Body Count

Joshua was right once again. The bad feeling of guilt and regret followed him to school the next morning, he also felt tired from no sleep that night. This would be just another day that he wouldn’t be paying much attention in class he predicted. Joshua slowly made his way through the corridor to his locker and took out the books he would need for his first two classes, not that he would be using them he thought, but nevertheless he continued to place them in his back pack.

The first bell rang for class but for Joshua it already felt like half the day had passed. Soon a couple of more bells rang and it was now lunch time. Joshua felt as though it should already be the end of the day, he had already fallen to sleep twice in his last class.

‘Hey mate, you alright? You look like the living dead.’ Jordon spoke as Joshua joined him and Pete at their usual table. ‘Should I even ask?’ He said again.

‘You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.’ It’s true, they wouldn’t Joshua thought, and not that he had the energy to explain even if he wanted to. Joshua continued eating his lunch in silence as he listened to the pointless topics in the conversations Peter and Jordon were having. After Joshua finished his apple off he casually looked over to the farthest table in the canteen, this was where he’d seen Charlie and Eric eating lunch together on many occasions, but today a group of students were sat in their place.

Joshua thought that maybe they had skipped lunch today and was outside. He dismissed himself and said goodbye to his friends. He went in search for Charlie and particularly Eric but after going for a walk he soon found out that they were not outside, in fact Joshua hadn’t seen them anywhere all day. This wasn’t completely unusual but Joshua would normally see them together a couple of times in the hallways between classes or at least once at lunch time, but he had yet to do so. Joshua would surely see Charlie at least in his next class he thought. However when the bell rang and he took his seat he watched as the last few people entered and the door was closed, with no sign of his friend. Charlie didn’t turn up for class and that almost never happened unless she was seriously ill.

Joshua continued to look out for Eric throughout the rest of the day but he never saw him about. He thought about Charlie missing class, she wouldn’t have skipped class he thought so she must be at home. Joshua now settled down back at his own home, his thoughts were still pondering over the disappearance of both Charlie and Eric. He had half the mind to go and visit Charlie at her house just to see if she was ok. As soon as the thought crossed his mind there was a knock at the door and seconds later Joshua’s grandmother was shouting out his name.

Joshua came fumbling down the stairs and his grandmother told him that Charlie was at the door. Joshua didn’t believe her until he opened the front door some more and revealed Charlie standing there in front of him. Joshua was stunned. She didn’t look ill or dying, Charlie was completely healthy enough to attend school. On top of this both Charlie and Joshua hadn’t been on good terms so he was most defiantly surprised to see her at his door.

‘Hi, it’s good to see you.’ Joshua said honestly, he had indeed missed his friend.

‘I wish I could say the same.’ Joshua didn’t like the sound of that. ‘I’m here strictly to tell you that I have spent all day visiting Eric in hospital.’ Joshua saw that Charlie was very mad at him.

‘What...’ Was all Joshua could muster.

‘It seemed that Eric fell through the window above the school’s gym last night and got a big piece of glass stuck in his back. The doctor said he was very lucky because he was close to not being able to walk.’ Joshua stood listening close to what Charlie was telling him, his mouth hung open and his face froze in that position as his mind raced around in circles.

Joshua thought back to when he had surprised and scared Eric in his wolf form, he thought hard and couldn’t believe that it was possible for this to happen to Eric. He remembered leaving before he did any real damage, but was it possible that Eric was so afraid that he accidently tripped and fell into the window? Did something happen after Joshua left or was it really his fault, was Joshua responsible for sending Eric to the hospital?

‘Eric remained asleep for most of the day; he mumbled in his sleep something about seeing a wolf.’ Charlie’s eyes pierced right through Joshua. He didn’t like the look on her face, it was worse than any look she had ever giving him and it rendered him helpless. ‘He wouldn’t talk about it once he was awake but what he said was clear enough. Joshua, I just can’t believe you would do something like this. But if I ever find out you did have something to do with it then I could never and I do mean never, be able to forgive you.’

