After I hung up the phone, I immediately dropped what I was doing and started packing my things. My Nana was sick and she wanted me to come and keep her company.
I packed my backpack full of cheesy vampire movies like Twilight, Underworld, Braum Stoker’s Dracula, and the original 1980’s The Lost Boys. All her favorite movies. I threw in her favorite snacks too: a family sized bag of Funions and liter bottle of Dr. Pepper. For a Nana, she has an interesting taste in movies and snacks. And that’s why I love her. She has been by my side through some rough times with my parents, so I think I owe her a Saturday night. I then sent a text to my boyfriend that I couldn’t make it to his house for movie night.
I zipped up my backpack and before I left I went into the bathroom to fix myself. I noticed that my black color was fading and turning into a dark brown at the roots and my short layers were growing out and almost touching my shoulders, I reminded myself to stop by the hair salon to get it re-done. Whipping my bangs out from in front of my eyes, I tried to touch up my makeup as best as I could. My eyeliner was a little smeared, but it was okay enough to be out in public. I grabbed my favorite red Zumiez hoodie and zipped it up over my Green Day band t-shirt and headed out the door with my now heavy backpack over one shoulder. My scooter was in the shop, so I had to walk. But I could find my way because of the full moon coming soon. It was only a fifteen minute walk to Nana’s apartment if I used the back alleyways.
Once I was outside, I put my hood over my head to keep my ears warm. I headed for the back alleyways, hearing my Converse sneakers against the sidewalk. I looked up to see the glowing Space Needle in the night sky. I wanted to take a picture for my gallery; which was just basically a small bulletin board with only four amateur pictures of Seattle icons like Pike Place Market and the Art Museum, but I had no time, I had to get to Nana’s house.
I decided to put my ear phones in to keep me from thinking about who else walked through the alleyways at this time of night, or who might’ve be watching me. I was in the middle of listening to Supermassive Black Hole by Muse when my iPod died. Piece of crap. I thought to myself. I rolled the ear phones up and stuffed my iPod into my pocket.
The whole lower half of my body blended in with the shadows of the alley with my black skinny jeans and black Chuck’s. The only part of me that was visible was my red hoodie. I smirked at myself, thinking about if people could see only my hoodie; would they think I was a ghost? I would like to see their faces.
I was about to turn a corner when I heard someone behind me. “Hey Red.” said a voice. I turned around to see Oliver, a senior that I’ve seen at school. I didn’t know very much about him, all I knew was that he was a loner in school. He didn’t talk, didn’t even seem to want someone to talk to. He just kept to himself. I always saw him riding his motorcycle through town. This was the first time I heard him speak. I didn’t even know he knew who I was. It kind of creeped me out. And the fact that he knew my nickname, Red, creeped me out even more. Only my best friends called me that. Everyone else called me by my real name, Elizabeth.
He stepped out of the shadows wearing all black: Black leather jacket over a plain black t-shirt, two studded belts crossed over each other around his black skinny pants and worn out and scuffed black biker boots. He was actually quite good looking I decided, now that I had gotten a good look at him. He had a small friendly smile on his face and his green eyes shined brightly, they were the best features of his face. The fresh hair gel spiking up his black hair glistened in the cheap street lights. They still had the odor of Axe.
“Umm, hello.” I said, trying not to seem nervous.
“Where are you off to at this time of night?” He asked, stepping towards me a little.
I backed up just as much. “To my Nana’s house. She’s sick, and I’m going to hang out with her for a while. I brought her snacks and a bunch of vampire movies and stuff.” I replied, motioning to my backpack, trying to look as casual as possible. Whether I’ve seen him in school or not, he was still considered a stranger.
He nodded very nonchalantly and looked like he smelled something strong; I couldn’t smell anything except his hair gel. But he could obviously smell something that I couldn’t. “Funions?” He asked.
I grew a little stiff and backed up a little more. “Yeah,” I said. “How’d you know?”
He shrugged. “Lucky guess, I love Funions….can I have some?” He asked, walking towards me.
I backed up some more and put my hand out to stop him. “No, no. They’re for my Nana and I, they won’t be fresh anymore if I leave the bag open too long.” To me, that was the lame-est excuse ever. But it seemed to work a little.
“Just one? I know a cool trick to keep the bag sealed. And I’ll be your best friend?” He begged using a creepy puppy dog face that would’ve been cute…..to anybody else but me.
I shook my head. “No.”
He pouted, “Fine….so your Nana likes vampire movies huh?” he asked.
I nodded, feeling very uncomfortable. “Yeah, she and I are total Twi-hards.” I said, and did a little laugh that I always did when I was nervous. “Team Edward all the way.”
“Does she like werewolves?” Oliver asked with a smirk on his face. “You know, they’re way better than vampires.”
“No way.” I said making a face of disgust. “We both think vampires are legit.”
“Well, you want to know why werewolves are better?” Oliver asked all sly. “They can shape-shift, so they could be anybody, even someone you know very well, and you won’t even know until it’s too late.” He had a really creepy smirk on his face and after discovering his secret fetish for Funions and abnormal knowledge about werewolves, I decided to leave.
