He was sitting on a wooden bench inside the Administrator's office. He was set to be released from the juvenile hall. It was his eighteenth birthday. His mind was wandering, thinking of what his life going to be out in the world. He has seen the worst, he believed. Twelve years in the orphanage, and six years in the juvenile hall. His life could not fall any lower.
“Benjamin Helsing,” the office secretary called out. He raised his hand. The secretary pointed him to the table where the woman with eyeglasses was sitting. He proceeded to the table.
“Happy birthday, Ben,” the woman smilingly greeted him as she took her eyeglasses off.
“Thank you, Mrs. Tillman,” he replied shyly as he sat on a chair in front of the table.
“So, you are going out today,” Mrs. Tillman said, “where will you go, Ben?”
Ben was momentarily quiet, he did not have a ready answer. Then he said, “I'll find a place to stay.”
“I'm worried about you, son,” Mrs. Tillman articulated her concern. “You have no family to return to.”
Ben looked sadly down at the tiled floor. He wished that his family had not been brought up in the conversation. He never liked talking about his family. To him, there really was no family to speak of. The only kin that he knew was his older brother. And the little memory that he had of his brother, he did not want to remember. “I'll find a place to stay, Mrs. Tillman,” he again replied.
----------
It was about noontime when Ben Helsing got out of the juvenile hall. He headed straight to the town center. As he walked along the streets of Monty, he tried to get acquainted with his new surroundings. He took notice of the stores , the houses, the roaring cars, and the thoughtless faces.
Then a smell of fried burgers caught his attention. It was coming from a mobile sandwich store that was parked by the sidewalk. His stomach began to grumble. He decided to have a burger. He opened his backpack, took some amount from the money that he earned at the juvenile hall, and then he proceeded to the mobile store.
There were ten people in line, waiting to be served. Ben joined the line. A few more joined behind him. He did not mind waiting under the heat of the sun, until the woman in front of him was about to be served.
“Mmmm ... what will I have?” the woman exhaled as she looked at the posted menu. “Let me see....”
“Amazing!” Ben could not resist sounding as he looked up the cloudless sky. “She's been in line for ages, and she still has not decided what to have.”
“Excuse me?” the woman turned around and faced Ben. “Did you say something?”
“Nothing,” Ben answered, avoiding her stare.
“I heard you say something,” the woman insisted.
“What will it be, Miss?” the vendor butted in.
“Tuna sandwich,” the woman replied without taking her eyes off Ben. “Where is that rage coming from? I can see deep anger burning in your eyes.”
“Don't mind where it is coming from,” Ben voiced out his annoyance. “To where it is going, that is what you should be worried about.”
The woman's eyes widened. “Is that a threa.... Are you threatening me? Are you threatening me?”
“Your sandwich, Miss,” the vendor again butted in.
“You are a rude, ill-mannered, obnoxious beast!!!” the woman gave Ben an earful, then paid for the sandwich and walked away fuming mad.
----------
Ben walked leisurely on the sidewalk as he enjoyed his burger. Soon, he reached the bank of Monty. He stopped and took a lingering look at the bank: its ceiling, its windows, its door.
“I wonder what the beast is thinking, staring at the bank,” a voice distracted Ben. He looked over his shoulder to find out who spoke. It was the woman who made a scene at the sandwich store. She was holding a bottle of soda.
Ben sighed, exhibiting his displeasure of seeing her again. “If I'm going to rob it, what is that to you?” he uttered to piss her off.
“It matters to me, Mister, because I happen to be a teller at the bank," she responded as she crossed her hands together.
Ben was dumbfounded. He turned around to face the woman. Then he examined her with his eyes. Her dress, he noticed, was colored in three different shades of green, just like the color of the bank.
“I treated you badly,” Ben finally said, forcing a smile, “I'm sorry.”
The woman gave him a suspicious stare. She was doubtful of his sudden change of demeanor. “Mhhmmm?” she sounded.
“I was a jerk acting the way I did,” Ben added, “I want to make amends, if you let me....”
“Seriously?” the woman was half smiling. She has thought of something to ask him.
“Yeah ... seriously,” Ben replied,”just tell me what to do.”
“The anger in you ...,” the woman then said, “tell me what's causing it.”
