literature

Change Moon

Deviation Actions

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Literature Text

    The knock at the door rang out like a burst of thunder, though it was made with the barest tap of knuckles. In the silence, every noise was magnified, like sunlight burning ants through a lens.

    “What? Who is…No, no, get away, you know you can’t be here now!” The little girl’s voice was high pitched, vocal chords pulled taut by fear and panic.

    “And yet, I’m needed. I thought maybe I could help you,” Sister Galton said.

    “You know you can’t! Nothing can stop this!”

    “I didn’t say ‘stop’—I said ‘help’. At the very least, I thought that a little girl shouldn’t go through what you are alone.”

    There was a pause, a long one, and then the doorknob squealed, the first of many screams to pierce this night if previous experience was any indicator. The hinges formed the second cry, a throbbing groan, as the heavy door opened to admit the nun. As soon as the door opened, the girl retreated on her bare feet. “You shouldn’t have come,” she said, pacing, her green eyes never leaving the nun. It was an uncomfortably accurate reminder of a predator stalking prey.

    “You’re one of God’s children—I didn’t feel it right to leave you afraid and alone,” Sister Galton said, stepping into the room. It was purposely empty for these nights, all bare linoleum and concrete walls. The only furnishing was a rug that had been torn half to shreds.

    “I might hurt you,” the girl said, resting her hands on the windowsill, knuckles clenching and relaxing as she looked out through the steel bars that had been added shortly after she arrived at the orphanage.

    “God will protect me,” Galton said with far more confidence than she felt.

    “He didn’t protect my parents—or me…the other kids are all afraid of me…” The little girl sagged slowly against the wall. “…I’m scared too…”

    “I know. That’s why I came to be with you. I brought some food—just a little bit, to try and soothe our nerves,” Sister Galton said, taking a seat on the floor, and setting down a wicker basket with the fixings of a small meal. “Would you like to join me, Louise?”

    “No, my stomach’s all…” Louise stopped mid-sentence, nostrils flaring as she caught a whiff of what was in the basket. “…Bacon?”

    “Just a little,” the sister nodded. “I won’t have any, and I recommend that you save some for after you change.”

    “…Okay,” Louise said, coming over and sitting down across from the nun. There were two servings of bacon in the basket, as well as a loaf of fresh made bread, a bit of jam, and a teapot with a few soothing blends to choose from. “It’ll be soon…I can feel it…” Louise said, gulping down the bacon so fast that it was a wonder she didn’t burn her tongue.

    “I’ll only leave if it’s truly a danger to my safety,” Galton said, slicing bread and spreading some jam on it, first for Louise and then for herself.

    “You know it—you know I am,” Louise said after gulping down her bread in two bites. She chased it with some cool water from her own metal bottle—a bottle that looked like it had been used for target practice.

    “I don’t think you are,” Sister Galton said.

    “You’ve seen what I turn into! You’ve seen—you know I killed them…My mom, and my dad…I’m a monster, you know it!”

    “Did you want to kill them?”

    “What? No!” Louise was on her feet, wiping tears away from her stained cheeks as anger replaced the anxiety in her six year old face. “I loved them! I changed, I lost control! I was scared, and they were bigger than me and yelling and…And then…”

    “Shhh, calm down,” Sister Galton said, pouring two mugs of tea. “Are you afraid of me?”

    “…N-no…”

    “And I brought food and company for you,” the nun said, holding out a mug to Louise. The girl took it and sniffed, making a face. Galton helped her sweeten the drink with honey and a dash of cream. “I don’t think that you’re a monster, Louise. Truly.”

    “I am. I’m a monster and I hate it,” Louise said, taking a seat again and sipping at her tea. “I wish I never had to change. I wish I wasn’t a monster.”

    “Louise, you are not a monster. You’re a little girl. So tonight, when you change, I want you to try and remember that,” Sister Galton said. “It doesn’t matter what you look like. What matters is who you are, and that doesn’t change just because of the moon.”

    “Yes, it does,” Louise said, the mug shaking in her hands and almost spilling. Galton helped her steady it long enough to take another drink. “When I change, everything gets louder, and things that don’t bother me at all suddenly make me so mad, or scared, and all I can think about is getting away…and then someone gets in my way and I, I…!” She handed the mug to the nun, looking down at her hands and rocking back and forth where she sat.

