Terra/Malicia’s Story
Terra finished applying her black eyeliner. She gave herself a wide grin, and her reflection imitated that action.
“Ooooooh…” she sang. “Iiiiiiiiit’s…the second week of Novembeeeer! And it’s one month to…Decembeeeer! And I’ll sing this song…all month long! It’ll be a month to…remembeeeer!”
“Malicia, shut up!” called out Ebony from the lower bunk of their bunk beds. “Can’t I have one day where I can sleep in!…And I’ve told you a million times! Put on some clothes after you take a shower!”
“I’m wearing a towel,” said Terra.
“Wrapped around your hair!” hissed Ebony. “I don’t want to wake up in the morning and see your giant ass right in my line of vision!”
“Okay,” shrugged Terra. “Just go back to sleep. I’ll put on some clothes.”
Her roommate was just cranky. This week had been suuuuuper busy and weird, so Ebony was stressed out. You couldn’t let stress rule your life, though. That was Terra’s motto.
“Don’t turn around yet,” warned Ebony. “I’ll turn around and face the wall…And trim your pubes. You look like a capybara died on your hoo-ha.”
“I wonder if guys trim their pubes?” asked Terra.
“Why would you care?” mumbled Ebony. “You’re always Gabrielle this and Gabrielle that. Have her trim your pubes and let me sleep…And guys don’t look at each other naked or even think about that shit. They don’t walk around like that. That’s gay as fu…uuuh…eff.”
“Hmm. I’m au naturelle,” said Terra matter-of-factly. “I don’t mind being naked, for the most part. I wouldn’t want to walk around naked in public, but…I’m fine in my own space…You should be proud of your body, Ebony. Life is too short to agonize and worry over every little thing. Be proud in your own skin.”
“You just want to see me naked,” said Ebony in a sleepy voice. “Now let me get back to snoozing…And by the way, it’s Saturday, the 7th. This isn’t the second week of November. We’re still in the first.”
“Hmm, yeah, I guess,” said Terra. “I do want to see you naked, buuuuuut I respect your privacy.”
“Well, you’re not going to,” yawned Ebony. “Go make out with Gabrielle or something.”
“I’ve got a full day,” said Terra. “I don’t know if I’ll have time to see Gabby or not. She’s being awfully guarded, though. She keeps talking about sin and stuff.”
“She’s been talking about Sin?” asked Ebony. “She likes Sin now?”
“Do you mean our Sin?” asked Terra. “Daria?”
“Yeah,” said Ebony.
“No, Gabby keeps talking about sin and damnation and hellfire and stuff,” said Terra. “It’s a real downer, but I’m working on her. Maybe I can get through to her.”
“Maybe she can get through to you,” said Ebony. “Now shut up and let me sleep.”
“Okay, cranky pants,” said Terra. “I’d better get dressed now anyway.”
“Good…” said Ebony in a fading voice. “Big, stupid bare ass…like a…billboard…”
Yep, Ebony was asleep. Terra could tell. Her cranky, grumpy roommate was lightly snoring away, but that was okay, because it was clear Ebony needed it.
Terra took to picking out her clothes for the day, but they were mostly the same things she always wore: black pants, black dress shoes, and a black shirt with a black long-sleeve sweater button-up. Today’s shirt had the words “Special Girl” in white cursive across it, and her stretchy pants had the words “Bottoms Up” in pink cursive across the rear end, and this particular pair of pants were her favorite. Her second favorite was the one that said “Gorgeous” in pink sequins across the pants legs, but Wenna didn’t like that one because it wasn’t “Goth” enough.
She had on her underwear, of course, but poo that. If she could, she’d just go commando, not because it was some kind of sexual thing, but because the absence of underclothes was desirable entirely due to comfort. Ebony had warned her, however, that Terra’s boobs were going to “sag” later on in life if she didn’t wear the bra, so the bra was kind of a must, but the panties weren’t…except for those really annoying five days out of the month where a pad was necessary, but that was something every girl went through and not something to stress over now.
She’d originally joined Beta Theta Sigma because of Wenna…Stephanie…because Stephanie had looked really good in those blue shorts over that one summer, but Stephanie was also quite the little queen bee and not really someone that Terra could spend “quality time” with. Plus, Stephanie kind of didn’t like girls who liked other girls, but she was tolerant to a point, so that was okay, but she could be really mean sometimes, and that was…a stressor, and Terra tried to avoid those.
The girls in BTS were good-looking, except for Benji, but that was only because Benji looked waaaaaay underaged, and that was…yuck. Hope was a little pudgy, but she was cute, and there was Gabrielle, of course, but the queen, queen, Saffron was a meower, the real cat’s meow.
She wasn’t really sure if Saffron would go for something different or not.
Sooooo disappointing nobody in the GSNCU was gay or bi, but there was still Gabrielle in Beta Theta Sigma, and she was a cutie, a hot little Hispanic beauty…Of course, Gabrielle was way, waaay too uptight anymore, especially after the whole “werewolf” thing.
Terra thought about these things as she dressed. It wasn’t that she was stupid, she just had priorities that the other girls didn’t have. She wanted to live life to the fullest, and now she was living it that way…sort of. There was still school, and she still struggled with some subjects, but Ebony and Carna helped whenever she had any difficulties with the material.
She didn’t really need a degree anyway. She was going to inherit her parents’ cosmetics company once they decided to retire, so this “higher education” was more of a “finishing school” than anything else.
Of course, there was still the whole “werewolf” thing. Honestly, Terra hadn’t even believed any of that stuff was real, but now everyone was saying that vampires and demons were real too, and that kind of complicated her whole world view. Buuuuut, she was a werewolf now, so she doubted those things would mess with her anyway.
Yeah, everybody was saying that Benji had already been killed twice and had come back from the dead both times, so now Terra had absolutely nothing to be afraid of anymore…Weeeell…she was still afraid of her parents finding about her sexual proclivities. It wasn’t that she didn’t like men; it was just that she liked girls better. Maybe she’d get married to a man someday and have kids, but…well…she’d see. She could always have a cute little mistress on the side.
That would be funny. She’d probably end up having an affair with the girl her husband was having an affair with. They’d have a throuple going, but none of them would know about it…Honestly, she could write whole dramas if she wanted to.
Then again, men were really hard to get ahold of nowadays. They didn’t want an independent woman with a lot of money. They wanted a housewife, but Terra really didn’t have a problem with this. She could just sit back, relax, and have the servants take care of the house. Of course, she’d be expected to have kids, but after going through that werewolf transformation, she was pretty sure childbirth was going to be a snap.
She walked into the “living area” of the campus apartment and went into the kitchen.
“Gonna get me a maaaaan, and a hammer in the moooorning,” she sang. “Gonna hit that maaaaan over the heeeeeaaad. Gonna drag him to my caaaaave…”
Her voice trailed off as she turned and saw a man in her apartment. He was an old black man, maybe in his late sixties, early seventies, kind of fat, and he wore glasses, the kind with the round rims. He had on blue overalls, a white shirt, and a jean newsboy cap. He was carrying a rather large toolbox in his wrinkled right hand. He looked like the kind of jolly old man that sometimes appeared in ads.
“Oh, hello,” said Terra in surprise. “I-I didn’t hear you come in…Are you a repair man? I didn’t know we needed any repairs.”
The old man tipped his hat but said nothing. He walked into the kitchen area past the small square table that came with every one of these apartments and slowly knelt down by the wall. He set down his toolbox, pulled out a screwdriver, and began to unscrew an outlet plate.
“Oh…” said Terra. “Huh…Guess that outlet’s bad.”
She took to doing last night’s dishes in the sink. This apartment didn’t have a dishwasher, so Ebony had declared Terra the designated “dishwasher.” Ebony did the clothes in the communal laundry room downstairs, so it wasn’t like the girl was being unfair. She just didn’t like doing the dishes, but Terra didn’t mind.
Speaking of minding…
“Don’t mind me,” she said happily. “Just doing the dishes. I never did dishes at home. We have a maid for that. Ebony tells me our parents sent us here because NCU is lower in ranks than other colleges. It’s to teach us ‘responsibility’ or something like that. I know Ebony’s parents wouldn’t pay for any other college, and she told me she’s not happy about that, but she came here anyway.
