“Wolfie Baby”
Jessica Cargill
Jack sniffed curiously at the air and nearly dropped her books on her
toe. Cursing, she stopped just in time before a teacher came around the
corridor. These senses were really starting to mess her up brutally.
After all, Jack, being a werewolf in training,
had just gotten her shape changing ability exactly 13 days before. The
teacher eyed her suspiciously but continued on down the hall. It was last
period, after all, she was done with her assignments, and the noise that had
invaded the class had been too much for her newly sensitive ears. She leant
back against the wall and slid down it with a sigh. Digging in her pocket she
brought up three pennies, a bit of feather, and an old purple tootsie
pop.
The next day, a Saturday and full moon would
be her first. The only superstition about werewolves was that they did
have more power at the full moon, because they worshipped a moon goddess. They
didn’t look like half-human monsters, just like wolves. And they never would
practice sacrifice, or any such nonsense as that. The full moon would
also be old Hallows Eve. The mythical folk tales about it never
did come out right.
She was startled as the bell rang too loudly
in her ears and she yelped, spinning around and half-looking for someone
attacking her. With a sigh of relief she shouldered her bag and hurried to the
double doors and into the daylight. The change from the gloom inside had her
blinking helplessly.
With a large wolfish grin she set for home.
The next night she was at home with her
family, all of them looking very nervous. It was like she was going to the prom
or something, was how the atmosphere felt. His parents weren’t in a cult,
and they weren’t Satanists like the tabloids would have you believe. No,
they simply could change into wolves with a stray thought. It was a very
strange life she had held. Occasionally the more churchgoing kids at school
would start making almost medireview prayers around her, but it hadn’t
bothered her much. Jack was a very resilient girl. It wasn’t like she was even
hairy, or anything. In fact, she was very beautiful. But the time the stray dog
had wandered in and she had talked to it had ruined her chances of ever being
normal.
But who ever said normal was good never knew
Jack. The moon was high above the sky, and she seemed almost in possession
of giddy caffeine high off the gamut of sights and sounds that swirled around
her. Her mother cleared her throat and looked around. They seemed less at ease
with this than Jack was.
“The ritual isn’t all that hard,
really. All you have to do is close your eyes and imagine yourself bathed in
silver moonlight . . .” her mother’s voice faded away as she did so, and felt
herself shifting-
The girl who sat next to her in Algebra was
blonde, pretty, and vapid. Jack had always envied her, but she knew now that
she had something that the girl would never have. With a wolfish grin, she
finished the last few problems and closed her book.