The Shadow of the Moon

by Michael Dunn

  She felt cold. Her skin was covered in goose bumps even in this high eighty-degree weather. Tears were welling up in her eyes, because she had never been so scared, not even when she thought she was dying in Tony’s car or before her first change. She turned around, and saw a small and blurry Tony waiting at the opening of the woods.

  As she apprehensively looked around, a snapping twig under her foot made her jump. She closed her eyes, breathed deeply, and tried to use those calming meditation skills she learned over the past few weeks.

  Forcing herself to calm down, Suzie stopped and sniffed around, allowing herself to smell the creatures in the woods, hear the birds in sky, taste the moisture on the tip of her tongue; she could feel the world around her like it was talking to her. It was a calm, dull voice, easily ignored. The voice of the world made her smile and she closed her eyes.

  Suzie heard scampering in the woods, and saw a rabbit stop and stare at her for a second before it dashed away as fast as it could. She spotted a coyote in the distance, and was about to run from the coyote, until she heard a loud, terrifying roar to her right — a black bear about two hundred yards away, who was not afraid of her. Instead, the bear roared and ran toward her.

  Her mind screamed, “Oh shit!” and she took off running.

  Suzie and the coyote made a dash with Suzie keeping in pace with the coyote, surprisingly since she was not the most athletic girl in school. She was also amazed she was running with the coyote, even if the coyote was keeping its distance from her. It was still scared of her, but even more terrified of the pursuing black bear.

  Here she was, in her personal childhood nightmare, and being chased by a black bear that wanted to have her for lunch. Her heart was pounding in her chest, almost keeping in time with her feet and the tears fell from her eyes. As she ran, she suddenly remembered what she had become when she felt her hands became claws and her teeth sharpen.

  Suzie smelled the air and knew something was not right. The air coming from the bear was putrid and rancid as if the bear had a disease and was in the midst of decay. The bear was rabid and needed to be put down. She stopped running and skidded in the dirt, watching the dirt rise above her shoes.

  Her anger was boiling and the hot blood pumping through her body allowing her new abilities to surface much easier than before, because she hated being afraid of the bear, but even more so, she hated the illness that was worming its way through the bear’s mind turning it into a mindless killing machine. She thought the bear was the monster of the woods, but Suzie was about to show the bear there was something much scarier roaming these woods.

  You can’t be afraid of the monster in the woods when you’re the monster, she thought.

  No longer afraid, Suzie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes, her eyes were yellow and her body grew long and sharp, somewhere between beast woman and wolf.

  She stood ready for the charging bear, leaning forward, head down, and eyes up. Her arms were at her side as her hands grew into razor sharp claws. Suzie growled and snarled at the bear. She could feel the change coming and painful as it was, she welcomed it, but wished the process would hurry up. Her body hurt as it began to pull and contort, Suzie lay on the ground in a fetal position. She used the pain to heighten her anger toward the bear. Tony had told her intense emotion could cause the metamorphosis and so she focused on her hatred of the bear, her hatred of what she had become, and her father’s hatred of her and Tony. With this combustive flow of raw emotion pumping through her, Suzie roared and the change came quicker and easier. As the hybrid, red-haired wolf-woman, she was as tall as the bear.

  The red-haired werewolf growled at the bear and charged it.

  The bear took a swipe at the werewolf, who ducked the bear’s claw and slashed the bear’s chest. The bear howled in pain.

  The bear swung again, knocking the werewolf into a thick tree. This slowed the red wolf down only a second before she was back up again. The wolf circled the injured bear, waiting for the next moment to strike. The bear swung again, knocking the werewolf to the ground.

  The wolf saw its chance when the bear attempted another swipe. The wolf ripped through the bear’s forearm with its claw. The bear howled again, but this time the wolf didn’t wait. As the bear roared, the wolf slashed the bear’s throat. Blood sprayed everywhere, covering the red-haired werewolf. The bear gurgled and then fell to the ground.

  The little that was still Suzie Keaton inside the wolf reminded the wolf not to bite or get bitten by the bear, otherwise the bear would infect her too, and as she was about to bite into the bear’s heart, her mind screamed, “Do Not Feed on the Bear!”

