The Wereing

by Rodman Philbrick

  There were seven rules.

  Puzzling out the words, I whispered them over to myself, each one like a stab in the heart. When I was done I felt as if the “Rules of The Wereing” had been branded into my soul with hot metal.

  The next chapter explained what the rules meant. The book said that “whether born or bitten” a werewolf would not undergo its first wereing—its first change under the full moon from human to beast—until the age of twelve. On its first wereing, the young werewolf had all the qualities of human and beast. However, once the new werewolf made its first kill, it gained the powers of the mature werewolf but it lost its “essential humanity.”

  The words struck terror into me although I wasn’t sure what they meant. Struggling, I read further. The blooded werewolf, said the book, kept the cunning intelligence of its human side but lost its human compassion, sympathy, and understanding of right and wrong. The blooded werewolf was ruled by its thirst for power and its hunger for blood.

  The monster’s senses—smell, sight, and hearing—were more acute than any wild animal’s. Its physical strength was equally supernatural. It could run as fast as the wind, climb the tallest skyscraper with ease, jump as high as a tree.

  And the blooded werewolf could transform itself from human shape to werewolf at any time—except for the three nights of the full moon. While the full moon was in the sky, all werewolves were compelled to abandon human form.

  The blooded werewolf, the book went on, was intelligent and more powerful than any beast known. Its awesome abilities were equalled only by its evil nature. The werewolf lived only to prey on all living creatures, especially children, and to make more of its own kind.

  A chill settled over me as cold as the grave. I’d known I was a monster—now I knew what it meant!

  As for the last two rules—that a werewolf cannot cross water and cannot tolerate silver—they didn’t need explaining but they didn’t mean anything to me.

  After my hands stopped shaking I leafed through the book. There was some stuff about the history of werewolves. The original monsters came from some country I’d never heard of—Transylvania—but no one knew how they got there. Some said it was a curse, some said there had always been werewolves.

  As I sat on my bed, thinking about what I had read, numb with dread and worry, my mouth suddenly began to water and my stomach rumbled dangerously. My nose tingled with anticipation.

  I sat bolt upright, gripping the edge of the bed. It was the hunger of the beast!

  But the full moon was over. What was happening to me?

  Chapter 12

  “Groooowl.” My stomach demanded meat. Had I done something by accident that made me a blooded werewolf?

  “Paul, Gruff, Kim! Dinner,” called Mrs. Parker.

  Dinner! I jumped up from the bed in relief. I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch, so of course I was hungry—just like any human. I flung open my door and followed the wonderful aroma downstairs. As usual, I was the first one at the table.

  But for some reason when Mrs. Parker dished out the hamburgers and salad, I found I couldn’t eat much. I kept thinking of the werewolves’ horrible taste for fresh meat.

  “Are you all right, Gruff?” Mrs. Parker asked, eyeing my plate. “You’re not feeling ill again, are you?”

  “Oh, no,” I insisted and picked up my hamburger. But I really couldn’t take another bite. “It’s just that—I was thinking of becoming a vegetarian!”

  Mrs. Parker looked startled.

  Kim giggled. “Is this the same Gruff who didn’t want to wait for Dad to cook the steaks on the barbecue?” she said, reminding me of a mealtime experience I would just as soon forget. There were a lot of those when I first came to the Parkers’.

  “Hush, Kim,” said Mrs. Parker. “If Gruff wants to try being a vegetarian, that’s just fine.” She handed me the salad bowl. “It does mean you’ll have to eat your vegetables though, Gruff.”

  Feeling like a rabbit, which was better than feeling like a monster, I piled more greens on my plate and began munching my way through them.

  “That was delicious, Carol,” said Mr. Parker. “But now I’ve got to be getting back.” He pushed aside his plate and stood, knotting his tie and grabbing his suit jacket from the back of his chair.

  “You’re working again tonight?” asked Mrs. Parker, surprised.

  “Yes, didn’t I tell you?” Mr. Parker glanced at his watch.

