Effects of a Full Moon

“Is there anything else you want to know?” Nathan asked his two friends.

“Yeah. I’d like to know why you take Matthew all the way out to that forest. I mean, he could just stay here, wouldn’t it be easier?” Dan asked.

“We didn’t want to risk anyone seeing him through the windows or anything, and we hadn’t told you two and since you both had a key to get in, we just didn’t want to risk it.”

“Understandable. So are you going to take us out to the forest still?” Mateo asked.

Nathan shrugged. “I seriously don’t know. It might be best for your first transformation, so you have a large area of space to get used to it in, but it also depends on how Matt feels too.”

“What about Matt’s injuries? We all saw he got hurt.” Dan said.

“Yes, but when he changes back, they’ll go. Any injuries he has when he’s a wolf disappear when he changes back.” Nathan told them.

Mateo yawned. He was struggling to keep his eyes open, not because he found all of this boring, but because he was just tired from what had happened this evening. Nathan saw him yawning and stood up. “Come on, I’ll help you get upstairs Mateo.”

Mateo put an arm around Nathan’s shoulders and they slowly made their way up the stairs into the spare room. He left Mateo to sleep and returned downstairs to find Dan asleep on the couch. He smiled and put a cover over him before walking upstairs to get some sleep himself.

He woke up early by his alarm, and quickly changed and got a pair of clothes for Matthew. He left a note on the coffee table for Dan and Mateo saying he’d gone to pick Matthew up.

25 minutes later, he got to the place that he had gone to for the last 9 years for Matthew to transform, and he spotted him as soon he got out of the car. He was lying on his side, still in wolf form. Now it was getting a little lighter, he could see the blood caked onto his fur. He could also see he had bite marks all down his legs, and he knew that the way they were, they were self inflicted.

“Mattie…” Nathan said, with a sigh. Matthew opened his eyes looked up at him. “Why Mattie?” He asked sadly. “As soon as you turn back, I want to know why.” Matthew whined. “Don’t give me that whine. That’s your ‘I’m upset, don’t take it out on me’ whine. It‘s not going to work on me today.”

Seconds later, Matthew began to change. It was only a little less painful when someone made the change from wolf back to human, so as soon as Matthew’s mouth was back to normal, he began to scream. Nathan hadn’t been with Matthew when he had changed into or from a wolf for a long time and he hadn’t remembered how much pain Matthew actually went through.

When it was over, he got Matthew’s clothes and he dressed. He got Matthew into the car and he saw his brother wouldn’t look at him. “Matthew.” He said. “I’m not driving off until you tell me why you did that to yourself.”

“Why does it matter? They’re gone now.” Matthew held up his markless arms.

“What happened to Mateo was not your fault.” Matthew said nothing and Nathan sighed. They drove home silently. When they walked in, Dan and Mateo were up, talking in the lounge. Matthew paled when he saw Mateo.

“Matt…” Mateo started, but Matthew tried running upstairs. Nathan grabbed hold of him and pulled him into the lounge.

“Let go of me now Nathan, or I swear to God-” Nathan all but threw him down onto the armchair.

“Save it and talk to them.” He told his brother. Matthew looked down at his hands, not wanting to even look at his friends after what had happened.

“Matt, why are you being like this?” Mateo asked.

“I’m so sorry Mateo.” He whispered. He was so quiet, the others could barely hear him.

“Matt, it wasn’t your fault. I shouldn’t have got out of the car.”

“No, it is my fault, because if I wasn’t like this, you wouldn’t have been there in the first place!” Matthew shouted.

He got up and ran upstairs into his room, locking it before Nathan dragged him downstairs. “Come out Mattie! Please!” Nathan knocked on the door.

“Leave me alone!” Matthew shouted at him and didn’t say anything else for the rest of the day.