Black Friday Read online

  Black Friday

  Published by Jan Stryvant

  Copyright 2017 Jan Stryvant

  Copyright Jan Stryvant 2017

  Cover Credits: eBook Launch (http://ebooklaunch.com/)

  No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form without expressed, written consent from the author. The material in this story may feature graphic depictions of a sexual or adult nature and is intended for a mature audience only. All characters in this story are fictional and of the legal age of consent for any activities they engage in. Any resemblance between characters, places, or things in this story and people living or dead, actual places, or events, is purely coincidental. It's fiction, I made it up.

  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be copied and given away, or copied and sold, to other people. Got that? No copying, please! If you would like to share this book with another person, it would be really nice if you purchased an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use, then please consider purchasing your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  #54228A

  Table of Contents

  Black Friday

  Just Another Day

  The Worm Turns

  Jump Right In

  Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

  Sunday Morning won't be the Same

  Questions and More Questions

  Fathers and Daughters

  Supernatural Discoveries

  Monday, Monday

  Father in Laws

  Sweet Tuesday Morning

  Tuesday at School

  Tuesday Night

  Home - Again

  Wednesday Afternoon

  Thursday - Moving Day

  Friday - After the Storm

  Black Friday

  Sean looked both ways as he started across the street, not that there was much traffic during the day here at the University of Nevada, Reno campus this late in the day. But it always paid to be careful; some of the freshmen came from some serious cow towns to the north and never seemed to look where they were going.

  Mid-terms had just finished and he was pretty happy with his grades this semester, he'd finally gotten the hang of this whole 'college' thing, so what if it had taken him nearly three years! True, it wasn't UNLV, going to the university's Las Vegas campus had really sounded like a lot more fun than being in Reno, but in some ways maybe this was better. Reno had a lot less traffic, and ....

  "Hey! What the hell are you doing!" He yelled as suddenly a car pulled out from the curb, the engine revving out as some stupid freshman farm moron suddenly blasted out from the curb, straight at him!

  Diving between two parked cars in front of him, Sean heard the squeal of brakes and laughing from the car's open window.

  "Better pay attention, couch jockey!"

  Getting to his feet, Sean glared at Dean Hoskins, the backup quarterback for the Wolf Pack.

  "Least I'm not a camper!" Sean shot back. He didn't like Dean, the guy was all ego, and word was had been quite the high school ball player. But apparently that wasn't good enough to cinch the starting position here at UNR, and that failure had led to him finding unfortunate targets to release his frustration on.

  Sean had come to his attention at a LAN party at one of the local frats when he'd fragged Dean fifteen times, in a row. The only thing that had stopped Dean from beating the crap out of him had been the football coach's rather strict policy on his players getting into fights. But it still hadn't stopped the harassment.

  "Better watch your mouth, Sean, or one of these days, you and I are gonna have a little dance!"

  Grumbling Sean turned his back on his harasser and continued walking across campus towards his room. Maybe he should start carrying that can of pepper spray that Sampson had given him. While he wasn't exactly afraid of Dean, Sean really wasn't all that into getting beat up either. Sure, he could hold his own in most fights, but most of the fights he'd been in as a kid growing up hadn't been with a college athlete in perfect physical condition.

  Turning a corner around one of the buildings on the edge of campus, Sean's attention was suddenly brought back to the present as someone grabbed him from behind.

  "Dean!" He yelped and dropping his book bag he thrust an elbow back, hitting somebody who grunted in a much deeper voice than Dean's.

  A van screeched to a halt in front of him, the side door sliding open as a man with his face covered jumped out and ran to help the guy Sean was now struggling with. When a hand came over his mouth as he started to yell, he bit down hard, enjoying the curse of pain from behind him, the guy being distracted enough for Sean to move to his right and slam his hand back into the man's crotch. Grabbing a handful of balls through the fabric of a pair of slacks, Sean squeezed hard and ducked his head, butting it into the stomach of the man running at him, as the other man let go.

  "Use the taser, you fool!" Someone shouted and almost instantly it felt like something bit Sean in the side, and then his whole body spasmed in pain as he heard a loud clicking sound.

  Falling to the ground he hit his head on something and could only see stars, and then darkness as a hood was thrown over his head and he was bodily hoisted up and thrown into the back of the van, the door slamming closed. From the way his body was rolling around on the floor, he could only assume that they were rocketing off rather quickly.

  Gathering his wits a moment, Sean kicked out with his legs; luck was with him, as his feet connected with somebody. There was a brief flash of pain as he heard the clicking noise of the taser again, but it was only for a moment, as he heard someone yelling, and cursing, and then the van started to rock back and forth for a few moments, before coming to a rather abrupt stop with a loud crashing noise.

  Flying forward he tried to tuck himself instinctively into a ball, but then he slammed into something hard, and passed out.

  Sean came to slowly, to the sound of gunfire. In the tight enclosure of the van, it was painfully loud. Grabbing for the hood over his head he gasped in pain, his right arm lit up in agony. Using his left he ripped the hood off and looking around it was complete and utter mayhem. He was covered in blood, and from the bone sticking out of his forearm, it was pretty clear that a lot of it was his.

