The Shadow of the Moon

by Michael Dunn

  She was still getting used to all the changes that were occurring inside her body and just when she thought adolescence was almost over. Although mostly dormant during the day, Suzie could feel the beast was lurking beneath her skin and began seeping its way into every part of her life. She could feel the power of the beast growing inside her, and it was also terrifying since she wasn’t be able to control it.

  2

  When her training was over for the day, she saw Tony shooting hoops under the streetlight by himself since he got off work at the garage. He looked so sad, alone, and betrayed. A few hours before, she was happy to see him that way, but things had changed. He too had changed since the accident, becoming more remote and despondent. When he saw her walking toward him, he stopped dribbling, held the ball under his arm, and walked away.

  “Tony, wait, I have to talk to you.”

  Tony kept walking. Whatever it was, he didn’t want to hear it.

  Suzie caught up to him and grabbed him by the wrist, spinning him around. Before Tony could protest and pull away, she grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him down to kiss him. Tony pulled away moments later, with an incredibly shocked look on his face.

  “What the hell was that for?”

  “I wanted to say thank you.”

  “For?”

  “Saving my life. I never thanked you before.”

  Tony raised an eyebrow, wondering if this was some sort of trick. “Yeah, I remember a lot of yelling and throwing me across the hall.” Tony rubbed his shoulder for effect.

  “Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I really am. Look, I gave it some thought and realized you did what you had to do to save my life, and because I came away a little different, I thought it was the end of the world, but it’s not. You saved me and I’m really sorry for the way I treated you over the last couple weeks. I still love you and want to be with you. I guess you really don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.” Suzie laughed nervously at the last point, hoping it would ease the tension.

  Tony stayed quiet, staring at her.

  “I love you,” Suzie said. “And I know now you love me too because of the risks you took to save me. You did and because you stayed around afterward… no matter how badly I treated you.”

  Tony still said nothing. Suzie wrapped herself around him and started to cry on his shoulder. After a few seconds of resistance, he held her tightly and began stroking her hair.

  “Come on, let me show you something,” Tony said.

  Tony took Suzie for a walk, hand-in-hand, beyond the trailer park into the woods away from everyone.

  “I know how much you hate being in there with the little girls.”

  Suzie laughed and nodded.

  “I bet they ask you all sorts of interesting questions.”

  Suzie giggled and nodded hard. “Yeah.”

  “I could show you a couple things… to help with the training. Y’know, to speed up your studies… that is, if you don’t mind.”

  “I’d love to.” Suzie said, as she moved her hair behind her ear.

  “Um…” Tony extended his arm, palm up like he was motioning her to stop. “Make a fist and put it against my hand.”

  Suzie did.

  “Okay, now push my hand back.”

  Suzie wasn’t sure where this was going, but complied, pushing her fist against Tony’s palm. Her arm extended while Tony’s retracted.

  “Do you know how that happened?”

  “Of course, I do. My brain sent an impulse that told my shoulder muscles to push forward.”

  Tony nodded. “Exactly. However, your body is not like other peoples any more. Parts on your body move that didn’t used to, or move differently, like your jaw for instance.”

  Tony put his finger on her chin. “Okay, push.”

  “What?”

  “Suzie, every full moon your jaw pushes itself out whether you like it or not. If you learn how to control your new… abilities, other things you need to learn to control will become easier. Now, imagine your chin is pushing my finger.”

  She couldn’t do it so she cheated and moved her head forward.

  “That’s not what I meant. You can’t move your head. Here.” Tony placed his other hand on Suzie’s temple. “Okay, let’s try again.”

  Suzie closed her eyes and tried to concentrate, but found her frustration was constricting her desires. Despite her failed attempts, Tony never raised his voice. His face often conveyed a look of frustration, but after a deep breath, he would say, “Okay, let’s try again.”

  With her persistence and his patience, Suzie was finally able to push her chin out and it happened when her mind was blank and she just did it. It was hard to tell who was more elated, her or Tony. She did it again and again until it became as simple as clapping her hands.

  “Okay, ready for another test?”

  She covered her face with her hands and groaned. He was almost as much of a perfectionist as she was. The answer was ‘no,’ but she guessed she had no other choice. What did he want me to do next, wiggle my nose to make things appear? Suzie wondered.

  Tony held up his palm vertically again. “Okay, stick out your hand, palm down.”

  Suzie did and Tony held his hand two inches from her fingertips.

  “Okay, make your fingers grow.”

  Great, Suzie thought and did as Tony requested.

  Suzie tried again and again.

  “Just relax,” Tony said, and stepped behind her. He stroked her hair with two fingers. “You can do it. Just watch.”

  Tony held out his hand, palm down and Suzie watched as Tony willed his hand to grow longer, his nails elongating and sharpening as hair grew on his hand like a time-lapse movie. Even though she knew she had the capability to do the same thing, it still amazed her when she saw it. She let out an unconscious, “Wow,” when he finished. Then Tony willed his claw back to a hand again.

  “Here’s what we have to do. Stick out your hand again.”

  Suzie did and he kissed her on the side of her head before speaking again.

