The Curse of Immortality (1)
What happens to an average Joe that is chosen for the curse of immortality?
There are stretches of days where everything is coming up aces. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, you find a quarter that is heads up and you know that good luck is shining the favor of the universe down upon you. You start to think that you are invincible and nothing can go wrong. While you walk down the street, women smile at you, old ladies wave, and the men tip their hats, figuratively speaking anyway. Life is good. Until, it’s not.
You start thinking that everything is a sham. This is too good to be true. Something is going to go wrong at any minute. Now whether this is self sabotage or not, things inevitably start to spiral. You get drenched in the morning rain and the thunder has driven the birds away. The penny you just picked up is tails up, which means bad luck is headed your way. The women are now ignoring you, the old ladies are sneering, and the men are making rude gestures. Welcome to the lows. Now you’re in the dumps and nothing is going right. You seek out alcohol or some other way to dull the pain of being. Why is the universe cursing you like this?
That was me. That’s why I was sitting in a bar at 1 AM on a Friday night, and drawing my sorrows. However, just like Bono of U2 sang, my sorrows learned to swim. They would not go away. They were taunting me from within. I was on the lookout for the next piece of bad that would be coming my way. There was no getting off of this downward spiral now. Until…
Fate? Good? Evil? Luck? I don’t know for sure but whatever it was stepped in. Two gorgeous women joined me at the bar. On my right was an Asian woman, long dark straight hair, tanned skin, a petite figure, and wrapped in a tight red dress that was ready for the club scene. Eyes you could die for! On my left was a blonde with long straight hair, pale white skin, red lips, and blue eyes. She was wearing the same kind of dress but it was the darkest black with sparkles. It was an overdose of beauty.
I lowered my head and scrunched down a bit while hovering over my bourbon. I’d lost count of the number of glasses I already had but I was nursing this last one. No way these two beauties would even notice me. It was better to just wallow in my self pity. That is, until they each reached out and touched my arms. My eyebrows went up in surprise. I looked from one to the other and back again. The universe must have been fucking with me.
“I’m Sin,” said the Asian woman.
“And I’m Angela,” said the Blonde woman with a lovely English accent.
I gulped back my surprise and said, “I’m Connor?” As more of a question than a statement of reality. What was happening?
“Can I buy you two a drink?” I asked.
Angela touched my chin and gently turned my head her way and then said, “We think you’ve had enough to drink tonight. Why don’t you come back to our hotel?”
At this point, I halfway figured that I was probably laying on the bar floor, possibly dying from vomit that couldn’t escape my mouth, and these two beautiful women were the bright light at the end of the tunnel. I had to be checking out. So what does one do when the metaphor for a bright light shows up? One follows it and doesn’t ask questions. That’s exactly what I did.
I was naked in a hotel bed. The sheets and bedspread were strewn across the floor. This time Sin was in the embrace of my left arm and Angela in my right. Both, also naked. All three of us were covered in sweat from a couple of hours of sexual exertion. Anyway, from my perspective, it seemed like a couple of hours but truthfully, I was working from under a bourbon haze. So let’s just call it a give or take of a couple of hours.
They both sat up, turned to a position on their knees, and looked at me. I was the center of attention. This was the life. I smiled and and looked back and forth from one to the other with a dopey grin. I could still focus my eyes but that haze that clouded my brain was the darndest thing. I had never felt something like that before. It was different from your ordinary binge drinking buzz effect. Then again, I also thought I was dead and this was heaven.
“Connor, do you like monster movies?” Asked Sin.
“Monster movies? Like the Blob or something?”
“Or something,” said Angela.
“I like the classics. The old black and white stuff with Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr, and Boris Karloff.” I said.
“Now that’s more like it,” replied Angela. “You like the old Universal Monster stuff. Good taste.”
I smiled to myself. I made them happy.
“Let’s play a game!” Said Sin.
“What sort of game?” I asked. “One like the one that we just got done playing?”
“No sweetie, this one leads to immortality,” replied Sin.
Yep, I was dead.
