Full Moon

RIYA’s POV

“I would honestly rather watch John Wick than these, why do we even have to watch this crap?” Riya grumbled as she came into the living room with a large bowl of popcorn in her hands and stood beside the couch where one of her roommates a petite dark girl wearing glasses sat pointing a remote control at the television screen.

“Because this is the best time to watch this “crap” as you call it, you can always watch John Wick some other time Riya.” Sheila a pretty buxom blonde who was her other roommate said as she trailed in after Riya holding a box of pizza which she placed on the coffee table and Riya opened and took a slice.

“And why is this the best time again?” Riya pouted, refusing to give in without a fight.

“Because it is a full moon tonight.” The two girls chorused in unison and Riya rolled her eyes as she realized that she had been defeated.

“That does not make any sense at all, would it not just be better to just run around the streets and howl at the moon like true Lycanthropy believers?” Riya said sarcastically and sat on the couch beside Issa.

“Since traditionally Werewolves turn at the sighting of a full moon, and we can’t do that so we are simply paying homage to them by doing a werewolf and Lycan movie marathon. You don’t have to watch it if you don’t want to and if you are in the mood to howl at the moon you should definitely have at it.” Sheila answered cheekily and joined them on the couch.

“Very funny Sheila, you know this is the only television in the apartment.” Riya replied grumpily in a half hearted protest.

“Then go and read a book, don’t you have tests coming up next week?” Issa tilted her head at her and asked.

“Those tests don’t come till the end of next week, speaking about tests don’t you also have tests on Monday Issa?” Riya asked eyeing her.

“I’m glad you said Monday because today is Friday and I just want to take a break from all of the studying, I still have a lot of time to study. Now shut up and let us start with the movies already.” She chastised Riya and they settled down with their drinks and snacks and fell silent as the movie began.

“Can someone please explain to me why there are the humans who transform into the huge wolves and the other humans who transform into the humaniod looking wolves? Why are they so huge and why are they standing on two feet instead of four.” Riya interrupted mid movie and her roommates paused the movie and glared at her before Issa took a deep exasperated breath and launched into an explanation.

“So Lycans and Werewolves basically have similar abilities, superhuman strength, really good hearing…”

“…Speed, super sight and regenerative powers…” Sheila interrupted and went out of the room.

“… yeah, all of those but werewolves only transform during a full moon while Lycans can control their transformation and change at will...” Issa continued.

“…Lycans are also smarter than werewolves.” Sheila said as she came back into the room.

“…that is right, Lycans are prey smart so they kinda usually just rule the werewolves as kings.” Issa finished while Riya just stared at them in amazement.

“Wow you girls are really some nerds, how do you know about all of this?” Riya teased.

“Werewolves and Lycans are magnificent creatures and they are often misunderstood. Just imagine how powerful you would be if you were a Lycan or even a werewolf.” Issa said reverently with a smile.

“Uhm yeah no, I can just imagine how much they would shed. I am just so glad that they are imaginary, I don’t even want to think of living in world that had those creatures lurking about in the shadows waiting to pounce.” Riya shivered with revulsion and fear just imagining it.

“I think that they are not just imaginary, they are probably just well hidden. I am sure that they protect themselves from humans because if we found them we would want to probe them and test them and kill them out of fear or because we wanted their abilities. There has to be a place where they live uninterrupted.” Issa countered and Riya laughed so hard that she guffawed.

“Be for real Issa, there is no such thing as werewolves and Lycans, if there were the world would probably be overrun with them and they would rule us.” She said still laughing.

“Why then did you make me explain if you knew were just going to laugh at me.” Issa scowled in annoyance.

“Don’t listen to Riya, she is simply too jaded to believe in anything that she cannot see, not that I would mind them ruling us, they are so hot.” Sheila said fanning herself.

“You’re right, I will only believe something when I actually see it, believing in werewolves is ridiculous, it’s like believing that the tooth fairy put a dollar under your pillow in exchange for your tooth. Surely you are too old to believe in fantasy and that is disgusting, why would you call werewolves hot?” Riya needled.