The woman got Ben thinking. He was torn between telling her the truth or feeding her with a lie. He wanted to gain her confidence, so he told her the truth. “Somebody left me a promise, but he never came back to fulfill it.”
The woman's heart somewhat melted. Her suspicious stare turned into a look of sympathy. “How sad ...,” she spoke with compassion, ”who failed to fulfill the promise?”
“I'm sorry, Miss,” Ben responded, “that is all you can get.”
“Wendi Sue ... my name is Wendi Sue Everglee,” the woman decided not to pursue the matter further. “Does the beast have a name?”
“Ben, Benjamin Helsing,” he said as he turned his head back towards the bank. “I've never been inside the bank, can I go in and look?”
The woman's suspicious stare again returned. “You are not really planning on robbing the bank, are you?”
“If I am, would I have told you?” Ben answered, hoping that she would not take seriously his talk about robbing the bank. But the suspicious stare remained.
“You have a pair of pretty pretty eyes,” Ben tried change the conversation. “I won't mind them staring at me forever.”
Wendi Sue suddenly became self-conscious. She immediately took her eyes off Ben and looked down. She had been staring at his face for quite a while, she realized. It wasn't a bad sight, rugged but good looking. She, too, would not mind staring at him forever.
“Indeed,” Ben wanted to give her more, “your eyes are ....”
“Enough,” Wendi Sue, with her eyes closed, cut him off, “this is embarrassing but ... you had me at 'amazing'” Then she gave him a loaded quick look and went inside the bank. Ben followed.
----------
“This is just temporary, Ben,” Ben Helsing exhaled as he rolled his eyes up and down the abandoned old lighthouse. He did not intend to stay permanently at town of Monty, much less at the old lighthouse. He had a plan and he had just set it in motion. He couldn't believe his luck when he met a teller at the bank of Monty. She was vital to his plan. He volunteered to walk her home after work.
Wendi Sue let Ben walk her home after work, and she felt like she was walking on clouds. In those afternoons, Ben would show up early at the bank and would sit quietly inside, observing, while he waited for Wendi Sue.
It did not take long for Wendi Sue to fall deeply for Ben. She fell in love with him despite of what he had been in the past, and despite of what he was appearing to be, a mystery.
While sitting at the top of the old lighthouse, one night, staring at the full moon, Wendi Sue said to Ben, “Let the full moon be my witness .... I'm going to love you forever.” Ben forced a smile to hide his discomfort. He never liked hearing promises.
“Truly,” Wendi Sue wanted Ben to see her sincerity, “look me in the eye and see.” Ben stared at the moon instead.
-----------
One Monday morning, when Wendi Sue arrived at the bank, she saw several policemen inside. She approached her fellow teller, who was sobbing near the main door, and asked, “What's going on? What are police doing in here?”
“They robbed the bank,” her fellow teller answered as she wiped the tears from her eyes, “somebody robbed our bank.”
Wendi Sue's heart began to pound. She so wished that her suspicion was wrong. “Who did it? Do they know yet?”
Her fellow teller shook her head. “They still haven't got a clue.”
With her suspicion nagging, Wendi Sue decided to leave the bank and headed towards the old lighthouse.
Inside the old lighthouse, Ben was sitting in a dark corner. His face was burried between his legs, his hands were shutting his ears. Three nights he had not slept a wink, and three days he had not eaten a decent meal. He had been busy planning, preparing, and acting on his plan. He was successful.
He was about to leave the town and the old lighthouse for good, when something stopped him. He heard voices talking:
“Leave no mark behind, or else, it will catch up with you and bite you”
“Nooohhh ....”
“Pick your self up, and do what you have to do.”
“I caaaan't ... ummmm.”
Hoping that the voices would leave, he burried his face between his legs and shut his ears with his hands. But the voices wouldn't cease.
He did not know how long he had been sitting in the dark corner when he heard a third voice calling out from the outside, saying: “Ben! Ben!”
His heart began to beat hard and fast. What he was wishing not to happen was indeed going to happen.
“The gun! Get the gun!”
“Nooohhh.....”
“Do what you have to do!”
“I caaaan't ....”
“Do what you have to do!”
The door creaked open. Ben saw Wendi Sue come in. “Ben! Are you in here?!” she called out as she looked around. What followed next was a short and fiendish sound, 'bang!'”
