Miraculous: Tales of the Unknown (18 page)

Paige was dancing with her
boyfriend Zach, but Blake was standing alone by the entrance. Like
me, she had not gotten asked on a date for the night... but unlike
me she had chosen to come instead of being obligated. As I was
walking toward her, the lights flashing from the dance floor
illuminated her dress and I stopped, sickened by the sight. It was
red... blood red, and it reminded me of what was sure to come. I
ran to the bathroom, completely aware of the time I had
left...ticking away to the beat of the music. I splashed some water
on my cheeks and looked at the image staring back at me. All too
soon my face would change and I would be a hideous beast. I would
forget the friendships I've had since I was small. I would assume
them my enemy, my dinner, my prey.

Talon, I thought,
remembering. His name was Talon. I met him at a party. I wouldn't
call it a one night stand because the only thing that happened was
the bite; but maybe that's what made one night stands so memorable.
They changed your life. I know this one changed mine. The first
stupid, crazy, irresponsible thing I do and it changes me forever.
I wanted to cry, but my eyes were still stubbornly dry. He changed
so fast I didn't have time to react. One minute we were kissing and
the other minute blood was pouring down my neck. I'm guessing I
fainted because the last thing I remember was him screaming up at
the moon, teeth barred and stained with my innocent blood. His once
beautiful face was misshaped with muscle and hair stretched
skin.

I lay there after it
happened and focused on the moon. I was drawn to it in ways that I
never had been before. When he lay down beside me and apologized, I
reached out to touch my torn skin only to find that it was smooth
again. It was... miraculous. With his back to the moon, his
features had been hidden, shadowed… but I knew that he was once
again human instead of beast because of the way his body had felt
next to mine.

"What does this mean?" I
asked solemnly. My whole life ran through my head like a scene from
a movie. I wasn't prepared for it to end.

"It means, you are one of
us now..." he had said in a soft raspy voice that had seemed so
familiar and yet so foreign at the same time.

The door to the restroom
slammed against the wall and a crowd of girls walked in. They were
chatting and laughing, completely ignoring that I was even there. I
wanted to scream at them, but I knew that in time I would miss even
these awkward moments.

"Did you see that guy out
there?" One of them asked the other. I recognized them, but I
didn't know them. I was pretty sure that there were in a different
grade than I was.

"Yeah," said another, "he
was totally hot... and alone."

My heart started
hammering. Was it him? Had he come for me? I left the sweet
confines of the bathroom walls and headed out to the ballroom to
search for him. I wanted to kill him for what he had done to me. I
wanted to hurt him with the sharp teeth he had so generously damned
me with. Still... there was a connection between us… how could
there not be after what had happened? After running into several
seriously love stricken couples I saw him. He was standing in the
back of the room glaring at the warm bodies full of blood and life,
anxiously waiting for the right moment to pounce on one that had
wandered too far from the pack...

Chad, my best friend, was
standing next to the dance floor alone. Seeing him, almost made me
forget about Talon. Only things had been strained between us these
past few weeks. A distance that had been creeping up on us all
along had exploded with the wedge of my imminent future lurking. I
had always loved Jake... I'd just been too scared to tell him and
now it was too late. The thought of him being caught in this death
web was too much to handle. Talon was eyeing him too closely
because I was eyeing him closely. I tried to keep my composure as I
walked towards him. He was too innocent to be taken, and I loved
him too much to let that happen. When I reached him he was looking
at the ground, obviously trying not to make eye contact with
me.

"Hey Chad." I said
quietly

"Oh hey Lucy." he mumbled.
He gave a quick shy smile and went back to staring at the disco
ball light patterns on the floor.

"How is everything? It
feels like it's been forever since we really talked."

He looked up at me sadly,
the reflection from the lights lit up his eyes in a way that made
my heart momentarily stop beating. It looked like there were moons
reflected in them. I was mesmerized by them and couldn't look away.
I watched his lips open to answer my question, but I couldn't
concentrate on the words. It wasn't until someone bumped into me
and I was thrown against him that I was able to shake myself out of
the trance like state I had been in. His arms were so big; I don't
remember them being this way. I looked up at him and we got caught
in a moment. I felt like we both realized we were supposed to be
together; but neither of us spoke. We just lost ourselves in the
magic of the moment. I was drawn to him even more so than I had
been before.

Then it was over and he
just pulled me up to my feet and asked "Geezus are you
okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine. Thanks for
breaking my fall." I said quietly, the anticipation of what might
have been had left me shaky and breathless.

"Look Lucy I don’t know
what happened between us but I don't want to keep doing this...I
love you." he said somberly. As if it was a bad thing or something
to be ashamed of.

I couldn't move. My mind
went blank and I forgot how to breathe. I hadn’t been expecting
this. It was too much… it is what I had always wanted; it was what
I had always dreamed about. My life's happiness was within my grasp
and all I had to do was reach out and grab hold of it... grab hold
of him. His eyes promised me so much more than his mouth could ever
say, and yet there was something there; something lurking just
beyond the surface that looked almost… guilty…
regretful.

A howl tore through the
room and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. All around us
people were frantically searching for the cause of the noise, but I
already knew what had caused it; Talon.

I looked for him, but he
was gone, and with him the dream that had been dangled before me
was suddenly once again out of my reach as reality crashed down
around me. Chad was human. I was... not; at least not
anymore.

With a tear sliding down
my cheek, I backed away from his beloved face and shook my head
sadly, "I'm sorry Chad. I don't feel the same way," I lied. I had
to keep him safe - even if that meant lying to him. I could see how
much this hurt him. He didn't understand why. Even with the
horrendous howl filling the space between us his eyes were focused
on me. It was like he didn't even notice the chaos going on around
him.

