The Wechuge are a beast normally found in Athabaskan stories, ranging across most of Western Canada and into Alaska born when a person is possessed or overwhelmed by the power of one of the ancient giant spirit animals as a curse or punishment for becoming “too strong”, though more recent records have found continued cannibalism as the cause similar to their cousin further south, the Wendigo. Some traits vary to some degree depending on which of the spirits took the person over, but they consistently display greying, corpse-like skin patched with frostbite and mange-ridden fur that gets thicker around the shoulders toward the head where the layers are peeled away from a skull that matches the possessing animal. The body itself appears stretched out and perpetually starving with joints almost disjointed and the ice in their veins leads to the odd bone-like protrusions at some joints and old injuries.
The journals have records of a handful of different Wechuge resembling a raven, a wolf, a bear, caribou, elk, or moose, but there never seem to be accounts of more than one beast in each category at any given time with the raven seemingly the oldest.
As Wechuge are born from the continued act of cannibalism, they still prey largely on humans, but with the inescapable cold and hunger that comes with their curse, they will go after pretty much anything with a heartbeat. They hibernate for decades at a time surviving on a stockpile of mostly human corpses, though sometimes the stockpile will include other large mammals as well, such as bears, elk, moose, or caribou. When awake, Wechuge are cunning beasts capable of moving unhindered through trees or across snow and ice virtually soundless and cover long distances in a very short amount of time even dragging two adults at once. They’re ambush predators that mimic the voices of friends and family to lure their victims away from others before snatching them up and disappearing with them. They usually take their victims alive in order to store them away in their stockpile for the next hibernation period, but if needed, they have long claws that can tear through flesh like butter… that saying never made sense to me anyway—they can tear through flesh like pudding or gelatin.
Unfortunately, their hunting isn’t deterred by darkness or blizzards as they have near-perfect night vision and magnetoreception allowing them to detect magnetic fields and use them to navigate any terrain.
Wechuge are considered false immortals in that they will not die of natural causes and cannot be killed with conventional weapons, though they may be irritated by them. The only way to truly kill one is to keep it on a fire (or keep it on fire) until it melts completely, which can take all night and is incredibly difficult as they won’t exactly stay there willingly. My advice for hunting a Wechuge is that you really shouldn’t unless you have a) the magic firepower to both catch and restrain it while it melts, or b) the strength, speed, stamina, and agility to keep up with the beast if not rival it.
If you do run into one without either… well I’d say run, but you wouldn’t get far so you’d probably be better off just offing yourself to avoid the pain of either it starting to eat you alive, or freezing to death even if you did manage to escape its stash.
A language warped from Dimoori Sheol (the language of the damned) and Enochian (the language of the angels). Song-like in nature as if to mimic the song of creation said to be sung by the Seraphim in Judeo-Christian Heaven, the language has the potential to give shape to some of the most powerful magic possible provided the speaker is able to use/channel magic.
Azrael, the first to speak Lurakil, used it to tear the Moira when she escaped hell and to bind hellfire to stray Suremnocte who'd escaped being sealed within the veil to create her hellhounds.
I thought maybe she’d be smart enough to listen when I told her to run away as fast as she could.
I guess I was wrong though.
Loki and Zevi chased each other back and forth around my feet playing our version of cops & robbers: Soul Collectors & Reapers.
Michael was yelling at someone on the phone upstairs loud enough that I could make out his side of the conversation with relative ease.
The rotary phone on the wall was ringing off the hook.
All while Echo paced in endless circles in front of the counter, rambling on and on, about what I’d lost track half an hour ago, only occasionally picking up a lot of excited “I knew it!”
I leaned heavily on the counter.
I wanted to swear at her, but I didn’t want to do it in front of the pups.
“Oh my God, finally real proof, like legit proof that this is real!” My gaze narrowed slightly.
“You can’t share this.” Echo froze, her expression slowly deflating as she turned to look at me dead on.
