Chapter 27

"I need to speak with Doctor Sanyupta, please! Doctor Benjamin Sanyupta!" Jeremiah intently shouted
over the phone to the operator.

With a clutter of papers in both hands and his eyes firmly locked on the clock above the door, Jeremiah
anxiously awaited the doctor's speedy response.

"Uh, yes, good morning," he jittered, dropping his papers flat on the floor beneath his feet. "Or should I
say, good evening, Doctor? Sorry to disturb you. I was just calling to fill you in on a couple of patients
that require some much needed attention."

"I see. What can I assist you with, Doctor?" Sanyupta replied, sounding as if he had just awoke from
sleeping.

"Well, first I wanted to discuss Isaac Mercer. You won't believe this, but, Isaac was kidnapped two days
ago."

First, there was a long gasp, then Sanyupta appallingly uttered, "Oh my."

"Don't worry, I believe he is fine. According to reports, somehow he managed to elude his captor.
Apparently he was abducted by the B.O.D. kidnapper."

"I'm sorry, the who?"

"The Broad Open Daylight kidnapper," Levin sighed while rolling his eyes. "I apologize for the acronym
usage."

"Ahh, I understand. Tell me, how was Isaac able to gain his freedom from this individual?"

"It's still unknown at this time. But, the kidnapper was found murdered inside the same home where he
took and murdered his own victims."



"Murdered? By whom," Sanyupta inhaled.

"More like a what," Jeremiah said. "The police say than an animal, a very large animal, killed this man,
along with six others up along the Cuyahoga Valley."

"And Isaac was able to escape unharmed?"

"That's correct. I would love to know just how he was able to do so."

"Wait a minute, just what was Isaac doing up in Cuyahoga Falls?"

"I'm not quite sure, sir."

"Are you seeing him again this month?"

"As a matter of fact, he has an appointment on the 28th. But I wanted to bring that incident to your
attention, as well as a curiosity. I saw Isaac last week, and I was not aware that he was bilingual."

"Ahh," Sanyupta chuckled, "I see you have come across that phenomenon as well. I am afraid that
Isaac does not speak another language, rather, he is speaking backwards."

Jeremiah's mouth grew dry at that second, trying to find the words to explain his sudden confusion.

"Backwards, you say?"

"Precisely," Sanyutpta sounded confident. "I too was taken aback at first. He and I were having a
conversation one day back in December, and out of nowhere, he begins to speak what I assumed at
first to be a completely different vernacular. I replayed the tape recorder over again during our
discussion when it suddenly occurred to me to play it backwards."

"And just what exactly was he saying? If you don't mind me asking."



"Mostly obscene words of the four letter variety," Sanyupta sighed. "Some random sayings about blood.
I believe his final words that particular day were something to the effect of structures collapsing and a
fateful train ride. Once again, random gibberish. Just the rants of a person who has endured a
traumatic experience. Even his very tone seemingly changed. One would possibly believe that he was,
dare I say, possessed, if you subscribe to such a preposterous notion that is."

"I see." Jeremiah slowly spoke as he scribbled down words on a sheet of paper that was lying on his
desk in front of him. "Well, as I mentioned, I will be seeing Isaac again later this month."

Jeremiah kept on speaking with Sanyupta. His lips were moving, but his mind was far from the
conversation. Even when the subject switched from Isaac and to another issue, the man's thoughts
remained solely upon Isaac.

Somehow, even with the knowledge that Isaac was free from his captor, Jeremiah could still see the
young man in some sort of distress; an agony that he himself would fear in a nightmare.

***

Rubbing his aching neck, Isaac stood in the back corner of the elevator and watched with hungry,
scurvy eyes as the overweight, young white woman in front of him squirmed from side to side as
though her elevator companion were readying himself for an all-out assault upon her.

Isaac scratched his unshaven face up and down as if his own skin were on fire. In his eyes there was
really nothing attractive about the woman. He wasn't interested in looks, just smells. He inhaled her
strong perfume with just about every last ounce of lung power he could muster until his nostrils began
to twinge.

The woman nervously glanced back at the young man while gripping her purse that was wrapped
around her shoulder.



When his nose could no longer breathe in any more fumes, his body unclenched itself. Isaac leaned up
against the wall and stuffed his cold hands into his coat pockets.

Just then, the elevator stopped. The very instant the door slid open, like a passing wind, the woman
sailed out and into the hallway as though she were being chased down.

