It was another foggy night. The townsmen were going out to find the beast. The last time the beast appeared, Ruby was a baby. Her grandmother raised Ruby. You see, Ruby was only 3 months old when it happened. The beast killed lots of people, including Ruby's parents. Her grandmother gave her a locket for her eighteenth birthday. Not just any locket. It had her parents picture on one side and a wolf with the moon engraved on the other side.
Now the beast had returned. Ruby woke up to knocking at her door. Her grandmother walked in to tell her to get dressed. They were going to city hall to a meeting about what happened the night before. The elders decided to send men out into the forest, to hunt the beast. It had been a couple of weeks, since the beast began killing people again.
That night, Ruby tried to stay awake inside her house with a bow and arrow by her side. The next morning she realized she had dozed off. She walked in to breakfast to her grandmother telling her that a body was found in the forest. Only it was only half the body of the town's farmer. He was found in a puddle of blood. So that night, the men went back to the forest to try to kill the beast again. They went deep in the forest and found the beast. The beast had blood all over its mouth and a dead rabbit lying on the ground. Two men attacked the beast, but it tore off their heads as easy as cutting a piece of bread. The other men began attacking the beast and the beast killed all of them. All of them, but one.
This young man couldn't keep up with the men and arrived later, to see the massacre. He ran away back to town to tell about what happened in the forest. He ran inside the tavern to tell. Ruby was picking up food for her grandmother and her. She heard his screams.
The elders had another meeting and sent more men into the forest with stronger weapons. Ruby overheard her grandmother talking to an elder. And heard her say "They need to stop the beast, before the beast finds out who they really are." Ruby knew whom they were talking about. The only boy who survived the attack. He must be the beast, she thought. Ruby went to his house and told him what she overheard. She told him that she thought he was the beast. Ruby and this boy went to the other side of the forest, before it got dark to hide from the men. She tied him to a tree so he wouldn't kill anyone when he turned beast. She was bored and began to play with her locket, when she realized she wasn't wearing it. At that moment the moon shined on them.
The next morning she woke up to find herself full of blood. Looked to the tree and realized she killed the boy she thought was the beast.
Ruby now knows the locket wasn't just any gift. It was keeping her from the beast within. She never takes it off to protect everyone.
