Snort! Snort! Snuffle!
Oh God, my husband was snoring again. It was the middle of the night, he was snoring like a chainsaw, and now I’d never get back to sleep. Ugh! The life of a wife. My back was to him and I thought about turning over to push him, but I was so cozy, so instead I just nudged him, hard, with my elbow.
This elicited a snort-snuffle – not the reaction I was looking for. Great – all this noise had made me wide awake, eyes open, staring at the light from the full moon that filtered through the shades and into our bedroom.
Snort! Growl!
What the…. What the hell was my husband doing growling?
Crack! Crackle! Snap! Streeeeetch! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!
Jesus! What was going on with my husband?!
“Sam, what in the hell,” I said as I tossed off the covers. Before I saw him, I … felt him. It. Fur.
Growl! Crack! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!
I looked slowly to my left, and, well, Holy Shit!
What I saw happening in my bed reminded me of some movie that my friends made me watch ages ago, a werewolf movie. That was going on – my husband was turning into a werewolf, right before my very eyes. No, really. He was. In our bed. As I sat next to him. I watched, unbelieving, as his snout started to lengthen, longer, then a little longer, then click, click, click – I watched as animal-teeth filled it.
Shit!
Unfortunately for me right now, I was on the far side of the bed, away from the door. So many nights I’d felt safe because I knew that if we’d had intruders into our bedroom, my husband would be there to greet them first and defend me. I’d never thought that one day my protector would be my biggest threat.
The claws were forming on his hands and I knew I didn’t have long now. I jumped up off the bed and raced around its foot to the door, before chancing a glance back. It hadn’t been lucky for Lot’s wife, and it wasn’t for me, either.
His eyes, mean and yellow, focused right on mine.
Grwaor he roared as he recognized me as prey. His snout growled and snapped in my direction, and I turned away, pressing the lock on the inside of the doorknob before slamming it shut. I heard a heavy thud on the other side, then claws scratching and scrabbling two seconds later, but I was already halfway up the stairs to our son’s room, taking them two or three at a time.
By the time I heard our bedroom door shatter (they just don’t make them out of heavy wood anymore, not these days), I had reached Jason’s room, slamming and locking that door behind me. No need to be quiet – the wolf knew where I was – I heard the boom, boom, boom bounding up the stairs. I only had a few seconds to go before he tore Jason’s door to pieces, and as I lugged Jason’s tall dresser in front of the door all I could think was Thank God I go to the gym!
“Mommy?!” my little boy was waking up, wondering why his mother was rearranging furniture in his room in the middle of the night. Both of us turned our heads sharply to the door as we heard the claws scrabbling and whacking at it.
This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening, this can’t be happening!
Scooping Jason off the bed and plopping him in the corner near the window, I pushed the bed behind the dresser to brace it, only to hear a CRACK and Jason’s scream. A large, fur-covered hand, with claws longer than any press-on nails I’d ever seen just broke through the flimsy door.
Now was not the best time to be frozen in panic, but there I was, not moving. And I needed to get the damn fire safety ladder out of the closet. Which was near the door, which was about to have a werewolf bent on ripping me and Jason limb from limb coming through it. A killer werewolf that had loved us back when he was human.
“Mommy!!” The impact of Jason hitting my legs in an attempt to get into my arms broke me from my immobility. I’d heard of adrenaline making people do super-human feats, and I don’t think I’ll ever quite figure out how I managed to make my way across Jason’s room (okay, it was only about six feet, but still) to the closet, get out the fire ladder, open the window, hook the ladder over the sill – all while Jason hung from my hip.
And then the door behind us was ripped to shreds as a seven-foot, snarling, raging werewolf entered the room.
Fortunately, he was slowed by all the furniture pieces in his way, but it would only be seconds before he’d splintered the bed and the dresser. I looked at my son, whose was shaking so much that it was making my own teeth chatter, and said, “Hold on, kiddo!”
Jason’s eyes were so wide and unblinking I wondered if he’d gone into some catatonic state, but then he nodded his head and I had my leg over the sill just as dear-old-ex-hubby/dad charged across the room, talons out, teeth snapping. Jason screamed again and I felt a wetness against my hip. I couldn’t blame him although it surprised me and my hand slipped from the rung. I dangled for a seconds but managed to get us almost all the way down before the monster above us tore the ladder off the sill and we crumpled to the ground.
And what do we do now? Head to the neighbors? But he’ll get us in there. Drive away? Great, but the keys are inside…
I was aware of a silence in the air. Jason noticed it too, and both of us turned our heads up to the window at the same time. He was there, the wolf, watching us, waiting to see our next move.
I moved to the wall of the garage and punched in the keycode, then hit Enter. The door started rising. I looked above me. It was still watching us. Apparently his ability to reason as a human was gone, because otherwise he would have known what I was about to do.
“Jason, go wait by the car. Wait under it if you need to. And when you hear my feet come running towards it, you get up and by the door!” I told him as I pushed him towards the Pathfinder. Just like Bambi’s mother, I’d lead the hunter away from my young, right?
