Almost Human Read online

  When she started taking off her shirt, I freaked a little but she had on an undershirt and shorts under her pants.

  “To minimize the destroyed clothes,” she explained.

  Then, she closed her eyes, concentrated, and wolfed out. Her wolf looked almost the same as Finn’s except for two things: Her wolf was a little bigger and had blue eyes like her instead of Finn’s brown eyed wolf.

  She stood straight up and paraded around like she was in a dog show. Then she picked up her clothes gently in her teeth and walked down the hall into a room.

  She came back in wearing the same clothes and a serious expression.

  “OK, fun’s over. Now, we talk business.


  6. Guys Are Dogs

  


  “So, why did you bring us here?”

  We were in the kitchen to “talk business” minus Calvin and Darth, who Rachel sent to go play video games.

  “It’s a pretty long story.”

  I drummed my fingers on the table, “I have time.”

  “Well, remember the man, from before? Brown hair, about my age.”

  “Yeah, pizza guy, right?”

  “He’s not really a pizza guy, but right. We’re thinking he was monitoring the phones. First, just to get it out of the way, he’s a werewolf.”

  “So? You are too and you’re not dangerous. At least I don’t think so.”

  “He’s not dangerous because ‘cause he’s a werewolf. He’s dangerous because he’s a stalker,” Finn said.

  “He’s a what?” I felt my stomach start to drop.

  “A stalker. That’s what he was doing there. He stalked your mom too. Right Rachel?”

  Her face was buried in her hands.

  “I was planning on saying it more tactfully, but yes. He did stalk your mom and he has been stalking you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he wanted her and he couldn’t have her. He liked her in high school but so did about half the male population of the school and none of them tried to stalk her. They dated for, about, a week before she finally realized how right I was about the fact that he was a creep.”

  “And you know this how?”

  “We went to the same high school.”

  “Oh. Anything else you forgot to tell me?”

  She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, “Are you sure you want to know?”

  “Just tell me. How bad could it be?”

  She took a deep breath then said, “Your Mom was a werewolf.”

  “What!” That was a level of bad that I hadn’t even considered.

  “Not, while she was pregnant with you or Calvin,” she added quickly, trying to calm me down, “It didn’t get passed on.”

  “Why? How?”

  “Leon did it. He thought that if he did that, your mom would freak and run, right into his arms. But it didn’t work obviously. I found out what he did and got to her before he could start the lies.”

  Even though I trusted Rachel more or less this was a lot to digest. She didn’t have a reason to lie to me that I could see but I still found it hard to believe… pretty much all of the stuff she had just said.

  “So this creep’s been stalking me?”

  “Yeah. About a year now. And we’ve been watching him. Don’t think we haven’t. He was listening outside the shop with his wolf ears and hijacked the order.”

  “It’s a good thing it was a slow day at the shop. That would have been hard to explain. I got Rachel as fast as I could and I fought him the entire way to try and give her time to get to you,” Finn added.

  “What does he want from me?”

  “This is where it gets—uncomfortable. At first, I thought he was just doing it to undermine me. I had told him not to mess with your family. Then, it started to get more obsessive. It doesn’t help that you look so much like your Mom.”

  A few hours ago, I would have been ecstatic to hear that but, now, it just made me sick.

  “It was just the following you for a while,” she continued, “and I made sure that, that didn’t get too far, but now that he’s made contact”

  “What,” I demanded. “What does it mean?”

  “It means he’s planning to bite you.”

  7. This Is Wrong On So Many Different Levels


  The room went dead silent after that. The only thing you could hear was the faint sound of cartoon violence in the next room.

  “He wants to bite me? Are you sure?”

  She nodded, “Pretty sure. He’s following the same pattern that he did with your Mom. Obsess, stalk, bite. We were trying to stop it before that last part.”

  “But that doesn’t even make any sense! He bit Mom so she would have talk to him or whatever, right? Well, I can just talk to you. Why would I talk to him over you? You’re not stalking me.”

