text: I threw a fast and hard right cross. Reverend Hayes evaded it and threw a hook that got past my guard. “Come on Susan, the more basic part of boxing is keeping your hands up.” He said. Boxing was part of my training. Ever since I helped Charles, my deafblind brother who happened to be a vampire, put a stop to Papa Brown and his zombie reign of terror, Reverend Hayes began training me to join the Protectors of Humanity. It was rigorous training that included everything from intense workouts, to boxing, to shooting lessons. It had been just six months, and already, I was at the level of a trained soldier. Doing all that while still having a full time day job made things even more difficult. “That’s enough for tonight.” He said as he started taking off his gloves. “Besides, Charles and I are going to go on a routine patrol?” “Alright, I’ll get ready.” I said. “No you’re not.” He said. “You’ve improved a lot over the past six months, but you’re still not ready for real field work. Especially not on the night of a full moon.” I was starting to get frustrated. Even after everything I’d done, I was still “not ready” for just their regular patrols. “Come on, you guys hardly ever even find anything out of the ordinary on your runs.” “Yes, but when we do, it’s dangerous.” Reverend Hayes continued. “So you’re not joining us, end of discussion.” \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ The next day, I went to the church around 6 in the evening. My training wouldn’t start until 7 (we were doing knives that day), but I was hoping to see Charles for a little bit. I had mastered the basics of tactile sign language, and could not communicate with him. We could even play chess together on his specially made braille chess board. But that day, when I went into the church to see him, I could tell there was going be to no time to play chess. I went upstairs to his quarters, and saw him lying on his bed, covered in scratches and bruises. “MY GOD!” I shouted. “Don’t be afraid.” Reverend Hayes said. “He’ll be alright, he just needs a few more nights to heal.” “What happened?” I asked. “Susan, please stop shouting. He can sense the vibrations of your...” “What happened?” I asked, louder this time. “Last night, we had an encounter with a werewolf.” He answered. “It was in the middle of eating a woman over on Broughton Street.” “Charles tried to fight it, only to find himself quickly overpowered. I managed to scare it off with my handgun, but killing a werewolf without silver bullets is very difficult.” “It’s not impossible, but werewolves quickly heal from anything not made of silver, killing one with regular bullets almost always requires a clean shot to the brain or heart.” “THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU HAVE SILVER BULLETS!” I shouted. “Susan, I’m sorry.” He said. “You’re right, I should’ve been more prepared, especially on the night of a full moon.” I composed myself and said “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped at you.” “Your brother’s hurt, it’s natural for you to be emotional right now.” “What can we do?” “Not much we can do until the next full moon.” Reverend Hayes said. “By then, he should be healed up nicely, and we can resume our hunt. Now that Charles knows what he smells like, there’s nowhere in Savannah where the werewolf can hide.” “Good, it’ll stand no chance against the three of us.” Before Reverend Hayes could reply to that, I said “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go out with him alone on the next full moon. If he’s in any real danger, I need to be there to protect him.” “Very well.” Reverend Hayes said. “Once tomorrow’s training begins, I’ll begin training you to kill werewolves.” \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ The next day, we met at an outdoor shooting range outside of city limits. Officially, it was closed for the night, but Reverend Hayes apparently has wealthy connections within the Protectors of Humanity, he could slide a little extra money towards the owners to keep it open just for him after regular hours. “Like I told you yesterday, werewolves heal quickly.” Reverend Hayes said. “Which makes them difficult to kill with anything other than clean shots to the brain or heart.” “That is, unless you use silver.” He said as he reached into his ammo bag and pulled out a silver bullet. “Silver is the only known substance that werewolves cannot heal from.” He explained. “Unfortunately, I only have four silver bullets in stock, and more would have to be on backorder for months. So for now, we’ll train with regular lead bullets.” He loaded his Savage M1907 semi automatic pistol and handed it to me. “See those targets out there?” He asked. “Well, yeah.” I said with a hint of sarcasm. The field was lit up, how could I not see them? “Well, not anymore.” He said. He then flipped a switch, and killed the lights. Now, the only way I could make out the targets was their vague silhouettes in the moonlight. “I’m sorry Susan, but it’s time you learned to shoot in the darkness.” He said. “When we finally catch our werewolf, we may not have street lights around to make him an easy target.” The gun held 9 rounds, and there were three targets in the firing lane. If I landed even one in three shots, I’d have hit them. But instead, I hit...zero. If there were daylight, I could’ve shot fine, but at night, I could barely shoot straight. After I fired all my shots, Reverend Hayes turned the lights back on to reveal that I landed a total of zero. “Looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us.” He said. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ The only good part of our situation was that we had a full week to prepare for the next full moon. And by then, I was a lot more prepared. By then, I could fire in complete darkness. Even if it was pitch black, I could hit a target if all I could do was hear it. Reverend Hayes setup six wind chimes out in the shooting lane, and even with no light (not even the moon), I could still hit them all just by listening carefully. “Excellent.” Reverend Hayes commented. “You’re ready to hunt the werewolf with us tomorrow.” “Thanks.” I said. I was gonna go on that hunt whether he gave me permission or not, but it was nice to know I wasn’t even going to have to ask. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ The next evening, we prepared. Reverend Hayes prepared two revolvers; his had four silver bullets, mine had two. But the other chambers were all loaded with regular bullets. “It’s very simple; if you have to use lead, aim for the head.” He reminded me. “Or the heart.” I replied. “Yes, but that doesn’t rhyme.” He retorted. Once the moon went full, Reverend Hayes approached Charles and communicated with him using tactile sign language. “Are...you...ready?” He said out loud for my sake. Charles then approached a window, and sniffed the air a few times. Now, I’d done a lot of reading on supernatural creatures (Reverend Hayes made me) and all the books say that vampires have the best sense of healing in the animal kingdom. And I don’t think most books account for vampires who’ve been dependent on their sense of smell their whole life. If the werewolf was still anywhere in Savannah, he could find it. It took Charles just seconds to signal to us that he had a lock on the werewolf. “Come, we may not have much time.” Reverend Hayes said as we hastened our way out of the church. “The werewolf could take another victim any moment.” We ran several blocks without stopping. A normal person might’ve been exhausted, but the two of us were in good enough shape to make the trek just fine, even while taking turns supporting Charles (in his bat form) on our arms. After just about eight minutes or so, we found the werewolf feasting on an elderly woman it just killed. When Charles smelled that we were close, he transformed back into his vampire form, and went to once again confront the wolf. The werewolf began to charge at Charles, and Reverend Hayes opened fire. I couldn’t tell how many of his shots landed, but it clearly wasn’t enough to stop it. The beast still rammed into Charles, knocking him against a wall. Charles fought back; he clawed at its face and bit into its arm, but still, the werewolf was just too strong for him. I then stepped in closer to fire, but Reverend Hayes stopped me. “At this range, you could hit Charles.” He said. But I wasn’t content to simply wait. I grabbed my knife and went to charge at the werewolf head on. “NO!” Reverend Hayes shouted, but he wasn’t going to change my mind. I wasn’t going to let my brother die. I ran up to the werewolf, and stabbed it in the back. It then dropped Charles and turned its attention to me. It swung around and wiped me in the side of my face with its paw. I then quickly pulled out my revolver and shot it twice, hitting it in the chest both times. While I clearly did a lot of damage, I didn’t quite kill it. And unfortunately, it was right in front of me. Now that the werewolf was weaker, it was a much more even fight for Charles. Charles slashed at its leg, crippling the wolf with a single blow. Then, he felt its face until he found its eyes, and gouged them out. While the wolf howled in pain, Charles went for the neck. It took just three bloody bites for him to finally kill the wolf, stopping it’s reign of terror for good. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ “That was incredibly brave of you.” Reverend Hayes said while he administered a lycanthropy shot. While it was unlikely that I got infected, as the wolf didn’t bite me, he felt that just to be safe, he should give me a shot. “I couldn’t let it kill Charles.” I said. “Very admirable of you.” the Reverend said. “I think you have a very bright future among the Protectors of Humanity.