“But,” her pale green eyes were filled with a mix of frustration and confusion, “you hunt these things, right? The dangerous ones at least.” I nodded slightly in slow confirmation. “Don’t you want some credit—a thank you every now and then?” I raised an eyebrow at her.
“You didn’t thank me.” I pointed out and she frowned.
“I had it handled.” I scoffed. “Wouldn’t it at least be easier if there were more of you doing it?” And that actually earned a dry laugh from me.
“No,” I spoke simply, “I’d have more messes to clean up.” Echo’s look slowly changed, her face turning stiff as she glared at me.
“I finally have proof, solid, undeniable evidence that monsters are real—the supernatural is real, it’s all real; I finally have proof that I’m not crazy, and you’re saying I can’t share it?” I didn’t really understand why she was having such a hard time with this, “They all think I’m crazy, do you know what that’s like?” I set my jaw, resisting the urge to snap a reply, “My own family thinks I’m crazy and I finally have the chance to prove that it’s not just in my head!” She fell silent for a moment, but still I said nothing, waiting for the rest of it,
“You know, I think I know why you won’t let me write about it: you’re a fracking, selfish bitch.” I didn’t mean to react, I swear, but suddenly my canines had sliced into my lip again and my eyes flickered into red gold with pupils constricted to narrow slits.
“Are you Reyna Wildes?” I guess they took my silent glare as confirmation, because they kept talking, “Thank you for your service.” A part of me would’ve been happy for the thanks, “if it’s not too much to ask, could we get your autograph?” But I’ve never thought of myself as a hero, and I was in a bad mood that seemed to just keep getting worse.
“I’m not asking you to not talk about it for my benefit, I’m asking for my kids, and everyone else,” I paused as I thought about it, “actually, I’m not asking at all, I’m telling you.” She grit her teeth and started to reply but I didn’t give her the chance. “You still don’t get it? How about this,” I cocked my head to one side, a malicious grin plastered to my face, “go ahead and talk about it, but if any of it goes online,” I grinned wider, “I’ll destroy everything important to you.” Because that’s what’ll happen to us, I left the words unspoken because I thought she’d understand without explanation.
And she really did seem to at the time.
I didn’t find out what she did until I got back from dropping Loki and Zevi off at school.
There were cars lining both sides of the street as I turned onto it, some of them with back windows plastered with stickers for Bigfoot, Area 51, and quite a few had one with “Don’t be blind, Broaden your mind” paired with an image of Echo’s seafoam green VW bus and the words “The Echo Phenomenon” in bold, 70s style letters.
My grip on the steering wheel tightened as I pulled hurriedly into my space in the alley, and I was halfway out of the driver’s seat by the time I turned the engine off.
I started to bolt through the back door, but I was in such a rush I’d nearly forgotten to lock my Jeep.
I jerked the door open again so hard that I almost stopped to make sure the hinges were okay before I locked it.
The back door slammed behind me and seventy something sets of eyes, including those of Michael, Jesse, and Echo, all landed on me.
God, I hate crowds.
A beat later and the people started chattering away again and asking Echo for autographs while Michael and Jesse tried in vain to usher them back into the actual shop.
They hadn’t just invaded my shop, they'd invaded my home.
A trio of strangers sporting homemade t-shirts for The Echo Phenomenon approached me, if hesitantly, with something between admiration and awe in their eyes.
“Reyna Wildes!” I tilted my head slightly towards Echo, watching her with one eye as I stared after the smoke that escaped my lips to join the pillar that rose from the blazing fire before me, “What have you done to Emerson?!” She stared in disbelief at the flaming bus. I exhaled slowly, pinching my cigarette between long fingers and tapping it lightly; the ash seemed to me to fall from the end in slow motion.
“Fuck off.”
My heart started pounding in my head.
A beat.
I shoved my way through the crowd to the lockers under the stairs, ignoring what was beginning to sound like a million voices all trying to be heard over each other.
A beat.
I fumbled with the lock, swore, tried again, and finally pulled it free leaving it crushed on the floor.
A beat.
I pulled a gallon can of gasoline from inside.
A beat.