  With its bloodlust sated, the werewolf wanted to sleep. Suzie woke up minutes later, when the smell of dead bear woke her up.

  Suzie walked out of the woods, drenched in blood, dragging the bear carcass behind her, and leaving the woods a new, more confident woman.

  “You knew about the bear,” she said to Tony.

  “Yeah,” Tony nodded, taking her hand and leading her out of the woods. “We were going to put it out of its misery, but JP thought it would be a good test for you and Bordeaux agreed.”

  “JP came up with this idea?”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  “So, it was his idea to send me into the very scary woods to fight and kill a rabid and hungry bear?” Suzie asked, exasperated and part of her wanted to rip JP apart for this ordeal.

  “I guess I’m not getting through, am I?”

  “And you were okay with this?” Suzie yelled.

  Tony stopped and stood in front of Suzie with his hands around her arms.

  “Suzie, before you went in there, you were terrified of the monster in the woods just like everyone else. Now, you have met the so-called monster in the woods, so tell me, who is the monster in the woods?”

  Suzie thought for a moment, then smiled viciously. “I am.”

  Tony smiled. “Exactly. We all are.”

  Tony handed her a wet towel, a plastic gallon jug filled with water, then a dry towel, and then her bag of clothes. Suzie had a quick sponge bath, washing off as much of the bear’s blood as possible, then followed Tony back to his trailer for a proper shower and was grateful Tony suggested she bring a change of clothing.

  “Did you have to kill a rabid bear for your trial?” Suzie asked on the way to the Brandner trailer.

  “No, thankfully, rabid black bears are a rarity. All JP, me, and most of the others had to do was live in the woods for a week alone. Other trials have been much harder than that. Yours was kind of special. Down and dirty, y’know?”

  “Got that right.” Suzie wasn’t sure if she should be honored her trial was a special happenstance or that her training was harder than Tony’s or JP’s. They had had years to prepare. She had a couple of weeks at most.

  “They wanted to witness what I already knew – that you were quite capable of handling yourself, and guess what, you passed.” As Tony led her into his home, and toward the bathroom, he said, “After your shower, we’ll get something to eat.”

  “What about the bear?” Suzie asked.

  “Larry’ll burn it in a few minutes. He likes that kind of thing.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: Out of His Misery

  May 28, 1971

  The gun in Albert’s hand felt very heavy, heavier than the boy imagined it would be, but maybe it was the bullets, the very special bullets, that made his dad’s old Beretta feel so heavy. His plastic guns and even his .22 rifle his father had given him was not this heavy, but this was not a toy. This was a man’s weapon.

  As he studied the gun in his hand, a profound change came over the shy and awkward teenager. This was the first time he had felt power, raw power, in his hands. He could change things, make things right again. While this gun wasn’t that powerful, and it couldn’t bring his father back, maybe it could make the pain in his heart subside. Maybe it could even make the nightmares go away.

  Since the night of the fire, Albert had
the recurring nightmare of trying to save his father from the burning VFW, but the Beast was there, with its razor-like claws, its rows of sharp teeth, and bright yellow eyes. The Beast waited and watched as Albert tried to get closer to the back door to save his father, because the Beast was there waiting to take a bite through his soft, chubby flesh.

  Albert dreamt the Beast taunted him as he tried to reach the door.

  “Little pig, little pig, let me in.”

  Inside, his dad was screaming for him to save them, but Albert couldn’t. He was too scared and Ralph Mullins and his friends were left inside the VFW cooked like roast pork.

  Those nights Albert woke up screaming, and then sobbing, occasionally wetting the bed and hiding the sheets, adding to his own humiliation.

  Albert had spent his free time with his ‘Uncle’ Jack Keaton since the memorial service.

  Thank God the man stopped trying to set me up with Suzie, Albert thought.

  Suzie wasn’t his type and it was clear she was not interested in him. So far, Albert didn’t have a type. His interests had been hunting, fishing, and baseball with his dad. There was no room yet for girls.

