Waterlily Estates, an idyllic suburban neighborhood of upper middle class homes nestled among large trees on quiet softly winding streets and alleyways. It was a quiet and peaceful place where you could feel safe raising your family.
The night of the 14th was quiet, a soft breeze rustled the leaves of the large trees down Larkspur Street. The night birds and crickets were quiet that night. 1402 Larkspur Street was the home of Gladys Jenkins, an elderly woman whose primary concerns were keeping her garden weed free, making sure none of the neighborhood urchins trampled across her grass, and complaining about the hip-hop music they listened to.
It was 11:35 and Gladys had just woken up in her easy chair after missing the weather on the 10:00 News. She didn't like that weather girl anyways, she never wore anything that fit her and those breasts of hers, so clearly fakes and had she ever heard of wearing a bra. Women these days, no morals at all, she thought. Gladys climbed out of her chair and made her way through her living room into her kitchen where she found her cat, Mr. Boots prowling about. " Come on kitty" she said, gingerly bending over to scoop the cat up, " out you go."
Gladys slowly straightened up but not without a great deal of groaning and complaining about her aching back. She made her way to the kitchen door that led into her backyard. Gladys flipped on the outside light and keyed her password into her security panel. Gladys knew you couldn't be too careful these days, they had just built a low income apartment complex on the other side of town.
The light on the security panel blinked green and Gladys turned the deadbolt. She pushed the door open and smelled the warm spring air. " Out you go Mr. Boots" she said.
But Mr. Boots wouldn't go, he growl and the hair on his back bristled in Gladys' hands. " Get out there you stupid cat" she said, " there is nothing out there."
Mr. Boots leapt from her hands and darted between her legs racing deep into the house. Gladys turned to watch Mr. Boots disappear into the darkness of the house. She turned to wonder what was wrong with her stupid cat when she saw it.
A massive black shape charged from the darkness of her backyard and slammed straight into her knocking her to the ground. She looked into the beast's yellow eyes and let off one last shriek before it buried its fangs into her.

Eric Nichols was deep into his 3rd full hour of World of Warcraft, kicking ass with his Night Elf Hunter in the Un'Goro Crater when he heard the scream echo through the neighborhood. The scream was loud enough and unusual enough to pull him away him away from his game and lead him out of his room and down the stairs. He reached the kitchen just as his sister, Justine, was coming up from the basement. " Did you hear that?" he asked.
" Kinda hard to miss" Justine replied in her standard smart-ass tone.
The pair made their way out through the front door out onto their porch and looked out into the night. " Who do you think that was?" asked Eric.
They looked across Monk's Hood Way and to the houses on the other side of the street. A few lights were on and the silhouettes of confused residents could be seen peering into the night. Justine shrugged, " Probably just some jackass" she said, " whatever."
Justine turned around and headed back down to her basement abode. Justine walked through her little living room and went back into her pitch black bedroom. She knew if it was anything important she would probably hear about it on the news tomorrow. Justine climbed back into bed and closed her eyes, nothing cool ever happened here anyways.