I slammed it shut.
A beat.
I shoved my way through to the front door.
A beat.
The door slammed hard enough to rattle the glass panes.
A beat.
My stride carried me across the street in a few seconds.
A beat.
I tried the back door of Echo’s VW bus, and to my brief surprise, it was unlocked.
A beat.
I jerked the door open hard enough I was pretty sure I’d damaged the hinges; this time, I didn’t care.
A beat.
I emptied the can, dousing the inside with gasoline.
A beat.
I pulled a pack of cigarettes from my pocket, pressing one between my lips.
A beat…
Magic snapped to life on my fingertips and I lit it.
A beat…
I inhaled, relishing the temporary sense of peace that finally started to set in.
A beat…
I flicked the little flame into the back of the bus, stepping back as the fire roared to life, destroying everything inside the little bus.
It took a few minutes for the strangers inside to start to notice the blazing fire outside; a few minutes of much needed silence alone. The strangers began coming out onto the street at a small trickle at first, but the more that came, the larger the groups became.
“Exactly what I said I’d do.” She stared at me in disbelief, “I told you to run from here, and you didn’t listen,” I took one last drag on my cigarette before dropping it, putting it out under the toe of my converse. “I told you that you couldn’t talk about this,” I stalked towards her, “I told you why you couldn’t,” I grabbed her by the front of her shirt, forcing her to meet my gaze, “and I told you what would happen if you didn’t listen.” Echo looked away, tears welling in her eyes as her gaze was drawn like a moth back to the flames.
“I had to—I—” She stopped, swallowed, and began again, looking back at me as the tears began to track down her cheeks. “They thought I was crazy, I had to prove I wasn’t,” she shook her head slightly, “You wouldn’t understand.” I laughed aloud at that, forcing her back as I let her go.
“Stop patronizing me!” She snapped at me and I closed my eyes, exhaling through grit teeth as I pressed my knuckles against my forehead, “Just because you’re too old to understand doesn’t mean you can talk down to me like I’m some child!” I don’t remember ever talking down to a child, I’ve always had a soft spot for children, but I didn’t see how that could help me at all.
“I wouldn’t understand?” I laughed again, “You’ve seen my eyes, you’ve seen them change, you have to have figured out I’m not human, like you.” Echo shrank away from me, but I wasn’t finished now she’d set me off, “You wanna talk crazy? I could turn feral any second and massacre everyone around me. You wanna talk about how the world;s turned its back on you because of it?” I laughed harshly, my teeth bared as my eyes flickered red gold, “All you have to do is keep your goddamned mouth shut and they’ll accept you.” I’d started out shouting at her, but now, my voice grew quiet, soft even, as if I was just realizing myself how much this was killing me, “but me? It’s in my genes, I can’t escape it like you can,” I forced a small, tired smile, “so I push my loved ones away, I distance myself,” I stepped back slightly as I felt myself begin to slip into oblivion, “and the more I care about them, the harder I push.” My thoughts had turned back to the rain and the Scotch, the cigarettes and the wood floor boards beneath my back.
To the oblivion and the blood.
I took a deep breath.
Echo glared at me, her pale eyes filled with anger and grief.
“Get your hands off of me!” She clawed at my fingers and finally managed to pull away, but it only took me a second to catch her again. This time, rather than continue to fight with her, I threw her over my shoulder, wincing when her shouts turned into screams so close to my ears and lancing across my vision. I finally set her down on the other side of the bus, backing her up to the wall.
“I’ll stop treating you like one when you stop acting like one,” my voice was a snarl.
Echo turned with an unintelligible exclamation and started to storm away, but once again I found myself reacting without thought. I grabbed her by the upper arm and she started shouting again, trying desperately to break my grip as I dragged her around the burning bus.
“‘How it affects everyone involved’? It put your shop on the map, it—”
“Would you shut the hell up for five seconds?” She snapped her mouth shut as I growled the words and I breathed a sigh of relief, “Thank God.” I muttered the words before looking up again, “Alright, you obviously aren’t going to turn your back on this like I told you to, but—”
There’s just so much Goddamned weight on my shoulders…
I took a deep breath.
