How Not To Be A Werewolf (Editing)

The Closest I Had Ever Been To Meeting A Real Life Celebrity

Victoria walked over to the fire and picked up a bright red sachet from a small wooden box that sat on top, ripped it open and then threw the contents into the roaring flames. As the powder hit they turned from their usual green to a vivid red that made the room suddenly feel as if we were in the bowels of hell.

I watched as Victoria bent down in front of the fire where a man's face had suddenly appeared in-between the burning logs with a horrible hissing sound. As it crackled, and the man's head melted into place, I jumped out of my skin.

I was not prepared for that kind of shit.

If I hadn't already had the weird couple of days that I just had, then I would probably say that I was dreaming.

Unfortunately, I wasn't.

The man was in his late thirties, with a thick beard and thin wire-rimmed glasses. His hair was cut neat and short and he smiled widely as he looked up and saw Victoria.

"Hey, Vick, what's the matter?" He asked, his voice echoing and sounding faint, almost as if he was miles away and not sitting in the fireplace right in front of us.

"Harry." Victoria said, "Do you have a minute? It's pretty urgent."

"Sure. One sec." The man said before he seemed to rise out of the fire. It was almost like he was coming off of a magical elevator, until he suddenly gained enough height and jumped out of the fire and into the room.

When he had brushed off the ashes from his brown suede jacket he looked around the room at us all. "I see that you have company," he said to Victoria, "I hope that I'm not interrupting anything important."

"You're not," Victoria replied. "This is Kian Richards and Alec Colby. Guys, this is Doctor Harry Jekyll."

"Jekyll? As in Jekyll and Hyde?" I asked, suddenly intrigued by the neatly trimmed man now standing by the fire.

"The very same." Jekyll replied, "My great-grandfather's story still follows me around. Not that I'm complaining. It's a damn good story." He then turned his inquisitive gaze onto me. "I assume you are the rogue werewolf everyone keeps going on about?"

I nodded in reply, suddenly lost for words. I mean I was meeting the actual Doctor Jekyll. Well, his great-grandson anyway. It was the closest I had ever been to meeting a real-life celebrity and, as stupid as I felt, I was a little bit star-struck by the whole situation.

"You're wanted by SPECTRE." Jekyll continued, "An attack on innocent members of the public, wasn't it? I hear The Church Of Dracul are also in uproar after the death of their High Lord."

"Alec is the one who's innocent," Kian cut in. "He never harmed anybody."

"Okay. Tell me, how do you plan to prove that?" Jekyll asked, disbelief running heavily through his tone, "Even if he is innocent, it'll be impossible to prove that to The Council."

I saw that Kian was about to retort back to Jekyll's comment, but he stopped as he caught Victoria's eye. If there was an Olympic medal for the most shitty look that somebody could give, then she would probably have taken home the gold. Even I felt like backing off.

"It's not entirely impossible. The Transcoinder spell can help us to prove that Alec didn't do it." Victoria explained, "And, it will allow us to see who the attacker actually was."

Jekyll didn't answer her immediately. He seemed for a moment to just be dumbfounded by what Victoria had suggested. He sighed deeply as he finally replied as if the words were hard for him to say out loud.

"That spell was made illegal for a reason, Vick. You know as well as I do the dangers of meddling with time," he said seriously. "After all that happened last time, and you still want to use that spell?"