“I suspeeeect that my parents had a different motive. I love my mom, but she can be a real bitch sometimes, and she thinks I’m stupid anyway, but I’m really not…”
Her voice trailed off as the power went off in the apartment. The lights suddenly turned on and off, flickering for a second, and then the power came back on, because the microwave and oven clocks suddenly beeped back to life.
“Oh, wow,” said Terra. “Maybe you should check that out…too…”
She turned to address the old repairman, but he was nowhere to be found. Even his toolbox had vanished. The outlet plate was back on the wall, though, so that was good. He must have been really talented at his profession, because he’d gotten in and out in the blink of an eye.
“Huh…Oh, well,” shrugged Terra. “He must be really busy.”
She did her best plumber-with-a-fake-Italian-accent.
“It’s a me, Malic-ia!” she said happily. “Let’s a finish-a the dishes!”
She did the dishes and stacked them inside a small metal drying rack next to the twin sinks. After that was finished, it was time to go walkabout.
She went walkabout on Saturdays to get some exercise and to keep from being cooped up in one spot. It was good for her health, and more importantly, it was good for her figure. She didn’t want to put on any extra pounds, you know.
She left the apartment and started down the hall.
There had been some hullabaloo with Hope and Benji a few days prior, but that had been on the fourth floor, and Terra and her roommate lived on the first floor of the same building, so she sometimes did run into some of the other girls she knew, so maybe she’d run into some of them today and she could ask what all of that fuss had been about. After all, Mary and Allie lived on the third floor here, too. They’d know what happened. The other girls lived in the neighboring two buildings, except for Saffron—Vengencia—but she’d come from the poor-poor side of things, so she lived elsewhere in places unknown.
Her thoughts wandered a little as she headed toward the exit of the building, but a young man walking toward her caught her eye. This handsome young white man was her age, tall, about 6’1”, kind of lanky, with short dark hair and brown eyes. He wore a green sweater button-up over a brown tee, blue jeans, and a dark-brown wool beanie. He had a scruffy beard and mustache combo, and you know, honestly, he looked kind of familiar…
“Hey, T,” said the young man with a grin. “I was just headed your way. Now I don’t have to knock on your apartment door.”
“Oh…my…Gaaaaaaawd!” squealed Terra as she hopped up and down. “Nines!…I haven’t seen you in a southern minute! What are you doing here!”
“I heard you were in a spot of trouble, so I came down to hang out for a while,” said the young man.
“Come here, stupid!” said Terra excitedly. “Give me a hug!”
They hugged, and she quickly took in his scent.
He smelled like cinnamon and rosewood, just like he had when they were kids.
She released him, took a step back, looked him from the tops of his white sneakers to the top of his brown beanie, and grinned.
“This is so amazing!” she said happily. “I haven’t seen you in forever…Let’s hang out! Let’s hang out today! It’s Saturday, so you don’t have anything going on, do you?…‘Cause I don’t.”
“That’s what I’d like, yeah,” replied Nines.
“Yaaaaay!” said Terra as she clapped her hands together. “Okay, okay. I told Ebony I had a full day, but that was a little white lie, because she asked about Gabrielle, but I really didn’t want to talk about that, so I kind of ducked out of that conversation.”
“You really shouldn’t lie, T,” said Nines. “It’s not good for your reputation…Plus, it’s just not good to lie to someone anyway…at least…if somebody’s life isn’t on the line. If telling the truth could get someone killed or hurt, then a lie might be justified, but you should try to tell the truth from now on.”
“Yeeeeaaaah, you’re right,” sighed Terra. “Caught me again, didn’t you? Anyway, I was going on my walkabout. Wanna come with?”
“Sure,” said Nines. “Where are we going?”
“I don’t know yet,” nodded Terra. “That’s what makes it exciting.”
“Okay,” said Nines.
“Let’s just head outside,” said Terra. “Maybe I’ll go see Stephanie. She’s always fun…unless she’s cranky, and then she gets mean. She’s been in a bad mood lately since…Well, she’s been in a bad mood. Maybe I shouldn’t visit her after all.”
“She knows my friend, Pinochle,” said Nines. “He says she’s really hurting right now, T, so maybe you should go visit her anyway. You never know, you might cheer her up.”
“Yeah, okay,” shrugged Terra. “You’re very convincing, Nines.”
“I know,” smiled Nines.
They headed toward the exit, but a familiar pair of girls came in from outside and…that pair consisted of Hope and Benji. Honestly, they had been in BTS together, but that had been a million years ago, and Terra really hadn’t known them very well, but Nines was here today, and he was always a pick-me-up, so she was feeling friendly, sooooo…
“Hey, guys!” said Terra in her best cheerful voice.
“Oh, hey…uhhh…Malicia,” replied Hope.
“Oh, you don’t have to call me that,” said Terra. “Stephanie isn’t here right now anyway.”
These two were roommates on the fourth floor, but that was a well-known fact, so Terra pitched thinking about that. No, she turned her attention upon their clothes instead.
Hope was dressed in a dark-blue jacket with a sports brand logo at the top, along with white slacks—white!—and a pair of matching vanilla dress shoes. She looked nice, and of course, with her cute face, she got Terra to thinking, but Terra quickly pitched those dirty thoughts.
Benji had on a tan western fringe jacket, right along with blue jeans and a pair of cowgirl boots. She looked…odd…in those clothes, like she was a twelve-year-old playing dress up. All she was missing was the hat.
“You look really nice, Hope,” nodded Terra. “What’s with the getup, Benji? Are you going barn dancing?”
The little one, Benji, looked like she was about to say something, but then she sniffed the air for a moment. She looked around confused for a second, but then she took one look at Terra, frowned, and shook her head a couple of times.
“I’ll be back at the apartment,” said the smaller girl in a distinctly unhappy tone.
She practically stormed off after that, but this only left Terra wondering.
“What’s up with her?” asked Terra.
“She’s going through a phase,” said Hope with an eyeroll. “She’s done this before. Last year it was the old, dead ‘Scene’ style; you know that offshoot of Emo?…Now, it’s cowgirls…I don’t know what goes on in her head at times…Of course, there’s also the fact the she really doesn’t like…uuuuhhh…never mind.”
Now this got Terra’s attention. This sounded juicy.
“Like what?” asked Terra. “What doesn’t she like?”
“I…really shouldn’t say,” said Hope.
“Now, Hope,” said Terra with her best mock frown, “my friend Nines just told me that I shouldn’t lie unless telling the truth would get someone hurt or killed, so maybe you should ’fess up.”
“I…Okay…well…” verbally stumbled Hope. “She just…She really doesn’t like you, Malicia…uhhh…Terra.”
Now this was a surprise, and not the fun kind.
“Wha…? What?” asked Terra. “I…but…I’ve never done anything to her…”
“I don’t know why,” shrugged Hope. “Some people just…they don’t get along…I guess.”
“Oh…” said Terra unhappily.
Her previous high was starting to come down, waaaay faster than she’d wanted it to.
“Don’t let it bother you, T,” said Nines. “It’s all right. You can’t make friends with everyone. Besides, she might change her tune…Just don’t try to force it.”
“You’re right,” smiled Terra as she nodded in both agreement and acceptance. “Maybe I’ll just wait for her to come around…or maybe you could say something, Hope? Just tell her I don’t hate her at all, even if she is in Beta Theta Sigma.”
The young woman with the short blonde bob cocked her head to the left and squinted a little. She looked extremely confused or…maybe disturbed.
“What’s wrong?” asked Terra. “You look like your undies are riding up on you.”
“I just…I saw…” said Hope. “I thought I saw…”
She shook her head a couple of times as if trying to get her mind back on track.
“I…I can see…I can see auras,” said Hope. “I know that sounds ridiculous, but that’s my power.”
“It’s not ridiculous,” said Terra as she shook her head in reply. “Stephanie has super strength. She showed me. She bent a metal bar in two, and she wasn’t even all ‘rowrrr, rowrrr.’ I think your powers are cool…I don’t have one, but that’s okay.”
“You probably just don’t know what it is yet,” said Hope. “Anyway, the auras I see come and go, but…”
“But what?” asked Terra. “What’s my aura look like? It isn’t something bad, is it?”
“No, Charity…my sister…uhhh…Hatea, has been teaching me what the colors mean,” said Hope. “Your aura is a hot pink, and that suits your personality. You’re very…expressive, bubbly and expressive; let’s put it that way.”
