Cruel and Unusual - serialised novel EXCLUSIVE to Steemit Part 19

Exclusive for Steemit - serialisation of Cruel and Unusual – my second novel

Episodes:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Then Jack was distracted. His scalp began to tingle, just like it had the previous night at the theatre. The sensation continued down the back of his neck and along his shoulders.

Down his arms the sensation travelled but slowly - not like a shudder, which is instant - this sensation took a full minute to reach his fingertips.

Then, as it had the night before, it reached the palms of his hands. Oh how they itched. A deep seated and crawling itch beneath the skin on his palms and he knew that even if he scratched them raw, they would still itch, almost enough to make him go mad. He nevertheless leaned forward to scrape the palms on the window ledge and closed his eyes in ecstasy as the itching was relieved a little.

As he opened his eyes he looked out of the window to find himself face to face with a nightmare countenance.

A large creature was on the other side of the glass looking in, right at Jack. Its eyes glowed for an instant and Jack’s own eyes widened further yet - if that were possible.

The beast’s face had transformed for a moment into that of a man and back to the horrific features of a wolf that was not quite a wolf, one that was wilder, more feral than even a wild animal could be.

Jack screamed and leaped back, the beast smiled and then it was gone.

Jack found himself sat upon the bare boards of the attic floor. His palms were red and sore where he had scraped them, his hair was a mess where it had stood on end and the erection was still pumping inside his trousers, almost as though it were a separate entity, determined to make its presence felt.

He scrambled across the attic floor and down the narrow stairs in sheer terror and hid himself under his bed, shaking so hard that he feared he may loosen his own teeth. After a short time, he calmed down a little and decided that if he had not been murdered by now, the danger was most likely past and he emerged from under his bed.

Jack went downstairs to the drinks cabinet and poured a large brandy. He downed it almost in one and reduced himself to a coughing, shaking wreck as the spirit burned its way down his throat. He decided that he had had enough of a fright for his quaking heart for one evening and went straight back to his room. His clothes were dirty and dusty from his refuge of earlier and he again slept naked.

That night he had dreams of running naked alongside a pack of wolves. They seemed to ignore him for the most part and he kept up with them very well as they loped across the open countryside.

When one turned to face him, its face changed to that of a beautiful woman and he was taken aback to the extent that he missed his footing and stumbled. He regained his gait at the next step he took but he was further back along the length of the pack as it ran.

The next wolf to look at him was the same man that he had seen at the theatre and at his attic window and he again was taken by surprise but he did not lose any ground. The wolf to the side of the familiar young man glanced in his direction and again the face altered to that of a beautiful woman – one that he could not recall seeing, yet she was familiar somehow.

A young male wolf caught up to him, running alongside the young man he had just recognised and the face of the new wolf turned to another young man, but this time he had a resemblance that Jack recognised at once. It was the younger face of the old Shaman he had encountered whilst in Canada. The face did not revert back to wolf right away and Jack studied him as they ran.

All at once the young Shama’s face turned back to wolf and he snarled at Jack and made as though to bite him. Jack swerved away from the jaws and became frightened of further attacks.

He made a concerted effort to regain his original place at the head of the pack – or at least alongside the front-runners.

The beautiful woman-wolf was still at the head of the pack but alongside her, closest to Jack was another wolf; this was a magnificent creature, larger than the female with sleek glossy black fur. Jack thought that the fur also shone with a deep purple undertone and as the wolf turned to look at him as the others had, its jaws opened wide and caught Jack’s throat and chest in the most violent attack.

Though on one subconscious level, his mind knew it was a dream, Jack was terrified and began thrashing at the wolf’s head and face to try to make it let go.

It did at last let him go and dropped him at the side of the trail where the rest of the pack flowed past him like a river in full flood, the fur of the beasts slowly changing to waves on the surface of a fast moving river and Jack knew that the wolf had injured him beyond human endurance and that he was dying.

Images from Google Images and Pixabay