{"sf1_id":737222,"sf2_id":null,"title":"The Darker Side of a Childhood","author":"StGeorgesHorse","words":1794,"posted_at":"2014-07-30T17:33:00.000Z","tags":["Abandoned building","Girl","Horror","Human","Implied rape","M/F","Nudity","Transformation","Werewolf","child","killing","murder"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/737222-the-darker-side-of-a-childhood","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/737222","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=737222\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"#1 of The Moonrise Chronicles","content":"                There\nwas a little girl named Maggie and she had the worst luck of anyone I know. She\nwas an orphan; a withdrawn, skinny little thing that never seemed to eat or\ndrink. Despite this, she seemed to thrive. It was uncanny; and it was\nterrifying.                She was always quiet, this\nMaggie. Ever since she saw her mother murdered by her father, she had withdrawn\ninto her own little world. She was apt to block everything else out. She would\nwalk through a swarm of bees without the slightest inclination to note that\nthey were there.  Danger seemed to be\nnothing of consequence to her.                She\nwent through several foster homes before everyone sort of gave up on her. She's\nwasn't bad. She also wasn't any particular trouble. It was almost like she wasn't...\nanything at all.  It seemed that whatever\nsoul that had inhabited her body had fled into the shadows.                 Her\nonly real fault, whether in the home or at the orphanage, was her habit of\nwandering. She always came back to wherever she was living at the time, as\nunerring as a homing pigeon.  But she could\nbe gone for days. When she returned, she might, just might have the slightest\ntouch of a smile on her face. But she never said where she had been.                 I\nhappened to know her, or at least of her, so when I ran across her one evening\nas she walked down the street, I couldn't help but follow her from a distance. I\nhad gotten a glimpse of her as she passed under a streetlight. Knowing a bit of\nher story, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the desire to follow her. It was\nstupid, but it was so strong I could do nothing but comply.As I found out, she had incredible endurance.\nI had much longer legs, but she managed to keep going tirelessly, sometimes\nforcing me to find shortcuts to keep pace with her. Her movements seemed to\nhave no purpose. She would walk down a street, then turn down an alley before\ncoming out at a park, where she walked right past the playground and carried on\nto the next street.                Some of\nthese areas were nice, and others not so nice. She even made her way into a\nsemi-abandoned factory district. It was eerie in that there was no possible\nreason for her to be wandering here. It was full of rust, broken windows and moonlit\nshadows.                 It was\nout of one of these shadows that a dark form peeled itself from the greater darkness.\nHe stood in front of her in a menacing fashion. She stopped, but her body\nhardly tensed up. I wanted to shout but my voice remained locked in my throat.\nI couldn't clearly hear the conversation from where I was, just the evil\ngibberish the man was spouting. When she didn't respond, he grabbed her and\ndragged her into an open doorway. The door clanged shut, the reverberations echoing\naround the derelict buildings. A few pigeons flew into the air, startled by the\nnoise. Then silence returned.                I found\nthat I could move, wondering at what evil held me motionless. I had to save\nthis girl! Bounding for the door, I found it latched or jammed. No matter how\nhard I tried, it wouldn't open. I searched for other ways in, but outside of\nclimbing the sharp metal sides and braving the shattered glass, there was\nnothing. And to be truthful, I'm not as brave as that.                 But I\ndid have my cell phone! I pulled it out and dialed 911. But when I put it to my\near, the line was dead. So was the whole phone! I had pulled it off the charger\njust this morning! I was getting really creeped out. I could either run for the\npolice station, which considering I was already tired out, wasn't much of a\nchoice, or I could continue to try and find a way in. I wasn't stupid. I knew what\nwas going on in there. Maggie's wandering had finally gotten the best of her.\nShe was now paying the price.                I\nfinally gave up after a half an hour of trying to force my way in. For a\nbuilding as decrepit as this one was, I would have thought breaking in would\nhave been easier. I moved across the way, sitting in the shadows of a fire escape\nand waited. I don't know what I was waiting for, but I waited. The minutes\nticked by inexorably, made worse by the strained silence.                 Then,\nout of the darkness there rose a shrill scream. It was high pitched and filled\nwith terror. I had no idea why it came so late in what had to be a horrible\nrape, but there it was. Every single hair on the back of my neck rose up in\nfear of that sound. It wasn't normal, not by any means. I found it difficult to\nimagine it coming out of her little body.                