Chapter 16 - Weekend Searches

He was glad it was the weekend. Telling Kristen basically that he liked her gave him things to think about. At least he had two whole days without her. Well, at least that's what he hoped. He had a feeling that he would end up seeing her more than expected.

He couldn’t believe that it had been only a week since Kristen had entered his life. He felt so different. That wasn’t a good thing. He didn’t want to change. Change meant bad.

For some reason, though he knew it was happening, he couldn’t seem to stop. He was becoming soft, sloppy and almost vulnerable. He wasn’t constantly on his radar anymore and he wasn’t bothered if people came within just a few feet of him unlike a week ago when his radar was up so strong he couldn’t go anywhere without becoming weary.

He was no longer stressed about Kristen. It was just the murders that had him muddled. He was still no where close to solving what was happening and who was doing it. He didn’t have any suspects, any clues or any evidence. He was basically searching for a needle in a haystack.

He needed to discover something, anything useful, and to do this he had to look around. Once he turned, his stomach gave a growl and he quickly fed it with a nearby goat. Afterwards, though he still felt as hungry as ever, he forced himself to look around and see if he could find anything. Switching his radar on, Matt slinked into the shadows and hunched his back up. He sniffed the air and moved his nose around the pavement, jumping into bushes when people walked past, mostly couples or gangs who had nothing else to do.

There was nothing new or different about the smell of the air. Scents of people walking past, smells of the greenery and the pollution from the cars. They all mixed in with the oxygen Matt breathed, but there was nothing strange about any of them. They were all the same. Either the murderer was on a break or he was missing something.

Maybe they just weren’t in the area? Matt waited for the next couple to pass him, holding hands and laughing at a quiet secret joke they were sharing, before sprinting quickly down the road and around the corner. He kept on going, faster and faster, only slowing down when people came into view, their body heat radiating a 1 yard radius. It took him only a few seconds before he reached the next road on his list. He sucked in a breath and waited…

Nothing.

Still the same kind of smells, nothing different. Matt looked around. There was no freaky shadow thing hovering around him like the last time he’d been close to discovering anything.

He must be in the wrong place, he thought glumly. He had to be. There’d been so many murders in the past few days. The murderer couldn’t have just decided not to kill someone for one night. There had to be a reason if they weren’t on a war path.

Matt pushed himself down another road, sniffing as he did so, trying to pick up anything that may be different about the boring smells that greeted him. Once he thought there was something peculiar about one smell, but then he realised that a squirrel had bounced across the road and up a tree. Even then he had to check to make sure, making him squeeze through branches in a nearby tree to check that no one was hiding up there for any kind of reason.

For a whole hour he searched and searched, turning over every single smell that went into his senses. They were all the same. Trees, grass, earth, oxygen, pollution, food, animals and people. Nothing stuck out to him. Nothing different. Nothing unusual.

Maybe he was looking for a super bad-guy or something and it was just a normal person he was after. That meant that any natural smells could mean the murderer. That would just make it even harder.

He was about to give up when a very familiar scent caught his attention…

Laura.

She wasn’t alone. There was a boy, and they were coming closer.

Matt jumped behind a tree and shrunk down as small as he could, which wasn’t that small considering as he was a massive wolf twice the size of a normal one, if not more. However, he knew he would be camouflaged against the night sky and the other trees around him, their shadows clinging to his fur like a magnet.

Laura was first to come into view, her hair waving in the cold breeze of night, a dark coat on with a small white scarf. She was wearing large gloves and some fluffy boots, her short mini skirt hitched so high up her bum she couldn’t walk without showing a bit too much flesh. Matt shook his head and licked his dry nose, watching as she bounced past.

“We really should go watch a film, you know. It’s too cold to be hanging around outside.” She rubbed her arms and then her mouth spread into a grin as she turned around to look at the boy with her.

“I don’t feel like the cinema. Come to mine.”