...All I’m trying to do is live my mother fucking life…
Echo stared at me in confusion as I stepped back.
...Supposed to be happy, but I’m only getting colder…
I fished my cell phone from my pocket and checked the ID.
...Wear a smile on my face, but there’s a demon inside…
I breathed an exasperated sigh, running my fingers through my hair.
...There’s just so much Goddamned—
I answered, covering the mouthpiece with my hand for a moment as I looked back at Echo.
“Go inside, use the shop computer and take down the post. Send those people home, and then find Jesse, she’ll explain why you can’t just post these things without thinking of how it affects everyone involved.” She wore a look of furious disbelief as I started to return to the phone.
“No,” I cut her off, “I’m sorry, could you give me a moment?” I spoke quickly into the phone before shooting Echo a sharp glare, “It didn’t put my shop on the map, it caused a bunch of complete strangers to invade my home—” I broke off as the man on the phone said something I didn’t quite catch about my pups, “Wait, what?” Echo started to make some retort but I held up a finger to signal her to wait with a sharp look before turning partially away from her.
“This is Miss Reyna Wildes, correct?”
“Yes?” I swallowed a rising sense of dread.
“Your two sons, uhh,” he paused, and I could hear the rustling of papers, “Ah, how interesting, Loki and Zevi Wildes?” I hesitated a moment, not sure I wanted to hear why he was calling.
“Yes,” my voice was low, quiet with worry.
“Yes sir, I’ll be right there.” I hung up the phone and swore loudly, punching the brick wall beside me hard enough to tear open my skin and crack the brick. “I have to go.” Echo’s gaze narrowed.
“Well Miss Wildes, this is the Director at Willow Creek Academy and, well all I can really say over the phone is that your boys were involved in a fight on the playground today and... it—it’s best you just come talk to me, this is a little difficult to believe.” My sense of dread returned and I swallowed again.
It didn’t help.
“You can’t just—”
“I can and I will!” I rounded on her, cutting her off, “Go back to the shop, Echo.” My voice was a warning, and I walked away before she could respond.
-----
“So,” I paused to lick some of the ice cream from the side of my cone, “why did the bully suddenly escalate to violence?” I took another bite, “I thought they normally stuck with one method.” Loki shrugged, his mouth covered in chocolate ice cream.
When I finally finished talking to the school, I had a pretty good idea of what had happened. One of the larger boys, who the boys admitted had been verbally bullying them since they'd started there, got frustrated because Loki and Zevi would always either ignore him or, occasionally, Loki would make some smart remark right back. So he and a few others ambushed Zevi on the playground, though thankfully he wasn’t hurt beyond a few scrapes and some bruising from when they’d pushed him down. Loki, gods bless him and have mercy on whoever messes with his brother, ran to tell them off despite their size, though judging from the black and blue bruise that had quickly formed across his cheek, it hadn’t gone well. So he’d retaliated in kind, sending two of the boys to the hospital and the third home to his parents.
I was quite proud of them, actually.
And I thanked God that neither of them had changed.
Mrs. Marsh—the woman meant to be ‘supervising’ their recess—had apparently not seen any of this, but the school operated on a zero tolerance policy when it came to physical violence, and so there we were: sitting on the curb out front of an ice cream shop with heaping cones…
Of course, my swearing at the Director for not getting both sides probably hadn’t helped.
“He said now he had proof we were a family of freaks,” I stared at Zevi as he paused to wipe caramel from his mouth and lick his fingers clean for what I was pretty sure was the twelfth time he’d done it since we’d sat down, “‘cause of something called…” He trailed off, his nose wrinkling as he tried to remember. “The Echo something?” I felt my jaw tighten and I let out a frustrated growl.
“Do you know what he’s talking about, mum?” Loki spoke around his last mouthful of cone and I nodded slightly.
