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Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

Moon Phase - Full

I shifted around ten in the morning yesterday...better not spend more than an hour and a half out here. As Alex resumed thinking about where Shane had gone, something began to dampen his drive to track him down. If he did find him, what would be the outcome, or the benefit? He'd been little more than evasive or agitated in response to his questions, and Alex couldn't see him being willing to share his source of meat.

After a few seconds to think on it, Alex pulled one positive into mind: locating Shane's home would lessen the strength of the upper hands he had on him, in the sense of being watched most of all. Wait a minute. He said he heard the pig squealing...is he really watching me or bullshitting me? Unable to think of an instance after the back to back arguments from a week ago where Shane, or his scent, had been present near his home, Alex began leaning towards the latter. For all he knew, he made that claim in anger and was banking on him believing he was serious.

And then there was what he'd said when Angela's death came up. That she was threatening his livelihood and the things he cared about. Alex's immediate thought was he fought her to defend what family he had; a few ideas of what could've prompted such a response stayed in mind as what felt like an hour and a half passed and he headed back across the street.

The startup of the air conditioner masked the noise of metal sliding against metal, and Alex slipped inside. The guest room door was still closed, and with an ear near it, he heard something from the television in the living room. Figuring his mother was sitting where she could see him open the door, he took a breath, gripped the doorknob and, hoping his fib from before had worked, twisted it before inching the door open.

His assumption was proven right; his mother was sitting on the left side of the couch, Bailey laying in her lap. As soon as she saw him, the TV was turned off. "Hey, mom." Alex said before he stepped into the hallway, the half full glass for Shane held in one paw.

"Did you...?" She cut herself off.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Alex said as he came closer, trying not to look pleased. "Didn't mean to scare you."

She shook her head. "You didn't. I just..."

Despite no further words, the gut punch Alex felt from his mother getting upset kept him from leaving the room, or looking directly at her for more than a second. With Bailey's attention not wavering from the massive wolf-man, Alex didn't try to approach her, as much as he wanted to. "I'll change back before midnight." He eventually said. "It shouldn't wake you up."

His mother sniffled. "Don't worry about that. I'm just glad you're okay."

"Me too." Alex said. His mother didn't respond, and his building thirst urged him into the kitchen. Shaking away the urge he felt to sniff at the glass in his paw, Alex filled another one and returned to his room.

Eventually, he heard his mother coax Bailey off her lap, and then after a few minutes, start heading his direction. His room light was left off when she peered in, allowing his nightvision to reveal how much she'd calmed down. "I'll see you tomorrow." She said after a second.

With his glass set aside, Alex got up from his chair and came closer. Though the inch back his mother took didn't escape his notice, he laid a paw on her shoulder before responding. "You too. Love you." His mother, in turn, reached up to hold and then pat and rub his paw and arm until she was ready to depart for her room.

Until he felt his pulse increase and his fingers go numb, which happened around 10:32, Alex flipped between being lost in daydreams and reading. The loss of his claws came first as he made his way to the pantry and down onto the floor, then the cracking and shrinking of the bones in his muzzle and hind paws. His muscles structure followed, as did his tail and ears, before all that remained was his chest and ribs. Every pop of bone and shrinking of muscle there allowed less air into his lungs to assist with his increased heartbeat, but once that part of his body was set, it was over. He was human again.

While he rubbed what remained of his pelt off his skin, exposing it to the cold of the house again, Alex let Bailey into the pantry. His muzzle went straight for his face, but stopped short of licking him in favor of sniffing him, his breaths blowing away strands of fur and causing him to sneeze. "I know, boy." Alex replied after a short chuckle. He rubbed Bailey's head once one of his arms was free of shed fur, and this time, his pet licked him.

Thursday, October 13th, 2011

Moon Phase - Waning Gibbous

6:53 a.m.