“Oh…Well that doesn’t sound bad,” said Terra. “So why do you look like a spider dropped in your cereal?”
“I thought I saw…There was a bright white…It…never mind,” said Hope. “Anyway, I have to get back to the apartment. If I’m gone too long, Benji will send the Army and the Marines to come find me.”
“Oh, too bad,” said Terra. “Well, have fun…Your outfit looks cute, Hope. I can see the black dress shirt you have on, now that you’re up close. It looks like you’ve got something special going on…But it looks cute. That was my point. I just wanted to say that.”
“Thank you,” smiled Hope. “I’m going to see Tommy…uhhhh…I have a date in an hour,” said Hope.
“Ooooo,” said Terra with wide eyes and a nod. “I don’t know who Tommy is, but good for you. He’s very lucky. You’ve always been really cute.”
“Thank you, Terra!” grinned Hope. “Oh, I’m definitely going to have a word with Benji about her attitude with you. She’s acting like a brat.”
“Oh, you don’t have to,” waved off Terra. “You can’t win over everyone.”
She held her chin in her right-hand fingers and screwed up her lips in thought.
“Still, I can’t help but wonder what it is that I did that made her mad,” she said.
“Uhhh…” replied Hope as she sucked in her breath. “Remember that time you picked her up and swung her around while you were belting out ‘Your Love’ by The Outfield?”
“What?” asked Terra. “Why would she get mad about that?”
“You sang that line ‘You know I like my girls a little bit older,’” nodded Hope. “Then you set her down and booped her on the nose…That…That might have contributed to it.”
“Whaaaat?” said Terra. “That was funny.”
“You also ordered her a kids’ meal that one time we told you to order out for us,” said Hope.
“Ha, ha, ha!” laughed Terra. “Oh, I remember that. That was hilarious, now that I think about it.”
“Then when she snapped at you, you asked her if she wanted a bedtime story,” said Hope.
“Oh, riiiiiiiiight,” said Terra. “You know, I really didn’t know she was our age until like, a month ago when Stephanie’d said something about it. You could have knocked me over with a feather.”
“Oh…well…that explains some things,” said Hope. “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to her. Anyway, I have to go. I don’t want to be late for my date.”
“Good luck!” smiled Terra.
“Trust me, with Tommy, I don’t need it,” grinned Hope.
She left after that, heading for the elevator with that big grin on her face.
“Well, that was pleasant,” said Terra. “Anyhoo, we should get going on our walk. I need to go visit Wenna.”
“Sounds good,” said Nines.
They headed to the end of the hallway and exited the building. It was a cloudy, downcast day outside, but Terra was not going to let that dampen her mood. Somebody had to be positive.
They traversed the residential area of campus, being careful as they crossed a couple of streets on the way to Wenna’s apartment. Of course, Nines had to needle her about what was going on, but…what was she going to say about it? No one would believe her anyway, and she wasn’t going to show anybody, either. Saffron wouldn’t like that, and neither would Haley or Steph…urr…Wenna.
Haley, though…Meeeeeeoooow. That was some buttery cream poundcake right there.
Her train of wonderful thought involving her, Haley, and a trip to a sunny beach bungalow wearing nothing but entirely revealing minikinis was interrupted by said needling from Nines, of course.
“So…” said Nines. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on, T? I wouldn’t be here if you weren’t in some kind of trouble.”
This bothered her, though.
“You’re only coming to see me because I’m in trouble?” asked Terra. “You won’t come and see me just to hang out? Is that why you’ve been gone so long?”
“It’s complicated,” said Nines. “I’m here now, though, so…are you going to tell me what’s going on or not?”
Terra shrugged.
“What am I supposed to say?” she asked. “Stephanie…Wenna…She did something that was pretty bad, and I got caught up in it. Now we’re all in trouble.”
“Who is we?” asked Nines.
“All of us in the GSNCU,” said Terra. “All the girls in Beta Theta Sigma. All of us together. There’s this new pledge, Saffy…uhhh…Saffron, who has it the worst. She’s really got it hard.”
“So…help her,” said Nines.
“I don’t know how to do that, Nines,” said Terra. “I don’t even know how to help myself.”
“Well…I guess you’ll all have to work together, then,” said Nines. “It’s easier to solve a big problem when everyone is helping than it is to solve it all on your own.”
“Now you sound like Saffy,” sighed Terra.
They didn’t say anything more as they entered Wenna’s building and walked up the stairs to the fourth floor. That was a walk, but ever since the you-know-what had happened on Halloween, she felt like she had too much energy anymore.
“I want to jog up the stairs, Nines,” said Terra. “Can you keep up?”
“No problem,” smiled Nines.
They jogged up the stairs to the fourth floor, and Terra wasn’t even out of breath by the time she hit the fourth-floor landing. This was new, because before, she would have been dying and calling 911 for a stunt like that.
Nines kept up, of course. He was good that way.
They walked over to Wenna’s…Stephanie’s…apartment door. Carna…Macy…lived here too, but that wasn’t a surprise. The surprise was the young black man in a grey business suit standing in front of Stephanie’s door.
This young man was around their age, but he looked all fancy with his three-piece suit, his shiny black dress shoes, and his fat red tie. In fact, that tie had big and bright gold playing card suits all over it, spades, clubs, diamonds, and hearts, and that caught Terra’s attention right away.
“Oooooooo!” she grinned. “I love the tie! It totally doesn’t go with the suit.”
“Thanks, Terra,” said the young black man with a warm smile. “That was the intention.”
“You know me?” asked Terra.
Nines rested his left hand on Terra’s right shoulder and gave her a light push.
“This is my pal, Pinochle, T,” he said as he waved toward his friend.
“Oooooooh,” nodded Terra. “You’re Pinochle.”
Her impending conversation was interrupted by a loud crash of something shattering, and that was followed by yelling. Terra could immediately pick up the conversation from within the apartment, but that was due to her new and improved lupine hearing—Now with Canine Discernment™—and what was being said was pretty nasty.
“Wenna, you’ve got to calm down!” came Macy’s panicked voice. “Please!”
“What am I supposed to do!” yelled Stephanie. “What am I supposed to do, Macy! You can stand around in that stupid fucking priest outfit and act all smart, but you still can’t figure out what the FUCK we’re supposed to be doing! What I need in order to calm down doesn’t even FUCKING work anymore, you dumb cunt!”
“D-Don’t call me names!” replied Macy.
“Go fuck yourself, you bitch in heat,” said Stephanie. “You jack off too much anyway. It’s because you couldn’t get laid if you were an egg, so now I have to smell your cooch stank every time enter the apartment.”
“Wennaaaa…” whined Macy.
That girl sounded like she was on the verge of tears.
“Oh, Stephie’s really mad,” said Terra. “She’s swearing the banned words. She’s even got Macy crying. Thaaaat’s not good.”
“Yeah, she is not happy,” said Pinochle with a shake of his head. “I’d watch out going in there. She’s throwing things.”
“Oof,” said Nines. “Tell you what, T. Why don’t I stay out here with Pinochle, and you go in by yourself. Find out what’s going on. I think you’re the one who can help her the most at this point in time. The only other people that might be able to help are Saffron and Benji, but they’re not here right now.”
“Oh, that sounds reasonable,” Nodded Terra. “Wait…How do you know Saffy and Benji? I mean, you saw Benji, but you don’t know anything about her or Saff—”
“Oh, we know everybody,” explained Pinochle as he waved her off. “That doesn’t matter right now, though. Stephanie’s gonna get someone’s attention carrying on like that, and it won’t be the good kind, ’cause then the police will show, and trust me, you don’t want the police to show, not with that temper of hers.”
Terra thought about this. After what she’d heard from Ebony, Stephanie could go all rowrr, rowrr now when she got mad, so this was definitely a problem.
“Okay,” she agreed. “But later, you two are going to tell me your secret. I want to know how you know everyone, ’cause I really don’t know anybody other than the girls. I know the girls, but I don’t know how you know the girls. Are you two not telling me something?…Wait…Have you been dating anyone I know? It’s not Hope…or Stephanie…Hmmm…Benj?…Ha, ha, ha! Not Benji…”
Nines and Pinochle gave each other a side glance, but they looked amused rather than shady or dodgy.
“Just leave me ALONE!” shouted Stephanie from within the apartment.
That shout made Terra jump a little.
