Chương 41: Chaged Dog

A little later that same day, Lily stands directly behind Willow, whose focused stare is fixed on something ahead of her.

"Now, keep this in mind. Don't breathe a word of this to your father. He would end me." Willow gives a nod, lifting her arms to show a taser X26 stun gun in her grip.

"So, what's the name of our poor unsuspecting target?" Willow points the gun at a teddy bear that looks utterly harmless.

"Mr. Bear."

"Alright then, shoot your blandly named bear and end its suffering." Willow pulls the trigger on the Taser. two steel prongs catch the plush fur of Mr. Bear amid an electric crackle.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about. If only you'd had that the other night..." She catches Willow lowering the Taser with trembling hands. Her smile has vanished. Tears well in her eyes. Hey, what's going on? I figured you were eager to learn this. She settles onto the bed beside Willow, wrapping an arm around her.

"I just can't figure out what happened." Yet being with him felt completely right. Then, out of nowhere, he began behaving so oddly. And now I'm not sure what to trust anymore. It's the entire situation with Autzee Tale that other night, plus Crimson claiming he had no idea who he was, and then I spotted the two of them together..."

"Hold on, just a moment. Rewind." Lily said, pulling her arm away from Willow 's shoulder, suddenly much more serious.

"Crimson is acquainted with Autzee? Autzee, the supposed murderer? Are the two of them friends? Why don't you tell me every single thing Crimson mentioned about Autzee."

Churro's Jeep thunders up the driveway of the Croft house just as Aqua comes out the front door, heading off to work.

"Hey there, Churro. Crimson hasn't made it home yet. Want me to let you in?"

"I already got a key cut." He pops the trunk, hauls out his bag, and lets it fall to the ground with a heavy, metallic clunk. For an awkward beat, the two of them just stare down at the bag.

"Uh. It's a school project."

"Yeah. I hear you. Alright, watch yourself tonight. It's a full moon, you know." Churro spins around as Aqua climbs into her car. He gives a nod while she pulls her car door shut with a yank. He comes into the bedroom from the hallway, the bag trailing behind him. His heart nearly leaps out of his chest when he spots Crimson standing beside the bed.

"Man. You nearly gave me a heart attack." Crimson says nothing. He simply fixes his gaze on Churro and the bag.

"Your mother mentioned you hadn't made it home yet."

"I climbed in through the window." Crimson admitted it, his voice oddly steady, as though he might be under some kind of spell.

"Alright. So, let's get this thing ready. Take a look at what I picked up..." He heaves the bag onto the bed. Yet Crimson makes no move to glance at it. He doesn't so much as blink. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"I'm okay, Churro. I'm only going to lock the door. Head to bed early."

"Are you certain about that? Because right now you're giving off a serious serial killer vibe. And I'm really hoping it's just the full moon kicking in, because it's beginning to creep me out." Crimson just looks at him. At last, he walks over to the bed and pulls the bag's zipper open. Inside lie several lengths of chain.

"Do you really believe I'd let you fasten these on me? You want to chain me up? Like I'm some kind of dog? Churro fishes something out of the pocket of his jacket. He's quick on his feet as Crimson spins around, caught off guard. Yet his reaction comes a moment too late. A click sounds as he snaps one cuff around Crimson's wrist, then drags him down onto the floor, securing the other end to the radiator beside his bed. Crimson thrashes out while Churro scrambles backward.

"What in the world are you doing?" Crimson quits tugging at the handcuff, staring at Churro with pure loathing. But He fires back a glare fuelled by his own fury.

"I'm paying you back. For kissing Scara."

Willow strolls down the aisle of a modest sporting goods shop, her gaze drifting across the shelves until she spots the very thing she came for... the archery aisle. As she inspects the price tag on a fibre optic sight, she looks up and catches someone on the other side of the shelf grinning at her.

"What are you doing here?" Larch inquired"Just considering getting back into something I haven't done in a while. How about you?" He raises a lacrosse helmet.

"For Danny. Croft hit him pretty hard out on the field. She gives a nod. A beat of uneasy silence.

"Why do I get the feeling you could use someone to talk to?" And she smiles, precisely the words she was hoping to hear. Later, Churro returns to Crimson's room and finds him still fighting the handcuffs. He raises an uncapped bottle of water"I brought you some water." He empties the bottle into a dog bowl and carefully places it on the floor beside the bed. The moment Churro steps out of the bedroom, the dog bowl launches into the air, sails past him, and ricochets off the wall.

"I'm going to kill you!" Crimson shouted. He lingers at the doorway, struggling to fight off the impulse. Yet suddenly he spins around, rage spilling out of him.

"You kissed her. That one girl... And for the past three hours I've been convincing myself it's only the full moon, that he has no idea what he's doing, that by tomorrow he'll be completely himself again. He probably won't even recall being such a total scumbag, absolute bastard, son of a bitch, unbelievable piece of crap..."

"She kissed me. I didn't kiss her. She kissed me." Crimson clarified. Churro backs away, unwilling to meet his gaze. He leans his back against the hallway wall, right beyond the door.

"She kissed me. And she would have gone much further. You should have seen how she had her hands all over me. She would have done whatever I asked." He sinks down the wall until he's sitting, hands clutching his head, doing his best not to hear.

Larch and Willow are seated together in his car, parked outside the sports store.

"If I share something with you, do you swear you won't laugh?" A moment of hesitation grips her. Then she takes the plunge.

"I don't believe it was Autzee inside the school." She watches, waiting to see how he'll react. Yet his answer catches her even more off guard.

"Neither do I." Back in his room, Crimson kept jerking at the handcuffs, teeth clenched as he struggled to break loose. At last, he stops, breathless from the effort." Churro, please, let me out. It's the full moon. I mean it. You know I'd never do any of this deliberately." He stays motionless, awaiting an answer.

"Please, Churro, let me out. It's beginning to hurt. This isn't like that first time..." Churro sits in the hallway, his head buried in his hands. Visibly struggling not to give in.

"Please, Churro. The pain is unbearable. I can't endure this any longer. It's the night of the full moon, and it's because Willow ended things with me. And I realize this isn't just a pause. She ended our relationship. And it's tearing me apart. I feel utterly and completely lost. Please, just unlock the door and let me go."

"I'm unable to." Crimson jerks upright, howling with fury at the door. He tugs wildly at the handcuffs over and over until blood streaks his wrist. Yet he freezes the moment moonlight pours into the room. As it gradually spreads over the bed and touches his body, his back snaps into an arch, his head thrown back in a scream of agony.

Inside his car, Larch edges himself nearer to Willow.

"Could there be something more? The fact that Crimson is untrustworthy doesn't mean everyone else is too."

"Yet here's the problem. People are deceiving me, people who are nearer to me than Crimson. My own father. And it's not as though I'm blind to the fact that my family isn't exactly the most ordinary one on the street. It's not every teenage girl who walks through the door to find a garage packed with Glocks and AK 47's. I simply have this strange sense that my Dad knows more about what went down at the school than we do."

Churro rises gingerly to his feet; his ear pressed to the door as he listens to whatever transformation is unfolding within the room. When the agonized gasps give way to violent thrashing, Churro retreats a step, unsure of what he should do.

"Crimson? Are you alright?" He creeps nearer to Crimson's door while the thrashing grows louder and louder. Churro steels himself, then throws the bedroom door wide to find the handcuffs lying on the floor, twisted and broken, warped as though they had been fashioned from plastic. Beyond the bed, a draft whispers through the open window. Crimson is gone...