Bitten

Emma Shannon was wandering the lower field of John Muir Middle School with her anti-social Korean friend, Roy Kim. They were both 8th graders. Emma was about was a little over five feet tall with curly, golden-brown hair. She wore her hair tucked in a loose bun.

Roy was wearing a yellow jacket, which was extremely out of character for him, although he kept insisting it was black. Roy had shaggy black hair, glasses, and braces. He was extremely smart and had all A’s. He didn’t like talking to “peppy” or “upbeat” people, so it made absolutely no sense that he hung out with Emma Shannon.

Emma ran over to a group of her seventh grade friends. They were Sam Gorman, a tall boy with short, curly, brown hair and glasses; Emma Been, who had long brown hair and a bright white smile; Emma Frazier—yes, confusing, I know—, a blonde girl with bright blue eyes like the ocean and some freckles; Gwen Gagnon, a tough girl with slightly reddish auburn hair; Chandler Holland, a boy with darker skin and short black hair; Zeke Isbell who was an extremely fast short boy with loose light brown hair; and Ryan Austin, a freckle-faces boy with dark brown hair and mad dance skills. “Hey guys!” she yelled.

“Hey Emma!” they chorused back.

Emma S. looked at Roy, who was still following behind her. “Hey, that’s Roy. Isn’t his jacket yellow?!” she asked.

“Yeah. That’s definitely yellow,” Sam answered.

“No, it’s black!” Roy persisted.

Zeke smiled a devious grin. “Yeah, guys. What’s wrong with you? Sam, Emma, are you color blind? It’s clearly black!” the short boy with amber hair said.

Emma and Emma began to catch on to Roy’s plan. “Yeah! Do you need meds or something? His jacket’s black,” Emma B. said. She was almost as tall as Emma S. She was carrying one of the green rubber footballs the school lets kids check out at lunchtime.

“No! It’s yellow! He’s been doing this all day! That jacket is yellow!” Emma S. screamed, now having a mental breakdown. Everyone started laughing. Emma S. was eyeing the football in Emma B.’s hand (this is confusing, all the Emma’s and whatnot.). While everyone but Sam was laughing at the jacket issue, Emma S. snatched the football and took off running. Emma B. was about to tackle her, so she threw the football to Zeke, who sprinted off like lightning. Thus, the challenge began.

It turned into keep away. The boys and Emma S. versus Emma, Emma, and Gwen. Zeke raced to the other side of the field and passed the ball to Ryan. Roy watched from the sidelines, highly amused with what was going on. Ryan threw the ball to Roy on accident, who just pushed it aside and Chandler caught in. He was about to be tackled by Gwen, so he threw the football back to Emma S. She threw the ball to Sam, who dropped it. “SAM!!” his enraged teammates yelled.

He chased after the football. “I don’t play football, alright! I play soccer!” he shouted back.

Emma B. tackled him and started trying to pry the ball from Sam’s hands. He was strong, and resisted. Emma got frustrated and clamped her jaws down on Sam’s arm! “She bit me!” he screamed.

Emma Shannon dove into the scramble and tried to pry the ball from Sam to make Emma B. let go. Instead, Emma B. and Emma F. bit her. “They both bit me!” Emma S. yelled. The Emmas let go of Emma S. There were two giant red bite marks, one on each of her arms. Sam had one on his left arm. They both gave Emma B. and Emma F. a look that said “Oh my God, what hell’s wrong with you?” The bell rang and it was time to go to class. The rest of the day passed by really quickly.

That night, Sam had a horrible nightmare. He was walking down the street at night, alone. A pack of wolves leaped out from the bushes and started chasing him down the block. He tripped on a crack in the silence and the leader wolf, one with a silver coat and icy blue eyes, trapped him under its paws. Before the dream could get any worse, Sam bolted awake. It was only 2:37 in the morning. The bright full moon shone through his window and lit up the floor.

Emma S. also had a dream, but it was more… strange than frightening. She dreamed that she was on the moon having tea with a brown wolf, a silver wolf, and taco.

The next day the bite marks had not gone away, or even faded the slightest bit. Emma showed her bite mark to Emma B. “Look what you did!” she exclaimed. Emma B. and Emma F. exclaimed nervous glances.

