WnW 4.6

The door clicked shut. For a moment, as I looked down the barrel of a gun, the air felt as stale as that parkade where I’d encountered Squish. I fought the urge to move or Shape antlers. Who knew how itchy his trigger finger was?

Vanessa, AJ, and Zola watched with alarm on their faces. They weren’t in on this.

“Eyes over here, freak,” Richard said.

My focus slid past the gun and I could see the hairs on Richard’s arm. The muscles taut on the side of his neck. Then his face, looking satisfied.

“Why?” I asked quietly.

“I just want to set the record straight. You ain’t better than us. You freaks strut around the city like you own the place. You think you can take on anything. But this,” he rubbed the gun with his thumb. “This is the great equalizer.”

“I never said I was-”

“I don’t want to hear that bullshit. Fucking with Spike and then strolling right in to Sullivan’s den? That’s fucking cocky. You think you’re tough? How ‘bout we find out?” He waggled the gun.

Vanessa spoke up, “Richard, quit it. No one is interested in this alpha wolf shit.”

Richard turned his head towards her but kept his eyes on me. “Keep playing games, Vanessa. The adults are talking.” He nodded appreciatively as he watched me. “You can fool the others but you can’t fool me. I can see it in your eyes. Even now you’re looking for a way to get out of this. Zola practically shit himself the first time he saw a gun. Not you. So tell me,” he reasserted his grip on the pistol. “You ever offed anyone?”

I wet my lips. “Why does it matter?”

“I bet you have. Wolves are always fuckin’ psychopaths. Alek and the other one are. You’re probably not far behind.”

I heard the door opening and I flinched as Richard jerked the gun, but he just hastily stowed it. Graham entered, with Terry strolling lazily behind him. The two were wearing suits. Graham had left his suit jacket unbuttoned and I wondered if that was as casual as he got. Terry looked at home as well, looking much more well-groomed than yesterday. He had a gray scarf that covered the bandage around his neck.

Graham surveyed the room. “Good, you’re all here. B is busy again, she’ll have to be brought up to speed. Let’s jump right into it, I don’t have a lot of time.” He removed his suit jacket and placed it to one side carefully. “AJ, why don’t you start. Tell Nick what you can do and what he can expect from you.”

AJ eyed me and mumbled something.

“Louder, Peep,” Vanessa said with a grin. “You gotta make yourself heard for the elderly members.”

AJ pulled off his hood. The waves of his hair naturally framed his face. “I have a tentacle on the back of my neck,” he said.

I stepped closer, using it as an excuse to put distance between me and a scowling Richard. AJ bent forward and showed the back of his neck. The skin curved outward in a tube shape, but the skin only extended a few inches before it faded into thin air. 

“It’s invisible,” he explained. “And I can extend it pretty far, but I gotta be careful because people can run into it.”

I tried to follow the tentacle from its base but it was an impossible task. I would occasionally see a shimmer when AJ moved it, but while it was still, it avoided detection entirely.

AJ continued his explanation, “I can see out of the end of the tentacle, like a third eye. But I can also change it to any of the five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing.” The source of his voice changed, emanating from my left, “When I’m tasting, I can also speak quietly.”

“Freaky,” I said, still squinting to try and see the invisible mouth. “Can you grab things?”

AJ shook his head and spoke with his normal mouth, “It’s too weak. It takes a lot of effort to even speak.”

Vanessa chimed in, “Annnnd Peep can only be in one mode at a time. So he can look but he can’t touch.”

AJ threw his hood back on and took a step back.

Graham spoke, “Okay, how about Zola next.”

Zola looked reluctant. “There isn’t much point.”

Graham was unbuttoning his dress shirt as he said, “We’re just establishing trust. Transparency will help us work together efficiently.”

Zola gave me an apologetic smile. “My Shape isn’t very useful.” 

He splayed his hands in front of him. Each nail was entirely white from tip to bed and had a strange lustre. The light reflecting off them made them look oily or crystalline. He crouched down and dragged his nails across the concrete floor, leaving visible gouges in the floor. He brushed bits of concrete off of his fingers.

“My nails are just really sharp and durable. It’s a pain more than an asset. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cut myself.”

He opened his mouth and pointed at his teeth. They were so pearly white that they looked fake. “Same deal with my teeth.” 

Then he shoved his hands back into his pockets and gave me a signature toothless smile. “I wasn’t picked up by the Rings because of my Shape. I’m just good at following orders.”

Vanessa sighed loudly and looked up from her phone. “Can we see what Nick can do already? I’m falling asleep here.”

Graham solemnly took off his shirt and laid it on top of his jacket. His barrel-chested torso was hairy and muscular. “I suspect Nick still has some doubts about us.”

