DARKNESS DWINDLES Chapter Four
Eventually Daniel's penis softened and he eased himself out. He continued to groom his brother's head and neck, coating Joey's hair with saliva. Joey pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. Daniel backed away, allowing him to climb to his feet and make his way to the master bathroom. Joey moved carefully. There was blood from claw marks on his shoulders and thighs. Shakily he sat on the toilet. Shit and semen plopped into the bowl. Blood streaked the toilet paper when he wiped.
He found Neosporin in the vanity drawer and smeared it over the gashes. None of them were very deep. Daniel loomed closer, sniffing at the Neosporin as Joey applied it.
"Jooeey," he whined deep in his throat, "Jooeeey ooookaaay?"
"S'okay, Daniel," Joey mumbled. He reached out to pat his brother's malformed head, then picked up the bottle of Daniel's painkillers from the counter, opened it, and swallowed a pill.
Daniel trailed behind him as Joey limped down the hall to his bedroom and slipped on a pair of loose-fitting shorts and a t-shirt. Trembling, he fell into his bed. The springs creaked as Daniel climbed onto the mattress and settled across him. There was nothing sexual in the physical contact now. It was simply possessive.
The pill began to take effect. Joey's eyes drifted shut.
He awoke, hours later, to the sound of the doorbell. It was early afternoon. Above him Daniel turned his head towards the living room, his ears perked. A growl rumbled in his chest. Joey didn't move; after a moment Daniel dropped his head back down onto Joey's chest.
The doorbell rang again. Daniel slid off the bed and began to stalk down the hallway. Joey jumped up and ran after him.
"No, Daniel," he whispered. "Wait!"
Daniel paused to look over his shoulder. "Naurgh?" The sound was more of a growl than a word.
"It's just the front door. Someone's here."
The bell rang a third time.
Daniel growled, turning his head back toward the living room.
"What should I do, Daniel?" Joey asked.
Daniel's muzzle, which had become even longer and toothier, pulled back into a silent snarl.
"I'll tell them to go away." Joey reached up to stroke his brother's sloping, tawny-furred shoulder. "You stay here. I'll answer the door and tell them to go away. Okay, Daniel? Please stay here. Please?"
Daniel's head jerked in an awkward nod. He slunk down against the wall.
Joey opened the front door to a young woman with spiky bleached hair, mirrored sunglasses and a black leather jacket.
"Hi there," she said.
"Umm ... hi," Joey answered.
"I'm Duessa."
"Oh."
"Who are you?"
"Joey."
"You're Dan's brother, right?"
"Yeah."
"Pleased to meet you, Joey. Did Dan tell you about me? We met last night."
"Umm ... oh, yeah."
"That's great." Her grin revealed the flash of a tongue bar lurking behind her teeth. "He gave me his card and said I could come by and see his paintings. Is he home?"
"Yeah," Joey glanced quickly back over his shoulder, "but he's sick today."
"Oh, that's too bad. Maybe I can help. I'm a massage therapist, and I do Reiki. Let me take a look at him and I'll see what I can do." Duessa began to work her tongue stud back and forth in a rhythmic fashion. "Okay, Joey? Say okay."
"Sorry," Joey began to edge the door closed. "Not right now. He's pretty sick."
"But -- "
"Come back later," Joey said. "I need to go." He locked the door before turning away.
Daniel was crouched at the end of the hallway, just out of sight from the front door. He leapt forward and grabbed Joey, pulling him tightly against him. He sniffed his younger brother carefully, a low growl vibrating through him.
"It's okay, Daniel," Joey mumbled into his brother's furry chest. "She's gone." Daniel settled down protectively over Joey. They did not move for a long time.
Eventually Joey coaxed Daniel into letting him get up and go to the bathroom again. Daniel followed to watch him pee. Daniel was walking on four legs now. The skeletal structure of his body had continued to change. Even if his mouth were still shaped for speech, the eyes looking alertly out of the wedge-boned skull held no awareness of language.