Sam was dead asleep that night. No nightmares invaded his head. All was silent… //RING!// His cell phone went off. It was Emma S. “What do you want? It’s midnight!” he said groggily. On the other side of the line all he could her was insane rambling and mumbles about fangs, fur, and werewolves. “Emma, calm down. Did you have a bad dream or some—ACK!” Sam dropped his phone to the floor. There was a searing pain in his hand. He looked to see what was wrong. He watched as long yellow claws erupted from his fingernails. He started in shock and rushed to the bathroom. He flicked on the light and looked in the mirror. He watched as his canine teeth grew thrice their normal size and got sharper. Whiskers sprouted from his face. He grew patches of brown fur on his hands, feet, and face. He looked like a werewolf from vintage horror movies.

He rushed back into his room and saw his phone was still on the call with Emma S. “Emma? Are you still there?” he asked.

“YES! AND WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GO FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES?” she shrieked.

“I, um… turned into a werewolf…”

Emma’s tone softened, “Oh… then it’s not just me, huh?”

“I think we should call the other Emma’s. See what they know. I mean, they did bite us.”

“Yeah, good idea. You call Emma F. I’ll call Emma B.”

The Emmas were going to meet Sam and Emma S. in front of the school. Emma S. showed up first and Sam arrived a few minutes later. “The other Emma’s aren’t here yet?” he asked.

“No, they’re here. They’ve just turned invisible.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Ok, no need to be sarcastic.” They heard howls from each side of the street.

A silver wolf came pounding down the right side of the street. A brown wolf came from the other. Emma and Sam watched in awe as the creatures leaped into the air and transformed mid-jump. The silver wolf turned into Emma Frazier, who landed next to Sam. The brown wolf turned into Emma Been and she landed next to Emma Shannon.

“Ok, what is going on?! This is just weird!” Sam asked.

Emma Frazier answered. “Basically, you’re werewolves now. Emma and I were already werewolves and we bit you, so you had werewolf DNA flowing in your body.”

“Why’d you bite us?” Emma S. asked.

Emma B. answered nervously. “Well, on the full moon, a werewolf can’t control his or her instincts. We just went into wolf-mode and bit you… sorry.”

“Yeah,” Emma F. continued, “that’s basically it about the full moon. For your first lunar cycle as werewolves, you won’t be able to control how or when you transform. And after that, you can’t control transforming on a full moon. Oh and you can’t transform at all on a new moon.”

“Ok… but how did you two become werewolves?” Sam asked.

“Sometimes, if a person is born during a full or new moon and the moonlight hits them as a baby, they get werewolf DNA. Transformations don’t start until age nine though. That’s what happened to me. Emma F.’s mom actually was a werewolf, so the DNA got passed to Emma. That’s also what makes her the leader of our ‘pack’. Her mom is the real leader, Emma second in command,” Emma B. explained.

“So we’re like movie werewolves now? We get killed by silver?” Emma S. asked.

“Yes and no. You only get killed by silver in half-wolf form, like you are now. Emma B. is going to talk to you now while I’m going to talk to Sam. Then we can get more questions covered,” Emma F. said. She took Sam aside. “I have bad news,” she said.

“What, worse than being a werewolf?” Sam said crankily.

She slapped him. “I’m serious! Emma S. might die. It’s almost positive she will. Only 1 in 10,000 people bitten by two werewolves survive. And there are barely any werewolves, let alone ones bitten by two other werewolves. Emma B. and I both bit her. She has too much werewolf DNA in her right now. It’s going to burn her out by the end of the lunar cycle. On the next full moon, she’ll be gone.”

“Is there anything we can do?” Sam asked.

Emma shook her head. “No. All we can do is let her live her last days happy.” They looked at Emma. She was smiling and happy. She didn’t know about what was going to happen. Completely oblivious.


 * TWO YEARS LATER… **

Emma Frazier, Emma Been, and Sam Gorman walked up to the front of their first high school dance. It was a new moon that night so they didn’t have to worry about transforming. It was exactly two years since Emma B. and Emma F. bit Emma S. (That’s still confusing. Why can’t her name be Casey or something???)

They walked up the stone steps to the dance. Emma Shannon was waiting for them. “Hey guys! Ready for your first high school dance? It’s good you guys were able to make it!” she said. What, did you think I’d really kill her off? Sure, I—the narrator—have a tendency to kill off main characters, but Emma S. is me! I’m not going to kill off myself, silly reader!

They all walked into the Howl At The Moon dance and the opening and closing song was playing—Howling For You by the Black Keys. It would be a night to remember, being werewolves and all. Emma S. never did learn though about how she was supposed to die. She got lucky.