Wolf Asylum (23 page)

Deep inside the cavern, Darwin found himself lost in a world that made no sense…he was struggling to keep up.

Steve had managed to get a message through to Teddy and it was believed that the communication was understood.

After a long discussion with Steve and Shawn, it was decided that Darwin would remain in the underworld only long enough for him to experience what he never had on Earth. The decision wasn't made lightly. He would must return to New Haven to destroy the key and there was very little time to spare.

Darwin lay next to the person he thought he would never see again; never have a chance with. Now he ran his fingers through the ridges of muscles on his back, pushing his way through the coating of fur that was spreading up and down his spine and across his upper back.

He stopped and closed his eyes, feeling himself drift into a restless slumber.

“Why did you stop?” Steve asked with his face still turned away.

“I didn't want to keep you up.”

“I'm up, trust me.”

The cavern was dead for a moment as both chose their words. The bed was large, covered in thick fur hides that made wanting to get up very challenging. Darwin found himself again tracing the ridges and dancing his digits in the wolf hair that was killing him.

“Steve, maybe I should stay.”

Steve quickly spun around, ending his mild back massage but he had to look Darwin in the eyes. “You can't. I won't let you throw away your life.”

“We've denied ourselves for years! Finally, we are who we are! I can't go back now,” he confessed, placing his hand on Steve's heart and began a new trace.

“Dar…the world needs you. It's not your time!” Steve said.

“It wasn't yours, either.”

It was true, how could Steve deny it. He hadn't killed himself; he was murdered and made to look like a suicide. Not knowing what to say, he kicked a leg out from the heavy furs in a tantrum.

“I'm still a werewolf Steve, no matter what happens with the fucking gate. One way or another, I'll die at some point and be right back here, so why fight it?”

“I know, but you must put things right in the real world. Our fate was cast long ago, my end is near. You won't like what I'm becoming. I can feel it moving through me like a parasite. If you thought the wolf was evil, this is something else. Even now I can feel it inside of me…growing, robbing me of who I was.”

“Who you are! You're still that person!” Darwin insisted.

“I want to kill you,” Steve quietly announced. “You have no idea how hard it is to fight the thought, it's not the wolf—it's me now.”

“Then do it!” Darwin glared into his lover's watering eyes, “Kill me. If you truly hate me, then kill me!”

“I don't hate you!” Steve broke down.

“Then what is it?”

“It makes me want to hurt you, and soon I will.” He sobbed. “No one will be safe from me.”

“Doesn't love conquer all?” Darwin asked bluntly. “Well, I love you Steve Cardwen!”

Steve wept with a torrent of tears leaking from his eyes, “I love…”

In one unifying seizure, Steve's abs contracted and he sat up with his skin glistening in sweat. He gasped and ached, unable to talk or breathe before his back cracked and flailed into the bed and back up again. Steve screamed in pain briefly before returning to silence. Frantically, he rolled from the furs and crashed into a wooden chest on the floor. He looked to Darwin with his eyes phasing from human to wolf, his chest spasmed, growing thick with fur and helping to mask his waning humanity.

Shawn ran through the wall towards Steve, knowing he was frightened he was about to disappear forever. He grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him to his knees.

“Stay with me man!” Shawn begged as he moved his hands to Steve's head, which was now growing a set of pointed ears.

“Shawn, what is it?” Darwin asked in a panic.

“Stay back! This might not work.” Shawn looked into Steve's fading eyes and began to speak.

“Cum luna plena est

“ego sum cordis puri

“quem ego diligo cum

“i innocens sum

“Malum finem pugnabo”

A moment later, Steve's episode began to subside and his body began to revert to a more human appearance. Steve still howled in pain as his joints snapped and reformed. His transformation was not like the rest. He was being punished. What had happened was a sign of what was to come.

“You did good man; bring it back. Remember how I taught you.” Shawn still held on to Steve's face as the frightened young man continued his slide back into humanity.

