Chapter XV: Cloak and Claw

Obviously I didn’t get right back to where I was before instantly. I felt amazing for the entire remainder of that day, but I was still in a funk for the day or two after that. Mental wounds don’t heal anywhere near as quickly as their physical counterparts, especially for me. But I continued to work on learning to use a gun with Miss Rook, and I even started to read again, both for my own pleasure as well as to advance my knowledge of Archopolid programming. Even if there were times when I could do nothing but lay around and cry, I started to feel like a person again.

My greatest obsession was the language of the Archopolids. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was sure that there was some kind of hint about Nemesis locked away inside of that roll of punched tape. Even if there wasn’t, I would have to get a job at some point, and doing the same thing I had already been doing on Earth seemed like as good of an idea as anything else.

It took me about four days before I realized that I wasn’t going to get anywhere. Everything I had seen in the tape seemed fairly… generic. From what I could tell, most of the code was bog-standard textbook stuff, except for the few custom-hacked sequences that told the machine how to aim and fire a machine gun. Archopolids knew how to avoid taking damage, how to perceive objects, and how to move. It was almost disturbing how accomplished they were with such primitive computing. It would have perplexed any professor back on Earth, let alone this dumbass. Regardless, unless I somehow became that professor in record time, there wasn’t much to read into the tapes. Worse still, the police had followed Unity’s tip and begun searching the docksides, to no avail. Nemesis, regardless of anything else, was proving incredibly slippery.

And then there was the factor of how I had acquired the tapes in the first place. At the time it seemed like a perfectly good idea, given that none of the several witnesses objected, including Lady Halflance. Maybe they were too busy recovering from the attack, or maybe casual larceny is just accepted here. I wasn’t sure either way, although given what I knew of Amrinval, the latter was looking increasingly likely. I realized, after several days of fruitless work, that it might be for the best if I returned the tape to the people who knew what the hell to do about it. There were other things I could do to help the investigation, surely.

I snuck out in the middle of the night, wearing a heavy coat and holding the tape roll under my arm. It had a ribbon wrapped around it, with a little apology note on it. I still remembered the address of the Edsel Archopolids workshop, where the one used in the attack was being repaired, and hoped that if I left it outside of the building that someone would find it before it got rained on or something.

Slipping out of the manor in the middle of the night was easy, if only because none of the guards cared. They were focused on keeping people and/or horrifying tortured cyborgs out, not keeping the family’s idiot adopted daughter in. It was a long walk to the workshop, the cable cars having ended service a few hours ago. To say the city was creepy at night would be an understatement. There were gas lamps every few dozen yards to keep things vaguely lit, but all they did was cast shadows that made me think monsters were going to leap out at any moment and eat my heart. It was like the entire city’s architecture was designed to be unnerving, all ribbed metal and twisted spikes. I also had a revolver with me, just in case something dangerous did happen. It didn’t actually make me that much more secure, given that I was almost more scared of having to use it than I was of what I might use it against.

My nose was almost starting to get numb from the cold when I arrived at the workshop. Something was already off. The door was completely open and unlocked. I stopped near the edge of the building, clutching the tape even closer to my side. I guessed that it could have been someone working the night shift… except that there was no noise coming from inside the workshop either. I couldn’t see anything from where I was standing. If I wanted to find out what was going on, I would have to turn the corner and step into the workshop itself. The workshop that for all I knew was currently occupied by a dozen heavily armed burglars. I was completely still for several breaths, locked in place like someone who’s about to get their prom invitation turned down and kind of knows it even though it hasn’t happened yet. I stopped and took a breath. Total calm. Then I stepped around the corner. It wasn’t burglars, but it was something much worse.

The workshop looked much as it did when I saw it last, a wide open area full of tools and equipment, with the slumped figure of the damaged Archopolid laying in a heap in the center. There were two people standing on top of the Archopolid. One of them was tall, wearing a pure white dress. She was very slender, looking almost skeletal with how the dress hugged her figure. I couldn’t see her face, or much of her at all besides her hands, which were dark-skinned. Jaleran, probably, or some other ethnicity that I hadn’t heard of yet. She didn’t seem to be doing much besides looking down at her companion.

