BARK AT THE MOON

By Wesley Overhults

San Francisco, California

They smashed their bodies together with a manic fervor that she couldn’t quite understand.  The music thumped in time with their racing hearts.  The lyrics, more screams than words, spoke to an inner rage that all of them possessed.  Everything was noise and primal fury.  Rachel Roth watched that emotional volcano erupt from a safe distance, not inclined to get herself lost in the madness of the mosh pit.  She could see the red glow of anger radiate off of all the crowd at the concert.  It flared brightest in the band members on what passed for the stage in the somewhat dingy club.

Rachel understood anger.  Certainly she had felt it over a great portion of her life and had good reasons for those feelings.  She was angry about the Church of Blood’s machinations in her life, about how their meddling drove a wedge between her and her best friend at a time when she needed that stability the most.  She was angry that the Church was responsible for Megan’s death and that the Church orchestrated that death all in the name of helping Rachel fulfill her destiny.  That meant that part of the blame for Megan’s death fell on Rachel’s shoulders and those shoulders had become even heavier with the burden of death as of late.  However, Rachel had something new to be angry about this evening.

Rachel never had many friends, certainly not ones she could be close to.  Lately, however, there was one person that she could call a friend.  June and Rachel were almost polar opposites but for some reason they had been thrown together by a strange set of circumstances that bound them to one another. Rachel considered June a friend, the closest friend she had at this point in her life.  That was why it hurt her when she discovered that June had lied to her. It was a lie of omission, the simple act of not telling Rachel about something that had occurred.  Rachel knew it wasn’t the worst thing in the world, knew that June had every right to live her life the way she wanted and make her own choices.  However, Rachel couldn’t help but feel a need to look out for June, to protect her only friend from the cruelties of the world she had become a part of through her association with Rachel.  It was this protectiveness that led to Rachel’s anger and led to her going to the club alone.  So here she was now, watching the throng of happy-angry people gleefully take out their frustrations on each other.  She wished she could be happy about being miserable.  She wished she could be happy about something.

June’s Apartment, One Hour Ago

“So this isn’t really my thing.”

June Moone looked up from her textbook and saw her roommate and friend standing in front of her.  Rachel nervously looked at the floor and then flicked her eyes back up to meet June’s.  She took a piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to June.  June quizzically looked at the flyer.

“You know how I like to go to that coffee shop, right?” explained Rachel.  “Well, I saw that while I was there and, I dunno, I wanted to check it out.  I thought maybe you might come with me?”

“I’d like to but I really can’t tonight,” said June.  “I’ve got a lot of stuff to work on.”

Rachel wondered how normal people could lie to each other so easily.  She could see that something about June’s emotional aura was off, that she was nervous about something.  Most of the time when someone displayed that level of nervousness after just saying something, it was because that something was a lie.  Rachel felt the anger flare in her.  June was the one that wanted them to be “real friends” and here was Rachel making the effort to do just that. Why would June deceive her?

“June, don’t lie to me,” she ordered the older girl.  “You’re nervous about something; I can see that.  Tell me what it is.”

June bit her lip and looked for a moment as if she was going to lie to her friend again.  She wanted to but she knew that no matter what other lie she could construct, Rachel would see through it in a second.  Friends were honest with one another.  It was time for her to come clean about something that she should have told Rachel about the night that it happened.

“You remember that night you worked out the sewer killings?” asked June and Rachel nodded.  “I was out doing something else while you were doing that. I wanted to tell you about it that night but you fell asleep and I never got the guts to tell you again.  I was out with Sebastian Foster, the guy from that antique shop.  We were . . . I dunno if we were on a date or what it was.”

“A date?” asked Rachel.  “I know your memory gets spotty where The Enchantress is concerned, June, but you know that guy is shady.  You know he’s probably working for Brother Night and that means nothing good is going to come from hanging around him.  Why would you put yourself in that situation?”

“I don’t know,” admitted June.  “Look, I know that you’re right, Rachel.  I know I can’t trust him yet but I just . . . I think there’s something good in him. He told me that he doesn’t work for Night anymore.”