“It fucking hurts!” Steve chattered through his fangs.

“I know, just focus on your rock, what does that rock say about you. It says you are strong and unmovable. Like the rock you cannot be changed.” Shawn continued helping Steve, guiding him away from his cliff.

“What did you say to him?” Darwin asked.

“An old chant, a friend taught it to me. Wards off the pain for a while,” Shawn said.

Again silence returned to the cavern. The bones and cartilage in Steve's body settled. Soon a worn out, muscular body drenched in sweat was on his knees with his head hung low. When he finally looked up, Steve opened his mouth which now had a set of dripping canines. A thick patch of hair ran between his pecs and he was all round, bigger in size.

“I was gone that time,” he spat through his fangs.

“This was your worst episode yet. We're going to have to reinforce you if we want to hold off the change,” Shawn replied, getting up off the ground. “I'll prepare for the hunt.”

“Why does it happen?” Darwin asked as he cautiously got off the bed and approached Steve.

“You should stay away from him,” Shawn said, stopping at the portal in the wall. “My trigger is my daughter, I can't think about her too much or they'll get me faster. Whatever Steve was thinking, it was the one thing that he can't think about. It's his pain, it will be his trigger. It almost was.”

Shawn left the room leaving Darwin and Steve alone. Darwin sat on the edge of the bed looking at Steve who was still sitting in the corner like a rabid dog. The two said nothing for awhile, only Steve's panting could be heard.

“You better leave,” he growled.

“Steve—”

“Go!” he demanded.

Darwin, heeding the warning, grabbed a robe and passed through the wall into the next chamber. He knew Steve wasn't lying. He was going to kill him and a small part of him wanted to die by Steve's hands. It was what Shawn had said that he found most troubling.

“So, that's it? We're done?” Darwin asked Shawn, who was gathering chain link nets and jars filled with black snake like objects.

Shawn said as a matter of fact, “For now. If you two dabble anymore than you already have we'll lose him. Our only chance now is to catch an imp and drain it; that might restore Steve for awhile.”

“You're saying I'm responsible for his change?”

Shawn dropped the chain netting hard and looked at the naïve visitor. “Steve never elaborated what pained him most. I know he had it bad. I figured in time he would tell me, but it doesn't take an expert to see that it's you. He's resentful for life on Earth without you, the pain and torture he experienced because of you. I warned him before he took you in to his bedroom-I thought it might be dangerous.”

“I said I loved him. He tried to say he loved me. So, I can never be with him ever again?” Darwin began to tremble.

Shawn looked down upon the small person knowing the pain he was feeling. “That's how they torture you; that one thing that you can never have. We all have it, somewhere deep inside us. If you love him you have to let him go.”

“I could kill myself; then he would be free from me!”

“It doesn't work that way. You'd only end up here, and eventually you'd become like him. Even if you could die his pain of not having you would still exist, every time he thought about you, he'd slide a bit more. There's nothing we can do to stop it, only slow it down.” Shawn again began filling his rucksack.

“What's the plan? How can I help?”

“The essence of an imp can restore his condition. Unfortunately, it only works a couple of times. Steve has already taken it twice so I'm not sure if a third time will work. The underworld is filled with strange creatures and they all have magical qualities. There might be other things that could help him, but I've only known the imp.”

“What's an imp?”

“Small sources of concentrated evil. They secrete them. Sentient shit. Hunting them can be dangerous. If the imp gets on your skin the infection will accelerate, the fever drives you to your pain. The other danger is a master is usually near by. If we get discovered by one of them it's all over,” Shawn finished, shaking a jar with the black snake before placing it inside his sack.

“How did you learn about it?” Darwin asked, intrigued.

Shawn threw his bag over his shoulder. “Another one who lives here; she practiced the dark arts on Earth. She's the one who taught me about the chant and imps. She found her way to the underworld centuries ago through a gate. She's a witch, but she's a human, never marked by them. She's become a master at hiding and manipulation of the environment. I don't think they've even realized she's here. Of course, she's not infected so they'd have a harder time finding her. That makes a big difference. Once they learn of you, they come in waves. Getting away is very difficult.”