  The van was a complete wreck, the windshield was gone and from the blood and pieces of flesh on the broken jagged edges, he suspected someone had gone through it. There was now a telephone pole where the passenger's seat used to be. The driver, who was either dead or unconscious, was slumped over the steering wheel, still belted into the seat.

  The door on the side of the van was missing, it was just gone, and the bright light of the afternoon sun was streaming into the van, which was full of dust and smoke.

  There was another shot, then a loud scream of incredible pain. Turning to look Sean saw that both of the rear doors had been ripped open, as they were each hanging from only one hinge now. There was a dead body on the floor, just the body; there wasn't any head on it.

  There was another gunshot, and a loud roaring noise and he looked over at, at what he wasn't quite sure. He blinked and shook his head. There was a man, the one who had jumped out of the van, if he was remembering the clothes right. He wasn't wearing a mask now, it was missing. He had a gun in one hand, some big shiny automatic, maybe a Desert Eagle? Living in Reno he had become rather familiar with guns.

  But that wasn't the part that was strange; it was what the man was shooting at.

  A lion.

  He was shooting a lion.

  But this lion didn't look like any lion Sean had ever seen before, and again, living in Reno, he'd seen quite a few. No, this lion was hu
ge, well wait, weren't all lions huge?

  It hit him, it was a lion-man, and just as the kidnapper fired another shot, the lion-man finally grabbed the arm that was holding the gun, and with a sickening wet sound he ripped it off.

  Just like that.

  He ripped it off.

  The guy holding the gun fell back screaming, a rather high-pitched and pitiful sound as he clutched at the fountain of blood coming out of, well where his arm had once been. It was almost pythonesc in the absurdity of it. You couldn't rip a man's arm off, could you?

  "Sean!" the lion growled, and Sean turned his attention back towards the lion-man. Yeah, it really was a lion-man, and he was looking at him. Sean blinked and tried to figure out just what the hell was going on, but for some reason things were having trouble focusing. Something wet was running down his face and he kept wiping at it with his left hand.

  "Yeah?" Sean mumbled and looked around him.

  "We have to go, now!"

  "Umm, okay," Sean said and scrambling towards the open side door he fell out of the van onto the ground, as his legs refused to cooperate. He inhaled deeply in pain as he hit the ground, his broken arm lighting up with fire again as he hit, and his right leg hurt as well. Looking down, he could see that was also bleeding through a fairly large gash.

  "I'll carry you," the lion-man said and picking him up with a loud grunt, he slung Sean over his shoulder.

  Things were dizzy, Sean could only figure that he had passed out for a moment, and he was having trouble focusing on anything. He remembered then, he was bleeding. Right, he'd been in an accident. He needed to stop the bleeding. Bleeding was one of those things they taught you in the first aid class to deal with first, right?

  At that point he was laid down onto his back, and looking up there was Sampson. Sampson was his next-door neighbor, or rather, his Mom's next-door neighbor. Sean had moved out last year. He was a maintenance worker or something at the casino his Mom dealt blackjack at, and an old family friend who had once worked for his dad.

  "Sampson?" he said, blinking, "What are you doing here?"

  "Listen," Sampson grunted, and Sean noticed he was covered in blood, and from the way it was flowing, Sampson had been shot. Several times.

  For some reason, that woke Sean from his daze.

  "You've been shot!" Sean exclaimed in shock, his own pain momentarily forgotten.

  "Yeah, that last bastard had silver bullets in his gun," Sampson grunted. "I don't have much time, Sean. I'm dying. I promised your father I'd protect you. Guess I failed."

  "Wait, what? My father?"

  "They're after you, Sean. I don't know why, maybe your father left something behind for you and they're afraid you'll find it and use it."

  "Who's after me? What are you talking about?" Sean babbled, Sampson thought his father had left something behind? The only thing his father had left them had been a million dollars of debt!

  "They'll be watching the hospitals, not that I'll live long enough to get you to one," Sampson gasped. "So I guess there's only one thing left to do. I'm sorry, Sean. I'd hoped you'd have a normal life.

  "Guess that's over now."

  And with that Sampson grabbed Sean's broken arm, and bit it, right over the wound.

  Sean screamed, but it came out more as a gasp, and along with the pain from the bite there came a cold burning sensation that spread through his body with an intensity that Sean had never felt before as he passed out once more.

  Just Another Day

  Sean woke up slowly; mornings were never his strong point. Stretching he opened his eyes and looked around his apartment.

  As usual, the place was a mess; the window was also open as usual, which wasn't too big a deal considering he lived on the third floor. Sitting up in bed he looked at the alarm clock, eight am. For the first time in a long time, he'd beaten the alarm. Getting out of bed he looked down at himself in surprise. He was naked.

  Why the hell had he gone to bed nude? Was he out of clean underwear again?

