She heard a sickening ‘CRUNCH’ from her face as maxilla and mandible began to form a muzzle. The pain overwhelmed Tamyra and she tried to let herself go, to allow the wolf to take over. Never before had she watched as her nose and upper lip became a snout. The scents of the forest creatures filled her.
Aches, cramps and stinging ruled her body. Her shirt tore against her massive growth. She hugged her arms around herself. Where her hand rested on her bicep she could see her fingers elongate and her thumb shrink, retracting toward her wrist. The fine hair covering her now looked more like fine fur.
She could detect a high-pitched ringing, doubtlessly in her head alone. Her ears felt as if a hundred tiny spiders pinched them as they stretched. A ripping sensation along her jaw-line and it pushed outward. The wolf had emerged and Tamyra could no longer hold on mentally.
Chapter 17
Tamyra became vaguely aware of someone shaking her. Her dream slipped away, already forgotten, and she opened her eyes. Even after she managed to focus it took her brain a little longer to catch up to her situation. Trees and blue sky above, earth and leaves below. Outside.
Intuitively she sensed no immediate danger. She dragged her mind for the name of the redheaded girl, now gaping at her.
“Sandi.” Tamyra said in a gravelly voice.
“Um… morning?” the other girl seemed nervous, her eyes roved frantically.
Tamyra could feel pine needles digging into her back. Even though she wondered how she knew pine needles stabbed her, she didn’t doubt it. Bits of the night rushed at her in blurry images. She changed last night, which meant she was probably naked.
Not sure what else she could do, she ventured a look at her body. Someone, most likely Sandi, had placed a large black piece of material over her. She sat up carefully, as to keep the material wrapped around her. She glanced down and a hood indicated some type of robe.
Her head throbbed and she needed water badly. Even though she wasn’t looking, she knew Sandi still stared at her.
“Water?” saying the word felt as bad as spitting up sand.
“Hang on. I’ve got a bottle in my pack.”
Tamyra lifted her gaze to Sandi and watched her take a near-full bottle of water out of her bag. Her mouth should have been watering in anticipation as Sandi handed it over, but parched dryness prevented it. She uncapped the water and gulped at it. Near halfway, she started to slow down.
She thought about nursing the rest to prolong the inevitable questions about to be asked of her. Instead she lowered the bottle from her lips.
“Thanks.”
“No problem. Do you think you’re OK to stand or should I help you?”
“I’m good. Just give me a minute.”
“I heard people, so I’m not sure we’ve got a minute. Better to get you up and covered.”
Tamyra passed the water back to Sandi. With half the effort she thought she would need, Tamyra hauled herself to her feet. The robe slipped a little but she recovered it quickly and shoved her arms into the sleeves. Positive she looked strange in the robe, but grateful for it.
Sandi had stood up alongside her and still gawked with a curious expression on her face. Tamyra silently pleaded for more time to think up an excuse before the girl flat out asked her why the hell she was passed-out naked in the forest.
“Aside from one thing, you don’t have to say anything. I won’t push. Come on, I’ll walk you home.”
“What’s the one thing?”
“Are you alright?”
The question took her by surprise. She braced for the worst and her new friend cared only about her well being.
“I’ll be fine.”
“Good to know. Now let’s get out of here before anyone happens along.”
“Where are we?”
“I should have known you’d ask that. We’re right near the spot you found me at last week. You’re lucky it was me passing by when you started babbling in your sleep.”
“Thanks again. The robe, the water, no questions. Thank-you.”
“Yeah, sure.”
Tamyra followed Sandi’s lead and started walking. Once she picked out the familiar waterline, she oriented herself. They headed towards her home. Being the new girl in a fairly small town, she guessed Sandi knew where she lived.
They strolled along quietly for a while until the silence became unnerving. Tamyra decided she imagined it because she felt tense, like a huge question loomed between them.
Sandi blurted out; “Do you think this craziness with Bianca is gonna end now?” apparently the silence had been bothering her too.
Tamyra got the impression that by ‘now’ Sandi meant since she and Sal had gotten together. It made her happy to have something to talk about, even a topic as vile as Bianca.
“I’m not sure. After the whole thing with my shoes. Well, I really don’t know what to make of things.”
“She’s all bark you know. I think if you stand up to her she’ll back off.”
“Hmmm. Well then, I guess I’m stuck with her.”
“What?!”
“If you haven’t noticed I’m not exactly the type of person who can just tell people off. I haven’t even managed to correct her that my name isn’t Tammy.”
“I guess. I mean, I don’t think I could tell her off either. I don’t know how Yvonne does it.”
“She’s like a tiny warrior who doesn’t take crap from anyone.”
Both girls giggled.
“As you get to know her more you’ll see she takes crap, but only from people she cares about. But I know what you mean. Sometimes I wish I could be more like her too.”
Peppered with rocks and twigs, the ground was rough on her feet and Tamyra couldn’t help but wince as she stepped on something sharp.
“I’m sorry I don’t have anything you can put on your feet.”
“It’s OK. I’ll survive. Besides, I can see my house.”
A stone rolled over in her mind. She almost didn’t catch it.
