The Call of the Moon

Chapter Two- The First Day

“I have been struck with an array of ailments my entire life. These ranged from the typical common cold to even having appendicitis. But the first days of my transition were unlike anything I had felt before. It was a mix of menstrual cramps, the stomach flu, a cold, a migraine, and desperately needing a root canal. But I know now that that was the easiest part of this whole werewolf thing.”

The sunlight was wicked upon Aurora as she found herself disoriented while rising from beneath her bedroom covers. She instantly threw her arm in front of her eyes as it appeared as though the high beams from a car were focused directly at her. There was also a slight ache in the front of her mouth as she felt as though she had a cavity or something similar. This pain faded quickly, however, as she came to realize the scratch upon her arm that now took on a bizarre appearance than any other wound acquired in the past. It appeared as if the wound was actually a tumor as it seemed to grow veins upon the side of it, reaching out in all directions. Some veins wrapped fully around her arm while others focused towards her wrist and connected to her veins already there. At the same moment she grew to notice this, she felt as though her head was being squished by a vice as each second felt as if more and more pressure was being applied.

Enduring all these at once, she found herself to forcefully carry on as she tried to evade her mother’s interrogation of where she was. She wanted to avoid this mostly for the fact that her mother would go on and on about things that had nothing to do with said topic but also on this particular morning because she can’t remember exactly how she got home. Aurora found this task successful as she made her way outside as she covered her normally vibrant eyes with a pair of dark thick sunglasses and her light blonde hair with a baseball cap. She focused on the sidewalk in front of her as she made her way to the library as she had done almost every morning but felt her muscles ache with each step she took. She had only made it a block before having to stop on a nearby bench and catch her breath.

Her head began to spin around almost as if she was recovering from her first drunken night and this was the result of reckless choices in alcohol. But she found that she never touched the stuff as every male figure in her family gained an addiction to the effects of intoxicants. The spinning then reached down her neck and through to her arms where she felt as if she wanted to physically pull her skin from her body. Trying to ignore this, she continued her path to the library and was able to make it inside where she found the smell of vintage printed paper to draw her into an ease. By setting her bag behind the counter to start her shift, she removed her time card for the machine right by the door before turning to see Troy sitting at a nearby table. He was hunched over with a sling on his left arm and a bandage concealing half of his face but Aurora was still able to tell he was glaring at her while discussing her to his minions placed around him. The very same ones she could once call friends.

She ignored them as she went about her day and moved directly into the back to collect the books that were returned overnight from the drop off box and turned to find Troy standing right behind her.

“We need to talk.” He said in a cold tone while speaking to her without care of her response as he pulled her from the interior of the library and towards the mid-interior that was not quite outside but also away from where they would be shushed.

“Let go of me.” She said, no longer afraid of him as she felt as though she gained a strange sort of courage and strength as opposed to her usual timid nature.

“I just want to make sure that we both understand what happened.”

Aurora glared at him. “You almost raped me. You were attacked by a wolf.”

“I was afraid that was what you thought. You drank way too much and threw yourself onto me. I tried to be a gentleman but your begging lured the wolf. I tried to protect you against it-”

Aurora scoffed at his embellished story of completely fabricated events. Before last night, she would shy away and nod as she would fear what would become of her, but it was different. She felt literal power being surged through her body as if she was directly attached to an electrical current. But it wasn’t dangerous, it was beautiful as she had always been so fearful of speaking louder then what was expected of her. With this newly discovered courage, she moved towards Troy, even as he towered over her by almost a foot and placed her hands on her hips.

“You and I both know what happened out there. That wolf saved us both from a mistake. He had-”

“HE?!” Troy now scoffed in her direction. “You talk about it like it’s a person.”

“That wolf was more humane than you have ever been.”

“Humane? Look what he did to me!” He spoke as he removed his bandages enough so she could see a line of scratches come from the top of his forehead down past his eye and down his neck. “No girl is gonna sleep with me now!”

“I suppose the fact you still have any part of your junk at all is mercy from God, because if I ever see you threaten me again, I’ll make sure no girl ever has to worry about what you almost did to me.”

“My father-”

“Your father knows his son is a screw-up, he is more fed up of fixing your little problems than your doped up mom is.” She found the words to emerge from her lips without her being able to stop it. “If you see me walking towards you, you go the other direction or everyone is gonna know the little secret you have.” She commented upon motioning to his manhood concealed in his pants-hinting that it was nothing to be impressed over.

“What happened to you? You used to be so sweet…” He commented as she couldn’t help herself as the words left her lips before she could stop them.

