A Lone Howl

They say the first three or four hundred years are the worst. But I know better. My name is Sherri. As of today it has been exactly five hundred years since my brother, Kent died. I know better because I know that when you lose someone very special, all of time is miserable. To the human eye I look only seventeen. But I am not human. I am a creature who spends all her life hiding. Once a month I must leave civilization to go on a rampage where even I don’t recognize myself. I am a werewolf.

I woke up to the sound of rain softly beating on the small apartment window. Sadie, my faithful Labrador looked up at me with her big brown eyes from the bottom of the bed. I pulled back the covers and regretfully got dressed. Every morning it was the same, get up, get dressed, walk dog, and go to work. Sadie knew what was coming too. She leapt from the bed and landed beside me with a thump. I slipped the harness on her and left my room. No one else was up yet so we took the elevator even though we weren’t allowed to. We left the apartment into the cool rain and headed for the park.

The black geese were wandering through the park again this morning. I sat down on a bench and unhooked Sadie. As soon as she was free she tore after the webbed footed birds. They squawked and honked as they tried desperately to get away. I laughed and settled back, tonight I was going to take the bus out of town again, it was a full moon. Sadie came back about half an hour later and I took her back home. Once there I made myself a bagel with cream cheese and headed out the door once again.

When I finally got to work the department store where I worked I realized it was a holiday and almost everywhere was closed. Everywhere except Mike’s Pizza Parlor. I walked in and enjoyed the smell of baking pizza. On the day I have to leave I always get a rushed feeling, like I can’t get away fast enough. But today I told myself that I would not be rushed, in fact, I was going to enjoy myself. I would go to a movie.

The movie house was open 24:7. I walked in and sniffed buttered popcorn, bubblegum, and chocolate bars. I bought tickets to the matinee and went in the dark theater to watch. I was the only one inside and the darkness was warm and inviting. The picture started, an adventure movie, but that was all I remembered.

I woke up in darkness, my head aching. Where was I? What had happened? Then I remembered. I ran out of the theater into the lobby, my head throbbing. I looked out the 

windows, dark. The clock staring down at me said eleven fifty five. Oh no. A full moon glared at me from outside, I ran out and kept running, running as fast as I could away from the city and its bright lights. It was still raining. But not light and cool anymore, now it was hard and ice cold. Hail started to fall. Time was ticking; I started to feel less and less like myself. I was changing. I ran faster, I was hoping to reach the wildlife preserve, it was a place where animals were supposed to be protected, but any animal that wandered out would be shot by the night security. If I hurried, I could make it in time, but I could feel myself changing. Dark shaggy hair started to sprout from my skin, my teeth grew longer, I hunched while I ran until I was on all four legs. A tail came next, and finally, my eyes slanted upward and turned yellow.

A shot rang out. I could barely see the wildlife reserve ahead of me.

“Hey, a wolf, didn’t know we had those here, but nice shot though right?”The last thing I heard was a lone howl from my apartment coming from Sadie.

The End