Richter Ch. 02

The first two days they just chatted until it was time for dinner, but the third day Judd came back to Rich's room after dinner to ask him about something he had left without saying before. From that night on it became a habit that she went back to his room after dinner and they ended up talking about anything and everything until well past midnight.

The fifth night, Rich felt comfortable enough around her to tell her about his life. He talked about the bombing where his biological parents died, the nightmares he had about it, his days at the orphanage and the families that had rejecting him saying there was something unsettling about him and his time with the Jefferson, the only really happy times he had since his parents died. He didn't enter into too much detail regarding his relationship with other women, but he noticed (or thought he noticed) that her mood turned sour when he talked about other women who had been close to him. This fanned his hopes, but also his fears; his feelings for Judecca grew the more he knew about her, but he dreaded the possibility of being misunderstanding the situation, and he couldn't leave aside his fear of being used or betrayed again.

As days went by, Rich started meeting other members of the Curwin family. The first was Elizabeth Curwin, a blond mature beauty with sparkling green eyes and a more than enviable bosom. She was wife and mother to Benton and Judecca respectively, and although she looked serious and dignified, she was actually quick to laugh and crack a joke. She insisted on having Rich call her Elza, to which Benton answered threatening Rich jokingly about having an affair with his wife.

Next were Conrad and Jessica Curwin, Judecca's little brother and his wife. It seems they had married during their third year in university. Conrad, or CC as he wanted to be called, was the living image of his mother: blond, green eyes and practically a living ray of sunshine, as the room couldn't be silent for long when he was there.

On the other hand, his wife Jennifer was the calm and silent type. On one of the few occasions she talked to Rich directly she said with a certain pride in her voice that they were such a good pair because they balanced each other: she made CC a little less... "explosive", while he did his best to take her out of her cocoon, even if a little.

They mentioned Judecca's older sister a few times, but nobody elaborated on the subject and he thought it was out of place for him to ask.

Day by day, Rich was starting to feel more and more at home with the Curwin's, but he knew it could be a bad thing, given that the day of parting ways was drawing near. He could not rule out completely the possibility of being chased by the police, even if nothing had been made public yet.

The truth was inescapable, but the thought of parting ways definitely with the family that had made him feel one of them was something that tore his heart apart.

To think he could never see Judd again was even worse: the feeling of despair left him panting and on the verge of tears.

More than a week after arriving at the Curwin's home, Benton called his daughter to his office. She knocked at the door and waited for her father's permission before entering.

Benton brushed his hair back with one hand before sighing and going straight to the topic. "Thanks to the information you got from him I've been able to find out some things. Everything form the moment he became an orphan is true: two families rejected him not long after taking him into their homes. The third family accepted him and it seems that they really loved him, but everything fell apart when the father died. What I guess he didn't tell you is that at his next foster home he saw himself involved in a case of child abuse. Three minors were sexually abused, and he would have been too if he had not called the police".

He moved to the office table to look at a file before going on. "After that, he didn't get into any visible trouble until a pair of weeks ago, when he tried to go to the police and several public services for help. He was told that the foster family no longer had any legal obligation towards him. According to testimonies, he slept once in a shelter for homeless people, but he was assaulted and robbed of the few little possessions he had left. Again, no signs of him getting into trouble after that... a few days later we found him, or he found us, if you prefer".

Benton fell silent and his daughter continued. "There's more, right? What is worrying you, father?"

He sighed again and answered. "It's related to the way he lost his parents. The human government covered it all up as a terrorist attack, but in reality it was an invasion. They even changed his surname and announced that there had been no survivors so as to not leave any trace normal people could find. The monsters he sees in his nightmares, as well as the gruesome way his parents were killed... all of those were true".

"Are you telling me that his parents were really tortured and dismembered in front of him?" Asked a horrified Judecca. A knot formed in her throat and her eyes started burning, thinking about the suffering of her beloved.

"On the good side, now we know that his real name is Richter Talbot. We also know where he was born and the names of his parents and other close relatives, with that in hand I've been able to ask for a genealogical tracing. If he's a recessive bloodline we will know in no more than a pair of months".

Judecca, with a beaming smile, rushed to hug her father, but he raised a hand to stop her. "There's one more thing I have to tell you, this one is related to the car accident".

She crossed her arms below her breasts and looked at her father with a frown. "What does it have to do with what we were just talking about?"

"Nightwatch found a dead man, with his throat ripped a few blocks away from the site of the crash. They have connected this with your declaration that you saw a pair of red eyes glowing just before something charged into our car to take for granted that there is a werewolf on the loose and it is responsible for both cases". After saying this, Benton crossed his arms too.

"That's ridiculous! I clearly told them that it was not a werewolf. I didn't get to see it clearly, but..." Judecca stopped talking when something of what her father had said sank in. She decided to voice her suspicion. "Are you implying that Rich is a werewolf? How can you be so ridiculous? He's been here more than a week and he hasn't given any sign".

