::CHAPTER 9::

I found myself waiting for Richie for an hour and he wasn’t back yet. My ears were covered with a pair of his headphones and I tapped on the controller of his videogame. It was the most violent one I could find in his stash and I knew that Aunty would totally have a goat if she found out that I was playing it.

Blowing up zombies and watching blood splatter all over the stone floors of the game was the best part. I got to watch a scene where the zombies were eating brains. It was so cool. I sat on the floor, back hunched over my tapping fingers. As a swarm of the monsters came at me in the game, my body darted to one side and I punched the buttons as though pressing harder would make a difference.

The scent distracted me before I’d even spotted him at the corner of my eye. “You get the book?” I asked shooting a seriously annoying zombie who refused to stay down. I didn’t hear Richie’s reply over the explosion of my grenade. He reached over and pressed the pause button before plucking the headphones from my ears. “Seriously, dude. You’re playing Doomsday Undead IV when I’m trying to talk to you?” he dropped to the floor beside me.

“Well excuse me for saving the world from a zombie apocalypse,” I grumbled putting down the controller.

He scowled in response.

“What’s eating you? Come on. Tell Papa Nye what’s the matter.”

“The damn librarian couldn’t find the book anywhere. Not a single copy. It’s like the stupid book doesn’t exist.”

He didn’t have to say it. I knew why this was so important to him. It was pride. Knowing what his family did was a pride versus shame thing. I didn’t tell him to forget it. Or to get over this new obsession. He wouldn’t give up that easily.

“I don’t get it. Why would she give you the name for a book that doesn’t exist?”

“Not in the town’s library anyway.”

“You went into the town? No wonder you took so long,” I rolled my eyes, “I think you were supposed to check our library.”

“The village library isn’t open at this hour. Besides…I don’t exactly have a library card for it.”

“I sent your stubborn behind to get one two months ago,” I threw my hands in the air, “It’s your own fault.”

“I figured that you’d grow up to be an I-told-you-so sort of guy,” he grumbled.

“You deserve an I-told-you-so. If you weren’t so stubborn you’d have your book and I wouldn’t have to watch you sulk all night.”

And that’s exactly what he did.

All night.

Sulk.

By the next day my patience with him was running low. I would have given him a clout if he wasn’t so much taller. He’d spent the whole night and morning looking pouty.

After lunch that Saturday, he borrowed his mom’s card so that he could make a trip to the library. The day after that, he was gone out of the house bright and early. I had decided to go out and wait from him to come back so I went out on the porch and got into the chair swing. It was a warm Sunday perfect for playing at a river picnic. When I opened my eyes, I was met with a face that caused my heart to stutter. The shock came too fast for my liking. Orion.

He stood frozen in the spot. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was fighting between wanting to come over and walking away. His eyes were apologizing to me over and over while his lips were pressed in a grim line. He took a step toward me and I stiffened. He noticed. I could tell by the way he stopped dead in his tracks. As if there was an invisible wall in front of him.

I was poised to run if I needed to. Just because I couldn’t run the last time, didn’t mean that it would happen that way again. Now I actually had somewhere nearby to run to. My hands clenched over the seat of the chair swing. At this distance I could feel the edge of his wolf’s presence. It was not happy with me. I didn’t know why but it was on edge. The kind of edginess that could turn violent in an animal.

The only thing keeping me in place was fear. I knew well enough that the animal’s presence could lunge at me at this distance. The memory of being dragged into the air, hauled up by an invisible force and slammed into a brick pillar filled my mind’s eye. Whatever expression crossed my face made Orion shift into his second form and run away on all fours.

It was a long time after he left before my mind stopped torturing itself with flashes of memory.

I decided that I didn’t like being out on the porch. I should stay inside for the rest of the day. My arms had goosebumps. I’ve never gotten goosebumps before. I rubbed the skin and cringed as something became clear. I’m actually afraid of him. Of Orion of all people.

