The Game

Joshua raced home, his heart beating fast, his four feet working hard. Joshua loved to run in his animal form, which is something he only learned not hours ago after meeting Caleb and his friends. But what’s more was the fact that Joshua could now change into his wolf form without the help from the moon, something that excited him dearly.

Joshua ran through town grinning, with the wind blowing into his face and through his ears, he was heading back home after running about with Caleb.

Joshua made it to the end of the road, at the end was another road that stretched across, this is the road where you would find Joshua’s house. But instead of turning right to go home Joshua went left and followed the road down until he came to rest outside Charlie’s house. Joshua went around to the side and stared up at the balcony he got to know all too well over the years. He then used the tree next to the balcony to climb up onto it again.

Charlie was half asleep when she heard a strange noise, a sound of scratching coming from her room. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, trying to wake herself up some more, she listened quietly for the sound. The scratching came again. It sounded like it was coming from behind the two glass doors on the balcony, like a cat or dog scratching with its paws at the door.

Charlie slowly made her way across her room in her blue PJ bottoms and a white t-shirt; she sleepily opened the curtains covering the doors first. Charlie got the shock of her life when she looked down to find a wolf sitting at her feet; she gasped loudly and jumped back with horror. But soon Charlie remembered seeing the shaggy black wolf once before and knew who was behind the loving eyes. Now she wasn’t so scared. She then unlocked and opened one of the glass doors.

‘Joshua?’ She spoke, her voice slightly croaky from still being sleepily. Joshua just continued to stare back up at her as if to say ‘of course, who else’ only he didn’t say anything at all because he couldn’t speak. ‘What are you doing here?’ She continued with her questions. But Joshua still said nothing; he wondered why Charlie couldn’t understand him. And then Joshua realised that in his stupidity he had forgotten that he was still a wolf and that his words were just thoughts not spoken.

So at that moment Joshua felt deep within himself just like he did hours ago and began forming back into the human shape.

‘That gets easier every time.’ Joshua gave a big smile in Charlie’s direction who only gave him a shocking look back. Joshua saw Charlie’s face stretch, her eyes grew extremely wide as did her mouth and then she conveniently lifted her head up and stared at the top of the door frame. It was only then did Joshua remember that when he turned into a beast his clothes got torn and left behind, then when he changed back he was always and completely stark naked.

‘Oops!’ He breathed. Joshua embarrassingly covered himself up with both hands. ‘Can I get a blanket or something?’ He asked, Charlie turned and walked away to get him what he asked for. Joshua couldn’t help but think that even though he was naked he still couldn’t feel the cold. This was most likely why he hadn’t realised he was naked in the first place.

Charlie returned with a pair of her dad’s trousers in her hand. She handed it to Joshua over the fresh hold, with Joshua still trying to cover himself up with one hand and Charlie still trying not to look. Then Charlie turned around on the spot to look the opposite way while Joshua covered up. When he was done he coughed awkwardly to allow her to know that she could look at him without freaking out.

‘What are you doing here?’ Charlie moaned as she folded her arms into each other, she felt cold from the open door. Joshua stepped inside her room uninvited and began mumbling on about meeting Caleb.

‘They’re skin-walkers just like me...’ He excitedly said as he went on to explain his evening with them.

‘Joshua...!’ Charlie stopped him in mid-conversation. ‘What are you doing, it’s late...1:52!’ She moaned louder this time as she looked to her clock and back again, and with a little anger too.

‘Wow I didn’t realise the time...I...’

‘You couldn’t wait until the morning to see me...’

‘I’m sorry...’

‘You had to wake me up for this, to tell me this piece of unimportant crap...’ Charlie began walking slowly to Joshua with anger in her eyes, while Joshua moved backwards. Their sentences ran quickly into each other, one after the other, almost like they were just one complete sentence.

‘Charlie I’m...’

‘Go home Josh, leave now...’

‘I’m...’

