Misery County

Chapter 20 - Part 7

Not wanting to waste any time, he started scrambling for the door, pistol still in hand. After probably setting a world record for belly shuffling speed, Eric's joy was killed quickly when he made contact with the closed door. Of course it was closed. He'd seen it earlier when he took his shot. Why was this a surprise?

A clawed hand grabbed Eric by the back of the trousers and pulled him backward, away from the door. He didn't need eyes to know what was going on.

"Aaron, please. Don't," he stammered.

Aaron's response was a long howl that bounced off every wall in the room, growing louder and louder as it went on.

Eric's eardrums felt like they were going to burst. Although he was pinned down at the chest, his right hand was free, and he flailed it around, trying to find his gun in the dark, hoping he could at least use the silver in the magazine to distract the wolf. What he got was better. His fingertips made contact with the slide, but there was something else – there was a casing jammed in the ejection port. Deciding that wasn't the right time to muse on his poor ammo reloading practice (using the correct powder would be a good start), he pulled the casing out of the port, let the pistol load the next cartridge, pulled it up to Aaron's chest, and took a single shot.

The monster over him – the man he once called his friend – dropped on top of him. Defying all accepted laws of physics, the beast's weight was decreasing as he was slowly transforming back into his smaller human form.

"Aaron! Aaron!" Eric was shouting as he pulled himself out from under him, but he got no response, nor did he expect one. Silver in a werewolf's vital organ is instant death – it always has been – a fact not unknown to Eric, no matter how much he for once wished it wasn't true.

Shaking hands dug through Aaron's pockets, looking for something he didn't think he'd ever need in the 21st century. Feeling around, his fingers settled on what must have been the box of matches that his old friend had used to light his cigarette. Aaron had never been one to use lighters – another idiosyncrasy that seemed to follow him from one life to the next. Eric wondered whether Aaron was striking matches in the afterlife, or perhaps lying on a porch of a well-kept home with a chew toy in his mouth. All dogs may go to heaven, but whether the same rules applied to werewolves, he couldn't say.

Too soon. What's wrong with me? Eric thought as he pulled a match out and struck it. The first thing he saw in the limited but nonetheless welcome light was a naked dead body that had evidently been made dead once again when Aaron tore it to bits. He must have thought it was Eric in all the confusion. The small mercies were always welcome.

Turning to his left, he took in the view of his old friend. Any trace of his werewolf transformation was gone. He looked just like a normal human, like he always used to back when things were normal, back when they were both working security and monsters didn't exist and the most terrifying thing Eric had to deal with on a daily basis was unpredictable, drug-addled hobos hiding out in commercial buildings at night.

Pulling his free hand up to his face, he wiped around his eyes, but for naught. There were no tears. He'd just watched Aaron die again, and this time by Eric's own hand, but there were no tears. He was too numb to process it, any of it. Years of haunted nightmares and impotent rage had led to this mockery of fate, and now there was only one emotion that Eric could express. He let out a raw scream as he battered Aaron's corpse with his fists and knees, the lit match already on the ground.

"I could have saved you! I could have fucking saved you!" he yelled again and again as his knuckles peppered the leather-clad body. Finally, the floodgates opened and so came the tears. "It was all because of you," he blubbered. "It was all to avenge you." Arms weakening, Eric threw himself on top of the corpse, embracing it like a child seeking comfort in their parent.

"You're gone now," Eric finally said to Aaron's body after exhausting his tear ducts, "but I'm still here, and so are all your monster friends." Summoning the resolve to stand up, he felt his way to the room's exit, opened it, and started walking through, before turning back to Aaron one last time. "And I've got a date tonight."