Ransley’s story had made Lucas feel dizzy and shocked. And he could see he was not the only one. Everyone, including, surprisingly enough, also Ramsey, stared at Ransley, shock written all over their faces. Lucas was having a hard time wrapping his head around everything Ransley had told.
He remembered that day, but he had had no idea that Ransley’s own mind was torturing him like that. He had had no idea. Lucas felt tears burning behind his eyes, but he refused to cry. He didn’t know how he was feeling.
“Are you schizophrenic?” Ronald asked, his eyes wide as a plate.
“Or do you have dissociative identity disorder?” Farrah asked, looking worried.
Ransley furrowed his eyebrows and took a deep breath. Lucas was sure he was trying to calm himself.
“I don’t know”, Ransley said and glanced at Ramsey. “I have refused to go to see a shrink.”
“Now that you’ll do whatever I want, that’s exactly where you are going”, Ramsey said. “I have come to a conclusion, that he has always had some mental disorder, but the pain of turning into a werewolf for the first time triggered it and the more he turned the more he lost control.”
“I think it’s good that you notice these voices inside your head. It probably makes diagnosing you easier or something”, Farrah said, and smiled slightly at Ransley. “Whatever it is that’s going on inside your mind, you can get help for it.”
Ransley just simply nodded. Lucas knew why: he didn’t know how to react and what to say, so he just nodded. Lucas knew Ransley well enough to know that Ransley didn’t like to speak if he wasn’t absolutely certain he knew what to say.
“Whatever it is”, said Ronald, “doesn’t change the fact that he attacked me.”
Ransley was just about to answer, when Ramsey stepped between them and said: “Hate to chance the subject, but I have to go do some… research. I would like to remind the two of you”, he pointed at Ransley and Ronald, “that the full moon is tonight. Go to the woods. You”, he pointed at Farrah, “are in charge. Can I trust you to take care of Ransley?”
“Yes.”
“Can you take care of both of them?”
“Yes!” Farrah said, and Lucas could hear the irritation in her voice. “Ronald remembers more and more every time he turns back to human. When he is in his werewolf form, he has some kind of control, especially if I’m talking to him. I’m sure I can handle this.”
“Where are you going?” Ronald and Ransley asked in unison. They ignored it and just stared at Ramsey, waiting for him to answer. Lucas waited too.
“I can’t just throw out the answer to our problem”, he said matter-of-factly. “I will come back when I have a plan.”
“And you just expect us to babysit Ransley in the mean time?” Ronald asked in a fit of pique. “He is not our responsibility!”
“He is now”, Ramsey snapped, and Lucas was surprised how Ronald didn’t even flinch. “You will keep an eye out for him, make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid and I will come back with a plan to help your friend, understood?”
Ronald sighed, defeated.
“Yeah”, he said. “Understood.”
Lucas eyed Ransley and could see he was irritated. Lucas assumed it was because everyone treated him like he was a broken little child. But Lucas couldn’t know for sure.
They were in the woods, near the familiar cave that Farrah and Ronald liked to use when there was the full moon and they needed to be far away from the civilisation. There wasn’t that much snow anymore, but everything was wet and brown and ugly. And it looked even more ugly in the full moon’s light. Lucas didn’t know how that was possible, usually the moonlight makes everything prettier, but not this time.
Lucas had drifted off, staring at his surroundings but then Ronald’s angry voice reached his ears and he focused on Ransley, Ronald and Farrah, seeing that they were in the middle of an argument.
Or more like Ronald and Ransley were in an argument and Farrah was holding Ronald’s hand, trying to hold him back.
Lucas listened their argument and hoped that he could put an end to it.
“I don’t care what is wrong with your mind”, said Ronald. “You turned me! I didn’t ask for this!”
“You think that I asked for this?” Ransley hissed back. “You seem to forget that I wasn’t born this way! I got turned too!”
“Yeah”, Ronald said. “And then you killed your family, God knows how many other people and turned me, screwed over my best friend and caused his death!”
“You know nothing!” Ransley yelled, and pushed Ronald harshly. Farrah kept Ronald back so he wouldn’t push Ransley back and Lucas was more than thankful for that. He didn’t want Ronald and Ransley to fight. “I cared about Lucas! I fucking loved him!”
“Then why did you do what you did, huh?” Ronald yelled back, trying to pull free from Farrah’s grasp but with no luck. Lucas held his breath as he watched how Ransley kept clenching his fists. He was clearly gritting his teeth and his chest was going up and down as he breathed heavily.
“Don’t snap”, Lucas said to Ransley. “Control your emotions.”