Vanessa made a face. “Why are you taking off your clothes?”

I glanced around the room. Zola and AJ looked equally confused. Terry wasn’t even paying attention and… Richard was holding his gun again. My heartbeat quickened.

Vanessa froze as she laid eyes on Richard. “What’s going on?”

Richard pointed the gun at Graham.

Zola started to speak, “Richard, what-”

There was a loud pop and a flash of light from the muzzle. Vanessa shouted in alarm as Graham staggered backwards and fell onto his back.

Antlers exploded out and wrapped around me. My vision tunneled onto Richard. Traitor? Does he know about Organ?

“Stop!” Terry barked out the order. Everyone in the room paused. The lingering smoke around the pistol dissipated.

Then Graham groaned and stood up. There was a bleeding red hole in his pectoral, right where his heart was. He straightened up and regarded us all. “Calm yourselves. This was a demonstration.” He turned around to show us his back. There was no exit wound. “Nick and Nell seemed most concerned with safety. This is my offer to you,” he turned back around to look each one of us in the eye. “I’m not immortal, but I’m quite resilient. I will be your shield. Put your trust in me that I will take on each of your shares of harm. I can withstand it.”

Terry pulled out a roll of gauze and handed it to Graham. He knew this was going to happen. Graham took it and wrapped his chest. “Now,” he spoke pointedly, “I have business to attend to. Terry is in charge and will fill me in later.”

Graham collected his clothes and donned them before exiting the building. Terry sighed and rubbed his neck under his scarf. “Talk about killing the mood.”

The gunshot still rang in my ears.

Richard’s face was composed as he expertly removed the magazine from his gun and pocketed it.

“What the fuck, Richard?!” Vanessa exclaimed.

Richard’s scowl returned. “Graham told me to. You heard him.”

“Oh yeah, that’s a perfectly normal request,” Vanessa said as she pumped her fist and put on a fake grin, “Hey Richard, shoot me me with a fucking gun. Cause that’ll improve morale. Give us some warning before you go shooting someone!”

“I’m not going to give you a personalized warning before bullets start flying. You need to be able to stay calm when it happens.”

“When it happens? Guns are illegal! There can’t be that many in Sillwood.”

Richard laughed. “There’s enough that you shouldn’t take Graham’s gesture lightly. Fuck! You don’t belong here.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Richard tucked his gun into his waistband and concealed it with his shirt with practiced ease. “These risks come with the job. Suck it up or get out.”

“We’re not combatants!”

“That’s a little naive,” Terry said. “Tensions are high among the Rings. The violence that is being tacitly sanctioned in the Old Town has and will spill over again into the city. It’s not just knives or guns either. Anyone could be a Cast. Paranoia has skyrocketed, with good reason. Take our friend here for example.” Terry gestured to me.

Vanessa glanced over, then did a double take, eyes widening. “Woah.”

I held off on withdrawing the bones, instead I did my customary motion to break my armour at the joints. AJ flinched as the cascade of cracking noises began and small bits of bone flew off and skittered along the floor.

“Damn,” Zola murmured.

I spoke, “Vanessa, please put down the phone.”

She had been gazing at me with wonder in her eyes, but her hand seemed to creep instinctively over to her phone. She stopped and put on a pouting face. “But-”

“I agree,” Terry said, “we should keep this under wraps. The less the Rings know about our new member the better.”

Richard moved closer and inspected me. “It’s… bone? But it curves so much. Looks like rib bones or the antlers from a stag.”

I nodded and tried to extend an olive branch by saying, “That’s a good observation. Do you hunt?”

“Still, that’s not very useful.”

Ignoring me? Fine. “It’s saved me more than a few times. I can manipulate it to an extent,” I said as I demonstrated, creating a small tree shape in the palm of my hand. “I can use it offensively, although I’d rather not.”

Vanessa giggled. “Freaky, but like a cool freaky. You’d be a hit on ParaVid.”

I gave her a quizzical look.

She raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? You don’t know ParaVid? It’s all the rage right now. It’s a site that ranks paranormal videos by popularity and the likelihood of being real.”

“It kind of looks like basket-weaving to me.”

I turned to look at AJ. He hadn’t spoken up this whole time. His eyes were wide. 

I nodded. “Yeah. I’m working on a different use for it based on that idea. A sort of spring mechanism to let me jump higher. It’s worked decently so far.”

“How much bone can you produce? Is it infinite?” Zola asked.

“I’m not sure how much exactly, but it isn’t infinite. I get tired and have to… eat to refuel.”

