Denn's Mobile Circus - 6. Chapter 5: The Awe-Inspiring Seers

Going out to have a smoke helped me to better deal with the barrage of heavy thoughts assaulting my mind. King of those thoughts? This was my reality. I wasn’t dreaming. I wouldn’t be going back home to my own apartment, to my job, or to my old life ever again. That had dried up and blown away in the wind. Now, there was this group of people who I ‘belonged’ to. People who were bound to me, and me to them, until each of us was dead. Their life, their reality was my new existence. And the only say I had in it was take it, or commit suicide.

Kev, Denn, and one of Kev’s Packmates were already outside when we came out. Having not seen one of Kev’s Packmates since I’d gotten there, I was glad to finally meet one.

The Packmate was another male named Taj. He was about the same height as me, but had more thickness on his body than I did. His young looking face packed a set of light-brown eyes, a kept mustache, and a small goatee.

At first glance I thought he was just a light skinned black dude. It was the hair that told me different. He didn’t have that slave hair like he was completely black. He had that good hair like he was half black.

It wasn’t until Kev and Taj were on their way back into the main house, with Denn and Aurey distracted, that Jo-C nudged me in the side to get my attention.

“You got a good poker face. Would’ve fooled me if I didn’t know better,” he said.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

He tapped his temple with his index finger a couple of times, “Serious thoughts. They send off a certain kind of ripple. I don’t know what you’re thinking. I just know it’s heavy.”

And there was something else that was part of my new life. Traits.

“Yeah, well, don’t worry about it. Adults have those things sometimes.” I didn’t want to be annoyed, but damn. Privacy, please.

“Oh, of course. Cuz, you know, adults are the only beings on the planet capable of such a thing.” He hit me back.

“Boy, don’t make me knock you out on such a nice day.” I let him know I was kidding by my tone.

Got a chuckle out of him.

Further conversation came to a halt as Aurey and Denn returned from their distraction.

A short while after that, the last two members of my Pack, who I hadn’t been formally introduced to, came outside to join us. Kyla was the name of the Mexican girl, and Andrea was the name of the white girl who I’d thought was a boy at first sight.

I hadn’t judged a book by its cover. Met plenty of girls in life who didn’t dress girly. Only two of them turned out to like other women. Andrea was not the third. She set on the path to clear that question up when she asked Kyla, “Didn’t you have on that red blouse earlier?”

“Girl, I had to take that thing off. It must’ve shrunk last time I washed it because I do not remember it tryin’ to smother my titties,” Kyla answered, making us all laugh.

“That’s why I don’t even bother with the girly-girl clothes. All the pants fit too tight. Then, you can’t get back into them, or your tops, after you wash them a couple of times.”

“But you gotta admit,” Jo-C remarked. “When you do dress up in girly-girl clothes, Andy, you rock it.”

Andrea gave him an ‘excuse me’ look.

“Oh, so I’m not rockin’ it now?” Her tone matched the look.

Jo-C grinned a bit. “No, you look like a dyke.”

My jaw was about to unhinge and fall to the ground in shock, when Andrea came back with, “First, don’t hate because more girls hit on me than they do you. Second, if I was a dyke, don’t hate because I’d get way more pussy than you.”

I couldn’t have kept myself from laughing at a comeback like that if my life depended on it. I wasn’t the only one. Everyone laughed. Even Jo-C. That was when I understood he hadn’t been serious with the dyke comment.

“Aw, shut up.” He relented.

Kev chose that moment to stick his head out the back door of the main house and tell us to come and eat.

The fact that I hadn’t eaten in nearly two days dawned on me. I was surprised I wasn’t shaking worse than a person with Parkinson’s. Body always did that whenever I went too long without eating.

Even crazier was that I didn’t feel like I was even remotely hungry. Appetite was nowhere to be found.

Then we made it to the back door of the main house and got ready to step inside.

That door opened. The smell of the food hit my nose. Appetite came out from where it was hiding and hit me so hard my stomach let out a huge growl.

“Damn, boy. Sounds like you got a beast to feed.” Kyla remarked over her shoulder.

Before I could respond, her stomach let out a growl of its own.

