Checking the time on her phone, Jackie cursed under her breath and picked up her pace.
Not again. She really couldn’t be late.
She sighed in relief as she rounded the corner of a building and the library entered her line of sight. Her sigh quickly turned into one of dwindling patience as another person bumped her shoulder, this hustle and bustle grew with the crowd dragging her toward the stairs that would lead her to the library in no time.
It had to be the first and last moment in her life where she was glad to be tossed around in a swarm of moving bodies heading in the same place as her, this was a faster transportation than her feet could manage.
The typical student complaints were skirting past her, she caught snags of conversations, like a teacher giving out B''s for students turning their assignment in without dating it, some other tragic guy grumbled about missing last night’s party and his shouts of apologies were hurting her ears.
She wrapped her trench coat tighter, closer to her chest, shuddering from the winter breeze. Jackie pushed her stiff body through the doorway. The smell of freshly brewed coffee pulled her toward the indoor cafe section and she joined the line that was gathered by the entrance. After placing her order and receiving her coffee and cream bagel, Jackie turned, eyes scanning for her group. The heat from the paper cup helped defrost her hands.
“Jackie, over here!” Robin waved her over, wildly. Jackie raised her cup toward her and the rest of her group before walking toward them. It took some time for Jackie to notice Kenny frowning at her. His mouth was opened to voice a complaint which was cut short by Ben who held his hand up, fixing her with a disapproving glare from his place at the head of the table.
Rising from his chair, Ben asked, “Decided to take your time, didn’t you?”
She gave a helpless shrug.
“I lost track…?”
“Jackie, when do you ever lose track of time?” Kenny said. Not waiting for her to reply, he added, “ Now that I think about it, you barely participate in meetings anymore. Is something going on?”
All Jackie did was whistle in response, her eyes finding any attempt to avoid his inquisitive gaze.
“She must have been busy with other projects and hasn''t had the time to join us. Things like this happen. Right, Ben?” Robin asked, beseeching Ben with her doe-like eyes.
Jackie snorted, almost choking and dropping everything in her hands. She quickly recovered and rescued the falling items. Robin’s attempt at convincing wasn’t enough, going by the seriousness on the man’s face. Nothing was more important than getting approval to cross the boundary. This could put their names in the history books forever. At that time, Jackie thought it best to take a seat before someone said something ridiculous and she succeeds spilling her breakfast onto the floor.
Ben cleared his throat, saying, “As I was saying before, the department heads thinks we’re fools chasing myths with no research. At least that’s how they treat us. So we have no real backing for anything we try to do from here on out.”
“But we’ve been asking to cross the boundary for weeks now. If we cross, we can just find out for ourselves. It’ll all be in our reports,” Jackie said.
“We don’t know what’s behind the boundary anyway,” Ben commented.
“Besides werewolves,” Kenny whispered behind the cover of the book he held, titled: The Werewolves Who Walked Among Us.
“What matters most is our safety,” Robin said.
Her eyes drifted from face to face, noticing the unsettled looks they exchanged and the way their lips twisted with disgust each time someone said something they disagreed with. Just as quickly, they began arguing and Jackie took that as her cue to withhold her opinion. She really hadn’t missed this.
The librarian was lingering close by, her eyebrows raised with a warning every time their volume elevated slightly.
“Imagine if there are vampires—" Kenny began.
"Like the ones who feast on our blood—” Robin said.
"If there are dragons, do you think they live in caves? Hoarding gold? We could be rich if we found their caves.” Kenny suggested.
“Or we''d be burned alive—”
“What about angels?”
“Let''s hope there isn''t any gods there with a hatred toward humans and sics his holy soldiers on us.” Robin replied.
“Why don’t we just submit a letter to the dean?” Jackie asked, blowing over her paper cup before taking a sip of coffee. Her question brought silence to the table, their usual bickering ending abruptly. Robin folded her glossy lips inward and rubbed her right arm. Awkwardness settled around every corner of the table. Kenny buried his nose deeper in his book, his floppy curls fell over his eyes, the only thing poking out from above the edge of the cover.
Robin’s concerned gaze wandered between Jackie and Ben.
