Unedited Chapter 3

3 Inescapable voices in the darkness flooded the young girl’s mind in a barrage of horrible memories as the blowing snow of the outside world slapped the high rise apartment’s glass windows in vain. If only similar protection could be offered by the window into her very soul… “Daddy, who was that man?” her younger voice asked in the echoes of her mind. “Baby, that’s a very bad man and he’s here to do very bad things. I’m going to take care of him but you’re going to have to be cool and let me do my thing.” Her father spoke in desperation. His name was Reed. That was all she remembered of the chubby intruder that had entered their home that night on a mission. Somewhere between her mother’s secret nocturnal activities and her father’s accusations of murder, this man had inadvertently drawn the shortest straw to carry out the evil deeds of Sheriff Jessie McGee. Seeing only through her mind’s eye, the two of them ran up the stairs for the protection of her bedroom like a realistic movie stuck on ‘repeat’ night after night. “I’m going to try and bluff him, baby” Toby told her “If I can keep him busy with conversation, maybe I can buy us the time to go out of a window or something” Her younger voice was obviously not impressed with the decision made. “Bluff him?” the teenage girl questioned “Dad…you’re a damned werewolf! Go out there and eat him, don’t bluff him!” She could almost feel the chill in the house from the October wind and rain that blew just outside what she once considered to be the safest place in her world. Shaking her back to a near sense of reality, the pressure on her shoulders from Toby’s hands felt realistic. “Honey” Toby explained “If there were more, they would’ve knocked. This guy isn’t here to arrest me…he’s here to kill us! Go do what I say!” The sincerity in her father’s voice was unlike any she had heard before from Toby Liberman. Struggling to open her bedroom window in order to escape into the night, the argument in the hallway continued… “You mean to tell me that you, Toby Liberman, is going to bare handedly take down an officer of the law, who happens to be armed, and save the day in front of your slut wife and smart mouthed daughter…and bells will chime…and birdies will sing…and the good guy wins and the bad guy falls?” The overweight law man screamed from the bottom of the stairs with confidence. “Well…yeah…” Toby thought aloud “That kind of was the thought that was going through my head right about now. Why? You don’t think it’s possible?” her father bluffed hopefully. She could sense the nervousness in his reply. Suddenly, the unthinkable happened. Awakened by the commotion in the next room, her mother awoke. Realizing that she was suddenly alone in her own bed, she made her way to the only thing that separated her from the dangerous condition her husband and daughter were already deeply involved in. The bedroom door. With a twist of the knob and the creak of ancient hinges, the number of individuals in the home that were at risk of not making it out alive became three. “Toby…are you still here?” she announced in the darkness, not knowing of the danger that awaited her only a mere ten feet away in the shadows “What’s going on out here?” “Jessica…GO!” her dad screamed in vain at the top of his lungs only to be drowned out by the recognizable crack of a gun blast. A single strobe of blinding light had bore witness to the surprised look in Jessica Liberman’s eyes before she collapsed helplessly onto the floor. Almost as though it had been rehearsed time and again, the intruder spoke six words that instantly changed Katie Liberman’s life forever… “One Liberman down…two to go.” Everything from this point on in her memory existed as quick flashes in her subconscious because of the terror that unfolded before her very eyes. She had seen massive amounts of blood before on television. What the television never explains to you is that it comes with a smell and a substance…and, as she would soon find out shortly after this…a taste. It was a taste that would eventually come to consume her life. A taste of home… “Don’t kill me Toby! Please don’t kill me!” Toby’s image shrank suddenly from the animal’s full height and his human features showed through the darkness towards the pleading, dying man. “Don’t kill you?” Toby spoke maniacally “You mean…don’t kill me like I did your wife? Don’t kill me like I’ve done to so many others before her at the orders of that lunatic you call a boss?” It wasn’t necessarily the visions of the man’s destruction that effected her…it was the sounds. The desperate begging for his own life and the gurgling of the blood in his throat as he fell limp on their living room floor in the shadow of the roaring fire place caused her to twitch ever so slightly…even in memory. The fireplace’s shadow soon became a bright, roaring, and controllable mean’s to and end for this chapter in her young life. Dodging flame and falling debris and escaping the choking smoke, she and Toby emerged onto the front porch only to be confronted with another hopeless situation. The death of the Deputy didn’t quiet his call for backup quick