TYLER
“Man, just apologise,” said Johnny, crouching beside me on the porch. “Enid is a girl… they bitch all the time. It's their thing.”I took the cold beer from his hands. “I’m certain that's a sexist thing to say.”
“All hail thee. All thine knowledge of equality and you still can't stay with a girl for more than a month.” He took the beer back from me. “Man, I don't know. You probably need therapy or some shit like that.”
You know what was funny? While no one could notice, I was fucking boiling inside as Johnny said all this. No, I wasn't pissed off… I could take a joke. What infuriated me wasn't what Johnny said to me. Come on. We had been friends since we were kids. We did everything together. It wasn't that.
What hurt me was that he was speaking the truth. Before I got with Enid, I dated Laurel. Before Laurel, I dated another girl who happened to be named Laurel too. Before the first Laurel, I had a thing with a girl called Windinya… and yes, that was her name. Before Windiya, there was Stacy. After Stacy was Susan, and then came the sassy Brooke. Sadly, the list went on and on till my time at high school.
Apart from Brooke, who was just a terrible person, the rest were pretty good. More than I deserved, if you asked me or anyone else with a functioning brain. What was quite sad on all their parts was that they liked me. Most of them cried when I told them it was over. Now, unlike what Johnny would have me believe, it wasn't just because of my looks. Like the last one said, “You're really hot but you're not all that.” Then she proceeded to shed tears.
I knew why they all felt bad. It wasn't only because they were in love and didn't want to end what they thought we had. It was also because it didn't make any sense to them. It was as though one moment we were fine, and the next, I was telling them it was best we stopped seeing each other. It was a very unpleasant thing to witness. For real, it was. Though I was the perpetrator, even I couldn't deny that it wasn't the easiest thing to witness.As Johnny would say, ‘You’re a kind man, but what you're lacking is a heart’. But he was wrong. At least, in a way, he was. I had a heart and it was as delicate as the next person you would see. Yes, I had a heart. Even if it was confused, sad, lonely, and hidden. It was a heart anyway.
“Come on, man. Pull yourself together and get your girl. Enid is a very good girl.”
I shrugged, looking away from him. “Johnny, I don't know. I have never said she wasn't a decent girl. Besides, maybe that's the issue in itself. Maybe I don't need a good girl. Maybe I need someone who would rip me apart. Like to shreds or something.”
“Oh, that's sexy. There's it right there! You're finally talking dirty… I love it. If Enid isn't giving you that, it's alright to dump her ass. You have my full support.”
I shook my head at him. “No, Johnny. That's not what I meant. I mean, not even close. I don't know how you got there. When I said that, I meant it literally. I don't need a girl now, but if I'm getting one, then she better be the end of me.”
Johnny didn't say anything for about a minute though he didn't take his stare from my face. “You see, sometimes I'm convinced you need to be seeing a therapist. Sorry, one is not sufficient. You need a dozen therapists ‘cause something is wrong with that head of yours. I don't need a fucking degree to see it.”
You wanna know what was funny? No one— now, I meant no fucking person— understood me. I always had this feeling that there was this hole inside of me that nothing and no one could ever fill. That no one could ever fill no matter how hard they tried. It was pointless talking to anyone about it. Whenever I tried talking to people about how I felt, they would say something like ‘happened to me too’, ‘happens to me all the time’, or the worst, ‘it will get better’. So in other words, nothing helpful.
“Pick it up, man,” Johnny said, pointing at my phone which was ringing. It was Enid.
My goodness. I didn't have the time for this. Not now, at least.
“Hey, babe,” I heard myself saying.
“Hi, Tyler,” she started. “Look, I don't want this to be us anymore. I know we can be more than this.”
Enid's voice was lower than usual and it sounded like she had been crying.
She continued. “I’m sorry, Tyler. I think it's my fault. I always say or do the wrong thing and don't even realise when I do.” She paused and drew in a deep breath. “I want us to be better. I swear I'm serious this time. You might not see it, but I'm trying. I try so hard.”
“Maybe that's the problem.”
“Tyler, what do you mean?”
Here it goes.
I didn't know why I was nervous. Breaking up with girls was my thing at this point being that it was pretty much all I did in the last two years.
