Stephanie/Wenna’s Story
Stephanie scowled as she stared out the driver’s-side rear-passenger window. Everyone was mad at her for obvious reasons, and everything had gone straight down the pooper because of it.
Her frustration had been building since dawn, and honestly, she felt like snapping and just being even more of a bitch than usual.
She looked over toward Benji, but the young woman had her own window rolled down and her head poking out of said window.
The girl was barely 4’ 9”, a hardly noticeable presence in any room at best, yet somehow Stephanie was still annoyed by the little brunette with the ponytail. For one thing, Benji’s tongue was lolling out of her small mouth, that tongue plopped against her right cheek, that tongue nearly 8” in length. She looked ridiculous, mainly because of the huge grin on her face as the driving breeze blew back her brown hair.
“Benji, will you get your head back inside!” hissed Stephanie.
Benji pulled her head back in and rolled up the window.
“Sorry,” she said meekly. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“Your tongue was hanging out,” frowned Stephanie. “It was as long as a gay man’s dick.”
There was a snort of a chuckle from the front passenger’s-side seat. Vengencia turned her head to look over the both of them, but her expression was nothing but amusement.
“It looks like we can have…uhhh… instances…of partial transformation,” said the young woman.
“I guess,” said Haley. “I hope that doesn’t happen while I’m in class.”
The blonde bimbo was driving the car, her own rental, a spotlessly-white Ford Maverick, the current mode of vehicular transportation the four of them were now riding around in.
Stephanie did not really feel like replying, but she did anyway.
“Afraid your tits will deflate?” she asked.
Haley sighed and shook her head.
“Yes, Stephanie,” she said unhappily. “That’s just one of the things I’m afraid of.”
“It’s Wenna,” said Stephanie in equal unhappiness. “That’s my true name.”
She considered “Wenna” her true name now, and she wanted to be called that, but she rarely thought of herself as such, and this was sad, but living for twenty-one years as “Stephanie” did that to you.
“Anyway, you didn’t get your arms and legs ripped off,” frowned Stephanie. “Not to mention being set on fire and roasted from the inside out while you were still alive.”
Haley was silent over that comment. She would be, considering she was one of the four who had torn Stephanie apart in Stephanie’s own death vision.
“And yet that still wasn’t as bad as the transformation,” said Stephanie dryly. “I would have PTSD over that…that vision…but the transformation really, reeeaaally sucked, so I guess I can have PTSD over that.”
“Oh, yeah,” nodded Benji. “That did suck. It started in my tailbone.”
“Eyes,” said Haley. “That’s where it started for me. Think of the worst ice-cream headache you’ve ever had and then multiply it by end-stage syphilis.”
“Vivid, but noted,” said Vengencia. “It started in the spine for me.”
“Hands,” said Stephanie. “That’s where it hit me first.”
“Oh, then you’re like Mary,” replied Vengencia.
“I guess,” frowned Stephanie. “My earlier point was, though…My name is now Wenna. I want to be called ‘Wenna.’”
“Why?” asked Haley. “Stephanie’s a pretty name.”
“I don’t want to be called Stephanie,” replied Stephanie. “That’s a sorority girl name, and I’m not a sorority girl anymore.”
Vengencia turned again in her seat and looked at her in surprise.
“You were in a sorority?” she asked.
“How do you think we know each other?” asked Haley. “Stephanie and I were sisters together.”
“You were in Beta Theta Sigma!” asked Vengencia with wide eyes.
“It’s not a revelation, Vengencia,” sighed Stephanie. “You don’t have to have a stroke over it.”
“We had a falling out,” said Haley, but her tone was one of unhappiness.
This was surprising, because after everything that had happened, Stephanie had been pretty sure Haley absolutely hated her guts and wanted her dead.
“Ooooooh,” breathed out Vengencia. “That explains a lot.”
“And for the forty-fifth time, Haley…” said Stephanie in an unhappiness fit to rival Haley’s own. “My name is ‘Wenna.’”
“I don’t mind it,” said Benji. “I think it’s pretty…Hmm…I wonder what my Goth name would be?”
Stephanie rolled her eyes. This one was barely worth answering.
“Snoopy, or maybe Odie,” she said firmly. “Naaah…Your parents already did my job for you. Your true name would be Benji, Benji. You want to know why? Because you’re like a little dog anyway.”
“Hey!” protested the little brunette. “I am not a dog! I was named after my Uncle Benjamin! I wasn’t named after the movies!”
Stephanie gave her a wicked smile. She was feeling particularly ornery right now, especially after spending the whole day being yelled at by everyone else.
“You’re like one of those little dogs old ladies have,” she grinned.
Benji snapped her head toward her and growled. It was a slightly higher-pitched growl than Stephanie or the others could put forth, but this little detail only strengthened Stephanie’s theory over the matter.
Stephanie growled back at her, a low-pitched guttural thing, and this caused Benji to temporarily cower in her seat and whine.
“I thought so,” said Stephanie with a smile.
“Cut it out, Wenna,” said Vengencia in a dry tone. “She’s already self-conscious about her name.”
Well, an order was an order, and there was no denying an order handed down by the queen, but that didn’t mean Stephanie had to like it.
“Yeah, yeah, your highness,” she unhappily replied.
Haley parked the car in a lot next to the 5th and Seven. Students from North Corgan U were already inside, and the music was absolutely thumping out of the small bar.
“Benji, what have you got?” asked Vengencia.
The little brunette rolled down her window and sniffed in the air several times. She became excited after that, bouncing up and down in her seat.
“He’s here! He’s here!” she said happily. “It’s fresh! The scent is fresh!”
“Chill out, Benji,” said Haley. “Chill.”
“Down girl!” said Stephanie. “You’re like a beagle who’s found a trail. Snoopy’s looking better all the time.”
Benji turned and growled at her again, but Stephanie simply grinned at her.
“You are kind of a like a dog, Benji,” said Vengencia in audible amusement.
“Saffy!” whined Benji. “How can you say that!”
“Jealousy,” shrugged Vengencia. “I can’t seem to do what you’ve…uhhh…discovered you can do.”
Benji immediately perked up.
“I didn’t know I was special,” she said happily.
“Oh, you’re special all right,” said Stephanie. “You hopped right off the bus.”
“Hey!” said Benji. “Stop insulting me! I can’t help it if I can smell things like…like uhhh…Oh… OH, BLEH!”
The little brunette immediately covered her mouth and nose.
“What’s wrong, Ben…Ugh!” said Vengencia. “Oh, my God!”
Vengencia held her nose and shook her head to where her long curly brown hair flipped from side to side.
Stephanie took in an absolutely foul scent. It hit her in the face like a speeding freight train.
“Oh, dear Freya!” she hissed out. “What is that!”
“Sorry, guys,” said Haley in a frank tone. “I drank a lot of orange juice after we got back from the woods this morning.”
“Out of the car!” choked out Vengencia.
They scrambled out of the little rental like ants running from a magnifying glass. Apparently, their sense of smell was a lot more sensitive than any of them had first estimated.
The outside air was only marginally better, but it was still better.
“Okay,” said Vengencia as she shook her head no. “There is definitely a downside to a better sense of smell.”
“Tell me about it,” replied Benji, but she was holding her nose, so her voice came out stifled.
Stephanie chuckled. She had not found something honestly this funny for some time.
Still, the 5th and Seven awaited.
She stared down at her own clothes…well…the clothes she was currently wearing. She had not had time to go back to her apartment and grab her actual clothes. These were ones Haley had ordered, and they were…adequate. Jeans, green sweater, white socks, white sneakers…At least the sweater didn’t have the Beta Theta Sigma symbols on it, so that was a plus.
In fact, everyone was dressed in identical wear save for the colors of the sweaters. Vengencia was in light blue, Haley in pink, and Benji in orange. Stephanie highly suspected Haley had ordered these colors on purpose. Apparently, they were all color coded now.
“Ugh…We look like old comic strip characters,” she muttered to herself. “We’re like an abscess tumor of style straight out of an Archie comic.”
“What?” asked Haley. “I think this is fine for now.”
“You weren’t supposed to hear that,” frowned Stephanie.
“Hmm,” said Vengencia. “Super smell, super hearing…Interesting. I wonder what else we can do?”
“I don’t have super hearing,” denied Haley.
“Oh, really?” asked Stephanie.
She put her hand up to her mouth and whispered under her breath.
“Bitch,” she said.
“I heard that,” frowned Haley.
“I didn’t,” said Vengencia. “What did she say?”
“She called me a bitch,” replied Haley.
“Well, we’re all bitches now,” sighed Vengencia. “Let’s just get this Dawson business over with…Seriously, this is interfering with getting rid of this curse. We need to settle this nonsense.”
“It’s not nonsense,” said Stephanie unhappily.
