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Remmy…
Remmy lay in the grass with his lungs burning. He’d followed the bear and the man down the hall to the twisted wreck of the staircase they had left behind. He still couldn’t believe they were real. Through the trees, he’d watched the wolves change through his blurred vision. Dizzy from the smoke, he’d waited until the last minute to leap from the second floor landing. He’d hit his head pretty hard on the way down.
Dragging his body away from the burning house had consumed the energy he had. The crazy bear had been graceful in his leap. Remmy had been less lucky. His ankle was probably broken, and a knot was rising where he’d struck his head. Keeping his teeth clamped together kept him from screaming. He didn’t want the attention of the big-eyed children in the woods. The way they moved, something was wrong with them. Feral. Like any creature in sight of a predator, Remmy kept himself still, hoping the plantings would hide him from the children’s sight. Werewolves were real, and they walked among us. His eyes had seen them, a dozen of them.
Cold with terror, the screams of the burning filled his head, but he couldn’t move. Moving might mean his death. The shape shifters dissipated into the darkness of the woods. Remmy closed his eyes and his body shook with an uncontrollable violence.
*
Kennedy…
Kennedy crawled out of the hole, gripping her treasure. She’d dug by hand until she freed the silver belt buckle from the embrace of the earth. Unsure what words would be appropriate, she said nothing and handed her man his father’s relic. Lashes catching stars, Terry cleaned the crusted surface with the edge of his thumb. The memories inside of him softened his face. Kennedy didn’t need him to tell her that it was his dad’s. He gestured for her to bring his mother’s remains to him.
Even dead, the woman made her tremble. His mother had been a force of nature. Why had she done what she did? The door at the haunted Bell’s house had opened for her, locks sliding free of their own volition. With as much reverence as she could muster, Kennedy gathered the blanket and the horror it contained. As gently as she could, she placed the blanket into his arms. When the remains of his mother were nestled into his father’s ashes, against the beating heart of the earth, Terry climbed free of the hole they had made in the ground. Carefully, Red nudged a heavy chunk of a tree toward the gaping opening in the ground. Terry followed his lead and gathered tinder.
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*
David…
The Wolves flowed across the backyard, an agile and experienced pack. David loped amongst them in his Bear shape, following the commands of the ferocious sprite, Holly, who led them all. He ripped the bar off the first door at the back of the house and then the second. The guests slammed into the newly freed doors, forcing them open. Screaming and wild-eyed, they flowed night blind into the backyard. The reek of meat and wood burning filled the air. Every door that was not engulfed in flames they opened. David lost sight of his ring brother in the chaos.
A sharp bark, and a shrill calling howl, and all of his companions disappeared from around him. He spun toward the treeline to see a wolf tail disappearing. David ran after them, picking up speed.
He heard the pop before he felt the puff of air pass his ear. They were shooting at him. The foolish creatures who had just been given a second chance at life had tried to kill their saviors. Stupid creatures. How had they survived so many generations? He was grateful for the brush and darkness of the woods as more distant pops sounded behind him. Maybe they weren’t even aiming at them. Maybe the foolish creatures were killing each other. They seemed to do that with terrifying casualness.
*
Kennedy…
Armful after armful, Kennedy brought brush to the gravesite. Terry broke them down and fed the fire they had started in the hole. The grave glowed orange, his mother’s spirit eating the wood. The aroma was revolting. She wasn’t sure that she could ever attend a barbecue again.
The fire was so hot; she had to keep several feet from the inferno to bear its intensity. Red had found an old stump, half fat lighter, and dug it free of the forest floor. He’d dragged it to the grave. He’d torn it into chunks easily and Terry had fed them to the flame. Their hole had become a forge in the ground, turning what was once material and alive into memories. Kennedy wondered what the woman had been like when she’d been her age and first met Terry’s dad. Had she always been so sharp-tongued and grumpy? She imagined the woman just that way, trying to run off the wayward mountain boy. Had she met him at the lake? OR during trade with the mountain?
Kennedy looked across the flames at Terry. If he favored his father, she could understand her weakening. Handsome and sincere was impossible to resist. Terry’s grief was a beautiful thing, wild, and as slippery as the flames themselves. Spattering sparks lifted into the air as a breeze swirled into the grave, bright and yellow, rising toward their sisters in the sky.