“God you move quickly.” Laura laughed and Matt twisted around the tree to see who she was moving towards.

Matt growled fiercely and had to swallow the noise.

Gareth. Kristen’s Gareth. With Laura?

He didn’t understand. Laura was Kristen’s friend. Why would she be hanging around with Gareth? Unless… Matt shook his whole body as a snarl filled his throat. He knew Gareth was bad. He knew Gareth was trouble. Kristen didn’t listen to him. Already he was moving onto another girl and he, nor Laura, seemed to care about Kristen’s feelings.

Laura grabbed onto Gareth’s hands and pulled him close to her, smiling. “Fine. Lead the way.” She winked.

Gareth grabbed her hips and dragged her close, kissing her cheeks. “But the cold is nice. It shows your legs.” He winked and slid his hand down her side.

She jumped and laughed, stroking his arm. “You make me laugh, Gareth. Tut, tut. What about Kristen, eh?”

Gareth grunted and rolled his eyes. “She’s boring. Unlike you.” He kissed her roughly and she grabbed his face, kissing him just as hard back. It was disgusting, like they were eating each other's faces.

Matt snarled and his lip curled over his canines. How dare they. How dare they do that to Kristen. She didn’t deserve it. It wasn’t fair. He knew he was trouble. Now look what had happened.

“Gareth.” Laura whispered when he pulled away to breathe. “What if someone sees?”

“They wont. Come here.” He grabbed her and wrapped her legs around his waist, making her laugh before kissing him again. Her skirt blew, only just covering herself. Matt turned his head away in disgust.

He was shaking. Being a wolf and still shaking had never happened to him before. He had to be really angry. He didn’t know what to do or how to react. If he cut in their little embrace anything could happen and it would endanger himself.

Though he’d love to rip both of their heads off, he didn’t want to become the murderer. He couldn’t butt in. One, they would freak out and either run away or hit him, like it would hurt him anyway. Two, if he got involved they would report a large wolf in the area which would probably be put down as the reason for the deaths, and three, he wasn’t sure if it would be the best thing to do. If he kicked off, then what? Kristen would still be hurt.

No, it would be best if he didn’t get involved. He would tell Kristen that Gareth had cheated and that Matt had seen it with his own eyes, with Laura. If she didn’t believe it then it would be her own fault.

He did try to warn her after all.

Matt breathed out and closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see anymore. He didn’t want to imagine the pain that would fall across Kristen’s expression when she found out. He wouldn’t want to see the disappointment that would remove her smile from her face. The colour wouldn’t go as she didn’t have any colour to begin with, her skin was so white, but he knew that she’d look tired and down afterwards. She would maybe even cry. That would definitely anger him.

After a moment or two, Laura and the cheating Gareth moved away, too wrapped up in their own world to even see what Matt was doing. What was he doing anyway? He didn’t even know. He just sat there, frozen in place, not sure whether to trust himself to open his eyes. There was too much to think about. He wished he knew more about the murders than about Kristen’s love life.

Thinking about murderers, the shadow hadn’t appeared. He’d been looking for one and there still hadn’t been an appearance. If there had, he’d completely missed it. He forced himself to open his eyes and was grateful when he didn’t see Gareth or Laura in his line of sight. Breathing out, he looked around, still wondering why nothing strange had happened. It was weird not being able to chase something. Maybe the murderer had changed their mind and decided that they would get caught if they did any more.

On the bright side, if there was no murders, there would be no innocent kids being killed. That was the good thing. Still, he wanted to find out who or what was doing it, as they’d already killed a few people and didn’t deserve to be let off the hook so quickly.

Matt slunk off behind the buildings, continuing to search but coming up blank. There were going to be no murders tonight. Typical, as soon as he got into the mood there were no clues to be found. He felt himself searching everything thoroughly as if he thought he was missing something obvious.

