II.1 - WOLF BLOOD

ROGER WILLIS

When I opened my eyes, the bright light coming from the fluorescent light pierced right through giving me a quick surge of headache. It took me a long while before my eyes could adjust from such brightness. Once my vision got to a clear, I saw the back of Mr. Lykaios talking to someone behind the curtain.

I leaned in and tried to listen to the conversation they were having but the throbbing in my head got in the way. It’s quite hard to focus and it almost feels like something’s triggering the headache every once in a while. Lying in bed, I looked around and I learned that I’m inside the school clinic with the bright fluorescent light and the curtains that separate the other beds. I also noticed that I was wearing only my shirt and there’s a significant amount of dried blood from it.

“You’re finally back to consciousness.” Mr. Lykaios uttered as he slowly inched his way towards me. “I was just about to change the bandage from your wound.”

“Did I just passed out?”

“You did.” Mr. Laykaios made its way to the table beside the bed.

With my unwounded arm, I struggled to prop myself up so I could sit down.

“Fuck!” I cursed under my breath. I have been injured and cut a few times before but they never truly hurt like how my wound is excruciatingly hurting right now. Something’s really wrong with this and I can’t even think of anything.

“Careful, your wounds are still fresh.” He reminded me. I was quick to notice how his usual commanding tone was now gone.

“I’m sorry for interrupting the class.” I blurted out noting the absolute fact that he’s here when he should be back in class teaching.

“The class will be fine. I just told the school nurse to go and check on them.” He replied as he began inspecting my wounded shoulder. “This is an important matter that we need to talk about. If you’re not aware, your wounds are a serious matter.”

“This?” Very much confused, I pointed at my shoulder as he slowly cut the bandages that I wrapped around it earlier. “I…I just got attacked by a bear. This is nothing serious.”

I do understand that my wounds looked conspicuously serious, they’re obviously still bleeding. However, I don’t really understand the part where Mr. Lykaios had to be the one tending to it and he seemed like he’s curious about it. He reached for the first-aid kit on the table, placed it on top of the empty space right beside me before eventually pulling a chair and taking a seat right in front of me.

“Exactly. You were attacked.”

“I’m really sorry sir, but this is simply nothing.” I spat out knowing that I don’t want to make a big deal out of this situation. Yes, I was attacked and this was just a simple wound. “I’m pretty certain it will heal faster.”

“I’m not entirely sure about that.”

Mr. Lykaios seemed very adamant that this is something gravely serious. He pulled out a pair of scissors from the kit and he subsequently began cutting the bandage that I wrapped around my shoulder earlier this morning. It was all covered in dried blood.

“You said you were attacked by a bear, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, it was just a bear.” I tried to sound a bit more confident with my answer. I know it was a clear lie because I realized there are no bears in this town. Perhaps, I was holding onto this thought that he might let it go.

“Did you see it was a bear?” He gave me a piercing incredulous stare.

“It was pretty dark that time. I didn’t see a thing.”

“As far as I’m aware, there are no bears here in Viridian Falls.”

“I…I… There are no bears here?” I don’t have any other choice but to play the innocent card.

He gave me a hard stare—cold and piercing—and with those deep forest green eyes, I could see right through that he knows something more. “You were attacked by something else.”

Mr. Lykaios began cleaning my wound with cotton and alcohol, gently dabbing it around the corners. I’m going to be honest, it was stinging but I did my best not to let out a scream.

“Aaw. Aah. Argh!!!” I could only groan in pain and even then, I had to keep it low and bite my wrist.

“This is not from a bear’s claw.” He pointed at the wound on my chest. He must be some kind of an expert, he didn’t even try to look and inspect harder in order to tell if it was from a bear or not. “And this one on your shoulder, this is a bite mark.”

Mr. Lykaios pulled a black bag from underneath the clinic bed and subsequently fished out some label less bottles of different products.

“What are those?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Ointments.” He replied carefully looking at a specific product. “It would help you with the pain. I’m inclined to believe that you are in grave pain, am I right?”

“Well, yeah. The wounds are throbbing every once in a while.”

“Are they itching?”

“No.”

