Wolves and Fairytales
This was another piece I wrote for my Creative Writing course but it involves characters I want to write a lot more about. It's a few pages long, but if you have a spare moment I would appreciate you reading it.
Wolves and Fairytales
Lying back, Nick could see the sun filtering through the leaves, the light flickering into his eyes as the tree swayed in the breeze. Taking in a long breath, he closed his eyes and let himself filter in the noise of the birds chirping all around, a rare moment of peace in the hectic tale of his life. Nearby, there were some of his friends playing football, and next to him were some others, similarly lying back and enjoying the calm of the day. Nick always enjoyed times when he could relax without any particular worry, other than keeping up with his school work. He knew it would never last, as it hadn't for the last two years. From within his pocket, his mobile phone began to ring. Nick laid there for a second, willing it to stop ringing, to let him have a couple of hours of peace.
"You going to get that?" Hannah had pulled her glasses up from her eyes and was looking at Nick inquisitively. He gave in and took the phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen. Just a text message. He opened it and read the contents, naturally conscious of letting any of his friends read it along with him. It was as he feared, a simple message that ruined his entire day, almost destroying the atmosphere in four staccato words: 'Urgent call. Return immediately.'
"Anything interesting?" This time is was Ali asking him.
"No, 'fraid not. Just my parents asking when I'll be back."
"Ah, okay." Returning the phone to his pocket, he got to his feet.
"I'm just off to the loo, be back in a bit." Nick headed away from the green of the grass towards the nearby road.
"Hold on," he heard Geoff call, "I'll come with." With that, Geoff sprung up from his spot on the ground to join Nick, who had slowed to wait. They both walked towards and then along the road, heading towards the leisure centre just peering above the tree tops that stood either side of the road. They walked in silence for the first hundred metres, but Geoff, unlike Nick, was uncomfortable with silences between two people and spoke up.
"You seen Lord of the Rings yet?"
"No, have you?"
"Nah, thinking of seeing it next weekend, not got any money at the moment."
"Okay." They continued on, Nick content with the peaceful silence, but Geoff still persistent on keeping up a dialogue.
"What do you think it'll be like?"
"Looks pretty awesome from the adverts, but we'll have to wait and see I guess."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." They were now nearing the leisure centre, coming into a car park completely filled with cars. Geoff continued talking.
"Have you read it?"
"What, Lord of the Rings? No, although my Dad does have an original version at home and I've been meaning to read it." They now came to the open doors of the centre itself and walked inside, the chlorine smell strongly washing over them.
"An original? That sounds pretty awesome."
"Yeah, it's alright." Heading across the main entrance hall, filled with tables for people to eat and rest after exercising, towards the balcony that overlooked the swimming pool. Continuing along, they came to the toilets.
"Do you think its worth much these days?"
"No, I think its just a book, its not the original original, just an older version." Walking into the toilets, Geoff went to the furthest urinal while Nick headed into the cubicle nearest the door. Despite having unzipped himself, Geoff was still talking.
"Well, I'm sure its worth something to a collector or someone."
"Maybe, who knows?" Locked in the cubicle, Nick pressed several buttons on his wrist watch, pausing to make sure Geoff wasn't going to start talking again, then pressed the last in the sequence. Instantly, he was no longer surrounded by the flimsy exterior of the cubicle. Nick stood in a large metal room, illuminated entirely from the ceiling which appeared to be one expansive network of circular lights, each spaced equally across creating a strange futuristic pattern. While Nick had left Geoff in the bathroom, he knew that an exact copy of himself had been put in the cubicle an instant after he had left, leaving no absence for him to explain away.
Completely familiar with these new surroundings, Nick headed towards the metal door. Waving his hand over a lit panel to his right, there was a clanking sound as the metal door was lifted to let him out into a similarly metal corridor. Instantly heading to his right, Nick strolled without any rush, sure that the urgency of the call was exaggerated as it usually was to get him to come as soon as possible.