And it wasn’t. She hadn’t really wanted to lose Dawson, especially to Haley. They’d had an argument, that’s all. Stephanie could now admit to herself that she had overreacted. She shouldn’t have broken up with him…That had been the real mistake.
Still, Haley swooping in like that…
The whole thing made her bristle. It was enraging.
Nevertheless, Vengencia led them all toward the 5th and Seven. That bar was one of the hangouts for the normies in this armpit of a city, but Benji had “smelled” Dawson here, so Stephanie was just going to have to trust in that. After all, there was a werewolf queen with a dog, and Benji was her name-O.
“This is stupid,” muttered Stephanie. “I don’t know even know what to say.”
“We’ll figure it out,” said Haley.
“Will you stop invading my personal thoughts?” frowned Stephanie.
“Then stop saying them out loud,” argued Haley.
“Come on, you two,” ordered Vengencia. “Let’s go.”
“I’m going, I’m going,” scowled Stephanie.
The truth was, she didn’t know what to think of their…“leader.” She didn’t like to think of Vengencia as a leader, but the young woman had spared her life, though being a supernatural creature now kind of sucked.
The transformation had wrecked Stephanie’s body at the time, and it had made her wish she was dead, but apparently, there were rules to the supernatural, and one of them, a very important one, was that a werewolf can’t die from her own transformation.
But she was still not looking forward to the next full moon.
“Ugh…It’s like having two periods instead of one,” said Stephanie.
“What?” asked Haley. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing,” frowned Stephanie. “I’m just not looking forward to the next full moon.”
“None of us are,” said Vengencia.
“I liked being a wolf,” said Stephanie. “It felt amazing…It’s the getting-there part that sucked.”
“Tell me about it,” said Benji. “My bones kept breaking. I’ve never broken a bone in my life…And then my face broke. It nearly killed me.”
“It’s killing me now,” smiled Stephanie.
Haley gave a quiet chuckle, and Benji immediately growled at her.
“I wasn’t even the one who insulted you!” protested Haley.
“You were thinking about it,” said Benji.
This time it was Stephanie’s turn to chuckle.
“Let’s just find this guy,” sighed Vengencia.
They entered the 5th and Seven together.
This place was jumping. There were other students from NCU here, all of them comingling in little groups like…like comingling groups did.
Stephanie winced. It was too loud in here with everyone talking all at once and the music thumping. The strobing lights were hard on her eyes, but worst of all, she could smell a veritable sea of BO.
“Oh…Oh, dear ghost of Fenrir…” she complained. “I can smell people’s butts…”
“I know…” choked out Benji.
The diminutive young woman held her nose and shook her head.
“Tell me about it,” she said unhappily.
Vengencia ignored their rightful complaints.
“Where is this guy, Benji?” asked the young woman.
Benji simply lifted her left arm and pointed in the direction of the bar. She did not, however, remove her right hand from her own nose.
The young white man in question was standing near the bar. He was dressed in a collared red and white long-sleeve coupled with basic blue jeans, and of course, he was as hot as he’d always been. He had that short brown hair, those beautiful blue eyes, those rippling pecs, that tightly packed butt, all of that athletic muscle, and that gorgeous smile…
“Good grief,” said Vengencia. “That’s Dawson? He looks like he stepped right out of an ’80s frat movie.”
Stephanie growled at Vengencia without meaning to. That was funny in itself, because Haley growled at their queen at exactly the same time.
“Oh, for crying out loud,” sighed Vengencia. “It was just an observation.”
But that didn’t matter. No, something else wrecked the whole thing.
A young white woman with long dark hair stepped up beside Dawson and wrapped her right arm around his waist. He reciprocated by laying his left arm around her shoulders, gave her a squeeze, and then pulled her in for a quick kiss…This action, this quiet little interaction…
Stephanie was stunned. She had not expected this development.
That “development,” however, did not go well with Haley. The young blonde trembled and choked out a small tearful whine before exiting the bar.
“Oh, crap,” said Vengencia. “Haley!”
Their queen left the bar to follow the distraught young woman.
Aside from that…this was some bullshit.
Stephanie gave a low growl and advanced through the crowd. She was moving before she even realized she was moving, but by the time she realized it, it was too late.
Benji, stupid loyal Benji, followed her, though the diminutive young woman’s protests fell upon deaf ears.
“Stephanie!” said the little dog. “We don’t want to cause trouble! Steph…uhhh…Wenna, stop!”
Stephanie turned and glowered down upon her.
“Stay out of this!” she said angrily. “But thank you for calling me by my true name. I’ll make sure it’s in the papers after I tear his head off. I’m gonna burn this pit-stain of a bar to the ground with all of these normie trash in it, so you might want to stand back once I wrap my hands around that boy’s neck. I’m gonna pop his head like a zit. There’s gonna be teeth and eyes everywhere.”
“Ste…uhhh…W-Wenna, don’t!” said Benji.
“Why not?” asked Stephanie.
“Because it’s not worth it!” said Benji. “It’s clear he’s just a two-timing jerk…Whatever you felt for him?…That’s gone…It probably wasn’t there in the first place.”
“Thanks, Dr. Deena,” said Stephanie with a roll of her eyes. “It’s not all about that. As much as I hate Haley, this is some bullshi…”
Her voice trailed off as she realized what she was saying.
Did she really feel that way? Haley had once been her friend, if not her best friend, but that was long gone, long over, long past the winter of anything neighborly. After all, she’d wanted Haley…and Benji, for that matter…she’d wanted them all dead—all of Beta Theta Sigma dead—just last night.
She pitched those thoughts. There would be time to have an existential crisis later.
She walked straight up to Dawson and company, Benji in tow.
“Hello, Dawson,” she said, but that “Dawson” was dripping with venom.
“Oh, shit,” said the young man as he shook his head.
“Yeah, ‘oh, shit,’ is right,” said Stephanie.
“Who is this?” asked the young lady attached to Dawson’s arm. “Is this Haley? I thought you said your ex was blonde?”
Stephanie nearly choked out a laugh.
“Your ex?” asked Stephanie. “Since when?”
“This isn’t Haley,” said Dawson in an unhappy tone. “This is another ex…Stephanie.”
“It’s Wenna, you overgrown nut sack!” hissed Stephanie.
“Are you still doing that Goth thing?” asked Dawson. “Why can’t you be normal? When did you start doing that nonsense anyway?”
“When you started sticking your dick in my best friend,” scowled Stephanie.
“What is she talking about?” asked the young woman on Dawson’s arm.
“Ignore her,” said Dawson as he shook his head again. “She’s a psycho.”
“Oh, I’m more than a psycho now, Dawson,” she said mockingly.
“Oh, yeah?” asked the young man. “And what are you now, Stephanie?”
Mocking her back was a limit breaker. She was not going to let that one slide.
“I’m a werewolf now, pony boy,” warned Stephanie. “I can tear off your balls and feed them to you.”
“This is what I’m talking about,” said Dawson, but he wasn’t addressing Stephanie.
No, he was addressing his new fling.
“She’s a psycho,” explained Dawson. “This is why we broke up.”
“I broke up with you,” said Stephanie.
“No, I broke up with you, Steph,” said Dawson firmly. “Do you have Alzheimer’s? It’s your tantrums and your screaming matches that drove me away. That’s on you.”
Stephanie lowered her head into her right hand, shook her head, lowered her hand, and then stared back up at him.
“Let’s just go, Wenna,” said Benji.
“Shut up,” said Stephanie.
She scowled and then looked her ex straight in the eye.
“Is that what you told Haley?” she asked. “She still thought you two were dating…well…up until she just saw you with this bimbo.”
“Hey!” said the dark-haired girl that…Stephanie still didn’t know the name of.
Stephanie growled at her. It was a deep-throated growl, not like Benji’s little dog growl. There may have been a flash of yellow in her dark eyes, and that was because those twin orbs had hurt a little just then, like needles poking through them—not that severe but still—but she wasn’t sure.
This unknown young lady was dressed in a white blouse, a jean jacket, and blue jeans. She had on cowboy boots, dark-brown leather cowboy boots with gold stitching. Now that Stephanie could see her up close, she didn’t look like part of the same circles Stephanie and Dawson and Haley walked in. She looked…average.
But that didn’t matter, because the growl had activated something in both Stephanie and the young woman she was currently hating on.
Stephanie could smell it, the fear just then, a rich scent that wafted up into her nostrils and…excited her…for some reason. It was tangy and thick, like nothing she’d ever smelled before, and it smelled good, like when you woke up in the morning to the beautiful scent of coffee roasting, and she wasn’t even a coffee girl. She preferred smoothies…preferably strawberry banana.
“Leave her alone,” said Benji in audible nervousness.
The diminutive young lady sounded scared, but that was to be expected from a human purse dog.
“She doesn’t have anything to do with this, Wenna,” said Benji.
