From the West

By

Kamur Leumas

 

Friendships

"Sam do you want to form a Druid coven with Drew and I?" Terry asked me over the phone.

"Druid coven?" The question took me by surprise. I knew little about druids and I did not even know what 'coven' meant, "What's a coven?"

"A coven is a secret gathering where we'd be worshipping the goddess."

"You mean Witchcraft and stuff?" I asked. Lately Terry had been getting into witchcraft but I'd been wary of the whole thing.

"Yeah."

"I dunno man, I'm kinda freaked out by that black magic stuff." I said as I reclined on my bed.

"Dude, its not black magic. Its Wicca," he said.

"Wicca?" I asked.

"Yeah man, Wicca's white magic but magic is spelled M-A-J-I-C-K," he replied.

"What's the difference?"

"Lot's. Majick is not like sorcery and spells. It is what makes up everything in the universe," he replied.

"That's pretty interesting man, but what makes Wicca any different then black magic?" I was finding it pretty hard to keep an open mind.

He took a deep breath and said," The Wiccan reed: An ye harm none, do what ye will."

My curiosity was teased. Terry was my best buddy and if he was going to get involved, one way or another I was probably going to get dragged along too. That fall I was entering the eleventh grade. Since I attended a private Catholic boys school there was not much opportunity to explore pagan religions without attracting unwanted attention and scorn form my superiors. Since my school was on the other side of the city from where I lived I had to transfer downtown to a second bus right in front of the Centennial Library. It was there that I was often able to take out books on Wicca and the many various forms of witchcraft. In less than two months time I had obtained quite a bit of information.

It was also that fall that I was formally introduced to Drew. Drew lived at his mother's house in Southdale with his two younger brothers. To his mother's dismay, Terry and I slept over almost every weekend. I don't think she had much against me, though, because her and I had pleasant conversations on a regular basis. Also she didn't ever get mad at Drew's brothers, I think she just plain hated Drew. Then again Drew probably wasn't the easiest person to live with. In the past he would often invite shady people over for days at a time and in turn these people would take it upon themselves to eat her food and make a mess of her basement without offering to clean it up. Drew's lack of responsibility and carefree lifestyle often debilitated him from getting up on time in the morning to get to his job at McDonalds. Trying to wake up Drew was a traumatizing event for both he and his mother. The morning often started with his mother descending the stairs screaming "ANDREW!!!" in a hellish banshee voice. When this failed to startle Drew from his deathlike slumber she would resort to pouring a glass of water on him. This would often cause Drew to jolt up and grab a hold of his alarm clock. Fearfully his mother would retreat to the stairs and with rage Drew would babble nonsensically and swing the alarm clock by the cord as if he were David trying to slay Goliath. It was an absurd scene to witness though quite humorous. After the incident Drew would get quite depressed and start whining about how mean his mother's treatment was. I would always agree with him to his face but inside I could understand his mother's drastic measures, I had tried to wake up Drew. One time I continuously jumped on him but he didn't flinch.

We started associating more with a gothic lifestyle. What I mean by lifestyle is that we took on the appearance of a gothic lifestyle because at that age that is all there is to a lifestyle. When the days started to become noticeably shorter and the night air got chillier I began to wear my brother's old blue air cadet's trench coat. We all had trench coats, Terry's and Drew's were both black but Terry's was by far the coolest. For his birthday in September he managed to convince his parents to purchase him a black leather 'Highlander' trench. He was always very protective of it and would snap at anyone who laid a finger on it.

With the gothic 'lifestyle' came gothic friends and more and more frequently we began visiting Osborne Village. In the late fall Terry heard from an acquaintance of his that there was a place in The Village called 'The Red Herring', where many goth and Wiccans hung out on Friday nights. We decided that we had outgrown our old hangout 'Saints Roller Rink'.

All that week I was excited and could not wait for Friday. When the day finally came up and the school bell rang to dismiss my boring afternoon math class, I bolted downstairs and nearly tore off my cheap value village suit and tie and stuffed them into my locker and changed into a black pair of Jeans and a Navy hoodie, hastily tied my black runners and threw on my coat. I was in a rush to catch up with my friend Matt who happened to have a vehicle and was a mutual friend of Terry and Drew.

"Hey Matt!" I caught him outside in the parking lot as he was starting his small grey pickup truck.

"What?" He turned his beaklike face towards me.

"Do you wanna go to Drew's?" Often we made fun of Matt but in return he was always cynical and rude as hell. We would use him for rides and cigarettes but I guess I never really minded having him around for his company either. He brought a strange cohesiveness to our group.

"Do you have any gas money?" I knew that he meant cigarette money because his parents gave him gas money; I guess we really didn't use him because he would hardly do anything for free.

"I'll give you five bucks for the ride," I lied. I only intended to pay him two dollars; I always pulled this trick and he never seemed to catch on, or at least he pretended not to.

"Get in." He said coldly.

Matt was a skinny computer geek with a big crow nose. His truck was pretty ratty but it took him from place to place. Most of his money went into an obnoxiously loud stereo system that he installed himself. He would always sit in the school parking lot blaring dance music that would be almost completely distorted by the loud baseline coming from his large sub woofers. This made it an almost unbearable ride since I mainly listened to heavy metal.

"So, Matt, what are you doing tonight?"

"I'm gonna go to Saints," I guess he hadn't outgrown it yet.

"You?" he asked as he lit up a smoke.

"I'm going to the village tonight with Drew and Terry to hang out at the Red Herring." I replied.

"What's the Red Herring?" He asked.

"I think it's a coffee shop. You wanna come?" I asked.

"No that's ok I'm supposed to drive Bev to Saints"

"Oh well. That's ok, thought I'd ask." I didn't expect him to come along and I didn't push too hard.

"Hey Matt can I get a smoke off of you?"

"Arrgg . . . Why don't you ever get your own fucking smokes?"

"Oh come on man I'll pay you back later."

"Fine." He tossed me his pack and gingerly I pulled out and lit a cigarette.

He dropped me off at Drew's house but said he couldn't stay. He didn't take it too bad when I was only able to give two dollars instead of five for the ride. I half-heartedly promised to pay him back on Monday. He drove off and I made my way through the back gate and into Drew's enclosed patio area where I came across him and Terry having a cigarette.

"Hey, Sam, what's up!" Drew was the first one to greet me. He stood up and shook my hand formally as he usually did. Drew was a couple of inches shorter then me. He had a small build but from playful wrestling matches I learned that he was actually quite wiry. He had light brown hair down to his ears that stuck out and he had rat like facial features.