He saw how Ronald was struggling to contain himself too and then suddenly Ronald started screaming in pain and bent over.
“Ronald!” Farrah took a step away from Ronald. “Ronald, remember to breathe. I know you’re angry at the moment and feel an awful pain, but you have to control yourself, okay? I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Yeah”, Ronald hissed through his teeth. “Fine.”
And Lucas watched how his best friend suffered, but just before he turned into a werewolf, Ransley bend over too and started yelling.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck”, Lucas cursed. “I’m sorry you both have to go through this pain!”
He felt bad that he wasn’t able to help. He knew that Ransley’s pain wasn’t his fault. Hell, he even knew that Ronald’s pain wasn’t necessarily his fault, but he still felt bad. Especially for Ransley who has had to go through that pain every month for three centuries.
Soon there were too bony, ruff looking werewolves stooping on their hind legs in front of Lucas’ eyes. The bigger one was Ransley, the smaller one was Ronald. They both had red eyes and they growled at each other.
Then werewolf-Ronald howled, went on all fours and attempted to attack werewolf-Ransley, but Farrah jumped between them.
“RONALD!“ she yelled so loudly that Lucas flinched. “Listen to my voice! The pain is over. You have to control yourself. Don’t give up!”
Werewolf-Ronald stared at Farrah then stood up on its hind legs, giving up the idea of attacking the other werewolf. It just stoop there, hanging it’s head and growling slightly.
Lucas sighed in relief, proud of his best friend for controlling himself. That’s when he suddenly saw something moving in the blurry space in the corner of his eye and then he saw werewolf-Ransley jumping towards Farrah, its teeth and claws out.
“NO!” Lucas yelled, and watched in horror how werewolf-Ransley attacked Farrah, but Farrah surprised Lucas: she had clearly expected Ransley to lose himself when he turns, so right before werewolf-Ransley was about to sank its teeth on Farrah, she spun around and gave a well aimed kick on werewolf-Ransley’s ribs.
Werewolf-Ransley struggled to get up on his feet and growled at Farrah furiously. Farrah hissed back at it, his eyes white and fangs out. Also werewolf-Ronald growled behind Farrah but made no attempt to move. Lucas noticed its eyes were fixed on Ransley.
Lucas watched how werewolf-Ransley howled and started circling around Farrah and werewolf-Ronald.
“Ransley, I know I’m not Lucas”, Farrah said, her voice calm and collected, “but you need to take control. Lucas would want it.”
I most certainly would, Lucas thought.
Werewolf-Ransley growled and stopped circling. It tilted its head and stared at Farrah.
“I know my voice is the reason that Ronald is controlling himself, more or less, and I know Lucas would be a better choice for you right now”, Farrah said calmly, eyeing werewolf-Ransley. “But I also know that Lucas is probably seeing you right now. He said it himself, he can see us all the time. So it’s safe to assume that he is watching over us right now.”
Damn right! Lucas thought and could see how werewolf-Ransley listened Farrah’s words and stood up on its hind legs, its arms hanging low as well as its head and it only growled a bit, red eyes looking around, as if like he was searching for something.
Or someone.
Lucas cleared his throat and told himself to stop thinking about that. After all, he was in the Spirit world and Ransley was in the living world. It wouldn’t work out anymore. Not that it had worked out before either.
Now, now, Lucas thought. It had worked out at the beginning.
“Good, Ransley”, Farrah said. “I’m sure Lucas is proud of you.” Then Farrah turned her eyes on Ronald. “I know I’m proud of you, Ron.”
Werewolf-Ronald growled a bit and started walking away. Farrah eyed it for a moment before returning her attention to werewolf-Ransley.
“He will be fine”, Farrah said dismissively. “I want to concentrate on you, Ransley.” He growled at her, and she shrugged. “I don’t speak werewolf, but that sounded like a thank you.”
Werewolf-Ransley growled and started walking, not running, after werewolf-Ronald. Farrah let her fangs disappear and she relaxed. She watched werewolf-Ransley’s walk and so did Lucas, who noticed a few things: Werewolf-Ransley stopped from time to time, growled, howled and tried to bite air and spun around, made circles. It looked like as if it was arguing with itself, struggling to remain in control. But then the next second it calmed down, continued walking after the smaller werewolf and only whimpered a little.
“This is going to be a long night”, Farrah muttered and Lucas agreed with her.
When the morning came and Ronald, Farrah and Ransley stepped inside Ronald’s home, they were quite a sight: Ransley grimaced with every step he took because his ribs were so badly bruised from Farrah’s kick, Ronald looked generally as tired as one can look and Farrah… well at least in Lucas’ opinion, looked as flawless as ever.
