Far From Home, Chapter 2, unedited, first draft 2 The full moon shone brightly against the clear night sky causing a blinding shimmer of elegance on the freshly fallen snow of Central Park. Blanketed by the disguising vale of a million city lights, a few stray stars here and there were all that shared the grandeur amidst the blackened heavens above New York City. Still…its beauty was a far cry to behold when compared against the celestial crowding of North Texas nightfall…but it held a certain charm all its own nonetheless. The chilling, frozen precipitation had ended hours ago removing all signs of life or movement amongst the local population. With the darkness came a need for them all to return indoors to their warm homes without fear of molestation by the metaphoric monsters that reside in the shadows of the night. Tucked away safely in toasty beds, most inhabitants of this city dreamt away their worries and cares amidst the ignored intrusions of honking taxi cabs and the ear piercing squeal of an occasional garbage truck’s brakes. Regardless of the noise surrounding it, no sounds existed in Central Park with the exception of a broken tree limb from time to time being overcome by the weight of the accumulation. It was the eerie kind of silence in which nightmares were often composed. Ten blocks away from the serenity of the majestic park, a young stranger sat alone in ultimate concentration within the gothic cathedral walls of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church shaking off two hour’s worth of the park’s frigid emptiness. Like an ancient shadow pressed against the modern illumination of Manhattan, the three hundred foot tall spires rose like flowers to the sunlight amongst its more recently built counterparts. Able to accommodate over two thousand people at any given service, the young girl felt more alone than ever before. Although she knew all too well that she wasn’t the only person that had ever felt insignificant inside the church’s echoing, empty chambers since its construction nearly two centuries ago…the girl couldn’t help but think exactly that with each passing second. Deep in the confines of prayer, a lonesome tear of both fear and hope streaked the soft skin of her young cheek heading straight for the polished marble floor below. In the quiet darkness, its impact caused a deafening disturbance that snapped her from her trance momentarily. Quickly scanning the shadows for any other signs of life, she bowed her head once again and returned to her meditation. Her name was Katie Liberman. The past few years of Katie’s life had been one of tragedy and discovery. With every passing day, the memories of those that had come and gone before her in the metaphorical roller coaster that she had come to know as life tugged at her heart strings with increasing weight. Barely eighteen years of age, she had been struck with the loss of her favorite Uncle, Johnny Haynes, who had served as her personality and attitude’s mentor since the time in which she was first learning how to speak. Within hours of that tragedy, she had personally witnessed the murdering of her own mother, Jessica Liberman, at the hands of a rogue deputy Sheriff after he had broken into their home in Twin Oaks, Texas by order of a maniacal tyrant hell bent on destroying her family. In return, she bestowed upon herself a great power in order to rescue what remained of those she loved and cared about but with great power…comes a price. This price, in general, was that of a curse that changed her life completely from that moment until now. She had journeyed to the terrible city from her quiet, country roots in order to find a cure that curse and it was nearly within her grasp. To most, hers was a story that would be almost too much to handle on any given day regardless of circumstances or upbringing. To Katie, this had become daily life. The curse of the werewolf was something she had seen produced by Hollywood time and time again during her youth but, contrary to popular belief, there was nothing glamorous about it. Inadvertently caught up in the middle of an ongoing war between the lunatic Sheriff of her hometown, Jessie McGee, and a stranger whom she had never met face to face, her father and been infected with the rage of the once thought mythical creature. In order to save his life from the secretive and power mad Sheriff, she had made the rash decision to take upon her father’s burden without a second to spare for thinking of repercussions and win the day for all those that suffered at the hands of McGee. At thirteen years old, an altered future was something rarely thought of. Jamming her wrist between her father’s poisonous teeth as he drew what could’ve been his final breaths; she turned to meet her foe with a face of terror and took his life with furious anger. Unknown to her at the time, Jessie McGee was not the source of the evil that had coursed through her veins over the past five years. There were more. A New York City attorney by the name of Kurt Jimmerson had came and went in her small town like a falling star in the night sky and left in his wake a pathway of destruction…yet hope. Being the cursed Sheriff’s creator, he had traveled to and from the East