“You’d better get in there, T,” said Nines. “This is getting out of hand.”
“Yeah, okay,” said Terra as she scrunched up her lips in thought. “But we’re going to have a talk later. I want to know which one of the girls you’re dating.”
Pinochle gave a short guffaw and shook his head no, but Terra ignored him. She was on a mission now, so she couldn’t get distracted.
She steeled herself. She was going in.
Terra didn’t even bother to knock as she turned the knob and walked right in. It was just then that she saw the white coffee mug with green lettering come sailing at her face, that lettering accompanied by the unmistakable image of a mallard beneath it, the irony of that image not lost on even someone like Terra, and it was also just then that the pain struck as said mug shattered across the right side of her forehead.
Time crawled as ceramic shards flew everywhere in her vision, she took one step forward, her left knee buckled, and then time sped up again.
She took two more steps forward as she stumbled a bit, both knees gave, and then the hardwood floor came sailing up toward her pretty doggoned fast.
“Wenna!” screeched Macy.
“Oh…shit…” said Stephanie.
Swift hands rolled Terra over, but her vision was really blurry. She felt something wet trickling down the right side of her temple, and that made her want to wipe it away, but right now, she didn’t quite know what was happening, because there were just a couple of hazy dark blobs looking down at her.
“What have you done!” cried Macy. “What did you do!”
“I-It was an accident!” stammered Stephanie. “I-I didn’t know someone was just going to walk in!”
“Came I to by cheer you up, Stephwenna,” slurred out Terra. “Should have worn the booty shorts…”
Those words came out of her mouth, and they’d made sense when she had been thinking them, but now that she was thinking about what she’d just said, they didn’t really make that much sense at all.
“Get me a towel!” yelled Stephanie. “Don’t stand there like a dumb bitch, Macy!”
A sharp pain followed by a burning sensation spread across the right side of Terra’s forehead, and then…
She sat up and held her forehead in her right hand.
“Ow!” complained Terra. “That really smarts like the dickens!”
Stephanie batted Terra’s hand away from Terra’s own head and then held that same head in her hands.
“Yep, it’s already closed,” breathed out the irate girl in a sigh of relief. “Good thing we’re you-know-what, or I’d be calling an ambulance.”
“Y-yeah…” choked out Terra as she closed her right eye and winced. “That really hurt. I couldn’t stand up for some reason, but don’t worry…the really hard floor broke my fall.”
Macy rushed up and handed Wenna a white and thoroughly wet hand towel.
Wenna or Stephanie? Terra couldn’t decide on what to call her…Errrrr…Stephanie. She’d just go with “Stephanie” for now.
Stephanie dabbed at Terra’s head with the hot hand towel.
“Dummy,” said Stephanie. “You killed my tantrum. That was uncool…and stupid. Just walking in like you owned the place. Dummy.”
“I heard you weren’t feeling good,” grimaced Terra. “That’s why I came up to see you.”
“Well, you’ve seen me,” said Stephanie in a distinctly unhappy tone. “Now you can mosey on back home.”
She wiped away at Terra’s head and then withdrew the towel. The small hand towel was more stained with red now than it was its natural white, though.
“I’m not leaving until I know what’s going on,” said Terra. “None of us throw a tantrum like that without something really, really bad going on.”
“She’s mad because she can’t get drunk,” blurted out Macy. “That’s what’s going on.”
“Macy, shut up,” scowled Stephanie.
Well, this was unexpected.
“You can’t get drunk?” asked Terra.
“None of us can,” said Macy. “We heal too quickly.”
“Huh…That kind of sucks,” said Terra. “You know, I don’t like that.”
“No shit,” said Stephanie. “In fact, nothing works. Not even weed. It’s really pissing me off.”
“Weeeell, shoot nuggets,” said Terra. “I guess you have to take the bad with the good.”
She took a moment to shake off any bees in her head before standing up. She turned to look through the open door of the apartment, but Nines and Pinochle were gone. They must have gone somewhere to talk, or maybe they just hadn’t wanted to hear any more of Stephanie’s rampage.
“What are you staring at?” asked Stephanie.
“Oh, darn it, they took off without me,” frowned Terra. “Oh, well. That reminds me…Are you dating anyone?”
She turned and gave Stephanie a sincere look. She really wanted to know. She suspected Pinochle, because he seemed like a pretty chill guy. That’s probably why he bolted so he wouldn’t have to put up with any of the screaming.
“No, you weird little clit licker,” frowned Stephanie. “What kind of a question is that?…And no, I’m not dating you. Pussy is not my thing…And you’re not sticking your tongue anywhere near me, so get that out of your head right now.”
“Aaaaaaw,” said Terra unhappily. “But that’s not important right now. What’s important is helping you with your problem…You’re really swearin’ up a storm, mi compadre…ina. I think you need some cheering up.”
Stephanie narrowed her eyes at her and shook her own head no.
“No shit, Sherlock,” she said. “And the answer is still ‘no,’ I don’t need your ‘cheering up,’ so go eat out someone else.”
She really was being suuuuper mean right now.
“You’re really crude today,” frowned Terra. “Even more than normal.”
“Yeah, she’s been really abusive,” said Macy in visible and audible unhappiness. “I don’t know what to do.”
“You’re not my wife, Macy,” scowled Stephanie. “You can just leave.”
“This is my apartment too, Wenna,” said Macy with a very distinct frown. “You broke a lot of our stuff, and you…I just…I don’t know what to do.”
Terra took in a deep breath through her nose and then slowly released that breath back out through her nose. This was going to take some tough love.
“Well…ol’ Sherrif Malicia is on the trail now,” she said firmly and with a nod. “First order a’ business is to set up a date here for the punishment we are a laying down on you.”
Stephanie gave her a look that could have melted plastic.
“Punishment?” she asked. “What in the hell are you talking about?”
“For all of the banned words,” said Terra. “You’ve got to take the cat in front of everyone. That’s what we agreed on. It’s in the rules.”
Stephanie gave her a look that was rather unflattering.
“Are you retarded?” she asked. “Did that mug blow out the only two braincells you have left?…Who gives a shit! I don’t care about that stupid club anymore! We’re fucking werewolves now, dipshit! None of that shit matters! We’re cursed as fuck, there’s a full moon coming, and not ONE of us has done anything about this FUCKING curse!”
“Oof,” replied Terra. “Someone’s got a bee in their bonnet.”
“That’s what we’ve been trying to do, Wenna!” whined Macy. “Jenny and I have been researching the Pentagony so we can come up with something, anything, to help us!”
“Well, you’re doing a shitty job,” said Stephanie. “I just wanted to pass out with a bottle of red wine, and now I can’t even do that.”
“You need to cool off,” nodded Terra. “Just cool it. You’re gonna bring in the cops.”
“Yeah, why don’t I just do that,” said Stephanie in a mocking tone as she shrugged, though that shrug looked really condescending. “You and I can just go take a shower together, and you can give me a hand job. A big fat queer ‘O’ ought to do it.”
Now there was an idea. In fact, the thought of that was quite pleasant.
“Oh, yeah, I can do that!” nodded Terra in eager reply as she grinned.
Stephanie’s lips curled downwards as they opened slightly, as if her brain had suddenly misfired. She held up both hands, palms out, shook her head no, and then pushed past Terra to exit the apartment. She turned right and disappeared from view.
“We have to go get her,” said Macy in an urgent tone. “We should all take a walk anyway. I have something I have to pick up from the post office that I ordered, and I think it might help Wenna for the time being.”
“Good, because she’s really got a bug up her butt,” said Terra. “Plus, teasing me like that…Shame, shame.”
“Malicia, not now,” sighed Macy. “Come on, let’s go catch her before she takes someone’s head off.”
They quickly walked after her, but Stephanie was already headed for the stairs. They speed walked after her, because she was moving pretty fast. Even so, Terra still wanted to know what Macy had ordered.
“What do you need to pick up?” she asked.
“Some monkshood,” said Macy. “I think it might calm her down…I’m not sure, but it might act like catnip for us, or weed, or something. Jenny and I have been doing nonstop research on this…‘condition’ we all have.”
“Monkshood?” asked Terra. “What’s monkshood?”