I bolted through the door and back into our house, taking a right turn into our front hallway and to the hall table on which we kept the keys. Large thuds down the stairs told me I was about to have very unwelcome company in a few.
Shit! The keys weren’t on the table!! Great – my husband turns into a werewolf and now he’s misplaced the keys! Bastard!!
The kitchen counter, off to my left. The keys were there. He was at the bottom of the stairs now, facing me, covered in hair, larger than any football player or nightclub bouncer, with weapons at the ready in his mouth and on his hands. He just stood there, waiting for me to make the first move. And we stood there like that, facing each other, not moving.
Until I grabbed the keys off the kitchen counter, that was when he charged at me. Whipping around, feet sliding on the tile, I sprinted to the front door, wishing I didn’t have to stop to open it.
But I did, and that was when he caught up with me. There was no recollection in his hideous yellow eyes as they glared at mine. His nose didn’t seem to remember the scent of the person who’d slept by him, night after night, as it neared my neck. His ears didn’t recognize the cries of the woman who’d given him a son.
But his body knew that silver hurt, that’s for damn sure. Thank God he’d been superstitious and insisted upon keeping that silver cross we got for our wedding right near our front door. Something about how it would keep all the bad things out of our house. Now it was helping me out of the house, away from the bad thing in it.
I stabbed him in the gut and he went down. Not thinking twice, I opened the door and fled over the sidewalk and back to the garage, yelling, “Jaaasoooon!” along the way. My little boy was crawling out from under the Pathfinder, and I reached under to pull him out all the way. We got into the car, both of us in the front seat, no seatbelts, and I didn’t even look behind me we backed out of the garage at 60 MPH.
Pulling away from our house and driving down the street, everything was quiet. It would have been dark, but for that damn full moon above. I wondered what would become of my husband, was he still lying there on the tile in the front hallway by the door? I didn’t glance back this time.
“Mommy, your back is all wet!” Jason said to me. “You’re bleeding! The monster must have gotten you!”
He’d clawed me. I felt the fire of it now, spreading down my back and into my chest. It must have happened as I’d run out the front door, and with all that adrenaline, I’d never felt a thing. Oh shit. Now what would I do?
Looking up at the bright full moon, I had a feeling that in thirty days’ time, the phrase ‘that time of the month’ would take on a whole new meaning…
Rude Awakening
Snort! Snort! Snuffle!
Oh God, my husband was snoring again. It was the middle of the night, he was snoring like a chainsaw, and now I’d never get back to sleep. Ugh! The life of a wife. My back was to him and I thought about turning over to push him, but I was so cozy, so instead I just nudged him, hard, with my elbow.
This elicited a snort-snuffle – not the reaction I was looking for. Great – all this noise had made me wide awake, eyes open, staring at the light from the full moon that filtered through the shades and into our bedroom.
Snort! Growl!
What the…. What the hell was my husband doing growling?
Crack! Crackle! Snap! Streeeeetch! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!
Jesus! What was going on with my husband?!
“Sam, what in the hell,” I said as I tossed off the covers. Before I saw him, I … felt him. It. Fur.
Growl! Crack! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!
I looked slowly to my left, and, well, Holy Shit!
What I saw happening in my bed reminded me of some movie that my friends made me watch ages ago, a werewolf movie. That was going on – my husband was turning into a werewolf, right before my very eyes. No, really. He was. In our bed. As I sat next to him. I watched, unbelieving, as his snout started to lengthen, longer, then a little longer, then click, click, click – I watched as animal-teeth filled it.
Shit!
Unfortunately for me right now, I was on the far side of the bed, away from the door. So many nights I’d felt safe because I knew that if we’d had intruders into our bedroom, my husband would be there to greet them first and defend me. I’d never thought that one day my protector would be my biggest threat.
The claws were forming on his hands and I knew I didn’t have long now. I jumped up off the bed and raced around its foot to the door, before chancing a glance back. It hadn’t been lucky for Lot’s wife, and it wasn’t for me, either.
His eyes, mean and yellow, focused right on mine.
Grwaor he roared as he recognized me as prey. His snout growled and snapped in my direction, and I turned away, pressing the lock on the inside of the doorknob before slamming it shut. I heard a heavy thud on the other side, then claws scratching and scrabbling two seconds later, but I was already halfway up the stairs to our son’s room, taking them two or three at a time.
By the time I heard our bedroom door shatter (they just don’t make them out of heavy wood anymore, not these days), I had reached Jason’s room, slamming and locking that door behind me. No need to be quiet – the wolf knew where I was – I heard the boom, boom, boom bounding up the stairs. I only had a few seconds to go before he tore Jason’s door to pieces, and as I lugged Jason’s tall dresser in front of the door all I could think was Thank God I go to the gym!
“Mommy?!” my little boy was waking up, wondering why his mother was rearranging furniture in his room in the middle of the night. Both of us turned our heads sharply to the door as we heard the claws scrabbling and whacking at it.
This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening, this can’t be happening!