I ran\nover to the door again and yanked with all my might. It swung open so readily\nthat I nearly dislocated my should doing it. It slammed against the wall and\nsplit off of its top hinge. I wanted to bolt up the stairs, but my legs moved\nlike they were running through water. I dragged them up the corroded stair one\nfoot at a time. I reached the top and looked around. The bank of broken windows\nwas letting in the moonlight, illuminating the inside, and at the same time\ncreating a myriad of shadows.                 My eyes\nfinally focused on movement. From the size, it was obviously Maggie. I couldn't\nsee well, but if she was alive I needed to do something for her. Still, my feet\nfelt like lead. I plodded on, my shoes scraping the floor, disrupting little\nswirls of dust and debris. When I made it to where she was, I stopped. Not of\nmy own volition, but because what I was seeing didn't register.                 She was\nnaked. I had figured that was going to be the case. So was the man who had\nassaulted her. His throat had been ripped out, and his chest was covered in\nclaw marks. I'll not speak of his belly and lower.  I could see this clearly in the moonlight.\nWhat I couldn't comprehend was what had saved her from his evil ministrations.\nI glanced around, terrified that I might be next.                That\nwas when I noticed her ears. And her arms. Her ears were pointy and covered\nwith the same dark hair as her arms. As I watched, the nails were shrinking\ndown to thin human ones. The sharp black spikes that  I had just seen dissolved\nlike fog in sunlight.                Maggie\nlooked up at me and smiled. \"Hello Mr. Peterson. What brings you here?\"                I had\nso many things I want to say, things I wanted to ask, but the words slipped out\nof my brain and ran as a puddle into my sub-consciousness. She smiled, showing\nblood around her mouth and teeth.                Since I\ndidn't respond, she finished licking herself clean of blood, like some sort of\nferal animal. She contorted herself into positions that made me hurt just watching\nher. I was nearly disgusted when she got between her legs and cleaned herself\nup. It was with morbid fascination that I watched her as her leg twitched in\ntime to her tongue. It was exciting and horrifying at the same time. She was just\nten years old!                She\nfinished and stood up, gathering her clothes and putting them on. She walked\naround the body of the newly deceased. \"Another one gone. I'll have to move out\nof the city at this rate.\"                \"A-a-a-a-another\nwhat?\" I stammered.                 \"Speaking\nnow are we? The spell doesn't last long.\" She grinned in a way I had never seen\nher do before.                \"To\nanswer your question, this is Robert Murdock. If the name doesn't ring a bell,\nhe's a known rapist. Been in jail three times. Now I've saved the system a\nlittle headache.\" Then she grinned. \"Maybe not.\"                I\ncaught what she meant. She had murdered, or rather eliminated, this menace to\nsociety. But I fell to the floor when I realized the importance of what I had\nwitnessed.                 \"You!\"                She\nsmiled innocently; now back to a completely normal girl. \"Me what?\"                \"You're\nthe one who has been murdering all of those criminals?\"                She did\nan experimental skip, like she was discovering what it was like to be a girl\nagain. \"Yes, it was me. I need to eat from time to time. What better way than\nkilling two birds with one stone?\" When I didn't reply, she continued. \" I have\nneeds like anyone else, maybe even a little stronger. Don't let my age fool\nyou.\"                She may\nhave had a point. My brain wasn't working well enough to process all of this.  I was also growing concerned with the way she\nwas looking at me. I was no criminal. A few parking tickets maybe, but that was\nit. I hardly felt that warranted me being her next meal. She must have been\npsychic on top of everything else.                \"Nah, I\nwouldn't kill you, even now that you know my secret. I mean, who would believe\nyou? In fact, you might just implicate yourself in the murders if you come\nforward.\"                \"So what\ndo you want?\"                She was\nstraight forward. \"A home. Nobody would ever understand who and what I am\nunless they've seen it for themselves, and of course, I could never allow that.\nBut you have seen me at my best. I'll just bet that if you asked for custody of\nme, the paperwork would fly off the desk faster than you could blink.                I found\nmyself blinking uncontrollably. \"Stop messing with my head!\"                She\nsmiled again. \"Oh, come on Mr. Peterson. You live all alone, without even any\npets. You could adopt me and then you'd have company and I'd have a place where\nI know I would always be. The town loses its bad element and you gain a\ndaughter.\"                \"But I don't\nwant a daughter!\"                Her\nsmiled turned wicked. \"Good. I don't want another father. So lover it is!\"                I\nchoked back a response. I don't know if it was something she did, or that fact\nthat I wasn't as honorable as I had thought. Her offer was seeping into my\nconscience and I was having a hard time finding it repugnant.                 \"I'll\ngive it a try...\"                She\nsmiled again, showing, for the moment, sharp fangs.\"I promise you I'll make it worth\nyour while!\""}