"Good afternoon." I replied with a smile.

"Hey Buddy." Terry stood up to join us. He was tall and moderately built. He had a chiseled statue-like face encasing warm dark chestnut eyes. His head was framed with straight black hair with some thick blond streaks running through the bangs that crossed his forehead just a bit on one side.

Drew handed me his smoke and I took a puff. Exhaling, I asked. " So guys we going to the village tonight or what?"

"Sure, if you want to," Terry replied.

"Definitely!" Drew said.

That evening we caught a bus from Drew's house to Osborne Village. We decided to hang out at the circle on River and Osborne because apparently "The Red Herring" did not open until 9:30. We had quite a bit of time until then so I stuck by Terry and Drew as they mingled with people I didn't know. I was a little bit nervous about hanging out at the circle because my Aunt lived only a block away and had always warned me as a child to stay away from the people I was hanging around now. On top of that she would never let me live it down and wouldn't hesitate to embarrass me in front of these people if she saw me smoking.

Drew met an interesting guy who went by the name of Justice. Strangely enough almost all the people we met that night went by some sort of fictitious name. He seemed to be in his late 20s or early 30s. He hobbled about on a cane. He wore a colorful bandana and claimed to be a descendant of a long line of gypsies. He seemed pretty knowledgeable about Majick especially in regard to faeries and the faerie realm. While Drew was trying to ask him about Dragon Majick the appearance of a strange character abruptly halted the conversation. He had wavy shoulder length hair that stuck out on one side as if he had permanent bed head. He wore a long tattered army green coat that was covered with random profound statements and heavy metal band logos. He carried a box of lucky charms cereal and ate out of it with his hand from time to time.

"Hey Pete-moss how's it going?" A young guy in a black trench coat greeted him but Pete never answered.

Instead Pete stood up on the old fountain that characterized the circle and started belting out a verse from Pink Floyd's 'The Wall', "We don't need no education, he paused, "We don't need no mind control!"

People started cheering him on. The same guy who greeted him walked up and said " Pete man you're Jesus Christ!"

Pete stopped his singing and looked directly at him, " No...I'm not Jesus Christ.... but I know who you are...you're...you're...you're Count Chocula!!!" Pete jumped down from the fountain and shied away, obviously frightened.

Shaking my head I looked down at my watch and realized that it was 9:15. The doors to "The Red Herring" would be opening in fifteen minutes and people had begun lining up outside the single door that opened up to the sidewalk a half block down Osborne. By the time we got to the lineup there were around 30 people. It was lucky we got there when we did because we later found out that no more than forty people were allowed in at a time. The line filled in rapidly behind us. Most of the people were goth or punk with the exception of this one transvestite that was playing the bongo drums.

When the door finally opened the line proceeded up a steep poorly lit narrow stairway. At the top there was a young woman sitting in a chair with a moneybox. It cost only $2 to get in and that would get me all the tea or coffee I could drink for the whole evening. She took my money and stamped my hand. I took it upon my self to establish a cognitive map of the place so I wandered and explored my new territory as a rat would when introduced to a new maze. I moved down a long hallway, skirting my way around many people. I was trying to get to the coffee room. As I entered I nearly bumped into a guy carrying a cup of coffee; he had long curly black hair and a black web pattern painted on his face.

"Sorry." I said.

"Excuse me, " he said simultaneously in an almost slurred voice, "I've never seen you before. I'm 'The Other' " He smiled at me and I noticed that his slurring was caused by the fangs that he sported. They looked pretty real as if he had surgery to have them implanted.

"I'm Sam nice to meet you," I replied. Hurriedly I shook his hand and entered the room.

The coffee room had midnight blue walls that people had covered in hand painted designs. On the right there was a bar from where the coffee was served. When I got to the front of the line a guy with thick black rimmed glasses asked me if I wanted to choose my mug. He pointed to a shelf above him that had a whole assortment of unique mugs. Several of them were on a shelf marked 'reserved for long time patrons'. I chose a mug that looked as if it were hand crafted from clay. I filled it up with tea and made my way back to the hall. I headed to the main common room to join Terry and Drew.

The room was large and only dimly lit by several lamps that stood in the corners. At the front of the room was a large window that overlooked the street below. Hanging in the window there were several stained glass ornaments. Scattered about the room there were tables, chairs and couches. Nothing was matching which gave the place a warm familiar feeling. The place was bustling with people. Sitting at a table with Terry, Drew and Justice was a monster of a punk with a green mohawk. He wore camouflage pants and had a black leather jacket with spikes on the shoulder.

"Hey Sam," Drew greeted me, "This is Riggs."

"Hey Sam!" he exclaimed as he violently shook my hand "I'm drunk on Bullmax right now it tastes like horse piss but I don't care because I'm too drunk to care."

"Nice to meet you, " I replied, smiling hesitantly, exchanging a nervous glance with Terry as I took a seat.

Riggs turned out to be a pretty nice guy, though he admitted that people tell him he gets a little loud when he's drinking. We spent the whole evening talking about witchcraft with Justice. He spoke long about his own adventures into the fairy realm. His stories put me into a lull and later I couldn't quite remember anything specific except the feeling of awe.
Justice left and the rest of us talked seriously about forming a coven. Riggs agreed to join coven because he too was interested in Druids. It was nearing 12:30 when I heard a loud yell at the entrance. 'The Other' had apparently freaked out for unknown reasons and dashed out of the place. For his safety people wanted to follow him to make sure he was ok. Terry, Drew, Riggs and I decided to join the party that was going after him because we weren't going to stay much longer anyways. We chased him all the way to the legislature building where he'd been caught by security.

"Hey are you guys with this creep?" The security guard asked as he shined his flashlight on us. We looked at each other as if silently trying to decide who would speak.

"Uhh…Yeah," I spoke up. He walked towards me; I wished that I'd kept my mouth shut.

"What are you guys, on drugs or something?" He scanned our group. Someone was trying to contact him on his radio. He held it to his mouth and said," two, nine, I have every thing under control…stand by."

"Affirmative," the voice from the radio replied.

"Uhh ..no ..sir… we're not on drugs we were just playing ,,uhh … a game." I tried to sound as sincere as I could. I didn't want to say that 'the other' had wigged out.

"Game or no game, you're still trespassing," he lectured.

"Uh …sorry … we didn't know we were trespassing," I pleaded.