    “Louise,” Sister Galton said, very gently putting her hands on the little girl’s, folding the tiny fingers into her own and holding them, gentle but reassuring, an anchor that promised not to let the girl be lost. “Shh, shh. Come here.” She held her arms out, offering an embrace. Louise pulled back, green eyes searching the nun’s face and body language for any trickery. In the next moment, she had thrown herself into the welcoming arms and clung on tight, shaking fingers digging into the back of the nun’s habit. “You’ll be alright. I’m here.”

    The two of them stayed like that for a long time—only it wasn’t long at all, because for this occasion, time left them alone, going off somewhere else to whittle seconds into minutes. Louise was the one who broke the silence: “It’s almost time…” She said, pulling away from the Sister.

    “Drink some more of your tea,” Sister Galton advised. “It’s a recommended blend for…well, it should be safer for you than chocolate.”

    “Stupid curse,” Louise muttered, picking up the mug again and drinking a bit from it. “All the other kids can eat whatever they want, but I can’t, just because I change once a month…”

    “Allergies are like that,” Galton said. “I used to love crab, right up until I realized that it was connected to…well, me getting sick. To be fair, I still love it, but not enough to make myself sick over.”

    “Yeah, but that’s crab,” Louise said. “I can’t have chocolate, or garlic bread…or macamia nut cookies!”

    “Macadamia,” Sister Galton corrected gently. “I know…Still, at least you can eat peanut butter, unlike the Rafel twins…”

    “Ugh. If I was allergic to peanuts too, I think I’d die,” Louise groaned, and then winced. “Nnnh…It’s just about to…You should get out of here!”

    Sister Galton shook her head. “Louise, you need my company. So calm down, and take some deep breaths. I’ll be right here with you, and I’ll have the bacon for you when you’ve finished changing.”

    “Calm down?! But it’s contagious, I don’t want you to end up with this too!”

    “So calm down, breathe,” Sister Galton said, demonstrating some deep, slow breaths. “And remember that I’m not here to hurt you, so you don’t need to hurt me.”

    Louise shuddered, trying to match Sister Galton’s slow and rhythmic breathing. She couldn’t quite manage it; she kept looking out the window, waiting for the moonrise that would start her changes. “I’m scared…It’s inside me, it always claws to get out and it hurts…”

    “Don’t fight the change this time,” Sister Galton advised. “Let it happen and move on. Relax, breathe. You will still be you, you just have to calm down and let what will happen, happen.”

    Louise bit her lip until a droplet of blood welled up behind her pointed teeth. “Okay,” she said, drawing a deep breath in, her whole body shaking with the effort of trying to calm down. “Okay, I’ll—Aaaah!” Her whole body tensed as though she had received an electric shock; every muscle on her slight frame was suddenly throbbing, pushing outwards as their outlines became sharper. “Aaah! It’s happening, it’s happening! Stop, stop, stop, stop!”

    “Louise, it’s okay! I’m right here!” Sister Galton said, simultaneously resisting the urges to embrace Louise again as well as the opposing desire to flee the room. “Let this happen! It’s like falling, if you relax your body you won’t get hurt as much as if you stiffen!”

    “No no no no…” Louise was on all fours, her body heaving in what looked to me an effort to vomit up her own lungs. Her flesh writhed, cords of muscle twisting under the skin like a bait shop-sized mass of worms; an instant later, the coils of muscle had thickened to resemble garden snakes. Silver-white fur erupted from Louise’s skin, spreading outwards all across her body.

    Working at an orphanage, Sister Galton had heard her fair share of children break a bone or two; she had never before heard every bone in a child’s body snap and re-set itself at once. That awful, drawn out ccrrrrraaaaaccck, and Louise’s scream, penetrated into the nun’s ears and down her spine, drilling all the way down to her gut. Her stomach heaved, and she only barely kept from vomiting; the harsh sting of bile clawed at the back of her throat. Louise just kept screaming, throwing back her head as her body tripled in size. Newly formed claws on the girl’s fingers and toes gouged at the floor, while her expanding chest sucked in more air to replace what she was screaming out in a sickening example of circular breathing. The scream stopped, just for a moment, as the transformed girl sucked air into reformed lungs. Sister Galton had covered her ears by this point, trying to block out the sounds of the change; she couldn’t block out the next sound she had known was coming.

