Howling Moon

Sara - Howling Moon Page 10

Period 6

9/12/07

Howling Moon

The crescent-shaped moon was brighter than it had been in years; the stars around it looked dim while in the shining moon’s glow. As a giant shadow, a cloud passed across the yellow light, darkening the forest beneath it. The wolf had stopped in the dark, he could still see without the light, but he could no longer sense where his pursuer was. A wind blew, ruffling the black fur on his back. He sniffed the air and immediately darted ahead, only to stop a few yards further as a desperate howl filled the night. He had no choice but to reply, a long howl emitted from his fanged-filled mouth, his shadow now becoming very long as the gray cloud moved away from the ghostly moon.

v v v

“Are you sure you can’t find them anywhere?” asked a very worried Mrs. Edwards.

“Please Paul, you are our only hope.” Pleaded Mr. Edwards. Paul Murry just shook his head again.

“I’m sorry about your children, I really am, but I have to get going”. Without another word he left the house and the weeping Mr. and Mrs. Edwards.

“Oh Phil, I just can’t stand the thought of loosing our precious children forever!”

“I know, Jane.” Said Mr. Edwards trying to comfort his wife.

v v v

Back in the forest the shaggy wolf was running so fast that the inky black trees around him blurred. His predator was closing in on him, neither of them had any need to try to hide from each other anymore, the hunt was drawing to a close. Then, out of all odds, the hunter veered off away from his prey. The wolf knew at once what had happened, he shot after his predator faster than before, he had gotten to close to Sherry.

When he finally broke trough a line of trees into a clearing, there were two shadows in the middle of the dark green waves of overgrown grass. The bigger shadow was hunched over the small one. Even in the moonlight the wolf could not tell what the shadows of the two figures were, but he already knew, the smaller one was his sister, Sherry, the larger one was Death. The very thing he was running away from was now going to take his sister from him. He was not going to let that happen. Without a word, or even a growl to show his presence, he sprang forward, aimed for the Death’s shadow.

v v v

“We have to go look for them.” Said Mrs. Edwards, when she finally stopped sobbing.

“We can’t go, they could be anywhere….they could even be d-”

“Don’t say it.” Ordered his wife before Mr. Edwards could finish his sentence.

“I know and you know where they are, we have to go find them.” Without saying anything else, she went toward the door. Mr. Edwards sighed, his wife had been right, he knew where his kids were, slowly but steadily he followed her out the door and into the night.

The wolf and Death shattered the silence of the night with howls, shrieks, and blood thirsty growls. Kent was loosing, both of them know it. Then, as if time had stopped he found he could no longer struggle, he heard a great rushing noise, then, black out.

v v v

“Kent, Kent!” Kent opened his eyes; his worried looking mother was standing over him.

“Where’s Sherry?” He asked immediately. Before anyone could respond, a rapid beeping noise made itself heard.

“Lay back down Kent, relax, your sister is over there.” Mr. Edwards made a motion toward the white bed next to Kent’s own.

He had never thought about it before, but he was in the hospital, as it seems he had broken his arm, the beeping noise was his heart.

“Now let’s hear the full story, OK?” asked Mr. Edwards.

“OK” began Kent. “I couldn’t sleep; Sherry couldn’t either, so we went for a little walk to clear our heads.”

“Kent was the one that couldn’t." interrupted Sherry," He told me it would be good to go outside, so I did. We were walking in the clearing when about half way through my foot got caught in a trap.”

“Then it came.” Said Kent, as if in a trance. “It came and started to chase me away from the clearing. I guess it didn’t see Sherry, because it went right by her.”

“Then he started to draw it away, but the pain was getting worse, I couldn’t hold it anymore, so I howled!” Sherry finished in a last burst of breath.

“Then Kent went to save you, but accidentally took Death with him.” finished Mrs. Edwards so no one else would have to.

“Yeah” said Kent and Sherry together.

“First moon of being a werewolf and you two almost killed yourselves! Well, get some rest.” And with that Mrs. Edwards left the room. Sherry mumbled something about only getting a broken leg and bloody, but it had apparently gone unnoticed.

“Dad?” asked Kent uncertainly.

“Yes?”

“How did Sherry and I get here? I mean, the last thing I remember is being unable to move and….”

“Well” began Mr. Edwards, the beginning of a smirk on his face. “When detective Paul Murry couldn’t find you two….” here he paused and glanced meaningfully at his children. “your mother and I began to worry, so we went to the woods, scared away death, and had to change all four of us back to human. Then we had to bring you here and get you into beds.” He looked in the direction of the doorway, “Your mother's right, you should get some sleep” As he left the room Kent saw that his fathers face had turned from smug to weary, but he could not think anymore and he fell off to sleep.

“How could they do that?” Kent was woken from his dreams by the sound of his sister’s voice.

“Who do what?” he asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“Mom and dad of course! They just carry me into a hospital, my leg bleeding! Think how un-cool that looks!”

Kent sighed; his 14 year old sister was the most popular fashion queen. She would never go to school with out doing her hair and putting on the most “cool” outfit to go with it. Almost every day after school she could be found at the mall with her friends just having fun.

Kent was just the opposite of his sister; he spent a lot of his time in the library reading about everything he could think of. For someone only 16 years old he had read more books than any other kid in his school.

“In….morning” he managed to mumble before his dreams consumed him again.