Coast and North Texas on several occasions in the hopes of destroying that which had gotten out of hand. Repeatedly, he had failed. Realizing that newer, younger blood would be needed to defeat his foe had led to a chance meeting with Katie’s father in the midnight wilderness and that was where it all began. Departing quickly with a mouthful of lies to mislead her father on various facts of his existence and history, Jimmerson had left Twin Oaks before the infamous final showdown in order to retain his safety when it all came to a head. As that rainy night in the fairgrounds progressed, the light of truth had been brought forth before the death blow was dealt to the town villain. Jimmerson had lied about a lot of things with the exception of, luckily, his profession and place of residence. The hope amongst the bad dreams of five years ago was the fact that the townspeople had embraced her father’s misfortune rather than fear him for his differences. Soon after everything was said, done, and settled…Toby Liberman had been elected the replacement Sheriff in Myrtle County and the entire place went werewolf crazy. Still a secret to the majority of their community’s outsiders, the local population had lifted him up to near celebrity status and entrusted their safety and well being to what they considered to be a type of super hero as sorts. Within the frame of a few months, her hometown had become a place of safety and family where those who wished ill will against peace were no longer welcomed…and taught accordingly with swift justice. He had even remarried. Katie was now the proud step daughter of her Uncle’s late girlfriend upon his untimely death. They had all been so close during the tragic ordeal that it was the only solution that really made sense. What happened in the Liberman family…stayed in the Liberman family. Somehow, she had made it through her high school years without a soul identifying that she, too, possessed her father’s ‘gift’. Granted, she was a little more nimble and faster at sports and such than the normal kids ever wished they could be, but no one had ever guessed of the hunger that stirred inside of her from time to time. If they had, there was no way for it to be comprehended. A weekend camping trip from month to month was used to hide the true animal that prowled just beneath the skin of she and her father. In secluded privacy, the two of them would hunt wild deer and game to suffocate the pain filled feeling of emptiness that no mortal or conventional food could fill. This small tidbit of information would more than likely instill fear into the masses if they ever were to discover what their curses were truly capable of. The last thing they needed in such a small town was enemies. As time had progressed during the times that the two of them spent alone, her powers of transformation had become perfected and synchronized with her emotional state. Unlike the beliefs of the West Coast movie magicians, the curse of the werewolf had nothing to do with the cycles of the moon. It could be turned on and off at will with practice, patience, and mental peace. Also and unfortunately, unlike the horror films, it didn’t take a silver bullet from a gun to drop either of them like a bad habit. They could be killed by any means that would kill a normal human being. With this in mind, it was almost enough to keep Katie near the safety of her home rather than the far away confines of New York City on a quest for answers. Due to the lies that Kurt Jimmerson had fed her father over their extremely short relationship, neither of them truly knew much of the actual truth of their being unless it had been something personally experienced or accidentally discovered. To her, that in itself was enough to risk the unknown. She needed to know. Of course, this sudden trip across the country had been disguised as something else entirely… As far as anyone knew back home, including her own family, Katie was living the good life at the University of North Texas by way of a high school sports scholarship. Withdrawing all of her savings that was intended to be her lifeline for her freshman year in college, she bought a plane ticket to Manhattan and rented the most extravagant furnished apartment she could find closest to Central Park. With the difference in the cost of living between New York and home, she was only going to be able to survive financially for a month. Only three more weeks remained in order to confront her family’s nemesis or return home and explain to her father what had transpired. Either way, she wasn’t expecting to live through either. Taking on her mother’s maiden name, she had immediately represented herself as the newcomer Katie Haynes and landed a job in the basement floor mail room of the Jimmerson and Wolfe law firm on 52nd street near the park. After working there for only a few days now, she had realized all too quickly that her meager paychecks weren’t going to be able to support her heightened lifestyle in the Rockefeller Center apartments…and neither Mr. Jimmerson nor Mr. Wolfe had poked their heads in the basement very often. It was going to take some careful planning on her part and some down home cunning to eventually get where she needed to