“Oooh! Let me shut my mouth!” she chuckled, as we entered the main house through the kitchen.

Two members of Kev’s Pack that I hadn’t met yet were in there. A female stood at the counter tossing a big bowl of salad. She had her back toward me, so I couldn’t see her face. She was taller than me by a head. Her figure was two steps above thin, quite a few away from chunky. And her black hair stopped just above her shoulder.

A male was cooking at the stove. Most of his back was to me. He was tall. And not the lanky kind of tall. He had some meat on his bones. Just the right amount to match the tallness. His hair was cut short and looked cared for. But it was purple. Not an outrageous cotton candy level shade. It was dark, accented by the light falling on it from the ceiling-mounted lights of the kitchen.

The female gave a casual glance in my direction, started to turn away, then looked back. I could see she was of the “ese” decent. Knew there was a way to tell Japanese, from Chinese, from Vietnamese, but never knew what that way was. Her face was mature, but far from looking old, and her lips smiled.

“Hey!” she greeted. “You’re Micah, right?”

“Yes,” I greeted back. “And you are?”

“Kyoko,” she answered. “But usually, just Koko.”

Her attention went over to the male cooking at the stove.

“And the anti-social over there is Takuro.”

“I was just waiting for you to be quiet before I introduced myself,” the male cooking at the stove said without turning.

His voice was deeper than I’d expected it to be. And unlike Koko, he had an accent. Very present but not sharp enough to forget that the letter “L” did exist when speaking ‘engrish’.

And he was wearing glasses. Or at least what looked to be glasses. I could see the black handle resting across the top of his ear. From the angle he was standing at, I could only see part of the left lens. And what I saw in that lens was something I had never seen on one before. It looked like an image from a computer screen.

“What kind of glasses are those?” I asked.

“They’re custom. The left lens can see the screen of the computer I’m working on. The right lens shows me the keyboard,” Takuro answered.

“How do you use the keyboard?”

“With this.”

Takuro held out his right hand, which was covered in a black hand brace. Standing out from the center of the brace was a small, black, oval-shaped object. It was in the perfect place for him to hold his palm over.

“I use my fingers to type,” he said.

“Huh.” I nodded. “That’s actually pretty tight.”

“Thank you.”

Koko hijacked the discussion with, “Well I do hope you brought your appetite because we cooked good for you.”

“Ya’ll didn’t have to do all that,” I said.

“Of course we did. The day when you’re back up and about after Confrontation is a big deal. You’re a full-fledged werewolf now. Today is your werewolf birthday.”

“And it’s a celebration, bitches. Now let’s keep this line movin’ so we can get it started.” Jo-C, who was at the back of the line, ushered us forward.

I fell back into walking behind Kyla. As I followed her out of the kitchen and into the dining room, I pondered something. Why? Why would any of these people care about me or what was going on with me? I understood why Kev would. We had actual history together and were family by blood. But everybody else? They had no reason to do any of the things they’d done.

‘People don’t just do this.’

That’s what my mind told me.

‘They don’t do this just to do it and not want something in return later on.’

And I began to wonder what it was they would want when the time came.

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When Koko said they’d cooked good for me, she meant it. There was so much food brought out and set on the table that two more Packs could’ve been fed. While everybody else ate heavier than I thought they would, I ate even heavier. Scared me at first. I knew what it was like to be hungry. Did not know what it was like to be ravenous. To have a hunger so strong that I had to fight to keep it from overwhelming me. I kept thinking about that movie Slither, and that I was going to make myself very sick if I didn’t stop. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t until my appetite was finally sated. And once it was, all my stomach felt was satisfied. No bloat. No sick.

While I was trying to figure out where the hell I’d put that much food, Aurey spoke up.

“Betcha didn’t think you could eat like that, huh?”

“I didn’t think anybody could eat like that,” I replied.

He chuckled.

“Yeah. We got heartier appetites than humans. Just think if you’d been down the whole week.”

“Aw, hell no.” I shook my head. “I would’ve been tryin’ to eat the color off this table.”

