CAN'T FIGHT THE MOONLIGHT

CHAPTER SEVEN-SILVER WAR

I couldn't believe my eyes. Keely wasn't moving.

Blood pooled around her neck.

I felt my entire body shaking violently.

I felt a lump of tears sticking in my throat.

"God no…KEELY!" I wailed.

I woke up abruptly. I was sitting in the bedroom. Gabrielle was curled up in human form on the chair. Keely had dozed off on the bed.

"Keely!" I cried happily as pure relief flooded over me.

Keely snapped awake.

"Huh? What?" she asked looking around wildly.

I threw my arms around her and hugged her tightly.

"Thank God you were okay!" I cried hugging her tightly.

Keely hugged me back with a bemused expression on her face.

Gabrielle woke up too, yawned and stretched.

"Phil? Is everything okay?" she asked curiously.

I finally released Keely and turned to her.

"I had the most horrible dream! I dreamed that Keely went down to the kitchen and was attacked by a wolf," I said shivering.

"Oh god," Gabrielle said as the color drained from her face. "It was just a nightmare, Phil."

I still couldn't get the image of Keely lying on the floor with her throat torn out of my head. I briefly closed my eyes and then re-opened them.

"I'm fine," Keely said softly. "Nothing will happen to me. Okay?"

I smiled and nodded.

"Now," Keely said brightly. "Who wants breakfast?"

"We're going with you," I said automatically.

GABRIELLE.

I could see Phil was still badly shaken over the nightmare he had. I think it really disturbed him and upset him.

The three of us headed down stairs.

Phil was immediately scanning the kitchen for any sign of the wolves.

Once he was sure it was clear, he seemed to relax.

Mr. and Mr. Teslow arrived home.

"Hi you three," Mrs. Teslow said eagerly. "Did you three have fun?"

"Oh yeah," Phil said grinning.

We shared a private wink that thankfully, Mr. and Mrs. Teslow didn't see.

"Phil, please thank your parents for a lovely time," Mr. Teslow said to Phil smiling.

"I will," Phil promised.

"I really should get home," Phil said.

"We'll see you at school," Keely said softly.

He smiled and winked at me.

"I really should get going too," I said apologetically.

Phil waited for me and we left the Teslows'.

"Do you really think it's over with?" Phil asked as we headed back to his house.

"I hope so," I said quietly. "The Androse family has been known not to give up either. Unfortunately, we're just going to have to wait and see. That's all we can do for now."

Phil nodded.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow?"

"You bet," I said eagerly.

We went our separate ways.

The next morning, we met at school.

"Is it over?" Keely asked leaning close.

We were leaning against Phil's locker.

"As I told Phil yesterday, I'm not sure," I said gravely. "The Androse's have been known to put up a fight as well. We're just going to have to wait and see."

"This is so scary," Keely said hugging her binder against her chest.

"Don't worry," Phil said putting an arm around her shoulders. "We'll continue to fight."

Keely gave him a half hearted smile.

Just then, Pim spied us and hurried over.

"Has anyone seen Berwick?" she asked looking from me, to Keely to Phil.

"No," Keely said. "Where is she?"

"If I knew I wouldn't be asking," Pim said rolling her eyes. "She hasn't shown up for homeroom."

Immediately, Phil, Keely and I exchanged worried glances.

"You don't think…" Pim began slowly picking up on our worried expressions. "The werewolves…?"

Her voice dropped.

"Pim? Where is her locker?" I said urgently. "I can pick up a scent."

Pim led me over to the lockers.

I leaned close and sniffed.

"Yeah I got her scent," I said closing my eyes.

"Can you follow it?" Phil asked eagerly, his brown eyes locked on mine.

"Sure but it means we're going to have to cut school," I said.

"That's fine with me," Pim said shrugging.

"Oy, Pim Mom and Dad said if you miss another class you're grounded for a month," Phil said warningly. "You'd best stay here incase she does show up."

"She's my friend," Pim argued.

"Oh now she's your friend? After the way you treated her?" Phil asked, raising an eyebrow.

Phil and Pim got into an argument.

"Hey," I said breaking them up. "Pim? It is a good idea for you to stay here. You don't need to get into anymore trouble."

"Fine," Pim muttered.

"How come you listen to her?" Phil asked shocked. "But you were ready to argue with me?"

"Because she can tear my arm off," Pim said simply as she walked off down the hallway.

"At least she listens to someone," Phil muttered shaking his head.

"Anyway," I continued. "Phil? It might be best for you to stay too. Keely and I can handle this."

Keely's blue eyes widened with surprise.

"Really?" Keely asked.

I nodded.

"Sure," Phil said.

Keely and I made sure that the coast was clear before we snuck out of the school.

"Are you still getting her scent?" Keely asked as we jogged along the street.

"Yeah," I said nodding. "It's getting stronger too."

I followed the scent for a good half a mile until we came to a ditch area.

"Oh God…Please no," Keely swallowed.

I walked through the ankle high grass until I spied a small shed.

"Stay here," I whispered to Keely.

She immediately crouched down out of sight.

I slinked over to the shed and peered in.

Sure enough, Debbie was tied to a chair. No one was guarding her. I carefully snuck into the shed.

She looked up when she saw me.

"Oh Thank Heavens!" she squealed.

"Ssh," I said putting a finger to my lips. "Quiet."

She immediately fell silent.

I quickly untied her and we snuck back out.

Keely, Debbie and I hurried back to the school.