“Sadly.” I swallowed, “remember the woman that was in the shop this morning?” Both pups nodded, “She fancies herself a... supernatural investigator of sorts, is the best way I can think to explain it, The Echo Phenomenon is her podcast. She wrote about my last case and included at least one photo of the shop,” I paused briefly, “probably even used my name, now that I think about it.” Zevi’s milky blue eyes widened slightly and Loki swallowed his mouthful, almost immediately pressing his small fist to his forehead as the brain freeze kicked in. I climbed to my feet, popping the last of my cone into my mouth as I did so.
“Are you going to talk to her?” Loki was quiet.
“Yep,” I was trying to avoid the subject with them.
“What’re you going to say?”
“Go wash up, boys.” Loki looked a bit disappointed at the lack of answer, but still they scrambled to finish up and hurried ahead to the restroom.
-----
Most of the cars were gone when we got back, and Echo’s bus had been put out, but everything inside was black and charred. I pulled the Jeep into my space in the alley and got Loki and Zevi out of their car seats before letting them inside.
“What happened?” Michael looked up as I closed the door behind us and Jesse crouched down to fuss over the pups while she examined their already fading bruises.
“Where is she?” Both of them pointed towards the door into the shop. I paused beside Jesse as I crossed the room, placing a hand on her shoulder so that I could speak without the pups hearing. “Would you make sure they don’t go into the shop? Keep them entertained?” Jesse tipped her head slightly to one side.
“Reyna…” She spoke slowly and I forced a smile.
“I’m not going to kill her.” She raised an eyebrow and my smile slipped, “Please, Jesse, just keep an eye on them for me.” Finally she sighed, wearing a bitter sweet smile that somehow still managed to be gorgeous.
“Hi,” her voice cracked slightly when she finally fractured the silence.
“Always, Reyna,” I matched it briefly, giving her shoulder a light squeeze in thanks before I approached the door.
I paused, struggling to contain my hurricane of emotions; yes, a lot of what I was going through at this particular moment was at least in part because of Echo, but I didn’t need to take out twenty-three years of mostly hell on her simply because she was the most recent thing to screw me over.
I took a deep breath, sliding into a slightly more bitter version of the same mask I'd worn when hunting.
I found Echo pacing in front of the counter again when I finally opened the door.
She stopped when I closed it again behind me, her pale green eyes filled with guilt as she met my gaze for the briefest moment.
“Hi.” My tone was low and clipped as I leaned back against the door, crossing my arms across my chest.
“You heard the phone call I got earlier was from the director of the preschool my kids go—” I stopped, correcting myself, “went to?” She looked about to reply, but seemed to think better of it, choosing instead to simply nod slightly. “Well,” I held her gaze, “he was calling to tell me that my two year old boys had gotten into their first real fight.” I couldn’t help the brief, bitterly sarcastic smile.
“I—I’m really sorry about the post,” she started slowly, but the more she spoke the more her words seemed to run into one another, “I didn’t— I didn’t think it would go that far, or…” She trailed off when I simply continued to study her with a bored expression. “Jesse explained why you were so mad,” I raised an eyebrow at her and her voice faltered, “are—why you are so mad.” She fell silent again, worrying the hem of her shirt while the other clung protectively to her messenger bag. We stayed like that until the weight of the silence grew to be too much and Echo began to squirm, making it clear that I was going to have to say something eventually.
I exhaled slowly and Echo’s gaze snapped to me before flicking away again.
“Wh—What happened?” She spoke with more than a little hesitation.
“Zevi is blind.” She winced, “And small for his age. He was jumped by three of the larger boys. They shoved him down and Loki, being how he is, tried to stand up to them, by handling it diplomatically. They punched him.” Her eyes widened in horror.
“Oh my god.” I ignored her quiet exclamation.
“Long story short, Loki sent two of the boys to the hospital and the third to his parents with severe bruising.” She stared at me in confusion, “They’re not human, Echo. None of us here,” I gestured to the shop, “are human. You putting that thing online, it risks all of us.” Echo looked horrified.