Charlie walked away before any more was said, not that Joshua could speak if he wanted to, he just couldn’t believe that this was his fault. Nevertheless Joshua felt a wave of more guilt rush over him for allowing Caleb convince him to something like that. What hurt Joshua the most was the fact that he had never seen this much hatred come from Charlie before, at least not directed at him anyways, and he never knew he could be so heartbroken because of it.

A couple of minutes later Joshua grabbed his car keys and took off in his truck. After a short drive Joshua came to park his truck outside of the local hospital. He found out which room Eric was held in from the receptionist, and then made his way up the stairs. He now stood outside Eric’s room and took a big breath before entering. Eric had his eyes closed and he was led down. Joshua thought that maybe he was asleep but after shutting the door Eric turned his head and looked up at him.

‘I thought you were...never mind.’ Joshua knew who Eric was talking about but he didn’t press the issue. ‘I’m surprised to see you, you here because of Charlie?’

‘I’m surprised myself, and no this has nothing to do with Charlie. I heard about your accident and I wanted to make sure you were ok.’

‘Why? It’s not like we’re best buddies or anything.’

‘I’ve been asking myself that the whole trip over here, I guess you’re a part of Charlie’s life now. You two have become quite close and if I want to get back in her good books I just have to get used to it. I’m just trying to make an effort, you know, for Charlie.’ Although that was the truth Joshua knew that there was more to him being there, feeling guilty for a start. Eric just nodded with understanding and then there was a long moment of silence.

Joshua had stayed at the hospital for around thirty minutes, longer than he expected to be there for and then he returned home.

The next day at school Joshua saw Charlie who had given him more than one evil glare throughout the day; Joshua got a sinking feeling with every look. At least she was acknowledging him now he thought to himself. After school before Joshua settled down for dinner he wanted to visit Eric again, wanted not be the right word, but if he was going to make the effort with Charlie than he was going to give it 100%.

Joshua took the costumer lift this time and on the ride up a few floors he was very fortunate to share the enclosed space with a young and pretty girl, she was around sixteen he thought. He was waiting for the doors to open and when it did he saw her, he got a smile from her as he entered. The lift began moving and Joshua faced forwards, now and again he would look over to the girl who also caught his eye. They both smiled at each other more than once. But it remained silent for the ride up and the girl had gotten off at the floor before the one Joshua needed to. Joshua had almost spoke to her but something had kept him quiet and Joshua cursed at himself as the doors closed once more. He should have least said ‘hi’ he thought.

Joshua headed down the hallway feeling disappointed in himself at the lack of courage he had. As soon as he arrived at the room Eric was staying in, his thoughts were on a different topic then whether or not he should have got some girls number. Joshua came face to face with Eric’s room door and just before he pushed it opened he glanced inside through the door’s small window.

Joshua looked in and saw that Charlie was already here visiting Eric, he froze and didn’t proceed to enter. Something inside of Joshua made him feel like he was about to be sick, he suddenly felt lightheaded at the sight of them together again. He questioned whether or not to enter; it would show how much he is alright with them together he thought. But at the same time he knew he wouldn’t be able to handle being there watching them together. He couldn’t even see them like this for too long from a distant, let alone up close and personal.

Joshua found himself staring into the room for longer than he should, he watched as Charlie sat on the edge of the hospital bed with Eric sat up and they were holding hands. Charlie was smiling and she looked so happy with him Joshua was thinking, maybe she was better off with him he thought. Joshua’s eyes wandered down towards the floor and he noticed that his hand was still on the door handle, even as he stared at his hand he couldn’t stop holding onto it, like there was a magnetic pull keeping his hand glued to the handle.

At that moment Joshua was distracted again, out of nowhere doctors rushed through the doors up ahead. They were all talking loudly to each other about medical stuff as they quickly pushed and pulled a bed on wheels, upon that bed was a bleeding man. Joshua watched stunned as they rushed passed him, when they passed him he got a better look at the unfortunate man who was bleeding a lot. Joshua could see that the man had a huge open wound down his chest like something had cut him open; he followed behind them for a little while trying to listen in and get a better look but soon they all disappeared into a room.