be in order to meet the infamous Kurt Jimmerson in the workplace. If that didn’t work then she was almost certain to meet him face to face in Central Park. When Jimmerson had given his version of the curse’s origin to Toby, the slick attorney had told him that there were entire clans of werewolves in New York City living daily lives in secrecy. When that special time came, they would venture into the park under cover of darkness to feed upon whatever living creature was unlucky enough to cross their paths. After three late and chilly nights in the park, Katie had seen nothing or no one other than average purse snatching criminals and police officers. Decent people didn’t venture into the park much after the sun went down but maybe that was the reasoning. If the wolf clans only fed on the criminal element…then who would care much if a few people disappeared here and there from time to time? Who would know when and where to find those people better than an attorney? Maybe all of them weren’t all that bad? If things didn’t change soon in order for the young girl to return home unscathed, she was beginning to think that she would have to do the same thing very soon. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time that she had delivered death to a human being. The only difference was that this particular man had been pointing a gun at her earlier in the evening. He had it coming. Again, her praying eyes opened slightly as she peered from side to side but, as before, there was nothing to be seen. Shifting slightly in the church pew, she returned to deep thoughts and requests for guidance and forgiveness for the events in her life’s horizon. Overhead through hidden speakers, a recording of chanting monk’s played that soothed her troubled soul. Even though it was being spoken in another language and she had no idea whatsoever what they were saying, it was a calming soundtrack to the mental movie of blood and carnage that was playing out in her head. She was trying everything possible to block those scary images from coming but it was no use. Upon her initial transformation, she had beaten McGee hands down because he had underestimated her. Jimmerson would be different. One of the lies, out of many, that her father’s mentor had explained to him was the fact that McGee had been the one to change him many years ago while on a camping trip in North Texas. According to the cryptic man and the majority of the werewolf legends, an infected person can be cured of their curse by tracking down and destroying the one responsible for bestowing the disease upon you .In reality, it had been the other way around and Jimmerson was merely attempting to clean up one of his ‘messes’ by killing the Sheriff.. With that being the case, no one was cured by Jessie McGee’s death. It was also the reason that McGee had allowed Jimmerson to live year after year through failed and numerous attempts on his life. If McGee killed Jimmerson, the Sheriff would’ve lost his powers and the ability to govern his criminal empire through fear and bloodshed. Ultimately, that was why Katie had journeyed to Manhattan. She wasn’t on a quest for answers or teachings. She was there to end it once and for all. With Jimmerson’s death…all would be set right once again. For years now, she had known that a normal life would be beyond her grasp as long as she carried her family’s burden. Time after time, she had turned boys away and put up her defenses upon their interest regardless of how much she admired the guy in return. What if she got carried away in the heat of the moment one night, transformed, and knocked the guy’s head clean off of his shoulders? What if eventually the relationship became serious and she had to reveal her deepest, darkest secret to the unsuspecting mate and he ran away in fear? What if she were to keep it a secret throughout the relationship only to reveal it suddenly when their first child began teething and killed the family cat? Is the curse even something that could be passed along through genetics? There were too many questions she didn’t have answers for but she cared little for discovering them. If she terminated the bloodline once and for all, she wouldn’t have to worry about any of the craziness that went through her head while staring at the ceiling deep in the dark night. Five long years of nothing but unanswered questions was enough. She was going to be cured or die trying. The other curse in her young life, other than the facts that she was a creature of the night with her late uncle’s undiagnosed tourette’s syndrome, was the fact that she had been passed along her biological mother’s physical features. Being five and a half feet tall and weighing a mere one hundred and twenty pounds, Katie had adopted her mother’s dirty blonde hair and athletic figure. It was getting harder and harder to remain hidden in a room full of men as she got older. Between genetics and the athleticism required to be a successful werewolf, nothing she ate stayed physically visible for any length of time. Her heightened senses could pick out easily which guy in the room was physically attracted to her and it sometimes made her sick to her stomach. As things developed in her favor during her last