The next morning Justine made her way back up to the kitchen and turned on the little TV on the counter before she set out to make her morning tea. The morning news popped on and the overly done up blonde news women began to read the morning news flashing as much of her chemically whitened teeth as she possibly could. " Our top story this morning" she said, " a little old lady was mutilated late last night."
Justine slowly turned her head towards the TV with a curious and somewhat shocked expression on her normally placid alabaster face. She watched as the report turned from the shiny white studio reporter to the rather cute Hispanic field reporter. " Yes I am at the house of Mrs. Gladys Jenkins, the 74 year old resident of this house in Waterlily Estates who was brutally attacked last night inside her home."
The picture focused in on the front of the house, the porch now decorated with yellow police tape as police, paramedics, and the press trampled her prized hard into a squashed mess. " The police have no comment as of yet on how or why Mrs. Jenkins was murdered. Initial reports say it was a savage attack, some sources say drug crazed robbers attacked Mrs. Jenkins when she caught them breaking into her home. Neighbors claim they heard a scream around 11:35 pm last night, this is when authorities believe she was attacked. We will have more information on this story at the noon news hours. Now back to you in the studio."
" Fuck me" said Justine, a small smirk on her pink lips.
" Huh?" grumbled Eric stumbling downstairs, the bags under his eyes showed he'd obviously played way too much World of Warcraft.
" That scream we heard last night" said Justine, " apparently some old lady got killed."
" No way" he replied, the words came out half like he didn't believe it, half that he was still asleep.
Justine motioned to the TV, " You just missed it" she said.
" Finally something happens in this neighborhood" he said.
" Probably one of those kids that spends all night playing that Worlds of Warcraft thing" said Justine.
" First, it World of Warcraft, no s" said Eric flying the geek flag for all it was worth, " and second I bet it was one of those Satan worshipping goths."
Their harmless teasing match would have continued if the doorbell hadn't rung. " It must be Zack" said Eric.
Eric hurried through the house and unlocked the door. " Hey man" said Zack Winters, " you just going to wear that?"
Eric looked down and realized he was still in just his pajama pants and t-shirt. " Shit" he said, " I'll get dressed."
Eric rushed upstairs and Zack took the opportunity to head into the kitchen. He wasn't hungry, for food at least, he wanted to talk to Justine.

There she was, his dark angel of his wildest dreams. She was standing at the kitchen counter in a loose black t-shirt with the words Switchblade Pussycat on the front and their 05 Razor Blade Smile Tour schedule on the back, and black and red plaid panties. Zack grinned, she was just so damn hot.
Her hair was short, only neck length, and jet black. She often put purple highlights in it to give it some personality but lately had let it slide. Her bangs hung over her sapphire blue eyes that stared out from behind them black hair like a tiger's eyes peering through long grass. Her lips were pouty, not like Angelina Jolie's, but enough to make her super sexy. Those lips were often pulled into a wise ass smile. She had great boobs, round, firm, and not too big, Zack wasn't a fan of big boobs. Her skin was alabaster, wonderfully white, her legs were long, and lean. She was truly a sight to behold.
Zack had the hugest crush on her, she was the only girl in the entire neighbor that didn't look like everyone else. She was smart, and had a smart mouth that got her in trouble in school often enough to give her a reputation for being a wise-ass.

Justine looked over her shoulder, " Hey Zack" she said, " what's up?"
" Nothing" said Zack, still staring straight at her panty clad butt.
Justine feeling the eyes staring at her butt, " You see something you like?" she asked.
Zack grinned, " Maybe" he said.
Justine smirked, he had to give him credit for trying. He had been trying without any luck for over two years but it never stopped him from trying ever time the pair was in the same room.

Zack was Eric's buddy, Justine often thought they were friends just to give Zack more of a chance to hit on her but she wasn't totally sure he was that clever. He was poster boy for slacker, Justine couldn't remember a time when he wasn't wearing a t-shirt and jeans. If they weren't in the middle of the desert Justine would have pegged him as a surfer boy.

Eric came down the stairs dressed, " I'm off to play some paintball" he said.
Justine shrugged, " Okay, have fun" she replied.
They left and Justine had the house to herself. She took in a deep breath and relished the total silence. She carried her cup down into her basement and went into her bedroom to change.

In a pair of baggy black jeans, and a red tank top she was ready to start her day. She walked out the front door and got a look at the day.
The rituals of Saturday were slowly taking form on Waterlily Estates, the houses with teenagers had them out mowing the lawns or washing the cars, those that didn't have teenage children had yet to be visited by the lawn mowing services, two to four Mexicans in a pick-up with a trailer attached, that did their yard work for them. The air was fresh and crisp, a little spring chill was still in the air but summer was approaching fast. Monk's Hood Way was one of the smaller streets in Waterlily Estates, only six houses lined either side before it dead-ended into the wrought iron gate of the Andersen's house. They had one of the biggest homes in the entire community, probably because they were the land developers that started Waterlily Estates. To Justine it was a big modern piece of crap, hidden behind a high wall. They were rich and they made sure everybody knew it. Next door to the Anderson's house was 1512 Monk's Hood Way home of Michael and Sarah Nichols and their two children Justine and Eric. Michael was an architect whose talents took him all over the country and Sarah was a corporate attorney who Justine often theorized liked her overtime much more than her son and especially her daughter.
Justine scooped the newspaper out of the bushes in front of the porch, who ever delivered the paper never came close to the front door, but at least they didn't put it through the bay window.

