Never has a clock moved time so reluctantly, thought Madeline. She, Dimitri, Leif, and Cyprian were squatting in their tiny hide-out room, she sitting as far from them as the cramped space allowed. When the hour came, it would be exactly twelve hours to the "meeting". All four, along with their transformations, had gained a semi-nocturnal tendency that kept them all alert well into the night. Leif paced, worrying the plastic tiles until they turned brown beneath his boot soles. Dimitri and Cyprian talked at the table in hushed tones, throwing furtive glances across the room at Madeline. Madeline was in a sour mood. Since Cyprian had thrown her suppressants to the depths of Lake Michigan, she had become less volatile, her muscles less prone to tremors, but she almost immediately left her humanoid form. She was a giant she-wolf, awkwardly pressed into one of the room's small corners. Her fur was a deep black-brown and her eyes like deep, murky, pools of liquid mahogany. She was a beautiful and powerful thing to behold, rippling muscles and shining coat, but she felt most undignified. The majority of her fangs were as long as an adult's little finger and lily white. Her canines were as long as index fingers and were noticeably translucent at the ends. A patch of her fur was uneven and ran the wrong way on her neck as if she had a deep scar. (This was where Cyprian had bitten her.) It was a sad sight, this mighty creature, ashamedly tucking its tail between its legs and shrugging into a ball in the dark corner of the room.
"She needs to go out," said Dimitri.
"Don't jest. She's in a delicate state. Likely tear your lungs out if you mock her to her face." Cyprian looked deeply concerned. This was a look that had become incredibly common upon his visage in recent weeks.
"I'd live. Anyway, she does need to get out of here. This place is like a cage. I know Leif hates it. They need to run around, kill something. Fresh, warm blood, y'know?"
Cyprian stole another glance. Madeline was sighing heavily up at the clock above the door. It was tragically comical, like a trained bear or a caged lion desperately pulling faces at its observers. "Where would we go?"
"Come, there must be some wilderness left in middle America! Take 'em to a wood or a canyon. Something not flooded with hapless tourists year-round." Dimitri glanced not at Madeline, but at the refrigerator. He longed for a meal, an IV sack of sweet, delicious blood, but feared that Madeline might go berserk at the sight of it. The newly-transformed were ever hungry. So ravenous were they that if they did not have the proper guidance, they were liable to go on killing sprees. Madeline had "guidance," of sorts, but had not yet mastered her cravings, strengthened evermore by her werewolf instinct to kill for pleasure, for fulfillment. Going without a couple meals, he decided, was a small price to pay for keeping her violent bloodlust at bay. "Jesus, if not for them, think of the rest of us!"
"There's a protected 'natural area' a few counties from here."
"Alright, when?"
"Now. Let's go before the 'meeting', shall we?"
"But I--"
"You brought it up, Dimitri, and you are coming. I can't handle her on my own.
Leif, Madeline... We're planning a little trip, get you some fresh air. Would you like that, Madeline?" The gargantuan she-wolf glared, hating Cyprian's patronizing tone. She opened her massive muzzle to reply, but managed only a husky bark. Furious with her wolf form's shortcomings, she frowned deeply, twitching and whimpering for a bit. Her frame shuddered and its thick, dark pelt sagged as the bones and flesh beneath it shrank. It too shortened. Before the boys stood a strange halfling, a humanoid with long and pointed, wolfen ears and dark fur covering all but its fingers and face, which was barely recognizable as Madeline's, such was its lupine distortion. The grotesque thing, identifiable as a half-transformed werewolf, had a curving human mouth filled with bone-crushing fangs. It--she, rather--opened this mouth and, in a slightly raspy version of full-humanoid-Madeline's voice, said, "I would like that very much. I'm hungry."
"Insatiable, more like it..." Dimitri sounded cross, but his face was full of twisted amusement at Madeline's half-form.
"Give me a moment," she said. From the floor she retrieved a few articles of clothing she had bought after she destroyed the last pair in her latest sudden transformation. These included a green tank top, jeans, and patterned converses, only mentionable as they would later come to comprise the outfit she wore when on the prowl. She let herself out the door, careful to check the peephole and around the sides before exiting. When the others emerged, it was to find her sitting atop a fire escape nearby. For a typical human, this height was unachievable without the use of a ladder. For the boys and Madeline, it was like a kiddie jungle gym. Quickly they joined her and climbed from it to the roof of the building.
"The sun will set soon. Let's get going." The four figures jumped with great agility from rooftop to rooftop, racing as they went, and into the darkening sky. They were on the hunt.
Copyright 2008 C.B. Sanders
Comments (1)
Is this like a story?
with chapters and the whole deal?
because it'd make for a great one. I don't know how much my opinion counts, but I'm writing a story right now. Not about vampires or werewolves, but maybe one day I will, it's a subject that interest me, most probably becasue of the twilight seires.
have you read those books?