When he woke the next morning, he found Bailey sleeping back to back to him. His pet was roused at the first movement he made, though a belly rub kept him from getting up. When he heard one of his parents doing the same, Alex slipped out of bed and dressed, his XBOX helping pass the time until his mother emerged from her bedroom. "Morning." Alex said as she stood in the doorway.

"You sore at all?"

Alex shook his head. "Not really." His mother didn't respond, or move from where she stood, and after a moment, he got up and gave her a hug. The hold she had on him strengthened within a second, a hint that she was as happy as Bailey to see him as a human again.

When his mother at last loosened her hold, she spoke. "About yesterday, why was your stomach hurting?"

Alex took a second to think. "It wasn't hurting. I was just really hungry."

"For how long?"

"Quite a while. That was my fault."

"How come?"

"The animal I caught that night. I lost it. Couldn't find it afterward." His mother's hold tightened again.

"Then, was that all you did that day? Sit in that room?"

Alex nodded. "I didn't know what to expect. When it got bad, that was the best option I could see."

His mother didn't reply until her hold relaxed again. "Well, you're okay. That's what matters."

"Thanks, Mom." Alex said before she let go of him completely.

* * *

As he prepared to leave for class a few hours later, the sound of his father rousing pushed a question into mind: Had anything changed since yesterday? What he might have to do if hunting within the city became too risky followed, and stayed in mind as his father awoke and then left his bedroom. "Morning." Alex said when he saw him.

"Did everything work out?" his father asked, his tone not hinting at anything untoward.

Alex nodded in response. "Yeah. Stomach was driving me nuts, though."

"So, what was it you killed?"

How direct that question was made Alex shiver. His fib was delayed in turn. "A stray, I think. A large breed."

"You think?"

"There was no collar."

His father sighed, and Alex turned his head. Better this than letting him know he'd let Shane in the house, meat offering or not.

"I'm sorry, dad. I didn't want to."

"How bad was it?" his father asked after a few seconds.

At first confused, after a glance at his abdomen, Alex answered. "Like I was going into a second day without food."

After his father's eyebrows rose, he spoke. "You're kidding me."

Alex shook his head, now feeling his pulse speed up. "I didn't know it would get that bad that fast."

His father took a long breath in response, one hand over his mouth. A cold fear gripped Alex's heart in turn.

"There was nothing else around?"

Alex shook his head again. "I wasn't seen, though."

"Regardless, that could've been someone's pet."

"I know, and I didn't want to, but it was starting to scare me, that hunger." A tightening of his jaw muscles followed Alex's response.

"Then I take it you have some ideas about how to avoid that next month?"

This time, Alex nodded. "A few."

"Then you and me and your mother can talk about them come Friday. What you two did the other night is getting the precinct to bring in more canine units, and from what I've been told, more patrols at night as well."

Great. Just fucking great. As soon as his father left him alone, Alex changed his mind on whether to hunt down Shane or not. If nothing else, he needed to be warned.

As his classes went by, Alex thought over where to search, as well as when. He had a shift until seven tonight, as well as Friday, though Saturday was completely open. A few times, he thought of holding off the search until Saturday. He's have more time, and if he found the place after a few days' wait, Shane would probably be less likely to think he tracked him down just because of the meat. But then, nothing was stopping him from walking away and coming back later if he did figure out where the place was, and even if he found nothing, he'd eliminate however large an area he could cover.

With Shane not showing his face throughout his five-hour shift, Alex returned home to Bailey's playful bounding and barks and what remained of the meal his mother had fixed. One full plate was all he had before some playtime with his dog brought the time close to 7:45.

As he passed through the living room with his helmet and skateboard in hand, his mother spoke up, asking where he was going. "To the skatepark for a bit." Alex said.

"Isn't there a curfew in place?"

Alex stopped at the front door when he heard that. He'd completely forgotten, and after a second, said so in response.