Justine tossed the paper on the island and scooped her cup of tea off the counter before heading out the kitchen door into the backyard. Their backyard like the others in the neighbor was surrounded by a fence, in this case two large hedges on either side and a seven foot tall privacy fence in back running along the alley. Looming above them was the natural park of Spring Meadow Hill, or as it was known before the neighborhood was built on the land, Gallows' Hill. On the top of the hill sat an old, grey, drooping Victorian mansion, the Becker House. Judge Becker once owned everything in the area but he had been dead for almost 100 years now. The house still stood, mainly because no one on the home owner's association knew precisely what to do with it. Half of them wanted to tear it down, the other half said it was a historical monument to Orchard Valley's Wild West history and had to be preserved. Nobody could agree so it sat, growing greyer with each passing year just begging for a brush fire to end its misery.
Justine made her way across the brick patio and into her greenhouse that sat near the hedge. She opened the door and went inside. Justine took in a long deep breath smelling the wonderful scents of all her flowers. She flipped on her stereo and went to work bopping her head to her punk music.
Gardens were essential in Waterlily Estates, your home was a reflection of yourself and your status and to have a garden that is the envy of the neighborhood was one of the best things you could have.
But gardens required effort, and that usually meant hiring a team of professionals to get the job done but not for the Nichols', no they had a teenage daughter who if she did nothing else for them, she had a very green thumb. Her services in making their garden the talk of the neighborhood was enough to keep them off her back and let her have run of the basement just so long as she stayed down there during parties.

Justine was deep into her work of tending to the plants, most were still little more than seedlings while others like her Mandrake were started to grow its characteristic round buds. She was so into her work she never noticed the figure slipping past the glass windows. The music was up loud enough that she didn't hear the door to the greenhouse slowly opening.
The figure slipped inside and gently closed the door. It slipped up behind Justine and reached out.
Justine screamed as two hands grabbed her butt, she leapt up and spun around a pair of gardening clippers in her hand ready to exact revenge on the transgressor who grabbed her butt.
" Boo" laughed Stephanie Lewis, her rich red locks bouncing about as she laughed.
Justine grinned and shook the clippers, " You're lucky you weren't Zack, I would have pruned him like nothing else" she said.
" Sorry" said Stephanie, still laughing, " I just couldn't help myself."
Stephanie Lewis, there was nobody else like Stephanie in the neighborhood, there probably never would be another like her. Statuesque, rich red hair, emerald eyes that glittered like flawless gems, a smile that was warm and inviting to whoever it encountered. A body that made all men, young, old and dead turn and take notice of her. But despite her amazing look she was still a warm and genuinely friendly person who didn't let her beauty go to her head and wasn't a world class bitch. She was truly a goddess descended from the heavens to grace the planet with her beauty.
" You're just lucky you're cute" said Justine, poking her finger into Stephanie's chest, " or I'd be really mad."
Justine kissed Stephanie, and the pair shared a giggle before kissing some more.
It was the most improbably relationship in the world, the two were complete opposites, Justine was a smart-ass goth, Stephanie was popular, out going, and friendly school idol. It was something that just happened, to both of them it was the happiest of accidents, their life long friendship blossomed into love, a love that withstood the tests of school cliques and social differences.
" I can't stay late tonight" said Stephanie taking her lips off Justine's, " my folks have upped my curfew."
" They didn't find out did they?" asked Justine, their relationship was a closely guarded secret, the codes to launch nuclear weapons weren't this well kept.
" No, no, hell no" said Stephanie, " you think I'd still be here and not packed off to a convent? No, they are worried about what happened on down the street."
" She lived on Larkspur?" asked Justine, Larkspur Street was the street Stephanie lived on.
" Ah, she lived two blocks from me" said Stephanie, " I didn't hear the scream because my parents were having another blow out about Brenda so I had my headphones on."
" Did you know her?" asked Justine.
" Not really" she replied, " she was the mean old lady that would yell at the kids to stay off her lawn, and away from her garden, basically you in fifty years, minus the black clothes."
Justine playfully punched Stephanie, " I'm not going to be that bad" she said, " bet your dad is fortifying the house."
" And then some" she said, " he even wants me to start having a gun in my room."
" So why not get a security system like the rest of the civilized world?"
" No my dad doesn't believe in them" she said, " he says, they don't protect against opening a hole in the wall with a chainsaw and backing a van in. No he prefers to guard the house himself with his collection."
" You know one day he is going to shoot the paperboy or something" said Justine.
" As long as it isn't you" said Stephanie.
" This is why I don't climb into through your window at night" she said.
Stephanie took Justine's half cup of tea and finished it off. Justine made the best tea. " So who do you think really did it?" asked Stephanie, toying with the cup.
Justine shrugged as she tended to her plants, " I don't think it was nearly as bad as the news says, maybe it was her son looking to cash in his inheritance."
" I think it was something else" said Stephanie, " I don't know, but they really made a big deal about it. I mean it was a circus."
" Steph" said Justine, putting her clippers down, " when was the last time anything interesting happened in this neighborhood?"
She shrugged, " Exactly" she replied, " this is just a chance for them to put on a good show for all the property taxes we pay around here. Don't worry, there is no guy in a hockey mask lurking about looking to chop pretty girls like you up."
" Or girls like you" whispered Stephanie, " come on, the flowers look fine."
Justine grinned and the pair left the greenhouse for Justine's basement.

