Something In the Woods (PART 2)

         John headed back to the hotel with his new toy. He walked through the front door and into the lobby. He smiled and waved at the manager who gave him a curious look and waved back. He opened the door to the hotel room, and was met by Alex who had been evidently standing by the door for some time. "What's in the case?" he said excitedly. "Don't tell me it's a gun." John pushed him out of the way and walked over to the table. He placed the case down on the table and picked up his phone. He dialed a number and held the phone to his ear. "Hello? Is this Jerry's Custom Gunsmithing? I was wondering if you would be willing to make some uh..." he whispered something into the phone with his hand over his mouth. "Really? Awesome! How much will that cost me? Alright, I kinda expected it to be somewhere around that. I'll need at least 30 of them, is that okay? Perfect! Do you do shipping or...you do? Cool." He gave them the address of the hotel and their room number. "Alright, that'll be it. Thank you! Oh one last thing, they've gotta be 7.62x33mm. That'll work right? Cool. Thanks again! Bye." He placed his phone back on the table. "What the hell was that about?" Alex asked. "Don't worry about it." John replied dryly. He took the case into his room and shut the door. Alex was worried. He couldn't help but wonder what John was ordering. "30 of what? And what does 7.62 by...whatever he said...mean?" he said quietly. Just then John came back through the door of his room. "Where's Ayla?" he asked. Alexis looked down at the floor and gulped anxiously. "Alex....Where...is she?" John asked stepping closer to him and crossing his arms. "She's gone." he said quietly. "WHAT?!?!??" John shouted. "Where???" Alex flinched at the anger in his tone. "She didn't say. All I know is she took the car and left." John ran over to the table and picked up his phone. He dialed violently and held it to his ear again. "Damn it! She has her phone off." he dropped his phone on the table and ran out the door. He ran back out to the lobby and up to the desk. The manager was still sitting there. She looked over to him, unsure if she should greet him. "Did you see my girlfriend? Did she tell you where she was going?" She handed him the checkout sheet. "That's all I know, sir. She checked out about 30 minutes ago." He grunted with frustration as he slapped the clipboard back down on the counter. As he stepped outside, Alex ran over to him and handed him his phone. "You got a text or something!" he said as he began to run back inside. John unlocked his phone and read the text. "I'm sorry for not telling you first, I just needed to get away from everything for a couple of hours. I think that's more than understandable given the situation at hand. I'll call you when I'm on my way back. " This greatly aggravated him, but he knew there was nothing he could do. All he had left was to wait for his package to arrive.

         Jakob couldn't help but think about John's accusations. "Did he really think I did that to Alex? And what does he plan to do?" He began to worry. Alexis rolled over in her sleep and laid her arm across his chest. Then it hit him. The next full moon is just days away. Would Alexis kill again? Would John be next? Seemingly thousands of questions flooded his mind as he felt his own heart rate begin to rise. He had to sit up. Jakob gently removed Alexis's arm from his chest and placed it on the bed next to him. He then sat up and turned to face the door, allowing his legs to hang off the side of the bed. He rubbed his eyes with exhaustion and looked over at the clock. His blue eyes struggled to focus on the bright red digital numbers in the otherwise pitch-black room. It was just passed 3am. Suddenly Alexis began to stir. It seemed as if she were having a nightmare. She was groaning quietly and tossing back and forth. She kinda reminded Jakob of his German Shepherd, Reaper, back home. He'd always fidget the same way just before waking up and looking around the room frantically. He'd always gotten a laugh out of it. Suddenly Alexis began thrashing violently and growling. She threw her arm down hard on Jakob's leg. He felt a sharp stabbing pain shoot up through his limb. He jumped out of the bed and turned on the lamp on the nightstand. His calf had three large scratches that began to trickle blood. Suddenly the marks healed before his eyes. Jakob looked at the barely noticeable scars that remained in astonishment. "Oh right, werewolf." he said out loud. He looked back to Alexis who continued to thrash violently. Her nails, originally painted black and rounded, were now 2-3 inch long claws. The teeth that had once filled her beautiful smile were replaced by large canine fangs. He assembled the courage to return to the bed. In her thrashing she managed to claw him twice more, leaving similar looking claw marks which healed in the same haste as the others. He pushed her over on her side and wrapped his arms around her waste. Her thrashing became more and more calm until she finally became still once more. Her growls and barks became a dull whimper with a few groans mixed in here and there. After a few minutes of that she became silent. He kissed her neck and pulled her closer to him. As he lay there in the dull light of the lamp's lowest setting, he began to wonder if he too would have night terrors like this. If so, what would he do in his sleep? The questions from earlier flooded back into his head as his tired eyes fell shut.