Coming to the end of the corridor, he waved his hand over another panel opening a large set of double doors which split down the centre, sliding into the walls either side. Stepping into the room, the doors sliding shut slowly behind him, he walked around the large console in front of him, heading towards the slightly raised section at the front of the command centre next to an eight feet tall and twenty metres wide screen, which was currently filled with four different images. The first, on the far left of the screen, was of the outside of a block of flats in the suburbs of a major city. The second showed the detention centre beneath the main building Nick was currently in and a creature scratching at the walls, only succeeding in splintering its serrated claws. The third monitor depicted a full map of the Great Britain with various dots of several colours, a heavy group of red dots surrounding Bristol and some blue dots near Dublin among others. The final image seemed to be a thermal image of the flats from the left-most image. There didn't seem to be any heat signatures apart from one blurry red, yellow and blue figure on the third floor, laying very still.
"Computer, what was the nature of the call?"
"Situation in residential area. Cause unconfirmed." The empty and emotionless voice of the computer's artificial intelligence always rang chill on Nick's ears.
"What's the risk assessment?"
"Variable." Nick knew that the computer was simply giving him the exact answer to the question he had asked, but sometimes he wished it would realise to more than just the exact answer.
"Define variable."
"Threat appears human in nature, but does not act human."
"So something humanoid?"
"Yes." Nick thought for a second, then moved his hand down to his side to a small tablet attached to a belt loop on his waist. The rectangular object was smaller than his palm and the only distinguishing feature was a golden disc on the front depicting a scorpion. Pushing the disc, it slid into the tablet slightly. There was a flash of light and where Nick was, there now stood a much taller figure. Wearing no clothes, he looked like a man but had smooth black armour like skin over his entire body, his feet bare and separating into two long toes with no nail and a segmented tail ending in a vicious stinger. A brown strap crossing his waist and shoulder, not unlike a seat belt for a car, stretched over his torso holding a scabbard to his back. Within the scabbard was a sword, a silver hilt plain except for a jewel embedded in its centre. Scorp looked over the screen at the images. Having heard all that Nick and the computer had discussed, he continued with the conversation.
"Are images one and four of the disturbance?"
"Yes."
"Casualties?"
"Approximately twenty-five." Scorp grimaced at the blunt statistic and could almost feel Nick's distress and disgust from within the tablet. Looking at the fourth image, he had a thought.
"Is that heat signature a survivor?"
"No."
"So he is the killer?"
"No."
"Explain."
"The killer does not know that he is the killer." Scorp knew that he could keep asking but he would always word it so that the computer would respond with yet another cryptic answer. 'Perhaps it would simply be best to go and check it out now?' Nick suggested from within Scorp's mind. Silently agreeing, he made back towards the double doors.
"Computer, ready the transport to take me on-site."
"Affirmative." Scorp waving his hand over the panel instead of Nick this time, he retraced the path to the transport room, entered, and moved under one of the circular lights.
"Ready." As soon as Scorp said this, just like Nick had gone from the bathroom to the base, Scorp was standing on a small patch of grass in front of a block of flats. Not hesitating at all, he moved straight for the entrance, removing the sword from its scabbard and holding it firmly in his right hand. As he came to the front door he pressed the sales button to unlock it and then walked through. A quick glance down the bottom corridor revealed that each door was broken down and small amounts of blood were trailed from one door to the next and back out towards the entrance. Not stopping, but wary of any movement, Scorp marched onwards towards the stairs. 'Remember, the figure was on the third floor.' Listening to Nick, although already remembering himself, Scorp ignored the first and second floor despite the scratch marks all along the walls of the stairs, drops of blood everywhere, and arriving at the third, he surged down the corridor. This one too was covered in blood and in the first room Scorp could just see a hand outstretched from behind a wall, the palm cut open somehow.
"Computer, which door." The question was pointless as Scorp could see that only one of the doors had not been destroyed, blood-stained hand prints covering it. From a miniature earpiece, barely visible to the naked eye, he heard the computer reply.
"Third on the left." Still not stopping, he kicked down the door, splintering it at the hinges, and grasped his sword with both hands fully prepared for anything. What he didn't expect to see was a man, naked and splattered with blood, lying in a foetal position on the floor, blood staining everything nearby. 'What…?' Not sure what to make of it, Scorp stood motionless, perfectly balanced to attack or defend, his sword held at the ready. But the man just lay there, quivering slightly. 'Well don't just stand there, help him!' Even just within his mind, Scorp heard Nick raise his voice in a mixture of confusion and anger.
