XVII Appearing: King Hyrule as Lucas Shaw
: Horsefan1023 as Rebecca "Becca" Seely Author's Note: This is the final chapter of this story. Special thanks to all those who have read, and more thanks to those who took the time to review. It makes me smile. I used the names of these characters without permission of those involved. Hopefully none of them mind. This chapter turned out, in my opinion, better than the first draft, which was just James' explanation of why he moved to Redford, and how Nicolas Shaw became a werewolf. In this chapter I pretend to be all in-depth and analytical about the human condition
Enjoy, and once again: thanks!
--Goose.
PS: The story, and any sequels that may follow, are meant to be read like a TV Show. Not like a TV show script, per se. But a show is how I imagined it all set up. That's mostly why I've added the
"Appearing" at the beginning of each chapter. Imagine them all together in a sort of opening/end credits.
PPS: This is the first story I've started and finished; with something close to an original plot, and not about the Animorphs in the slightest. I was inspired, however, by Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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October had arrived, and Lucas Shaw was hoping to start the new month with a sort of optimism that had been lacking in September. Though, that is not to say that he had completely gotten over the events that took place down in the cave—which had been sealed up and kept hidden by Mike Phoenix and the dabblers, to prevent other students from stumbling upon its devious secrets. It took time for Becca, Lucas and Nicolas, as well as all those involved, to come to terms with what had happened; and it would take longer, still, to completely recover-- if such a recovery was even possible. It was difficult to look over the fact that the mastermind behind the killings in Redford Vale was Lucas’ best friend.
There was a quaint little park next to one of the elementary schools in town—Pritchard Elementary School. Lucas, having woken up around 6:00 in the morning and unable to go back to sleep decided to wander the halls of the Finch Building. He ran into a restless Becca, who suggested the two go for a walk.
“Where are we going?” Lucas asked, buttoning up his coat. The summer warmth had long since passed; winter seemed to be coming early.
“I don’t really know.” She said with a half-laugh. “I figured we’d just walk.”
They exited the Finch building. There weren’t many people awake at 6:00 in the morning on a Saturday. Neither of them was surprised. The ignorant slept long and well. Lucas couldn’t remember what it was like to have a peaceful night’s sleep. He envied those people in town, still in denial about what had happened in Redford Vale the previous month; those who didn’t have to dream about their best friend stabbing them in the back—in two different ways.
“You ready for the test on Monday?” Lucas asked.
“Which test?” Becca sighed.
“No clue. I just figured we’d have a test to study for.” He looked up at Becca. “You know, normal stuff.”
“I don’t remember normal, much.” Becca replied. “All I know is that I rather enjoyed it.”
“Same.” Lucas agreed. “So, how do we get back to it?”
“Beats me.”
They walked on in silence. All that could be heard was the shaking of the leaves on the trees, and the song of the blackbirds. He actually found it rather peaceful. Nature was good; it was pure. The nipping of the wind would have bothered Lucas over a year ago, but now it only made him appreciate the beauty around him.
“The weather’s nice.” Lucas commented. “A bit cold, but nice.”
“Redford looks nice around the winter.” Becca said. “Mostly around Christmas. After January, the snow just gets all hard and black.”
“We got that back in Toronto.” Lucas nodded.
Another short pause. Then: “What was it like?”
“A bit like now, honestly.” Lucas told her. “Quiet. Cool.”
“I didn’t mean Toronto.”
“I know what you meant.” He said, stopping to face her. “I could tell you’ve all wanted to ask.”
“It’s just something we’ve been wondering. Don’t get upset.”
“I’m not.” Lucas sighed. “No. I’d probably ask you if the situations were reversed.”
They continued walking. Becca felt the conversation was too delicate fort the moment. She decided to change the topics.
“Were you ever going to tell me about Nicolas?”
“Listen, I wanted to tell you things.” Lucas assured her. “It’s not like I purposely dawned this little air of mystery to win over people. I want to tell you things like what life was like in Toronto, but then I’d have to mention my family. And my family…We’re not normal. And that’s not just because of the whole Nick being a werewolf thing.”
There was another period of silence. By now Lucas and Becca had come across the park by Pritchard Elementary. Lucas stepped across the large sand box and took a seat at one of the swings. Becca followed him, taking the place of the swing right next to him.
“We found the werewolf that did it.” Lucas said, finally. “The one that bit Nick? James tracked him down about three months after the fact. Not too long after my parents were killed.”
Becca waited for him to continue. Now wasn’t the time to interrupt.
“We were being secretive about it all. James said we’d have to. He told us that he’d be able to fix it. So we kept everyone else in the dark. And he did a decent job of it for a long while. And he kept saying things like, ‘I’m close to figuring it out. It shouldn’t be much longer.’ But he wasn’t. He knew it; I knew it. The only person who didn’t have a clue was Nick. Nick’s pretty hopeful when it comes to hopeless things like that.
“My dad was just tired of the whole secrecy thing, though.” Lucas continued. “He didn’t get why I was hanging around my cousin so much. So, he and my mom followed us on one of the night that Nick was transformed.”
Becca couldn’t stop herself: the horrified expression on her face, and the “Oh God…” the followed was beyond her control.
James of course felt like it was all his fault. He always blames himself. So when he found out that the guy that bit Nick a pretty much screwed us all over lived in the same city, he hunted the man down and killed him. It’s not hard to find a werewolf after the night of a transformation. James found the guy lying in the woods, waited for the guy to come to, and shot him in the head with a silver bullet. After that we got good at lying low.”
Becca simply offered Lucas a sympathetic look. She had words, of course, but they were impersonal and typical when hearing someone vent—the “I’m so sorry,” and “sounds rough.” The look of sympathy was the best she could give her friend at the time. Sometimes there’s more power in a look than there is a well written sentence.
“I want to thank you, again, for saving my life.”
Lucas laughed. “I wasn’t just going to let you die.”
“No. But you didn’t stop either. Even when it looked like that demon was going to kill you, you put your life on the line to save me. If it weren’t for you…”
“I would’ve done it all the same way.” Lucas told her. “I don’t regret any of it.”
“You died that night.” She reminded him. “What if you couldn’t come back?”
Lucas shrugged. “I guess it wouldn’t have been so bad. I mean, it wasn’t all that bad, to be honest.”
“Were you…you know. There?”
“I don’t really know.” He admitted. “But it was quiet. A good kind of quiet, I mean. And cool. Kinda like right now.” He smiled up at Becca. “Maybe I was here that whole time.”
“In Redford?”
“No. Here at this park.” Lucas said. “Here on this swing, in the fall. With all the leaves changing, but not falling just yet. When it’s cool, but not too cold that you can’t go out. Maybe I was sitting here at the park the whole time. That moment I remember back in the cave, when I…you know, left…This is the closest thing to that.”
“Sounds nice.”
“But this isn’t all that bad either.” Lucas grinned. “I’m still glad to be here. Even if I wasn’t out of it for very long.”
“Even if you have to go to school on Monday?”
Lucas thought about that. “Will you guys be there?”
Becca smiled and nodded.
“Well, as long as I’m not going it alone.”
The walk back to Finch was quiet. It wasn’t silent. Conversation was made—trivial things like school, Romeo and Juliet, and Nelson Pryor’s cast were discussed. But the overall tone was quiet; something close to peace.
They had reached the fourth floor, and were about to walk into their respective apartments. Lucas hesitated at the door.
“He can’t know, Becca.” He said. “He isn’t ready to know what he did.”
“I won’t tell a soul.” She promised.
Lucas nodded. He opened the door to 4D.
Credits Roll