As the afternoon darkened to dusk Joey made his way into the kitchen and tried to get Daniel to eat. He reheated the two steaks that Daniel had grilled but not eaten the day before. Daniel sniffed at one of them in a disinterested fashion and nosed it around before abandoning it. He was focused on watching the sun go down through the living room windows. He began to pace.
Sunset came. Daniel continued to pace back and forth in front of the windows. His movements became more fluid and confident as the darkness settled. His body really did look like a cross between a bear and a wolf, but the silky smoothness of his pacing was pure feline.
Daniel padded over to the patio door and growled. He cocked his head to look at Joey, then back at the door. Clearly he wanted out. If Joey didn't open the door his brother might go through it.
Joey opened the door and Daniel bounded onto the walkway. He leapt down the stairs and paused on the stretch of lawn between the back yard and the preserve. A full moon was rising over the house and the shadow of the roofline ran like a curtain across the yard. On one side lay the darkness of mowed grass and trimmed shrubbery and the linear angles of the house. On the other was the silvery wildness of gnarl-limbed trees and browsing deer and, somewhere in the preserve, a spring.
Daniel lifted his muzzle to howl before disappearing into the forest.
Joey sat up all night looking out the living room windows and waiting for his brother to return. At dawn Daniel came back. He slid between the trees and padded across the lawn and up the stairs to the walkway, then seated himself beside the door like the family dog, patiently waiting to be let in.
Daniel trotted inside when Joey opened the door. He butted his head against his brother's stomach and wound several times around his waist, a rumbling in his chest that was the bear-wolf equivalent of a purr. He rose on his hind legs to let his front paws rest heavily on Joey's shoulders as his massive head dropped down to lick his brother's face. Daniel's breath stank. He had eaten recently, possibly one of the small deer that ventured out of the woods to nibble on the shrubbery. Unless something larger had been in the preserve that night.
Joey scratched the fur on his brother's chest. "Daniel," he said, "I didn't get any sleep and I'm really tired. I have to go to bed. Do you want to take a nap?"
Whether or not Daniel understood, he followed Joey docilely back to his room and settled across him on the bed. They slept the morning away. Later that day the doorbell rang several times. Joey and Daniel both ignored it. Whoever it was left and no one else bothered them.
By mid-afternoon it was clear that Daniel was changing back. His movements became less fluid as his bones fell out of their perfect alignment. Above his hairy muzzle the dome of his cranium had started to swell.
The process of transformation back to human appeared to be painful for Daniel. His behavior was much like a wild animal that was sick. Mostly he slept. Several times he got up and paced awkwardly around the room, whining softly. Joey fetched his clarinet and played slow, soothing melodies. That seemed to help.
They spent the night curled together on Joey's bed. Uncertain about how Daniel would respond to his nocturnal emissions, Joey had tried to get his brother to stay in his own bed. But after a few minutes Daniel had padded down the hallway and climbed back in with him. He did notice the ejaculations, and licked the outside of Joey's sweats until they were sopping, but did nothing more.
By morning Daniel was looking mostly human. Joey got him out of bed and, once again, helped him down the hallway to his own bedroom. He settled Daniel into his bed, then tidied up the master bedroom and bath. Filling a glass with tap water, he got Daniel to swallow one of the pain pills and left him to continue to sleep.
That afternoon Daniel looked fully himself. Actually, he looked better than he had in a while. The skin on his left arm was smooth, unblemished and glowing with health. There was no sign of the wound from the attack a month ago.
When Daniel opened his eyes, they were back to their familiar steel blue. They were also very confused.
"Whaa... ?" He croaked. "What's up, bro? Did I oversleep? Wow, is it really almost three?"
"You got sick, Daniel. But you're better now."
"I got sick? What do you mean?" Daniel sat up. "Shit. I went out last night and got drunk." He dropped his head into his hands. "Sorry about that, bro, that was a shitty ... " his voice trailed off as he looked at his hands, then twisted to examine his left shoulder.
"What the fuck! What happened? What happened to my arm?"
"You turned into a bear-wolf, Daniel. Then you turned back."