She, or maybe it, was hunched over, crawling on all fours on the Archopolid’s back. In stark contrast to the tall woman’s spotless white dress, it was wearing a ragged cloak full of tatters and patches. I couldn’t see exactly what she was doing, but her hands were in motion, fiddling with the machinery on the Archopolid’s back. 

Out of shock at seeing this strange pair, I dropped the tape. It hit the floor with a loud clattering. The tall woman’s head snapped around. There was no face there, only a blank steel mask with glass eye lenses.

For a handful of hammering heartbeats I stared at her, paralyzed. The silence was broken by two quick snaps of her fingers. The other person stopped what they were doing and looked up at her. She pointed at me, almost dismissively, and the other person followed her finger. It glanced at me, then back to her, and nodded. Then it jumped off the Archopolid, clearing at least a dozen feet in a single leap, landing hunched over. As she looked at me, I saw her eyes glow like a cat. It let out an animalistic growl, and charged.

I didn’t want to know what she could do to me, so I booked it out where I had come. I didn’t care where I was going, as long as it was away from her. I dashed down the street, breaking out into a full sprint. I could hear its footsteps behind me, almost keeping up with mine. There had to be something, anything I could do to shake it. As I ran, I tried to keep an eye out for someone else, some side path or bit of debris I could use. I was too busy focusing on the slamming of my feet against the stones, the pounding of my heart in my chest, the pumping in and out of cold air in my haggard lungs. It was gaining on me. Oh god, it was gaining on me.

Then I fucked up. My eyes were looking everywhere except the ground in front of me. Some asshole had left a bit of lumber laying across the sidewalk. My foot slammed right into it, and I went down. I was running so fast that when my knee hit the ground, I started skidding. I landed on my shoulder, sending a shock of pain up through half of my body. I didn’t have any time to sit there and be in pain, so I forced myself to get up into a sitting position, even though it hurt like hell. She was still there, right in front of me. Worse, the hood on its cloak had fallen back, revealing its face. I wasn’t being chased by a person. I was being chased by a fucking monster.

Its face was vaguely human-shaped, but with unnaturally elongated features, a long pointed chin and huge pointed ears. I could almost see the outline of brown fur on the face, though with only gas light to go by it was hard to tell. Its eyes were big amber spheres, locked on me and squinting with detached hate. I don’t know if it had any lips, but when they parted to let out a horrible snarl, all I could see were the bright glimmers of sharp teeth. I screamed. 

The thing started creeping towards me, not breaking eye contact. Somehow, through all of the indescribable terror, I managed to remember one very important fact. I still had a gun. I reached for my holster as quickly as I possibly could, having to make a couple of hasty tries before I could undo the strap holding the gun in place. Fortunately for me, the thing didn’t seem to know what I was doing. In a single swift motion I drew the pistol, aiming it at the beast. I didn’t see a human being. I didn’t see a person. I saw a target. BANG.

The monster stumbled backwards, the bullet having clearly hit home.  My breath stopped in my mouth. I had just shot someone. I didn’t feel bad because of the nature of my target. If anything, I was… surprised. Shocked, maybe. I scrambled to my feet and, seeing that it was still standing, shot again. A sharp CRACK rang out, as a bit of chipped stone and dust sprayed off of a cobblestone nearby. I cocked the pistol, and fired again. A mist of blood burst out from somewhere in her chest, inspiring me to fire again. Three bullets in it. 

I took a step backwards. She was hunched over, collapsed onto all fours, dying. What the fuck was that thing? Who the fuck was that woman? Why the fuck had they been examining the Archopolid? Where the fuck was I right now? My mind was a complete mess of confusion and conflicting emotions. I had no idea that creatures like this even existed. They didn’t exist, in fact. At least they didn’t exist on Earth. But if they existed on Selene, nobody had told me yet. I was going to be a bit offended if there were wolf-people here and nobody had bothered to tell me. I started to walk away, looking around to find a street sign. I took in a few of the surrounding buildings as well, including an upscale pastry shop across the street and old, somewhat decrepit-looking warehouse.

Then I heard a harsh, animalistic bark from behind me. I looked over my shoulder. The wolf-woman thing was getting back on her feet. It was impossible, I had already put three bullets into it. I had to get away. I dashed towards the door of the warehouse, feeling like the beast was already breathing down my neck, claws already digging into my flesh. I slammed my shoulder into the front door, getting nothing but a stinging ache and a rattling slam. The door was locked. So I shot the lock. The lock shattered into a thousand tiny shards, some of which embedded themselves in my coat. I charged through the door, not even stopping to find out how far back that thing was.

