Where am I?
The cold air made her eyes flutter open. She was cold. The metal beams and ductwork in the ceiling made her squint her eyes as she pushed into a sitting position. Her hand landed on someone’s skin. She looked at the place her hand had been and recoiled. It was an arm, a human arm, and it looked as if something ripped it off a body and cast it aside after chewing on it. Her eyes flew open when she looked around her to the bodies that surrounded her.
She scooted backwards until she hit the wall a few feet behind her, hitting the back of her head. She didn’t recognize any of the dead around her. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
Get a grip, Angie.
Her breathing slowed into a calmer rhythm. Angie knew she had to look around but the gruesome sight she shared the space with made her think twice. When she relented and opened her eyes, she took in the scene around her, trying not to focus on the bodies. The floor was concrete, gray, as were the pillars for support. Any light was a dim yellow and put forth by the swinging bulbs from the ceiling. Angie could not see any windows.
The sound of a rotary saw snapped her head to the back corner of the room where plastic sheeting divided the areas. There were splatters of blood on the sheeting. The high-pitched whine when the saw hit bone made Angie cringe and cover her ears.
I have to find a way out of here. I can’t stay here. Whoever that is will see I am not dead and fix their mistake.
The saw stopped and the sheeting was pushed to one side, the voice that came from the woman was course, “Don’t worry, hun, you’re not next on the chopping block. In fact, this is your mess I am cleaning up.”
Angie’s brow furrowed and she pointed at herself and then around the warehouse, “Excuse me? I didn’t do THIS. Did I?”
The woman smiled and nodded her head, “Ah, classic disorientation and amnesia following a lycanthropic transformation, yes dear, you did this.”
Angie’s eyes flew open and she waved her hand around, “How did I-“
The woman walked toward her, “You, young one, are a freshly turned werewolf. You went on a hunt last night. It was a full moon. This is the spot in which you dumped your kills.”
“How did this happen?”
“I just told you.”
“No, I mean, how did I become a werewolf?”
The woman shrugged, “The only way to become one is to be bitten by or exchange saliva with one. You didn’t happen to kiss anyone within the last moon cycle that you never met again, did you?”
Angie tried to think. She couldn’t bring up a single memory.
The woman smiled, “Before you ask and while you’re trying to remember what happened, my name is Gloria. I am a paranormal cleaner.”
Angie looked at her with one eyebrow raised.
Gloria chuckled, “You are not the only cursed person, cryptid, or supernatural entity I have dealt with, hun.”
“Angie, the name is Angie.”
“Ah, thank you, you are not the first and you won’t be the last. My job is to make sure you don’t get yourself in trouble.”
Angie looked around the basement again her brow lowered, and a sadness crept over her face, “These people probably had families.”
“It’s already been researched, and their lives have been examined. Those with attachments will be found, just doctored to look as if an animal did it.”
“And those without ‘attachments’?” Angie used air quotes around the word.
“They will be cut up and put into acid.”
Angie threw up.
Gloria turned to go back to her corner, “You asked. In the meantime, there is a shower in the opposite corner and a change of clothing that is just your size.”
Angie made her way to the shower and turned on the water. As the cascade hit the crown of her head, she closed her eyes and tried to think back to anything that may have happened to make her this way. The more she tried to think back to a month prior to this day, the harder it was to concentrate on any memory. She stopped, took a slow breath, and tried to remember what she was doing just a couple of days ago. It was all a haze. Nothing came into her memory.
Then the images of the corpses in the other room entered her mind. She slid down the wall, shaking with tears pouring out of her eyes.
I’m a monster.
The water hit her on her back as she held her head in her hands sobbing.
House of Geek 