Night Creature

by Rodman Philbrick

  After he’d acted out the bath he showed me how to empty the tub and turn on the shower, which was like a rainstorm for one person. Actually, it wasn’t until he showed me the shower that I really understood. Lots of times, in the summer at least, I’d use the rain to get clean.

  Once I had the tub to myself, I discovered I kind of liked it. The water was warmer than any pond, almost the same temperature as my skin, and the sudsy soap felt slick and smelled nice.

  Paul left me there, splashing in the tub, and the next thing I knew someone was pounding on the door.

  “Gruff! You still in there?”

  I’d fallen asleep!

  It took me a minute to remember what Paul had showed me about emptying the tub and turning on the shower. And it took me a lot longer to figure out how to put on the strange-feeling skins Paul called clothes.

  When finally I came back into his room, Paul was looking at pictures of monsters, just like he had been last night.

  “I was beginning to think you’d drowned,” he said, tossing down the monster pictures.

  Why was Paul so interested in monsters? Did he know about the werewolves? I picked up the thing with the pictures, made a puzzled face, and raised my eyebrows.

  “That? That’s a comic book,” explained Paul. “Cool, isn’t it? I’ve got lots more, but right now it’s lunchtime and afterward Kim wants to give you an English lesson.”

  Lunch turned out to mean food.

  “Ham sandwich and milk,” said Kim.

  I tried to eat it like she and Paul did, but around the meat there was all this doughy stuff that stuck to the roof of my mouth. When I took that off it was fine, although the meat didn’t taste like any animal I was familiar with.

  Afterward Kim and Paul spent the whole day pointing at things and saying the names and making me say them.

  They laughed at my voice, which I didn’t like much, but Kim said they couldn’t help it because I sounded like a rusty hinge. I didn’t know what that was and they couldn’t show me because, said Paul, Fox Hollow was a new town and didn’t have any rust yet.

  “We’ve only lived here a month,” said Kim. “So we’re getting used to things, too, just like you.”

  Just like me. If only she knew what “just like me” meant, she’d run screaming from the room.

  Chapter 45

  Later we had something called supper.

  Mrs. Parker had everybody sit down and then she put something called plates in front of us.

  On the plates were steaming piles of long white worms covered in slimy blood. Was this what humans ate?

  “Yum, spaghetti and meatballs,” said Kim. “My favorite.”

  Kim showed me how to use a fork. I watched her and Paul and Mr. and Mrs. Parker twirl the things on their forks and chomp away with enthusiasm, as if worms were really their favorite food.

  I was interested though I’d never seen such long worms. It took forever to wind the slippery things onto my fork thing. The worms kept falling off when I got them almost to my mouth. Kim almost choked laughing and bits of chewed white worm spilled down her chin.

  Finally I managed to get some into my mouth. Mmm. Good. And they were easier to chew than most of the food I was used to.

  I stuck my fork back in and once again the worms fell off. I could starve to death at this rate. Everyone else was half done. Soon they’d be sniffing at mine.

  I took a bite of meatball. The taste exploded in my mouth. Meat, but not like real meat. It was all grainy bits stuck together, but it was delicious. I dove into the worms for another try.

  “Maybe I ought to cut that spaghetti up for you, Gruff,” said Mrs. Parker, taking my plate.

  Kim giggled. I couldn’t see what was funny, but it didn’t matter because now I could fork up spaghetti by the mouthful. In a minute I was done. When I looked up, the whole family was staring at me.

  I stiffened in fear. Could they see somehow that I wasn’t like them? Could they see what I really was?

  But they weren’t staring like my wolf family had done the first night of the wereing. This was different. More a wondering, apart kind of staring.

  “I’ve never seen anyone eat so fast,” said Mrs. Parker with a small breathless laugh. “Would you like some more?”

  I tensed up again. Was she offering me her own portion? Wolfmother hadn’t done that since I was old enough to chew for myself. Did Mrs. Parker think I was a helpless baby?

