1. Full Moon

Esmy Pov:- 

Arrrrrgh!

My whole body felt like it had been set on fire. I opened my eyes a crack to check if there were flames slowly licking my flesh but I saw nothing. The burning sensation touched my bones and went deeper. It was both in and out.

I trembled on the bed feverishly. There had to be an explanation for this. What is happening to me? I asked myself trying to cool my rising panic.

It was my eighteenth birthday, I could feel my body changing. 

I was turning into a monster-a werewolf!

My bones felt like liquid within me and for a moment, I could have sworn I was nothing more than a puddle on the bed. Then suddenly it felt like steel. Like I was made from the strongest substance on earth.

I rolled on the bed taking deep meditative breaths. 

The snapping sound made me freeze both mentally and physically. It had come from my legs. My hands moved down to brush my feet and then it happened again. And again.

Arrrrrgh! I screamed in my head.

The bones in my legs broke like they were being crushed by a wrecking ball. The pain moved through me with a paralytic force.

I begged it to stop. Pleaded. But it only got worse. My ribs followed in the torture making it impossible for me to draw in breaths. I screamed out with everything I had but no sound came out.

Is this the end? I thought. Is this how my story ends?

I shuffled on the bed using my elbows but my arms twisted at an awkward angle and snapped. Hot tears rolled down my cheeks. The pain was too much for one person to handle yet here I was taking it all.

The sweat on my forehead sizzled from the heat my body was producing.

I screamed out again but nothing. It was as if I had somehow lost the ability to generate sounds. The only sound in the room came from my intense breathing, the cracking of my bones, and my heartbeat.

A strange sound broke out of my mouth. It was wild and feral; almost inhuman. The sound vibrated through the night like a calling.

Darkness settled all around me. Everything slipped away from me one by one even as I tried desperately to hold on to my identity.

 There was nothing but a void empty feeling. Nothing left but hunger.

It all went blank for me... 

I don't know where I am, I could only see flashes passed through my vision. The smell of wet grass wafted through my nostrils. I could smell something else wet. I moved very fast and if I had to guess, I was running. 

Somehow, I felt more like an observer than the one executing the action.

My senses intensified and it was like I could hear and sense everything all at once yet I was being pulled to one particular scent...

Blood!

How I knew this strange scent was blood was a mystery. I just knew it was.

An urge and hunger overwhelmed me the closer I got to the scent. I could also smell sweat mixing with the wet grass as I brushed through the woods. I was chasing something; I had no idea what it was.

Whatever I was chasing was fast which made my legs work extra propelling me through the field. I could hear the labored breathing ahead of me, taste the blood on my lips, and smell the fear and blood oozing off my target.

It was me and yet somehow it wasn't. I could do nothing but watch from a distance which only confused me as to whether I was the chaser or not.

Suddenly I blanked out completely, it was as though, everything that just happened was a dream.

....

I jerked on my bed. My nightgown was soaked in sweat. The fabric clung to my bare skin and heaved as I breathed with difficulty. It was as if I had somehow woken up without my lungs. My whole body shook with a feverish intensity. 

Flashes of the nightmare passed through my mind. I couldn't remember the whole thing just bits. The smell of wet grass came to me like a specter coming to life from the dream realm. It must be my senses being in a state of shock from the nightmare. 

A gruesome scream tore the silent night and ran echoes through my being, resting somewhere in my spine. 

Something about the way the scream had sounded made me shiver and I could tell it had come from my mom. 

My adopted mom.

I shuffled off the bed without thinking twice, I made my way to the door, opened it, and moved to the landing. The house was in darkness but I could make the outline of an adult close to the front door. I confirmed it was mother the closer I got. 

I was halfway down the stairs when two doors open simultaneously from the hall underneath the stairs. 

Izan, my brother, led the way while Donna followed behind. They walked cautiously while I walked with enough confidence to fuel a political campaign but the truth was that I was scared shitless. I just didn't know how to show it.

"Get back!" Momma warned us.

Her voice shook as she spoke and I stopped at the edge of the stairs.

The first thing I noticed was how the front door was missing from where it was meant to be. There were splinters of wood connected to the hinges instead of our door. 

Just before the doorway was a familiar object that reflected the light of the full moon. My dad's glasses.

Izan rushed to her side as he ignored her warning while Donna strolled to where I stood putting out protective arms.

"Stay there, Esmy. I'm coming to you." Donna said in a whisper. She sounded scared.

"Ma. Is that blood?" Izan asked in a voice that was pinched.

Mom nodded, her heavy breath filled the room. 

She was scared. I could see the dried tears of her face and the way her skin had lost its color.

There was only blood, and father's glasses on the floor and it trailed out through the door.

Donna suddenly froze, as her eyes trailed my body. Her face dropped in horror. She gasped and pointed at my gown. Fear gripped my innards and squeezed hard.

I looked at what she was pointing at and sure enough, my gown was covered in a strange dark liquid....

Blood!!!

My jaw dropped instantly, and mother's gaze suddenly fixed on me. There was a moment of silence, that was broken by a scream from outside.

It was father.

"Stay here!" Mother ordered as she slowly walked outside alongside Izan. Donna's arms wrapped around me, her intense breath warming up my skin.

I could feel my knees quivering, and my heart beating faster, as my fist clenched against my shirt that was drenched in blood. I don't know how, somehow I could smell blood from few meters away, it was fresh and the victim is human.

"George!!!" 

Mother's screams frightened us, and before I took a glance at Donna she was already by the door, running outside towards mother. 

I ran behind her, but suddenly froze when I was out front. 

"What happened here?" Mother's murmurs filled the air and Donna's whimpering caused my heart to froze for a minute.

My heart etched instantly, but then I saw my father standing just right opposite. I took in a deep breath calming my nerves, and as I walked closer to know why they looked like they've seen a ghost, to my surprise there were dead animals everywhere.

Our backyard was drenched in the blood of dead animals. 

"Who could have done this?"