Moonlight

Chapter 4

                “Michael, what’s happened to you?” Eric asked. He didn’t answer. He kept looking at him, not a single word escaped his mouth. Silence stayed for 10 seconds then went away. “Answer me, Mike, what the hell is going on? How did you, I mean . . .”

            “What does it look like? You see what I am,” Michael snapped at him.

            “Jesus, Mike, look what it’s done to . . .”

            “Look what you’ve done to me.” He approached Eric. “You fucking left us there to die! Look what it did to Terry! And look what I’ve become all because of you. It fucking chomped on Terry, you ran off, I was left for dead, but no. It dragged me off and turned me.” His eyes shook as he spoke. “Do you know what it’s like to kill a man, Eric? The smell of blood in the air, the thrill of the hunt, do you know what it is like?” Eric shook his head, Mike nodded slowly. “Good, it’s good that you don’t know, because I don’t want to you to know.” Mike got up and walked a few feet, then stopped and turned round to face Eric. “I fully blame you for what you’ve done. You could’ve helped, but you, you just had to run.”

            “What’s done is done, Michael,” a voice said. Mike turned round to see Terry with a slightly stern look on his face. “No more blaming Eric for what he’s done. Let it be.”

            Michael was speechless for a few moments; finally he managed to say a few words. “But you  . . . it  . . . you’re . . .”

            “It’s all right, Michael,” Terry said walking towards him. He had undies, pants, and a shirt in his hands; he handed them to Michael. “Get dressed. We don’t want to see you willie any longer.” Mike got dressed and the three went back to Jerry’s house. They all sat around the fire, Eric on the sofa with his ankle bandaged, Terry sitting crossed legged in front of the fireplace, and Mike in one of the chairs.

            “So . . . what’s it like being a ghost?” Mike asked Terry.

            “It’s all right,” Terry said shrugging. “The fun part is scaring people, but I haven’t quite done that yet.” He paused. “What’s it like being werewolf?”

            “Terrible at first, but it gets all right later on . . . sort of,” Mike said. “At first, I didn’t want to be like this. I tried to seek help from above, and I’ve tried ever since I was turned, but I didn’t feel anything, so I gave up and accepted it, for what I am.” He slightly paused and looked at the fire. “I was terrified the first time I had changed. When it was dragging me to its cave, I started to lose consciousness when we got to the entrance. When I woke up, I was lying in front of a fire, and a man was sitting across from me. He never said one word to me, he just stared at me. That’s when I felt my bones crack and everything changed. I was scared and I couldn’t control myself. So I ran off into the night sky and never returned. Soon the next morning I was stark naked in a field with a carcass of an animal next to me.” Michael was silent for a minute. “Every time I looked in the mirror I would see it, a big brown furry thing with gold eyes.” This is where he stopped and his eyes widened. He grimaced and gripped at his stomach. “Oh, God . . . where’s the nearest bathroom?”

A few seconds later

            “You okay in there, Mike?” Eric asked. He could hear sound of gurgitation on the other side of the door. Apparently not would be his answer. There were a few moments of silence and the sound of the toilet flushing was heard. The door opened and Mike looked pale and sick, eyes sunken a little, he did not look well.