    Louise’s howl rose and dipped, a living thing in and of itself, one that prowled through the whole orphanage at once and reminded everyone inside that tonight was a night of fear. When the howl was done, its pack of echoes fading once more into stillness, Louise sagged forwards to catch her breath.

    “Louise…?” Sister Galton said after what felt like an age of frantically praying, unable to make her mouth actually shape the words into sound. The great silver creature in front of her swiveled, eyes snapping open and focusing. Louise’s lips pulled back in a snarl, revealing black lips and deadly teeth. All of the pain and exhaustion vanished from her body language; she started to pace around the nun, growling, still on all fours and quite comfortably so. Sister Galton’s heart rattled like a caged bird in a room full of hungry tigers. Rather than running away, she forced herself to slow her breathing and sit down more comfortably. The effort burned her lungs; they strained against the slower, calmer rhythm, demanding more oxygen every second. “Louise, it’s me, Sister Galton,” the nun said, somehow managing the sentence without trembling. “Do you remember me? I’m one of the ones who run the orphanage, who takes care of you…I love you, the same as I love all of the kids here…”

    Louise said nothing, still pacing around the seated nun. When she ran out of room, she whipped around and started back the other way, never taking her eyes off the human in front of her. She was now a little bigger than the nun, and certainly more powerful. Her body was a natural weapon, wrapped in muscle and with claws and teeth designed to hunt. There could be no fight here; if it came down to it, there was only one “combatant”, the predator—and her prey.

    “Louise, you are not a monster. I know you don’t want to hurt me, I know that you can control this, I know that you are still you, whatever you look like on the outside. The moon can’t change that,” Sister Galton said. In truth, she didn’t know; her words were as much a prayer as a reminder, a plea, a desperate hope. She had seen pictures of what had been left of the girl’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Camsel. She shuddered, trying not to think about the headline that might show up with her name on it, trying not to think about what pictures could display how she ended up. “Here…maybe this will help calm you down…” She said, taking out the second serving of bacon. She moved slowly, letting Louise clearly see each movement so there would be no surprises. She set it on a plate, pushing it away from herself and towards the hulking mass of deadly power across from her.

    Louise sniffed, her elongated snout flaring as her nostrils flared wide. She took three such sniffs, chest expanding and contracting with each breath. Bending down to the plate, she took smaller sniffs, eyes never leaving Sister Galton’s. Galton lowered her gaze, just slightly, so as not to appear a threat. “Louise, it’s okay. You know you like it, calm down and eat, you’ll be thinking better after you have a…”

    The movement was almost instantaneous; one moment, Louise was hunched on all fours, cautiously examining the food. Just another near-wild beast, and a dangerous predator at that. Then, in a split instant, she had transitioned to a crouched stance and snatched the plate off the floor in one hand, bracing herself with the other hand for stability. The bacon disappeared in a single tip of the plate, crunching briefly between the teeth before it was gulped down. The creature’s green eyes stayed as fixed on Sister Galton’s as a compass to a magnet.

    “…Bite,” Sister Galton finished in more of a squeak than she had meant to; watching a large predator licking its chops had that effect. “Louise? Please, please tell me that you’re in there…”

    Louise set the plate aside and paced forwards on all four again, sniffing. Sister Galton found herself frozen, all the panicked agitation of her body canceling out to nothing more than profound trembling. Louise sniffed the nun’s hand, licked it once, and then sat up to run her tongue over Galton’s face, painting saliva on one cheek and then the next with a warm, rough brush. “Yeah, I’m here. It’s me,” the girl said, sitting back on her haunches. Her voice had taken a dive into the deep end of pitch, making her sound years older. The rumbling undertone helped her to sound as dangerous as she looked.

    “Thank God,” Sister Galton moaned, slumping as some of the tension left her body. “You had me worried. Did my advice help some? And the food?”