‘Sorry, if you say you’re sorry again I’m going to hit you so hard. Actually I’m probably going to hit you anyway so you better go now.’

‘But...’ Charlie took one last step forward, now standing just outside her door and Joshua was further with his back up against the rail of the balcony.

‘Josh!’ She said through greeted teeth. Joshua quickly thought that he should leave, there’s nothing like a woman scorn he thought. Joshua turned to climb down when he heard the door behind him shut and lock, he looked back to see both glass doors now shut with the curtain closed. He sighed and returned home in human form, he didn’t feel like changing right now nor did he care about walking down the road wearing only trousers because his mind was elsewhere. He would visit Charlie again after sunrise to apologise he thought.

Joshua made his way back to Charlie’s house later in the afternoon. After the last time Joshua and Charlie were on bad terms Joshua never wanted to get to that point again, so he wanted to make things right. Joshua stood outside the small’s house front door; he guessed it would be much safer if he came here this time rather than showing up on her balcony.

Joshua knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer, Charlie’s mother answered and Joshua greeted her happily asking if Charlie was present. Her mother gladly invited Joshua to come in and wait while she let Charlie know he was there. After Joshua waited at the bottom of the stairs in the hallway for a while he was soon joined by Charlie.

‘Make this quick I’m busy.’ She said coldly.

‘Ok, I wanted to apologise for last night.’

‘Go on then.’

‘Well you see I honestly didn’t realise how late it was otherwise I wouldn’t have come over, you know that right? It was just that I was so excited to tell you what had happened to me.’

‘That guy Caleb?’

‘Yeah, he’s a werewolf; I mean skin-walker, just like me. They all are and they taught me how to change into a wolf on my own free will, without the moon. Isn’t that cool?’

‘Yeah cool.’ She agreed very subtly.

‘You don’t think so?’

‘Well it’s all well and good that you have more control over changing...’

‘But?’

‘But didn’t Kumai tell you it’s dangerous, that you shouldn’t just change for the fun of it?’

‘Yeah but it’s not like I don’t know what I’m doing, Caleb taught me how to control it, you don’t understand how scary it is to be alone in this, just waiting for it to happen again and knowing that you can’t do anything about it.’ Joshua started sounding like he was upset or hurt.

‘Alone, I thought you had me?’

‘Yeah but you’re not like me, you don’t understand. These guys are helping me; I thought you would be happy for me that I found someone who is exactly like me.’ Now he sounded almost angry that Charlie wasn’t ok with this.

‘I’m just saying that you have to be careful, they sound like trouble to me. I just don’t think you should get involved with them...’

‘Well you’re not my mother so you can’t tell me what to do. God, I didn’t think you would get so jealous about this.’

‘Jealous! Jealous!’ Charlie screeched. Joshua was the one actually out of the ordinary she thought, she was just trying to help and he’s making it out that she’s in the wrong. Charlie didn’t like this version of Joshua one bit. ‘I think you ought to leave.’ She said coldly.

‘Fine.’ Joshua replied. He turned and opened the door with force, as the door swung open Joshua froze in place and whilst still gripping the handle. Before him stood none other than Eric, his fist was in the air like he was just about to knock the door before Joshua opened it. ‘What are you doing here?’ Joshua said aloud.

‘I was invited.’ Was Eric’s only reply.

‘Come on in Eric, Josh was just leaving.’ Charlie spoke from behind Joshua; he had forgotten she was there as he stared at Eric, who now slid passed him. Joshua stepped just outside the door and turned on the spot to face Charlie. He gave her a questionable look.

‘Why’s he here?’

‘You’re not my father so I don’t have to tell you my reasons for inviting people over.’ Charlie stared back with anger and then she coldly shut the door in Joshua’s face.

Joshua went straight home and spent some of the day watching TV. He had an idea that he would return to Charlie’s a little later to try again, he really didn’t like being on her bad side. Joshua soon settled down to dinner with his grandmother, he loved his grandmother’s home cooked meals. After this he helped wash up, and then explained he was heading out to see Charlie.

