Something Wicked This Way Comes Ch1

And here it is, the  first chapter of the first arc of my Rise of the Guardians werewolf au series: This Isn't How Things Work on Teen Wolf.  (Don't worry, you don't have to have watched rotg or Teen Wolf to understand what's going on.)  Also fear not, I will be posting one of these a week , so you will still get to see all your favorite naughty art (and oc NB updates!)

In case you don't want to download the chapter (Patreon doesn't allow Word Docs to be uploaded normally) here it is:

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They met in the woods where Kozmotis had gone off to die.

Only now could he fully appreciate Jack’s courage. Not everyone would see a man alone in the woods with a gun to his head and intervene. At the time, he was more frustrated than anything. He’d gone out into the middle of nowhere so he wouldn’t be found.

It wasn’t just that he hadn’t wanted to be stopped; he hadn’t wanted his remains found. A gunshot to the head wasn’t the prettiest of death and he didn’t want any of his friends to see him like that. But it had to be a gun. A silver bullet really was the only option he had left. He’d already survived sleeping pills and even arsenic.

He didn’t want to hang himself. Drowning seemed like too many things could go wrong. He couldn’t bleed to death, he always healed too quickly, even if he worked to keep the wound open, eventually he passed out from blood-loss and the wound healed on its own.

His one attempt at jumping off a cliff had left him broken and healing for days at the bottom of a ravine. By the time he was well enough to drag himself back home there had only been a few hours to spare before night fell and brought the moon with it.

Koz had lied and said he went on a hunt and injured himself. North had been furious with him for days. Koz had to put up with angry glares on top of the suspicious glances North had thrown his way ever since the bite. Those glances had steadily increased as time went on; Koz knew if he didn’t manage to kill himself this time, he might not get the chance again.

Kozmotis hadn’t told North about his plan to die. North was a great hunter, but a greater friend. He probably would have helped Koz end it, just so Koz wouldn’t have to be alone. Then he’d spend the rest of his life wracked with guilt. Seraphina would never have forgiven him, which was unacceptable because North was the only person Koz could trust to care for his daughter. This way, he was the one she wouldn’t forgive. That was just fine. He could handle her anger; he could even handle never seeing her again, so long as she was safe.

Kozmotis wrote both North and Seraphina letters and handed them off to a lawyer with the same instructions he’d given before jumping off the cliff: If you don’t hear from me in a month, give this to North.

Not an unusual request. He always left instructions for what to do if something should happen to him when he went off to hunt. The only difference now was that the monster he was hunting was himself.

It helped that the lawyer in question knew about hunters. Sanderson was a round, cheerful man who proved that not everyone who knew about monsters needed to hunt them to be useful in stopping them. He’d talked about that in his letter to Sera. No matter what Bunny said, he didn’t want her to take after him - especially with how things had turned out in the past few months.

He’d been like Bunny once too, over-zealous and hungry for revenge. He’d started hunting thinking he could make the world safer for his daughter, but now he knew he couldn’t wipe out all the evil in the world. But he could end himself. Sera would at least be safe from him.

Until Jack found him.

“Oh God. Um… please don’t.”

Koz opened his eyes in shock to see a white-haired teenager standing just at the edge of the clearing. He was filthy, but beneath the dirt he could see patches of incredibly pale skin. The boy’s blue eyes were wide. With a sickening lurch in his stomach, Koz realized he could smell his fear. It fizzled, acidic and tangy against the back of his throat. He hadn’t been able to smell fear before - his powers were progressing.

He really needed to hurry up and die.

But not now. He pulled the gun from his head. He wanted to die, not traumatize some poor bystander. Besides, if he killed himself with a witness, the police would get involved. He didn’t want to be found, he didn’t want Seraphina to know how he killed himself and – God – one of his friends would have to identify his body. He had to get this boy out of here and convince him not to call the police.

Koz smiled as if he hadn’t just been caught with a gun to his head.

“Sorry to scare you,” he said, tucking his gun back into its holster at his waist.