         John woke up to the sound of the door. Not knowing who it was at 5:30am, he grabbed his weapon from underneath the bed and walked slowly to the door. The doorknob began to turn and finally the door slowly opened. He jumped out from behind the corner and pointed the rifle toward whoever it was. Ayla screamed when she saw the large assault rifle pointed at her chest. "What the hell are you doing?" she yelled. John, snapping out of his blind fury, lowered the weapon to the floor and gently placed leaned it against the wall. Then he slowly approached his frantically sobbing girlfriend. "I'm so sorry baby! I thought you might be Jakob!" She slapped him across his right cheek, leaving a hand-shaped, red mark. "So you were gonna shoot him with a machine gun??" she shouted. He placed his hand on his throbbing cheek. "Actually it's an assault rifle..." She threw her arms in the air in a sarcastic, surrender. "Oh, I'm sorry! So you were gonna shoot him with an assault rifle???" she said a little less loudly. "Well I mean he might be a werewolf." he said feeling vulnerable. "What is wrong with you?? Three days ago he was your best friend, and because he wasn't in your line of sight all day yesterday you're gonna assume he mutilated your brother? Do your relationships mean anything to you??? Because if you were a true friend, you'd trust him to tell you the truth." John had never seen Ayla this upset before. He began to think there was something she wasn't telling him. "Ayla, what's wrong?" She shook her head and slid down the wall the floor, her hands clutching her forehead. She began to cry again. "I didn't want to tell you yet. I wanted to wait until we got home." His heart began to race. He was almost afraid to hear what she was gonna say. "Please baby tell me. Whatever it is, you can tell me." She gulped and placed her hands on the floor next to her. She finally stopped crying and began to wipe the running mascara off her face with the sleeve of her hoodie. He knelt down next to her and picked up her hands. They gazed into each others eyes. "I...I'm pregnant." she uttered. John's jaw dropped so hard, he thought it might have detached. "You're..." she smiled and nodded. Tears ran down her face, but this time she was silent. He sat down next to her and wrapped his arms around her. "That's great, baby!" Now he began to cry. She laughed and cried more happy tears. Suddenly she stopped and pulled away from him. She stared into his eyes again. "I hope this doesn't change anything between us." John came up with a perfect idea. He looked down at the floor as if he were hiding something. "Well..it does change one thing." Ayla became worried. "What? What's wrong?" He shook his head. "Nothing. It's just that, I also planned to tell you something when we got home." She pulled his head back to face hers. "Tell me." He took a deep breath and knelt in front of her, his hand reaching behind him. He pulled out a small, black box and opened it. Inside, was a diamond ring. "Ayla....will you marry me?" She began sobbing again as she rapidly kissed him. "Yes! Oh my god, yes!" she shouted between kisses.

