She Howled, They Came Read online

  Tina’s breath hitched in shock.

  His hair was… different… than before. Instead of long, dirty blond strands, the locks that filled her vision now were short, black and close-cropped. Otherwise, upon first glance, she swore it was the same guy from the lobby of Doctor Hurley’s office.

  It was Chuck. There was no question in her mind.

  “Damn, you alright?” he said as he walked up to her. “I saw you take a spill there.”

  “Yes, I…” Tina replied.

  “Sorry about Bosco,” he interrupted. “It’s the breed, kinda how they greet… they can be a bit…”

  “Mouthy.” Tina said as she completed his sentence.

  He nodded and said, “Yeah, you familiar with them? Dogo Argentinos?”

  In the background, Tina heard the exhausted class participants begin to stir to life. Muffled chit chat echoed along the tall walls of the gym as she looked at him in confusion. While she wondered why he seemed to have forgotten who she was, he turned his attention to Allison.

  “Allison, hey! You sore from yesterday?”

  Allison nodded, “My quads are… the front squats killed me.”

  “Excellent,” he said as he nodded his head and flashed a satisfied grin. “Fucking excellent!”

  “So, this is her?” he said as gestured towards Tina.

  “Yep.”

  “Great… I’m Max,” he said as he extended his hand towards Tina.

  Max?

  “Oh, um… Hi,” she said. “Nice… to meet you.”

  He looked past her and pointed towards a desk in the corner. “Let me take care of something real quick and I’ll be right with you. There’s a bathroom in the back. Allison… can you show her where it is so she can change?”

  Allison nodded. “Way ahead of you.”

  A few seconds later, the two women made their way towards it, Allison stopping along the way to introduce Tina to some of the people that remained from the earlier class. As they reached the bathroom door, Tina wrapped her hand around the cool brass knob and turned back towards Allison.

  “Hey,” she said as cracked the door open a bit.

  Allison raised her eyebrows. “Yeah?”

  “This is going to sound bizarre but I met Bosco earlier today. He came into Doctor Hurley’s office. The guy who brought him in looked just like Max but introduced himself as Chuck.”

  “Oh yeah,” Allison nodded. “They’re brothers, twins. They own the gym. Hell, they own a ton of them all over town.”

  “Really?” Allison said. She did a half turn over her shoulder and looked back towards the front of the gym where Max sat behind his desk.

  Twins?

  ***

  The loud blast from the gun echoed in the small space of the family kitchen. The smell of cordite filled the immediate area around Tina and made its way into her nostrils. But unlike the smoky remnants of firecrackers on the fourth of July, the aroma did not mark a celebration.

  Instead, the scent signaled a kill, much like that of a fallen doe or other prey tracked down by the pack. Yet this one was not for sustenance but for her freedom, or so she hoped. Almost as soon as the weapon discharged, her stepsisters and mother screamed and ducked down behind the kitchen table.

  Amid the clouded haze of gunfire, Albert vanished.

  Panicked, Tina’s breath rushed within her lungs in large, heavy gulps as she struggled to her feet. The pain from Albert’s strike across her cheek moments earlier morphed from a hot, violent slash to a deep, hard throb. Tina’s legs wobbled beneath her as she tried to steady herself.

  “Tina!” her mother screamed from underneath the kitchen table. “What the hell did you do!?”

  While Louise scolded Tina, her stepsisters screamed and cried. Barely coherent utterances of pain and confusion rang out as the uncertain aftermath unfolded. Though she struggled, Tina reminded herself she’d rehearsed this moment over and over in her mind. She knew exactly what she would say and do… once Albert died.

  She’d explain to them how it was their only way out. Her stepsisters, like her mom, they would come to understand in time… they had to. Like it or not, killing him was the only hope any of them had. If Tina was the only one capable of understanding that fact for now, so be it.

  At least it was over for her stepfather. Or so she thought…

  “Hrrrrmmpphh,” an unseen male voice groaned from across the room.

  “Shit,” she whispered. She looked in the direction of the voice.

