A Curse Upon Thee 2-27A

Jaws neared him, teeth close enough that Chad could smell the rotting stench of its breath.

He didn’t even have time to flinch as it lunged.

Meaning his eyes were as wide open as his ears to catch the deafening blast that tore through the night, a sound so violent it rattled the teeth in his skull.

The beast’s claws — outstretched to eviscerate his chest — went wide as something heavy and impossibly fast tore into its outstretched arm. Those long limbs staggered back, the creature ripped sideways as a massive chunk of its shoulder was blown away; a spray of black carried straight into the brick wall behind it, turning the masonry to a cloud of red dust.

“Wh-what the…” Chad’s gasp was drowned out as the werewolf shrieked loud, staggering backward as it rose to its feet again; arm mangled but muscle already re-threading in front of his eyes.

“Stay back!” 

Chad turned his head as he scrambled backward on his elbows, shoes desperate for purchase on the wet grit of the street. His eyes went wider as Graham broke out of the narrow alleyway just across the street, heavy strides eating up the distance. The dead man racked the pump of a black twelve-gauge, weapon rising back to his shoulder as smoke curled from its barrel. “You’re no wolf!”

Another shot rang out into the night, the monster howling as it was shoved back another good foot. “Stay the fuck back!”

“We’ve got you, Chad!” Right behind Graham, moving with the momentum of a cavalry charge, a heavily bruised David Nolan burst out into the street.

The mayor’s heavy steel broadsword gleamed under the bruised moonlight as David swung it out in a defensive arc to ward off the nightmare; his own body placed in front of Chad’s. “Get up and get moving, kid!”

The beast growled again, ruined shoulder writhing as its flesh boiled; shadowy tendrils stitching the bone and fur back whole. Dropping to all fours, the thing sprung forward at David in a blur of diseased muscle. 

David didn’t flinch, the man meeting the charge head-on. He stepped into the attack, pivoting his hips and driving the broadsword up in a brutal slash with all the strength in both of his hands. 

The steel bit deep into the monster’s chest, tearing through matted fur and pale skin. It howled again, recoiling from David as black blood splashed onto concrete.

Chad forced himself up onto one knee, chest heaving and blue eyes blown wide. The fuck is happening?

There were no answers for him as David pressed the advantage, the man’s footwork balanced and bold as he clashed with the beast. The nightmare wolf swiped its oversized claws back at him, each elongated knife aiming to tear the mayor’s head off.

David just met each strike with a parry, heavy steel sparking against bone-white talons. With a yell, the man twisted his blade, pommel driven straight into the thing’s weeping and too-human face.

Unfortunately, the beast was more solid than it looked; the monster absorbing the blow. It’s neck snapped back for barely a second before it whipped forward with a howl, a backhand catching David square in the chest.

The impact sounded like a car crash and it had all the effect of one as David was launched off his feet. The man’s boots left the pavement, his back slamming into the side of a parked sedan hard enough to dent in the door. He hit the ground hard, mouth open in a groan, sword falling at his side.

The monster didn’t rush after him, those perfectly straight teeth bared wide in a too-stretched smile. Instead, it turned to its side until its weeping green eyes landed on something that stretched that smile out even further.

Spindly arms wrapped tight around a bolted-down blue mailbox, the metal groaning and shrieking in loud protest. A second later, it was no longer bolted-down, the beast ripping it free from the concrete.

With another howl, it spun on its hind legs — the block of blue held over its head and hurled right at the downed mayor.

“David, move!” Graham’s voice rang out as the man racked the shotgun.

David! Chad didn’t bother to think, everything narrowed around him as the pressure in his chest burned in time with his heartbeat. He launched himself forward, body thrown right into the path of the flying steel as he threw his hands up; bracing for an impact that should have shattered every bone in his arms.

The second the mailbox made contact, the phantom steam inside his chest erupted with a floodgate. A brilliant blinding shell of blue flared in full form around his entire body, wrapping every inch of him in a humming Aura.

The mailbox fully hit home.

The raw force drove Chad backward, rubber soles burning and squealing against the asphalt; a wave of white-hot pain shooting up his elbows, but his bones didn’t break. The blue light just flared brighter, anchoring him to the earth as he dug his heels in, halting hundreds of pounds of flying steel through pure power.

“Yeah, no.” Chad grit his teeth, a breathless laugh tearing free from his throat as he spat the words out. “Fuck you!”

With the shout, Chad spun with the momentum of the heavy metal box, twisting his whole body to hurl the collection box right back at the nightmare. Moving twice as fast as it had arrived, the steel projectile smashed tight into the beast’s chest with an audible crack.

A human-sounding shriek left its maw rather than a beast’s whine, the monster thrown off its feet and tumbling backward in a tangle of too-long limbs and patchy fur. 

Mid-motion, another blast rang out; a slug tearing through its chest and sending it skidding back further down the street.

Chad whipped his head around to face Graham, a question forced out as quickly as he could form the words. “Please tell me those are silver?”

The sheriff grunted back, already reloading the weapon as he kept his eyes forward. “Not in the budget, kid.”

