Oscar Polifka was in his office reviewing evidence from the Wolfman's recent crime spree. He drank some scotch, then sighed. "I really wish we had more men on the case. We've been stretched pretty thin... since we let that psycho get away, that is."
"We'll catch him, don't worry." Lucas Lumen walked into Oscar's office.
"You should really get some rest, Oscar. You look tired, and that's no way to conduct business."
"I rest when I'm dead, and I'm dead because of that son of a...!" Oscar yelled.
Shelley Hauswirth's cell phone rang. She looked at the display and saw that it was Oscar calling, and her stomach dropped.
"I'll talk to him," she said to the air.
"Shelley, it's me," said Oscar, "What's wrong?"
"I have to talk to you."
Oscar sighed. "Okay, what's going on?"
"I don't think you're going to like this."
"Try me."
"I think that the Wolfman's going to kill me."
Oscar sat up and started taking deep breaths. "Okay... What makes you say that?"
"He was just on the phone with me. He said he's going to kill me, and that I have to let him into my heart.
He said something else, but I hung up before he could finish."
"Anything else, Shelley?"
"Yes, he said that if I don't let him into my heart, that he would kill me."
"Do you think he'll keep his word?" Oscar asked, "That's a pretty serious threat, especially from a guy like him."
"I... don't know."
"Well, what are you going to do?"
"I don't know. I really want to live, though."
"Well, you can't go around fearing men, no matter how dangerous they are. If you let him into your heart, that's the end of it. He'll kill you. It's only logical. You're either going to have to fight him, or run."
"I can't fight him," Shelley said softly.
"Well then, the only option is for you to run. If you run into a town and are able to get some help, then do it. Otherwise, I'm afraid you're on your own."
"I... I guess so."
"Well, I'd really like to see you again, Shelley. Best of luck."
"Thanks."
"Bye." Oscar hung up the phone, and sighed. "That was weird."
"What was weird?" asked Lucas.
"She told me that the Wolfman is going to kill her, and I said that he probably would, and she said that she wanted to run away."
"That was pretty odd."
"Yeah, it was odd." Oscar looked at the ceiling and closed his eyes. "I can't say that I blame her. If I was in her situation, I'd probably do the same thing, too."
"We need to find her before he does, then," said Lucas.
"Let's go review some evidence. Maybe we can find out where she is and stop him before it's too late."
Shelley left her hotel bathroom, and walked out into the main area of the hotel. She didn't see the Wolfman anywhere.
"He's here!" she yelled, "I can smell him." The Wolfman looked up from the computer console that he was inspecting.
"Hmmm... You like smelling things, don't you?" he said, and he got up from his seat. The Wolfman then proceeded to walk towards her, and Shelley backed away from him.
"Don't make me chase you, Wolfman," she said, "Show yourself."
The Wolfman stopped, and looked down in an almost comical fashion. He pointed down at himself, and said, "Look at me... I'm hideous."
"Yeah, you are," said Shelley, "But you're still more handsome than that other guy."
The Wolfman then laughed, and said, "I'm not ugly, I'm amusing." Shelley knew that compliments meant a lot to men, right now she was going to use every feminine technique she knew. She smiled, and said, "Well, I find you very attractive."
The Wolfman looked taken back by that, and said, "You're not supposed to find me attractive."
"Well, I do."
"Stop it. This isn't fun if you're enjoying it." Complained to the Wolfman.
"But it is fun, though. I'm supposed to be on the receiving end, not the giving end."
"Well, maybe you're just not very good at this." The Wolfman's comment caused Shelley to sigh, and him to smile.
"Well, no. I'm not."
"So, do you want to make this interesting, or do you want to keep it interesting?"
"I don't know. How interesting can this get?" "Very interesting." The Wolfman then pulled a gun out of his coat, and shot the ceiling.
"Ahhhh!" screeched Shelley, "Why'd you do that?"
"Do what?" The Wolfman pretended to not notice the smoke.
"Why'd you shoot the ceiling?" Yelled Shelley.
"Because it's interesting." Responded the Wolfman.
"Well, I don't find it interesting." Pouted Shelley.
"Well, you wouldn't find a lot of things interesting, would you?" Said the Wolfman, crossing his arms.
"Well... no."
"So, do you want to make this interesting, or would you rather not?" Asked the Wolfman.