All of a sudden I see
Talon running up behind Chad, he was transforming as he ran. At the
same time I could feel something happening to me...

It was like my body was
ripping apart and with it my soul was being destroyed. Flesh burned
and crackled as my body transformed. Sleek black hair pushed
through every pore of my skin. The effect was like needles being
pushed through my body and I screamed in agony. I heard more
howling and roaring around me and it wasn't until I had fully
transformed, saliva dripping from my razor sharp teeth, and my
breathing labored and hoarse that I realized the howling was coming
from me. I heard screams come from every direction, and suddenly I
realized I wasn't the only one who transformed. Chad was standing
beside me; fangs displayed, hair bursting out of his smooth tan
skin. His eyes were two huge black beads with yellow glowing
irises, piercing through the crowds of terrified teenagers. We
stood there, completely aware of our new bodies, and ready to
attack anyone and everyone who came into our path.

Talon, facing us with his
fur standing up and his lips curled back off of his teeth, growled
and pawed the floor with his foot. His long claws dug grooves into
the soft wood of the dance floor. Somewhere off in the distance the
music stopped playing and soon the only sound was of screams and
feet pounding on the ground as all around us people tried to flee,
all of them afraid for their lives. Suddenly, two of the biggest
football players in the senior class began to make a run towards
Talon. It happened before I could even react; I had no time to
process a thought or to stop them from basically committing
suicide. Talon was humored by their small attempt to take him down,
and reared his head back in hideous laughter as they plowed into
his steal like body. They hit him like they would hit a brick wall
and as they fell on their backs. He snatched each of them up in his
enormous hands and lifted them up by their throats.
Their bodies hit the ground hard when he threw
them away from us. In those seconds, I wasn’t sure if they were
dead or alive, but when I saw them finally began to stir, hope
began to bloom inside of me.

Close by, I saw Paige
pointing towards us. Tears were streaming down her face and her
body was shaking from the inability to process what she was seeing.
Scenes from my childhood flashed through my brain. Scenes in which
Paige and were playing with dolls, experimenting with makeup, and
later… talking about boys. She alone had known how I had felt about
Chad.

Looking at him now,
heaving and panting beside me, I wondered how I had missed the
signs. I was so busy worrying about what was happening to me that I
had overlooked what had been happening to him. Still, I couldn’t
help wondering if there was more to the story…

You shouldn’t have been a
part of this Lucy… I’m sorry.

I jumped. Had I just heard
that voice in my head? When my wolfish eyes stared into Chads, I
knew that I had. How was that even possible? There was so much to
this life that I didn’t understand… so much that I wasn’t sure I
wanted to. It was just all so frightening and
unexpected.

Chad?
He nodded his canine head and I backed away a few
steps.
Is this really
happening?

Before he could answer,
Talon jumped between us. He was facing Chad and his tail smacked
against the side of my face. Instinctively, the hair all over my
body stood on end. There was an electric charge that sizzled in the
air around us. It struck me as odd that while I had heard Chad
inside of my very soul, the only sound coming from Talon was the
ferocious growl as he faced off against Chad.

Why can’t I hear him? Why
is he doing this, Chad?
My mind whispered
to his.

It’s because we are
connected…
it’s my fault… I…

He was once again silenced
when Talon pounced on him. The scream that tore through me was more
howl than human. The animal that had taken over the physical aspect
of me was beginning to take over the internal one as well. I would
fight to death for the one I loved. I didn’t care that Talon and I
should have a connection. My whole focus, my whole devotion was
centered on Chad and I would kill for him if I had to.

With only those thoughts
in mind, I allowed the beast to consume me. My mouth opened and
then closed with my lethal teeth latched onto the tail that had
just before hit me. The sound that came out of Talon then was both
satisfying and sickeningly frightening at the same time. I knew
that not only was he stronger than I was, he was also more
comfortable in his wolfy skin than I was, but I couldn’t let that
fact matter.

Lucy NO!

I heard Chad scream in my
mind, but it was already too late. Talon had spun around and the
velocity of it had knocked me back off of him. My body slid on the
smooth wood of the floor until something wet and sticky slowed me
down. It was blood.

The human part of me
warred with the animal. On the one hand, I wanted to vomit knowing
that I was lying in blood. On the other, my stomach clenched with a
dark hunger that was just as fascinating as it was horrific. Then I
saw whose blood it was.

Blake… sweet, innocent
Blake was lying on the ground a few feet away from me. I was
convinced as I looked at her that her eyes would never again open
as the blood spilled from her throat and darkened her dress to an
even more intense red than it had been to begin with. I didn’t know
when he had done it, but I knew in my heart that Talon was to blame
and I would never stop fighting him until vengeance was
served.

My body was shaking from
the fall, but I was determined to make Talon pay for what he had
done. So when he loomed over me, I shakily pulled myself up and
faced him. I wanted to shout and scream and call him every fowl
thing I could think of, but all that spewed forth from my lips were
snarls and saliva.

His wolf form was massive
compared to mine, but I had felt a surge of power and strength when
I had clamped my teeth on his fur and it was an intoxicating
feeling; one that I was eager to feel again. I would not back
down.

Just as Talon stepped
toward me, a sound like a gunshot rang through the building. It
only took me about a second to realize it really was gunfire. It
took a few more to realize that whoever was firing it wasn’t just
firing at Talon. I was a wolf too… and so was Chad.