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Dark Of The Moon
(© Biswapriya Purkayastha)

This contribution is part of a series:-
1. Baying At The Moon (11-Jun-2010)
A full moon night, a boy, a monster...and a lynch mob on the loose.
2. Dark Of The Moon (3-Sep-2010)
When the moon calls, fighting the monster within is futile, and can be lethal...to yourself.
3. Ill Met By Moonlight (11-Oct-2010)
Some monsters are much, much worse than others who stalk the night and merely want to kill you.This is part 3 of the series of stories which began with Baying At The Moon and continued with Dark Of The Moon.
4. Hunter's Moon (31-Oct-2010)
The Woman and the Boy face danger from a different source, one which may be the most lethal of all.
5. The Darkness Before The Dawn (25-May-2011)
The Boy, alone in the streets of the town, gets into trouble. This is Part Five of the Werewolf Series.
6. Descent Into The Dark (14-Jul-2011)
In a desperate attempt to halt the Change that the full moon brings upon them, the Woman and the Boy climb down into the bowels of the earth, and into a greater danger. This is Part 6 of the Werewolf Series.

Page 1

"I'm no longer happy doing this."

She looked up at the boy. Carefully, keeping her expression neutral, she put down the pen and leaned back in her chair. "How do you mean, you’re no longer happy?"

"You know." The boy gestured vaguely. "Doing this." He had grown in the year and two months he had been with her, taller, his shoulders and arms showing a hint of muscle now that he had enough to eat. "I don’t like it anymore."

She nodded, in confirmation and not agreement. She had seen it coming, these last few months. "What would you rather do?"

"I don’t know...have a normal life, maybe. School, family...girls."

"You’re going to school, and I’m your family. And as for girls, believe me, they’ll come in time."

"It’s not just like that." He walked over to the window, turned, and walked back again. "I told you, I want to be normal. These things we do – they aren’t normal. I have to, you know..." he made a gesture of frustration, "...structure my life around them. Everything I do, it’s set around that, and how to keep it secret."

She nodded again, expression still neutral, though she felt a cold hand clutch at her heart. However much she’d anticipated this moment, when it came, it still found her unprepared. "You know there’s no going back," she said. "You can’t undo what’s been done."

"Oh," he said bitterly, "I know that well enough. I just want to try and live as though it didn’t exist."

"You can’t. You don’t even know yet how to control your own transformation, and that’s a thing that never comes easy to any of us, even after decades. You can’t do it. And, if you haven’t forgotten, tomorrow’s the full moon."

"I know it is," he said. "Don’t you think I count the days in dread to it? The first few times, it was all right. It was nice. For the first time I was...doing something, proving myself. I was something. Do you understand me?"

"Of course. Go on."

"But I don’t want any of it anymore! I don’t want to hear the screams of the meat. I don’t want to smell their fear and their blood. I’ve had enough of slaughter. And I’m going to stop – right now."

"Listen to me." She leaned forward over the table, staring into his eyes, putting all the force of her personality into the look. "We all go through this phase. It’s the rejection phase, rebellion. Some try to give up, some try to break free. Some of us fight it down within ourselves. We all go through it. And those of us who survive it..."

"What do you mean, survive it?" he interrupted.

"It’s the most dangerous time," she explained quietly. "Most of us don’t have enough knowledge or control, and we make mistakes. That’s why I’m warning you."

"Thanks for the warning." His face was closed and mutinous. "Thanks for everything." He walked off to his room, the room she had left entirely to him, never entering it without his express permission, and slammed to door.

She sighed, troubled. The last thing she needed, at this time of all times. She thought of going to him and talking to him again, and had actually begun to rise from her chair, when he stormed out of the room, drawing on his leather jacket. Without looking at her, he stalked towards the front door.

"Where are you going?" she called.

"Out." That was all he said before slamming the door behind him.

She went to the window, but he had already disappeared into the darkness. For a few moments she debated going after him, but that would just set the seal on his rebellion. Slowly, she walked back to her chair. He would be back, she thought, picking up her pen again, but the figures on the sheets of paper blurred and merged, making no sense.

He would be back, she thought and hoped. Of course he would be back.

He just had to be.


The boy walked through the night, shoulders hunched, his hands thrust into the pockets of his leather jacket, glowering. Confused thoughts ran back and forth in his mind like a nest of disturbed rats. The streets of the town were dark and ill-lit, and he walked into the darkest and narrowest alleys he could find, until he was thoroughly lost, but he didn’t care. He wanted to be lost.

[ Continue to page 2 ]

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Genre:General Horror
Type:Short story
Rating:7.23 / 10
Rated By:41 users
Comments: 2 users
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