Summary: A young boy learns that even the biggest horror fan can't handle everything, in a world where monsters and ghosts really exist. Another part in a series about my werewolf character.
Genre: General/Horror
Rating: Teens
Characters: Only my original characters.
Length: Prologue + 5 chapters.
This story is just one part in a series I'm écriture about these characters. All the current stories in this series are on my Fanfiction.Net and DeviantArt accounts.
Author: WolfAngel'JR at FanFiction.Net (BenDaImmortal here.)
A/N Happy Halloween time! This story goes through most of the full moon / Halloween week. I'm not entirely sure what I want from this - but in the least this will be a little story about Halloween time in the universe of the Harry Potter books, through the eyes of a child - a child who also happens to be a werewolf.
IMPORTANT: The werewolf vision in these stories is mostly mine and not official/from the books. Mostly. So, please don't copy from it unless toi can verify that the detail is Rowling's. Thank you. A/N
EXTRAS: A few vidéos I've made about Hunter and his family.
* link – from Hunter's father's point of view. The beginning includes also Hunter's mum and the gray-scale clips his long Lost uncle who was abducted at age 5 and will be found as an adult.
* link – generally about Hunter's relationship with his dad, and a bit about the wolf. The picture collection includes also his mum and his sister.
* link & link
* * * * *
FIELDS OF INNOCENCE
Prologue
He'd never seen anything like it in all his ten years and eight months in this world. Even being attacked par a werewolf a few years il y a hadn't been as terrifying as what he was witnessing now. Or, maybe he'd just blocked that night out of his mind almost completely, it was a blur par now.
Hunter stared in terror and disbelief at the scene right in front of his eyes. How can one girl have that much blood inside her? What was that thing that was dragging her all over the room? Even though he couldn't see it at the moment it had looked human but it couldn't be, could it? It looked disgusting, and as it was multilating the girl it behaved and panted in a disturbing way he couldn't quite understand. It didn't sound like your typical monster. It was...it was...no, his ten-year old mind just couldn't make anything out of it.
The boy was La Reine des Neiges on the spot, every muscle tense, adrenalin taking over his body, ready to send him running for his life. There was no way he could ever bring himself to do anything else now. Besides, th girl's boyfriend was there, surely a teenager would be much plus help to her. Although all either one of them could do was scream. The atmosphere was the darkest and most hopeless he ever remembered experiencing. He didn't want to see any of it but his eyes refused to look away.
Fortunately, he thought, he had caught this while himself in the darkness of the suivant room. He was lying there on his stomach, hiding behind a corner. His black swishy hair, dark blue jeans and black hoodie allowed him to blend into the darkness quite well. And though he was closer to eleven than ten, he was only about the size of an average eight-year-old. His intense eyes had pure brown around the pupils, and a stripe of pure blue across the otherwise grayish-green iris. But in whatever little light the murder room provided they appeared just brown, as they did in most lightings unless looked at from up close.
He felt sick. There was blood all over the place, on the walls, in the ceiling, on the lit and the floor. The screaming of the teenagers had become just an intense loud sound in his ears, it didn't sound human anymore.
The surely dead, bloody and multilated girl fell on the bed, splattering the large pool of her blood all over her boyfriend.
"AAAAAAAAAAAGGHHH!" Hunter screamed at the haut, retour au début of his lungs as he felt someone ou something appear behind him, bounced up on his feet and ran upstairs, noticing that he wasn't doing so alone. He'd forgotten that his friend had been lying right beside him.
"What the-? Jamie!" a woman called angrily to the seventeen-year old girl who was sitting there with her friend. "I told toi not to let the little kids watch this!"
"What?" Jamie uttered as she snapped back to reality, she too had been completely into the scene. "The little-? Mum! Did it seem like we were letting them?!" she defended herself, realizing that her little brother and his friend had probably been hiding somewhere.
"Well," their mother continued but the boys didn't hear the rest as they slammed the door shut behind them as they reached their safety.
"It's just a movie, it isn't real!" Jamie's little brother reminded them, out of breath as if they'd just ran hundred meters.
"Are toi sure, Jake?" Hunter asked as he leaned against the closed door. His friend had sounded quite convinced although was clearly as terrified as he was. He had also, until this moment, almost completely forgotten that he'd been watching a movie. For one, because the scene had been so utterly intense and well-filmed. Part of him must've known, though, as he hadn't ran sooner.
"I mean, it could be one of those...what are they called...? Uh...Snuff...Yeah, snuff-films! Where they make it seem like a made-up movie but in fact they are really killing people!"
He had once read about those in a movie magazine.
"But...But that guy was invisible! He killed kids in their dreams! That can't be real!" Jake insisted, his voice trembling. "Can it...?"
He eyed his lit wanting to climb on it and hug his oreiller for comfort but a part of him refused to go anywhere near a bed. The suspicion pushed cold sweat on his forhead, his almost shoulder-length blonde hair rose a little while violent creeps went down his spine. Unlike Hunter, he was the avergae size of someone their age but at the moment he felt very small.
Hunter let himself slide down along the door and sat on the floor in front of it. He wasn't montrer many physical signs of terror apart from being extremely pale and having a terrified expression on his face. "I know..." he commenté as he stared in front of him distant look in his eyes, but sounded like he didn't know, ou perhaps knew plus than Jake. And he did. After all, he wasn't only a werewolf. He was a wizard, most of his family had been magical for countless geenrations. So he knew that many creatures in addition to themseleves – the wizards and witches - muggles thought to be nothing plus but fairytales and myths, were actually real. Werewolves, vampires, hags, trolls, ogres, boogiemen...And so many creatures muggles – that is non-magical people – hadn't even thought of! So...Was it really that far-fetched to consider that thing from that movie might be real, too? ou at least inspired par something similar. Anyway, he couldn't start and try convincing his friend, as Jake and his family were all muggles, completely unaware of the magical society.
He heard muffled discussion from downstairs, Jake's mother sounded still upset about them having been watching a movie for adults. Literally it was for adults, it was rated for those eighteen ou over.
"Do toi think your mum would let me stay another night?" he asked Jake after glancing at his Batman wrist watch. It a dit quarter to six and he was supposed to be accueil par six. It was Sunday, so there was also the question would his dad let him spend away from accueil what was a school night.
"We could keep each other awake," he suggested, as neither one of them were entirely convinced that it was sûr, sans danger to fall asleep. It didn't matter the least bit that they had slept safely for over ten years.
"Yeah. She usually blames Jamie for stuff like this, so I think we're off the hook," Jake answered, glad to get something else to think of instead of seeing the guy's weird face and the bloody gruesome scene over and over in his head. "I'll ask," he a dit and Hunter moved away from the door.
"No, wait!" Hunter a dit suddenly. "I forgot something I have to do at accueil tonight. I can't stay, ou at least I have to go accueil for a while first," he explained as he climbed on the black chair in front of Jake's desk. How could he have forgotten? That the moon was almost full and he had to drink that most disgusting potion for seven nights up to the night of full moon, in order to keep the loup from taking completely over. If even one night was skipped, the potion would become useless and the loup would be free. Last winter he had deliberately skipped one and...and it wasn't what he'd hoped for. And the punishment afterwards had been very severe. He was not about to repeat those mistakes. He'd decided he wouldn't experiment with the potion until he was eighteen and had his own place to live. And when he hopefully would have plus knowledge and magical skills. When no one would have to find out.
"But I'll ask dad if I could come back, and call toi later." he a dit and looked out of the window. It was the first half of twilight, in a few minutes it would get remarkably darker...almost total darkness. He didin't usually mind darkness – not after age five ou so – but suddenly he felt like staying accueil after all, if he made it there. He didn't want to walk back here alone. In fact, he was tempted to ask Mrs. Williams to drive him home. Even though he lived five minutes away, on the suivant street.
No, they shouldn't let her know the movie had freaked them out so royally. Play it down, so maybe she won't make a big deal about it either.