Strange. Being afraid of him only sounded crazy when he wasn’t around. When he’d stood feet away from me, he was burning with a power that I’d never noticed before.

My mind dragged me back to the memories. It was so clear that I could almost feel the paw ramming into my head. The images tumbled one after another. It was all a blur at one point but I remembered the helplessness. And the pain.

I shook my head and my hands reached up to cover my eyes but it didn’t help. The images were in my mind. Closing my eyes wouldn’t help. I knew that, but my hands didn’t leave my face anyway. The cut on my still sore lip smarted at the touch and I hissed at the sting.

“Nye!” the voice startled the images away. The distraction was enough to stop the memories but it still took a second to clear my head. I was wrapped in a pair of arms. How I wound up there was a wonder. I was afraid to close my eyes again. Richie wiped the dampness from my cheek. “Damn, kiddo. You scared me,” he muttered in a light voice.

No. A forced light voice.

His hand pushed my hair off my forehead and stroked the length of it. The hair didn’t stay. It fluttered back into place and into my eyes again. There was something soothing about that. Something that centered me enough to take in what was going on around me.

Richie was kneeling on the floor of the room while I sat there shivering. I wasn’t cold but for some reason I couldn’t stop. I was curled into his hold and he didn’t budge. He was a silent force offering protection from nightmares he couldn’t possibly understand, far less fight off. I took the offer anyway. It wasn’t the sort of nightmares any kid wanted to face alone.

When he was sure that I was alright what felt like hours later, he left the room. I had stopped shivering a long time ago. I’d calmed down, but telling him that didn’t seem to make a difference. I think at some point while trying to take care of me, he’d needed taking care of too. Poor Richie.

He returned a few minutes later face white, eyes dark and the cordless phone in his grip. I took it and placed it to my ear. It was Aunty. The sound of her voice calmed me more. I had missed her. If I could hug her through the phone I would. It was strange to long for someone who lived just next door to where I slept. I could just walk to her yet I couldn’t. I had enough Chosen contact for the day. I wasn’t stupid. I knew I couldn’t handle this a second time.

I talked to my aunt for a long time and she’d put Uncle on too for a little while. I knew how much it took for them to stay on the phone. The Chosen were very wolf-like in the way they cared. They loved to nuzzle and brush fur-to-fur with Pack. Most of all, they liked hugs that would seem unusually long to a human. They liked touch-affection. Giving comfort without touch was hard on them. It probably cost my aunt to stay on the phone this long so it didn’t shock me that she hung up shortly after I told her goodbye.

Downstairs something smelt amazing. I looked at the table in the kitchen and saw Aunty’s favorite bowls. They brought me dinner. I smiled and touched the cover of one bowl. Richie and I helped ourselves and his parents did the same. The Crowley family all ate in separate rooms most of the time. Richie’s mom was in the living room and his dad was in their bedroom and we ate in the dining room.

“Are you better?” he asked after a heavy silence.

“Yeah.”

“That’s it?” he put down his spoon, “I came into my room and find you huddled over and crying as if someone was torturing you. You scared me half to death and all I get is ‘yeah’?”

“Yes, I’m better.”

“That’s not what I meant. What happened? What triggered it off? You were fine when I left.”

“I saw Orion today.”

He scowled at that but didn’t say anything. With Richie, sometimes silence wasn’t the best thing. He was eating but I could tell that he was stewing in his own anger.

“What now?” I sighed.

“Why is Orion White coming here after what he did?”

“He didn’t actually come inside. He was just passing by and I spotted him while I was out in the porch. And don’t tell me that I’m not even allowed to be out on the porch. I need to be outside once in a while.”

“Sometimes I really wish you weren’t so smart for your age. Then I could have used the ‘do it because I told you so’ line.” His smile told me he was joking.

“Even then you probably wouldn’t get away with it because I would still be stubborn,” I grinned.