The boy did not looked convince. He stepped forward cautiously and Koz saw that his feet were bare and his pant-legs were torn and muddy. “Are you alright?” He asked Koz nervously.

“Fine.” Koz stood up and did his best impression of someone who wasn’t trying to off himself. “Sorry to interrupt your hike.”

“Yeah, not hiking.” The boy stepped closer slowly as if afraid that Koz might disappear if he weren’t careful. “So…” He swallowed. “So I’ll avoid talking about—” He gestured towards Koz, eyeing his gun. “I’m super lost and super hungry. If you could help me maybe?”

“Of course.” Anything to get him to leave.

“Great! Thank God! I’ve sort of been out here a few days. I’d kill for a cheeseburger.”

“A few days?”

“Yeah, like almost a week? Can you help me out?”

Koz eyed him, suddenly suspicious. A fair, lithe, seemingly young, oddly beautiful, and barefoot stranger in the woods? He was no expert on folklore, but he was sure the young man before him could set off a few hits for a magical creature. Human-shaped monsters were so tricky.

He scented the air, but all he could smell was fear. ‘Well’, he thought, ‘if he’s a normal human I’ll help him out. If he’s a monster… well, I did come out here to die.’

“Alright,” Koz said. “I’ll take you back the way I came. But ah…” He winced. “I walked here from Claussen.”

“So we’re close?” Jack looked around as if he’d spot a set of golden arches over the treetops.

“It’s a two day hike.”

“What?” Jack’s shoulders slumped. He looked down at the pack at Koz’s feet. “Of course…” He groaned. “Of course!” He threw his hands up.

“I was…” Koz felt the need to explain. “I was trying to find some place private.”

“And you probably didn’t pack for a return trip either.”

Koz grimaced. He had half an energy bar and a bottle of water.

“Well, did you bring two bullets, cause it’s looking like that’s the only way I’m getting out of here!”

“It’s fine,” Koz said. “I know how to survive in the wild. We’ll be fine.”

Jack stared at him, looking strangely panicked. He glanced down at Koz’s gun and took a deep breath, seeming to come to a decision. “Okay,” he said. “We can stop by my cabin. I’ve got some food stashed there.”

“You have a cabin?”

“I found a cabin. Now it’s my cabin.”

“Fair enough. Lead on, ah… what was your name then?”

“Jack.”

“Kozmotis.”

“Interesting.”

“So I’m frequently told.” Koz gestured for Jack to take the lead. “Let’s not waste daylight.”

Jack looked up at the sky as if suddenly aware that it was mid-afternoon. “This way,” he said, setting off at a quick pace. Koz followed after, frowning as the scent of fear filled the air.

*

Jack may not have been able to find his way out of the forest, but he made his way quite easily to the cabin.

The building looked old but sturdy. There was a set of steps leading up to a porch that spanned the entire front of the cabin. The windows were boarded over and the door looked significantly newer than the rest of the building.

“There’s running water and electricity and a little bit of food stored up, so I thought – y’know – somebody would come along. But nobody’s come and there’s not even a road nearby or anything…” Jack’s ramblings trailed off.

There wouldn’t be a road, Koz thought. Someone had spray-painted a sign on the door. To anyone else it would look like graffiti, but Koz recognized the elegantly shaped ‘G’.

‘Guardians’ was an old term used by hunters, supposedly since the middle ages. Nobody in America used the term ‘guardian’ for hunters anymore, but the symbol still stuck.

It was no wonder all the appliances worked. Koz didn’t recognize the building, but he was sure that it belonged to a hunter who was keeping it maintained in case he needed to return to it.

Jack lead Koz up the cabin steps and walked inside, not noticing when Koz didn’t follow. The deck stank. It was pungent and strange and it made the back of Koz’s neck itch in a way that was becoming more and more familiar. His body wanted to change. Something about the deck made his other half want to come out. Koz swallowed bile and forced himself to cross the threshold.

