FIFTEEN: The Full Moon

THE PAST TWO days have been the hardest on Cornelia. Everything about her life was altered and changed; she found herself wondering if anything in her life was actually real. She wondered if anyone genuinely cared about her.

Her sweet smiles no longer worked on people. Some had the decency to smile in her face, but once she turned she would hear them spitting venom about her. Others were more blunt about it. They made it clear that they disliked her, they were very obvious about the way they regarded her.

Cornelia had been through some hardships in life, bit none compared to the nightmare she was going through.

She was lying on her bed, sleeping after a long struggle with her thoughts and anxiety. However, at 11.00 Pm sharp, her eyes opened widely. She woke up in cold sweat from a dream that she couldn't remember all the details of.

All she could remember was the sight of the full moon; it was bigger than any moon she had ever witnessed. She could recall the sight of wolves running freely at a speed that made their fur move wildly with the wind.

Her chest ached with a yearning for something, but she wasn't sure what it was exactly. She sat on her bed, and her bare feet touched the cold floor of her room. She saw the open window of her room, she could remember closing it before she had gone to bed.

The sight of the full moon pulled at her, and she decided that the yearning she felt was to be outside. She walked out of her room, looking like she was sleepwalking, and walked out of her room and put of her house.

The dominating thought in her mind was that she needed to get out there. She didn't care for her father who was sleeping in his room. She didn't care that she was going out in the coldness of that September night in nothing but a short, white nightgown.

Once she stepped out of her house, her eyes seemed to be dazed. She looked up at the moon then began walking. Cornelia didn't know how long her journey took, nor did she care about her bare feet on the hard ground.

Suddenly, she came back to reality, as if she had just woken up, only to find amongst the tall trees of the woods. In the darkness of the night they seemed like giant shadows of monsters.

A freezing gust of wind hit her body and she wrapped her arms around herself. Her pounding heart couldn't calm down with the prospect that she was utterly and completely lost.

She could see her shaky breath as it left her mouth, and she began walking, trying to sense her way back home. Her mind was puzzled, and she tried to overcome the sheer fear which had gripped her heart and spread through her blood turning it cold.

She looked left and right, but there was nothing in sight, not even a single sound. Cornelia realized that silence can be scarier than the most frightening monsters.

I take it back. She thought when she heard a rustle behind her and she snapped her head to the direction of the sound, but once more there was nothing.

Her chin quivered slightly, and focused on the idea of returning home. She would then think about how she had gotten here. She began walking with ow hesitant steps, conscious of every small sound made by the wind.

When she heard a loud howl echoing through the air, she barely contained the scream that was about to leave her mouth. And she ran, she ran with all her power, with every sense of self-preservation that was in her.

She felt the tapping of running steps of something that couldn't be human with the speed it was going. Without turning back she continued running, her chest burned and the muscles of legs ached.

She felt a change of wind behind her, and then something jumped above her head and a wolf stood in front of her. However, it was huge, almost bear-sized kind of huge.

She stared at it with fearful eyes, frozen at the sight. It took a step closer to her and a growl left its mouth.