Fur

I fell asleep as soon as I hit the pillow and slept soundly throughout the night. If I had any dreams, I don't remember them. Sometime in the early morning though, I awakened and lay there in bed thinking about everything.

I thought about Drea. She was beautiful but I wasn't in love with her anymore; more and more my heart belonged to Nadja. I was sure that if she grew her hair out a little bit, she'd be at least as attractive as Drea and her beauty would last far longer. That was when I made the connection. That was when I put it all together. I'd started thinking about how beautiful Nadja's big gray eyes were and then I realized that they were the same eyes that dog thing had.

I sat up in my bed in a cold sweat. Then I laughed out loud. I must be going crazy I thought. This is the real world. What was I thinking? Nadja was some kind of dog girl? Oh my God, my girlfriend is a werewolf.

I got up and decided to go to the restaurant for breakfast. I looked around and didn't see her. Another waitress came over to my table and asked me to take my order. She was cute in a chunky, mom-like way. "Where's Nadja?" I asked.

"Oh she doesn't come in this early unless someone else is off," she said. "And she's taking today off too. So what can I get you?"

"Nadja's phone number," I said.

"Let me guess," she smirked. "You're Jack, right?" I nodded.

"I shouldn't be surprised," she said. "For the past few weeks everyone around here has been talking about Jack and Nadja. Did you know she hurt one of the other waitresses for waiting on you?"

I told her I had heard about it.

You said before that she only has worked her a short time -- in fact she started the day Jack came in -- now you say she has worked here almost a year -- only about a month or two have gone by.

"That girl has worked here for almost a year. She's one of the few here, besides me that doesn't fuck the customers and then you come along and she goes crazy. So what is it? What do you have that's got her so hooked on you? Let me guess, I've heard you talk so you don't have a really smooth line of shit. You dress like you work in the warehouse down the street so you aren't rich. That means you have to have like, a foot long dick that's as thick as beer can, right?" she asked.

"Nadja's never been with a man so once you lit her up that first time, she just became addicted to you, right?" she asked.

"Uhm I think it's more the other way around," I said. "We've never had sex. In fact when she brought it up I told her I'd rather have us date first so we could get to know each other. In fact, we've never seen each other outside of this restaurant yet. And you'll notice that all you ever hear about is me coming here to see her day after day. Do you really think I'm coming here for the food?"

She looked at me and her expression changed. Then she sighed. "I'm saved," she said.

"From what?" I asked.

"From possibly getting in trouble," she said. "I believed you. I looked at you and I really think that you're a good guy and that you care about Nadja. I was going to give you her phone number but..."

"But what?" I asked.

"But since she's standing behind you I don't have to," she said. She turned and walked away towards another table.

Nadja looked at me cautiously. I smiled at her and looked at her. She was wearing tights again. She also had a long sleeved T-shirt on so I couldn't see whether or not the thick hair was still on her arms. The light covering of hair on her cheeks was still evident.

"I'm not working today Jack," she said. "I should have told you."

"Yep, we could have had our date today and spent the entire day together," I said.

"Oh no," she said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"It's my time of the month, Jack," she said. "My hormones go crazy. I get all bloated and I even get hairier. I'm irritable and cranky. I just don't want to subject you to it yet."

"Well it's okay," I said "I have something important to do today anyway."

"Jack, we can mate tomorrow night, I promise," she said.

"Nadja, I'm in no hurry for that," I told her.

"I am, Jack," she said. "It will be my first time."

"Honey, we can wait for that. I want to get to know you," I said.

"What's there to know?" she asked. "I'm a female, you're a male, we're each other's perfect mates. We'll be together until we die."

I was shocked. "What about love, respect and compatibility?" I asked.

"What about our plans for the future?" I asked. "What about music, food and raising children."

"I like the music you like," she said. "I'll eat whatever you want me to and I'll bear your cu...children willingly."

For a second there I was sure that Nadja had meant to say something else. Was she going to that she'd bear my cute little kids or was it cunts or what?"

"But how do you now that we're right for each other?" I asked.

