Lost Child, Dark Child

She stroked the large animals head. This always soothed her for some reason. Sighing she looked up at the full moon wishing she could remain here but soon they would be looking for her. As if they were reading her every thoughts.

“Risa! It’s time for you to come in now!” The woman’s voice echoed out into the night.

Closing her eyes, trying to drown out that annoying voice. The animal beside her nuzzled her cheek as if sensing her distress. It growled in the direction the voice came from.

Opening dark eyes she place a gentle hand on its head, “no, their time will come.” She told the beast. Looking down into the animals clear blue eyes she willed it to stand and move. She placed a hand on its soft fur and pulled herself up. As she dusted the dirt from her jeans another voice echoed through the night.

“Where are you Risa, it’s time for you to come home!” This voice was deeper, more firm.

Smirking, ‘like that was going to make me move faster,’ she thought as she turned toward the large wolf. Smiling she couldn’t wait to come back to visit. She wished that her life was different but she had to endure this torture.

‘Not long my sweet, not long,’ a voice flowed sweetly though her mind. The voice comforted her unlike those others. She turned and headed toward the voices that grated on her nerves, towards people that held no real purpose in her life other than to feed her and provide shelter like they are suppose to do.

Risa stood in front of a blue door, ‘how I hate this,’ she thought as she grabbed the knob and turned. Inside she could smell the dinner that no doubt was waiting for her. Closing the door behind her she stepped inside.

A woman in her mid-thirties walked down the hall wiping her hands on a dish towel, “didn’t you hear me calling you earlier sweetheart?” She asked Risa. The woman moved to hug Risa but hesitated when the look in the young girl’s eyes dared her too. She lowered her arms and stepped back, gripping the towel.

Risa smiled one of many fake smiles she has perfected over the years. “Sorry, I was looking at the moon. Its full tonight,” her voice took on a more dreamlike tone as her mind wondered back to the bright disc in the midnight blue sky.

A worried expression flickered across the woman’s face as she looked toward the living room, hoping her husband had heard.

Risa turned her expression back toward the woman whose eyes held a glimmer of worry, smiling Risa turned toward the dining room. Thinking, ‘they should worry. Two more years, just two more years.” Risa told herself as she sat down at the table.

The woman and man moved as one toward the dining room. Their eyes took in the sight of the sixteen year old girl sitting at the dining room table fixing her dinner. She seemed normal but they knew what was lying underneath. They knew their fate once they were chosen. As they sat down they went about the task of trying to make small talk with Risa, but they were ignored.

‘How pathetic,’ Risa thought as she continued to eat her baked chicken with rice. When she was finished Risa pushed her plate away and made to stand. Smiling she counted down in her head: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.’

“Risa honey, don’t you like it here?” her pathetic care giver asked.

The male looked at his wife then toward her. “We are like a real family, aren’t we?”

Turning around she looked at each. Risa’s eyes had taken on an otherworldly glow of silver as she stared at them. “We are not a family. Two more years,” she hissed at them then turned and headed toward the stairs.

As she reached the top she could hear the woman breakdown. She was babbling about how they have to let them live. Shaking her head she went to her room. Once inside Risa dropped down to her hands and knees as her body contorted and twisted. She moaned in pain and pleasure as the change took her. As quickly as it started it stopped. Her hands and knees gave out, she fell to the floor, drenched in sweet, frustration strummed through her body. She cursed the way her people were born. She cursed that they had to stay with care givers until they were eighteen years. In order to reach the full transformation.....her body tensed at the thought. Her mind raced with excitement and anticipation.

On her eighteenth birthday, in order for her to fully transform and be a real part of the pack... she had to consume her care giver's life force until they are no more! Risa pulled herself off the floor and walked over to the window. A howl broke through the night, reaching out to her. And she felt that voice flowing through her mind, 'two more years.'

Risa could still hear the woman sobbing about how she had always wanted children. Smiling Risa thought, ‘be careful what you wish for.’