A/N: So I thought it would be funny to incorporate a version of S2E7 Child of the moon. Of course some things are slightly different, because the early appearance of Lacey has changed the storyline just a bit. Once again I emphasize that I do not own the show or its characters. Or the lines I use from the show. Most of that comes later chapters, but I did bring in one here (out of context though), see if you can find it.
My point being: If you guys haven't watched Child of the Moon yet now's the time. Spoilers and stuff. Also because that episode is awesome.
Chapter 14: A Caged Wolf Is An Unhappy One
"Did you check the closet again?"
"I checked Granny, it's not there!"
My quiet anxiety is slowly building to a full scale panic attack. We are both thinking the same thing. I haven't turned in twenty eight years. There is no way of knowing if I can control it, but chances are I can't. It takes a composed mind to control the wolf and that isn't exactly the description of me these days.
By the time the diner is set to open neither of us is in any state to be attending other people, but Granny puts on a customer-friendly face and opens anyway. She has hired extra help today and sent me away to search the apartment through again. I give up around the time the building looks like the third world war.
"Maybe it didn't make it across?"
"Maybe not. This is bad Ruby."
"Don't tell me that! How come your made-of-wood freaking crossbow makes it, but my magical hood doesn't?"
"I don't know Ruby."
"Well, what are we gonna do?"
Granny is silent for a minute, pausing at the cash register. Then her face lights up as an idea dawns her.
"We build a cage."
"A cage?"
"Yes girl, a cage. Start emptying the freezer in the back, that's the strongest thing we have." I stare at her, but she seems to be serious. I'm having a hard time imagining that a giant freezer is going to rein the wolf in.
"Well, what about the food?"
"It gets bad. We have other things to worry about. Get going!"
I obey and start removing everything from the room. Granny puts up a 'closing early' sign. Apart from biscuits and fruit there will be nothing good to serve people for the next couple of days anyway. This is if I leave the diner intact during my turn. It feels like this is what's gonna make my head explode. Snow is gone, Lacey is gone and soon my humanity will be taken from me once again. Rumpelstiltskin is right, the wolf doesn't fit into this world and most of the people here don't even know about it. They didn't know me as Red. There's a whole town full of innocent people left at mercy if a mindless, savage creature. That's what I will be in some hours. A ferocious beast in a cage. Hopefully I don't break free.
The bell on the door to the diner rings and in walks David. He looks upset. He takes another look at the stacks of food and his expression changes to surprise.
"What's happening?" He asks.
"Wolf time", I tell him. "We're building a cage." He catches on quickly and starts to help me move the food and take the shelves down inside the freezer. The distress sneaks back to his face as he works.
"What's wrong David?" I ask him.
"Nothing."
"Come on. I'm turning into a monster in a few hours. Humor me."
He makes a grimace as if he's not sure whether to smile at me or not.
"It's Spencer. King George, my adopted father. He… came to see me earlier. He was implying that I have no business running this town and he challenged me. Told me he was going to prove that I don't have what it takes. I have to find out what he's up to. That man is capable of too many things."
I take the piece of cheese that he's holding. "Go then. Find out what he's up to. Granny and I have got it."
"You sure?"
I nod and smile. Friendly facades, as Gran calls them. He nods back and leaves the diner.
As he leaves someone else enters.
I was wrong. This is what's gonna make my head explode.
Belle takes a look around. I try to hide out in the back, but I know that it's too late. She's seen me. I hear her say a polite hello to Granny and then walk my way. I can still separate her footsteps from any others. Of course now that my wolf hearing is back at full force I can separate most footsteps.
"Ruby? Can we talk?"
"I'm a little busy here Belle." I push beside her without looking at her. She walks after me out to the back of the kitchen where I've continued stacking the food from the stock in the freezer. Our smaller freezer in the back is already overloading.
"Well, what's happenin'?"
"Wolf time", I tell her. First she doesn't seem to understand me. Then it dawns her.
"You're the werewolf."
"Right."
"Ruby please…"
I turn around and face her, crossing my arms.
"What?"
That takes her by surprise. Then she starts fiddling with something in her hands.
"Just need to talk. I don't know who to talk to. I didn't have friends here other than you. It's just that…" She trails off and looks away. When I'm about to make a move to leave the room, she meets my gaze again and goes on: "I wasn't cursed the same way the rest of you were. I didn't really have an identity, so I shouldn't have a problem knowin' who I am. Still I'm so confused all the time. I know that as Belle, I never touched alcohol in my life and now I want to drink." She looks down at her hands and that something she's been holding shines in the light. It turns out to be her AA coin. "I look at this coin and it only makes me think of you. Won't you take it?" She stretches out her hand towards me, handing me the coin.
I look at her in disbelief. "What? No! I don't want to take away the only reminder you have of me!"
"I don't know what to do here Ruby!"
"Well figure it out! I don't have time for this. I'll be turning into a wolf in a few hours. You really don't want to hang around for that. Please leave!" I walk away.
"What if I do?" She asks.
"You don't", I answer and leave her standing in the kitchen, trying not to let her words get to me. It's time to find out if this town has got any chains strong enough to contain the wolf.
As the dark falls upon Storybrooke I sit in our giant freezer, tense and nervous, but at the same time filled with a childish anticipation. There are chains around my wrists and chains on the outside, supporting the built-in lock. The stirring of the wolf is growing by the minute, itching in my skin and sending shivers down my spine.