Justine had decorated the entire basement herself, it wasn't too wild and crazy for a girl like her, the carpet was black and the walls were burgundy but the rest was fairly standard, in the main room was a pool table, entertainment center and a couple of very comfortable couches, there was a hallway that led to the bedroom and the bathroom.
The pair crashed on one of the couches and let themselves sink into it. " So what do you want to watch first?" asked Justine picking up her remote, " horror or anime?"
" Anime" said Stephanie stretched out on the couch.
The pair cuddled together to spend the afternoon watching anime on the couch.

It was early in the evening when Eric limped back in. He never imagined paintballs would hurt so much. He limped himself into the kitchen and found something to drink. He found Stephanie and Justine there, " I gotta go" said Stephanie, " the warden wants me back before dark."
" No problem, I'll see you out" said Justine.
The pair walked out the backdoor and crossed the spacious backyard to the gate in the alley. " One more thing" said Justine.
Stephanie turned and Justine planted a big warm kiss on her lips. " Justine!" she said, " what if Eric sees."
" He is oblivious" said Justine, " remember that time he almost caught us when we were in the hot tub? At least here you have your clothes on."
Stephanie laughed, " So true" she said.
Stephanie hugged her girlfriend and opened the back gate. She exited out into the alleyway. The alley behind Justine's house was too short to have a street light and even thought the sun had fully set the alley was dark and spooky. Stephanie didn't want to think about that horrible murder but it was the only thing in her mind.
She exited out on to Morning Glory Street and looked around. The street lights were already on and the street was dark thanks to the large trees that lined the street blocking the sun out. A cold shiver went down her spine as Stephanie's imagination created monsters from every shadow, and shape.
Stephanie shook her head as she quickly began to walk down the sidewalk, this was a walk she'd done a thousand times, sometimes at 2 or 3 in the morning and never once did she have any fear about it. What happened to Mrs. Jenkins really had changed that now everything had a sinister feel to it.
Stephanie reached the end of Monk's Hood Way and stopped under the safe glow of a street light to check the surrounding area. The streets were empty and everything was silent. The only noise was the soft clinking of a dog's collar as he patrolled his backyard. Stephanie took a deep breath and crossed diagonally across the intersection heading for home.