enough. As though everything was playing out in slow motion, her father turned to her with a fateful ultimatum. “Do you feel like giving up?” he asked calmly and seriously to Katie. “Do we end it all here? I’m leaving it up to you, kiddo…” Finally, the answer came…and it was much to his new found liking. Much like the raging fire that had been shut just beyond the barrier of their front door, Katie burned with an unusual and never before felt desire for vengeance and danger. Nothing else mattered in her young mind anymore. The visions, smell, and sound of the dying man’s blood had awakened something over all unusual to her and she was overpowered with the thoughts of making the same thing happen to all involved in the events of that evening. “Mom wouldn’t want us to give up” she replied angrily “How fast can you run?” Her father replied with a smart assed smirk that could’ve put Harrison Ford’s trademark to shame. “Pretty freaking fast, baby” Dodging red and blue flashing light as well as sporadic gun fire, her mind now raced to visions of the deep, rain soaked forests of Twin Oaks, Texas. Suddenly, the two of them entered a clearing as she hung on to her father for dear life and passed through the iron gates of an old cemetery. Descending into a dank structure that Toby had been using for a hideout, she soon slipped into a deep slumber that, unfortunately, didn’t end too well… She remembered his words of comfort just before everything around her faded into black. “Katie, honey…” he gained her attention “It’s okay to cry now. You don’t have to play the role of the untouchable big girl. I plan on doing the same here in just a little while…” Crying her young eyes out was really all that she wanted to do at the current time but the before mentioned fire raging inside of her wouldn’t allow it. “If we cry…they win” she boasted, forcing anger again to the surface of her face. In dreams, all that the young girl could think of was great feats of vengeance that could only be carried out in movies like The Boondock Saints…cool prayer and slow motion actions sequences included. In just a matter of days, her mother and uncle had been taken from her suddenly with no means of return…or so she thought at the time. Rudely awakened and thrown into the trunk of a police cruiser, she screamed for any and all that could hear her…but no one came to her aid. Her visions soon jumped to that of an open field amidst the rides and attractions of the Myrtle County Fair Grounds soaked in pouring rain restrained with freezing chains. Her captor, the now mortal enemy of the Liberman family paced like a caged animal waiting for a feeding. Her usual witty back and forth banter had only earned her a slap across the face and a promise of her demise once Toby’s inevitable rescue efforts came into play. From that point on, all she could deliver to the Sheriff was, at that particular time, empty promises. “Now…you’ve gone and screwed yourself. If my father doesn’t kill you…I sure as hell will. Mark my words.” Jessie couldn’t help but notice the seriousness in her voice but it fell away almost unheard. She was nothing more than a child delivering empty promises in desperation. “Young lady…” he spoke bending down, looking her deep in her moistened eyes “I can almost assure you that the only people that will be dying tonight will be those by the last name of Liberman. Consider your words marked…and ignored.” The fear that would normally exist on a thirteen year olds breath at this point in the situation would normally be overpowering to some that had never been placed in a similar event. Katie Liberman, however, was exhaling nothing but vengeance and anger. When her father finally appeared at the edge of the clearing for the final confrontation of the evening, she searched her mind frantically for a means to assist him in any way possible. Hell, if the situation were to arise, she was going to attempt to make it happen on her own without anyone else’s help. “Welcome back, Mr. Liberman” the Sheriff announced aloud. “Glad you could make it to my little party!” “Daddy!” young Katie screamed out loud, still tied to the power post. “It’s a trap, daddy…run!” Fortunately…her father was well aware of the situation and had come prepared…somewhat… “I know, baby…I know” What followed was a frantic fight for life and a revelation of secrets the likes of which even a Hollywood movie would have to struggle to invent. During the argument, she had managed to sneak out of her restraints and put the events of that fateful night in motion. Both of them now lingering on the narrow footing of death’s edge, she stared hopelessly down the barrel of Jessie McGee’s gun awaiting eternity. As though the man were answering a comment from an unseen player in the game, he chambered a bullet with her name on it and answered the unheard comment. “No sir…I’m going to enjoy this. She won’t be as lucky as you were…” With the velocity of the bullet that never reached her, Katie sprang from her bed into the cold night air of the New York apartment with blankets flying in all directions. Gasping for relief from the memories that plagued her sleep, she