Five Lies

Can You Feel It?

Crouton: AKA Jacob Olds

I couldn’t believe we had found Phoenix again. It’s been a couple of weeks and we’ve gotten to know each other again…the guys and I have, I mean. It was weird talking to her again. I hadn’t seen her since the last time we had played together back in Georgia when we were kids. I was chasing her through the woods and then I heard a howling in the distance. I was frightened so I ordered Phoenix to book it back to her house and I’d be right behind her. But things didn’t quite play out that way. I stayed there standing still for a few moments to see if there was anything threatening close by. If there was, I was hoping it would stick around to stalk me as it’s pray over Phoenix. If one of us was going to be harmed or killed, I would have rather it be me over my best friend in the world.

To my surprise I was blindsided and taken down by a large, furry, grey beast. My 11 year old body couldn’t take the blow and I blacked out on the spot. When I awoke, I found myself lying with my twin brother Joshua and our older brother Solomon in the middle of the woods somewhere. They sat up at the same time I did and for some reason they seemed different. There was something in their eyes that screamed killer…Well there was that and the fact that their mouths were slathered in red liquid that could only be blood and not the fake ketchup blood that we used to mess around with. I looked at my hands and they seemed larger and my whole body felt so much more than it had before. My senses were sharper and my body felt stronger. So much power was coursing through my veins.

We heard another howl in the distance and all three of us jumped at the call. I could feel my muscles and tendons rippling and changing into something so unnatural that it could only be an ancient myth. But before I could even comprehend why, I found myself running on all fours with a black and brown wolf at my side. I myself had taken on the same features as the one who had bitten me.

When we had found the one who called us, I could hear my brother’s thoughts slamming into me all at once. I wailed and my legs collapsed from beneath me. From that point on, I was in training to become the next alpha of my new pack. The one who had damned me to this curse taught me everything I know about living the life of the wolves. I was raised by my master Steven Tyler of Aerosmith until Josh and I had turned 18. It was then that once joining back up with my older brother I turned the alpha position over to him.

I didn’t choose to be what I am now and I didn’t want to be any type of leader for my new race. It wasn’t long after Fatty and I had broken out that we had stepped up our game in the Christian Crunk rock band that we had formed while in the process of being raised by the wolves. Since classic rock band Aerosmith had chosen us, we followed in their musicianship footsteps. That’s the only thing that I thank this curse for because if it hadn’t been for that we would have never found our music flee and turned it into something that God would approve of. Being damned as a wolf had inspired us to get in touch with our spirituality. Thus we combined our music with the only hope we had for salvation.

My brothers and I had met Derek Mount and Nathan Currin out here in California where we have been living for the past five years. They had been suffering from the same curse and a wolf can sense another wolf, so let me tell you, we clicked. Our friendship sprung and we tried them out for the band and they seemed to work better than any of the other guys we had worked with previously. We developed our stage names so as to not attract anyone’s attention from our past. Not many of our fans actually knew our real names so it made it easy for us to stay hidden from our past.

But then she showed up… She was so different from how I remembered her. But yet she still had that same spark. She looked at me the way she used to when we were young. That sparkle in her eye that had seemed to be extinguished roared back to life when she looked into my eyes. I’m not sure if she knows it’s me yet. I’m praying to have at least a few more days before I tell her… I fear that she may not take it so well. I wanted to go back and see her but I was watched at all times when I was in training and once I got out…well I was afraid she wouldn’t want to see then. I had been gone for so long...Would she be angry with me, or would she even remember me? They say that you have to let the ones you love go and that’s what I did, until she found me that is.

It had been almost a month since we had discovered each other at the college. The band and I were taking music classes to improve our strategy. I knew it was her once she stepped out of that blue jeep liberty and got in Solomon’s face like she used to whenever he pissed her off as a child. I recognized those intense hazel green eyes, that wrinkle in her brow when she’s upset, and that incredible long black hair. I loved her then…but now I felt a different kind of love for her. She wasn’t a little girl anymore; let’s just leave it at that.

I told Nathan to introduce us by our stage names. She figured out we’re Family Force 5 the second she heard us harmonize together. Apparently she had been a diehard fan for quite some time. I didn’t want to frighten or scare her by telling her who we really were. So I bought my time day by day. I often want to break and just tell her everything, but I stop myself because I know it would wind me up in turmoil.

For the first time in a long time I felt whole again. That hole that had been burned into my heart that day the wolves took me away from my life and away from her had suddenly been on a fast track to recovery. I could feel our souls reconnect from the start. Now all I could think about for the past month was could she feel it too?