The flicker of movement sent him stretched against the darkness of the building walls, his radar on as strong and as sensitive as ever. Most of the time it was just rats, birds, rubbish picked up in the wind or people returning from the pub or a night out. Nothing came as a threat and after a few hours Matt had to give up and return home, feeling unfulfilled and disappointed.

He collapsed onto the floor in the kitchen and sighed, folding his large paws over his nose, his fluffy dark tail curling around to touch his stomach. There was too much to think about, too much that he didn’t want to think about.

It was painful imagining Kristen’s pain when she found out. Annoying thinking about how it would affect him. Frustrating knowing that the murderer was still alive and on the lose, able to kill many more people if it wished, without restrictions. Unbelievable that he still didn’t have a clue who it was.

Matt closed his eyes and sighed. He hated being this way, being an outcast. Being unable to make someone happy. Being useless in protecting the town he lived in. What was he really doing for everyone? Would it matter if he didn’t ever wake up? Would anyone even notice? Kristen maybe, but she could easily move on.

She’d gotten Gareth, hadn’t she, even if he was scum. She’d made friends with Laura, even if she wasn’t any better than Gareth. There was nothing left for him in the world. His family was dead. He was unable to make a new family without endangering them. He was unable to be in a relationship in the first place. He had no friends and his school work didn’t much bother him, especially lately.

A tear welled up behind his eye but he blinked it back, refusing to get emotional over things that were set in stone. Instead he forced himself to sleep and dreamt. He didn’t want to dream but, of course, you cant much help it…

He dreamt that he was in school. Kristen was on the field, her eyes darker than usual, red lips that dripped down her chin. Her hair was pushed to one side where the wind had whipped it from her face, a black mess of curls. She wasn’t alone. Her eyes were wide and she was leaning over someone, a pale little boy, her black nails clutching his arm. He looked still. His chest stayed put and his face was as white as snow.

He felt himself walk up to her, unafraid, and kneel down beside her, holding out his hand. She turned her gaze to him and licked her lips away, flashing pearly white teeth. Her eyes darkened even more and she dropped the boy gently onto the brightest grass he’d ever seen, turning to Matt with gentleness. Then she took his hand and kissed his palm slowly, digging her nails into his tanned arm. He didn’t pull away but moved closer, touching her jaw line.

Her lips opened and he skimmed her bottom lip with his thumb, wiping away more redness. She hissed through her teeth and glared at him with intensity, grabbing his face. Her nails ripped at his arm, making him bleed for less than ten seconds. He snarled and burst out of his skin, his hands turning into large paws as he grew both in height and in width.

Kristen watched him, her eyes sparkling as she stroked his fur, making him purr and rub his head on her shoulder. Her fingers gripped the fur on his neck and pulled roughly, causing him to wince. “You’re a monster.” She muttered then pushed him away roughly, causing him to roll on the grass.

Matt whined and pawed at her arm but she snatched it away, hissing and standing up. “Stay away from me.”

Matt stood onto his paws and he opened his mouth, panting. He watched as she moved to Gareth, who’d only just appeared out of no where, along with Laura and half the other girls that hung around with them. There, Kristen hung onto Gareth’s shoulder, joining all the others who did the same, all of them kissing and cuddling a smug Gareth, who ripped off the girls’ jackets with hungry eyes.

Matt snarled and lowered himself to the floor, springing at Gareth with murder reflected in his pupils…

Matt gave a start and jumped to his paws. He growled loudly and scanned the kitchen, fury in his eyes. Nothing moved. He panted and whizzed around in a circle again, checking over and over with his wolf eyes. After a moment, he relaxed and sat back on his bum, his tail curling around his front paws. It was just a dream. Nothing was around him. There was no Kristen, no Gareth, no Laura. He was alone in his house in his kitchen.

He glanced at the clock and sighed. It was still a few hours before he turned back. He was tired. He didn’t want to go back to sleep in the worry that he would dream again. He yawned and moved over towards the TV, pressing his head against the sofa and closing his eyes again.

Luckily he didn’t dream again.