“And suddenly you believe him?” asked Rachel, the anger rising in her voice.  “I thought you were smarter than that, June, really I did.  I can’t believe you would do something so dumb.”

“What I do isn’t any of your business.”

Rachel wasn’t going to dignify that with a response.  She knew somewhere in her mind that she needed to get out of that apartment because if she got angrier she was going to cause a scene.  She had developed a lot of control over her abilities but they could still get out of control when her temper flared. Rachel turned and stormed out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her.  June watched her go and bit her lip again, trying to stifle the tears that threatened to leak from her eyes.

‘You have no reason to cry about something so trivial.  If anything, I applaud your involvement with Sebastian.  There’s a certain danger about him that I can appreciate.’

June knew that she couldn’t listen to what The Enchantress was telling her.  She knew that Sebastian was dangerous and that he was most likely lying to her.  She knew he couldn’t be trusted.  She wanted to believe that there was a good man inside him though.  Wanting to believe it didn’t make it true and maybe it was time for her to realize that.

Now

Rachel had resigned herself to sitting at the bar since there was no other place for her to sit.  She watched as the next band began setting up their equipment and doing a sound-check.  She wished that she could be like the people at the club, all of them angry at the world while not really having good reasons to feel that way.  None of them had to deal with the fact that their fathers were demons.  None of them had to deal with living alone with no one to turn to for shelter.  They lived happy, normal lives filled with fake angst that she could only dream of.  Rachel longed for her life to go back to that.  She never really realized it before but she was happy with her life in Gotham.  It was certainly preferable to the one she currently lived.  She wished that things had turned out differently and realized she had long ago stopped counting the number of times she had made such a wish.

“You look like a girl with too much on her mind.”

Rachel turned her head in the direction of the voice.  She recognized the boy who had spoken to her as a member of the band who had just finished their set.  The boy was sitting next to her on one of the barstools, his body curved to the side so he could look at Rachel while he attempted to make conversation with her.

“Most of the time I am,” replied Rachel.  “I caught most of your set.  You guys are good.”

“Thanks,” said the boy.  “My name’s Jake.  Mind if I buy you a drink?”

“Rachel,” she replied and casually pointed to the X across the back of her hand.  “I think the people that own this place might have something to say about it.”

The club was for people sixteen and up but they obviously didn’t serve alcohol to minors.  She had flashed the bouncer her actual ID, deciding that as long as he didn’t pay too much attention to the name then it was alright.  The bouncer used a marker to put an X on her hand, a sign that she was under twenty-one and couldn’t be served alcohol.  Rachel wasn’t big on drinking anyway.  She never really understood the point in it.

“Water it is then,” decided Jake as he motioned to the bartender.  “So what made you decide to come here tonight, Rachel?”

“I like the atmosphere.”  Rachel was trying to gauge the boy’s emotional aura.  “Are you guys local or just on tour?”

“Local but I move around a lot,” answered Jake.  “I don’t really like to stay in one place too long.”

Rachel could sympathize with that.  She didn’t really live in places, merely moved through them.  Things changed when she settled in San Francisco though.  She felt like maybe she could belong in the city, felt like maybe she could finally have a place to call home.  She felt like maybe it was her friendship with June that made her feel like San Francisco was worth staying in.  Maybe she was stupid to yell at June the way she had.  It wasn’t as if she had any right to criticize the company June chose to keep.  Rachel wondered if she should go back to June’s apartment and apologize to the older girl.  She hadn’t had a friend in so long so she didn’t know what exactly she was supposed to do in those situations.  Maybe it was time to start learning.

“Guess that makes two of us then,” she admitted as the bartender handed her a glass of water.  “This place isn’t so bad though.  I feel like maybe it’s a place worth staying in.”

“Depends on whether or not you have someone to stay with.”

“And who do you stay with, Jake?”  Rachel was still having a hard time reading the boy’s emotional aura.  She knew he was hiding something, some dark secret, but he wasn’t nervous about it like most people were.  “I bet a lot of girls in the crowd would be glad if you crashed on their floor or in their bed.”

