A scream tore from Rosa as she scrambled to the corner of the room, back to the wall. When Levi scented the fear on her, he was filled, for a moment, with revulsion. Then came guilt, and shame, and sorrow, crushing him down into place. Rosa was not meant to be here. She was not meant to have to experience this. This was all his fault.
And wasn’t it?
Back to the tracks, when he had... when he had killed Arthur.
Back to that first date with Rosa, pulling her into his life when he knew he could never be a person, a real person, again.
Always running, hiding from what he’d done.
His fault.
He could see the blood on his hands, even now.
But she had been so kind. She’d looked him in the eyes and not been afraid.
“Go!” Derrick shouted.
Levi spun on his heel and dashed through the room, towards Rosa. The creature behind him charged forward, leaping over the kitchen island to lunge for Derrick. It was fury, and rage, and it tore at Derrick’s body as the man secured something from his waist.
“Levi!” Rosa cried, voice cracking as he grabbed her.
“Come on!” he pleaded, trying to pull her towards the front door. Behind them the creature let out a furious yowl and there was a crash as it grappled with Derrick in the living room.
A window near the front door broke inwards and a long, sinuous arm poked through the hole to open the front door.
“Dammit,” Levi snarled out, spinning on his heel and ushering her towards the hallway. They could escape out a back window.
Another roar echoed out from the main room and Levi was faced with the prospect that he was probably going to be leaving Derrick to face the things alone, abandoning him.
Well, maybe that was a problem that would solve itself.
Levi and Rosa ran down the hallway towards the bedrooms, their footsteps bouncing off the hardwood flooring. Rosa’s breathing was ragged and panicked. They slid to a stop as they reached the end of the hall.
“What now?” Rosa gasped. Levi glanced at the bedroom doors to either side of them. Then he glanced behind them, back down the hallway. A figure stood in the far entryway, covered in shimmering brown fur.
Levi’s skin prickled.
“Rosa, I need you to hide,” he breathed.
Rosa started, then looked back behind them.
“Oh God,” she said shakily. “Oh God, it sees us.”
Levi nodded slowly. “I need you to hide. Derrick and I can take care of this.”
As long as there weren’t any more.
Probably.
“I can’t leave you to that-”
“Rosa,” he grunted, cutting her off. His voice was a hushed hiss as he gripped her shoulders. “Listen to me. I can’t fight if I think you might get hurt. I need you out of the way and safe. Otherwise, you’ll be putting both of our lives in danger.”
Rosa looked up at him, then back at the creature in the hall. Then to Levi one more time.
“Bastard!” she cried at him, then hurried into the door on the left.
Levi let out a long slow sigh and turned himself around until he was face to face with the monster.
Face to face with those glowing red eyes.
His heart raced in his chest and his body felt cold and frail. But there was nothing else to do now. Nowhere to run. Nothing to do but fight. The beast thrashed in his chest.
The creature dug its long claws into the walls, growling, snarling, snapping its teeth at Levi. And then it charged.
Levi had never quite gotten used to the way werewolves moved. They would be low to the ground, running on all fours, their bodies unnaturally strong and swift, their red eyes glowing fiercely in the shadows. There was something wrong with it on a primal level. They were uncanny. Not quite a human, not quite a wolf, somewhere odd in the middle that the brain refused to process.
Levi dropped low and then pushed forward.
His shoulder slammed into the monster’s stomach as it crashed in, stopping the beast dead in its tracks and making the hardwood groan and splinter under his feet. Levi wrapped his arms behind the thing’s knees and slammed the beast down, gritting his teeth as claws dug into his back. The wolf thrashed and snarled, tearing the flesh of his back to ribbons as Levi tried to hold it down.
Come on, come on...
His chin was tucked in, throat under that of the creature as he tried to prevent the thing’s jaws from getting to him. That was the real danger. Enough force to splinter bone, to crush his skull.
Enough speed to tear his throat out if he let the thing.
His hand finally found what it was looking for and he dug his thumb in, gouging the creature’s eye. It screamed, a horrific gut-wrenching scream. It wasn’t terrifying because it was inhuman. No, it was terrifying because it was too human. It wasn’t the scream of an animal in pain, it was the scream of a man, a regular man, having his eye gouged out. Levi screwed his eyes shut tight, digging in, fighting back the bile and bitter revulsion as it rose in his throat.