“How do they become aware of you?”

“Our minds become tuned to their frequency. At least that's how I've come to understand it. As the infection continues to spread, your brain becomes eidetic to what they want. Like a beacon, they become aware of you, even if you haven't completely changed.”

“Could Steve have been wired in during his-episode?” Darwin asked.

“Almost certainly. The only way we can help him now is to slow and reverse the process. That will buy him some time.”

“I want to help,” Darwin insisted.

“You're a good friend,” Shawn said tapping his fingers against Darwin's small cheek bone. “You will help…but be warned, you may be alive but I think an imp can turn you just as easily as Steve or I. Watch yourself.”

Darwin hunkered down in a gully for hours waiting for the imp to appear without success. The small creek ran black with a foul smelling fluid that stung Darwin's eyes. The place was gray and dead and nothing much changed from minute to minute.

Several hours into the watch, a ripple cracked over head that reminded Darwin of thunder, even though there wasn't a cloud in the gray sky. A moment later, the monotony resumed and Darwin returned his attention to the dribbling fluid.

The imp would be conniving. That was what he had been told on the long walk out to the good hunting grounds. It wasn't uncommon for the imp to sleek its way onto your boot before you knew it was there. If not for the intense odor, catching them would be an impossible task.

Darwin scanned the area with his nose looking for a change, yet could still only detect the stream of concentrated underarm odor lined with vomit. At ten feet away from the stench, Darwin still found himself gasping for air and shutting down his nose, opting to inhale with only his mouth. It helped, but after awhile there was a building taste of a thousand unwashed teenage armpits. It was vile and pungent.

Darwin was the bait. All he had to do was draw in the imp and Shawn would take care of the rest. All he knew was the smell would be undeniable, and when he smelt it, to get on-guard.

For the first time ever Darwin sat contentedly doing something only for someone else. He was putting his life on the line to buy Steve time and nothing pleased him more. He was prepared to die. He would do anything, if it came down to it. For the first time in his life he started to identify the feeling inside of him. He had always wondered what it would feel like, and now it was there, flourishing inside of him. He had fought against feelings his whole life and suddenly it was happening to him.

He smiled to himself as he grew to accept what was happening. His outlook on life seemed less important. Finally allowing himself to care for another person, openly, was the most healing thing he could have done. In a small way, it sickened him to feel as good as he did.

He contemplated the next move. Darwin couldn't let go of the idea of bringing Steve home. All risks aside, how could he live with himself if they didn't try? Steve was dead but the evidence was there; he had come home once.

If we wait until the gate is at its weakest, then we might be able to break free. They're opening the gate so they can escape; that should work both ways. Once we're out we seal the barrier and lock Se Venire and Marta in forever; as long as Teddy does what he needs to do.

Pure rancid garlic and rotten milk coated Darwin's tongue, snapping him from his plot. He stood up and howled to alert Shawn that it was time, even though Darwin still hadn't seen the imp.

He inspected the rocks on the edge of the babbling sludge, everything seeming to be as it had before, yet the odor continued to grow causing a sting in his orbs. Compelled to shut his eyes as though he had been exposed to an onion, Darwin pushed his lids open with his fingers only to find his vision was like looking through wax paper.

He let out another long howl to exemplify the urgency. Now effectively blind, Darwin couldn't even move without stumbling on the uneven ground. The imp was close but still Darwin could hear nothing to suggest a creature was moving closer.

“Darwin!” Shawn hollered from the ridge above. “Don't move!”

“I can't see anything Shawn!”

“Stay very still! I'm going to set the trap. I might hit you, but don't worry, it won't kill you.” Shawn readied his chain netting.

“Kill me, what the hell?” Darwin shouted as he panicked, lost his balance and slipped on the rocks. Darwin hit hard and screamed as his tail bone took the brunt of the impact.