“I—I didn’t think that—”
“No Echo, you didn’t think. You didn’t listen. That’s it. End of story. And now? My kids have it on their permanent records that they’re dangerous; they’ve been blacklisted, no school in the country will take them. Mention Jesse and her career is over no matter how good she is. Michael was in hiding. I said that I’m always cleaning up after other hunters? When hunters screw up, people die. This job isn’t like the books, it isn’t something you do as a hobby; this job is our lives. You invaded my life with that post.” I paused, letting that sink in, “And that’s not even including the hundreds of people out there that want me dead,” Okay, so hundred might’ve been a bit of an understatement when I think about it. Echo gulped.
“Reyna,” she spoke softly, “I had no idea. I’ll take it down, I swear, I was just waiting for you to come back and…” She trailed off as I shook my head, my laugh harsh.
“You still don’t get it?” Another harsh laugh, “You think taking it down now will fix it?” I shook my head, “Go, just leave.” She started to protest, but I didn’t give her the chance, “It was too late the second you hit ‘update’. What comes next? That blood is on your hands.”
So I’m still very slowly working on rewriting the posts for Of Monsters & Nothing, but in the meantime, I thought I’d share with anyone interested the playlist I put together ages ago for it on Spotify. At this point, I honestly don’t remember what all is on it.
“It doesn’t matter, what matters is that you’ll be joining us soon.” She smiled brightly, like she wasn’t in fact a full fledged demon now, “I’ll send Jack for you and then, we can be close again, just like we were in London.” I flinched at the mention of Jack and the memories of London.
“You and I clearly remember London differently.” Jesse studied me a moment in silence.
“You plan to kill me, don’t you? To break the curse.” I flashed a broken and tired smile at her words.
“You know me too well for that, you’re my family, and I won’t kill my family again.” I spoke in defeat and she beamed at me as if she’d won. I watched as she turned her back, slipping the narrow silver punching blade from my sleeve and onto two of my fingers before I lunged forward with lightning speed and drove the blade between two of her ribs and into her lung. I caught her as she fell back, shock writing itself across her face as I watched the light slowly leave her eyes...
...as she took one last shuddering breath and I crossed her body.
Then I closed her eyes.
...they’d turned lilac again.
[Of Monsters & Nothing]
So a little mini update to say I have been writing again now that things have settled back down some, though it will still be a little while before I start posting again because it's slow going.
There are lighthouses lost to the fogs of the ocean and the sky. They can be found when sailors are lost, but any attempts to return to them later results in the disappearance, if not death, of the sailors and disappearance of the ship. No one knows who built them and they still run even though they are long abandoned. There are abandoned water wheels and windmills on some of the islands as well. The windmills turn even when there’s no breeze and some of the water wheels don’t run water. Sometimes, it rains Mercury.
Before he was cast from Heaven, Samael stood as one of the first Archangels and was known as the “venom of God”. He was called Malkira: the king of the wicked, messenger of evil, and angel of iniquity, Belkira: Lord of the wall, or Bechira: the elect of evil. He was the accuser, destroyer, and seducer seen as both good and evil as he condoned the sins of man. He was also Lucifer, the light bearer and bringer of Dawn. Legend has it that he once was the commander of two million angels. For his pride, he was cast to the outer rings of Heaven and then from Heaven altogether and tasked with ruling the Judeo-Christian Hell, punishing those sent to him just as he had condemned the sins of man before. He made Azrael, the accidental creation that caused his exile, into his Queen and groomed her into his deadliest weapon. He continued to wage his war on man, building an army of demons of all kinds to fill the empire he built in Hell.
Then he died.
I don’t know the whole story, but apparently, he went after Azrael, wanted her to come back to Hell with him after she left, but she got tired of running.
I do know that before being cast out, he briefly became a consort of Lilith resulting in one confirmed son by the name of Asmodai, also called the Sword of Samael and, according to a lot of stories, the Lilin. This little detail, while unconfirmed, has still led to the almost biologically programmed hatred between the Lilin and Soul Collectors, often leading to the all-out war between the two.
