One-shot: We Look After Our Own.

[Denunciator]

A oneshot I first posted on Facebook.

R&R.

Epilogue

I tread the hallways carefully - it was nighttime already, and I didn't want to risk everything. Not now; not today. It was the 15th by the lunar calendar, and my nemesis hung high up in the air. Indoors, though, I was safe.


I could still see, clear as day, the events that had transpired to lead me here.

"Hey Sky, there's a ball tonight, did I tell you? In our school's hall."
I looked at my conversation partner, a slight tilt to my head.
"Nope. Why, were you planning to go?"
"Yeah. Don't dress in anything special. Just... come for it."

I tried to reach out, but he turned and quickly walked away, shoulders tight. Today, he was different - he'd always loved classiness and had a penchant for showing off, especially our relationship. Although it was forbidden, both by social morals and his religion, he'd display his affection publicly, just to show that he had...

me. A specimen of perfection by human standards, although it was by no means fair to compare us - we were... different. Not like he knew anyway.

At any rate, I was planning to let him know - when the moon waned and its power was not as strong, I would show him, and make him accept me. Somehow.

Even as I neared the main hall, I puzzled over the day's events - he had actively tried to avoid me, and people - even those I barely knew - shot me strange looks as I passed through the corridors of this school. Clearly, something was up.

I should have known.

I just... had no room in my heart to consider it.

As I pushed open the wooden doors, I was faced with people - a whole ring of them, as if waiting for my arrival. Perhaps they were.

"Come in, Sky. We were... expecting you."

David. The person I singularly hated the most. Powerful, he had always fought me for the pettiest things, since elementary, and he'd always won - in every way. When he lost to me over Tim, that which he had wanted over all others, that which he could never obtain-

"What do you want with me? Tim...?" Fear crept into my heart, and my voice trembled. Suddenly, I was not so sure anymore. Before I could turn, David snapped his fingers; two of his henchmen shut the door with a final thud, and someone, backstage, turned off the lights.

9pm, the border of twilight. I knew not what was ahead, but I knew that it would change the course of my life for good - irrevocably.

Animal instinct.

"Did you know, Sky? This roof is actually.... retractable?"


A loud click, and the roof opened. I couldn't turn or move - all it took was one slit.

The bright moonlight illuminated the hall, the radiance tearing through me.

As my sight grew hazy, I reached into my pocket, bringing out my phone. I stabbed at the keys. Nothing - no response. Another visage swam up, a scene from another time.

This morning.

"You've left your phone behind."
"Oh? Thank you!" I smiled, taking the phone from him - his eyes were dark, emotions withdrawn. Perhaps it was insomnia.


I should have thought it strange, then - the phone, I had put into my pocket when I emerged from the room earlier on. I never gave a second thought, never dared doubt that smile, which I now realized had not been sincere at all.

"In the presence of the moon with no other source of light.... you will now reveal your true form." David's voice tore through the miasma, his tone of superiority infuriating me.

I leaped at him angrily, and he merely sidestepped; midair, the transformation occurred - it was quick, painless. By the time I landed and faced him, it was on fours.

Audible gasps - I knew what had happened. In the parquet floor, I could see my own reflection; a wolf with a mane of pure white, eyes that could tear through anyone's soul. Even as a wolf, I had an impressive build, but all that... all of perfection... was meaningless before Tim's expressionless face.

The next moments were more cruel than any of the sufferings I'd been through. As he staggered out of the crowd, David put an arm around him, and he leaned in for protection. Anger flared up within me as David's face flashed, a single instant of triumph slithering across it.

"You... lied to me." Tim's hurt voice echoed across the now silent hall.

I tried to verbally defend myself, but all that came out was a growl, a primal sound that I had used to strike fear into my enemies. Tonight, it was weak - a whine that betrayed the despair within. Angered now, I leaped towards David, but he drew a gun from his vest and pointed it straight at me. Left without a choice, I leaped across the hall and out one of the windows, hitting the grassy floor with a soft thud.

As I ran, tears fell from my eyes; it was all over, shattered by a single instant of betrayal. As I left, I'd caught one look in Tim's face - there was no sorrow. Just disbelief. Right then, I understood - he never loved me. I was merely a trophy, a prize that he could show off. The moment I lost my place as a 'pure' human, I had lost his heart.

Entering the familiar forest on the edge of town, I loped off the stone path that we used to frequent, every familiar surrounding stabbing me like a thousand knives. Five seconds and a million years later, I stopped in front of a lake - the lake where I'd meant to show him this form. I stared into the water, my canine features haggled from the dash through the forest.

As the full ramifications of the evening's events struck me, I loosed a howl from my throat, a howl that echoed long into the night. As the sorrowful tone died down, another wolf loped up to join me; we shrunk into the shadows, where we returned to human form.

It mattered not that we were naked, or that we were siblings; for a long time, I lay in his warm arms.

Daniel. Always, he'd been my modicum of sanity and my closest follower; when I was distrusted, he believed in me. Yet I had shouted at him when he told me to stay away from the humans, had called him names that he would never have thought up for me...

And now that I was rejected by society, now that I was hurt, he was still here for me.

"Daniel... you've given me so much... I could never repay-"

Gently, he cupped a hand over my lips.

"All I ask of you is that you trust me the next time around. After all, I was born ahead by one year for a reason, right?"

That same boyish smile he'd given me before I left, this time unmarred by pain.

"I'd always told you... being part of human society is nothing. We are the rejects, hybrids that roam the jungles, lost to the rest of the humans. Yet forever, we will stay as one pack - unity is strength."

"Forever..." I repeated softly.

He nodded. "Never forget this... we look after our own."

[kaglover1]

This kinda reminded me of Twilight... 0.o except no vampires but only wolves???