Promise Me Anthology by Tara Fox Hall

and melted back into
the wilderness.”
    Keep him talking. “Why come here?”
    “Cougars aren’t a protected species,” Ed
said, a hunted look in his eyes. “I was tracked and hunted, even
though I didn’t bother any livestock. After getting injured by
several bullets, I decided I’d had enough. So I dug up the remains
of my wallet, and used the last of my funds to come here. I knew
there was enough land to get lost in and hopefully stay lost. Here
no one expects to find a cougar. I’m usually laughed off as a large
bobcat, when the locals believe that the campers weren’t just
drunk—”
    “Why attack us?” Theo growled. “That doesn’t
fit with laying low.”
    “I came here years ago,” Ed whispered. “So
many years now I’ve lost count. I see people, and they look
strange. I used to be able to follow conversations I overheard. I
can’t any more—”
    He’s insane. “You attacked us because
you couldn’t understand us?”
    “No! You don’t understand!” Ed said
plaintively. He reached his arms out to Theo beseechingly. “I
couldn’t stand being alone any more. There’s no one here like me.
No one to talk to. I couldn’t go on.” His tone turned ominous. “And
I can’t die. Go ahead. Use that gun you’ve been trying to get into
position. You’ll see.”
    Theo grabbed up the gun in a smooth motion,
pointing it at Ed. “I planned to.”
    Before Ed could reply, Theo squeezed the
trigger, the recoil knocking the wind out of him even as it blew Ed
backwards, the body twisting to fall in a bloody heap.
    Theo got up, ejecting a shell as he moved
closer. Ed hadn’t moved.
    Theo fired another shot, this one into Ed’s
back. Again, Ed jerked. Then he began twitching and shaking, blood
pooling beneath his sprawled form.
    Taking out a serrated knife, Theo severed
Ed’s head. To his horror, as soon as he removed the knife, the cut
began trying to heal, flesh stretching over the slice, trying to
close the wound. Worse, the large hole in Ed’s back was also trying
to close, even now flesh building in the void before Theo’s eyes,
the wound becoming smaller and smaller as new flesh appeared at the
sides.
    Kill him! You hit his heart, and he’s still
coming back like a damn vampire!
    With an inspired cry, Theo sawed at Ed’s
healing neck, his strength decapitating the man in a few strokes.
Standing, he threw Ed’s head as far as he could away into the
bushes. Then he took off the silver cross his mother had always
worn, and put it on Ed’s ruined chest, his eyes wide as he settled
nearby to wait, his knife at the ready.
    Theo kept vigil all night. But Ed did not
come back to life. Nor did the silver burn the were-cougar’s flesh,
or do anything but wink softly in the moonlight shining down from
above.
    * * * *
    The next day, Theo inspected Ed’s body. The
body had stopped trying to heal and was clearly dead now. The flesh
had a bluish cast to it. The blood had dried. The wound was still
open, now also drawing flies in the weak morning light. To Theo’s
sadness, his parent’s bodies were also decomposing. As terrible as
it was to be a monster, he would have been so much less scared to
know his father and mother had joined him in this new life.
Angrily, he wiped away tears, telling himself he should be glad
that they were dead, that they hadn’t become what he had.
    Theo buried Ed and his parents. He also
buried the kid’s body, too, even though he knew it made more sense
not to. Now that he’d enacted his vengeance, Theo just wanted it to
be finished. When it was done, he said some words over the unmarked
graves, then stood a moment, thinking.
    The earth here was thick, yet he’d dug the
graves in record time, using only a shovel. His strength last night
in severing Ed’s head had also been extraordinary. In addition to
the strength, Theo had gained enhanced hearing and smell. There was
a whole host of scents to everything in the world now, the aromas
so complex in information that the