"No, he's the killer, remember? We need to find out what happened." Scorp didn't hear a reply from Nick and so assumed his understanding. "Hey, what happened?" Scorp's words seemed to do little to disturb the man and so, letting his sword drift down to his side, he approached and put his hand out to touch the man's shoulder.
"NO! DON'T TOUCH ME!" The sudden shriek made Scorp jump back as the man attempted to scurry away, spreading blood over even more of the floor. The man began to talk, still facing away, his voice cracking occasionally. "It wasn't my fault! I don't know what happened, I just woke up with all that-that-that…" Scorp dared not to speak in case he scared the man into silence. "There was so much blood…and I could taste it, i-in my mouth, but-but I don't know how it got there! Please, you've got to believe me!" In that instant, Scorp understood what had happened.
"Were you bitten some time recently by someone?" The man didn't reply, still shaking. "You need to tell me, I can help."
"R-really?"
"Yes. Now, were you bitten?" After a moments pause, having still not turned around to look at Scorp, the reply came.
"Yes, yesterday…a junkie he-he tried to mug me and then, when I was fighting him off, he-he bit me." Scorp closed his eyes, clenching his teeth. 'What is it?' "So can you h-help me?"
"Yes. Turn around." Doing as instructed, the man slowly began to turn. 'What are you doing? What's wrong with him?' While they could talk and Nick was aware of what was happening, he could not read Scorp's mind. As the man turned to fully face Scorp, his eyes opened wide in shock.
"What the- You…you're that-that guy who they've been talking about on the news…"
"Yes I am. My name is Scorp." Not sure what to do with himself, the man hugged his knees to his chest and looked around the room feverishly. 'What are you going to to?'
"What I have to…" Making his grip on the sword tighter, he slowly walked towards the man. "I need you to stand up." Doing as told, the man awkwardly got to his feet, still shaking, covering himself with his genitals with his hands. 'What are you-' Before Nick could finish, Scorp raised the sword up, grasping it with both hands, and swung it horizontally. It connected with the man's neck, cutting straight through without difficulty, the head dropping to the floor with a thud and the body shortly following with blood shooting out of the stump where his head once went. 'NO! What the fuck! Why did you do that?'
"I had to."
'WHY?'
"He was a werewolf." Staring at the headless corpse, Nick seemed to take a second to understand what had happened. Scorp kept explaining. "He was bitten by that mugger, who was also a werewolf, which made him one. The saliva mixing with the blood infects you. And no, there is no cure. The only way to deal with them is to kill them, and that is much easier when they are in human form."
'But…he couldn't help it, it wasn't his fault.' Scorp shook his head.
"That's not what matters. He killed all those people. This happens when they are first turned, they change during the day once and feel a hunger like they never have before, attacking anyone and anything nearby."
'But did you really have to kill him?'
"Yes."
Moving his hand down each side of the sword, the blood seemed to just disappear and he placed it back in the scabbard, walking towards the door. 'Is that it? You're going to leave everything like this?' Scorp stopped in the doorway.
"What do you want me to do? Clean everything up? Contact the families? That's what the police do. I come and kill the creatures that no one knows about. How they don't know I will never understand because they are everywhere and they never go away. All I can do is kill them and hope that one day I won't have any more of them to kill. Just because he looked like a person didn't make him any different to a demon . He was still going to kill, to go out three nights of every month and try to satiate its hunger. I'm sorry if that's not the answer you were looking for, but it’s the truth. We don't live in a fairytale world where everyone gets saved." Scorp continued walking down the corridor, not looking into the doorways and trying to ignore the blood.
'But…you could have told him to lock himself up every month…or maybe we could have helped him to do it.'
"And if he forgot one night? Left it too late? If he broke free? Would you be all right with even more people dying?" Silence. "I didn't think so. This is what we do, Nick, we kill monsters. While he didn't look like a monster, he was one and he had to be killed."
Coming to the entrance to the flats Scorp didn't even bother to look back, simply saying, "Computer, transport me back."
