The King

            A loud roar woke me up.  What in God’s name was that?  I thought.  I jumped out of bed and ran from my sleeping chamber.  My footsteps echoed in the emptiness around me.  This castle was so old; I was surprised that it was still intact.  The cobble stones underneath my feet became more worn as I ran towards the dungeon.

            As I neared the steps the same terrible roar ripped through the air.  It sounded like a large beast in an immense amount of pain.  Then I saw the shadow of, what looked, to be a young man.  But something was wrong.  The shadow had the snout of a wolf, but it still looked human, more or less.

            Terrified of what was down there, I walked down the dungeon stairs slowly.  The closer I got, the louder the roars seemed to be.  I could also hear some people yelling.  So I headed down the stairs to find out what was going on.

            Once I got to the end of the stairs I stared in shock at this horrific scene.  The dungeon was a large room with small cells that lined the long walls.  It reeked of the dead and sweat.  There were permanent blood stains on some of the cell walls and some places on the floor.  Then I noticed that there were five men standing in a row watching a young man.  The men all had on lab coats and the young man only had on a badly torn pair of pants on.  The young man was beaten and bruised, but he still managed to hold himself up from the ground.  One of the men in the white lab coats shouted “Again!”  Another man in a lab coat came from the outside of my field of view and whipped the young man with a tightly wound chord.

            “Stop!” I shouted.  The men all turned around to look at me.  They all wore surprised expressions on their faces except for one man.  I knew this man.  We went to medical school together.  He was a friend.  He opened his arms in what seemed to be a warm welcome.  “Vladimir!  I was wondering when you would join us.”

            I was shocked.  Why was he wondering when I would show up?  Did he expect me to come down to the dungeon at some point?  “Benjamin,” I said “What are you doing to this poor child?”

            Benjamin smiled like he knew a secret that would shock me.  “Oh, we’re not doing anything to a child.  We are experimenting on this beast.”  He gestured towards the young man now lying on the ground who was now passed out. 

Again I was shocked.  I couldn’t understand how Benjamin could think that the child lying on the floor was a beast.

            Benjamin sighed and shook his head.  He walked over the child lying on the floor, looked at me and said “This child is a werewolf.  Born and raised as one.  We all know what that means.  He will soon become the king of werewolves and take over our fair kingdom and the world.”

            Almost as if on cue the boy jumped up from the ground and tackled a man.  Another man came over and shoved the young man from the scientist.  “Whip him!” Benjamin yelled.  Without thinking I ran in-between the boy and the whip.  But the whip did not stop for me, so it lashed across my back.  I screamed out in pain; it felt like I was branded with a red hot iron.  Then my back started to throb and tears came to my eyes but I held my ground.    “Vladimir!”  Benjamin roared, “Move away form that beast!”

            I did not respond.  Instead I gave Benjamin the coldest glare that I could muster in the current situation.  That glare alone explained my reason for saving the child.  I was always good at my expressions.

            “Oh.  I see how it is,” Benjamin said.  “Lock them both up.”

            Two men came up from behind me and pulled my hands behind my back.  Other men yanked the young man form the ground.  When they pulled his hands behind his back he did not attack like before.

            “Put them in the same cell,” Benjamin said.  Those men looked at each other in confusion.  The one holding my hands looked at Benjamin and said “But he will be killed.”  Benjamin smiled and told the man “Let’s consider it a punishment for his crime.”

              I was then shoved forward and walked farther down the hall.  As we were walking the hall got increasingly darker.  The only light came from the torches that were hung from the wall.  We stopped in front of a small cell and I was able to look inside because the torch light pooled onto the floor.  There was nothing inside of the cell save for a few loose rocks that worked their way out of the floor.  The men pushed me and the boy into the cell.  I heard the door close behind me and lock.

            I was now very afraid for my life.  I haven’t heard much about werewolves.  Only that they are very fierce creatures that will kill anyone or anything that gets in their way.  Including their family members.

            “Looks like we’re stuck here together.”

            I turned around to face the young man.  He was now standing perfectly straight like he was never beaten.  I could now get a good look at him.  There wasn’t very much light in our cell but I could see his head was held up high.  He was tall for his age and black hair that was pulled into a short ponytail.  He only looked to be about 18 or so.  But he seemed to have the wisdom and experience of someone much older.

            “I am Tobias,” he said, “Thank you for protecting me back there.  It couldn’t have been easy.  I won’t kill you.  Just don’t piss me off.”

            “That’s not very comforting,” I responded.

            He shrugged his shoulders like what he just told me was the only way that I won’t be killed.  Since we were going to be stuck together for a while I decided to get some information from him.  I have to be careful about what I ask; I don’t want to “piss him off”.

            He continued to look at me.  With the low amount of light I couldn’t see what his expression was.  So I asked him if he was really going to take over our kingdom.

            Tobias shook his head and smiled a little.  But it did not last for long.  “No.  We do not want to take over the land we call home.”

            “We?” I repeated.

            “Yes.  We.  I am not the only living werewolf.”

            Now I was really confused.  Tobias still didn’t seem mad so I ventured a little further.  “But aren’t you supposed to become the king?”

            He looked around to see if our guards ever came back.  They never did so he turned back to me.  “No.  I am not the king.  My brother is.  We knew what these men were hired to do so I was sent here as a decoy so that the king could escape and find refuge in a werewolf clan in the next kingdom over.  There he will be safe.  I knew of my fate, and I came anyway.  To protect my brother.”

            “Okay…So you are not the king-“I said.

            “No.”

            “Your brother is the king-”

            “Yes.”

            “So you are not the king?  Pity,” A familiar voice said from outside of our cell.