  Tina’s hand quaked as she pointed the gun towards the last place she saw Albert before he fell to the ground. She chewed her lip and shuffled her feet in haphazard, anxious steps as she attempted to walk around the dining room table for a better view.

  Her eyes traced along the shiny linoleum as she strained for any sight of him behind the kitchen counter. She exhaled a slow, shaky breath and tucked her upper lip inside of her lower. The taste of sweat from her skin mixed with the blood in her mouth from Albert’s strike and focused her attention.

  Without warning, her stepfather’s hand appeared above the kitchen counter. He slapped it down and as he did, Tina’s forward momentum reversed. The realization that the job remained unfinished crystallized in that moment and caused her to doubt her bravado. Yet somehow she managed to keep the hand-held steel aimed at him. Her finger slipped around the trigger in unconscious commitment until her mother and stepsisters leapt to their feet and rushed to his side.

  “Get away from me!” he yelled as they closed upon him.

  With the weapon still poised, Tina looked on as he shoved them aside in a collective heap. Crimson rivulets of blood streamed down from his shoulder, splattered the counter and his would-be rescuers. Albert’s once coiffed, controlled hair hung low across his face. Now, messy and dangerous, he glared at Tina between the greasy black strands.

  The look in his eyes sent Tina backwards until she collided with the wall. The cold temperature of the plaster penetrated the sheer fabric of her t-shirt and caused her breath to hitch in shock. Frantic, she reached up and wrapped her free hand atop the one which held the pistol.

  It steadied her aim, but not by much.

  With his uninjured arm, Albert slicked his hair back away from his eyes and narrowed his eyes in Tina’s direction.

  “Albert… please,” Tina’s mother whispered as she tried to come to his aid once more.

  “Don’t! Touch me,” he said as he snapped his head around toward Louise. Louise’s eyebrows gathered upwards in horror… and disbelief… of what lie ahead in the coming moments. She covered her mouth and backed away from him. Red-eyed and disoriented, Elle and Becca sobbed as they stood behind Louise and watched the standoff unfold.

  Blood streaked the counter as Albert dragged his injured arm across it.

  “Stay back!” Tina said as he started to move.

  She snapped her arms straight and pointed the gun at him once again.

  “Or… what?” he said as he lurched towards her. His upper body listed as he rounded the edge of the counter. Off balance, he ambled towards Tina with a distorted, wicked grin across his face.

  The perspiration from Tina’s brow seeped into her eyes as he approached. Unable to rid herself of it before he reached her, she squinted through the burning sensation and continued to point the pistol at him. With a quick thrash, Tina flung her sweat-tipped hair away from her eyes while her tongue flashed across her lips. As Albert wobbled in her direction, she pressed her thumb into the steeled grooves of the gun’s hammer… and waited.

  She wouldn’t miss again.

  Disoriented and injured, he groped towards Tina, but as he did, she side-stepped and struck him across the back of the head with butt of the revolver. A weakened Albert dropped to the floor with a thud.

  His head bounced against the linoleum and as he slid to a stop against a nearby wall, Tina turned and faced him. Her courage reborn, she readied herself to finish what he’d started so many years ago. Her sweat-moistened hands grasped at the thick b
utt of the revolver. The grooved handle of the weapon seemed to take on a life of its own as she cocked the hammer back.

  Her trigger finger twitched to life. She began to pull back on the slender curve of metal, but just then, a familiar primal sound broke out from behind her. Before she could fire or even catch a single breath, her stepsisters dropped to all fours. They hunched low and moved to protect their unconscious father. As they crept toward her, Tina’s ears rattled with the sound of guttural growls.

  One-on-one, Tina knew she could take them. But against them both, especially in a situation like this, she wasn’t sure. Instead, she aimed the gun in their direction. To her surprise, Tina’s hands steadied as her stepsisters bared their teeth and broke after her. The tip of the gun erupted with fire, twice, in rapid succession. The females yelped in midair before colliding with one another and hitting the floor.

  “Tina!” her mother screamed. “Have you lost your mind?”

  “No!” Tina yelled as she swerved in her mother’s direction. “I’ve awakened it… Now, move aside or so help me…”

  Her mother’s face turned as Tina spoke. Shock melted away from her features. Anger took its place. Louise’s eyebrows narrowed as she glared at her daughter.

