Under A Blue Moon | #ONC2022

Chapter 5

My body was ripped backwards but not before sharp bony fingers wrapped themselves around my face. I landed on my back groaning from the blunt force. A large wolf hovered over my face its light brown eyes peering down at me. Before I knew what was happening it opened its mouth and dived for my face. But instead of biting me, it dislodged something from my face, spitting it out to the side.

I looked down to see a skeletal hand twitching in the grass. With a yell, I launched to my feet and looked to the water where another bony hand gripped the wood. Then the impossible happened.

A corpse slowly pulled itself onto the dock decking, its handless arm flaying about. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It wasn't possible. Its hollowed skull twisted to face me, and it opened its jaw. I clamped my hand around my ears as it let out a high-pitched scream.

For a moment I was frozen. Images of the corpses reaching for me from the darkness only to tear at my skin flashed in my mind. My lungs constricted as my heart pounded. I was stuck in a moment of terror not being able to do anything but stare at the creature before me.

From behind, warning howls rang through the air snapping me back to reality. To my horror corpses both skeletal and slowly decomposing waded out of the lake. A foul rotting stench wafted from them made worse by my heightened sense of smell.

The corpse that had grabbed me launched itself at me. Before I could react, the wolf sprinted past me meeting the creature mid-run. The greyish wolf ripped the skull clean off. The bones fell to the ground instantly.

The wolf looked back at me with a feral grin, and I didn't need to see his human form to recognise him.

Logan Belmont.

I was saved by Logan Belmont. Talk about ironic.

All around wolves launched into battle with these creatures. Some clearly enjoying the battle more than others. Sammy being one of them. His dark grey wolf moved from one corpse to the next. He was in clear competition with a few of the others.

Above me, Nero squawked again. It was all the warning I got. I jumped out of reach of a small body that had crawled its way to me. Lifting my foot, I struck down hard on the skull shattering it into tiny pieces.

Behind me, a cry as a creature latched itself to a wolf biting down on their shoulder. I whipped my hand out, grabbed the spine and pulled. Without hesitation, I snatched the skull off and crushed it in my hand.

I turned to the wolf who had shifted back to his human form. He wasn't one of ours. Crimson streamed from the deep bite mark on his shoulder. Kneeling, I grabbed his shoulder and wiped some of the blood.

"It's not healing," I whispered as I watched the wound ooze. His healing should have kicked in by now but there was no indication that it had.

"I can't shift," the young boy – a teenager if I had to guess – whimpered.

"What?"

"I can't shift. I can't shift. I can't shift," he repeated over and over. His body shook as tears rolled over his freckles.

"Okay, okay. It's okay," I comforted. I lifted his head and forced his teary eyes to look at me. "You're gonna be perfectly fine alright. We're gonna fix this. But right now, I need your help. Can you do that? Can you help me?" He gave a short nod.

I pointed across the trees towards another wolf that had shifted back to her human form laying naked on the ground. "I need you to take the injured wolves and take them to the house. I need you to protect them." His lips quivered but he steeled himself. Straightening his back, he bowed his head and took off towards the female.

Truthfully, I had no idea if he was going to be okay. I have never heard of something striping a shifter's ability to shift. It was unheard of. Although everything that had happened so far was unheard of.

I glanced around the chaos. Furry forms sprinting around with a few wolves in human form. My gaze snagged on a fiery red wolf standing protectively over a couple of smaller wolves and a small form lying in the grass. A rotted corpse running towards her.

Leaping from my position, I called my wolf forward. Mid-air, my body vibrated and transformed into the deep brown fur of my wolf form. Landing on all fours centimetres from the creature, I snapped my jaw out, ripping its head off.

I moved to the next creature. Spitting out the rotted flesh that got caught in my teeth. It took everything in me to not gag and vomit from the foul stench and taste that stained my tongue.

Pierce! Don't let them bite you! Robin's voice yelled in my head.

I moved my body out of the way just as a skeletal creature grazed my shoulder. It shot past and towards Robin. She crouched and then pounced, meeting the creature mid-air. When she landed the body had been shredded, bones falling around her.

I walked up beside her and brushed my body next to hers.

Go to the house, I commanded the two younger wolves. And take her with you. Robin nudged them on with her snout.

Around us, things seemed to be slowing down. Not many corpses left.

We helped those we could and by the time we got rid of the last of the creatures we were exhausted. The extra power faded the closer we got to sunrise.

As we trotted towards the house, Sammy's voice boomed through my head, Addison!

But we were too late. Just a few feet away I watched as my sister got dragged into the lake.