“Even if we do that, Jacqueline, he won’t even acknowledge it. We are his charity cases. There’s no other college in the state that has majors for the supernatural except ours. That’s how uninterested the world is in the research we’ve been working on. He wouldn’t even open our emails. Do we even have anything? We have nothing!” He lowered his voice when the librarian made a sharp shushing noise, they all turned to look at her. The woman shot glares at them. “What do you expect us to do?”—in a harsh, exasperated whisper—“Produce projects we don’t have? We need this approval. A decision you openly despise.”
“Of course, I despise it. Why can’t we do it ourselves? How many months do we have to wait until we can get the proper funding for a trip like this? They won’t even let us step foot in the door. You keep talking about our failures and I’m starting to think you’re using it as an excuse to hide your fear.”
His mouth tightened, his expression sour. He looked toward the others and when no one came to his defense, he took a seat.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
No one knew where the barrier came from; its mystical magnetic field was still a huge mystery—the physics majors seemed to have that covered. The supernatural magicks majors at her school were following right behind them and neither conflicting field made any important discoveries. They just didn’t know enough. So when Ben began to push for more definitive data and studies, he persuaded their professor to join the ‘revolution of humanity’. They formed groups and were given separate tasks that would push and intimidate the researching committee’s president to approve their future adventures. Two weeks in, and reports came of students who passed the boundary going missing, that was when Ben’s demeanor changed. He stressed over the committee’s disapproval of their research. By then, there was fear in his eyes. His bravado was shaken and in need of repair.
“I know we''re all scared and curious. But I want us to swallow that fear and act on our curiosity. We can''t keep allowing these measly papers and money to keep us from a world we know is worth exploring. I doubt we need money, but we can raise funding for ourselves just in case. We can ask for donations online and here on campus. Then when we have enough, we can cross the boundary.”
“That sounds like a solid plan.” Robin said, nodding encouragingly toward Ben. Her fist bumped his arm. “Right, Pres?”
He grumbled his agreement.
Robin and Kenny cheered.
A heartbeat later, their eyes locked on the librarian. They flinched, shushing each other with an index finger to their lips, and opted for punching the air in celebratory silence. The scowling librarian nodded her approval, crossing her arms loosely.
The meeting was over and they finally had a plan to work with, Jackie smiled. This could actually work.
She sprinted across the brownish yellow lawn toward her car, accidentally hitting her knee on its bumper as she climbed into the driver’s seat. She drove home while humming the tunes of her favorite jazz singer. Her shoulders swayed back and forth to the rhythm in her head. It was time to take their research into their own hands.
Werewolves didn’t normally survive after they were revealed to the public. They disappeared as soon as they surfaced. In her ethics class, she read a case study file on two wolves that were captured. The dissection and mutilation of their dead bodies were horrifying to see. The file detailed how the early scientists in this field began their experiments with a female werewolf, referred to as Subject 034 remained in her wolf form and, upon death; she became human while Subject 035 stayed human and died that way. There was no mention of whether anesthesia was used.
They starved them before eviscerating these poor wolves. Still they found no leads on why they transformed or even the rate of healing for werewolves. Everything documented were failed hypotheses aside from the controversial evidence that supported the claim of how werewolves communicated with each other while they were in the form of a wolf. The tortures they detailed and disguised as necessary experiment processes were enough for me to know just how corrupt the research department truly was.
With that thought in her mind, she shot a text to her friend, Riley.
Meet me at my place in an hour.
When Jackie turned into her apartment’s garage, she walked out with the same sashay to her hips and bounce in her walk. She did a little twirl after locking her car then tossed her keys into the air from one hand to the other, picking up her humming habit again. Should she check her mailbox? The thought was washed away by her best saxophone impersonations. She skipped her way up the stairs. It didn''t take long for her to reach her door, 206.
The door swung open, almost knocking her back with it. Riley stood with her hands on her hips in the doorway. She raised her hand to her mouth, her eyes widening.
“Oops, I heard your keys and your humming. I didn’t know you were that close. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. How did you get here so fast? I pretty much just sent that message.”