  “Are you going to shoot me too, Tina?” she said as she took measured steps towards her. “I’m the only family you’ve got left.”

  As she spoke, years of pain and frustration pooled in Tina’s eyes.

  “Shut up! Stop talking!” she yelled.

  Undaunted, her mother continued to move in her direction.

  “This is not the right thing Tina, you know it.”

  Tears poured from Tina’s eyes now. The uncontrollable flow affected her vision and clouded it in much the same way her mother’s words did in that moment. Just then, Albert groaned and stirred to Tina’s left. She gasped, staggered back and took dead aim at the semi-conscious monster.

  “No!” a half-human screech called out to Tina’s right.

  Tina’s head swiveled towards the sound. The pitch of the voice caused chills to splinter down the back of her spine. Still too young to match her, Tina staggered back into the wall as one of the pack’s most fearsome females shifted and moved towards her.

  Louise neared the body of her husband and circled back in front of him. There was no mistaking the message. If Tina was to have her vengeance against Albert, it would be at the price of her own flesh and blood.

  Tina sobbed as she moved the pistol into position.

  “Mom… please,” Tina begged in glassy-eyed disbelief.

  Just then, Louise reared back on her haunches and let loose with a sinister growl. Deep and long, Tina recognized it for what it was among her pack. It represented Tina’s last opportunity to retreat and slip away into the shadows. With any luck, the pack wouldn’t give chase. Louise snarled as she hovered over Albert’s motionless body. Nearby, Elle and Becca also remained still, soaked in the blood of rage from Tina’s weapon.

  “I love you, Mom,” she choked.

  Louise’s wolf snarled and bared its ivory-shaded canines before it leapt at Tina.

  Tina focused her attention down the silver barrel as it exploded. A hard kick and a puff of black smoke later, the wolf fell from the air and slid to a stop between Tina’s feet. She dropped the gun. As the weapon hit the ground, it bounded against the linoleum floor and came to rest a few feet away from her. A vacant stare filled Tina’s eyes. Her lower lip trembled at the realization of the future she’d created for herself in those few precious minutes.

  She staggered out of the kitchen and her old life… forever.

  ***

  “Yes, sir. I will,” Tina’s supervisor, Bianca Romano, said as she cradled the phone receiver between her cheek and shoulder. She hung up and continued to sort through a stack of papers in front of her.

  “Tina,” she said, without looking up.

  “Hmm?” Tina replied.

  “Doctor Hurley wants you to come to his office.”

  “Okay… um, now?”

  Bianca’s tongue flicked out and moistened the tip of her index finger. Afterwards, she reached down leafed through the paperwork again and nodded.

  “Yes.”

  As Tina stood from a chair behind the reception area, she braced herself on the desk with her hands. The first day of her workout with Max, he made her do fifty bodyweight squats, thirty sit-ups, twenty pushups and ten pull-ups.

  TEN pull-ups!

  In ONE workout!

  Together the exercises were supposed to test Tina’s baseline fitness level. Of course, it took forever for her to do the whole workout. To make matters worse, for the next several days when she took so much as a single step it seemed like a workout all its own. Still, Tina assumed that after a couple of weeks of going to the gym, her body would get used to it or at the very least, hurt less. Unfortunately, neither of those outcomes materialized. It didn’t matter whether she went a class taught by Chuck or Max, the result stayed the same.

  Painful.

  On the other hand, her clothes fit better and she felt stronger than ever in her human form. So at least for now, Tina decided she would tolerate the discomfort for as long as she could; or at least as long as her butt and gut continued to shrink. Achy rear end and all, Tina shuffled out of the reception area and towards Doctor Hurley’s office.

  It was still around lunchtime as she made her way down the hall. Save for emergencies, the office didn’t schedule appointments during that time. Even though Tina enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the busy practice most of the day, she came to appreciate a little bit of quiet time during the middle of it. With the exception of a few yelps from a fussy Pomeranian boarded there for the week, the office was largely silent. Tina arrived at Doctor Peter Hurley’s office to see the door open and him seated behind his desk, going over charts and making notes from the morning’s cases.

