Crimson and Furs

A Lil' Secret to Keep

The chat with the other members continued, Daniel finding the whole conversation very interesting. Inasmuch as he wanted to log off F******k to go and read his chemistry textbook, he was compelled by the flowing vibes not to. There was so much fun down here!

"So what's the name of your cat?" Sexy Peacock asked, taking everyone by surprise. She rarely asked questions pertaining to someone else. That wasn't her behaviour.

Except she likes cats, Daniel thought as he shrugged. He then typed, "Her name is Caroline."

"*spits beer*"

"😶"

"🌚"

Crying God, Unknown and Evil Buddha sent their messages. Only Sexy Peacock didn't sent hers. It seemed she was very interested in Daniel's cat that she didn't seem amused by the human name. She always became very serious when topics interested her.

"Isn't that a human name?" Crying God asked.

"Enough with the gender inequality🙄" Sexy Peacock typed. "Doesn't your male dog answer Johny?"

"That's a male 🐕" Crying God typed.

"Exactly why I asked you to stop with your gender inequality," Sexy Peacock typed.

"But the name, Carolina sounds funny 😀" Unknown typed.

Daniel wanted to see a reply from Sexy Peacock but unfortunately, Sexy Peacock ignored Unknown. It seemed she didn't pick on Evil Buddha and Unknown.

Sigh, Daniel couldn't help but look at the ceiling. Crying God was her only punching bag here. Was she training herself how to insult and trash talk?

"I wanna see pictures of your cat!" Sexy Peacock demanded.

Miss, you should learn how to ask, Daniel couldn't help but frown. What's wrong with asking properly? Does your cold attitude not allow you to ask?

Of course Daniel took pictures of the sleeping Caroline and sent them. The whole group chat members were awed by her beauty. Even the cold Sexy Peacock messaged that she was the most beautiful creature she had ever seen.

Daniel checked the time and saw that it was 6:00pm. His eyes narrowed as he thought, I've spent so much time on F******k, enough of internet for to day. He wanted to log out when he received a notification on his phone. Someone had sent him a message.

Evil Buddha? Daniel had a puzzled look as he wondered why Evil Buddha had sent him a message. Both of them had never chatted before in their private DMs. Several thoughts flooded his mind as he wondered what prompted Evil Buddha to message him this evening. Was it because of their discussion?

"Meow," he heard an adorable sound coming from the ground and sat up. Caroline had woken up. She limped towards the bed, leaped up and landed right on top of Daniel's outstretched legs. This action scared Daniel at first because he thought the cat had gone crazy and wanted to rip him into shreds with her razor sharp claws. It was after he saw her adorable eyes staring at him and her mouth curving to make a purr that he felt relieved. In celebration of his great relief that Caroline didn't crazily turn up on him, he hugged her into his arms as he continued typing, Caroline staring into the screen as if she could read.

As for the sudden fear about Caroline turning crazy, heh, it was caused by Daniel listening to many rumours and reading many opera news. He had heard several tales of pets turning up on their owners in the middle of the night, killing them. He couldn't help but feel extremely afraid when Caroline had leaped towards him. If it wasn't for his slowness and sluggishness to react to the cat, he would have jumped out of the bed and ran out of the room. Who between him and Caroline would be more startled? Thankfully, he didn't react in time.

Pheew, Daniel headed a sigh of relief as he clicked on Evil Buddha's message.

"Hi👋" Daniel stared at the message in the chat which had been sent five seconds ago, his puzzled look becoming normal. He didn't know why but chatting with Evil Buddha in Curious Mythologists made him feel calm unlike those other mean adults he had come across in other group chats. It didn't take him a few seconds to forget that they had not conversed in private chats before.

"Hello, Mr. Encyclopedia 👋" Daniel texted. He turned to look at Caroline and asked, "Can you read?"

"Meow," the cat meowed and buried her face in the screen.

"No, no, no," Daniel said. "It will spoil your cute eyes."

But in reality he wanted Caroline to get off his phone so he could see the message which had popped up. To his surprise, Caroline moved her face away from the screen and jumped out of his arms to the floor.

"..."

Does it understand English or I'm the one who can communicate with it? Daniel wore a blank expression. He didn't think too much about the matter since there were a whole lot of pets which could take commands in different languages. Well, that depended on the training they got from their owners or wherever they were bought from.

"Saw your message in the group chat," Evil Buddha typed. "About Lycanthropes."

Daniel's heart tightened. What message? He hadn't sent any message concerning his encounter with a Lycanthrope.

"What message?" Daniel typed. Then feeling that the message was too rude, he added: "Sorry but I've forgotten about the message I typed. I actually sent a lotta stuffs down there."

"Heh💩" Evil Buddha typed. "You weren't surprised about Lycanthropes existing at least."

"..."

Daniel's heart began beating fast. What was Evil Buddha hinting? Did he know about the encounter? If yes, how did he know?

"Have you encountered a Lycanthrope before?" Evil Buddha asked. "You can choose not to tell me if you don't trust me.😟"

Before Daniel could reply, Evil Buddha sent another message, "I was just saying nonsense. You can trust me🙂! I'm very trustworthy 🐈"

Daniel laughed out loud before going into a deep thought. Should I tell Evil Buddha about the stuff? He seems to know a lot about the supernatural stuffs going on in this world and didn't deny when he was asked if he was a Lycanthrope. Is he also a Lycanthrope?

He had read a lot of stories about older werewolves scouting for new ones so he couldn't help but feel that Evil Buddha was an older Lycanthrope trying to rope him in. But he wasn't a Lycanthrope yet—at least he hadn't seen any qualitative change in his daily life. He was still the weak boy he used to be.