On his way to Charlie’s house Joshua ran into Caleb, who smiled and nodded at him from across the street. He thought about Charlie for a few seconds, he knew she would still be upset. Charlie was always one to hold a grudge and Joshua knew he would have to grovel before this was forgotten. He then thought about how much fun he had last night with Caleb and would much rather being that tonight. Joshua decided he would go with Caleb instead. He followed them again into the forest, where they greeted him friendly.

They weren’t trouble Joshua thought, Charlie didn’t know what she was saying.

‘So you ready to play a game?’ Adam spoke; he stood in front of Joshua with his foot resting up on a log.

‘A game?’ Joshua asked. What sort of game did they want to play exactly he thought, hide and seek?

‘Well something we like to do, to pass the time.’ Caleb explained. ‘A race so to speak. We sort of pick out an animal in the forest and then we have a race to see who can capture that animal first.’

‘You mean you chase animals?’ Joshua said dumbfounded.

‘Well yeah. We let them go after that person has caught it. It just helps keep our reactions sharp, you know. It’s fun, you’ll like it, trust me.’ Caleb finished as he let his hand fall down upon Joshua’s shoulder, Joshua then saw the rest begin to walk away. Caleb gave him an almost warm smile, or as warm as he could Joshua thought, and then he too walked away. Joshua followed willingly.

Joshua walked alongside the one called Hugo; he watched their eyes which all seemed to be scanning the forest as though looking for something, the animal they were going to chase Joshua guessed. They were heading deeper into the forest but not too deep Joshua hoped. Suddenly Caleb, Adam and the girls stopped ahead of Joshua and Hugo.

When Joshua neared he could see what they were all staring at, a little in the distant Joshua could see a small deer, maybe in its teenage years. They waited patiently for a while until they were all together and now huddled in a semi-circle.

‘We have our bate gentleman, now it’s time to find out who is the faster and better wolf here.’ Caleb said and with that, before Joshua could take in what was happening, they all began running towards the deer. The deer itself no sooner took off at full speed.

Joshua watched as Caleb and his friends began to disappear into the forest. They were all on foot and Joshua wondered why, he thought they were doing this as wolves. Joshua began to run himself not catching up with them by much, but enough to see them all spread throughout the forest. He still loved the fact that he was faster than the average man on foot and even faster when he was a wolf.

Joshua kept running as he replayed the words Caleb spoke in his head, ‘the faster and better wolf’, this was more than just fun for them. It was about competition and high status too, to see who the better wolf was, their words exactly.

Joshua caught up with Adam who wasn’t inches away from him. H watched as Adam glanced at him with a smile and then he stepped up onto a few large rocks. He climbed quickly onto a bigger rock, or boulder as it were, and then just as quick he leaped high in the air. Adam still kept his speed throughout and landed in front of Joshua in his wolf form.

Joshua stopped dead in his tracks as he watched Adam the wolf continue to speed ahead, he was amazed at what he saw and pondered whether he could perform such an act himself. Joshua could see a pile of ripped clothes lying on the dirt to the side of him. At that moment another wolf raced past him, must be one of the others he thought. Then almost straight after there was another wolf speeding pass, he watched for a second before deciding to change himself.

Joshua now ran between the trees as a wolf, he loved this feeling of freedom and soon began to feel happy as he raced the others. As he went Joshua began to take more risks. He found a mud hill that gradually grew higher and higher, it ended sharply like a cliff. Opposite was a mirrored hill ten or fifteen feet away.

Joshua ran up the mud hill not stopping, he gained height as he continued. But Joshua didn’t care of deadly end, he only sped faster towards the edge, leaping high in the air towards the other side. Joshua landed just about safely on the other side. As he flew in the air he had seen the much bigger gap then he had guessed and was glad that he had made the jump.