sat upright in a field of temporary confusion. As she inhaled deep and frantic, the chill around her brought the young girl back into a sense of reality. Searching around the room for some recognizable signs of truth, the blue tinted, glowing vision of Jessica Liberman sat in a bedside chair next to her in observation. Even though there was no physical substance to the lady’s being, it almost appeared as though the entity had tears forming in the wells of her eyes. A mother’s love for their daughter and the desire to comfort them in times of uncertainty knows no boundaries…even in death…and the life that possibly waits beyond… “You know…I never wanted any of this.” the ghost whispered “I wanted you to grow up, go to college, and spit out a few kids of your own. Not this…” “Well, Mom…” Katie began, stretching sleepily “None of us have much control in the hand that was dealt to us. I’m sure if we could restart the game, you and Uncle Johnny wouldn’t be dead, Dad wouldn’t be a creature of the night, and I wouldn’t be freezing my ass off in a tree in Central Park every night looking for the bastard that did all of this to us. I’m doing what I feel needs to be done in order for the dreams of yesterday to still have a fighting chance tomorrow.” The last things in the world that the young girl wanted was to let her mother, living or dead, know of the fear that was currently living deep down inside of her soul. Katie had it all figured out…up to a point. Fly to New York and spend every last cent of her freshman year money on a lush apartment and find Kurt Jimmerson in thirty days? Check. What to do with him once she had found him? Not a clue. Stretching her arms above her head lightly scratching the headboard, she peered hopelessly at the snow that was once again falling onto the world below. For most girls her age, this was a dream come true. The big city sprawled out two dozen stories below her covered in white as far as normal eyes could see. “You know, you didn’t have to come with me” she began the argument again “I mean, I don’t know what it is you would’ve been doing otherwise...ghost crap, I guess…interrupting kids parked in the cemetery while they were making out and fun stuff like that…but there isn’t a whole lot that you’re going to be able to do to help me when the time comes other than watch me or the other guy get shredded to pieces.” “Shredded to pieces?” Jessica shrieked “Kathryn Rene Liberman, could you please be a little gentler with the terminology when it comes to speaking about the future?” “I’m just trying to keep it real, mother” she barked doing her best New Yorker impression “Did you like that? I’m trying to sound like a local!” “You’ve got a long way to go, honey” Jessica responded “That East Texas draw in your voice isn’t easily overlooked in this part of the country…” The fact of the matter is, Jessica Liberman wasn’t about to let Katie strike out on her own. She had been wandering around in the foggy abyss of her burial ground for what had seemed like an eternity. Speaking occasionally to the other entities that chose to remain near their bodies, she had learned a thing or two…but not how to contact the living. Sure, she could see them come and go through the graveyards going about their daily lives but they never so much as acknowledged her presence no matter what she tried in order to get their attention. Suddenly, like a beacon in the opaque darkness, Katie had appeared next to her headstone to have what was to be the final conversation. Without warning, Katie had looked up from the ground while speaking and recognized her image. Jessica wasn’t quite sure how it had happened...she only knew that it did. She could only imagine that it had something to do with the unfortunate curse that had been bestowed upon her young daughter and, for a few days, it was pleasant. Honestly, she didn’t know how much longer she was going to be able to handle not being able to physically interact with her. One last hug would be enough. “…the choice is yours, though” Katie continued during Jessica’s recollection “I’ve got to hit the shower and get to work if I’m going to make this happen. Don’t wait up. I’m going back to the park tonight to see what I can come up with. These guys have got to show up sometime. The priest I spoke to last night verified that it’s a part of Jimmerson’s story that isn’t a lie.” “A priest? Come on, Katie…you’re Jewish! You weren’t worried about bursting into flames by going into a Catholic church?” Jessica attempted to joke. “Not really” Katie started to retort “Grandpa was Jewish, Dad is nothing, and before you died…you were a Methodist. That’s what they call people that worship meth, right?” “Funny, dear” Jessica exaggerated half heartedly “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?” Katie paused momentarily before closing the bathroom door, searching for the proper come back. “Mommy dearest, I hate to be the bearer of bad news…but your chances of “living” anything down from this point on is minimal.” Visually disturbed by the comment, Jessica swooped towards the girl’s location in the blink of an eye. “It’s not funny, Katie! You need