“What about your visions? Are they getting fuzzy?”

“Yes.”

“Headaches?”

“Ahuh.”

“I was right.” He voiced out sternly.

“What do you mean by you were right?” I inquired back perplexed as to why he said he was right but he just ignored me.

“This one is a mixture of chamomile and pot marigold. This would greatly help with the wound to heal faster and to prevent any sort of infections.”

Mr. Lykaios squeezed a decent amount of the yellowish ointment from the bottle and began applying it to my wounds. Surprisingly enough, it felt cold but it not giving me a stinging sensation. First on my chest, the gentle touch of his fingers made me feel some type of way that I couldn’t even explain. I stared at his unsuspecting face while he was busy slathering ointment on my wounds and I would definitely agree that he’s a good-looking guy. Inspecting him like this at such close proximity, I noticed how his eyebrows are quite symmetrical, the bone structure on his face are almost perfect.

“Where’d you get all of these from?” I inquired purely curious about why does he have these kinds of ointments in the first place. It seemed to me that he’s quite prepared for something like this.

“It’s from my family. My dad’s a hunter and he gets attacked by different kinds of wild animals most of the time.” He divulged, still focused on my wound. He grabbed another bottle. “This one is a mucilage from a slippery elm bark. It will greatly reduce the throbbing and stinging.”

Mr. Lykaios finished applying the latter ointment and I felt a significant amount of relief. After that, he began putting on some gauze pad to cover the wound before eventually wrapping a bandage around my chest and shoulder.

“You should be okay after this.” He patted my other shoulder giving me an assurance.

“Wow! That actually felt soothing.” I let out feeling much better. I attempted moving my wounded shoulder and I don’t feel anything at all.

“Now, I don’t have anything for the fuzzy visions or the occasional headache but I’m certain that it’s not permanent.”

“That’s fine. Thanks for helping me, sir.”

“Now, I must ask you about something serious but I request that you must be discreet about it.” He began, the tone of his voice suddenly changed and the commanding aura found its way back into him. I thought we were finally over here, apparently not.

“Okay. What is it about?”

“This conversation must stay only between the two of us. You can’t tell anybody about this.” It seemed to me that he’s about to tell something confidential which I don’t quite understand.

“I know that thing that attacked you wasn’t a bear or any animal at all. In fact, it’s something else that might shock you.”

“So what is it then?”

“It’s a rogue werewolf.”

“We-wer, what? Did I just hear you right?” I’m not even sure if I heard him right just about now. I know I’m not in a fucking dream because I’ve been in pain all fucking day.

“Werewolf. Lycanthrope.” He repeated making it sure that he said the word loud and clear enough for me to hear and understand.

“You are kidding me, right? I thought those are only myths?”

“You’ll know more about it in time. But for now, I’m not going to tell you more than anything that you should know about. This is for your protection.”

“What? How is that protecting me? And protecting me from what?”

He just looked at me in the eye, deadpan, keeping everything mysterious, including himself.

I haven’t even processed what I just heard from him and now he’s not even willing to let me in on anything. If he’s not only a teacher, I would’ve walked out the door.

“You were attacked during the full moon, correct?” He moved away from giving me that cold mysterious stare and began walking back and forth.

“I was.”

“Where?”

“Uhm, I-I was at a party with my friends.” I was a bit hesitant to admit where I was.

“Where is that?”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s just a silly birthday party and I got attacked when I was on my way home anyway.”

“Right. Did you saw someone strange at the party or even heard something weird? Probably some guy with a long black hair?”

“Nah, I don’t think so.” I shook my head as I was pretty certain that I haven’t seen that specific guy that he was asking about. And besides the party music, I never heard anything out of place.

“All right. I suppose we’re both done here.” My Lykaios drawled out. He began removing his suit leaving his undershirt. “If anything comes up, don’t hesitate to approach me.”

“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“I cut up your sweater by the way. I’m sorry about that, I thought you’re going to stay passed out for a longer while. I’ll let you borrow my suit to cover that bandage on your shoulder and chest.” He tossed his suit right at me before eventually walking away leaving me wondering about what just happened.