"Just get out of here. If I see you punks again I'll call the call the cops you hear!"

We heeded the warning and left. 'The Other' walked with our group until we had exited the parliament grounds. He then bolted across Osborne away from the village. We decided that he was too much trouble and chose not to follow. Needless to say we had an interesting night. So interesting that we went to the Red Herring almost every Friday from then on. Over the winter we managed to make quite a few friends and we especially grew closer to Riggs.

Warnings

It was in early April when I started hanging out with Crystal. I had actually met her once before a year back at Saint's Roller Rink though we didn't become friends. At the roller rink a group of us played a modified game of spin the bottle with a lighter and a set of dice that gave a command to perform on whomever the lighter landed on. The commands were pretty tame though; the most extreme one was to nibble the person's neck. As it turned out every time it was my turn to spin, the lighter landed on Crystal. In retrospect I thought of it as fate.

It began with a conversation over poetry during a short walk from Drew's to the corner store and erupted into a close friendship. She had long reddish brown hair with cute elf-like ears slightly pointing out. She had intelligent penetrating eyes that were surrounded by delicate facial features. She was beautiful. What she didn't know was that I was in love with her. But I was way to shy to pursue her so I decided to rest in the comfort of friendship.

It was now late May. I went with Terry and Drew to the Cinema City 8 on Pembina to see a movie. I also took Crystal along because she was feeling really down; she had just broken up with another boyfriend. I was always doing this sort of thing, though I often wished that we could go out on better terms. It had become an almost weekly ritual. Terry and Drew knew my feelings and were quite worried because I was not acting myself. They thought I was obsessed with her but I wasn't. I was in love, though she didn't know it. I didn't understand what their problem was anyways. They always had girls practically crawling all over them, especially Terry. I had never had a real girlfriend. I felt kind of cheated.

The movie ended pretty late and we were in the back parking lot waiting for our rides. Crystal's ride came first.

"See ya Crystal," I gave her a hug and kissed her hand as I always did.

"See you sweetie," she kissed my cheek. It tore me to pieces every time she did stuff like this. I just smiled and waved as she drove away. I turned back to see Terry and Drew smirking.

"What?" I was defensive because I knew what they were thinking.

"You are sooo pathetic," prodded Drew, " why don't you just ask her to marry you already?"

"Ya bro its so weird to see you this way, you're pretty obsessed with her, eh?" Terry added.

"What are you talking about?" The darkness concealed my blush.

Our conversation was cut short when we noticed a hooded figure in a trench coat approaching us. As she got nearer I noticed that it was a woman.

"Jade," Terry seemed to know this woman. "Long time, no see. Where've you been?"
"Out west." She replied in a raspy voice.

"What brings you back?" Terry asked.

"I come with a warning." To me, her strange accent seemed to be very labored and intentional.

"What sort of warning?" Drew piped in.

"Witch hunters." She replied. Terry, Drew and I exchanged glances. I didn't know if this was a joke or not.

"Witch hunters?" I broke my silence trying to sound serious but it didn't come out right.

"Yes they have struck in Calgary," she explained as she glanced at me with a slight look of disdain, "they now head east to this city."

We listened to her intently as she explained in great detail how many of her friends are in hiding because witch hunters armed with swords stormed the underground witch community in Calgary. Her lover, a vampire, sent her to warn the Winnipeg community. She claimed that she was also a vampire because her lover had converted her. She showed us two puncture wounds in her neck that looked quite convincing. The three of us agreed that this was serious and agreed to meet her at the mall the next day.
That night I slept little.

…

I was sitting in the food court smoking section at St. Vital Center with a bunch of mall rats. There was a group of people crowded around the table, which really annoyed me because that meant I was going to get kicked out when security finally came despite the fact that I had actually purchased food. Another thing that annoyed me was that all the guys always hit on Crystal when it was me that originally bought her food. I didn't hate all the mall rats but I hated being branded a mall rat because in my mind it seemed so dirty.

"Hey can I get a smoke off you?" a girl I hardly knew asked me. She didn't look a day over fourteen.

"Sorry I'm almost out," I lied. She turned up her nose and went to bug someone else.

"I can't stand these fucking mooches." I said to Crystal but she didn't hear me because some asshole was trying to woo her.

"Hey can I have the rest of your fries?" The same guy who was hitting on Crystal asked me.

"Sure whatever." I gave up. I needed to get out.

"Thanks." He said as he stuffed his face with my food. I stared at the floor getting more and more pissed off.

"Hey are you … Sam?" I looked up to see a scrawny guy with a shaved head. I recognized him from the village.

"Ya … who are you?" I asked.

"I'm Wil, Terry sent me. He says to go meet him at A&W."

"Hey thanks a lot ahh … Wil." I was pretty happy; this was my ticket out of here.

"Hey do you have an extra smoke by chance?" He asked.

"Uhh …Yeah no problem. " I handed him a smoke. The girl, I turned down earlier happened to be looking right at me as I did this. She didn't look too happy but then what did I care. At least this guy was useful.

"Hey Crystal, I'll be back in a bit." I didn't get a reply though because she was too focused on the other guy. This angered me but I kept it inside. I hurried to the A&W across the mall. When I arrived I saw Terry and Drew speaking to Jade.

As I walked up to their table Jade immediately stood up and put her hand on my chest and looked deeply into my eyes. I noticed that she had two different colored eyes, one blue and the other brown. I found it very difficult not to turn away. I was a bit embarrassed because there were people looking at us.

"No, he's not," she said looking back at Drew and Terry.

"What?" I was confused.

"She was trying to see if you possess any vampire blood," Terry said, "both Drew and I do and we were wondering about you."

"Oh," I was sort of relieved but I couldn't help but feel left out.

"But I sense you are very wise," Jade added, "I think you are from a long line of sage wizards."

"That's cool." I felt good about myself again.

We spoke more about the witch hunters and vampires from the west. She seemed to know a lot about the whole situation. She told us that she had already warned several others and that it would be smart to arm ourselves for self-protection. She said that in Calgary they were taken by surprise but now because of her warning we would be able to fight back and possibly put an end to their misery. We were determined and assured her that we would do all we could in the name of the goddess to fend off the intruders. This seemed to satisfy her. That night she said she was leaving back to Calgary.