  “No, po-leese,” I said, in my rusty-hinge voice. Mrs. Parker was always telling Paul and Kim to say “please” and “thank you” when they spoke to her.

  Unlike the wolves, humans sat at the table and waited until everyone else was done eating. And nobody snatched anything from anyone else’s plate. It was all so strange, so very strange.

  With my belly full of worm-spaghetti, I suddenly felt so sleepy I could hardly hold my head up.

  Finally Mrs. Parker pushed back her chair. “I’ve fixed up the guest room for you, Gruff. Paul, show him where it is and lend him some pajamas.”

  Pajamas? What was pajamas? Was pajamas going to be as scary as taking a bath?

  Chapter 46

  Pajamas turned out to be the softest, most colorful clothes I’d ever seen. “That’s what we wear to bed,” Paul explained.

  I wondered why they didn’t wear them all the time, they were so comfortable, but I wasn’t yet sure enough of the words to ask. I liked the feel of these skins but I was worried about these humans. They were so used to warm water and soft clothes. Even with their wonderful weapons they were too trusting to save themselves from the werewolves. They didn’t even realize they had taken a monster into their den.

  “And just in case you haven’t figured it out, this is a bed,” Paul said. He bounced on the thing called a bed. “You sleep here, okay?”

  I nodded. I knew what sleep was. I sighed, wondering where my wolf family was sleeping tonight.

  “Another thing,” Paul said. “See these little button things? These are light switches.”

  He clicked one on and the room went dark. I jumped, frightened. He clicked the switch again and the light came back on, just like magic.

  “Turn that out when you’re ready,” he said. “Or I guess you can sleep with the lights on if you’re scared.”

  “Not sk-eered,” I said.

  “Great,” he said with a yawn. “See you in the morning.”

  He left, closing the door. I was alone. I shut off the lights—now the room was more like my old wolf den. The darkness was comforting, but I missed my family. Would I ever be a human? Would I ever see Wolfmother again?

  I felt uneasy. Light drew me to the window.

  The moon. It wasn’t full now—it had no special power over me—but still it called to me.

  I thought of my wolf family out there somewhere. Would they have found a new den yet? Probably not. Leaper and Snapjaw would be frightened. I wished I was there to help Wolf-mother calm them.

  But there was something about this human family that stirred deep feelings inside me, too. Even though I was always doing things a little wrong and making people laugh, I felt like I knew them.

  Things were strange, but some things were familiar, too. Part of me that had been asleep for a long, long time was waking up. I was afraid of the future but excited, too. Maybe I could belong here.

  But my eye caught the moon again and my spirits fell. What would happen with the next full moon? I would become a monster again, that’s what.

  I’d have to leave this place and my new friends. I had to go back to the swamp and find a place to hide before the next full moon. I couldn’t take a chance on letting a monster—me—loose in Fox Hollow.

  I sighed and was starting to turn away from the window when a man came down the street. He turned off the road and headed toward the woods. Then he stopped.

  He seemed to be waiting for something.

  The hairs on the back of my neck bristled. There was something very strange about the way the man was acting.


  I kept watching.

  After a few minutes more men appeared in the street. They came from several directions. They joined the first man and together they started toward the woods. What were they doing out there?

  They all stopped in a patch of silver moonlight.

  One by one they threw their heads back and opened their mouths. No sound came out—they were howling silently!

  Somehow I knew what was going to happen next. And it did.

  Suddenly their clothing burst at the seams and fell away from their bodies. They dropped to all fours, covered with wiry gray hair. Their bodies twisted and writhed in the moonlight as muscles rippled under flesh.

  Night creatures. These weren’t men, they were werewolves!

  When the Change was complete the creatures crouched motionless for a second. Then, all together, they swung around. Red eyes like hot coals lifted to my window, fixed on my face. I couldn’t move.

  The hideous night creatures all began to laugh silently, showing yellow fangs. I heard their voices in my mind.

