Never Mine

Lupine

This is one of the things that I should have avoided if I only chose to stick with my initial plan. Avoid being involved with anyone. It’s not as if I am involved with Reed but he was starting to be familiar with me that I had a hard time telling no to him. Now that my last class was canceled, instead of doing my laundry at home, I am stuck here in the parking lot. I have to wait for Reed to finish his class so we could get to work together.

I have three options. Option 1. Go home and do my laundry and come back just in time to pick up Reed to go to work. Of course, the frugal girl in me saw how much gas I would be wasting if I chose this. Option 2. Go home do my laundry and tell Reed that I forgot that he was supposed to carpool with me. And three, which happened to be the choice that I made was to stay in the parking lot to do homework and some reading while waiting for Reed. It was the most cost-effective among the three.

Sitting at the open back of my car, I was quick to finish school work. “Now, what do I have next. It’s just 3 in the afternoon and Reed was due in an hour. Going back to the library seemed to be a good idea. But the library felt like work so I wanted to escape that one a bit.

I dug into my jacket where I remember I had a chocolate bar kept. A book fell on Charlie’s floor. I remember Reed gave me the wrong book earlier.

Curious, I flipped open the cover which was quite really old, now that I am able to completely inspect it. Never had I imagined Reed having a book like this, or even imagining him reading. He looked so laid back as if he was not bothered by the world. And he’s a basketball player. Do basketball players read?

Lupine. Flipping through the pages, the book was surprisingly in English, although the text was all scribbled, just like how old books looked. They were in cursive, hard to read but not completely incomprehensible. It had images in between the text on the other pages.

I decided to read.  Maybe it was a storybook or an old novel.

Lupine, also known as the warmblooded, or what most call werewolves, as history is usually the villain, a monster that devoured on man. But we are not like that. We are far more than that.

"What, we?" I thought. Was this a journal? The handwriting looked so good I thought it was a book. Well, I guess I can just continue. It didn't seem that it was Reed's journal after all.

"Our lineage goes as far the first wold during the time of Gilgamesh, the very first monster in history. And the book, his epic, was never a fictional story. It was indeed the life of Gilgamesh, the warrior, the magical being. And our people find a brother in him during one point in our history.

We were created in Greece, by the very first witch Innana. The first wolf was forced into it. His name was a mystery but we grew to know him as Lycaon, the first man-wolf. His parents were killed during their sleep. If he didn't go out that night to urinate, he would have ended up dead too. His parents died out of the sport. One rich man dared the other to try and experience how it felt so good to watch as the blood rush from a man's neck. How he would die choking, drowning on his own blood. At the young age of 15, he was left alone in this world because the rich people saw his parents like how they saw them as a game, prey waiting for a hunter to end their lives.

He sought justice like how most humans would do. But he was not treated like one. This time, he wanted to be the hunter. Lycaon wanted to be strong enough to avenge his parents. He wanted justice in his own hands.

Justice came knocking on his door.

One night the first witch Innana appeared before him. Lycaon heard the stories, he knew who Innana was, he instantly felt that but was too afraid to ask.

"What can I do for you, my lady?" He asked.

"It appears that I am the one who has something to do for you," She smiled.

That night was the last night of Lycaon's human life.

The next, he woke up alone, Innana gone. He opened the door to head to the shed to relieve himself, only to pull the entire door, completely removing it from its hinge, separating it from the house.

Lycaon was shocked, to say the least, but his heart was starting to grow.

He went to the back of his house, to a tree to test his theory.

He punched the redwood tree that has been standing behind their house since he was a child. It had a trunk thrice as big as the cow that he just sold a day ago in the market.

With one solid blow of his fist into it, the tree broke, its upper part falling, separating from the rest of the trunk.

Lycaon thanked the gods for the blessing that he received.

That night, without any doubt and hesitation, he ended the life of the men that killed his parents.

Some say he dragged them to the woods and gave them a chance to run, but of course, with his out-of-this-world strength, he easily caught him. All of his senses heightened, he could see further, hear a human’s heartbeat, smell they’re and track them with it. He became the ultimate hunter.

As the last of their breath escaped from the murderers of his parents, he began to feel the change.

Something was growing inside of him, it made his bones break, he felt them moving on his own, twisting, burning his insides.

He knew that he was shouting but he could not hear himself because of the pain. Lycaon was certain that he fainted, but woke up as soon as his body began twisting again.