“Enid, you're a very nice girl. Any guy would be lucky to have you as a girlfriend. But as you said, you're trying so hard. I see it too.”
“Where are you going with this, Ty?”
“I mean, if it's meant to be you wouldn't have to try so hard. Look, what I'm saying is that I think we should end this. To save both of us quality time, let's end it now. I have made up my mind.”
She hung up. Something about it felt permanent. I knew she really liked me, but something about that moment gave me a somewhat comforting assurance that we wouldn't be seeing much of each other. We were both better off without each other. The sex was great… no argument there. Everything else? Well, not so much.
Johnny smacked his lips, his head shaking as he looked at me. “You broke up with yet another girl for no reason. You are winning life.”
“Johnny, I don't like that this always happens. It doesn't matter whether you believe me or not.”
“You’re a mess.”
“You think I don't know?”
“Just a friendly reminder, brother.”
My phone rang and it was Darrel Walters. Oh, dear.
As he spoke to me, it took me mustering every fiber of my being to not lose consciousness. You know, it was one of those times that I wondered whether I wasn't dreaming. Well, this time I did more than just wonder. I hoped I was dreaming.
“Who was it, Ty?” Johnny inquired. “You look like you just saw a naked old ghost.”
“It was Darrel. Darrel fucking Walters.”
“What did that old man have to say?”
I exhaled and left my face buried in my hands. “He said they have located another Green Eye.”
“What? Like for real? Is that even possible? There can't be more than one Green Eye.” Johnny looked at me more directly, his stare not leaving me for even a second. “I take it that he said a little more than that.”
“Yes, he did. He said that there was a good chance that every werewolf will die and we don't have time on our side. You know Darrel just as much as I do. If he said that…”
“Then he meant it,” Johnny said, finishing my sentence.
ADAAlex said he loved me last night. It wasn't the first time he said it but something about the way he said it last night hit differently. He looked into my eyes, his hands dug deep in his pocket, as he said the three words people seemed to find magical. “I love you,” he said last night. “I have never said this to anyone before. Look, I know people see me as a fuck boy or whatever, but I would like… I would hope that you see me differently. I love you and I'm not saying it for you to say it back. I just wanted you to know that I love you.”I didn't say anything to him. But, really, was there anything to say? I mean, I did fancy him. Love? Man, I don't know. Right now, we were at my parents' house. We came to stay for the weekend because they asked me to. Alex was a colleague at my workplace and we kinda had a thing for each other. We had worked together for almost a year before we started fucking and almost another year before it became official and not just a let's-fuck-in-my-apa
TYLERMy mother died while giving birth to me. The doctors managed to save me but my mother wasn't as fortunate. My grandparents told me that my parents had been super excited when my Mum took in. Grandma said it was all they ever spoke about. They even threw parties to celebrate their unborn child. Little did they know that my birth would end both of their lives. My Dad lived much longer. He kept his distance from me and never really communicated. After Mum died, I guess he gave up on life too. A part of me always knew that he hated me. He never said anything but I knew he blamed me for her death. To him the math was quite simple; I came into the world and the love of his life left. He died a week after my thirteenth birthday. From what I heard, he shot himself in the mouth with a silver bullet.Apart from my grandparents, Darrel was one of the people I looked up to when I was little. Darrel Walters was eighty-nine years old. Three years older than my grandfather, making Darrel the
ETHANThere was nothing quite as satisfying as reading a good book. As a kid, I would tell my friends this and they laughed at me. Most of the friends I kept didn't read much beyond comments and posts on social media. For me, books were everything. I guessed that was why I had this big goofy smile on my face as I stared at one kid's storybook my mother used to read to me when I was younger. My mother used to say I was very strong. She would say this with this big, bright smile on her face. I didn't believe her then— I mean, that's what parents do, right? But as the years went by, I came to learn that she was right after all. I was strong. My time in high school taught me that I was much stronger than I ever gave myself credit for. All these and more made schooling very difficult for me. Believe me when I tell you that my last year in high school wasn't anything to write home about. It was just one thing after the other. Just before I started high school, my father, who was a black m
