Wolf City – Chapter 5

The night approached fast. Perry realized that the people of Linx were in danger because of him. Even if the streets were going to be guarded at night, it did not mean that people were safe. Perry himself had to make sure that the people will not be harmed. And there was only one way to do it. He nailed his balcony door shut. He always wondered why the law didn’t force people to keep their windows and doors shut at night. It would have been much easier to control. As a werewolf he could climb balconies and enter windows. But, he has never done so except climb his own balcony so perhaps the council knew this.

He broke two bottles and spread the broken glass around the windows, balcony door and main entrance. He was hoping that should he unconsciously turn he would hurt his paws and would be forced to stay home. But that was not enough. He had to take another precaution. And, he had to make sure he wouldn’t wake up during the night either.

He took a few sleeping pills to make sure he would sleep throughout the night. Before he knew it, he fell into a deep sleep.

Was he dreaming or was it real? It must have been a dream. All he could do is observe. It was a lonely, quiet night with a full moon. A rat caught his attention. He looked at the little creature and decided to chase it. Where was it going and why wasn’t it afraid of him? What a little rodent and what a long tail it had. He was hungry all right, but not hungry enough to eat such a meaningless little creature. He was going to find himself a nice deer to sink his teeth into. Hey, the rat disappeared.

‘Help! Help! Heee…’ he heard the screaming of human. Let’s see where that comes from. He quickly ran on his four legs to the place where the voice was coming from. It was pitch dark. He heard a growling. It was so horrid and gruesome that he did not want to approach. It was peculiar, twisted. He should better stay away. He was still hungry after all. Better to go in the woods and do something useful.

Later on he came back. His belly was full but he hadn’t satisfied his curiosity. Let’s check again what was that weird noise. He walked up to the square and found a massacre. There was a man there, completely torn apart. Was he still breathing? Let’s check. Oh, no. Not really. His wolf nose was now dirty stained with blood. He shook his head but the smell was still there. He looked down and realized his paws were in a pool of blood, his dark fur drenched in blood.

Perry opened his eyes. Was it a dream or a memory of last night? He jumped up. It was already morning. He slept throughout the entire night. The windows and doors were still shut and the broken glass was untouched. But, moreover, his dream. It was a memory. He was sure of it. He was not the criminal after all but…though this was a relief, the question now rose, who was? Was there another werewolf in the city and was that the one who was putting everyone in danger? He was happy not being the criminal but now it meant that the real bloodthirsty killer was loose, terrorizing the city still. He quickly reached for his mobile phone to call Rita. Three missed calls. All from Rita. Ah, that was true, he had promised to call her.

‘Rita?’ he shouted when he heard her voice. ‘I don’t think i did it. But, now, I do believe the city, including you and I are even in a greater danger!’

Wolf City – Chapter 4

It was curiously empty in the popular cafe close the the city hall. Normally it was buzzing with people at this time of the day. Now it seemed people were even afraid to go out and have lunch.

Perry took a sip from his black coffee while pouring his heart out to the woman sitting in front of him.

´I’m just as shocked as you are, Per. I couldn’t believe it when you called me this morning and frankly, I still can’t.´ Rita was a beautiful woman, around 25 years. Her dark, smooth skin and curly hazelnut hair created an amazing contrast in comparison to her big green eyes and full red lips. She was anxiously looking at Perry. She knew him all her life. Her parents were good friends with his. She knew his secrets and inner battles which he always had to go through due to his nature. But now, it was more than a personal issue. A brutal murder had taken place. A murder of which she didn’t think Perry was capable of.

The TV above the counter was on. As soon as the mayor appeared on the news, the bartender turned the volume on. The mayor, a tall, thin man with white short hair and a long thin face was facing the crowd. Next to him stood chief Morgan , Perry’s bitter boss.

‘We haven’t seen this for 30 years,’ that’s how the mayor’s speech started. ‘Some of you  believe are still not aware of how serious the situation is. For us it’s still inexplicable why our beloved Dan decided to leave his house last night. It’s against the law to roam the streets at night. He, as any member of the city hall, knew more than anyone else, that he too had to respect the law no matter what. His faith was inevitable. Just as it is inevitable now to introduce new, stricter rules.