“Ronald? Is that you?”
All three of them froze in place when they heard Mrs. Quinn’s voice coming from the kitchen.
Before Ronald could even think about what they should do, Mrs. Quinn walked out of the kitchen, stopped and gasped.
“You brought a friend here! And lovely Farrah, of course.”
“Hi, Mrs. Qui– Samantha”, Farrah greeted.
“Hi, sweetie”, Mrs. Quinn said and then looked at Ronald and Ransley. “You haven’t brought friends over since… A-hm… Anyway. It’s so nice to meet you, I’m Ronald’s mother.”
Ransley looked shocked and Lucas could see that he had no idea what to say. Luckily Ronald stepped in.
“He was actually Lucas’ friend, Ransley”, Ronald said. “So… Yeah. We are going to my room.”
His mother didn’t say a word, it was her turn to look shocked. Lucas knew for a fact that Ronald had never once said Lucas’ name to his mother after the funeral.
Ronald pushed Farrah and Ransley inside his room as quickly as possible and then they waited that Mrs. Quinn left for work before sighing in relief. Ronald sunk on his bed and then fell on his back. Farrah sat next to him and Ransley just stood there in the corner awkwardly.
Lucas felt sorry for him. He really wanted to tell Ransley… yeah, what? That it wasn’t Ransley’s fault? That he is not blaming him? That he wish he had known all those things he had learn about Ransley earlier.
But how could he? He had ignored the fact that Ramsey had told, that using too much the Ouija board would not be good, but now it dawned to him.
Lucas was so focused on Ransley that he didn’t at first notice that someone had appeared in the room.
“Jesus Christ, Ramsey!” Ronald yelped, making Lucas turn his attention away from Ransley. “You can’t just appear like that, I almost pissed myself and I’m tired and–“, Lucas and Ronald noticed at the same time that the warlock had not come by himself. “Who is that?”
Everyone’s attention turned to a woman standing next to Ramsey. She had long brown hair, she was tall and had an hourglass body. In her head she had some kind of jewellery with petite golden chains going around his head, keeping the jewellery in place. She had a dress that revealed quite a bit of her chest. She was eyeing everyone in the room, besides Lucas, and then Ramsey opened his mouth.
“Everyone”, he said. “This is Corlisse. Very old friend of mine from Bulgaria.”
He remembered that day, but he had had no idea that Ransley’s own mind was torturing him like that. He had had no idea. Lucas felt tears burning behind his eyes, but he refused to cry. He didn’t know how he was feeling.
“Are you schizophrenic?” Ronald asked, his eyes wide as a plate.
“Or do you have dissociative identity disorder?” Farrah asked, looking worried.
Ransley furrowed his eyebrows and took a deep breath. Lucas was sure he was trying to calm himself.
“I don’t know”, Ransley said and glanced at Ramsey. “I have refused to go to see a shrink.”
“Now that you’ll do whatever I want, that’s exactly where you are going”, Ramsey said. “I have come to a conclusion, that he has always had some mental disorder, but the pain of turning into a werewolf for the first time triggered it and the more he turned the more he lost control.”
“I think it’s good that you notice these voices inside your head. It probably makes diagnosing you easier or something”, Farrah said, and smiled slightly at Ransley. “Whatever it is that’s going on inside your mind, you can get help for it.”
Ransley just simply nodded. Lucas knew why: he didn’t know how to react and what to say, so he just nodded. Lucas knew Ransley well enough to know that Ransley didn’t like to speak if he wasn’t absolutely certain he knew what to say.
“Whatever it is”, said Ronald, “doesn’t change the fact that he attacked me.”
Ransley was just about to answer, when Ramsey stepped between them and said: “Hate to chance the subject, but I have to go do some… research. I would like to remind the two of you”, he pointed at Ransley and Ronald, “that the full moon is tonight. Go to the woods. You”, he pointed at Farrah, “are in charge. Can I trust you to take care of Ransley?”
“Yes.”
“Can you take care of both of them?”
“Yes!” Farrah said, and Lucas could hear the irritation in her voice. “Ronald remembers more and more every time he turns back to human. When he is in his werewolf form, he has some kind of control, especially if I’m talking to him. I’m sure I can handle this.”
“Where are you going?” Ronald and Ransley asked in unison. They ignored it and just stared at Ramsey, waiting for him to answer. Lucas waited too.
“I can’t just throw out the answer to our problem”, he said matter-of-factly. “I will come back when I have a plan.”