She had just crossed Blueflax Road and was starting to feel safe when she felt a hard shiver race up her spine. She froze, and looked around. The street was totally empty but she could hear a low wet breathing sound coming from the other side of the hedge. It sounded like their big German Shepard Max when he slept but bigger. Stephanie took a step, she was wearing her running shoes so she some degree of stealth. She gently took another and then a third. To her horror the breathing sound seemed to be keeping up with her. Stephanie saw the gate in the hedge, he would attack her there. Stephanie closed her eyes and prayed it would be just a big stupid dog with a dopey grin on his face with his tongue dangling out of the side of his mouth, and not some psycho with a machete to end her life. Stephanie watched as the gate came nearer and nearer with each footstep until she was even with it. She turned and looked into the yard.
There was nothing there, Stephanie felt a flush of stupidity soak through her washing the fear away. She was going to hit Justine for making her watch all those horror movies. Stephanie softly laughed to herself and started down the street.
The yellow eyes slowly blinked as they watched the girl's tight butt wiggle away. She was a very pretty one, so ripe and developed, such a beauty.
She turned down Larkspur Street and headed to the third house on the north side of the block, home sweet home.

She unlocked the front door and walked inside making sure to close the door loud enough so that everyone heard it. " I'm home" she announced.
Stephanie walked through the entry and went up the stairs. At the top of the stairs was one of her father's prize elk he shot. The poor beast looked down the stairs with an empty haunting expression, Stephanie hated the thing, it always looked so sad.
The Lewis family was one of the more unusual families in Waterlily Estates. Stephanie was convinced they were the only house that had framed pictures of Jesus, President George W Bush and Charlton Heston hanging together on the wall. Her father, Morton Lewis, owned a couple of sporting good stores in the state called Trail Ride Outfitters, her mother Candice was a stay at home mother, one of the reasons Stephanie did her best to stay out of the house as much as possible. They were staunch Republicans and often believed themselves that last true Republicans in what they termed, 'The Communist Republic of California.'
Stephanie made it into her room and closed the door behind her. Unlike the rest of the house that was covered in animal trophies, religious icons, and American flags, Stephanie's room was a mishmash of styles and fashions. Pink had a healthy representation in the room, from her pink comforter to her pink cell phone, but there was also some strange knick-knacks on her shelves and her small DVD collection under her TV were both products of Justine's ever growing influence. Stephanie locked her bedroom door and crossed her bedroom to pull the shades before taking her shower.
As she was drawing the shades she saw the motion sensor lights out by the garage burst on. For a brief second she saw something, it was large, covered in brown fur, shaggy unkempt fur. It looked like a really big coyote, which was strange to Stephanie because the coyotes around here were a light tan, and scrawny. It was then Stephanie realized it was walking on its hind legs. It was hunched over but it was clearly walking on two legs. The moment the light flashed on it froze for only the briefest of seconds before dashing back into the safety of the darkness followed by the fierce barking of Max.
Her father emerged from the house, one of his trusty Russian made Mosin Nagant rifles in his hands. Stephanie watched as her father swept the backyard, and after finding nothing returned to the house to spend more time watching the Military Channel in his gun room.
Stephanie couldn't believe what she saw, it was probably just a trick of the light, and her exhaustion. She shook her head and went to take a shower. She spent the entire shower doing her best to convince herself it wasn't what she thought it was. She had almost convinced herself as she changed into her nightie and climbed into bed.
But as she lay awake staring at the ceiling she knew she saw what she saw. Stephanie Lewis had seen a werewolf.