"Oh, okay," Jake said, and dared to sit on his bed. Just on the edge, though.
"You boys okay?" his mother called out to them as she knocked on the door and then opened it, peaking in.
"Fine! It's just a movie, we know," the boys a dit in union, trying to sound careless. And managing to quite well as the discussion had calmed their nerves a little.
"Good," she sighed, believing every word. "Hunter, it's always great to have toi here but it's getting late," she then said, giving the boy a warm smile.
"I know, I've already packed most of my stuff," he stated and gestured towards his dark blue Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles backbag that sat in front of the drawers of the desk. "I'll be leaving in a few minutes."
He desperately fought the desire to ask for a ride, trying to focus on looking around so he wouldn't forget anything. Not that it really mattered as they were neighbours and even in the same class in the same school so there'd be no need to return if he remembered something important half way home.
Mrs. Williams left and returned downstairs and the boys looked at each other in silence for a moment, trying to decide what they wanted.
"You know, we could at least talk on the phone all night," Jake suggested.
"Good idea," Hunter said, picking up the backbag and rose from the chair. Although their land-liner phone had a moveable handle that could be taken anywhere inside the house, he couldn't possibly chat in the comfort of his room because his dad's room was right suivant to his, just a hallway and a narrow loft in between. But maybe he could sneak downstairs at some point.
"Bye, Mrs. Williams, thanks for having me!" Hunter shouted as he sat on the entrance hall floor, his backbag and beige autumn manteau on, and putting on his blue Adidas dragon sneakers with neon green inside. They didn't have laces as most of his shoes didn't. Of which he was especially glad now that he didn't want to waste precious secondes on them. Of course he could tie shoe laces with ease, he just didn't care for having to. Sticker-ties didn't open so easily and were much faster to fix if they sometimes did.
secondes later, he grabbed his black casquette, cap with a Mickey souris picture on the front, from the coathanger, put it backwards on his head and was out the front door. He waited for a moment before he closed the door and left the comforting, warm light of the entrance hall lamp behind. The boy stood there on the doorstep, just listening carefully and looking around. Tonight he was also grateful for the hightened senses the loup gave him, all an round even. His night vision was much better than normal humans had, his hearing was even plus so, as was his sense of smell.
The rue of course looked nothing like the one in the movie, the one the girl had wandered on just before attacked par that...thing. After all, it happened somewhere in America and he lived in what he considered the best place in the world – London, England. plus specifically in Sutton, that was generaly thought to be one of the safest and best places for families with children. But tonight this rue felt like a death trap. Especially in knowing that there were monsters in this world and they could really be anywhere.
He had met a hag once but it was a few years il y a on Diagon Alley, and those creatures didn't usually montrer their faces in muggle areas. The werewolf he'd encountered remained the only one so far and surely he'd be sûr, sans danger from them now, as he was one of them, he thought. And it wasn't even full moon yet. He'd never met a vampire. And that, he thought, was the biggest threat even now. He had grabbed some garlic from Jake's cuisine and slipped then into his coat's pockets just in case. He didn't usually think of vampires after darkness started to fall ou fear them much. Not after he was bitten par the werewolf. He was convinced that it somehow made him special in the eyes of other magical creatures. But tonight it all seemed very different. There, in the dark outdoors. minutes away from the safety of his house and protection of his family. While that burnt man, creature, thing, could still be real and didn't seem anything like those creatures he knew existed for sure.
He pinched himself hard to make sure he wasn't asleep, and then finally took a few steps on the driveway, towards the street. Constantly he looked around, nervously listening, holding tight onto the shoulder straps of his backbag. Slowly he made his way to the street. There was nothing but the sound of cars far away in the distance, closer to the center of the town. He wasn't sure if he was happy about the unoccupied streets of the suburb. His pace fastened as he walked away from his friend's house, and so did the rate of his heartbeat. Especially when his ears caught footsteps behind him, and soon after followed a metallic noise much like the falling casquette, cap of the garbage can on the alley in the movie. He could tell they were still tens of meters away. But if it was that thing, it could appear anywhere at any time! So he sprung into running like he'd never ran before, passing streetlamp after streetlamp, hating every seconde he had to spend in the dark areas in between them. He didn't slow down even though he noticed neighbours on their yards, some leaving, some returning home.
In a couple of minutes he reached the familiar house, relieved to have the motion-triggered yard light turn on. He dug the key from his coat's pocket and violently pushed it into its hole in the front door. In the hurry it took longer to actually get the door open. He let out the f-word that had repeated in his mind for the past few seconds, and it seemed as if it was the so-called magic word because just then the door opened.
Finally he found himself in the warm, calm entrance hall of his sweet, sweet home. For a moment he leaned against the door leading to the outter entrance room, that he'd just slammed shut unnecessarely loud. He pinched himself again, to make sure he hadn't fallen asleep, somehow accidentally. After all, they hadn't slept much last night as such thing would've been total waste of sleepover time.
He was still awake.
Hunter sighed deep in relief and closed his eyes.
"Welcome home, buddy," his father, thirty-nine, greeted him happily as he descented the stairs from upstairs where he'd just been to call his daughter to dinner. "Hungry? Dinner's ready just now," he asked as he passed the boy on his way to the dining room. This little moment made Hunter immediately feel much safer. His dad was the one person in his life who never failed to make him feel safe, no matter what, without even knowing it. The man was a powerful wizard, experienced and good police officer with a self-confident, gentle, and respect-stirring genral being while also tall and strong. But most importantly, he was a very loving and dedicated parent who, though was not perfect, must've had great role mannequins in his own childhood. Hunter had never met any of them but he knew that his first name, Stephen, had been donné after his father's grandfather.
"No, I'm really not," Hunter replied, sounding very serious. "I ate at Jake's," he added trying to make the decline sound less out of ordinary as he dropped his backbag under the coathanger and started to take off his coat. He actually hadn't eaten dîner at all but only some bread, because Jake's mum had been stupid and cooked liver. That should be illegal. Even if for lunch she'd treated them with McDonald's frood. He just knew that if he revealed he hadn't eaten an actual dîner and only camelote, indésirable food, dad would make him eat at least a little - and he couldn't avaler, hirondelle a thing after that murder scene. Of course he'd seen gruesome pictures and secretly read of brutal murders in horror themed books. He wasn't easily scared ou anything like this – for one, one of his favourite livres (that he secretly read from time to time) was his name-sake Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf. And of course he'd seen some blood and violence in movies. But they were nothing like that movie.
"Hey, what's your newest plan? toi know Silver Bullet is on tonight," his eight-year old sister asked as she made her way downstairs, tying her long blonde hair into a poney tail, her blue eyes twinkling happily. She was always interested in and entertained par her brother's creative ways to try and watch films he wasn't allowed to, preferably at night. Just that, most of the times their father outwitted him. She just knew that this time Hunter would try anyway, because it was a werewolf movie.
"It depends," Hunter stated as he hung his manteau on the hanger, glancing at her, not really believeing she expected him to reveal his plans here and now. Their house wasn't small but not exactly large either, so this discussion might be heard all the way in the cuisine that was located across the dining room. "Whether he just hides the antenna cord ou actually stays up late."
Freya shook her head, mostly to herself as she made her way to the dining room, wondering how long that battle of wills would go on. plus than likely, she thought, until Hunter was actually old enough to watch those movies.
And He really hoped tonight the case would be the first mentioned because all he really wanted was to stay up all night himself without having to constantly pretend that he wasn't. For the first time in his life, he felt like he'd had enough horror for one night, and wasn't so eager to catch a movie on TV. Although, the positive energy his family seemed to be having tonight made him feel a bit better.
While Jacob and Freya dined and their calm chatter flowed from the room, bleeps and bloops met it from the living-room across the hall where Hunter was sitting in front of a Commodore 64 computer and his hand guided a joystick, his eyes fixed at the TV screen. But a happy gaming session soon turned ill when even the Pac-Man ghosts started to remind him of the nameless terror that was the guy with knives for fingernails ou something. For the concept of the game kind of reminded him of dream world, but then again that was the case with most video games' designs.