“And you just expect us to babysit Ransley in the mean time?” Ronald asked in a fit of pique. “He is not our responsibility!”
“He is now”, Ramsey snapped, and Lucas was surprised how Ronald didn’t even flinch. “You will keep an eye out for him, make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid and I will come back with a plan to help your friend, understood?”
Ronald sighed, defeated.
“Yeah”, he said. “Understood.”
Lucas eyed Ransley and could see he was irritated. Lucas assumed it was because everyone treated him like he was a broken little child. But Lucas couldn’t know for sure.
They were in the woods, near the familiar cave that Farrah and Ronald liked to use when there was the full moon and they needed to be far away from the civilisation. There wasn’t that much snow anymore, but everything was wet and brown and ugly. And it looked even more ugly in the full moon’s light. Lucas didn’t know how that was possible, usually the moonlight makes everything prettier, but not this time.
Lucas had drifted off, staring at his surroundings but then Ronald’s angry voice reached his ears and he focused on Ransley, Ronald and Farrah, seeing that they were in the middle of an argument.
Or more like Ronald and Ransley were in an argument and Farrah was holding Ronald’s hand, trying to hold him back.
Lucas listened their argument and hoped that he could put an end to it.
“I don’t care what is wrong with your mind”, said Ronald. “You turned me! I didn’t ask for this!”
“You think that I asked for this?” Ransley hissed back. “You seem to forget that I wasn’t born this way! I got turned too!”
“Yeah”, Ronald said. “And then you killed your family, God knows how many other people and turned me, screwed over my best friend and caused his death!”
“You know nothing!” Ransley yelled, and pushed Ronald harshly. Farrah kept Ronald back so he wouldn’t push Ransley back and Lucas was more than thankful for that. He didn’t want Ronald and Ransley to fight. “I cared about Lucas! I fucking loved him!”
“Then why did you do what you did, huh?” Ronald yelled back, trying to pull free from Farrah’s grasp but with no luck. Lucas held his breath as he watched how Ransley kept clenching his fists. He was clearly gritting his teeth and his chest was going up and down as he breathed heavily.
“Don’t snap”, Lucas said to Ransley. “Control your emotions.”
He saw how Ronald was struggling to contain himself too and then suddenly Ronald started screaming in pain and bent over.
“Ronald!” Farrah took a step away from Ronald. “Ronald, remember to breathe. I know you’re angry at the moment and feel an awful pain, but you have to control yourself, okay? I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Yeah”, Ronald hissed through his teeth. “Fine.”
And Lucas watched how his best friend suffered, but just before he turned into a werewolf, Ransley bend over too and started yelling.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck”, Lucas cursed. “I’m sorry you both have to go through this pain!”
He felt bad that he wasn’t able to help. He knew that Ransley’s pain wasn’t his fault. Hell, he even knew that Ronald’s pain wasn’t necessarily his fault, but he still felt bad. Especially for Ransley who has had to go through that pain every month for three centuries.
Soon there were too bony, ruff looking werewolves stooping on their hind legs in front of Lucas’ eyes. The bigger one was Ransley, the smaller one was Ronald. They both had red eyes and they growled at each other.
Then werewolf-Ronald howled, went on all fours and attempted to attack werewolf-Ransley, but Farrah jumped between them.
“RONALD!“ she yelled so loudly that Lucas flinched. “Listen to my voice! The pain is over. You have to control yourself. Don’t give up!”
Werewolf-Ronald stared at Farrah then stood up on its hind legs, giving up the idea of attacking the other werewolf. It just stoop there, hanging it’s head and growling slightly.
Lucas sighed in relief, proud of his best friend for controlling himself. That’s when he suddenly saw something moving in the blurry space in the corner of his eye and then he saw werewolf-Ransley jumping towards Farrah, its teeth and claws out.
“NO!” Lucas yelled, and watched in horror how werewolf-Ransley attacked Farrah, but Farrah surprised Lucas: she had clearly expected Ransley to lose himself when he turns, so right before werewolf-Ransley was about to sank its teeth on Farrah, she spun around and gave a well aimed kick on werewolf-Ransley’s ribs.
Werewolf-Ransley struggled to get up on his feet and growled at Farrah furiously. Farrah hissed back at it, his eyes white and fangs out. Also werewolf-Ronald growled behind Farrah but made no attempt to move. Lucas noticed its eyes were fixed on Ransley.
Lucas watched how werewolf-Ransley howled and started circling around Farrah and werewolf-Ronald.
“Ransley, I know I’m not Lucas”, Farrah said, her voice calm and collected, “but you need to take control. Lucas would want it.”