“If you are done mocking us and our beliefs you can just leave and I meant like when they are in their human forms.” Sheila said as she crossed her arms and frowned at her.

“I’m sorry, I did not mean to hurt your feelings, I will say no more. I am even beginning to enjoy the movie, look.” Riya said, not agreeing with her about the werewolves being hot in their human forms even though it was true, they were all so jacked and oiled up.

She instead picked up the remote and pressed play and then we watched the rest of the movies in silence.

Two more movies after Riya was feeling sleepy and when she looked around her she saw that her housemates had already fallen asleep, she considered switching off the television and just letting them sleep where they were but they looked uncomfortable on the couch so she tapped each of them till they woke up and rubbed their eyes sleepily.

“Time to go in guys.” She said and they got up like zombies and went into their rooms without a word of complaint.

Riya dutifully cleared up the living room, picking up empty bottles and boxes and bowls and taking them to the kitchen before heading to her tiny bedroom and yawning sleepily.

On a whim she opened her window blinds and looked at the perfectly round moon shining and then laughed heartily at the foolish words of her roommates, it was too silly to even contemplate.

Just imagining finding herself in a world filled with werewolves and Lycans was ridiculous, if that ever happened then she would definitely find a way to get back to the world that i recognized regardless of whatever the consequences would be, not that things like that could ever happen and definitely not to her, maybe to Issa and Sheila because they would appreciate that.

She crawled into her bed and as soon as her head hit the pillow she was out like a light.

• • •

Sometime in the middle of her sleep Riya felt an indescribable pain all over her body all at the same time, once before she had fallen off a tree as a kid and broken an arm so she was not new to the concept of broken bones, she definitely knew what that felt like and the pain that she was feeling right at that moment was like all of the bones in her body were getting broken simultaneously.

Somehow it felt like she was in a twilight zone, like she was awake but she was not really awake and try as hard as she did she could not wake up. It was like the pain had transported her into a world where she could not figure anything out except that she was in an unbelievable amount of pain.

She screamed herself hoarse from the agonizing pain, sure that she would wake up her roommates who would call an ambulance to take her to the emergency room. She briefly wondered how her no money having self would fork up the money to pay for that then her thoughts quickly departed from her lack of money problems when another wave of pain engulfed her and swallowed her whole then spat her out.

She had never felt pain so bad. It all felt surreal, she wondered why no one had come to check on her despite my loud screaming, the noise must have been enough to wake them up.

Then just as suddenly as it had come the pain disappeared all at once and she could breathe, she felt myself running through grass but somehow it did not feel like it was her own body doing the running, she ran for what felt like a long time with only the bright moon and sounds of other creatures running for company and when she felt hungry she stopped running and skulked about looking for what to eat, she saw a bunny munching on some green leaves and she lay in wait before pouncing abruptly on it.

She could hear herself growl as she tore into the meat of the soft belly of the rabbit and as hard as she tried to stop, some instinct seemed to control her and she continued the disgusting act.

Her last thoughts before her mind went silent was that she was probably having a really vivid dream and it was definitely the accursed movies that Issa and Sheila had made her watch that had conjured up these images in her mind.

• • •

Immediately i woke up I knew that something was very very wrong. I jumped up and saw with horror that I was naked, not a single stitch of clothing remained on my body and I had been lying on grass under a tree, as I yawned I tasted the metallic taste of blood in my mouth.

I looked around what looked like a forest and tried to cover myself with my hands while wondering what was going on.

This is just a dream. I thought to myself.

It would explain the weird pain I had felt in the night because right now there was not even a single bruise or scratch on my body, nothing felt out of place, infact other than the fact that i was alone in some forest I actually felt pretty good.

Take a deep breath, close your eyes and relax, this is simply a weird dream and when you wake up you will be back in your bedroom and you will go to your job at the diner and go for that study group later today.

I said to myself, trying to calm myself and make sense of the wild situation I was in. As I closed my eyes I caught a faint whiff of the smell of earth on skin and the sudden sound of running feet, before i could open my eyes and whip my head around to see I felt a mist of liquid on my face and i was immediately unconscious.