Werewolves: Emerald of the Wilds

CHAPTER 9

“Where would I start?” he asked himself. He was clueless. He was driving slowly. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to start.

He decided to call it a day and went to his apartment.He might not stay in his apartment for quite sometime.He didn’t know.He was not sure when he might come back.All he had in his mind was his goal. Goal to end the life of the monster in his body.

He set down his tired body on his broad sofa while unbuttoning his shirt. Unzipped his leather shoes and removed them using each of his feet.He pulled off his socks and left only his boxers after removing his clothes.He did them without leaving the sofa.

“Haaaahh”he sighed and leaned back and closed his eyes.

He was about to fall asleep when his phone fell from the pocket of his pants sitting at the glass center table in front of him.

“Oh Goodness!! . . .Amisha!”he stood up quickly upon recalling calling Amisha before the day ended. He looked at the time indicated on his phone and found out it was already 2:10 pm.

“You dumb . . .stupid f*ck . .”he murmured and cursed himself.Thinking that Amisha may have been sleeping, and he didn’t want to disturb her, so he decided to just take a swim in his pool.

There was a double sliding door a few steps from the living room, and onwards a wooden platform, then a 3-step long wooden staircase going to a rectangular pool.

“Trrrrrrt . . .trrrrrrt . . .trrrrrrt,” his phone vibrated before he was able to dive into the pool.

He considered taking a look at whom was calling.He smiled, seeing Amisha’s face along with her number.

“Hey Sugar!”

“You didn’t call,”she said with a sullen sound.

“I just got home, Sugar, and . . .you haven’t slept?”he cut his explanation as he recognized she was still awake.

“Yeah, . . .yeah . .I have to tell you what I heard today. . .It’s about my mother.”

- - - - - - -

Amisha was pacing inside her room. Agitated and anxious about the information, she went out in the afternoon, where she met with Detective Sudarto.

They were in a local cafe’inside a mall where they agreed to meet for the follow-up investigation over the killings that often happens every year in their country.

“From the looks of it, the murder occurs every October during the full moon. To make it clear, it only happens once a year . . .again . . .in the full moon of October,” he declared in a low mono-tonal voice to indicate the complicated circumstances. He was leaning his right arm over the table, intently looking in her eyes, and not a single flutter appeared.Waiting for her reaction over the information he laid in which he didn’t fail to receive.

She peered intently at him.Her brows were frowning and surprise was visible on her beautiful face.

Her breathing seemed to stop.Questions were running in her mind. She was still puzzled over the content of his words. What is there in the lunar cycle of October? She gave a quizzical look at the Detective.

The Detective smirked and nodded, “I can see your astonishment and confusion . .and I enjoy it.I spent a week to figure this out.I’m 99.9 percent sure of this information,”.

“Yes but . . .what is it about the full moon . . .and October? Yes, my mother was murdered in October,but . . .” she was shaking her head.Still confused.

“We didn’t only hypothesize that your mother was killed not by a human being but by a certain kind of animal . . .and this woman, this barmaid . . . .was killed, if not otherwise, was the very same beast that took your mother’s life.And possibly even the lives of the previous victims that seemed to die in this very same way,”he was whispering but his words were with huge emphasis to its certainty. His eyes burnt and his teeth gritted in anger.Very much frustrated that he was having a hard chance of solving the case.Hence, he felt that he was getting near to solving this horrendous gut-wrenching murder. ”A few more steps and I’ll bring the culprit into the open.”his thoughts.

Amisha was taken aback.She recalled the tragic death of her mother.Where the room was soaked and smelled of blood.Her body, which was almost ripped in half.It was an unfathomable circumstance that she wanted to erase from her memory. If only she could.

She shook her head once again.She raised her elbows on the table and cupped her ears as if she didn’t want to hear anything to get her to remember her poor mother.

“It was a beast. No human can do such horrible killings.And the youngsters who caught sight of a huge wolf, probably, was the same beast that did the slaying.” This speculation she heard from the detective sank deep in her mind.

