Hungry Partner

By :  Lovon Parham Richmond, VA — Summer 1976 Detective Warren Hayes pulls up to the crime scene with a pounding hangover and a bad feeling twisting in his gut. Dispatch reported that his partner, Officer Leon Price, had “murdered three people,” but Hayes knows Leon. Hot-headed, sure, but loyal. Reckless, but never cruel. As Hayes steps into the front yard, his flashlight lands on a man’s torn-up body sprawled face-down in the dirt, his back ripped open with massive claw marks.

 Limbs twisted. Flesh shredded. Hayes crouches, confused, muttering, “This looks like a bear, or some kind of big animal… how the hell could Leon do this?” He pushes deeper into the yard, following the blood toward a wooden gate. Dog-like prints, huge and smeared in blood, cover the boards. 

Prints way too large for any normal dog. Inside the house, things get worse. A woman lies dead across what remains of a shattered kitchen table, her eyes open, her body mauled just like the man outside. The kitchen is wrecked—counters smashed, claw marks gouged into the walls, blood sprayed across nearly every surface. Hayes steps around broken dishes and furniture, his breath shaky as he examines the scene. 

He reaches the backyard where another officer, the one who apprehended Leon, stands pale and rattled.

“Hey,” the cop says quietly, “this is where I found him. Man was freaked out… I mean really freaked out.”

“Did he say anything?” Hayes asks, trying to stay calm.

“Nah,” the cop replies. “He just started screaming. I ain’t never seen him like that.” Hayes lifts his flashlight toward the old doghouse by the fence. The wood is splintered, covered in deep claw marks, and smeared with blood.

 He steps closer, leaning in, confused and uneasy. And then a growl echoes behind him. He barely turns before Leon lunges out of the dark, teeth bared. Hayes grabs him, trying to restrain him, yelling, “Leon! It’s me!”

 But Leon’s eyes are wild, glowing almost, filled with something animal and empty. In one quick move, Leon bites into Hayes’ neck. Pain shoots through him, sharp and blinding. Officers rush in, pulling Leon off as he thrashes and howls, more creature than man. Hayes collapses, bleeding heavily as everything fades. 

When Hayes wakes, he’s in the station infirmary with his neck bandaged. The backup generator hums in the building, casting a dim amber glow through the halls. He grabs his shirt, his gun, and steps outside the room. As he walks, faint bloodstains appear along the walls. Then words begin to smear themselves across the concrete, as if written by an unseen hand: “IT’S ALL ON YOU, HAYES.” The deeper he goes, the more he hears screams echoing through the station. He reaches the security room where two officers lie dead over the monitors. He plays the footage back. 

It shows himself unconscious, and Leon crawling from a vent, blood dripping from his mouth. Officers rush toward the sound, but Leon stops, turns directly toward the camera, and smiles in a way that isn’t human. His body begins to shift, contorting painfully. Bones crack. Skin stretches. Claws grow. He transforms into a huge, wolf-like creature and begins ripping through officers and inmates in a violent rampage. Hayes stares at the footage, horrified, until a deep voice growls from behind him.

 “Haaayes…” Panicking, dizzy, he runs into the men’s room and vomits. Teeth rattle into the sink—his own. His gums ache, his jaw throbs, and when he looks up, his reflection shows glowing yellow eyes and sharpened teeth. He backs away, gasping, struggling to understand what he’s becoming. He stumbles into the police library where Officer Lisa Torres sits on the ground, bleeding and clutching her side.

“Did he bite you?” Hayes asks, rushing over.

“No,” she groans. “But what the hell was that thing? I didn’t sign up for this, and today was supposed to be my day off.” Then she notices Hayes’ eyes. His teeth. The drool. She freezes.

Hayes steps back quickly, grabbing a first-aid kit. “He told me about a case,” he says, voice shaking. “He wanted backup, and I refused. I should’ve been there.”

Lisa winces. “Didn’t they suspend him for going over the Chief’s head?”

“Yeah,” Hayes mutters. “He wanted me to speak to the Chief with him. I blew it off… he went alone… and whatever he found did this to him.” Hayes pulls the case file, loads it into the projector. The images show hooded figures, a ritual circle, a star with a wolf emblem in the center.

 When he zooms in, he freezes. The priest leading the ritual is Chief Callahan. And the building is the same house from the crime scene. Before they can react, a massive crash hits the wall. Leon, fully transformed into a monstrous wolf creature, smashes into the room. Bookshelves topple.

 Lisa is thrown backward and buried beneath a cascade of law books. Leon grabs Hayes by the throat, lifts him, and hurls him through a wall into the station gym. “This is it, Hayes,” Leon snarls, his voice twisted and distorted. “Die, or solve the case.” Hayes feels his own body shifting.

 Bones stretch, muscles bulge, and his clothes rip as he partially transforms. He grabs Leon, slamming him into the bleachers. They fight violently, tearing through walls, clawing, biting, and smashing through office after office. Leon eventually overpowers him and pins him down, claws raised for the killing blow. And then a metallic flash cuts through the air. 

A silver blade bursts through Leon’s back. Leon collapses, snarling weakly, blood pooling beneath him. Behind him stands Chief Callahan, gripping the bloody blade in one hand and pointing a gun at Hayes with the other. “Hayes,” the Chief says calmly, “I didn’t mean to pull you into this. But I have the power to make another one. 

You and Leon were only the beginning. Thank you, my child.” He cocks the gun. Hayes shields himself, bracing for the shot. A gunshot echoes through the station. Callahan drops dead. 

Lisa stands behind him, shaking, her gun still raised. Smoke trails from the barrel. Her face is pale, her eyes wide in disbelief over what she's just done, over everything she’s witnessed tonight. Hayes and Lisa stare at each other in stunned silence as the station burns around them, unaware of the infection still spreading in Hayes’ blood. The case ends here. But the consequences are only beginning.