“Probably,” he agreed with a smirk.  “Is that what you think of me, Rachel?”

“I’m usually a pretty good judge of character but sometimes people surprise me.”

“I don’t have anyone that’s keeping me here or anywhere else, Rachel.”

Rachel was surprised when she felt the sadness coming from him as he spoke.  Something had happened to him, something terrible that had forced him into this life as a drifter.  She could relate because something terrible had happened to her too.  Maybe they weren’t so different after all.  Maybe she should learn to quit being so damn judgmental all the time.

“That sucks,” she admitted.  “Sometimes I feel like maybe there’s someone who could make me stay here but other times I’m not really sure.”

“Putting down roots is a scary thing,” agreed Jake.  He reverted to silence as he drank his beer.

Rachel just let him sit in silence while he drank.  The guitar chords for the other band’s first song rang through the air like thunder.  Rachel wanted to turn her attention back to the band but she kept it focused on Jake.  She couldn’t be sure but she felt an attraction to him.  It had been a long time since she had feelings for someone.  Eric was the last boy she had been in love with and that seemed like a lifetime ago.  Jake was attractive in a rebellious sort of way.  Hadn’t she scolded June earlier for doing the same thing she was doing now?  Rachel never thought she could be so cliché as to fall for the bad boy with a damaged heart.

“Depends where you put them down I guess,” Rachel finally said after a long silence, taking a sip of her water.

“I don’t usually have conversations like this with girls,” admitted Jake.

“I’ve been told I’m an unusual girl, one of a kind even.”

“I wouldn’t doubt that, Rachel.”  Jake finished his drink and then slung his guitar onto his back.

“This is the part where I’m supposed to give you my number?” asked Rachel.  She noticed that something had caught his attention.  She could tell that even though he was looking in her direction he was definitely looking at something else.  “I’m afraid my pen’s all out of ink.”

“Just as well,” admitted Jake with a sad sort of half-grin.  “Things with me don’t turn out very well.  Have a good night, Rachel.  Thanks for coming to the show and for talking with me tonight.”

Rachel turned and watched him head towards the exit but it was then that she saw what had diverted his attention.  There was a man over in the corner who waited a few moments after Jake had left the building before making his own exit out the very same door.  Rachel knew it couldn’t have been a coincidence and decided that there was more going on than appearances would lead her to believe.  To that end, she decided it was time to take her own leave and departed through the same exit.  She was greeted with an empty alley but she knew Jake and the stranger couldn’t have gone far.  She was picking up something on her emotional radar and she was willing to bet that it was Jake.

Jake Ketchum’s life had been anything but kind.  He was a walking stereotype, the hard-luck case with a chip on his shoulder.  He was the angry, rebellious kid lashing out at the world.  Maybe that was what drew him to music.  It certainly wasn’t as if he was going to go into the family business, whatever that was anymore.  Maybe he just wanted an excuse to escape from everything.  He certainly had things in his past that were worth running from.  Sometimes, the past caught up with someone.  It was relentless like that, always catching a person by surprise when they least expected it.  On this night, Jake figured it was time that his past caught up with him.

“I caught your scent before I even laid eyes on you, old man,” said Jake to the stranger he had seen in the club.  “It took you longer to find me this time. Maybe you’re starting to make peace with everything or maybe you’re just getting too slow.  Ever think about giving up this hunt and going back to what’s left of your family?”

“Not after what you did to my daughter,” answered Roderick Kingsbridge.  “You took my little girl away from me, Ketchum.  I’m not going to let that stand.”

“Didn’t figure you would, Roddy.”  Jake was glad they had at least gotten themselves away from the club.  He knew there was going to be a showdown but he didn’t want any innocent bystanders getting caught up in it.  “You read that note same as I did.  You know that what Pearl did had nothing to do with me.  I treated her right, Roddy.  You and your insane family are the ones that drove her to kill herself.”

“You’re a liar!” snarled Roderick and it became a literal snarl.

“If that’s the way you want this to go down then suit yourself, old man,” retorted Jake, resting his guitar against the wall of the alley as both of them began to transform into something decidedly not human.  “Whatever helps you sleep better at night, right?”

