Liberation: Oscar's Story

Chapter 16: Pt. 3

"You're Egon, correct?" Ananya stepped in, brushing past a paralyzed January Bayor and standing before the tall teenager.

"Yes." Egon was the first person to acknowledge her and sighed. "You've come for me, haven't you? You've found out?"

Ananya didn't answer. "This is your ID, right? Do you have shoes I can compare these shoelaces to?"

"You don't need to," Egon replied, a little miserably, and Oscar noticed that his face was thinner, his bones highlighted by deep shadows. His deep-set eyes seemed to sink into their sockets and his color was pale. "It's mine. All of it is mine. I killed them."

Ananya blinked. "Oh...you did?" She frowned, having expected Egon to put up a fight. "You..."

"You should understand, out of everyone," he muttered, his eyes sparkling. "We're outcasts. We're underrepresented. I did what I did for recognition. I wanted a chance to be known." Suddenly, he laughed, a sadistic, twisted laugh that sent everyone except Oscar and Ananya back away. "You would know, right? Nobody ever notices you. Everyone calls you a crippled bitch. You know what I feel, right? You know, right?" He jolted, twitching constantly. He gripped her shoulders in his bony fingers, shaking her. "You know, don't you? You know what it feels like to be overlooked, to be alone, to be treated like shit. Everyone tells you what to do. People - parents who say that they're trying to protect you just use you. You know, right Ananya?" He kept shaking her.

"Egon!" Oscar grabbed him and pulled Ananya away. The small woman fell onto his side and gripped his shirt so that she wouldn't fall. She was struck speechless and said not a word as Cai and Karsten helped her to her feet.

"No! Leave me! I already confessed, what more do you want?!" His wild eyes flashed. He wrung his wrists, balling his hands into fists. Oscar felt his pulse beating madly. "You wouldn't know. You wouldn't know. You don't know what it's like...what it's like to be a monster..." his head twitched and he pummeled Oscar in his chest. "A monster...a monster...an anomaly...a monster...haha, a monster." He cackled, staring directly into Oscar's eyes. "No, you know. You know who you are. You know exactly who you are...who you'll become one day. You'll be just like him, won't you? You'll be just like he was..." He threw his head back, collapsing into voracious maniacal laughter.

"Egon, enough!" Oscar shook him, trying to contain both the deteriorating mental state of the wolf in front of him and his own. "Stop this, Egon! Calm yourself!"

"Calm myself? Calm myself?" Egon scowled, and because his hands were lying limp at his sides, he lifted his arm, unsheathing his claws, and slashed Oscar across the face. Ananya screamed. Karsten and Cai grabbed him, but Oscar, who was used to (and expecting) the pain, remained unmoved.

"You don't know what it's like to be me!" He screeched. "You're a wolf!" His crazy eyes swiveled toward Ananya. "You're a human! Me? Me?" He laughed. "I'm neither. Do you know what I am? I'm a fucking hybrid! A hybrid! I'm not accepted in this goddamn pack. I'm not even in any database! Hybrids aren't real, are they, Alpha?" He glared at Oscar, who was silent. "No, you know they aren't. It's a rule your father made, and you never changed it. You say you're not like him, but you sure do agree with a lot of his rules."

"Enough!" Oscar thundered. He grabbed Egon by his collar and tossed him against the wall of the house, still holding him. His fingers wrapped around the boy's throat tightly as his wolf emerged from the depths of his mind, but all Egon did was smile lazily.

"Go on, kill me," he taunted. "Prove to me that I was right. Prove to me that they were right."

"Who's they?" Oscar growled, ignoring the blood trickling over his lips.

"People who make more sense than you do." Egon's eyes narrowed, his body trembling and ticking furiously in Oscar's grasp. "Kill me for all I care, but they'll avenge me. They'll make all us misfits equal." He laughed. "We wolves are the superior race. That's something you should get into your head, Alpha. These humans." He gestured with his chin toward January Bayor. "They'll stab you in the back when you least expect it."

"Like you did?" The young Alpha snarled.

Again, Egon laughed. "Hey, blame the human part of me. But don't worry. I'll become a full werewolf. I'll get rid of this horrid mortal side and become the wolf I was meant to be. And I'll be back...I'll get rid of them all...all of them...all of them..." he lunged again, grabbing for Ananya, but Oscar held him firmly against the wall. At this point, wolves were beginning to surround them. They kept their distance from Ananya and January Bayor, and they strayed even further from Oscar. Some, upon glancing into his eyes, murmured among themselves:

"He looks like he's going to kill him..."

"What'd Egon do? He looks like a madman."

"He always had an odd tick to him."

"The Alpha looks familiar, doesn't he?"

"Like Banastre...he looks like Banastre..."

Horror suffocated the crowd, and they backed further away from Oscar, who was beginning to feel his wolf slip from his control. His fist trembled.

"Go on, Alpha," Egon taunted, his head shaking and twisting like crazy. "Go on. Kill me. Show them the monster you were made to be...show them the son of Banastre..."

With a roar, Oscar punched the wall beside Egon's head, just narrowly missing his cheek. He tossed Egon toward Karsten and Cai, who quickly managed to pin him to the ground and tie his hands up. Oscar dropped to his knees, panting, clutching his head.

Be free, the nasal voice cooed. Be yourself. Stop holding back. Show them what happens when you mess with the Alpha...

"No...no..." Oscar's eyes widened in panic. "No...no..."

"Oscar." Ananya's calm voice reached him. He felt her small hand on his head, rummaging through his hair, gently scraping his scalp. "Sh...calm down." She stroked his head gently, unable to crouch to his level to comfort him more.

"Ananya!" January Bayor reached for her, but Karsten stopped her with a hand.

"Wait," he ordered, and January Bayor, although tensing at his touch, nodded.

"Ananya...Ananya...go..." Oscar managed to say, his voice strangled. The whispers infiltrated his ears even though the army wolves had led civilians back to their homes.

"No, I'm not going anywhere." Ananya continued to stroke his head. "You're okay, Oscar. You did it. You stayed calm. You didn't give in to Egon. Now relax. Don't listen to what they said..." she spoke because she knew from experience; she knew how taxing it could be to live under someone's iron fist. Her knees bent ever so slightly and she supported herself by leaning on Oscar's back, using her other hand to stroke him. "You did great, Oscar."

"No." He looked up, the darkness fading from his eyes. When he met her doe-like gaze he smiled, the tenseness in his shoulders melting away. "We did it." 

--()--()--()--

Egon has been arrested, but Oscar's image continues to sour. He and Ananya are becoming closer and may become even more so now that the impending threat is gone...or is it?