by David Lubar
The doorbell rang.
I got up from the chair, my eyes still held by the message on the screen.
Downstairs, I heard my mother call, “Norman, that man is here to see you again.”
Seventeen
ON THE RUN
“Norman, are you up there?” Mom called from the bottom of the steps.
I realized she hadn’t seen me come in. But that realization was pushed aside by an emotion stronger than thought. Teridakian was on my porch. He was in my territory. I knew if I stayed here, I would have to fight to defend that territory. Whatever happened, I didn’t want my mother to see me doing the things I feared I might do.
Worse, my body was changing again. My left hand had grown into something halfway between human and wolf. The fingers were covered with hair and tipped with curving nails. The thumb had retracted so far, it was nothing more than a nub. I tried to change it back, but it refused to shift.
I looked out the window. The full moon was just beginning to rise. The sight of it gripped me. I wanted to raise my head and howl a greeting.
“Norman? Are you home?” Mom was coming up the steps.
Parts of my body felt as if they were rippling. Any moment, I expected to find myself in full wolf form. When that happened, there might be no way to control my fury.
I left by the window, dropping to the ground, then running across the backyard. I kicked off my shoes, enjoying the feel of the cool grass against my feet. I cut through several more yards, then headed toward Splat’s house.
Some sense told me I was being followed. I hurried.
Angelina opened the door when I rang the bell. “Hello, Wolf Boy,” she said.
I looked past her to Splat. “You told her?”
“I didn’t mean to. I was talking with Rory and she overheard.”
“Great. Wonderful. Let’s take out an ad in the paper. Who else can we tell?” I stumbled into their house. “Did you alert your parents, too?”
“They’re out,” Splat said.
“Maybe we can help,” Angelina said.
“You’d help me?” I couldn’t believe she was saying that.
She smiled. “You know me. I have a soft spot for animals.”
Rory came running in from upstairs. “Are you a wolf, Norman?” he asked.
“Not quite,” I told him. “But sort of, I guess.”
“Cool.” Rory seemed impressed.
This wasn’t getting me anywhere. Quickly, I told them everything I had learned. I didn’t reveal Lew’s identity, but just mentioned that I had talked with someone from town. As I recounted the story of Lew in the library, it struck me. “That’s it,” I said. “He told me later that I had what I needed. He must have meant that metal token. It’s some sort of amulet.”
“So you just need it with you when this moment of decision happens,” Angelina said. “Then everything will be okay.”
“I lost it.” I couldn’t believe I hadn’t gone back for it.
“Where?” Splat asked.
“By the library.” I remembered the tinkling sound it had made as it went hopping into a bush.
“Let’s go.” Splat started out the door.
We followed him from the house. I had just reached the bottom of the steps when someone shouted, “Stop right there, werewolf!”
I spun to face Teridakian. He was about ten yards away, holding a rifle like the kind that animal control people use to shoot tranquilizer darts.
“Leave me alone,” I said.
“You can’t do this to him,” Angelina said. “He’s just a kid.”
Teridakian shook his head. “He is no child. He is a Wolf Boy. Look at him. He’s not human anymore. He has no rights or protection. He is mine.” The hunter raised the rifle.
I faced him, holding myself back, knowing that once I attacked, I would be unable to stop. “Those tranquilizers won’t work. Leave before someone gets hurt.” My legs changed beneath me. I staggered and fell. I was more than half wolf.
Teridakian laughed. “You underestimate me. I am prepared. I added silver chloride and silver nitrate to the tranquilizing chemicals. You will sleep, dear boy, you will sleep long enough for me to take you into captivity. My greatest achievement. Zoltan the hunter is about to capture a werewolf.”
I struggled to charge at him, but I was still off balance from the changes.
He pulled the trigger.
There was an explosion from the muzzle of the rifle.
At that point, things happened in slow motion. The scene seemed to take forever, though I suspect it was just an eyeblink for the others.
Splat opened his mouth to shout. Angelina raised her hand to her face in shock and fear. Rory didn’t move except to flinch. A blur, gray and fast, tore across the yard from my left and leaped against my shoulder, knocking me from the path of the dart.
The dart struck the gray thing.
We landed in a tangle.
It rose and growled. It—Lew—took a step toward Teridakian.
The hunter pulled a second dart from a pouch on his belt and opened his rifle.
Lew took another step, then another. He was charging.
Then he just crumpled.
I ran.
Fear, anger, and confusion clouded my path. I knew I should have stayed to help Lew. But I also knew I had to find the talisman. My body was at war with itself. I ran on legs that were, for a moment, human and then, for another moment, those of a wolf. I was rippling and shifting.
The moon, full and huge, rose higher.
I knew the moment of decision was close.
Eighteen
DECISION
The human part of me was determined to find the talisman. But the wolf wanted to run free. Once, on the way to town, I found myself climbing a tree. Later, though the memories are vague, I believe I climbed the clock tower on the town hall. Then I remember running across rooftops.
At some point, I lost my jacket. I still had my shirt and pants, though they both were ripped.