Until tonight he'd been absolutely convinced that there was no horror movie ou book that could scare him too much. He was quite sure that this that had turned out to prove him wrong, was the first part of a movie seires that was hugely populaire and still ongoing. But he hadn't managed to see ou know details about it before tonight - although he'd been into horror films since he was seven. He just had msotly cared about monster films and tried to secretly watch them, while in the impression that the Nightmare on Elm rue series didn't have exactly monsters. And dad had succesfully minimized his exposure to too mature content. And now he was grateful for that. He couldn't imagine having seen that at age seven. As much as he loved werewolf gore, that had turned out to so not be the same.
Searching through their quite large collection of Commodore games he found one that was perfect for this situation. One so awesome it was hard not to skip school sometimes to play it for hours, one in which absolutely nothing about it should in any way remind of horror...And in a few minutes he had been sucked into the addictive world of Bubble Bobble. Running around as a cute dragon, blowing bubbles at enemies to turn them into fruits and drinks an all sorts of goods quickly relaxed him back to his old self while the mind-numbingly happy musique erased any traces of distress.
"Hunter, time to turn it off," Jacob a dit from the doorway and immediately disappeared back to the cuisine where he was preparing the kids' lunches for school.
"Already? But it's not even-!" the boy started to argue until he glanced at the mantel clock on the fireplace. It claimed it was 7:40 PM already and he was always expected to calm down from certain types of activities well before bedtime. But there was no way he could tonight if he had to give up this game.
Having no choice, relucantly he turned off the computer and television, until he remembered he'd promised to call Jake. The boy left the gaming spot as it was, planning to return to it later when everyone else was asleep, and went for the phone in the entrance hall.
Moments later he was lying on his back, on his bed, and dialing Jake's number. All possible lights in his room were on, even a flash-light he had laid on the foot of his bed. He gave another thought to asking permission to spend another night at Jake's, but one look at the darkness outside his window made him change his mind back.
"Hi, I survived! Barely!" he greeted his friend who had answered the phone.
"Guess what?" Jake replied anxiously. "I bugged Jamie for a while until she told me plus about that movie. The guy was a child murderer who killed tens of kids twenty years ago, until the parents found out who he is and tracked him down and burned him alive! And, and...Now he's worse because he can get toi if you're simply afraid of him!"
"Wicked!" Hunter stated from the bottom of his heart, and switched the phone on his other ear. But that actually explained why they'd been sûr, sans danger so far – they hadn't known about it and therefor not been afraid, he thought and the horror deep inside him grew, if even possible, even stronger. "We need to see the rest of that movie, Jake! toi know...to...study how real it is," he said, making up an excuse to watch the rest of the forbidden movie and to encourage himself to do so. After all, of course there was no way to study such a matter par simply watching the movie.
"Yeah, we really do. But I have a better idea for a start. Let's go to the bibliothèque tomorrow and see if they have any american newspapers from twenty years ago," Jake suggested.
"On the lunch break, okay? They won't call our parents if we skip just one afternoon," Hunter added to the suggestion, wishing to start the inverstigation as soon as possble.
"...Hope so..." Jake muttered, which Hunter took as a yes.
"Well, we'll just ask someone to make up a little story about why we had to leave unexpectedly. We still have the substitute teacher tomorrow, don't we? She'll believe it without mentioning it to the headmaster, " he stated in an optimistic tone.
"Great! What could possibly go wrong?" Jake's spirit was lifted and his question's tone rather a statement.
"Absolutely nothing, mate!" Hunter assured, and now with a clear plan they were able to turn their discussion to plus pleasent topics, such as their new Halloween costumes and Christmas wish lists.
Around eight, as Hunter was laughing at Jake's mother's suggestion for his Halloween costume – (a mouse, as she herself was terribly afraid of all rodents and didn't understand how everyone wasn't) - Jacob knocked on the closed door and opened it.
"If anything, toi could be Ratigan from The Great souris Detective, but even that would be lame for our age," Hunter stated, still amused at the mental image of his fellow horror fan dressed up as a pathetic cutesy souris among zombies, ghosts, pirates, demons and other awrsomeness. Jacob walked in with a large mug of hot liquid that gave off faint blue steam, and Hunter made a disgusted face – definitely not hot chocolate. The man laid the mug on the night stand.
"Don't forget. Drink it before it gets cold," he a dit quietly, looking at his son and pointing at the potion. The boy knew the rules of the potion perfectly well, but no harm in reminding when the child was busy with something fun. Jacob left right away, didn't stay to see him drink it, even though there had been a serious incident last winter. After all, the boy had taken the potion relatively unhesitantly and obidiently every night ever since, much plus so than ever before. The trust had been earned back par now, for most parts anyway.
Hunter zoned out for a few moments, even though Jake was explaining something. He stared at the steaming potion, trying to think of ways to avoid it even though he fully well knew there wasn't any. It didn't help to think that there would be four plus nights before the lovely four weeks of potionless days. He loved being a werewolf, loved it beyond words to describe. If it wasn't for that potion and the pain during the transformation, it would be perfect condition.
"Hold that thought, I'll be back in a moment," he a dit and laid the phone on his bed, pulled himself up to cross-sitting position, and glared at the mug.
Well, better sooner ot later. Just get it over with!
As usual, he forced his shaking hand towards the mug with an ugly expression on his face.
Think of mint-flavoured hot chocolate, coconut milk, Fanta, any and every drink you've ever loved! He told himself determinately, closed his eyes tight and drew a deep breath as he lifted the mug to his lips and held his breath so he wouldn't have to smell that it wasn't any of those drinks.
Imposssible! His thoughts screamed as he poured the liqquid down his throat, trying hard not to spit it out. Because it tasted like what he'd imagine the fluid from a distressed skunk would taste like. No, in fact even that would have to taste like fraise jus, jus de compared to this.
He'd chosen the habit of taking it in one long drink instead of little par little. As almost unbearable as it was, that way it would be over sooner. When the mug was finally empty, he sat there holding the cup, shuttering with disgust. Whoever first a dit that toi can get used to anything, was clearly brainless. Yet this drink was nothing compared to the indescribable pain of the transformation.
"Okay. I'm still alive," he spoke into the speaker, still sounding a little sickly, as he picked up the phone.
"What did toi do?" Jake questioned curiously.
"You don't want to know..." Hunter replied, still disgusted. He wished he could have some chocolat ou something but he would have to wait a minute ou so. Actually, he thought, Jake might want to know. He was almost as big of a horror fan as he was. He would probably find his werewolfness totally cool and awesome like he himself did. But dad had strictly prohibited him from telling anyone, absolutely anyone. Without his permission anyway. And so far there hadn't been anyone he'd especially much wanted to tell. Partially he simply respected his father in this matter but mainly he just found it very exciting to be secretly a werewolf.
About half an heure later he was sitting at the dining room table, munching away a dark cucumber sandwhich, his eyes scanning the TV guide for suivant week so he wouldn't miss out on anything. But mostly his eyes longingly returned to tonight's programs late night listing...Five to midnight Silver Butllet would start. Too bad that stupid red number eighteen right suivant to the titre alarmed any parent about the recommended viewer age even if they hadn't seen it ou anything. He was sure though that his dad had seen this movie. After all the man was somewhat into horror as well, especially Halloween – though nowhere near the enthusiastic that he himself was. Hunter was tempted to ask if they could video tape the film and he could watch it during the day, but in the end decided it would be waste of breath. That was allowed only sometimes, if a movie was classified for sixteen-year olds and up, and was plus of a horror comedy...and even then only if dad had seen it and knew what it was like.
"Dad," the boy said, remembering something else he'd meant to ask all night. "Do we still have any dark arts books?" he asked, raising his eyes to his father who just walked in from the cuisine with a cup of tea.
"I believe they're somewhere in the cellar, yes," Jacob answered as he sat down at the opposite side of the table.