“And the plate. And the silverware,” Jo-C added from the other side of me. “I was so hungry on my first meal after Hibernation, I Shifted while I was eating.”

“Oh?” That surprised. “So, getting too hungry can make you Shift too?”

“Not normally. Just in that moment, because of how intense the hunger can be when you first wake up and eat.”

Yeah. I knew a bit about that.

“I know that had to suck,” I said.

“A big, fat, nasty one. It was so bad that I started eating with my hands. I was all on the table, reaching into the serving dishes, taking out handfuls of food, and tearin’ it up.”

“Had to Tune him down before he Nilbog’d all over the table,” Aurey added.

That joke would’ve sailed right over my head had I never seen the movie Nilbog as a kid. Instead, it cracked me up.

“What’re you guys over there laughing about?” Andrea, who was sitting directly across from me, asked.

“Just tellin’ him about the time Jo-C wolfed out at the table,” Aurey answered.

“Oh.” She chuckled. “Still wish I could’ve been there to see – ”

“Uh, excuse me,” Jo-C cut in, extending his hand out across the table in our direction. “What the hell is Nilbog’d?”

“Nil what?” Andrea looked confused.

Aurey took the liberty of explaining the particular scene in Nilbog where, in order to save his family from a horrible fate, a kid gets up on top of the dinner table and pisses all over the food, the dishes, everything.

Explanation had Jo-C and Andrea laughing in surprise, shock, and disbelief.

Before we could explore that venue further, the stragglers finished eating, and things took a shift into ‘business mode’. I was actually curious to see what werewolves, who also happened to be part of a law enforcement team, did with their day. It started with the obvious.

Clear the table and take care of the dishes.

After that, it was on to real business.

Debriefing.

Since the tapes at my former place of employment hadn’t been recording, nobody but me and Jo-C knew what the Fat Woman looked like. On top of that, nobody knew what she was. Not my Pack. Not Kev’s Pack. Nobody else in W.I.L.D. Whatever the Fat Woman was was completely undocumented. And we were all ready to try and shed light on the mystery.

I was up first.

The debriefers were two members of Kev’s Pack. Taj and his twin sister, Imani. The two of them were part of a unique group in our culture who had Traits that were so powerful, they were on another level. That level was called Gift. Taj and Imani had the Gift of being Seers. And it would be used during the debriefing.

“Are you sure you’re up for this? We can do it tomorrow, or the next day if not,” Imani asked me as we sat down to get started in the front room of the main house.

Like her brother, Imani was very nice on the eyes. She was the same height as Taj and had the same body build, just beautifully feminine instead of handsomely masculine. Her black hair was pulled back into a single ponytail, and her light-brown eyes seemed somewhat brighter than her brother’s.

“Yeah. I should be good,” I answered.

“Remember, you will see flashes,” Taj reminded.

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“Then let’s get started by saying that both me and my sister are glad to see you made it through, but goddammit, if you didn’t put us to work these past couple of days!”

“Mmm-hmm.” Imani nodded.

“So I heard.” I chuckled, remembering Jo-C saying they’d had to go out and seek knowledge about my Trait.

“But what do you think of all this so far?”

“Honestly? Still wrapping my head around it even as we speak.”

“Yeah.” Taj nodded. “Transition is never an easy ride.”

“I know you haven’t had much time to think about it, but have you considered whether or not you’re going to stay?” Imani inquired.

“Leaning heavily toward it,” I answered.

“Well, I hope you keep leaning that way. Your Pack, they’re real good people.”

“Like cousins to us,” Taj added.

I remembered Kev saying something similar.

“How long have our Packs known each other?” I asked.

“Oh, God…like…over fifteen years. Kev and Denn have been tight since they were eighteen, before they even started forming their Packs,” Imani answered.

I must admit that made me feel better about Denn, and my soon-to-be Packmates. It also brought realization to something I’d managed to overlook more than a few times.

“Kev is your Pack’s Alpha.”

“And Lavonna, who you met earlier, she’s our Beta,” Taj added.

I shook my head.

“I have no idea why I didn’t pick up on that earlier,” I said.

“Probably because you had a whole lot of other things on your mind at the time,” Imani responded.