ADA It has been a while since I had that awkward meeting with my parents. By ‘a while', I meant a few hours. As much as I wanted to believe that they had lost it, the look I remember seeing in their eyes told me they weren't joking. And that shook me to the core of my being. Right now, I was with Alex in the garden. Without any warning, he pushed me, his hands pinning mine against the wall. He brought my hands to feel his hardness and held them as I felt the tender pulsation. “Do you want it?” He asked but pushed his lips against mine before I could answer. I got him away from me with a gentle push. “We had sex just before I spoke with my parents. Remember?”“With you, I'm hardly ever not in the mood. Seeing you alone turns me on in ways words couldn't ever do justice in explaining, you know.” He pushed some strands of my hair back and placed them carefully behind my ear. “You are beautiful, Ada. I could sing it to you now if you want me to.”I poked his nose with my finger. “Wel
TYLER You know what? I understood why Grandma was scared. This was hella scary. Even though we had a plan that promised to make everything alright-ish, there was still this fear that everything could go wrong. There was still a possibility that everything would go sideways. I hated that feeling. Now it began to feel like air was too hard to draw in whenever I thought about the whole thing. I remembered those days in school when I had to act strong even though I was always scared that I would mess up and the world would know about werewolves and it would be my fault. Well, this felt like that all over again, only that it was worse now. “Damn it,” I muttered as I found my hands shaking as they laid on my thighs. “This has to work out well. It just has to.“Grandma was right to be scared. One moment, my biggest problem was my love life, the next moment; I was worrying about keeping the werewolf race alive. I couldn't rationalise staying calm when I knew that there were twenty Xirays o
ADA Yes. Here I was, walking, my hands locked in my Mum's, into the woods. This ‘forest’ wasn't far from the park my Mum used to take me to as a kid. Dad used to have us ‘camp’ here when I was little. The only difference was that then I used to be much more excited and less terrified. I guess you can say times have changed. “Why is Dad not here?” I asked Mum who had barely said anything since we met up. “I mean, if what you say is true, then he should be here, right?”She let out a sigh and stopped. “Baby, your father is a very tough man. He is as hard as a nail. You know this as much as I do. But that man cannot watch you go through pain. He just can't.”“Go through pain? Wait, wait, wait, Mum. Pain! Nobody said anything about pain.”“Darling, there's no other way.”“If my memory serves me… and, mind you, it does… what I remember you saying is that you were going to awaken my powers. You didn't say anything about pain or whatever.”Mum patted me on the shoulder. “Don't get all sca
ETHAN You know that feeling you get when you say something and then you're willing to sell your soul to just take it back? Yeah, that was all I felt at this moment. It was crazy because I said it and can't believe I did. I, a grown man, told a bunch of strangers that I thought I saw “a monster-looking fellow”. Yeah, I did that. First off, what the actual fuck does that mean? Secondly, why the hell was I telling this to strangers, or anybody for that matter?“You saw its true form?” The old man said, walking down the porch to meet me. “The rumours are true. It is said that a very, very tiny percentage of humans can see Xirays in their real form. This is quite incredible.”Trust me when I say this— I tried to look for the right words to say but nothing came up. Not only did I notice that they were looking at me like I was a lost cat, but the fact that the man was literally crazy and no one seemed fazed.“We are going to be seeing a lot of each other,” the old man said. “I’m counting on
TYLER At eight-thirty in the morning, the constant beeping of my alarm clock summoned me from dream land. As always, I detested that. I guess you could say I had some things to worry about today. If nothing, yesterday was a very long day. For one, yesterday I got to learn that there was another Green Eye and if either of us died, the entire werewolf race would follow suit. Also, to add icing on the cake, my grandmother didn't forget to tell me that there was yet another prophecy which said that one of the Green Eyes would kill the other, and then the werewolf race would be ended too. So, yes, there were two prophecies made at different times and the only similarity was that in either scenario— the werewolf race was predicted to end. Somehow, a Xiray found its way to our house— this happened yesterday too. We also learnt that the guy who owned a bookstore in town was one of the very few people capable of seeing a Xiray’s real form.Oh, how could I forget? I broke up with Enid yester