“Hey Sandi, a minute ago you asked if I thought the craziness with Bianca would end now. By now, did you mean that Sal and I are together?”
“Well, yeah. Why?”
“So you talked to him last night?”
Sandi turned her eyes to the dirt. The gesture gave the answer Tamyra sought.
“Is he really mad about last night? When I ran away?”
“Confused more than anything. He just didn’t understand why you ran off. Not that I want to pry, should I ask what made you bolt right after you kissed and he called you his girlfriend?”
“The same thing that landed me naked in the forest this morning. Is he OK?”
“He will be. He likes you too much to stay mad for long.”
“So he is mad.”
“Maybe a little. He knows there’s something up and it bugs him that you won’t tell him what it is.”
“He wouldn’t believe me if I did.”
“You’d be surprised at what people who’ve grown up in this strange little town would believe.”
“Yeah, maybe. But I’m not ready yet.”
Chapter 18
To Tamyra, being run over seemed it would be more joyous than her current state. Physically she felt fine. Being a werewolf meant she healed quickly and rarely felt pain for long. Even the day after she spent the night being a wolf, she didn’t feel drained or any other physical side effects.
The leeching occurred to her emotional and mental wellbeing. Not knowing what she did during the night, not remembering and fearing she’d committed horrible atrocities. Thoughts of hurting or killing people or animals haunted her.
Hollywood provided a barrage of imagery regarding werewolves, none of it positive. She tried talking to her mom about handling her curse, but her mother always gave her vague answers like; “You’ll figure it out. It just takes time.”
She’d been too afraid to ask her mom straight out about killing animals and people. Her mom had told her, in time, she would remember more and
learn to focus her consciousness into the wolf and control it. Her aunt had more answers, but she still hadn’t reached a level of comfort to ask.
Fragments filtered back into her mind from the night before as she soaked in the bath, but nothing concrete and as far as she could tell the bits weren’t in a linear order. She caught glimpses of chasing a rabbit, tearing off her jeans, drinking at the water’s edge, fortunately nothing bloody.
She never had any gory images surface. Tearing apart living beings had become her worst fear and she’d almost rather not know if she perpetrated something horrific.
The wolf wasn’t all bad to her though and she knew it. The quick healing and incredible memories of running in the forest on powerful legs were some of her most freeing experiences.
She only focused on her fears of her other side to distract from facing what really troubled her. Although her wolfen side had caused the problem, it had become obvious was Sal avoiding her.
As soon as she and Sandi had found her bag with her phone still safely inside, she sent him a text message saying she had a great time and apologized for taking off. She also left him a voice message on his cell asking him to call. The whole day passed, without so much as a returned text.
As she got out of the tub and dried off, she couldn’t help but wonder if she and Sal had ended, before they even started. With a heavy heart, she went to bed.
*-*-*
For the first time since she started at Shiver Cove High, Sal didn’t meet her during the walk to school. She trudged along hoping any minute he would appear and walk with her. It didn’t happen.
All day she searched for him while trying to tell herself she wasn’t. He couldn’t be found anywhere. She stopped herself from peeking in on his art class to check up on him and refrained from asking Sandi if she knew his whereabouts.
Sandi continued to be nice, even after they found Tamyra’s torn-up shirt with her bag in the forest. It had to be killing her to not ask what the heck happened, yet she didn’t. Sandi seemed to be the kind of friend Tamyra desperately needed. She also effectively managed to keep Tamyra’s attention off Sal’s lack of presence.
*-*-*
So caught up in pretending she wasn’t looking for Sal, after the last bell rang, she didn’t notice Bianca and her friends as she descended the stairs leaving school.
“Hey, Tammy! I been look’n for you!”
Oh great! How could I’ve been so dumb! Walk faster, pretend you can’t hear her.
“I wanna talk to you, Tammy!”
“Stop, Tammy! B wants to talk to you!” one of the toadies yelled.
Tamyra’s blood boiled. She had real issues to deal with and had grown tired of the nonsense with these girls. Unaware of stopping, she turned and faced the mean girls and before she could muzzle herself, she said; “My name is Tamyra, not Tammy. Tamyra!”
“Who cares what your name is skank. I said we need to talk and we’re gonna talk.”
Bianca lunged into Tamyra’s personal space and her two friends circled around her. She could feel her heart thumping in her throat. She should have kept walking. She grit her teeth, burying her fear of the ambush.
“Now, you’re gonna listen real good here, Tammy. You ‘n me was supposed to be good buddies and then you stab me in the back going after my guy. I can’t have that and you can’t have him.”
Bianca’s breath reeked of cigarette and something rancid, like a day old cold cut sub. The other two girls stood just beyond her sight, at her back. They chattered about how Bianca was going to beat her down. Tamyra could see, even with Bianca in her face, no one else was nearby.
She wracked her brain trying to discover a way out of this or at least find some witty retort before being ripped to pieces. She came up dry.
Bianca continued with her rant. “Friends don’t steal each others men, Tammy!”
A bubble of rage broke inside Tamyra.
“I told you, my name’s Tamyra - and we were never friends! Sal, well who knows if he’s mine but he certainly was never yours. So back the hell off!” Sound exploded from her with an animalistic ferocity.