  “Well, he was planning on getting to you first. Also, you haven’t really met him but you should know he’s not the most stable person.”

  “Why does he have to be a wolf? Which idiot bit him?”

  She shrugged, “Beats me,” then she asked, “Are you OK? You’re taking this pretty well, considering.”

  No. No, I’m not taking this well. I’m being stalked by a psycho werewolf. I, oh, and let’s not forget the rest of my family, are in terrible danger. Thanks for asking.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. So, what do we do?”

  Finn had been quiet for a long time, but now he spoke, “We take him down. That’s what! I know the situation sucks, but do you know how much it sucks to be able to do this and not be allowed?”

  I glared at him for being so excited about the current situation and he had the good sense to wipe the stupid grin off his face.

  “What I actually meant is what are we going to do specifically?”

  “Well, we haven’t been doing nothing,” Rachel said, “but now that he’s made a move, we can get offensive.”

  “Wait, offense? Your plan is to beat him up ‘till he stops?”

  “Pretty much,” Finn said.

  “You haven’t tried that yet?”

  “No. Rachel said we should try to fix this nonviolently as long as he didn’t try anything.”

  He said nonviolent the same way a normal person would say “throw-up” or “summer reading assignment”.

  Rachel shook her head at him, “We’re not trying to kill him. Just stop him. Not that I wouldn’t mind getting in some damage. Oh, by the way, here.” She handed me a silver ring that she got out of her pocket.

  “You should wear this. It should keep him from getting too close to you. In wolf form at least.”

  “Shouldn’t Darth and Calvin get some silver too? If he’s targeting me, they’ll be in danger too. Oh, and my Dad.”

  “I’ll get some for them,” Finn said, getting up.

  Once he was gone, Rachel walked over and touched my shoulder.

  “Are you sure you’re OK?” She sounded so sincere, so sorry she had dumped all this crap on me that I didn’t lie.

  “No. No I’m not OK. This is pretty much my worst day ever. I’m probably going to get mauled to death, I’m being stalked and, oh yeah, when Dad gets home and I’m not there he will put my mangled body back together and re-kill me.”

  “Don’t worry. You’ll be fine. Now that you know what’s going on and you have some protection, we can fix this.” Then she smiled slyly, “And I wouldn’t worry about that last one if I were you. I had Finn go slash his tires before he came back. Your Dad won’t be going anywhere for a while.”

  That got a small smile out of me and Rachel patted me on the back, “We’ll get through this and then you can get back to your life like this never happened.”

  I smiled a little at that too. There was no way I could pretend that that none of this had happened. Still, it was nice to think that I’d be able to put all of this behind me.

  And then Finn had to ruin it.

  “Guys! Come here quick!”

  We rushed into the living room to find Finn alone.

  “Wh
at is it?” I asked. From the tone of his voice, I was expecting hordes of angry zombie pirates or something, not an empty room.

  “There’s nothing in here.”

  Exactly. I checked all the rooms. I went outside. Calvin and Darth are gone.”

  “No!”

  At that moment, I flat lined. I swear I did. Even with all the general terribleness of this day, I had never felt as bad as I had at this moment. Never. And it was just getting worse.

  “It gets worse,” Finn said handing a card to Rachel, “I found that in here.”The card was printed out of that fancy kind of card-stock, they use for weddings and graduations and stuff. As I read over Rachel’s shoulder. I felt myself get sicker and sicker.

  Diana. 9:00 McDonalds Lakeview Mall W

  I stumbled back and dropped myself on the couch with my eyes closed for about a minute. When I opened my eyes, both Rachel and Finn were looking down at me, concerned.

  “You do know you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, right? We’ll take care of it. We’ll get them back.”

  “No,” I said, suddenly furious. “No. He wants me there, I’ll be there.” I smiled, “Besides, I never did get to eat that pizza.”