"Right." Daniel rubbed his shoulder and upper arm, searching for signs of tenderness. "When did I get home? Have I been asleep all day?"
"You got home two days ago, Daniel."
Daniel stared at him. "Okay, bro, you're starting to freak me out." He moved to get out of bed then stopped. "And why am I buck naked?"
"Your clothes came off when you changed, Daniel."
"Hand me my robe, will you?"
Joey handed Daniel his tiger robe. Daniel slipped it on and walked to his dresser. He picked up his cell phone. "Fuck! It's Saturday? It's really been three days?" Now he looked scared. "What happened, Joey?"
"I told you, Daniel. You turned into a bear-wolf. You wanted me to let you out the back door, so I did, and you ran into the preserve. Then you came back and turned back into yourself."
Daniel kept rubbing his shoulder. His eyes darted frantically around the room. "This is crazy! You're talking werewolf shit. Werewolves and vampires and bogeymen -- they're all imaginary monsters. They don't really exist, Joey. This is totally fucked up."
"Mom said that monsters do exist."
"Yeah," Daniel's hand dropped from his shoulder. His gaze turned distant. "Mercedes did say that, didn't she? And Dad never laughed at her."
His eyes swiveled to Joey. "Jesus, bro, I didn't bite you did I? You're not hurt, right? Please tell me I didn't bite you!"
"No, Daniel. I'm okay."
Daniel shuddered and collapsed into his wingback reading chair. He propped his elbows on his knees and sagged forward, letting his head dangle toward the floor. After a few deep breaths he lifted his head and straightened.
"Okay, then. Neither one of us was hurt and right now we're both fine. You said I turned into a bear-wolf. The last thing I remember was being in some bar and picking up some chick there."
"Duessa?"
"Yeah, Duessa. Shit. What did ... did I do something to her?"
"No, Daniel. You came home from the bar all by yourself. You were pretty drunk. You said her perfume smelled strange. Then you went to bed."
"Okay. That's a relief. What happened next?"
Joey described the physical transformation Daniel had undergone in as much detail as he could remember. He talked about the sleeping and the pacing and bounding out the back door with a predator's eager grace. But he didn't say anything about what Daniel had done to him. It wasn't lying, exactly. It was just leaving some things out.
"You're certain I didn't bite you?" Daniel kept asking.
"Yes, Daniel. You didn't bite me."
They talked for nearly an hour. "Shit!" Daniel grabbed his stomach. "Did you hear that? I'm totally starving. I've got to get something to eat or I'm going to pass out."
There was nothing to eat in the house but three-day-old steaks. Daniel called Wok & Roll to have Chinese food delivered. "Wow," he marveled as he reviewed the messages on his phone after he placed the order. "That Duessa is one obsessed woman. She's called six times in the past three days."
Daniel showered and dressed. The food arrived just as he finished cleaning up. He ate his way through three plates, then snapped the chopsticks in two and tossed them into an empty rice carton. "Man, that was good." He stretched luxuriously. "I feel great. Not only is my arm totally perfect, but my whole body feels like I just took it into the mechanic for an overhaul. My knee doesn't bother me at all and that scar on the back of my hand is gone. And get this."
He snagged Joey's arm and guided his brother's hand to his forearm. "Feel the skin," Daniel instructed. "Run your hand up and down it."
Joey did.
"Isn't that amazing? It's like I've been to a spa and they buffed my whole body." Daniel trailed his own fingers lightly across Joey's arm. "Actually, bro, it feels kinda like your skin." He grinned. "Cool."
Joey's head dropped; his face disappeared behind a curtain of hair. "What do we do now, Daniel?"
The grin slid off Daniel's face. "Yeah, that's the billion dollar question, isn't it? I have no fucking idea. I need some time to think about this, to wrap my head around it. I'm totally confused. Part of me believes everything you've said -- and my own body is proof that it's true -- but another part of me is screaming that it's impossible. I'm sorry, but I really need some time alone to think. Can you go practice or something?"
"We need to get some groceries. I can go do that."
"By yourself?" A worried look crossed Daniel's face. "Maybe I should come with you."
