Moondance
#11 of The Moonrise Chronicles
That
evening, after I halfheartedly ate supper, we went out to the park. I would
have been more enthusiastic during my meal but both females ate nothing. It was
sort of weird stuffing your face in front of people. The funny thing was that I
still had an appetite for normal food. I appreciated that. I had developed a
taste for a few things and I think I'd miss them. We all
dressed like a family going out for the evening, whatever they might look like.
Verona laughed. "This is New York! The more normal you try to dress, the more
weird you probably are. So don't try too hard. Heck, I've seen people walking
down the street naked." Maggie
giggled. "Have you ever tried it?" "Yes
dear. At night. In feral form. It's a wonderful feeling. You should try it some
time." "I
have. But then, there are fewer people were I come from. I did it like this a
few times. I mean, how else am I going to attract rapists?" "I
think that a young girl running around the streets at night should have no
problem with that, clothed or unclothed." Her tone was full of reproach. "True.
Men are pigs after all." "No my
dear, that's not completely true and I think you know it. There are many fine
humans in the world. What about your mother? Would you say she married a pig?" Maggie
had to think for a moment. "Well, no, but he did kill her. If he had been less
normal and a bit stranger he might not have reacted so badly." "It
happens. Maybe she should have told him before your coming of age. Hiding the
truth rarely leads to good results. " "Hiding
the truth is what we do, isn't it?" Verona's
expression soured. "You're awfully perceptive for a kid. Yes, I guess our lives
are mostly lies. But can you imagine the trouble we would be having right now
if I had lied to you?" "Maybe.
I smelled you out with no problem whatsoever. But I get your point. Lie when
you need to, tell the truth when you can." "Exactly!" I was
listening, mostly because I didn't have a thing to offer the conversation. My
shoulder was feeling weird, and my head was still spinning from the whirlwind
of changes that had happened to me in just a few short hours. It wasn't that
long ago that I knew nothing of werewolves, and now I had bedded two of them,
and found out my ancestry might very well be based in the same heritage as the
ladies. It was a lot to take in. It was
a cloudless night, and the moon shone brightly, though it wasn't a full one
yet. I followed the girls as they made their way through the park. When we got
to our destination, it turned out to be some place called Rumsey Park. Verona
sat down on the grass and kicked off her shoes. "You
know, my first real experience here in Central Park was back in the summer of
1970." I about
choked. She couldn't be that old! "It was
an outdoor concert that featured The Byrds and Van Morrison. I still can't get
the song Moondance out of my head. It became my theme song after that day, and
until I changed, I never knew why. The moon is just a rock, and I know that in
my mind, and yet it calls out to me as it calls out to the tides of the ocean. " She
turned to me. "Have you ever just sat outside and looked at a full moon? When
it's big and round and you feel like you could almost reach up and touch it." "A few
times. It does seem to have an irresistible draw to it." "Do you
know where the term lunatic comes from? It's from people affected, or believed
to be affected by the moon. Half bloods, quarter bloods and even more dilute
descendants feel its pull. No one knows why, for it makes no sense, but it
happens. The effect varies, from appreciation of the beauty of the moon to a
draw that drives people insane. It takes a true werewolf to feel its full
power." "Then I
guess that counts me out. I like the moon well enough. But I have never felt
the urge to howl at it, or has it ever unhinged me." "Yes,
so it would seem. And yet, here you are. So there must be something going on." Maggie
was quietly listening to our conversation. As it was, the area around the stage
was lit, both from street lights as well as the moonlight. There were movements
around the park, which never seemed to be totally devoid of life, but no one
came into the portion we had claimed for the night. "I
really don't know. I think I might have been content to live a normal life. I was living a normal life until I followed
Maggie. Now it has been turned upside down." "That
seems like a harsh assessment. What has happened to you that you think you'll ever
regret? No longer being a normal human male? I can tell you that you have lived
a lie. You are not normal. What you are, I cannot say. But that you have the
"were" in you is evident. How much is there I cannot say." I shut
up. She was right. If I were to go on the sex alone, I could die happy tonight.
But if I wasn't who I thought I was, then who was I? A monster waiting to be
released? A freak of nature? I understood the genetics point of view very well.
