THE MOONLESS WEREWOLF

Chapter 1: The Night I Was Not Weak The moon is full tonight, that means I am nothing. My name is Kayden Rivera. I am 19 years old. And I am the only werewolf in the world who gets weak when the moon is full. It is 2:47 AM. I am mopping the floor of ".Lunari Academy." The water in my bucket is dirty. The smell of bleach burns my nose. The floors are long and the halls are empty. This is my job because I am the night janitor. I like the night because in the night, no one sees me. unlike the the day, everyone sees me and insults me. "Look, it’s the Moonless." "Hey Moonless, clean this." "Why are you even here, freak?" They laugh. I keep my head down and I try not to mind what they say .. That is how I survive. - In our world, all werewolves are called ". Lunari". and there is only one law we all know: "We grow strong under the Full Moon. We grow weak under the New Moon." On full moon nights, my classmates can break walls with their hands. They can run faster than cars. They can smell fear from 10 meters away. They howl in the courtyard and the whole school shakes. On new moon nights, They will get weak when the sky is black. They sleep a lot and hide that is why the guards are doubled. But me? I am backwards because on full moon, I am human. I get tired and hurt easily. I can’t smell anything and I can’t hear well. I am the weakest person in the whole school. On new moon nights... Something else happens to me but I don’t talk about that. No one knows because if they knew, I am scared that they would kill me. So I hide and I work at night. .I stay quiet because I just want to live until the next day. --- Tonight the moon is so bright. It is shining through all the windows. It should be a good night for them. But the school is too quiet, There is no training sounds. No yelling from the courtyard. No music from the dorms... I notice that everything is just silence, and that makes my chest feel tight so I stop mopping. Drip. Drip. Water falls from the mop, then I hear it. I hear a sound. _Tear. Like paper being ripped in half, but I notice that far away from the east wing, I hear a scream and I hear Professor Hale’s voice. My hands start to shake, I should not go...because- Moonless wolves like me should not help. Moonless wolves run and hide, that is the rule for people like me. But I can still hear him. “Help—” I drop the mop and the bucket tips over and the dirty water spreads on the floor. I run. My feet are loud on the tile because the east wing doors are big metal doors. Tonight they are bent inward like something very big hit them from the other side. The air coming out smells wrong... It is not blood and sweat. It smells like rotten meat and cold air. It smells like the stories the old wolves tell at night. *Voidborn* My stomach drops because Voidborn are demons, They live in the dark between worlds.. They can only come out when there is *no moon*. They will come when the sky is black and when all werewolves are weak. But tonight there Is a moon. A big and bright full moon. so why are they here? I push the door open a little. The hallway is dark and the lights are broken. There is blood on the walls. A lot. and there are three of them. The Voidborn. They are tall and their arms bend the wrong way. Their mouths are too big for their faces, they have a full of teeth... They have too many teeth, They are dragging Professor Hale. His eyes meet mine. He is still alive but his throat is cut open. “Run,” he mouths. “Run, boy.” One of the Voidborn turns its head to me... It looks at me. It tilts its head like a dog, Then it smiles. ".I am dead. I said to myself .. I felt scared and I am shaking... I am human on a full moon, I have no claws, I have no speed. I have no strength. I am just a boy with a mop. The Voidborn drops Professor Hale and walks toward me. Step. Step. The floor shakes. I back up and my heart is beating so fast. I think of my mom, I think of how I never told anyone I was scared every night. I think of how I just wanted one person to not call me Moonless. The Voidborn opens its mouth. A black tongue comes out. It jumps. --- I close my eyes and I wait for pain. But it doesn’t come, Instead, the air gets cold. So cold my breath turns to fog and the light from the windows disappears. I open my eyes, I saw that the moon is gone. No behind clouds and no eclipse. I wonder because it just gone. I saw that the sky outside is black, but inside me, I felt that something breaks. I felt pain. I felt a sharp pain in my back. Like someone is cutting me open from the inside. I fall to my knees and I scream. I felt that my bones is pushing out. Crack. Crack. My vision goes black for one second, then it comes back, but it is different now because I see everything clear. I can see in the dark and I can smell the rot on the Voidborn. I can hear it's heart beating. It's sounds fast and scared. I look at my hands, they are not hands anymore. They are claws. Black and long. My skin is darker and my teeth hurt. When I stand up, the pain is gone and its place I felt a power, I felt so much power in myself... The Voidborn is still in the air and they are jumping at me. But now I am faster than them, I move to the side. It crashes into the wall. I grab its arm, It is strong. But I am stronger. I pull and it tears off, It screams in the sound that is not from this world. The other two Voidborn turn to me, They see what I am now. They see the black bones on my back and they see my black eyes. They run but I do not let them. The hallway becomes red and becomes loud and fast. When it is over, there is nothing left of them, just pieces and Just black smoke. I am breathing hard and I felt pain in my chest. The bones on my back hurt... But I am alive. -- The moon is still gone and the sky is still black. I walk out of the east wing but the whole Academy is silent. . I pass the courtyard... I saw that the Alphas are there. They are strongest students in the school. They are on their knees and they are holding their heads. They are weak, Because there is no moon. I pass the teachers’ office and I saw that they are all dead. Every single one of them and I am the only one standing I look at my hands again, They are still claws. I try to hide them in my pockets but It doesn’t work. I hear a footsteps behind me when I turn around slowly. I saw .... ". Lira Vance." She is the Alpha Heir and daughter of the strongest Alpha in the country. She has gold eyes and long black hair, In the day, she is the one who trips me in the hall. She is the one who calls me Moonless the loudest. She is the one who told everyone I should be kicked out. Tonight she looks different. Her uniform is torn and there is blood on her face but it is not hers. Her eyes are wide and she is looking at me like I am the monster, Maybe I am. “The moon,” she whispers. Her voice shakes. “It’s gone.” I look up.... She is right. There is nothing in the sky. Just black. “How,” she says. “How are you standing?” I don’t answer, I don’t know how to. She takes a step closer, She looks at my back. “You... you killed them,” she says. “The Voidborn. You killed them.” I nod once. She stares at me for a long time then her shoulders drop. Like she is tired and she is scared “The Alphas are down,” she says. The teachers are dead and the moon is gone. And you are the only one left.” She laughs. But it is not a happy laugh because it sounds broken. “The Moonless,” she says. “The cursed one.” I wait for her to attack me and To call the guards. and to tell everyone what I am. but Instead she just looks at the sky. “They’re coming back,” she says quietly. “The Voidborn. They only come when there is no moon. And the moon is not coming back tonight.” A cold feeling goes through me. “What do you mean?” I ask. My voice sounds rough and different. Lira looks at me and for the first time, she is not laughing. For the first time, she looks at me like I am a person. “I mean,” she says, “that we are going to die. Unless you help us.”