Candace Rival kept her last name. It was the night at the river that she wanted to give up but couldn't. A terrible beast barked in her ear all of the time about having to let it's food slip away. It was a mean and viscous animal. Even though her life was a pleasant one now, she harbored the emotions from the night a werewolf took her sister's life. She knew that since then, growing up with her brothers, her father and her heart broken mother was more strained than just barely making the life that everyone deserved. She knew her dad tried to compensate for her sister's death, for their disobedience, for the overall imbalanced segment of who was watching the children that night. Was it him? Was it her? Or was it the trust in the oldest to see everything big brotherly through even though every one was told the same thing at the same time? The weight of Babe's death was heavy for her family but so was the inability to name who or what had done it.
At her request, she rode the last few miles of the interstate in silence. Except for the taxi driver's occasional hiccup combined with a not so quiet burp and the repeated apologizing for the expulsion of air, seeing the road this close to home was inviting even if the taxi driver's notion of being unable to hide his dilemma made her giggle. His plight forced her to forget some, about growing up in Darteret.
"Maybe we should stop and get something for that." Candace Rival suggested to taxi driver, who captured her eyes in the rear view mirror.
"I'll be all right." He said with a pleasant smile.
She looked away from his gaze and let the still landscape pass her by.
"We are coming up to—"
Candace imposed, "I know. Creek Dams." She said.
"Darteret is right around the corner from here." Said the taxi driver.
Candace didn't smile. Her return home every year for the anniversary of her sister's death was bitter sweet. Both of her brother's would be there but the missing link in their family of childhood excursions was resting in Darteret Cemetery and had been for about twenty years.
Everybody was grown now. Lucky made a vow to them that he'd find what did it and made a life of hunting the things. She cringed at the thought of his business. Maximilian stayed closed to mom and settled with working odd jobs, the night they were grabbed still haunted him too, a world of psychiatric researching followed him afterwards. Aside from having his own place, they all took care of him with their mother being his backbone. She thought about herself and how life played it's way out over the years and they turned into Creek Dams. She recognized the place that changed so little over the years. She knew because every year, she made the same turn with a different driver and Creek Dams, more forest than pavement never did evolve much. It was one of those haunting places too, like Darteret, that her father cautioned them about. "There are things out there that won't bring you home." She remembered him saying. "We brought Babe back. The rest of us might not be so lucky." She heard his lecture loud and clear. Sometimes she wondered if her dad had forgotten how small the neighborhood was and that Lertsville was another forbidden place to visit. It's strange women in corners and wild men on top of the high rise buildings looking down on everybody was his reason to ban, that Lertsville was so large that you never knew what might come out of the dark on full moon nights.
They were kids and it took a while to overcome or at least pretend to not be so sad about what happened to Babe, they had friends both in Creek Dams and Lertsville.
Her mother had enough of their dad and his buddies hunting parties. Alcohol and rifles ruled the grounds of the Rival family and anyone else who believed the scratches on their property were made by the claws of something other than bear. "If that thing came out you all would be horrible shots!" Her mother told the inebriated bunch. They laughed and continued their plans for a hunt, after a hunt, after a hunt. They reassured her time and again that whatever killed her daughter, they would kill it. That was about twenty years ago.
Candace lowered her eyes in the back of the taxi to her wedding ring. She twirled it on her finger thinking about her own family far north of where she was now. She smiled at the thought of letting her husband know she'd come back soon, with a deep kiss.
She looked out the window and into the passing forest of Creek Dams and it's red brick building district, she could see Maximilian crying as their mom loaded him into the car. She turned around and blew her children a kiss and waved good-bye.
She and Lucky tried not to cry but without their dad there to boost their egos, crying was okay as their mother and kid brother left out of the driveway.
Lucky went inside first. She watched the car until it vanished and then went inside at the calling of her name by their father—"Coming up to Darteret." The taxi driver said.
Candace made no reply. She looked at her watch, wishing the private vigil for their sister was over so she could return home. Her dad would arrive later, probably. But their mother couldn't handle it still after so long.
"It's still morning." The taxi driver said. "This is a beach. Shouldn't there be more people out?" He asked.
Candace looked out the window. The city of Darteret was dead. "It's chilly." She said. "Maybe later." She looked out of the rear window for the first time in miles, no cars were behind them inside the coastal community in Spring.
"Maybe everyone's at work." She said, checking both sides of the road and noticing how eerily empty the parking lots were.
"Hey," she said to the taxi driver, "Stop at that store. I want a bottle of water."
"The waits gonna cost you." The taxi driver said.
"This whole trip is costing me." Candace replied, reminding the driver who was paying.
"Ok. Ok." The taxi driver said, quickly ending the conversation.
The door on the taxi slammed hard after Candace let go of it. She didn't go inside immediately. She looked around the area. In a year, a few new buildings were up in the location but not much had changed. She went inside the store. It was as empty for that time of the morning as the streets were. Not even a cop car was anywhere to be seen.
She grabbed a bottle of water out of the counter cooler and gave it to the clerk who scanned it while she continued looking around the place.
She experienced the calm before many storms but this was unusual in Darteret at this time of the year. She knew because the private vigil began only a few years ago.
"Everybody stay up late last night or something?" She asked, trying to sound at home.
The clerk looked out the door. The taxi was parked in front of it.
"The cab's yours?" The clerk asked, making it clear in his voice that he lived in town.
"Yes." Candace replied.
"Mam, wherever you're going, you might wanna add a passport to it and leave the fuckin' country. Darteret's ate up with nothing but death these days. The water's free if you buy a tee shirt."
The clerk pointed to the items hanging on the wall, promoting the store.
"Sounds like Darteret's got a problem." Candace said.
"Look at the neighborhood. All those werewolves home in bed." The clerk said.
One word caught her interest.
"Werewolves?" She asked, continuing to be an inside visitor.
"Yeah. I believe that's why the streets are empty these days. It'll pick up by the next full moon."
Candace glanced at the newspaper on the counter. Her eyes brighten after reading the headline, the clerk noticed.
"Yeah, it's in the paper about that night. It's like, you go to sleep and then you wake up the next morning and the werewolves have taken over the place."
RIVAL HANDLES WEREWOLF AT HOSPITAL, the morning newspaper headline reads. A photo of her brother with a photo of a vicious doglike man under it.
"You can buy the newspaper too." Said the clerk, smiling at the comment.
"No thanks." Candace said and walked away without buying anything, "That's my brother." She said before opening the door to leave the store.
The clerk looks a the front page, seeing the story and then looked at the exiting customer. "Which one?" He asked.
"Guess." She replied, leaving the clerk to himself.
The ride through Darteret was different. Quiet. Sparse.
"Can I get you when my time here is done?" Candace asked the taxi driver.
"Here's my card. If I'm working, sure. If not, call me anyway. Charge you half the price. Don't tell my boss."
"You got it." Candace said, giving the driver the fare.
She grabbed her luggage and knocked on the door. Within a second, the door opened. An eye peeped outside. She looked at it.
"Max?" She asked. And the front door swung wide open.
"Get in here." He said, grabbing the luggage and pushing his big sister into their brother's house. He quickly shut the door and locked the two of them inside.