  Mrs. Parker shook her head but her husband didn’t notice. It seemed to me he was avoiding his wife’s eyes, just as he had at breakfast that morning.

  “Wolfe Industries has started work on a special project,” he said. “We’re all working nights for a while.” He started for the door.

  “What kind of project, Dad?” asked Paul.

  “Can’t talk about it, son,” said Mr. Parker, already headed out the door. “Top secret.”

  After helping Mrs. Parker with the dishes, I hurried back upstairs to read some more about werewolves. I hadn’t yet discovered anything in the book that might help me figure out what the werewolves might be plotting or how I might stop them.

  But I’d hardly opened the book when there was a knock on my door. I quick stuck the book under my pillow and grabbed a school book instead. “Come in,” I called out.

  Kim opened the door. She didn’t look happy.

  “Kim! What’s wrong?”

  She sighed and walked over to the window. “Did you notice anything weird about my dad today?” she asked.

  “Weird?” I didn’t know what to say. Mr. Parker had seemed strange and distant but I didn’t want to worry Kim.

  “He’s been acting funny the last few days,” said Kim, frowning. “Paul says I’m crazy. But Dad’s different. He doesn’t seem to notice us. I was telling him about our new principal and he just walked away, like he didn’t even know I was there.”

  “Maybe he’s worried about this big project at work.” I was trying to be soothing but even as I spoke, an icy tingle of alarm ran down my backbone. What was this project at Wolfe Industries that took up all of Mr. Parker’s time?

  “Yeah, maybe it’s just work,” sighed Kim. She perched on the edge of my bed and watched her pink-sneakered foot bob up and down nervously. “But he’s never acted like this before. It gives me the creeps. I don’t know how to explain it.”

  Kim raised her face and I would see the terrible fear in her eyes. She whispered, “It’s like he’s not my real father.”

  Chapter 13

  Kim’s words of fear echoed in my head for days: It’s like he’s not my real father.

  What did it mean? I watched Mr. Parker whenever I could. He did seem different. Like his mind was far away. He didn’t smile and kid around with us like he used to. And every night he went back to work—eagerly. It was like he’d rather be at work than home with his family.

  I wanted to pretend none of this was happening. School was going pretty good and some of Paul’s friends were starting to accept me. I was learning to play baseball. I didn’t want to think about werewolves.

  But Kim looked more anxious every day. And the next full moon was coming. I felt like it was already hanging over my head—and that’s why I kept reading the book on werewolves, looking for clues.

  One night Mr. Parker rushed off to work instead of going to see the school play that Kim was in. Kim was crushed and I couldn’t push the questions away any longer.

  Could Wolfe Industries be connected to the werewolves? It was Wolfe Industries that had built the town of Fox Hollow. Almost everyone who lived here was connected to the company in some way. But why build the town here?

  It was clear I needed to know more about Wolfe Industries. Maybe it had nothing to do with werewolves but every night was another night closer to the full moon and I still didn’t have a clue what the monsters were planning. I needed to know and maybe I’d find out something at the big company.

  That night I lay awake while the sounds of the house settled around me. Everyone was
asleep. Except me. And Mr. Parker. He hadn’t come home from work on that “special project” yet.

  Very quietly I opened my door. I was dressed in jeans and sneakers and wore a warm sweatshirt. The house was dark except for the hall light downstairs which had been left burning for Mr. Parker.

  I crept down the stairs. A board creaked loudly and I stopped, holding my breath. After a few minutes, when no one got up or called out, I continued down.

  Shapes loomed up at me out of the dark. My nerves jumped under my skin and the air felt heavy with menace. I twitched my shoulders, trying to shake off the jitters. If I was ready to jump at every shadow in my own home, how could I go out into the night where werewolves might lurk on any corner?

  I crossed the kitchen and let myself out. Instantly my heart started to beat faster. Everything inside me was telling me to go back upstairs and go to bed. What could I do, anyway? But I had to find out what was going on, I had to—for Kim.

