Origins: Katy pt 6

October 27, 2008 on 11:27 pm | In Dead End Streets Chapters |

Today is Sunday and I am a werewolf, Katy thought the next morning while she was eating breakfast.  The slightly runny eggs and toast were the first food she had since the ill-fated ice cream sundae, and she ate them with a fervor that she had never felt before.  She had never been so hungry in her entire life, and her mother was not there to lecture her when she asked if she could have seconds so her wish was granted.

My name is Katy Rundstrom, I live in Denton, Ohio.  I am thirteen years old.  And I am a werewolf.  It’s February and I am a werewolf.  My favorite color is green and I am a werewolf.

Stating the obvious did not make it any better.

After she had eaten a nurse came in to change her bandages.  Katy struggled to sit up to get a good look at the bite, below her belly button and to the right, just over her left leg.  “It doesn’t look that bad,” she said with surprise, staring ragged ring of stitches holding her skin together.  It did not feel as bad as it had the day before either.

“You’ll always heal quickly now,” the nurse told her.  “Unfortunately it will leave a scar.  Werewolves and vampires.  They have to mark you as one of them, don’t they?”  She glanced up at Katy as she measured out a length of clean gauze.  “I know you feel like everything’s fallen apart.  But it will get better.”

“It doesn’t feel like it.”

“You’re going to be depressed for a little while.  And then you’ll go on with your life.”

“I just don’t want to die.”

“I know.”

*****

Patrick and Joel met for brunch, and at first neither of them mentioned the full moon, Patrick’s condition, or the werewolf attack that had taken place practically in their own city.

“So,” Patrick said.  “You’re driving the same car you had in high school, your father hasn’t traded up since 1990, and neither of you have done as much as change your own tire or do an oil change?  It must cost you a fortune to stay on the road.”

“So we don’t like to get messy.  That’s what guys like you are for.”  He gave Patrick a half smile.  “Just because I don’t like to get dirty doesn’t mean I don’t like my men a little greasy and smelling of motor oil.”

Patrick raised his eyebrows.  “Okay.  Enough.  Why are you even here?  You know what I am—why are you flirting?”

“I like you.  So what?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.  I’m dangerous to be around—”

“One night a month.”

“And I’m too old for you.”

Joel reached for his coffee.  “Do you have a problem with me?”

“I—no.  I’ve never met anyone as calm and accepting as you in my life.  I think you’re insane, but I like you.”

“If you like me, I don’t see what the problem is.”

Patrick gave up, turning his attention back to his food.

“I have a thing for scruffy older men,” Joel said a short time later, not looking up from his plate.  “And mechanics.  You’re just my type is all, and I saw you at the club on Thursday.  You looked so lonely and vulnerable—so I bumped into you to give myself an excuse to talk to you.  I admit things got a little out of hand there, and the next morning I panicked and swiped your wallet before I went to class.

“I saw your driver’s license, but at that point I already kind of liked you, and I try to be open-minded when it comes  to dating.  I’ve been out with a few Cubi and I once went on three dates with a vampire—he was much more dangerous than you are.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Have you ever bitten anyone?”

“Of course not.  I’d hardly be walking free now, would I?”

“Do you have fleas?”  Patrick’s glare was all the reply he needed.  “I take that as a no.  So you see?  There’s nothing for me to be afraid of.”

“I’m still old.”

“This is going to take some work, isn’t it?”

*****

Sunday morning after breakfast Katy finally gave her statement to the two police women that came to speak with her.  She didn’t like their questions.  Why did she miss the bus?  How often did Mr. Becker talk to her outside of class?  Did he say or do anything that made her uncomfortable?  Did he touch her?

“What does he say about it?” Katy asked.  “You’ve spoken to him, right?”

The two women glanced at each other.  “Criminals don’t usually talk about their motives to cops,” one said.  “Smart ones anyway.”

“It looked like he had been planning this for a while,” the other offered.  “His car was packed up like he was ready to skip out of town.”

After they left Katy allowed herself to cry as she thought back to that afternoon, remembering his last words before he changed.  He told her she wasn’t special.  It could have been any random person off the street.  He had changed his mind though, too late, giving her the car keys.  She wondered why.  Was she not good enough to eat?  Did his conscience set in?  Or did he really like her enough to not want to make her dinner?