"Mission outcome?" The computers voice sounded even more metallic through the earpiece.
"Successful."
Wolves and Fairytales PDF
Wolves and Fairytales
Lying back, Nick could see the sun filtering through the leaves, the light flickering into his eyes as the tree swayed in the breeze. Taking in a long breath, he closed his eyes and let himself filter in the noise of the birds chirping all around, a rare moment of peace in the hectic tale of his life. Nearby, there were some of his friends playing football, and next to him were some others, similarly lying back and enjoying the calm of the day. Nick always enjoyed times when he could relax without any particular worry, other than keeping up with his school work. He knew it would never last, as it hadn't for the last two years. From within his pocket, his mobile phone began to ring. Nick laid there for a second, willing it to stop ringing, to let him have a couple of hours of peace.
"You going to get that?" Hannah had pulled her glasses up from her eyes and was looking at Nick inquisitively. He gave in and took the phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen. Just a text message. He opened it and read the contents, naturally conscious of letting any of his friends read it along with him. It was as he feared, a simple message that ruined his entire day, almost destroying the atmosphere in four staccato words: 'Urgent call. Return immediately.'
"Anything interesting?" This time is was Ali asking him.
"No, 'fraid not. Just my parents asking when I'll be back."
"Ah, okay." Returning the phone to his pocket, he got to his feet.
"I'm just off to the loo, be back in a bit." Nick headed away from the green of the grass towards the nearby road.
"Hold on," he heard Geoff call, "I'll come with." With that, Geoff sprung up from his spot on the ground to join Nick, who had slowed to wait. They both walked towards and then along the road, heading towards the leisure centre just peering above the tree tops that stood either side of the road. They walked in silence for the first hundred metres, but Geoff, unlike Nick, was uncomfortable with silences between two people and spoke up.
"You seen Lord of the Rings yet?"
"No, have you?"
"Nah, thinking of seeing it next weekend, not got any money at the moment."
"Okay." They continued on, Nick content with the peaceful silence, but Geoff still persistent on keeping up a dialogue.
"What do you think it'll be like?"
"Looks pretty awesome from the adverts, but we'll have to wait and see I guess."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." They were now nearing the leisure centre, coming into a car park completely filled with cars. Geoff continued talking.
"Have you read it?"
"What, Lord of the Rings? No, although my Dad does have an original version at home and I've been meaning to read it." They now came to the open doors of the centre itself and walked inside, the chlorine smell strongly washing over them.
"An original? That sounds pretty awesome."
"Yeah, it's alright." Heading across the main entrance hall, filled with tables for people to eat and rest after exercising, towards the balcony that overlooked the swimming pool. Continuing along, they came to the toilets.
"Do you think its worth much these days?"
"No, I think its just a book, its not the original original, just an older version." Walking into the toilets, Geoff went to the furthest urinal while Nick headed into the cubicle nearest the door. Despite having unzipped himself, Geoff was still talking.
"Well, I'm sure its worth something to a collector or someone."
"Maybe, who knows?" Locked in the cubicle, Nick pressed several buttons on his wrist watch, pausing to make sure Geoff wasn't going to start talking again, then pressed the last in the sequence. Instantly, he was no longer surrounded by the flimsy exterior of the cubicle. Nick stood in a large metal room, illuminated entirely from the ceiling which appeared to be one expansive network of circular lights, each spaced equally across creating a strange futuristic pattern. While Nick had left Geoff in the bathroom, he knew that an exact copy of himself had been put in the cubicle an instant after he had left, leaving no absence for him to explain away.
Completely familiar with these new surroundings, Nick headed towards the metal door. Waving his hand over a lit panel to his right, there was a clanking sound as the metal door was lifted to let him out into a similarly metal corridor. Instantly heading to his right, Nick strolled without any rush, sure that the urgency of the call was exaggerated as it usually was to get him to come as soon as possible.