         Alex stepped into the room. He was wearing a black bathing suit, sandals and no shirt. He was drinking from a glass full of what appeared to be tea. He took one look at John and Ayla sitting on the floor next to the assault rifle and slowly backed out of the room, still sipping his drink. John and Ayla just laughed and stood up. John wiped the remnants of her mascara off her tear-soaked face. Just then they heard the door to the apartment open again. "Jakob? What are you doing here?" they heard Alex whisper. John picked up his weapon and rushed out into the room. Jakob was standing in the middle of the room, Alexis stood next to him with her arms wrapped around his waste. "Yeah, Jakob. What are you doing here?" John asked. Jakob placed a medium-sized box on the table. "This came in the mail for you. The manager asked me to bring them to you." John looked at Jakob and Alexis, feeling his anger rise again. "It was you wasn't it?" he said glaring at Alexis. "What are you talking about?" she said innocently. "Don't play stupid. I can smell the wet dog on you from here." She glared back at him, her eyes seemed to glow silver. Jakob stepped toward John with his hands up submissively. John quickly raised the weapon and pointed it at Jakob who stopped in his tracks. "Look, I just came to tell you that we're leaving. I don't want to hurt you guys." Jakob tried to reason with John. "If you want to leave then leave. Just know that if I ever see you again, I will kill you." Alexis laughed quietly and placed her hand over her mouth. Jakob stepped back toward the door and put his arm around Alexis again. "I never wanted any of this, you know?" John simply motioned with his rifle for them to leave. Jakob and Alexis turned toward the door. Alexis went out into the hallway with Jakob close behind. Then he stopped and looked back at Ayla. "Congratulations by the way." Then he left and shut the door behind him. John lowered the weapon and looked over to Ayla. "How did he know?" they said in nearly perfect unison. Alex walked over to the table and picked up the package. He handed it to John, who grabbed it from him greedily. He ripped open the box and pulled out a smaller plastic bag. Inside were 30 silver bullets.

Chapter 4

         Jakob and Alexis left the hotel. They walked hand-in-hand to the tree line. Jacob stopped and turned to face her. "Are you sure this is what you want to do?" She shook her head and kissed him as reassurance that she was okay. They began walking again into the woods. Unknown to them, John watched with binoculars from the window overlooking the lake. He continued to watch for a few minutes after the forest swallowed them up. John still wasn't quite satisfied that they were gone for good, but he had to get back to his newly impregnated fiancee. He turned to walk downstairs and nearly tried to walk through the manager who was apparently standing behind him for some time. "Oh she is so fired!" she said with a greedy smirk on her face. "Wha...How long were you standing there?" John asked. She giggled. "Just long enough to see that bitch sign her own resignation! I've been trying to get her fired for far too many years now. The boss liked her because she made amazing burgers. Even I have to admit that. What I couldn't stand about her was that she'd always get between me and potential matches such as your friend." John folded his arms. "You nearly maced him in the face the first time you met him." She folded her arms in mockery. "What? A girl can't play hard to get?" she asked innocently. "Whatever, I need to get back to my fiancee." He passed her and headed toward the stairs. "Congratulations on the little one!" she shouted at him matter-of-factly. He stopped and slowly turned his head. She was still standing there. He noticed her eyes shined silver just as Alexis's had in the apartment. John ran down the stairs as fast as he could, nearly tripped halfway down. He ran straight back to the room and slammed the door behind him, locking it with equal haste. He then looked through the peephole and tried to catch his breath. Ayla and Alex were already almost done packing. "What is it?" Ayla asked. John walked over to her and began packing his own things. "We need to get the hell out of this town."

         Alexis and Jakob finally reached their destination. It was an old log cabin a couple kilometers away from Safe Haven. Upon first glance, one might have thought it were burned down at one point, but that was just because it was rotting. "This is where you want us to spend the rest of our lives?" Jakob asked. "This is where I was born." she replied. He looked at her in disbelief. "How old are you?" She glanced back at him for a moment then back to the cabin. "Old enough." Jakob couldn't help but think "Oh great, my girlfriend is old enough to be my grandma." He laughed quietly at this thought. Alexis stepped inside the cabin. Jakob followed close behind. The living space of the cabin was dull and dank. The room was lit only by the sunlight from the outside which was already limited by the tree tops. Alexis walked over to a table and picked something up. It was a lantern of some kind, which she lit with a lighter from her back pocket. The room was slightly better lit now. Jakob noticed an old bed. It seemed to be in better condition than the rest of the furniture. "Is that bed new...ish?" Alexis nodded. "I brought that here not long ago with my last mate just in case we'd ever have to do this. Or if we just wanted to have fun somewhere interesting." She turned and winked at him as she walked over to the bed and sat on it. She patted the mattress implying she wanted him to sit next to her. Jakob did as she asked.