After so much hesitation Daniel finally typed, "Promise me you'd keep it a secret."

"I can keep secrets!" Evil Buddha said. "For example, I kept the secret that I'm a Lycanthrope!"

"..."

He's a Lycanthrope, Daniel thought. But I can't rule out the possibility that he's suffering from a delusion. Without thinking too much, he typed, "I encountered a big wolf in the woods. Instead of mauling me, it just scratched my right chest and disappeared. The worst thing that happened is that no one can even see the scratch and no one believes it ever happened."

"It's a normal phenomenon," Evil Buddha typed. "That Lycanthrope is definitely an Alpha or something to be able to use its power to conceal the scratch from the outside world. Wait, the usage of 'it' sounds off. The Lycanthrope should be a male or female."

"You said it was a normal phenomenon?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah, normal humans can't perceive things pertaining to higher Cursed," Evil Buddha said.

Daniel wanted to ask the meaning of Cursed but then he remembered. Evil Buddha had said that Cursed referred to the different types of supernatural creatures. Why are they called Cursed? Were they all Cursed?

"Hmmm," Daniel typed. "So what do you think about me? Have I being initiated?"

Part of him hoped Evil Buddha would say yes while the other part hoped he would say no. The reason was simple: He didn't want to become a Cursed who was plagued by some curse (heh). Also he wanted to become a Lycanthrope to have his revenge on Walter and his bunch of bully friends. He had watched a lot of werewolf movies and they were depicted as being strong and fast. But then up till now he hadn't become any stronger or faster. Does seemingly communicating with Caroline count?

"You have been initiated into a pack," Evil Buddha said. "It's highly possible that it was an Alpha which scratched you. It couldn't have been any other random Lycanthrope below the Alpha Cursed Path."

Hearing this, Daniel's head swelled with the terms. So an Alpha is also a Cursed Path within the Lycanthrope.

"Why is that?" Daniel asked. "Why do you think it's an Alpha?"

"It's a secret you shouldn't know at this point," Evil Buddha said. "The organization I work for made me swear not to reveal secrets like this."

"Hmmm🤔" Daniel typed. "So I've been initiated."

"Of course buddy!🤸" Evil Buddha said. "Now you need to take up youtube tutorials on how to act like a Lycanthrope."

Why do you always like using that emoji? Daniel thought. He then typed, "Acting?"

"Uh, take it as a random word I spat out," Evil Buddha said. He then sent three emojis: "😀😃😄"

Scratch? Ruffle?

Hearing the sound, Daniel's muscles tensed as he sat upright, looking at a corner of his room. It was Caroline dragging his chemistry textbook around and flipping through it with interest.

"..."

Why does this cat seem like a human being? Daniel asked himself. He then saw Evil Buddha's message: "When were you attacked by the Lycanthrope...I mean when did you encounter the Lycanthrope."

"Yesterday," Daniel typed. "Any problem."

"Hmmm🤔" Evil Buddha typed. "There's no problem actually. I was just thinking about something."

"Since you said I've been initiated, that means I'm now a Lycanthrope," Daniel typed, "right?"

"You've been initiated but you're yet to experience any qualitative change in your body," Evil Buddha said. "Or do you lose consciousness during full moon and find yourself naked at dawn, your clothes torn?😕"

"No," Daniel replied. Nothing like that had happened since yesterday. "Why haven't I gotten a qualitative change?"

"Relax dude! It's not yet full moon 🌚" Evil Buddha said. "What are you thinking? Wanna get back at some bullies that quick?"

Daniel chuckled as he typed, "The bullies are quite disturbing."

"You have to wait for the next full moon then," Evil Buddha said. "After the first transformation, you'd begin experiencing qualitative changes like enhancement in your strength and speed."

"Does any qualitative change come before the transformation?" Daniel typed. He didn't ask about the transformation as he had read so much about werewolves to know a lot of things about them. The transformation was a hellish situation which could make one suffer intolerable pain till one passes out.

"Only one," Evil Buddha said. "And that's somehow being able to communicate with animals."

"..."

At that time Daniel turned to look at Carolina and saw the cat stare back at him. He couldn't help but shudder.

"After the transformation, you'd learn to talk with animals as well," Evil Buddha said. "I think Path One of Lycanthrope shouldn't be called Werewolf but Zoologist😀"

"What's Path One?" Daniel asked.

"The lowest Cursed Path," Evil Buddha said. "If Sexy Peacock was here she would have said a goat's IQ was slightly better than yours."

"..."

What an insult, Daniel almost threw his phone away. You don't insult someone in the name of another person!

"Hmmm🤔" Daniel typed. "So how are you this knowledgeable? By just being a Cursed won't give you this much knowledge?"

"You look smarter than your profile pic," Evil Buddha typed.

"..."

Daniel didn't know whether to be offended or not. In fact he wanted to laugh. The insult was so good.

"I work for an organization," Evil Buddha said. "We hunt evil Cursed and rope in new ones to prevent them from going astray. Our slogan is: Saving the whole world!"

"That's...nice," Daniel typed. He didn't know whether to believe Evil Buddha or not. He then typed again, "What's the name of this organization?"

"It's a secret," Evil Buddha said. "If you wanna join, tell me🤸"

No, thank you, Daniel said inwardly. I don't wanna end up joining the illuminati.

As Daniel wanted to log off, Evil Buddha typed, "And I'm not a Lycanthrope. I'm a Wizard."

"..."

Daniel didn't know how to respond.