Dawson ignored Benji’s comments.
“Oh, neat trick, Steph,” said Dawson. “Did you learn that online?…Go be a bitch somewhere else.”
“I’m a bitch all the time now, Daw,” replied Stephanie. “But uhhh…let’s just figure this out, shall we?…What’s going on here, Dawson? I thought Haley was your new dick warmer…She thought so too.”
“Why?” he asked. “Why do you want to know? Are you friends with Haley again?…’Cause I really don’t see it.”
“Stop dodging the question,” said Stephanie.
“Aside from the fact that it’s none of your business,” replied Dawson, “we drifted apart months ago. She’s the one who’s been hanging on.”
“She doesn’t think so,” said Stephanie.
“I’ve tried to tell her it was over,” said Dawson. “I guess the message just hasn’t been getting through…Why don’t you ask Benji?”
“Benji?” asked the young woman in the jean jacket.
“When’s the last time you’ve seen me around, Benji?” asked Dawson.
The diminutive werewolf looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Her brown eyes went wide as she was put on the spot.
“I…I-I don’t…I don’t know,” sputtered Benji. “I didn’t…I just thought you’d been busy!”
“Look, Benji,” said Dawson as he held up his left hand.
There was a gold ring on the fourth finger of his left hand. It was studded with diamonds, definitely in the thousands of dollars, custom made.
“An…An engagement ring?” asked Benji.
Dawson held up the left hand of the young woman with the long dark hair. On her hand was a thin, silver band with a fat diamond on it, also in the thousands of dollars, also custom made.
Stephanie lowered her head as her eyes went wide. This was…unexpected. This was…not on the list of things she had expected to encounter. It was not on any list at all.
Of course, this was devastating, and it hit her all at once, the emotion, the wave of just…everything. It all crashed down upon her, and after everything that had just happened between last night and tonight?…It was too much.
“It’s not fair,” she choked out.
It was quiet, that sob, but that’s all she could get out.
“You ruined my life,” she said as her tears flowed. “It’s not fair…”
She turned and headed for the entrance to the bar. There was no reason to stick around here.
“Wenna, wait for me!” said Benji from behind her.
“Shut up,” said Stephanie.
She wiped at her eyes. It was no good looking like a little bitch. If she was going to be a bitch, she needed to look like a big one. It was the principle of the thing.
“It’s not your fault,” said Benji.
“Thanks, Jiminy,” said Stephanie. “I don’t need a conscience. Mine is already beating me to death.”
They exited the 5th and Seven, and Stephanie made a beeline for the rental. That was probably where Haley had fled to anyway.
“I-I mean, you did try to kill us all,” said Benji.
“I know, dipshit,” said Stephanie. “You don’t have to remind me.”
“Well, I just…I don’t know what to say,” said Benji. “What I was trying to say was…this…this thing between you and Dawson wasn’t your fault. It was just everything after that.”
“I get that,” said Stephanie. “I don’t need to be reminded of how stupid I was…And this is like…the worst pep talk ever, Benji. Just shut your stupid pie hole. Go to the car and lick yourself or something. I don’t want to talk about it.”
The young lady walked up next to her and matched her pace, but her expression was one of thoughtfulness, not anger at insulted pride.
“Huh…I never thought about licking myself,” said Benji matter-of-factly. “I wonder what that would feel like? I mean, I could probably do it now…”
“I’m not having this conversation,” said Stephanie.
“Yeeeeaaaah…That’s probably something I shouldn’t do,” nodded Benji.
“You think?” asked Stephanie. “What the fu…? You know…I just don’t even know how to talk to you, Benji. I didn’t know how to talk to you back when you were a pledge.”
“Mmmm…I get that,” nodded Benji in agreement. “I’ll stop talking.”
They walked to the car without further comment.
Haley and Vengencia were there, but Haley was still clearly upset. The blonde was still crying, and part of Stephanie enjoyed this, but another part of her did not. A part of her felt…bad…for Haley.
She wiped away her own tears and shook her head no.
“What’s going on?” asked Vengencia. “Have you been crying too?”
“It’s allergies from all of the butt smell,” sniffed Stephanie. “Anyway, this whole plan is a bust. He’s moved on.”
“I can see that,” said Vengencia. “Do you know something? Did you talk to him?”
“Yeah,” sighed Stephanie. “That girl he’s with?…That’s his fiancée. He’s getting married.”
“What?” choked out Haley. “What!…He’s marrying her!”
“He says you two were already broke up,” shrugged Stephanie. “He must have met that girl elsewhere. She doesn’t look like she’s from around here. She looks middle-class to me…maybe poor. I don’t know what poor people actually look like, though. I just have Vengencia and her clothes from Target as an example.”
“They’re from Walmart, Wenna,” sighed Vengencia.
“What’s a Walmart?” asked Benji.
Stephanie, Haley, and Vengencia turned to stare at the littlest werewolf.
“I’m not going to bother answering that,” frowned Vengencia.
That didn’t matter, though. What mattered was the fact that the president of Beta Theta Sigma was still breaking down.
“I didn’t think he was going to leave me,” whined Haley.
Oh, right. There was still this fallout. Honestly, the slender blonde looked thoroughly miserable…Stephanie had already stuffed her feelings away…somewhere…in her psyche.
“I guess this wasn’t a matter of cheating then,” said Vengencia.
“No,” sighed Stephanie. “No, it wasn’t. I don’t know what went on between Haley and Dawson, but he apparently had ended it some time ago. At least, that’s what he said.”
“I just thought we were going through a rough patch,” sniffed Haley. “I didn’t know this was going on…I didn’t…I just didn’t know.”
“Who knows what men think,” shrugged Stephanie. “Rage, lust, and hunger. That’s got to be what men are like, right? Maybe this curse is what men think like, I don’t know. I just know that I’m mad about this whole thing, but there’s nothing I can do.”
“No, there isn’t,” said Haley.
She wiped at her blue eyes. She must have come to the same conclusion that Stephanie had come to: write him off.
“I guess that ends that,” said Stephanie. “There’s no reason to feud now.”
“Feud?” asked Haley.
Her face twisted into something…ugly.
“Feud!” screeched the young blonde. “I never had a feud with you, you dumb bitch! Now I’m cursed, and it’s all because of your stupid jealous ass!”
Haley lunged at her, but thankfully, Vengencia held her back.
“This is no time for blaming anybody,” said their queen. “Haley!”
“She tried to kill us!” shrieked the leader of Beta Theta Sigma. “She’s turned us into animals! What better time is there for blame!”
Stephanie backed away from her. It was true that she had royally screwed up, but this rage was…sudden.
“Haley, stop!” cried Vengencia.
“You have to give her a chance!” said Benji. “You’re just mad about losing Dawson anyway. Wenna had nothing to do with that.”
“Wenna?” asked Haley. “Wenna!…Why don’t you just join them right now, Benji! Why don’t you go join those carpet-cleaning lesbos! You can go lick Terra’s snatch for her!…Get out of my sight! You can pack up your things tonight!”
“Haley!” whined Benji. “I’m just trying to help!”
“Help!” exclaimed Haley. “Help! I’ll show you help, you little turd! Come here!”
She went after Benji this time, pulling herself away from Vengencia, pulling out of the queen’s grasp to go after the little dog, and she was on Benji in a single breath. She turned the diminutive girl around and started smacking her on the ass with the open palm of her left hand.
Honestly, this was kind of hilarious, especially Benji’s little yelps, but Vengencia put a stop to it right away.
“Enough!” yelled the queen. “Haley, sit down right there! Leave Benji alone!”
The blonde immediately let go of the human purse dog and sat down on the pavement of the parking lot. She burst into sobbing tears after that and covered her face. It was kind of painful to watch, so Stephanie turned away.
This time it was Vengencia’s turn to focus on Stephanie.
“Wenna,” she said unhappily. “We have got to break this curse. Now I’ve got Jenny and Carna going over that book of yours, and aside from myself, they’ve got the best grades, so maybe they can figure something out. I haven’t looked at the book yet.
“Please…Please, tell me you know something about The Pentagony? You put together the ritual, and you cast the spell, so you must know something.”
Oof. This was going to be embarrassing.
“I really don’t,” said Stephanie.
“Wh-What?” asked Vengencia in visible surprise.
“I’ll tell you what I know,” said Stephanie as she screwed up her lips in thought. “I got this book from my grandma. It was in the stuff she left behind after she died…uhhh…passed away.
“I…I’ve scoured the net for information on this thing, and I even went to my cousin about it. He…prowls around on the dark web. He found a few honorable mentions, but nothing solid.
“This book is one of six legendary cursed books. I know that…that the original Book of Shadows and The Necronomicon are two of them. I say the ‘original’ Book of Shadows, because what’s going around now isn’t the real book. Also, that probably applies to The Necronomicon as well.”
