"BRETT!" Kenneth hissed, "Turn that damn thing off! I don't know how, but those guys out there are dumb to the fact that this is our car, they're probably just playing with us and if they weren't and they didn't see us, they most likely have now."
"WELL, I'm sorry Kenneth, I'm a little freaked out ok!"
"Oh poor baby, listen, something happened and now it’s over, we won okay, stop being such a pu.."
"Hey! Brett interrupted, I'm sorry ok. I've never stormed a monastery, gun in hand and shot a werewolf ok!"
"Don't you mean two werewolves?" Kenneth smirked sarcastically. Outside the car a pack of werewolves were lurking their way through the campground.
"Listen, they're heading south. We'll give them a minute and then backtrack toward Ogden, they won't even see us."
Brett stayed pretty quiet as they cruised through canyon toward. What is wrong with this jerk? Kenneth wondered to himself, Here I've taken him out and probably given him the wildest night of his life... well other than that time the power was out and Ashley came over and he pretended to be me for about 10 min till the lights came back on. Oh sure she says she didn't know....
"You're a dick." Brett grumbled under his breath.
Wow what? Uhh, can you hear what I'm thinking?? BRETT!! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!
"Well that's a fine how do you do!" Kenneth piped back. "Here I've taken you out for a great time and that's how you repay me!"
"Oh yeah, some swell time, we were supposed to cruise the ‘vard and we ended up fighting monsters with a taste for monk meat." Brett replied shortly.
"Oh yeah, monsters... that’s good, is that what I am? A Monster?" Kenneth said, anger and hurt flashing in his eyes.
Brett turned away and stared straight ahead at the paint lines rushing into existence under the dim yellow headlights. Kenneth’s knuckles tightened on the wheel as his teeth clenched together. Kenneth had faced his existence as werewolf on the day he became one. He had come to closure and acceptance of it. He figured that there was nothing he could do about it. After he read about Zen Buddhism on Wikipedia, he realized he might as well embrace what he was. At the time it had happened, Kenneth had never really thought much about who he was or who he wanted to be. He had always been content just to be. As long as he was free do to as he wished, he was happy. This was clear from his early childhood, as his mother liked to tell to every girl he ever brought home. Every poor and unsuspecting date had to listen to the account of the time as a five year old when Kenneth had run away from home because he didn’t want to clean his room. Showing more tenacity than most adults, he had stayed away all day. And when night came, he slept in his tree house on the splintered wooden planks without as much as a blanket. His dad had been watching him and decided to let him stay there for the night. He had only agreed to come home the next day because of the gnawing hunger pains. He and his parents had come to the very democratic agreement that he would keep his room clean in exchange for food. Thinking this to be a good trade, and knowing that the choice was his to make, Kenneth happily agreed. Kenneth had always followed his heart to do whatever he wanted to do at the time. This had caused a good deal of problems. When in the middle of a boring math lesson in elementary school, he would excuse himself and head towards the old wooden big toy on the playground. His teachers really had no recourse. He was always so polite as he left, and had such a sense of purpose, that they were powerless to stop him. The one time his fourth grade teacher had tried to physically restrain him, had ended with a bite wound and Kenneth shooting down the hall as if the building was on fire. The talk with the principle had been uncomfortable for Kenneth’s parents as he stubbornly gave Mrs. Kunkcle the silent treatment. They knew pushing him would do no good. Eventually they had had to come to another diplomatic arrangement. Kenneth would be allowed to excuse himself to the playground as his whims directed, but he would have to keep his grades up. So long as he had his free will, he was content to do, or not do.
It annoyed Brett to no end when Kenneth failed to show up for his 12th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheeses because he hadn’t been in “the mood.” Brett suspected that the mood had to do with Kenneth’s brand new Nintendo. But when it was really and truly important, Kenneth was there for his friends. Kenneth’s life flowed along with his laid back attitude. He didn’t care so much about what he was doing as long as he wanted to do it. So when the change came, it really didn’t cause him an existential quandary. He still had his hobbies, his job, and his life really. This was one of those acts of God. So he accepted that, he knew it would do no good to be angry at what couldn’t change. If he decided to be fine with something, even something terrible, he was fine, because HE had decided. So it was that he had an uncommon amount of grace as he faced his transformation. Many of the new werewolves lacked the disposition to come face to face with what they were. Few made it through the first six months without trying to take their own life. And fewer were unsuccessful in the attempt.