Joshua became curious at the case, the man was hurt extremely bad and he wondered what could have done that. He slowly walked back towards Eric’s room but before Joshua got close to the room a nurse began talking behind him. She was talking to a woman behind a desk and Joshua soon realised she had come from the same room where the wounded man was.

‘Looks like they have their hands full in there.’ The woman said from behind the desk. Joshua moved towards them and started to casually pretend to look at some leaflets on a stand nearby.

‘Yeah they haven’t seen anything like it.’ Joshua listened closely and if anyone was paying attention to him they would notice that Joshua wasn’t concentrating on what was in from of him at all.

‘So what happened to him?’ The woman asked.

‘They’re saying it’s some sort of animal attack.’

‘Oh my!’ The woman gasped. ‘Do they know what sort of animal?’

‘They’re not sure, they think it might be a bear because the wound was caused by something strong, but then they’re also saying that it’s not like any bear attack that they’ve seen before.’

‘Who would have thought that a bear would come close to our town, I mean I didn’t think there were any bears in that forest anyway. But then what other animal could have caused such a vicious attack?’

‘Who knows, I only hope that they can catch whatever animal did this before it kills anyone.’

As the women exchanged words Joshua couldn’t help but think about what animals live in the forest. He knew there were no real dangerous ones that could be found around the edge of the forest, those all could be found much deeper in. But was it possible that one had travelled near his town he thought. Joshua then got another thought, he didn’t know why it crossed his mind but he thought about wolves. However the only wolves he knew of were Caleb’s pack and himself, them and Kumai’s tribe who lived miles away. Joshua couldn’t believe that Caleb or his pals would do something like this but then he himself had once attacked two people and had even killed one, so was it that far of a stretch?

These questions stayed on Joshua’s mind on the ride home, he never returned to see Eric and much to his own delight, but now something more troubling was on his mind. He kept asking himself how much did he really trust Caleb, he has had many suspicions about the guy and on more than one occasion expected him to be a bad person. He had an unusual gut feeling about the guy whenever he was around him and he had a bad feeling more so when Caleb had given him the idea to scare Eric, but he had ignored it then too.

Joshua made it home and his thoughts never left him, when he got home he found that his grandmother was out and she had left him food in the fridge to warm up. Joshua settled down on the sofa after finishing off his meal, he kicked off his shoes and rested them upon the coffee table in front, he then turned on the TV. Joshua was about to turn over when something on the news had intrigued him, there had been a death recently in his own home town.

Wow Joshua thought, too many deaths were starting to come to light. It seemed that the once boring and ordinary town had now become a dangerous and mysterious place to live. Joshua watched on, he had to listen to a few boring topics before they got back to the dead body.

Joshua listened to the woman on the news explain the situation, apparently the body was found in a field by its owner just before the beginning of the forest. The body had been dead for over a day before it was found, it was identified as a middle aged man with no family and who took care of the old unused church. The woman said they described the death as a wild animal attack, a lot of deep claw marks and bite marks, they said it was like the man was attacked by a pack of wolves. This was something which baffled everyone because there were no wolves in the forest that they knew of.

 They had also said it was unlike any attack they had seen or heard of; it was almost like the animals had toyed with the man and then intentionally ripped the man apart and left him to bleed out. Joshua was glued to the edge of the sofa listening so close to the TV now and he thought about the words she was saying, ‘a pack of wolves when there are no records of wolves around or in the forest’ and ‘the characteristics were like human thoughts’. As these words went through Joshua’s mind his thoughts turned to the only source he knew, Caleb and his friends.

