Moon Blood (COMPLETE)

Chapter Nine: A Changing Body

It was getting harder pretending to be normal.

Normal life, normal school, normal people around him... normal was dreadfully boring.

Neil's eyelids were lead as his psychology teacher prattled on about statistics, and his mind wouldn't stop drifting to that early evening run he'd shared with Ruby a few weeks ago. She didn't study psychology so she wasn't here, but if anything, that made his longing for her even stronger.

The doodle trapped in Neil's margin was slowly becoming both more intricate and scribbly as the seconds ticked by at a glacial pace. He pushed the pen across the same lines over and over again, making indentations several pages thick. Stick figures of wolves and forests emerged. A talented artist Neil was not, but his imagination stretched at the new possibilities of what life now had in store for him.

In the sky, the tiniest sliver of a crescent moon could be seen. A ghostly image, barely lit in the bright afternoon sky, but it was significant to Neil, who looked up at it with wide eyes. It would soon be the new moon, and if Lilly was right, he would transform in just a few short days.

He wasn't afraid, even when he vaguely recalled something about needing to eat before a moon transformation. To him, a transformation he couldn't control for the night was nothing more than an inconvenience, and had brushed off Ruby's warnings to come and spend the night with them one night a month.

He'd already made plans for that night: he would wait for the moonless night to fall, and spend it running through the forest and moors only a few short miles from his house. He could smell the open grassy knolls and waves of small, lonely hillocks calling to him, begging to be pounded on. Neil could almost taste it.

But as he ran his tongue across his teeth, another taste came to the forefront of his memory. A taste he was having trouble forgetting. Rachel. He feared he would never get it out of his mouth. She haunted him, and he hated the guilt of her disappearance weighing on him like a boulder. He could barely remember her face, but her scent was all he needed. He would never forget that part of her. The bell finally rang to call the end of the day and, only barely glancing to wave at James and David before running at full pelt home. It was a full hour to walk, but Neil made it in just under twenty minutes. He was getting fitter by the day, it seemed.

"Mum, tomorrow I'll be staying at James' house. Is that okay?"

Diana Lowell turned away from the stove and smiled at him. "Are you sure you don't want to stay over here? I can make dinner for the two of you if you want."

"No, that's okay. I'll just grab -"

The door rapped, making the pair of them stop in their tracks: had Neil's dad forgotten his key? Neil and his mum swapped glances before she broke the tension with a shrug. "Probably a cold caller."

She tottered down the hall and Neil ripped open the fridge door, hunting for a snack whilst his mum was occupied. He heard murmuring but his human ears weren't half as good as his wolf ones. He was half way through draining half a gallon of milk straight from the bottle when in walked his mum, grinning from ear to ear. She was mid conversation.

"...you know he never tells me anything these days. Did you find your way okay?"

Neil turned and nearly dropped the milk as Ruby was making herself comfortable at the table. She grinned and offered a small wave, but said nothing. His mum, likewise, had a grin that could cut through a field of wheat. His stomach plummeted as he realised what Ruby had probably told her in order to let her in.

"Would you like to stay for dinner, dear?"

"Are you sure? I don't want to cause a fuss, just Neil left his psychology book in my bag. I don't live too far away so I just wanted to drop it off."

"But you can stay, right?" His mum was always practically kissing Ruby's toes, and Neil couldn't help but groan at the worship of what she thought was his girlfriend. Given he had never even mentioned girls he liked to her, her overenthusiasm was desperately embarrassing, and he pulled his collar up to try and hide his burning ears.

"Shall we go upstairs and wait for dinner?" he could barely muster a mumble. Ruby's eyes shone and she smiled.

"Sure."

He almost dragged her by the wrist up the stairs as his mum called after them to not be long. She giggled. "So forward, Neil!"

"Shut it! What are you even doing here?" He hauled her into his untidy room and slammed the door, pressing himself against the grain like a barrier between Ruby and the rest of the house.

Ruby didn't seem fazed; she sat on his bed right next to the pyjama bottoms he had strewn there from the night before. "It doesn't look any different last time I was here." She gave him a pointed look. "Your body is changing, but your living quarters are still sub standard."

He was about to argue back, but she was right about his body. At its mention, he glanced in the mirror, noticing the changed physique sitting under his shirt. In only a few short weeks, he looked entirely different. He'd elected to hide it because three weeks was absurdly fast for any normal person to gain the kind of muscle he now had. "This is all normal, right? For me, I mean."

"Probably. I've never known a male wolf before. None of us has. From my experience, yes, it's similar to what happened to me if you must know." She was looking at his arms in approval. He flushed,

"Anyway," she continued, "I came here with an intent. I'm here to remind you to come with me tomorrow, and we can monitor your monthly transformation."

Neil tried to hide the look on his face by staring at his unkempt desk, he didn't want her to see the irk painted all over it. "I keep my room how I like it," he said, dodging her proposal.

"Like what, a pigsty? How old are you, twelve? You're a man now, Neil. Your change was proof of that."

"I'm seventeen, I can't even drink yet!"

She only shrugged. "Are you coming with me, or will we have to kidnap you again. There's a reason we want to keep you safe with us that night."

Neil's anger did not abate. "Are you going to tell me why I need to be kept safe?"

"You'll be going into season."

Neil looked over at her, waiting for the punchline. But, perhaps unfortunately for him, Ruby said nothing more, and looked at him most sincerely.