couple of years in high school, it got harder and harder to go to certain classes because of the bells and whistles going off in her head concerning how a few of the teachers truly felt about her. Luckily, her athletics coach was a woman but there were times where she wasn’t too sure about her feelings either. Most young girls that ended up this ‘lucky’ would flaunt their gifts to no end but all Katie wanted to do was hide it all. It did her no good whatsoever knowing that at any given time…she could be showing someone a lot more than what they bargained for. When she looked into the mirror, she couldn’t see what those around her coveted. All she could see was the animal within. The images of her past were beginning to invade her communication attempts with the all knowing and, though she tried, it was becoming more difficult to block them out. She could almost feel the frigid downpour of the October rain on her skin as she lay nearly helpless on the saturated ground of the Myrtle County fairgrounds. Her father’s almost lifeless body in werewolf form was twitching spastically only a few feet from her position and she could hear her foe loading his shotgun to deal out a swift end to the both of them. Five years later and fifteen hundred miles away, the piercing and searing pain of her father’s teeth dug deep within her arm’s flesh and all transformed to red. Dodging McGee’s gun as though she was no longer in charge of the destiny of her body, she pounced. The uncertain fear in his eyes revealed that he was no longer in control of the situation at hand. The taste of warm blood trickled down her throat for the first time and she howled into the pouring sky for the entire world to know of her victory… That was when the voice came. “What seems to be troubling you on this snowy night my child?” Katie’s mental bond with the savior was broken suddenly but she remained calm. She wasn’t quite sure how this individual was able to sneak up on her but from the sound of his voice, he meant no harm. He was merely curious and possibly offering help. At this point in time, she needed every bit that she could get. In a town full of eight million people coming and going, there was little time for any of them to offer kindness or advice. Whoever this gentleman was, he sounded both wise and sincerely concerned…and he was the first to do so since her plane had landed. “Nothing much” she replied, not wanting to reveal too much to the stranger. Not knowing of this individual’s intentions, she was going to attempt to stay as mysterious as possible. Granted, this man didn’t give off any vibe or aroma of something that intended her harm…but how many of those prowling the city at this hour had she truly encountered other than her father and Jessie McGee? Cautiously, she kept her eyes shut tight in the hopes that he would take the hint and go on about his business in the church. “I might’ve been born at night…but it wasn’t last night, my dear” the raspy, soft voice of the elderly gentleman continued “You’ve been sitting in this exact same spot every night for almost a week now. Boy trouble?” Even though it was a welcomed distraction from what Katie had come to know as ‘normal’ inside the confines of the cathedral over the past few nights, she wasn’t quite sure on what to reveal to this man. Unfortunately, his persistence had caused an answer on that subject to come to mind almost instantly. Fine. If he truly wanted to know…she was going to tell him. Perhaps it would be enough to give him the hint to keep moving about his business. "I don't do romantic relationships, mister.” She began. “Most people I've had an emotional attachment to have either died a horrible death in the past five years or had their lives severely altered beyond recognition. After that, all that's left is sex…and where does that leave me? They fall in love and I fall asleep most of the time. A basic friendship usually has to suffice but I would almost advise most people against doing that as well! They have no idea who I am and, half of the time…neither do I" Katie waited patiently for the inevitable inhale of the disgusted man or the awkward silence followed by footsteps away from her location. Neither of them came. “Young lady” the gentle voice began again “I’ve been alive for many, many years and if you think you can fool me into leaving with a comment like that…you’re wrong. If that was truly the way your mind worked…you wouldn’t be sitting here. You’d be at a bar instead.” Smiling slightly, Katie continued her vigil with the ground below her with head bowed. It was beginning to appear that her night couldn’t move forward without going into deep conversation with this man. A confession, so to speak. If the man truly wanted to do some digging…she knew a great place that needed a mental ditch or two. “Forgive me Father…for I have sinned.” She began. “I know dear” the old man replied “Haven’t we all at one time or another?” Katie’s smile began to grow a little bigger. He had no idea. She continued. “It has been a little over eighteen years since my last confession” she stated, holding back a giggle. Raising a bushy eyebrow to the heavens, the priest inquired further. “Eighteen years, my dear? You can’t be a day over