He said goodbye and said that he’d see me soon. Then I knew why he didn’t have any friends, he was a total creeper. I shrugged the strange feelings off and walked the rest of the way a little faster than normal. When I walked up the outside stairs to Nana’s apartment, I saw the full moon rising and heard some dog somewhere inside one of the apartments bark, and whine, and growl. Didn’t know which one though. I ignored it and knocked on Nana’s door.
“Nana,” I called, “its Red!” There was a silence. “Nana?” I called again, “you okay?”
There was more silence then I heard her voice. “Oh yes, come in deary.” I heard her call. She had never called me “deary” before. She was probably a little out of sorts from her medicine again.
I opened the door and saw her sitting on her couch in her snuggie. She smiled at me. “Oh Red, deary, it’s so good to see you.” She said happily. “Come here and give your Nana a hug.” She stood up and held out her arms. “Oh, and did you bring me my Funions?”
“Right here.” I held up my backpack and then put it on the floor and walked over to give her a big hug. When she had her arms around me, she felt…different. She hugged different. Usually she would put her arms around my upper back and rocked me back and forth and put one hand on the back of my head and stroke my hair. This time, she put her arms around my waist and just stood there. And her hair didn’t smell like her Aussie shampoo, it was a familiar smell. It was faint, but it smelled like….Axe.
I pulled away to look at her. “Nana,” I asked, “what an awful smell you have; are you wearing cologne?”
She looked me in the eyes and replied, “Oh, well, I had the neighbor boy, um, Joe, come over to help me with something, he was wearing strong cologne and it probably rubbed off on me when I hugged him to say thank you. It’s nothing deary.” There was that “deary” again. Why was she calling me that?
“Why do you keep calling me that? You always call me ‘baby doll,’ not ‘deary.’” I said, getting very suspicious. There was something not right about Nana.
“Oh, well, I’m trying out a new pet name for you.” She replied.
“But you’ve called me ‘baby doll’ since I was born, why change it now?” I protested.
“Just calm down baby doll.” She said, putting her hands on my shoulders and rubbing my arms, trying to put me at ease. I then took a good long look at her face. She even looked different. It was her eyes. They weren’t pale blue, they were…bright green.
“Nana, what bright green eyes you have…” I whispered.
I pushed her back. “You’re not my Nana!!” I screamed.
She then smiled a familiar creepy smile and showed a bunch of sharp teeth. Then she began to change. I heard a growl and a snarl and her snuggie ripped off her changing body and her face grew longer and she grew black fur all over. She then went on all fours and grew bigger. She formed into a huge black wolf. It snarled at me, its green eyes flashing so bright against its black fur. I screamed the loudest I’ve ever screamed and backed up into the wall where I slid down onto the floor. I was cornered, and the wolf came forward, snarling. My whole life flashed before my eyes, I could feel hot tears streaming down my face. I whimpered and hiccupped, knowing I was done for. The wolf came so close to me that its nose was inches from my face and I could feel its warm breath huffing on me as it snarled.
I screamed another time and its roar got louder. I closed my eyes, preparing for the end. Then I heard the door fly open. I heard the wolf start to whimper and whine and I felt it back off. I opened my eyes; my vision at first was blurry because of my tears. But when I could see, I saw a boy in a flannel shirt, about my age with a silver pocket knife in his hand, pointing it at the wolf. The wolf was up against the wall looking terrified of the little pocket knife. Then I remembered something: silver things kill werewolves! The pocket knife was silver. I knew that I was going to be okay then.
“Now stay back.” The boy said, still pointing the knife at the wolf. He then looked at me and held out his hand. “Are you okay?” He asked.
I grabbed his hand and got up slowly. “Now I am.” I said, still shaken up.
“I heard everything from my apartment, I live right next door.” He said.
I thought the wolf wasn’t going to do anything if the boy still had the knife in his hand so I relaxed. “This is my Nana’s apartment….oh my god, where’s my Nana?!” I screamed. I grabbed the knife from the boy and pointed it at the wolf that quivered in fear. “Where is she? What did you do to her?!” I yelled.
The wolf looked beyond me into the back of the room, where there was a closet. I gave the boy the knife and looked inside to see my Nana huddled in the corner of the empty closet. I quickly gave her a hug. We held our embrace for a whole minute and I was so happy she was alive. “Are you okay?” I asked her.
“I want to ask the same of you! I heard everything and I was so worried! I heard that thing break in and at first it was a boy, he told me to stay in here and I was so scared I did what I was told. See, this is why I hate werewolves.” She said and we both laughed.
The boy in the flannel shirt walked over to us. “What’s your name?” I asked him.
“I’m Jack,” he replied with a smile, “Jack Woods.”
Nana hugged Jack and gave him a wet Nana smooch on the cheek and I did the same. He saved our lives and we will both be forever grateful for that. After we exchanged hugs all around, we looked back to where the wolf was, and saw he was gone. The wolf had disappeared out the window. I also noticed that my backpack was open, with no bag of Funions.
A light bulb then went off in my head: I remembered talking to Oliver in the alleyway, talking about werewolves being shape shifters and about him loving Funions so much. And I remembered the smell of his hair gel and his green eyes. So the wolf was really Oliver and he apparently would do anything to have my Funions!
“Creep…” I just said to myself. I then reached into my backpack and pulled out the Dr. Pepper and the movies. “Now who wants to watch Twilight?”