I wrote and rewrote this like, five times, and it finally turned out okay. I'm kinda nervous about this one, so please tell me what you think!

Matthew always knew he was different.

His mother called it "special." His dad called it "freakish." His brother called it "creepy." But Matthew didn't mind. They usually didn't notice him anyway, and when they did, it was usually to comment about how they didn't notice him before. He blended into the shadows, and he liked it that way.

Matthew always attracted the weirdest attention.

His mother found him once, when he was around five, in the backyard, talking away to nobody. His mother asked who he was talking to, and Matthew replied, "My bear, Kumajira." His mom smiled, and left it alone. Little kids always had imaginary friends, right?

She didn't expect the behavior to continue when thirteen years old.

She found Matthew talking to absolutely nobody often. When he was in the park, he would read out loud to his friends, who he called Matthieu and Matt. He would play tag with shadows and hug the air. His mom finally had enough, she thought something could be wrong with the child himself.

"Sweetie, you know your...friends...aren't real, right?"

Matthew blinked once.

"You mean... you don't see them?"

His mom nodded. The matter was never brought up again.

Until Matthew's fifteenth birthday.

...

Matthew lay on the bed, thinking to himself.

Hey, Mattie, come on and play with us! We're so bored!

Matthew smiled at the boy who sat next to his bed, cross legged.

"I can't, Matthieu, I'm not allowed to. You aren't real."

Matthieu huffed. Ever since your mom talked to you, you aren't any fun anymore!

"I'm too old for imaginary friends."

I'm not imaginary!

There was a knock on the door. "Mattie? Are you-"

"No, mom! Everything's fine!" Matthew yelled back. He waited until he heard footsteps, then turned back to the bedside. Matthieu was gone. Matthew sighed.

"Happy birthday to me."

...

As Matthew blew out the fifteen candles on his cake, a smile crept onto his face. He was fifteen years old now, one year away from driving! He waited as his mom cut four pieces of cake, then dug into the sweet treat. Maple, with maple syrup frosting. His favorite.

"Happy birthday, little bro!" His brother yelled from across the table. Matthew smiled. "T-thanks."

After much present opening (a new hockey stick from his brother, a sketchbook from his mother, and some new shin guards from his dad) the family sat down to watch a movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Lord knows how his brother got scared from watching it, but Matthew liked it a lot. After the movie was over, Matthew thanked his parents, then headed upstairs to get changed for bed.

As he drifted off to sleep that night, Matthew thought about the day's events. Overall, he decided, it was probably his best birthday ever. At least, the one with the least fighting.

...

He woke up in the middle of the night, listening to his parents argue.

They're talking about you. A voice whispered in Matthew's ear. He turned, and all he could see were a pair of bright purple eyes, floating in the darkness. Matthew turned back to the door, creeping to the top of the stairs to listen.

"They have to know soon enough! We can't hide this forever!"

"They're only fifteen! We can't afford to send them away yet, they're too young!"

"But what are the chances? Two monsters in the same family, it's sickening!"

"Don't talk about them that way!"

"I'm going to tell them."

"No!"

"They have to know. Summer's almost over. Term starts soon."

There was a sigh, and his mother's voice carried a hint of longing as she replied, "Fine. Go ahead. We'll tell them tomorrow."

Matthew raced back to his bed, mulling over what he had just heard.

I can't wait until tomorrow. Can't you, Mattie?

...

Matthew rolled out of bed, yawning. He pulled on his clothes in a half asleep daze, and thumped down the stairs to breakfast. Sliding into his chair, he grabbed the maple syrup bottle and poured a sizable amount onto his pancakes before stabbing them with his fork.

"Hey, bro." Alfred stumbled in behind him, also tired and yawning. "Pancakes? Awesome." He grabbed two and smeared butter on them, stuffing them into his mouth.

"Don't be a pig." Matthew sighs. "We don't have school today, remember? It's summer. It's been summer for two months."

"Oh, yeah." Alfred grinned and picked up his knife and fork. After eating for a few minutes, his parents entered the room.

"Alfred? Matthew? We have something to tell you."

Matthew froze mid-bite. "Mom? Dad?"

The two sat down, looking at them with pity.

"It's very important, so pay attention."

His mother cleared her throat, and began.

"Once upon a time, a long time ago-"

"In a galaxy far, far away." Alfred finished, grinning. The looks he received were so annoyed that he slunk down in his seat. "Sorry."

"Ahem." His mother continued. "There was a blessing, set upon the land, by a gentle and kind god. The blessing was that for 100 years, the people would have no war, diseases, or famine. The people thrived, thanks to this blessing, and good was brought to the world."

"Sounds awesome." Alfred grinned.

"However, no gift comes without a price. In exchange, once in a while, families would give birth to children that weren't...human. Putting evil back into the world in exchange for the evil purged from it."

Matthew didn't like the sound of this.

"The blessing expired around fifty years ago, but the curse was never lifted. Nobody knows why." His mother looked at them with pity in her eyes.

"So..." Alfred looked at his hands. "I'm not a monster...am I?"

No response. His mother simply looked at him with contempt in her eyes. His father did nothing, but merely looked at them in the same way.

"Stop looking at me like that!" Alfred yelled suddenly. "Like I'm a poor, kicked puppy on the side of the street!"

"Honey-"

"I'm not a monster! I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!" Alfred protested. His father's face was steadily growing red.

"I didn't mean it like that, it's not a bad thing!"

"I'm Alfred! You hear me? I'm not different just because apparently I'm a monster all of a sudden! You didn't look at me like this before!" Alfred screamed. His dad finally lost it.

"You're a freak! We never asked to give birth to a monster child! Both of you, you're freaks! But you're going away now, and maybe we can live like a normal family again! A normal family, without any monsters." His father yelled.

Alfred looked betrayed, a look of hurt spreading across his face. Then, suddenly, something changed. He leapt at his father, his body elongating and shrinking. His face grew into a long snout, sprouting black fur and bright white fangs.

The white fangs now stained with his father's blood.

The wolf that was Alfred ripped and tore at his father's throat, spreading blood across the clean white kitchen tiles.

Matthew also felt something rising up in his throat, a flash of white-hot anger bubbling up and lashing out. He also screamed, but it wasn't a scream, it was a guttural hiss. Looking at his hands, he clenched them into fists. His skin was turning crimson red, his eyes filling up with black, like pools of pitch. He screamed again, and something rose out of him, something smoky and unformed, and lunged at his mother. She started to choke, her face turning blue, and she started coughing. Matthew whispered, harder, choke her harder, and whatever the thing was, it obeyed. His mother fell to the ground, thrashing, but the shadow held her fast, and finally, she stopped thrashing.

The red of Matthew's skin faded to its regular cream, his eyes returning back to violet. He turned to his brother, who was standing over his father's mangled corpse. He was slowly changing back to boy, and the two of them looked at each other, fear in their eyes.

"What have we done?"