  Now that his dad was gone, there had been no reason to keep these hobbies, until Uncle Jack stepped up to pinch hit in Ralph Mullins’ absence and hanging out with Uncle Jack helped ease the pain of losing his dad. While Jack could never replace his dad, he would serve as a good temporary substitute. However, after spending enough time with Jack Keaton, Albert believed the old man was losing his mind.

  One day, about a month after Suzie came home from the hospital after her car accident with Tony on prom night, Albert sat with Jack in the Keaton garage while Jack drank and listened to the Rangers massacre the Indians in Major League Baseball over the radio. After the Rangers scored another run, Jack cheered, laughed, and slapped a high-five to the boy. The obsessed accountant was already drunk.

  He plopped back down in his chair, looked at the boy quizzically, and asked, “Do you remember what you asked me at the memorial service about what your father told you?”

  The pleasant smile dropped from the boy’s face.

  “Uh, yes,” he answered, straightening up from slouching on the couch.

  “What if I told you what your dad told you about the hunting trip was true?”

  “About the Beast?”

  Jack nodded. “Ah-yup,” and he took a drink and told Albert the truth that he knew.

  “Those boys from the trailer park you go to school with – they’re all werewolves.”

  2

  With the gun Jack gave him, Albert took up where his father had left off and went hunting for those boys.

  “It was your father’s,” Jack told Albert. “He wanted you to have this when you were old enough.”

  He hoped he found that blond kid, because he would probably be considered a town hero for taking that kid down, but Tony, not so much.

  Albert walked Bray Road toward the trailer park hoping to find one of them. Coming in the opposite direction toward him was Larry Wagner, whom Albert only knew because they went to the same small town high school, and in a small town high school, you knew everyone and everyone’s business whether you liked it or not.

  Larry walked slowly toward Albert, head down, shuffling his feet as he walked home from school alone. Albert knew there were four of them, but one of them either ran away or hung himself, or something. Albert didn’t know the whole story, just that kid didn’t go to school anymore.

  “Hey Larry,” Albert called out to him.

  Larry looked up slowly, staring at Albert with sun squinted eyes. “What?”

  The more Albert stared at Larry in his Led Zepellin T-shirt and faded jeans, the more the rage inside him grew.

  “I have to ask you a question.”

  Larry stared at him blankly.

  Albert walked toward him fast, but not running. “Is it true you and the others are the Beast of Bestiavir?”

  “What?” Larry asked as if that was easily the dumbest question he’d ever been asked.

  “You heard me.”

  Larry looked at Albert incredulously for a moment, then shifted the backpack on his shoulders and kept walking. He whispered, “Fucking retard,” under his breath, but apparently, Albert heard him.

  Albert’s face turned bright red with rage, a couple shades darker than his orange, curly hair, his eyes wide with fury and beginning to shake, Albert pulled out his gun and pointed at Larry.

  Larry stopped. That got his attention.

  “Y’know what I got in here?” Albert asked, motioning to his gun. “Well, you just think of me as the Lone Ranger.”

  Only then did Larry take this seriously as he stared at the gun in Albert’s hand. It was shaking so wildly Larry doubted Albert was bluffing about the type of bullets the clownish looking boy had in the gun, but the mere motion of the bluff was enough to know Albert knew something he probably shouldn’t. One way to find out.

  “Why would you have those?”

  “You know why!”

  “No, I don’t… unless you’re trying to make an expensive kill. And why me? I never did nothin’ to you.”

  “You killed my dad!”

  “I thought a fire did that.”

  Larry stared more intently at the gun and thought of numerous ways of taking the shaky gun from Albert and killing the boy. He could turn his right hand into a claw and cut off Albert’s fat, fleshy hand, then slash his throat in a single fluid move that would last a second. He could push the gun to the left then pounce on Albert, gouging his throat. He could tear off Albert’s arm and leave the larger boy to bleed to death. He could simply take the gun out of Albert’s hand. All those things were possible, but he was not JP. Larry believed JP would have killed Albert in a second, then walked away, not giving the event a second thought, remorseless as killing a fly.