I most certainly would, Lucas thought.
Werewolf-Ransley growled and stopped circling. It tilted its head and stared at Farrah.
“I know my voice is the reason that Ronald is controlling himself, more or less, and I know Lucas would be a better choice for you right now”, Farrah said calmly, eyeing werewolf-Ransley. “But I also know that Lucas is probably seeing you right now. He said it himself, he can see us all the time. So it’s safe to assume that he is watching over us right now.”
Damn right! Lucas thought and could see how werewolf-Ransley listened Farrah’s words and stood up on its hind legs, its arms hanging low as well as its head and it only growled a bit, red eyes looking around, as if like he was searching for something.
Or someone.
Lucas cleared his throat and told himself to stop thinking about that. After all, he was in the Spirit world and Ransley was in the living world. It wouldn’t work out anymore. Not that it had worked out before either.
Now, now, Lucas thought. It had worked out at the beginning.
“Good, Ransley”, Farrah said. “I’m sure Lucas is proud of you.” Then Farrah turned her eyes on Ronald. “I know I’m proud of you, Ron.”
Werewolf-Ronald growled a bit and started walking away. Farrah eyed it for a moment before returning her attention to werewolf-Ransley.
“He will be fine”, Farrah said dismissively. “I want to concentrate on you, Ransley.” He growled at her, and she shrugged. “I don’t speak werewolf, but that sounded like a thank you.”
Werewolf-Ransley growled and started walking, not running, after werewolf-Ronald. Farrah let her fangs disappear and she relaxed. She watched werewolf-Ransley’s walk and so did Lucas, who noticed a few things: Werewolf-Ransley stopped from time to time, growled, howled and tried to bite air and spun around, made circles. It looked like as if it was arguing with itself, struggling to remain in control. But then the next second it calmed down, continued walking after the smaller werewolf and only whimpered a little.
“This is going to be a long night”, Farrah muttered and Lucas agreed with her.
When the morning came and Ronald, Farrah and Ransley stepped inside Ronald’s home, they were quite a sight: Ransley grimaced with every step he took because his ribs were so badly bruised from Farrah’s kick, Ronald looked generally as tired as one can look and Farrah… well at least in Lucas’ opinion, looked as flawless as ever.
“Ronald? Is that you?”
All three of them froze in place when they heard Mrs. Quinn’s voice coming from the kitchen.
Before Ronald could even think about what they should do, Mrs. Quinn walked out of the kitchen, stopped and gasped.
“You brought a friend here! And lovely Farrah, of course.”
“Hi, Mrs. Qui– Samantha”, Farrah greeted.
“Hi, sweetie”, Mrs. Quinn said and then looked at Ronald and Ransley. “You haven’t brought friends over since… A-hm… Anyway. It’s so nice to meet you, I’m Ronald’s mother.”
Ransley looked shocked and Lucas could see that he had no idea what to say. Luckily Ronald stepped in.
“He was actually Lucas’ friend, Ransley”, Ronald said. “So… Yeah. We are going to my room.”
His mother didn’t say a word, it was her turn to look shocked. Lucas knew for a fact that Ronald had never once said Lucas’ name to his mother after the funeral.
Ronald pushed Farrah and Ransley inside his room as quickly as possible and then they waited that Mrs. Quinn left for work before sighing in relief. Ronald sunk on his bed and then fell on his back. Farrah sat next to him and Ransley just stood there in the corner awkwardly.
Lucas felt sorry for him. He really wanted to tell Ransley… yeah, what? That it wasn’t Ransley’s fault? That he is not blaming him? That he wish he had known all those things he had learn about Ransley earlier.
But how could he? He had ignored the fact that Ramsey had told, that using too much the Ouija board would not be good, but now it dawned to him.
Lucas was so focused on Ransley that he didn’t at first notice that someone had appeared in the room.
“Jesus Christ, Ramsey!” Ronald yelped, making Lucas turn his attention away from Ransley. “You can’t just appear like that, I almost pissed myself and I’m tired and–“, Lucas and Ronald noticed at the same time that the warlock had not come by himself. “Who is that?”
Everyone’s attention turned to a woman standing next to Ramsey. She had long brown hair, she was tall and had an hourglass body. In her head she had some kind of jewellery with petite golden chains going around his head, keeping the jewellery in place. She had a dress that revealed quite a bit of her chest. She was eyeing everyone in the room, besides Lucas, and then Ramsey opened his mouth.
“Everyone”, he said. “This is Corlisse. Very old friend of mine from Bulgaria.”