There was no one in sight when I reached the corner next to the library. The moon hung above the building, spilling a cold glow across the ground. I ran to the bushes. Nearby, unless someone else had found it, the talisman waited for me. I dived to the ground and began searching.
My vision kept shifting from human to wolf. It would flicker rapidly back and forth, then hold one way briefly before flickering again.
Suddenly, I sensed the talisman. I knew it was within reach. I thrust out a paw or a hand, I’m not sure which, to clasp the object as its power pulsed at me from beneath a bush.
Before I could get it, I was grabbed.
Something took hold of my legs.
I stretched out and felt the hot metal of the talisman. My fingers closed around it.
An instant later, I was dragged out from beneath the bushes.
“I knew it was you.” Spud Mellon dropped my legs and stepped back. He faced me, his fists clenched, his face lit up with a sneer of triumph.
I stood. At that instant, I seemed to be in mostly human form. But I still had the strength and fury of the wolf within me. It was no contest. I knew I could destroy him in a heartbeat. I could slash him with no effort, or toss him away like a crumpled wad of paper. Feel my power, enemy.
“You little punk,” he said with the confidence of a bully facing a smaller person. “I told you I was gonna get you. Guess I was right.”
He pulled back his arm to throw a punch.
I snarled. He had no idea what was about to happen to him. He had no clue what he was facing. It was time to show him. I prepared to leap upon my victim.
The talisman suddenly burned against my palm. In that heat, I knew there was a message.
The moment of decision …
This was my moment. This was what Lew had told me about. If I attacked Spud, I was choosing the way of a beast. If I gave in to my animal side, I would become the werewolf. Was that what I wanted?
Yes!
No!
What wa
s my other choice? Maybe I should—
Tear! Attack! My nerves and muscles screamed at me. My body ached to lunge at my enemy. This was the werewolf trying to take command.
I felt my legs shift, then shift back.
Think.
That was it. Think! The human way. Use my mind. Use my great gift. That was my choice.
I could break him in an instant, but the act would change me forever. I would lose the part of me that I valued the most. I would throw away my gifts, the way Lew had. If I wanted to remain human, I had to use the powers of my mind.
How?
Words were my weapon. I swallowed my rage and tried to speak calmly. “Don’t hit me. You might hurt your hand.”
He laughed. “I’ll take that chance.”
I knew it was a weak effort. I had to try harder. Or I could slash out at his soft flesh and be done with it. No, not the way of the beast. The mind—I had to use my mind. “You really don’t want to do this,” I said. “You aren’t angry at me.”
“I’ve been wanting to do this since I saw you.”
Still wrong. Calm down. I knew what to do. “Look, you are merely displaying an aggressive tendency learned as a defensive mechanism. Such phenomena are virtually—”
“Shut up, nerd.”
Wrong again. Had my mind failed? How could I be doing so poorly? He was almost an idiot. I was far smarter than him. It wasn’t even a fair contest. There was no way I could possibly fail to win with my superior mind.
My goodness—I almost fell to my knees as the understanding hit me. How could I have been so arrogant and blind? How could I have done this?
“I’m sorry,” I said.
It wasn’t the words that held his punch. I think it was the tone, the sincerity in my voice.
“What?” He stood, confused.
“I had no right to treat you that way. I had no right to think I was better or smarter. We’re both people. I made a terrible mistake.”
“Yeah, you sure did.”
I dropped my arms and stood before him. “If it will make you feel better, go ahead and hit me. I guess I deserve it.”
In my clenched hand, the talisman was so hot, I could feel my skin blister. Despite the pain, I gripped it tighter. Beneath my clothing, my body was shifting and changing, each form fighting to replace the other and survive. I stood, ready and willing to take a beating. Willing to become more human than I had been before.
Spud lowered his fists. “Look, kid. I have feelings, too. Everyone in my family gets treated this way. It’s not right. You shouldn’t have yelled at me. Just try to be nicer next time, okay?”
“Okay.”
He turned from me and took two steps. Then he looked back and said, “Nice haircut.”
“Thanks.”
I watched him walk off. Above his head, the moon cast a bright light across the town.
Suddenly, the heat within my hand changed to intense cold. I opened my fingers. The talisman gleamed in the moonlight. I looked at the image. The side with the man was faceup. For an instant, I could have sworn he winked.
Then the talisman exploded in my palm in a flash of cool light.
Nineteen
BACK TO NORMAN
I was, at that moment, out of energy. I staggered toward home. I was nothing but a kid, graced with a bright mind, but for now just an exhausted boy whose brain was reeling from all that had happened.
“Oh, there you are,” my mother said when I walked in. “That odd man was here to see you earlier, but he went away. Oh, by the way, I gave away the rest of the lamb. It turned out your father is allergic to the curry. It was making him itch and feel dizzy, and he even started seeing things. I hope you didn’t have any bad reactions to it.”
I shook my head, too tired to talk, then climbed the steps to my room. After calling Splat to let him know I was okay, I fell into bed and slept.
