PROLOGUE: "The Curse of the Full Moon"
Everyone always gushes about the stars, the faint sparkles that are sprinkled across the night sky, but for me, I was more fixated on the bright white orb that was surrounded by a pool of darkness. I use to believe that the moon was the most strikingly, beautiful thing that I had ever laid eyes on. However, I don't hold that same admiration anymore since its part of the reason I lost full control and did the worst thing imaginable. The car crash that everyone believes took the lives of my mother and sister as well as me, isn't what really happened. The truth is that I'm the reason for the car crash, and I'm the person responsible for killing my mother and sister. I didn't know I was a werecoyote, wasn't really aware that something was different about me until I turned that faithful night, the horrifying images, and the screams, will forever be engraved in my mind and that pain will shadow me for as long as I walk this earth. I am Malia Tate, and this is my story.
It happened on a full moon, before I even understood the meaning behind full moons. We were on our way home, from my recital, we left the play early due to my complaints of severe stomach ache. However it wasn't a stomach ache, it was the straining of my muscles and my bones that were practically screaming out of pain. Almost as if they were growing or changing, adjusting into place. Of course when I relayed this information to my mother, she said I was being overly dramatic and that it probably had to do with something I ate and that I'll be fine.
Apart from the crippling pain caused by my body, my ears were also causing me discomfort. Somehow they had become very sensitive to sound, it's like I could hear everything and feel everyone's emotions all at once. My body felt overwhelmed with pain that seemed to increase as we drove home. And the medicine that we picked up from the market didn't seem to be working as quickly as I had hoped.
"Mom…" I mumbled, inaudibly talking now seemed too difficult, my gums were beginning to ach and my teeth were starting to throb. She didn't hear me. "Mom." I said again this time my pitch much louder.
"Yes Malia?" My mother asked irritation laced in her voice. I knew she was disappointed in me, she had worked really hard on my costume for the school play and had gone over the lines with me, even after I had made it clear to her that I didn't want to be a part of it. But it was a class project, therefore I had to do it or else I'd suffer a 0, which I was willing to accept, my mother however was not. So I know for a fact that no sympathy would be coming from her.
"How long does it take for the medicine to work?" I groaned through clenched teeth, the pain reaching a level ten at this point. I tried to focus on the scenery that was outside of my windshield.
"You gotta give it sometime sweetie." That wasn't the answer that I wanted to hear, it's been several hours hasn't it, I tried adding up the time it took for us to get to and from the store, added the time it took to get groceries, and then picked up dinner and ice cream on our way home. That seemed like plenty of time past.
"What's wrong Malia?" my sister asked as her little pudgy hand swept a curtain of my hair out of my face.
"Your sister has the five second stomach flu." My mother said sarcastically, poking fun at me, if only she could feel the extreme pain I was in, and then she would know that this is no laughing matter.
"Nothing..." I groaned, intent on shielding my discomfort from my sister. "I just…I just don't feel too good." I wish everyone would stop talking, stop asking me questions. I gripped my head between my hands hopping the pressure would numb the pounding that was occurring in my head.
"Mom…Malia doesn't look too good." The pain was becoming unbearable I could feel sweat collecting on my face and hair sticking to the sides of my neck and chin.
"Shut up…. I said I'm fine." I growled the sound seemed unhuman, almost animal like. Another wave of pain began to wash over me. I felt an inkling of guilt for snapping but I was in excruciating pain and all I wanted was for it to stop.
"Malia…I know you're not feeling well, but that is no way to talk to your sister." I couldn't hear my mother, the sudden bolt of anger, the pain, so much of it was taking over me and before I knew what was happening the bones in my body began to shift, and crack. I cry out in agony, as I fell to the car floor, which causes my mother to take her eyes off the road for a second.
"Mommy look out!" My mother swerves the car hard in the opposite direction of a tree, only to lose control causing the car to tip over in the process. I could hear my younger sister scream, my mother yell "hold on girls" and the loud crushing of metal as the car tumbled into a ditch.
All the while I feel something thick and heavy entrap my body, and my mouth and face feel weird, almost elongated. I use what I believe is my hand, to touch my face, but I am shocked when I feel a soft almost fur like texture on my cheeks and when my eyes peer down in front of me, I realize I have a paw for a hand. The excruciating pain that I had been feeling is no longer present. I began to cry, but instead of hearing my voice I hear the sound of an animal softly whimpering and howling. What's wrong with me?
The strong scent of copper and metallic consumes all my senses and sparks an intense hunger, and anger that I had never felt before. I hear the sound of my sister whimpering somewhere beside me.
"Mommy…Malia?" She calls out through faint sobs that instantly stop when she stares up at me. Fear is glistening from her doe tear-streaked eyes, and is radiating off of her in waves. And somehow this fuels the hunger that has taken full control of me. Before I could get a grip on what was going on with me, my body launches at her.
What happens next is a blur of images filled with bright red and pale olive skin. But if there's one thing I'll never forget it's their screams, and their pleas. I could still feel their fear and their loss of hope and the life leaving their bodies.
The coyote part of me loved every second of power, and the control that it gained from killing them. While the human part of me was so devastated and stuck in a state of disbelief that sometimes I couldn't help but pray that it was all just a horrible dream. Until I wake up in a den with my sister's doll and my coat beside me, the only reminders that I am no longer human, and don't have a right to be.
I knew that going home wasn't an option, nor was going to the police, mostly because I didn't know how to change back to human, and a part of me somehow came to accept that, and I was okay. Because I wouldn't have to explain what happened, I wouldn't have to live with a lie or live everyday with the fear of killing someone else that I loved.
Though the human part of me hated everything that I have become, I've realized that if it wasn't for the animal instinct, I wouldn't be alive. I learned to be independent, how to survive, be brave and master my senses, I learned to accept all parts of me, the good, the bad, the ugly and the weak, the human and the coyote. But the world that I had learned to adjust to and accept will change, and again I'll be forced to adapt to a life that I had long ago put behind me.