The warehouse was almost totally dark, except for a few lights that scattered tiny rays of light around the open space. For a while, I ran with almost no idea of what was in front of me. It didn’t matter, given that I did know what was behind me, and it was far less pleasant. Eventually my eyes started to adjust, and I began to get a better idea of where I was.

It was… a warehouse. A big one, with a high ceiling and enough interior space that you could probably shove a suburban house or two into it if you got rid of the shelving. As for what was on the shelving, as far as I could tell there was basically everything. Some of it was in boxes, some of it was just laying on shelves with a tag, but I could see all kinds of detritus. Some of it looked like old knick-knacks, while other bits and bobs could almost pass for useful items.

I slowed down, realizing that I couldn’t hear the footsteps of the creature behind me. Had I hallucinated it getting back up? An intense snarling noise from somewhere in the warehouse told me that the answer was no. I took a glance around and ducked into one of the aisles. Bullets didn’t work on this thing. Given the claws and teeth and how far it could jump, I had to assume that I couldn’t beat her in a direct fight either. I had tried as hard as I possibly could to outrun it, and it had been catching up to me. That left one possibility: hide!

I slowed down even further, trying to stifle the sound of my footsteps as best as I could. It didn’t really matter, seeing as how if it was going to hear me it already would have, but I thought it would help at the time. I scanned the shelves on either side of me, looking for something I could use to hide behind. There were a few larger items that I had seen on the way in, so it wasn’t a fruitless search. Then I found what I was looking for. It was a portrait, covered in so much dust that I couldn’t make out the subject, stuck awkwardly into the shelf. I took hold of one side, very carefully sliding it out. It was big, at least three and a half feet tall, which given my size was more than enough to hide behind. Combined with a few choice items stolen from nearby shelves, I was able to cunningly disguise myself as a pile of garbage that had fallen off the shelf. It wasn’t the only such pile I had seen, so the disguise checked out.

All that was left to do was wait, possibly until dawn, or whenever this thing decided to leave me the hell alone. I sat on the floor, remaining as still as I possibly could, all while my mind went completely crazy. I still had no idea how that thing had been able to completely ignore my bullets. Maybe it had some kind of armor on, under all of those rags. Or maybe it had incredibly tough skin somehow, enough that the bullets didn’t hurt her all that much. I remembered hearing somewhere that bears can get shot in the face with smaller guns and barely even notice it. Another distinct possibility was that this thing was a werewolf, and I had to shoot it with silver in order for the bullet to have any effect. I was open to any possibility at this point.

I was starting to dig all of my relevant werewolf knowledge out of the deep recesses of my brain when I was interrupted by a clacking noise coming from nearby. It sounded almost exactly like the noise a dog’s claws make on concrete. I froze. It was coming closer. I couldn’t see much from behind all of the random stuff on top of me, but I tried to look out in the direction that I heard the noise from. For a few seconds there was nothing, as the sound of my own heart became louder than the clicking of wolfish claws. She came into view, rounding the corner and heading my way down the aisle. It was coming from the opposite direction that I had come in, stalking slowly and keeping its glowing yellow eyes out for any sign of my passage.

A wave of insecurity hit me all at once like a stop sign to the face. There was no way my idiotic attempts at camouflage would do anything but make it harder to run. I was about to get ripped apart. It was coming closer. For a brief second as she breathed, I saw the shining white of fangs. Fangs that were about to sink into my throat when she saw me because I was an idiot. Each step it took seemed deliberate. I could almost read the intention in it, how she was already deciding the best way to cut me off from retreat. It was almost at me. I stopped breathing, not wanting to give it more evidence of my presence. It started passing in front of me, to where I couldn’t see it through the painting.

Clack… clack… clack… then nothing. The wolf-woman stopped right in front of me. I still wasn’t breathing, even though my chest was starting to ache. There was no way I was going to let my breathing give me away. More growling, a bit of whimpering. Then silence. It was listening for me, or maybe looking. It took another step, which I could swear sounded even closer. Another long pause. My chest was starting to seriously hurt from lack of air, but I could tough it out a bit longer. Then a new noise, one that took me a second to figure out. She was sniffing at the air, like a bloodhound. If there’s one thing dogs have, it’s a strong sense of smell. I was starting to get light-headed. I would have to breathe soon.