"What makes it interesting?" Shelley responded with another question.
"Me killing you." Answered the Wolfman.
Shelley thought about what to do. She didn't want to die, but she didn't want to back down from a fight, either.
"What's interesting about you killing me, Wolfman?"
"I like a game, and since you haven't put me on television, I'm killing you." The Wolfman shrugged.
"Oh, I see."
"Well, do you want to make this a game, or not?" The Wolfman casually asked.
"I don't know."
"Do you want to live, or die?" The Wolfman asked, this time a slight bit more aggressive.
"I... I don't know."
"Come on," The Wolfman said. "Let's have a game. I'm sure I've got a better poker face than you do. You want to stay alive, you need to have some fun."
Shelley was silent. Her heart felt like it was pounding in her chest. She did not want to play the game, but this was her only chance at escaping. The Wolfman said, "I'm the better player."
She could see the truth in the Wolfman's face. He was obviously the better player, and he could win this game, too. She was helpless to do anything about it. She wouldn't even see the outcome of the game, except for one thing: she was going to lose.
He opened his pocket knife, and cut his hand with it. He then held the bloodied hand in front of her eyes.
"See this?" he said. "This is what I'm going to do to you."
Shelley stared at the blood and said nothing.
"I'm going to take your blood. It's what gives me the edge. You're going to lose some of your own, too. Then, we're going to see who's the better player." The Wolfman then took a deep breath, and said, "Are you ready?"
Shelley nodded, and said, "Let's do it."
Shelley had no idea what she was getting into, but she felt like she had no choice but to play. With that, The Wolfman licked his cut hand, and then slowly moved the knife from his pocket towards Shelley's exposed neck. Shelley could barely make out the blade of the knife, but she knew it was there.
The Wolfman said, "Watch the knife." He then pulled the knife towards himself, and said, "Watch my blood." He dropped to his knees, and slowly made the knife plunge towards his heart. Shelley was in shock, as the Wolfman's face twisted into one of pain, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
"Hahahaha! This is what I live for!!" Cried the Wolfman in a masochistic ecstasy.
He ripped the knife straight through his heart, and blood squirted out onto the rug. He let out a pained, gargling scream, as blood poured from his mask and onto the rug.
The Wolfman held his heart, and then pulled his knife out of it. He looked at the bloodied knife in his hand, and said, "Hahaha! It worked! Look what you did to me! I can play!"
Shelley just stared in shock. There was a hole in the center of his chest, and his eyes were bloodshot and lifeless. Shelley looked at the hole in his chest, and she thought he might be bleeding to death. She quickly said, "Call the police! Call the ambulance!"
The Wolfman laughed. He was on the edge of death, but he could barely control himself from his laughter. "You're going to die from the shock of it all. The ambulance is going to take you to the hospital. You should be dead. I'm the wolfman. I can kill you anytime I want. You're lucky that's all I did."
The Wolfman was dying. He couldn't even form words. Shelley saw her chance, and ran to the bathroom to look for some band-aids or anything to stop the bleeding. But, she was in a hurry, so she just grabbed towels, and then ran back to the living room.
The Wolfman laughed in anticipation. He could feel his death slowly getting nearer. He slowly let the blood run down his shirt, but it did little to calm him. All he could think about was playing his last game with her.
"Oh, you want a game with me now? You want to play a game with me, now?" The Wolfman laughed, and slowly rose to his feet.
"Okay, game over, bitch. I won!" he laughed again.
"No, I win." Shelley told him.
"I thought you would say that."
The Wolfman's laughter quickly turned into a sharp gasp. He was struggling to breathe. He could feel his death getting closer.
"You win, bitch!"
He started to drop to the floor, and then he began gasping for air. His heart and lungs were shutting down. The Wolfman started to scream.
"Hahahaha! See you in the afterworld."
Shelley heard the Wolfman gurgling in pain as his final breaths slowly eked out of his body. She was filled with relief as she saw the Wolfman fall to the floor, face down. The Wolfman's body began to shake with laughter. Shelley heard the giggling through the walls, and it seemed to be a sign that her victory had been complete. She saw her chance. She ran over and pulled off his mask. It was Lucas Lumen.
"Hahaha! I beat the wolfman! I beat the wolfman!"
The Wolfman was dead. His body had stopped moving.