I had heard of diseases that didn't manifest until something happened to
disrupt the body's normal routine. The
one that came to mind was Huntington's disease. But the effects of that disease
were debilitating. I tried to drive that thought from my head. So if I
had a disease, could it be treated? I mentally slapped myself. What was I going
to do, walk into a hospital and tell them I was afraid I might turn into a
wolf? That would get me into the mental hospital, if nowhere else. The real
question was, if I did end up changing, would I care? It was sort of like the
adage of the fellow about to die. He suddenly realizes that everything he ever
worried about while he was alive meant nothing in his last moments alive. Once
he was dead, there would be no more troubles for him. Yeah, I know the
distinction of heaven and hell, but that changes from religion to religion. I
mean, if you think about it, were did the dinosaur's souls go? Answer that and
you have the answers to life itself. "Look
Verona, I think you're beautiful, and smart, and I can't deny that you're a
real werewolf. The same goes for my little Maggie." Her ears perked up. "But I
just don't think I have it in me. If my parents were around, then maybe we
could ask them. I still like to believe that they're out there somewhere, but if
they haven't tried to contact me, then I have no idea where to look." "You're
a good soul, Edward Peterson. And I won't give up on you so easily. You may be
right. Maybe I'm just on the wrong track. But I doubt that with all of my
being." I laid
back and stared at the stars. I felt that I had lost all control over what would
happen to me now. I felt the pull of the moon, but it didn't seem to be causing
me to change. My shoulder was throbbing, which was weird, because earlier it
had felt fine. I felt twinges elsewhere, but they didn't seem to amount to
anything. We all
fell to silence. After a while, I heard Verona whisper. "We have company." I
looked around and sensed, rather than saw them. Probably a couple of young
punks looking for some quick cash. Sure enough, I heard a voice call out.
"Well, well, well. What have we here? A family of out-of-towners occupying our
park. I think that deserves some rent money, don't you Jake?" Jake
was a skinny teen who reeked of smoke and cheap booze. It made my nose hurt.
The speaker was about the same age, with dark hair under a grey hoodie. "Yeah.
Rent money." Both were holding knives. Maggie was sitting up, in no way
frightened, but arranging herself for possible action. Verona went into a
crouch. I just lay there like a lump on a log. For one thing, I knew the girls
could handle themselves. Secondly, I knew I could not. For
some reason, my lack of interest in their robbery attempt pissed them off. The one
kid kicked me in the head. It made me a little angry. "Get up!" he yelled at
me. I lay
there, looking skyward. He kicked me again. "I told you to get up!" In the
next instant I snapped. I don't know how I did it, for even thinking about it
makes me hurt, but my elbows and knees suddenly became double jointed. From my
position flat on the ground I was suddenly standing behind the two idiots. I
had sprung from the ground and flew over their heads like some kind of freakish
child's toy. It was
as if some invisible deity was controlling me like a marionette. My limbs were
akimbo, but they managed to still function well. It was a macabre dance in the
moonlight, and it was so fast it was nearly impossible to see. But in my eyes I
could see everything as if in slow motion. I
sucker punched the one, and as the other turned, I savagely kicked him in the
groin. They both went down. I picked up their knives and only by shear willpower
did I stop myself from slitting their throats. As it was, in my rage, I picked
both boys off the grass and flung them a good twenty feet. They skidded and
came to a stop. "If you
little mother fuckers come near me again, I will so rip you wide open!" The two
slowly recovered and limped off, wiser, sorer, and missing one knife apiece. I
sat back down, aware of the two sets of eyes staring at me. I keep mine on the
departing punks. Maggie
crawled up and sat in my lap. "Well Daddy-O, what the hell was that?" I could
barely hear her for the blood pumping through my ears. I turned and glared at her.
Maggie let out a low whistle. "Father
dearest. You might want to calm down." I
couldn't see was she was seeing. I was still me, outwardly, but my face was
contorted into a mask of pure fury. My eyes were glowing; not reflecting light
like a cat or a dog, but generating their own glow. All I knew was that the
entire park now rose up in stark tones. Everybody that ran, sat or hid was
visible to me. It was like those thermal cameras they use on television, where
the different gradients of heat show up as different colors. Only for me, it
was just red; blood red. The thumping in my head grew as I watched the shapes
moving across the nighttime landscape. I shuddered once and fell back against
the ground. Verona
ran to me. Maggie, that staunch trooper of the dark, paled at the sight of my
body. I wasn't turning into a werewolf. That she could have handled. No, my
joints had seemingly disappeared. I suppose that's not the right way of
describing it. There were contorting in a way that was against the nature of
the human body. After a little time it settled down and when I awoke, I was
feeling worn but in one piece. All that excitement and me without a clear
memory of what had happened. Being
awake was no great thing, for the moment I was, my mind was running at
supersonic speed. It was as if everything that was in it was being rebooted.
Suddenly, old memories long forgotten rose to the surface, crashing upon me in
wave after wave of vivid flashbacks. I suppose it was a matter of seeing my
life flash before my eyes. Verona
wasn't helping matters any, because in her concern for me, she had let down her
guard in keeping her scent under wraps. It was driving my nose crazy. It itched
and ran, and drool started coming out of my mouth. I got a massive hard-on that
was the only thing they couldn't see of me at the moment. I probably looked
like a zombie at worst, and a fully fledged epileptic at the best. I heard
Maggie actually crying, a first for her. "Dammit Verona, what have you done to
him?" Verona
actually sounded appalled. "I don't know. I've never heard of anything like
this. By all rights, he should just change and be done with it!" I tore
loose from them and stumbled away, fire in my veins and blood on my mind.