  Grabbing the old watch that he'd been given for his eighteenth birthday off the nightstand he stared at it. It was Saturday. That was right. Yesterday was Friday. He'd left school on the way back to his apartment, and then....

  And then ... what?

  Looking down at himself, he didn't see any cuts, and bruises, in fact, he seemed to have lost some weight. Not that he was really fat, but the last few years of eating poorly and sitting on his ass all day he'd started to develop a bit of a spare tire. The rest of him also just looked a bit, well, more buff.

  "Have I really not been paying attention to myself that badly?" Sean muttered as he set the watch back on the nightstand and stood up looked at himself. He needed to hit the shower. He was definitely smelly, even a bit dirty. But just what the hell had he gotten up to last night? He didn't do drugs, well, not much really, just the occasional joint or something, if someone else offered it. Same for drinking. As a college kid on a scholarship with a butt-load of financial aid and student loans, he really couldn't afford all that much.

  Squinting a bit as he concentrated he remembered walking out of the engineering building, then Dean being an asshole, again. One of these days he was definitely going to have to put that guy in his place....

  Sean stopped again, just where the hell had that thought come from? Keep your head down, avoid confrontations, get the degree and get out of school. That is what his Mom had always told him. The only place he ever stood up to people was in online games or when role-playing at the weekly D&D session with his old friends from high school.

  Walking over to the mirror, Sean looked at himself. He looked, well more or less the same, how often do you really look at yourself in the mirror anyway? You just take it for granted after a while. But everything looked okay. He needed to shave, and he needed to wash, but otherwise?

  Shaking his head he grabbed his robe and towel, and wrapping the towel around him he headed off for the common shower that he shared with the others on this floor.

  Padding down to the bathroom, no one was in the shower, but this was a Saturday, so everyone else was probably just sleeping in.

  "Oh, damn," A female voice said from behind him as he opened the door to the shower.

  "Huh?" he said and turning around, Roxy was standing in her doorway wearing just an oversized t-shirt, looking at him.

  "I was hoping to be first today!" Roxy pouted.

  Sean had to smile, Roxy was the only girl living on the floor, she was a few inches shorter than him, sleek and slender and cute as hell. She was on the track team; her specialty apparently was the hundred-yard dash. Looking at her standing there in nothing more than a very long t-shirt brought some rather impure thoughts to Sean's mind.

  "I'll be quick, aren't I always?" Sean chuckled.

  "Well, I'd hardly be in a position to know," Roxy teased back, and then she suddenly looked him up and down with a rather frank appraisal. "You been working out, Sean?"

  "Umm, yeah," was all he could think to say as he tried not to blush. Roxy had never looked at him like that before. Then again, not many girls did.

  Hurrying into the shower, he closed the door behind him and put those thoughts out of his mind.

  Roxy stood there in the doorway, staring at the closed door. She could smell it, he absolutely stunk of it. Lion. Sean smelled of lion. Had he met up with a lion-were last night? She didn't think he swung that way; he always struck her more of the kind interested in women than other men.

  Sneaking over to his door, she opened it and peeked inside. The place was a mess, she sighed at that, there was a pile of rags under the window, he was worse than her brothers!

  The scent of lion was rather strong in the room, but how? If Sean had had someone up in the room last night, she would have heard it, hell her hearing was good enough that she could hear it when he jerked off, their rooms were right next to each other and in these old converted houses, there wasn't much in the way of sound insulation.

  She smelled the bloo
d then. Looking down the hallway towards the shower, she heard the water come on, so she carefully snuck into the room. The smell was coming from the pile of rags under the open window. Looking back and forth around the room, making sure that there weren't any hidden threats, she slowly walked up to it and dropping carefully to her knees she leaned over and gave the pile a sniff.

  Blood, lots of blood, at least that of three different people. There was an older male lion's scent, very strong, but that wasn't the scent she'd gotten from Sean.

  Roxy's eyes got wide. Sean had gotten bit! That had to be it!

  This could be bad, there weren't supposed to be any lions around here. Werelions weren't common; they were one of the least common of all the were-races. Roxy had heard all the stories about them though, they were strong; they were aggressive, and very territorial.

  And they never ever converted humans! Either this was some kind of rogue male passing through, or something very bad was going on.

  Sneaking back out of Sean's room and carefully closing the door, she went back to her room and closing her own door she leaned back against it and blew out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

  Sean was a nice guy, pretty much harmless and obviously focused on his schoolwork and videogames when he wasn't studying. She'd heard him mention that his Mom dealt blackjack at one of the larger casinos in town, and his father had died in some sort of industrial accident many years ago. Sean had been sketchy on that; Roxy figured it was none of her business so she hadn't asked more.

  Shaking her head, she hoped she was wrong, that maybe it was just that his scent mixed with that of the other male's was tricking her nose. Because while lions tended to be good, when they went bad, they went very bad, and for those who were bit and not born of the blood ... she shook her head again. With no one around to teach him, the odds of his beast getting the upper hand were too strong to ignore.