"We're connected," she said. "Here." she touched my forehead and then her own. "And here." she touched her own chest and then mine.

Two police officers came over to our table after that, interrupting any further conversation.

"We'd like to ask you two a few questions," said one of the officers. "Last night, there were four bodies found behind this restaurant. Two of them were dead another will never walk again and the last one is in a coma."

Nadja was as cool as a cucumber. "I saw nothing," she said, shaking her head. The way she said it reminded me of an old TV show. The show was called Hogan's Heroes. She reminded me of one of the German guards in the prisoner of war camp, Sgt Schultz. "I know nothing at all," she continued.

"Well it probably happened after you left to go home," said the cop. "What about you sir?"

"Well we uh... left at kind of the same time and ended up in kind of the same place," I said. It was a mild lie.

"Oh, uhm, I got it," said the policeman. From his tone he assumed that Nadja and I had gone off somewhere together to have sex.

"Well we didn't think either of you had done anything," said the cop. "We just wondered if you'd seen anything. I'm pretty sure I know what happened. I've seen this shit before. In fact I'm probably an expert on it."

"So what happened," I asked.

"These guys are bikers. They're all usually fighting and doing drugs anyway. So no one is really going to cry because a couple of them got put down. Society as a whole is better off and smarter too without their IQ's bringing the cumulative average intelligence down. The one guy who can talk is all over the place talking about giant dogs attacking him and his friends."

"Giant dogs?" I said.

"Remember, we're talking about a bunch of drug smoking bikers," he said.

"Both of the survivors had all kinds of drugs in their systems. We're not too far away from the woods and last night was a full moon. Tonight is too. We could have had a wolf or a bear smelling the restaurant's garbage and just stroll on over here. Our bikers were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm sure none of the people they harassed or abused will worry about them. Thanks for your time," he said.

As the cops walked over to the counter to ask another waitress about the previous evening, Nadja and I started again. She reached across the table to hold my hand and her body seemed to be taken over with involuntary shivering.

"I want you bad," she said. "Tomorrow night for sure."

"Well can we at least meet here and have dinner tonight?" I asked.

"It has to be before dark," she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because it has to be, "she said.

"See you then," I said. As I got up I stood over her and kissed her cheek lightly.

I looked at my watch and realized that I had barely enough time to get showered and changed before my appointment with my grandfather's lawyer.

I went home and showered. I made myself as clean as possible. Somehow I never considered the men that had been hurt or killed in the alley the night before. I'd put them totally out of my mind. I guess it was because, I hadn't personally killed anyone and because they deserved it. Besides, in just a few moments the game would be over with anyway. I'd go to the office, speak to the lawyer and emerge a rich man. I'd already moved on in terms of both the place I lived and my lifestyle. I was also already moved on from Drea. Whatever happened to those guys was their own fault, or maybe it was Drea's fault or her brother's. None of that had anything to do with me.

I put on a suit for once and met the lawyer in his office. I was actually waiting in his outer office when he came in.

"Good Lord," he said. "You have to get used to the fact that you don't have to do this kind of thing anymore," he said.

"You have your "Fuck you," money now," he said. I looked at him strangely.

"That means that you don't have to put up with anything from anyone, anymore," he said. "You have enough money to tell anybody that you don't like, "Fuck you."

"You can say it out loud and not have to worry about reprisals," he continued. "Life is like a shit sandwich. The more bread you have, the less shit you have to eat. And you now have a lot of bread."

"You never have to worry about getting up to go to work again, if you don't want to," he said.

"I actually don't mind going to work," I said. He looked at me strangely.

"You don't?" he asked.

"Nope, I don't mind going to work," I said. "But that eight hour waiting period before you go home is just bullshit!" We both laughed at that.

I signed a few papers and gave him the routing numbers for my bank accounts. All of the cash and securities from my grandfather's estate were transferred to me, including a large amount of cash and some very liquid securities. I breathed a sigh of relief. I'd been jumping through hoops for years but the money was finally mine.

I still didn't feel any different. Yesterday, I'd been a night shift warehouse manager. I'd graduated from college but was the low man on the totem pole in terms of seniority at my job so I got the shittiest shift. Today, I'm independently wealthy. I guess it just hadn't hit me yet.