“Well, what do you know?” asked Vengencia.
“I have the real book,” said Stephanie. “I have the real Pentagony.”
Haley lowered her hands from her face and stared up at Stephanie with absolute misery in her watery eyes.
“No shit,” she winced.
Stephanie ignored her. That girl needed to simmer down anyway.
“I know The Pentagony is always inherited through the maternal grandmother,” she replied. “It always finds its way to the granddaughter, but performing the rituals is different for each girl. I’m seeing now that there is no benefit from this book. I think…I think it’s just an evil book.”
“Well, that’s the understatement of the year,” sighed Vengencia. “There must be some way to break the curse. Garm is still inside me, and you would not believe the things he wants me to do. They are disgusting, evil, and perverse…all at the same time. Imagine a neckbeard’s darkest fantasy while he’s on a Cheeto/Mountain Dew high. I need him out of me…
“But Garm’s as tight as a miser’s purse strings when it comes to The Pentagony. I can’t get anything from him at all on that book.”
“I want this done!” sobbed Haley. “There must be something we can do! I want to move on!…I can’t…I can’t even do that…”
She broke down into sobbing into her hands again. Benji sat down next to her and put her small arm around the blonde’s shoulders. This time, however, Haley did not attack her.
“Well, maybe we can consult some experts about it,” shrugged Stephanie. “I’ll ask my cousin. He’s into all of that occult/Satanic stuff.”
“You…You don’t believe in this?” asked Vengencia in visible and audible surprise. “I mean, you didn’t believe in it before?…Before you did the ritual?”
“Well, now I do,” replied Stephanie. “I haven’t seen Hell, but I’ve certainly felt it.”
“Yeah, but if there’s a Hell, shouldn’t there be a Heaven?” asked Benji. “Does that mean God is real? If God is real, then shouldn’t we find like…like a preacher or a priest or something? Won’t they be able to help us?”
“I am not going to have an existential crisis right now, Benji,” breathed out Vengencia. “I will chew on that question later.”
That response was funny. Stephanie had skirted an existential crisis earlier, though that had been over the whole “mass murder” thing. Apparently, Vengencia had a little firewall up against unwanted thoughts as well.
“I’m going to take Haley back to her apartment,” said Vengencia. “Is it okay if I drive the rental, Haley?…Wait…Why are you renting a car, anyway?”
This one was easy. Stephanie had called this one some time back.
“Her daddy took her T-bird away,” said Stephanie. “She had way too much fun, fun, fun.”
“It’s a Porsche!” protested Haley
“She got in trouble,” explained Stephanie. “I told her this was going to happen a long time ago…That’s why she’s renting. She’s getting around without him knowing about it.”
“Shut up,” sniffed Haley.
“Well, I think this whole Dawson thing is…difficult…for her,” said Vengencia. “Let’s just go back to your apartment, okay, Haley?”
“You don’t have to baby me,” said Haley as she wiped at her cheeks. “I can drive myself.”
“Well, I think we should go anyway,” said Vengencia. “Come on. Let’s get in the car.”
Stephanie rolled her eyes.
“What about me?” she asked.
“What about you?” asked Vengencia.
“You didn’t ask how I was doing,” said Stephanie.
“I…I don’t under…” stammered Vengencia.
The young woman sighed and shook her head.
“We’ll…We’ll have a one on one later,” said Vengencia.
“Whatever,” said Stephanie. “I’m going back in the bar.”
“What?” asked Benji.
“I’m going back in the bar,” repeated Stephanie. “I’m going to go get wasted and hit on some guys…That’s what bars are for.”
This time it was Vengencia’s turn to roll her eyes.
“How are you going to get back to your apartment?” asked their queen.
“I’ll call an Uber,” said Stephanie. “Duh.”
“Benji, go with her,” ordered Vengencia. “She’ll be too sloshed to call anybody. I already know where this is going.”
“I have to go?” asked the littlest of them. “Why me?”
“Because you’re the only one left, dummy,” said Stephanie. “Vengencia just said she was taking Haley back home.”
“It’s not my home,” sniffed Haley.
Stephanie waved her off.
“Try not to kill anyone,” said Vengencia.
“Oh, real funny,” snorted Stephanie.
“I wasn’t joking,” said Vengencia. “These traits of Garm are getting worse for all of us. I imagine they’ll be insufferable by the time the next full moon comes around…Plus, I don’t know if we can spread the curse through…by…by having sex or not.”
She whispered the word sex, and Stephanie could not help but stifle a guffaw.
“It’s not an STD,” she said. “It’s a curse, you dingus.”
“Yeah, but we don’t know all of the rules to it,” said Vengencia.
“Well, I’m going to go experiment, Mom,” said Stephanie. “Last time I checked, I didn’t pop out from between your legs, so don’t tell me what to do with what’s between mine.”
“Why do you have to be so crude?” asked Vengencia. “I’m just trying to be cautious.”
“Says the woman who wanted to spread the curse to a guy and then have us share custody of him,” replied Stephanie.
“Yeah, and I just now realized how insane that was,” said Vengencia. “Garm has me all screwed up, Wenna. I’m fighting him all the time.”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Stephanie. “Just get out of here. I’ll head on in with the midget.”
“I’m not a midget,” said Benji as she visibly sulked. “And it’s ‘little person.’ ‘Midget’ is insulting.”
“So’s your face, but I don’t call it out,” replied Stephanie.
Vengencia sighed yet again and shook her head once more.
“All right, we’re leaving,” said the young brunette. “I have to talk to Haley anyway. We’ll have a one on one later, Wenna.”
“Okay, Mom,” said Stephanie. “I am just soooooo looking forward to that.”
“Whatever…” sighed Vengencia. “We’ll talk later.”
They got into the rental, both Vengencia and Haley, and then they drove off after that. Wenna gave herself her own sigh and then turned a frown upon a very confused Benji.
This was going to suck. The little dog was only going to cramp her style.
“Well, well, well,” said Stephanie. “Looks like it’s just you and me…You know…you could join the GSNCU, Benji.”
“Really?” asked Benji. “I’d like that! I could be in both groups…just like Saffron.”
“Yeah,” said Stephanie with a wicked grin. “All you have to do is get your hair cut like mine. Easy peasy. We’ll just dye it black. That dye will probably go away when you change on the next full moon, but we’ll just dye it each month. It’ll be fine.”
Stephanie’s own hair was naturally black and straight, perfect for an aspiring Goth queen, but it was also cut short in the back, right above the neckline. In fact, it was mostly short, but the bangs were quite long, hanging down below her shoulders. Her hairline across her forehead was straight across, much like a bowl cut, because that was the popular style now with the Goth crowd…
The point? The littlest werewolf with the straight brown hair in a ponytail was going to hate it.
“I…I don’t know…” started Benji.
She stared off into the distance for a moment, shook her head no, and then screwed up her small lips in thought.
“Okay,” said Benji. “I can do that.”
This put Stephanie’s brain to a screeching halt. The gears in them were smoking now from a lack of proper logical lubrication.
“What!” she asked in disbelief. “I was joking, you little meat sack! There’s no way I’d ever let a little turd like you in!”
The smallest werewolf looked crushed for a second.
“Why?” she asked. “What have I done? Why do you hate me? Why do you keep attacking me! You keep insulting me for no reason!”
“Of course, there’s a reason!” choked out Stephanie. “There’s always a reason!”
“Then what is it?” asked Benji. “What did I ever do to you? Why are you always on my case?”
“Because I’m angry; that’s why!” cried Stephanie.
She was in it now. All of those pent-up emotions? They were being released, crashing forth in a tidal torrent, because the flood gates were now down.
“Angry doesn’t even cover it!” exclaimed Stephanie. “Furious is what I am!…Everything I planned, my revenge, my celebration of justice…It’s all destroyed!…It was all a lie, because the man I loved never loved me, so none of it even MATTERED!…And now I’m cursed to live as a monster for possibly hundreds of years, and that was all my fault, and I tried to kill everyone, and it’s just…it’s all…it’s all…”
She broke down into tears. It wasn’t the inane sobbing that Haley had broken down into, but it was a moment of weakness. It was a moment of weakness that hearkened back to when she had begged for her life in front of Vengencia, in front of Saffron, because that was their queen’s actual name, but even that felt like an insult, because if Saffron was actually named Vengencia, then at least the world would make sense again.
“Oh, Stephanie…Wenna…I am so sorry that you…you’re hurting…” verbally stumbled Benji. “I really am sorry.”
“I tried to kill you, you stupid idiot…” wept Stephanie. “You shouldn’t be sorry! You should be murderous!…I should just die…I should just die, dammit!…But if I do die, I’ll go to Hell, and now that I know Hell is real, I don’t want to…I don’t want to go there…”
She wept into her hands, but after a few seconds, she could feel Benji’s little hand rest upon her left shoulder.