“I won’t get any sleep until you’re dead.”

Both Jake and Roderick shared the same curse, the same affliction.  It flowed through their tainted bloodlines, making them more than human and so much less all at the same time.  The two werewolves finished their transformations and sized each other up.  Jake gnashed his fangs, daring Roderick to make the first move.  If the old werewolf wanted a fight so badly then Jake was happy to oblige.  He had been running from this past sin long enough, especially since the blame wasn’t even on his shoulders in the first place.

Roderick made the first move, leaping towards Jake in an effort to pin him to the ground.  Jake wasn’t going to be taken down so easily though.  He knew that he was younger, stronger, and faster than Roderick and it showed as the force of Roderick’s pounce wasn’t enough to take him off his feet.  Jake grappled with the old dog, trying to keep his flesh clear of Roderick’s claws.  Roderick took an errant swipe at Jake’s face and it found purchase in the skin above the boy’s right eye.  Jake could feel the hot blood flowing from the gash above his eye but that wasn’t the real problem.  The problem was that the blood was flowing down over his eye, obscuring his vision and hampering any further attacks.  He knew the wound would heal but it wouldn’t heal fast enough to avoid further damage.

Roderick sensed the advantage he now had and decided to press it, getting in closer and trying to sink his teeth into Jake’s throat.  Jake fell backwards onto the ground but that was only so he could get his throat away from Roderick’s fangs.  He planted both his feet into Roderick’s sizeable chest and kicked the older werewolf away.  Roderick’s body went spine-first into the wall of the alley and the separation bought Jake the moments he needed to catch his breath and for his wound to close up.  He could feel the flow of blood decreasing and wiped the hot liquid from his eye.

“We’ve done this too many times,” he told Roderick.  “How long are you going to keep chasing this?”

“To the grave if I have to,” retorted Roderick as he came at Jake again, bounding towards him on all fours like a real dog.  Roderick jumped and kicked himself off of one side of the alley, changing the angle of his attack to throw Jake off his guard.

Jake was ready for anything that the old man could deliver at this point.  He had lost track of the number of times that they had fought.  Roderick had chased him all over the country and even up into Canada at some points.  No matter where Jake went, he literally couldn’t escape his past sin.  There wasn’t a day that passed that he didn’t think of Pearl Kingsbridge in some form or fashion.  Pearl was perhaps the first true love of Jake’s life but that love didn’t ease the bad blood between her family and his.  Jake’s father thought that an arranged marriage between his son and Pearl would end the feud and Roderick had consented to it.  The idea of marriage never sat well with Jake though.  He never liked the idea of being tied down, of having the wanderlust in him stifled by a life of domestication.  To that end, Jake Ketchum did what he seemingly did best.  He ran away from everything and he had been running ever since.  He could still remember the night his father called him and told him about the suicide note that Pearl had left, not just for him but for her family as well.

“You think I didn’t love her?” snarled Jake as he caught Roderick in mid-air and threw him to the pavement.  “You think I wasn’t heartbroken when I heard what she did?  My heart died with her!”

“So did mine,” retorted Roderick as he took Jake’s legs out from under him and then pounced on him.  “This is all I have left and I’m going to correct the mistake that nature made.  It should’ve been you, you ungrateful little brat.  I knew your father was insane to think you two should get married but I wanted to make everyone happy.  I should’ve just killed you so many years ago when I had the chance.”

“Then do it now, old man,” ordered Jake.  “Just get it over with and let it be done.”

Roderick’s claws were just about to sink into Jake’s throat when something came whirling through the air and struck him in the temple.  The trashcan lid clanged off his skull and dazed him enough to knock him off of Jake.  The young werewolf got back to his feet and looked in the direction of the errant object to find Rachel standing there, her hand giving off the same black glow that the lid had momentarily possessed.

“I know people joke about gingers not having souls but I think this is a little overboard,” she cracked.  “Funny you didn’t mention you were a dog person, Jake.”

“You need to leave,” ordered Jake.  “This is between me and him and it’s not going to get settled until one of us is dead.”

