line between the lycans and humans.”

“That’s a tall order my friend,” John quietly asserted.

“It can be done!” Darwin pleaded.

“Can and should—these are the questions. If I were to eliminate your remaining human traits; and don’t misunderstand me, I can do it, but if I did…” John again paused.

“I’d be better for it,” Darwin stated.

“Are you familiar with your history?” John asked in an upbeat tone before hopping up on the altar and sitting next to Darwin.

Darwin knew a little about history, but not as much as he should to declare he knew his history. He shrugged and left his answer at that.

“We have appeared to many over the millenniums. Different cultures and faiths have different names for us. It really doesn’t matter what you call us. For example the Irish call us Leprechauns. Can I look you in the eye and say I’m not a Leprechaun? No…because I am…to the Irish anyways. When I appeared to a young boy in the small town of Gori, Georgia in 1885, he saw me as an angel. The boy had been stricken with small pox which brutally scarred his face. The child was a fighter though, and I saw something in him. For his allegiance, I promised him great power to the end. I held up my end of the bargain and so did he. To this day his people still fear his name.”

“Who was that?” Darwin asked.

“Joseph Stalin. Of course when I met him he had a different name, but that is who he became. We’ve had many like him over the years. Adolf Hitler was probably one of our better achievements for personality turn around. Joseph always had a wicked side to him, but believe it or not Hitler was a kind and sweet child.”

“Hitler lost the war,” Darwin stated, confused. “Why gloat about a loss?”

“Hitler lost to someone who worked for us; it was essentially a win-win. Had Hitler stayed out of Russia, our projections suggest he would have won the European war-but he was a greedy little Austrian. Ultimately our interference destabilized him which led to his downfall.”

“I never wanted to be a tyrant,” Darwin confessed.

“It was the lure of power that corrupted them. I believe Baron Acton was right when he said: ‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely’. History rarely recalls any good in a leader if they have done horrific things. You can live out your vision; just don’t let the power overtake you. That will be your undoing.”

“What do I do with the conflict inside of me?”

John jumped off the slab and returned a moment later with the teapot and filled Darwin’s cup without asking. “A little bit of doubt is a good thing, keeps your mind in consideration of the options.”

Darwin asked, “Why is our conversation so clear this time? Normally you’re cryptic and make no sense.”

“Perhaps you weren’t hearing us. Listen to the words, embrace the symbols. Our message is only as cryptic as you allow it to be,” John said.

“Why am I here? If you won’t help make me stronger, then what am I here for?” Darwin took another sip from his tea.

John stated blankly looking to the wall, “Don’t you feel better knowing that I have faith in you? That’s worth something, isn’t it? I can help you, I can raise the alarm when something is wrong, and that’s what I am here to do. Whatever is coming for you, it is a power equal to our own. It is sly and it stalks, yet I can’t detect him.”

“How do you know there’s someone coming?” Is it a group of people, or just one?” Darwin asked.

“Unknown,” John quietly responded. “He’s coming; that’s all I know.”

“How do you know?” Darwin pressed.

“We have a perception that goes beyond the physical world. It’s like seeing a shadow in the corner of your eye. You know it was there, but you can’t prove it.”

“Maybe it is just a shadow? Sometimes we make our own demons”.

“All I can say is, tea-time is over.”

The lights flashed out and Darwin found himself in the darkness. The room was gone and nothing existed. Darwin asked for John, but his request was only greeted with silence. Slowly in the distance, a hazy screen began to come into focus. Darwin squinted and tried to see what was being shown. The static gave way to impairment lines before breaking way to a clear picture.

It was tragically familiar, but yet new.

“Cardwen!” Police Chief Newman shouted. “Darwin wants to see you! You don’t have to run anymore.” He assured, flashing his eyes momentarily, “He knows about you.”

Steve hesitated and started to run a bit. He stopped a few feet later and decided to trust the message. Newman seemed safe; he hadn’t drawn his gun, and he was making no effort to put handcuffs on him. Steve surrendered and climbed into the front seat of the cruiser.

“You made that too easy,” Newman stated as he quickly smothered Steve’s mouth with a rag doused in chloroform.

The TV lost the signal briefly before returning. Now the picture was in the shower at the high school. Steve was naked, hanging by his neck; a stool under his feet with his hands bound behind him. Newman punched Steve in the gut to wake him, but without success. Newman again took a swing at the hanging body; this time for Steve’s testicles. The pain jolted him from his chemical slumber.

Steve’s eyes opened and were full of light.

“My instincts are never wrong! Too bad your faggoty friend will never know. I thought homos just gave each other AIDS. So you infected him with the gift and never told him! Typical queer bent bastard!”

Newman laughed as he pulled out a hunting knife from his beltline. Quickly grabbing Steve’s genitals, Newman severed the sexual member sending a stream of blood across the room and down his leg, then tossed it to the floor. The tiles looked like the canvas of some bad abstract art. Steve howled in agony and was changing while hanging from the shower head. Newman took his time and coldly filled a rag with more chloroform.

“You bastard! Arrgh! I will kill you!” Steve uttered from his changing voice.

“I think not my little friend.”

At that moment Newman jammed his palm over Steve’s mouth and asphyxiated the partially transforming young man. Once asleep, Steve began to revert to his human body and Newman kicked the stool out from under his feet as he began to set up the next scene for Darwin’s arrival.

Eyes wide open, Darwin rolled over off the rock he had collided with. His eyes burst open with tears and were full of light. What he had witnessed had been true; he could feel it in his soul. Newman had lied to him.

He could have stopped Steve. Everything from Newman had been a lie. Newman had killed Steve; Newman had learned that Steve was already a werewolf. The man had been full of half truths.

“That son of a bitch!” Darwin yelled at the top of his lungs, crying in anguish throughout the woods. The birds departed the tree branches above in a frenzy to leave Darwin in his emotional well.

Focused on his lost opportunity, all he could see was Newman and the New Haven City Police plotting behind him, running counter to everything that Darwin had wanted.

Darwin’s soul began to bleed and the raging fire in his spirit grew out of control.

The distraught man flipped onto his hands and knees and changed in rage. Darwin tore his clothing from his body and ran into the woods forgetting why he had been there in the first place.