Misery County

Chapter 6 - Part 4

"See, that's the problem with you women – you're too sensitive." He began walking around the far end of the room to look for a switch.

In the meantime, Cassie went into a room that seemed to have some supplies sitting in it.

"It's like a guy says the wrong thing to you, and you completely lose your shit rather than just taking it on the chin," Eric continued. "Hey, these light switches are kaput. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that this house isn't hooked up to the power grid no more."

"No, I don't think so either," Cassie called out into the next room, opening up a large container that was sitting on the floor. "That would explain this box of candles over here."

"Candles, huh? What would he need those for? I thought werewolves could see well in the dark."

Cassie could hear Eric walking around the house, and based on the next click she heard, he was likely trying out light switches in different rooms.

"Maybe he needed them for his human form," she said.

"Maybe. I wish we knew more about what makes them tick." Click.

"Yeah, well, it's not like there's a Wikipedia entry for werewolf biology."

"Do you think we should be writing down everything we learn? I mean, what's the point of building up the knowledge if it's just going to die with us when we meet our inevitable early ends?" Click.

"For all we know, Eric, we could be the only two people in the country that kill monsters. I don't think there's a lot of demand for sharing our knowledge."

"Maybe we can go public with it." Click.

"And get laughed into the ground?"

"There's a werewolf corpse sitting in this very house. It's not like we're lacking in hard evidence." Click.

"Yeah, I don't know about that, partner. I'm quite partial to sticking with the status quo."

"You're right. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself." Eric stuck his head into the room where Cassie was. "All the lights downstairs are dead. I'm going with what I said earlier – no power. Hey, there's quite a lot of stuff in here."

"Yeah, there certainly is." Cassie looked around the messy room once more. "I reckon this is where he slept."

"You think? I don't see any sleeping bags."

"Maybe he just curled up and lay on the floor when he needed a nap."

"Like the good doggy that he was," Eric finished her thought. "What's this here?"

Cassie walked over to him. He was holding what looked like a small handbag. "Stolen purse?" Cassie thought out loud.

"I don't think so." Eric was digging into it. "This looks like it was owned by a man."

"How can you tell?"

"Plenty of clues." Eric pulled a card-shaped object out of it. "Not least of which is this Massachusetts driver's license."

"Who did it belong to?"

"You tell me. This mug look familiar?" He held out the license to Cassie.

"Yeah, that's our boy sitting over in the other room."

"I thought so, but I couldn't quite tell through all the bloat. Poor feller looks like he's seen better days."

"Just barely. He wasn't much of a looker when he was alive."

"Yet you still went home with him, you dirty girl, you."

"I've seen what you go home with, Eric. You definitely shouldn't be the one to talk."

"At least I don't kill all of my dates."

Cassie gave Eric a coy look but said nothing.

"Now let's see what we can find out about our Mr..." Eric squinted at the license. "Merill Toplady. What the fuck kind of name is that?"

"Now I know why he introduced himself as Chopper."

Eric looked at her over the license. "That's hardly an improvement."

Cassie chuckled. "Hard to argue with that."

They exchanged a look, and were it not for the decomposing body in the next room, Cassie might have called it a beautiful moment. She looked into his eyes with a melancholic yearning, while he looked back at her only with brotherly love. For a moment, she wondered whether he understood how she thought of him – what she felt for him. She knew she could never tell him. She was trapped, waiting for the moment when he would be the one to realize. Had the moment finally come? Eric looked into her eyes with a newfound vigor before opening his mouth to speak.

"Last one to the kitchen has to examine the corpse!"