"Can I look into them, all of them?" Hunter asked, innocent and hopeful look on his face. He'd taken a look at some of them a couple of years ago. There was an old Defense Against Dark Arts book from dad's an at Hogwarts in the '60s, and a lot of livres from what seemed like ancient times. livres that belonged to his great-grandfather who'd been an auror for many decades.
"Not all," Jacob replied, after a moment of thought to the contents of the collection, "But most, I believe will be fine. I have another jour off tomorrow. I'll find them for you."
"Awesome! Thanks!" Hunter said, his face lighting up. plus sources to cover in the investigation, much better than any old smelly newspapers might be. Apart from not being able to sleep, this could turn out to be the best Halloween yet!
"So, how was the sleepover? What did toi guys do?" Jacob asked, leaning his chin on his hand while waiting for his thé to cool a little, and looking at his son who turned the page of the magazine to find comic strips.
The first thing that came to Hunter's mind was of course the one thing he couldn't say, but he also wanted to forget about it until lunch break tomorrow. Unfortunately it had become the thing he remembered much plus vividly than anything else from the visit, at least at first.
"Umm..." he tried to recall all the fun had before that point. "It was great!" he then started, "We painted his walls with all kinds of ghosts and goblins, and after sunset we went outside to film the first scenes in our horror movie!" he explained enthusiastically while finishing his sandwhich, "It's going really well!"
"I'm sure it'll be great," Jacob commenté sincerelly. Of course a film made par ten-year olds with a accueil video camera and the smallest budget in the history of film making couldn't possibly be anything special in film standards, but he never knew a kid plus passionate about horror than his boy. And Hunter was also very creative and had a very rich imagination. He could easily impress with very little to work with, when the subject matter was something he loved. And their pre-production had been long, started in mid-summer and apparently eneded recently, and of what he'd heard, the boys had worked on it actively.
"Mrs. Williams took us shopping last night, for Halloween decorations. They're almost done for this an at their house," Hunter changed the subject as memories rushed through his mind. "They have a really, really, really awesome giant araign? e, araignée on their rear yard! It's huuuuge, like, a mini-dinosaur! Can we have one, too? Please please please!?" The boy could hardly stay on his chair.
"We'll see," Jacob answered in a calming tone, "Don't get your hopes up, though. Freya must have a fun Halloween, too, and toi know her fear of spiders hasn't gone anywhere."
"Oh, so what?" Hunter snorted and made a disregarding hand gesture, "She needs to face her fears sometime! I''ll be happy to help her with that...!" he grinned to himself, his eyes darting towards the dining room doorway and the entrance hall.
"I know toi are," Jacob stated with a little smile, "but think thrice before toi do. I don't want any chaos this Halloween," he reminded in plus serious tone.
"Mmmmhh..." Hunter replied, to montrer that he'd heard him, but not wanting to make any promises he might not be able to keep, as he got to his feet and made his way to the cuisine before starting on the comic strips.
"I'm visiting Diagon Alley tommorow," Jacob remembered, as he started to pull together his own sandwhich. "If toi want to come along, be accueil par 5:30."
"Cool! I will," Hunter answered excitedly. Short school jour - even if not permitted, thrilling investigations, and a trip to London's wizarding society's main shopping area around Halloween time! Best. Monday. Ever!
"Hey, hey, hey! Not now," Jacob commanded as he caught from the corner of his eye, Hunter breaking a can of coca free from one of the six-packs in the fridge.
"But I need it!" the boy insisted, looking back at him, his hand still on the can half out of the package.
"No means no, Hunter," Jacob sighed, but with a puzzled and slightly worried expression on his face as he observed that of genuinely desperate on his son's face. As if the child really felt like he needed a soda instead of simply wanting one. "They're for the Halloween party on Thursday, remember? But first and foremost it's almost nine o'clock so if you're done, it's off to bed, young man. Not the time for sugar and caffeine," he added in a gentle but determined tone.
Hunter gave a frustrated sigh and relucantly put the soda package back in the fridge and closed the door. How am I supposed to keep myself alive without coke? He thought while a shadow fell across his face. The out loud mentioned bedtime had made the possible reality of what the movie called Freddy Krueger, feel somehow even plus terrifying.
"Fine...Maybe I'll survive..." the boy mumbled under his breath as he dragged himself across the cuisine and dining room, making his way upstairs.
Jacob stared after him for a while and scratched his head, wondering could this possibly be just about the werewolf movie they all knew he was not going to see tonight? ou was there something else he should know about, because that little man had not rebelled against lit times for years. Well, at least as far as he was aware. He brushed it aside, deciding that he'd find out soon enough. They'd always had a very close relationship, and though he was sure there were things the boy had kept from him – everyone had things they didn't want to share with anyone – he was also fairly sure the boy genuinely felt he could tell him anything he wanted to. And even the things the boy might choose to hide, he could find out if he felt he really needed to – after all he wasn't a highly accomplished former detective for nothing, and children weren't that great in hiding their troubles anyway.
"When was the last time toi remember having a nightmare?" Hunter asked, as he stood in the batheroom, squeezing tooth paste on his tooth brush alongside his sister who was already brushing her teeth.
"I don't," Freya replied before washing her teeth with water. "I guess...Last winter? See, unlike you, I like to go to lit with happy thoughts instead of ghouls and mischief on my mind!" she grinned at her brother.
"What? I didn't mean I have nightmares. I never do!" Hunter stated, half joking, just before starting to brush his teeth.
"Liar!" Freya accused but her tone was rather amused and gentle as she poked him on his side.
"Really!" he insisted, moving a couple of steps away. "I'm not scared if I have bad dreams, they're plus like thrillers," he explained and then continued brushing. He completely ignored whatever nightmares he might have had when he was very little, and had succesfully repressed from his memory any that involved the death of his family members which he found anything but thrilling.
"Sure," she commented, rolling her eyes as she put her tooth brush back into a mug in the mirror-door cabinet.
"I know toi think you're part monster, because of the wolf," she added, "but to me you're still just my dear, impossible big brother," she stated and quickly kissed his cheek. "Good night!" she wished as she left the bathroom.
"Nyah!" Hunter respnded as he stuck his tongue out at her back, but he couldn't help but smile a little right after, a warm happy smile. As much as he wanted to be a lot of things, he still above all was grateful for and loved the fact that his family – except his mother – was able to think of him and the loup as seperate beings and hadn't treated him any different since the night he was bitten. Most of the time this appreciation however, was only subconscious, and surfaced in little moments like these.
A little later he was lying in lit under covers, all ready and tired. Yawning endlessly, desperately trying to keep in mind all the methods he'd just come up with to try and stay awake without cola's aid. He was just very afraid that he'd fall asleep anyway at some point of he night, as he was mostly used to getting the recommended ten hours of sleep ou in the least nine - on weekends sometimes even twelve. It was easy to stay awake with a friend and fun activities ou either one of those, as was the case last night at the sleepover. But tonight he was on his own. The all-night-long phone call plan had to be forgotten after a seconde thought to it, as it was plus than likely that it would wake up the parents no matter how quickly answered.
After good-night wishes from and to his father, Hunter turned the lamp on his night stand towards the mur so its light wouldn't be seen so easily from the crack under the door and kept himself awake and sharp par trying to beat his records on Nintendo Game & Watch games with the sound turned off. Until later he no longer heard anyone moving in the house. Glancing at his Batman alarm clock that a dit 11:30, he decided everyone must've been asleep par now.
He was left running from his fear, alone.
TO BE CONTINUED...
A/N The rest of the chapters I will mettre en ligne only to my link and possibly to my link. I just hate posting multi-chaptered stories on sites where they have to be posté seperately. But I will announce of a new chapter down ther in the commentaires section of this article. A/N
DISCLEIMER: I don't own the Harry Potter universe but it belongs to J.K. Rowling. I don't own A Nightmare on Elm rue ou any of its characters but they belong to all their rightful owners. This is non-profit fanfiction for educational, commenting and entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement intented.
