Guardians of the Gates - Part 1, The New Breed, Jeff Schanz [e book reader free TXT] 📗

that park, and then this he’ya article says the same thing, but it thinks they’s werewolves. So, I’s just wonderin’.”

“Maybe it was Bigfoot,” said Sebastian, trying to sound humorous.

“You know Bigfoot don’t go ‘round England.” Orpheus didn’t always get Sebastian’s sense of humor. “But he’yas why I’m thinking they maybe right. The news says they’s two folks been killed. One got his neck torn up and the other’n got his head chopped clean off.”

Deceivingly smart this man. I can guess where he’s going with this.

“In the paper he’ya,” Orpheus continued, “It says they found parts of the one man in the teeth of the other’n. And it says since t’ain’t nothing lyin’ around that killed the other’n, they think somebody else killed that man. The police says an animal killed the one man, but this he’ya paper says they thinks since da one man done bit the other’n, maybe he’s a werewolf.” Fee flattened the page and held it up for Sebastian to see. “Got a picture he’ya of somebody running away, carryin’ a girl too. Maybe he da one killed the werewolf and saved the girl.”

A picture?! Oh, yay. The council will have a field day with that. Sebastian restrained himself from climbing over the desk to have a better look at the picture. The distance Fee was holding it made it difficult, but Sebastian managed to make out the picture with some effort and a little squinting: A blurry night shot of the back of a dark figure in a dark coat with a woman’s legs sticking out one side. Someone could possibly infer height and the fact that he was male, but other than that, about a billion people fit the description. Still, though – not a desirable development.

“They find any silver bullets?” asked Sebastian, with more attempted humor.

“No, suh. But I heard you could kill a werewolf by a’chopping off his head.”

And you heard right.

“An this’n got his head chopped off. So, I’s wonderin’ if maybe they’s right.”

“Don’t know about werewolves. Sorry. I don’t suppose the picture was on the TV news?”

“Shoot, I don’t know. I wasn’t paying all that much attention to TV this mornin’. It just seemed funny when I saw this he’ya paper.”

“Well, hopefully, it isn’t real,” said Sebastian.

“Eh, don’t matter. Just hopin’ that if’n it is a werewolf, he didn’t go hurtin’ nobody else.”

Me too.

Fee angled the article back to his eyes. “Jus funny is all. Usually them kinda crazy things happen way out in the country. Why this werewolf is in the middle of that big ol’ city, and ain’t nobody seen him, is funny to me.”

Sebastian stretched a little to have another look at the picture in Fee’s paper. Maybe he missed some recognizable detail on his first glance? Maybe his hairstyle? No. He was being paranoid. If he was recognizable at all, Fee would’ve been the first to see it. “Did it say where that guy was from? The guy that got his head chopped off?”

“No. Jus says he didn’t have no family. Only went missing one day. Wonder how he turned into a werewolf?”

Same thing I’m wondering.

Orpheus kept reading. “Says he didn’t show up foh work and folks thought he got caught up in one a’ them cults, or some’m. Maybe ran off and shave his head, start bangin’ on a tambourine, or some’m.”

“Might have. Werewolf thing’s gotta be bogus.”

“Yeah, maybe,” laughed Orpheus. “Only thing his work folks remember is that he come back from lunch one day looking like he seen a ghost, or some’m. Then, the next day he don’t come back at all.”

Sebastian began to try and fit that nugget into his puzzle, then stopped himself. There could be any number of plausible explanations for the guy’s work behavior. Regardless of his eventual transformation, Sebastian couldn’t go interjecting possibilities into coincidences to try and create facts.

“Well, I can’t go solving the mystery for them way over here,” said Sebastian, trying to seem less interested. “He’s probably just some crazy guy on drugs, or worships some weird cannibal cult. Too many crazy people in this world to try to explain all of ‘em.”

But Sebastian was anything but disinterested. That rag shouldn’t have any reasonable information in it whatsoever, yet it strangely had a tidbit he could add to his puzzle. A puzzle that still had no corner pieces yet.

“Yes, suh, I agree with that. Bunch a crazy people in this world.”

Crazy, yes. And perhaps ballsy. Bad guys trying to manipulate dimensional energy, volunteers and victims for – what? Experiments? Sirens to lure the volunteers in? Was the wolfer in the park an experiment gone wrong? Or maybe an experiment gone right?

Orpheus went back to his paper, first checking his pocket watch. No wristwatch for Orpheus. His grandfather had passed down a silver watch chain that had been bought with a year’s worth of savings to make the old man feel respectable. Orpheus wanted to honor his grandfather and used the chain to keep a newer battery-powered pocket watch. He gave up on The Globe, folded it onto his lap, settled into the seat, and closed his eyes.

Sebastian was considering borrowing the folded Globe from Orpheus when his cell phone chimed. The little notification “ding” told him he had en email: “Re: Aunt Em.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

This concludes the sample.

The full version of this book is available at these retailers:

 

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Publication Date: 09-14-2019

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