The Dehumanization of Ethan Brown

Leslie had seen witches do magic and was fairly comfortable with being visited by ghosts, but her roommate just changed into a wolf. She needed a beer. She needed more than a beer, but there was nothing stronger in the townhouse and she couldn’t trust herself to drive.

Leslie took out a book she had been putting off reading. Opening the first page, she read about an imaginary things going bump in the night. She prayed that Ethan wasn’t protecting the werewolf that killed those three victims. Ethan didn’t appear to be lying when he said that those deaths weren’t caused by his pack then she didn’t know her roommate as well as she thought she did.

Ethan knew almost everything about Leslie. Leslie moved in with Ethan while she was going through a messy divorce. The fact they had a platonic relationship at the time was a good things. She just dumped 200 pounds of worthless garbage. She didn’t need to get involved with another man. Staying for one week turned into two years. She cried on Ethan’s shoulder every night during the separation then the divorce. He knew every embarrassing detail of her life and now she just found out that everything she knew about him was a lie.

In the morning, Ethan knocked on the front door of the townhouse. “Thanks for letting me hide my spare key.” Ethan didn\'t need to say that it was his house, but Leslie had often called him irresponsible because he seemed to care nothing about money. He wore threadbare clothes when they met and ate mostly seeds, nuts and potato chips. Ethan was bare foot but he was otherwise dressed normally in his threadbare jeans and flannel shirts.

“Hide your key wherever you hide your clothes,” said Leslie. “You’re a smart man. I now understand why you need a spare key. Just don’t put it where a robber can find it.” Leslie felt like his mother. Ethan\'s own mother had set him to school nearly three hundred miles away when he was sixteen and hardly ever visited him.

Ethan went inside and started making his protein shake. “I need calories.”

“You’ve been a werewolf your whole life. I have to get used to the concept.” Leslie stood near the kitchen counter wishing at this moment that she had spent the two hundred dollars to get kitchen furniture. Ethan must have been nervous and he didn\'t need a much older woman standing over him. Leslie usually saw Ethan as a son she never had although the occasional feelings of lust did hit her from time-to-time. Even if Ethan wasn\'t a werewolf, he wouldn\'t be interested in a forty-something woman with gray hair and crows feet.

“Is there anything you want to know?” Ethan sat on the floor holding his shake.

“Have you always been able to change your form?” Leslie asked as she grabbed an apple from the refrigerator. She kept the house stocked with staples like produce, bread, and can goods because Ethan couldn\'t be bothered with eating anything more nutritious than granola.

“Since I hit puberty. When I was eleven and twelve, I changed almost every night. I got better at control in time. Now I only change into a wolf when I release control.”

Leslie paced the floor while eating her apple. “Are you human or wolf?”

Ethan put the empty glass in the sink. “Human during the day; wolf at night. Were-wolf, human-wolf, both or neither.”

“Full moons don’t mean anything to you?” Leslie tossed the core into the garbage.

Ethan stretched out on the sofa and smiled slightly. “Not really. I can see better in the light of the full moon.”

“You don’t kill people?” Leslie couldn\'t believe she said that.

“Of course not. You’re talking to Ethan Brown, pacifist. I eat rabbits and an occasional small deer, squirrels, opossums and other small mammals. My mother thinks if I eat organ meat that I won’t need to kill as often.” Ethan licked the shake off his upper lip. “Are you ok with this?”

Leslie played with a strand of her hair. “You change into a wolf. You aren’t in the townhouse most nights because you hunt for prey.”

“That’s it.” Ethan put his arm along the top of the sofa.

Leslie gave him a motherly glance as she walked to the sofa. “I preferred think that you had a different girl each night. Ethan, this is a bit much for me to take in. Do you know other werewolves?”

Ethan shrugged his shoulders.

Leslie stood over the sofa. “I’ll take that as a yes. One of these werewolves could be our killer?”

“No, I refuse to believe that. Killing human beings hurts the pack.”

“Will finding the killer be interferring with pack loyalty?” Leslie wasn’t comfortable that Ethan had loyalties outside Leslie and the police force. Inside the young man drinking his soy protein shake was a monster that could rip out Leslie’s throat like that creature did last night at the park. Her roommate of two years and a man she thought she knew better than her little brother was now a total stranger.

Leslie paced in front of the young man stretched out on the sofa. “Ethan, is silver the only thing that kills werewolves?”

“Fire and removing the heart and brain also works.”

Leslie sat on the sofa beside Ethan. “You were going to wake up after being shot no matter what I did?”

“Pretty much.” Ethan moved down the sofa giving Leslie ample space.

Leslie sighed. “I shouldn’t bother taking you to the hospital the next time you’re hurt. You’ll heal just as fast at home.”

