Wolves and Witches

The Encounter

Jarius hastened his pace and checked his wrist watch. It was quarter to midnight and he was still treading the familiar dimly lit street of the unfinished subdivision in Taytay, Rizal. He usually walked this road, on the same night six days a week but tonight, something felt different. He had a feeling that someone was watching him from the shadows

Chills swept on his spine to his head, and every hair on his body prickled. He recalled the story about the deaths of the workers on this subdivision. He didn’t know the exact house but it was among the homes he passed by every night. He risked a glance behind him but the whole street was empty.

“Better be scared of the living, than the dead” He muttered, “Jar, you’re twenty years old and ghosts never harmed you, but pick pockets can… now breathe and relax.”

He played his favorite OPM music on his head and hummed the tune to stop the stream of thoughts about the horrifying things that lurked in the shadows. Tomorrow, he’ll try to talk to their head nurse if she could change his shift, Jarius decided.  But the thought of her fat, huge, and smug face made him frown. It was an impossible idea.

He was now by the first of the three blocks until he reaches his aunt’s house. Every morning, he rides out by a tricycle to the jeepney station. And every night he walks the very same road. Tricycle drivers don’t have night shifts.

“Almost there…” he mumbled.

“Hijo… could you please help me with these…” a raspy voice said.                     

Startled, he spun to his right and saw an old woman. She wore a black rugged dress, and looked horrifying with her all-white waist length hair and wrinkled aged face. She stood by the waiting shed at the corner of the street. Jarius thought of ghosts and aswangs.

“Uhh,” He thought about walking on but his conscience won.

“What happened here, Nay.” He asked as he came near. Her stench of urine, sweat, and trash made his stomach revolt.

She didn’t utter a word but instead pointed to the trash scattered all over the pavement. Styro cups, plastic bags, a plastic bottle with a bluish liquid inside, and a lot more of plastic bags. He pitied the old woman. Why would her family let her live like this? Or, does she even have a family?

Jarius started picking the trash when all of a sudden a loud ferocious howl came from behind him. He turned and saw a pair of glinting eyes and bared fangs was charging towards him. Fear jolted on his entire being like a shock of electricity. He tried to regain balance and run for it, but his heart seemed to have stopped beating and the fear crippled him on the spot. He held his breath.

The huge black wolf launched towards him.

“NO!!!” He screamed in utter horror and covered himself on impulse.

He waited for the fangs to tear of his flesh off, but instead, he heard a loud thump, a nerve wreaking roar, bones nastily breaking, and a horrifying cry. He felt his body and made sure that he was still intact and in one piece, Jarius looked up and scanned the area.

There across the street was the huge black wolf with a scar on its right eye in a lethal stance and across it was the old woman who limped with her dress torn and left leg bleeding.

The old woman cried something he couldn’t make-up-what and flames shot from her fingers.

“I’m so effing dead!” He couldn’t believe what he just saw. His heart raced like galloping horses. He thought of fleeing but his feet felt rooted on where he stood. He didn’t know why the wolf attacked the old lady first, but he knew that he’d be dead soon enough. Cold sweat ran from his forehead down to his body.

 The wolf dodged the flames, run in circles around the old woman, and made a leap for her neck.

“NOOO!!!” Jarius screamed. He tried to ran towards the old woman but something tugged his shirt and made him crash face-down of the rough pavement.

He tasted dust and blood on his lips. “No…” He whimpered and tears swelled from his eyes as the wolf’s fangs sunk deep on her neck and she fell to the ground, “Please… stop…” he pleaded, but his cries were futile.

The wolf looked satisfied with its deed after taking its mouth off her, then, stared at his direction and bared its bloody fangs. Tingling fear ran through his entire body. He felt nauseous and his breaths hastened like his heartbeat. He felt his life is slipping away like sand blown into the eternal nothingness.

“Not again Erio,” A sweet voice rang behind him. “Oh, sorry for tugging on your shirt a while back.” a little girl smiled.

Jarius couldn’t muster any courage to speak. The child before him, though looked cute with her sweet smiling face, but her black dress, dusty and pointed but crumpled hat, and a large broom by her side, made him uneasy.

“Hey bro, sorry for the inconvenience, are you alright?” A man’s voice called out. From where the wolf stood, a guy in a tuxedo with a scarred eye stood smiling.

“What-what’s happening here? W-why’d you kill the old woman?” He stammered as he slowly stood up and wiped his wet and face.

“If I haven’t taken her out in time, it could have been you who’s dead by now.” said Erio.

He shuddered on the thought and confusion flooded over him.

“What do you mean? Who are you guys?”

“I’m princess Elenaia, and that’s my protector, Erio,” the little girl pointed to the guy. “And Jarius, we’re here to tell you something.”

“How did you know my name?” He was scared and didn’t like where the conversation was headed, “And tell me what?”

“Do you know your father Jarius?” asked the girl. There was something peculiar about her aside from her dress. She talked as if she’s just as old as him.

Jarius never knew his father. No, he said. His mom told him that he left them when he was still in her womb. After his mom passed away from cancer, he moved to her aunt’s home here in Rizal ten years ago. He never bothered looking for his father.

He couldn’t understand what he felt now. He’s scared, sad and angry, all at the same time. Scared for his life as time ticked on, sad at the thought of his mom, and angry to the father he never knew.

“”Your father was a lycan, and he served as a protector of the previous guardian, my mother. I’m sorry to say this but he died a few years ago. He left your mother to keep you both safe.” Her voice was full of sorrow.

Sadness rained on his chest and his eyes became moist again. So he cared about them after all.

Jarius composed himself, “Are you telling me that I’m a lycan too?” Implausible as it may seem, as he only read and watched about this things on books and movies. But the truth was now in front of him. He had no other choice but to believe.

“Technically, you’re a tenderfoot,” answered Erio as he paced towards them, “Individuals with lycanthrope bloodlines but are not aware of it or have never shifted into a wolf are called tenderfoot.”

“If that’s true, then why’d you approached me only now?” Jarius asked.

Erio explained to him the dilemma that they were facing now. That either he becomes a protector or get killed.

“Here, take this…”  Erio threw a small, white thing at him. Jarius managed to catch the string of a fang shaped necklace.

“What’s this?”

“That was your father’s talisman. If you want to find out more, about him and yourself, that will take you to us.” Erio said as he turned his back and took the little girl by the hand. They walked for a few feet and then they vanished among the shadows.

Jarius held the necklace in a firm grip. He felt his heart became at ease and warmed. Him, being a lycan seemed a farfetched tale but he wanted to know more. He hesitated for a moment then decided to head back home.

How did my father died? What kind of man was he? Would I really be able to shift into a wolf like Erio? What’s the greatest secret of the magic world?

“Lycans… pretty cool.” He muttered and dashed home.