Jack stood watching him nervously. He glanced outside where the sun was beginning to set.

Koz looked around. There was a mattress on the floor in one corner, a table in another, then a row of cabinets, complete with sink, microwave, and fridge. The last corner had a desk and chair. On the wall by the bed was a fireplace and directly across from that, by the kitchen, was a door leading to a small, add-on bathroom.

Koz walked toward the kitchen area to explore their options. There were some extremely stale beef jerky, expired cans of chilly, and a mostly eaten box of poptarts. Koz began to carefully pack all of them into his bag along with a can-opener he rescued from a drawer by the sink.

Jack hovered at the edge of his vision. Koz ignored him. He was probably going to have to find a new place to die after this. Not to mention Jack very well might reward his help by telling the authorities about his intentions. He might be locked away and then when the moon was full, he’d massacre a ward of psych patients. Wonderful.

Somehow he’d have to get Jack home and leave as quickly as possible. God, but why did he have to give Jack his name? What a rookie mistake to make! It didn’t even matter that he hadn’t given Jack his last name – after a slightly drunk North had thought it fun to check, he’d found that he was the only ‘Kozmotis’ on the east coast.

‘Maybe—’ He found himself hopefully thinking as he raided the cabin’s refrigerator. ‘—maybe he won’t be able to spell it properly.’

“Um…” Jack’s voice cut through his thoughts. “Should we wait until morning?”

Jack stank of fear. Koz made himself sniff a bag of cheese sticks, pretending to be checking for freshness when really the moldy cheese was just less offensive than Jack’s fear.

“We still have time before dark,” Koz said, setting the cheese aside and standing to check the freezer. “I know the woods well enough, we can travel at night.” He knew the woods at night better than he did by day – especially since he was bitten. Night vision was the first ability to appear after the bite.

“Yeah, but…” Jack bit his lip. “There’s… animals at night. Like bears and… and wolves.”

Something about the way Jack said it made Kozmotis pause. “Oh?” He said, feigning interest in a few boxes of frozen pies chilling in the freezer. “Have you seen any animals?”

“Yeah.” Jack spoke hesitantly and Koz looked at him. Jack shifted his weight and didn’t meet his eyes. He wrung his hands for a second, then stuffed them into the pocket of his hoodie. “I didn’t really see…” he stammered. “Maybe it was a bear. I’ve found… bones. So… yeah, I just don’t want to wind up bear food.” He bit his lip again and when he looked back towards Koz his glance fell onto Koz’s gun.

His behavior was familiar. When Koz was a police officer, he’d seen it in victims and witnesses to crimes too horrible to accept. It was the same when hunting, but worse. It was hard to accept that Daddy killed Mommy; it was even harder to accept that Daddy turned into a monster and ate Mommy.

“Alright,” Koz said. “We’ll wait until morning.” And then maybe he’d see what he was up against.

“Okay, cool!” Jack’s whole mood seemed to brighten. “You want some poptarts?”

“Does the microwave work?”

“Yeah.”

“Then it’s better we eat what we can’t take with us.” Koz pulled a frozen cherry pie from the freezer.

“That works too.” Jack laughed and it was surprisingly sweet and easy. “Who doesn’t want pie for dinner?”

“Indeed,” Koz said, a little surprised by Jack’s sudden enthusiasm. “It’s the little things that make life worth living.” He remarked, mostly to himself, as he unwrapped the packaging. He almost didn’t notice the odd look Jack gave him, but when he turned to look at him properly, the young man was back to normal, smiling nervously.

*

Koz quickly realized he’d made a mistake. He was significantly more prepared to fight a monster in the dark than he was to spend extended periods of time alone with strangers.

Jack seemed to be searching for inspirations in the remains of his dinner, bending the edge of the paper plate between his fingers. “So…” Jack searched for something to say. “So… Kozmotis! That’s a unique name, is it…” He thought a moment. “Russian?”

“Norwegian.”

“Oh, cool! Is that where you’re from?”

“I’m from England. My grandfather was from Norway.”