Starting of today we will be guarding the streets to make sure no people take chances anymore at night. After all, this is why you chose me as your mayor and this is why you pay your yearly taxes, so that I can protect you and do all that is in my power to stop you from falling into the claws of the werewolves. You, as honorable citizens, need to abide the law and be conscious of the consequences. We knew Dan as a hard working…’

The story continued but Perry rushed out of the cafe. Rita followed him.

He couldn’t catch a breath and felt as if he was about to throw up any minute now.

‘You need to go home!’ said Rita over-worried. ‘Just tell them you’re sick. Go home, Perry! Just do it! I will call you later to check on you.’

He decided it was the best thing to do. Perry took Rita’s advice, called in sick though his boss didn’t react very well to that, and headed home. But, on his way to his apartment something caught his attention. He caught a peculiar scent. His wolf instincts took over no matter how hard he tried to oppress them. He couldn’t leave it at that.

He followed the trail of the unbearable scent. It led to a waste container in a dark, abandoned alley. The container was filthy, stained, the smell of rotten fruit was strongly present but that was not what Perry smelled. He knelt and looked under the container. Something shinny was there, the scent that was bothering him was clearly coming from that. He took a plastic bag out of his pocket and reached for the shinny object. It was metal, stuck between the street tiles. He carefully pulled it out and held it in the light to analyze it better. Surely this was where the scent was coming from. The piece of metal was smudged in blood. He wrapped it up in the plastic bag and took it with him.

Wolf City – Chapter 3

Dan Spence. The ideal civil servant. He worked with precaution, was always on time, precise and rigorously followed the law and order.  He was married, no children. Not that he would have had any time for them. He barely saw his wife. She was happy when he was home and did not have his laptop on.  Now she wished he was home, laptop or not. Anything was better than his tragic death.

Perry listened to the sobbing and cries of the fresh widow as he sat on her sofa. He drank carefully from the cup of coffee he held in his hands and did his best not to snap and apologize to the woman for all the pain he had caused. The woman sat in her morning bathrobe with a tear soaked tissue in one hand and a cigarette in the other hand. She had red eyes and a little red wet nose. Her lips moved slowly as she whispered, the news seeming to have taken her voice away.

‘I only realized he was gone when it was morning. I don’t understand. It’s against the law. Why would he do something like this knowing he would put his life at risk? Dan always followed the law.’

What else could Perry ask her? Why would he fish for answers when he already knew who the criminal was? He noticed a laptop on the table and a mug next to it. The reason why that man was not there was…it was because of him. It was because of his criminal instinct.

Perry ended the conversation, thanked the woman and hid his wet brown eyes by going outside as quickly as possible.

He stood on their perfectly decorated lawn and wanted to scream out of anger and frustration. He didn’t understand it either. How could he? He was always able to control himself. But obviously something went wrong last night. He was a werewolf and there was nothing he could do about it. His father was and his grandfather too so it was in their DNA.

Maybe it was his family the reason why the city of Linx introduced an unusual law a long time ago banning the citizens of Linx from going out in the streets at night. Those were the precautions taken against werewolves as many crimes took place yet no one was able to catch the criminal. Because the city could not find the killers, they decided to protect themselves from them. A cowardly law perhaps but there was no other way and it had worked for years. Perry of course did go outside at night but he always roamed the forests nearby. There he could satisfy his hunger and hunting urges by chasing deer. Never has he killed another human being even if sometimes his werewolf side ached for human flesh. He was always able to suppress his hunger.  Up until now, obviously.

He had to leave the widow’s house. It was killing him with guilt and regret. And he couldn’t even apologize for what he had done. He could but…if he did…He had to talk to someone and there was only one person who could help him.

Wolf City – Chapter 2

Police officers and authorities were gathered at the square before the city hall. They walked around the corpse that was discovered by a citizen an hour ago and were shocked by the way the victim died. He was surely murdered, the criminal known to everyone.

‘Where the hell is Perry? I called him a few times and he’s not answering his phone!’ shouted Chief Morgan as he looked at the city hall clock.

‘I don’t know chief,’ answered a police officer. ‘It’s not like him to be late.’

