C7 MYSTERY

“I never imagined something like this could happen here, horrible, so horrible I can barely talk about it,” he blurted out. Jack asked what had happened. “They didn't say much, they just said they were really hurt, a lot, no one could see much, thank goodness,” he recounted. Kurt asked what he was talking about. “The twelve of Lightning. Brian and his whole gang were killed,” he finished, walking away, leaving the boys completely upset about the situation.

“What did we do?” asked Jack, rhetorically.

“We didn't do anything, Jack,” Kurt said firmly. “Let's go see Cassie. She's over there,” and made his way toward her, still standing in the same position as before.

“Cassie, are you okay?”, Jack questioned, noticing the state the woman was in. Pale and frightened, something he had never seen before.

“Wolves,” she said, not making eye contact, still shaken by everything.

“What?” asked Jack, startled, wide-eyed.

“I saw wolves. I saw gray wolves,” she said, static. Now both boys were amazed, they looked at each other for a second and decided to get out of there. “And a black wolf…,” she finished, piquing the boys' interest. “He left the room first, then the others left. I remember everything I saw, I can't get that slaughter out of my mind,” she said. There was nothing more to find out about it; twelve boys were dead, and they were the killers.

“It must be the same wolf from that day,” Jack commented, already walking away.

“Was there anyone else there besides you guys?” his friend asked. Jack said there was only him and the twelve of them. “It's someone from the outside, I vaguely remember seeing him enter the room before he changed. If twelve are dead, this guy showed up later and changed first. We're killers.”

“We still don't know what happened, it doesn't make sense, we never had any incentive for it, very strange our wolves acted that way. Look, I just want to go home and not think about anything else, okay? I think I've had enough for today, I just need some time,” Jack ordered. There was no question about it, he was right, about everything.

DAYS BEFORE

“Feeling anything yet, Kurt?” asked Jack, behind the wheel, heading for the usual spot. Kurt said he was still fine, but already feeling some things. “If we don't gas up the car now, we'll have no way back. Do you think you can drive in time for us not to move?”. It was clear in Jack's voice that he was not comfortable, he was already going through some stages of the change. Kurt nodded and Jack turned toward a nearby gas station. Once they arrived, they switched places, Kurt took the wheel and Jack took care of the fueling, quick enough to just get in the car and lie down on the seat, while Kurt sped up to get back on track.

It was the longest 10 minutes of that week when Kurt finally parked the car in the usual spot and helped Jack down. As usual, they separated, changed, and met.

Everything happened as it always did, except for the fact that that night they smelled the odor of a wolf, not from the car, not from them. It was from another wolf, but the smell was not as strong. Fearful of what they would find, they followed their instinct and avoided approaching, but to no avail, in a moment the wolf appeared in front of them. They couldn't tell if it was just a wolf or if it was human like them.

The wolf did nothing, it didn't follow them or attack them, it just walked by watching them and followed wherever it was following. The boys couldn't risk anything that could reveal what they were, but each time they changed, they felt the fear of not being rational anymore and just acting like a wolf. Jack would black out for a few minutes and not seem to think, so it was something real. In their minds, it was only a matter of time before it was reality, and now that they were dealing with random transformations, they assumed that maybe it was closer than they would like. It was time to pursue the idea of finding out where it all came from, who they were, why they were, and if they could stop it, or at least control it. Someone had to have answers.

The next morning, Jack woke up staggering more than usual, as well as his vision was extremely blurred; he could swear he heard a voice say “you did it,” but it soon passed. Walking to the car, the trunk was open, literally open, rolled up. They never left the car vulnerable, least of all like that. There had been exactly six sets of clothes when they left, and at that moment they only had five. Someone had stolen a pair of clothes. Immediately the image of the black wolf came to mind, it was the only explanation for it, and surely it was a human too. Without wasting any time, he picked up one of the sets and ran to Kurt, waking him up. “We need to get out of here. Come on!” he exclaimed, pulling a half-awake Kurt up. “I'll explain everything to you in the car, but right now, we have to go.”

As they walked back down the avenue, Jack told about how he woke up disoriented and how he thought he heard something, he also told about the car, worried. “Whoever that wolf is, he knows I am one. It's my car, I'm sure he recognized it,” he drove worriedly.

“Calm down, Jack. We don't know anything right yet, and if he happens to have seen something, he can't say anything, it's the same secret we have,” Kurt tried to comfort him.

“Kurt, if they know it's me, they know it's you too. Everyone sees us together all the time,” Jack explained. Kurt stopped and thought for a moment, it made sense, he was as much in the crosshairs as Jack was.