“But seriously, pup,” he sobered up, “I don’t like seeing you…like that. I’m used to looking after you. I really hate being in a position where you’re hurt and there’s nothing I can do to help.”

He was practically the village go-to babysitter. The best one and our absolute favorite; of both parents and kids. I knew how much that job was a part of him and protectiveness was in his job description. I could tell that he wasn’t happy about not being able to help.

“Sorry. There’s nothing that I can do to help it though. If there were I’d do it but there isn’t.”

“There are Chosen all over this village, passing by all day every day. I can’t come home every other day to see you like that just because you wanted to go outside.”

“What can I do for that then? Stay inside all the time?” I joked.

He didn’t reply.

“You’re kidding.” My smile fell.

“Maybe it’s for the best. For your healing. And once you’re better you can go out again. I think you’ll get better faster if you’re not constantly going to be tormented by the wolves.”

I sat back and folded my arms. I’m a kid. I need to go outside once in a while. Staying cooped up in here will drive me mad. But still…

“Would it make you feel better about today?” I asked. Because I’d seen the look on his face when I’d opened my eyes. He’d been so scared. He’d looked lost and helpless. It was the worst feeling to see my Richie – strong, fierce Richie – looking that way.

“Yes.”

“Fine then.” I said. Because I wouldn’t have that look in his eyes again.

Weeks later I was seriously wishing that I hadn’t made Richie that promise. My tutor came every day in the week and was just as boring as a regular teacher except she noticed when I fell asleep in classes. I really wanted to get over this little Chosen problem but, as bad as being constantly cooped up was, I’d rather that any day than a replay of the last time.

The morning classes were finally over and I was able to go for lunch. Orion’s mother already had a sandwich waiting for me in the microwave and I grabbed a juice box from the fridge. Halfway through the meal, Riche came into the kitchen beaming. The tutor was on the opposite side eating silently and being easy enough to ignore.

Richie dropped his bag on the floor, made a huge sandwich and plopped into the seat next to me. I was only too happy to see a face near my age. Well, near enough.

He pulled the copy of Pack History out of his bag and began pouring through it. Since he’d gotten his hands on the library book, he had barely put it down. I think this was the third time that he’d re-borrowed the book to read. Read is an understatement. He’d read it so much that it was practically studying.

I looked over his shoulder peered into the book. One side had a photocopy of someone’s diary and the other side had regular text. My eyes scanned the words of the text.

It was explaining how it was possible for the Chosen to shift from man to beast and back to man again. The passage said that after the testing, the humans were turning more animalistic by the day. The animals became a part of them. The people worried that, with time, the wolf side of them would be so strong that it would take over and they would not be human anymore. That’s when they went to the Oracles and then eventually Ahmose for help.

The book talked about how Ahmose explained the problem; that the human side and wolf side were in the same person. Meaning both sides obviously would shared a body, mind and soul. Wolves, being naturally stronger, had the power to overthrow the human sides and that’s what the wolf side was doing by getting more powerful. When Ahmose separated their wolf sides from their human sides, what he really did was give the wolf its own body, mind and soul. That way there was no sharing and the wolf could not take over without a fight.

The Chosen became a race of people that had two beings – wolf and man – living in one body with only one of those beings in control at a time.

Pack History didn’t only have a general history of the Chosen. There were firsthand accounts from the earliest Chosen pack members with pictures of their journal entries. There was even a part with detailed logs of the experiments done by the three doctors. I’d read it myself.

“Are you really reading that again?” I teased him, “Don’t you have it memorized by now?”

“Ha. Funny,” he rolled his eyes still not looking up from the book, “I’m trying to figure out where I went wrong.”

“What do you mean? In the History test you got last week? I though you said that it was utter…well, I’m not actually allowed to say that word.”

“It was utter bullshit,” he flipped through a test paper that had an alarming amount of red ink scribbled everywhere, “I’m trying to justify my answers.”