“It’s a flower, and it’s really poisonous, so it’s really hard to just buy off the market,” said Macy. “I had to contact some of my occult friends to get some. Hopefully, they don’t stiff us and send me a bag of oregano or something. I paid four hundred dollars for a one-gallon freezer bag of this stuff. If you really want to know, it’s called ‘wolfsbane’ too.”
“Oooooh,” said Terra. “I’ve heard of that.”
She actually had heard of that, but where she’d heard of it?…She couldn’t remember. It was probably from a movie. She got a lot of her occult information from movies.
They caught up with Stephanie pretty quickly. She was heading down the stairs like a wayward hurricane, but one yell from Macy made her pause.
“Wenna, wait!” cried Macy.
The irate supreme witch of the GSNCU turned her head to look up the stairs, but the deep and unforgiving scowl upon her face said it all.
“What!” she practically barked.
“Macy thinks she can help you,” nodded Terra with wide eyes. “She ordered some wolfsbane, and that might act like weed for us…uhhh…wolfie people…Wolfie people?…Maybe I should go with human impaired…”
Stephanie shook her head a couple of times as both Terra and Macy walked down the stairs in order to catch up with her.
“Wait…What did you say?” asked Stephanie.
“I ordered some monkshood from some of my occult friends,” said Macy. “I just have to pick it up from the post office. Normally it’s a poison, but it might act like…like a drug for us.”
Stephanie stared at her in very visible confusion.
“If it’s a poison, then why haven’t the postal dorks flagged it?” she asked.
“Because one of those ‘postal dorks’ is one of my occult friends,” said Macy. “This whole thing has cost me twelve-hundred dollars; four hundred for the monkshood, and eight-hundred more to get it here without the law finding out. It might act like marijuana for us, but I’m not sure.”
“You risked the DEA?” asked Stephanie.
She looked up and off to the side as if she were thinking, but that didn’t last long. She turned her stare back upon Macy and gave her a strange look.
“All to give us a high?” continued Stephanie.
“Yes, Wenna,” said Macy. “That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier. It was right before you called me a loser skank and suggested that I…I go…I go mate with a dog…in a little cruder terms than that, but still…”
Stephanie’s lips slowly turned upwards, transforming from a terrible glowering scowl into a wide grin, all in one smooth motion.
“Well, then, what are we waiting for!” she said enthusiastically, and more importantly, quite happily. “Let’s go find your postal dork friend!…Your…Your uhhh…delivery guy!”
Wow, now that was a change of heart! Things were definitely looking up.
“Yep, we can snort some wolfsbane,” nodded Terra with her trademarked grin and wide eyes™. “Then we can take that shower you wanted.”
“She goes home after we get it,” frowned Stephanie.
“Aaaaaaaw,” replied Terra with an equally poignant frown. “You can’t just offer me something like that and renege, Stephie.”
“I was being an asshole, Terra,” replied Stephanie. “It wasn’t an offer…I shouldn’t even have to explain it. This…This doesn’t matter. Just pull your brain out of your twat and let’s go. I want some wolf weed.”
Stephanie took back to walking, so they were forced to follow her, but Terra was…well…not going to let this one go.
“That’s not fair, Steph,” she said firmly. “You owe me one hand job. It’s the least you can do for trying to kill me earlier.”
“The hand job was for me, not you, and don’t be weird, Terra,” said Stephanie with audible indignation. “Look, I’m just going to give you a normal response instead of a verbal ass kicking because you can’t seem to understand it any other way, and I’ll explain it slowly so that you get it…
“The…whole thought…of you touching me…down there…makes me uncomfortable. Just get your head in the game. Besides, I’d already thrown that mug before I realized you’d walked in. Now quit being weird, and let’s go get that wolf weed.”
“It’s not weird to think that you’re beautiful,” frowned Terra.
Stephanie’s walk came to a screeching halt. She turned toward Terra, looked up into her face, and scrunched up her lips into a tight line.
“Okay…that’s actually touching in a really strange way, but I’m not gay, Terra,” said Stephanie bluntly. “I assumed by now you would have figured this out from all of the vicious insults I sometimes throw your way. I do, however, appreciate the compliment, and I am sorry that I accidentally knocked out some of what little brain cells you have left, because honestly?…You are acting a little off, and now I’m afraid that may be my fault.”
“I’m acting off?” asked Terra.
That couldn’t be right.
“You are acting a little strange, Malicia,” noted Macy. “You seem—I don’t know—not as focused as usual. You’re a little…flighty.”
That really couldn’t be right.
“I…I feel like I always do,” shrugged Terra. “I don’t understand.”
“Doesn’t matter,” said Stephanie. “I’ll just call Ebony later and ask what’s up. Anyway, we’ve got some wolf weed to go get.”
“Wolfsbane,” corrected Macy.
“I don’t care what it’s called as long as I can roll it up and smoke it,” said Stephanie.
However, their little side conversation didn’t matter at the moment. Terra suddenly felt down, because…because she couldn’t understand what she’d done wrong.
“I don’t understand…” she said unhappily. “I thought you were my friends…”
Now this sucked. Now she felt like crying, and even worse, some tears began to form in her dark eyes.
Stephanie and Macy turned to look at each other, and then Stephanie frowned as she turned her attention back upon Terra. The young woman rested her hands upon Terra’s shoulders and shook her own head once.
“Look…” said Stephanie. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ll go ahead and take the stupid GSNCU punishment. Normally, Ebony is supposed to do it, but I’ll let you do it instead…However, I’m not pulling my pants down, and I don’t want you killing my ass with the cat, so don’t haul off on me…Will that make you feel better?”
Oh, yeah. That would definitely work.
Terra nodded and grinned.
“That’ll do juuuuust fine,” she said eagerly.
“I figured,” said Stephanie. “Now let’s stop wasting time. I really need to take the edge off of my own misery, and this is a distraction.”
“Got it,” nodded Terra.
They headed out of the building and across campus. The post office wasn’t that far off campus, though it was a bit of a walk.
“Whuff, it’s nippy out here,” said Stephanie. “Glad I decided to wear a bra today.”
“Aaaaaaaw,” said Terra. “Spoilsport.”
Stephanie shook her head and frowned.
“Your new gay obsession with me is making me feel weird,” replied Stephanie. “Go bother Gabrielle with this stuff. I thought you were intent on sucking face with her.”
“She’s gotten all strange about it,” shrugged Terra. “She keeps talking about sin and stuff.”
“Sin?” asked Stephanie. “She’s into Sin now?”
“I think she means sin as in ‘doing bad things,’ Wenna,” said Macy.
“Oooooh, okay,” said Stephanie. “Yeah, Gabby has always been weirdly religious.”
“So is Jenny,” said Macy. “She’s a Methodist, though, not Catholic.”
“Too bad,” replied Stephanie. “I wanted to recruit her. If we had her in the GSNCU, then there would be like four total braincells over there in BTS.”
Terra thought about Jenny and nodded once at that thought.
“Hmmm…Jenny’s cute,” nodded Terra thoughtfully. “She looks good naked for as skinny as she is.”
“You think too much about girls,” frowned Stephanie. “And it’s a crime against humanity that you had to be included in the pack and managed to see all of us in the buff because of Halloween.
“Still, I cannot imagine not seeing guys as attractive. The bare chests, the tight butts, and of course, the packages…especially when they’ve shaved down there. Great balls of fire! Now, that’s the good stuff.
“Besides, you totally don’t strike me as gay anyway. I thought real lesbos were supposed to be butch or something. They’re supposed to have crew cuts, hairy pits and legs, and wear flannel…Honestly— and don’t tell her this—I thought Ebony fit that type, but it turns out she likes men a little too much.”
“Especially when they’re on their knees,” chuckled Macy.
Both Stephanie and Macy shared a good laugh over this little observation, and this made Terra smile, if only for the camaraderie, not for the joke itself.
“I’m not a lesbian, guys,” said Terra. “I just like what I like. I’ve had the hots for the boys before, you know. I joined BTS because you looked good in those blue shorts, Stephie. You’ve always been my number one, so this attraction isn’t really new.”
“You joined Beta Theta Sigma because you thought I looked good in shorts?” asked Stephanie. “Terra, you amaze me that you can function at all…I do look good in shorts, though…And don’t call me your ‘number one.’ That’s effed up…Now I feel weird…Oh, you’re definitely going to have a good smoke before you go back to your apartment. I think you need it.”
“No, Nines has always told me drugs are bad,” replied Terra.