Justine woke up the next morning with the most wonderful scent of fresh brewed tea filling her nostrils. Justine took in a deep breath, her lips slowly smiling, it smelled heavenly. Then Justine realized she hadn't made tea this morning and she opened her eyes trying to figure out what was going on.
Stephanie was kneeling next to the bed in her jogging outfit, a blue tank top, black sports, bra, and black running shorts. She was holding Justine's tea cup in her hands with her standard beautiful smile on her face. " Heaven" she said, " this must be heaven."
" Morning silly" said Stephanie giving Justine a little kiss.
Justine sat up and took the cup from Stephanie, " What's up?" asked Justine.
" I had to come over" said Stephanie, " we have to talk."
Justine swallowed the tea hard, her fingers trembled a bit Stephanie was deadly serious. Justine prayed it wasn't about them. " What's up?" she asked desperately wondering if she forgot a date or said something stupid.
" I saw something last night" said Stephanie, " please don't laugh, but I thought I saw a werewolf."
Stephanie closed her eyes, ready to hear Justine patented amused laugh. " Really" said Justine, just as serious as Stephanie.
Stephanie recounted her story last night to a very attentive Justine. Stephanie finished her story and Justine nodded, she believed Stephanie, she wasn't one for having an active imagination like this, the seriousness in her voice, and that worried look on her face, the same look she always had when she got tests back in school especially math, told Justine she genuinely believed it was a werewolf. " Okay" said Justine, " I'll look into it, maybe I can find something about them on the Internet or something. We should curb the nightly meetings for awhile, just to be safe. Werewolf or no there is somebody out there that carved an old woman up."
Stephanie nodded, she felt so much better to have somebody believe her. " I gotta go" said Stephanie, standing up.
" Oh no you don't" said Justine grabbing a hold of the waistband of Stephanie's jogging shorts, " come over here."
" Justine!" shrieked Stephanie, " I told my parents I went out for a jog, I don't have time."
" Tell them you jogged up Gallows' Hill" said Justine, reeling her prize catch in, " I'll supply plenty of sweat."
Stephanie happily climbed into bed with Justine as she pulled the covers over them.

Stephanie pulled on her sports bra with a happy smile on her face. " I'll do some research" said Justine, still laying in bed finishing her cold tea, " I'll drop you an e-mail on anything I find."
" Okay" said Stephanie, " I'll see you tomorrow."
Stephanie tied her shoes and jogged out of the bedroom making Justine grin. She stayed in bed for a little while before finding her panties. She made another cup of tea, she knew she could parade around in her underwear because it was noon and her brother would be already under the spell of World of Warcraft upstairs. She went back into her bedroom and sat at her desk. She turned her laptop on and waited for it to boot up.
Justine typed in Werewolf and Attacks into Google and prepared herself for a long day of hunting cyber snipe.

Hour 2 of her snipe hunt and into her 4th cup of tea Justine's perseverance finally hits 7s on the slot machine of luck. On a forum that discussed supernatural events she found a link to a place called Unreal America. When she clicked on the link she found a news article from the El Paso Times.
July 17th 2004 ~ 5th Mysterious Death in Bell Park
Police are again baffled by the discovery of another mutilated body in Bell Park. The victim, 19 year old Mary Ann Sue Clark, was a resident of the near by Happy Acres Mobile Home Park. Her body was discovered early on the morning of the 16th by a jogger. Her body like the other 4 previous victims had been savagely ripped apart by persons unknown. The killer is still at large, El Paso Police recommend all people stay indoors after dark unless it is absolutely necessary and should be extra vigilant. The police also warn this killing spree could just be beginning, the space of time between this victim and victim number 4 was only a week were as the previous two victims were killed a month apart. Recently a former University of Texas professor, Dr Lance Quantrell, has made incredibly claims that it was a werewolf that has killed these victims. The police vigorously deny these claims, saying the damage to the victims is either the work of the killer or local coyotes who frequent the park scavenging for food in garbage cans. They also point out that Dr Quantrell recently lost his position as professor of folklore at the University of Texas and is probably trying to increase his chances of being hired somewhere else. Today the police will start wider canvassing patterns in the hope of finding some physical evidence to link a potential killer with these crimes. Until he is caught all of El Paso lives in fear.