He had to hurt this man. He had to cause pain and suffering. He had to protect himself. He had to survive.
He had to protect Rosa.
The flailing beast kicked its legs against the wall of the hallway, flipping them over so it was on top. Levi clung on for life. If he let the beast get any wiggle room, any at all, it would kill him. All it needed was one good shot at his throat and that would be it. No healing from that.
Levi locked his legs in as the creature tried to stumble back, to push itself away from the source of the agony it was in. It stumbled over its own legs as Levi trapped him, and so he followed, getting on top of the bloody-eyed beast and slamming his hands into the thing’s face. He held them in tight fists, the meat of his hands slamming downwards.
He felt the jolts run up his arm.
His hands were hammers. Righteous hammers. Vanquishing evil.
He felt sick.
He felt alive.
Crunching and snarling. He was vaguely aware of the thing digging its claws into his side as it tried to throw him off. He squeezed his knees together tighter on its middle to hold it in place.
Sick because he loved hurting this thing.
This man in a wolf.
He wanted the blood, wanted it all over his hands. All over his skin. It was an almost sexual thrill, the heat, the heady scent of metallic blood filling his nose. He could smell the intricacies of this creature’s life. Its soul, smeared across his clothes and his senses. Arthur’s blood drooled down his skin.
There was no one to stop him today.
Something prickled at Levi’s neck, a distant voice screaming at him somewhere inside his head. A low voice, a familiar voice. He looked around for the source of the sound.
Rosa stood in the doorway, holding, in shaking hands, an old hunting shotgun she had pried out of a mount on the wall of the bedroom she’d been in. Its wood was stained a deep chestnut, and the barrel was worn and scratched from years of loving use. She wasn’t screaming. She was staring at him. Her mouth hung open softly, eyes wide, hands shaking. Where had the voice come from? Inside? Inside his head?
Levi looked at her for a few long moments. Then he looked down at the thing that had once been a face. The head was at an odd angle, neck broken, single eye unseeing. He looked at Rosa again.
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“Think about it later, Levi,” Arthur instructed softly, offering him a hand to help him to his feet. He took it and stood. All he could smell was blood. Wonderful blood. He wanted more.
“Get her to safety. Get Derrick. Get South,” Aurthur’s voice spoke in his head.
He took a stuttering step towards Rosa, opening his mouth to speak, to say anything at all. He didn’t know what, he just needed to say something, to say sorry, or that he’d keep her safe, or that it would all be okay. The shotgun in her hands rose, just an inch, as she flinched away.
Levi stumbled backwards by a step, the pit in his stomach eating at him.
The beast was thrashing in his chest, screaming for more blood.
Feed me more.
He looked down at his hands, unblinking, unseeing, unfeeling. He had broken several of his knuckles, along with plenty of the other tiny bones in his hands. He could already feel the bone reknitting under the skin, the cracking, tugging itch of it. He spared one more glance for the dead wolf on the floor. Then he turned around and walked back towards the living room.
Derrick made an especially ominous sight, standing in the living room, hunched over. His shirt had been torn to tatters by claws and teeth. In the uneven lighting the translucent layer that sat over him like a second skin warped the light in an odd and unnatural way. That sleeve that Levi had noticed before seemed to cover at least his entire upper body, down to his wrists and up to his jawline. It disappeared into his belt, presumably continuing to cover him as it proceeded downwards.
The flesh visible under the sleeve was scarred from countless scratches, gouges, and burns. That said, there appeared to be no new wounds on the flesh. Only his face and hands, uncovered by that protective layer, showed signs of the struggle. Even the blood seemed to slide right off whatever the material was.
Two wolves laid on their backs, frozen in place, eyes still tracking them. Alive but stuck. A symbol burned on their chests, fizzling with odd green light. Derrick slowly slipped his cudgel back into his belt, the silver-tipped head visibly dented in one place.
Derrick looked him up and down, then looked over his shoulder, presumably at Rosa. She was there, following a safe distance behind. Levi wondered if Derrick could see the death in his eyes.
“... South, then.” Derrick said.
“South.” Levi croaked.
Levi looked down at the room’s sole source of illumination. The lamp laid on the ground now, bulb flickering uncertainly. The lampshade laid in tiny, scattered shards of green and white and brown, a field of glass flower petals sprawled along the floor. The lamp finally flickered off, leaving them lit only by moonlight from the windows and by the gentle red glow of the paralyzed wolves’ eyes.
