ALANON - BY SIRIUS
Chapter 1-The beginning
He stared at me with those menacing dark eyes again. Beneath those eyes
there were so many secrets to see, but each secret
seemed to be battling over each other to see which would out weigh the
other.
The night hinted at surprises with its whistling wind, and pitch black
skies. The wind promised surprise at every corner, the last corner I
turned left me with the monster that has been following me for the past
nine days.
His head was bald, there was no hint of his real hair color, except for
the dark eyebrows that he had just above those dark, dark eyes.
He was physically empowering. He was way over 6 feet tall, closer to 7
feet if anything. His muscles were bulging under all the black he
wore. He tried to be mysterious, compelling, but after seven years in the
hell I lived through, this guy seemed like strawberry cake with
whip cream on top.
He had his knife out and pointed at me in no time at all, but I didn’t
panic. He kept on coming closer and closer to me, and I still didn’t
panic. When he tried to grab me, and I moved out of the way, I still wasn’t
panicking. It was only several minutes later when I ended up
on the dirty, filthy floor of that dark corner, with the bald man holding
a knife to my throat, and missing half of my clothes was when I
really started panicking.
I tried to reason with the man, but he wouldn’t have anything to do with
what I said. I tried screaming into the night, hoping that
someone would hear my cries, but to no effect, because the large man placed
his gargantuan of a hand over my mouth. I tried biting his
hand, but also to no effect because obviously this insane man was immune
to any physical pain inflicted upon him.
When he eased up on me to reach into a black bag behind him, there was
enough slack for me to reach behind me into the purse I
carried to whip out my stun gun. I didn’t bother with it earlier, because
I didn’t think I would need it. I thought I was some hotshot
because I grew up in the wrong part of town and if I could defend my self
there, then I could surely defend myself against some
sleazebag. I was wrong, but soon I was going to fix all that.
I forced my hand down low on his body, and when I was near enough to his
pelvic region, I stunned him. The stun gun proved to be very
efficient. The man howled in pain, doubled over, perfect time for a swift
kick in the head, which he promptly deserved and got. Once the
bulking man was down for the count I booked out of there like no tomorrow.
I ran till I saw lights surround me. Only then did I feel safe, well as
safe as I could get at the moment considering I found myself smack
dab in the middle of the Vamp district.
“Edward.”
That was all he ever said when he answered the phone, and Olaf was content with that. No complaints from him.
“Olaf, here.”
There was a considerable amount of silence from the other line, in which Olaf took as Edwards shock to him actually calling.
“Do you need something, Olaf?”
That was Edward, no preliminaries, just straight to business, the way he liked it.
“I need your help to track down this girl, and I thought her case might interest you.”
“Shoot.”
“Her name is Alanon Beckard, Al to her friends. Now, her friends are the
ones that are going to interest you the most. Al’s friends are
that new gang from <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
/>New York that just happened
to move in here. You know the gang of lycanthrope kids that cause havoc
wherever they go. The police and every bounty hunter have
been after this gang for years, but haven’t caught them yet.”
“This does interest me, but what’s with the girl?”
“The girl’s my prey.”
“Jesus Christ Olaf! Can’t you just leave well enough alone?”
“No.”
“Alright. I help you find the girl and the gang, on one condition.”
“And that is?”
“I get to try out my new flame thrower.”
“Al! Where you been all nigh? We’ve been waitn’ for’eva! Let’s gets this hoppin’ partay on the roll’.”
That was Tony, all play and no work. He didn’t like planning the heists,
but he loved playing his part in them thoroughly. Tony was the
slacker of the group, and the only were-tiger we had.
Mike was the big cheese in our little gang. He was the only were-rat, and
very proud of it. The only reason he was the leader of our
small pack, which consisted of 13 shape shifters and one human, was because
he was a were and I wasn’t. I was the only human in
the gang. I couldn’t become a were even if I wanted to, but I don’t want
to talk about the tragic reasons I was denied to ever becoming a
were, I’m too much of an optimist to force sad topics about.
All the other gang members, besides Tony and Mike don’t even like me. They
want to kick me out because I’m a liability and too weak,
but Mike always persuades them that I’m just too smart not to keep around,
and having a human can be useful at some points in time,
like the heist we were about to do.
There was a small little joint around the corner that was near closing
time, but raked in the money like no tomorrow. Mike and I planned
the whole thing out as soon as we arrived in St. Louis. Guilty Pleasures
was the next place on the list that was about to loose a lot of
money.
The gang packed up all the heat we had, and headed out down the road. The
darkness enclosed the shape shifters, but it never
seemed to enclose me like it did them. Maybe it was sign that I didn’t
belong with them, but there wasn’t anybody but them that I
trusted, so I didn’t really have a choice in the matter.
Chapter 2-The Campfire
Mike had point, and I was stuck in the back with the wicked witch from
the west, Marie. Her favorite game in life was to annoy the hell
out of me, which only took about a millisecond. She was one of the right
wingers that believed I shouldn’t be a part of the gang, but she
always went at a different tactic to try to convince Mike, mainly sleeping
with him, and performing every type of sex that can even be
described with him. It never worked, and I knew why.
Mike was my brother, my blood, my family. Family doesn’t turn around and
stab you with your own knife. Family sticks together, and
even though my little gang would like to consider itself a family, it’s
just as dysfunctional as any other. There’s always mini power
struggles, and conflicts with every person in every way possible. One man
didn’t like the way another man smirked over food, or the
way they talked, or walked, or breathed. There were always silly little
biases like that all the time.