Joshua continued running and soon he was joining one of the wolves, it was a silver wolf who noticed that he was close behind. As Joshua gained on him the silver wolf looked to his side and their eyes locked for just seconds. It was enough to let Joshua know who the wolf was; he didn’t know exactly how he knew only that when he looked into the wolf’s eyes he knew its identity. The silver wolf was none other than Caleb.

Caleb pushed harder and he began to slowly leave Joshua behind, but this only made Joshua want it more and again he caught up with him. They raced head to head, Joshua could see the prize up ahead and he had realised that he had forgotten what they were racing for.

The deer was losing the battle as the two wolves inched fast towards it, the deer was scared and becoming tired. Just then Joshua saw a black wolf very far in the distant, Joshua knew it was Adam. Joshua knew this meant the deer had to turn and he thought he could use this information to his advantage. However it seemed Caleb too had this idea, as the deer saw the wolf up ahead and became frantic, Caleb unexpectedly cut Joshua up. He then jumped towards a tree which he used as leverage to kick off from, this helped him to land right in front of the deer that had begun to turn in a different direction. As Caleb hit the ground he leaped again towards the deer that was startled by the fierce wolf landing in front of him.

The deer was successfully pinned to the ground by the neck and with the heavy wolf standing on top of him. Joshua watched all this happen after feeling cheated by Caleb, he was soon joined by Adam and then eventually the rest.

It looked as if Caleb had no intention of letting the deer go, he kept his force on it as he still pinned the pour creature to the dirt. The other wolves gathered in front of him, they all had a look about them that Joshua quickly dismissed. He made his way towards the front, standing right in the middle of the others and looking down at the silver wolf on top of the young deer.

Caleb looked back up at Joshua and as soon as he did he let go of the deer’s neck and released him, the deer hurried anxiously deeper into the forest. Joshua could hear the deer’s heart race and smell the fear in its blood as he watched it flee.

Caleb looked at each one of the wolves in front of him, as if to let them know that it was he who won, that he was number one and the top wolf. He then threw his head up to the sky and let out a loud howl. It was much darker by now and time for Joshua to return home once more, Joshua needn’t say anything to the others; it was like Caleb understood him without words. Caleb nodded to him to whom Joshua nodded back before leaving.

Joshua walked in his wolf form for around forty minutes until he finally reached his road, he really considered turning left so he could try to talk to Charlie one more time. In fact Joshua stood on the corner looking left and right for a very long time, he didn’t even fear that someone might see a wolf standing in the streets. It was just lucky no one did.

In the end Joshua decided on going home, he thought that maybe she would cool down over the next day and he could then talk to her at school. The next day was a Sunday and Joshua spent it watching TV. His mind kept lingering towards Charlie and Eric, there were many questions Joshua wanted to know. He began to grow impatient and couldn’t wait for tomorrow to see her.

At school the following day Joshua spent most of the morning looking out for Charlie, the sooner he found her the sooner he would get answers he thought. But after spending all morning searching for her it looked as if he would have to wait until they had the one class together to get those answers.

Joshua was sat in his last morning class before lunch time, his attention had wandered from the classroom and he was day dreaming about being a werewolf. The only time he was happy these days was when he was a wolf, it was the only time he felt strong and important. The school bell rang indicating lunch time and this had brought Joshua back from the Land of Oz with a jump.

Joshua made his way to the canteen, he gathered his food and as he turned to walk to his table he noticed that not only was Charlie nowhere to be found but neither was Jenifer or his friends. Joshua sat down at the usual table all by himself, the first time he had ever done so, and he proceeded to eat his lunch.

As Joshua finished off the last bite of his shiny red apple he looked to the clock on the wall, he had just over ten minutes before the bell rang again and then he would have his chance to see Charlie. Soon enough it was time, Joshua made his way to class where he indeed spotted Charlie at her usual desk. He made his way pass her and not to his surprise did she blank him completely. He thought he would leave it until after class to corner her; it was a solid plan because it had worked once before.