The flunkies shut up immediately and Bianca looked taken aback. She took one long slow blink and then seemed to shake off Tamyra’s words. She volleyed a look to each of her friends and then came back full force.
“You think I’m backing off? You afraid Sal might actually want me or someth’n? Your shoes were just the beginning.”
“Real mature, throwing my shoes out a car window at me. Too chicken to confront me in person, huh? This ends here.”
Tamyra hardly knew where the bravery came from. The things she said just kept falling out of her mouth. Almost like she watched someone else being her.
“Yes, it certainly does end here, ladies.” said Ms. Kern.
From the look on Bianca’s face she hadn’t heard the teacher’s approach either.
“Bianca I’m very disappointed. I believed you when you said you had nothing to do with Tamyra’s missing shoes and now I’m hearing you threw them out a car window at her. I trusted you. Now I’m going to trust the principal will suspend you for an act of hazing against our new student. Let’s go, Bianca. Inside now. The rest of you girls go home.”
Bianca’s eyes flashed daggers her way. Now a teacher had intervened the whole thing between them wouldn’t be ending anytime soon.
Chapter 19
Tamyra hit the ‘END’ button on the cordless and threw the phone to the floor. It must have landed in her laundry basket as she barely heard anything when its flight ended. It had been the second cruel prank call she received since returning home from school.
She couldn’t be sure from the voices who was who but it wasn’t hard to tell the calls had been from Bianca’s sidekicks. Both times the word ‘skank’ came through before she hung up and both times the caller blocked their number.
Frustration took over and made her want to cry. For the first time since moving to Shiver Cove, she felt homesick. At least back in Toronto she had a great group of friends and when Vicki had been up to her nasty tricks, she always had someone to talk to.
Sal remained incommunicado and she didn’t feel comfortable calling anyone else. Sandi would most likely be a shoulder for her, however, Tamyra didn’t want their friendship to be all one-sided and so far it had been going that way.
She needed to get away from the calls and find a way to clear her head. TV and the internet didn’t offer their usual allure today. She decided getting out and about, walking it off would likely be her best course of action.
She lifted her bag onto the bed and dug through it. Finding her cell, she tucked it into her pocket and then kept searching for her wallet. Once she located the wallet she took out her money and put it in the other front pocket of her jeans. She left the wallet and bag on her bed and headed downstairs.
Once outside she thought of where she wanted to go. Figuring Bianca and her friends could easily be at the mall, she ruled it out right away.
Plus to get there she would have to pass Sal’s and she didn’t want to do that. Under no circumstance did she want to be innocently walking by and have him think she stalked him. So the mall was out.
The spot overlooking the lake came to mind but she dismissed it. Both times she ventured out there she bumped into Sandi and she didn’t want to burden her anymore. She wanted her new friend to see her positive side. She worried Sandi might decide she was too much of a pain to bother being friends with.
Part of a conversation bubbled up and she recalled something about a waterfall near the public beach. Confident she could find the beach, she set out. From what she gathered, once there she should be able to get to the falls.
On a school night in September, she hoped there wouldn’t be many people hanging around a waterfall. She guessed it didn’t matter. At least she picked a destination.
As Tamyra set out for the falls, she flipped her mom a quick text saying she was going out for a walk and she wouldn’t be late. She figured s
he’d probably get home before her mom and her aunt, but the message couldn’t hurt.
As she walked, she lost herself in fantasies of how everything would work out great with Sal, and of Bianca suddenly disappearing, and of not being a werewolf. It felt nice to defeat her problems, even if only in her imagination.
The sight of a sandy beach brought her back to reality. She discovered, to her surprise, she’d made it all the way to the public beach. Funny, she hadn’t even noticed the creepy old run down house at the end of her laneway. She must have been daydreaming as she passed it.
A sign at the side of the road directed the public to parking, ice cream and the waterfalls. She smiled and picked up her pace toward the falls.
*-*-*
She didn’t know what she expected, but the falls came up short. A gradual slope with a trickle of water wended downward. A grandma riding in an inner tube would have a safe trip down. Also a huge restaurant blocked the spot that permitted the best view.
Still, the sound of the flowing water soothed her and she had the limited view to herself. Exactly the type of place she set out looking for about fifteen minutes ago, when she wanted to be away from home and alone. Feeling restless and lonely, she realized she really did want to be around people.
Wondering what to do now, she recollected passing an ice cream place on the beach. If she couldn’t be with friends at least ice cream was an acceptable substitute. She hiked her way back across the paved public lot with her hands in her pockets and her head down. She walked at a turtle’s pace knowing that after she finished her ice cream there wouldn’t be much left for her aside from going home.
Chapter 20
The smell of fries cooking greeted Tamyra as she reached the counter of the stand. She breathed in deeply and stared at the hand painted menu board above the grill. She settled on ordering tiger-tail ice cream when she heard her name.
She spun around to see behind her, no one there. Her face scrunched up in a puzzled look and she tried to dismiss it as her ears playing tricks on her.
“It was me who said hi.” He said through his laughter.