Werewolves (RP 7): Where Phantoms Reside (10/15-9/16)
Mae
Meanwhile
The question of where Timothy had gone, and what had happened to Tammy loomed over an increasing number of concerned minds. But it was far too late now for anyone to have stopped or prevented what took place.
The night-flight had begun long ago; the streets went black and were already quite wet by the time, and the wind was blowing down from the sky through the pampered trees of the small town. Thunder rolled mightily over the mountain peaks, but never struck the earth save for that one bolt that had put the lights out.
-----
No one but Tammy had seen how the black werewolf lowered his head with a smile on his maw, nor how his eyes set on her just after the marked white werewolf had given her grunt of command.
When those features became real and humanly recognizable, Tammy felt as if there was warm milk in her viens; it made her feel like the street had suddenly fallen out from under her and left her to plummet into an abyss.
Yes, Tammy had fled, there was no compelling force on earth that could make her stay. Tammy had seen something else under that scarred brow and in those liquid-steel eyes that was more terrifying to her than the very presence of the monster itself, she had seen familiarity, and that was enough to make her run despite every bit of good sense that told her to hold her ground.
That aforementioned sensation made Tammy's limbs feel numb just moments after the streets went pitch black and she knew that those eyes and features were soon coming for her. She simply was not prepared to face what fate would give her that night.
*****
As for Timothy, his mind had been a mystery since the day he had arrived on the ranch, so much was done behind his eyes that never reached the surface, but now at last, many things concerning his mind and motives might become known.
How often had Timothy seen Jackie on the ranch? How often had he witnessed her loyalty sway at times and in different places from the rest of her pack?
All those months ago, when Timothy had found Jackie bleeding in the forest, when the Alpha assumed that Timothy would take her life... he had gone instead out of curiosity to seek her medicine.
When the one who had done Jackie that harm appeared at the dens without having payed the penalty for attacking her, Sabrina saw Timothy take unprecedented control over his werewolf form, and for no other reason than to avenge a fellow pack member who he knew not as of yet was alive.
For Timothy had fled into the mountains and waited out a time, watching for the moment when he could attack without offending the pack. When the moment came, however, Jackie chose favor, and it was alongside that very same loner, Logan, that she regarded Timothy with teeth.
Ever since that time, Timothy knew that Jackie would be an unreliable companion, she wavered in temperament and decision so often that by instinct it was expected, but nonetheless she would be forgiven for her foibles. Jackie was a member of the pack, and both strengths and faults were accepted in the mind of the wolf.
Yet it could not be said that Jackie's last minute assault on Toby was unforeseen, for there was simply no way to mistake it: Theo and Toby were standing right beside the loners, they didn't think of them as a threat for otherwise they would have regarded them with hostility. Sabrina was right there looking on, and Timothy knew Sabrina to be a higher ranking official who had interfered in behalf of strangers before.
When Jackie decided to attack despite all these clear signs of passivity and control from her pack members, she had already chosen to go against her pack.
So why had Timothy let Jackie make the call? He had played Jackie's excuses to be his own, and he had let her make the calculations... or so it appeared. No, in reality, Timothy had let Jackie make her calculations, and he knew that she would make a mistake. The only way for Jackie's plan to succeed was if the distraction she concocted would work on her own pack as well, otherwise they were sure to interfere in the Loner's behalf. Timothy was counting on it.
The moment Jackie made her decision, Timothy was gratified for his own. Sabrina could not recalculate fast enough to throw Jackie's attack, much less give Timothy more than a glance of heed. Ulric was not near enough to be a factor.
In the end, the way it played out was the only way that Jackie, or Timothy, would get what they wanted... and it worked. Jackie took the fall, and Timothy took the target she had given him.
-----
It was rain and pavement and the beating of hearts for a time. During the chase the asphalt glinted, the wind blew cold, and the streetlamps were all dark. The corners of the streets of Reknab Bend, with every tree, stop sign and fence appeared to be an ominous sight in the dark hours of the night.
Sometimes the breathing of the beast was so near, Tammy could hear it on her heels. Other times it seemed Timothy would vanish completely, only to reemerge in another direction, ushering deviation to the set course.
Tammy ran with unprecedented strength and Timothy drove her all the while, but he never sprang upon her with the same agility that everyone knew he was capable in a moment of notice. The two had passed three street blocks before the brawl behind them had been broken by Chapman's arrival.
Reknab Bend was a small suburban town surrounded by rural countryside, where roads came to abrupt ends and fields were found not only beyond the residential backyards of town-dwellers, but within the town itself. Those greater fields that led right up to the mountain foot were often separated from public areas by cheap posts and barbwire to deter the trespasser from private land, yet such barricades were more often than not a temptation to young idlers who would diverge their pathway home from school into these places of secrecy and mischief. Truly, the fields within the town's limits however, away from the responsible eyes of humanity, were justly dangerous places for youth; therein many predators could hide and go unseen like the snake in the gophers burrow. But were these dangers fewer and less in comparison to the dangers that Phantom Mountain had so long concealed?: It was a question to be considered in warning. But as for Tammy, she knowingly led the way into one such field, first following a beaten path, and then taking off through the straw.