  “There’s no escape,” they howled in my head. “No escape for little Gruff. And no escape for Fox Hollow!”

  Turn the page to continue reading from the Werewolf Chronicles

  Chapter 1

  I am a monster. The humans don’t know my secret, or they would never have saved me. They found me in the swamp as they hunted the wolves—my real family—and brought me to this strange place they call a town.

  They say they want to raise me as a human. They say they want to save me. But these poor, weak humans don’t know the danger they’ve allowed into this wooden den they call a home.

  The danger is me.

  I can’t help it. On the first evening of the full moon the Change comes over me and I turn into a foul creature of the night. A werewolf. A monster so terrifying that even my brave Wolfmother fled in fear. A monster so ghastly, so powerful, that it can see in the dark, and hear the heartbeat of a frightened bird on the wing. A monster whose glistening fangs ache for blood.

  The most terrifying thing of all is that I am not alone. The night is full of monsters like me. By day they look human, act human. But at night they raise their human faces to the moon and turn into werewolves. And then in the darkness they hunt their victims, preferably children.…

  “Gruff! Are you okay in there?”

  That was Paul, the boy whose parents had taken me into their home. He was outside this part of the den they call a bedroom, knocking on the wooden shield the humans call a door.

  “Ohh-kayyy,” I managed to growl. It wasn’t easy getting the human words to work inside my throat, but I was trying. I wanted to please these humans. I especially liked Paul and his sister Kim.

  “Take your time,” Paul called out. “You’ll get used to it.”

  He meant that I would get used to living with humans. I wasn’t so sure. Maybe they’d never get used to me! After all, I’d never lived with humans before. Even though I was a human boy I had been raised by wolves since I was small, and lived and hunted as a wolf. I didn’t know the ways of humans—and they didn’t know me.

  It had been a very long day. I was so tired it felt like the walls of this strange room were pressing in on me. So I went to the window to look out on my old home—the swamp.

  As I looked out into the night from the second-floor window something caught my eye. A man. He was moving from shadow to shadow as if he was trying not to be seen.

  Something about the way he moved made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I had to force myself not to growl or bark. I was with the humans now—all I could do was stand watch over them.

  So I watched intently as the man moved from the shadows and headed for the woods. Before he got there he stopped in a silvery patch of moonlight. Like he was waiting for someone.

  A minute or so later the shadows moved again, and four more men scurried out of the darkness and joined him. They all stood there in the moonlight, waiting.

  I shivered as if a worm had crawled up my spine, but I couldn’t stop staring at them. I wanted to turn away from the window but I felt something was about to happen. Something I needed to know.

  Suddenly my breath caught in my throat.

  The men’s faces were changing! As I watched, their ears grew long and pointed. Their mouths and noses fused into long snouts. Suddenly they threw back their heads and howled.

  Werewolves!

  Chapter 2

  I watched, frozen with horror, as their clothes burst at the seams and fell away from their bodies. They dropped to all fours, sprouting wiry gray fur. They twisted and writhed in the moonlight as muscles rippled under flesh.

  When the Change was complete the werewolves crouched motionless for a moment, as if savoring the change.

  Then, all together they swung around and looked at me.

  Five pairs of glowing red eyes glared up at my window. The monsters grinned at me, showing sharp yellow fangs.

  I ducked back out of sight but it was too late. The werewolves had seen me!

  Pressed against the wall, I heard a low, vicious laugh from outside.

  “Join us, little Gruff,” they called in a chorus of voices that dripped with evil. “Join us, or die!”

  I whimpered in fear as the horrible voices echoed inside my head. I couldn’t move. It was like I was paralyzed.

  I looked down at my own body but it stayed normal. Frozen with terror and dread I waited for the tingling in my arms and legs that meant I was changing into a werewolf, too, just like I had for the past three nights.