         "What happened to your old mate?" he asked. She giggled and pointed to something hanging on the wall. It was a large silver dagger. The blade was jagged and uneven, but sharp none-the-less. Jakob gulped. "What is that?" She stood and walked over to it. She picked it up and held it in her hands for a moment. "It was my father's." she replied. "You see, I wasn't born a werewolf. Quite the opposite actually. My mother and father were werewolf hunters." She opened a door leading to what appeared to be a bedroom. The wall facing the door was covered in werewolf heads. All of them posed in vicious, snarling positions. "Some of the best in Germany to be exact. My father even melted down all of our silver candlesticks and jewelry to forge this blade. He called it 'Wolfbane.' But during the first world war we stayed here, away from it all. We didn't hunt, we didn't leave. We grew a garden and raised chickens to sustain ourselves. Just before the second world war I guess the local werewolf population had used our break from hunting to replenish their numbers. They attacked our home. At least 40 or 50 of them. My family held them off as long as we could. My father got bitten during the fight. Rather than defend the rest of us as long as he could, he deemed it necessary to take off his head with this dagger. My mother, younger sisters and brother were all killed. My sister Heidi and I were the only two alive in the end. We'd used every last silver bullet our family had stockpiled. Their leader, a Russian, was the only one left. I armed myself with Wolfsbane and we fought. I took his head, but not before he managed to bite me." She pulled her shirt sleeve up and showed him a scar on her shoulder. "My sister and I fled to Safe Haven. We told the towns people we were orphans, that our parents were murdered by thieves. The first time I turned, I accidentally bit Heidi. At first we were sad, but then we realized we'd both live forever. It seemed perfect. As it turns out spending one hundred years with your sister tends to create some tension." Everything finally clicked in Jakob's head. "Heidi is the hotel manager!" Alexis nodded. "But don't you see? We don't have to worry about her or anyone else ever again! She loved that hotel more than anything! No way she'll ever come back here. We can just live here, hunt in these woods, and be happy for all of eternity!"

         Alexis's words of motivation were interrupted by a 3 loud bangs followed by Alexis falling to the ground clutching her chest. Wolfsbane clattered on the rotted floor boards. "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Jakob yelled. He looked up to the door to see Heidi standing there with a smoking pistol in her hand. She lowered the pistol and walked over to her sister's shaking and gurgling body. With her foot, she turned Alexis's body over. "Guess who, bitch." She said as she raised the pistol and pointed it at her face. Before she could pull the trigger, Jakob had picked up Wolfsbane and punctured the side of her head with it. Heidi's jaw dropped and blood began to drip from her mouth and gaping head wound. Jakob pulled the blade out of her and her lifeless body fell to the ground. He dropped the dagger on the floor and knelt beside Alexis who continued to half-choke on the blood rising in her throat and dripping off her lips. "Alexis..." he said, his voice breaking, "Baby..." He couldn't manage any words so he kissed her one more time, and held her hands tightly in his for what seemed like an eternity. She just wouldn't stop shivering and spitting up blood. She tapped him on the chest. He looked to what she was pointing at. It was Heidi's pistol. "Baby I can't..." Between gurgles she managed to utter a few words, but Jakob couldn't quite make out what she was saying. "I...I'm....sufff......suffff...suffffeerrrr..." Jakob finally knew what he had to do. "Okay baby." He picked up the pistol. Tears ran down both of their faces. Jakob laid down next to her on the floor in the puddle of blood that had formed. He wrapped his arms around her waist one last time and kissed the back of her head. "I love you Alexis." he whispered in her ear. "I...I.....I looo...I love...yo...you...tttooo...." she said between chokes. He laid his head against the back of hers and sobbed a little louder. He placed the gun on the back of his own head, aligned with hers. "Goodbye" he whispered.