…


Terry bought a sword. Both Drew and I were extremely jealous but we would never admit it. Terry's sword was Japanese Katana with a dragon hilt and a red sheath. Using a melon he demonstrated how sharp it was. The only thing Drew and I could afford were two small rubber coated training swords. We practiced almost every day until both swords eventually broke. Upon realizing that it was legal to carry a large blade in public, (as long as it was not concealed), Terry began carrying his sword everywhere he went. However, the sword must have scared the hell out of a lot of tourists at the Forks because security confronted him one day and asked if they could hold onto it for him until he left the premises.

Though several weeks had passed since we met Jade her warning was not forgotten. I noticed a change in Drew's behavior especially. Ever since he was told that he had vampire blood in him he began to wear all black tight fitting cloths. I really didn't buy the vampire thing and I don't think Terry did either because other than the sword he didn't change much.

I was fully expecting an attack because I was getting a whole series of disturbing dreams. In one of those dreams I was walking through the back paths in Drew's neighborhood when I came to a narrow park. In that park a stout cape wearing Asian man wearing a yellow shirt and a wide brimmed black hat confronted me. I could not see his eyes clearly because they were obscured by orange tinted sunglasses. He drew a rapier and pointed it at me. I ran in the other direction as fast as I could. I heard him shout, " We can only hit you in the sky!" When I told the others this dream we thought it was serious but we had trouble interpreting it. I thought it meant that if we were too open about our actions we would become easy targets.

…


I hadn't seen or spoken with Crystal for almost a month. There was no sign of witch hunters either. About a month before I had a really strange dream. In this dream I was with Crystal walking down a highway. Down the middle of this highway there were a line of police officers as far as I could see. Each of them had no facial expression and held their bright silver side arms in their hands. I sensed fear from them. From their radios I could hear mention of escaped maniacs on the loose. Occasionally there would be purple vans driving down the highway and there would be quick exchanges of gunfire between the occupants and the police. Eventually Crystal and I arrived at a branch in the highway and we went our own way. "We will meet again," was the last thing I told her.

That was the last day that I spoke with her for a long while. In the meantime I started seeing a girl named Tami. She came after me, wearing thigh high schoolgirl stockings, at the Red Herring. I used to hang out with her at Saints Roller-rink but I had no idea that she had this big crush on me. I still wanted Crystal though so I agreed only to 'see' Tami. In actuality I felt that I was pressured into relationship. I knew she wanted to have sex with me but for some reason I really didn't feel like it. I think it would have been too much trouble and would have made the relationship too serious. We kissed a lot and she let me play with her breasts. She was somewhat of an exhibitionist as well. One time at the Forks she asked me and this other guy to paint her nipples blue. I felt pretty guilty after. If I had any real desire to be with her I probably would have felt some jealousy towards the other guy, but I felt none. Everybody kept telling me that I should forget about Crystal but I just couldn't.

...


I think Tami eventually got sick of my ignoring her. We just sort of drifted apart but remained friends. There was no official breakup or anything. I felt no hurt over the separation. One day I received a completely unexpected call from Crystal.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Hal-lo" she replied slowly.

"Crystal? Where have you been?" I gripped the phone tightly.

"Yeah...," There was a tinge of sadness in her voice.

"You don't sound good. What's wrong?" I asked.

"Oh nothing..." I knew she was lying.

"Are you sure? You sound really sad," I probed.

"I sorta just got over a big crush I had," she admitted.

"Oh. With who?" I was curious. It seemed that she had a new boyfriend or new crush every week but this one sounded big.

"Its probably best that I didn't tell you," she stated. In my head popped Terry's image. She had always wanted to go out with him. It was a tension that had been building for quite some time. I could understand why she didn't tell me. After all Terry was my best friend.

"Terry?" I asked.

"No ... it was you," as she said this my jaw dropped and my heart almost stopped. I had no idea that she had any attraction to me. I could not comprehend it and here she was telling me that she was now over me. I felt crushed because I could of had what I most desired but my blindness and self-doubt held me back.

"I didn't know that, I though we were just friends," I tried to hold myself together. I wanted to cry but I didn't want to show any weakness.

"Yeah... you're right." She said. What was I doing? This was probably my last chance to tell her how I really felt before it became too late.

"That's good," I replied knowing that I was throwing it all away, "do you want to meet for coffee?" We started hanging out again and I was still madly in love with her but she gave no indication that she had any real attraction to me anymore. I thought about it every day. My only emotional release was through poetry. Eventually she went out with and broke up with a couple of more guys. I was still her crying shoulder. Nothing had changed.













Creed

It was a humid mid July evening. At the time I was still playing football, although I could feel that this would be one of my last seasons. I was starting to hate practice because it interfered with my social life; the only reason I was here this night was because I had skipped the last five. My coaches were not pleased with me and I knew that they wanted to have me sit on the bench for the first game but secretly I knew that would never happen because even if I never practiced I would still be the best lineman on the team and no matter what I did my nine year tenure with the club would command the respect of my team mates. We were two hours into the three-hour practice and I was intending to leave practice early. First of all I hated the end of practice that was usually referred to as " fourth quarter". It was the philosophy of most of my coaches over the past nine years to make the last 30 minutes the most grueling. Usually this period did not elapse without us running to the point of vomiting and or physical collapse. I remember when I was twelve I had this defensive coach named Baffy. Baffy was this big mean black guy who would cry out things to us like "welcome to the house of pain!!" while making us hold a push-up midway or forcing us to crab-walk down the length of the field. He reminded me of the stereotypical army drill sergeant. It seemed that all coaches had their own unique catchphrases as if they were all on some power trip or maybe they were just propagating the cycle of abuse that they experienced at football practice when they were young. I had decided earlier that tonight would not be the night that I start punishing myself. My second and main reason for wanting to leave early was so that I could make it to the Forks in time to see Crystal.

I fed my coach some lame excuse about having to go to work and I fled practice. My house was nearby so I was able to run home and shower. Luckily my parents were not home so I was able to flee without them knowing that I ditched practice early, they would not understand and would probably assume that I was doing drugs and having sex all while worshipping the devil. I dressed mostly in black. The only real exception to my all black attire was my blue air cadets trench coat. The coat used to be my brothers but he quit cadets years earlier and neglected to return the uniform. Though it was humid outside I chose to keep the coat on; it felt safer that way. If I hadn't jogged to the bus stop I would have missed my bus. I guess the gods were not going to let me get away with not running that evening after all.

The bus ride was dull as usual. The only thing good about riding the bus was that it gave me a chance to read. I arrived at the Forks main terminal just before closing. People that I knew from the mall were sitting in the smoking section, but none of the people that I wanted to see were there. A pretty girl with curly red hair named Tasha came walking up to me with a look of fear on her face.