to give the ghost jokes a rest!” “Yeah, sure I will…” Katie winked “I’ll be more than happy to give them a rest…in peace…” Slamming the door behind her, Katie quietly giggled behind the noise of the falling shower leaving her mother outside to cringe. It was times like these she was glad that there was no possible way for her mother to physically interact with her. She was going to have fun at her expense while there was still fun to be had… Her mother’s existence in this situation hadn’t been something that she originally planned for. She had been told by Toby that her Uncle Johnny had come to him in a time of need by stating something personal and sincere that only belonged to the two of them. As time went by and the curse lived on inside of her veins, she was slowly learning that everything going on from her father’s point of view wasn’t entirely true. It wasn’t that he had lied to her…it was just what he had been instructed in the beginning. I’m sure there had been things he’d discovered on his own that made him come to the realization of being led down a false path also…but there was always the slightest possibility that he was keeping it to himself. Even though he had been more than willing to try and steer Katie down the easiest path to werewolf acceptance, there were some things that she had to figure out on his own. He was always a little cryptic when it came to certain details. Either he didn’t know the entire truth himself or there were some things that he just didn’t want his darling daughter to know. The interaction with ghosts was one of them. She was sure that the last thing her father wanted was for her to be in the cemetery trying to seek guidance from her mother. He wanted her to live for the future and not live in the past. Quite frankly, it was the past that was destined to control each of their futures. It was during her final attempt to make contact…when she was needed most…that she appeared to her. The Catholic Priest had been the same way. The other ghosts she’d encountered on her journey belonged to something altogether different that she hadn’t figured out yet. Maybe it was ‘they’ that needed her? Finishing her shower and stepping out onto the floor, she was thankful that she had chosen the Rockefeller Center apartments as her dwelling. No matter what the temperature was outside in the harsh conditions of Manhattan, she stayed toasty warm with the heated floors. Five thousand dollars a month for a place this luxurious had damn near cleaned her out but, if there indeed existed a possibility that she might not return to Twin Oaks in one piece, she was going to live it up the best she could. It was absolutely perfect as a base of operations. Ten minutes away from Central Park, as the human runs, and barely five minutes away from the Jimmerson and Wolf law firm where she was now gainfully employed. If things went to hell suddenly…she didn’t have far to go for most people would consider to be safety. The only drawback was that five thousand dollars didn’t leave much to the imagination when it came to meals and a party budget. If she pulled a victory in the situation at hand, it was going to be a long walk back to Texas. Exiting the bathroom, her mother stared her up and down with a smirk upon her transparent face. “This is what you’re wearing to work at a law firm?” the apparition inquired. “I’m working in the mail room, Mom.” As though she had prepared for the conversation at hand “No one of any importance is going to see me sorting mail in the basement and I doubt, if they did, they wouldn’t be quick on their feet to recognize my radiant beauty and propose marriage to me.” Glancing up and down again slowly, Jessica stared disgusted at the ripped knee holes in a pair of two year old, faded jeans and the black hoodie that draped loosely over the body of her eighteen year old daughter. “It’s all about comfort, mother” she attempted to explain “I’m not climbing trees in the snow wearing a business suit” Exhaling non-existent breath out of pure habit, Jessica hung her head to the floor “Why, oh why, child did you end up with your father’s fashion sense? First impressions last a lifetime, Katie.” “Coming from the expert on lifetimes, I’ll have you know that I probably don’t have much more of one left” Katie informed her mother hopelessly “Now…sit tight…let me do my thing…and watch a Ghost Hunter’s marathon or something. Hell, you might learn something…” With the security and warmth of the high rise apartment far behind her, Katie pushed head first into the oncoming bitter cold of the city. Today, she infiltrated the wolf’s den, for lack of better terminology, in the hopes that she could find some small clue to end her family’s curse forever. With any luck, there wouldn’t be much opposition in the form of fact finding. Her main concern was the physical battle that was destined to ensue if she was caught. It’s not every day of your life that you have to battle for mere survival and she hoped beyond all hope that she wasn’t too rusty with her skills to do so. After all…it had been five years since she’d stared at death face to face… A couple of years of internet