Animal Nature

Chapter 22

On Monday at school David sauntered over to Shy's locker. "Hey, beautiful," he said, bending to kiss her.

"Where were you last night?" Shy asked. "I tried to call you but your mom said you weren't home."

David exhaled but didn't answer.

"I mean, you keep disappearing. I'm beginning to think something's going on." That's an understatement, Shy thought.

"Um, look," David started. "I think maybe we should cool it a little bit."

"What are you talking about?"

"Maybe you were right before. Maybe this is going too fast."

Shy closed her locker and spun the dial. "But what about the Halloween dance? It's next week."

"So's the full moon," David muttered.

"What?"

"I have to go. Look, all I need is a little space, okay?"

"Okay," Shy said to David's back as he walked away.

In homeroom Shy noticed several empty desks, but thought nothing of it. For all she knew it was the annual skip day. She never knew about these things.

If David wanted a break, he could have one. He could go out and devour a herd of cows for all she cared. How could she be friends with him when he was a completely different person than the boy she'd grown up with? They didn't have the same values anymore. She cared about animals, and he wanted to eat them. At this point she wasn't even sure he was human.

If only he would be honest with her, she could help him. She had all the ingredients for the lycanthropy cure she'd found. She didn't have to tell him about the possibility of the "cure" killing him. Besides, if David really was a werewolf (a possibility which made her feel slightly insane), maybe he'd be better off dead, anyway. He wouldn't be able to murder any more of the animals at the shelter. Poor Patches was there because his owner had abused him. And now Patches was being digested.

"Good morning, students and faculty!" blared the voice of the vice principal from the round speaker next to the clock above the blackboard. "Before I begin the morning announcements, I have some sad news to report. As some of you may know, one of our students passed away Friday night. Bartholomew Garrison was a valuable member of the Middlebury Patriots football team and held the school record for most tackles in a game. He will be missed. Counselors are available if you need to discuss your feelings. Let us take a minute of silence to remember Bartholomew."

During the dead air over the P.A. several students got up and hurried out of the room. Numbly Shy sat there. Bart, big bully Bart, was dead?

David's words wormed their way into her thoughts. "I'll kill 'em. I'll kill 'em both." Ron Black's seat was empty, too.

Suddenly Shy couldn't be there anymore. She got up to leave just as the vice principal began talking again. "For lunch today will be Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, and a vegetable medley..."

A number of students were standing in small clusters in the hallway. They took no notice of Shyanne walking through.

Classroom 31 was the last classroom before the side exit to the parking lot. Shy edged by until the desks and their occupants came into view. David should have been in the second row over from the window, third seat back.

The desk was empty.

* * *

Billy started and sat up in bed, his heart pounding against his ribs. For the third night in a row he had dreamed of that damned wolf coming at him. What kind of animal grew that big?