Chapter 81

“Wait! Stop!”

Sophia ignored the teacher’s call as she burst out of the school’s entrance, ran down the main walk, and into the parking lot. Her dance shoes slapped loudly against the pavement and echoed through the night, matching the beating of her heart in her ears. Half-blinded by tears, she could scarcely see what was in front of her as she started weaving in between cars. Her bare arms, shoulders, and legs were chilling fast in the frigid air, but that scarcely concerned her.

I should get on all fours. Her head swam, unsure of what was wolf or human. No! Haven’t you done enough, Wolfgirl? You’ve made me into a monster.

The pavement, metal, rubber, and glass surrounding her felt like a cage closing around her, yet the urge to flee to the mountains made her stomach churn.

Where should I go? She ducked behind a truck and squatted next to a tire as she tried to collect her wits. I don’t belong anywhere!

“Sophia?” She heard a teacher yell.

I can’t let them find me… Sophia tried to sniff the air, getting a sickly mix of rubber and oil mixed with menthol for her efforts. I can’t go back, not after what I did. But if I don’t fight Wolfgirl, I could kill someone…

She shivered violently and forced her mouth open to keep her teeth from audibly chattering. Hearing footsteps and seeing no other option, she followed her instinct to hide in the only nearby dark space. Dropping down, she crawled under the truck and tried to fit as much of herself as possible in the shadows between the front wheels. Holding her breath, she watched someone slowly walk past the rear of the truck.

“For goodness sake, where could that girl have run off to?” The teacher muttered under her breath. “Well, the cold’ll force her back in eventually.” Her footsteps faded as she walked back towards the school.

Will it? Sophia held her breath until she couldn’t anymore. It would be better for everyone if I froze.

The minutes ticked by, and she waited, fighting the burning desire to get away from the unnatural surroundings. Between her nose’s insistence on producing mucus to keep itself moist and her lupine instinct to use her tongue to do the same, what remained of the balm was rapidly getting wicked away.

How long does it take a human to die from cold, anyway? Will it take me longer since I’m part-wolf?

Finally, the mounting intensity of the artificial odors became too much for her. Crawling out from under the truck, she automatically rose to all fours before forcing herself into a crouched position.

My life might be over, but I’m fighting you to the end, Wolfgirl.

Staying low, she threaded her way back towards the school and peeked out from the end of the last row of cars.

I can’t see the door from here, so no one can see me, right? She rubbed her numb upper arms as she looked for somewhere she could stand dying. The bushes on the side of the building should work. I should be dead of hypothermia before anyone finds me. 

Urging her frozen muscles along one last time, she jogged to the sidewalk and across the snow to the edge of the building. Finding the bushes she remembered, she wedged herself between two of them and squatted down.

So cold. Her entire body shook violently, and she let her teeth chatter freely. It shouldn’t take long, at least. Some wolf I turned out to be.

With grim acceptance, she waited for the cold to take her as minute after agonizing minute ticked by.

Who’s that? Someone in a dress had appeared from the front of the school and was now slowly walking down the sidewalk. It doesn’t matter.

The person stopped and looked down at the snow where Sophia had left the sidewalk.

My footprints! Sophia tried to make herself even smaller. How could I have forgotten my footprints?!

“Sophia?” A familiar voice called out, looking straight at where Sophia was hiding.

Candice?

Candice stepped off the sidewalk, tracing Sophia’s footsteps. She paused when she was halfway across and stared straight at Sophia’s hiding place.

“Sophia, there you are! I’ve been looking all over for you,” Candice said in a hushed voice. “Why don’t you have a coat???” She held out what looked like a men’s suit jacket. “Come on, I borrowed Mark’s.”

“P-P-Please,” Sophia said, her words almost unintelligible. “I don’t w-w-want to h-h-hurt you.”

“Why on Earth would you hurt me?” Candice asked incredulously.

“I’m a m-m-mons-s-ster,” Sophia replied miserably. “Just let-t-t me die her-r-re.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Candice snorted. “You’re not a monster, and I’m not about to let you die.”

“Cand-d-dice, I tried to kill-l-l Michelle…” Sophia’s voice cracked.

“I saw,” Candice said gravely, slowly walking forward. “And that was bad, but it doesn’t make you a monster. Now, put a coat on already.”

“I c-c-can’t do this anymo-o-ore,” Sophia protested. “I can’t fi-fi-fight anym-m-more. I’m sor-r-ry.”

“Well, I’m not letting you freeze here, so either put this on, or I’m calling for help,” Candice threatened, producing her phone in her right hand.

That’s not fair! Sophia’s shoulders sagged even as her arms remained tightly wrapped around herself.

“Fi-i-ine,” forcing herself to stand, she stumbled out of the bushes towards Candice, who quickly ran over and embraced her.

“You’ve been out here for almost half an hour!” Candice exclaimed, squeezing her friend tight. “What were you thinking???”

“I can’t go b-b-back…” Sophia mumbled, too cold and exhausted to do more than lean against Candice. “Please, don’t m-m-make me go back.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Candice promised, wrapping the coat tightly around her and returning to the hug. “Give me a sec though.”

