Smolder

Chapter 22

Russell threw away another wet branch, grunting in annoyance. Everything is wet here! Everything! Lupa was testing branches too, perhaps the one thing she's actually good at? Or maybe not, 'cause as far as Russell was concerned, checking if a branch is wet did not require banging yourself on the head with it.

Russell wasn't sure why he brought Lupa with him. Maybe to give her a chance to be actually useful, maybe have a conversation. But to his woe, Lupa wasn't quite one to strike up a conversation, and he himself did not know how to talk to her without it inevitably leading towards Lupa's past, which he assumed Lupa wasn't up to talk about. About being useful though, every once in a while, Lupa would suddenly look up from her branches, her ears in full alert, and let out a growl. In her wolf form, maybe this growl would've shook him out of his sandles. But in this form, it sounded like a cat's purr. It probably let all the nasties out there know that there was a mighty(?) Werewolf here and they were not to be messed with.

Russell suddenly remembered something important," Hey Lupa, how's that finger?"

Lupa dropped all the branches(Russell would've cared it they were actually dry) and extended her palms. Both her index fingers bore a blistered ring mark. Gloir had indeed taken care of it, with the surprisingly simple solution of grease oil, why he had it with him, Russell has no idea.

Her fingers looked okay. Except, her hands didn't. A long blue bruise ran across her palm. There were several more bruises on her  arms, spotting it black and blue. Russell spotted the familiar mark of five fingers around her arm, of course he'd recognize it, he bore the same marks once.  Above the collar of her dress there was two arcs facing each other, made out of smaller blue arcs, a human bite. A similar blue arc peeked over her collar. Russell didn't even want imagine where they led.

They do this? Russell thought to himself as he got back to collecting dried branches, humans do this?

Yes, they do. And you know better than most.

It was the dark voice again. Right there at the edge of becoming real.

The afternoon had fallen into an evening now, the sky above was a deep navy blue. Stars were peeking from behind the trees. The moon will rise in a few minutes. Only a few minutes to have a conversation with Lupa.

He turned towards Lupa, wanting to say something, but surprisingly, Lupa spoke first," I–Lupa is sorry for jumping on you before! Lupa didn't know." Her voice sounded more of a bird chirping than a broken whistle this time.

Russell couldn't say anything for a moment," I..it's okay.."

"You can beat Lupa, but please not the table! Please don't take me to the table!" She fell on her knees to the ground," please...not..the table."

Russell didn't know what the table was, but he could tell it couldn't be anything good. Up until now, Lupa was this distant observer thing. Now suddenly, her pain felt all too real. Russell felt that black current bubbling up inside of him.

"What do you mean? Why would I punish you?" Of course Russell knew what she meant.

"You...won't...punish me?" Lupa looked up in doubt and confusion.

"Lupa. Nobody is going to punish you. Not me, not Vivi, not any other person who you will ever meet. And you shouldn't let anyone do tha..."

Take the chance.

The voice was so clear it almost made Russell jump.

You may not get another chance,. Take it!

No!he shot back at his mind.

Why not?!this is normal for her. Do it!

Because it's not right!

You are weak!

You are not real!

If you don't feed me, I will feed myself!

Blistering pain impaled the small of his back. He hunched forward. A gasp escaped his lungs before his throat blocked up. His vision blurred and swirled into dancing red and white spots. The pain spread from his back, to his chest, towards his legs like an army of fire ants. He tried to scream but he couldn't make a single sound. He needed Orpheus, or Arron or Elli or Vivi. He was loosing control and fast.

With his last bit of dominance, he extended his hand to find Lupa's hand. Five small cold fingers appeared under his palm. He grabbed the smallest one of them. This had to be done. He lifted it up and twisted.

Lupa let out a shrill Yelp. And if Vivi is as on edge now as before, she'd definitely come running.

The pain travelled up his spine, to his hands, right up to the finger tips. It traveled up his throat, giving him the as much pain as swallowing burning coal. And then it reached it's brain.

Suddenly all the pain was gone. His vision sharpened to the point where it wasn't even human; he could see every little cuts on each leaves in front him, every bruise on Lupa's pale skin.

Russell would've been happy about it if he didn't know that when his body stopped offering him more pain; it wasn't his anymore.

The body that he was trapped in put it's hands on the ground. Then it  began to go higher and higher as his limbs grew longer and longer. Russell could only watch in numb horror as his skin elongated like rubber and then tore apart, revealing the veins that ran through his flesh. His hands became bigger and his nails turned into talons.

His jaw unhinged, the skin on his cheeks tore like old paper with no pain, revealing a set of daggerlike teeth. A sound issued from his mouth that sounded unlike anything earthly.

He glanced down at Lupa. The monster wearing him found that confused and terrorized expression she was wearing very, very pretty.

He swooped down on his prey.