At the bottom was a link to Dr Quantrell's private site about the killings. Justine followed it and found a large site full of information. On the first page was a map showing a red line leading from Spring Valley Ohio with the date 1990-1995, then to Green River Kansas with the date 1996-8, it went way up to Trekman Canada with the dates 2000-2002 then a large red question mark between Trekman and El Paso with the date 2004. Under the map were the ominous words, Trail of the Werewolf.
According to Dr Quantrell the first killings in this pattern began in Spring Valley Ohio were a number of teenagers were found mutilated followed by killings Green River Kansas, and Trekman Canada. In sickening displays he showed crime scene and autopsy photographs that show what was left of the bodies. Thankfully Justine has spent many years watching horror movies looking at these grisly scenes were just another horror movie scene for her. Justine found a section called, Work of a Werewolf?
The page detailed the grisly details of the attacks and now they compared to attacks by normal wolves and from ancient accounts from Europe. He was very detailed in his writings, something you normally didn't find in crackpot conspiracy theorists.
Justine was really starting to believe all of this, of course nowhere on the website was there a solution on how to get rid of a werewolf but it was a start. She found Dr Quantrell's further reading section and bought half of the books off Amazon to add to her bizarre collection of manga and occult books. Justine sent the information to Stephanie, who like usual was away from her computer. Justine spent the rest of the day tending to her plants and wondering if there really was a werewolf prowling the streets of her neighborhood. She went to bed early, early for Justine was after midnight, because tomorrow was Monday and that meant school.

Monday morning Justine climbed out of bed and looked at her school uniform hanging from the closet door, the red tie a leering grin mocking her. She sighed and put the damned uniform on making sure not to look in the mirror as she walked out of the room seeing herself in the get up would be too much.
Eric met his sister as he came into the kitchen. She looked gloomier in that uniform than she did at any other time, even at one of their parent's social gatherings. He on the other hand liked the uniforms, probably because he had no clue about fashion and this at least made him look like everybody else. Eric found himself another Mountain Dew and left Justine alone in the kitchen. She wasn't a talkative one in the mornings.
Justine and Eric went to school in separate cars. Mainly because Justine drove like a lunatic and Eric drove like an old woman from Florida whose head didn't rise above the steering wheel.

Eric left well before Justine, Justine drove faster and didn't care if she was late. Justine climbed into her Jeep and pulled into the alley. She drove through Waterlily Estates, she exited through one of the several entries of the neighborhood and drove through the city of Orchard Valley.
Orchard Valley had been a dusty little town in the desert for many years, surviving on cattle and stories of its Wild West past. But then in the 80s the big city came knocking. By the 80s the city had grown further and further into the desert and with the prospect of cheap land, well at least cheap by California standards, brought families on the make out to Orchard Valley to buy their own piece of prosperity. In twenty fives years the town had gone from a hick backwater slowly being eaten by the desert to an ever grown yuppie oasis in the California desert.
Orchard Valley High was one of the few remaining buildings from Orchard Valley's dusty past. Built in the early 80s as a bid to attract the ever grown suburb sprawl, it was once one of the most up-to-date high schools in the country. But as time marched on the building had to be modified to compete with other modern high schools, it had been remodeled three times turning it into a shiny beacon of glass and brick.

Justine pulled into the parking lot and turned her Jeep off. She climbed out of her car and made her way into school passing the large statue of a mounted medieval knight, the school's mascot as she did.
She made her way to her locker passing Stephanie and her cadre of friends. They didn't even make eye contact, in here they were in two separate worlds. In Orchard Valley High status was everything, from who you hung out with, to the size of your iPod to the style of your cell phone. Cliques were the hierarchy, people like Stephanie sat atop the high school food chain, Justine, way at the bottom, she probably wasn't good enough for the bottom, the basement was more like it. Justine was a dying breed, the trouble maker, the rebel. Most of her friends had long since been sent across town to the Alternative Learning Center from the most petty reasons. It made sure the school's positive image was maintained. Justine was one of the last, she often wondered if she wrote the World Wildlife Foundation she could be classified as an endangered species. But she did have one thing a perfect 4.0, it is really hard to send a girl with a 4.0 to a reject school.
Justine was about to turn her cell phone off, school policy, when it made the message noise. Justine took the phone off the shelf in her locker and flipped it open.
Stephanie: Thanks for the information, cutie poo. Study Tonight?
Justine grinned, cutie poo, she wondered if she ever looked like a cutie poo.

The rest of the day was taken up by chatter about two important things, the prom which was only a month away, and the murder. There hadn't been a murder in Orchard Valley in ages so everybody felt like they were going to be a part of history. Everybody had a theory, not just of who was going to be crowned king and queen of the prom but who had killed that old lady. One thing everyone did agree on, they knew it would happen again.