Isaac remained up against the wall while a crass grin blessed his swollen face. Realizing that he had
arrived at his floor, the young man nonchalantly limped out into the quiet warmness of the soft-colored
hallway.

'Moonlight in Vermont' was playing in the speakers above his head as he walked on. Cream colored,
block-like arrows pointing people in the right direction lined the walls that young Mercer passed by as
his head hung low to the carpeted floor beneath his sore feet.

Without even looking up to see if he had arrived at the correct locale, Isaac pushed open the door and
noticed right away Doctor Levin talking on the phone.

"Isaac?" Jeremiah choked, hanging up the phone.

"How you doin', man," Isaac cracked a lazy smile while dropping himself onto the leather couch as if he
owned the place.

Levin, with a face of complete disorientation, sat himself down beside Isaac, took off his glasses, and
with outstretched hands asked, "Isaac...are you okay?"

Without looking in Levin's direction, Isaac said, "Yeah, man. I've just been through some stuff lately."

"Some stuff is a helluva of an understatement, my friend." Jeremiah exclaimed while examining Isaac's
face. "Isaac...I honestly don't know what to say. I...I can't believe you're here. How did you even get
here?"



"I took the bus all the way out here, man. I just needed someone to talk to." Isaac lethargically replied,
sounding as though he were ready to fall right asleep. "I've been freebasing coffee ever since this
morning. I don't wanna go to sleep ever again."

"Well," Levin briefly sighed while glancing at the clock above his head, "I have an appointment with a
patient in about twenty minutes or so, but I guess you and I can talk until then. I just have to ask, how
were you able to escape that kidnapper? It's all over the news."

Isaac let out a hearty, hapless belly laugh before saying, "Man, everyone has been asking me that
same question since yesterday. Truth is, I can hardly remember anything that happened the other day."

"Well, what was the last thing you remember? The news keeps saying that you were seen over in
Cuyahoga Falls. What were you doing out there?"

Isaac immediately shot up from off the couch and began to pace the floor in front of the doctor. There
was so much rambling chaos cluttering his brain that pulling out one thought seemed to drain his
already depleted energy.

"I had to see someone up there. Someone very important," Isaac carried on. "I had to see the woman
that made me."

"Made you?" Jeremiah shrugged with strange eyes.

"Yeah...made me into this," Isaac pointed to himself. "Just this morning, I saw how she was made, and
I needed to find her so she could tell me how to reverse everything."

"I take it you're referring to your so called Lycanthropy?"

Isaac stopped his incessant pacing to give the doctor a strange scowl, as if the word were completely
foreign to his nature.



"Isaac, you've got to understand, there's no such thing as that. It's nothing more than guilt." Levin
urged.

Isaac faced the window and planted his hands back into his coat pockets. He then closed his eyes,
inhaled the fresh new carpet smell of the office and said, "I think I'm ready to tell you what happened
back at that house."

"You mean back at Leroy Cummins' house?"

"No...back in November."

"Oh...I see." Jeremiah softly reacted.

All Isaac could hear was Jeremiah's body settling into the leather couch. The very moment the man
stopped moving, Isaac opened his eyes.

"Me and Lynn were arguing Thanksgiving afternoon. So I got pissed and went over to Karyn's place."

"Who's Karyn?"

"Some broad I met back at the garage where I was working. She and I had been messing around since
October." Isaac steadily explained. "So anyways, I went over to her place, we did it, and then she
suggests that we go over to some guys' pad to play poker."

"Isaac, you don't have to tell me all of this." Jeremiah sat up on the couch."

Isaac then turned around and stared at Levin while saying, "No, I need this, for me. You see, me and
Karyn get over there, and these Jamaican cats are there smokin' and drinkin'. There's drugs and guns
everywhere. For the first hour or so, everything is going alright. Then one of the Jamaican guys starts
yelling at Karyn. He thinks that she's cheating him out of some money. Next thing you know, they all



jump up and start beating her like she was a dude. I hate to admit it, but I got scared. I ran into the
closet and hid. There these cats are just kicking and beating this woman half to death, and I'm in the
closet like a little bitch."

"Isaac, were you ever able to find Karyn in Cuyahoga?"

"Yes, but that's not important now." Isaac's eyes began to water. "You see, when they got through with
her, they start coming after me. And that's when I heard this sound. At first, I'm thinking they got a dog
up in there, but it doesn't sound like a regular dog. Those men turned around. I could see everything
that was going on through the keyhole. "

"Tell me more about the sound."

"The sound gets louder and louder. I can see Karyn shaking and saying all these crazy things." Isaac
himself began to tremble. "I saw her."

