Waxing Crescent – By Ripjaw (Chapter 1)
Chapter 1 – All That I Never Wanted, But I Got It
My mother screamed at me as I left the house. Her continuous cursing and spouts of profanity was like a mosquito sucking up all of my blood. There were some words I could make out like, “Luke! Get your-” But then I rounded a corner of my house, and her voice became inaudible again
My hands were trembling with fury as I headed toward the forest trail. I never got used to my mother’s high-pitched screeching. It sounded like a sirens song gone rancid. Then again I scarcely considered my mother to be a siren.
I heard the front door of the house open, and I sped up hurriedly down the dark trail in our forest, right next to my house. I am a junior that goes to high school in an overgrown town called Battle Ground, Washington, which is right next to the city of Vancouver.
My brown hair was long with bangs that almost reached down to my chin, if I didn’t have it behind tied in a ponytail.
A few minutes passed and the ringing in my ears still continued. Just minutes before I ran out of the house, the high-school principle had called. My mother was the one who had picked up the phone. A minute or two had passed when Diane had hung up the phone while I was looking at her with curiosity. At that time I didn’t know the principle had called. Then the hollering had broken out. She said I had detention for skipping English class. Like who cares? I speak English well enough.
“Damn them all,” I muttered to myself, striding even faster down the trail with my hands in my pockets and my eyes glaring down at my feet. I kicked at pebbles as I strode angrily down the dark forest trail. “Damn the teacher, damn the principal, damn Diane for believing their crap and not letting me tell my side of the story!” It was true, when she started to yell, I tried to intervene, but she just yelled louder and that was when I left. I gave one more vicious kick which sent a small stone whizzing off into the darkness.
I stared up absently at the tree canopy above me. I moved my eyes from one point to another looking for something interesting. Just then I saw a figure on a tree branch, some distance away from me.
I focused my vision on the figure, but then it was gone in a flash. “What the hell?” I swore under my breath. I blinked and looked again, but it was definitely gone; or had it ever been there? Was I seeing things?
I continued to walk down the murky path, nearly forgetting what I saw in the trees. More thoughts of my mother came back into my head, instantly making me belligerent.
A fog started to roll in as I strode deeper into the forest. I lost track of time as I began to think about my mother.
Maybe I could convince Diane to let me off the hook. I mean after all, she might believe me, I thought to myself. I didn’t feel like using my mother’s name, I was too angry with her.
I stopped again and looked around. I was in a clearing that seemed to be in the shape of an oval. I couldn’t tell if there where any flat edges that would make it into some polygon.
Just then I realized that I never had been this far into the forest before. I had been around the outskirts of the forest; but where I was now, I didn’t know. I turned around expecting to see the house lights in the distance, but I saw was the surrounding trees. I guessed that I was a mile away the house, give or take a few hundreds of feet, but I couldn’t be sure.
Then I noticed that I wasn’t on the trail anymore. I must have veered off minutes ago. I had been in such a hurry to get away from the house along with the fact that I had lost the sense of time. I glanced at my watch; I barely made out the time in the faint moon light. 10:24PM, it showed. I thought I left the house around 10:00PM when the principle had called. Why would the damn principle call this late?
A twig snapped, the sound came from behind me. I turned around expecting to see a deer or any wild animal, but I didn’t see anything. The twig snapping hadn’t been far off, maybe a few feet away from where I stood now. But the fog was swirling around me now, like a bizarre gossamer robe. I couldn’t even see the trees that surrounded the clearing.
A growling noise came from behind me. I swung around but saw nothing. My heart started to beat faster. A foot step came from behind me, but before I could turn around, something had him enthrall by my shoulders.
I felt jaws sink in into my shoulders and claws digging in his arms. I yelled in agony as I felt the blood oozing out of my wounds. I tried to jerk away but what ever had me wouldn’t let go. When I moved I felt my flesh being spitted apart. The jaws bit down harder as my futile movement failed. The claws that were in my back where clawing at it, making deep impressions that scraped my rips and spinal cord.
A gun shot sounded in the distance. The obscurity of death was getting closer and my vision was getting blurry. I felt my brain stated to shut down, accepting and willing to die.
The jaws and claws did their ravenous deed. A second gunshot sounded and this time the beast let me fell. I dropped to the ground in a pool of my own blood and some chunks of my muscle. My eyes were barely open.
Just let me die, I thought to myself, I was barely conscious.
The sound of foot steps came to my ears. I barely made out two pairs of feet as they began to come closer. I heard them talking causal even when they stopped a few feet away from me.
“Looks like someone had dinner, and didn’t clean his plate,” said a voice that sounded a little surprised.
The other voice was softer, “Nobody from our pack did this,” it said, “Who could be responsible for this?”
“Yeah yeah, what should we do with the body?” the first voice sounded a little bit bored; “I mean we can’t let the cops find this.”
“No wait, he is still alive,” said the second voice, probably seeing myself breathe unevenly.
“Still…” the first voice said leaving the idea in the air.
“He is healing, look at his back.”
“Yeah but it is going real slowly, see? You can see the gashes in his back slidding back together real slowly.
A tingling feeling went down the remains of my back just then. What is happening? I asked myself. The sensation felt like a wave of cool water, but it made the pain less intence. Dirt mixed in with my flesh, causing it to fester. I could feel the blood dripping out of me.
“Still this guy looks like he needs help.”
“Yeah,” said the rough sounding voice, “Did you bring your medical supplies?”
“Ah,” the soft voice stammered, “I did.”
“Do you go everywhere with that thing?”
“No,” he said, I heard arms folding together.
Their arugments are usless! I thought, I am dying and they are playing cat and mouse.
I felt anger build up inside of me. Anger than would have been let out in rage, if I wasn’t lying in a pool of my own blood. I tried to scream at them but all I could have mustar was a gargled grown. I spit out blood and started to bleed out my mouth. I could fell the copper taste of it.
“We should take care of him now,” said the rough voice, “Go get your bag.”
“Okay,” and I heard one of the pairs of feet take off at a dash.
My conchesness was starting to fade even lower.
I heard foot steps come toward me. A hand pushing me over and lefting the shredded pieces of cloth that was my shirt. The hand touched my face and my barly consesh mind gave me a sensation that my face was being absurved.
More footsteps and more talking. I didn’t bother to listen. The pain was the only thing keeping me from falling into the ether. Somebody lefted my arm and started to cut off my shirt, then started to wrap a bangage around it. I couldn’t hear anyting. My heart was pounding in my ears and it was the only I could hear.
Minutes passed and I was hoisted up. I saw a face in my blurred vision. All I could make out was long blonde hair. I Blacked OUT.