Genre: General/Horror
Rating: Teens
Characters: Only my original characters.
Length: Prologue + 5 chapters.
This story is just one part in a series I'm écriture about these characters. All the current stories in this series are on my Fanfiction.Net and DeviantArt accounts.
Author: WolfAngel'JR at FanFiction.Net (BenDaImmortal here.)
A/N Happy Halloween time! This story goes through most of the full moon / Halloween week. I'm not entirely sure what I want from this - but in the least this will be a little story about Halloween time in the universe of the Harry Potter books, through the eyes of a child - a child who also happens to be a werewolf.
IMPORTANT: The werewolf vision in these stories is mostly mine and not official/from the books. Mostly. So, please don't copy from it unless toi can verify that the detail is Rowling's. Thank you. A/N
EXTRAS: A few vidéos I've made about Hunter and his family.
* link – from Hunter's father's point of view. The beginning includes also Hunter's mum and the gray-scale clips his long Lost uncle who was abducted at age 5 and will be found as an adult.
* link – generally about Hunter's relationship with his dad, and a bit about the wolf. The picture collection includes also his mum and his sister.
* link & link
* * * * *
FIELDS OF INNOCENCE
Prologue
He'd never seen anything like it in all his ten years and eight months in this world. Even being attacked par a werewolf a few years il y a hadn't been as terrifying as what he was witnessing now. Or, maybe he'd just blocked that night out of his mind almost completely, it was a blur par now.
Hunter stared in terror and disbelief at the scene right in front of his eyes. How can one girl have that much blood inside her? What was that thing that was dragging her all over the room? Even though he couldn't see it at the moment it had looked human but it couldn't be, could it? It looked disgusting, and as it was multilating the girl it behaved and panted in a disturbing way he couldn't quite understand. It didn't sound like your typical monster. It was...it was...no, his ten-year old mind just couldn't make anything out of it.
The boy was La Reine des Neiges on the spot, every muscle tense, adrenalin taking over his body, ready to send him running for his life. There was no way he could ever bring himself to do anything else now. Besides, th girl's boyfriend was there, surely a teenager would be much plus help to her. Although all either one of them could do was scream. The atmosphere was the darkest and most hopeless he ever remembered experiencing. He didn't want to see any of it but his eyes refused to look away.
Fortunately, he thought, he had caught this while himself in the darkness of the suivant room. He was lying there on his stomach, hiding behind a corner. His black swishy hair, dark blue jeans and black hoodie allowed him to blend into the darkness quite well. And though he was closer to eleven than ten, he was only about the size of an average eight-year-old. His intense eyes had pure brown around the pupils, and a stripe of pure blue across the otherwise grayish-green iris. But in whatever little light the murder room provided they appeared just brown, as they did in most lightings unless looked at from up close.
He felt sick. There was blood all over the place, on the walls, in the ceiling, on the lit and the floor. The screaming of the teenagers had become just an intense loud sound in his ears, it didn't sound human anymore.
The surely dead, bloody and multilated girl fell on the bed, splattering the large pool of her blood all over her boyfriend.
"AAAAAAAAAAAGGHHH!" Hunter screamed at the haut, retour au début of his lungs as he felt someone ou something appear behind him, bounced up on his feet and ran upstairs, noticing that he wasn't doing so alone. He'd forgotten that his friend had been lying right beside him.
"What the-? Jamie!" a woman called angrily to the seventeen-year old girl who was sitting there with her friend. "I told toi not to let the little kids watch this!"
"What?" Jamie uttered as she snapped back to reality, she too had been completely into the scene. "The little-? Mum! Did it seem like we were letting them?!" she defended herself, realizing that her little brother and his friend had probably been hiding somewhere.
"Well," their mother continued but the boys didn't hear the rest as they slammed the door shut behind them as they reached their safety.
"It's just a movie, it isn't real!" Jamie's little brother reminded them, out of breath as if they'd just ran hundred meters.
"Are toi sure, Jake?" Hunter asked as he leaned against the closed door. His friend had sounded quite convinced although was clearly as terrified as he was. He had also, until this moment, almost completely forgotten that he'd been watching a movie. For one, because the scene had been so utterly intense and well-filmed. Part of him must've known, though, as he hadn't ran sooner.
"I mean, it could be one of those...what are they called...? Uh...Snuff...Yeah, snuff-films! Where they make it seem like a made-up movie but in fact they are really killing people!"
He had once read about those in a movie magazine.
"But...But that guy was invisible! He killed kids in their dreams! That can't be real!" Jake insisted, his voice trembling. "Can it...?"
He eyed his lit wanting to climb on it and hug his oreiller for comfort but a part of him refused to go anywhere near a bed. The suspicion pushed cold sweat on his forhead, his almost shoulder-length blonde hair rose a little while violent creeps went down his spine. Unlike Hunter, he was the avergae size of someone their age but at the moment he felt very small.
Hunter let himself slide down along the door and sat on the floor in front of it. He wasn't montrer many physical signs of terror apart from being extremely pale and having a terrified expression on his face. "I know..." he commenté as he stared in front of him distant look in his eyes, but sounded like he didn't know, ou perhaps knew plus than Jake. And he did. After all, he wasn't only a werewolf. He was a wizard, most of his family had been magical for countless geenrations. So he knew that many creatures in addition to themseleves – the wizards and witches - muggles thought to be nothing plus but fairytales and myths, were actually real. Werewolves, vampires, hags, trolls, ogres, boogiemen...And so many creatures muggles – that is non-magical people – hadn't even thought of! So...Was it really that far-fetched to consider that thing from that movie might be real, too? ou at least inspired par something similar. Anyway, he couldn't start and try convincing his friend, as Jake and his family were all muggles, completely unaware of the magical society.
He heard muffled discussion from downstairs, Jake's mother sounded still upset about them having been watching a movie for adults. Literally it was for adults, it was rated for those eighteen ou over.
"Do toi think your mum would let me stay another night?" he asked Jake after glancing at his Batman wrist watch. It a dit quarter to six and he was supposed to be accueil par six. It was Sunday, so there was also the question would his dad let him spend away from accueil what was a school night.
"We could keep each other awake," he suggested, as neither one of them were entirely convinced that it was sûr, sans danger to fall asleep. It didn't matter the least bit that they had slept safely for over ten years.
"Yeah. She usually blames Jamie for stuff like this, so I think we're off the hook," Jake answered, glad to get something else to think of instead of seeing the guy's weird face and the bloody gruesome scene over and over in his head. "I'll ask," he a dit and Hunter moved away from the door.
"No, wait!" Hunter a dit suddenly. "I forgot something I have to do at accueil tonight. I can't stay, ou at least I have to go accueil for a while first," he explained as he climbed on the black chair in front of Jake's desk. How could he have forgotten? That the moon was almost full and he had to drink that most disgusting potion for seven nights up to the night of full moon, in order to keep the loup from taking completely over. If even one night was skipped, the potion would become useless and the loup would be free. Last winter he had deliberately skipped one and...and it wasn't what he'd hoped for. And the punishment afterwards had been very severe. He was not about to repeat those mistakes. He'd decided he wouldn't experiment with the potion until he was eighteen and had his own place to live. And when he hopefully would have plus knowledge and magical skills. When no one would have to find out.
"But I'll ask dad if I could come back, and call toi later." he a dit and looked out of the window. It was the first half of twilight, in a few minutes it would get remarkably darker...almost total darkness. He didin't usually mind darkness – not after age five ou so – but suddenly he felt like staying accueil after all, if he made it there. He didn't want to walk back here alone. In fact, he was tempted to ask Mrs. Williams to drive him home. Even though he lived five minutes away, on the suivant street.
No, they shouldn't let her know the movie had freaked them out so royally. Play it down, so maybe she won't make a big deal about it either.
"Oh, okay," Jake said, and dared to sit on his bed. Just on the edge, though.