"You're okay!" Pim squealed as she gave her a hug.

"What on earth happened?" Phil demanded.

"Well," Debbie began. "I was heading to school when this big horrible smelling man just grabbed me, blindfolded me and then the rest is a blank."

"Are you sure it wasn't Uncle Larry?" Pim cracked.

"Pimsie," Debbie scolded. "I'm serious here."

"Do you remember what he looked like?" I asked.

Debbie frowned.

"No…but he was tall and kind of chubby,"

She playfully poked Pim in the midsection.

"Someone's been eating too many sweets," she grinned.

Pim slapped her hand away.

"This is serious," I said scolding. "More than likely, he was part of the Androse family. This means they're planning something else."

"Oh man," Phil moaned. "It's certainly not over."

"I'm afraid not," I said gravely. "Anyone that's close to me now is in danger."

"But we're not going anywhere," Phil said firmly. "We'll fight too."

Keely and Pim nodded.

I smiled.

"That's really sweet guys," I said. "But the last time human fought against the Androse family, 50 had to be sent home in pieces."

Debbie's face drained of all color.

"Eep," she said swallowing.

"But we've got your family on our side right?" Keely asked keeping her eyes locked on me. "They'll help right?"

"They fought for a human once," I said. "I'm not sure if they'll do it again."

Keely looked at Phil exasperatedly.

"Then what do we do?" Phil asked.

"We fight ourselves," I said narrowing my eyes.

Phil, Keely and I headed to Phil's house.

"Gabrielle look nice today," Curtis said beaming at me.

"Thank you," I said smiling at him brightly.

"We may actually need your help," Phil said suddenly to Curtis.

Curtis shook his head.

"Last time Curtis helped, Curtis was burned," Curtis said glaring at Pim.

"Sorry," Pim said shrugging. "I told you not to add that much charcoal to the grill and light it."

"Pim told Curtis that was how it was supposed to be," Curtis said.

"It was a joke," Pim said sheepishly.

"Curtis," I said holding up a hand. "I need your help."

Immediately, Curtis' expression brightened.

"Curtis help Gabrielle," he said happily.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Pim and Phil exchange winks.

"I need you to help us fight the Androse family," I explained. "They're evil werewolves who want to attack and kill."

"Ooh. Sound like bad dogs," Curtis said nodding. "How can Curtis help Gabrielle?"

"You're going to have to find anything silver…pure silver that is and bring it here. Got it? We're going to have to make weapons,"

"Curtis sensing that this is going to be dangerous," Curtis said slowly.

"Please?" I asked putting a hand on his arm and looking at him pleadingly.

"Oh okay," Curtis said.

"Great," I grinned and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Curtis' cheeks flushed with color and he took off out of the house.

"I think you've just made his day," Phil said grinning broadly.

I grinned.

"Okay," I said turning serious again. "We're going to have to make silver spears, or anything silver."

"Silver bullets?" Pim suggested.

"We don't have a gun, Pim," Phil said rolling his eyes. "Besides, guns are barbaric."

"Spears would do the trick," I said. "Anything sharp and pure silver."

"Mom and Dad aren't going to be happy about stealing," Pim said pawing through one of the drawers. "But oh well."

Curtis came back an hour later with silver objects…a silver knife, a silver fork, a silver tray and other various objects.

"Are these pure silver?" I asked.

Curtis nodded.

"They come from antique store. Woman say they 100 silver,"

Phil, Pim and I glanced at each other.

"You didn't…steal them…did you?" Pim asked slowly.

"No," Curtis said shaking his head. "Woman gave them to me before she run screaming out of store."

We giggled.

"Now what?" Phil asked.

Keely came back down from the Diffy's attic.

She also had some silver objects.

"I found these," she said dumping them on the kitchen counter.

"Now, we use one of your gadgets to turn these into weapons," I said. "Would the Wiz'rd do the trick? Or the Darin?"

"Might," Phil said as he pulled out the Wiz'rd and Darin. He handed Pim the Darin and they pointed them at the silver objects.

In a flash of light, the entire silver collection was turned into silver spears…pure silver from tip to handle.

"Excellent," I said beaming. "We've got to hide these until the Androse' are ready."

"When will that be?" Pim asked.

"Any day now," I said gravely.

So the next few days, we waited nervously without any indication that the Androse's were up to something.

Mr. and Mrs. Diffy didn't mind the silver spears, as long as we knew what we were doing.

I assured them that this was the only way, or else the werewolves would continue to hunt and torture humans.

Pim, Keely, Curtis and I were polishing the silver spears. I was using an old rag. I applied some of the special polish on the rag and ran it along the tip.

"Careful," Phil said looking up from his spear.

"Don't worry," I said smiling reassuringly.

Suddenly, the rag tore and I felt my palm slide across the blade. The pain was excruciating and a small hiss of steam rose up from the laceration. I screamed and clutched my hand.

"Gabrielle!" Curtis cried as he rushed over to me.

"Water," Phil said immediately.

Phil turned on the faucet and Curtis shoved my hand under the cold water. It felt soothing, but it was too late. I felt my body becoming weak.

PHIL.

Gabrielle was slumped against Curtis.

"Weak," she said leaning against him.

"Get her upstairs," Pim said urgently.

Curtis helped her up the stairs.

"Will she be alright?" Keely asked alarmed as pure concern and worry filled her expression.

"She should be," I said clearing my throat. "It was only a small laceration. The silver didn't really go through her skin."

But I was feeling just as terrified myself.