There's A Wolf At My Door | B X B X B

Part Sixteen: Flatline

Henry

Nearly a year ago..

I stepped down the white hall that smelt heavily of sanitizer and medicine. Small colorful lights flashed behind frosted windows and small beeping or buzzing noises. It had been a whole month since Alan disappeared and then suddenly I get a message from his dad.

Maybe he knew where he was. Or why he left.

I picked up my pace and found the room. I knocked and a nurse with a frown answered. "Are you Henry?" She asked. "Yes," I answered quietly. She nodded then stepped out the way so I could answer. "Remember to call if you need anything, Mr Warren!" She called out. There was a small groan and then she left. His bed was partially covered by a blue curtain with only his legs under the sheets visible. I shakily grabbed the curtain and pulled it to the side.

Seeing him lying there was almost sickening. He was pale, with dark spots highlighting the underneath of his eyes. His lips were thin and what must of been months of chemo had stopped, evident by the small patches of hair that showed signs of growing back. I covered my mouth and bit my lip. There were a multitude of machines hooked up to him. This feeling of shock and nausea wasn't doing well with my stomach. He took in a shallow breath and blew out carefully as if his lungs were made of fragile glass.

"Hi, kid." He croaked. I stumbled a bit, fumbling for the chair behind me. Where was Alan? Why wasn't he here with his dying dad?  "Hi, Mr Warren.." I whispered. God. He didn't deserve this. "You know better than to call me 'Mr Warren'." He grumbled, that familiar voice just barely making it through that scratchy filter he had. I looked up for a breif moment and caught his eyes. They seemed relieved.

It was quiet after that. I didn't want to speak- I couldn't speak! His raspy, shallow breaths were the only thing I could hear. "Do you know where my boy is? He isn't answering any of the hospital's calls." He asked. I involuntarily sobbed. He didn't know where his own son was. "N-No. He's gone I don't know where he's gone," I answered. He made a small shakey sigh. "That isn't right. He wouldn't leave you." He pointed out.

His words stung a little. It wasn't right. "How long has he been gone for? Did you guys have a fight? He wasn't even answering the first couple of calls," He said in one quick breath. These feelings of pity, anger and sickness didn't mix well.

"With all due respect he had a pretty good reason for ignoring you." I muttered. Our eyes met, this time he had a look of shame. "I know what I did was wrong but you have to understand I was confused-"

"Yeah well you have years to solve your problems. You did the same exact thing my dad did to me," My breath caught in my throat for a moment. I didn't mean to sound that harsh. "I never hit my son." He protested. "No, you didn't. You made him feel unloved. He came out to you and you practically disowned him." I finished. This wasn't exactly how I wanted my visit to go.

He pinned his gaze onto the ceiling and put a trembling hand over his mouth. "When I found out it was you I guess it suddenly all made sense to me." He admitted. "It was me who what?" I asked. He turned his head back to me. "Who he loved." There was a pause and suddenly I felt a cold chill come over me. Goosebumps rose along my arm and that guy feeling of something bad happening occurred. "Please, Henry, I want to see my son one last- one last.." he trailed off then began sputtering. I listened to the beeping in the background spike and suddenly nurses and doctors burst into the room. I didn't have time to register what was happening before J
I was being pushed out and told that I had to wait outside.

The only constant sound was the beeping in the background that stopped, and turned into one long note. Flatline.

**

Present

That flatline sound replayed in my mind as my mind tried to figure out what the hell was happening. Was I going insane? Did I just see Lu turn into a wolf? Why did that memory replay in my head?

The abnormally large wolf had to squeeze through my doorway to get out into my backyard, baring it's canines and folding it's ears back. Strangely enough, I felt familiar with it's big blue eyes. They didn't match Lu's eyes though. Why was I picking out this small detail? Maybe because my mind was a jumbled mess and I was trying to peice together ehat happened.

"What the hell is this? Your lap dog?!" The man growled, shoving me roughly backwards. My heel hit a area of rough terrain and I was sent tumbling down. My head hit something hard and pain reverberated through my skull. That flatline noise rung in my ears as my vision blurred. I could faintly hear growling, wet tearing and snarling. I don't know how long that was going on for but after what felt like years I managed to snap out of my pain induced daze and get up. I reached for the back of my head and was met with something warm and sticky.

I winced then got up. I was terrified to find that beast snapping and snarling at the man. They both had open wounds that just kept bleeding and blood-hungry eyes. "You're growing weaker, Lucio. Your pack abandoned you now you're trying to leech off this pathetic human?" The man spat, heaving in lung-fulls of air and foaming at the mouth almost as much as the wolf.

Lucio? Why did he call him that?

"You can't stop what's coming. The Elders know about him and we won't stop until we have his blood!" He continued, pointing his crazed eyes towards me. The animal growled then launched itself off it's hind legs, aiming for the guys throat. Bizarrely before another scratch could be laid there was a big cloud of red ink and a sound like water escaping through the drain in a bathtub. I shielded my eyes from the red cloud, coughing and hacking from the intake of the weird air. Once I wasn't surrounded I swung my head in every direction to try and find the man but he was gone.

Was I finally losing it? Was all this real? I clutched the back of my head and grimaced at the seemingly larger patch of blood forming on the back of my head.

I was feeling faint and I had a migraine. Maybe this was all a crazy, super-realistic dream. That had to be it. Things were no longer making sense anymore, with my vision warping and the ground suddenly feeling like jelly beneath me. I snorted at this ridiculous dream. When I wake up, I just have to take Lu to the police station. The real Lu.

However, this odd dream persisted and the sound of quick snaps and wet squelching caught my attention. The once furry beast transformed into a very naked Lu. He was bleeding from several deep gashes and had bruises pretty much everywhere. He looked angry yet very worried. "Hen." He breathed.

My dizziness faded and suddenly this dream became too real for me. He reached out for my hand but I flinched away. "D-Don't touch me." I whimpered, stepping back. This clue-less man had become terrifying. He had never tried bacon before, He though bath bombs were edible and those weird animalistic growls he made- they all made sense now.

"You're.." I sputtered, feeling the blood trickle and sick the collar of my shirt. "You're a monster." Lu flinched slightly and clutched his bare chest.

The terrain below me felt like a sudden wave, crashing into me and pulling me under as my legs gave in. Again, that same long note played. It seemed to be the only thing I could hear. I couldn't move. This was real. Lu was really a monster.