"Damn, I wanted to win that one."
Shelley recognized that voice, she turned around to find Lucas in his police uniform. But it couldn't be him, his corpse was right next to her, or rather, her next to his. She was still in shock.
"Lucas, what are you doing here?"
"You won. You beat me." Lucas' eyes were dead. There was no emotion behind them, "I thought you might be in danger, and I came to save you. I could've easily killed you, but I didn't."
"Save me? Lucas, what are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about saving your show. I gave you television's next big hit."
Shelley was in a state of disbelief. "You did what?"
"That body next to you isn't real... Technically. What lays dead before you are my inner desires manifested into what people perceive it as. That's how I could be at two different locations at the same time."
"Lucas, you're not making any sense. "
"No, I know that look... And your body is already a victim of violence. I gave you what you wanted. I did exactly as you wanted, I didn't deviate from the script. I played the part of your murderer... But I didn't kill you... You killed yourself."
"No, that can't be true. You wouldn't kill me! I'm a friend of yours!"
"Is that how you see our relationship?" Lucas cocked his head.
Shelley was shaking her head, "No."
"You were playing me the whole time, weren't you?" Lucas smiled.
Shelley's eyes were still locked onto his. The pain was slowly getting back into her heart. It had all been an act?
"It's hard to say that this is reality. I'm not saying what happened here is real, but it's as real as you think it is. You wanted your show to become a reality, so that's how it became. But now that your show has become real, is that what you want?"
Shelley was trying to process what Lucas was saying. She was slowly falling into her darkest nightmare. She was just a puppet to Lucas' twisted desire, and now she realized that Lucas was lying to her. She hated him for that.
"I won," Lucas cocked his head.
"No, no, no." Shelley was shaking her head back and forth. She didn't want Lucas to win. She would have died before she let him win.
"Did you like this part better? Or this?"
Shelley began shaking her head slowly, "What do you mean by this? What are you talking about?"
"No, I'm talking about us. We were just friends for the sake of the show, weren't we? That's how this was supposed to be. But I think you were falling for me... And you know I can feel that. So what I did was to find that part of you inside of me, and I gave you a way out. I showed you the way out by making your show a reality.
"I would've liked to go further than that, but then I felt you wanted to be with me."
Lucas said the words to Shelley in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Lucas, I only ever knew of you two weeks ago. What are you?!"
"A necromancing, vampire, serial-killer." Lucas grinned.
Shelley wanted to run, to run away from Lucas, but her feet were stuck to the ground. He looked like he was truly enjoying himself, and this was the first time Shelley felt the true essence of who Lucas was.
"So it was your plan all along. You never liked me."
Lucas shrugged, "I just want to see what you're capable of."
Shelley was in shock.
"You thought that if you could make your season of my show a reality, then that would make me fall in love with you. That's what you're really doing, isn't it? You're making my show into your reality. Lucas, don't."
"So I have to live in a world where I can't see you anymore? Where I can't feel you?"
"Just leave me alone. Go! Don't try to save my show."
Lucas looked at her like she was crazy. He thought it would be best to see where this story would lead.
"I'll come back with your season 4. Then you can tell the world the truth, and I'll tell them that it was all just a game. You love to play games, don't you?" Lucas cocked his head.
"No," she replied.
Lucas smiled, "Aww... I'll see you later."
Lucas left her, and she watched him leave the building. She needed to find a way out, she had to get out, but she couldn't seem to find her body, or where she was. She was just a shell of a human. She had no body, no strength. All she could do was lay there, watching Lucas walk out the door.
She was scared, but what else could she do? Her life was a lie. She was in hell. Her life felt over. Lucas was the reason for everything. She needed to find a way to save herself. She needed to think of a way to get out of this, somehow.
But her brain was blank. She was at Lucas' mercy. There was nothing she could do, so she laid there. She saw what was ahead of her. She was going to die like this. She was a helpless being. A being that Lucas could use at any moment. She wanted to go back to Lucas and tell him that everything that had happened was a lie.
But there was no going back, because she was stuck in the lie that Lucas had created. She was not allowed to say a word about Lucas to anyone. She was dead, and Lucas would kill her if she told a lie. She had to escape from this place. She had to stop Lucas. But how? How could she escape a necromancing-vampire-serial-killer? She didn't know what to do. She just laid there.