Liz’s New Friends
A World of Darkness (Hunter the Reckoning) Story
________________________________________
Liz hit the pavement elbows first. The ringing pain giving way to spinning in her head, she wasn’t sure if it was from the booze or the punch she took to the cheekbone. It had been a month since that night in the cabin and this had to be one of her rougher nights. She’d been using the fake id to get into every bar on Colfax until she’d be banned as the crazy girl who drinks way too much, usually the bouncer didn’t physically throw her. The alcohol made her forget the memory of the white beast covered in her friends’ blood. Unfortunately it also made her tongue loose and her head hot so she would eventually give in to arguing with the other patrons about the reality of the monster. Everyone thought she was crazy, even her Dad. After she’d been found in the woods a day later he put her in therapy. She yelled at him about the cost but he insisted that the MacThornes had offered to pay for it. The therapist tried to tell her that the white monster had been something her brain came up with to deal with the trauma of losing all her friends and her boyfriend in the fire. Bullshit, she knew what she saw, a fire didn’t tear Barry’s leg off in front of her and she’d only seen the smoke from it the next day. She had to eventually give in though, if she kept going she knew that she’d be thrown in some institute somewhere. Now she had a shitty room she was renting from a sketchy asshole who made weird passes at her but she didn’t have to see her dad’s broken heart every time she came in drunk.
She groaned laying back on the ground, letting the pent up air leave her lungs. Ok she thought just spinning from the punch, I’m not that drunk. She heard footsteps approaching her and looked up quickly, ready to go for round two with the meathead who called her insane but it wasn’t him. A skinny man in his late 30s stood in front of her. He had short but wild brown hair with grey peppered throughout and a beard. Sharp green eyes piercing her behind some thin glasses. He held a hand out for her.
“Looked like a tough hit” He said “You took it well though”.
Liz hesitated before taking the hand and standing. “Yeah, well not my first one” She grumbled.
“I’m Nick” he patted her shoulder and what the man said next made the world stop for her, everything came to a halt with just three words.
“I believe you.” He said.
Liz’s head was still spinning, now with confusion as Nick walked her down Colfax towards downtown. She had a million questions but he’d promised he’d answer them when they got somewhere “more appropriate”. He turned down an alley, waving her to follow. This guy could be a murderer or something she thought, but she knew it was worthless, she wasn’t going to turn away from the first person who didn’t think she was insane. He walked up to a small mechanic shop at the end of the alley, “Nick’s Auto” in red lettering at the top. He pulled out some keys unlocking the door to the garage then opening it for her.
“Here we are” He said “Got some folks for you to meet”.
She walked in and saw the empty mechanics bay had a few people in it already. A tall man with hair pulled in a tight pony tail was working on a laptop, a stout woman with dark skin and hair was sitting next to him looking at his screen. The woman looked up, looking surprised to see her.
“Who’s this Nick?” The girl asked, tilting her head.
“Made a friend at the bar. Liz this is Chel and Matthias” He said, closing the door behind Liz “She’s got a really interesting story”.
The man looked up now too, seeming curious.
“Well?” Nick said, pulling up a few folding chairs and setting them by Chel and Matthias and sitting in one, gesturing towards the other for Liz. “I only heard a little bit of it at the bar, care to give us the full tale?”
Liz didn’t want to share it right away, she’d had such a miserable time with people just going from concern to fear when hearing her tell it. But their faces never wavered, in fact they got very serious, especially when she talked about the beast. She hated thinking about it, something about picturing it made her feel sick and like she wanted to scream again. It had been large, like a bear but thinner, limbs longer, it ran on its four legs and on two. It had cleaved people in half with one swipe of its massive claws and it seemed mindless. She only got away because she had opened the window earlier, able to claw her way through the mesh screen and escape into the woods.
“Werewolf” Matthias said once she finished describing it. “Thats unfortunate”
She snapped to him Unfortunate but saw he looked deep in thought.
“We haven’t had a rabid one in a while, why do you think it attacked?” Nick said, looking at Mattias, Liz’s heart leaped, they seemed to be taking her so seriously.
“Wait what?” She said “Werewolf? Like silver bullets, full moon, all that?”
“Yeah. well most of that, no full moon or anything, they can kind of do it whenever” Chel said “They’re stupidly dangerous, luckily they’re usually not a problem though, they kinda mind their own business most of the time.”
“Unless…” Matthias was digging through files on his laptop and opened some encrypted text files beginning to read then nodded. “might be one of the violent tribes but there would have been more in that case… so either a mad rogue one or a first change”.
