Disclaimer: Not mine, though I do keep wishing on stars…

Author Notes: Keep in mind people this is from a rapist/murders point of view so it should be disturbing –even so I tried to keep it semi toned down- but don't worry. He gets what he deserves.

This was at one point called Moon Chronicles: Ascension but after going through such a heavy rewrite I decided to delete that story and make this its own story.

A Dark Moon Rising

Prologue: Werewolf

Tonight was the night… She would be his finally.

He smiled to himself as he walked down the sidewalk, maybe forty feet behind her. It wasn't like he was too worried about losing her. She had a pattern, one that he had memorized since deciding she had to belong to him. Every night, she would leave the little music and book store she worked at after it had closed and head to Central Park for a short jaunt through the trees.

She never stayed there for more than two hours as far as he could tell and he had overheard her when she was talking to one of her friends in the store that she lived alone. No one would start to look for her until a few days had passed and she didn't show up to school or she missed a shift at her job. Plenty of time to hide and destroy any evidence after he was done enjoying her. A shiver ran up his spine as he watched her run across the road a ways ahead of him, imagining how well she was going to plead as he claimed her for his own.

He loved making them beg him to stop.

She was beautiful, and had the qualities all his other toys had. She was a rather tall, athletic girl in their mid to early twenties with shoulder length hair. He did preferred brunets but that red head had been feisty and the blonde had screamed so beautifully. This was another blonde and he couldn't help but smile as he thought of the previous blonde's struggles and the fun that they had. He couldn't wait to have this one at his mercy.

He crossed the street then, reaching into the pockets of his jacket to make sure he still had the wire, handcuffs, knife and cloth he would need. He had thought about taking her somewhere to enjoy her longer but it would take too much effort to bring her out of the park without attracting unwanted attention. He could enjoy her enough here. It wasn't like anyone would be wandering through the park after eleven o'clock at night. He just needed to take her to a secluded place and keep her gagged for the remainder of the evening. It would muffle her pretty voice but her soft whimpers would be enough for him.

She entered Central Park through the same gate that she always did. He still wasn't sure what she did in the park this late at night. The only time he had actually tried to follow her through the park he had lost her within steps of entering it. He couldn't afford that tonight and increased his pace slightly to catch up to her. He had to keep her in sight this time around.

He barely made it to the gate in time to see her step off the path and take a straight shot towards The Lake. That explained how he had lost her last time. He didn't know of many people that left the lit paths at night. Then again she was about the only person he had ever known that took a walk in the park at night.

She seemed in a hurry suddenly, moving at a pace just short of a jog as she went through the trees. He realized as he followed her that there was very little reason for him to be overly cautious. She wasn't even paying attention to her surroundings. As long as he didn't make too much noise, she would be none the wiser to his presence.

She kept going right up to the edge of the lake, where she paused and looked down at her reflection for a moment, letting out a big sigh at it. He slowed his own speed, curious as to what she was doing. She stood there for a moment longer before stepping off to the side and into a small grove of young elms. Odd but in the moonlight he could just barely make out her sliding off her purse and jacket before moving on to her shirt, unbuttoning it slowly. Well now, this was a strange turn of events but it would make it easier to take her if she took her clothes off for him. He just had to be patient.

As if knowing that he was watching her, she took her time. She would remove each article of clothing and carefully folding it before setting in on her oversized purse. It was like a strip tease and he could feel the sweat building up on his palms as he ached to rush ahead and grab her.

But no, he had to be patient and reward her for such a performance.

Finally she stood before his hiding place in all her naked glory from the waist up, undoing the loose braid her hair had been in as she stepped away from her clothes, and put her back to him as she looked out over the lake. She sighed and he took that as his clue to begin. He had barely had a chance to do more than shift when she spoke.

"You can come out of hiding now. It's not working. I know you're there."

He was taken aback for a moment as the girl proceeded to remove her shoes. That had been unexpected. He began to wonder if he had picked up on an undercover cop. He knew that they were looking for him. It was all over the news. However if she was a cop, why was she stripping in front of him? After a moment of debate -and watching her slide out of her pants and undies in one fell swoop- he stepped out from behind the tree he had hidden behind.

She fingered the white pendant necklace that still hung about her neck as she looked out over the pond again. "So, you must be the new serial murder in town." She said, much too calmly for his liking. She obviously knew something that he didn't and it put him slightly on edge.