Chapter 5

         Ayla and Alex were packing their bags into the car as they heard the final shot ring out from somewhere in the forest. Ayla covered her mouth and began to sob. "Do you think he.." she didn't dare say it out loud. "Yeah." Alex replied. A few minutes later John appeared through the tree line carrying his rifle. Ayla's sobs became louder. John threw his backpack down on the ground by at Alex's feet. "Bon appétit" he said sarcastically. Alex crouched down and picked up the backpack. He unzipped it and reached inside, pulling out Alexis's bloody, amputated arm. As soon as the smell of blood reached his nostrils his look of disgust changed to that of someone who hadn't eaten in days. His teeth grew into wolf-like fangs and his jaws grew in size as he chomped into the arm hungrily. After a few bites he dropped the arm and vomited violently. His fangs were gone, and his jaw was back to its normal position and size. Alex wiped some of the blood from off his lips and face. I guess... that's it then..." he said between retching. John sighed. "I hope so." Ayla's sobs finally ceased. "Did you at least give him a quick death?" she asked. "I didn't kill him." Ayla sighed with relief. "He killed himself." Ayla put her hand on her forehead and sighed with exhaustion. "I can't cry anymore today, let's just leave." Ayla got into the front passenger seat and put on her seatbelt. "John?" Alex said. "Yeah?" he replied as he opened the driver's seat door. "Can we stop somewhere and get some sodas or something? I think I have some Alexis stuck in my teeth." John chuckled at the irony of the moment. "Yeah man, just get in the car. I wanna make it home before it gets dark."

         As John began the long drive home, he couldn't help but think about how peaceful Jakob looked lying there next to Alexis. They looked like how he'd imagined he and Ayla would look together. His arms were so tightly wrapped around Alexis's waist, he had to use the stock of his rifle to pry them apart. Maybe it was just some sort of werewolf hormones that made them feel they way they did about each other, but what they felt was definitely real. He almost envied them. It took him 2 and a half years with Ayla to get that close to her. He tried to shake the image of his dead friend from his mind. As the sun sank below the horizon and he neared the end of the journey, he finally allowed himself to begin an even longer and more painful process. Grieving. Until now all he'd felt was anger toward Jakob for what he or his deranged girlfriend had done to his brother. Now that it was finally all over and the damage had been mended, he let himself remember all the good times he'd had with Jakob. He'd spent so many years with the guy. He'd even served with him for 6 years in the army. A tear rolled down John's cheek as he allowed the flashbacks to flood into his mind.

         When they finally arrived at John's mother's house in Munich, he looked at the digital clock on the dash board. 11:30pm. His mom was probably asleep. He woke up Ayla and Alex. They grabbed their bags out of the car and quietly made their way into the house. John was right. Their mother was sleeping on the couch with the TV still on. "Go upstairs and get a shower. You smell like wet dog." he told Alex jokingly. Alex punched him on the bicep and went upstairs. John walked over to the tv and turned it off. Ayla also headed upstairs, with both hers and John's bags in hand. John smiled as he allowed everything to sink in at once. "Wow." he said quietly. "I'm gonna be a dad and a husband." His mother began to stir so he decided to head upstairs and let her sleep. He knew she'd be pleasantly surprised to see them all home early. John went to his old room and saw Ayla was already laying down with the covers over her. He smiled again and remarked silently on how lucky he is to have such a beautiful woman in his life. He crawled into bed next to her, and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Goodnight baby." he whispered as he kissed the back of her head. Finally he could relax, no worries of being torn apart in the middle of the night. He was back in his old home, with his family. He'd never been more comfortable than he was in that moment. That night, he dreamed of his wedding to come. Imagining every single little moment, as if he were watching a movie. When he awoke the next morning, he heard his fiancee and his mother chatting downstairs. He just laid there for a moment. The air was filled with the aroma of his mother's famous french toast and brewing coffee. "Nothing could possibly make this moment any better." he said out loud.

The End