            Tobias and I whipped around to see Benjamin standing outside of our cell door.  After what Tobias explained to me, I felt more protective over him.  I inched my way in front of Tobias.  Although he could probably protect himself and me at the same time with no problem.  I heard a low growl come from behind me, sounding much more animal than human.  I turned a little to look at Tobias to see what was wrong.  I was surprised to see him with fangs that looked sharp enough to rip skin like paper.  His eyes had turned to a bright yellow color and were more animal that before.  I turned back to Benjamin and noticed that he wasn’t the least bit scared.

            Ignoring the still growling Tobias behind me, Benjamin said “Since you are not the king, I guess I’ll just have to kill you.”

            “Ha!”  Tobias barked, “You can’t kill a werewolf!”

            “With silver bullets I can.”

            Tobias let out a slur of cuss words.  Ignoring Tobias, I responded to Benjamin “He’s not the king and yet you will kill him anyway?”

            “Of course,” Benjamin said “I can’t have him telling the real king where we are.”

            “What?” I exclaimed.  I was dumbfounded.  Why would he just kill Tobias now that he knew that Tobias wasn’t the king?  Does he even have a heart?  By the time I asked myself these questions I already realized that this wasn’t the same Benjamin that I went to medical school with.  He doesn’t have a heart anymore.  He ripped it out of his own chest when he first thought torturing Tobias to be rid of an entire race was acceptable.

            Other scientists filled our small cell and actually chained our hands behind our backs.  They formed a block around us, like a formal execution.  “What is going on here?” I asked.

            “What does it look like?  Your execution,” Benjamin said with a smile.  He turned to the men that surrounded us and said “Lead them down the hall to the execution room.”

            I looked up to see Tobias looking at me.  He had the same look of fear in his eyes that I have.  He may be willing to put his life on the line for his brother, but he was still afraid to die.  And I doubt that a silver bullet through a werewolf’s heart was in any way painless.

I was shoved harshly forward.  I winced as the guard touched my back.  I could feel my shirt stick to me because the wound was bleeding.  The whip must have broken the skin somewhere. 

We were led down the cells until we came to the room where Tobias was being tortured.  We were then led to the center of the room where our block stopped.  I looked around the men’s shoulders to see Benjamin stroll by.  He stopped in front of my block and nodded.  The men around me fell back except for the one behind me.  Benjamin nodded again and I was pushed.  I winced when my knees connected with the cobble stone.  I looked up and gave Benjamin the coldest glare I could.  He smiled at me warmly and pulled out a gun from somewhere in his coat.  He cocked it and pointed the gun at my head.  I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.  I accepted my death.  I did all I could to save Tobias.  I heard a loud crack and I fell to the cobble stone.

…

As Tobias watched Vladimir being shoved to his knees, he could barely hold back his tears.  He only just met this man but he felt responsible for Vladimir’s execution.  He was responsible.  Tobias’s thoughts were interrupted by a gunshot.  He watched as Vladimir fell to the ground.  His blood pooled onto the cobble stone and filled the cracks between each stone.  Seeing Vladimir’s lifeless body made Tobias angry.  He could feel that this one was going to turn him into a werewolf.  This time he was not going to hold back.  He was going to let the animal out. 

He felt his muscles stretch and strengthen.  He bent over as his bones cracked and broke to take the form of a wolf.  The strong chains that held his hands behind his back broke easily.  His teeth lengthened and sharpened as well as his nails.  Then men that formed the block around him backed away.  Tobias now felt that he wasn’t the same werewolf as before.  He felt no morals or beliefs.  Only a strong anger for the man standing over Vladimir’s body.

“Kill him!” he heard someone shout.  Tobias whipped around and tackled the first man that came into view.  He broke the man’s neck with his powerful jaws.  He felt hands try to grab him around his wide ribcage.  When he saw an arm in his peripheral vision he spun around and bit down hard.  The man let out a bloodcurdling scream.  Tobias let go of this man’s arm and leapt onto his chest and broke his neck too.

He now had a clear path to the man over Vladimir’s body.  Tobias charged at the man.  He leapt forward, ready to break the man’s neck, and was thrown to the floor.  He shook his head and looked up, and found himself staring into the barrel of a gun.  “Ha ha ha.  Not so tough now, huh?” the man said.  Tobias growled at the man.  He saw the gun moved the smallest amount and he bolted to his right.  He heard the gun fire, but felt no pain.  He must have moved at just the right moment.  He jumped up and tackled the man to the ground.  Tobias bit into the man’s throat and heard him scream.  He quickly yanked the man’s neck to side and heard a loud crack.

Tobias backed away from the lifeless body of his enemy.  He looked around the room and found a set of stairs that led to the upper floors of the castle.  He sprinted up the stairs and ran the long halls of the old castle.  As he was running he saw large wooden doors in front of him.  They were closed but at the speed he was running, he could probably break through.  Once he was closer to the door he lowered his head and jumped.  He felt the wood break from the force of his body. 

Once through he scanned the terrain for a place to escape.  The castle was surrounded by a dense forest.  Perfect, he thought.  He darted for the forest.  Tobias broke the tree lining and kept running.  He had to make sure that he was well hidden.  After about an hour of running, he slowed down and stopped by a tree stump.  He took a couple deep breathes and changed back into a human.  Now that he had back legs he could stand on, he stood up.

He thought of everything that happened to him in the last few days.  He was held captive and tortured for what seemed like an eternity but it was only a few days.  He knew it was only a few days based on the condition of the forest.  He tried not to remember what happened to Vladimir, but the memory came anyway.  He was brought to tears at the memory of his death.  Vladimir was such a brave man.  He helped a complete stranger just from the kindness of his heart.  “I will never forget you, Vladimir.”