Chapter Sixteen

Darwin was seen running down Main Street completely naked a few minutes after eight in the morning. He was dirty from head to toe with canals of mud leading from the canyons of his eyes and down across the plains of his cheeks. The onlookers yelled to him asking him what was wrong, but he continued moving up the road.

Ray Silverdale was on top of the ladder changing the marquee sign at the Caprice Theatre, adding in the summer matinee showings and the week’s new flicks. From high above he just shook his head and said nothing. The New Haven of old was no more and not much could surprise him, anymore.

All along Main Street the gasps and whispers could be heard, and no one really knew what to say.

As Darwin passed the intersection still in his daze, his side-kick began running next to him. Tim Waters had torn his clothes from his body and was now running along side his friend to help normalize the situation the best he could.

Tim happily yelled out to the stunned crowd. “That’s right folks-thirty days until the New Haven 1st Annual Nudist Run! All proceeds go towards the Hadamar Wellness Retreat Fund!”

One by one, people began to nervously applaud unsure if such an event was really planned…or worse yet now had to occur.

At City Hall the runners slowed their pace to a walk in front of a growing crowd. His citizens just looked on saying nothing more only, wondering to themselves what could have possessed him to do such an extraordinary thing.

A handful of tourists who had stopped for breakfast had pulled out their cameras at the sight and snapped a few candid shots, which Darwin took no notice to. Tim politely smiled back making no effort to cover himself. One father quickly masked his daughter’s eyes while slapping his wife’s arm trying to prevent her from taking a few lustful shots of the beefy men.

Secretly, the citizens of New Haven all realized their low profile had been broken. Now they had to wonder what was to happen next.

“Good morning Mister…Foster. Mister Waters,” the puzzled receptionist greeted.

Inside the safety of City Hall the two nudists walked past reception to a growing hush throughout the building. Everyone knew it was best to remain quiet. Judging by Darwin’s appearance, the day was going to be a long one for everyone. Now it was time for the staff to remain quiet at their work stations until they had been informed officially what the issue was.

“Nudist run?” Darwin asked as he slumped into his leather office chair choosing neither to clean up nor to get dressed.

“It was all I could think to do. What the hell is wrong with you? You know there were tourists outside. I had to come up with some kind of explanation!”

Darwin gritted his teeth before chewing on his upper lip. Tim was right of course, and yet he felt like tearing into him verbally. Under his human skin Darwin was still boiling uncontrollably and it was all he could do to keep his mind away from Ridgemount; from Steve and Newman; from just about everything else in his past.

“I know you’re mad, but I can clean up the whole run idea. That was just for the tourists,” Tim assured. “Please, what’s wrong?”

Darwin continued to sit quietly in his chair with his hands trembling. He welled up and bit his lip until a trickle of blood rolled down his chin.

“Mary’s gone,” Darwin replied.

“What? You both were so happy yesterday. What happened?” Tim asked with genuine concern.

“I don’t remember,” Darwin cried. “I don’t think I killed her, but maybe I did.”

Tim moved around the desk quickly to kneel by Darwin’s side. He grabbed his friend’s hand and squeezed to show him he wasn’t alone. Tim knew enough of Darwin to know he was more scarred than any other person he had ever met. Darwin isolated himself and always made the appearance that he could live happily without companionship. In his heart he knew that Darwin cried from loneliness; all he ever wanted was to experience love and to be what he perceived as normal.

“Tell me what happened?” Tim asked quietly.

The salty pain continued down his cheeks. Globs of snot bubbled from his nostrils and his eyes welled to a rosy shade of pink. “I have blackouts, Tim. They’re strange; I think it’s Hell that speaks to me. Sometimes they come as dreams, I’m sure it’s them.”

Tim remained silent, letting Darwin do the talking at his own pace.

“They’ve come to me before. I was never sure if they were real. I think there’s something in those woods—something evil.”

Darwin paused, wiping a long string of clear ooze from his nose onto his arm before continuing. “They’ve shown me things—things I had forgotten. My brother, my father.” He choked.

“What did they show you?” Tim asked, attempting to keep Darwin on point.

“Steve made me…I’m sure of it. They didn’t show me how, but they showed me that he was already like us. Newman drugged him and then set it up to look like a suicide. It was Newman who cut off…Newman dosed the school in gasoline! Newman!” Darwin yelled beginning to growl.

“Look at me. Darwin, look at me,” Tim demanded, continuing to squeeze his human hand. “Stay with me. We can wolf-out together later, bring it back. Come on you can do it.”

Darwin struggled and grunted, but his eyes remained only pink. His muscular frame beaded with sweat, the skin tight like new leather, but he held on. “I guess I tripped on something, in the woods. I blacked out. I was in this cavern—they come to me that way usually…have you had anything like that before?”

“No,” Tim quickly replied.

“I don’t know why they speak to me. It makes me feel as though I’m crazy, sometimes. They want me to be this big leader. This time they were talking about Hitler and Stalin,” Darwin said in a glaze.

“I don’t think you’re the next Fuhrer.” Tim nervously chuckled.

“Why not, we have a concentration camp don’t we? We weed out the unworthy. I do exactly what Hitler did; even if it’s for the right reasons.” Darwin concluded, still shaking visibly.

“Right, well I think our situation is a little different. We must eat, so a line had to be drawn. You can’t beat yourself up over that. What happened to Mary…” Tim deflected.