“I forgive you, Wenna,” said Benji in her meek little voice.
Stephanie brushed off the girl’s hand, but it wasn’t a violent “don’t touch me.” It was gentler than that, weaker, a…a sign that she was simply falling apart inside, because that’s what she felt like, a crumbling tower that had seen far better days.
“You shouldn’t do that,” she choked out. “You shouldn’t forgive me. What I did was monstrous, and I want to justify it somehow, but the truth is, I can’t. Vengencia was right all along. Nothing I thought Haley did justifies her murder. It certainly doesn’t justify mass murder…I bragged about wanting to eat her face, but the moment I got cursed, I didn’t want it…Now I keep thinking about it, and I can’t let it go. It’s eating me up inside.”
“That’s a good thing,” said Benji. “That means you’re changing, Wenna. You’re changing for the better. How can anyone give you another chance if they can’t forgive you?…Especially now that you’re seeing the truth inside yourself.”
Stephanie shook her head. The little purse dog was really getting under her skin, but it was necessary, because honestly?…Stephanie knew she needed to heal, and as terrible as these feelings were, they needed to be addressed.
“I swear, Benji, you’re as smart as a bottle of water sometimes,” she replied. “And other times?…You’re like Socrates, Aquinas, and Confucius all rolled into one.”
“I don’t know if that’s an insult or a compliment,” said Benji.
“It doesn’t matter,” sniffed Stephanie. “I don’t want to go back to the bar…I just…I just want to go home…uhh…back to the apartment. I don’t want to get drunk…I just want some cookies and cream. I just want to sit down and eat a pint of ice cream.”
“That’s better than drinking,” shrugged Benji. “We should call an Uber, then.”
“Ugh…I should have just gone with Vengen—” she started to say, but she was interrupted.
“Hello?” came a female voice. “Can you help me?”
Stephanie turned to look upon a young woman around their age, the girl walking up to them without heed for their own private conversation. Stephanie wiped her eyes clear as she sniffed and tried to make herself look even somewhat presentable, though in truth, she did not want to interact with anyone right now.
Unfortunately, that did not look to be in the cards.
The young woman in need of help was indeed around their own age, between twenty-one and twenty-three, though she did not look like she was from their part of town. This slender young lady was white with long, straight, sandy-blonde hair, hazel eyes, and a pretty face. She was wearing a burgundy tee and blue jeans along with black crew socks and black sneakers. She was rather pale, and she was certainly underdressed for this time of the year.
“Excuse me?” asked Benji.
“Can you help me?” asked the young lady again.
“With what?” asked Benji. “I mean, what’s the problem?”
“I’ve dropped my keys somewhere near my car, and my phone is locked inside,” said the young lady. “I just need a light, maybe from one of your phones, and I can find my keys.”
“Ah…We can do that,” nodded Benji. “Right, Wenna?”
Stephanie reluctantly nodded once. She really wanted to go back to her campus apartment, but finding this girl’s keys probably wouldn’t take that long.
The young lady before them took in a sniff of the Autumn air and then shook her head.
“Huh…Do you work in a kennel?” she asked.
“What?” asked Benji.
“Y-You both smell like wet dog,” said the young woman in audible nervousness. “I’m not trying to be insulting…I’m just…I’m not good with meeting new people…”
Benji raised her left arm and sniffed under her armpit.
“BLEH!” choked out the littlest werewolf. “Ugh…I need a shower.”
Stephanie chuckled. Even Benji’s own scent wasn’t good enough for the little purse dog’s super sniffer. Even so, it was best not to rouse suspicion with this stranger.
“We…do work with dogs,” said Stephanie. “It’s something like a kennel.”
“Oh,” said the young lady. “Well…my car’s just over here…”
She waited for a sign, so Stephanie just shrugged.
“Okay,” sighed Stephanie. “Lead the way.”
They followed her across the parking lot, but Stephanie felt a tug at her sweater. She looked down at the littlest werewolf tugging at her green-sweater sleeve and frowned.
“What?” she asked. “What is it?”
“She doesn’t have a scent,” whispered Benji.
“What?” asked Stephanie. “I smell cheap perfume.”
“Yeah, but she doesn’t have a scent underneath that,” Benji whispered again.
Stephanie took in a whiff of the night air. She could smell a plethora of odors and aromas, including their own noxious BO, but the little purse dog was right…The stranger leading them across the parking lot only smelled like cheap perfume and nothing else.
“That is weird,” whispered Stephanie. “Maybe she’s part Asian? I heard Asians don’t have BO…I’ll have to ask Ebony. She has some Korean-American friends.”
Apart from that oddity, they continued onward. Stephanie had no reason to believe anything out of the ordinary was going on, though she could sense Benji’s nervousness.
Why was the little dog suddenly getting cold feet? They were freakin’ werewolves. Only an idiot would try something against them…Of course, there was no full moon right now…
She decided to press on. Benji was just going to have to get over it.
They continued across the lot into a dark corner. The lamplight on the post was out, and the night sky was cloudy, but there was still residual light from the other lamp posts circling the lot. Even so, the shadows and darkness, the whole effect of it, was creepy.
The young woman they were following walked up to a large, white, unmarked van. She walked around to the back of the suspicious vehicle and opened up the back doors.
“Hey, I thought you said you had a car?” asked Stephanie. “I thought you said you were locked out of it?”
“I don’t like this,” whispered Benji.
“You shouldn’t,” came a male voice from behind them.
They turned to see a muscular young white man in his late twenties. He had short dark hair, a big dark mustache, and dark eyes. He was wearing a white tee, a jean-jacket vest, blue jeans, and brown cowboy boots.
“What the fu…?” asked Stephanie. “Where did you come from?”
“I didn’t hear him!” said Benji. “I can’t even smell him!”
Stephanie took in another whiff of the night air.
Benji was right…This guy had no scent at all, not even cologne.
“Look what I brought, Ken!” said the young woman, the stranger, who had brought them here.
“You sure did, Barbie!” grinned the man.
This was some bullshit. This had to be some abduction, human-trafficking bullshit.
Stephanie felt a flash of fear over this BS, but still…she was a werewolf now. Benji was a werewolf now. Plus, Stephanie’s father was a respected, well-known corporate attorney. Messing with her was like trying to defuse a bomb with a spoon…pure insanity.
She felt a rage build insider her over this crap. She’d just decided to turn over a new leaf, and now…now this…
This…This was…This was a trigger. It was a trigger, and she was trying to be a better person, a better human being, but this…this was a trigger. This was some bullshit.
“Ken and Barbie?” asked Stephanie. “What are you two? A couple from Mattel? If you’re Ken, then the company isn’t doing its job…You look like white trash to me, but then again, if you’re the real deal Ken from Mattel, that means you’re dickless, which can’t be far from the truth anyway. I’m sensing small peen energy. Maybe your balls haven’t dropped yet, I don’t know.
“Let’s get out of here, Benji. I’m not wasting my time on dickless and titless here.”
“Oh, we got ourselves a spitfire, Barb!” said the man in excitement.
“Ste-Stephaniiiieee…” whined Benji.
Stephanie turned to see that the young woman of the pair was holding a rather large carbon-steel, gunmetal-grey revolver in both hands. Stephanie was by no means an expert on guns, but that thing looked pretty freakin’ big. One shot would blow someone’s head off.
“Get in the van, you rich bitches,” ordered “Barbie.”
The sight of the revolver caused pure adrenaline to flow through Stephanie’s veins…but the spoken insult “bitches” currently overrode any fear she may have had.
“What…did you call me?” asked Stephanie. “Why don’t you repeat that!”
“She called you a bitch, you little rich bitch,” said “Ken.” “Now get in the van before she puts a hole in your leg. We don’t want you dead…You’re too valuable to us alive, but that don’t mean we have to put up with your mou…”
His voice trailed off as he sniffed the air. He looked disgusted for a second, confused in the next second, and then his dark eyes went wide with surprise, but not just surprise…There was a look of…of horror in them.
“Barb, what have you done!” he said in a panicked tone.
He bolted around Stephanie and Benji in order to stand next to Barbie. He was fast, way faster than Stephanie would have originally given him credit for.
The change in the woman was immediate. She went from supreme confidence to something very different in half a second.
“What! What!” she cried. “What did I do!”
Her hazel eyes took on the same look of panic as the man beside her.
“You brought me a couple of real bitches, that’s what!” yelled the man. “Are you out of your fricken’ mind! Their blood is cursed, you stupid whore!”
“Wh-What?” asked the young woman in a meek, terrified voice.
Stephanie cocked her own head to the right. She had no idea what was going on, but this…suddenly didn’t feel like a normal abduction.
“I don’t understand!” said the young woman, Barbie, in a jittery, trebled tone.
She wasn’t the only one.