  “Take a deep breath, hold it to the count of four, then let it out slowly, then imagine seeing what you just saw. Remember how my hand grew, followed by the fingernails, then the hair grew out. If I can do that, then so can you, just as easily. Now, take a deep breath. Okay, hold it… good. Now relax, imagine your hand growing, slow pushes, you can do it.”

  Suzie kept her eyes closed and did as Tony had instructed, but didn’t believe it was working. Granted, her body did feel warm, then again, it was New Mexico in May, and there was a tingling sensation, which might have been nerves, and there was a stretching feeling, but believed it was because she wanted to feel it. It was a little bit painful, like stretching beyond the comfort zone, but she believed it was working.

  “You did it! You did it!”

  Only when she heard Tony cheer did she open her eyes. In front of her was a large claw covered in thick red hair.

  Suzie jumped up and down, then wrapped her arms around Tony and kissed him on the cheek. “Okay, now imagine the claw retracting.”

  She did it and it was easier this time.

  “Keep practicing. Do it at home, preferably when you’re alone. We’ll work on the mental stuff tomorrow.”

  Mental stuff, great, Suzie thought. For a girl who had been told she was bright from day one, those mental exercises were harder than she expected, but thanks to Tony’s help, that was becoming much easier.

  “Come on, that’s enough for today. Let’s get something to eat.”

  3

  Tony took her by the hand and led her back to his place, full of smiles. It wouldn’t long before she would be able to control it and would no longer need his help or anybody else’s. He borrowed his dad’s truck and they went to their usual drive-up restaurant. They got the burgers to go, made love in the bed of the pick-up on sleeping bags at their new special place in the woods, away from a certain oak tree, and spent the rest of the evening staring at the stars above on the hot New
Mexico night. It had been a good day for both of them.

  “So, how did all this come about?” Suzie asked, staring at the stars above, cuddled in Tony’s arms.

  “What?”

  “Who are we, y’know, our people?” It was difficult for Suzie to believe she was part of them. A month ago, her new ‘people’ belonged only on the silver screen, fairy tales, and in nightmares. “Where did we get started?”

  “Depends on who you ask. Some say it was in Ancient Greece, some say Egypt, some believe it started long before that.”

  “What about the trailer park? How did that come to be?”

  “Well, I do know the answer to that one. I heard this story straight from the horse’s mouth.

  “It was Bordeaux,” Tony said after a moment, still staring at the stars with his arm around Suzie. “He set it all up around seventy years ago. From the stories I heard, from Bordeaux and other town elders, was that Bordeaux was working in this run-down traveling circus, run by this evil man named Hamilton Dean, who took an immediate interest in Bordeaux because he could not figure out what was so different about him. Bordeaux, who was about nineteen or twenty back then, fell in love with the fortuneteller girl, who was Dean’s adopted daughter. When Dean learned about the connection between Bordeaux and the moon, Dean shot the girl to prove it.”

  “Oh my God,” Suzie gasped. “Why?”

  “Because Dean believed Bordeaux would bite her to save her life, but Bordeaux did not want to make her like us. Back then, he couldn’t control the beast as well as we can now. I-I believe he wished he had bitten her, and it’s because of that regret I think he let you live. He wanted to make up for the chance he didn’t take when he was young.”

  Suzie was a little unnerved hearing that, because it sounded too familiar for her own good. She was saved because Tony bit her, and was allowed to live because Bordeaux felt guilty.

  “Anyway, when they learned what Bordeaux really was, they chained him up as a circus attraction. After spending some time as a sideshow freak, he and some Navajo Indian guy escaped from the circus, and then his tribe helped him learn to control his abilities. The Indians really hated him, thinking he had some sort of a demon in his body, a Manitou or skinwalker or whatever is what they called him… us too. Since Bordeaux had saved one of their own, they trained him as a favor and so he would not come by and kill them some night. Good plan, if you ask me.

  “So, since then, the Indians and us have an uneasy alliance. Good thing too, if we had not had a doctor nearby, you would have been dead no matter how many times I bit you. In exchange for their help, every once in a while we are their protectors and enforcers. They will hate you now just as they hate me, but pay them no mind. They are the only ones outside the trailer park that know… what we are.

  “Anyway, once Bordeaux got the trailer park up and running around the turn of the century, other families who had our… affliction came to live with Bordeaux. See, early in the century, people like us were quickly becoming extinct and needed a place to hide. When they heard of a place they would be accepted, they came to Bordeaux, especially since he knew the secret of survival and the secret of America.”

  “What’s the secret to America?” Suzie asked, with a naïve laugh.

  “Money. Money is the secret to America. If you take a look around, you’ll notice if you are poor in America, no one wants to know you, and no one bothers you.”

  Then it clicked in Suzie’s head. It was another illusion. The people in the trailer park only pretended to live in poverty, and while they might not be listed in Forbes,’ they were hardly as meager as they portrayed themselves. The seemingly dilapidated trailer park, along with the second hand cars, and the second hand clothes, were all things designed not to attract attention, as a matter of fact, it repelled attention. They were sneered upon because they were poor and considered lower class, but that was how they wanted it, how they needed it to survive, Suzie thought.