“I don’t know. I raged. When I realized what Newman had done to Steve, my knocking the candles over had killed her—I changed. For the first time ever I changed out of pure anger…and I don’t remember what happened when I was the wolf. I killed, I know that. I tried to find her, I ran to the hot springs but she was nowhere.” Darwin looked at Tim, hoping he had the answer.

“So, she’s lost in the woods.” Tim let go of Darwin and grabbed the phone and hit the speed dial. After a brief moment of silence someone answered. “This is Waters; we have a missing person in the woods north of town, Mary Cardwen. Get as many people out there looking for her as you can.”

Tim hung up the phone and sat on the edge of the desk returning his attention to Darwin.

“Your junk is in my face,” Darwin stated plainly.

Tim looked down and realized he was still naked with his crotch about eye level with Darwin. When he realized his position and how it would look if someone had walked in-he couldn’t help but have a bit of a laugh which Darwin shared in. He promptly hopped off the desk and went over to Darwin’s private room through a door tucked away in the corner of the office. Tim entered the boudoir and returned a moment later with some clothes and a bathrobe. Tim casually tossed the robe to Darwin who stood up long enough to cover himself before sitting once again.

Tim began hastily dressing waiting for Darwin to continue his story but Tim realized he would must do some coaching. “We’ll find her Darwin, I promise you.”

“It was strange, Tim,” Darwin said. “It was as though she had never existed. I found nothing of her. I could smell her, but even that disappeared. After a while all I could smell was foulness. I made it to the hot spring, there was nothing there, either.”

“She didn’t know where it was. I don’t know where it is! I think you’re the only one who has ever found it,” Tim replied as he threw on a plain white shirt.

“I suppose, but to me it seems so easy to find. Just follow the eggs,” Darwin said as he suddenly remembered. “Egg salad!”

“What?”

“I fell asleep, or blacked out at the hot spring—I’m not sure which. When I came to there was a paper bag with two egg salad sandwiches inside along with some cookies,” he said, growing excited.

Tim looked to him. “Okay, that’s a little odd. Do you think someone put it there?”

“No, I think it floated there on its own,” Darwin replied laying on the sarcasm.

“Sorry, no I realize someone put it there, I just meant if it wasn’t you was it Mary? You were going for a picnic, weren’t you?”

“I guess, but I never saw her make the lunch, but I also never saw it when I got to the spring. I guess I could have missed it…the sulphur of the spring may have masked the smell. Something bugs me about it, Tim. I had this really strange dream before I saw the bagged lunch. I was looking for something in the kitchen…my kitchen I think. There was this chocolate bunny in the oven. It spoke to me.” Darwin recounted.

“Okay, think we can discount this part of the story,” Tim said with a slight roll of his eyes.

“No! It was important. The bunny was trying to tell me something. We had to find something. It was very important that we find it. I also had to go somewhere but I couldn’t leave until I found…” Darwin stopped for a moment as his eyes scanned the recess of his mind, “a metal bar on the wall…a magnetic knife holder? I just don’t know.”

“So, what did you do with this lunch?”

“Nothing, I was changing when I found it. Have you ever tried to stop changing once you start? It’s fucking hard. I left the bag where it was. I remembering this much though, the sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper.”

“What’s so interesting about that?”

Darwin replied as his mind drifted back to his childhood, “I haven’t seen anyone wrap sandwiches in wax paper since my mother. I’d forgotten that.”

Tim redirected, “Did you and Mary have a fight or did you say something she might have taken offence to, or possibly been frightened of?”

“No, we weren’t fighting or anything like that. She…” Darwin paused for a moment. “You know, right before I lost her she went into a bit of a trance. She knew where I had made my first kill. As quickly as she zoned out she snapped back out of it. She didn’t remember what she had said. She was right, it was the exact spot where I had killed Jason and Tina.”

“That is a little strange,” Tim admitted. “And you haven’t told her about us?”

“No.”

“I tell ya what—you go get yourself cleaned up and you and I will head out to this hot spring and start looking for her. I’m sure she’s a little cold, but once we find her I know she’ll be fine,” Tim said.

Darwin replied, “What if I did kill her?” He slumped back in his depressive mood, realizing that was most likely the possibility.

Tim paused, calculating his answer. The truth was harsh; what if he had killed her? So what…it will be just another human who made a meal for a hungry wolf. Part of Tim truly felt that Darwin was to blame for this outcome. All Darwin had to do was bite her and tell her the truth the moment he took a liking to her. Instead, he chose to beat around the bush an now he had missed his opportunity. In Tim’s mind flashed the idea that this already has happened to you once!

“No point in talking about what may be. Let’s go find out what is,” Tim replied, giving the best neutral answer he could.

Darwin nodded his head, rose from his desk and began moving towards his private suite. Before disappearing, he turned to Tim one more time with a question.

“What does love feel like?”

“I don’t know. Happiness I guess. Why?”

“I don’t know how to love,” he stated as he disappeared into the room, closing the door behind him.

Tim remained seated at the desk, contemplating the question. Love was an emotion that he was familiar with. Crazy sex parties with beautiful girls didn’t really amount to love even though it was lustful pleasure that always brought him back for seconds. The idea of love was confusing to Tim. By rights he should love his parents…but what did that mean? He said he loved them, but in reality his feelings for them were no different than anyone else—ambivalent.

The Power of One loomed over Tim as his mind contemplated the possibilities.