"Serial murder is such a harsh title." He smiled at her as he approached. He stuck his hand into the pocket of his coat and he felt around for the handcuffs. She was almost his. Though if she stayed still and didn't fight it would take away from the experience, maybe she had wanted to die? He wasn't sure if it was worth giving her his gift if that was the case.

"But it is what you are." She stated matter of factly as she stepped away from her belongings. She looked up at the full moon for a moment before looking at him for the first time. Her ice blue eyes seemed to narrow even more than what her heritage had given her and she said accusingly, "You are the serial murderer and rapist that has killed a total of five girls, all in their mid-twenties, with and athletic build and shoulder length hair." She paused for a moment, her head cocking slightly to the side as if she was listening to something far away before adding, "After stalking them –hunting them- for ten to twelve days."

He was starting to become unnerved the longer he was around this girl. Something in the back of his mind had begun to scream at him to run from her before he was caught. It made absolutely no sense. What could she do to him? He was positive he could wrestle her to the ground and he easily outweighed her but at least a hundred pounds if not more.

Even though she was at such an obvious disadvantage, she kept regarding him with a cool, calculating intensity as if he was little more than an annoyance and not a threat at all. That had to be it, all the other girls had been scared but she almost looked like she was bored with this situation. That couldn't be right.

"Typically, I'd tell people to leave but you have killed five innocent girls." She took a step towards him and he found himself taking a step back. There was something about the way that she moved that was unnatural. It hadn't been human.

He wondered when he had become the prey.

"Let's see how much you like being hunted. Let's see how much you like the fear." She had growled that last part out, still walking towards him as he kept backing up. Then she closed her eyes for a long moment and when she opened them again her eyes seemed to be glowing with an unnatural sheen in the low light of the park. As if they were suddenly able to reflect the light back. Whatever this thing was, it definitely wasn't human.

"What are you?" He whispered as he felt a bead of sweat trail down the side of his face. As he watched the blonde tresses that had originally caught his attention seemed to bleach out and turn white in the moonlight. Now everything was beginning to make sense and he understood his earlier feelings, he just hoped that it wasn't too late to escape with his life. "What unholy beast are you?"

She seemed to lean forward, almost flowing down towards the ground, her body shimmering slightly as she seemed to slip away dissipating into a strange pale mist. It barely took more than a second for the mist to rearrange itself and become solid again in an entirely different shape. It's eyes, one blue and one white, seemed to burn into him as the muzzle turned to him and the lips peeled back to reveal a row of sharp white teeth.

"Wolf," he said as he took another step back, recognizing the shape of the creature in front of him even though it was to large to be a normal wolf.. A rumbling growl came from the creature before him that sent the hairs on his neck to stand on end. His eyes flickered from the wolf to the moon behind it and back again. "Werewolf." The creature snapped its powerful jaws at him and shifted itself as if to lunge at him. Finally his legs unfroze, "Werewolf!" he screamed as he turned and tried to run from it.

He ran back in the direction he had come from, thinking that if he could reach the path again that the lights would deter the creature from following him. Behind him the long drawn out howl of a wolf echoed eerily over the Park causing another shiver of fear to trace up his spine. He was almost to the path. He would be safe there.

Something was coming up behind him fast. He didn't hear any sound from the creature chasing him but he could hear the branches and leaves from the bushes it passed being disturbed. The faint rustling and whipping of branches in its wake were drowned out as he began to repeat 'no' over and over again under his breath. He wasn't going to make it.

As if knowing what he was thinking something caught at his ankle at the same time as a large paw shoved at his back. He landed hard on his stomach, a root from a nearby tree driving up into his side. He felt a rib break. He made himself roll over onto his back, blood dribbling down his face from his nose. He must've hit it off a rock or something when he landed.

It was standing over him regarding him with the same intensity that it had had as a human. He coughed slightly as the change in position caused his bloody nose to flow down the back of his throat instead of down his face. Why was it waiting? Perhaps he could reason with it? "Please… Please don't hurt me."

He knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as it left his lips. The creature snarled at him, the fur on its hackles rising up as it crouched down. He pushed himself away as best he could, lifting his hand up to protect his face and neck as the beast pounced on him. His dying screams echoed through the park like a prayer to the moon hanging overhead.

As they ebbed away into the dark, the almost mournful howl from a wolf took up their place for a moment before it too faded away.