  “Why did he name this the Paradise Trailer Park? Was it some kind of joke?” If it was, it was another illusion peeled back.

  “Yeah, kinda. To the outside world, maybe, but Bordeaux was being literal. According to the story, it got its name from the fortuneteller girl.

  “She told him something. She said one day he would build a paradise for his people. Apparently, he took the name to heart.” Tony smiled.

  “That doesn’t sound so bad. It’s kind of romantic. Besides, I always thought werewolves were evil like Satan or something like that?”

  “No, it’s just a genetic condition passed down like, like… you and red hair. Your parents and their ancestors had red hair, and because of that, so do you.”

  “Will we die?”

  “Yes, we can be killed.”

  “I mean, are we immortal?”

  Tony smiled. “No, not by a long shot. We’ll make it to seventy, maybe eighty before old age gets us. Bordeaux’s close to one hundred, but we believe he is just too ornery to die.”

  Suzie laughed.

  “Besides,” Tony said, “I look forward to watching you grow old.” He kissed her on the forehand and held her tightly.

  Chapter Twenty-Two: The Newborn Werewolf

  May 10th 1971

  As Suzie was leaving the house that night for the trailer park, Dee had already gone to bed, but Jack was still up, and holding a rifle in his lap and said to his daughter before she left, “Try not to kill anyone I know.”

  Suzie arrived after ten that night, pacing around Paradise Trailer Park while Tony shot hoops waiting for the change, and all eyes were on her. The people were standing outside and peeking through their windows staring at her, watching her, seeing what she would do. She couldn’t believe they thought of her as a threat. However, she was a very real threat, because she was an outsider, who was brought in because of an accident, and Suzie assumed they were all thinking the same thing Mrs. Brandner thought: could she keep our secret?

  The full moon rose in the sky, terrifying Suzie, and, she needed Tony to get through this. She needed him to guide her through the night, to watch her, and to protect her.

  Tony held her close and stroked her hair.

  “Everything’s going to be okay,” Tony whispered, and that was what she needed to hear.

  She didn’t know what the change was going to do or how it was going to affect her. Was the change really going to hurt? Was it true she would not remember anything? Most importantly, she would not have to do this alone. Suzie held onto Tony tightly and Tony rubbed her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.

  Around eleven, the people came out of their homes, looking up to the sky. Some came out nude, while others stripped down in their front yards and folded their clothes so they would not be torn.

  For most, the transformation from human to beast took only a moment, but as Suzie watched, the process seemed to take much longer as time slowed down for her, and what she witnessed was the stuff of nightmares. Suzie held on to Tony as tightly as she could, trying not to look over his shoulder, but it was almost impossible to look way, like watching a car wreck. Suzie winced, because it looked so painful, but she had to keep watching, because this was going to happen to her in a few minutes.

  The transformations involved a lot of stretching and sharpening. First, came the growth. Their bodies elongated and widened with muscles, tendons, and bones stretching and popping along the way.

  Then the hands and feet changed, growing in proportion to the rest of the body. The square fingernails triangulated and grew rapidly, faster than anything natural had a right to grow, becoming pointed and sharp. Their hands gnarled into claws, able to tear through flesh like paper. Their feet grew in length and width in proportion to their size. The toenails, like the fingernails, were razor-like and able cut through a thin tree with one swipe.

  The most profound change happened on the face, and like the rest of the body, it stretched and sharpened. The face bubbled, contorted, and the ears began to elongate and pointed like nearly everything els
e on the body. The nose turned black and pushed outward in agreement with the jaw, forming long, pointed teeth made for tearing and shredding small animals in half with one bite.

  Then came the hair, looking as if every pore on the skin sprouted a strand of hair, and instantly, thick, matted fur covered the whole body almost instantly.

  The process ended moments later, and they howled at the moon in reverence to the gift they had been given. Witnessing this was terrifying enough, but when a few of them turned toward her, and Suzie saw those bright yellow eyes, she felt like a little girl trying desperately to wake up from a nightmare.

  She held on to Tony harder than before, digging her fingers into his arm and squeezing. She was unaware she was doing this, because she was too scared and crying too hard to notice anything aside from latching onto Tony for dear life and sanity. When Suzie was able to scream, she did so and cried tears of acute terror into Tony’s chest. He patted her on the back and stroked her head with his claw.

  As she rested her head on his chest, she could hear his heart racing and felt his body shaking violently. Looking up, she saw Tony had also begun to change, but he was trying hard to fight it because of her. His clothing was starting to tear at the seams. It was a painful fight and not one he could win. It was much like holding his breath, he would have to let go soon and give in.

  “Just… try… to… relax,” Tony spoke in a deep scratchy voice, impeded by his large teeth.

  Suzie let go and began to back away from him, but after two steps, she tripped over her own feet, falling on her rear, watching Tony complete the process from teenage boy to werewolf, completely forgetting she too was like them, and tried to crawl away. She raced away on all fours, but only got five paces when she began to change.

  The change came like a kick from the inside. Suzie grabbed her stomach, and she felt like she wanted to vomit, the pain so intense Suzie fell over screaming, feeling the hot blood course through her veins.