“I’m not going to let you replace my daughter again so easily,” snapped Roderick, surging towards Rachel with the intent of literally taking her head off. “You think you’re something special to him?  You’re just like all the other girls.  He’ll use you up and then leave you.”

“Wow, that’s the first time anyone’s ever said I was like ‘all the other girls’,” shot back Rachel while incasing Roderick in a telekinetic bubble to stop his charge.  “I don’t know whether or not I should take it as a compliment.  While I’m deciding what to do about that, I think we should all calm the hell down. Sound like a good idea?”

Roderick didn’t respond but he thrashed around inside the bubble of dark energy.  Jake simply looked on at Rachel’s display of power.  He kept himself in his wolf form because at this point he wasn’t sure exactly who he should be expecting an attack from.  It was clear that Rachel was more than she first presented to him.  The instant he saw her use her powers, he knew exactly what she had meant earlier during their conversation.  Everyone had their reasons for running, for passing from one place to the next without ever knowing the peace that came with settling down.  It was ironic that his unwillingness to settle down was what had landed Jake in his current predicament because now that was all he wanted to do.  Was it so much to ask to live a life without having to look over your shoulder all the time?

“What’re you going to do with him?” he asked Rachel.

“Depends on whether or not he behaves,” she answered.  “What’s your deal with him anyway?”

“I used to date his daughter,” explained Jake.  “Pearl was . . . she was everything.  Our dads wanted us to get married, said it would help settle the blood feud between our families.  I didn’t want that so I ran away from everything.  She ran too but . . . not in the same way.”

“She killed herself,” clarified Roderick.

“And now you want to kill him,” surmised Rachel.  “You clearly aren’t going to listen to reason so we’re going to have to try something else.”

“What are you going to do with him?”  Jake had moved closer to Rachel by now, letting his guard down only slightly because he could clearly tell that Rachel wasn’t an immediate threat to him.

Rachel didn’t say anything.  Without warning, she reached out her arms and placed one hand on Jake’s head and another on Roderick’s.  She didn’t know if this would work but she was going to give it a shot.  She knew that she could make people feel things, dig up old emotions from the depths of their psyches.  She wanted to do more than that though.  She wanted Roderick to feel the pain that Jake felt.  She wanted the older werewolf to know exactly how much losing his daughter had scarred the young drifter.  Jake and Roderick were the batteries, Rachel was just using herself as the set of jumper cables to transfer emotions from one person to the other.

She felt Jake’s anguish flow into her, a mixture of rage and sadness so toxic that it poisoned his entire outlook on life.  Normally she would have kept those emotions inside her own mind but this time she shunted them from her mind into Roderick’s.  She could feel his torment as the foreign emotions erupted inside his head.  She could feel the intense anger in Roderick’s mind but the more he felt the same thing that Jake was feeling, the more that anger began to diminish.  That was what Rachel had been counting on and it looked like her plan was working.

Roderick, however, had other ideas.  He used Rachel’s momentary lapse in concentration to break free from the telekinetic bubble.  He forced himself away from Rachel and Jake, howling in despair that was only partly his own.  Rachel readied herself for a fight but it seemed as if the old dog had finally learned a new trick.

“This doesn’t change my feelings for you,” he told Jake.  “The only thing it changes is how long you get to live.  Enjoy your time while you have it.”

“I loved your daughter with everything I had,” stated Jake.  “I will never forgive myself for what I did to her and to your family.”

Roderick Kingsbridge said nothing.  He simply ran into the night.  The forced invasion of his psyche had stirred up emotions that he couldn’t be sure were his own.  So much of Jake’s feelings were still inside his mind and the problem was that they melded with his own feelings.  Both of them had loved Pearl in their own ways.  Both of them were destroyed when she died.  Now they were just two wounded animals looking for someone to put them out of their misery.

“Did you know that was going to happen?” asked Jake.

“Honestly, no,” replied Rachel.  “I wanted him to feel what you feel.  It was the only way I could think of to show him how much you cared for his daughter.  I know what happens when someone does something terrible to you and you let that hate and anger fester inside of you.  I spent so many years of my life being angry at someone for something and it turns out, it wasn’t really her fault.  I wish I hadn’t wasted all those years nursing that grudge. Maybe I would have been able to save her life.”