  8. I Get To Meet My Stalker

  So that’s how I ended up standing nervously outside the new McDonalds in the mall.

  “You can still get out of this,” Rachel said, “We won’t blame you.”

  I shook my head, “No. I’m doing this. Just make sure nothing happens.”

  She nodded but she still looked about as nervous as I felt. Finn was hanging back to spring into action if needed.

  I took a second to put on a calm face, and then walked in. He was easy to spot because he was the one looking at the door every two seconds like he was waiting for a date. Then I realized that that would make me the date and I shuddered.

  He smiled when he saw me, “Diana, so nice of you to come.”

  “Like you gave me much of a choice. Where are Darth and Calvin?”

  “They’re two booths down. They’re fine you know. I didn’t do anything to them.”

  “Before you get even get one more word out of me, you’ll let them go.”

  He waved his hands, “Of course, I was going to anyway.”

  I spotted them, right where he said they’d be. They saw me and ran over. Darth kicked him under the table on the way over, which earned him so many points in my head.

  “Are you guys OK?” I asked, pulling them both close.

  “Yeah, fine. He didn’t do anything,” Calvin narrowed his eyes, “yet.”

  “Both of you go outside and stay with Finn. OK?”

  They both nodded and I watched them walk out. Then, I turned to him and gave him my best death glare.

  “OK, I’m here. You got what you wanted. Let’s get this over with.”

  “No need to be so hostile. I just wanted to talk.”

  “Look, you stalk me, kidnap my brothers, and plan on biting me, expect hostile.”

  “I just thought—”

  “You just thought what?” I spat. “That I would come and you would—I don’t even know. Sweep me off my feet? I’m fourteen! How old are you? Thirty?”

  He got all pouty and his voice went from all cool and debonair to high and whiny.

  “This wasn’t supposed to go like this.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, did I hurt your feelings? Well deal with it. I came here for only two reasons. One was to get Calvin and Darth back, which I did. The other was to tell you that if you ever come anywhere near them or me ever again I will shove this ring so far down your throat you will choke before the silver even has a chance to affect you.”

  Yeah, I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to back up that threat but I was so angry, it sounded like I could.

  “Now, I don’t care about any sense of entitlement you might have towards me because the stuff with you and my mom or whatever but stay away from me. Stay away from me. Stay away from my family. Stay out of my life.”

  Then I got up and decided to throw in one last jab, “By the way, doesn’t Leon mean cat or something? Pretty suckish for a wolf.”

  By now, any pretense of niceness was gone and he was in full crazy person mode.

  “You think you’ve got it all figured out. You think Rachel’s telling you everything? Ha! Ask her about what she did to me. Then you’ll see.”

  “Later Kitty Cat.”

  9. This Needs To Stop Happening


  I walked out of the McDonalds with an incredible rush. It was almost like the time I rode the Vomit Comet three times in a row at the fair. Rachel was waiting for me outside the door with a strange mix of pride and worry on her face.

  “That was incredible! That was—that was—that was just incredible! Did you see the look on his face? Priceless. I bet that’s what dumping a guy feels like. I wish you could’ve heard that!”

  “I think I got the gist. What did you say to him at the end? It must have been pretty bad.”

  “What do you—oh, yeah, that. I called him kitty cat. You know, Leon lion. I don’t know. If I was a werewolf and my name meant lion, it would annoy me.”

  She winced, “Yeah, that’s a sore spot for him. You really know how to push people’s buttons, don’t you?”

  “It’s a skill. But yeah, he went crazy, didn’t he? He was making up a whole bunch of stuff about you hiding stuff and stuff I didn’t know and—hey what’s wrong?”

  “I—uh...I’m not sure if getting Leon furious was the best strategy.”

  I squinted at her. What had she expected me to do? Have a nice talk and work things out? She must have expected that. Unless…unless she was upset about something else.

