"Are you sure it won't hurt to keep him locked in his cabin, Mr. Indigo?" The steward was worried, well, everyone was worried.
Indigo was just a passenger on that ferry called "Nodriza" A small but diligent ferry that was bound for the Chinea Islands.
"The trip lasts 10 hours, right?" Indigo took out his pocket watch, it was 11:45 at night, fifteen minutes left. "I think everyone should go to their cabins soon."
He looked at the steward, and then at all the other crew members who were looking down the corridor. Among them was the first officer on deck, Aponte. They were all reluctant to leave, but the officer's voice made them obey. As soon as they were alone he looked with concern at the cabin behind Indigo.
"Are you sure it's what you say it is?"
"I am, it's my specialty and you know it. I have solved cases of harpies, mermaids, vampires, and doppelgangers" the last word was said with annoyance, and the last case had been martyrdom.
"We know, nobody misses his shows on the social networks," the officer swallowed saliva, "I never thought I'd come across one of his supernatural cases here on the ferry, but it's him!"
"Just because he's the captain doesn't exempt him from his curse," Indigo always had to remind his clients. "He was bitten two weeks ago by a therianthrope, whose nature I don't know, but I would recognize that bite anywhere," the pocket watch struck five to midnight.
The officer knowing there were five minutes left wanted to leave, but Indigo gave him his phone to record. He needed something to publish soon.
"Won't I be in danger?"
"No way!" although the mystic knew that several times his viewers could be involved, his friend Hesse had left him several days ago because of that. "Besides, it will be part of the show."
As he said that, he noticed how the moon disappeared behind dark clouds, and the clock struck midnight. A bloodcurdling howl pierced the air. The first officer's hair stood on end, this was supernatural, nothing like he had thought. Backing away was not an option, his feet remained anchored to the ground.
Indigo smiled.
He saw through the dark glasses he wore for marketing to the officer. A uniformed man was shaking from head to toe, now that was something he didn't see every day, at least in his life.
He muttered some magic words and the officer's leaden feet moved toward the door.
"No, no, no," the man shrieked and the beast on the other side of the door sensed it.
A resounding thud echoed and began clawing at the steel door. The growls of a huge beast caused the filming man to urinate, but he could not flee, he was anchored to an Indigo spell.
The mystic smiled.
The cabin door began to give way before the brute force of the animal. The door showed the fear and the sweat hormones that Officer Aponte was exuding. The claws dented the door, it was a few seconds before it gave way.
"I will die here, I will die here," repeated the subject without stopping filming.
Finally, it gave way, something tore it from its hinges and threw it furiously backward. A large brown bear with traces of a maritime uniform appeared, barely able to pass through the frame. It tried but only its snout full of sharp teeth passed through and attempted to devour the officer, but it was out of range.
"Not entirely unexpected, knowledgeable public" Indigo stepped forward and the officer as a professional cameraman filmed it. "On my way to vacation I come across another case" The bear broke the door frame in his attempt to get through, and in the background, the screams of the crew could be heard. "I have before me a case of therianthropy, which for those in the know could be called lycanthropy," Indigo bowed to the huge beast that was just a few centimeters away. "The victim was Captain Phillips Castellan, a fanatic for hunting in his free time. I can deduce that he went into the thick forest of his town and was attacked by a bear man... It is a rare case of lycanthropy in these parts of Latin America, but I hypothesize that he must be an immigrant..."
"Put an end to this!" The officer interrupted when he saw how the beast's arm wanted to tear the mystic.
Indigo did two things, he muttered more magic words, and the animal's arm twisted before touching him. The monster's screams of pain mingled with the officer's shrieks of fear.
"Ruin the show," he punctuated and muttered other words that snatched away any hint of emotion in his cameraman.
He visualized the huge bear lunging angrily at him again, making the frame give way and stepping over the threshold. He could reach them now, a few yards and they would be snacks. But the mystical Indigo spoke his magic words and time became slow for the creature, but not for him and the officer.
Thick traces of the animal's saliva flew in all directions in slow motion. Indigo stared defiantly into the beast's red eyes.
"To be turned into a Therianthrope it is not only enough to be bitten, you could also see yourself with this curse by being the seventh son of a seventh son, being cursed by a witch or warlock like me, sleeping in the full moon with the skin of the beast or drinking from a stream where there are traces of the supernatural being or recently drank."
The bear was a few feet away from the mystic, but Indigo whispered more words and a magical wind blew the beast into the cabin.
"I say this as a warning, I don't want them to do it at home. They don't know how complicated it is to reverse the curse. Even if the victim spends the first night of the full moon converted his curse will be irreversible" Indigo never took his eyes off the camera, but he always knew what the creature was doing, his third astral eye indicated all the monster's movements. "Fortunately for the captain, I have the remedy. Difficult to obtain in these times when everything is worth an arm and a leg."
He took out a syringe and a silver coin. He said some other magic words and the coin dissolved into the syringe.
"It can only be administered in full transformation." It was a lie, but he needed a show to keep his followers coming, and therefore keep the money flowing.
Other magic words came from Indigo's lips and the syringe flew until it hit the bear's right chest. He withdrew the needle, and immediately the results were seen. The huge body began to convulse.
He signaled the officer to stop filming. Watching a transformation was extremely disgusting. He looked at the time, it was 12:15.
I take back the officer's magic words.
"Thank you for your cooperation, you may call the steward and have him bring me a cup of chamomile tea to my cabin."
The cries of transformation reached his ear, but he preferred not to see. It was no longer his business.
The officer was still in shock.
"I sent the stewards to attend to the captain. I'll be disoriented, give him some milk and bread, please."
Indigo left, thinking about who to hire as a cameraman.