The bell rang once again and Joshua tried to be first to leave, however being clumsy gets in the way of that. Joshua abruptly stood and as he did he knocked his bag spilling his books, which slid across the floor. It was hard to pick them all up fast with everyone walking around him but Joshua tried his best, he looked up to see Charlie walking out the door.

‘Damn it!’ He cursed under his breath. Joshua picked up the last book and hurried out the classroom, he made it out the door just in time to see Charlie turn a corner. It didn’t take him long to catch up with her, although the crowded corridors didn’t help. Joshua stepped in front of Charlie and made her jump back in surprise.

‘I don’t want to be around you right now Josh.’ She said about to leave, but Joshua stopped her.

‘I want to know about Eric.’

‘That’s none of your business.’ She exclaimed, the look on her face told Joshua that she wasn’t in the mood.

‘I demand to know...’

‘Demand! You’re demanding now.’ Her words flowed one after the other again.

‘Eric’s my worst enemy. The guys a bad guy, a bully, and you’re frolicking with him.’

‘I’m not frolicking with anyway, and he’s not your enemy he’s just a person. Despite what you think he’s actually a good guy, one who’s trying very hard to right his wrongs. If you must know he asked me to help him with his school work.’

‘You’re tutoring him?’

‘In a word, yes.’ She glared at him with anger, as did Joshua. He had imagined this conversation, if you could call it that, going a lot differently. But somehow his anger got the better of him again, and he was being too forceful.

‘I don’t want you tutoring him; in fact I don’t want you seeing him at all.’ Joshua spat with disgust and force, he didn’t really mean it to come out like that.

‘I cannot believe you just said that. You’re actually trying to control what I do? What have you done with Josh, because I don’t know this person you’ve become!’ Charlie said the last bit in such a way that it actually made Joshua feel guilty and ashamed. Something he never saw coming.

Joshua had no choice but to watch Charlie walk pass him, he couldn’t bring himself to stop her nor could he find words to speak. He stared with his mouth slightly ajar thinking about how he could have better handled that conversation, his angry words spitting back at him. It was his third encounter with Charlie and again it went even worse than the last, he couldn’t help but think that maybe it was him who was to blame.

Joshua waited out the rest of the day, he sat in his last class watching the last few minutes pass by on the clock; he didn’t care about his work. As soon as the last few seconds came around he got ready to grab his books, and as soon as the bell rang he was straight out of the door. Joshua thought about trying one last time to make things right with Charlie, although the last three times had failed miserably Joshua thought it was worth at least another go. If it didn’t work this final time then Joshua would give up and leave it be.

Joshua raced to Charlie’s locker, but with everyone racing about at the end of the day Joshua found it difficult to get across to the other side of the school building in time. Joshua arrived around the corner and out of breath; he had made it just in time to see Charlie closing up her locker. He took a few steps forward but was unexpectedly stopped dead in his tracks.

In the distant, just over the view of Charlie’s shoulder, was Eric waiting by the exit. He was looking over in this direction. Joshua stood dumbfounded in place staring between Eric and Charlie. As Charlie finished with her locker she noticed Joshua in the corner of her eyes view standing not far from her. She turned to face him.

Both Charlie and Joshua stood for some time facing one another while other students continued walking around them. Charlie saw that Joshua wasn’t staring right at her but at something behind her, when she turned her head she could see exactly what he was looking at. Charlie looked back and saw that he was now staring at her; she gave him a frightening and cold glare.

Joshua felt a shiver run through his spin from the look Charlie gave him; she was so good at that he thought. He was powerless in that moment; he could do nothing but watch as Charlie turned and walked away. She joined Eric and they both greeted each other with warm smiles. Joshua continued to watch from a distant, feeling almost heartbroken; he watched them exit the school.

Eric looked back one last time at Joshua before they were gone. He couldn’t get that image of them together out of his head, even more was that look that Eric gave him. Joshua knew, that look would continue to replay in his mind for nights to come.