“How long will that last?” Levi questioned.
Derrick cast a glare at one of them. “They’ll be fine in about four hours. The charges don’t last longer than that. Probably a little sooner if I’m being honest.”
“That’s not a lot of time,” Levi sighed, swaying on his feet. Sluggish. Exhausted. Drained. The beast paced in its cage, a maddening rhythm of footfalls, back and forth.
“It’s long enough,” Derrick shrugged. “And that’s all the time we’re getting anyways. We’ll make do. No point in worrying over impossibility.”
The man headed towards the door. Then he paused, glancing at the hallway where Levi had come from and sighed.
“Shit. Rosa, go start the car. Levi and I have a bit of cleanup to do.”
Levi’s face twisted into a grimace. Then a scowl.
“You’re not sending her out there by herself.”
Derrick looked at him. He looked... not bored, that wasn’t the right way to put it. Tired. He waved his hand.
“Fine, Levi, go play the guard dog. I’ll clean up your mess.”
Levi huffed in turn, hair hanging over the right side of his face. It was heavy with sweat and blood, and he moved it away from his face with a brush of his hand...
Rosa snatched the keys from Derrick and then stormed out the front door. It used to be a door anyways, now it was just a very rectangular hole.
Levi’s mouth came open, as if to speak, to call after her. But he didn’t know what to say, couldn’t find the words. How did he explain that he wasn’t a monster? How could he convince her?
Derrick put a hand on his shoulder, looking at the doorway. “Go on Levi. I’ll take care of things in here, best as I can. Just be ready to go when I’m done.”
Levi nodded in silent thanks and padded after her, face a mask of concern and fear and longing. The truth was, he wanted to hold her. He wanted to tell her everything was going to be okay, that they would find normal again, and that he would keep her safe.
He would keep her safe.
She stood outside, leaning against the door of the SUV. Sturdy and weathered, Derrick’s SUV had suspension heavier than standard, a large, durable bumper, and a light strip along the roof. The paint had started to chip off the doors, slowly peeling away from years of wear.
She held the shotgun limply in her right hand, her breathing heavy, her eyes closed. She was still shaking, her bodyweight heavy against the door. Levi took a step towards her, then paused. He sincerely doubted she wanted him close right now. Especially considering his... bloody state.
There were a few long moments of silence. Her breath huffed into the air. Levi smelled the sweat, the anxiety, the anger, the blood. It was hot and intense, the smell of violence and rage. Fear. Adrenaline.
The beast continued to pace.
“When I was a girl,” Rosa said quietly, almost too soft to hear, “I used to be afraid of monsters. My daddy would go around the house every night for me with a candle that he said made the monsters go away. He was a small man, but he was intense. Short but stocky. And I thought he could fight anyone or anything.”
There was awe in her voice. Awe and sorrow.
Levi didn’t quite follow, but he kept his mouth shut, relieved to have her speak to him.
“And then I grew up. Slowly, like everyone does, but I did grow up. And I realized that monsters weren’t real, and my daddy didn’t need to go around the house with a candle anymore to ward them off. When I was twelve, and bold, and cruel, I pulled him aside one night and I told him he didn’t need to anymore. I said: ‘I’m almost a teenager dad! I don’t need you to protect me anymore, I know monsters aren’t real! So stop waving around that stupid candle!’ And, when I said that to him...”
She paused, taking in a shaking breath. Then she pushed herself off of the truck, the glint of the shotgun heavy in her hand. She shook her head, and the long, beautiful brown hair shimmered in the moonlight. Derrick grunted behind them, dragging one of the paralyzed wolves out of the cabin and onto the gravel driveway.
“When I said that to him,” she continued solemnly, “he looked so, so sad. Happy, and sad, both at once. And he said to me: ‘My darling Rosa, you are so strong. You’re fierce, like your mother, there’s fire in you. And no, monsters aren’t real. But I will always protect you, whether you need me to or not, threat real or imagined. I will protect you without reservation, without concern for myself, no matter what it costs me. Because you are my daughter, and you are the most beautiful and precious thing in the world to me.’ After he said that, I felt so sick I started to cry. I had no idea why I was crying, but I cried, and he held me, and he told me it would be okay. And I believed him.”