She lifted her phone above Sophia’s shoulder and started tapping on the screen.

“Wh-wh-at are you d-d-doing?”

“Letting Patty know where we are.”

“Pat-t-tty?” Sophia repeated in surprise.

“Yeah, I called her when I went to look for you,” Candice explained after a moment. “Figured you weren’t going to be in any state of mind to talk to anyone. Heh, I told the teachers I’d find you and bring you back – but didn’t say when. Just remember I’m sacrificing my ‘Good Girl’ reputation for you.”

Sophia didn’t answer and just tried to absorb whatever heat she could from her friend. As she started to get some body heat back, an all too familiar need reasserted itself.

Oh no. Couldn’t it wait one more day?

“Candice, the f-f-full moon hunger is starting…” Sophia whispered between chattering teeth, looking up at the almost full celestial body.

“The full moon hunger?” Candice repeated in confusion.

“I have to eat a lot before I change. If I don’t…” Sophia looked desperately at Candice. “... I don’t know what might happen.”

Oh God, will I want to eat her??? Will the change kill me if I don’t eat enough?

“I see,” Candice replied, her tone inscrutable. “That is a problem… But one thing at a time; let’s go where Patty can find us.”

She gently grabbed Sophia’s arm as she left the embrace and tugged her companion forward. Sophia relented and staggered towards the road alongside her friend.

“Ah, just in time,” Candice said as a car pulled up on the side of the road. “Let’s get somewhere warm, and then we can figure things out.”

She opened the rear passenger door and helped Sophia into the car.

“Hey Wolfgirl,” Patty greeted her cheerfully from the driver’s seat. “Been a while.”

Sophia didn’t answer, instead slouching against the door, hugging her coat tightly as she shivered violently. Even the thick air freshener and the strange, skunky smell it was covering in the car’s interior barely moved her.

“Ah, she had a little too much of the good stuff and had a bad trip; I take it,” Patty commented to Candice as the latter climbed into the front seat. “Been there. I ‘spose she needs somewhere to sleep it off?”

Sophia just stared at the back of the chair in front of her, too drained to care about the conversation in the front of the car.

“Not exactly,” Candice replied, buckling herself in. “But she is going to need somewhere to hide for a few days.”

“A few days?!” Patty repeated in shock as she pulled away from the school. “What do you mean ‘a few days’? What for?”

“Until Wednesday morning, probably, and I can’t tell you why, at least not now,” Candice answered as Patty pulled away. “I know it’s a big ask, but it’s really important.”

“Yeah, it’s a big ask,” Patty replied sharply. “I’m not supposed to be using the cabin at all without permission. If my parents find out…”

“I know!” Candice cut her off. “And I wouldn’t ask it if it wasn’t really, really important!”

Patty mulled it over. “Okay, but you’re going to owe me big. And it better look like no one was ever there.”

“No one will ever suspect we were there,” Candice agreed, relief evident in her voice. “One other favor – would you mind stopping by your house and lending us some clothes? I’m supposed to still be at the dance.” She glanced back at Sophia, who was rapidly losing the battle to keep her eyes open. “And, uh, do you have any meat by chance?”

“Hey, we’re here.” 

Sophia awoke to Candice shaking her shoulder. The first thing Sophia noticed, besides being shaken, was her legs and feet itching like crazy. The second thing was that she had gone from merely hungry to ravenously so.

“Ahh!” She cried out as it felt like sharp knives were being used to tickle her skin up and down her lower extremities. “It itches so much!” 

“Oh, shoot, you’ve been in wet shoes for almost two hours,” Candice said, leaning to look at her from the front of the car.

Wet shoes…? Ahhh! 

Desperately, she tried to bring her feet to her mouth in order to use her teeth and tongue to get whatever was irritating her skin off. All she succeeded at was kicking the back of Candice’s seat.

“Hey, hey, come on, let’s go inside,” Candice protested, opening her door. “Patty has the cabin open.”

Cabin, Patty, oh… The night came back to Sophia in a rush, and she groggily fumbled for the door’s handle. Oh God.

After a few tries, she managed to get the door open, and she shakily stepped onto a crudely plowed driveway. The smells of the forest that greeted her would have been welcomed any other time, but there was something foreboding about it in the moonlight filtering through the Lodgepoles and Douglas Firs. Stamping her feet, she tried to relieve the itchiness with limited effect.

“Inside,” Candice commanded, hefting a bag with one arm while grabbing Sophia’s forearm and guiding her towards the squat, white-sided building a few yards from where they had parked.

Each step aggravated the painful itchiness, but she managed to get through the red-painted door.

“Cosy,” Candice commented when they were inside with the door closed.

This is different.

Forgetting about her feet for a moment, Sophia sniffed the air curiously. The room they had entered had the definite smell of a kitchen. However, underneath the various artificial and human smells were a number of decidedly woodsy aromas. There were even several faint but definite animal scents present that sent a thrill of excitement through her.

I should get that balm back on.

“I got the heat going, but it’s going to take a bit before it’s okay to turn the water on,” Patty announced, striding into the room from what looked to be a small dining room. She stopped when she noticed Sophia. “Hey Wolfgirl.”