“Here’s how it works,” said Angela, “We’ll say the names of two monsters, and you choose which one you would want to be. First one to come into your head when you hear them”
“Sure, I’m down for that. You girls really like the horror and monster stuff huh?” To which they both just smiled.
“The invisible man or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?” asked Angela.
“Mr. Invisible!” I for some reason shouted. “He can spy on people. The girls glanced at each other and smiled.
“Frankenstein’s monster or The Creature from the Black Lagoon?” Asked Sin.
“Oh… Brain freeze. The monster is kind of dumb but the creature is always wet and in the water. This is a tough one. I’m going to say… The creature.”
“Last question,” said Sin.
“Would you rather be Dracula or The Wolfman?” asked Angela.
“The Wolfman for sure.” And just like that, Sin moved forward in a flash. Her long black hair swished up over my face. Intense pain spread through my left side collarbone to shoulder area. I felt warm liquid running down my chest as I looked over to Angela, who was just staring at me with a smile plastered to her face. The ability to speak was gone and I was paralyzed with an all encompassing fear. Holy shit, I was dying in the afterlife. Can you die in the afterlife? What the hell was happening.
Sin sat up. Her mouth was covered in what had to be my blood. It was dripping off of her chin, onto her breasts and running down her stomach. Her pretty face smiled at me and she said, “Don’t worry Connor dear, the pain will subside. You’ll be immortal now.”
They both got up from the bed. Sin went into the bathroom to wash off my blood and Angela started to put her clothes back on. Meanwhile, I just laid there, unable to move, watching this play out as if I was watching a horror movie starring me as victim number one.
“I really thought he was going to say Dracula like the last one,” said Angela.
“Oh shut up, bitch. You had the last two. We’ve hit the vampire quota, time for some wolves to be brought into the night,” replied Sin.
“I have to admit, the way you pounced on him was quite impressive. How did he taste?”
“Good,” she replied. “He’s the wolf type I think. White male, long dark hair, tall, and he’s got the mustache goatee thing that is so sexy. I think he’ll make a good addition to the pack.”
“You know, he could have easily fit in with the coven too. There’s an Interview with the Vampire atmosphere about him,” said Angela.
“Tough, he’s mine now!” smiled Sin.
“You got the instructions?” asked Angela.
“Right here,” said Sin as she was putting on her clothes. She pulled out a sheet of paper from some luggage in the corner and then set it on the nightstand next to me, “Sweetie, you’re going to want to read this several times in a few hours. It’s for your own good and the good of those around you. I’ll check back up on you in a few weeks before the full moon and we’ll go over some things. But for now, this is your study guide.”
She took my wallet out from the pocket of my pants, which were on the floor, and then removed my drivers license. “Connor Thorn, wow, your name even fits the lifestyle. How gothic?” She then used her phone to take a photo of it. After she was done, she put it back, turned toward me and smiled, “By the way, don’t worry about cleaning up the blood. We have people that will take care of that.”
As they were leaving I heard Sin compliment Angela, “That was a nice job, compelling him from the start.”
“Oh, it wasn’t too terribly hard. He had been putting those shots of Angel Envy down all night. I could tell I had him hooked from the first glance.”
The door shut and there I was. A living corpse that was paralyzed and unable to move or speak. It wasn’t long until my eyes started getting heavy and I was out like a light.
I awoke from my nightmare in a screaming sweat, sitting up so fast that a dizziness threatened to overtake me and knock me back out. I rolled to the left and fell to the floor, coughing and gasping for breath. My left arm down to my hand was caked in dried blood, as well as my chest. I tried to stand up but fell instantly. Shaking the haze from my head, I attempted to stand again, this time I was shaky, I didn’t know if walking was an option or if my motor skills were completely broken. Taking a series of deep breaths, I cautiously rotated and then put one foot slowly in front of the other. It was a slow trek toward the bathroom and the only goal I could set. I didn’t even want to think about seeing the gaping, and what must be, ragged wound on my shoulder. I just needed to get to the bathroom and hopefully dump myself in the tub. I need to turn on the shower and just lay there under hot water.