Wendi Sue fell to the concrete floor, face down. A bullet pierced through the back of her head and went out throught her mouth.
Ben coldly walked towards her. Then he turned her body around to look at her. Her eyes were open, seemingly staring at him. He tried to close them, but her eyes wouldn't shut.
"I'm going to love you forever," he suddenly remembered her saying, "Truly ... look me in the eye and see." Those words added to the heaviness inside him that he was trying hard to bear.
When the night came, Ben threw her body into the sea.
Ben never went back to the light. He would go out of the old lighthouse only during the night. But not when the moon was full. He could not stand the sight of the full moon, it reminded him of a promise. With his rage, he would sometimes growl at the full moon. The nearby villagers who heard his growl mistook it as a howl of a monstrous wolf, the cause of their missing fowls.
----------
One full-mooned night, a lingering soul of a woman, on her way to her home, saw three teenager boys, running scared and altogther shouting: "There's a werewolf atop the old lighthouse! He's howling at the moon!"
Curious, she decided to go up the old lighthouse and see. She wanted to know if the one howling was indeed a werewolf. As she was climbing up the stairs, she noticed that the sound that was coming from the top was quite different from a howl. It sounded more like a growl, full of anger, full of rage.
When she reached the top, she saw a man who appeared to have not shaved in quite a while. With his long black hair and thick beard that almost covered his face, she was not surprised why the man was being mistaken as a werewolf.
Unnoticed, the lingering soul watched the man growl at the moon, wondering why he was so angry at the moon.
Three full moons after, at the cemetery, where the lingering souls, after having howled at the full moon thrice and became visible, mingled with the living, the woman mentioned to the group what she saw at the old lighthouse. When the younger woman in the group, who was also a lingering soul, heard it, she became inconsoleable. “That could be him ...” she cried, “my darling Ben.”
“Ben Helsing?” the kid, who joined the group in the previous full moon, asked.
“Yes ... your brother,” the crying woman replied.
“Let us not waste time,” the doctor in the group, who was yet living, urged the others. “Let's go to the old lighthouse and see. Perhaps he's still there.”
Led by a former military man, the group went stealthily to the old lighthouse, avoiding to be seen by the townspeople.
When the group was drawing near the old lighthouse, they heard occational growls. They were encouraged, believing that Ben was indeed at the old lighthouse.
Suddenly, the group heard a shout coming from the thick patch of tall grass, saying: “There he is, Gaston, shoot the beast!” Then a gunshot echoed through the air and a body from the top of the lighthouse fell down to the patch of tall grass.
“Nooo!” the younger woman cried out as she ran towards the place where the body fell. She was exhibiting a faint but noticeable white glow, just like the other lingering souls in the group.
“Good Lord!” the gunman exclaimed. “A ghost! Run!” The gunman and his cohorts quickly sped away.
Ben, lying on the patch of grass and struggling to breathe, was puzzeled by what he saw. He saw Wendi Sue rushing towards him. When she reached him, Wendi Sue lifted his head with her right arm and held his left hand with her left hand. He did not want to face her, he looked away.
From the dark, Ben heard a voice of a man, saying: “Go on, son ... talk to him.” Then, he saw a kid emerge from the dark shadow of the old lighthouse and walked hesitatingly towards him. He recognized the kid, but he didn't want to believe his eyes.
“Ben ... I'm Frank,” the kid shyly spoke, “I really wanted to come back for you, but I was killed the day after I escaped from the orphanage.”
Ben closed his eyes. Tears rolled down from his eyes. He had not shed a tear in a very long while. He has resolved never to shed a tear again. But, that night, he could not help it.
Feeling Wendi Sue's warm touch, he slowly tightened his grip of her hand. The tightened grip pronounced all the things that Wendi Sue had been wanting to hear, and more. “See you at the other side, my love,” she whispered to Ben, “see you at the other side.”
Soon, a thick cloud hid the moon from the town.
-- End --
(04/25/08)
Related stories:
-Jack Straw Did It (04-11-05)
- Invincible Johnny Wembley (01-10-06)
- A Few Invincible Men (05-23-06)
- Something About Wendi Sue (10-02-06)
- The I-Men: United (10-31-06)
- The I-Men: Reloaded (12-07-06)
- I-Men: The Black Widow Trial (02-14-07)
- I-Men: Blue Jean Burns (06-26-07)