Coming to the end of the corridor, he waved his hand over another panel opening a large set of double doors which split down the centre, sliding into the walls either side. Stepping into the room, the doors sliding shut slowly behind him, he walked around the large console in front of him, heading towards the slightly raised section at the front of the command centre next to an eight feet tall and twenty metres wide screen, which was currently filled with four different images. The first, on the far left of the screen, was of the outside of a block of flats in the suburbs of a major city. The second showed the detention centre beneath the main building Nick was currently in and a creature scratching at the walls, only succeeding in splintering its serrated claws. The third monitor depicted a full map of the Great Britain with various dots of several colours, a heavy group of red dots surrounding Bristol and some blue dots near Dublin among others. The final image seemed to be a thermal image of the flats from the left-most image. There didn't seem to be any heat signatures apart from one blurry red, yellow and blue figure on the third floor, laying very still.
"Computer, what was the nature of the call?"
"Situation in residential area. Cause unconfirmed." The empty and emotionless voice of the computer's artificial intelligence always rang chill on Nick's ears.
"What's the risk assessment?"
"Variable." Nick knew that the computer was simply giving him the exact answer to the question he had asked, but sometimes he wished it would realise to more than just the exact answer.
"Define variable."
"Threat appears human in nature, but does not act human."
"So something humanoid?"
"Yes." Nick thought for a second, then moved his hand down to his side to a small tablet attached to a belt loop on his waist. The rectangular object was smaller than his palm and the only distinguishing feature was a golden disc on the front depicting a scorpion. Pushing the disc, it slid into the tablet slightly. There was a flash of light and where Nick was, there now stood a much taller figure. Wearing no clothes, he looked like a man but had smooth black armour like skin over his entire body, his feet bare and separating into two long toes with no nail and a segmented tail ending in a vicious stinger. A brown strap crossing his waist and shoulder, not unlike a seat belt for a car, stretched over his torso holding a scabbard to his back. Within the scabbard was a sword, a silver hilt plain except for a jewel embedded in its centre. Scorp looked over the screen at the images. Having heard all that Nick and the computer had discussed, he continued with the conversation.
"Are images one and four of the disturbance?"
"Yes."
"Casualties?"
"Approximately twenty-five." Scorp grimaced at the blunt statistic and could almost feel Nick's distress and disgust from within the tablet. Looking at the fourth image, he had a thought.
"Is that heat signature a survivor?"
"No."
"So he is the killer?"
"No."
"Explain."
"The killer does not know that he is the killer." Scorp knew that he could keep asking but he would always word it so that the computer would respond with yet another cryptic answer. 'Perhaps it would simply be best to go and check it out now?' Nick suggested from within Scorp's mind. Silently agreeing, he made back towards the double doors.
"Computer, ready the transport to take me on-site."
"Affirmative." Scorp waving his hand over the panel instead of Nick this time, he retraced the path to the transport room, entered, and moved under one of the circular lights.
"Ready." As soon as Scorp said this, just like Nick had gone from the bathroom to the base, Scorp was standing on a small patch of grass in front of a block of flats. Not hesitating at all, he moved straight for the entrance, removing the sword from its scabbard and holding it firmly in his right hand. As he came to the front door he pressed the sales button to unlock it and then walked through. A quick glance down the bottom corridor revealed that each door was broken down and small amounts of blood were trailed from one door to the next and back out towards the entrance. Not stopping, but wary of any movement, Scorp marched onwards towards the stairs. 'Remember, the figure was on the third floor.' Listening to Nick, although already remembering himself, Scorp ignored the first and second floor despite the scratch marks all along the walls of the stairs, drops of blood everywhere, and arriving at the third, he surged down the corridor. This one too was covered in blood and in the first room Scorp could just see a hand outstretched from behind a wall, the palm cut open somehow.
"Computer, which door." The question was pointless as Scorp could see that only one of the doors had not been destroyed, blood-stained hand prints covering it. From a miniature earpiece, barely visible to the naked eye, he heard the computer reply.
"Third on the left." Still not stopping, he kicked down the door, splintering it at the hinges, and grasped his sword with both hands fully prepared for anything. What he didn't expect to see was a man, naked and splattered with blood, lying in a foetal position on the floor, blood staining everything nearby. 'What…?' Not sure what to make of it, Scorp stood motionless, perfectly balanced to attack or defend, his sword held at the ready. But the man just lay there, quivering slightly. 'Well don't just stand there, help him!' Even just within his mind, Scorp heard Nick raise his voice in a mixture of confusion and anger.