“Nines?” asked Stephanie. “Who in the hell is Nines?”
“You know, don’t you?” asked Terra. “You must know. He’s friends with—”
“Never mind,” said Stephanie. “There’s the post office. Let’s get this done so I can veg out for a while.”
The three of them walked into the post office, got in line, and waited.
“So, who is this inside guy you’ve got?” asked Stephanie quietly.
She was talking to Macy, of course, because Terra didn’t know anybody who dealt drugs. She didn’t do drugs. There was her medication she took every morning, but that was different.
“It’s a girl, and she lives in another state,” explained Macy. “It’s the shipping that matters, not the receiving. Good thing it came from within the United States, because trying to get it through customs would have been a nightmare.”
“I’ll bet,” said Stephanie.
Macy received the small square package, they walked out the front door with it, and Stephanie immediately breathed out a sigh of relief. They continued onward back to the apartment after that.
“All right,” said the leader of the Goths. “Let’s get this puppy back to the apartment. We’ll use your peyote pipe, Carna.”
“Yeah, that’s a good…Wait…You’re calling me Carna again?” asked Macy.
“Yeah,” said Stephanie. “You’ve earned it back. You still jerk off too much, though. Every time I walk back into the apartment, it smells like pussy.”
Macy frowned and turned red in the cheeks.
“I…It’s not…Wenna…” she verbally stumbled.
“Don’t try to lie to me about it,” said Stephanie. “I have supernatural senses now. I know what you smell like, unfortunately. That makes us waaaay closer than I ever wanted to be.
“And I know aaaaall about that shit you read on AO3. You shouldn’t leave your laptop open…And who in great Fenrir’s balls is Battat? Guess that doesn’t matter now, because that site is dooooooown for the rest of the month. Everybody on Tumblr’s bitching about it. Guess they decided to honor No Nut November.”
Terra studied Macy’s face and then shook her head no. The poor girl was clearly distressed. This wasn’t right.
“Don’t do that to her, Stephanie,” protested Terra. “That’s not cool. Now you’re just being mean so you can feel superior. I don’t like that.”
“Now you grow some balls?” asked Stephanie in verbal surprise. “I wasn’t trying to be mean, ding dong. I was just irritated. And why are you suddenly my conscience? Charity’s pissed at me because of Hope, so I understand her deal, but you?
“And furthermore, why in the hell are you so open about everything all of the sudden? You were denying you were a homo just a week ago—even though we all knew anyway—and now you’re practically kneeling in front of me with a wedding ring.”
Terra shrugged. She really didn’t understand it herself.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “This is just how I feel…But you’re just changing the subject. Macy can’t help it if she’s a giant sexually-repressed horn dog.”
“Malicia!” protested Macy.
Stephanie cracked up over that remark and its unhappy response.
“Oh, shit, Terra, I don’t even have to say anything with you around,” she chuckled. “You do all of my work for me.”
“It’s not funny,” grimaced Macy.
“Oh, it definitely is,” grinned Stephanie. “But that’s not what’s really weirding me out. What’s weirding me out is you, Terra.”
“Me?” asked Terra. “Why me? Just because I expressed my feelings?…I was just being honest.”
“No, it’s not that,” said Stephanie as she shook her head no. “No, it’s more like you’ve become…I don’t want to say ‘retarded,’…Let’s just say you act and sound…‘simpler.’ Maybe lycanthropy has fried one of those two braincells you have rolling around up there.”
That was definitely a mean thing to say.
“You’re calling me stupid,” frowned Terra. “Don’t call me stupid. I’m not stupid.”
She felt tears well up in her eyes again.
Stephanie gave her a quick glance, but her expression was nothing but surprise.
“That made you cry?” she asked. “You’re like an emotional rollercoaster…I hate to sound like a guy, but is it that time of the month?…Wait…I haven’t even had mine yet…What the hell! It was supposed to have started already! Mine should have started on Wednesday like clockwork!”
“Oooooh, I never thought of that,” said Macy. “We’re synced, aren’t we? Mine should have started on Wednesday too, but it hasn’t. Oh, I’d better tell Jenny about this. This has “wolf” written all over it. I don’t like this.”
“I don’t even want to talk about it,” grumbled Stephanie. “Oh, well. We’ll figure it out. Besides, normal women don’t just up and start gabbing about their periods. That’s freakin’ weird. Let’s just get back to the apartment so I can have some wolf weed.”
“I bought it,” frowned Macy. “It’s mine, you know.”
“Yes, and your contribution is appreciated,” said Stephanie. “Actually, if this stuff works, I’ll pay you back for half of what you spent.”
“Really?” asked Macy.
“Yeah,” nodded Stephanie. “I’m an asshole, not a dick. I may shit on people, but I’m not going to eff them over.”
“That is…the most graphic reassurance I’ve ever heard, Wenna,” said Macy.
“Thanks,” said Stephanie.
They entered Stephanie and Macy’s apartment building and headed up the stairs.
“Your building is nicer than mine,” noted Terra.
“I’d hope so,” said Stephanie. “Yours does have that awesome backstory, though.”
“Oh?” asked Terra. “What backstory?”
“It’s supposed to be haunted,” said Macy.
Terra immediately thought of a ghost in a white bedsheet draped in chains, rattling those chains, and making moaning noises.
“Oooooo, that’d be cool to run into a ghost,” she said.
“Why?” asked Stephanie. “It’s not like you’d scream and run from it. You’d probably ask it for a selfie. You’d probably talk its ear off and give your entire life story before asking it for a selfie. You’re like a tourist wearing a Hawaiian shirt entering Dracula’s Castle.”
Terra liked this idea and nodded to herself over it.
“Yeah,” she agreed after a few seconds of thought. “Yeah, that does sound like fun.”
“The selfie or Dracula’s Castle?” asked Stephanie.
“Both,” nodded Terra.
Stephanie shook her head and gave a low chuckle.
“Dummy,” she replied. “Anyway, we’re almost back, and I want to get baked, so let’s hurry.”
They got back to the apartment and…
Boy, this place was a mess. Stephanie sure had thrown a lot of things. Maybe she really did need that wolf weed.
Aside from the mess, Stephanie decided to add to it by practically tearing apart the shipping box. She pulled a freezer bag out of that cardboard mess, and inside that bag were some dried leaves of some sort, but whether it was legit or not was another question altogether.
Stephanie opened the bag and took a sniff.
“Hmmm…I can’t tell what this is,” she said unhappily. “Go get the peyote pipe, Carna.”
“We don’t know what the effects will be, Wenna,” warned Macy. “All my research just states that it ‘incapacitates lycanthropes.’ That’s it. It could knock us out, paralyze us, or leave us writhing in agony. I just don’t know. It’s a poison to humans, so…I just don’t know.”
“Well, I’m going to find out,” replied Stephanie. “Shut that door, Terra.”
“Yeppers,” said Terra.
Macy went into the bedroom and came back out with the pipe as Terra shut the door and waited for her return.
“All right, let’s get this party started!” said Stephanie in visible and audible excitement. “And don’t give me that look, Carna. If you were actually worried about this, you wouldn’t have ordered it in the first place, and you wouldn’t have offered it to me. Besides, I’m going first, so don’t look like a little old prude. You’ve got that RBF going on.”
“I just…I don’t want something to happen to you,” said Macy.
“Well, ain’t that sweet,” frowned Stephanie. “You’re hesitating now?…And since when did you start caring about what happens to me? I involved you in a murder plot, got you cursed with lycanthropy, and I’ve been treating you like shit. You shouldn’t be concerned about me at all…You know what? Just give me the damn pipe.”
Macy reluctantly handed over the long wooden peyote pipe.
Stephanie packed the dried monkshood into the pipe’s bowl, sealed the freezer bag shut, set the bag down next to the apartment’s dark-brown comfy chair, and then shook her head.
“Where are the matches?” she asked in clear verbal irritation.
Macy reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out a small box of penny matches.
“Here,” she said in a sad tone.
“What are you crying about?” asked Stephanie. “What the fu…fudge? Just give me the matches. Stop looking like I’m about to die.”
She took the box of matches from Macy, pulled a match out, struck it, and lit the pipe. She took a couple of puffs, breathed in deeply, and then blew out a long trail of smoke.