As I hobbled across the threshold into the bathroom, I purposefully refused to look at the mirror on the wall to my left. One thing at a time. My mind could only handle one thing at a time. Step by step I moved and then threw myself over the tub’s edge and used my foot to turn the faucet on. The cold water flowed from the bath faucet and sent chills through my body. It took close to a minute for the water to warm. The moment it did, I again used my foot to kick the changeover switch for the shower nozzle. The water was now close to a hot scald but I was too spent to bother messing with it. So be it I thought. With that, I lost consciousness again.
Again I awoke from a nightmare. I had been running through a forest. Something was coming after me. I was the prey. I was food. And then, I was awake. Steam from the hot water encompassed me. I used my foot to turn the faucet off. The haze in my head was no longer so heavy. I could focus my eyes now. I could think with a bit more clarity. My first clear thought was, what the hell did those two women do to me?
I slowly stood in the tub and gingerly stepped out, careful not to slip and bust my head open on the slick surface. Meandering over to the sink, I looked into the steam covered mirror with intense trepidation. I kept thinking, I’m going to need stitches. That was a lot of blood. What if they have to cut dead skin away? I am so fucked.
The hand towel hung to the left of me. I reached out, pulled it off its hook and then swiped the steam from the mirror in one stroke. Raising my head, I looked at my image and was astounded. My shoulder and collarbone were pink but mending. There was no open wound. The shower had washed the dried blood away and there was no gaping bite mark. With my right hand I reached up and touched the pink flesh. It was tender. It stung just a little bit but overall, it wasn’t hurting. What sort of madness was this?
That’s when I remembered something about there being “instructions.” I moved from the bathroom back to the bed faster than I thought my legs would carry me. To my astonishment, I was moving like normal. The haze and paralysis were completely gone. There was no paper on the nightstand. I dropped to my knees and looked under the bed, nothing. I got up, looked to the side of the nightstand, nothing. Last shot, I looked behind it and there it was. It must have fluttered off when I originally rolled out of the bed. I reached back and pulled it out. Then I stumbled back, looked at the red stained sheets where a murder appeared to have happened, and then turned and walked over to the lone chair in the room. Taking a seat, I held the paper up and began to read about my new life:
Welcome to Immortality,
You have been selected for immortality by a member of the South Eastern Pack. As such, you shall attend your first Pack meeting no less than 7 days before your first full moon or 7 days after your first full moon, depending on your bite date and the phase to which the moon is currently at.
You are now a werewolf. The lycanthrope curse now courses through your body. This may sound like a doctor notifying you that you have a fatal condition but that could not be further from the truth. You are now immortal.
Here’s a list of some of the perks you will discover from your new state of being:
Immortality
A super healing factor
Heightened senses of sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch.
Strength when in the various wolf states
Did we mention immortality?
I guess we should explain the “wolf states” first and foremost. It’s not like in the TV and movies. Okay, maybe not just like it. For starters, you’re going to go full wolf on the waxing moon, the full moon, and the waning moon. Those three nights are when you are at peak wolf. The change is dramatic and you will grow bigger than you currently are but look more wolf-like. On the waxing and waning moon, you will have full cognitive functions and be able to control your actions. Not so much on the full, at least not at first. It may take a couple years to a couple decades to be able to control yourself on the full moon. So make sure you have a big roast and some solitude on that night. You wouldn’t want to hurt anyone.
As for the rest of the days of the month, there’s good news! You can control your change. You won’t go full werewolf though. You’ll look more like a wolfman (or woman) than a werewolf on these days. You’ll be way more powerful than your human form but around half the power of your full on werewolf form. Overall, it’s not so bad. And again, you’re now immortal.
ADDENDUM: If you get shot, stabbed, or impaled with silver and it does actual internal damage, unfortunately the tales are true, you will die. The curse can’t deal with silver and neither can your healing factor when there is too much damage. Also, getting your head cut off is curtains. Game Over. No more howling at the moon after that fatality.
When you attend your first Pack meeting you will be given additional information. Your maker will be in contact with you between then and now, to get you on the path to living immortality like a true Wolf King. Welcome to the Pack!
I read over the paper three more times and tried to come to terms with the words written there. Between the levity and the horror, I have to say, I was pretty fucked up.
TO BE CONTINUED…