Friday, October 14th, 2011

Moon Phase - Waning Gibbous

With the coming talk with his parents weighing on his mind all day Friday, when Nathan asked after class how things had gone, Alex's tone betrayed the answer he gave. That everything had gone alright. "What happened?" Nathan asked once the student herd had thinned out.

After Alex answered that he'd lost his first catch, his friend continued to lay out questions. Seeing no benefit in mentioning Shane or the meat he'd brought, he repeated what he'd told his parents when the subject felt close to coming up. "It wasn't painful. It just kept getting worse because I couldn't do anything."

"Can't say I want to relate."

"Neither do I." Alex felt an urge to say more, but refrained, and a few minutes later, he and Nathan parted ways with a handshake and some form of 'See you later.' For the length of his five-hour shift, he kept in mind what he planned to tell his folks. One or two ideas felt sufficient, if he explained himself well enough, or if they had no qualms about anything.

Even so, opening the front door when he was home, despite the scents of fresh lasagna leaking past the cracks, made him tenser than he was comfortable with. Bailey's presence helped some, even once he was seated at the dinner table; by then, the tension had spread into his chest.

"Is something wrong?" his mother asked after a minute of silence.

Alex shook his head. "No. Just thinking."

"C'mon, son. What's bothering you?"

Alex gave his father a glance at that, and tried to breathe easy. For the moment, he had no answer that felt right and stayed silent.

When he did speak, it came after a few rubs of Bailey's head. "Next month, mostly."

"You said you had some ideas about that."

"A few, yeah." His parents gave him a moment, but in that moment, doubt about one of his ideas crept in. "I could go out of town to find something."

"Out of town?" His mother glanced aside and met his father's eyes.

"I think that's too drastic, son. Plus, how would you stay hidden or eat while you're like that?"

"And what if something happened to you?"

"That too. We wouldn't know."

"I know." Alex said after a second. "Just an idea." The doubt he felt before delayed his next words. "I did come up with another one, but...it's not feasible and I don't want to do it."

"How come?" his mother asked.

"Because I couldn't afford to buy an animal every month, and then have them go missing right after." As that sentence left his mouth, Alex noticed his father look away from him, and hoped he wouldn't bring up the dog he'd 'killed.'

His mother however knew what he was implying, and covered her mouth. "Would you really do that?"

After an unconscious swallow was triggered in Alex's throat, and his silence went on for several seconds, his father spoke. "He already has."

"What?"

_Damnit, Dad._Alex thought as his eyes shut and squinched. A shock of embarrassed and horrified cold hit his nerves at the same time, sealing his lips over his teeth as his head lowered.

Even though he couldn't see, he felt the attention of his parents pierce his skin, and encourage him to slink back. "I didn't want to."

"But, why did you?" The disturbed tone from his mother was all too obvious, and in response, what Shane had told him sat in Alex's head.

He knew it was true, but saw nothing good coming from saying so. And he'd only screwed up once. He could keep from doing it again. He just had to be ready, or account for fatigue if he couldn't find anything.

"Alex?" his father said, and his spine went cold again.

"I was getting scared. I didn't know what would happen if that hunger lasted any longer, and just went with what I found."

"How long had it lasted by then."

"Almost eight hours." Alex said after doing a little math.

"He told me it felt like he'd gone a whole day and change without food by then." His father said when his mother didn't comment. "That aside, is that all the ideas you had?"

"Yeah. I couldn't think of any more."

His father exhaled before continuing. "How many days until you change again?"

Alex did the math in his head before responding with "26 days. The ninth next month."

"Then for now, keep thinking of ideas."

"Alright." After reopening his eyes, Alex glanced up at his parents. Convincing them that he would be safe, despite the heightened police presence and canine units, was an option, but not one he could see working beyond one more month. The idea of asking Shane who got him that meat then sprang to mind, before Alex questioned how willing he would be to say anything.

Alex tucked that thought away as the night went on. He had to find him first, and tomorrow, he'd have all day to look.