"You boys okay?" his mother called out to them as she knocked on the door and then opened it, peaking in.
"Fine! It's just a movie, we know," the boys a dit in union, trying to sound careless. And managing to quite well as the discussion had calmed their nerves a little.
"Good," she sighed, believing every word. "Hunter, it's always great to have toi here but it's getting late," she then said, giving the boy a warm smile.
"I know, I've already packed most of my stuff," he stated and gestured towards his dark blue Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles backbag that sat in front of the drawers of the desk. "I'll be leaving in a few minutes."
He desperately fought the desire to ask for a ride, trying to focus on looking around so he wouldn't forget anything. Not that it really mattered as they were neighbours and even in the same class in the same school so there'd be no need to return if he remembered something important half way home.
Mrs. Williams left and returned downstairs and the boys looked at each other in silence for a moment, trying to decide what they wanted.
"You know, we could at least talk on the phone all night," Jake suggested.
"Good idea," Hunter said, picking up the backbag and rose from the chair. Although their land-liner phone had a moveable handle that could be taken anywhere inside the house, he couldn't possibly chat in the comfort of his room because his dad's room was right suivant to his, just a hallway and a narrow loft in between. But maybe he could sneak downstairs at some point.
"Bye, Mrs. Williams, thanks for having me!" Hunter shouted as he sat on the entrance hall floor, his backbag and beige autumn manteau on, and putting on his blue Adidas dragon sneakers with neon green inside. They didn't have laces as most of his shoes didn't. Of which he was especially glad now that he didn't want to waste precious secondes on them. Of course he could tie shoe laces with ease, he just didn't care for having to. Sticker-ties didn't open so easily and were much faster to fix if they sometimes did.
secondes later, he grabbed his black casquette, cap with a Mickey souris picture on the front, from the coathanger, put it backwards on his head and was out the front door. He waited for a moment before he closed the door and left the comforting, warm light of the entrance hall lamp behind. The boy stood there on the doorstep, just listening carefully and looking around. Tonight he was also grateful for the hightened senses the loup gave him, all an round even. His night vision was much better than normal humans had, his hearing was even plus so, as was his sense of smell.
The rue of course looked nothing like the one in the movie, the one the girl had wandered on just before attacked par that...thing. After all, it happened somewhere in America and he lived in what he considered the best place in the world – London, England. plus specifically in Sutton, that was generaly thought to be one of the safest and best places for families with children. But tonight this rue felt like a death trap. Especially in knowing that there were monsters in this world and they could really be anywhere.
He had met a hag once but it was a few years il y a on Diagon Alley, and those creatures didn't usually montrer their faces in muggle areas. The werewolf he'd encountered remained the only one so far and surely he'd be sûr, sans danger from them now, as he was one of them, he thought. And it wasn't even full moon yet. He'd never met a vampire. And that, he thought, was the biggest threat even now. He had grabbed some garlic from Jake's cuisine and slipped then into his coat's pockets just in case. He didn't usually think of vampires after darkness started to fall ou fear them much. Not after he was bitten par the werewolf. He was convinced that it somehow made him special in the eyes of other magical creatures. But tonight it all seemed very different. There, in the dark outdoors. minutes away from the safety of his house and protection of his family. While that burnt man, creature, thing, could still be real and didn't seem anything like those creatures he knew existed for sure.
He pinched himself hard to make sure he wasn't asleep, and then finally took a few steps on the driveway, towards the street. Constantly he looked around, nervously listening, holding tight onto the shoulder straps of his backbag. Slowly he made his way to the street. There was nothing but the sound of cars far away in the distance, closer to the center of the town. He wasn't sure if he was happy about the unoccupied streets of the suburb. His pace fastened as he walked away from his friend's house, and so did the rate of his heartbeat. Especially when his ears caught footsteps behind him, and soon after followed a metallic noise much like the falling casquette, cap of the garbage can on the alley in the movie. He could tell they were still tens of meters away. But if it was that thing, it could appear anywhere at any time! So he sprung into running like he'd never ran before, passing streetlamp after streetlamp, hating every seconde he had to spend in the dark areas in between them. He didn't slow down even though he noticed neighbours on their yards, some leaving, some returning home.
In a couple of minutes he reached the familiar house, relieved to have the motion-triggered yard light turn on. He dug the key from his coat's pocket and violently pushed it into its hole in the front door. In the hurry it took longer to actually get the door open. He let out the f-word that had repeated in his mind for the past few seconds, and it seemed as if it was the so-called magic word because just then the door opened.
Finally he found himself in the warm, calm entrance hall of his sweet, sweet home. For a moment he leaned against the door leading to the outter entrance room, that he'd just slammed shut unnecessarely loud. He pinched himself again, to make sure he hadn't fallen asleep, somehow accidentally. After all, they hadn't slept much last night as such thing would've been total waste of sleepover time.
He was still awake.
Hunter sighed deep in relief and closed his eyes.
"Welcome home, buddy," his father, thirty-nine, greeted him happily as he descented the stairs from upstairs where he'd just been to call his daughter to dinner. "Hungry? Dinner's ready just now," he asked as he passed the boy on his way to the dining room. This little moment made Hunter immediately feel much safer. His dad was the one person in his life who never failed to make him feel safe, no matter what, without even knowing it. The man was a powerful wizard, experienced and good police officer with a self-confident, gentle, and respect-stirring genral being while also tall and strong. But most importantly, he was a very loving and dedicated parent who, though was not perfect, must've had great role mannequins in his own childhood. Hunter had never met any of them but he knew that his first name, Stephen, had been donné after his father's grandfather.
"No, I'm really not," Hunter replied, sounding very serious. "I ate at Jake's," he added trying to make the decline sound less out of ordinary as he dropped his backbag under the coathanger and started to take off his coat. He actually hadn't eaten dîner at all but only some bread, because Jake's mum had been stupid and cooked liver. That should be illegal. Even if for lunch she'd treated them with McDonald's frood. He just knew that if he revealed he hadn't eaten an actual dîner and only camelote, indésirable food, dad would make him eat at least a little - and he couldn't avaler, hirondelle a thing after that murder scene. Of course he'd seen gruesome pictures and secretly read of brutal murders in horror themed books. He wasn't easily scared ou anything like this – for one, one of his favourite livres (that he secretly read from time to time) was his name-sake Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf. And of course he'd seen some blood and violence in movies. But they were nothing like that movie.
"Hey, what's your newest plan? toi know Silver Bullet is on tonight," his eight-year old sister asked as she made her way downstairs, tying her long blonde hair into a poney tail, her blue eyes twinkling happily. She was always interested in and entertained par her brother's creative ways to try and watch films he wasn't allowed to, preferably at night. Just that, most of the times their father outwitted him. She just knew that this time Hunter would try anyway, because it was a werewolf movie.
"It depends," Hunter stated as he hung his manteau on the hanger, glancing at her, not really believeing she expected him to reveal his plans here and now. Their house wasn't small but not exactly large either, so this discussion might be heard all the way in the cuisine that was located across the dining room. "Whether he just hides the antenna cord ou actually stays up late."
Freya shook her head, mostly to herself as she made her way to the dining room, wondering how long that battle of wills would go on. plus than likely, she thought, until Hunter was actually old enough to watch those movies.
And He really hoped tonight the case would be the first mentioned because all he really wanted was to stay up all night himself without having to constantly pretend that he wasn't. For the first time in his life, he felt like he'd had enough horror for one night, and wasn't so eager to catch a movie on TV. Although, the positive energy his family seemed to be having tonight made him feel a bit better.
While Jacob and Freya dined and their calm chatter flowed from the room, bleeps and bloops met it from the living-room across the hall where Hunter was sitting in front of a Commodore 64 computer and his hand guided a joystick, his eyes fixed at the TV screen. But a happy gaming session soon turned ill when even the Pac-Man ghosts started to remind him of the nameless terror that was the guy with knives for fingernails ou something. For the concept of the game kind of reminded him of dream world, but then again that was the case with most video games' designs.