"Come quick!" she exclaimed.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Shana was attacked," she replied.

"By who?" I felt tense and alert.

"By like a creepy looking guy in a green trench coat," she replied.

"Is she ok"

"Ya, she's fine like … but she said that he like drained her energy or something."

"Drained her energy?

"Ya, he like touched her and she felt a big jolt or something"

"Where is she?"

"He like gave her a message to deliver."

"What's the message?"

"That like creed has arrived or something."

"Is she still here? I need to speak with her and where's everybody else?"

"They're like down by the river with Shana."

I left the building and lit a cigarette. My hand was shaking nervously because I was anticipating a fight. I wrung my hands and cracked my neck to try and gain composure. I made my way towards the river and found a small group of my friends. Among them were Riggs, Drew, Matt and Shana.

"Shana, what happened? Are you ok?" I asked.

"I'm fine. I was walking down the river path when some creep approached me and put his hand on my shoulder. It hurt and he told me that he would have killed me but he wanted me to tell everyone that Creed has arrived."

"Was there anything else that he told you?"

"No, that is it," she said.


I was shocked by this revelation. This meant that the war was now on our doorstep. Riggs was stomping back and fourth, noticeably angry. He was mumbling things like " Riggs smash puny Creed".

"Hey Riggs!" I called.

He didn't answer; he kept stomping around and mumbling threats to no one.

"Riggs do you want to come with me to see if we can find this asshole?"

He grinned at me with utter bloodlust. "Riggs smash puny Creed".


We stalked around the forks for a good twenty minutes trying to see if we could find any trace of the man in the green trench coat. The last place we decided to search was a rugged path that ran off the main walkway. We were a little hesitant. Down the path we found what looked to be a small encampment. It was getting pretty dark and if this was the camp of creed or some crazed hobo it would not have been wise to investigate further. In other words we were scared so we turned around. When we met back with the others we told them our findings. I decided to record our findings because I felt it would come in handy later. We agreed that we should not go back to check out the encampment that night, but something had to be done to deal with this new Creed threat.
The Coven of Apocalypse (C.O.A.)

"So where's Tiggs live anyway?" I asked.

"North of Portage," Riggs replied as he stared out the window of the bus, " Hey Look, its Spike that guy's such a fucking twinkie." Riggs leaned his head out of the window and yelled "Queervo!!" at a scrawny punk who was walking on the sidewalk. The guy looked confused as he turned his head trying to spot where the comment came from. People on the bus tried to ignore the obnoxious six-foot-six punk sporting a green tri-hawk. He glanced at me with a look of satisfaction.

"What's up with that guy?" I asked.

"I think that little twinkie once tried to jump my pal Hawk, he got the shit kicked outta him and he hasn't stepped foot in the village since," he replied.

"You think?" I asked.

"Yeah, since I lost my glasses last summer I haven't been able to see very well. Actually I think a lot of my pent up frustration is as result of me not being able to see what I want to hit!" He laughed to himself as he said this. Riggs wasn't really a dumb guy he just acted it most of the time. In fact he was one of the few people I knew from my village crowd who actually graduated from high school.

"Oh...I see," I shrugged my shoulders, " So what street does Tiggs live on?"

"I dunno."

"So how we gonna get there," I narrowed my eyes, "if you don't know what street he lives on?"

"I just know, ok, I 've been there a hundred times."

"Ok then . . .you know the way."

We stepped off the bus somewhere between Portage Place and Polo Park. I had never been here before and had no clue where I was going. I didn't note the street name. The trees loomed overhead forming a canopy over the street that provided shade from the blistering mid-afternoon sun. Squirrels scuttled about and children played on their small fenced-in front lawns. This was almost a pretty neighborhood if it were not for the houses falling apart and the homeless man urinating openly on a tree.

We walked for several blocks until we finally stopped at an old turn-of-the-century house with peeling white paint and a dilapidated porch. I was a little bit nervous because I had never ventured this far north of Portage on foot. I told myself that as long as it was daytime I'd be safe. However the biker like man who answered the door didn't give me too much reassurance. The man had a bushy grey beard that fell partially over the Harley Davidson logo on the t-shirt that stretched around his beer belly.

"Is Tiger home," Riggs asked politely as if he were talking to his granny.

"Ya, 'es downstairs," The man replied gruffly and let us in. "Don't worry 'bout yer shoes."

I followed Riggs down a narrow stairway into a dungeon like basement. Crates and boxes were scattered all over the place. There was a small table with three chairs where Tiger sat smoking a cigarette. Immediately I saw why they called him Tiger. His hair was brush-cut and was dyed with orange and black tiger stripes. He motioned for us to sit down.

"Greetings Riggs. And you must be Sam." He stuck out his hand and I shook it I found it hard to look in his eyes.

We explained everything that had been going on. I showed him some notes that I had taken and he seemed quite impressed with my detail. He mentioned how significant everything was but he remained quite calm as if he knew it was coming. I was pretty nervous still. I chain-smoked the whole time we were talking. Eventually he stood up. He asked Riggs to come upstairs with him but told me to stay where I was. Tiger took my notebook with him. I didn't dare object.
I sat in the dungeon and time didn't pass. I was getting scared. After all here I was in the basement of a house that may or may not be owned by a biker, on the wrong side of town and no one who cared knew where I was. I wouldn't have dared to tell anyone who cared where I was going. My brain conjured images of my demise that could not be suppressed. I continued to smoke and considered reading the book that I kept in my backpack but I knew that I was too excited to concentrate.
I was both relieved and frightened at the same time when I heard heavy footfalls coming down the stairs. I soon realized it was Riggs. He handed me my folder.

"What took you so long?" I think he could see the tension in my face.

"We were discussing things," he said, " Tiger told me to get you cause we're goin to the park."

"Why the park?" I was confused.

"Tiger wants to wrestle you." He smiled.

"I don't want to fight him, he'll kick my ass."

"Tiger doesn't trust anyone until he wrestles 'em," Riggs shrugged, " Its jus' how he works."

Riggs and I met Tiger on the front porch of the house. We walked to the park in utter silence. If I was nervous before I was nearly pissing myself now. Riggs told me quite a few stories from his past with Tiger and most of them involved Tiger kicking the shit out of someone. I walked behind Tiger secretly sizing him up. He was about my size maybe a few pounds lighter but he looked a whole lot tougher than me. I could see many noticeable scars on his arms and head indicating that he'd been through a lot of hardship. I didn't have a chance at beating him. I was hoping that he'd take it easy on me.