“Blood?” asked Stephanie. “You want our blood? What are you, white-trash vampires?”
The man, Ken, ignored her. No, his full attention was on Barbie.
“They’re a couple of wolves, you dumb bitch!” he snarled. “You’ve brought werewolves to our van!”
“I-I-I didn’t mean to!” stammered Barbie.
“How do you know that?” asked Stephanie in confusion.
The man turned his attention upon both Stephanie and her diminutive companion. His eyes glowed red from some inner light, and where his canines should have been were now a couple of large ivory fangs.
“Stay back!” he yelled.
This development was new. Apparently, vampires were real.
Stephanie’s blood was pumping through and through her veins with pure adrenaline, but that was of little use. She did not know what to do or think in this situation. This kind of thing had never even occurred to her.
“Start the van!” ordered Ken.
“Ken, I—” began Barbie, but she was cut short.
He yanked the large revolver out of her hands, but he didn’t stop there…He backhanded her across the right temple with it.
She cried out and fell to the pavement, and then he aimed the gun directly at Stephanie.
But she was not the problem. Benji, little Benji, immediately spoke up and stepped forward. Honestly, Stephanie should have seen this coming, because Benji wasn’t exactly the brightest bulb in the house, but it happened so quickly, there was no time to stop her.
“Hey!” exclaimed the littlest werewolf in an angry yell.
“Stay back!” ordered Ken as he aimed the barrel of the hand cannon directly at Benji. “STAY BACK!”
He pulled the trigger.
There was an explosion of sound, a bright flash of light from the muzzle of the revolver, and the smell of burning gunpowder.
Benji flew backwards several feet before landing on her back upon the grey and cracked asphalt of the parking lot.
Stephanie stared down at the motionless little purse dog. There was a large bloody hole right between the girl’s brown eyes, right in the middle of her little forehead.
Stephanie’s own ears rang from the gunshot, but that didn’t matter. No…that didn’t matter at all.
“You…You killed her…” said Stephanie in instant shock.
But the murderous young man ignored her yet again.
“I said get in the van, Barb!” yelled Ken. “Start the engine now!”
The rage built inside Stephanie. This was the essence of Garm, a piece-of-shit son-of-a-bitch demon, but a useful one, because now that demon prince’s core fury was burning inside her, and that explosion was coming.
“You killed HER!” she shouted and growled at the same time.
The change was not slow this time.
Stephanie was 5’6”, an average height for a woman, but as her bones thickened and lengthened, she sprouted up six-inches on top of that. Her jeans split along the sides of her hips as the additional size and muscle took shape, and her panties tightened around her waist. Her toes split the fronts of her white sneakers as they lengthened; her new animal black toenails tore open the leather with effortless ease. Furthermore, she now filled out the loose green sweater she was wearing, which was good, because having it hang off of her had been irritating.
Black fur erupted from her skin, erupting all over her body, and her teeth sharpened into ravaging fangs. Her face did not elongate—the bones did not break—but the pain in her nose and eyes told her that they had changed too…
For one thing, she could now see out here as if it were daylight.
None of that mattered, though, because the only thing she could see now was red.
This white-trash vampire, Ken, fired twice more as Stephanie closed the distance and leapt upon him. She felt the instant pain as the hand-cannon’s bullets impacted her, one in the left shoulder, the other in the gut, but this did not stop her. It did not even slow her down, because the rage would not let it.
She was full on pissed now.
He cried out in agony as she grabbed his right arm and tore it out from its socket, gun and all. The ripped-off limb burst into a blue and yellow flame after that, and then it was gone, ashes in her huge warped hands.
The vampire man, Ken, choked out a warning as he hopped into the back of the van.
“Get the van…started…Barb!” he cried out in audible wracking pain. “M-Move!”
Blood shot out of the stump near his shoulder; it shot out everywhere, but it ceased spraying after only a few seconds.
Yet again, none of that mattered, because the rage inside Stephanie would not let it matter.
The blood did something to her. It was human blood; it had to be, because vampires weren’t even alive, but that was the problem. It only increased her rage to…to infinite heights. She didn’t even feel or notice the bullets pop out of her as the gunshot wounds immediately healed.
The young woman named “Barbie” shrieked bloody murder, just absolute terror, as she stood and ran for the driver’s-side door of the van.
Stephanie took a swipe at her with the new black claws of her right hand. Those deadly claws tore through the girl’s cheap shirt and rent four bloody lines across the flawless pale skin of her back.
The young woman screamed as she opened the van’s driver’s door and launched herself into the driver’s seat.
Stephanie stepped to the side, looked over, and reached for one of the unmarked van’s open back doors. She wanted Ken, really—she wanted him first—so she grabbed that door and tore it from its hinges. She tossed the door aside as she tried to enter the van, but the vehicle was already moving before she could do so.
She could see the cage wall near the front of the van, the blood along the interior bare-metal back of the van, and the terrified gaze of the man she wanted to absolutely destroy…
But they were gone after that, peeling out before she could react. She was, in fact, going to chase after the vehicle—she was going to get down on all fours and run like a real wolf—but the sense of another presence prevented her from doing that.
She turned to see Benji, little Benji, sit up and rub at her own bloody forehead.
“Ow! Ow! Owiiieee!” cried out the little dog.
The van disappeared into the night as Stephanie tried to understand what she was looking at. What she saw clicked, punching through the rage, piercing through the hunger and animosity. Her rage vanished after that, fading away like a sugar high, fading away as her adrenaline crashed.
The change back to her normal self was swift, but it was not merciful. She cursed with several expletives involving the word “mother” and tried not to cry as her bones warped and molded back into her original 5’6” self. She dropped to her hands and knees as her body changed back, and then it was over, the pain, and that relief was sweet.
“Ben…Benji…” breathed out Stephanie.
The littlest werewolf stood and furiously rubbed her forehead.
“Ow, that smarts!” she said.
The girl stood and trotted over to Stephanie.
Stephanie looked up and could see the blood smeared across Benji’s little head, but there was no bullet hole anymore. Except for the blood stain, the smallest member of the pack looked fine.
“I-I thought you were dead,” choked out Stephanie.
She took in a few gulps to keep from crying, but some of those obnoxious tears spilled forth anyway.
“No, but that really, reeeaaally hurt, especially when the bullet came out,” said Benji.
“Help me up,” said Stephanie. “I think I ripped my pants. I did rip my pants…Oh, well, Haley bought them, so whatever. I can just give her back the…wait…Nope, the shoes are ruined. I’ve also got a couple of bullet holes in the sweater.”
The little purse dog pulled her up to her feet, and Stephanie took a moment to wipe her eyes free of tears.
“I think I was dead for a moment,” said Benji in a nervous tone. “I really think I died.”
“What?” asked Stephanie.
The little purse dog began to fire off an explanation in rapid speech, and Stephanie could barely follow what she was saying.
“I woke up naked in the forest again,” said Benji, “only this time there were a bunch of werewolves on one side of me, and they were all gross looking and deformed, and they wanted me to come with them, but they smelled really, really bad and had really, really big things between their legs, big ding dongs, and they were going to do terrible things to me, especially with their big ding dongs, so I didn’t want to go with them, but on the other side of me was this really bright light, and it was so white, I can’t even describe it, and there was really, really pretty music coming from the light, and there was someone in that light, but I didn’t see what they looked like, and that person wanted me to go with them, and I was going to do that, go with the person in the light, but then the bullet popped out, and that hurt like a real beeyatch, so I—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” said Stephanie as she cut short the littlest wolf’s afterlife experience. “We don’t have time for this! We’ve got to get out of here! Three gunshots and a lot of screaming?…We’ll get nabbed by the police! We’ve got to call an Uber and get a hold of Saffron…uhhh…Vengencia. We have to tell her that vampires are real!”
“I got shot in the head and died,” grimaced Benji. “Isn’t that important too?”
“Of course, it is, numnuts,” frowned Stephanie in return. “I wouldn’t have gone apeshit if it weren’t for you…But we can’t get caught by the police out here. We’ve got to go!”
“Okay, okay,” said Benji. “You have to tell me what happened, though, after I got shot and…Wait…Vampires are real?”
Stephanie sighed and rolled her eyes. This was turning out to be a long and crazy night of serious revelations.
“Let’s just call Vengencia directly and have her pick us up,” she frowned.
“Right,” said Benji.
*****
“Okay, everyone!” said Vengencia as she clapped her hands together. “Everyone, gather round! I called everyone together tonight because of something really important, okay!”
Stephanie leaned against the chapter house wall as she shook her head. She did not like this building, and to be fair, she did not like Beta Theta Sigma, but she was here anyway at the behest of their queen, and so was everyone else, including the girls of the Gothic Society of North Corgan University. This sucked on several levels, mainly because it was Monday night, and Stephanie would have rather been anywhere else.
