He looked over at the wolf
and pointed at Dex. “You sure this is the one you want? She seems
to have more brains.”
The wolf didn’t say
anything, though it wouldn’t have been weird at this point if it
had. Shan turned back to us and took in a deep, narrow breath
through pursed lips before speaking.
“
I’ll give you both credit,
though. You’re some of the most able white kids I’ve come across.
It’s too bad we couldn’t have made this work out some other
way.”
Shan took a step backward.
We knew what was coming but we didn’t know how.
And then it happened.
Before our eyes he turned into a bear. His bones stretched and
cracked, creaked and crackled like a roaring fire, as they expanded
to make room for his changing body. Fur spat out of his pores until
he was covered from head to toe. Which, in itself, was about eight
feet tall.
I know I had just seen it
with Sarah but I still couldn’t get over it. How could I? How could
this be happening?
Dex was obviously
dumbfounded too. His body tensed, his hand gripped my forearm
tightly. The fact that he was not filming this part, of all things,
briefly (and shamefully) crossed my mind but I let it pass. What
did it matter right now? What could we do to get out
alive?
We were facing a fucking
grizzly bear that had the mind of a demented and merciless human
being. This had to be the most dangerous animal in the course of
history.
There was a growl from
beside it. Oh right, the wolf. That would make things
easier.
Whether they wanted Dex or
not, I doubted we were making it out of the forest alive. But it
didn’t mean we would just give up. I knew I wouldn’t.
As the grizzly stood on its
legs, it made a swipe at us. But like Sarah had shown before, Shan
was not used to the bear body. He fell over and landed on the
ground with an earth-shattering rumble. The wolf looked at the
bear, concerned, or something like that.
This was our
moment.
“
The tree!” I yelled at
Dex.
We turned on our heels and
headed for the closest tree. Dex threw the camera on the ground,
aiming it at the bear and wolf, and grabbed me by the waist and
hoisted me up until I caught onto the first few branches. They were
heavy enough to support myself and I pulled myself up, straining my
muscles, cutting every inch of me on the scraping branches as I
rose.
It didn’t matter. I grabbed
and grabbed and climbed and climbed and felt Dex coming up behind
me. I also heard a vicious bark and a scampering sound.
The wolf was making a run
for the tree.
I couldn’t get out of Dex’s
upward path fast enough but he managed to swing his legs up just as
the frenzied, snapping jaw of the wolf came within inches of
latching onto him. He grabbed onto the branches next to me and
climbed up beside me. This was about as far as we could go. Anymore
and the tree would start to bend over from our weight.
It was too high for Sarah
to reach us, no matter how hard she threw her wolf body into the
air. But it wasn’t high enough to escape the tallest reaches of the
bear.
“
Can bears climb trees?”
Dex asked. I spied his frantic peepers between the
branches.
“
I think these bears can do
anything,” I said sadly.
He nodded and swallowed
hard. I did the same.
“
I know I already said
this, but I guess it was to the wrong girl. I’m sorry,” he said,
his voice breaking.
“
It doesn’t matter,” I said.
It didn’t.
“
When we got to the house…I
thought you were right behind me. I…promised to protect you and I
failed.”
“
We both failed, Dex,” I
sighed, so bloody conscious of the grinding teeth just feet below
us and the impending threat of the bear. The impending threat of
death.
“
I didn’t think I’d go like
this,” he said. There was a hint of amusement in his
voice.
“
Death by a grizzly bear? Me
neither.”
“
No, I meant
just…alive.”
I was puzzled. It was
welcoming.
He looked below him at the
wolf. The tree shook slightly as if the ground beneath was moving.
I think the bear was stirring.
He looked at me and smiled,
it was shady in the scattered moonlight.
“
For once, I can feel
everything. Every emotion, every feeling, every sense. I’ve never
felt so alive. How ironic.”
I sniffed. This was sad. I
always thought the horror of death would have overridden any
sadness, but there it was, kneading my heart until it
hurt.
“
Well, I hope I make the
best company you’ve ever had,” I whispered.
“
You are the best,” he said
sweetly.
He put his hand through the
branches and stroked my face. I closed my eyes at his touch and a
tear rolled down my cheek. I heard the roar of the bear
approaching, its deafening sound rolling through us. I cursed Sarah
for getting to kiss the man I loved while I didn’t get the
chance.
Dex took his legs and swung
them up around a branch and twisted his body underneath the one he
was holding onto so that we were both between the same set of
branches, our bodies close together.
He leaned in close, his
eyes searching mine. They sparkled in the moonlight and reflected
my own heartbroken face. Then he kissed me.
His moustache tickled. His
lips were warm. It was wet and sweet. He tasted good. I felt like
crying and laughing and screaming all at once. My body felt as
light as air. A million symphonies played in my head. If I was
going to die, I was going to die happy. That was
something.
He pulled away. I wanted to
cry. I did cry. It wasn’t fair. Whatever it was, I only knew it for
such a brief time. Another tear ran down my cheek. He gently wiped
it away with his hand and tilted my chin up at me. If other things
were going on at the same time, I wasn’t aware of it.
I managed a small
smile.
“
How was that compared to
the other me?”
“
Less dog breath,” he
deadpanned.
And then everything
wonderful was over.
The tree shook violently.
The bear was below us and shaking it with its large limbs. Though
it wouldn’t support us, we had no choice but to climb up to the top
of the tree. We moved our feet quickly, but already the tree
started to tip over, like a heavy star on top of a Christmas tree.
