Waxing Darkness

by Jose Luis Solorzano

  Chapter Twelve: Fight or Flight

  Miles, his howl goes.

  A warning to all over:

  The moon will now rise.

  Luis blinked for a few seconds, in disbelief on what had just happened. He was now at perfect eye level with Luna. His head shifted, trying to get a feel for his body. This was something that Luis wasn’t expecting. He wished to move forward, but he couldn’t do it. The only bits of muscle he could move were for him to shift his head. A whimper escaped him as he tried to move one of his paws. He was about to collapse to his side when Chelsea came to catch him at the last second.

  “Luis, can you hear me?”

  It was Luna’s voice. He had been staring at her and her mouth didn’t move at all. It was like her voice had a direct link inside Luis’s head. She approached him slowly, careful of his movements. He wasn’t quite sure how to communicate the same way that she was, so he simply nodded at her.

  “We werewolves can communicate with each other; all you have to do is think it, but simply thinking it isn’t enough. Just…think it into my mind. If you do that, then you should be able to talk to me as I am able to talk with you.”

  Luis wasn’t quite sure what Luna was talking about. He didn’t feel like he was simply imagining Luna speaking to him, but she seemed to be just talking in illogical circles. He gave it a try, looking straight at her. Think it into her mind. Think it into her mind. Think it into her mind.

  “The way you tried to explain this doesn’t make any sense at all,” Luis tried to tell her.

  “Well, it worked didn’t it,” Luna told him, sounding slightly irritated.

  “Wait! You actually heard what I said,” Luis asked, still slightly confused about the whole process.

  “Yep; looks like I’m not such a bad teacher, after all. Now all you need to do is to learn how to walk like one of us. It looks like the essential things that are passed down from each generation don’t transfer over as good to those who are bitten.”

  Chelsea carefully watched the two werewolves interact with each other. From what she could gather by simply watching their body language, Luna was (poorly) trying to teach Luis how to walk on all fours. She understood how complicated it was, so she understood the frustration on both of their faces.

  Victor felt on edge though. He didn’t seem bothered by anything as they were driving up there, but now he seemed completely tense. Something else was now on his mind.

  “Do you think these two are going to be alright,” Chelsea spoke aloud, mainly just to verbalize her thoughts.

  “There are worse people out there that Luna could have found,” Victor commented. “That kid may be an idiot, but he’s got guts.”

  Chelsea wasn’t sure if Victor was actually complementing Luis.

  Maka had become more and more frustrated by the day. She was on hunting duty with Drake and Karin, who seemed to have a good handle on the aspects of being a vampire. The only bright side of her current situation was that she was away from Light. Even in life, she did her best to avoid being stuck in closed spaces with him for long periods of time.

  Maka was following behind Drake, stalking a group of teenagers. She knew what he wanted to do. They were going to kill them, and save one of them to become a vampire. Drake’s family would soon become an army. It all seemed to contradict everything that they were being taught though. Humans were scum, they were filled with hateful thoughts and they deserved to die for the way they acted. If all of that were true, then why save one from the group and turn them into a vampire. Maka wanted an answer.

  Karin had been controlling the entire group of teenagers for half a mile now. Her powers have grown so much that she was able to take control of more than one person at a time; all they needed to do was to stare at her in the eye, and they were hers to control. She was leading the group of them back to the vampire’s hiding place, where they would complete the executions. Drakes sadistic smile would grow with every passing second, examining exactly who from the group he was going to “save”.

  Suddenly, a strange noise broke through the loud streets, only a noise that Maka could hear. It was a loud howling noise, one that sounded of a wolf. It caused every cell in her body to jump. She was surprised that no one else reacted the same way that she did. A warm feeling crawled through her body, the same kind of feeling she got when she saw Light kill that female vampire not too long ago. But, it looks like no one else heard it, Maka told herself as they walked through the street. Maybe it all was just inside my head. She refused to tell anybody about what she heard; still trying to convince herself that she didn’t hear anything.

  The groups of teenagers were now at the entryway of the apartment complex that the vampires resided in. It appeared that Karin’s magic was able to block out the senses of a human being as well; no human would sanely come into a place where it reeked of old blood. As Maka passed through the entry way, she passed by Light, who gleefully smiled at the thought of spilling fresh blood. Maka didn’t find it right to kill anybody though; she never once added to the body count.

  With the humans still in their trance, a girl with orange hair was the only one who broke away from the group. That was the one Drake had instructed Karin to break away from the group. Drake and Light broke into a flash, killing every human that was in their respective path. Blood stained their clothes as Light began to laugh. It all happened in a second, but it seemed to last for minutes inside the mind of Maka. It appeared to her that she was the only one who would stare at the faces of those who have died, trying to guess what they were thinking right before they met their fate.

  “Why does she get saved,” Maka asked. She hurried over to the girl with orange hair, who was still in the trance. “What if I killed her right now? What makes her so special that she becomes one of us?” Maka knew the true answer for Drake: power. It didn’t matter to him who it was; he just wanted to add another toy to his collection. That was why Light and Maka were where they were now; it was luck of the draw.

