SPFC: SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES

Cletus Winston was tired. His sister was moving back home. His older brothers were being difficult and he was the only one in the field waiting. He thought about all the things he needed to do. The many people on his many lists. He had a list of who had shunned his mama. He had a list of who had taken his father’s side. He even had a list of who cut him off on the road. And still, he waited. 

His family was supposed to be here. They were supposed to do this together. It was what their mother would want. Of course, she never wanted this to happen. They had to be alone and deal with what their “father” had done. He had hurt the family too many times but when this thing started happening to them. Well, his mama had gone looking for his father. Found him too. Wallup’d him good from what he’d heard when he had pulled up and found a lump of wraiths all tarrying around. They’d pointed him in the direction of his mother. She was sitting on a stool with a blanket around her and her hand all wrapped up like a prizefighter.

She’d told him how she had finally had enough. This was the one thing that pushed her over. Not the lyin’ or the cheatin’ but this. They hadn’t spoken about it again.

Pulled from his thoughts he heard a movement in the woods. These woods held secrets and fears. Now Cletus wasn’t afraid of anything but the stories that people said were in the woods weren’t always things like spiders and bears. No people here said they heard or saw a Wampus Beast or The Mothman. Now Cletus knew that if anyone from around here actually saw one of the cryptids rumored to be living in the Appalachia area, they probably wouldn’t come back either having died from fright or from the monster itself.

Monsters. Cletus thought about that word. It was a different word than it used to be. A long time ago he thought his father and his friends were monsters. Turned out he wasn’t wrong but just about what they did and who they did it to.

The noises were closer now and more of them from different directions. Cletus took a deep breath and looked around. He was sure that his family was coming and then they could begin.

He sighed again. Begin. This whole thing was just weird. He knew they all were having trouble adjusting. With his mama gone and no one talked to their father, they were adapting as well as could be but it was awkward.

When this had begun they all had turned to their mother. The strength of Bethany Winston had been this string that held them all together. No matter where they went or what they did, she had this durability even with all that had happened to her. She always had hope. She had faith in her kids even when they had lost it in themselves.

Cletus pulled out of his reverie and saw something move in the shadows of the wood. Out stepped a grey wolf. The size of him was something else. Bigger than anything he had ever seen before. The wolf’s eyes were bright blue and they seemed to be laughing at him.

A voice in his head said “Waiting long little brother?”

Cletus in all his furry glory shook his massive body. “No you fool but you sure took your time getting here. Where is everyone else?”

Billy Winston shuffled his snout. It was funny thinking his brother with the goat tattoo had a snout. Just a few times a month but yeah to think about what those people down in the valley would say if they could see them now.

“Y’all are so loud. Someone is sure to hear you.” A brown wolf smaller than the two in the clearing wandered in.

“Ash” Cletus said … well said wasn’t exactly right. When this first happened, the first change, they all seemed to just know what the others were doing, and then a voice echoed throughout their heads and they just thought about saying something and there it was in the wind. In their heads.

“Yeah, it’s me. I saw two red wolves coming up this way. Guess we’re waiting on Jethro and ..” She trailed off.

A black wolf smaller than the others but also bigger than any normal one entered.

“Roscoe”

The wolf snorted and then two red wolves burst from the trees. They were wrestling and fighting like the two brothers usually did. They had taken to this changing thing more than the rest.

A huge black wolf stood there. Jethro was the one who hated this. The hunting. All of it. He’d been about to marry the love of his life after a life filled with a few troubles. Okay more than a few but this happened and now he’d just cut Sienna off. He wasn’t willing to bring her into this. No matter how much he wished he could.

They looked around at each other. Seven siblings and now seven werewolves. They were out to hunt but also they were looking for the witch who had cursed their father and them by association. She’d said that anyone related to Darrell Winston would suffer. He’d finally fucked over the wrong woman and she had cursed us all. Darrell had run off after Mama had gotten her hit in but we only knew that a witch had done this.

“I think I know who did this to us,” Jethro said in all our heads. The wolves' heads rounded to look at their oldest brother. “I heard some rumblings in town about a coven near here. Maybe the one who made us like this is there. Maybe we can have a chat with her.”

“Or maybe rip her throat out,” said Billy. Gruff ain’t got nothin’ on him.

“Billy” the voice of our calm sister echoed in our heads. “We can’t rip her throat out. At least not until she ends this curse and we can all be who we want to be. Trust me I’m not thrilled about Drew being in these woods while we do this. I have to tell him soon.”

“Nah, little sister. Have faith” Jet said as he took off into the night. “Tonight we find who did this.”

And with that, we all shot out of the clearing and towards our future. Whatever that might be.