I peered over his shoulder. There was an ‘F’ at the top of the paper and an ‘X’ beside every single answer. I read a couple and frowned. The questions were vicious. Question one said ‘Explain in detail how the Chosen tricked and murdered the humans’. That was the nicest one. It got worse the more the questions went on. I turned over the test paper and saw that there were thirty of them in all.

A little note was written at the end of the note asking Richie’s parents to come in and see the teacher and principal. I wasn’t shocked. If you read the questions, it was obvious that you’d get full marks for writing ‘The Chosen are all scum’ next to every question. Richie had used the information from Pack History and changed it around so that he answered the questions, but still told the truth. Clever bugger. I smiled to myself.

“Did your parents go to see the teacher?” I asked.

“Yeah. They went today. Ms. Carnella said that I have to either follow what was taught on the curriculum and conform or transfer to another school and share my so called knowledge there.”

“The other schools would be just as bad.”

“Exactly,” he shook his head, “The only reason I’m going to an all-human school instead of the one in the village is so that I’ll have a better chance at getting into a college. If it wasn’t for that, I’d have told them to sit on their red ink pens and go screw themselves.”

“I don’t think I’m supposed to hear that,” I covered my ears.

“My bad, pup. Got carried away.”

I stole some of his potato chips and turned to look at him. A small frown curved his mouth. “You look tired,” his fingers brushed the dark skin under my eyes, “Did you get any sleep today?”

“No. Some people refused to let me nap,” I shot a pointed look at the teacher.

“You can nap, just not in my classes,” she replied without looking at me, “Nights are for naps.”

“He’s an eight year old, recovering trauma patient,” Richie glared at her, “He already has night terrors almost every day. He’s not getting any sleep at night. He has to take it whenever his body allows it.”

“I’m getting paid to teach him between the hours of eight and two. He can do what he likes on lunch and recess breaks but other than that, he will be present and awake in my classes.”

Anger flared in his eyes for a quick second before he calmed it. “I’ll talk with my parents and your aunt and uncle,” he murmured, “You look worn out enough as it is.” He was looking at the teacher, but an absent hand – the one attached to his arm draped over the back of my chair – was stroking my hair. I caught the protective glint in his eyes and the angry set of his mouth. Richie was not going to let this go.

A gentle pressure at the back of my head made me lean forward a bit. “Get some rest while you can. It’s your lunch break,” he said. I let him put my head to the table.

“But I barely got to talk to you,” I complained even as my eyes drooped.

“We live in the same house, kiddo. I’ll see you tonight.”

“But…”

He put his chin on the table and looked me in the eye, stopping me mid-thought.

 “Please get some rest. You don’t look too hot.”

“I happen to look downright adorable, thank you very much.”

“Well you’ll look even more adorable after you get a few minutes rest and stop looking like you’re possessed by a raccoon.”

“Oh alright. Keep your boxers on,” I mumbled and leaned over to press a quick kiss to his unsuspecting lips.

He didn’t respond the way he had the first time or the last time. This time he actually smiled. There was an understanding between us now. He was learning. A kiss so simple was between Pack and we were each other’s Packmates. Pack took care of each other. Pack stood up for each other. Pack protected, cared and loved each other without question. He was doing that for me.

That kiss was the simplest thank you. A way to show appreciation. A promise to return the favor one day when I was old enough to have to power to do the same. He accepted this kiss because for the first time, he was beginning to understand the more-than-human meaning behind it.

“You’re welcomed,” he said and finished eating while I drifted off. Even in my half sleep, I felt his presence beside me keeping watch. He usually wakes me the minute he hears my restless mumbling and screams. I knew I wouldn’t be stuck in any nightmare for too long once he was around. That thought put me into a deeper sleep.

When next I woke up, the room was dark. I was in the bedroom and lying on the pillows. Blinking the sleep from my eyes, I saw that I cuddled up to someone soft, warm and human. I didn’t need the light to know who it was. That familiar smell would give Richie away each time.