  But first, there was the yard to check. I slipped from shadow to shadow, alert to any sign that a werewolf was lurking, waiting for its chance to prey on my family. Everything seemed quiet. I prowled the backyard and was starting along the side of the house when I heard a noise.

  Startled, I whipped my head around. Leaves rustled, something growled angrily. And before I could duck, a blur sprang for me.

  “Yyoooowl!”

  A cat. It landed on the lawn in front of me and took off. As I got my breath back, I realized the cat was a good sign. It wouldn’t have been nosing around here if there had been any werewolves nearby. I took a deep breath. It was safe to leave my family. But my knees were still shaking a bit as I started toward the street.

  Maybe that was why I didn’t hear him behind me.

  The first I knew of any danger was when that big heavy paw came down on my shoulder.

  I let out a yell. “Yiiiiiiiiieeeeee!”

  A second huge paw clamped over my mouth, cutting off my scream.

  And my air.

  I had time for one last thought—there had been a werewolf hanging around and even the cat hadn’t sensed it.

  Chapter 14

  I twisted my neck and ducked my head, trying to get free.

  “Sssshhhh!”

  I froze and strained my eyes to see over my shoulder.

  “Be quiet! Do you want to wake everybody up?”

  It wasn’t a werewolf’s paws that had grabbed me, it was only Paul’s clammy hands.

  “I heard you get up,” said Paul, letting me go. “I’m going with you.”

  There was steel determination in his voice. But I wasn’t going to try and talk him out of it anyway. I was glad to have company. Already I felt less scared, although my heart was still pounding from having been grabbed. “You nearly gave me a heart attack,” I complained.

  “Sorry,” said Paul. “But I didn’t know how to get your attention without making noise that might wake up my mom. She’d kill us if she caught us out here.” He looked up at the darkened windows as if afraid she might hear even his quietest whisper. “You’re going to check out Wolfe Industries, right?”

  I nodded. We headed for the street and stuck close to the shadows, circling away from streetlights.

  “I told Kim I thought she was imagining things,” said Paul in a quiet voice. “But I was only trying to stop her worrying. She’s right, Dad is acting weird. And it has something to do with his new job.”

  “He’s a chemist, right?” I asked, my eyes probing the darkness for the slightest movement or a glint from glowing red eyes.

  “Yes. But I don’t know what he’s working on,” said Paul. “We only moved to Fox Hollow because Wolfe Industries offered so much more money than his old job. But he was always kind of vague about what the company does. It seemed like he wasn’t really sure himself.”

  We passed through the center of town without seeing anything or anyone and turned to the right, heading toward Fox Hollow Pond. It was so dark the surface of the pond looked like liquid metal, gray and shiny.

  “I hope we’ll be able to go swimming here in the summer,” Paul said wistfully. “I hope all this is over by then.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I hope so, too.”

  Circling the pond, we passed a small sandy beach. There was a dock built out a little way into the water and a rowboat was tied to the end of it. We could have a lot of fun here this summer—if we lived that long.

  Leaving the pond behind, we started up a steep, thickly wooded hill. Along one whole side of the hill was a fenced-in area with some new half-finished buildings and a lot of construction equipment.

  “That’s the new recreation area,” said Paul. “It looks like it’ll be done pretty soon. We’ll have fun there this summer.”

  “Mmm,” I said, not really listening. My attention was drawn to the top of the hill where the trees had been cleared away to make room for the complex of buildings that made up Wolfe Industries. Glaring white lights blazed out from the roofs of the buildings like spikes jutting into the sky.

  We trudged toward the lights, too tense to talk anymore. But we never made it that far.

  Chapter 15

  Suddenly a tall fence bristling with barbed wire rose up in front of us. The fence gave off a strange humming noise. It was clear we couldn’t get any closer to Wolfe Industries.

  “I don’t remember this,” said Paul, sounding alarmed. “I came to work once with my dad when we first moved here. I’m sure there was no fence then.”