    “Yeah,” Louise ran her tongue over her teeth and gums again, searching for any hint of bacon she might have missed. “Next time, bring more. That little scrap was hardly a werewolf-sized portion.”

    “Well, I couldn’t exactly bring you…that much,” Sister Galton said, after a moment of considering how much meat would constitute a werewolf sized portion, and reaching the conclusion that she was better off not knowing that.

    “A bunny or two, I think,” Louise said. “I keep seeing them on the grounds and thinking that they look tasty, but I’ve never chased one down and…” She stopped, looking over at Sister Galton. “…I don’t think I’d actually eat a bunny. At least, not raw…”

    “Um, no, please don’t. While I don’t care for the little garden-wreckers, I can’t imagine the other children taking kindly to you devouring something small and cute.”

    “Well, yeah, bunnies are cute,” Louise said, pushing herself upright and stretching. She now stood easily more than five foot eight, and the oversized nightie she wore now just barely came to mid-thigh on her. “But they’re also just asking to be eaten, the way they scurry and jump around like that!” Her tail quivered at the thought. “Gah! I always forget that thing’s there until it moves!” She yelped after spinning around by reflex.

    Sister Galton almost laughed, holding herself back partly because it wasn’t polite to laugh at someone. Werewolves in particular were not the sort that one wanted to offend. “Ahem. Ah…You should know, I’ve been reading about your…condition. There are others—unfortunately, they’re not very forthcoming about their whereabouts. They do have web pages with some good advice, though…”

    “That’s where you found the stuff about calming me down and making the transformation less painful?” Louise asked, tipping her head to one side.

    Galton nodded. “Yes…One of the things they suggested is to change voluntarily throughout the month, not just when you have to at the full moon.”

    “But why? Isn’t once a month bad enough?”

    “Well, apparently, changing voluntarily makes it easier when you actually have to,” Sister Galton explained, starting to pack the meal fixings back into her basket. Louise passed her the plate, after giving it a cursory sniff and lick to get it “clean”. “It’s sort of like eating—you can get by on one meal a week, but it’s healthier to eat every day.”

    “Okay…” Louise’s ears tipped back a bit; it was clear she hadn’t been entirely sold on the idea. “…Did the stuff you read say anything about how you’re actually supposed to change when you want to, without the moon?”

    “A few different techniques,” Sister Galton said. “I’ll show them to you tomorrow. In the meantime…did you want me to bring up a book or something?”

    “Yeah, that’d be nice,” Louise said, perking up and then glancing back over one shoulder as her tail wagged. “Usually, it’s really lonely and boring up here. I don’t like being shut up in a room until the moon goes away. Hey! Maybe since I’m in control and not all wolfy, I could…y’know…Not be in here?”

    “Ah…I think, so that we don’t scare the other children, and because we still don’t know how well you can stay in control…”

    “Okay,” Louise sighed, flopping down on the rug in a position somewhere between a very large dog and a human.

    “Just for tonight, maybe a little longer if there’s a problem,” Sister Galton assured. “I’ll bring up some books for you.”

    “And some water? And something to chew,” Louise said. “And…nevermind.”

    “What is it?”

    “Could you…I know, it’s gonna be late, and I don’t sleep when I’m like this, but…”

    “I’ll stay with you,” Sister Galton promised. “All night—though I do hope you’ll forgive me if I can’t stay awake that whole time.”

    “That’s fine,” Louise nodded. “Thanks.”

    Sister Galton nodded, picking up her basket and leaving the small room. The orphanage’s monthly stress of having a werewolf in residence had, it seemed, taken a turn for the better.

Alright, this was a very expanded bit of in class writing, originally from the prompt "Explore a character undergoing a magical/dramatic physical transformation. What set off the transformation?". I just started running with it, because it turned out to be an interesting story. Like a lot of my stories, this one is based on and connected to several of my others, most of which are short drafts and unfinished things that I haven't published here.

We've got a little girl turned werewolf in an orphanage, and the full moon is on the rise! Enjoy, and let me know what you think!
In particular, I think I need a better name for the nun, and I need to use it more consistently...Thoughts?
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NikkiBeesHive's avatar
Still writing amazing pieces! Keep up the great work!