Some otherness in me stirred. It was like a separate presence in me. It stretched and sniffed at the boy lying asleep beside me. Laying asleep beside us. It was the weirdest feeling. As if my mind had been split in two and one part was trying to get the attention of the part that I still controlled. It was weirder to think of having a part of my mind that I didn’t control. For some reason, I wasn’t scared.

Pure instinct had me closing my eyes and retreating far into my mind. It was black. There was nothing to see. Just the back of my eyelids. Nothing special. But there was a speck in one part of my mind that I spotted. It was yellow. Like a star. A tiny sun. Because as tiny as it was, it burned bright. It was crazy, but I felt as if I could reach it if I only got closer. But that was an impossible idea. There was nothing to go to. It was the back of my eyelids. It didn’t matter though because that baby star continued to burn and shine, denying everything I tried to convince myself.

I opened my eyes. Richie was still asleep. Usually I would rush to tell him about something like this, but I stopped myself. What if he thought I was going crazy? Because it did sound crazy. A tiny star living in my head? Worse, that star being a separate part of my mind that I didn’t control? He’d think I was losing my marbles. It was a surprise that I didn’t think I was losing my marbles. Everyone was already worried about me enough without me telling them about something so impossible that even I wasn’t sure that I believed it.

It wasn’t something I was sure about. It was just a feeling. And that wasn’t enough to get myself locked in a kiddie loony bin. With that in mind I got up and made my way downstairs.

A groan instantly fell from my lips, “Eliza, really?” She spun around, all smooth blonde hair and bright smile. She wasn’t dressed for simple hanging out. Her silver jacket would only be at home in some party or the other. “It’s eight o’ clock in the night. How did you get into the village at this hour?”

“My dad dropped me off. I wanted to bring Richard his gym bag.” Dressed like that? “He left it at school. Where is he?”

“Sleeping,” I said in my driest possible tone.

“Can you wake him up?”

“No.”

“Please? I wanted to talk to him ab—.”

“Didn’t you two break up?” I interrupted.

“What? No. Why? Did he say something?”

I scowled. “Never mind. I’ll get him.”

“Thanks, Nye.”

“Never,” my head swiveled to look at her, “call me that.”

I headed up to Richie’s room fuming. I knew I’d left it to him to decide when he’d do it, but when he’d said that he would end it I thought it was already done. I opened the door, not aiming for quietness. He flew awake at the sound and I flipped on the light. He hissed and covered his eyes. “Shit! Turn that light off. What is wrong with you?” he demanded, still squinting.

“Your girlfriend is downstairs. She wants to talk to you,” I glared. Even squinting, his face transformed into understanding.

“You’re angry.” His tone said he was guessing but his wary eyes knew.

“She has your gym bag for you. You don’t want to keep her waiting.”

“We’ll talk when I get back,” he sighed and got up.

When he’d closed the door behind him, I felt the otherness raise its head. The urge to break something burned hot inside me. My fist clenched. It was pissed off and I didn’t blame it. I wasn’t happy about this news either. Worse, that anger was mixed with jealousy. I didn’t know why I would be jealous, but I wasn’t happy about that either. It was an irrational anger too. It was too strong for something so small. I was used to being annoyed by Eliza but this was like that feeling multiplied by two and then some.

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Thanks to all of you who recommended this story. I don't do any advertising so I know it was because of you that there've been a ridiculous amount of fanning and reads popping up out of the blue like that. So thanks again.

And to those of you pushing me to upload. You've been a great motivation too :)

P.S. The next chapter is going to be the big one. Way longer than the others so it'll take a little more time to get it finished. The next chapter is also going to be the last chapter where the characters are kids. It will be the end of Part 1 of this story :) Gotta get ready for Part 2 (the teen section)

P.P.S. This story will have either 35 or 40 chapters in all. It's going to be fairly long.

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