Cursed

"Finn, you can't just leave school because someone was 'bothering' you!" The neighbor's daughter, Shailey, cried at me.

"I can't very well reveal my real identity," I huffed at her. She sighed and flipped her silvery blond hair over her shoulder in an aggravated manner. Her grey eyes pierced me.

She poked at my chest with one of her bony fingers. "This is also your true form."

I pushed her cold hand away from me. "I thought you were here to watch over me on the supernatural levels rather than what I do as a person."

"Come on, we've known each other for years," she cooed, trying to lull me to her side of the argument.

"Not willingly," I growled, almost literally. "Unless I become dangerous, don't confront me."

I gritted my teeth. I was tired of her thinking that just because her family kept checks on my family, she could just tell me what I could and couldn't do in my daily life. And just because we've known each other for like forever, doesn't always make you friends. Our "friendship" was mostly just a co-existence. Our parents were actually friends though. Maybe we weren't as great of friends as our parents wanted us to be because we had always been kind of forced together.

And it wasn't just for no reason. She and her parents were sort of "guardians" for my family.

My family was.... different. My family consisted of... shape shifters, of a sort. A specific type. We were about to make the transformations into wolves. And the moon can push and pull the tides, it has the ability to control us, a limit anyways.

I didn't want to say that we were werewolves per se because it sounded more malevolent than what we actually were. But, I suppose at its base, that is what we are.

We belong to two worlds and yet neither. We belong to nature and also to humans, but in both we are also outcasts. The wolves can smell it in us, the human smells, the otherworldly scent surrounding us. They treat us as outsiders. They mind their business and they let us mind ours.

Humans, however, have completely buried our past and they fill their minds with ignorance. They have no idea that we exist. That, or they'd laugh in our face and call us liars. I suppose the idea of a human, just like themselves, transforming into a wolf right in front of their very eyes would be quite unbelievable. Unless you see it yourself. But fear rules them when they find something they know nothing about. Fear, or curiosity.

I don't know how we came to be. It's been in our family for generations and there's been some speculating on it. My parents told me it was because an old ancestor once met an old woman who had lived in a small town for years and everyone believed she was a witch. One day, she was accused of treason to her country and was tried on the allegations. My ancestor, who had evidence that she'd done none of the things that they were accusing her of. He, however, didn't come forward.

And so, she cursed him and his entire family and generations to come with spell that would force them to become outcasts themselves, but just in both worlds. So, her revenge came back in double.

Though, that's just what we like to tell ourselves because it makes for an interesting story.

But, that's why we live in the woods. We can be dangerous. But not all the time. Urges always feel a little stronger at night. But that's nothing compared to the full moon. The full moon calls us to the other side of our split lives. The pulls of nature on those nights is unbearable. It's when we're most feral, when we become beasts in the purest form. The wolves even recognize us as their own. It different on nights like those. And it's dangerous for us to be close to the town during the full moon.

However, in every other aspect we're normal human, indistinguishable from the rest of the population. We follow human laws, we go to school, and have normal jobs. We go to school because we're not immortal. We are still human, not liches who rise from the dead with infinite wisdom and beauty and such as vampires. And such as human, we still need social contact with others. Though some of us less than others.

I just stay away from people at school and in general. It's just.. humans make me... uncomfortable because my parents have told me factual stories about relatives from the entire bloodline that have been found out about their other form and hunted and... I just don't want to think of that. Besides, it's equally possible that I could find a wolf to confide in. Though, It's harder to "talk" to them seeing as they only use body language.

Without so much as another word to anyone who was surrounding me, I ran into the woods, first on two feet but once I was a reasonable distance away, I asked for nature's help with the transformation. I worked with "spirits" as my mother called them, to aid the metamorphosis. The thin hairs along my arms became thick and long and mangy. My nails became bulky and jutted out of my fingers. My spine twisted, surprisingly without pain and suddenly I was all fours. Literally. Every sense was heightened as I completed the process.

My head became much clearer as a wolf. Human thoughts resided but instinct took over. There's not much to think of as a wolf. No school, no Shailey, no parents. I'd be a wolf all the time except that my heart and body also belong to the human race as well as the canine race.

After awhile of running, I came to the edge of the woods, to one of the vacant houses. Well, used to be vacant. My first thought was that it could be squatters but I could smell humans within, and they didn't smell awful to me. One of them actually smelled damn pleasant. And I don't mean I want to eat them... they just smell nice like someone who stepped out of the shower smells good.

And then someone opened the window and pulled themselves up to sit on the ledge. I could tell it was a male and I tried to go just a little closer while staying in the shadows. But I stepped on a stick which made the boy jump and retreat back inside. Oh well, if he was young enough, he'd be at my school tomorrow.

And so I ran back into the woods and back home. I was tired anyways.