“Although you failed on your task last night...you still took my innocence, Troy...And I can tell you that if I come to collect it, you will find that the wolf from last night is nothing compared to what you’ll see me become.”

He swallowed hard upon her threat and moved out of the library quickly, followed by his friends who all looked to her in horror as they couldn’t bring themselves to believe her change of attitude either. It was the type of attitude that she had always felt she could obtain if pushed over the edge just right, and it took an event like last night to do such a thing.

Immediately following this moment however, she found that nausea hit hard and she launched herself into the nearby bathroom. Aurora found her arms to instantly wrap around the porcelain seat as she continued to vomit into the bowl. For a moment, she swore she saw a purple colored liquid that had come from her lips before the automatic toilet flushed. From the intense struggle of her already frail body having vomited, she rested against the side of the stall with her feet crossing over into the other one. Her usual porcelain skin was spotted with perspiration and her once rosy cheeks were now as pale as her shaking hands.

Aurora’s eyes began to fall heavy as she found herself to fall asleep in the bathroom stall, caring little to nothing as to where she was falling asleep. She found that she began to dream of something covered in darkness as if she had been locked in a dark room with only her senses of hearing and touch to be her guide. She ventured forward and came to the feeling of fur, the same kind that was part of the wolf that saved her from being raped the night before. The fur then turned to skin, soft and part of a toned male physique as she found herself to jolt awake at the feeling of a cold sensation upon her forehead.

“Are you alright?” Caring librarian Violet Lewis asked as she pulled her glasses down to the tip of her nose and dabbed the damp cloth on the previously unconscious girl.

Aurora nodded. “How long was I in here?”

The woman nodded as Aurora tried to stand up but found that she could not shake the feeling of having an immense pulling sensation in her stomach. It was close to that experienced with appendicitis but focused specifically in the center of her stomach, truly pulsating with pain.

“Do you need to go to the doctor?” Violet asked as Aurora was brought to the sink with the help of the other librarian before she shook her head.

“I didn’t sleep well.” She commented before the librarian caught a glimpse of the wound on her arm and pulled it to view.

“Were you scratched or bitten?” Her concerned reaction now turned to serious as she seemed more knowledgeable about the bite than even a nurse or doctor would be. She analyzed the wound carefully while also being cautious to not bring harm to Aurora as the laceration was beginning to grow completely down her arm and now formed at her wrist.

“What?”

“A wolf?”

“No...it was-”

“I know it is going to sound insane but I think you are transitioning.”

Aurora looked to the librarian with disbelief. “I think you are too into the folklore of this town.”

“I can help you...just let me-” Violet went to assist but was pushed back by Aurora. Violet was pushed back with enough force to cement her theory on Aurora having begun to transition into a lycan. This theory was further known true when Aurora had sprinted at an unnatural speed from the steps of the library and back home-unable to be caught by the curious librarian.

Aurora just felt a desperate need sleep as it was as if her body was fighting some horrible infection or horrible influenza. She threw herself beneath her covers after throwing her curtains closed and fell asleep instantly, finding the minute she closed her eyes to send her into a dream. Again, she was in a dark room but it took off immediately from when her last one was interrupted. She felt the skin of a man in front of her and reached to his face before feeling a grin complete with a pair of sharp teeth. For some reason, perhaps for it only being a dream, she found no fear to accompany his sharp canines. In the flicker of a moment, a flame lit on a nearby candle was brought by the man’s hand to show that he had blood on his teeth and she then retracted her touch from him. Unfortunately, it was too late however as she had found her fingers to be stained from the blood. She tried to wipe it onto her pants but then found she was made of fur herself and instead of standing, she was a wolf herself. The skin of a darkened animal-hidden due to the lack of light was in front of her with its lifeless form hanging from her mouth.

She awoke this next time finding herself in the very spot she had been scratched by the wolf and where Troy had tried to take advantage of her. But just as it had happened in her dream, Aurora found blood to be on her fingers. There was then a sudden taste of meat strong in her mouth of an animal she couldn’t pin-and it was definitely something she had never had before. With her mind now realizing her surroundings in a total, Aurora noticed that her clothes had been vacant from her body and she was placed upon the ground nude.

The only modest thing nearby was that of leaves that had fallen around her but even the largest one would not answer her question of her current circumstances. As she looked around for her clothes, her phone, or even another person, she saw the carcass of a squirrel to be lying beside her. When bringing the animal to view, she saw how teeth marks, those matching a wolf, had been embedded in the poor creature with its meat being torn from its body.

To make matters worse, the sound of footsteps closing in led to Aurora, making her circumstances ones hard to explain without feeding fuel to the legendary Lycan infested town.