  “Redemption,” Drake answered in a cool voice. He tore the girl away from Maka’s clutches, injecting his poison into the girl’s neck. The trance broke and the girl screamed. The pain was so intense that the orange haired girl passed out on the spot. “Remember what I’ve been telling you, these human beings are not worth the breath they breathe. Tell me though, how much better are you now that you became a vampire? She is now one of us because she has the ability to become better than any human being out there.” He then went up to Maka, holding her neck tightly. “And if you ever question me again, I will be more than glad to have you join the humans and allow you to die as well, you ungrateful brat!”

  Before releasing Maka from his grip, Drake spat on her face, throwing her straight to the cold ground. Karin picked up the orange girl’s body, following behind Light and Drake. The only one who seemed to stay behind was Alexis. She didn’t want to believe that Drake would be so rough on Maka; it wasn’t possible. No, she deserved what happened to her, Alexis told herself, justifying his actions. You don’t question your leader when you’re in the middle of a battle. He’s doing this so we can live happy and free.

  Noises were escaping from Maka’s mouth. To anyone else, they would have guess that Maka was crying. It was impossible for tears to flow down her cheeks, but she could remember what it felt like. She wanted to run away, to run out of the complex and to never return to this place again. Nothing was keeping her here, but why couldn’t she leave? It was the imbedded fear that was instilled inside her body because of Drake. She feared that he would come after her, find her, and then end her life. For now, it was much safer for her to play his games. Even if it was just for a little longer, she was going to keep living.

  Another howl broke through her thoughts. Out of reflex, she jumped all the way across the room. By the time she had reached the end of the hallway, Maka had realized that she was, again, hearing things that probably weren’t really there. She looked at Alexis, who was looking at her in shock.

>   “Did you hear it too,” Maka asked Alexis. If her heart were beating again, it would have skipped a beat at this moment. Maka was hoping that she wasn’t going crazy, that other people could hear the howling. Alexis’s face didn’t change, and Maka’s heart would have sunk.

  “What are you talking about,” Alexis asked her.

  “That howling noise,” Maka urged. “You had to have heard it; that’s why you’re making that face!”

  “I didn’t hear anything,” Alexis told her. “I’m making the face because of you. You’re flying!”

  Maka looked down and noticed that she was levitating three feet off of the ground. This wasn’t an ability that frequently showed up in vampires, that was what Alexis was taught anyway. No one seemed to see Maka as anything special, just some extra muscle to add to the body of their group. It was only Maka who couldn’t tell what big of a deal it was that she was floating off of the ground. Light and Drake had returned through the elevator, Drake stopping dead in his tracks. Light didn’t look as if he was in the mood for laughing when he saw that his sister was floating.

  “Get down from there, you idiot,” Light ordered his sister. Drake lifted his arm, telling the young man to stop.

  “Leave her be,” Drake said in a still voice. Light was outraged; he couldn’t understand why either Drake or Alexis saw Maka’s little magic trick as anything special. To him, she would always be the same weak little girl who didn’t have the capacity to do anything by herself. “Maka, tell me, when did you find out you could do this?”

  Maka bit her lip. She wasn’t too sure if she wanted to explain the whole truth of what had happened to her, that she jumped because she was hearing howling noises in her head. Whether you’re a human or a vampire, hearing noises in your head didn’t appear to be a good sign. That all being said, she knew that she was terrible at fibbing, no matter if it was big or small, and she already wasn’t one of Drake’s favorite people. Lying right now would probably just make things worse for her.

  “I j-jumped,” Maka answered, doing her best to get her story straight. “It was when you guys left; I heard this strange howling noise. It caused me to jump across the room, and I guess my powers just kicked in.”

  “Is that true,” Drake asked Alexis.

  “Most of it,” Alexis confessed to Drake. “She seemed to be afraid of something, but I didn’t hear any howling.”

  “I heard it, I swear!” Maka exclaimed to all of them.

  “Maka’s going mad,” Light mocked, finding his reason to laugh at his sister. No one else seemed to be taking it the same way though.

  “That’s enough, Light,” Drake ordered. His laughing stopped at once, his face now becoming hard as stone. Amazed, Maka could tell that Drake actually did believe what she was saying. He was deep in thought, pondering over what was happening to her. “What you probably heard was a werewolf. They howl when they’re getting ready to attack.” He turned his sights to Light, whose arms were crossed. “Make sure that the perimeter is safe.”

  Light left without saying a word. It was obvious why he was angry; Drake had betrayed him, and for his nobody sister no less! Maka worried for anyone who would crossed Light’s path, whether it be a human, vampire, or even a werewolf.

  “How come I can hear them howl,” Maka asked. “They have to be far away, I mean, Alexis just said that she couldn’t hear the howling.”

  “It’s a defensive ability,” Drake said, verbalizing the thoughts that were going through his mind. “If we know that someone wants to attack us, we may just have the upper hand. Their surprise attack would crumble and we can take them out. This needs further looking into.” His voice changed into that of a military leader. “Maka, be sure to tell us whenever you hear the howling again, do you understand me. You will be staying inside every night until I say otherwise, to hone your abilities; do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes sir,” Maka answered out of reflex.