Waxing Darkness

by Jose Luis Solorzano

  Part of the joy was that it was all completely spontaneous. Luis wanted to be with Luna and Luna felt the exact same way about Luis. Although, no one seemed to want to move on further than just kissing. It was a while, but it was Luna who broke away. Instead of continuing on, she placed her palm over his mouth, signaling him to stop. His arms fell right to his side, realizing what he had done for the past several seconds. Luna’s thoughts were everywhere now. There was no real easy way for her to tell him this.

  “Luis,” Luna started, her words sounding out every syllable, “I’m so sorry, but I can’t do this now. It’s not you, honestly, but can we just put all of this on hold until…later.” Luis’s face was puzzling. His eyes didn’t seem to have a focus. “It’s just, everyone in my family does something like this; they just have sex, and someone gets pregnant, and their forced into a marriage. I don’t want that to be with me; I want to have an honest relationship, where you like me for me. I’ve already got you doing so much for me already; I can’t possibly force you to do anything else.”

  Luis looked into Luna’s sincere eyes, tears regrettably flowing down her cheek. He understood Luna’s reasoning of holding off on something like this. There was no way he could just tell whether or not Luna was much stronger than him at the moment. Luis respected her and knew the right thing to do.

  “I understand, Luna,” Luis told her, holding Luna tightly. It wasn’t an embrace like before, not one directed mostly by lustful hormones, but of friendship. Luis felt her warm tears flow down his backside, knowing that, in the end, he had done the right thing. Suddenly, something snapped into his brain, something that both he and Luna appeared to have overlooked. Luis’s voice cracked. “Are you telling me that you want to marry me?”

  Out of reflex, Luna’s body jumped off of Luis and landed about a foot away from him. Luna’s cheeks turned scarlet red as the tears appeared to have completely vanished from her cheeks.

  “N-no,” Luna answered, adjusting her face downward. “I don’t think we’re quite ready for that in our relationship either.”

  “R-right,” Luis told Luna, mimicking her movements.

  The day of Luis’s transformation had finally arrived. It was the middle of the week, and Luis’s family had left to one of the college football games. Luna’s brothers were on the team, but Victor and Emily had chosen to miss the game this one time. Even Chelsea was invited to Luis’s transformation, to which she hadn’t directly answered yes or no. Luna had arrived in the middle of the afternoon, a while before the sun would begin crossing behind the mountainside. Her parents were expected to come by nightfall, to witness his transformation.

  A werewolf transformation wasn’t something that was supposed to be publicized. Many times, it was a private matter, done in absolute secrecy. These days though, it was quite rare for a werewolf to choose to transform a human into one of them, mostly because it had become a custom where werewolves only married other werewolves in order to keep their species alive. Witnessing a human transform was also something that had a number of different documentations, each one talking about various ways a human transforms, although they each provide the same prerequisite: exposing the bite of a werewolf under the light of a full moon.

  “There’s been a small change of plans,” Luna told Luis as they both took a seat on the couch. “When the moon rises in the night, that’s when my parents will come and drive us out into the middle of the desert. They think it’s better that we have an open space for you instead of our backyard, since anything can happen. You might want to prepare an extra set of clothes.” Luna let out a small giggle after her final sentence.

  “Oh, right,” Luis uttered.

  It wasn’t exactly his plan to strip buck-naked in front Luna, her mother, her father, and possibly Chelsea. That was why he was wearing his least favorite clothes today, an old t-shirt and shorts, to have something that he can rip through for the First Transformation. His cheeks began to burn as he thought back to last night and the inappropriate actions that he and Luna had participated in.

  Lazily, they waited for Luna’s parents to show up by watching television, something that had practically become the tradition of what they did whenever Luna came inside the house. Chelsea had also arrived an hour after Luna did. She seemed to cower in her own shell when she heard that she would have to be in the same car as the people who hadn’t accepted her. Chelsea had hoped that going inside the same house as them would have helped her with the problem, but there was no hope for her at this point. She was still very frightened of Emily and Victor. Still, she was going to come along to bring support to her new friend.

  The sun had finally begun to set upon them. With an extra pair of clothes in hand, Luis, along with the girls, waited patiently. The strange part for Luis was that he didn’t seem afraid about what was about to take place. Oddly, he didn’t have cold feet about becoming a werewolf; every fiber of his being wanted this to happen.

  “It’s time,” Luna told the both of them.

  She had been looking out the window for the past thirty minutes, watching for her family’s car. It was no surprise to her that her parents decided to bring their Jeep. With Luna at the head of the line, the three of them left the house and went to the car. No one said anything, or attempted to make any eye contact. Victor seemed to be holding back his true emotions, only wearing a blank face. It scared Luna the most, worrying about what was going on in his mind at the moment. She’d actually prefer it if he was actually looking as if he were angry; it’d probably make a lot of the tension go away. If he’s going to act like this, then why did he decide to come along with us in the first place, Luna asked herself as they started cruising through the urban streets. We could have made due just as well without him.

