Full Moon Howls

CHAPTER FIVE

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday came and still, Wilhelmina didn't want to enter the University Shop. Friday was drawing nearer and Lupe and Wilhelmina were getting nervous.

Wilhelmina, because of her Opinion Essay. But Lupe had a different reason.

"My mother wants me back again." Lupe told her.

Wilhelmina had a restless night. She couldn't sleep. She shuffled and punched her pillows but she couldn't sleep. She looked at her phone. It's twelve in the morning. She looked at the date.

January ten. It's her birthday.

"Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. It won't get any better, you'll be sad forever."

Nick composed this. Funny, he was a dropout and yet he could rhyme two words. Sometimes she wondered wether it was a coincidence.

It was really hot. She laid there for a few minutes, eyes closed and concentrating hard to find sleep. Her body gave a sudden jerk which she ignored. But it was unignorable. The jerk was painful. And the pain remained. Spreading through her body and making her groan.

Finally, she decided to take a cup of milk that she might sleep. She sat up and looked at her reflection. She didn't scream. She didn't do anything at all. She was frozen.

Reflected in front of her is not Wilhelmina. But a great wolf. A great, brown wolf with dark brown eyes. Slowly, Wilhelmina looked at her hands. There were no hands. But paws! Is she asleep, or is she having hallucinations? No one must see her like this! She tried standing with two feet but felt uncomfortable. So she bent on all fours.

Wilhelmina examined herself in the mirror. There is no mistaking it. She is a wolf. She could touch the mirror. And her head isn't as blank as it's supposed to be if she's dreaming.

Loveta gave a little grunt.

Wilhelmina's heart raced. Loveta would scream if she saw her. And it would attract attention. If that happens, they will catch her and – and what? Kill her? Jail her? How if she transformed back as herself?

Instinctively, Wilhelmina took her ripped clothes, put it on the trash, and took a robe. She used her mouth to carry it.

Where will she hide? Under the bed? In the closet? She should leave this building.

Wilhelmina opened the door with her snout and run down the stairs. Then swiftly on the sly, she run to where she run if she's distressed. The bench near the forest. Wilhelmina crawled herself on the bench. But before she put her head down, a guard came walking.

Wilhelmina run to the forest immediately. The guard passed by whistling with his flashlight. It isn't safe out there. The safest place is the forest. Yes. She must stay in the forest until this is done. But tomorrow is Monday. Classes again. What would he do? How if this doesn't goes off? When will it go? Why is this happening?

She walked round and round a tree, in the verge of tears. She continued questioning her situation. What has happened to her? Why did she become a wolf? Is she a werewolf? Are werewolves real? What would she do? How if she doesn't return back to normal? What do she have to do?

Question after question roamed on her head.

Wilhelmina woke up and she knew it was morning. She also know that she is completely n***d. The robes lay on her head as a pillow. She took it and wore it before anyone could see. The sun is still rising.

Wilhelmina run to the dormitory building and entered her room. Then cleaned off the leaves off her face and hair. She looked wild with her bushy hair full of leaves.

She took fresh new clothes and entered the shower. Her mind was questioning again.

Was that a dream? She was in the forest when she woke up. Was it a hallucination? Why would she have hallucinations?

After the bath, she immediately took out her laptop and directly searched one word. One word she pondered while in the shower.

Lycan.

It showed a picture of a werewolf. She rolled down pass pages and stopped to a question.

What does lycan mean?

She read the answer, cleared her search and searched about lycanthropy. There was a search suggestion and she pressed clinical lycanthropy.

It says here, it is a psychiatric syndrome within which the patient has the delusional belief of turning into a wolf.

This clears it all up! Wilhelmina is indeed having hallucinations. Her alarm rang and she pressed it immediately, closing the laptop and taking her school bag.

Wilhelmina didn't know half of what she was doing as the class went on. She knew that she was called in front to recite her Opinion Essay about the Pietà. And how she even recited it with thinking of last night, she doesn't know. She didn't hear one word of what the teacher was saying. When class ended, she followed everyone out of the room, bumping shoulders and muttering apologies to each other.

Wilhelmina was only brought back to reality when she heard a loud shout that made her jump.

"Willie!" Lupe called after the crowd.

He advanced towards her. Shouldering through the crowd.

"How was the recitation?!" he said.

"F–fine. I though you're with your mom?"

"I – she made me come home immediately." Lupe talked and talked but Wilhelmina barely listened. She barely even knew that what she was eating was a burger.

Why is she having hallucinations? Wilhelmina remembered the wolf in the building. The burgundy wolf in her dream. And the brown wolf in the mirror.

"Willie, are you alright?" asked Lupe. "Willie!"

Wilhelmina jumped.

"You don't look fine. Are you sick?"

Should Wilhelmina tell him? Will he laugh? Will he understand? Having hallucinations is different from having extreme shyness.

"Willie, why aren't you answering? Is there anything wrong that happened?

Yes. Yes there is. But she couldn't tell that. Wilhelmina shook her head and continued eating her burger.

"C'mon, you can tell me! Promise, I won't laugh."

"It's just –"

Her mind raced for a reason.

"My parents."

"Why, what happened to them?"

Wilhelmina bowed her head. "It's my birthday today. They seem to forget …" she suddenly felt sad. Her parents did forget. And the wolf problem was taken over by the sadness.

"Well, if it's your birthday, we should celebrate!"

"No. I'm fine. Eating … meat." Wilhelmina said.

There was silence following it.

"Are you ready for the next step of your ladder anyway?"

"Yeah." Wilhelmina answered without thinking.

"Great!"

After she finished her burger, Lupe pulled her to the University Shop near the forest.

"Here. Buy me a journal and a pen. Greet Messrs Wright and Phillips good morning and ask them how the shop was going."

Wilhelmina entered the shop. "Good morning."

" … and bushy – Good morning dear."

Wilhelmina took a journal and a pen. Then put it in the counter.

"You sure it's a wolf?" Mr Phillips asked while calculating her supplies.

"Yes!"

"A wolf?" Wilhelmina asked.

"Yes dear! Big and brown wolf! With robes in front of it?"

Wilhelmina's heart raced again. "Robes? Who owns it?" she asked.

"I don't know."

"Are they ripped?"

"No. That's what makes me curious. It might still be tracking the robe owner." Mr Wright said.

"Or maybe, the robe owner is it's friend. C'mon, their's no need to worry about! Anyway, wolves avoid humans don't they?" Mr Phillips suggested. "Here girl, a hundred and ten Benna."

Wilhelmina left the shop and almost forgot why she entered, when Lupe gave her a thumbs up!

"You didn't even stutter!"

"How did you hear?" Wilhelmina asked.

He pointed at his ears. "My ears are as sharp as a wolf's." Wilhelmina pursed her lips at this words. "What's wrong?"

"I do not like wolves."

"Was that why you were scared? You heard Mr Phillips though. It might be a friendly wolf." Lupe said. "Why don't you like wolves?"

"They're – big and scary. Carnivores. And – and too fast." Wilhelmina answered. Half of this is lie.

"Too fast?"

"Yes. There was one time, in a building – in a building, seriously! – and a big black wolf passed by. I hate wolves. Really!" Wilhelmina said.

Lupe didn't press the topic further.

"I do not like wolves either." he said. "But hey, here's your birthday present! Surprise!"

He gave the journal and pen.

"You want to be a writer right?"

"How did you know that?"

"Don't you remember? You told me so in a corridor!" Lupe laughed.

Wilhelmina smiled. This is the most confusing birthday of her whole life. Her parents forgot her birthday and she had turned into a wolf. The only good it did is that she has improved exposing herself.