The park was tiny and was in direct view of the street; Tiger didn't seem to care though. He finally broke the silence. "There are only a couple of rules. First, no closed punches. If you punch someone with a closed fist the other guy gets to clock you for free. Second, the first man to get a submission out of the other wins. That is all. Any questions?"

"No." I shook my head and peeled my sweaty trench coat off of my body and dropped it in a pile with my backpack. There was no way out of this. Lucky for me I was dressed in shitty black jeans and a black t-shirt. I wrung my hands and flexed my muscles slightly to show that I was ready.

"Fight!" Riggs shouted from where he was seated on the nearby park slide.

Tiger and I grappled right off the start. We were pretty equal in strength but I knew he had experience on his side. He kicked me in the stomach, which allowed him to put me in a headlock. I used my weight to throw us both to the ground. He kept trying to put me in different submission moves but each time I broke them. I could tell that we were both getting tired. I was huffing and puffing and cursed myself for smoking. Tiger kept trying to intimidate me but I ignored him. He wasn't as tough as I thought he'd be, I knew I could win this thing if I just held out.
At one point I managed to get him into a 'Boston Crab'. I could tell that he was in a lot of pain. I thought he was going to submit. I kept urging him to give up but he wouldn't. I thought I was going to kill him if I kept this up but if I let up I knew he'd be in an uncontrollable rage. Then something terrible happened; I lost my grip. As soon as he was free he stood up in a fury and body slammed me to the hard ground. For a moment I felt paralyzed. He then stood atop a park bench and jumped on me with all his weight. I was winded and almost blacked out.
The next thing I knew I was in a 'camel clutch' and in a lot of pain. I wanted to give up but something inside me resisted the pain. My head felt light but a wave of adrenalin rushed through my body, I broke his hold and rolled away. Panting I worked myself onto one knee just in time to see him charging at me. I ducked away from him and stood up. He charged again but this time I charged back. We smashed heads and both fell to the ground. We laid there for several minutes.

"That's it," he said.

"Huh?" I looked over to see him staring up at the sky.

"Its over. This can't be settled now. You fought well," we stayed there for several more minutes before Riggs helped us up. We walked back to Tigers house discussing the fight. This time the walk wasn't so tense, I could tell that he now trusted me.

"I think he needs a name." Tiger said to Riggs.

"Yeah." Riggs said.

"How'bout Sledge?" Tiger said.

"I like it," Riggs replied.

Tiger grabbed my shoulder and said, " Good you will now be referred to as Sledge."

"Thanks," I said as I nodded. The name would soon catch on and I hated it. I wanted a name that sounded wise but instead I now sounded like a brute. But I would eventually grow use to it. Like a bad haircut it would somehow define me.

"I have to go now but tonight I will meet you at the Forks. Gather the others; the Coven of Apocalypse meets tonight." With that statement Tiger disappeared into his house. Riggs and I walked back to Portage and caught a bus. We headed to the mall to tell people to come to the Forks. During the ride I opened up my folder and realized that Tiger had left me a note. It was next to my motto on the first page:

I will fight the good fight.
I will seek out injustice amongst the powerful,
To protect the weak.
I will walk the path of life through the woes of darkness,
In hope that tomorrow will dawn a brighter day.

He wrote:

This is very honorable. Indeed there will be darkness in the days to come. I feel that I can trust you though I barely know you. Don't be afraid to live by your word.
Tiger



…

We waited until sunset before we convened at the Forks. Riggs and I managed to gather six other people. We met Tiger and he told us to go wait at the large outdoor auditorium. It was a stone circular structure imbedded in bowl shaped pit surrounded by large stones that reminded me of Stonehenge though on a smaller scale. I could imagine druids meeting for similar reasons centuries back in another land. This made me feel grand on a cosmic scale like I was fulfilling destiny. Our group included: Drew, Terry, Horse, Kelly, Keith, Fraiser, Tiger, Riggs, and I.

"Welcome to the first meeting of the C.O.A., I'm sure you all know why we're here and why you have been chosen. Our first order of business is to structure the council. There will be nine members and nine members only. These nine will be divided into three shades: White, Grey and Black. Each shade represents the forces of Good, Neutral, and Evil respectively." It seemed to me that Tiger had been planning this thing for a very long time. We all ended up separating ourselves according to where we thought we stood on the scale from darkest black to purest white. Fraiser took the darkest black. Riggs took the middle black position while Terry stood on the black bordering grey. Drew stood beside him on the Grey bordering black. Tiger stood right in the middle representing true neutrality. Horse took the grey bordering white. I took the lowest shade of white bordering on Grey. Kelly took the middle white space and Keith stood at the pure white position. We stood silent at our relative positions on the circle's edge for several minutes contemplating our decisions. My decision was easy because I knew that I was good in nature but not too good.

"Good," Tiger broke the silence, "Now we need to assign a record taker, someone to document the days to come. I personally elect Sledge to this position. Any objections?"

I looked around. Nobody spoke. I reached into my bag and pulled out my folder and pen. Quickly I jotted down everyone's relative position.

"War is among us. We are hunted from the west but they will soon realize that they are not the hunters and we are not the prey." Tiger stepped into the middle of the council and walked among us. "We are a union of light and dark, a union that wouldn't be, except for times such as these. Alone we cannot defeat our enemies but together we are strong!"

"Riggs smash puny witch hunters!" Shouted Riggs. With this a small cheer went up amongst the council members.

The first council ended shortly after this. We decided that we would meet every couple of days. Though we were technically a council I felt that Tiger was the unofficial leader. This I didn't mind because I felt Tiger was a strong individual. After the meeting I joined Tiger and Riggs and together we went to scope out the place by the river where we last believed Creed to be. We found nothing at the apparent campsite but Tiger sensed that the presence of the enemy was not long past. He figured that whoever was here was just an advanced scout and the main wave was yet to come.


…

Tiger, Riggs and I were in the midst of an intense three-way battle royal on a grassy patch bordering the patio of the riverside bar. Vacationers cheered us on as they sipped their drinks, much to the dismay of the bar manager.

"Guys! We need you ... across the river!" Horse was notably worked up as he ran towards us. It was a hot day and sweat matted his long red hair to the sides of his face.

"What's going on?" Tiger asked.