  But nothing happened. I slumped in relief. The moon was no longer full. I would remain a boy until the next full moon. But it horrified me to realize that full werewolves—those who had made a kill—could change at any time!

  When my own hammering heart stopped pounding in my ears I heard the creatures whispering among themselves. Then suddenly everything went quiet. Had they gone? I was afraid to look.

  But I had to know. Very slowly I inched my head toward the window and peered out.

  Four hairy monsters were huddled in a corner of the yard.

  Four? A minute ago there had been five of them out there. Where was the fifth werewolf? What was it doing?

  I jerked my head back, afraid to breathe. But maybe I had counted wrong. It was dark out there, maybe I missed one. Biting my lip, I cautiously peeked out again.

  No. I had counted right. There were four werewolves crouched in the yard, facing the house as if they were waiting. Their fangs gleamed in the moonlight and dripped with anticipation.

  The monsters were plotting something and I was the only one who knew they were here. I was the only one who knew they even existed.

  They were humans by day and evil monsters by night.

  I had seen them as monsters before, for three nights in the woodsy swamp behind the town. They wanted me to kill, to become a full-blooded werewolf, and I almost had.

  But last night the werewolves had come out of the swamp and stolen a child from the town. I had followed them and stopped them from hurting the child and chased them back into the swamp.

  I thought the creatures came from the swamp. Now I knew they lived right here in town.

  But the other townspeople didn’t believe in monsters. They blamed the real wolves who lived in the swamp—the beautiful gray wolves who were the only family I could remember. The wolves had taken me in when I was a baby and I could never let anyone hurt them.

  At dawn the humans from town had sent out men with guns to hunt my wolf family down. The hunters hadn’t killed my family but they did capture me—the “wolf-boy” who lived with the wolves.

  And now they were trying to make a human boy out of me.

  And I knew I’d much rather be a human than a monster. In my heart I was a human, I was!

  Now the werewolves had come for me.

  SCRREEEEEEK.

  It was the sound of a claw scraping against the outside of the house below my window.

  Th
e werewolf was climbing up the side of the house!

  THUMP! SCRRAATCH!

  It slipped and grunted as its claws scrabbled for a hold. I waited for the sound of its body hitting the ground. Nothing.

  Then I heard the faint scratching, clicking sound again. It hadn’t fallen.

  And it had climbed much closer. I could hear the rasp of its breath.

  It was coming to get me!

  Chapter 3

  I screamed and bolted for the bedroom door.

  “Paul!” I shouted into the hallway. “H-help! Help!”

  Paul’s bedroom door flew open. “What?” he cried. “What’s the matter?”

  Paul was my age, twelve. His brown eyes were wide-open as he hurried toward me. But he didn’t look scared, just concerned. Paul’s family had taken me in that morning when the hunters brought me out of the swamp.

  I opened my mouth but no words came out. Paul looked over my shoulder, into the dark bedroom. I put my hand on his arm to stop him from going in to look.

  “No,” I said haltingly, in my rusty voice. “Wait for the dad.”

  We could both hear Mr. Parker’s feet pounding up the stairs. Mrs. Parker was right behind him and Kim, Paul’s younger sister, was behind her.

  “What’s wrong, boy?” Mr. Parker asked me. Mrs. Parker looked worried.

  “He thinks there’s something scary in his room!” said Paul, the words tumbling out of him in excitement.

  Mr. Parker frowned. He was a big man with a serious expression. “Let Gruff speak for himself, Paul,” he said.

  “But, Dad, you know he can’t,” said Paul, hopping from foot to foot impatiently. He was eager to get into my room and see what scared me. “He’s been brought up by a family of wolves his whole life. We can’t expect him to learn English in one day.”

  “Well, he won’t learn if you don’t let him try.” Mr. Parker turned to me. “Now, Gruff, can you tell me what happened?”

  I pointed at the bedroom. Even though I could understand a lot of the human talk, it was much harder to sort all my jumbled thoughts into words and get my lips and tongue to make the right sounds.