"I go by myself all the time."
"Yeah," Daniel shook himself. "I know you do, bro. Sorry, I'm being stupid. Go buy groceries. You can take your car." He flexed his arm and grinned. "I won't be needing it any more."
Joey went grocery shopping. When he got back he unloaded the car, put the food away and went looking for his brother.
Daniel was standing in the middle of his office, staring out the window. He was holding an envelope in his right hand and tapping it against his left palm.
"Daniel, isn't that mine?"
Daniel glanced down distractedly. "Yeah. It's been sitting on your desk since your birthday. Unopened."
"I know."
"Why haven't you opened it? It's a card from your Aunt Vivína. She sent it three months ago."
Joey shrugged awkwardly.
"She wishes you a blessed birthday," Daniel continued, "and says you're in her daily prayers. And here, this was taped inside." Daniel poured something on a thin chain into Joey's hand. "She sends you a card every year, doesn't she?"
"Yeah." Joey examined what Daniel had given him. It was a small silver cross. He looked up. "Daniel, why did you open my letter?"
"Card, not letter. I opened it because I've been going over things in my mind, trying to understand what's happened. I mean everything that's happened. What you said about your mom reminded me of some stuff. And this," he held up the card, "came from your mom's sister, who we haven't seen since before Mercedes went into the hospital. That's eight years ago. I think we should go see her."
"But why? Don't we need to get help for you?"
"Get help where, Joey? From who? My internist? The wound care doc? Man, wouldn't that guy be surprised by how well I've recovered! Not a scratch on me -- and I was kind of looking forward to painting that scar. Or here's another idea: what I have is an infectious disease, right? Maybe I should call the CDC. What do you think they would do about it?"
Daniel shook his head. "I bet one of two things would happen. Either they would tell me to call a shrink and hang up laughing, or there would be a team in haz-mat suits and guns with silver ammo over here before I'd even hung up the phone. Because if they believed me it would mean that they already know about this, and if that's the case they're very committed to keeping it out of the news.
"No, little bro, we need someone who might be able to help us understand all this. I don't think that will be a medical doctor."
"Okay. But ... "
Daniel sighed. "Look, Joey, I'm sorry that I said all those things to you the other night. I think the crazies were starting to kick in. But, really, everything I said was true. Something's been wrong with you ever since your mom died. I mean seriously wrong. I should have taken you to see a shrink years ago."
"I saw a therapist once."
"No, you didn't. We both saw a psychologist who assessed us to determine whether or not I could be your guardian. The judge wasn't keen on it, since I was only nineteen. I think it was the trust fund more than the psych report that made her decide to sign off on it. But you've never seen a shrink about what's been wrong with you. That's my fault."
Daniel shook his head. "Right now all that's beside the point. The important thing is that we're both seriously fucked up. We need help and I know I'm not going to find mine in a medical office. I think we should go talk to your aunt and see if she has any ideas."
"But Daniel, Aunt Vivína is in a convent. How could she know anything that would help us?"
"Jesus, Joey." Daniel growled in frustration. Joey looked up with wide eyes.
"No, no, sorry," his brother placed a hand on his shoulder, "I'm okay. It's just ... look, Dad died and Mercedes went bonkers when you were ten. You remembered she said that there really are monsters. What else do you remember about your mom?"
"I don't know, Daniel." Joey shrugged. "Just her, I guess."
"Don't you remember some of the other things she said? How she and Vivína would go on when Vivína came to visit? And how about when we packed her books away? Did you not look at any of the titles?"
"Dad had lots of math books."
"Yeah, and he was a theoretical physicist. Mercedes' books were on metaphysics and the occult. So what was she? Think about it, Joey."
Joey stared down at the cross.
"You got me onto this, bro, when you reminded me what she said. We need to go see your aunt."
There was no arguing with Daniel when he got like this. Joey didn't even try.
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Well, well. The plot thickens. Sounds like Danny-boy doesn't have any memory of what he did to his little brother. He's in for a few surprises. You too, maybe.
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