"Kelly and I ... were trying to meditate... by the river with ... Crystal ... when we felt a really cold ... presence," he replied between breaths.

"Crystal was with you? Where is she?" I tried to conceal my anxiety but wasn't doing a very good job of it.

"She's across the bridge with Kelly." He replied.

"Let's get moving!" I shouted.

"Riggs smash!" Riggs chimed in.

We followed Horse across the bridge and down a small side path to the river. We ended up at a small outcropping of land that jutted into where the two rivers met. Crystal and Kelly were standing beside a tree.

"Are you guys ok? What happened?" I asked.

"We're fine. What's the big deal?" Kelly asked.

"Sorry we thought you were in some sort of danger?" I was puzzled.

"Kyle? You always over react," said Kelly.

"No we're fine. I just felt something really strange over here," Crystal said as she pointed under the footbridge. She then walked over and gave me a big hug that calmed my nerves instantly.

"Its probably Creed! Riggs smash puny Creed!" Riggs began stalking around the riverbank.

"Riggs! Quit goofing around and come help me search under this bridge." Tiger demanded. Behind Tiger's back Riggs barred his teeth. I had noticed a tension between the two since the council had formed. It seemed to me that Riggs didn't like being told what to do. "Riggs I said hurry your fat ass up!"

I followed them down under the footbridge. We examined it closely for signs of Creed. There were several strange graffiti markings but we couldn't determine if they were left by Creed. We did notice that someone had lit a small campfire here in the last few days. We left convinced that our enemies had camped here.


…


"We must crush Creed now!" Riggs shouted over the murmur of the council.

Almost two weeks had passed since the formation of the C.O.A. but this was only our third meeting. Unfortunately Riggs was hospitalized due to a burst appendix that nearly killed him. We had visited him in the hospital and updated him on the Creed warnings. Tiger never went to visit him and this put tension between the two, if there wasn't any before Riggs's unfortunate hospital stay.

"No! We must prepare our defenses and then we will launch a surgical counter attack!" Tiger Rebutted.

"You're a coward." Riggs stated.

"No you're just stupid Riggs, you always have been," Tiger replied. Riggs growled back at him in anger and took a step towards Tiger. Tiger smiled at him and licked his lips. "Try it."

"Come on you're both being stupid," Kelly interjected as she stepped to the middle of the circle between Riggs and Tiger, " we have absolutely no idea where or even who Creed is. How do we plan to attack or defend against something we cannot see?"

"Are you all cowards? I say we find Creed and destroy them! Tiger is too scared to realize this. Don't listen to him." Riggs declared.

"You're a fucking fool Riggs. The C.O.A. is nothing without me!" Tiger stared directly into Riggs's eyes.

"Come on. We need to hold this thing together." Kelly said as she desperately tried to keep herself wedged between the two.

"Why should I ally myself with him?" said Riggs, "He's the one responsible for my appendix. He hit me there the day it went. He knows without me in the picture he can take over the council."

"You're full of shit Riggs!" Tiger replied, " You are so goddamned full of yourself and the only reason you were in the hospital was because yer a pussy. I don't need this shit. I can fend on my own. I don't need any of you." Without another word Tiger stepped back and left the council.

"You're just a traitor! You're probably one of them!" Riggs called out.

…


Tiger didn't return after that day and the council had all but crumbled. I kept in contact with Tiger and found out that he had gathered his own recruits. He asked me to come and join him. I didn't really know any of the other people so I kept on avoiding the question. I continued to keep him informed about daily happenings for a couple of weeks because I had hoped that the council would reform.

The council did not reform. Riggs still operated a pseudo council but most of the members of the original council were absent. Kelly had decided that the council wasn't working and with her most of the other members left. I knew that Riggs was out of control but I decided to stay anyways so that I could continue to record events and so I could communicate information to those that were gone. I guess I was a spy. It made me feel dangerous. These were not the main reasons I stayed though. Crystal was among the new members that Riggs had recruited. Actually he recruited a gothic guy named Matthew who had just moved back to the city from Toronto. As it turned out Crystal had once gone out with this guy and was still madly in love with him so she decided to join Rigg's council. This was a move I did not approve of because I was mistrustful of her ex and I was concerned about her safety in Riggs's warlike tribe. I did not speak my opinions openly because I would have betrayed my spy status and my suppressed emotions for Crystal.

The majority of Rigg's new recruits were mall rats who were later dubbed 'Rigg's Lackeys'. Almost everyday there was a new Creed sighting. Everyone dressed in a green or black trench coat was a suspect. Riggs did not investigate any of these sightings; instead he used each new sighting as support for his war mongering. This troubled me greatly.



The Bridge

The end of summer was near. Riggs still had his lackeys but he had apparently made amends with Tiger though Tiger never came around because he was having troubles with his fiancée. Jade had returned to the city bringing a guy with her named Dave who had apparently come to help us defend ourselves in Winnipeg. We all sat around a table at Humpty's restaurant on Main Street, across from the Forks. It had become our new hang out. Terry was dating this high class Italian girl named Marissa. At least she said she was high-class and acted the snob part very well though I failed to understand why such a high-class girl would be hanging out with a patchwork group of punks and goths.

"Hey I'm from Italy too you know." Dave said to Marissa. He'd been trying to mac her all night to Terry's distaste. I knew that Dave was a sly guy and a con artist because he tried to pull bank fraud on me several days before. I later found out that he ripped off my friend Matt for over two grand. I hated him and because of him I started to doubt Jade and her motives as well.

"Oh really. Which part?" Marissa asked.

"It's a small town in Southern Italy actually." He lied.

"Oh...that's...great." She quickly started up a conversation with someone else. This was at least the third time that night that she snubbed him. I think she knew that he was lying. Trying to keep cool he started saying some shit about the Vatican.

"You know in the Vatican they keep the only copy of the Necronomican. It's three thousand years old." He said.

"That's funny," I replied, "considering the Necronomican is the fictional concoction of H.P. Lovecraft." I planned to hammer him again but before I could continue there was a loud commotion at the door. A guy we met the week before named Roland rushed to our table.

"Some guys jumped me while I was on my bike," Roland had a scratch on his face that was bleeding slightly. I could see scratches on his hands as well, "they told me to pass a message on to you guys."

"What is it?" I asked.

"I was told to tell you that Creed was here." He said.

"Where?" I asked with urgency. I thought that maybe Jade was correct after all.