  Tina rapped against the door frame.

  “Doctor Hurley,” she began. “You needed to see me, sir?”

  While she spoke, he nodded slowly and started to stand up from behind the desk. As he did, he continued to write while he held the index finger of his free hand up in the air. A pair of tortoise-shelled reading glasses, just like the ones her grandfather used to wear, hung low at the tip of his nose. Plaques and awards, too many to count, adorned the walls and desk of his office. They were a fitting tribute to a man who, no matter what, put the needs of others ahead of his own.

  Of course, that kind of sacrifice came at a cost. The tradeoff appeared in the shape of a plump, round belly and moonlike face. Yet in spite of his snowman-like physique, he never seemed short of energy or enthusiasm for his vocation. It wasn’t hard to see why his clinic was always busy. But energy for his profession aside, he’d reached his mid-sixties now and rumors were it wouldn’t be long before he retired.

  “Beeee riiiight with youuu,” he said as he made one last flourish with the pen. Satisfied with his notes, he clicked the pen closed, dropped it on the papers in front of him and looked up at Tina. Kindly wrinkles stretched across the skin of his brow under a full head of salt and pepper hair. A warm smile spread across his lips and up towards his comforting brown eyes. He gestured towards a chair in front of his desk.

  “This will only take a minute, Tina. Please, have a seat.”

  There was a pizza birthday party over lunch for one of Tina’s co-workers that day. As she made her way towards the chair, she noticed two slices of crust left on a plate on his desk. After working there for a couple of weeks now, Tina hardly noticed the ever-present pungent medicinal aroma, not to mention the frequent, spontaneous urination from stressed-out patients. But the smell of rich tomato sauce, gooey mozzarella and slightly spicy pepperoni invaded her senses. Now on a diet, again, her mouth watered as she neared the leather chair across from his desk.

  While she took her seat, he smiled and pointed to the plate.

  “Did you have any?” he asked. Before he continued, he cleared his throat. “ Uhh, humm…
Giovanni’s… The best.”

  Tina shook her head. “No, I didn’t,” she began. “I brought my lunch today.”

  “Well, that’s a pity. Maybe next time?” he said as he sat back down. “You shouldn’t go through life without Giovanni’s. It’s too good and life is too short! Uhh, humm.”

  Tina smiled at his enthusiasm. “Oh, I won’t. It’s on my list of things to try in town.”

  “Good.” He said as he picked up a paper napkin from his desk and wiped his fingers. As he finished, he turned his attention back towards her.

  “Tina,” he began. “Do you know why I asked you to sit and have a chat with me?”

  Tina swallowed hard as she looked at him. Dry-mouthed, she shook her head. Her mind flashed with visions of botched injections, haphazard catheterizations, too-close nail trimmings and countless other mistakes, both large and small, she’d made since she came to work there. The chair leather grunted a little under her butt as she shifted position.

  “Um… no. No sir, I don’t.”

  “Well I didn’t want to embarrass you in front of any of the other staff, but I feel as if I need to say something to you about your work… in private. Uhh, humm.”

  Tina gulped. She bounced her right knee up and down, in rapid, unconscious pulses.

  “Um, okay,” she began. “But… before you say anything, would you give me a chance to explain?”

  Doctor Hurley removed his reading glasses and placed them on the desk. His brow furrowed as he looked at Tina.

  “I’m sorry… Explain?” he said. “What do you need to explain, exactly?”

  As he spoke, Tina slid her right hand down from the arm of the chair and squelched the movement of her leg. Clamminess gathered in the palms of her hands.

  “I… um,” she began. “Well, I just figured this was about some of the stuff I’ve…”

  Doctor Hurley lifted his chin. “Uhh, humm. Stuff you’ve…?” he said, with an expectant tone.

  “Well, I… I messed up a few injections, and I…”

  He raised one hand as she spoke. “Oh, that… Yes, I’ve been informed of some of those things. Those are very serious issues. Very serious… Uhh, humm.”