  The car ride was deathly silent. Luis was glad that the hickey that Luna had tried to leave him the previous night didn’t take. There was no way that they would leave this car alive if they had known that their daughter gave her boyfriend any kind of love bite. Luna and Luis were only holding hands, clenching them every few seconds when either of them felt terrified. Chelsea was wearing a dark hoodie, and hid her face inside the hood, hoping that the adults would pretend she was invisible and not cause a fuss.

  Darkness had fallen across the town of El Paso, Texas. The Jeep had been going for about an hour, headed towards the mountains that lead you to the New Mexican border. Just before they entered the mountain side, Victor turned the car to drive straight into the desert. Luis wasn’t quite sure if this was even legal to do, but now wasn’t the time to bring up the laws of how to use deserted areas. They drove deeper and deeper into the desert for another half hour. The lights of the city only appeared as a blur to all of the passengers. The Jeep had finally come to a stop, but no one seemed to leave the car yet. It was twenty seconds of complete non-movement. Finally, it was Emily who opened her door and exited the car.

  “Come on,” Emily told the trio of young adults that were in the backseat.

  The moon was slowly climbing the night sky. No one seemed to want to waste any precious time that they had. The moon appeared to be very full. It was a very spacious place; the only way that they all would be found is if someone purposefully knew where to go. It was still early in the night, but no one seemed to enjoy the quiet, cool atmosphere.

  Luna and Luis embraced each other, both of them ready for what was going to happen. They were careful not to do any other public displays of affection in front of Luna’s parents, but the both of them wanted to plant one small kiss on the other’s cheek.

  “Don’t bite me too hard,” Luis whispered as they let go of each other. “I’m not into that kind of stuff.”

  “It’s just a love bite,” Luna teased, sticking her tongue out as if she were just a child again.

  Luis saw Luna step behind the Jeep and turned away. Victor and him had finally made eye contact. Neither of them seemed to want to talk with each other. Luis didn’t understand what Victor hated him so much. He didn’t do anythin
g wrong; it wasn’t his fault at all that a vampire attacked him. Would it have been better if you daughter didn’t do the right thing and just let that vampire kill me?!

  A low, growling noise came from behind the Jeep. Luis turned, and saw Luna’s wolf form, a sight that he was very familiar with now. The two of them walked side by side, out into the deserted area. They stopped a few feet away from where everybody was. No one was sure what was going to happen.

  Luis sat down in order to make level eye contact with Luna. He petted her head and then gave her his arm. Luis closed his eyes, adding pressure to his arm. Luna opened her mouth around his lower arm and then slowly closed her mouth around it. The pressure slowly built on Luis’s arm. He couldn’t scream, he couldn’t show any signs of pain because he didn’t want to freak Luna out about what was going on. She lifted her teeth from her arm, leaving a very distinct bite mark that was also very bloody. His teeth clenched, holding back the yell that he so badly wanted to release.

  Chelsea was watching the two of them from a distance. She squinted when she saw that Luna had actually bitten him. Luis appeared to have collapsed and seemed to be struggling to get up. Chelsea ran out to where her friends were, trying to avoid looking at Luis’s blood covered mark. She couldn’t imagine a single person choosing to go through something this painful while they were considered perfectly sane. Luis was very different though; that much was made clear. Chelsea knelt down next to him and aided him in standing up.

  “Thanks,” Luis said in a sickly tone.

  “Don’t mention it,” Chelsea told him, both of them standing erect. “Just be sure to take care of Luna, no matter what, understand.”

  Luis let out a very shallow laugh. “You don’t need to tell me twice. I’ll be okay. It is only but a scratch.”

  Chelsea laughed. “If you say so.”

  Chelsea stayed there with her friends, standing closely next to Luna. Luis was looking for the moon, which was somewhat higher than where it was when they first arrived at the spot. Luis lifted his arm, as if he was showing the moon that he was painfully bit. At first, it didn’t seem like anything was going to happen. He only just stood there, trying his best to keep a straight face as the pain was becoming more and more intense. Luis wasn’t expecting some kind of big show where a magic green circle appeared around him, but he was expecting something to happen.

  Luis then let out a blood curdling scream!

  It wasn’t from the pain of the bite, which much was clear. Chelsea spotted his arm, and noticing that some of the blood on his arm was glowing. Noticing the shape of the glowing areas, Chelsea guessed that it was the outline of Luna’s mark that was making the blood glow. Still yelling, Luis collapsed on all fours. Victor and Emily moved in closer to the body but Luna didn’t allow anyone to go near him. A variety of noises was escaping from Luis’s mouth. It was a mixture of yelling, snorting, and even barking.

  His hair seemed to grow at a very rapid rate, covering his entire body. At the same time, his body was becoming much larger, ripping apart the clothes that were covering his body. His joints, muscles, and bones were also transforming. His voice changed, and the yelling had completely disappeared. Luis wanted to yell, but he physically wasn’t able to. As his tail formed at the end of his body, he let out a howl that would echo for miles. His eyes were bright yellow and his fur was the same black of his hair. The First Transformation had been completed. From this day forth, Luis was a werewolf.