Inheritance (The Dark Gifts)

Copyright 2011 Willow Cross

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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold
or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase a copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover Art: JH Glaze

General Editor: Brittany Carrigan

General Editor: Kim McKee

ISBN-13: 978-1475095654 

ISBN-10:
1475095651 

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Proudly printed in the United States of America

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“Curiosity often leads to trouble.” -Alice (Alice in Wonderland)

Dedication

For my brothers and sisters.  You’ve protected me, guided me, loved me, and been my friends--even when you didn’
t agree with what I was doing.  I love you.

Chapter One

Bang, clang, bang
reverberated up the basement stairs and throughout the house.  Sarah had already attempted to finish her homework in every room available, but the volume of noise remained equal in each.  At least the kitchen table offered usable workspace.

Every so often a
swoosh
and
tick tick tick
from the portable welder would interrupt the clatter of metal being pounded into place.  Then the bangs would begin again.

She took a sip of coffee and sat her cup on the kitchen table harder than normal.  Hot liquid sloshed over the sides and pooled under the blank sheet of paper that was supposed to have been an essay on slavery in the modern world.  “Crap.” 

The sunflower border atop the yellow walls was obviously meant to imbue a happy, even peaceful, atmosphere. However, the intention fell short.  It didn't even come close to matching her mood.  She stared at the mess on the table as the banging continued.

For the umpteenth time that afternoon, Sarah wondered what Aunt Edna would have done in this situation.  Sure they'd never met, but it would've been nice to have a grownup's perspective.  A scowl crossed her face as she thought of what the last set of foster parents would have done.  Jason would already be in an institution somewhere, if not in jail. 

She sighed and grabbed a paper towel.  Grownups were usually more trouble than they were worth.  Besides, seventeen was pretty darn close to grown up.  Close enough anyhow.

Yesterday was the first she'd heard her brother banging away in the bas
ement.  Until then, Jason had been meticulous about working on his project while she was at school.  And when she'd asked what in the world he was doing, she certainly hadn't been prepared for his answer.

“Ha ha, very funny.” Sarah had rolled her eyes, flipped her auburn hair over her shoulder, and turned to walk away.

Jason grabbed her arm and spun her around.  “This is serious!  Why can’t I remember?  Why do I keep waking up naked in the woods?”

“Do you have any idea how crazy you sound?  You were dreaming.  It must have been a dream.”

His eyes narrowed.  “And I suppose I dreamed the naked run home, cutting between houses, trying to get here without anyone seeing me?”

The thought of her brother running naked through the neighborhood was too funny to ignore.  She was unable to stifle the snort that came through her nose.

Jason’s expression hadn't changed, but his grip strengthened.  His eyes pleaded with her to listen as he whispered, “Why am I covered in blood every time, Sarah.  And why can't I remember?”

She looked pointedly at her arm and he released her.  Rubbing the tender area, she said, “Fine.  I’ll do this, but when nothing comes of it, you have to promise to get help.”

According to Jason, his blackouts had been occurring three times a month.  Coincidently, on the three nights the moon was fullest.  He never remembered anything.  And although he didn't come right out and say it, she knew he thought he was turning into some sort of monster.  He'd been complaining a lot about new hair growing all over him.  But geeze, he was twenty-one.  Aren’t guys supposed to get hairy as they age?

Her immediate reaction was to call a shrink, but the horrifying events of the last few months stopped her.  Newspaper headlines spoke of local police finding several mutilated bodies in the woods surrounding the area.  Police and Townies had dubbed the suspected serial killer, ‘The Full Moon Slasher.'    However, the thought of his being involved in something so irrational, or supernatural, couldn't be taken seriously.  Those kinds of things just didn’t happen.  Ever.

She realized the banging had finally stopped when she heard her brother's voice yell from below.  “It's time.  Come down here and lock the door.”

“Oh for Pete's sake,” she muttered.  Sarah rose and glanced at the small notepad on the table beside her history book. 
Just in case,
she thought as she shoved it in her back pocket and slid a pink gel pen behind her ear.  She turned and stomped down the basement stairs.

*** 

Sarah sighed and leaned against the basement wall.  The musty smell pervading the air made her nose wrinkle.  Her eyes wandered over the dingy room filled with cobweb-covered boxes and finally came to rest on the steel cage in front of her.  It had taken her brother two weeks to construct his prison.  A prison she was certain he didn‘t need.  “It’s been two hours.  Are you ready to discuss this rationally?”

Jason stopped pacing, grabbed the bars of the cage, and gave them a good shake.  The bars rattled slightly, but remained secure.  “It'll happen.  Give it time.”