Benton punched the table, startling Judecca. "I'm your father, don't insult me and think logically! There's not that much distance between the point where that man was found and MacArthur Park. That kid has grown up without the guidance of his biological family, so he doesn't know what he is. What if he had his first change, killed that man and crashed into us by accident when he was fleeing from the scene? His newfound strength would make it easy for him to get us out of the car the way he did it".

Judecca also slammed the furniture closest to her. "All of those are just baseless assumptions, and you know it! If the Nightwatch had found anything in that respect they would have knocked our door down to take him away!"

"Well, he survived an invasion when he was just a child, what if he has some kind of demonic contamination?" Offered Benton.

Without stopping to think, Judecca answered, "Again with the assumptions!"

Benton was getting more and more angry, until he also answered without thinking. "Well, at least I'm daring to assume instead of letting my emotions blind me because of a fake pull!"

He regretted his words right after saying them, even before he saw the look on his daughter's face. "In any case, there is absolutely no choice, we have to distance ourselves from him, at least for the time being. Come, let's go have a chat with him".

**********

Richter was eagerly waiting for the time where Judecca used to come back from work to spend time with him. His heart skipped a beat when he heard the door, but .his emotions moved from expectation to confusion and then to fear when he saw that Benton, with two files under his arm and a serious expression was with her.

After a few pleasantries, Benton directed the conversation to the reason they were there. "You have had almost a week and a half to rest and recover, and, well, it's not like we are trying to get rid of you or that we find your presence unbearable. On the contrary, all of us think of you as part of the family now, right, Judd?"

She responded nodding her head with a smile on her face, but Rich thought something happened to her, because that wasn't her normal smile, it looked tense and a little unnatural. Was she fearing the moment to depart from each other, like him? Rich knew that, even if she didn't feel as strongly as he did, at least she was fond of him. Or at least he hoped he had read her correctly.

Benton placed the files he had brought with him on the table, between them. "The one to your right contains information about two universities where I can get you in the next semester. I think I heard you say that you were interested in metallurgy, so both of them have good engineering program. The problem is, next semester starts in a couple of weeks, and given that both of them are a little far away from here, it would be better if you move out in a week, tops, in order to settle into your new dormitory and get used to the environment".

Rich had the delicacy to pick up the file and feign he was actually considering it. After all, it was obvious that Benton had taken his time to search for all this information and move strings to get him a place, all for his sake. Both options were unbelievable, but it still didn't sit well with him to be economically supported like this for years.

Richter left the file on the table. "It's a very generous offer, to say the least, but what is the other option?" He said pointing at the other file.

Benton nodded once. He was expecting Richter to reject the option of education, not for a sense of pride, but because he didn't want to be a burden for anyone. "Behind door number two, as they would say in those silly TV contests," He said with a chuckle, "You can have a job at the company of an acquaintance of mine. You would start as a Junior Commercial Agent. You would travel around the country, some times even abroad, helping a Senior Commercial Agent and learning the ropes. The pay is very good, they have company dorms, so you don't have to worry about a place to stay while your first paycheck arrives. Also, the company promotes education, so if you want to go into university in the future, they will help you economically and in any other way they can. In this case, you can join the company and move into the dorm just tomorrow, if they have free rooms".

Richter saw it clearly then. Both options took him away from them and required for him to leave as soon as possible. It seemed that he had overstayed his welcome... or could it be that something about that man finally came up? They never said exactly what was his work, but Benton had said he was a high ranking government official, what if he was a police chief or something and had privileged information?

"I'll go with the job offer". He said plainly. In the end, he didn't care as much as he thought he would about the crime he may have (or not) committed. He was just torn about the fact that he had to break away from the people that had made him feel at home, feel that he had a place in the world, since he lost his family for the second time. The looks he saw on their faces didn't make it any easier, they knew how he felt and they shared his feelings. For a moment Rich cursed himself for being so transparent at times.

"I guessed you would answer that, Rich, but I have to ask anyway. Are you sure? For us it's not a problem helping you get a higher education". When Rich answered with just a nod, Benton sighed while standing up. "well, it's your choice, so I will respect it. Yurie-san will take you shopping tomorrow morning so you can get clothes, toiletries and any other thing you might need in the foreseeable future. I'm going to call my friend to tell him you're joining his firm."

Rich was left alone in his room, and he spent most of his time until dinner getting his emotions under control. Just to think it was probably the last time he would have dinner with the family, the last time he would have a chat with Judecca until it was time to sleep... God, just to think that he might never be able to see her again was unbearable. He ended up lying on the bed crying into his pillow and punching it to vent out his feelings.

During dinner, Benton said that his friend had agreed to hire Rich and that he could move in right the next day. Judecca offered herself to be the one to take Rich there when she got out of work. Her father looked worriedly at her, but when she looked back at him he conceded.

From that point on, nobody said much and their supposedly final dinner together became rather gloomy. To make matters worse, that night Judecca didn't go to Richter's room to chat. Instead of that, she spent the whole night in her room, crying until she fell asleep.

Morning came and when he went to the kitchen for breakfast, he found out that Judecca had already left for work. He had a quick coffee and a toast, and left with Yurie-san to go shopping, as they had planned. They bought everyday clothing, underwear and a set of toiletries before going to a tailor shop, where they bought one suit from those that were already made and ordered another two, custom made, for Richter to use at work. Neither of them spoke too much, both of them had their feelings close to the surface.