So while Kenneth was obstinate and stubborn if he was pushed, this was different. This was something he could not change. But he could control it.
It rankled Kenneth that Brett thought he was a monster. You don’t “get better” from being a werewolf. You don’t turn it on or off. You just are what you are. And part of being a werewolf was eating people. This really didn’t bother him. He didn’t like humanity all that much anyway. And it was nice to know that he could eat the jerks who go drive too slow in the fast lane, or any of the another annoying people in the world who pissed him off. Kenneth had never been religious. His parents were both agnostic and hadn’t raised him with any real traditional values to speak of. So he figured if there was a God, he had made him this way. And if there wasn’t, then it really didn’t matter one way or another. The silence in the car was far past uncomfortable. How long had Brett thought of Kenneth as a monster? He didn’t seem to have problem with it when they were casing the local Wal-Mart to get Kenneth a white trash snack.
“Ooh! Kenneth! Look! Mullet, Crocs, Dale Earnhardt t-shirt, and two twenty-four packs of Mountain Dew. Plus that guy has to be like 400 pounds. The only one who’ll miss him is the home shopping network.”
“Dude, that’s a chick.”
“Oough. I’m gonna be sick. You should definitely eat it.”
“You can’t even look and you want me to put it in my mouth!? Thanks.”
“They all taste the same, don’t they?”
“More or less. But that lady’s got to be 50/50 Cheetos and Swanson TV dinners. Bad aftertaste.”
The long drive down the canyon seemed to drag on and on, the endless curves causing them to lean uncomfortably in their seats. The only noise in the car was the rain pelting against the windshield. Neither of them had ever felt this way before. For the first time they were uneasy with each other. Brett was not afraid of Kenneth nor did Kenneth want to do anything bad to Brett. But for the first time since Brett found out about Kenneth's true identity, Kenneth was starting to feel a bit judged.
Brett sat unnaturally still with his eyes glazed over. His mind kept playing back what happened in the monastery. He couldn’t stop himself from seeing the bloody contorted bodies strewn all over the floor. The monk’s frozen faces were staring blankly back at him, lit only by the dim moonlight every time he closed his eyes. Every puddle on the road was a pool of blood. Kenneth had been so terrifying in his wolf form. Brett had only caught a glimpse of Kenneth’s hulking mass ripping another werewolf in half before he had closed his eyes and started shooting wildly. The sight of it had made Brett lose bladder control. He was just glad that there wasn’t much in there to lose. He was anxious to get home and shower and try to get his mind off the horrific scenes. Brett fought off a wave of nausea that threatened to ruin the interior of Kenneth’s Galaxie.
Gratefully, they were nearly home.Brett spotted Ashley’s mustang as they pulled into the driveway. Despite the roiling emotions inside, he could not deny the little thrill it gave him to know that she was there. Thinking that Kenneth must be thinking the same thing, he made special effort to be even more stoic. He got out of the car and slammed the door before it was even in park and strode off to the house without looking back.Kenneth killed the engine and sat unmoving for a long moment. He took a deep breath and got out of the car. Truly he was happy Ashley was there to take his mind off of the all around Kill Joy attitude that Brett had been emitting since their killer battle with the other werewolves. But Ashley could be too much sometimes.
How did Brett not enjoy that? Kenneth wondered to himself as he walked in the house.
***
It was at least three when Brett woke up at hearing Kenneth's door close. He didn't open his eyes and tried to keep all the evenings events from coming back into his head.
"You awake honey?"
Brett shot up nearly falling between the bed and the wall as he tried to escape the voice. Now that he was awake he realized the voice was Ashley’s.
"What are you doing in here?" He asked shocked.
"Brett, she said softly, I need to talk to you, alone."
"Uh, ok... well what’s up?" He replied
"Not now, Kenneth is right next door and these walls are paper thin, just keep me in mind and we'll find some time."