Huh, there’s that weird smell from the car again; I wonder what it is.

“Hi,” Sophia returned the greeting weakly.

“Sorry about Halloween…” Patty started uncomfortably shifting her weight.

“Later, she needs to get out of those shoes,” Candice interrupted, gesturing towards a doorway. “Then we can worry about everything else.”

“I should probably get back before my dad notices any of his keys are missing,” Patty said as Sophia and Candice crossed the kitchen. “Sure you two will be okay? The reception out here is terrible.”

Candice is staying? Sophia froze, fear tickling up her spine. What if I lose control?

“We’ll be fine, just don’t forget to come by tomorrow morning,” Candice assured her. “Thanks for everything.”

“What about…?” Sophia started.

“Don’t worry,” Candice cut her off. “We went over everything possible while you were out.”

It’s the impossible I’m worried about. However, the painful itchiness in her feet was returning with the warming cabin air, and Sophia didn’t press.

“Great, see you gals tomorrow,” Patty said, opening the door and heading out.

Sophia didn’t wait for the door to close before heading into a small living room. She found the nearest place to sit, which happened to be an easy chair right next to the doorway, and started yanking her shoes off. Immediately, a faint swampy smell mixed with her unique scent reached her nose.

“Here,” Candice said, holding out a pair of wool socks and a blanket from the bag she had brought in from the car.

Sophia gratefully pulled on the socks and wrapped her legs and feet in the blanket. She sat for a minute as heat seeped back into her lower body. As it did, she found her attention turning towards analyzing the smells around her… particularly whether any might be from potential food.

“Do you have any balm?” she asked as a chill went up her spine.

“I don’t,” Candice replied, taking her own shoes off on a couch next to Sophia. “You don’t have it?”

“I left my purse at the dance,” Sophia admitted, feeling the blood drain from her face. “Candice… my wolf instincts are so much harder to ignore without it, and all I can think about right now is eating.”

Candice stared at her, and then recognition dawned. “That doesn’t include me, does it?”

Sophia dared to consider it and was relieved to still find the very thought repellent. Even as hungry as I am,at least I still find the idea of eating humans horrifying.

“I don’t think so, at least not now,” Sophia conceded. “Mostly, I’m craving deer. Although rabbit would be okay.”

Oh God, do I ever want a liver.

Candice grimaced before saying, “Well, I don’t have venison, but Patty found some old steaks buried in her freezer. She said they might be a little freezer-burned, but I’ll cook one up for you. Sound good?”

Sophia smiled weakly. “You’d better make it two. No seasoning.”

“Damn girl, you weren’t kidding,” Candice said as she stared at Sophia’s empty plate.

“You said there were more?” Sophia asked hopefully. “I can make them.”

Candice gaped at her. “You’re kidding, right? That was an entire pound of meat!”

“I told you, I need a lot of food before the full moon,” she said, and then leaned over her water glass and sniffed at it. “And the hunger gets worse as I get closer.”

“Greeeat,” Candice replied.

Extending her tongue, Sophia started to lap at the water in the glass.

“Hey, not like that!” Candice reached over and grabbed the glass. “You’re acting wolfy again.”

Sophia’s face fell.

“It’s okay to mess up,” Candice tried to reassure her, setting the glass back down.

“But it’s not,” Sophia ran her tongue over her small fangs and shuddered. “The more I give in, the more I turn into a monster.”

Candice opened her mouth as if to respond, but closed it and contemplated her hands.

Even she knows better than to argue after tonight.

Neither friend spoke for a time. 

“All I can think about is Michelle and how I wanted to tear out her throat,” Sophia finally broke the silence, staring at the empty fireplace on the other side of the room. “She felt like a threat and had to be destroyed.”

“I’ll admit,” Candice murmured. “I thought you were gone when I saw you attacking her; that you were just a wild animal now.”

“I’m a danger to everyone around me,” Sophia proclaimed miserably. “I’m a wolf, no matter how hard I try not to be. Even when all I had to do was dance with someone to be human, I couldn’t do it.” She started to cry. “I’ve let everyone down who’s tried to help. You, my mom…”

“Your mom?” Candice asked incredulously.

“I think my mom knew; she tried to warn me the night before… before…” Sophia stumbled over her words. 

He didn’t!

“... Before Shadow killed her,” she forced out despite the certainty of her doubts.

“What?” Candice gaped at her. “What are you talking about?”

Stop! It’s not true!

“Shadow was there! He caused her to drive off the road!” Sophia almost yelled, unable to control the maelstrom brewing in her. “I fell in love with my mom’s killer!” The words tumbled out of her mouth now. “I was going to throw away everything for my mom’s killer!”

“Whoa, whoa, back up,” Candice tried to interrupt.

“The worst part is, I still love him!” Sophia yelled hysterically as her fingers and toes clawed at the chair and floor. “And now I’m turning into a killer too! I’m cursed! And I’m going to kill…”

Suddenly, she was sputtering and cold as water dripped down her face. The water cleared from her eyes in time to see Candice holding her water glass.

“I wasn’t sure that would actually work,” Candice admitted tensely as she set the glass down. “Now, tell me everything.”