Yes. Yes, I had.

“It’s just crazy how all this is coming together. I mean…even from the very beginning. Jo-C being at the right place at the right time. What’re the odds of that?” I said.

“That was less about odds. Alphas and Betas can sense when a potential Packmate is about to enter their Transition. But when they sense it, they don’t get a direct pinpoint location, they get a general area,” Imani revealed.

“So, they were out looking for me, and Jo-C found me first?”

“Something like that,” Taj replied.

“Well, let me tell you, it’s a good thing he did. Otherwise, that woman probably would’ve killed me.”

“What woman?” Imani asked.

“The Fat Woman.”

As soon as the last letter was out of my mouth, the setting changed. I was no longer in the cozy front room of my cousin’s house. I was in the area where the trash bins were located at my former job. The Fat Woman was in front of me at the gate.

“Shit!” I gasped at the unexpected change in scenery.

“It’s okay, Micah. You’re still here with us,” I heard Taj say.

The front room blinked back in, and the former scene was gone. Everything was as it was before. Taj and Imani were still seated across from me.

“It was like I was there again,” I told them, letting myself relax.

“That’s what flashes are like,” Imani said. “You think you want to keep going?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Now that I’ve actually had one, I know what to expect.”

And we proceeded.

I took them through everything I could remember.

The flashes came at random in the beginning. I was instructed to ignore them and continue talking. But by the middle and on to the end, the flashes became more frequent. And instead of ignoring them and continuing to talk, I started to use them to help me talk. Taj or Imani didn’t object to that. They let me do it.

“All I have to say is, girlfriend put up a hell of a fight to be that big,” Imani said once the debriefing was over.

“Yes, that large bitch did,” I agreed. “It was like all that fat meant nothing to her when it came to movement. But when it came to defense, it was almost like a shield.”

“We’ll have to assume it’s like that for her and the rest of her kind,” Taj said.

“Wait…rest of her kind?”

“If there’s her, there’s got to be more,” Imani responded.

“Shit.” The concept actually put fear in my heart. “I never thought about that.”

“But it’s all good, though. Now we know what she looks like. W.I.L.D has the best face recognition software in existence. Once we enter her profile, we’ll know who she is, where she lives…everything.” Taj’s words worked to reassure, but it didn’t ease the fear.

“What do you think she might be?”

Lips were just ending the last sound of the question when an answer came to mind.

“Was she a vampire?”

“That’s a possibility, but she didn’t exactly strike me as a vampire. If I had to classify her as something right now, I’d say she was a monster,” Imani answered.

“Whatever she turns out to be, we know we’re not alone anymore,” Taj remarked.

“Yeah.” Imani nodded.

“What do you mean?” I inquired.

“As far as ‘supernatural’ creatures go, we’re it,” Taj answered.

The thing with the unicorn morphing into a woman could’ve happened here and I still would’ve been more surprised by what Taj had said.

“You mean to tell me there’s only werewolves? No vampires? No nothing else?” I asked.

“Until recently,” Imani replied.

“You and Joseph-Carter can pat yourselves on the back for getting us our first look at it. If you two hadn’tve made it, we wouldn’t even know her kind existed,” Taj said to me.

“It makes me wonder how long they’ve been around.” Imani shook her head.

“And how they’ve managed to stay out of sight. Especially W.I.L.D’s.”

“Yeah. But at least we know that won’t be for much longer.”

“Sure do.”

And a few more notes after that wrapped up the session. Major of the notes was that the Fat Woman was, and had been since me and Jo-C’s run in with her, a W.I.L.D case. It was operating at the highest priority. Once Jo-C was done being debriefed, the search for the Fat Woman would officially begin.

My Pack and Kev’s Pack would not be involved in the active search, however. Technically, both our Packs were supposed to be off the grid. If a Pack who happened to be W.I.L.D Agents got a new Packmate, they were required to take time off to help their Packmate adjust.

Kev’s Pack had a different requirement due to the fact that they operated a safe house. Any stationary unit that operated a safe house was not allowed to do W.I.L.D related work while housing a Pack with a new Packmate, even if that Packmate was in line to become a W.I.L.D Agent.