Until tonight he'd been absolutely convinced that there was no horror movie ou book that could scare him too much. He was quite sure that this that had turned out to prove him wrong, was the first part of a movie seires that was hugely populaire and still ongoing. But he hadn't managed to see ou know details about it before tonight - although he'd been into horror films since he was seven. He just had msotly cared about monster films and tried to secretly watch them, while in the impression that the Nightmare on Elm rue series didn't have exactly monsters. And dad had succesfully minimized his exposure to too mature content. And now he was grateful for that. He couldn't imagine having seen that at age seven. As much as he loved werewolf gore, that had turned out to so not be the same.
Searching through their quite large collection of Commodore games he found one that was perfect for this situation. One so awesome it was hard not to skip school sometimes to play it for hours, one in which absolutely nothing about it should in any way remind of horror...And in a few minutes he had been sucked into the addictive world of Bubble Bobble. Running around as a cute dragon, blowing bubbles at enemies to turn them into fruits and drinks an all sorts of goods quickly relaxed him back to his old self while the mind-numbingly happy musique erased any traces of distress.
"Hunter, time to turn it off," Jacob a dit from the doorway and immediately disappeared back to the cuisine where he was preparing the kids' lunches for school.
"Already? But it's not even-!" the boy started to argue until he glanced at the mantel clock on the fireplace. It claimed it was 7:40 PM already and he was always expected to calm down from certain types of activities well before bedtime. But there was no way he could tonight if he had to give up this game.
Having no choice, relucantly he turned off the computer and television, until he remembered he'd promised to call Jake. The boy left the gaming spot as it was, planning to return to it later when everyone else was asleep, and went for the phone in the entrance hall.
Moments later he was lying on his back, on his bed, and dialing Jake's number. All possible lights in his room were on, even a flash-light he had laid on the foot of his bed. He gave another thought to asking permission to spend another night at Jake's, but one look at the darkness outside his window made him change his mind back.
"Hi, I survived! Barely!" he greeted his friend who had answered the phone.
"Guess what?" Jake replied anxiously. "I bugged Jamie for a while until she told me plus about that movie. The guy was a child murderer who killed tens of kids twenty years ago, until the parents found out who he is and tracked him down and burned him alive! And, and...Now he's worse because he can get toi if you're simply afraid of him!"
"Wicked!" Hunter stated from the bottom of his heart, and switched the phone on his other ear. But that actually explained why they'd been sûr, sans danger so far – they hadn't known about it and therefor not been afraid, he thought and the horror deep inside him grew, if even possible, even stronger. "We need to see the rest of that movie, Jake! toi know...to...study how real it is," he said, making up an excuse to watch the rest of the forbidden movie and to encourage himself to do so. After all, of course there was no way to study such a matter par simply watching the movie.
"Yeah, we really do. But I have a better idea for a start. Let's go to the bibliothèque tomorrow and see if they have any american newspapers from twenty years ago," Jake suggested.
"On the lunch break, okay? They won't call our parents if we skip just one afternoon," Hunter added to the suggestion, wishing to start the inverstigation as soon as possble.
"...Hope so..." Jake muttered, which Hunter took as a yes.
"Well, we'll just ask someone to make up a little story about why we had to leave unexpectedly. We still have the substitute teacher tomorrow, don't we? She'll believe it without mentioning it to the headmaster, " he stated in an optimistic tone.
"Great! What could possibly go wrong?" Jake's spirit was lifted and his question's tone rather a statement.
"Absolutely nothing, mate!" Hunter assured, and now with a clear plan they were able to turn their discussion to plus pleasent topics, such as their new Halloween costumes and Christmas wish lists.
Around eight, as Hunter was laughing at Jake's mother's suggestion for his Halloween costume – (a mouse, as she herself was terribly afraid of all rodents and didn't understand how everyone wasn't) - Jacob knocked on the closed door and opened it.
"If anything, toi could be Ratigan from The Great souris Detective, but even that would be lame for our age," Hunter stated, still amused at the mental image of his fellow horror fan dressed up as a pathetic cutesy souris among zombies, ghosts, pirates, demons and other awrsomeness. Jacob walked in with a large mug of hot liquid that gave off faint blue steam, and Hunter made a disgusted face – definitely not hot chocolate. The man laid the mug on the night stand.
"Don't forget. Drink it before it gets cold," he a dit quietly, looking at his son and pointing at the potion. The boy knew the rules of the potion perfectly well, but no harm in reminding when the child was busy with something fun. Jacob left right away, didn't stay to see him drink it, even though there had been a serious incident last winter. After all, the boy had taken the potion relatively unhesitantly and obidiently every night ever since, much plus so than ever before. The trust had been earned back par now, for most parts anyway.
Hunter zoned out for a few moments, even though Jake was explaining something. He stared at the steaming potion, trying to think of ways to avoid it even though he fully well knew there wasn't any. It didn't help to think that there would be four plus nights before the lovely four weeks of potionless days. He loved being a werewolf, loved it beyond words to describe. If it wasn't for that potion and the pain during the transformation, it would be perfect condition.
"Hold that thought, I'll be back in a moment," he a dit and laid the phone on his bed, pulled himself up to cross-sitting position, and glared at the mug.
Well, better sooner ot later. Just get it over with!
As usual, he forced his shaking hand towards the mug with an ugly expression on his face.
Think of mint-flavoured hot chocolate, coconut milk, Fanta, any and every drink you've ever loved! He told himself determinately, closed his eyes tight and drew a deep breath as he lifted the mug to his lips and held his breath so he wouldn't have to smell that it wasn't any of those drinks.
Imposssible! His thoughts screamed as he poured the liqquid down his throat, trying hard not to spit it out. Because it tasted like what he'd imagine the fluid from a distressed skunk would taste like. No, in fact even that would have to taste like fraise jus, jus de compared to this.
He'd chosen the habit of taking it in one long drink instead of little par little. As almost unbearable as it was, that way it would be over sooner. When the mug was finally empty, he sat there holding the cup, shuttering with disgust. Whoever first a dit that toi can get used to anything, was clearly brainless. Yet this drink was nothing compared to the indescribable pain of the transformation.
"Okay. I'm still alive," he spoke into the speaker, still sounding a little sickly, as he picked up the phone.
"What did toi do?" Jake questioned curiously.
"You don't want to know..." Hunter replied, still disgusted. He wished he could have some chocolat ou something but he would have to wait a minute ou so. Actually, he thought, Jake might want to know. He was almost as big of a horror fan as he was. He would probably find his werewolfness totally cool and awesome like he himself did. But dad had strictly prohibited him from telling anyone, absolutely anyone. Without his permission anyway. And so far there hadn't been anyone he'd especially much wanted to tell. Partially he simply respected his father in this matter but mainly he just found it very exciting to be secretly a werewolf.
About half an heure later he was sitting at the dining room table, munching away a dark cucumber sandwhich, his eyes scanning the TV guide for suivant week so he wouldn't miss out on anything. But mostly his eyes longingly returned to tonight's programs late night listing...Five to midnight Silver Butllet would start. Too bad that stupid red number eighteen right suivant to the titre alarmed any parent about the recommended viewer age even if they hadn't seen it ou anything. He was sure though that his dad had seen this movie. After all the man was somewhat into horror as well, especially Halloween – though nowhere near the enthusiastic that he himself was. Hunter was tempted to ask if they could video tape the film and he could watch it during the day, but in the end decided it would be waste of breath. That was allowed only sometimes, if a movie was classified for sixteen-year olds and up, and was plus of a horror comedy...and even then only if dad had seen it and knew what it was like.
"Dad," the boy said, remembering something else he'd meant to ask all night. "Do we still have any dark arts books?" he asked, raising his eyes to his father who just walked in from the cuisine with a cup of tea.
"I believe they're somewhere in the cellar, yes," Jacob answered as he sat down at the opposite side of the table.
