Howling at the Moon - [A Werewolf Adventure]

That Haunting, Fading Memory (Auron)

With that tranquilizer deep in my chest, it put me out cold. My consciousness faded and soon, darkness swallowed me. Before I knew it, I found myself eleven years old again.

Other than the fact that I was two years younger, everything seemed almost normal. I was back in the house I grew up in since I was a baby. 

It was dark, but I could tell that I was in my room. Just the feeling of comfort and and familiarity told me that this is where I slept every night except some occasions where I either had a nightmare and slept with my parents or I stayed the night with Tam, Darion and Jaxon.

Gazing into the blackness of the room, I looked at the left wall where my oak wood dresser with all my socks, underwear and t-shirts were. Slightly to the right of that hanging from a nail should have been my long mirror. Mother thought I should look in it every often to see how "handsome" I was before school. In fact, I ended up doing just that: checking to make sure my hair was somewhat decent and neat or to make sure there were no crumbs on my face after digging in my stash of Poptarts. A couple times I looked in and fixed my collar. 

In the right corner of the back wall next to my bed was my enormous toy bin. Man, what toy did I not have. Every single toy I had since I was little was in the plastic box. Single, small Lego blocks were scattered inside, some small half broken transformer figures, Happy Meal toys, dinosaur hand puppets and too many Pokemon figurines, which some I treasured more than others. Almost anything you could possibly think of when it comes to kids objects had a high probability that it was inside that plastic crate.

Next to my toy bin was the bookshelf my dad I built ourselves. It held nearly anything but books. Whatever models I created with the Lego pieces, mostly fighter jets, were put up in the shelf. A rabbit I hunted down and had stuffed, achieved on one of my first outings with dad, was up either on the second or third shelf from the top, I believe. A few pictures of Grandma and Grandpa's wedding were up, it was the only picture I had of them since they passed away before I was born.

Next to that was my window which was slightly cracked, allowing a cool night breeze to course it's way in and onto my skin. Other pictures were hung up two to each wall of my cubicle of a room.

In the middle of the back wall was my twin sized bed that had pretty much another world under it. The memories of being back in my room was enough to make me swell with tears. I was happy to be home again. It felt good.

Of course, with the way things have been going, I can never be happy. Not for too long, at least. There was a sudden outburst. The yell of a woman whose voice I longed to hear since the night she left me.

"Atlas! Stop it!" My mother shouted followed by the accumulative noise of shattering glass.

"Lena," the name my dad shortened for my mom. "Stay out of-" I heard my dad say but he was cut off by a loud grunt. Like he was punched or something.

"Always had your woman backing you up, huh, Atlas?" The cruel voice of my Uncle Lore filled my brain like a flooding submarine bound to spend the rest of it's days burried under the sea. "Why don't you stop being such a little prick bastard?" Right after Lore finished his sentence, there was a large thump that faintly shook the house, the force being carried through the foundations. Possibly a body being slammed into a wall in the living room.

I crawled from the middle of room to the light trying to break free through the space between the floor and the barrier that is my door. Gold colored light poured in from outside of my door like something from Twilight Zone.

I got closer to the door and listened harder which really wasn't all that necessary. The ruckus outside was loud enough that someone down the street could probably hear it. But there was a lot of movement and grunting. I was scared. Dad and Uncle Lore got into plenty of fights before, always with words and some minor shoving, but this time seemed to be the worst it's ever been.