Her family showed up after lunch still in their church clothes, both of her parents on cell phones.  From their conversations she could tell who they were talking to.  Her father was speaking with his lawyer.  “We’re taking this as far as it can go.  I want to see that animal put to sleep for this.  And the school—the school should be held accountable for hiring that freak—I don’t care if his record was clean.  Couldn’t they have done a blood test or something?  Screw the constitution, Bill.  Our children’s’ safety is at stake here….”

Katy’s mother was on the phone with her grandmother.  “Mom, I gotta go.  I’m in line at the grocery store.  Yes.  I will call you tomorrow.  The girls send their love.  By mom.”  She snapped her phone shut with a roll of her eyes.  “Your grandmother says hi girls.”

“You didn’t tell her I was in the hospital, did you?” Katy accused.  “She doesn’t know!”

“Well of course not you silly thing.  We don’t want to worry her.”

“But—“

“Katy, this isn’t something we can just blab all over the place.  The more secret we can keep your…condition…the better of this entire family is.”

Katy steeled her will and did not answer back.  Her mother was ashamed of her.  Bad enough that she was fat and a social mess.  Now she was a demonic freak too.

Alex trotted over to the hospital bed, oblivious to their parents.  She set a shopping bag on Katy’s lap.  “I brought you some Harry Potters, and Rachel sent you this.”  She pulled out a new copy of the book Katy had ruined a few short days before.  Already it felt like another lifetime.  “She says she’s sorry she can’t visit you, but her car wont make the trip without something falling off, and she can’t wait for you to come home.”

“Isn’t this bothering you?” Katy asked her little sister.

Alex shrugged.  “I don’t want you to be sick, but if you’re sad too, it would be bad.  Don’t be sad.  It will be okay.”

Katy pulled the books close.  “No it wont.  I’m going to get sick.”

“Not for a long time.  They might find a cure.”  Katy tried to smile at Alex’s confidence that everything would turn out fine.  If only she could believe it.

*****

Joel kissed Patrick goodbye in the parking lot of the diner.  Later, in the car, Patrick could still feel the softness of his lips, could still taste the coffee-taste of his tongue.  It had been so long since anyone had kissed him like that.  The wolf inside him had liked it, and he didn’t want the wolf enjoying anything.

Patrick drove to the hospital straight after he ate.  He had friends that he needed to check on and make sure they were still alive, and he wanted to see if the werewolf crisis centre in the hospital needed any volunteers.  Maybe someone to talk to that girl.

There was a full page of hate mail in the opinion section of the paper that morning, with a single werewolf supporter who was sending out rallying cries for donations for a legal defense fund for Phillip Becker.  The actual article had been lacking on information on the victim, but had plenty to say about Becker, calling him a sociopath and a ‘rogue werewolf’ a favorite term for unregistered wolves.  Things did not look good for Becker, and Patrick wasn’t sure he cared.

The first room he stopped at was Susan and Don’s room.  Normally hospital policy would never let a man and a woman share a room, but the couple lived in the hospital for as long as they were at home every month, and their son tended to follow wherever they went.  Patrick knew something wasn’t right before he stepped inside the room.  It was far too quiet, and there were too many flowers.

Susan was pale and asleep in her bed, her son lying next to her.  Even though the boy was nearly fourteen he was skinny and small for his age, so that next to her, he looked not much older than eleven or twelve.  The other bed was empty.  The kid, his name was Lex, looked up when Patrick entered.

Evidence of tears streaked his face, and Patrick did not need to ask where Don was.  Lex shook his mother’s shoulder and she woke.  Patrick stepped over to the bed and took her hand, at the same time grasping Lex’s shoulder.

All he could offer was a comfort that was little help when the disease that raged within all three of them had just claimed husband and father.

*****

A/N:
I wasn’t planning on killing Lex’s parents on screen.  Sorry for all the sad stuff…I feel like I’m writing a Lurlene McDaniels book…

The Harry Potter series is something that would change very little in DESverse.  It’s already got werewolves and vampires, and it even has a version of the cubi–veela.

This story line is already 10k…it’s almost a novella on its own.  The main story line has just recently hit 80k.  I am incredibly impressed with myself.