eighteen yourself! Are you even Catholic?” “Well, that’s the issue” Katie spoke seriously “I was born into a family that was never much for a church-ish environment and my father is a Jewish man that is in denial…or at least that’s what my Uncle Johnny used to claim about him. I came into this place because it felt safe and wise. I really needed safety…and I really, really need some wisdom. Got any?” The old priest filled the empty, echoing cathedral with laughter that broke the reverent silence like shattering glass. This was the exact moment that Katie had been waiting for. As far as New York was concerned, she had yet to meet a friendly person that could fall victim to her southern charm and witty humor. If she ever got half the chance, she knew that it wouldn’t take much…but no one in this city stood still for longer than five seconds at a time. The priest was the first…and he was exactly the type of friend she needed. She was determined to make this man fall in love before the night was over. “I’m glad you liked that” she said cynically “because I worked terribly hard on it. Do you have any idea whatsoever of what it’s like to be a stranger in a strange land? An outcast among conformity? A freak among normalcy? If you don’t…then there is little chance that you’re going to be able to relate and help at all.” She felt the bench sink slightly as the now quiet priest sat beside her. A chill ran the length of her body from head to toe as he did so. This was the point in the conversation where things were about to turn into a more serious agenda or he was just going to move into a better position to place his holy hands around her neck and do the world a favor. Either way, she braced for the worst. After all, no one back home even knew of her location and there would be little chance of figuring out where to start looking for the body. Ultimately, if she felt hands…those hands were going to feel hair…and not the good kind that most men hope to feel when touching a young woman. Finally, the priest began to speak again revealing his intentions. A girl has to be prepared for all situations… “My dear, sweet, and weary traveler…these old eyes have seen much over the years. I doubt that there is much you could tell me or show me that would make me sprint out of here in terror. This is the Catholic faith after all. We believe in demons and exorcisms and all the things that go bump in the night that some religions in this country choose to ignore. From what I can gather of your essence, so to speak, I know that you’re not from around here and there is something slightly ‘different’ about you…but it’s nothing that I’ve never come in contact with before.” Now came the deep inhale that Katie had been expecting long before this moment. “I can sense the curse upon you, my dear, and I deeply sympathize.” He stated honestly “For someone so young to carry around so much, I don’t believe it’s fair. The Lord, however, truly works in mysterious ways…and you, my young child, are indeed one of His mysteries. Now…back to my original question. Why are you here?” Katie was tired of holding it back and was about to lay all of her cards on the table in a single slam. Far from home, ultimately alone, and with no one to offer a smidgen of help or advice on the matters at hand, she was going to burst if she didn’t get it all out soon. When it all came down to it, why not confess it all to a priest? Besides…he has to keep all of his secrets confidential, doesn’t he? “I’m from Texas” she started “I turned myself into a werewolf to save my father’s life five years ago and I was told that the curse could be lifted if you destroyed the source. The source is a powerful man that lives close by. I came here to kill him and lift my family’s curse for good. I can’t live with it anymore. One day, I want to have children and a family…and it’s going to be a little difficult to land a good husband if I have to explain to him that I could possibly lose control and rip his head off the first time we decide to get intimate…or I have to leave the house occasionally to go out into the woods to decapitate a wild animal so I don’t eat all of his poker buddies. I don’t know for a fact but I’m sure the curse can be passed genetically. It could be passed to my children and that’s a daycare newspaper headline that I’m not willing to read. My entire future and the futures of generations to come depend on my success right here, right now, so I guess what I meant to say was…forgive me father, because I’m about to do a whole lotta sinning.” Now came an even more awkward and extended silence from the receiving end of the conversation. She could only imagine what it was taking in order to process all of the strange information the unprepared man just received. Still, she felt a lot better being able to tell someone who she truly was and what she had on the plate before her. It was the first time that she had ever been able to do that with a complete stranger. “I knew that you were a werewolf from the moment you first walked into my church.” the priest stated after a long pause of deep reflection “Your kind have a particular smell to you but I haven’t sensed it in these halls in many a year. The creatures of the night don’t