Chapter Four
The lights were off but the room was bright from the moonlight streaming into the room. Pia remembered that it was a full moon that night as she woke up abruptly from her slumber. As she looked around, she saw Andrew staggering in the middle of the room. What she witnessed next made her blood curdle.
Andrew was changing. His features were becoming sharper, his body hairier. His muscles were swelling until they had become truly enormous and as he turned and looked at her, she could see his teeth glinting in the moonlight.
Pia reeled in shock. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that she would witness the horrors unfolding before her eyes. She knew, unlike most people, what was standing before – neither a man nor a wolf, but rather something in between. A werewolf.
Suddenly, hidden parts of her brain were flung open and long suppressed images flooded her mind and she remembered vividly the night her parents were killed. She remembered above all the killer – someone not unlike the being standing before her, another werewolf. So this was the man she was wildly in love with – an accursed supernatural creature of the same race that had savagely ended her parents’ lives.
The horror overcame her. Heedlessly, throwing a dressing gown over her body, she rushed out the door and ran as fast as she could down the street. Fear and panic drove her own and she didn’t know how long she had run or how far. But eventually she found herself at a park. Tired and shaking, she sat down on a bench and gazed at a nearby pond. The moonlight glinted on the water as her memories came back to her with startling clarity.
She was a small child, but she remembered everything. Her father was a burly man while her mother was a small-made beautiful woman. They would often leave her to go at night on strange trips. Pia hated being alone and often wondered what they were up to. And one day, her father told her.
“Pia,” he said, getting her to sit next to him. “You’re old enough to know about certain things. You know your mother and I sometimes go away at night suddenly. Well, do you know why we go like that?” Pia shook her head. Her father leaned down and looked at her closely. “Pia, listen to me carefully. There are certain secret things you should know – things the very few people learn about. Not everything out there is good. Sometimes, you encounter creatures – unnatural beings, who are neither human nor animal. Do you know what these creatures are called? Werewolves. It is our job to rid this country of these accursed creatures. We are part of a group – your mother and I. We find these creatures and we kill them.”
He got up and went to the cupboard. “Do you know how you kill a werewolf? An ordinary bullet cannot kill it. Only a bulled or knife made of blessed silver can destroy it.” He took out a long silver blade from the cupboard and handed it to Pia. “Take this. I pray that you never encounter one of these wretched beasts. But if you do, you know what you have to do – drive this into its heart.”
She looked at the knife and then back at her Dad. “But are all werewolves bad, father?”
He put a hand on her shoulder. “In all God’s earth, there isn’t a more accursed creature than the werewolf. It is the spawn of Satan, a beast conceived in the pits of Hell. It is our duty to rid of the world of these monstrosities.”
Pia didn’t question her father’s assertions. She had never seen a werewolf herself, but was excited to think of her parents battling evil on their nights out. That is, until she woke up to her mother’s terrified scream and rushed down to see her father dead and her mother in her death throes. The blood was everywhere, but what Pia remembered most of all was the horrible creature in the middle of the room. Its hair bristling, its teeth dripping with her parents’ blood. For a moment she stared frozen in its eyes. And then it was gone, leaving her alone with the corpses of her mother and father.
Pia sobbed bitterly as the terrible memories came flooding back. She had never encountered any werewolves since that fateful night and had even convinced herself that such creatures didn’t exist, that she had imagined the monster in that room. Certainly that was what her aunt had told her when she had confided in her. But now the truth of her memories only increased the horror that she felt.
She cursed the cruel fate that had made her fall in love with this thing, her parents’ sworn enemy. How could she have been so foolish, not to trust in her father, not to believe that these beasts were out there and be more careful? But what could she have done? Andrew showed no sign of not being an ordinary man.
She paused to think. No, that was not right. There were signs that he wasn’t a normal human being, but she had missed them, or perhaps just ignored them. The night he had rescued her – how had he managed to climb up to her window. And the mystery about his home and family – he had been very vague with the details and she hadn’t bothered to probe. Not to mention his preternaturally developed physique.
Yes, thought Pia, the signs were there if she had bothered to look. But she had been too busy trying to forget that terrible night and what she had seen with her own eyes. She had ignored the advice that her father had given her. And now she had done something that would have horrified him above all else – falling in love with one of the same monsters that he had detested so much.
But was he really a monster? Wasn’t she alive because of him? If he hadn’t rushed to rescue her, there was little doubt that she would have been raped and killed. She remembered his kind, steadfast gaze, his gentle manner a counterpoint to his strong physique and masculinity. She had a hard time accepting that Andrew was a monster.
Thoroughly confused, she buried her head in her hands. What was she going to do? Finally she decided to head back home. She couldn’t stay outside forever and she needed to speak to Andrew and sort this out. She got up and slowly walked home.
But when she finally reached her apartment and let herself in, there was a surprise waiting for her. There was no sign of Andrew. Instead on her table was a single note.
“I’m sorry” it said. Pia closed her eyes. She desperately wanted to speak to Andrew, to sort out the thousand thoughts that were whirling through her mind. She collapsed on her bed. Andrew had left and it looked as if she would have to wait to resolve her issues.