“It tastes like shit,” said Stephanie. “Let’s see if it works…I don’t feel anything…I don’t feel anything at all! You’ve been had, you gullible idiot! This shit is probably somebody’s lawn clippings! Dammit, Macy! This shit you bought is…Woah…”
The dark-haired girl practically fell into the comfy chair in the little apartment. She set the box of penny matches upon the arm of the chair and took in a deep breath. She released that breath, put the pipe up to her lips once more, took a couple of more puffs from the pipe, blew out a long trail of smoke, and then shook her head slowly.
“Thaaaaaat…is the stuff!” she said with a slur.
“Wenna?” asked Macy.
“Oooooh, yeeeeaaah,” said Stephanie with a dopey grin. “I feel…greeeaaaat…”
Macy gingerly took the pipe from her.
“Okay, well, you’re not dead, so that’s a plus,” said Macy.
“Have soooome…” said Stephanie in a slow and drawled speech. “Everything…is…sooooo slooooow…”
“You are high as balls,” nodded Terra. “That looks fun, but—”
She was cut short by Macy’s concerned voice.
“Are you okay?” asked the girl. “Wenna? Are you in pain? Talk to me.”
“Oooooh, yeah,” grinned Stephanie. “This is greeeaaat…Try…it…”
“Okay,” said Macy. “I guess…I guess it acts like a tranquilizer. Huh…Well…I suppose I won’t really know unless I do try it, so…”
The pipe had gone out, so Macy took the box of matches from off the armrest of Stephanie’s chair and then relit the pipe. She took a couple of puffs and blew out the smoke much like Stephanie had.
“This…This really is awful,” she said with a wince. “You weren’t kidding. Are you messing with me, Wenna? I don’t feel anything.”
Stephanie slowly shook her head no.
“I…am not…paying you…half…” said Stephanie. “Not…for this…”
“What?” whined Macy. “Why not!”
“I’ll buy…the whole bag…from you…” slurred Stephanie. “I’ll even…give you…two hundred…more than…you paid…”
Macy’s attitude changed in the span of a second.
“Really?” she asked with slight smile.
“Yeeeeeah…” replied Stephanie.
“Oh, that is so nice of you, Wenna!” said Macy.
The poor girl looked like she was going to cry.
“I honestly thought you hated me!” she began to say. “You’ve just…You’ve been so—”
She stopped that sentence as she froze in place, the burning pipe still resting between the fingers of her right hand, and then she pitched forward, her body as stiff as a board, and the sound of the impact of that falling log of a human body upon the wooden floor of the “living area” was almost like a bomb going off. Terra winced at the explosion of vibration and sound hitting her newly sensitive ears.
The peyote pipe clattered across the hard wood and spread some embers and ash along with it.
“Oof,” winced Terra. “That looked like it hurt.”
Terra picked up the pipe, stepped on the embers to put them out, and then took the pipe to the kitchen sink to rest it upon the white countertop there.
“Lightweight…” giggled Stephanie.
Terra shrugged and then turned back toward her new crush.
“Is that helping?” she asked. “Are you feeling better now?”
“Mmm, hmm,” nodded Stephanie.
The girl slouched down in the comfy chair as all of her muscles relaxed at the same time.
“Tryyyyy it…” she slurred.
“No, thank you,” said Terra. “Nines says I shouldn’t do drugs…I told you that already, didn’t I?”
“Who is…Who is Nines?” asked Stephanie.
“Nines,” said Terra in confusion. “You should know him. You must know him. He’s my friend. He knows your friend, Pinochle, so I know you know him.”
“Piiiinocle,” grinned Stephanie. “Peeeee…knuckle…Good times…Playing in the park…Swingin’ on the swings…Those were the…days…Haven’t seen…Pinochle in…forever…Didn’t know…he was friends…with your friend…”
“Uh, huh,” said Terra. “Well, I was hanging with my friend, Nines, but then your friend, Pinochle, dragged him off somewhere, so that’s a bummer. Tell him I’m upset with him when you see him.”
“Mmm, hmm,” nodded Stephanie. “We used to…sing together…We sang…the…the ‘Wheels on the Bus’ song. Funny. I’ve never…never ridden…on a bus…I didn’t even go to…to public school.”
“I don’t think any of us did,” said Terra. “Well, maybe Saffy did. She’s poor, right?”
Stephanie simply nodded at her, that dopey grin still on her face.
Terra took that moment to look down at Macy. The poor girl was completely out, lying on the floor, her eyes closed, her lips slightly parted, a line of drool collecting upon the hard wood beneath her. Thankfully, she had landed with her head turned, so her glasses weren’t broken. That would have sucked.
“Boy, that must have hit her hard,” said Terra. “Oh, well…You know, we could draw on her face with a marker.”
Stephanie simply nodded and grinned.
Terra screwed up her lips and thought about this. She could do that, but that was bad. She could do other things to Macy while the girl was out, but all of those things weren’t bad…They were really, really bad.
“No, I shouldn’t have those thoughts,” she said to herself. “That’s bad, Terra. Bad, bad, bad. Don’t do that to her.”
“What…are you…on about?” asked Stephanie.
“Never mind,” said Terra unhappily. “I was having bad thoughts about Macy, but I shouldn’t do anything to her without her permission…Hey, I know! How about that hand job, huh? Are you feeling like it yet?”
“There’s…There’s…not enough…drugs in the world, Terra,” said Stephanie.
“Aaaaaaaw,” frowned Terra. “Oh, well. Maybe you’ll change your mind…Can I at least have a kiss? That would make me really happy.”
Stephanie blinked at her twice and then raised her dark eyebrows.
“I guess…” slurred the girl. “Whatever…”
“Oh, goody!” said Terra.
She fished out her stick of cherry-flavored lip balm from her pocket, applied a light coating of it to her lips, walked up to Stephanie, and knelt down next to the comfy chair. She leaned in and gently kissed her new crush on the lips. She leaned back and grinned as Stephanie simply stared at her.
“Cherry…” said Stephanie. “Wait…Did you…kiss me?…That’s sooooo gay…Tell anybody…and I’ll…I’ll…uuuhh…I’ll kick…your…aaaassss…”
She closed her eyes, and her head slumped onto her right shoulder as her breathing steadied to a slow and rhythmic pace.
“Aaaaaaw,” frowned Terra. “Weeeeell, shoot. Guess I’ll go back to my apartment. This is no fun…Huh…Maybe Nines is there…Darn it. I still want to go walkabout.”
She left the apartment after that, making sure to close the door. This was okay, however, as both Nines and Pinochle walked up to her a moment later.
“There you are!” frowned Terra. “Where were you! You just left me hanging, Nines.”
Nines gave her an amused smile.
“Well, Pinochle and I had a discussion,” he replied. “There’s someone we’d like you to meet.”
“Oh?” asked Terra. “Who’s that?”
“Well, she’s at the hospital,” explained Nines. “She’s a little girl named Charlotte, and I think you’d be the perfect person to tell her a bedtime story.”
“A bedtime story?” asked Terra. “It’s still daytime, Nines. Heck, it’s still morning.”
“Well, how about a regular story then?” asked Pinochle.
Terra thought about this. There was no reason she couldn’t do that.
“Okay,” she said. “But just so you know, I’m mad at you, Pinochle. You took off with Nines.”
Pinochle let forth a loud guffaw and shook his head.
“Noted,” he chuckled.
“We weren’t gone for long, T,” said Nines. “What have you been up to anyway? It sounds like things have gotten a lot quieter around here.”
“Oh, that’s because Stephanie and Macy got high and passed out in there,” said Terra with a roll of her eyes. “It’s really annoying, but I guess that’s okay, because Stephanie was really mad that she couldn’t get…uhhh…”
“Couldn’t get what, T?” asked Nines.
“I…shouldn’t say,” frowned Terra. “I did get a kiss from her, though. That was exciting.”
“You did?” asked Pinochle.
Both he and Nines turned to give each other a quizzical stare, and then they both turned their attention back upon Terra.
“How did you manage that?” asked Pinochle.
“Oh, she was all loopy from getting high, so I just asked her, and she said yes,” shrugged Terra.
Both Nines and Pinochle turned to look at each other again, and then they turned their attention back upon Terra once more.
“Mmmmm…I don’t think you should have done that, T,” said Nines unhappily.
“What?” asked Terra. “Why not?”
“Because she was high,” said Pinochle.
“What does that matter?” asked Terra.