I went home to think about what I wanted to do. I was smart enough not to make any major moves or change anything immediately. I wasn't going to treat this like I'd won the lottery and just start doing really stupid things.

I must've really been preoccupied because as I drove home I didn't really notice anything. I was sitting in my kitchen trying to decide if I even wanted to stay out the three month trial lease or just buy a nice house when my cell phone rang.

I answered it without looking at the screen.

"Jack, remember when you called me the other night and you used Jerry's phone so I couldn't call you back?" she asked. It was Drea.

"Well you must've forgotten but when you called me while you were talking to Spike, you used your own phone. And it's a good thing you did too honey, because if you hadn't made that little slip I wouldn't have been able to call you. I like to think that you did it on purpose because down deep you really aren't ready to give up on us yet."

"What do you want Andrea?" I asked.

"Ooh Andrea, is it?" she asked. "You never call me that, Honey. You were the one who gave me my name. It's Drea. Andrea is the slut. Drea is the one who loves you. Anyway, I just called to tell you that my brother is really pissed at you. You got a lot of his friends either hurt or killed and the police are looking at his club to find out where they get their drugs. Gus was so pissed that he set your truck on fire."

I dropped the phone and ran over to the window. I looked down into the parking lot outside of the building and my truck was definitely burning. I ran out of the apartment and into the parking lot. I tried to pull the hose from the side of the building that the gardeners used for the landscaping over to the truck. I got it close enough and just as I started to hose down the truck, the lights went out.

They had played me for a sucker. I was still groggy when I woke up back in my apartment tied to a chair. Gus sat in front of me smiling.

"Not quite as smart as you thought you were, are ya?" he said.

"Get your fucking feet off of my God damned couch," I snapped.

He pulled his feet down and looked at me. "There's no reason for us to get upset with each other, brother in law," he said.

"Look, we both said and did some terrible things that we're sorry for. The main thing I want to do is get us all back together so we can be a family again."

"In fact, I can be out of your hair forever in a half hour or so," he said.

"Better yet, you could take all of your friends and walk the fuck out of my life right now," I said. "That would be even faster and even better."

"Jack, Jack, Jack," he said. "You fail to see the big picture here. I'm the only thing standing between you and the long arm of the law. All of that money will do you no good if your ass is rotting in jail."

"What are you talking about?" I asked. I looked at the clock. "How long was I knocked out? It's getting dark. Shit, you assholes made me miss my dinner with Nadja."

"Is that the skinny little chick that you replaced my sister with?" he asked. "I do have a thing for the skinny ones. I like the way they just get to screaming when you fuck em. But we have business to discuss and in a way it's a good thing that you missed out on seeing her. You belong with Drea. Look at her tits spilling out of that shirt. If I wasn't her brother and I wasn't already married, I'd fuck her myself."

"Gus, you already did, that's what caused us to break up," I snapped.

"That don't count, I was drunk," he said. "And so was she. But she's going to give up drinking and I'm sure you two will move away somewhere soon so let's just forget about that and worry about keeping you out of jail."

"I'm in no danger of going to jail," I said.

"Think about that carefully brother in law," he said. "Remember the night you ran out on my sister. You broke a man's jaw with his own God damned helmet. That was fucking incredible, I'll tell you. Even as drunk as I was, I realized that you were something special. You ain't the biggest guy I know or the strongest, but you seemed to be able to make time stand still. He jumped at you. I was going to try to scream for him not to hurt you because you were Drea's future husband, but I couldn't get my mouth to work. I guess once again it was because I was so fucking out of it." He shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

"But even as he flew towards you, you picked up that helmet and swung it faster than anything I remember. The helmet was just a blur. And that crack when it hit his jaw. That bastard is still being fed through a tube today. They say that he may never be able to move his jaw enough to ever really talk again. He may also never have enough strength in that jaw to chew solid food."