“You lost someone you loved too,” he realized.

“I lost my entire world.”

They stared at one another, as if truly seeing each other for the first time.  Rachel watched the werewolf slowly turn back into his human form, his clothes hanging in tatters around his body.  There was a tug in her heart as she stared at him, as if it was being pulled by some invisible force that she couldn’t name just yet.  Rachel knew what to call that feeling.  Having the powers that she had meant that she was more aware of her emotions than most people. It didn’t stop her from feeling the way she did though.

“The last bus out of town probably leaves soon,” said Jake as he picked up his guitar and slung it back over his shoulder.  “I should go.  Thank you, Rachel. I hope you get a chance to really put down some roots here.  Running away is no way to live your life.”

“I can drop you off if that’s what you want,” said Rachel, taking his hand and teleporting them to the bus station.  “You could stay in town though.  I know life as a musician isn’t very steady but you’ve got talent.  I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”

“This is the only way I know to live my life, Rachel.  I’ve done it for so long that I’ve forgotten how to do things differently.”

Rachel could feel that tug again, that insistent emotion that pulled her towards him.  Without thinking, she simply gave herself to that tug.  She felt her lips touch his and she kissed him with a fervor that she didn’t understand.  It was the first time she had kissed someone since she and Eric had broken up.  She had forgotten what it was like and once she had tasted it again, it was the only thing she wanted to feel for the rest of her life.

“Come back,” she whispered as their lips finally parted.

“For you,” promised Jake before separating from her.  “I guess it would be dumb of you to wait for me.”

“I’ve done dumber things.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Rachel watched him go inside.  She knew he wasn’t going to stay and nothing she said would convince him otherwise.  Yet strangely, she was optimistic that he would return some day.  It felt horrifyingly wonderful to hope for something again.  She knew that she had other business to attend to though. There was someone she owed an apology to and she intended to do that before the night was over.

June Moone turned her cell phone off after finishing her conversation.  Her fingers clutched tightly around the device and she bit her lip as she tried to figure out why she was more emotional about what she had just done than she had any right to be.  It wasn’t as if Sebastian meant anything to her except maybe he did somehow.  She couldn’t decide if that was frightening or not.  It didn’t matter anymore.  She had just finished telling him that she wouldn’t be seeing him again.  It was for the best anyway.  Rachel was right.  He was dangerous and shady.  Why get herself mixed up with someone like that when all it would lead to was heartache?

“I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to that,” she admitted as she saw Rachel teleport into the room.  “I think we need to have a talk, Rachel.”

“You’re right,” admitted the younger girl.  “I’m sorry about tonight, June.  I just want you to know that I get it.  I get the attraction or whatever it is you feel for that guy.  It’s just that I’ve seen that kind of thing before.  I’ve seen it a lot and it always ends badly.  I don’t want that for you, June.  You’re . . . well you’re the only friend I have right now.  I would be a pretty crappy friend if I let you get hurt without trying to stop it.”

“I understand, Rachel,” said June.  “I just got off the phone with Sebastian.  I told him I wasn’t going to see him again.  You were right.  It was kinda dumb to put myself into a situation like that.”

“No, it wasn’t.  You’re not like me, June.  You see the good in people.  Trust me, that is something really special.  I wish I could still do that.  Don’t lose that hope, okay?  Whatever happens, hang onto it for me.”

June smiled and nodded to assure Rachel that she would hang onto her optimism for as long as she could.  “So are we okay now, Rachel?”

“Sure we are.”

June smiled and hugged her friend.  Rachel still couldn’t get used to something like that.  Maybe June’s optimism was starting to rub off on her.  For the first time in a long time, Rachel could feel that anger inside her dimming.  It was slowly fading away to be replaced by some unnamed emotion that felt so much better.  Rachel looked at June and realized that maybe she didn’t have to run away from everything like Jake had done.  Maybe there were some things worth sticking around for.

Next Issue: Bright lights and dark shadows.