It was his bones growing, changing into something more lethal than anything during the old world exist. As his skin was torn away from his body, his muscles were exposed, only to turn skin-like, similar to a hide.

Lycaon begged the gods for this to stop. But the Gods were not listening. Maybe it was retribution. Maybe this was the heavens punishing him for becoming a murderer.

He shouted again, this time a roar escaped from his mouth. This was not his voice. He lifted his head to air as he heard the bones on his neck crack. He shouted once again, testing if this time he could himself.

His howl echoed through the dead of the night. The very first howl in the history of the woods.

That night, Lycaon became the first werewolf.

“Hey!”

“Oh, s**t!”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” I was so into the story I failed to notice that Reed was already beside Charlie. I took my phone from my back pocket to check the time. It was just 3:30.

“You are early?” I asked. I forgot to hide the book from him. I was holding it with my two hands, opened on the page where Lycaon turned into a wolf.

“There it is, I thought I lost it somewhere.” Reed pointed at the book.

I abruptly closed it and gave it to him.

“Here, you seemed to return the wrong book earlier. This doesn’t have the library card in it.

“Yeah, I interchanged it with this one,” He handed me a copy of The American Revolution textbook. I took it but I was still looking at the leather bounded book that I gave him.

“Were you reading it?” He asked.

“Yeah, I hope you didn’t mind?” I was caught, the best escape was to admit my mistake and say sorry. “Sorry I got curious.”

“No,” he handed me back the book. “Read it, finish it. You just can give it to me back after you are done.” I smiled when I took the book away from his hand. “But please take good care of it, it’s a family heirloom.” He added.

“And why are you carrying it around the school if it is something important to your family? The curiosity in me was surfacing again.

“Well, my dorm mate is quite a bum and he has a thing with going over my things so I bring it along every time I leave my room.” A fair explanation for me.

“I was supposed to tuck it inside my locker instead but I forgot earlier. I was re-reading it inside the library. And the rest you know already.”

I nodded and turned the page back to where I stopped reading.

“Why are you here so early? I remembered asking.

“Our professor felt ill in the middle of class so it ended early.” He sat on the edge of Charlie. “Hey, can we grab lunch before we go to work? I am really hungry.”

I forgot that I haven’t eaten yet so I agreed. “Sure, but can we eat outside, not in the canteen?” I had no problem with the canteen food, but I am going to have lots of problems if people see me eating with Reed there.

“Where then?”

“Anywhere, surprise me.” I was adoring the pages of the book when I answered back.

“How far are you in the journal? Reed asked.

“This is a journal then?” I had to confirm it but I already knew.

“Yeah, pretty cool right?” He smiled. “Dad said that this has been in the family for ages. It was supposedly a journal of one of my great great great great great grandfather.” He chuckled a bit. “So where are you?”

“Lycaon transformed into a werewolf,” I answered him.

“The next pages are even crazier.”

“You find this crazy?” So he is admitting that there is craziness in his family lineage.

‘It’s not that. I don’t think my ancestors are crazy. But it’s pretty heavy, the story. Believe me, it gets really really interesting.”

“So this journal, was it a journal, a dream journal?” Curious Elara is back.

“Read it and you’ll know more.” There was a hint of mystery in Reed’s answer.

“So, shall we grab a quick lunch?” He added.

“Yeah, sure. Ah, do you know how to drive?” I was planning on reading more.

“Yeah,” I took Charlie’s keys from my pocket and tossed them to him. “Here, you drive and you decide about the food, I’ll continue reading this.”

“You are letting me drive this,” He looked pretty excited.

“Not if you ask another question.” I teased. Why am I teasing him?

“Alright then, let’s go.”

We jump from the back of the car. Reed excitedly went to the driver seat and adjusted the chair a bit so it would fit him. I drove too close to the wheel, I feel more comfortable since I am not that tall and Charlie is really quite a big vehicle for me.

I made sure that the back door was snug and tight before I headed to the passenger seat. “Not too fast, I might get dizzy while reading,” I told her before putting my seatbelt on and went back to the page that I stopped.

I saw Reed smiling. He was smiling at me. I was certain of that.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you smiling?”

“I am about to drive a vintage off-road Defender Land Rover. Of course, I would end up smiling.” He was laughing a bit.

Fine. I thought and went back to my reading.