Voices – Page 30
Part 4 — Choices
The room was dark and quiet and smelled of antiseptics. The silence was broken by an occasional click from the IV machine regulating the drip of saline into John’s body, and by his breathing, which was slow and steady.
John was lying on his back in the hospital bed, propped up to nearly a sitting position, asleep. He had taken sixteen stitches in his right bicep, one more scar to add to those that were already there, and they’d given him a healthy dose of painkillers. The cut was deep, but clean. The doctors said he was lucky. The artery was not a major one, and it would heal. His blood-loss had been enough that they wanted to keep him overnight, but there would be no substantial long-term damage.
Jen was sitting curled up in a chair in the corner, tired, trying not to fall asleep. The last thing anyone needed was for her to wake up from a nightmare and proceed to blow up the hospital room. The clock on the wall said it was almost three in the morning, not that late for her, but Jen felt like she had been through World War Three. She supposed that being punched, tossed around, nearly raped, and then finding out one of her friends was some sort of werewolf contributed to her exhaustion.
When they had brought John in, he had already been asleep. Jen had talked to the doctors briefly, asked if it was okay to use the shower and, when they had told her that was fine, done so. Now there was little left to do but wait for morning.
There was a knock on the door, and Jen looked over. Brian — the human Brian — peeked his head in. He looked clean and was wearing a new set of clothes. Jen gave him a tired wave.
“They said visiting hours were over, but I talked them into letting me stop by for a few minutes. One of the nurses is pretty young and when I said he was my best friend and I just wanted to make sure he was okay, I guess she took pity on me.”
“I told them I was his girlfriend,” Jen said. “I wasn’t sure if they’d let me stay otherwise. Where’d you get the clothes?”
“Had some cash hidden away. I figured if I was going to try to get in here, I should look presentable. I hit the YMCA and took a shower.”
“Nice. You can come in, Brian. You don’t have to stand in the doorway.”
Brian entered the room and took a seat next to her. He looked over at John.
“I’m guessing he’s your man from the surface, huh?”
Jen nodded.
“Seems like he came for you after all.”
“Yeah. I guess he did.”
“Do you love him, Jen?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know him well enough to be able to say that.”
“Fair enough.”
They were quiet for a minute. Jen looked over at him, and Brian met her gaze for a moment before looking away.
“Wow, Brian,” Jen said at last.
“Yeah. Wow.”
“I knew the eyes were different, but… wow. Now I know why you said that people calling you ‘Wolf’ was accurate.”
“I can’t control it, but it’s still me in there, no matter what it looks like.”
“I know. I heard you talk. You saved John and me. Tossed that fucker across the room. Did you kill him?”
“He was breathing when I left him,” Brian said.
“That’s probably good. You don’t want to be a murderer.”
“I don’t know if it’d be so bad, in this case,” Brian said.
Jen looked at him with sad eyes and said “It is. Trust me.”
Brian tilted his head, questioning, and said nothing. Jen shrugged.
“We’ve all got our secrets, right Brian?”
He nodded.
“I’ll fill you in on mine sometime. It’s only fair. John’s got his share, too, and I think I can get him to tell you. Then we’ll be even.”