“Why do we have to be here?” asked Hope. “It’s fricken’ Monday! I’ve got things to do!”
“Like what?” asked Hatea. “Jacking off to werewolf smut? Go fingerbang yourself somewhere else, Hope.”
“Go suck an old man’s dick, you gaping hole,” scowled Hope. “And it’s vampire smut. At least get it right.”
Stephanie allowed herself a little smile. It was a small crack in her normal bitchy demeanor, because even though both groups were all one big pack now, they still didn’t like each other. The old rivalries were still there, and sometimes they were funny, especially with those two.
“Speaking of vampires…” said Vengencia. “Benji…why don’t you start us off.”
“I got shot last night, and I died!” said Benji in visible and audible excitement.
The diminutive twenty-one-year-old excitedly hopped up and down as she excitedly spoke in her excited little voice.
“What?” asked Gracie. “What are you talkin’ about, girl?”
“Yeah, you look pretty well alive to me,” said Sin.
“Just quiet down!” ordered Vengencia. “Let her talk!”
That was a command. Stephanie felt the weight of it settle down upon her. Whether Vengencia wanted to admit it or not, she had a “power,” and it was indeed powerful.
The room went silent. Even Malicia and Gabrielle stopped talking to each other, and that was a miracle in itself. Those two had been flirting for…well…up until this very minute.
“Continue, Benji,” said Vengencia.
“This couple was out in the parking lot of the 5th and Seven,” explained Benji. “They were around our own age, and they were named Barbie and Ken, and they were…they were vampires!”
The whole room’s gaze was on the littlest werewolf. Stephanie could feel the air in here, and it…it was thick with disbelief.
“Go on, Benji,” said Vengencia.
“They…They tried to kidnap us!” explained Benji. “They had a van, and at first, we thought they were human traffickers, but what they really wanted was to take us off somewhere and drain us dry like we were a couple of smoothies, but then they figured out we were werewolves, and the guy, Ken, hit the girl, Barbie, so I…I rushed forward to help her, and then the guy vampire, Ken, shot me in the head with his gun!”
“Oh…Okay…ummm…This is…” said Vengencia as she shook her head a couple of times. “Maybe Wenna should explain it, Benji.”
Stephanie sighed, uncrossed her arms, and took a step forward in order to address the room. She really didn’t want any attention on her right now, but she brought it on herself anyway.
“It’s true,” she frowned. “We got jumped by a couple of vampires outside of the 5th and Seven. The guy, Ken, shot and killed Benji. He shot her right between the eyes. She died for a few seconds until the bullet popped out of her head.”
The whole room had turned its gaze upon her now.
“Oh…uhhh…I know this sounds unbelievable, but it’s true,” said Vengencia. “I picked them up last night after Haley let me borrow her rental…Does anyone have any questions?”
It was Haley who spoke first.
“What in the hell are you two talking about?” asked the blonde.
“Yeah, what is this, a joke?” asked Ebony. “What’s going on, Wenna? Don’t lie to us anymore.”
“I’m not lying!” hissed Stephanie.
Even her own crew had turned against her, but that was understandable.
“She’s not!” protested Benji. “I got shot right between the eyes and died!”
“She’s not lying,” said Vengencia.
“Benji, stop playing her games,” said Ebony. “She’s manipulative. I don’t know what she’s up to now, but she’s just manipulating you…Don’t trust her, Vengencia.”
This made Stephanie bristle…Her girls used to be loyal.
But that anger would have to wait.
“I’m not playing any game!” protested Benji.
“Chill out, Ebony,” ordered Vengencia. “I know for a fact Wenna isn’t lying.”
“How?” asked the young woman.
“Because I can read her,” frowned Vengencia. “It’s part of being queen. I can read all of you, but I’ll just put this doubt to rest right now…Wenna…I’m ordering you to tell me the truth, the complete and honest truth, when I ask you this one question…Are you telling the truth about last night?”
Stephanie was compelled to answer, and this did help her in this particular situation, but she hated the feeling of it. She couldn’t control herself when Vengencia gave a command, and honestly? That was making her mad.
Nevertheless, she complied.
“Yes,” said Wenna.
The whole room erupted with the finality of that answer.
Haley and the other girls of Beta Theta Sigma immediately surrounded Benji out of pure concern. The blonde leader of the sorority was the first to grip the littlest werewolf’s head and look her over.
“Oh, my God!” cried Haley. “Are you all right, Benji!”
They were all over her like mothering hens, but that concern quickly turned to anger.
“Somebody hurt Benji!” exclaimed Mary. “Saffron! Somebody’s going to die!”
The whole of BTS began to growl, all seven of the other girls, save Benji, who was currently overwhelmed.
“I’ll kill them!” said Allie. “I’ll find this guy and tear his nuts off!”
“I’m gonna rip this Barbie doll in half!” said Hope.
“Let’s go find them!” cried Jenny. “We’ll hunt them down!”
“Everybody, settle down!” ordered Vengencia.
The room immediately went quiet, but it didn’t stay that way for long.
“I have a question,” said Carna, and everyone turned to look at her.
“Yes, Carna?” asked their queen. “What is it?”
“Yeah, Macy,” said Mary, her voice thick with open hostility. “What’s your question?”
Both Carna and Mary glared at each other with open spite.
“Mary, please,” said Vengencia. “Carna, ask your question.”
“Okay…ummm…You said vampires are real?” asked Carna.
“If they are, it looks like your theory was correct, Macy…uuuh…Carna,” said Jenny.
“They must be,” said Vengencia. “Wenna is telling the truth, but I’m more interested in this theory of yours, Carna. What is it?”
“I’ve done some research online,” said Carna. “There’s something called ‘The Law of Supernatural Attraction.’”
“What is it?” asked Haley.
“It’s a theory that…once you encounter the supernatural, you’re pulled into their world,” said Carna. “Once you’re in their world, you start running into more and more of them, more of the supernatural.”
“Macy’s theory…Oh, sorry, Carna…” began Jenny. “Carna’s theory is that there is a ‘world beneath the world.’ It’s like the real world is a kind of a thick ‘skin’ over the supernatural world. Once you’re pulled into the ‘world beneath the world,’ you get into the darker side of reality.”
“Like Tales from the Darkside,” nodded Benji.
“No one knows what that is, Benji,” said Hatea as she rolled her eyes.
“It’s an old TV show,” said Vengencia. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is Carna’s theory…What do you think, Jenny?”
“I think she’s right,” said Jenny.
“Thank you, Jenny,” nodded Carna.
“I think we’ve been drawn into a whole separate reality because of this curse,” frowned Jenny. “We’re part of this new world now. I think that’s why people don’t ever really come across vampires and werewolves, because we now exist on a whole other level of existence, a ‘world beneath the world.’ Otherwise, human beings would have wiped out all of these creatures by now.”
“Wouldn’t monsters kill us all, though?” asked Allie. “Why would you think people would be able to wipe out the supernatural?”
“It’s because if…if there is a ‘world beneath the world,’” continued Jenny, “there has to be a ‘world above the world.’”
Oh, right…Jenny was the religious one. True, Gabrielle liked to call herself Catholic, but she was, in Stephanie’s opinion, about as Catholic as a Gay Pride parade. Stephanie was honestly surprised the Hispanic girl wasn’t making out with Malicia right now as the rest of the pack discussed these revelations.
“What does that have to do with anything?” asked Allie.
“She means, if there’s a Hell, there must be a Heaven,” said Carna. “I have another theory too. I believe humans have a divine gift from the powers that be.”
“And what’s that?” asked Allie.
“I believe they can kill anything,” said Carna with one-hundred-percent confidence.
“Oh, really?” snorted Allie. “So you’re saying they can kill God?”
“Yes,” replied Jenny instead of Carna. “They already have.”
“Oh, Jenny, not you too,” winced Allie. “Tell me you don’t believe in any of this…If God is real and all powerful, then how can he be killed, huh? Answer that. How did human beings kill him?”
“Crucifixion,” said Jenny.
Allie leaned back as if stunned, but Stephanie just shook her head and smirked at all of this. Leave it to Jenny to find a loophole. It’s true that she was religious, but she was also the nerd of the BTS girls. Carna just happened to be the nerd of the GSNCU, which was why Vengencia had stuck the two girls together to work on The Pentagony problem.
“Okay, okay, that’s all cool and all, but I haven’t finished telling my story, guys!” said Benji.
“Are you sure you’re all right, Benji?” asked Haley.
“Everyone, let Benji speak,” ordered Vengencia.
Haley gave their queen a sulking expression that made Stephanie smile. It was clear that she, herself, was not the only one who was annoyed by Vengencia’s “royal” power.
“I was going to say…Wenna drove off the vampires!” said Benji with even more Benji excitement.
She was the poster child for an “as seen on TV” ad.
“She fought them off!” continued the excited little werewolf.