"No, he's the killer, remember? We need to find out what happened." Scorp didn't hear a reply from Nick and so assumed his understanding. "Hey, what happened?" Scorp's words seemed to do little to disturb the man and so, letting his sword drift down to his side, he approached and put his hand out to touch the man's shoulder.
"NO! DON'T TOUCH ME!" The sudden shriek made Scorp jump back as the man attempted to scurry away, spreading blood over even more of the floor. The man began to talk, still facing away, his voice cracking occasionally. "It wasn't my fault! I don't know what happened, I just woke up with all that-that-that…" Scorp dared not to speak in case he scared the man into silence. "There was so much blood…and I could taste it, i-in my mouth, but-but I don't know how it got there! Please, you've got to believe me!" In that instant, Scorp understood what had happened.
"Were you bitten some time recently by someone?" The man didn't reply, still shaking. "You need to tell me, I can help."
"R-really?"
"Yes. Now, were you bitten?" After a moments pause, having still not turned around to look at Scorp, the reply came.
"Yes, yesterday…a junkie he-he tried to mug me and then, when I was fighting him off, he-he bit me." Scorp closed his eyes, clenching his teeth. 'What is it?' "So can you h-help me?"
"Yes. Turn around." Doing as instructed, the man slowly began to turn. 'What are you doing? What's wrong with him?' While they could talk and Nick was aware of what was happening, he could not read Scorp's mind. As the man turned to fully face Scorp, his eyes opened wide in shock.
"What the- You…you're that-that guy who they've been talking about on the news…"
"Yes I am. My name is Scorp." Not sure what to do with himself, the man hugged his knees to his chest and looked around the room feverishly. 'What are you going to to?'
"What I have to…" Making his grip on the sword tighter, he slowly walked towards the man. "I need you to stand up." Doing as told, the man awkwardly got to his feet, still shaking, covering himself with his genitals with his hands. 'What are you-' Before Nick could finish, Scorp raised the sword up, grasping it with both hands, and swung it horizontally. It connected with the man's neck, cutting straight through without difficulty, the head dropping to the floor with a thud and the body shortly following with blood shooting out of the stump where his head once went. 'NO! What the fuck! Why did you do that?'
"I had to."
'WHY?'
"He was a werewolf." Staring at the headless corpse, Nick seemed to take a second to understand what had happened. Scorp kept explaining. "He was bitten by that mugger, who was also a werewolf, which made him one. The saliva mixing with the blood infects you. And no, there is no cure. The only way to deal with them is to kill them, and that is much easier when they are in human form."
'But…he couldn't help it, it wasn't his fault.' Scorp shook his head.
"That's not what matters. He killed all those people. This happens when they are first turned, they change during the day once and feel a hunger like they never have before, attacking anyone and anything nearby."
'But did you really have to kill him?'
"Yes."
Moving his hand down each side of the sword, the blood seemed to just disappear and he placed it back in the scabbard, walking towards the door. 'Is that it? You're going to leave everything like this?' Scorp stopped in the doorway.
"What do you want me to do? Clean everything up? Contact the families? That's what the police do. I come and kill the creatures that no one knows about. How they don't know I will never understand because they are everywhere and they never go away. All I can do is kill them and hope that one day I won't have any more of them to kill. Just because he looked like a person didn't make him any different to a demon . He was still going to kill, to go out three nights of every month and try to satiate its hunger. I'm sorry if that's not the answer you were looking for, but it’s the truth. We don't live in a fairytale world where everyone gets saved." Scorp continued walking down the corridor, not looking into the doorways and trying to ignore the blood.
'But…you could have told him to lock himself up every month…or maybe we could have helped him to do it.'
"And if he forgot one night? Left it too late? If he broke free? Would you be all right with even more people dying?" Silence. "I didn't think so. This is what we do, Nick, we kill monsters. While he didn't look like a monster, he was one and he had to be killed."
Coming to the entrance to the flats Scorp didn't even bother to look back, simply saying, "Computer, transport me back."
"Mission outcome?" The computers voice sounded even more metallic through the earpiece.
"Successful."
Wolves and Fairytales PDF