Clack, clack, clack. It kept walking, right past me. What? Had I managed to avoid being seen? I started very slowly sucking in a breath through my nose, just enough to keep myself from sucking in air audibly. Soon I could see its back, heading away from me. I just had to stay still and I would be able to escape once it got tired. A wave of relief came over me, like I had just been granted a wish from my fairy god mother as opposed to narrowly avoiding being eaten by the big bad wolf. Which would kinda make me a pig in this metaphor. You know what, forget I said anything.

And then the downside to hiding behind a bunch of items covered in dust caught up to me. I sneezed. In an instant, the beast snapped around, turning on its heels and staring straight at me.

I jumped to my feet, bursting out of the makeshift disguise and sending items flying. I ran past the thing and towards the far wall of the warehouse. I was still running on adrenaline, which gave me more energy than I think I had ever had in my whole life. Everything turned into a blur as I ran, except for the sharp sound of horrible claws. Even running as hard as I could, I was just barely able to keep ahead of it, until I ran into a dead end.

I had to think quickly. I could head back to the entrance of the warehouse, or back into the far corner. There was a window in front of me, looking out over an alleyway. Maybe feeling a bit too amped up, I chose the window.

I ran straight at it, jumping forward and right through the glass. It didn’t even hurt that much, thanks to my clothes. At least, it didn’t hurt until I landed on my back. That hurt like hell. I sprawled out on my back, incapacitating pain running up and down my spine as I tried and failed to get up. I had to keep going. Then it followed me, leaping through the open hole I had made and landing on the ground in a stable crouch. There was no more running away. I pulled out the revolver. One more chance. Click. Oh no. Three bullets in the wolf, one in the cobblestones, one in the door, that made five. I was out of shots, and out of time. That didn’t mean I was going to give up, of course. I clenched my fists, ready to fight with everything I had.

The monster thing stood up and started walking forwards, with purpose. I noticed for the first time that it had digitigrade feet, like a dog. Just before it got to me, she stopped, jerking her head to my right. I was about to follow her gaze when something slammed into her.

The new person was human in appearance, being more upright and better-dressed than the wolf, but nonetheless incredibly fast and inhumanly vicious. In a second she had the wolf-person on the ground, slamming her fists into its chest with roars of fury. The wolf whimpered in pain, and I could almost hear ribs crack, but it kept thrashing and trying to escape. It curled up, raising its feet and raking them across the other one’s stomach, tossing her back. This wasn’t a fight between two people, it was a scrap between two predatory animals. I struggled to get back on my feet, the pain receding from my back. Had the whole world gone crazy while I wasn’t looking?

The woman charged in, slamming her elbow into the wolf-creature’s stomach. For several seconds they were locked together, wrestling and punching and clawing, the wolf howling and yipping while the other one grunted in pain and exertion. Then the wolf made a mistake, and the other one was able to get a solid grip. She reached in, latching her teeth onto the side of the wolf-creature, right where its neck met its shoulder. Then she pulled back, tearing out a chunk of flesh and sending an arc of thick blood spraying across the alleyway. The wolf-woman whimpered, raking a claw at its opponent. The attack forced the two of them apart, giving the wolf-woman time to run. How it could still do that with a piece of its throat ripped out, I had no idea.

The other one spat out the chunk of meat as it turned towards me. I raised the empty gun. I was hoping that I could scare her off before she decided that I was just as good a target. She smiled at me, revealing row after row of triangular serrated teeth. Those were teeth meant for ripping flesh.

“Hey there, kid. It sure is an interesting evening we’re having, isn’t it? How’re you feeling?”

My jaw dropped open. “Doctor Charcharias?!”

Author's Note: I hope everybody enjoys this chapter. Unfortunately, Swords of Selene is likely to be on hiatus for a little while. I've run low on motivation recently, and have decided to focus on other writing projects for the moment. This hiatus shouldn't last longer than a month or two, and I promise I'll come back to this eventually. In the meantime, keep reading, leave comments, leave reviews, maybe tell your friends about the book! See everyone later.