Sarah's hand trembled as she pushed a loose strand of auburn hair behind her ear.  “Jason, please.  I have a number--”

“I don’t need a therapist.  I need a loaded gun.” 

She moved to the cage door and took his hand.  Her fingers only stretched part way around his palm.  “Please.  Listen to me.  For once in your life--”

Jason's face paled as his body began to spasm.   

“What's wrong?”

His eyes widened.  Wrenching his hand from her grasp, he clutched his throat as if choking on an invisible bone, gagging and gasping for air.  His open mouth, somehow distorted, seemed abnormally large like it had grown in the few seconds he’d been choking.

“J-Jason answer me!”  The color drained from her face and her heart pounded against her ribcage. 

Jason's thick neck and broad shoulders bulged and moved as if something living crawled beneath the skin.  His body lurched, slamming his six and a half foot frame against the iron bars before dropping him to the floor with a dull thud.  A hand shot between the bars and latched on to her pants leg with an iron grip.  His lips moved, but the only sounds escaping his distended throat were grunts and groans.

“W-What the--?”   Sarah quivered.  Hair on the back of her neck rose as goose bumps exploded over her body.  Breath somehow lodged in her chest and refused to come out.

She tried to pull her leg away, but her jeans remained tight in his grasp.  She placed her hands against the bars and yanked with all her strength.  The sound of the thin denim ripping filled the basement.  Pain shot through a muscle in her thigh.  Her lungs finally released and allowed the imprisoned air to escape.  Dizziness overwhelmed her as she gulped in air and limped
backwards.

Jason thrashed on the floor in front of her.  His flesh bubbled and stretched as the bones inside him snapped and reformed.  Growling, saliva dripping from his mouth, he writhed and convulsed.  Full lips turned from mauve to black as his chin elongated.  His flesh ripped, only to heal, tear, and heal again.  Perfect white teeth yellowed, growing long and sharp as his blue eyes bulged into enormous black globes.  Hands and feet melted and reformed into paws with long dark claws.  Thick hair burst from his skin covering him in a carpet of grey and white.

Sarah’s stomach churned.  Her mind raced to grasp what was happening.  Covering
her mouth, she fought the rolling wave of nausea that threatened to spew forth.  A whimper escaped while she continued to shuffle backwards.  One solitary tear slid down her cheek, but her eyes remained fixed on the cage as her hand shot over to wipe it away.

Jason did not remotely resemble the blond haired, blue-eyed, brother she so dearly loved.  The Jason-thing beat its head against the iron bars of the carefully constructed cage with such force she wondered if it would hold.  Blood.  He’d said he woke up with blood all over him, and it wasn’t his.  She hadn’t believed him, and even now, couldn't wrap her mind around what he might have done.  More tears spilled down her face.  “Oh my God.  This can’t be happening!”  She inhaled sharply and held her breath to prevent threatening sobs from consuming her.  

His head tilted back letting out a monstrous roar.  Sarah covered her ears as it reverberated through the small basement like a pride of lions.  In the farthest corner of the room, flattened against dusty boxes, her body shuddered as she fought to regain control of her emotions. 

Jason had never lied to her.  Not once in her entire life.  She should have believed him.

Her eyes snapped open as the squeak of bending metal filled the room.  The beast growled and snapped at the bars, pushing and shoving, desperate for escape.  Each time it threw its massive body against the bars, her muscles clenched in fear.  Her mind screamed at her to get out, but her heart, yelling with equal volume, told her to stay.  Sarah’s eyes remained locked on the snarling wolf as she edged towards the stairway. 

As she moved, the animal threw its body against the bars.  Sarah paused, forced in another breath, and carefully took another step.  Once again, wolf-Jason crashed into the cell door.  Quivering in fear, she inched her way to freedom and safety.

By the time her foot hit the bottom stair, the animal's ferocity lessened.  She eyed it warily and kept reminding herself this was her brother.  Voice and body trembling, she finally spoke, “Jason?  Jason, can you hear me?” 

The thing went silent. 

Still facing him, she took two more awkward steps up the stairs.  “Jason, are you in there?”

The wolf sat as if on command and whimpered. 

“If you can understand me lie down.”

The wolf thing appeared to be thinking before it quietly settled on the concrete floor. 

Sarah let out a sigh of relief.  Maybe her brother was still somewhere inside, and at least had some level of control and consciousness.  Slowly moving back down the staircase, she slid her body around the wood banister and kept her back against the boxes, staying as close to the wall as possible.