Mandy

The first time Aaron meets Vicious Mandy is also the first time he's ever gotten drunk. He's fifteen and for the first time in years Bluejeans is not beside him; he doesn't know where she is, and he can't bring himself to give a fuck.

He's at some frat house–college party in the woods on the other side of the river, a real cabin in woods with no electricity or running water; instead the place is lit with candles and high beam flashlights pointed at the ceiling, making the whole place hazy and warm looking, and Aaron is chugging whatever is handed to him like he's somebody that's supposed to be there.

The room spins. Aaron can hear something barking, over or under or around the thumping bass and shrill laughter of sorority girls wearing too little clothing, the wanton moaning of someone getting smashed against the kitchen counter and the deep throated shouts of the guys playing beer pong in the living room.

Aaron can't help himself; he swallows the last of his red solo cup and turns in a way that makes him sway on his feet towards where he thinks the sound is coming from. It takes him a while, but he makes it out the front door, and then around the side of the house, straining to hear something recognizable or see something familiar. Somebody bumps him from behind and he spews his guts out all over the dying grass, hands on his knees as he hacks and heaves and gasps for air.

No one helps him, and he's not sure why he expected otherwise.

After he's done, and there's no more people shouting 'ew!' or 'look at that!' or straight up laughing, Aaron straightens and keeps walking, making sure not to step in the puddle of sick at his feet. As he rounds the corner of the house into the backyard, he sees what he came out here for.

A large brown wolf, chained to a thick dead tree stump, hackles raised and head lowered, teeth bared as it bunches up to lunge at the group of people taunting it.

Aaron can't help himself; he lurches forward and swings his fist, connecting with something, and the next thing he knows, he's laying on his back in the damp, cold dirt and there's sunlight filtering through the pine trees above, making his head pound and his forehead sweat. His body is on fire; when he wiggles around, checking to see if anything's broken, he can't help but wince in pain.

His hands are bruised and cracked, knuckles cut and bloody, and his shirt is ripped and torn. He doesn't think he can see out of his left eye, and when he reaches a hand up, that whole side of his face is numb to his touches; his finger come away wet and red.

There's nobody else around, it seems.

Except for the wolf, still chained to the dead stump, curled behind it and watching him with bright gray eyes.

Aaron's relived it's still there and terrified to think he was dead to the world with it so close to him. He knows a wild animal is a wild animal; Bluejeans proves it everyday. It could've killed him in his sleep, devoured his body and left nothing behind for his parents to bury.

Poor, Ma, he thinks, despite the fact that he's alive and relatively healthy. Losing her only child like that and not knowing what happened. If only —

The wolf hacks like it's choking on something.

Aaron shoots it a look, annoyed at the interruption to his thoughts. The wolf gazes back at him, wiping its lips with its tongue, and lowering its head back to its paws, watching him the whole time. He knows it isn't relaxed, can see the tension in its body shift with every minuscule movement of his body.

He pushes himself to his feet anyway, and immediately falls on his ass as the wolf springs to its feet in a lunge quick as lightning, the only thing stopping it from sinking its teeth into Aaron the thick leather strap around its neck and the chain wrapped around the dead tree stump. It begins its obsessive barking again, the same barking that drove Aaron to it in the first place. It makes the pounding in his head worse, and he pulls himself a good ten feet backwards before standing again.

Inside the cabin, he finds no one. But he also finds what he was looking for, so he considers it a win. He takes a leak in the disgusting bathroom, scrounges around picking at leftover food and left behind items, pocketing over fifty dollars in cash and a couple dozen Characards¹ and a cute little keychain creature shaped like a weasel and, most importantly, a pair of dark sunglasses.

Outside the cabin, Aaron tries to balance his haul in his arms, his head pounding and face hurting worse than he ever thought was possible. Behind the cabin, the wolf has stopped barking, and now paces back and forth at the end of its chain, growling and snarling as it watches Aaron. He thinks it might be a female, but he doesn't waste his time trying to check as he fills the bowl in his hands with bottled water and uses the grabber claw he found instead to push it within the wolf's reach.

Immediately, it swats a big furry paw out and tips the whole things over. Aaron can't help the way he rubs his neck with his palm; time to move on to the next thing.

He uses the grabber claw to bring the bowl back towards him, but loses both items to the wolf's jaws. He watches in fascination and vague annoyance as the beast snaps the grabber in two, the bowl cracking and breaking around the top edges as it gets the same treatment. He ends up lobbing the whole half a pizza straight at the wolf's head, a spike of victory shooting through him as it jumps away in surprise.

Aaron smiles with his lips closed as it chows down on the pizza, jaws trying to tear even though it comes part of easily, and huffs a slightly laugh as it licks its chops and looks at him like it's asking for more. Aaron pulls the plate of grilled hamburgers onto his lap, and offers a greeting that makes the wolf tilt its head from side to side until he relents and tosses one.

Dumbass doesn't catch it, but instead scoops it up off the ground and swallows as soon as the burger is in its mouth. Aaron takes a bite out of one and cringes at the greasy taste, wishing there was at least some cheese melted on them to dull it. The wolf whines at him, and he answers back with an, "Oh? You want another one?" to which he gets a single, ear killing bark in response.

He throws her the burger. She's all skin and bones anyway.

- he feeds her the burgers, gives her some water, talks to her as he lays in the shade all day long. around dusk some of the college kids come back and he doesn't hide but he doesn't make himself known and they leave him alone without much issue after the wolf growls. night comes, and he settles down in the dirt again, staring up at the stars. he sleeps peacefully, and wakes to the wolf sleeping at the end of its chain. she wakes when he moves, and he extends a hand to touch and she bites him. he leaves and comes back a week later, alone, and feeds her again. she is happy to see him. he uses bolt cutters to cut the chain while she eats, and leaves slowly as she's distracted. he gets halfway to the main road when she bumps her snout into his thigh and scares the shit out of him. he tries to shoo her off but she follows about ten feet behind him as he walks along the road. a truck full of bruised college kids pulls up alongside him and stops. he's going to get his ass kicked when the wolf jumps out of the thick grass and tears into two of them. they flee and aaron gets to his feet after the wolf hacks on him and ruins the moment. she follows him to the driveway but doesn't come closer than that due to bluejeans smell. it takes all winter, spring, and summer for her to calm down enough that she and bluejeans don't fight and she can come up to the house.






"Vicious Mandy"
Watch Your Back (Benny Cassette)
The Way I Am (Eminem)

—
Your wolf, Mandy, has lived her life to the fullest and is now up in the heavens!

notesKey
Characards¹ = the in-world equivalent of Pokémon / Pokémon cards