Nick shook his head. “Can’t be a rogue, we’d see more attacks, plus the cabin was burned down afterwards, someone covered it up”
Chel nodded “So first change then” She looked at Liz “Did you see how it got in?”
Liz couldn’t respond immediately, it was so much information, the way they spoke about this as if it was normal was making her dizzy. “Uh… no it… came out of the Master bedroom… there wasn’t another way in… the windows were over a cliff…” Her face grew cold and her brain felt icy. Ash and Terry had been in there, the beast’s eyes had been blue, just like Ash’s.
“Ashleigh fucking MacThorne is a Fucking Werewolf!?” She couldn’t help but yell. Beginning to hyperventilate. The other’s turned to her quickly, Nick putting a hand on her shoulder.
“Easy” He said “You’re safe here, you know who it is, that’s huge.”
“I mean Nick” Chel said “They don’t really like it if we go after them for what they did on their first change…”
Liz looked at her “what.”
Nick sighed “They’re not in control the first time, unfortunately people usually get hurt. We have good relations with the packs in Denver, we have to be careful who we hunt”.
“Fuck that!” She yelled, standing, her chest filling with fury. “She killed like 10 people!” She killed Barry, she destroyed my life. Liz was shaking. “Fuck her, I’m going to kill her myself.”
She expected pushback but they all seemed to smirk. Nick looked at the others.
“She has the Drive” And the others nodded.
“Alright miss Liz” Nick slapped his knees and stood, offering her a hand “We’ll help you hunt your werewolf. Welcome to the Colfax Cell.”
A month later Liz sat in the lobby of the Colorado State University dorms. No one gave her a second glance, assuming she was a student. The cell couldn’t come in as they were a bit too old but she didn’t think one dorky little girl was going to give her any trouble. She’d spent the first week with the Cell brushing up on everything they had about the werewolves then digging into everything she could about Ashleigh MacThorn.
The werewolves were interesting. Obviously she knew the tropes but the real things were different. Apparently nature obsessed fanatics that were convinced of the end of days. That’s what the notes said anyway, she found it hard to swallow based on what she knew of Ashleigh MacThorne. She thought she knew the girl pretty well at the time, rich, pretty, social, and threw awesome parties. Until her last one of course. She knew Ash had wanted to go to Colorado State and had gotten in but Matthias hadn’t found her in the student roster. Her instagram was no help either, the last photo was from over a month ago and just a selfie at some goth bar. She was wearing fluffy wolf ears on a headband, it made Liz sick. Matthias did find Magdalene Baker at State however. Liz had almost forgotten the girl had existed, she only came to one or two of Ash’s parties, and when she did she either clung to Ash or hid in a corner, it wasn’t her scene. They’d apparently been friends since they were kids, Ash talked about how smart and funny she was but Liz never saw it, the girl seemed terrified of talking to them. Mattias had found her student ID in the database so she had the single photo. She watched people flooding out for morning classes, praying the girl hadn’t cut her hair since orientation.
She was in luck, the girl walked out alone, looking ready to escape the crowd. Shorter than Liz expected and a bit pudgier but had the same innocent flighty look. Liz stood sharply, moving to intercept her. Stepping in front of the girl just outside the dorm she made hard eye contact.
“Magdalene Baker,” She said sharply. The girl froze, looking a bit pale at the call out.
“Uh, hi… that's me… you can call me Maggie”.
Liz approached “Have you spoken to Ashleigh MacThorne recently?”
“Uh… not really… wait” Maggie perked up a bit “Liza right? You were one of her friends? Wow… you look… different”
Yeah no shit Liz thought bitterly “Where is she, Maggie.” She spat. Maggie shrunk, flinching, looking scared, Liz realized she was shutting down.
“Sorry… Please… I need to find her” She tried to say a bit softer.
“Well She doesn’t really reply to my texts that often but I guess her mom sent her to the University of Nevada in Las Vegas? I guess she’s still there” The girl looked a little sad, Liz could tell she felt a sting of pain at Ash ignoring her.
“Thanks. I appreciate it.” She turned to walk off.
“Wait” Maggie chirped, quickly writing something on a piece of paper and handing it to Liz, it had her number on it “If you find her… can you at least tell me if she’s ok?”
Liz hesitated before pocketting the number She’s definitely not going to be ok “Sure, can do” She lied, turning and heading for the parking lot texting Nick.
“Vegas. She’s in Las Vegas”
“Could have guessed, been a lot of weird stuff out there lately, including an increase in ‘wild animal attacks’. I’ll hit up some of the cells I know there.”
For the first time in a while, Liz smiled.