research had given Katie a tiny bit of a prepared feeling when she first reached the 52nd Street entrance of Jimmerson & Wolf but the tall shadow of the fifty story building brought on an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness when she first reached for the door. Constant viewing of satellite maps and web cameras in the area had revealed nothing at all unusual and the charitable contributions towards the Central Park area of New York, especially the Belvedere Castle restoration had kept the business in the positive media with article after article in her computer’s search engines. This was the marker for what could very well be the rest of her life. All actions, consequences, and futures of the Liberman family from this point forward in history would be traced back to this exact moment in this exact spot. Upon entering the lobby, the building looked like typical Manhattan money. Chocolate colored, marble floors reflected the images of priceless chandeliers as though they were stars shining on a river at midnight. The smell of lavender filled the air with a hint of cinnamon from an adjoining bakery. People rushed from everywhere headed nowhere. When the snooty, elderly lady at the front desk directed her to the elevator, however, all signs of luxury and importance came to a screeching halt. When the doors opened to the basement that housed the mailroom, it was the closest thing that Katie had ever experienced that resembled a medieval dungeon. Flat white cinderblock walls lined the dimly lit hallway and the pleasant smells of the world above were no longer existent. Mold and ancient water now filled her nostrils unpleasantly with a small hint of aging papers and computer exhaust. Oddly enough, she felt a little more like it was somewhere she belonged. There were no suits and ties in the underground. Instead, a gothic looking girl in her mid twenties was all she could find of a living presence. This mystery was obviously the one meant to be her boss. She had snatched the job application from Katie’s hands as though it was an annoyance. Jet black fingernails flipped pages curiously while dark eyes scanned the information hidden behind long, stringy, dye bottle colored hair. Somewhere, a Hot Topic store was missing a manager…or a favorite customer. In this town, it was getting harder and harder every day to tell the difference. As the girl thumbed the last page, Katie couldn’t help but almost feel an instant connection with the girl. She was far beyond attractive regardless of her initial appearance and a similar sense of fashion existed. Torn jeans and hoodies were obviously the dress code for law firm mailrooms. Glancing up between opaque bangs, the dismal girl finally spoke. “Kathryn Rene Haynes” she sarcastically read from the stack of papers “What brings you to my personal hell?” Katie loved her already. “I’m just interning while I’m in school” she explained off the top of her head “I put in an application and got lucky I guess. Columbia University…” “Columbia?!” the mid twenties girl exclaimed “Damn, girl…you’re a long way from 116th Street! Couldn’t you have found anything closer? Do you like getting mugged or something?” Katie was really in love. “I just wanted to work somewhere that I could tell was more interested in the greater good rather than lining its own pockets with wealth. From my research…I figured that this was the place.” It was at this point in the conversation that the young lady removed her hair from in front of violently dark and shadowed eyes. “Honey…screw the research. You want to know what really happens in a law office? This is the place to do so. Every half wit piece of trash in trouble with the law within a hundred miles of this town comes through this place first in the form of court writs and letters begging for help. Charity? The greater good? You have no idea.” Katie could tell suddenly that any positive thoughts of a work environment had left this girl a long time ago. Who was to blame her? Sure, her father had come home from time to time complaining about the minor law breakers from back in Twin Oaks but a city this size was sure to bring them out in droves. Murders, rapists, and child molesters could fill the streets around her at any given time and she would never know the difference. It was time to turn on some charm or this girl was going to be the death of her at some point before anyone else got a chance to be the death of her. “Oh, I totally get what you’re saying” Katie began “To a point anyways. My dad is sort of involved with the law back home and we’ve been ran out of a store or two by guys he’s had to deal with before. It kind of sucks, really. Never knowing from one minute to the next if you’re going to be safe or not…” “Kathryn, this isn’t Dallas…regardless of how ‘big’ you think that place is.” The boss interrupted “I went there once when I was a kid. It was a joke. This is New York City. This is the hub of the entire world. Trade. Immigration. Crime. The worst of the worst of the worst come here looking for a quick fix or a helpless victim. If you stay here long enough…you’ll see what I’m talking about. You’ll be sick of it soon enough, dropping out of Columbia, and running back home to the land of hicks and snuff rings in the boy's back pockets before you know it.” Katie didn’t know why the young girl had picked this particular time to vent out possibly years of frustration…but she was starting to get a little nervous again. Maybe she was trying to scare her away but maybe…just maybe…she was also trying to save her from whatever wholesome visions of the world that an eighteen year old still possessed. What this nameless, troubled face didn’t understand was that the young Texan had lost her innocent hopes of the world years ago. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, the black haired girl caught her breath and took the conversation into an entirely different direction. “Well, regardless of how I feel, I guess you’re here Kathryn. Welcome to Jimmerson & Wolf.” Standing up sharply and pulling her dark hair from inside of her hooded sweatshirt, she extended her pale hand in welcome. “This is basically a bean flicking job so you’re probably going to like it. Letters come in, we read them, and then we send them upstairs. It’s sort of like a written version of daytime trash television shows so…wait….” The young lady paused “you’re not a LUG, are you?” “I don’t even know what a LUG is…” Katie responded “so I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.” The dark haired girl snickered under her breath “A LUG is an acronym for ‘lesbian until graduation’. I don’t…well, not since that one time, swing that way so I just needed to know if I should be worried about being alone with you down here in this lonely, soundproofed, almost abandoned, and darkly lit basement.” Katie couldn’t help but smile a little bit at the question being asked but she could tell that the other girl in the conversation was dead serious…almost as though it had been an issue in her life before. If ever there were a chance for an icebreaker regarding her sense of humor and attitude, this was it. She took her shot. “Lesbian? No, not me. I mean, sure…I’ve sat there at the silverware drawer before when no one else was home looking at the utensils wondering which one’s would hurt me, if I’d get an infection, and if I ever planned on using them again to prepare food…but I’ve always been partial to guys. I think you’re safe with me.” The hair fell in front of the girl’s face again as she bent forward in what seemed to be painful but welcomed laughter. Smiling for the first time since meeting one another, she looked up at Katie through new and sparkling eyes as though they’d just found their first friend in a long time. It was an instant connection. “Girl…you are sick!” the stranger responded “I like that in a chick. My name’s Amdrea, by the way…but I prefer that my friends call me Willow.” “Nice to meet you, Willow” Katie responded “I’m Katie Haynes. I don’t have any friends…but if I did, I would want them to call me Kat.” The two girls continued to giggle and stare at one another for several minutes as though they were long lost sisters that were meeting for the first time. With one cynical joke after another, they traded verbal licks on into the afternoon and beyond as though they’d known each other forever. As the work day ended and Katie began to gather her belongings into her backpack, she had completely forgotten that she had gone to this place with a purpose to fulfill. It would have to wait. Right now…this was something that was altogether unusual to her since the passing away of Johnny Haynes. She had discovered someone else in this crazy world that was just as odd and terrible as her. Throwing the pack over her shoulder with a shrug, she smiled at the first potential friend who had come along since first landing in the city that never sleeps. “Goodnight, Willow…” She bid farewell “I guess I’ll be seeing you in the morning…” “Oh, no way, Kat” Willow exclaimed in disbelief “There is no way I’m going to let you out of my sight tonight! I know a little Irish pub just around the corner…” Katie interrupted her right back quickly out of habit. “Willow! I’m only eighteen! I can’t drink…” Willow pressed an extended index finger softly across the lips of the teenage traveler and shushed her in mid sentence. Looking Katie deep in her eyes as though she could read her very thoughts, the new found friend made it all sound simple and honest. Simple and honest was within reason at this point. “Kittie Kat…this is Manhattan. Eighteen or eighty…no one gives a shit here. C’mon…lets go get drunk, shake off the stress of the day, and wake up with matching tattoos! Deal?” …and with that, Katie Liberman’s adventures in New York City were successfully kicked off…regardless of the fact that they were being kicked off in the opposite direction of her original intentions. “You know this job doesn’t pay, right?” Willow added as they strolled towards the elevator “I don’t want you to get hard up for money and start having to rub peter to pay Paul…” “You mean ‘rob Peter to pay Paul’?” Katie inquired half confused. “I wish” Willow confessed “I owed money to a guy named Paul once. I had to do a few things I’m not proud of…”