The only reason our Packs had been allowed to stay on the grid was because me and Jo-C had intel. But after that intel was acquired, it was back off the grid.

I found it crazy how much my focus had shifted in the span of a few or more hours. Concern about my old life and having to leave it behind didn’t register against the Fat Woman.

From what I’d deciphered so far, W.I.L.D was supposed to be even better than the best. But up until recently, they didn’t even know the Fat Woman or her kind existed. It meant in my mind that maybe her kind didn’t want anyone to know they were around. But I figured if that were so, why would she take the risk of coming at me at work, and then again at the house when I had another person with me? The answer that came to my mind was, of course, the obvious one.

Bitch was confident she could take us out one at a time, or both together.

It lent to my theory that the Fat Woman’s own words had sparked just before the fight broke out. She knew me and Jo-C weren’t human. But from the way she’d thrown down against us, it was like she knew she was dealing with werewolves. If that was true, that meant she knew we existed.

How?

“Heads up.” Aurey called my attention to him.

He had a fresh pack of Blues in his hand. He tossed it to me and I caught it.

“Looks like you can use one right about now. How’d it go in there?” he asked, taking a seat next to me.

I’d migrated outside after my debriefing. Nobody else was out there, so I’d taken the opportunity to think.

“Yes, I most certainly can.” I noticed the pack of Blues was like a regular cigarette pack. Had to pull the little plastic piece in order to open it. “And it went pretty good. It was a trip at first with those flashes, but after a while I got used to ‘em.”

“Usually ‘bout how it goes. But I’ll say this, we never needed Taj ‘n’ Imani’s Gift more than we do right now. Otherwise we’d be stuck havin’ to use a sketch artist only.”

“Yeah, that probably would’ve taken forever to get right. She was one of those things you had to see personally.”

Aurey reached into the front right pocket of his jeans and extracted his own pack of Blues. He put them into his other hand and dug back into the same pocket.

“This is also yours,” he said, as his hand came back out of his pocket to hand me a lighter.

“Thanks.” I took it and lit my Blue.

He opened his pack and took out a Blue. Putting it between his lips, he reached back into the pack and took out a lighter. With that in hand, he put the pack back in his pocket, and gave his Blue fire.

Silence flew in, landed, and pecked at the ground, while Aurey and me had a few drags.

“I’m glad we’ll be able to start the search once Jo-C is done. The sooner we start gettin’ answers the better.” Aurey chased it away.

“I hear that.” I nodded. “Before you walked out, I was thinking about how the Fat Woman knew what me and Jo-C were and how to fight us as well as she did. I’m startin’ to think she might’ve done it before.”

“Possibility she has. We do have a case that’s been open for almost four years where we’ve been stuck on tryin’ to figure out who the assailants were ‘n’ how they were able to take out two of our most elite W.I.L.D units.”

I pulled back in surprise, “Two?”

Aurey nodded, “Yup.”

“At the same time?”

“Yup.”

“And how many werewolves were in these units?”

“Nine in one unit, nine in the other.”

Until I’d shattered her elbows, me and Jo-C hadn’t been doing too hot against the Fat Woman. But if I, as a scrub to the whole werewolf experience, managed to pull that off…nobody out of eighteen ‘elite-unit’ werewolves managed to do the same thing, or something like it?

“That’s fuckin’ crazy” was all I had to say.

“It gets better. The assailants didn’t leave behind any evidence to point to who they were. No fingerprints or scent to track ‘em by.”

Had to pull back again.

“How is that possible? Everyone has fingerprints and a scent.”

“These things don’t. Jo-C said the Fat Woman didn’t have a scent, ‘n’ somehow, he couldn’t feel her presence with his Trait. That’s how she was able to sneak up on you two at the house.”

That brought another question to mind.

“How did we even get to that house in the first place?”

“Both of you ran to it, after Jo-C distracted the Fat Woman ‘n’ found out he bit off more than he could chew. She started to chase you two, but once ya’ll got further into the open area, where she could be seen, she stopped.”

“So…I ran with him to the house?” I wanted to make sure I heard that right.

“Yup.”