"They got me on the path leading to the foot bridge, it's pretty foggy out, I couldn't really see them," he replied

Most of us got up and left the restaurant in a hurry. I told Crystal to stay behind but she wouldn't. Drew, Terry and I followed Riggs and a group of his lackeys. Roland led the way. We crossed the street and ran toward the gravel pathway just before the Norwood Bridge. It was quite foggy out. It was dark. The right hand side of the path was bordered by the forested riverbank that sloped sharply to the river. The left-hand side sloped even sharper into a bowl-like meadow where the fog pooled. Fearing an ambush I decided to scout out the meadow on my left. Realizing that I was unarmed I picked up a manageable sized log and hefted it on my shoulder like a club. I felt like an invincible titan. Riggs joined me in the ravine. He didn't say anything instead he growled like an animal. I could tell that he was lusting for blood.

"Riggs watch out they might have arrows or something, be ready for an ambush." I said but he didn't reply he just grinned, baring his teeth.

Satisfied that there was no ambush coming from the meadow area, I dropped my log and climbed back up the steep incline to the path. I then scouted ahead to the footbridge. Remembering that Crystal was with the group I quickly ran back.

"The coast is clear, lets go to the bridge. It'll be safer there." I reported.

"Agreed," replied Drew.

"Are you ok Crystal?" I asked her quietly so no one would over hear.

"Of course I am. I'm gonna kill those bastards," I was surprised by her fury but I still felt the urge to keep her safe so I stuck with her until we got to the bridge.

"Where are they?" I asked.

"They're around somewhere. I can smell their blood." Riggs replied.

"I can sense their energy, they are trying to put fear into us." Crystal added.

"You guys wait here. Terry come with me." Terry ran with me to the council place. I wished that he'd not left his sword at home. The fog was getting thicker. Like phantoms the skyscrapers of downtown blended into the backdrop amongst fuzzy lights that seemed to float in the night sky. The lit up stones that encircled our meeting place gave an eerie glow. High above us the four spotlights cut through the fog forming what appeared to be a cathedral dome over our heads blocking our view of the stars. The moon hung like a ghost, barley visible like an ornament at the top of the dome.

"What the hell is that?" Terry was pointing to the middle of the circle. As we neared I saw what he was referring to. In the center of the stone circle was a small deliberate pile of blocks that was arranged to form a crucifix. Fear trickled down my spine.

"Oh my god," I was shocked, "we have to get back to the others." We ran as hard as we could back to the footbridge. But things were already happening. The others stood crowded on the Forks side of the river. The only ones on the bridge were Drew, Riggs, and Roland.

"He just flipped out and tried to attack us," Crystal said.

"Who?" I asked.

"Roland." She replied. I could see that Drew and Roland stood midway across the bridge facing each other. Riggs stood behind him ready to fight. Terry and I half jogged to where they were standing. I could feel my heart pounding heavy with every step in contrast to the lightness of my trench coat flowing behind me.

"So you need more to defeat me do you?" Roland said in a snake like voice.

"Roland why are you doing this?" I demanded.

"This may be his body but this is not Roland. I can make him do what I want so you better be careful what you say."

"Then who are we speaking to?" Drew asked.

"That is of no importance. The only thing you need to know is that Creed is here and if you want to live I suggest that you leave this place and never return." He replied.

" Sledge," Riggs whispered," we should just smash him." I returned Riggs an agitated look.

"Don't be foolish. I have more power then you can comprehend. You can't destroy me. If you try you'll only hurt your friend," the voice said.

"We're not scared of you." I replied.

"Oh you're not scared?" Roland's body dashed to the edge of the bridge and jumped up on the railing. He skipped up and down overlooking the river. I thought he was going to fall into the dark murky water below. If he did I knew Roland would drown. I was quite scared though I refused to show it. "Are you scared now?"

"Didn't you hear properly? We are not afraid," Terry said.

"Why don't you stop being a coward and come down here and show us some of that power?" Drew said.

"You'll be sorry." He jumped down from the ledge and faced Drew again. Drew began muttering an incantation. I focused all my energy on Drew to support what he was doing. Roland's possessor whispered his own incantation in his snakelike tongue. I could tell that Drew was struggling. It looked like he was going to collapse. I focused harder. Terry and I put our hands on his shoulders. With a desperate yell Drew reached out and touched Roland's shoulder. Roland's body fell to the ground as if he were thrown. He lay motionless breathing shallowly for several minutes. Drew was physically broken he leaned against the railing. I cautiously walked toward Roland and knelt beside him.
"Are you ok?" I asked. He didn't answer. I could see that tears were streaming from his eyes. He soon began to ball openly. We helped him off the bridge. Whoever was inside of him was gone. We never found out who it was and I never saw Roland again.
Summer's End

It was the last Friday of summer. School loomed over me. Terry, Drew and I were waiting to catch a bus from the Forks to Drew's house. We were leaving the forks early because the mall rats were starting to annoy us. Everybody was starting to act like they were possessed. It was a big attention grab now. Riggs seemed to play into it because he wanted their attention, we just laughed at them. Also, Crystal had started to date her ex again and this depressed me so I wanted to leave.

"Sam you gotta stop being so obsessed with her." Terry said.

"I know," I admitted, "but I do so fucking much stuff for her, how can she ignore my feelings like this?"

"I can't believe this is the same old Sam I met almost a year ago," added Drew.

"Yeah Buddy you can't let her get to you like that. I mean why don't you just tell her how you feel?" He asked.

"I don't know." I replied. There was a knocking on the bus shack window that startled us. It was one of the mall rats. Her name was Jackie I always remembered her by the black crystal she wore around her neck.

"What the hell does she want?" Terry didn't like her very much because she was always trying to ask him out.

"Help me I'm possessed!" she said. We laughed at her because we could tell that she was trying to act serious.

"Oh yeah if you're possessed how come you're able to tell us?" I asked.

"Shut up! If you say another word I'll kill her!" she screamed.

"People who are possessed don't usually go around telling people they are possessed," Drew added with a smirk.

"What! I'm sick of this shit!" Terry blew up, "You know what Jackie you are such a fucking lying bitch. I hope you go kill yourself. That would be one less fucking mooch of a mall rat to deal with." When someone annoyed him, Terry really knew how to make someone feel special. She didn't say anything; she looked like she was about to cry. She just turned around and walked across the street back towards the Forks.

"Do you think that was too harsh?" Terry asked.

"No." Drew and I said in unison.

---

Kamur Leumas fights the fear in Winnipeg, Manitoba.