‘I’m here!’ shouted the 27 year old man while he came running towards his boss.

‘You live two streets from here. I do expect you to come quicker when I call you for a murder scene!’

‘Sorry, chief, I had some problems this morning.’

Chief Morgan looked a bit suspicious at Perry. What problems could the young man possibly have? He was good looking, he lived alone, he had no responsibilities, no family, no children, no mouths to feed, no wife to argue with. What problems?

Perry noticed his boss was analyzing him. He decided to quickly get to work and say nothing more. He’s always been like an open book and what had happened this morning had to stay hidden. No one had to suspect anything, especially his own boss, the chief of the Linx police station!

Perry walked up to his team. They were around the corpse analyzing and taking pictures of it.

‘Ah, Perry’, said a short man who was taking a sample from the victim’s neck. ‘It’s ridiculous that people still insist on walking in the streets at that time of the night. Like you wouldn’t know what could happen!’ He snorted.

Perry stared at the victim. It was a man torn in pieces. His arms barely attached to the torso, the hands chewed up and the skin of the upper arms torn off the bone. The stomach was torn open and the intestines hung out. Both legs were lying a few meters further away, broken and chewed on. The face of the man was hard to identify. It was as if someone had taken a big bite out of the face. The eyes, lips and nose were missing and the whole face was an impressive, blooded pile of meat.

Perry kept on staring. He was feeling sick to his stomach. Yes, he was a detective but this crime was different. Why? This morning when he woke up, Perry had his hands and clothes stained with this man’s blood.

‘What do you think, Perry?’ asked the short man. He found detective Perry acting a bit strange this Friday morning.

‘Well, Tim, yeah….the criminal is…’

‘We all know who the criminal is. But, yeah, what are the chances we’ll catch him, right? This is bad, Perry. I haven’t seen this in years but I knew it would eventually happen.’

‘Do we know who the victim is?’ asked Perry trying to keep his voice steady.

‘We found his ID. This is gonna sting. He was working at the city hall. He was close to the mayor too. Look around!’

Perry saw that the reporters were all over the place impatiently waiting to get their story. The story of the year this was going to be.

‘They can’t wait to tear us into pieces…well figuratively speaking in this case,’ added Tim.

Perry wrote down the victim’s information and left the crime scene quickly under the pretense that he wanted to inform the victim’s family as quickly as possible and ask them a few questions.

Wolf City – Chapter 1

It was a cold and bitter December night in the big city of Linx. The horrid, humid winter wind blew through the streets while a layer of frost covered  the ground. It was dark, quiet and deserted: the Linx seemed to have no inhabitants. No people on the streets, no sounds, no whispers. A cat walked slowly in an alley. Some street light flickered in the distance slowly fading away. But in general, all quiet as the grave.

The silence broke. A man was screaming. He was in pain, his voice filled with fear and desperation. His words could barely be understood.

‘Help! Help me! He…’

His last word was interrupted. It seemed he was drowning. Or perhaps it was his own blood running through his mouth, choking him slowly?

One second of silence and then the growling of a dog. Or was it something else, something bigger…After that, grave silence.

It stayed quiet until dusk. The day started around five o’clock with the first people making their appearance in the streets of Linx. They all hurried to their cars. The first layers of frost were removed from windshields, while the engines were running, the raising steam trying to bring some warmth to the bitter cold.

It grew crowded with the minute and around six thirty the city came to life pressured by traffic jams, people invading the green parks walking to their jobs, high buildings and apartments lit and filled with noise.

In one of the apartment buildings the day started slower. One young man was not yet ready to start the day. He was sitting in a corner of his white kitchen and talking on his mobile.

‘I swear, I think I did it this time. Now it really got out of control!’

A soft voice on the other side of the line was trying to calm him down. He was shacking from fear while he was looking at his hands and clothes. They were stained with blood.

His lightly brown skin seemed now pale and his black hair was a mess.

After he hung up he threw away his blood stained clothes in a plastic bag and took a shower. He was already late for work. Of course, he had been in shock for over an hour but luckily after the phone call he was able to regain his strength.

He put on a black shirt, black blazer and black pants, drank quickly a cup of coffee then rushed to his work.