“How did I do that? Jo-C should’ve had to carry me by that point.”

“When a werewolf is under the influence of a Blackout or Brownout, they’re in a sort of fugue state. That’s why you don’t remember. While you’re in that state, the only thing you’ll respond to, or react to, is another werewolf. That’s why back at your old job, you let the Fat Woman go when Jo-C asked you to.”

I took a drag on my Blue, as the new knowledge sunk in.

“Okay.” I nodded. “That makes sense.”

“Fun keepin’ up with all this werewolf education, ain’t it?”

I chuckled.

“It just trips me out how you guys always have an answer when I think there’s no way in hell you could have one.”

Aurey nodded knowingly.

“Yup. It is a lot like that.”

“But to get back to what you were saying earlier, if Jo-C couldn’t even sense the Fat Woman with his Trait, what does that mean?”

“Could mean she’s able to circumvent that particular Trait. Could mean she’s flat out immune to that Trait, ‘n’ Traits like it. Could mean her kind has an ability to cloak themselves.”

Aurey took a drag on his Blue, and nodded.

“That’s the one I’m leaning toward, personally. If it works anything like a werewolf Trait, it would explain how they can do what they do.”

“Did you guys have somebody check the house for her fingerprints? Because that bitch went through a wall and then through the back door. She rolled around all over the carpet in the front room. There had to be somethin’.”

“Yup. We even checked your car for prints. No dice.”

I’d forgotten I even owned an automobile.

“What made you check my car?”

“Cuz the unit that was sent to recover it said someone broke into it ‘n’ went through your stuff. Guess what was left open in your front seat?”

“What?”

“Your gas and electric bill.”

Normally, that wouldn’t have been in the car. The only reason it was was because I’d planned to pay it after I’d gotten off work.

“She knows where I live. She knows who I am.” The somewhat frightening realization hit me.

“I know you’re gonna worry anyway, but know this. There’s a unit that’s been watchin’ your apartment since the second we realized that. So far, she’s been a no-show. ‘N’ unless she’s usin’ some other means to gather intel, we haven’t picked up any searches run on your name.”

That was very good to know. But, unfortunately, he was right. I was still worried. None of what he’d said removed the fact that the Fat Woman knew where I lived and who I was.

“Do you think she could follow me here?

Aurey sighed and took a drag on his Blue.

“She’d have to track us pretty far to do it, but since we don’t know what she’s or ain’t capable of, we have to assume yes.”

“What do you mean?”

“We got outta town as soon as we picked you and Jo-C up from that house.”

Also very good to know.

“Well, at least I feel better about that. But now I’m wondering if you’ll even be able to find her. With the way her and her kind have stayed out of sight, plus no fingerprints or scent…they might not even have a SSN.”

Aurey looked over at me and raised his right eyebrow.

“Wanna know a secret?”

“What?”

“We have access to everything. Traffic cams. Satellite cams. Private networks. Phone networks. Once her face is out there, it’s literally only a matter of time before we track her down.”

“Damn.” I was honestly impressed. “Hurray for W.I.L.D.”

Aurey nodded and smiled.

“Yes sir.”

Kyla and Andrea walked out of the safe house at that moment. I noticed Kyla had her purse slung across her shoulder.

“Where you two goin’?” Aurey asked.

“Store. Need anything special?” Kyla answered.

“I’m good.”

Aurey turned to me.

“Need anything?”

“No, thank you. I’m all right,” I answered.

“We’ll be back, then.” Kyla waved.

I was disappointed that I was on lockdown. That was another little tidbit of information that’d come after my debriefing. The Fat Woman knew what me and Jo-C looked like. Since she’d escaped, it was a strong possibility she told others of her kind what happened and what we looked like. At current, there was no telling how many of them there were or where they were located. So in order to keep us from being spotted, and our location reported, me and Jo-C had to lay low at Kev’s.

Lockdown meant not being able to ask if me and Aurey could go with Kyla and Andrea to the store. It meant not being able to take advantage of an opportunity to get to better acquainted with two more of the people I was about to be bound to for life.

Didn’t know at the time there would be plenty of opportunity later that evening.

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