"You saw her do what?" Jeremiah shuddered.

"I...I saw her change." Isaac's voice faltered.

"Isaac, what exactly did Karyn change into?" Jeremiah appeared confounded. "I'm trying my hardest to
understand you, but you have to quit being so vague with me."

"I saw her change into something." Isaac balled up his fists. "All those guys could do was stand there
and watch. We all watched that woman turn. She turned until she wasn't a woman anymore. People
aren't supposed to do that, man! People aren't supposed to change into other things!" Isaac yelled.
"That thing got up and tore those guys apart! She ate them all! One by one! Hell, they even tried to
shoot her, but the bullets didn't work!"



Looking both confused and frustrated all at once, Jeremiah began to stand up while saying, "Isaac, you
have to understand, it was—

"I ain't done yet." Isaac interrupted while slowly turning around. "You see, the more I watched her kill
those men, that's all the more scared I became. There was blood everywhere; all over the floor, the
walls and the furniture. I could feel something inside of me. I could feel it moving around like it was
caged and wanted to get out. Do you know what it feels like to have your own bones crack and twist?
My whole body felt like it was on fire. I could feel my face just...explode! That's when I blacked out."

With utmost urgency, Jeremiah rushed over and grabbed Isaac by the shoulders. He stared the
desperate man into the eyes and screamed, "Listen to me, Isaac! You didn't kill anyone! The police
ruled that it was an animal! Possibly an escapee from the zoo!"

"A zoo," Isaac yelled back, snatching himself away from the doctor. "Man, I know what I saw that night!
I know what I turned into! You don't forget how that shit feels! Look at my face! Look at how tall I am all
of the sudden! It took a few days for me to heal the first time around, and then even after you've
healed, you still have to limp around like a fuckin' cripple!"

"Isaac, listen to yourself!" Jeremiah pleaded. "It's like you've made no progress whatsoever!"

"I keep on hearing these kids in my head! I can't sleep because I keep hearing people screaming! All
day long, I've been hurling my guts out! I think I even shit out somebody's eyeball before I got here! So
don't stand there and tell me that this is all in my mind! You don't know what this is!"

Levin humbly stepped back and rubbed his eyes. He then held out his hands to ease Isaac while
calmly explaining, "Okay, you're right. I don't know what it is. But, Isaac, I can't allow you to think for
one moment that you had anything to do with those murders the other night. It's utterly impossible. This
isn't the twelfth century. There are rational explanations for all of this. I believe that perhaps you were
sleepwalking. It is conceivable that you walked all the way back from Cuyahoga Falls, that would



explain the pain your body is in. It's plausible that you were somehow incapacitated and beaten by
Leroy Cummins, that right there is a possible explanation for your face."

Isaac wandered around the office in an aimless blunder, trying his hardest not to listen to what Levin
was saying. Trying to drive out the words that in his mind were just plain gibberish.

"Believing that you're some mythical demon doesn't exactly constitute you as being a murderer. I may
be sounding like my father, but I personally blame Hollywood. It just seems that in the past few years
they're releasing more and more films that have caused irrational behavior in a lot of people."

Isaac paced before he eventually found himself leaning up against one of the bookshelves. Exhausted,
he sobbed into his hands, "I never meant for my life to end up like this. I had so many dreams. I was
gonna open up my own garage. Me and Lynn were gonna get married. We were gonna get out of
Cypress once and for all. Now...now it's all gone because I fucked up. All I see is darkness in front of
me. It's like you're awake, but you can't open your eyes...no matter how hard you try."

"It's not all over, Isaac." Levin steadily persisted. "You just have to come to terms with the fact that this
overwhelming sense of regret inside of you is what's causing all these delusions."

Exasperated, Isaac turned his head away as to not look at the doctor in front of him. He was telling him
things that he neither wanted nor needed to hear at that moment.

"Your affair with this Karyn person is the burden that you've been carrying all these months. The guilt
manifests itself as something unrealistic. Do you remember last week when I told you about my other
patients?"

Right then and there, Isaac's entire body, from head to toe, ignited with blazing fury. Without warning,
the man lunged forward, seized Levin by the neck and squeezed as hard as he could while angrily
hollering, "I ain't no fuckin' vampire!"



Isaac squeezed as tight as he could before Jeremiah's eyes began to bulge forward, and a stunned
expression came upon his bluish face.

Then, just as abruptly as the assault began, was just as sudden as it ended. Isaac released the
helpless man before bolting out the door.


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