Joshua couldn’t think of any other solution, it had to be them he thought. No other animal that anyone knew of lay on the edge of the forest could have done this. Caleb always sounded like he wouldn’t hurt a fly Joshua pondered, but then his eyes always said something different then what he was saying. Joshua knew that there was more to Caleb but he didn’t want to believe it, and now the evidence was against him.

Joshua continued to watch the news as the woman talked about the attack some more. Then she went on to say that this wasn’t the first animal attack in the week, there was another attack at the weekend on the Saturday under the full moon, again it was a male and he never survived. The description was similar and a pack of wolves was the main suspicion of the attack. Then there had been yet another attack the week before, where a woman survived what was thought to be a bear attack.

Now the authorities are thinking all the attacks are linked, along with the one this evening which Joshua had witnessed arriving at the hospital. They are on the lookout for the wolves or any other animal that might have done this. They are also giving out a warning to the townspeople to stay away from the forest and even stay clear from the edge, and if possible to stay indoors during later hours.

Joshua turned off the news and change the channel to watch one of his programmes, he continued to watch TV until his grandmother returned home. As he was watching his programmes, his thoughts kept lingering towards Caleb being behind the attacks. It really was possible that Caleb and his friends could have done this, Joshua knew it wasn’t such a far stretch. Plus the fact that Joshua accepted so easily that Caleb was involved in all the attacks only made him believe it more, but this didn’t make him feel any better.

Within the day and over the week Joshua had visited Eric a couple more times, but then after that week he never returned to the hospital again. Through the school days he avoided locking eyes with Charlie as much as he could and as far as Joshua knew she never found out that he went to see Eric at the hospital. Then during the evenings Joshua stayed far away from the forest, not because the news had warned him to do so, but because Joshua wanted to stay away from Caleb and his pack. He was afraid that they were indeed responsible for the attacks, and worse he had been involved with them lately.

The following weekend Joshua stayed within the town. He hadn’t always gone into the forest to hang out with Caleb every weekend anyway, but then he wasn’t planning on going to see him ever again. This weekend Joshua spent time with Pete and Jordon at the movie theatre, without the girls there they got to watch an action film. Joshua would normally be constantly thinking about how he might run into Charlie and Eric but tonight he could relax, he knew that most likely Charlie would be visiting Eric at the hospital.

Joshua returned to school the next week, this was the week everyone had their last year exams, something that neither Joshua nor his friends were looking forward to. But then Joshua kept thinking that it was only a couple of weeks before they broke up for the summer, and that is what got him through the week. After summer Joshua only had one year left before graduation and he couldn’t wait until that day came.

The first three days back to school were intense Joshua thought; they were crammed in with exams all day. Joshua and his friends were all glad when the last bell rang at the end of the day. They all immaturely cheered that the last of the exams were now over and they would just be sailing through the next week, there was actually no point in attending school in the last week Joshua thought. Everyone at school were now happy kids, Joshua could have sworn that he had even got a smile from Charlie the next day. As he entered the classroom and passed Charlie she looked up with a smile on her face, she never looked away with indication of ignorance and it had made Joshua feel even better.

It was now the last day of the week and Joshua was still happy; he found that the day had passed him by quickly, perhaps because they hardly did anything in his classes. He was feeling so good today that he thought maybe he could get more than just a smile from Charlie, maybe he could begin talking to her again. Joshua made his way to his next class he shared with Charlie and eagerly sat down. He noticed that the teacher and the last kids had arrived but there was no Charlie. He could only think that she must be ill, that or taking another day off to see Eric. This was likely the case, as all school exams were over no one really had to attend school.

School was now over and the weekend was close behind. Joshua returned home in a good mood and by the evening Joshua was fed and laying in his room. Finally it had come, summer was to begin with the morning light. This made Joshua extremely happy as he threw his head back and sighed with big relief.

He was resting on his bed looking up at the ceiling with his thoughts to himself when out of the blue Joshua began hearing tapping noises. The first tap made Joshua sit up fast but he could not think where the sound came from, then there came another tap, and another. Soon Joshua realised it was coming from the window, like someone was throwing stones at it, when Joshua stood to take a look he saw Caleb outside.