The fated moment finally arrived. Richter loaded his suitcase in Judd's car and got in after saying goodbye to Ben, Elza and Yurie. They tried to remind him that it wasn't a permanent separation and that he could come back to visit whenever he wanted when he had settled at his new job and new life.

The car moved along the road in relative silence; the radio was turned off and both Judecca and Rich stayed silent. Neither of them trusted that their voices not to break down, knowing that they would start to cry from the emotions they were trying to hold in. Rich forced himself to keep looking through the window so he didn't have to look at Judecca, but he noticed he could see her reflection on the glass... and that she was crying in silence.

"Fuck this", mumbled Judecca. She made a sudden turn and the GPS started warning of a wrong direction. The machine protested several times and announced that is was recalculating the route several times until Judd got fed up with it and turned it off completely.

After a few more minutes, she stopped the car at what looked to be an industrial park. She unbuckled her seat belt, turned to Richter, and after rubbing off the tears in her face with the sleeve of her jacket, she grabbed Rich's hands. "Look, Rich, I absolutely need to tell you that I..."

She never got the chance to say what she wanted to say, as a heavy weight fell on the car, sinking the roof in and making the windows explode outwards. Judecca screamed in surprise, but she suffered no damage because Rich was on top of her, covering her with his own body.

Judd was about to ask Richter if he was fine when she noticed the blood that started trickle down his forehead. She was trying to administer hurried first aid with a handkerchief when she caught a glimpse of what had caused the accident.

Judd was about to confess her feelings for him, or at least that was how Rich perceived it. But suddenly a huge weight fell on the car, as if someone had jumped from a building and fell on top of them. He pulled Judecca to himself to cover her with his body, though something, a piece of broken glass, maybe, hit his head and blood started to drip immediately down his forehead.

He closed his eye to prevent blood from getting inside, and Judd started applying a handkerchief to the wound to stop the bleeding when her face changed from confusion and worry to a serious one that Rich had never seen before. "Rich, open the door, quick. Kick it out if you have to, if you can't open it kick the remaining pieces of glass and get out through the window. Once you're out run like hell to that abandoned warehouse". Rich tried to protest, but she didn't let him. "This door isn't so damaged, but I can't start running and leave you behind. Now run! I'll be right behind you!"

The door opened after the second kick, though it would be better to say that it was almost ripped off. While he was running, Rich noticed that his nails had turned black again. He clenched his fists trying to hide it, as he could hear Judd's steps behind him.

Together, they jumped the fence and forced open a window into the abandoned warehouse Judd had chosen. They hid behind a long row of industrial shelves full of boxes. "What's happening, Judd? What are we running from?" Richter asked, but a sudden change in the illumination made him shut up even before Judecca had the chance to tell him so.

One of the roof windows of the warehouse broke in, and something fell to the ground. It reminded Rich to the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Well, only in the way it walked, because Quasimodo wasn't made of flesh of different colors. Also, the arms of this creature were uneven: while one of them was barely a vestige, the other was longer than the legs; the creature dragged it behind it when it walked and instead of a middle finger it had long, sharpened bone.

Rich looked at the thing in horror and asked Judd in a whisper, "What the flying fuck is that thing??"

Without losing it from her sight, Judecca answered in an equally low voice. "It's a Faceless, a low level combat beast. Do you see the claw in its hand? They have several hardened, mask-shaped organs inside their body. They use their claw to stab themselves, take out one of them out and put it on their face. This triggers an accelerated mutation that gives them temporary abilities depending on the mask they choose".

As if it had Heard Judd, the creature sliced its own chest, letting out a sound which was a mixture of a deep growl with the scream of a dying pig, and extracted a dark red mask stained with bright blood and rests of bodily tissue. It put the mask on its face, which consisted of just an asymmetrical eye and a few teeth placed at random.

The effect was immediate and explosive. Blood gushed out from several parts of its body, as the muscle ripped while it stretched, and bones cracked audibly as they rearranged themselves. In less than a minute, the Faceless changed from a twisted little thing to a hulking giant, almost twice Richter's height, and started to use its overgrown hands to punch down the shelves.

Both of them had been too dumbfounded to do anything, but Judecca finally said, "Red mask, eh? It's just a matter of time before it finds us and tries to smash us with its fists". She looked down with a sad expression on her face. "I hope you don't fear me or find me disgusting after seeing this. Don't move from here unless it's force majeure".

Judecca put her left hand on the satchel she always carried with her, and the purple book inside glowed gently. The first change was that the air around them got colder. Rich noticed he could see his own breath. Then Judecca's eyes degraded from her natural honey color to an intense yellow, and then her lips and nails turned black. Next her hair grayed out and her skin paled to the point of being almost translucent, and finally, thin black veins started showing through her skin.

She stood up with her left hand still on her book, and raised her right hand above her head. It seemed as if something was gathering around the hand, and frost crystals started to form in the air and fall to the ground due to the intense cold.