“Oh, cool.” Jack tapped his hands on the table and stared own at the sticky pink pie remains on his plate.

“So what brought you to America?”

“My late wife got a job here.”

“Oh! Oh man, um… I’m sorry.” Jack looked devastated. Koz smiled weakly, trying to be reassuring.

“It’s perfectly alright. She died many years ago.”

“I’m still… geez. I’m sorry.” Jack fidgeted, opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Koz was a little thrown before realization hit. “Oh, that wasn’t why I was trying to – no. It was years ago. I mean, of course I miss her, but that’s not why.”

“Oh.”

There was a long stretch of silence between them before Jack spoke again. “Do you… want to talk about that?”

Koz couldn’t help a wry smile from crossing his lips. “You’re remarkably kind to offer, but unfortunately my troubles can’t be fixed by talking them out.”

“Okay!” Jack smiled weakly. “Well, apparently we’re going to be spending a couple of days together, so if you change your mind…”

Koz seriously doubted it. “I’ll let you know. Thank you.”

Another awkward pause.

“So, where are you from in England?”

“London.”

“So what could Pennsylvania offer that London couldn’t? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“My wife got a position at the college, as well as at the college’s museum of Anthropology.”

“I’ve been there,” Jack with a smile. “It’s a pretty cool place. Especially the Folklore section, they have the craziest art there.”

“That was her department actually.” Koz said, relieved to have a line of conversation to follow. “She didn’t pick out the displays but she wrote the little information plaques next to them.”

Jack’s smile was pinched as he bit his lip and Koz smiled wryly. “It’s alright, she knew people didn’t usually read them.”

“I’m sorry.” Jack winced. “Next time I go.” He put his hand on his heart in promise.

“It’s alright,” Koz said. “She was mostly there as a professor anyway.” She’d taught European and Supernatural folklore.

Nobody told them the man she’d replaced had been a hunter’s assistant. People came asking strange questions about monsters from folklore, asking where to find them, how to kill them, and she’d answered as best she could and brought the funny stories with her. They’d laughed at the strangeness of it all and traded ideas to explain it away.

Nobody told her that the ‘G’ carved in her office doorknob meant anything special. Nobody told her how that ‘G’ could make her a target.

Koz felt that familiar itch rise along the back of his neck. The moon had risen. It wasn’t full, but it was getting there.

Part of what had stopped Koz from carrying out his suicide sooner was his need to make sure he knew what days he could control the change. He needed to know that if he ever had an incident like the cliff again, he would be in control for as long as possible. He should have been safe for a week or so at least.

Still, the itching didn’t stop. It grew. Koz’s heart-rate picked up, he urged himself to remain calm. Fear only made it worse.

He looked toward Jack. God, if he turned, he’d hurt Jack. Jack seemed oblivious to Koz’s inner turmoil though. He was staring at the door. The scent of fear flooded Koz’s senses at the same time that Jack jumped up, ran to the door, and slid the lock-bolt in place.

There was a moment of silence where Jack stood by the door, panting and shaking and Koz sat staring at him, momentarily distracted from the urge to change. Then there came a creak of wood outside. The steps up to the deck groaned softly as something heavy made its way to the door.

Jack backed away, his face white as a sheet while Koz stood and silently walked towards the door.

He could hear heavy breathing on the other side of the door.

Bang!

The door rattled in its frame as the creature outside pushed against it. Jack let out a yelp and clapped his hands over his mouth.

The itching had stopped growing along Koz’s neck and now sat at the base of his skull as a faint ache. Fear slipped away as old instincts kicked in. Koz pulled his gun from its holster and crept towards the cabin window. On the other side of the wall, he could hear the beast doing the same.

The slats across the boarded windows were just far enough apart for Koz to see a long, furry snout and two gleaming, yellow eyes glaring at him. He stared back, even and unafraid.

There was a slight draft coming from the bottom of the window where Koz could smell the same pungent, feral stink he’d sampled on the deck. He took care to commit it to memory. There was a snuffling sound from outside as the beast sniffed him in turn.