“It’s a Dhole!”she snapped.

Detective Sudarto peered at her.His eyes narrowed and intently met with her eyes. ”I’ve thought about that and the answer is a huge NO.”

“Dholes have red hair and are smaller than the animal those kids have seen,and they don’t attack humans.There was never,not a single record that dholes were threats to humans.”he explicated.

“Furthermore,what the youngsters had seen was no different to that of a wolf, only, a lot bigger than what was recorded.So,No! It’s not a dhole. Not unless there was a new breed of dholes that looks like what those kids had seen.” he added. “And there were no records of new breeds whatsoever.”the detective said over and over again to point out that the authorities had studied between possibilities.

“How if it’s not recorded? How if it was . . . .”

“I have thought about that,” he cut off.

“I’m thinking . . .it is a new breed of wolf that was kept as a pet, by someone deranged . . . and trained to kill. The question is, why only in October when the full moon is there? So, it could be a mentally ill person that wanted to play pretend that werewolves are real. Like in the movies.”he smirked. . . .and that smirk ended up into a crisp laugh as if he, too, was surprised by his own outlandish theory. Thus, it was the closest factor he could ever get out of the evidence they’d got.

“Well,we have explored almost all the mountains and places the beast may have holed up or used in hiding.We have 24/7 patrols, guarding from post to post.If my theory was right,there is no chance the beast, and whichever its owner,will never get through our unrelenting surveillance.It will be easier for an elephant to get through the eye of a needle than they are.”

She frowned at what she heard.It was crazy for her to believe such a theory.”He was obsessed with this case.”her thoughts made her face produce a weird grimace, unknowingly, a lopsided smile.

“You’re cute” he said. Suddenly, he took better notice of the beauty in front of him.

Amisha blushed at what the detective uttered.She lowered her gaze, but her eyes led to his lips, causing her to notice them. It was as if she was burnt, so she quickly raised her eyes but inadvertently fell into his stare.

“ I need to go,”She immediately fumbled with her purse resting on her lap, stood up and walked to the cafe’s exit door.

“I think I’m starting to have a crush on you!!” he yelled that a few people from around them heard and reacted by giving a hearty laugh. Some urged him by replying “ GO FOR IT,BOTHER!!”

Amisha was slightly annoyed by his straight-forwardness, especially when he let the crowd hear what was on his mind.

- - - - - -

Zack was sitting on the edge of the pool.Both his feet were submerged in water and his arms were resting on his knees.His mind? Nowhere but to what or where to start.Where to go to find a cure?

He shouldn’t be alarmed. No . . .Not Yet. Not yet, even when she heard the information from Amisha about the detective’s theory, who was holding the case.Thus,he had to hurry.

However, he gave good credit to the detective's unbelievable devotion to his job and intellect for discerning apparent resources for handling a case.

“Weeeee oowww weeeeeeee oooowww!”

From the distance, he heard a sound of an ambulance that interrupted his thinking. He could calculate how many miles from where it was coming from.

He nodded.”It must be an old man. It must be a woman. . .It must be a child,” he murmured.

He looked at his reflection in the water, then created a ripple using his foot.As the ripple subsided, all he could see was his reflection when he was a child. A pale and skinny child.A child in need of his mother . . . and perhaps his father too.And that hit him.

He hadn’t seen his father his whole life.Not once could he remember. All he knew was his father remained in Romania when he and his mother left for the United States and that they went back to the country when he needed medical help that they could only get from there.

He quickly calculated in his mind and matched the circumstances. He needed a certain type of blood during those times that he was ill.That certain type of blood that was transfused to him could be from his father.Not only could it be, but it was a huge possibility.

In that regard,he gradually realized that it was that time the manifestation of strange changes in his personality began.

“SPLASHHHHH!!”

He propelled his body in the cold water. Back and Forth. Over and over again.Disregarding the exhaustion and the tingling of his limbs.He was excited.Ecstatic about the realization.Now he had something to start with . . . .and soon, he will get answers . . . and if it falls lucky for him, he will get the cure he longs for.