The Witch and the Werewolf Read Online Free PDF Page B

twisted
metal.
    “ I just wanted to enjoy
the night and die,” the beast roared, its voice guttural and
canine. “Why can’t you people leave me alone? I do not want this
life any longer.”
    Dutch got to his feet,
drawing the .45 Colt 1911 at his hip. The old preacher had given
him a magazine of silver rounds for it and he hoped that the old
movies were right. He pulled the trigger, but his aim was off as
the monster darted to the side, shoving people out of his way like
dominoes stacked to fall. The round caught the werewolf in the
shoulder, however, and spun him around backwards. The beast tripped
over a person and landed on the pavement. The crowd surged away,
trying to scatter from the beast. Dutch took the opportunity to put
three more rounds into the beast. It howled in pain as blood flowed
freely from the smoking wounds.
    Dutch recovered the silver
rope and walked towards the beast. It spasmed as if exposed to
nerve agents. Drool ran down its long snout and the beast’s body
began to twitch, changing back into its human form.
    Hope he isn’t too dead,
Dutch thought, looping the silver rope around the thing’s hands and
feet. And damn is he going to be heavy.
    “ Nothing to see here,
folks,” he told the gathered crowd. “Go back to watching the end of
the world.”
    The explosions lit the
night sky as the UN’s nuclear missiles slammed into the comet. He
resisted the urge to look up, knowing what might result. The crowd
oohed and awed, impressed with the fireworks show as missile after
missile slammed home. Then he began to hear the screams and the
crying, the outrage as people’s eyes melted out of their
faces.
    Don’t look up, he thought,
hefting the heavy load of the bleeding and unconscious werewolf
across his shoulders. Don’t look up and get going.
    “ It’s falling into the
Gulf!” he heard someone scream and tried to pick up the pace. A
rock that big formed the Gulf of Mexico and many scientists said
that’s what had caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. This isn’t
going to be good.
    “ Wonderful,” he breathed,
carrying his heavy load. “You could have been drinking a beer
somewhere…”
     
    “ They’ll lick it champ,” Jeremy’s father said. “I wouldn’t
worry about it in the least. Everything will be just dandy. You
wait and see.”
    He and his father sat atop
their home in La Porte, Texas on Houston’s south east side. Jeremy
had been glued to the television for the last three years, watching
as Wormwood was first discovered and then progressed towards their
world. He’d read every ounce of post-apocalyptic fiction he could
get on his Kindle since AGT-1475 had been spotted in the night
skies. He knew, without a doubt, that everything would not be all
right. He felt it in his bones.
    “ I don’t know that we
ought to be up here, Dad,” Jeremy told his father. “The man on the
television said you shouldn’t watch it. They said it will hurt your
eyes.”
    “ Hurt your eyes? You can
look at the sun without hurting your eyes, can’t you?”
    “ No,” he said simply.
“That hurts your eyes.”
    “ Blah,” his father said,
popping the top on another beer. “Man up boy. How many times in
your life are you going to see nuclear missiles go off on a damn
rock from outer space? This is the best movie you’re ever gonna
see!”
    Man up. That’s what his
father always said. Mom died of breast cancer and he cried. Better
man up. Beaten at school for being a little different, better man
up. Manning up was his father’s solution to everything though it
rarely turned out to be an actual solution to anything. Jeremy
didn’t want to be on the roof of their little house watching the
world’s solution to Wormwood. He wanted to be hiding somewhere. He
had an inkling of what came next.
    The first of the missiles
struck Wormwood and Jeremy looked away. His father growled, looking
down at him. “I told you not to be a pansy boy. Look at
it.”
    “ Dad, I really don’t