The direction suited Timothy's purpose, he was never far behind Tammy and she diverted her course away from any place where she might have hoped to find rescue. The possibilities that she could lose him now in such a place were scarce to none, so it was just him and her, the Hunter and the Hunted...
At length it seemed appropriate that the chase should come to an end, so Timothy advanced, he came upon Tammy's heels swiftly and lunged out of the brush and weed to nip the hem of her jeans. He caught the ankle of his prey in his teeth and she fell, but gave no cry, and so Timothy went for another attack. It must have been anticipated where the attacker intended strike next, for Tammy ducked and her neck was spared the bite, letting the large beast fly over her head.
A heavy blow met Timothy's sternum from beneath when the attack failed and something sharp marked his skin. A growl followed and Timothy retaliated with an infuriated attack on whatever part of the person beneath him he caught hold of, shaking it violently with his neck and drawing the taste of blood.
The figure was left lying in the grass.
The sensation of that blood which met Timothy's maw startled him, and he had fled a few steps to recollect himself. There was something odd that came over him, Timothy felt his joints quivering and he was struggling to catch his breath.
It must have been a memory that stopped him, something Timothy had recognized. "But what is it? Where do I remember it?" he asked himself in his confusion.
Images sped through Timothy's mind as he remembered that he had been searching in a dark but familiar place. He remembered that there had been a strange smell, and that he had heard a breath that night, alerting him that he wasn't alone.
Timothy gave a quick jolt as if he had been hit!
The werewolf ducked his head as a peculiar feeling gave rise in his stomach, something like hunger but far worse. Timothy couldn't place what it was, he could remember now that he had experienced it before, and it was when he had been searching for the strange box in Zeit's cottage, the one that smelled like something in Jackie's blood. That was when Timothy had came across this feeling the first time, he had sensed the intruder in the house, but she had fled from him before he could catch her. Yes, someone had been there that night, Timothy had pursued the intruder into the field, when he was suddenly attacked by a thunderous beast.
Timothy lifted his eyes and ears to look at the fallen figure laying motionless in the grass.
"It was you." He said, and followed the words with a snap of his teeth and a bark! But the figure did not respond.
Timothy advanced a step and began growling as he did so. "Get up! You're not dead." He demanded.
******
Tammy lay still as stone, in the exact position she had fallen; one arm outspread before her, on which her head rested, and the other hand laid over her right ear. At length she moved her fingers, a soft flinch from her ear and then feeling the thick moisture that was there, thus finding and confirming the severity of the throbbing in her nearby shoulder.
After a moment, Tammy drew herself up with one arm but would not look at her attacker, she hid her gaze from his view beneath the rim of her cap and behind the collar of her jacket.
"Change bac-k," Tammy said at length, managing to speak though her voice cracked when she swallowed the lump in her throat. "I know you can... so change back."
Tammy coughed and spat out the rain, but Timothy's hackles only raised in reply.
Tammy swallowed hard, she was still breathing heavily and looking for a way out. Not far away was her intended aim: Herby's Pond, but it was still too far away to get to if she tried to escape the werewolf with him so close. Nothing he said was easy to understand, nonetheless she listened to him as he sorted out some inner conflict in his own strange language.
*****
Timothy was battling himself, and he did not know why. Something was amiss inside him, "If this girl is an intruder, why isn't she dead yet?" Timothy had seldom felt the need to speak to others, there were few advantages in conversation, but he wanted to ask why the girl had been in Zeit's house that night, who she was, and what had attacked him in her defense.
"Please, just leave me alone..." Tammy's quiet plea interrupted Timothy's thoughts.
Timothy bared his teeth afresh at the girl and glared, returning a snarling in reply. "Why?"
Tammy gave no answer.
Somehow that feeling inside Timothy's stomach hadn't subsided, in fact, it had grown, and now he began feeling a tingling, jittery-feeling in his limbs that made him want to leap or dig or do anything to get the energy out. ... Was the feeling desperation?
"Sabrina is sure to be on her feet by now and will be coming. Maybe that is why." Timothy reasoned silently to himself, and no sooner had the thought occurred to him, when then the approach of that very werewolf was detected.
Timothy did not want to give Sabrina the chance to steal his catch or immobilize him as she had done before, therefore he made a move she could not neglect to heed.
"Don't move!" Timothy shouted in demand and he pounced so suddenly that Tammy gave a cry! Catching the nape of the girl's neck in his teeth and standing over her like a carcass of prey, Timothy was daring anyone to face the consequences of getting too close. There wasn't a move that could be made fast enough if someone should try a sudden move in the wrong direction!