She turned to Levi, looking exhausted.
“There’s no such thing as a monster, Levi. You know that, right?”
Levi thought back to the very human scream of the wolf inside and shuddered. He gave a slow nod.
Rosa gave him a soft, sad smile.
“You’re only nodding because that’s what I want you to do,” she mused. It wasn’t a question. “I’m sorry.”
She opened the door of the SUV and climbed inside, starting its engine. The thing growled to life with a cough of smog from the exhaust. She flicked on the headlights. With her legs hanging out of the open door she sighed, looking down at the shotgun in her hand.
An orange glow slowly grew around them. They looked to the cabin as a hungry red flame consumed the structure. The two paralyzed wolves laid out in the driveway as the flames climbed to the sky. Derrick let out a satisfied sigh, dusting his hands off on his pants, and then stepped to the SUV. He grabbed a duffel bag out of the trunk and pulled on a black turtleneck from within, covering over that protective sleeve that ran up his body.
Levi and Rosa looked up at the flames, climbing ravenously up the sides of the cabin with supernatural speed. Smoke billowed into the sky. It blotted out the moon, tinting the brilliant circle a harsh red.
Rosa hopped out of the SUV’s driver’s seat as Derrick approached. The fire danced in her eyes as she leaned against the side of the vehicle, breathing slow now, shotgun over her shoulder.
“Let’s go Miss Rosa,” Derrick grunted softly.
She frowned at the flames, then nodded, climbing into the back seat. Levi stepped around the vehicle, climbing into the passenger seat. The vehicle creaked as the weight shifted one way, then the other. And then the SUV began its journey down the road.
It was a gravel road. Winding, rough, and narrow, it meandered its way through the California forest. The vehicle tossed under them, the firelight casting a long, jagged shadow that shifted and twisted on the road like a great black serpent. Levi looked at the side mirror, numbly watching the fire pulse and twitch in the glass. The red moon watched him in turn, heavy like a dewdrop in the sky.
“We’re going home,” Arthur said from the seat behind him. Levi sighed and shook his head.
“You’re coming home,” said a soft, feminine voice. Levi paused. This was not a voice he’d heard before. Not while he was awake anyways. The hair rose on the back of his neck. His mother. Or, at least, it was what he imagined his mother’s voice to sound like. The voice he dreamed about when he dreamed of her.
She’d been dead for a long time. After Levi’s birth, she had collapsed entirely, or so his father said. Post-partum depression. Losing her had almost killed the man, he knew. He could see it in his eyes when he spoke about her. The longing. The regret. The sorrow.
Levi had always felt his father was a cold man. Not uncaring, just distant. But, when he spoke about his mother, there was such a depth there, deeper than any ocean. It bubbled under the surface, a beautiful tapestry he would never get to see. He wondered what he had been like before her death. Had he been happier? Warmer? Levi would never find out.
He’d asked his grandmother once what she looked like. What had happened to her. Why his father fell to pieces whenever he asked. His abuela had wrapped him in a warm embrace and held him tight to her.
“She was a good woman Levi, a good woman. And she loved your father. And, when she was pregnant, she glowed, and she loved you more than words can say.”
Levi tapped his fingers on the door handle of the SUV, drumming them anxiously.
“You’re coming back to me baby,” his mother hummed. He watched the house burn behind him, fingers drumming faster, a furious rhythm on the cold plastic. The flames were more intense than they should have been, and the orange light of them lit his bloody face with a garish glow.
“Back where?” he whispered. “Back to who?”
But she didn’t reply.
Her hair swished across his face, tickling his skin.
Her perfume swirled in his nose and made the world smell like saltwater taffy and wooded hills.
He followed her through forested paths, narrow, the evergreens looming tall around them like the walls of a canyon. Her footfalls were light and quick, and she laughed and laughed and laughed. She danced between the roots, as if she knew every foot of woodland, every patch of grass. The fire loomed ahead, a bonfire in the woods, and music, loud raucous music, people cheering him, cheering his arrival, welcoming him home. Their eyes glowed whenever they were in shadow.
Levi leaned his head forward against the dash, taking deep, slow breaths. He jumped slightly as Rosa’s hand came to rest on his shoulder. A shuddering whine escaped him. Then he leaned back, letting her hand comfort him as they drove on and away from the blaze.