Between the fact that we were slowly getting closer to the ground,
and the shaking, we didn’t have long until our options were out. I
guess our options had run out a long time ago.
My hands began losing their
grip on the branches. I was going to fall.
I looked at Dex, eyes wide.
He quickly grabbed my arms but I only brought him down with
me.
We fell out of the tree and
landed on the ground in a painless THUNK. I rolled over slowly in
the opposite direction of the bear. I didn’t want to see this. I
focused on the trees in the glen, the moonlight, the soft
breeze.
I felt Dex roll over on top
of my body and cover me. It was touching. It was useless. But at
least I knew he’d do anything to protect me. Even when all hope was
lost.
I heard the roar and the
growl and the ground rumbled beneath us.
I was about to close my
eyes to it all. It was time to go. Time to say goodbye.
“
Nooooo!” someone yelled in
full panic.
I moved my head and saw two
figures running towards us. One had a shotgun aimed beyond us. The
other was making a move to stop him.
The shotgun blasted out in
a fiery explosion that lit up the base of the surrounding trees. I
heard an otherworldly roar.
The second figure, who I
now recognized as Will, tried to attack the shooter, but his tall
frame was too much for him. He shrugged him off and fired again,
maybe at the wolf. Maybe at Will’s wife.
It was Maximus. The
real
Maximus. He lowered
the shotgun. I could see the black shapes of the bear and wolf run
off into the trees and disappear.
Will fell to his knees and
covered his face. Maximus left him and ran over to us, stooping in
front of me.
“
Are y’all OK?”
“
Hey man, nice shot,” Dex
said from on top of me. He rolled off and got to his feet, then
together both he and Maximus hoisted me up so I was on my own two
legs.
I looked around. The tree
looked partly demolished. The wolf and the bear were gone. Will was
crying a few feet away. I guess he believed enough to know what
Sarah was capable of. I felt a tinge of pity for him, he was the
real victim in all of this, but most of all I just felt utter
exhaustion. It was as if all my feelings had been used up in the
last five minutes. There was nothing left in me.
“
I got here as soon as I
could,” Maximus said, squeezing my shoulder.
I nodded, trying to convey
the gratitude I felt.
“
Thank you,” I said meekly.
“You did good.”
Maximus shook his head. “I
don’t reckon there is anything good coming out of this.”
A bunch of voices came out
from the brush and a few more people came running out, big
searchlights in hand. It was the sheriff, Miguel, and two other
people I didn’t recognize.
Maximus sighed. “Now it’s
the time to explain the fuck out of this thing.”
I looked at Dex. He looked
as drained as I did. He put his arm around me and pulled me in
slightly.
“
Let’s get it over with,”
he said. I just wanted to crawl into his car and drive away, but I
suppose with the police and who else knows involved, someone had to
answer to something. Even if that someone was me.
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
We ended up going into the
Lancaster’s living room and having an informal hearing of sorts.
Miguel stood outside on the porch with a shotgun, keeping watch,
just in case. Skinwalkers were not easy to kill and there was a
good chance that Sarah and Shan were still out there, though there
was no shot in hell that they could return to their normal lives.
Bittersweet for Will, to know she was probably still alive but that
she would never be his wife again.
I felt stupid trying to
explain to the sheriff and his colleagues what had happened to me,
but it was apparent that they believed me. That was a huge help as
even I didn’t believe myself half the time. I think it would take
me a very long time to actually grasp what happened. Maybe
never.
The motives of Shan and
Sarah were based on anger and I’m sure other things that we didn’t
understand. Even Will was in the total dark about everything. But
the more we discussed the truth, the more that Will accepted what
happened, and then informed us of other strange happenings that had
gone on through the years. It was only this year though, that his
livelihood, sheep, had been affected, and he finally decided to do
something about it. So many secrets, so many blind eyes.
The rest was fitting in
with what Sarah had told me. Rudy was a threat. Bird was still a
friend somehow, so they only hurt him, not killed him, though it
would have easily turned that way. Like many people driven to
murder, sooner or later, everyone becomes a victim if you get in
their way.
Rudy still hadn’t been
found. The cops were slightly optimistic but that was probably
their youth. I believed Bird when he said Rudy would never come
back. He was gone, and wherever he was, I hoped it was
peaceful.
They probably gained a bit
of power by killing Rudy, hence why they were able to shapeshift
into humans and a bear, two things that weren’t usually done. Had
they gotten a hold of Dex, as Sarah said they planned to, there was
no telling what would have happened.
The more we all talked
though, the more we were all assured that none of us were crazy,
even if at times I really had felt like I was. A lot of that could
be blamed on the drugs. Apparently I was dosed with something
similar to peyote that caused disorientation and hallucinations.
That fact made me second guess some of the things I saw, but there
was no denying what Dex and I witnessed in front our eyes. Just our
luck though, that no one else saw it. Maybe it was always going to
be that way with us. Maybe that’s why we were “special.”
Still, I had wondered if
the drugging substance was the same as what I had found in my
pants, but Maximus told me that Bird had slipped that in my pocket
as a means to protect me. It was just simple white ash. I couldn’t
say it helped me escape from the tack room, but I couldn’t say it
didn’t, either.
At the end of the night, I
couldn’t say much, actually. Dex and I were squeezed on the
armchair together, and as they all talked and made up plans, I felt
myself nodding off.
“
Before we forget,” Fred,
the sheriff said, getting up off the couch. He reached beside him
and handed us a bag. We peeked lazily inside. It was our shoes,
pants and Dex’s iPhone. Everything that we had left at Rudy’s, plus
his laptop that they found while out combing the desert.