Scooping Jason off the bed and plopping him in the corner near the window, I pushed the bed behind the dresser to brace it, only to hear a CRACK and Jason’s scream. A large, fur-covered hand, with claws longer than any press-on nails I’d ever seen just broke through the flimsy door.
Now was not the best time to be frozen in panic, but there I was, not moving. And I needed to get the damn fire safety ladder out of the closet. Which was near the door, which was about to have a werewolf bent on ripping me and Jason limb from limb coming through it. A killer werewolf that had loved us back when he was human.
“Mommy!!” The impact of Jason hitting my legs in an attempt to get into my arms broke me from my immobility. I’d heard of adrenaline making people do super-human feats, and I don’t think I’ll ever quite figure out how I managed to make my way across Jason’s room (okay, it was only about six feet, but still) to the closet, get out the fire ladder, open the window, hook the ladder over the sill – all while Jason hung from my hip.
And then the door behind us was ripped to shreds as a seven-foot, snarling, raging werewolf entered the room.
Fortunately, he was slowed by all the furniture pieces in his way, but it would only be seconds before he’d splintered the bed and the dresser. I looked at my son, whose was shaking so much that it was making my own teeth chatter, and said, “Hold on, kiddo!”
Jason’s eyes were so wide and unblinking I wondered if he’d gone into some catatonic state, but then he nodded his head and I had my leg over the sill just as dear-old-ex-hubby/dad charged across the room, talons out, teeth snapping. Jason screamed again and I felt a wetness against my hip. I couldn’t blame him although it surprised me and my hand slipped from the rung. I dangled for a seconds but managed to get us almost all the way down before the monster above us tore the ladder off the sill and we crumpled to the ground.
And what do we do now? Head to the neighbors? But he’ll get us in there. Drive away? Great, but the keys are inside…
I was aware of a silence in the air. Jason noticed it too, and both of us turned our heads up to the window at the same time. He was there, the wolf, watching us, waiting to see our next move.
I moved to the wall of the garage and punched in the keycode, then hit Enter. The door started rising. I looked above me. It was still watching us. Apparently his ability to reason as a human was gone, because otherwise he would have known what I was about to do.
“Jason, go wait by the car. Wait under it if you need to. And when you hear my feet come running towards it, you get up and by the door!” I told him as I pushed him towards the Pathfinder. Just like Bambi’s mother, I’d lead the hunter away from my young, right?
I bolted through the door and back into our house, taking a right turn into our front hallway and to the hall table on which we kept the keys. Large thuds down the stairs told me I was about to have very unwelcome company in a few.
Shit! The keys weren’t on the table!! Great – my husband turns into a werewolf and now he’s misplaced the keys! Bastard!!
The kitchen counter, off to my left. The keys were there. He was at the bottom of the stairs now, facing me, covered in hair, larger than any football player or nightclub bouncer, with weapons at the ready in his mouth and on his hands. He just stood there, waiting for me to make the first move. And we stood there like that, facing each other, not moving.
Until I grabbed the keys off the kitchen counter, that was when he charged at me. Whipping around, feet sliding on the tile, I sprinted to the front door, wishing I didn’t have to stop to open it.
But I did, and that was when he caught up with me. There was no recollection in his hideous yellow eyes as they glared at mine. His nose didn’t seem to remember the scent of the person who’d slept by him, night after night, as it neared my neck. His ears didn’t recognize the cries of the woman who’d given him a son.
But his body knew that silver hurt, that’s for damn sure. Thank God he’d been superstitious and insisted upon keeping that silver cross we got for our wedding right near our front door. Something about how it would keep all the bad things out of our house. Now it was helping me out of the house, away from the bad thing in it.
I stabbed him in the gut and he went down. Not thinking twice, I opened the door and fled over the sidewalk and back to the garage, yelling, “Jaaasoooon!” along the way. My little boy was crawling out from under the Pathfinder, and I reached under to pull him out all the way. We got into the car, both of us in the front seat, no seatbelts, and I didn’t even look behind me we backed out of the garage at 60 MPH.
Pulling away from our house and driving down the street, everything was quiet. It would have been dark, but for that damn full moon above. I wondered what would become of my husband, was he still lying there on the tile in the front hallway by the door? I didn’t glance back this time.
“Mommy, your back is all wet!” Jason said to me. “You’re bleeding! The monster must have gotten you!”
He’d clawed me. I felt the fire of it now, spreading down my back and into my chest. It must have happened as I’d run out the front door, and with all that adrenaline, I’d never felt a thing. Oh shit. Now what would I do?
Looking up at the bright full moon, I had a feeling that in twenty-eight days’ time, the phrase ‘that time of the month’ would take on a whole new meaning…
Visit Nicole’s blog and find out more about her writing.
****
“Forever.” That’s the response Ben Gongliewski receives, when he asks Miranda Dandridge how long she’s been a vampire. He doesn’t expect the word “forever” in her reply, but then again, Ben never imagined meeting vampires, let alone demons and werewolves, during his time in the Polish Resistance during World War II. Far from being horrified, Ben discovers that Miranda and her friends have very useful … talents.
For more information or to read the Taliesin Meets the Vampire review follow this link