“Fuck!” Shawn yelled. “Okay, this is going to hurt! Don't move!” he commanded.

Darwin said nothing only waiting for his pain to subside and his new pain to begin—whatever that was. Remaining still and his eyes glued shut, Darwin could only smell the repellent that he now felt immersed in.

Like a bed sheet being thrown on him, a burst of wind quickly preceded the impact of the chain netting. The weight of the mesh was unpleasant but Darwin didn't find it to be more painful than his bruised tail bone. As the web settled, Darwin began to relax.

“Did you get it?” Darwin hollered.

“Hang tight,” Shawn instructed. “This part will hurt.”

“What?” Darwin asked as he heard something hurdling through the air.

The smashing of the glass container was quickly followed by immediate and sharp electric charges pulsating through every inch of his body. He seized, tasting the energy in his teeth unable to move or yell. Finally the smell of sourness subsided making way for a simple, burning smell.

After a minute the electricity died away and the air again cleared. Darwin opened his eyes to a slight fog clear enough for him to make out the bulbous head of Shawn.

“That was close!” Shawn laughed.

“You missed!” Darwin complained. “You got me instead, you ass!”

Shawn belted out another belly full of stale air. “My friend, I said you didn't want them on you! You had at least three on you!”

Darwin sat up with the chain sliding down his front. As true as it could be said, Darwin could see what looked like shit on him. The black snake was dead, as well. After Darwin managed to get up, they discovered he actually had five imps on him, all successfully neutralized.

“The snake is like an eel, the energy they emit stuns imps and other creatures from here. What we must do now is compress the imp, draining them of their essence. That will kill them completely. I can't believe we got five! That's the mother lode! I got two once, but never this many!” Shawn was barely able to keep his deep voice under control.

“Does that mean the masters are near?” Darwin asked.

“Probably, maybe even more than one. They might be looking for Steve if there's more than one. Once we get back to him with this, the heat should die down.”

“How long do they remain stunned?”

“Not long, so we'll have to work quickly. I'd do this by myself, but I'm going to need your help if we're to harvest all five, and I really want all of them. Good to have extra!” Shawn smiled as his eyes filled with delight like he'd won the jackpot lottery.

Shawn reached down and picked up the first small imp that looked to be nothing more than a slimy fecal log. He raised the imp to his mouth and quickly bit down and spat out a small morsel. With his mouth again clear, he shoved the remaining body into his mouth and began to chew. Over and over again he chewed the imp to Darwin's horror.

After more than a minute, Shawn grabbed an empty vial and began to expel fluid from between his teeth, filling a small glass container. With no more juice to get out, Shawn scrapped his tongue off with his fingers eliminating the shit from his mouth.

“That's all there is to it!” he announced.

“You want me to chew on that shit?” Darwin asked, testing his love limitations.

Shawn said as a matter of fact, “Yeah, you've gotta bite the head off first. The poison satchels are there. So, what you want to do is chomp off the head below the eyes, which is what looks like two corn bits and spit it out! Then you chew the shit out of it until it's good and gooey. When you can't hold anymore fluid in your mouth, it's ready.”

“There's no other way?” Darwin asked, already accepting his fate.

“Things are different here!” Shawn laughed. “It's what works. You want to save your friend, then this is what we have to do.”

“How come we can touch them now?” Darwin asked, needing some clarity on the rules.

“As long as they are stunned, they're okay to touch. Remember below the eyes, and fill your mouth. If we take too long and they dry out, the essence is no good. So, hop to it!” Shawn handed a nice long imp to the novice which slipped right out of his hand and landed in Darwin's lap.

Darwin reached down and picked up the imp, raising it to his mouth. He could see the kernel sized eyes and he knew where he had to bite down. It was still disgusting and he could feel his stomach make a turn.