“Come on, wake up, you have to take your medicine young man.” Kent woke for the second time and noticed that he had a cast, the he took the nasty pills and shots the nurse was giving him.

He turned and saw Sherry’s pale face as she laid her head on a pillow. His sister had never liked the long needles that got poked into her skin, they made her faint.

“Does she have to take any?” Kent asked the tired-looking nurse.

“Mmhm” Was all she said as she got another long needle, and went toward Sherry.

Sherry groaned loudly and ran toward the door; her face had turned from pale to green.

“Hey!” The nurse yelled after her. “Come back!”

“She will” Assured Kent. Sherry always came back, nervous, but she would take it.

“Humph!” Said the nurse as she sat down in a visiting chair to wait.

“You know,” Began Kent. “I’ll go get her. She has to learn how to take grief.” The nurse looked slightly startled at this but nodded and said “Hurry back.”

Kent walked casually out of the room without answering, then when he was clear, he ran. As he turned the corner to the restrooms he ran right into Sherry. Without a word he pulled her alone with his uncased hand.

“Kent! Wait!” Kent didn’t care, for his arm was already healed, thanks to the power of the werewolf. They slowed as they got near the main entrance, but Kent still kept a death grip on Sherry’s arm.

“I don’t like this” Sherry whispered firmly “let’s go back to the room”. Still un-answering Kent led her to and out the door. Not eight feet outside Sherry stopped dead. “Ke” sniffle “nt”. Kent turned around, Sherry was crying, crying! She had fainted, gotten sick, and everything in between, but crying? He immediately stopped thinking and comforted her until she stopped wheezing.

“I don’t want to stay here.” Mumbled Kent “if I do he’ll come and get me at night.” Then, without warning he took his imprisoned arm and hit it against a concrete pillar, when he opened his eyes, shards of plaster littered the concrete.

“So what is your brilliant plan now?” Sherry asked matter-of-factly.

“Go to the drug store; wait for night, and….”

“And what? Kill Death? Yeah, that should be really easy.” Interrupted Sherry.

“I am still thinking, OK? Come on, we better start walking”. He retorted in a huff.

“Walk? Oh, no way, it’s miles to the drugstore! I’m not walking miles anywhere. If we’re going anywhere we are taking a bus or something!”

A half hour later Kent and Sherry stood outside a drugstore after Sherry had made them ride a bus. They walked inside and were greeted with air conditioning, comics, sodas, candy, and other people.

“Ahhh” Sherry let out a little squeal, and rushed over to the fashion magazines. Kent looked at the big clock over the cashier, two o’clock. He groaned, this wouldn’t have happened if they had walked. Well, better get comfortable he thought and he walked to the freezer where drinks were kept.

v v v

“What!?” Mrs. Edwards almost screamed.

“He said he was getting his sister, but neither ever came back!” the almost as worried nurse tried to explain for the umpteenth time.

“Well don’t you think you better look for them?” snarled an angry Mr. Edwards.

“Yes” fumbled the now frightened nurse. “We h-have two po-police men out l-looking now.” She finished stuttering.

“Ohhhh!” moaned Mrs. Edwards and started to weep once more.

“Come on, we’ll find them ourselves”. Said Mr. Edwards to his wife.

v v v

"Kent, I'm getting really bored, I have all these magazines, and the ones I didn’t have, I just bought." whined Sherry.

"Well you’re the one who spent all your money on useless junk." Kent snapped back. Sherry looked hurt at this, Kent sighed but before he could make his apology, she was on her way to another aisle. Kent was about to follow her, but a loud speaker blared

"Attention all customers, we are closing in two minutes," Sherry came running around the corner.

"Come on! Lets go!" she pulled Kent out of the store. Kent looked at his watch, seven o'clock and it was dusk.

"Ok" he barely breathed.

As the brother and sister wandered into the forest out side the store they began to change, in the shadows, if you looked closely you could see humans turning into wolves. Almost as soon as he changed Kent could feel the rush of cold air and Death materialized in front of him. Kent looked into the depths of the cloaked, hooded figure. Inside was a gray skeleton sprouting giant black, bat like wings. He was not afraid. Behind him he heard a small whimper,

"Sherry," he whispered "you have to learn how to take grief." with that Kent leaped toward death, just as Mr. and Mrs. Edwards came running into the forest. A very long howl filled the last glimpse of sunset.

v v v

As I walked to my brothers funeral I could hear my mother sniffling. As we approached the headstone we could see the carved wolf head crowning the top of the grave. My eyesight went blurry, my tears staining the ground below.

My father walked up and stood before my mother and I.

"Today" he began "we are at the funeral of our dear son and brother. Kent was a very good kid." here he stopped and had to dab his eyes with a handkerchief. "Therefore" Mr. Edwards started again "I think it would be an insult if you all didn’t know exactly why he died." he had to stop again to cry more, "When Kent jumped into death, he did it to save us." I heard another great sob from my mother and I had to join her.

"We all know that when we were born the werewolf lord came to us and told us that we must kill to him or we would die. Kent never killed, and thanks to no more werewolves will have to. When he jumped into death, he died, but he is not gone! He became the werewolf lord, he will tell the others never to kill again!"

After the funeral I could barely sleep, knowing that I could never count on my brother again. That he would never come to me again, Kent was gone forever.

Hey everyone! i hope you liked my story! please review even if you hated it! thanks!