As Marie was describing the recent sexual explorations that she and Mike
had, the first glimpse of Guilty Pleasures came into view. It
was nearing five-o-clock in the morning, and the evening was definitely
winding down.
Jimmy, our scout, has been watching Guilty Pleasures for the last five
days, and has concluded that the money collected each night is
taken out by the manager of the joint. Always at a quarter after five.
We gathered behind the nearest dumpster, yeah I know real classy, but hey
big operations can accommodate anything. When the man
that exited the building matching the description that Jimmy depicted,
I came around the dumpster pretending to be lost and helpless.
Since I practically grew up around shifters, I learned very quickly how
to lie around them and pull it off.
I went right up to the man with a tacky looking suit, and knew the instant
I was in his presence that he was very much dead, and not to
be trusted because he was a vamp.
When I caught sight of his face, I got a brief glance, and discovered its
unmistakable beauty, but I didn’t glance long because I knew he
was a vamp, and I knew never to look them in the eyes.
Looking around frantically, I stepped closer to him, but not too close to become a hostage, and laid down my little sob act on him.
“P-please mister, (sniff) I’ve b-been wandering around the streets for
h-hours (sniffle) and-and haven’t had anything to eat in-in days.
T-the streets are bare and crowded, and-“
I was suddenly cut off by an approaching car that stopped right next to
me and the dead guy. The man in the car I recognized, but I
didn’t know the man in the passenger seat. They both exited the car at
the same time, while the man I just met pushed me behind him
in a reassuring way of protecting me against the big bad men.
The dead guy was still holding the pouch that contained the money, but
to free his hands, he mistakenly turned around and told me to
hold onto it while he protected me from these “goons”. This whole situation
couldn’t have worked out more perfect. I had the money and
a vamp was about to beat up on the cretin who kept on harassing me.
I started to take large steps backward, towards the dumpster. All the while
the men were in a type of standoff, and not a word was
spoken just deadly looks were exchanged.
As soon as I was far enough away, I ran my little feet out of there. When
I passed the dumpster, I heard the outcries of the vampire
about the money and how he was pleading about protecting me. Of course
the guy must have really wanted to get into a fight with
them, because if he cared more about the money he would have come after
me. But hey, boys will be boys, not matter what breed.
When I turned back again, I noticed my gang following right behind, and
catching up quite fast considering their advantage over me.
Once Mike was even with me he picked me up and as a big family we ran all
the way home.
“You’ve distracted us long enough, little man.”
Willie was definitely intimidated by the large man, but he knew that he
had the greater advantage in the long run. “I don’t know what you
two boys want, but I assure you, I’m in quite the mood for a fight. That
poor little girl needs that money, I can tell, but it’s gonna come
from my pay check in the end. So don’t even start to get on my bad side
right now!”
“Bad news for you then, because you obviously have the worst judge of character.
That little girl that you depicted doesn’t need that
money, because her little gang is very rich after all the years they’ve
been robbing innocent establishments like yours here, well not
exactly innocent...”
Olaf let Edward ramble on. There was no way to track the gang right now.
They probably have already moved out of their hotel and are
hiding out somewhere till the next heist. Damn it all to hell. Things just
weren’t working out for him this time around. And that was
probably the biggest incentive of all on this case. The girl was hard to
track, almost too hard. This just kept on building the inevitable
climactic experience to come.
The total sum in the pouch was $13,000. A good night for everyone, meaning
a great big party. The party that night was out in the
country. For fun the gang enjoyed pissing off other packs and pards and
every other type of group, by using their sacred places. Tonight
we were at the St. Louis’s were wolves Lupanar.
After several hours of hard drinking and dancing in the early morning daylight,
the gang ended up in the near by barn, to discover the
amazing interior of the place. There weren’t any official beds, but it
was very well furnished with couches and blankets. Must be where
the were wolfs hung out when they were changing back into human form.
Once everyone was settled down for the night, I got up and went outside
of the barn. The early autumn breeze was a delightful
experience. Just the type of pick me up needed for my amazing headache
that began to creep its way into a more irritating migraine.
I headed off for a trail to try to relieve my head pains. I’ve always liked
the smell and the sights of woods. They’ve always brought me
comfort deep down inside. The trail winded this way and that, and finally
spit me out on top of a hill. On the top of the hill I could see
the Lupanar and the barn, it was pretty high up, and had the most outrageous
view of nature at its best. I heard a deep, but far away
rumbling sound, which called my attention toward the road that led into
the Lupanar, and the barn.
The vehicle looked familiar; actually it was the same vehicle that approached
me and the dead guy earlier this morning. It was the
automobile that held the bald headed psycho. That same psycho and his friend
took out a nasty weapon that resembled a flame
thrower, from the backseat. Too petrified to move, I watched as the large,
bald man went inside, no doubt looking for me, and came out
disappointed but gave some sort of symbol to the other man to start torching
the place. In one instant the building was fine, the next it
was burning and the cries of help from my family and friends were muffled
by the sparking embers of wood. My whole fucking family,
my life, just went up in flames. I was pissed beyond words at that moment.
But after careful consideration, it was obvious that blasting
down there and being burned to a crisp was a really stupid idea.
So I ran. I ran along the path that continued and ran till I couldn’t run
anymore. I passed out from exhaustion and exertion. The leaves
were the comfiest objects that I could scrounge up, and I had not problem
with that.