There was a gleam of white through the dark as the creature bared its teeth and let out a tremendous snarl.

Koz stepped away from the window calmly. “It’s a werewolf.”

“I hate how matter-of-factly you said that,” Jack said.

“Because that’s what it is.”

There was little need for keeping up pretenses when the monster in question was so obviously real. Koz looked over and saw Jack huddled in the back corner against the cabinets, as far from the window as he could go.

“I knew it,” Jack groaned. “God. This is perfect. A werewolf!”

Koz felt now would not be a good time to come out as a werewolf himself. “You knew it?”

“He comes every night, only at night, and he obviously isn’t a wolf!”

“He comes every night?” Koz left the window and began to examine the walls of the cabin. He looked down at the baseboards and saw that the door had the same baseboard running along the bottom of the door. He reached to touch it and felt the subtlest of prickling along his fingers that promised pain if he got any closer. “Rowan wood,” he muttered.

“Rowan what?”

The wolf moved from peering through the window and padded back towards the door, it’s claws clicking against the deck wood.

“Mountain ash.” Kozmotis explained, “It wards off magical creatures. He won’t be able to get in.”

Jack let out a slightly hysterical laugh. “I think you’ve been watching too much Teen Wolf there, buddy.”

Koz tucked his gun away. “I don’t remember there being anything about mountain ash in Teen Wolf.”

“The… the one vet guy uses it.”

Koz frowned. “I don’t remember there being a vet either.”

“The vet who’s really suspicious?” Jack seemed to forget his fear for a moment. “He’s like a witch doctor or something?”

“I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about. This is Teen Wolf with Michael J. Fox right?”

Jack’s fear disappeared entirely as his expression fell into confusion. “From Back to the Future?”

“And Teen Wolf.”

“I’m talking about the MTV show, you old fart!”

Koz burst out laughing.

Jack sputtered indignantly. “Why are you laughing?! There’s a werewolf outside the cabin and you’re— and we’re talking about fucking Teen Wolf.”

Koz sobered. “He’s not going to get inside and… and you just called me an old fa—” He couldn’t even say it. He pressed a hand to his mouth to muffle his laughter.

“You are an old fart! And you’re also the worst person to get trapped with by some psycho werewolf. God, why me?” Jack buried his face in his knees and wrapped his arms around his head.

Koz tried to sober his mood. He was used to North – who was so seasoned to being trapped by monsters he knew to find the humor in the situation. He’d never handled a rookie in his life. He tried to remember how he’d felt when this was new to him and winced. It had been horrible.

“Alright,” he said, sobering himself. “He can’t get in, but if you like, I can sit up and keep an eye on him while you sleep.”

Jack raised his head slowly and stared at him. “You… you wouldn’t… you won’t let him in just so you can… save yourself a bullet?”

Koz wanted to brush off the question. Of course he wouldn’t do that. But Jack was terrified. “I promise I won’t. I’m a man of my word Jack, I’ll help you get home.”

Jack let out a shaky sigh and buried his head in his arms. There was a long pause and then he spoke, “Okay.”

True to his word, Koz stood guard at the door.

A few times the wolf clawed halfheartedly at the door, but between the magical barrier and the deadbolt, it couldn’t get in. Eventually, Koz heard a creak of wood as the beast left the porch. Koz looked outside and met a pair of glowing yellow eyes shining out from the gloom of the trees.

It wasn’t a full moon. The wolf out there had as much control over the change as Koz did – and he was still relatively newly bitten and weak to the change.

No full moon meant the wolf was only in its lupine form because it wanted to be. It was endangering others because it wanted to.

Behind him, Jack grumbled in his sleep. Koz looked back at him, the yellow lights of the cabin nearly obnoxiously bright compared to the night outside. Jack was still curled against the cabinets, head in his arms. Koz frowned at how scrawny and vulnerable he looked. Why, he wondered, was a werewolf stalking him?