come in here often after all.” “It’s probably a good thing that most humans can’t recognize that smell you speak of or it would’ve been really hard trying to get a date to the senior prom” Katie chuckled, relieved. “Indeed” the priest joined her “but I jest slightly. God keeps few secrets from those that are truly faithful, my child, and he assisted with your identification a little bit.” Katie loved to hear conversations that helped to cement the existence of an all knowing being. There had been times in the past few years in which she had wondered if a real deity would allow such things to happen to his people such as the events of the Myrtle County Fair Grounds incident. It was time to switch tracks in the conversation. “Why would God allow this to happen? I mean my curse and all…” “God doesn’t control us, in my opinion” the old man interrupted “He allows us to do as we will and helps those in need that come to him humbly. Remember, my dear, because there is a real God above and all around us…there is also an all knowing, all powerful spirit that leads the forces of those that intend to do evil. Unfortunately, you fell victim to one of those instead. He’s here now, though, because you came to him in need. I doubt very seriously that he would ever turn away from someone as sincere and valiant as you.” “Valiant?” Katie asked. “When it comes down to it, you’re doing the work of the Lord by battling the forces of evil” he explained “It would appear that Mr. Jimmerson has traveled beyond his normal boundaries to do his handy work and I don’t think God is going to care much one way or the other if you were to quietly dispatch him. It would take one less thing off of his spiritual ‘honey-do’ list…if you catch what I’m saying.” Katie couldn’t believe that the wise old man sitting beside her already knew so much about what was going on in her life. Was Kurt Jimmerson really that well known for his doings? How many others locally had fell victim to his charm and false promises? How many other werewolves were there in New York City? “I can tell by your silence that you’ve been taken aback from my knowledge of the subject” the man spoke again “Yes, Kurt Jimmerson has been at this type of trickery for many years and you’re not the first individual to sit in this very seat and tell me their similar stories. The only thing is…where are they now? They never returned from an identical quest to tell me of their exploits and victory. At one time, even he, himself, sat here and confessed to me his wrong doings and aspirations but I knew I’d never see him again after that. The devil inside of him was much too strong of an ally to allow him to do so.” The nerves that Katie had calmed by entering the Holy sanctuary were beginning to act up once again from the priest’s speech. If his was a favored stop on the quest of those that had set out on her identical journey, then it didn’t shed much light and hope on the outcome. All those that had come before her had perished after this point. Very similar to Jimmerson’s quest to end McGee’s tyranny over the town of Twin Oaks, Katie herself had been the only one to win the battle that so many others had failed before her also. The only difference was that she had the element of surprise on her side that night and the Sheriff didn’t know what to expect. She had caught him off guard. This would not be the case when it came down to her east coast target. She was almost certain that he knew someone from the Liberman family was coming for him eventually. Hopefully, he wouldn’t expect that it would be young Katie. For all he knew or anyone else involved the in secret lives of lycanthropy, her father’s life was the only one thought effected by his antics back home. He was gone long before the final confrontation and her being infected had been a secret that Toby insisted on taking to the grave. Due to this…there was still hope. “So…Jimmerson confessed to you when he was first turned?” she asked curiously. “Oh no, my child” he answered sharply “I think he had been living with his curse for several years before he finally came to God for help with his way of thinking. I just think that his so called sharing of the power had gotten out of hand and someone had turned on him and challenged him for dominance. He was losing the struggle and he felt that this was his final chance at redemption.” Katie knew exactly of who the priest spoke of. “McGee” she answered suddenly “Jessie McGee. He was the Sheriff in my town back home and Jimmerson turned my dad to help deal with him. He’s the reason that I am who I am right now…sort of. Unlike my father, I had a choice in the matter. I chose to save his life and continue living myself. McGee wasn’t going to allow that to happen if I didn’t do so.” “So that would appear to be another internal struggle going on in your young mind” he said wisely “You wonder if the choice you made between dying or living with a curse was the right choice to make?” “Sometimes…” Katie answered unsure. She had often wondered if sacrificing her father’s life would’ve allowed her to live on several occasions. She had pondered the scenario that McGee would’ve let her go on living if he had been satisfied with Toby’s demise. Ultimately, that