"Long story short, I needed peanut butter. You know how your dad sent that delicious—" Jackie clamped her hand over her friend’s mouth. Despite her tightening grip, the stubborn brunette moved her head around and continued to speak into her hand, although it was completely muffled. Jackie would’ve laughed but something was wrong.
Jackie changed her grip, her other hand moving to hold firm to the back of Riley’s neck as she crouched to a squatting position, bringing her best friend with her. Anger rose in her chest.
"Someone’s been here," Jackie whispered darkly, an animal’s odor reaching them. She released Riley and stood. Walking further into the apartment, she tried to figure out what animal the smell belonged to when another fragrance filled her nostrils. It was…
Blood.
Jackie licked her lips and searched for its source.
Kill! Kill! Kill!
They must die!
Whoever it was invaded her home and her instincts were screaming that whomever it was, had signed their own death sentence. Dark splotches of blood were splattered on the burgundy carpet, Jackie crouched down again and sniffed. Something was familiar about this scent, but recognition evaded her. The familiar smell clotted the air around her, intoxicated, she followed its scent to the living room. Her gaze skipped over the pristine couches that were just the way she’d left them that morning and the television hung on the wall, untouched. The wolf smell lingering here was faint and fading. Jackie spun in a circle, trying to track any signs of where the animal hid.
Her desk which sat in front of a window was covered in the scent. Jackie peered out the window and down at the parking lot. She leaned closer to the glass and inhaled deeply.
“Uh… what’s going on, you weirdo? Don’t tell me you’re gonna lick that?” Riley asked.
A hand touched her shoulder when she whipped her head toward Riley. She had to hold herself back from lunging at Riley. She growled instead.
Riley looked at her curiously, not knowing how close Jackie was to harming her.
“Hey, look at this,” Riley said, pointing down toward the top of her desk.
Jackie was more interested in the scent but she glanced over anyway. Her research binders were open, the pages spread across the mahogany surface. It wasn’t her prey so she dismissed this and resumed her search for the intruder. Next was her bedroom. The aroma of blood was stronger here. Everything was as Jackie had left it, her closet door was still open and her clothes were still littered across the floor and her bed. Yanking the sheets away, she flung them behind her, then her eyes locked on the bathroom door. She clambered toward it, sliding and stumbling as she got closer.
Her breathing came in quick pants as she pulled the door open with a victorious grin on her face. Running in, she skidded to a halt at the scene that greeted her.
Riley grabbed her by the shoulders, leaning over to try and examine her face. “What''s going on with you?”
Jackie didn’t even turn to look at Riley as she flicked on the lights. Jackie lowered her head, tears stinging her eyes as they fell in the momentary silence.
Jackie lifted her head enough to see Riley backing away from the sight of her roommate''s dead body. Riley’s own tears turned to sobs. Jackie couldn''t tear her gaze from his sightless brown eyes. She faintly heard the ringing coming from behind her and a shaky breathing intensify when a woman''s on the other line answered, asking, "911, what''s your emergency?"
"I-I…" Riley gave a false start before she seemed to come out of her shock enough to answer the dispatcher’s questions.
Without the distraction of conversation, Jackie swallowed hard, biting her lip so hard she bled. She fell to her knees, tears flooding and blurring her vision. Simon''s lifeless eyes stared at her, his head crooked on the lip of the tub. They were almost strangers, and yet, he was dead.
Jackie stared at her hands in horror. She was so deadset on killing this intruder that she hadn’t realize the blood belonged to her roommate, to…his name… Of course, she remembered his name. She moved closer to him and placed her hand on his cold arm that hung outside the tub. Who killed you? If only the dead could speak.
More tears fell.
Jackie inhaled a steady breath, examining his mangled and contorted body. If only she had a power that would help her find his killer. The wolf scent. She glanced past her bedroom and toward the living room where she smelled the wolf. Its aroma was still in her nose, even though it was fading. Jackie turned back to Simon. The shattered tiles had blood dripping down in rivulets. Simon''s chest cavity was caved in and his mouth agape. Jackie choked on a sob. He held a piece of paper in his hand—the one she touched—a yellow and blood-stained paper peeking out. Jackie reached down and grabbed it.
Opening the bloodstained note, it read:
Cross the boundary and You''re next.