Authors: John James Gregory
“I think part of the reason he won’t retire is that the state keeps buying him the latest toys. He does love his equipment.”
Doctor Deckard senior was looking through a microscope and heard his son’s comment.
“Nothing wrong with my hearing yet either junior...”
Elizabeth smiled and the pair shook the hand of Junior’s dad.
“It is nice to see the two of you again. I often thought about visiting you Elizabeth at your office, but then I always figured I’d get there sooner or later as a subject.”
“I am sure you will outlive me doctor.”
“Did you bring the DVD of the autopsies?”
“Yes sir.”
Junior took the three DVDs from Tom. His father took the disks and inserted the disk holding the contents of groundskeeper Henry Barton first and inserted into the machine. Doctor Hunsinger, Elizabeth’s assistant, had called and told him about the strange sign and the vanishing hair. Junior’s father was sure what had caused the strange appearance of both the hair and the pentagram. He said nothing until he froze the camera display.
“There! That is what caused the hair to appear and disappear and also make that symbol on the victim’s chest!”
Neither his son nor William Hart’s two children saw anything.
“What Doctor? I don’t see anything!”
The Doctor looked at Elizabeth and rolled up the sleeves of his lab coat and put his hands in his pockets smiling to himself.
“The head my dear. It was placed above the shoulders of the body. See that area where the skin from the head is touching the body?”
“Yes, that gentleman is establishing a set of reference measurements for his entries to determine how much of the body was blown away from the gun blasts and to match power burns on the lower exposed jaw and the shoulders which will aide his theory documentation of how far away the shooter was when the rounds hit this body. I am sure he will be able to determine it was hit at a point blank range with a twin barrel shot gun blast. It is a normal procedural measurement done when a head has been completely removed during shotgun blast. I don’t see how…”
“You people don’t get it do you?”
All three couldn’t see what Junior’s dad was trying to say and stared at him with blank expressions.
“There are only three effective ways to kill a werewolf. You can kill him by permanently embedding a large amount of silver in the body, or a silver stake through the heart, or cutting off the head of the victim.”
Tom finds the elderly veterinarian’s conclusion ridiculous. His next comment showed his disbelief.
“I thought a stake through the heart was the way to kill a vampire.”
“Oh it is, but it will work on a werewolf as well. Actually the best and sure way would be to completely remove the head and heart from the body.”
Elizabeth smiled at Junior’s dad.
“Surely you are joking.”
“I am asking the three of you to have an open mind for just a minute. During this short period of time while the tissue of the head is touching the body, the creature’s body is rejuvenating! Don’t look at the hair returning or the sign of the beast look at the arms! The bone and muscle mass is getting larger! If he weighed two hundred pounds as a man, his body’s transformation and the increased mass of the muscle structure and the skeleton were to continue, he would return to life and probably weigh a good four hundred pounds! Just look at how much is changing during these couple of minutes! Thank God this doctor removed the head away from the body before it came back to life!”
Tom as well as the others couldn’t believe what they were being told. Elizabeth seemed to respond for all three.
“Doctor, that just isn’t possible… A werewolf… a dead man with
Rigor
M
ortis
coming back to life?”
The doctor let the video continue and once the head was again separated from the body, the hair did disappear as well as the faint outline of the pentagram hidden below it. They could see the change in the size of the arms returning and the body becoming more pale in color. The doctor walked back to his microscope and the others followed.
“DNA testing will show the fur samples to be closest to that of a wolf.”
“How could you get markers to match that quickly?”
“Let’s just say a DNA test moves much quicker when you think you know what you will find. I never ran the tests on the entire animal kingdom, I ran it on wolves first. I have found a close match on the DNA markers on the first try.”
The senior Doctor Deckard looked up at the stunned group.
“I have seen this only once before when I was my son’s age. No one wanted to believe me back then either. Several more people were killed by such a creature before actually getting my hands on the body and removing its head before it was buried. If I hadn’t of done that, it too, would have probably came back to life. I am sure that the agencies involved will overlook this information and not go public with any kind of statement indicating anything about a werewolf. That is why I called you here. You and your brother will actually know the truth of what really happened. The police will probably say that during an attack of an animal, your dad came out and shot at it, missed, and killed the groundskeeper by accident. If they say anything about the animal, they will probably go with a mountain lion and not even mention the possibility of the animal being a wolf.”
“But dad, the claw marks are similar to that of a large animal, I was thinking a huge bobcat, mountain lion or possibly a bear.”