“The things we do for love,” Darwin mumbled as chomped of the head with some vigor. He spat the small piece of shit as far as he could as though the distance would help to clean him. With the head easily out of sight came the big show. He closed his eyes and began the arduous task of chewing on the soft leavings which he imagined to be egg salad.

Inside his mouth Darwin could feel the imp changing from a solid mass into a murky liquid. He slogged onwards feeling his mouth nearing capacity. With eggs on his mind, Darwin sunk back to his youth when he would be forced to eat food he detested. When he was a kid he could shut down his nose to avoid the smell which also helped with the flavor. There was nothing he could do about the texture or the soft oily sides of the excrement, which made chewing a very difficult task. It was easier to believe he was chewing on egg salad, food he still hated, but was at least relatively harmless.

Darwin eagerly grabbed an empty vial and filtered the juice through his teeth as he had been shown. The liquid was enough to fill the entire vial which Darwin happily sealed and placed back into the travel case that Shawn had brought along. With his tongue as clean as it would be, Darwin grabbed the second specimen and repeated the process.

A short time later Shawn and Darwin were scrapping the last of the imps from their mouths and packing up for the trip back to the cave. There was no water for them to clean their mouths with, but Shawn had brought along a bottle of homemade hooch which he insisted would kill anything. The green liquid was a phosphorescent that reminded Darwin of the formula that a mad scientist would drink to change into something else.

“It's a bit like Absinthe,” Shawn said. “This will fuck you up better though.”

With the bottle passed to Darwin he quickly took a long swig, happy to be free from the shitty after taste of the imp. He swallowed the concoction and could feel the warming effect of the alcohol as it ran through his insides. It pleasured him to have a drink and Darwin quickly took another long gulp from the bottle.

“Whoa, there!” Shawn said grabbing the bottle from his mouth. “I don't want to be carrying you back, let up on the stuff and see how you handle it first.”

“Shawn, I've been a drunk since I was thirteen,” Darwin said truthfully.

“Just the same, give it a minute before you have more. If you can handle it, you're welcome to as much as you like,” Shawn assured.

“How did you die?” Darwin asked as his face began to burn with the green formula in his veins.

Shawn was quiet for a few minutes as they continued down the trail. After a short time, Darwin began to think he had offended Shawn and was about to apologize for his intrusion into his personal life, but Shawn beat him to the punch.

“I think if I had never known that I had killed an innocent man's family, I could have lived with it. It felt good. It wasn't important that the people I killed were innocent; it was about making the cop pay. After I knew what had happened, I had a hard time coming to terms with what I was. I was a monster and I had little control over when and where I'd change. What I did see was it was happening faster and more frequently, part of me didn't want to stop.”

“You took your own life, didn't you?”

“Not exactly,” Shawn confessed. “I would have, I just didn't know how. I tried, but nothing worked. So, I was…”

Shawn stopped in mid trail and looked at the woods behind them. Everything was still and yet even Darwin began to feel as though something was watching them. Shawn slid his backpack off and passed it to Darwin.

“You must move now,” Shawn instructed. “Whatever happens, you keep running until you get to Steve.”

“What about you?”

“I have to fight them here. If they follow us then we all lose,” Shawn said sullenly.

“I won't leave you here,” Darwin surprised himself by what he said.

“Thank you. This is my last gift. Save Steve and move on. The cave won't be safe if they get me. If I survive, I'll find you!” Shawn insisted, extending his hand to say his final good bye.

Darwin grabbed the large hand and gave it a rough and sloppy shake. On Shawn's arm the tattoo changed and the two watched as the story unfolded.

“That could work.” He smiled.

“Here, take a vial of the essence. Maybe it will help you,” Darwin insisted as he quickly stuffed the glass container in Shawn's coat pocket.

With nothing more to be said, Darwin ran with the essence towards the cave leaving Shawn behind. He ran flat out, never hearing a sound or seeing a soul. Alone with his thoughts Darwin couldn't help but dwell on what was to come next. How to get home? How to close the gate? He was now certain he would bring Steve back; or die trying.