A Full Moon

As I'm scrubbing myself, I feel a weird tingling at the nape of my neck, the same kind you get when someone is watching you without your knowledge.

I turn around just in time to see a blur of a shadow with blue eyes jump out the window.

It's been two weeks since the incident in the bathroom, and I still can't get my mind off it. Who or what was that? And why on earth were they saying my name if that’s what they were doing?

"ALEX..!!!" The sound of my name and the palm of Miss Cynthia hitting my desk startles me out of my thoughts.

"Care to repeat what I just said?" she says. The whole class has their beady eyes trained on me.

"Uhhhh... ahhhh," is all I manage to say.

"Alex," she sighs, "You've been less attentive these past two weeks. What seems to be the problem?"

"Nothing, Ma'am, I just haven't been getting enough sleep."

"Kids these days, you guys don’t get enough sleep as you're supposed to." She shakes her head and turns around, continuing with the lesson. The rest of the day goes by, and by dinner time, we're all in the dining hall.

Just like on the day I arrived, the headmistress with the three sisters, who apparently I only see when the headmistress is around, walk in.

"Good evening, everyone."

"Good evening," we reply.

"As we all know, today is this month's full moon, so all factions and first years, except second-year werewolves and above, are not to be seen outside after dinner. Is that understood?"

She says with a firm tone.

"Yes, Ma'am," echoes around the hall in response.

"Good. Now you may continue." With that, she leaves.

"Why are we restricted from going outside tonight?" I ask.

"Dude, full moon werewolves, don't you even watch movies?" Sean replies.

"I do, but how does it affect us? I mean, we're werewolves too, right, William?"

"Listen, Alex, werewolves can shift anytime and anywhere they want to, except that werewolves under the age of 21 can't suppress their shifts on a full moon. So once every month, when the moon reaches its apex, werewolves are forced into shifting," William responds.

"Anyway, come to think of it, how come I've never seen anyone shift before?"

"That's because we haven't turned thirteen yet. All shifters begin to shift when they turn thirteen," Kira says.

"Okay, but what about you guys? Don't Werecats shift during the moon too, and if we're werewolves, can't we just go out with the rest of the werewolves?"

"The full moon doesn't affect Werecats, and the reason why we are restricted from going outside, including the wolves, is because every shifter has a double personality, in other words, an inner animal or beast. All factions, including Vampires, although they don’t shift, except witches, have it," William explains.

"We all access this inner part of us when we turn thirteen. Now, our inner beasts are the dangerous part of us. They are temperamental, violent, and bloodthirsty. Our human side is what keeps them in line, and their animalistic behavior is what keeps us alive in dangerous situations.

"Normally, a shifter is able to control their inner beast, and on any other regular day, they're quiet and peaceful, even when shifting, but on full moons, it's vice versa. The inner animal takes control, so a werewolf is more wolf than human.

"Where do you think humans got the idea of people changing into wolves on a full moon came from?" Kira adds. "It's because, during medieval times, werewolves would attack human villages during a full moon."

"Now to answer your question about why first-year werewolves are restricted from joining the others is because we're basically still human.

"Although we're stronger and faster than the regular human, with the advantage of a slight increase in healing. So if we were to go out today with the rest of the pack, we'd just end up being their target.

"Our scent is still that of a human until we shift. That's when we'll be allowed to go out too."

I turn to Sara, who is munching down on a piece of cake. "What about you? What ticks vampires off?"

"Blood... Our beasts just love blood. It's so intoxicating. You should try it sometime; it's absolutely divine."

"No, thank you," I say. "So how about we go watch them shift tonight?"

Sean chokes on a piece of turkey he was chewing, Sara spits red liquid in my face, which by the smell of its metallic scent, I'm guessing is blood, William almost falls out of his chair, and Kira almost pokes her eyes with her fork.

"Are you freaking kidding me? We could get killed, or worse, expelled," Sean exclaims.

"I'm not sure how being expelled is worse than death," I start.

"It doesn't matter what you think. Either one is bad. Have you seen how wolves kill? You do not want to be caught in their jaws. And being expelled, jeez, the same fate will await us at home. Our parents will kill us," William says.

"Awe, come on, guys, stop overreacting. What's the worst that could happen?"

"I just told you: death by wolves here at school, or the ones at home."

"Pffff, a witch, a wolf, a vampire, and a Werecat are all afraid of sneaking out and seeing a couple of teens turn into wolves? Pssshhh, and to think I was rollin' with the cool guys."

That seemed to have caught them, because I could see the strain on their faces as they thought of a way to say no in a 'I'm not afraid' kind of way. I could practically hear the gears turning in their heads.

To be honest, I was scared shitless, but it was the only way I would actually see someone transform into something. I've been here almost a whole month and I haven't seen anyone shift. I wasn’t gonna let this night pass by fruitless.

"Well, if you guys are afraid, I guess I'll just have to go alone."

"NO..!!" they say at the same time.

"I ain't letting a newbie do something as dangerous and exciting as this without me. You'll be rubbing this in our faces for all eternity," William says.

"Yeah, we're all going," says Kira. Score, I knew that would work. Thirty minutes later, people started leaving the hall. We decided to sneak back to the entrance of the hall after we ditched everyone on the way to our dorms.

William and I were the first to circle back. Ten minutes later, we were all here.

"Okay, so where to..?" I ask.

"And here I thought you had a plan. Ohhhh, why did I agree to this suicidal mission?" Sean whines.

We hear shuffling of footsteps. "Quick, hide!" I say, and we dive behind a statue of a guy wearing a black cloak. A group of people walk by, and I notice them to be the senior wolves.

'Bingo.'

"Pssst, let's follow them," I say. We follow them silently, making sure to stay out of earshot and scent shot, if that's even a thing. We go down a number of hallways, some twists and turns.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

"They're heading to the woods. That's where they shift and do whatever it is you guys do," Sara says. After a couple more turns, we're outside. We follow the pack from a safe distance since it was open ground. A couple of hundred yards later, we're at the woods.

"Now what?" Sean asks.

"Now we find a good place to hide and wait. We've got about 20 minutes till the moon reaches its apex," says William.

The pack was standing in a clearing in the middle of the woods. We hid behind some boulders and bushes. While we were still getting comfortable, we heard a howl.

"Wh... wha...what was the...?" Kira stammers.

"Ohh, Kira, you're scared too?" Sean teases.

"Of course not, I was just asking."

"Yeah, that explains the stammering."

"Sssshhhh," William hisses. "They're shifting."

We peek from our hiding spot, and what I see blows my mind away. Standing in the middle of the clearing is an Asian-looking guy.

Judging from his look, I'm guessing it's Tanaka, the Alpha. Beside him is the beta and gamma. As the moon reached its apex, Tanaka looked up, then his eyes began to glow a golden yellow. I heard a loud snap, then saw him fall to his knees.

Another snap echoes, and his leg twists into an angle that it wasn't supposed to be in. More series of snaps follow, and his clothes start to shrink. No..!! He was getting bigger. His clothes began to tear, and I could see fur poking through.

Fingernails turned to claws and teeth into canines. In a couple of minutes, his shift was done, and where Tanaka was minutes ago was a giant grey wolf.

"That Twilight shit is real," I say.

"Shut it, Wolfgang," Sara hisses.

Tanaka howls, and the rest of the pack shifts. To be honest, I was scared shitless. Seeing a group of people turn into bear-sized wolves could turn anyone insane, even though I knew they could. Actually seeing them turn into wolves still shocked me.

Tanaka's wolf walks to the front of the pack, howls once more, and the pack howls in response. Then, in the blink of an eye, they're gone.