I've read a lot of teenage novels about werewolves. Even when I was just Ruby I was drawn to this particular mythology. I felt like it spoke to me in some way. I found that silly, so I didn't tell anyone, but of course now I know it really did speak to me. In most of these stories the werewolf only turns when watching the full moon. Like the sight of it triggers the transformation. If only it was that easy. I would just stay indoors and stare at the ceiling all night and that would be it.
It's not that simple. As soon as the full moon is highest in the sky the curse finds me no matter where I am. God I miss my hood right now. I never liked the thing, but right now I want to bury myself in it.
That's when it happens. The familiar growing shiver. My body starts to tremble. The moon is up.
I fight with all my willpower to stay focused, feel every aching twist of my body as it metamorphs into the wolf. My mind starts to flicker, receiving only glimpses. The room changes as my body grows in size. The wolf is not happy with being in here…
… A growl rips through my throat…
… Claws hammering against the door. Metal creaking…
… The ground underneath my paws has changed. It's softer, warmer. I'm running…
… The smell of fresh air. The smell of forest. Wind in the trees, insects buzzing, every sound magnified…
I wake up to the sound of someone calling my name.
Granny is standing over me with her crossbow in one hand and the other one reaching out for me. David is standing beside her with a concerned look on his face.
"Where… Where am I?"
"In the forest, girl. You broke out."
"So it didn't work", I say, disappointed. I take her hand and get up. My body is still vaguely trembling from the turn and feels weak now that I'm back in human form. Sounds has subdued, smells vanished. The world seems a little bleaker.
"How much do you remember?" David asks.
I try to recall last night. I was turning, feeling like a caged animal, for good reasons. I was running… Running where? In here?
"I remember starting to turn and then it got sort of blurry. I remember I was running and it smelled like fresh air and forest. Then I woke up here. I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry, Ruby. Let's get you back to town", David says and we start to walk. His phone buzzes and his expression becomes worried again as he checks the message.
"I've got to go, see you back there." Then he runs.
"I really was hoping I could control it. I really tried."
"We didn't expect you to, girl. It's been a long time."
"Yeah..."
"We will have to order a new freezer though." I laugh. Not because it's funny that I completely wrecked it, but because of the absurdity of it. I realize how used I've gotten to live like a normal person. So accustomed to it, that turning into a wolf feels surreal even though it's been happening since I was thirteen.
I'm not sure I even like being myself again. Regina thought she was punishing us by erasing who we were. Now I'm thinking that she underestimated how much crap we wanted to forget. How much we were actually starting to like our new lives.
I laugh again when I actually see the amount of damage caused to the metal cage I've broken out of. Sometimes I'm still taken aback by the power of the wolf.
When we walk back into the diner David is there again. The worry is still evident in his face. I don't like it.
"Ruby, do you have a sec?" He asks.
"Um, sure."
"I'll make some calls about a new freezer. We'll have to figure out something else for tonight." It's true, wolf time is two nights. Like some sort of aftermath. I wonder what kind of damage I'll be causing then. I try to push it aside, even if it is just for a few hours.
"What's up David?"
"We have a missing person's report. Billy Carson. Or known to some as Gus the mouse. He didn't show up for work today, which is unusual and he's not at home, his coworkers said. They said you might know something?"
"Why would I know something?" I ask warily.
"They just said that he's been talking about you a while back, like you two were something of a thing… I just wanted to ask you, if you have any idea, where he might be?"
"I don't." There's a growing panic in my gut and I voice my concern. "David, what if I'm the reason he's missing? What if I did something during my blackout?"
"Hey, let's not get ahead of ourselves here okay?"
"We can help find him", Granny says as she reenters the diner. "Ruby can track him by smell."
I nod silently, not sure that I want to. I have a bad feeling about this.
"That would be great, now that we can't rely on Emma's skill to find people."
"It's been months since Ruby had anything to do with that boy. Don't try to pin anything on her."
"I'm not, I'm just asking a few questions. It's a sheriff's job." Granny is eyeing David suspiciously, but doesn't say any more.
"Actually I met him just the day before yesterday. We just talked for a few minutes."
"That doesn't change anything. Come on", Granny says. David and I follow her outside and we take the cars. The diner is kept closed for now.
"He works at the mechanic shop, so let's see if you can pick up anything from there."
Granny nods. "Down by the dock, I know it. We'll lead."
She starts driving. Her face wears a grave expression. We sit in silence as the cars move through town downwards. I still feel the anxiety growing in my gut and spreading throughout my system.
"Granny, what if I did it?"
"Don't assume the worst Ruby, listen to David. Now, we're closing in, pull down the window and see if you pick something up."
I do as she says. First I smell the grease of the motor oils, a variety of human smells, most of them with a quality of sweat. I concentrate harder, trying to separate Billy's from the rest.
"There it is!" I say out loud as I catch it. Not as sweaty as most of them, thank god. It's a natural smell mixed with that aftershave he wears.
"Which way Ruby?"
"The docks. Further down. He went that way."
As we drive the smell of Billy mixes with the fresh air from the ocean. Fresh air… It reminds me of something, but I can't make out what it is.
As we reach the end of the driveway by the dock we get out. As I step out of the car every smell becomes more vivid. And there's more.
"I smell blood."
The anxiety is creeping into the surface of my skin as I approach a truck standing a few feet in front of us. The smell is coming from there. My heart starts to pound impossibly hard against my ribcage as I take one insecure step after the other. David arrives and follows us.
"What is it Ruby?"
I walk around the truck.
There is a leg hanging out the side of the trunk.
The leg is so torn it's barely recognizable as something human.
The smell of blood intensifies and so does the smell of Billy.
I start to scream.