“Oh son, you are trying to force fit the marks into the animal kingdom. The animals you mentioned leave claw marks where you can tell the tips of the claws came straight down. Here the claw marks were not caused by the tips of the claws but rather by the side of the claw points. It would indicate the creature would have had human features like a hand rather than a claw to break through the skin in such a manner and not a paw.”
The group is silent. Tom is actually thinking about everything he has ever heard about the myth of the werewolf.
“So does this mean that Lloyd Gale the butler will return once again only now as a werewolf?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“He was clawed. As far as I can tell he was not bitten. Your dad saved the butler from that curse. There are only three ways one can become a werewolf. The unfortunate soul could be born a werewolf through a family blood line. The second way would be if the victim was, bitten, not scratched by a werewolf. And the final way would be by a blood infection. A werewolf’s blood could contaminate another by coming in contact with another’s blood through some sort of open wound.”
Tom’s heart raced as he grabbed his bandaged forearm. He had now been fed enough information to be concerned. He had expected his sister to respond with all kinds of scientific reasons that this doctor’s conclusion was flawed. Instead, she stood there thinking and not responding with a rebuttal. Could this be possible? Even with the immediate cleaning of his clumsy injury, he could be the next in a line of dangerous creatures.
All Tom could think about during the ride back to the mansion was what if the old man was right? What if he was going to become a werewolf too? His bandaged cut seemed to itch. He rubbed it and his sister noticed.
“I’ll clean that and put a fresh dressing on it as soon as we get back to the house.”
“What did you think of what he said?”
“Doctor Deckard’s theory? I will stick to the science and go with the idea that our dad shot at a large animal, missed and killed the groundskeeper. I’ll even buy into that creature being a large wolf, but a werewolf, I can’t buy into that even though he seemed to be so totally convinced of his conclusion.”
“Suppose for just a minute it was a werewolf. It would explain why the dogs didn’t attack it. They were out and probably at the front of the house during the attack.”
“Maybe they did?”
“No, Junior said he found nothing on those dogs to indicate any contact with the blood or the fur his father examined from the butler and the groundskeeper.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Four dogs and not one of them tried to bit this animal? They had this creature outnumbered. They should have attacked.”
“Honey, they were four Beagles, not Pit Bulls. They were our dad’s hunting dogs and yet they did not leave the grounds to track the animal. They would no more attack a werewolf than four mice ganging up to attack a cat or a bobcat. All they did was bark at a safe distance ready to run away if the werewolf turned to attack them.”
Elizabeth tried to tell him that this was all superstition and not to make anything over it. The problem found with that argument was she could offer no real fact based explanation for the strange things that occurred during Mr. Barton’s autopsy. Tom on the other hand, was making a mental list of questions and once home called Bill Deckard.
“Yes?”
“Doctor Deckard, this is Tom, Tom Hart.”
“Yes Mr. Hart?”
“I found your explanation for the results of Mr. Barton’s examination interesting and in view that even my sister, a skilled doctor in her own right, cannot come up with any other explanation for the disturbing evidence you produced, I wish to ask you a few follow up questions if I may?”
“Of course Tom. Go ahead”
“Suppose someone became infected by the blood of a werewolf the day after a full moon. When would he experience the symptoms and actually transform into a Lycanthrope or a werewolf?”
“You understand my last experience with such results occurred many years ago. I’ll try to answer you the best that I remember. First, if someone had his blood infected by such a creature dead or alive, he would not really be affected until the next full moon. During that first month his body would begin to change for the next full moon cycle. On that day, he would transform into the beast and also on the two nights after the moon was full as well. The next month, he could transform the day before, the day of, and the next two days after the full moon. From then on, he will continue to transform at least four days a month around the peak time occurrence of the full moon. What happens months later, I can’t recall. You would need to talk to an expert in that area. I am not that person.”
“Do you know anyone who is?”
“This incident has really peaked your curiosity hasn’t it?”
“It’s more than just curiosity, Doctor Deckard. When I was at my sister’s office and accidently bumped into the blood covered cranial saw used on the groundskeeper and it did make a minor cut. I am worried.”
The other end of the phone was silent.
“Doctor?”
“Yes. I am here.”
“You know my next question?”
“Is there a cure or some agent that will help you to overcome this kind of infection if you actually contracted it.”
“Yes.”
“Did anyone clean the wound area right away?”
“Yes my sister.”
“Good. I would suppose that there is a chance you didn’t get exposed to whatever is in the blood that would cause you to become one of those creatures… Let me make some calls. I will see if anyone I contacted back then is still alive and can help.”