Brett nodded off as Ashley slipped out of room; he heard the door to Kenneth's room open and close just before he fell asleep. His dreams of in the early morning were dark and violent. The battle of monks and werewolves stretched on and on. The slaughter never let up.
***
Kenneth sat up slowly and climbed silently over his sleeping girlfriend.
Aahhhh she's so cute, he thought to himself.
Her upper lip was pulled upward to its limit under the weight of her head and she was drooling all over the extra pillow that Kenneth always kept in his bed, her hair waved wildly over the rest of the pillow.
Well, let’s see, 7:30 I think I'll go grab some steaks.
"Balls!" he said out loud with a sigh as he turned the key to no reaction.
Well, drive the Prius or Walk?...
Kenneth turned the corner cutting from the Sidewalk through a park strip and across the street to the other side, I needed a nice walk anyway. Kenneth had decided he would try not transforming for a while; sure he could have made it to the store in minutes if he'd gone in werewolf form and kept to the fields behind the neighborhood where no one would see him. But after last night he didn’t feel like relying on his alter-ego so much.
***
Brett peeled open his eyes to see that it was almost ten. The cold sweat his dreams had caused brought him to bleak awareness.
Great, so much for making anything of the day, he thought to himself.
Brett thought that if he wasn't out of bed by eight the day was a waste. He hurried into the bathroom to take a shower and start the day.
"Hey Babe!" Ashley greeted him as she slid into the shower behind him.
"Uh!" Brett screamed. He shot a quick glance over his shoulder before his head snapped back to allow him to hyperventilate easier. He was unable to access the part of his brain where real words were stored.
Act natural Whity! His brain screamed. This is a dream come true don't blow it!!
"Oh wow oh wow ok ok sooo hot, dream coming true."
"You are just so cute aren't you?" Ashely giggled, "Wow your more muscley then I thought you'd be, have you been working out?"
"What? Yeah, Uh, I guess.. wow, uh. You’re.. actually your exactly what I imagined, um, why are you here?"
Brett’s death grip on the soap was leaving finger marks on the bar.
“Remember how I said I needed to talk to you alone? I needed a shower, so I figured two birds with one stone.”
“Uhh. Okay. Sooo... what did you want to talk about?" He asked.
"Well, it’s Kenneth,” Ashley started "Do you want me to get your back?"
Before Brett could say anything she reached over Brett's shoulder to grab the bottle of body wash. For a moment her body pressed against Brett's.
Brett froze, gurgling "Oh something’s happening!" before he dove through the shower curtain, pulling it and the shower rod down with him. Brett scrambled up to a crouch as he frantically reached for the door and did a commando roll across the hall into his room. Ashley stuck her head out of the bathroom door.
“Okay, we’ll talk later then.”
***
Kenneth wandered down the refrigerated isle subtly checking out his calves in the reflection. His cart slammed the back of a man who instantly spun around outraged,
"Hey!” he near screamed, eyes glowing with rage.
"Hey Ted!" Kenneth shouted grinning ear to ear.Kenneth had meet Ted a few years back at one of his DWB meetings just after Ted had been turned. His name wasn't actually Ted, that was something Kenneth called people when he couldn't remember or didn't care to remember people’s names. Since he has been calling Ted “Ted” ever since the beginning it didn't come across odd to him.
"Hey Rob!" Ted responded. Kenneth wasn't sure if he was remembering him as someone else or if he knew who he was, just didn't know his name.
That my thing dick, it’s called originality, go try to find some.
"So, what are you doing here?" Ted asked.
"Oh just grabbing some meat for a barbecue." Kenneth replied honestly.
"Nice!" I gotcha shooter, I saw some fresh "meat" down on the cereal aisle." Ted replied with a wink.
Yep, saw that one coming. If this guy was any more of a jock he'd still be wearing his football pants from his semi pro arena league…
"Hey do you like my uniform?" Ted continued, "Yeah, I'm in a semi pro league."
"No kidding huh?" Kenneth replied feigning enthusiasm. "WELL, ITS BEEN FUN!" Kenneth said as he turned abruptly and walked away from Mr. MVP. He checked out as quickly as possible and headed toward home.