"We told the cops and told him to write down for them that he'd gotten drunk and just fell down the stairs and landed on his jawbone. I don't think they believed it, but since they don't have another story, that's what they have to go on. Then there's the other night. I lost four men. Two of them are dead. One of them is still in a coma and the last one has gone fucking crazy. Then there's Jerry. Ever since that night in the alley that fucker is afraid of the dark. He even sleeps with the lights on and he's talking about giant dogs attacking them, but leaving you alone."

"I figure that you bought some kind of attack trained rare breed of dog or maybe some kind of trained bear and set it loose on my boys. That would put you down for two counts of murder and two counts of felony assault," he smiled.

"But if we can work all of this out like family...you can go your way and I'll go mine," he said.

"Fuck you," I said.

"Look I'm only asking you for two things," he said. "One thing is for me and one for my sister. But she seems to have changed her God damned mind. I want you to give me a little bit of money. With my connections I can use that seed money to buy enough product to get rich on my own. Who knows, in a few years I might have to loan you some money."

"How much is a little?" I asked.

"A half a million," he said.

"And I was going to say that you should give Andrea a similar amount for her pain and suffering, but for some reason that dumb girl wants you back. She even wants to sign a paper saying that you don't have to pay her or give her shit. She really does love you. In exchange for you taking her back, she'll never tell the cops that you killed and maimed our friends. So you see brother in law, for less than twenty percent of your money, you get everything. You get me out of your life and you get the girl too. And if the two of you move away somewhere and start all over you won't even have to worry about me fucking her."

At that moment I got the weirdest feeling. I couldn't exactly put it into words but I knew what was about to happen.

"What do you say?" he smiled. "Do we have a deal?"

"What about my truck?" I asked, trying to stall for time.

"Fuck, Jack, you're a millionaire. Buy another one," he said. "You killed and maimed five human beings. Forget about that old truck." The feeling in my head was alarming now. I smiled.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked. "Do we have a deal?"

Drea had moved over near me and was rubbing her large breasts against my arm. "Drea, in a fucked up sort of way I really believe that you do kind of love me. So I'm going to save your life. Take your clothes off now. Take them into the shower with you. You need to wash every trace of my scent off of you and your clothes. If you don't, you're going to die."

She looked at me crazily, but she ran into the bathroom shedding her clothes as she went. "God that bitch is stupid," snapped Gus. "She loves you so much that she just does whatever you tell her to. That's why I've had to take care of her for all of her life. She's just too God damned dumb to live. God gave her that incredible body and not enough brains to..."

Gus was interrupted by the sound of the heavy door splintering. Even with the lights on it was scary. In less than a second, both of the men in front of the door were screaming and bleeding profusely as something reached from the hallway into the well lit room and took them out.

The other two men with Gus retreated further into the room. "What the fuck is that?" asked Gus. He had turned very pale. I could hear Drea running the water in the shower. And then it happened. A creature from hell stepped slowly into the room. There was no point in arguing with those large grey eyes. It tilted its head back and howled. One of the men with Gus pissed on himself right then. Gus turned to me in a fit of panic.

"Jack, I was just joking," he said. "Call it off."

"Shoot it," he said to his men. They both suddenly remembered they'd brought guns. The first one took a shot at the creature. He unloaded his clip into its hide. The bullets thudded into the furry body and their impacts were felt throughout the room. The creature didn't go down though. In fact, the bullets only seemed to piss it off. It grabbed my brand new flat screen TV off of the wall and flung it across the room as if it weighed less than a pound. The TV caught the gunman in the side of his head and crushed it. There was gray matter all over the walls and the ceiling. For years I'd heard that TV was destroying our brains, but that was the first time I really believed it.

The creature growled and turned towards the second gunman. He looked at it and then ran over to the window and just jumped. We were three floors up, but he figured that going out was better.

Gus turned towards me, "Please Jack," he whined. Gus was finally close enough to me for me to reach him. My arms were still tied to the chair but they'd left my legs loose. I kicked him in the nuts as hard as I could manage. He was still grabbing his crotch in shock when the creature thrust its claws through his rib cage and howled in triumph. Gus dropped to the floor in front of me. He was dead before his body stained the carpet.