wouldn’t have been fair to anyone involved. Everything happened so quickly that night and she was being driven by the instinct to protect someone she loved. Knowing the Sheriff, he would’ve definitely killed her also just to keep his secrets from getting out. There was never an ounce of doubt in his eyes that night that he truly had every intention of dispatching her in the same way he planned on doing her father. She had gone with her gut and did what needed to be done. There was no other way. Was there? “I sounds to me that you did exactly what needed to be done in order for you to be sitting here entertaining me this evening” the priest picked up on her insecurity “You fought to live another day in the hopes that you could one day solve the problems at hand. I’m sure that your father thanks heaven every day that you did what needed to be done. Now, you’re here to make things right. Not only for yourself, but for him and those that are yet to come. You were noble that day and you’re being very noble now for being here. Never doubt that, young one. Never doubt that.” Still, up until this point, Katie had never opened her eyes to the wise old man that was offering the advice and comfort. It was much more soothing to hear his voice without being able to pinpoint it to a recognizable face. It was almost as though she had been speaking to the voice of God himself all along and she liked keeping it that way. In the end, she felt like that was going to be the only man to help her when things got to where she was intending for them to go. “I like talking to you, Father” she whispered quietly “You almost remind me of my own Grandfather from when I was a little kid…other than the fact that he was a grumpy old Jewish man that did nothing for our family because my did wouldn’t accept his faith. Still, he was a smart man.” Oh, I’m not all that smart” the priest chuckled again “I’ve just been around the block a time or two several times over many years. There is a fine line between knowledge and wisdom. I don’t know much…but what I do know…I know it well.” Katie paused again in the hopes that the man wouldn’t take any offense to what she was about to ask him. “You’re a ghost, aren’t you?” There was yet another, but expected long pause in the conversation as the ancient man was searching for the proper way to answer the question at hand. “You guys have a certain smell also” Katie added. “Do you spend a lot of time around ghosts?” the priest inquired as curious as ever. “My Uncle Johnny had helped me right after I changed but never showed up again after my dad married his girlfriend. I know. Jerry Springer stuff, right? Shortly after that, my mother showed up and she pops up here and there. Right now I’m sure she’s popping up in my temporary apartment a few blocks away waiting to grill me on where I’ve been and why I was gone for so long. I liked her much better when she was alive and could care less about what I do. Jimmerson had told my dad that he could only see the ghosts that he knew personally while they were living. Something about reciting the perverted lyrics to an Elton John song, I don’t know…it’s confusing, but we soon found out that he lied about that too. I see them all the time.” “He lies a lot” the man reassured her “and I’m sure that you’re going to find out soon enough that other things you thought you knew were complete falsities also.” This was something that Katie feared the most. If the theory of the curse reversal had been another concoction of the twisted mind of Kurt Jimmerson, all of this would be for nothing and it would almost spell certain death. He had tricked her father with every outing of his forked tongue and that knowledge had been passed on to her. As time went by and the curse took hold of their lives even tighter, they both began to realize that they truly knew nothing about the world they lived in and the rules that bound them. Every day was a learning experience. For Katie, today hadn’t been any different. “So…I’m probably going to be coming back here to see you quite a bit” Katie broke the ice again “and I don’t even know what to call you.” “I’m Father McCormack” the old priest introduced himself. “I’m Katie Liberman and it was a pleasure to meet you” she stated, finally opening her eyes to the blue tinted, transparent man sitting beside her “but tomorrow is another day and work comes early.” “Oh, I’m sure work is nothing compared to your late nights in Central Park in an attempt to find the clues you so desperately seek, young one.” He groaned With that note, Katie stood from her place of rest and passed through the man’s spirit on the way to the door. With a rush of chilled wind, she peered dreadfully into the snow covered night for any signs of danger that might be awaiting her. Pulling the wool hood from underneath her frantically blowing hair, she hid her face from both element and foe looking back on the helpful being one last time. “Thank you” she said “You’ll never know how much of a help you’ve been to me tonight” “And to you also, Katie Liberman” the priest replied “I don’t get many visitors that purposely interact with my old soul. Be safe.” “Always…” she winked, firmly shutting the door on her way into the night “Always…”