Terry gave me an amused look. I wondered if he knew about the particular way that Wolves could eat. “That’s all well and good,” he said. “But I’m much more interested in your ability to shapeshift at will. Alek wasn’t very good at it, but you look more like the studious type.”

I let the bones recede back into my body. “Why’s that?”

“Sharp things have their uses but Spike has that handled, along with anyone with a knife in their pocket. What you can do that he can’t is blending in, only revealing yourself when you know the time is right.”

I wasn’t sure if I liked the implication that I was pretending to be human. “What about you? You’re a Cast as well, right? What can you do?”

Terry chuckled. “And here I thought I had already demonstrated.”

“I don’t think you did.”

“Then you weren’t listening.” His voice lowered as he said the last word and it seemed to double, like two voices had spoken at once. I found myself straining to make out any sort of sound. The scratch of rubber soles against concrete. Vanessa nails relentlessly tapping her phone case. The distant sound of cars on the road. What was it I needed to listen for? A memory filtered into my mind. A young girl sitting on her bed, intent on keeping me there.

“Your voice,” I said weakly. “It can control people?”

Terry narrowed his grey eyes and then slumped his shoulders forward. “That was fast. Most people take a bit longer to figure that out. You’re sharp, kid.”

“I’ve experienced that Shape before.”

Terry looked up, showing genuine curiosity. “Really?”

I nodded slowly, remembering how I’d convinced Gail to let me leave her room. “A young child had it. You’re better at it though, more subtle.”

Terry shrugged. “I knew how to be subtly convincing before I got this hideous thing. It’s a nuisance more than anything. How’s a conman supposed to con when people keep asking why I have my neck wrapped up?”

I cocked my head. “What do you mean?”

Terry imitated me and pointed to his neck. “You mean the child didn’t have this?” He pulled off the scarf to reveal the bandage underneath, then he began to unwind the wrapping. When the final layer came off, I flinched. 

There was a mouth there, with pale lips hanging slightly open, sitting in the middle of his neck right where his Adam’s apple should have been. I could see the whiteness of the teeth between the lips. The skin around the mouth was raised like scarring.

A small sound escaped my mouth, then I snapped out of it. “No. She did not have that.” What did that mean? The same Shape, yet different.

Terry started to wrap his neck back up. “Interesting. Did she get the Shape from the drug?”

I froze. “I think so.”

“Perhaps it has variations. Or maybe one is a refined version of the other. Hard to say.”

“Is it too personal to ask about where you got the drug from? Or any other details?”

Terry’s expression grew distant. “Unfortunately, I can’t be of much help there. My captors didn’t know what the drug would do either, otherwise they wouldn’t have handed me the key to my escape.” 

He smiled grimly and flexed his hands. I saw now that they were covered in scars. “I made a careless mistake during a job and some Fedyaev thugs caught me. They tortured me for information. Well, that was the pretense anyway. I suspect they just wanted to get revenge. I’d gotten a few of them arrested previously, scapegoats for a Ring operation. They held a grudge. I suspect they thought the drug would turn me into a monster. But it just made me more talkative,” he joked. 

“I convinced one of my captors that the others were planning to betray him. And before you raise those eyebrows any higher, no, that wasn’t my Shape’s doing. I did that.” He sounded proud. “Because I’m damn good at my job. Nothing has changed about that. Once the dust had settled, only one of my captors remained. I told him the truth. That there was no way the Fedyaevs would let him remain alive after what he’d done. So he freed me and then he shot himself.”

Terry seemed to rouse himself. “But you weren’t asking about all that. Here’s what I know: the street name of the drug is Dice. Each person who takes the drug has to roll. Will you lose your humanity? Or will it just disfigure you? Both mean that you won’t be able to live normally any more. The luckiest of them are able to hide their changes.”

Zola clasped his hands together and AJ pulled his hood lower.

I spoke, “You don’t care who is distributing Dice?”

Terry shook his head. “Casts are popping up like a plague. The fact that they’re doing it so brazenly tells me something. They don’t care about getting caught. Which means one of two things. Either they believe that they can elude anyone who pursues them. Or, the more likely conclusion: they’re too big to be caught. I’m not bringing that storm down on myself. They’d swat us all like flies.” 

Terry straightened his clothes and looked at the others. “Well, I think we’re done here. Graham will contact you once we’ve gotten a new job.” 

The others began to leave the building. I gave AJ a small smile as he passed, but my mind was elsewhere. How could I find the maker of Dice? I needed more… everything. Information, and I needed influence to get that information, and I needed to do something to gain that influence. All the while people would keep taking Dice and turning into monsters. 

I took a deep breath and calmed myself. Take your time, do this right.