Caleb was alone and standing right under Joshua’s window in the garden, he was smiling crookedly up at Joshua. This made shivers run through his spine. Caleb gave a signal indicating for Joshua to come out, Joshua’s mind began racing, he couldn’t go out with Caleb he thought. Joshua didn’t know what to do, he thought if he confronted him or let on that he knew they were killing people then there could be trouble.

Joshua went down stairs and met Caleb outside.

‘Come on, the guys are waiting in the forest.’ Caleb said. Joshua was nervous, he was looking at Caleb in a different light now and he thought that he shouldn’t retaliate. ‘Come on.’ Caleb said further. Joshua realised that he hadn’t moved an inch and that Caleb remained as friendly as he could. Joshua now took a step forward; he didn’t want to hang out with a group of killers in the forest but he felt like he didn’t have much of a choice, he couldn’t avoid them forever.

Joshua reluctantly followed Caleb down the street and through the town. All the while he was thinking about how much being a wolf has gotten him in trouble, and how much he has lost because of it. Joshua thought about how he had gotten in too deep with Caleb and was enjoying all of the werewolf stuff. But this had gotten in the way of his friendship with Charlie, this had isolated himself and made him feel alone. Then on top of all this Joshua had been feeling guilty for what he had done to Eric. Now he doesn’t enjoy being a wolf very much and doesn’t want any part of it.

‘So how did it go with Eric?’ Caleb struck up a conversation as they reached the other side of the town centre; it was five more minutes until they entered the forest. Joshua thought about what Caleb was talking about and remembered that the idea to scare Eric was originally his idea.

‘Actually it didn’t go as planned, something happened and he...well somehow he fell through a window and ended up in hospital.’ Joshua explained.

‘So you got our little present then.’ Caleb smiled with wickedness.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Me and the boys thought you could use a hand.’

‘You did that?’ Joshua couldn’t understand why he didn’t see this earlier, he knew that what he did couldn’t possibly cause Eric any harm other than a little fright. Although he lost control for a while he had stopped himself before it had gone too far.

‘No need to say thanks.’ Caleb acted as though it was a compliment and never saw Joshua’s query expression. ‘You’re apart of us now Josh, one of the pack, and we stick together. Your problems are our problems; we help one another out, like a family.’ Caleb went on. Joshua said nothing out of fear, he neither wanted to be a part of his pack nor did he even want to be there at that very moment.

Not long did Joshua reach the forest alongside Caleb, not far in they met up with Caleb’s friends who were all hanging about on broken trees.

‘It’s about time; I’m just itching to get started.’ Adam said as he stood.

‘Slow your ropes.’ Caleb replied. Joshua was wondering the reason why Adam was so eager to get started.

‘I’m falling to sleep here.’ Adam was impatient.

‘Ok fine, you ready for a bit of fun Josh?’ Joshua questioned whether he should give Caleb an honest answer; he played the scene in his head of him confessing everything he knew and then Caleb killing him because he knew too much.

‘Sure.’ Joshua said unenthusiastic and not sure if he really wanted to.

‘Good, but before we get started on the fun part we wanna share with you our secret. I wanna share this with you because you’re one of us now. We’re gonna play ourselves a little game again, only this time we’re gonna play the real game. Bring her out.’ What did that mean Joshua thought, bring who out?

Right then Joshua watched as Hugo quickly disappeared around a tree and appeared on the other side pushing someone in front of him. Joshua’s mouth flew wide open as he stared at Hugo pushing a young blindfolded girl towards him and Caleb. Her mouth was also gagged and Caleb and the rest all had evil grins on their faces, the worse part of this was the girl they had blindfolded was someone Joshua knew.

Before him he witnesses this innocent girl that Joshua could only guess what the pack had planned for her, and those thoughts were only twice as bad because Joshua cared for this person.

This girl that Joshua recognised, was none other than Charlie.