Chapter 8 - Wolfsbane

I sat down on the sofa and started to pull the boots on. When Maddy walked in, I looked at her warily, she looked like she was about to reveal a terrible secret.

"You didn't smell or sense anything?" She asked

"No."

"Me neither."

"So, she's wrong."

"Maybe not, maybe it's smart."

"Are you two coming?" We heard a shout from the hallway.

"Just trying to get these boots on." I shouted back.

"So let's say, it is the wild Wolfblood. So it lives on the moors, sometimes comes foraging on your territory, and can mask its own scent. How does seeing it help Shannon?"

"Her family thinks she's crazy. I mean seriously crazy. And Shan's starting to wonder if they're right. She needs to know it's real, and we're going to help her, even if it means one of us transforming to do it."

"What?!" She couldn't be serious, did she want them to find out?

"Maddy! Rhydian!" Shannon shouted for us.

"Coming!" Maddy got up and left, giving me a pointed stare before she walked out.

After Shannon showed us about the map and stolen animals, I gestured to Rhydian to come with me into the lounge.

"Look, Rhydian, we need to do this, I owe it to Shannon."

"But what if it is out there? What if it attacks us again?"

"We defend ourselves!"

"What, as wolves? In front of our friends?!"

"Well... Maybe it's time they found out. I'm having stress dreams!"

"Now who's the crazy one?"

"I can't keep lying to them, Rhydian. Look what it's done to Shannon."

"You'll feel ten times worse when they're broadcasting the news to the rest of the world!"

"They wouldn't do that."

"How do you know that? What if they can't handle it? What if you fall out with them?"

"I'll take that risk!"

"But this isn't about you. This is about all of us - me, your mum and dad, all Wolfbloods."

"My friendship understand that."

"Don't use friendship as an excuse. This is about you, feeling guilty."

"It's about me living truthfully for once."

"But you can't for a reason, why do you think Wolfbloods have kept themselves hidden for so many years? Even the wild ones. It's because human beings wiped most of us out. Or is your dad lying about all that?"

I stared at Rhydian in disbelief, I had never seen him this angry at me. Just then, Shannon walked into the room holding a glass of water and some herbal pills.

"Am I interrupting something?"

"No, course not," I answered for both of us.

"Right, well, this is the only cold remedy I could find. It's aconite. One of my mum's homeopathic remedies." She walked over to Maddy and opened the tin.

"What one of those New Age, unscientific things you don't believe in?"

"Yep, it's basically sugar pills covered in plant extract. They sort of just make you think yourself better, right, open," she put it in Maddy's mouth, "if that doesn't work, pop another one, can't do any harm."

Once Shannon left Rhydian turned to me again.

"You can't tell them, Mads. This is my secret too."

"Sorry Rhydian, but I can't live like this anymore."

I shook my head at her antics. There was no way I was going to let her tell Tom and Shannon. It would be disastrous!

"Maddy."

"If the time's right..." She said, her eyes turning yellow.

"Maddy!" I interrupted her.

"I'll do what I have to do."

"Stop it!"

"Smell those burgers?" She sniffed the air and almost moaned in pleasure.

"Maddy, no!"

"I'm starving."

"Maddy, NO!"

"I need meat!" She ran for the door and I went to grab her.

"You're not going in there!" I grabbed her around the waist and tried to pull her away from the doorway but she grabbed on to the edge with her fingertips.

"Can't you smell it?" She shouted.

"I won't let you do this!"

"Let me go!" She was struggling and wriggling. I managed to pull her away and carry her up the stairs whilst she was growling and hitting me. There was no way Tom and Shannon couldn't hear this.

"You need the bathroom!"

"I need MEAT!"

Tom and Shannon came to the bottom of the stairs just in time to see me carrying a kicking and screaming Maddy up the stairs.

"What's happening?!" Shannon shouted from below me.

"Maddy's sick." I shouted back over Maddy's grunts and screams of frustration that I wasn't letting her go.

"I'm not sick, I'm hungry!"

I ran into the bathroom with her and put her down.

"Will you stop?" Maddy shoved me away and I went and locked the door. I could hear Tom and Shannon running up the stairs outside the room.

"Maddy?" Shannon was outside.

"Look, look! Do you really want your friends to see you like this?" I pulled her over to the mirror and made her see her yellow eyes.

"Maddy?" It was Tom now.

"I'll be down in a minute, I'm just feelings but weird." She shouted back.

"Turn your wolf off" I told her.

"This isn't me."

"What? It must be!"

"Maddy?" Shannon again.

"It's not," she looked like she was about to cry.

"You're not doing this?"

"No, I swear"

"The pill"

"What?"

"It happened after you took that pill!"

"Like an allergic reaction?"

"Maybe," I considered it. It seemed highly possible.

"Rhydian, open the door" Tom shouted to me, they were getting impatient. Shannon knocked and shouted,

"Maddy!"

"How do I turn it off?"

"Right, stay here, lock the door."

"Get out then!" She pushed me out and I walked out without letting Tom and Shannon see inside.

"She's in a bad way, temperature's through the roof."

"Since when are you a medical expert? My mum's a doctor, let me look." Tom was adamant.

"She's being sick." I heard her fake a retching sound and almost smiled, "I should take her home."

"I can take her." Tom argued again

"Well you're cooking," I tried to think of a better excuse.

"What is it with you Rhydian? Why do you keep wanting to get Maddy on her own?"

"I'm not."

"Yes you are! Just admit you fancy her and stop pretending."

"I'm not pretending!" Alright maybe a bit of a lie."

"Boys! We will ALL take her home." Shannon interrupted us arguing.

"That's pointless. I can do it." Tom was being very stubborn. Shannon sighed and walked off.

"Shannon!" Tom shouted after her, "Shannon, where are you going? He's just jealous, that's all, Shannon?"

I looked to my left at Shannon's bedroom door. Now was my chance. I went inside and went over to the computer. I looked up aconite, the pill Maddy took. Then I went to get her. I unlocked the door and Maddy came straight out wearing a big hoodie with some sunglasses to hide the veins and yellow eyes.

"Maddy!"

"Can't you smell it? I'm ravenous." She was still delirious.

"You're not going down there!" She started walking down the stairs but I grabbed her and pulled her back up again.

"I need meat!" She would have to wait.

"Wait. You've got to see this!" I pulled her into Shannon's room and showed her the computer screen, "this says aconite is also known as Wolfsbane. In folklore, consuming Wolfsbane was supposed to turn people..." Tom was knocking on the bathroom door, "into werewolves. Which is obviously rubbish. Unless..."

"You're a Wolfblood."

"Exactly."

A/N: Thank you