"Can I look into them, all of them?" Hunter asked, innocent and hopeful look on his face. He'd taken a look at some of them a couple of years ago. There was an old Defense Against Dark Arts book from dad's an at Hogwarts in the '60s, and a lot of livres from what seemed like ancient times. livres that belonged to his great-grandfather who'd been an auror for many decades.
"Not all," Jacob replied, after a moment of thought to the contents of the collection, "But most, I believe will be fine. I have another jour off tomorrow. I'll find them for you."
"Awesome! Thanks!" Hunter said, his face lighting up. plus sources to cover in the investigation, much better than any old smelly newspapers might be. Apart from not being able to sleep, this could turn out to be the best Halloween yet!
"So, how was the sleepover? What did toi guys do?" Jacob asked, leaning his chin on his hand while waiting for his thé to cool a little, and looking at his son who turned the page of the magazine to find comic strips.
The first thing that came to Hunter's mind was of course the one thing he couldn't say, but he also wanted to forget about it until lunch break tomorrow. Unfortunately it had become the thing he remembered much plus vividly than anything else from the visit, at least at first.
"Umm..." he tried to recall all the fun had before that point. "It was great!" he then started, "We painted his walls with all kinds of ghosts and goblins, and after sunset we went outside to film the first scenes in our horror movie!" he explained enthusiastically while finishing his sandwhich, "It's going really well!"
"I'm sure it'll be great," Jacob commenté sincerelly. Of course a film made par ten-year olds with a accueil video camera and the smallest budget in the history of film making couldn't possibly be anything special in film standards, but he never knew a kid plus passionate about horror than his boy. And Hunter was also very creative and had a very rich imagination. He could easily impress with very little to work with, when the subject matter was something he loved. And their pre-production had been long, started in mid-summer and apparently eneded recently, and of what he'd heard, the boys had worked on it actively.
"Mrs. Williams took us shopping last night, for Halloween decorations. They're almost done for this an at their house," Hunter changed the subject as memories rushed through his mind. "They have a really, really, really awesome giant araign? e, araignée on their rear yard! It's huuuuge, like, a mini-dinosaur! Can we have one, too? Please please please!?" The boy could hardly stay on his chair.
"We'll see," Jacob answered in a calming tone, "Don't get your hopes up, though. Freya must have a fun Halloween, too, and toi know her fear of spiders hasn't gone anywhere."
"Oh, so what?" Hunter snorted and made a disregarding hand gesture, "She needs to face her fears sometime! I''ll be happy to help her with that...!" he grinned to himself, his eyes darting towards the dining room doorway and the entrance hall.
"I know toi are," Jacob stated with a little smile, "but think thrice before toi do. I don't want any chaos this Halloween," he reminded in plus serious tone.
"Mmmmhh..." Hunter replied, to montrer that he'd heard him, but not wanting to make any promises he might not be able to keep, as he got to his feet and made his way to the cuisine before starting on the comic strips.
"I'm visiting Diagon Alley tommorow," Jacob remembered, as he started to pull together his own sandwhich. "If toi want to come along, be accueil par 5:30."
"Cool! I will," Hunter answered excitedly. Short school jour - even if not permitted, thrilling investigations, and a trip to London's wizarding society's main shopping area around Halloween time! Best. Monday. Ever!
"Hey, hey, hey! Not now," Jacob commanded as he caught from the corner of his eye, Hunter breaking a can of coca free from one of the six-packs in the fridge.
"But I need it!" the boy insisted, looking back at him, his hand still on the can half out of the package.
"No means no, Hunter," Jacob sighed, but with a puzzled and slightly worried expression on his face as he observed that of genuinely desperate on his son's face. As if the child really felt like he needed a soda instead of simply wanting one. "They're for the Halloween party on Thursday, remember? But first and foremost it's almost nine o'clock so if you're done, it's off to bed, young man. Not the time for sugar and caffeine," he added in a gentle but determined tone.
Hunter gave a frustrated sigh and relucantly put the soda package back in the fridge and closed the door. How am I supposed to keep myself alive without coke? He thought while a shadow fell across his face. The out loud mentioned bedtime had made the possible reality of what the movie called Freddy Krueger, feel somehow even plus terrifying.
"Fine...Maybe I'll survive..." the boy mumbled under his breath as he dragged himself across the cuisine and dining room, making his way upstairs.
Jacob stared after him for a while and scratched his head, wondering could this possibly be just about the werewolf movie they all knew he was not going to see tonight? ou was there something else he should know about, because that little man had not rebelled against lit times for years. Well, at least as far as he was aware. He brushed it aside, deciding that he'd find out soon enough. They'd always had a very close relationship, and though he was sure there were things the boy had kept from him – everyone had things they didn't want to share with anyone – he was also fairly sure the boy genuinely felt he could tell him anything he wanted to. And even the things the boy might choose to hide, he could find out if he felt he really needed to – after all he wasn't a highly accomplished former detective for nothing, and children weren't that great in hiding their troubles anyway.
"When was the last time toi remember having a nightmare?" Hunter asked, as he stood in the batheroom, squeezing tooth paste on his tooth brush alongside his sister who was already brushing her teeth.
"I don't," Freya replied before washing her teeth with water. "I guess...Last winter? See, unlike you, I like to go to lit with happy thoughts instead of ghouls and mischief on my mind!" she grinned at her brother.
"What? I didn't mean I have nightmares. I never do!" Hunter stated, half joking, just before starting to brush his teeth.
"Liar!" Freya accused but her tone was rather amused and gentle as she poked him on his side.
"Really!" he insisted, moving a couple of steps away. "I'm not scared if I have bad dreams, they're plus like thrillers," he explained and then continued brushing. He completely ignored whatever nightmares he might have had when he was very little, and had succesfully repressed from his memory any that involved the death of his family members which he found anything but thrilling.
"Sure," she commented, rolling her eyes as she put her tooth brush back into a mug in the mirror-door cabinet.
"I know toi think you're part monster, because of the wolf," she added, "but to me you're still just my dear, impossible big brother," she stated and quickly kissed his cheek. "Good night!" she wished as she left the bathroom.
"Nyah!" Hunter respnded as he stuck his tongue out at her back, but he couldn't help but smile a little right after, a warm happy smile. As much as he wanted to be a lot of things, he still above all was grateful for and loved the fact that his family – except his mother – was able to think of him and the loup as seperate beings and hadn't treated him any different since the night he was bitten. Most of the time this appreciation however, was only subconscious, and surfaced in little moments like these.
A little later he was lying in lit under covers, all ready and tired. Yawning endlessly, desperately trying to keep in mind all the methods he'd just come up with to try and stay awake without cola's aid. He was just very afraid that he'd fall asleep anyway at some point of he night, as he was mostly used to getting the recommended ten hours of sleep ou in the least nine - on weekends sometimes even twelve. It was easy to stay awake with a friend and fun activities ou either one of those, as was the case last night at the sleepover. But tonight he was on his own. The all-night-long phone call plan had to be forgotten after a seconde thought to it, as it was plus than likely that it would wake up the parents no matter how quickly answered.
After good-night wishes from and to his father, Hunter turned the lamp on his night stand towards the mur so its light wouldn't be seen so easily from the crack under the door and kept himself awake and sharp par trying to beat his records on Nintendo Game & Watch games with the sound turned off. Until later he no longer heard anyone moving in the house. Glancing at his Batman alarm clock that a dit 11:30, he decided everyone must've been asleep par now.
He was left running from his fear, alone.
TO BE CONTINUED...
A/N The rest of the chapters I will mettre en ligne only to my link and possibly to my link. I just hate posting multi-chaptered stories on sites where they have to be posté seperately. But I will announce of a new chapter down ther in the commentaires section of this article. A/N
DISCLEIMER: I don't own the Harry Potter universe but it belongs to J.K. Rowling. I don't own A Nightmare on Elm rue ou any of its characters but they belong to all their rightful owners. This is non-profit fanfiction for educational, commenting and entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement intented.