The rest of the pack turned and looked at Stephanie, all of their faces clouded with clear disbelief. This irritated Stephanie, but their doubt was understandable.
“What?” asked Gracie. “Did you really fight two vampires, Stephanie?…How?”
“She turned into a wolf girl and kicked their asses!” grinned Benji. “She grew to like…six-feet tall and split her pants open and then opened up a can of whoop ass! She looked like Lon Chaney from The Wolf Man, only with boobs!”
“Is that true, Stephanie?” asked Haley. “I didn’t think we could change until the full moon.”
“Answer her truthfully, Wenna,” commanded Vengencia.
Stephanie sighed. She was really, reeeaaaallly getting tired of being ordered around, but she was even more tired of being automatically distrusted, but to be fair, that second one was…you know…
“Yessss, it’s true,” said Stephanie unhappily. “I…I got so…I just got so furious that Benji had been shot…that…that I lost it. I really thought she was dead. I just…Everything turned red, and then I changed, and I was on that guy Ken in a heartbeat. I ripped off his arm…I tore it right out of its socket…That didn’t kill him, though. He and that undead bitch, Barbie, got away.”
“Wenna is like, super strong, guys!” grinned Benji. “She tore off the back door of the van they drove!”
“Oh…” said Vengencia in a sad tone. “Oh…Super strength…Everyone seems to have a power but me…That’s not fair…”
Both Stephanie and Haley turned to stare at her with disgusted disbelief. This was one thing that they could both agree on.
“Are you kidding me!” asked Stephanie. “You can literally command us to jump off a bridge if you want to! I literally cannot control my own body once you give a command!”
“Yeah, what the eff, Saffy!” said Haley. “I’d trade powers with you if I could! I want to be queen!…All I got was super hearing…”
“You have super hearing?” asked Mary.
Haley nodded and smiled.
Vengencia ignored that little exchange.
“That…” started Vengencia as she shook her head in response to their righteous anger. “But I have to…I use it to keep you from…Oh, fudge…Yeah, you’re right. I am so sorry about that. I’ll try to keep my orders to a minimum. That’s a violation of free will, and that’s not right. I shouldn’t be doing that all the time…I just…I just completely forgot. I’m possessed by Garm, if you haven’t forgotten, so I…These urges inside me…They’re so hard to control.”
“It’s okay,” said Haley. “We’ll figure it out, Saffy. We’ll get this curse lifted. We’ll get it lifted, and if Macy’s correct, then we’ll just return to the regular world instead of ‘the world beneath the world.’
“But don’t order me to sniff anyone’s butt. I think I’d die if I had to sniff Stephanie’s rear end.”
Stephanie growled without thinking about it.
“Oh, yeah?” she glowered. “Well, I can smell your nasty ass from here, you blonde bimbo!”
“Yeah, and I can smell ‘eau de skank’ from here, Stephanie!” glowered back Haley. “Wash your twat, please.”
“Pick your bread!” hissed Stephanie. “You can eat your own clit cheese!”
“Oh, yeah!” replied Haley. “Well, go lick yourself, you bitch!”
That one made Stephanie balk.
“Wait…I already used that one on Benji,” she said.
“Really?” asked Haley.
“Yeah, and she actually thought about doing it,” smirked Stephanie.
“Benji!” scolded Haley.
“What!” asked the littlest werewolf. “It was just a thought!…Geez…”
“Wow…” replied Hope. “I never thought of that…”
“Hope, don’t,” warned Allie. “Just don’t. Let’s not cross that line.”
The slightly-overweight she-wolf with the sandy blonde hair simply shrugged and put forth a weak smile.
“Ugh…” said Hatea with a roll of her eyes.
“Shut up,” said Hope. “You’ll judge me for thinking about it and then go and do it yourself…Just watch.”
“Like I’d ever…” said Hatea. “At least I could do it. I’m not a gross fat ass.”
“No, you’re just gross,” scowled Hope.
“Now you’re just being retarded,” scowled Hatea in return. “It’s all that smut you write.”
“It’s romantasy, and it proves I’m creative,” said Hope. “Your brain is like a lead bar anyway. You couldn’t read a Dick and Jane book.”
“Oh, yeah?” asked Hatea. “Well, you can’t get laid. That’s why you’re always jerking off to smut.”
“Bitch!” hissed Hope. “At least I don’t have a gold line of credit from Bad Dragon!”
She growled, a low rumble, and Hatea immediately returned that growl.
“You two!” called out Vengencia.
Uh, oh. Their queen was beginning to get upset. Stephanie allowed herself a little smile, because Hope and Hatea were about to find out why Haley and Stephanie, herself, were so annoyed with Vengencia’s power.
Everyone turned to stare at Hope and Hatea. The two girls were about to kill each other, but what they didn’t know was that their queen was about to lay a smackdown on them.
“Hope, sit there!” ordered Vengencia. “Hatea, sit over there! Neither one of you needs to interact with the other, am I clear! If you can’t get along, then you won’t talk to each other anymore!”
The two girls parted from each other and sat in different seats. Both of them looked supremely confused and upset as to why they were suddenly following orders from someone who was little more than a stranger. Stephanie had to stifle a chuckle over it.
She intervened in this one, mainly because Vengencia didn’t know.
“Uhhh, boss?” she asked. “You can’t give them that order.”
“What?” asked Vengencia. “Why not?”
“Because they live in the same house,” said Stephanie. “They have different apartments, though, but they do have the same parents.”
“She’s right,” said Haley. “You can’t order them not to talk to each other, Saffy. Hope and Charity are sisters.”
“Ooooooh,” nodded Vengencia. “I…Okay. So Hatea’s birth name is Charity…Okay, this is a sibling thing…Okay, this makes sense. All right, I’ll keep that in mind. I’ll undo my command here in a minute.”
“Also, you just said you weren’t going to use your power on us anymore,” said Stephanie.
“Within reason,” said Vengencia. “Within reason. I’ve got to maintain some order, Wenna.”
“Ugh…Yes, my queen,” said Stephanie. “I’m forced to play along, but I don’t want to. You were right, though. It’s not right. I don’t like it. I don’t like it all. Still, I’m glad it’s you and not some rando perv neckbeard, or I’d be wearing nothing but a dog collar right now. Haley would have on a pink ribbon with a bow.”
The blonde leader of BTS turned and gave a slight chuckle.
“Yeah, I have to agree with Stephanie,” said Haley. “This is getting out of hand. I don’t like it, either.”
“I understand, guys,” said Vengencia. “Look, the sooner we break this curse, the sooner we can all be free…I have Garm inside me. I know that sounds like I’m using that as an excuse all of the time, but I’m not. He’s really raging around in there. I’m constantly fighting him.
“Hope and Hatea may be insulting each other with the whole ‘lick yourself’ thing, but that’s the kind of shit Garm wants me to do. He’s not cutting me any slack. If I weren’t fighting him right now, I’d be taking a cleaver to a bus full of school children and then celebrate by having my own head between my legs…
“You don’t…You don’t know what it’s like…I really need to be free of this curse, and if cracking a few skulls is what it takes, so to speak, then that’s what I’m going to have to do.
“I know it sounds like an excuse, but it’s not. I’m desperate, and I’m scared. I’m really, really scared, okay? I didn’t even know any of this shit was real up until two days ago. Does that make sense, Wenna?”
“Yeah, yeah,” frowned Stephanie. “I get it…Anyway, I’m ready to talk to you now. Remember that talk we were supposed to have?…I really need it, especially after what happened last night. Besides, maybe I can give you some advice about Garm. We can bounce ideas around.”
Vengencia nodded, turned around, and then waved everyone off.
“Everybody, we’re done for now!” she said firmly. “Hope and Hatea, you can talk to each other again, but I want both of you to be civil to each other, okay? I know you’re sisters, but let’s keep the sibling rivalry down to a minimum.”
“They’re fraternal twins,” said Stephanie.
“They’re twins?” asked Vengencia. “Oh, that really explains things…Well…come on, Wenna. Let’s go take a walk. It was a nice, gloomy, British-weather day outside. Now that it’s night, I doubt it’s any different.”
“Yeah,” said Stephanie. “It was a Goth day.”
Everyone was still clearly pissed at her, but there were a couple of things she now understood. First, Benji had somehow become her friend. She wasn’t sure how this had happened, but the little purse dog had definitely gotten under her skin. Second, it was true Vengencia was the queen, and that was really annoying, but the girl was actually trying to help her, and she was actively protecting Stephanie from everyone else. And third…it was painful to admit it, but she sensed the divide between herself and Haley was closing, though it sure was taking its own sweet time.
15 WOLVES: Serious Revelations Copyright © 2026 bloodytwine.com Matthew L. Marlott
Note: The image for this story was generated via artificial intelligence courtesy of OpenAI.