Fuck! Chad stood there, chest still shaking as hard as his hands were with the hum of the blue light. He didn’t know what it was; unsure if he was in the middle of a stroke, a religious experience, or just an overdose of adrenaline.

All he cared about was the simple fact that it was keeping him breathing, and wasn’t that all that mattered? No.

It wasn’t.

I need a weapon. 

Chad spun, eyes locking onto something bright red and obvious. Tall galvanized steel called to him like a moth to a flame, the stop sign planted at the edge of the sidewalk. Without a second thought, the young man lunged for it, both hands wrapping around the thick metal pole.

Blue energy bled from his skin, crawling up the steel slowly at first — then all at once, the thing alight with a faint pulse. With a grunt, Chad planted his feet and pulled.

Concrete cracked.

Earth groaned.

With a tearing sound, the entire sign came free from the ground, a jagged chunk of concrete still clinging to the buried base. The thing weighed easily fifty pounds, if not more, but somehow…

“Holy…” Somehow, held tight in his hands, it felt like a perfectly balanced baseball bat. “Holy shit” He swung the pole a few times, the blue light around it growing stronger with every pass until it shone bright enough to almost change the shade of the red octagon. “Alright!” 

His blue eyes turned to face the recovering beast, sliding past the street where a battered David Nolan was shaking his head. “Let’s get it!”

The beast howled again from down the street, limbs snapping back into place. With another howl, that horrific red hood pulsed wildly at its neck.

“We don’t yield to this thing!” David shouted, pulling himself up from the asphalt, broadsword snatched back into his grip “Keep it contained!”

“Yeah, yeah…” Chad grunted back. “We can’t kill Ruby, I get it.”

“Ruby?” 

Chad snapped his head over to look at Graham, the man staring back at him like he was insane. “Yeah, isn’t that… Ruby?”

“Chad…” David shook his head. “Ruby’s still chained up in the library.”

Then… The young blond turned his head, staring straight forward at the monster pacing back and forth across the street; attention snapping between the three of them. “…then what is that?”

“No wolf.” Graham’s grunt sounded out. “That’s for sure.”

“Just…” David raised his sword high, one eyebrow high as he stared at what Chad was holding as a weapon. “Just stay alive, kid.”

“Don’t tell me what to do, old man.” Chad snapped back, patience emptied out as he hefted his stop sign. “Hit it.”

The beast finally charged, its grotesque red growth pulsing even brighter with each footfall. 

Graham stepped sideways as the thing lunged for him, racking the shotgun again. Another slug tore through the monster’s knee, a joint blown out in another spray of black.

The beast stumbled, screaming like a woman through lungs and vocal cords that shouldn’t allow it to make that noise, but the writhing shadows around it immediately began knitting bone and flesh back together.

“It’s healing fast!” Graham yelled over the ringing echo of the shotgun blast. “The wounds aren’t sticking!”

“Mine are!” David charged in from the flank, broadsword already coming down as he drove it through the beast’s calf. 

He’s right. Chad could see it clear as day even in the dead of night. Where Graham’s lead blew chunks of meat away just for the beast to heal up, David’s steel left smoking wounds that the shadows struggled to close. But… but why?

“Is that silver?!” Chad’s scream came loud as he blocked a slash from the monster, bashing it in the face in time for David to slash at it again.

“I don’t think so!” The sword dug a line into the monster’s arm, the wolf scrambling back only to take another slug to the back that sent it sprawling. “But it’s made by dwarves so!”

“…God, I hate this town!” His own annoyance aside, it was clear that even with the damage David was doing, he couldn’t hit hard or deep enough to stop it.

On top of that, Graham’s gun was only good enough to buy them bare seconds.

The beast swiped at David, the mayor forced to scramble back before his blade could be knocked free from his hands. Chad stepped further into the rhythm, taking the monster’s blind spot as he hoisted the heavy stop sign over his shoulder.

With a grunt, he swung it down with everything he had.

The noise echoed out as loud as one of Graham’s shots as the flat of the octagon slammed directly into the side of the monster’s head. Blue light exploded out on impact, a visible shockwave rippling through the night air. The beast howled as it went down, something cracking out as it skidded across concrete.

“Get up, David!” Chad barked back as the man was already rushing to his feet. “Stay on its right side! Graham, aim for the center mass, keep it off balance!”

With a grunt, he rushed back in before the beast could take the advantage, swinging the stop sign like a sledgehammer. The nightmare snapped its head up and lunged, claws extended out for Chad’s throat. Roaring, Chad ducked low and stepped inside the strike, the heavy metal pole crashing down onto the creature’s collarbone.

The sound of cracking bone echoed over the street, the beast scattering back across the asphalt. It shrieked again, the sound as much hatred as it was pain. It lunged once more, body seemingly more elastic than flesh as it contorted before it sprung up in a blur of fangs and claws.

Eyes wide, Chad raised the pole to block.

Bone-white talons sheared messily through the red of the stop sign, metal screeching as they ripped a jagged V-shape out of the octagon. Chad blinked at the newly-formed ax-edge, the flat instrument looking more like a proper weapon as blue light flickered around it.

“Oh, alright?” Another tight laugh escaped him as he locked eyes with the weeping wolf. “You wanna play like that?”