  Over the past few months, since Benny had died, Larry had been adrift in the fog of his own depression, where thoughts of suicide were common. He had spent many nights crying himself to sleep with the events of that fateful night playing over and over in his head. His enemies were not the drunk vets in the bar. His real enemy had been JP, but he only figured that out a few weeks ago. If they had not listened to JP, and weren’t excited from the recruiters’ talks, twelve men would still be alive, this moron wouldn’t be (trying to) point a gun at him, and more importantly, Benny would still be alive.

  However, this moron offered Larry an opportunity, one he had been contemplating for months. Maybe Albert would actually shoot, and maybe the pain would go away. Maybe he would see Benny again.

  Larry grabbed Albert by the wrist and pulled him forward with the barrel of the gun pointed at Larry’s heart. With Larry’s help, the gun was finally steady.

  “Please,” Larry begged, wide-eyed and pleading.

  “What?”

  “Please pull the trigger.”

  “What? Why?” Albert, more terrified than before, started to sweat more than ever. The heavy gun was slippery in his sweaty palm.

  Larry whispered, “Just end it. Please.”

  Even with Larry’s hand on the gun, it began to shake again, now more violently then before.

  “W-why?”

  “I just don’t want to be alive no more.”

  “How come?”

  “My best friend is dead and I miss him terribly. I hate school. I hate my life. I did some… bad things a few months back… and I –I hate myself for what I did. I just want to die. Please help me.”

  Larry stared at the barrel at the gun, sweating as profusely as his would-be murderer.

  As a bead of sweat dripped off his nose and onto the gun, Larry slowly looked up and asked, “Who told you?”

  “What?”

  “Before you shoot, tell me how you knew… which bullets to use.”

  “Jah-Jack Keaton.”

  “What? How… how did he know?”

  “He said it came to him in a dream. I think he’s gone insane… because he lo
st his friends.”

  Larry smirked despite himself. “I can relate.”

  Both nervous and terrified boys just stood staring at each other for the longest moment.

  “Are you going to shoot or just stand there whistling Dixie?” Larry asked, imagining himself sounding like Clint Eastwood.

  “I-I-I don’t know.”

  Albert pulled the gun away, surprising Larry and even himself with his action.

  “No… I can’t. Just, just go away.” Albert walked away, tossing the gun aside and walked home.

  Larry fell to his knees crying, and then he started laughing. Ironically, he was happy now. The sadness and grief he had carried for months drifted away, and he felt so much better. When he stood up, his guilt, his depression, and self-loathing had dissipated. A new Larry had emerged, and before continuing home, Larry picked up the gun and put it in his bag.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight: Graduation

  June 6th, 1971

  The week after Memorial Day, Suzie, Tony, and JP sat in the folding chairs dressed in caps and gowns on the high school football field for their graduation ceremony, not wanting to be there. They made little effort to hide the fact they were there only for their parents’ sakes and wanted to get out of their red robes as soon as possible. Much as a wedding was for the bride, and a funeral was for the living, a high school graduation ceremony was for the parents. In their respective metal folding chairs, Tony was fighting sleep while JP fantasized about sleeping with the girl sitting in front of him.

  Suzie, dressed in white cap and gown (the boys dressed in red, the girls dressed in white), should have been excited and giddy on this special day, but instead, she was experiencing separation anxiety, a distancing from the rest of the class. It seemed it wasn’t only the Indian kids who were keeping their distance from her. Just a few months earlier she was the much loved and popular class treasurer, and now she was a social pariah, much like her kind. Although, she was now part of them that was not the reason she was being avoided. The rumor she was pregnant never died.

  They were polite and civil, but Suzie no longer felt they wanted her around. Suzie had heard the whispers she was pregnant, but not one of her friends was brave enough to ask her if the rumors were true. What other reason would make Suzie neglect her friends since prom night and spend all of her time at that trailer park? Why had Suzie abandoned them for Tony and his vile brood? She was shunned for allegedly being pregnant, not for being a nightmarish monster, and no one had bothered to tell her.