  “What’s that noise?” I asked, noticing that the cotton fuzz on my sweatshirt was standing on end. My stomach started to get fluttery.

  “It’s electrified,” said Paul. “They really don’t want anyone getting close. Come on. Let’s walk around it, see if there’s a way in.”

  But there was no break in the fence. We came to a big double gate, wide enough for large trucks to pass through, but it was closed and locked with a huge padlock.

  “I’ve never seen a lock that big,” breathed Paul.

  We stood looking in through the gate. We could hear the dull thump of machinery rumbling from inside. After a while a small door opened in one of the buildings. Paul and I shrank quickly away from the fence, into the darkness.

  A man came out. We couldn’t see what he was doing but he didn’t look sneaky or monsterlike or anything. He looked ordinary. After a minute he went back inside and closed the door again.

  We stayed where we were a long time, watching. But nothing else happened. I began to think that maybe it was just an ordinary company, filled with ordinary working humans. Mr. Parker was probably just distracted by the exciting new product he was helping to develop, whatever it was.

  I started to feel sleepy. “Paul, maybe we should go. I don’t think anything—”

  A bloodcurdling howl suddenly drowned out my voice.

  “AAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

  Chapter 16

  Paul stiffened and grabbed my arm. “It’s coming from inside!”

  As the awful sound died away, another howl started up.

  “AAAAIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!”

  “It’s coming from the other side of the complex!” I exclaimed. My voice came out hoarse. All I wanted to do was get out of there. Fast.

  “Come on,” urged Paul, pulling me toward the awful noise. “This way.”

  We ran along the edge of the fence. The hum of the electric wires seemed to vibrate with my fright. It was darker at the back of the complex—so dark, anything might be hiding there.

  Paul pointed to the one building that was lit up. “The howls must have come from there,” he suggested.

  We crept closer. “I wish there was some way to get inside this fence,” said Paul.

  I shuddered at the idea, but he was right. We’d never find out what was going on from way out here.

  “Look!” I said, pointing at a sign on the lit up building.

  “‘Experimental Technologies,’” Paul read. “I wonder what that means?”

  “There’s som
ething moving inside that building,” I said, staring toward the lighted windows, feeling my flesh crawl. The strange movements were horribly familiar. Suddenly I wanted to get Paul away from there.

  But Paul was already running along the fence, trying to get a better view into the low, narrow windows.

  I caught up with him and we crouched on the ground, straining to see inside. The light flickered as large ugly shapes stretched and turned in front of it.

  “AAAAAEEEEEEEEEE!”

  “AAAAAAAOOOOOOOO!”

  “EEEEEEEIIIIIII!”

  Paul and I clutched at each other as a chorus of howls filled the night. We jumped at a sudden noise in a tree behind us. But it was only a bird, terrified out of its nest. It flew away, squawking.

  The horrible howling went on, eating into our brains and numbing our ears. “It’s them, isn’t it?” whispered Paul, his voice quaking. “The werewolves.”

  I could only nod in the dark. The savage, gleeful howling called to something deep inside me. It was a cry for blood. My stomach churned.

  And then suddenly the chorus of howls changed. I jumped to my feet.

  “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

  It was so loud and high-pitched my eardrums throbbed in pain. I had to shout to be heard over the howling. “Come on!” I yelled. “We’ve got to get out of here!”

  But Paul didn’t move. I grabbed his shoulder and it was like grasping wood. He was paralyzed.

  “Paul!” I screamed.

  A door in the building opened. A pack of snarling werewolves boiled into the night. Searching for darkness—and for us.

  “They’ve sensed us, Paul,” I shouted, tugging at him. “They know we’re here and they’re coming to get us. Paul!”

  Chapter 17

  With strength I didn’t know I had, I jerked Paul to his feet and began to drag him after me.

  Glancing back I saw a mob of snarling werewolves leaping after us, eyes burning like hot coals, fangs glistening in the night. Puffs of vile steam rose into the air where their slobber dripped onto the ground.