Maggie ran and grabbed my leg, hoping to halt my progress. I snatched her up,
and for the first time in her life, she felt fear. I could see it in her eyes.
I don't think she was afraid of me, only afraid of losing me. I could barely
speak. It was guttural at best. "Come." I dropped
her on her feet, and she turned and frantically waved Verona to follow. I
limped off, feeling like a freshly dug corpse. Now and again I shuddered as the
moonlight fell fully upon my back. If this was part of being a werewolf, I
wanted nothing to do with it. I felt like I was being torn in two directions. There was a sharp pain somewhere in my hip. I
wandered around for hours. Each time the girls tried to turn me around I got
violent. It was as if I was searching for something, but I knew not what. If I
was out in the moonlight too long, I grew irrational, and I clutched my hip in
pain. It hurt so bad at times that I nearly fell. In my bewildered mind I
couldn't think of a reason for it to hurt. It hadn't hurt this bad since I was
hit by a car back when I was a kid. Back then the doctor had stitched me up and
that was the end of it. I'll
spare you a lot of time by telling you that the girls did manage to finally get
me back to the hotel. I looked so bad the doorman offered to call an ambulance.
His voice sounded like gurgling in my ears, and his smell was that of fresh
meat. I shuddered and waved him off. We went back upstairs and called it a day.
It was almost six in the morning. Hours
later I returned to consciousness, remembering little of the night before. The
girls had to fill me in on the details. I was still shaky, sort of that feeling you
getting when you're weak after being ill, or having just had a close brush with
death. It was a fine tremor that ran the length and breadth of my body. But
whereas my body was in flux, my mind was now as sharp and as clear as glass.
Except for last night, I could recall every detail of my life since the day I
was born. It was weird. Verona
was dressed in one of the hotel robes. Maggie was in a long t shirt that
covered most of her torso, except when she was sitting. I tried not to let my
eyes wander, but they were making it difficult.
Verona was watching me carefully, and I could see the concern in her
eyes. "I'm
sorry I've caused you so much distress. I have no idea why you didn't change
last night." I
stretched my shoulders, feeling them pop a little as they settled into place.
My hip was still achy too. "I don't
remember much of what happened. Did I hurt anyone?" Maggie
giggled. "Not as bad as we were going to. You just lay there, and the punks
kept kicking you in the head. You snapped and threw them into a heap. I didn't
know you had it in you." She handed me two jack knives. "Here's your
souvenirs." I held
one of them up and I could smell all sorts of odors on it. I dropped it on the
table with a snort. "I have no use for this kind of thing." I turned to Verona.
"So tell me, what happens now?" She
looked so apologetic that she almost made me cry. "I don't know. I was going
off of the old lore. If you were a human and a human only, nothing should have
happened from my bite. But something did happen. I don't know what to call it
precisely, but you reacted in some, muted way. Your strength, for a brief
moment, was enormous. You threw two one hundred and eighty pound guys like they
were baseballs." "I'll
believe you. So what do I do from here? I can't go back home knowing full well
that I may let loose on my town something that I can't control." She
actually started crying. I didn't know werewolves had that sort of emotion in
them. "I don't know..." Then she brightened. "Unless you want to move in with me
here. Then you'll have someone to look after you when the feeling comes over
you again." Maggie
jumped and put her arms around my neck. "Can we? Can we move here? It's totally
cool and I'm sure we wouldn't be a problem!" My mind
grappled with the idea. I would have to find a job here, assuming I could hold
one down now. Money was going to be the issue. Even if Verona had room for us,
I didn't want to be a burden. I told them as much. Maggie
just grinned from ear to ear. "Money. I have money, remember?" "Yes
dear, I remember. But I assumed we were blowing most of it on this trip." "Nah. I
think I have somewhere around two million hidden away back home. I told you I
cleaned the bastard out." I
choked, partially because I was still salivating heavily. "TWO MILLION
DOLLARS!" "Well,
I didn't count it to the last penny, but at least that much." She said it so
nonchalantly. Verona
smiled. "Even in New York City, you can live well on that much money. I say you
figure out what you want from your home and move it here, or else have someone
lock your house up tight and forget about it for a while." I
debated it. I had no family back there, but I did have friends. Somehow, I
don't think they were likely to remain close once I started changing, and I
don't mean physically. I knew full well that my mind was working on a whole
other level than before. It didn't take me long to assess that I was better off
here than there. "I'll
do it!"