In the morning, I felt confused. Had it been real? If it had been real, it was over for me, but another had paid. I needed to see if I could help Lew. If he’d been captured, he’d be at the circus.
The world seemed blurry until I put on my glasses. That part of me was definitely back to normal.
I got dressed and rode my bike to the field that held the circus. The sideshow was open. I paid and went inside. Somehow, I would help Lew escape.
He was in the cage that had once held the Monkey Boy. The sign now read: THE RAGING WOLF MAN. It was Lew, but it was Lew hunched down and acting like an animal. In the dim light, I couldn’t tell whether any of it was real.
I walked up to the cage.
He growled and jumped at the bars, scaring off a kid who was standing there. A moment later, quietly, he said, “Hey, kid, good to see you. It looks like you made your decision.”
I nodded. “I’ll get you out,” I told him.
He shook his head. “You don’t understand. I made my decision, too. This is what I want.”
“But you’re in a cage.”
“Just during showtime. Look, that Teridakian is an idiot, but the circus owner is no fool. He understands.”
I was beginning to understand, too. “You want to do this, don’t you?”
“Yeah. This was my choice. I was getting tired of town. I was getting tired of the life I’d been leading. This will work out just fine. I’ll travel around and get to see the country. We usually set up in a field, so I can run at night. Looks pretty good to me. And circus people, they don’t mind if you’re a bit, shall we say, on the odd side.”
“So you’re happy?”
“Pretty much. Looks like you are, too. Still, it’s almost too bad you didn’t go for the other choice. You would have made a great wolf.”
“Yeah, I guess I would, at that. Say, did you ever get to college?”
He shrugged, but didn’t seem surprised that I knew about him. “Yeah. I was there for a year. The next summer, camping in Upstate New York, is when I got bitten. I haven’t done much heavy thinking since then.”
I stuck my hand through the cage, and we shook. Then I turned and walked from the sideshow.
It all still didn’t seem real to me. Lew was not the most reliable source. Had it been a fantasy caused by an allergic reaction to food? Had I imagined some of it or all of it?
As I rode through town, my vision wandered along with my thoughts. That’s when I saw it. High up above the street, flapping in the breeze, my jacket hung from the top of the clock tower on the town hall. There it waved, far above where any human could reach. It seemed to wave both a greeting and a farewell. I was leaving something behind, but heading toward something more intelligent and mature. I might be the smartest kid in town, but I knew I had a lot to learn.
As I pedaled toward home, I thought of Lew. His choice made sense. So did mine.
Kids can be such monsters … literally! Especially at Washington Irving Elementary. Read on for a sneak peek at The Gloomy Ghost.…
I must have fallen asleep. That was really weird. I sat up. It was brighter outside. I checked my watch. It was almost twelve o’clock. I stretched, but I didn’t feel stiff. That’s funny. I usually have to stretch when I wake up. Then I saw him. I don’t know how he got in here with me. He was sleeping.
“Hey, wake up,” I said to the other kid. What was he doing in my secret place? He looked familiar. Wow. He looked just like me. That made me feel really creepy. It was like looking in a mirror, but without the mirror. “Wake up!” I shouted at him. I decided to shake his shoulder. I tried to do it. But I couldn’t touch him. My hand just couldn’t get close.
Maybe it was time to find another place to hide. I started to push my way through the bushes.
But the bushes went through me.
They just went right through my arm.
“Mom!”
I shouted without thinking. I didn’t care about the television anymore. I just wanted my mom. I ran toward the house.
Sebastian stepped out the back door. “Rory,” he called.
“Here!” I waved my
arms and shouted. I ran toward him. But he just looked around, like I wasn’t even there. Maybe he was so mad, he was going to ignore me. But that didn’t make any sense. Why was he calling me if he was going to ignore me?
I ran to the steps. I tried to run up them, but I went through them. I was in the steps, up to my chest. It was like I’d been cut in half. Sebastian was right in front of me. His shoes were right in front of my eyes.
“SEBASTIAN!” I shouted as hard and as loud as I could. He tilted his head for a second. I think he almost heard me. I shouted again. And again. He stood for a moment. I kept shouting. I shouted so hard, I knew my face was red. My brother turned around and went inside.
I looked down. I was half in the porch. I didn’t like that. Seeing my body cut off that way made me shiver. I lifted my hand. It came right up through the old boards with the chipped gray paint. No, I didn’t like being inside something. I stepped back. I got out of the porch.
I looked behind me, at the bushes. The kid in there … No, it couldn’t be.
I knew the answer. “I’m dreaming,” I said. It was that simple. I’d fallen asleep, and this was a bad dream. It had to be.
Starscape Books by David Lubar
NOVELS
Flip
True Talents
Hidden Talents
MONSTERRIFIC TALES
Hyde and Shriek
The Vanishing Vampire
The Unwilling Witch
The Wavering Werewolf
NATHAN ABERCROMBIE, ACCIDENTAL ZOMBIE SERIES
My Rotten Life
Dead Guy Spy
The Big Stink