This was confusing.
“It’s because she may not have known what she was doing, T,” said Nines. “How would you like it if you were really high and you said ‘yes’ to someone coming onto you, but then you…really didn’t know what you were saying?…You could wake up pregnant that way.”
“But I’m a girl,” said Terra. “That’s not gonna happen. Plus, it was just a kiss.”
“It’s not right, T,” said Nines slowly. “You took advantage of her. It’s not right; you know that.”
Terra’s shoulders slumped as she thought about this. Nines was right again.
“Yoooour’e riiiiiight,” she said unhappily. “She’s gonna be mad at me when she finds out. She’s gonna yell at me.”
“Well, you just apologize to her,” said Pinochle. “It’ll be okay.”
“This is Stephanie we’re talking about,” frowned Terra. “I hiiiiighly doubt it will be ‘okay.’…Can’t I just not tell her? Maybe she won’t remember.”
“That’s not right, either, T,” said Nines.
“Okay,” said Terra. “Doggonit, Nines, you rat…Oh, wait. I guess she won’t be too mad. She hit me in the head with a coffee mug, after all.”
“Really?” asked Pinochle. “You look okay to me…”
Oh, that’s right. They weren’t supposed to know about the whole “wolfie” thing, so if they knew how fast she’d healed up that injury, well…
“Oh…uhhh…I…I guess she didn’t hit me that hard,” lied Terra.
Both Nines and Pinochle looked at each other again, Nines shook his head, and then they turned their attention back upon her for the third time.
“Come on, T,” said Nines. “Let’s go on walkabout to the hospital.”
“Okay,” said Terra. “Are you coming, Pinochle?”
The young black man shook his head no.
“No, I should stick around here and make sure these two are okay,” he said.
That didn’t sound right. That didn’t sound right at all.
“Hey, now,” warned Terra. “If I’m not allowed to do anything bad, then neither are you. Those two are passed out. I’m not going anywhere if you’re going in there while they’re helpless.”
Pinochle gave a great laugh as Nines joined in with him.
“That’s not going to happen,” grinned the young man. “I would never do anything like that. The door is locked anyway, Terra. I was just going to stand outside the door to make sure no one bothers them.”
Terra thought about this and then nodded in acceptance. She had locked the door on the way out, but how Pinochle knew this, she had no idea. Actually, he’d probably just guessed that, since that’s what most people did anyway, lock their apartment doors when they left their apartments.
“Okay…but I’ve got my eye on you, funny boy,” said Terra as she narrowed her gaze.
Both Pinochle and Nines laughed and shook their heads, but Terra had no idea why. It really wasn’t that funny. That’s why she’d called Pinochle “funny boy,” because he was laughing at everything. Maybe that’s why he was friends with Stephanie. She needed someone to tell her she was funny. Otherwise, she was just plain mean most of the time.
“Come on, T,” chuckled Nines. “Let’s get going. “Let’s head to North Corgan Mercy.”
They parted ways with Pinochle after that. They headed down the stairs and out the building, their journey’s destination, the hospital.
The weather was brisk, but the walk was fine. For some reason, Terra could not understand why she did not feel as cold as she had in Autumns past. It was probably due to the whole “wolfie” thing, and if it was, that was yet another bonus to being a supernatural creature. Aside from smelling like a dog to other people, all in all, it was cool, and she reeeeaaaally wanted to tell Nines about it, even though she knew she shouldn’t.
NCMH was farther away than even the post office, but that was okay. That just meant she had more time to hang out with Nines.
They continued on for a while as Terra thought about telling Nines, and worse yet, her brain would not prevent her from dwelling on it. It was becoming obsessive; it was an internal struggle, and she was losing that battle.
“What’s wrong, T?” asked Nines. “You look down.”
“Oh, I want to tell you about something that happened to me,” frowned Terra. “Something really bad happened to me, but I’m afraid to tell you about it.”
“You’re afraid of telling me something?” asked Nines. “You can tell me, T…Is it really that bad?…You know me. I can be a little preachy, but I’m not going to yell at you.”
“Oh, it’s not that,” said Terra as she waved him off. “It is kinda bad, but I didn’t really have anything to do with it…Well…That’s not true. I did participate, so I got punished, but I didn’t know it was real! I swear, I didn’t. I just thought it was an initiation thing for Saffy.”
“What was real, T?” asked Nines. “You can tell me.”
Well, shoot nuggets. There was no reason to hold all of this in. She had to tell somebody other than the girls. It was eating her alive inside.
“I’m going to get in trouble for saying this, but here goes,” said Terra. “Ooooh, I’m a little different now than you remember, Nines.”
“How so?” asked Nines.
“Oh, it’s kind of a problem,” said Terra. “I just happen to be a werewolf now.”
“Oh?” asked Nines. “Okay. You weren’t a werewolf when we first met. How did that happen?”
“Oh, I participated in a ritual with the other girls from the Gothic Society,” nodded Terra. “It was because of Stephanie and her stupid book she got from her dead grandma. She wanted revenge on Haley and the other girls from Beta Theta Sigma. I thought it was all just a game, buuuuut we actually summoned a real demon, and now all of us are cursed with lycanthropy.”
“Hmm,” nodded Nines. “That does sound kind of bad.”
“It iiiiis,” said Terra. “Now we’ll all change on the full moon, but Saffy’s got that under control. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Saffy and everyone in BTS is cursed too. Now there’s fifteen of us just waiting for a really bad time of the month, and it’ll be here soon. It hurt like mad bonkers when I changed on Halloween. It felt great being a wolf, buuuuut I probably need this curse lifted.”
“Uh, huh,” said Nines. “Well, are any of you doing anything about it?”
“Yeah,” nodded Terra. “Saffy and Haley and Jenny and Macy are all working on a way to get us ‘uncursed.’ I don’t know what to do about that, though. Everyone’s been telling me to stay out of it. I think they think I don’t have anything to contribute. They’re probably right.”
“I think you have a lot to contribute, T,” said Nines. “You’re being too hard on yourself.”
“I just thought it was all fun and games,” shrugged Terra. “I thought we were just stealing Saffy away from BTS. She was going to be our newest member instead of theirs. I didn’t know Stephie was going to summon a real demon. I think its name is ‘Garm.’ It’s not even a generic demon. Ebony says it’s a big one, a real bad one.”
“The Hound of Hel,” nodded Nines. “Well, it sounds like Stephanie certainly got all of you in deep trouble. Is that why she’s so upset? Is that why she’s hurting inside?”
“Yeah,” nodded Terra. “She wants to escape the problem, so she wanted to get drunk or high, but now that she’s a werewolf, she can’t do either. We heal too fast, so drugs don’t even affect us. That’s why we went down to the post office to pick up a package of wolfsbane that Macy ordered. It’s supposed to work on werewolves, and it did. It worked when they smoked it, and now they’re both passed out in their apartment.”
“Well, running from your problems isn’t any way to solve them,” said Nines with a thoughtful expression. “Don’t you think you should encourage Stephanie to help? Shouldn’t she pitch in? It sounds like she’s hiding from what she did.”
“She iiiiiis,” said Terra. “But everyone’s mad at her, so she’s like a boxer who keeps covering up from taking too many punches. She’s afraid of getting ‘hit’ again, if you know what I mean, so she doesn’t want to open up and fight back. She just wants to hide. She doesn’t want to help.”
“That’s an insightful analogy, T,” said Nines. “That’s really insightful. I told you you weren’t stupid.”
“You diiiiid,” replied Terra. “I just feel stupid…especially lately, ever since Halloween when we all wolfed out. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I was so happy then because I was finally getting closer to Gabrielle, but that’s not working out, and now this…this feeling inside is haunting me, like something is really wrong with me…other than being a werewolf.
“People are telling me I’m acting weird. Even Ebony’s saying it. My best friend since I was little is telling me something’s wrong, but I don’t know what it is. I just know I can feel it.”
“Well, we’ll figure that out, T,” said Nines. “For now, we’ll just help out a friend of mine. My friend Kicksy is friends with Charlotte, and she’s asked for your help…Look, we’re already here. Here’s the hospital.”
END OF PART I
15 WOLVES: Terra, Not Firma Part I Copyright © 2026 bloodytwine.com Matthew L. Marlott
Note: The image for this story was generated via artificial intelligence courtesy of OpenAI.