“For the most part. I’m probably better off having a bullet or other foreign matter removed then waiting for my body to absorb it.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I was so angry that you refused to join me in bed; I thought I was too old for you. How could you deceive me like this?”

“Leslie, I didn’t think you could handle it.”

“You should have told me.”

“You didn’t need to know. Only Mom and my pack know.”

“And Vicky,” added Leslie.

“Yes, Vicky. I’ve never had sex with anyone. I had only started to penetrate Vicky when I felt it happen. I never got that close ever again. My cock was only known Rosie and her five sisters. I wanted you as badly as you wanted me, but I couldn’t risk clawing you.”

“How are we going to get a perp to respect me that laughs at bullets?”

“I don’t laugh at bullets. I’m not fond of pain.”

“Someone who is killing people won’t be as sensible as you. I don’t think the department will splurge for silver bullets.”

“We should have our own take care of it. I’ll speak to the pack about it. My father was the alpha of the local pack until he died. They’ll listen to me.”

“So you knew your father.”

“Yes. My father wanted me to go school here so he could protect me. Other packs will kill me if they discover that I’m a half-breed. Without my father’s protection, I would have been killed as a baby. As it is, the new alpha isn’t sure what do with me, but his wife is a half-breed so he won’t kill me on that basis alone.”

“I’m not going to let a bunch of vigilantes go after a suspect.”

“Leslie, stay out of it.”

“I knew your mother was lying when she said that your father was Jimmy Hoffa.”

“Albert Feldman was an English professor. His widow and my half-ers ers are embarrassed by my existence. Still the pack respects me as his eldest and only son.”

“I’m meeting the pack with you.”

“You aren’t pack.”

“Why shouldn’t I go to the captain with this?”

“Because he won’t believe you.”

“I’m not going to let my roommate and a bunch of vigilantes feast on the brain and heart of the evil-doer. This isn’t some late night horror movie.”

“You don’t belong there. Our pack meetings are clothing optional, very optional.”

Leslie understood why Ethan was always in states of undress in front of her. It wasn\'t sexual. Werewolves didn\'t care to wear clothes; obviously, it tampered with their ability to shapeshift. “I can see you hunting in the night in wolf-skin, but I can’t see you argue with your half-sisters in the buff.”

“My half-sisters are sixteen and nineteen, practically cubs. I’m so happy that you find my family life to be one big joke.”

Leslie didn\'t like that this man who invited her to live in his house had lied to him about himself. However, it was his house and although she had the money for an apartment, she didn\'t want to move out. She wasn\'t so desperate to move in with her parents that lived in the same town until she could locate a suitable dwelling. She liked living with Ethan and sharing his expenses. He was quiet and considerate. His only major fault was that he didn\'t like to do his laundry and his bedroom tended to smell if she didn\'t remind him to do it at least once a week. “Until yesterday, your family life was you and your mother. Now you have this extended family that includes people that wake from shooting and shake out their fur.”

“My sisters are full werewolves. They can change shape at will,\" Ethan explained.

Leslie was frustrated. She couldn\'t report that the deaths in the park were caused by a werewolf. The captain would look at her like she was insane. She had to find a way for it to look like a normal animal attack so Ethan\'s pack could take care of it; no matter how much she wanted to deal with this through police procedure. “I have news that could break the case wide open and my junior partner wants me to stay closed-lipped.”

Ethan turned his head to make better eye contact with Leslie. “Don’t push me on this. If it came down between you and the pack, blood is thicker than water.”

“You would throw me to the wolves?” Leslie couldn’t believe she said that. That was a bad pun even for her.

“You call Wallace and tell him we’ll be late,” said Ethan. “I’m going to call Juan Lopez. He’s current pack leader. I’m engaged to his daughter, Sara Maria.”

“You don’t act like a betrothed man.”

“She’s sixteen. We’re planning to wait until she’s twenty-one. It’s an arranged marriage. One of her grandparents is human; no full breed wolf wants her. She doesn’t want to lose her position. Since I have no authority and would always be on the bottom of the totem pole, I have long accepted that I would never marry or sire children. I have argued with Juan for years that it would be better if she married into another pack, but he says the marriage would benefit both of us.”

“You’re a political animal,” Leslie teased.

“If Juan will see you, you have to behave yourself. You’ll be on his turf.” Ethan took his phone to the bedroom and closed his bedroom doors. “Juan, there’s a rogue werewolf killing people in the park. I thought our people patrolled the park.” Leslie could hear Ethan\'s voice through his bedroom door. “Someone should have been roaming the park. I would have gone with an adolescent if you had asked. Now, the cops are on our backs.” Leslie continued to listen to hermmatmmate talk to the pack leader. “She wants to meet with you.\" Ethan explained “I should have told her years ago. Leslie is closer to me than family.”