  “Are you sure that’s what it is? Did Leon say something or did I do something or did—”

  “I’m the one who bit Leon.”

  Is it too much to ask for a good mood that lasts for more than twelve seconds?

  “You did what?”

  “I, I it was stupid. I was upset. I was having a bad day. It was a full moon. I didn’t want to think so I let the wolf take over. Leon wasn’t supposed to be there. I know I should have told you but—”

  “It’s OK. Just, OK.”

  It wasn’t her fault. Well, it was her fault but it wasn’t like she had planned this entire thing to make my life suck. Right?

  “It’s OK, just let me enjoy this for a second. Then we can—”

  Then the screaming started.

  Have you ever kicked over an anthill? I used to do it all the time. It was kind of cool watching the ants run around crazily all over the place. Well, that’s how the mall looked now. People were going crazy, slamming into each other, tripping. Just crazy. And I had a pretty good idea what they were running from.

  Rachel looked at me, and said one word.

  “Run.”

  Then she wolfed out and jumped into the crowd.

  So for the second time that night, I found myself running for my life.

  10. Rachel the Dogcatcher


  I would do another commentary on running for my life here but I think you got it the first time. Let’s just say that there are a lot of shoppers with smashed toes and banged up ribs that I owe apologies.

  Finn was outside with Darth and Calvin, looking restless. When he saw me he jumped up.

  “What’s happening in there? I saw all the people running but I didn’t want to leave Darth and Calvin.”

  “Leon and Rachel got into a fight. Claws out.”

  “Awesome! Can we see? We wanna’ see,” Calvin said.

  “No. Too dangerous. Besides, Rachel’s fine. I’m pretty sure she was winning.”

  “Fine, then we wait,” Finn said leaning on the hood of the car.

  About a minute later, he got back up and started pacing.

  “What’s taking them so long? Should I go in? No, yes, no, I’m going in.”

  He got a running start then jumped, ready to transform, when Darth screamed.

  “Wait!�
��

  Finn tumbled to the ground painfully.

  “What was that for?”

  “Look, she’s coming out.”

  Sure enough, there was Rachel pushing Leon in front of her like a prisoner.

  “Finn, get in the back. Scum gets to sit up front with me.”

  She shoved Leon into the passenger seat and slammed the door.

  Calvin looked Rachel over then asked, “Where’d you get the, you know, clothes?”

  We’ve got work to do.”

  11. Don’t Worry Dad. I’m Totally Fine


  Before we got going, Rachel got out some sort of silver bracelet and, with some difficulty, locked it around his wrist.

  “You won’t be able to wolf your way out of this.”

  He just snarled and spat at her.

  “What are we going to do with him?” I asked.

  “Well first, we’re going to have a nice long talk. What happens after that is up to him”

  He snarled again.

  We rode in silence for a while until my phone rang. I checked the caller ID. It was my dad.

  “Hey, Di. Everything alright over there?”

  Well, I’m not dead yet, so yeah.

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “Nothing, nothing. It’s just that, don’t tell the boys, don’t want to scare them, but my car tires were slashed and the car got broken into. I had to go down to the police station to answer questions and that took forever and it was just complicated. I went to Barnes and Noble. Needed coffee. Will you be OK watching the boys for a half an hour? An hour tops.”

  I looked around. Calvin and Darth were both asleep in their seats. Finn was looking out of the window, bored. Rachel was almost crushing the steering wheel. Leon was trying to claw the locked cuff off of his wrist.

  “Yeah, I’ll be cool. Enjoy your coffee thing.”

  I shut the phone and put it back in my pocket, then leaned against the window.

  There’s something about being in a car that puts me to sleep. Even when surrounded by all manner of freakiness. So, as much as I hate to admit it, within a few minutes I was asleep.

  When I woke up, we weren’t at Rachel’s house, like I had expected. We were at mine.

  “Ok, kids. Out.”

  “What?” I asked, rubbing my eyes, “Why are we here?”