After school Justine drove home and found Stephanie already in the green house looking at her plants. " So what did you hear?" asked Justine.
" Everybody pretty much believes what the news is saying, drug crazed thugs, you?"
" Everything, anything and something" she replied, " Natalie Gaines swears it is an ancient Indian spirit seeking vengeance, but then again our theory isn't any less odd."
" But I saw it" said Stephanie, upset at Justine's wise remark.
" And I believe you" said Justine, " but we're the only ones."
Stephanie nodded and said, " Chemistry?"
Justine nodded and the pair went down to Justine's rooms to study Chemistry. They talked more werewolves and monsters more than formulas and elements. Stephanie had to leave early so she didn't become a werewolf snack.

Tuesday was quiet again, the neighborhood was starting to return to normal. Everyone was still talking about the murder but it was two days old and that was already becoming old news. All the police tape was gone from the front of the house, there was a little left on the back door but mainly because the glass had been broken as the tape was keeping the pieces together, only a single piece of paper in a plastic sleeve taped to the door showed any passers-by it was a crime scene. The world wanted to return to normal and that was exactly what it was doing as fast as possible.

Daryl Stanovich unlocked the backdoor and gently turned the knob. The hinges, the ones he had meant to put some graphite on for the longest time, creaked echoing through the entire house. Daryl froze as he waited to hear if anyone had heard him. After a few moments he felt confidant enough that no one had heard him. He exited out into the backyard and carefully closed the door behind him. He looked around making sure none of the neighbor's lights were on before slowly sneaking through his backyard. He carefully opened the back fence and snuck into the alley. Now safe under the long shadow of the garage he could do it.
Daryl took out the half full pack of Camel cigarettes and drew one out. He turned his body in towards the garage and quickly lit up the cigarette. He took a long drag inhaling as much as he could. He didn't have much time to get his smoke in, he knew his wife would be home soon and he would have to get the smell of cigarettes out of his breath. He took another deep drag and held the smoke in savoring the flavor. He blew the smoke out and was taking another drag when he heard something move in the alley.
Daryl nearly ate his cigarette, all the ladies on this street were gossip queens, if any of them saw him smoking his wife would know before she got home. He stayed incredibly still for several moments deathly afraid of being caught.
He only heard silence, he started to feel silly freaking out over a little noise. He had been doing this for years and never once had he been caught. He laughed quietly to himself, he was getting jumpy in his old age.

It leapt down from the roof of the garage and struck him like a freight train. He never managed to so much as scream. The spent butt of his cigarette slowly rolled down the gentle slope of the driveway into the alley where it was extinguished in a small puddle with a small hiss.

By Wednesday the world has changed for Waterlily Estates. The word SERIAL KILLER was splashed across every news program even the national news was now smelling the journalistic blood in the water and was getting in on the hunt. The curtains on all the houses were pulled tight and they would flutter as paranoid residents peered out to see if they could catch a glimpse of the killer. Police cars now patrolled the streets and helicopters buzzed through the sky.

Stephanie left school and drove straight for Justine's. Justine had been text messaging her all day, she had just received some books on the subject of werewolves and was gearing up to spend all night pouring over them.
Stephanie climbed out of her car and looked around the neighborhood. She saw a couple of upstairs curtains flutter for a brief moment as she climbed out of her, the neighbors were certainly vigilant. Stephanie couldn't help but smirk, she bet that more than a few were convinced Justine was behind these murders. Those goths and their black clothes and loud music, they are nothing but trouble.

Stephanie found Justine at her desk, she had several books surrounding her as she was busily scribbling away in a notebook. The most shocking thing was that it was 3:30 in the afternoon and Justine was still in her school uniform. In all the years Stephanie had known Justine she had never seen her wearing her school uniform, the entire uniform, this late in the afternoon, a whole hour after school ended. " What's up?" asked Stephanie, loosening Justine's tie.
" Research" said Justine, " these books are amazing."
" I bet" said Stephanie helping Justine take her shoes off, " learn anything?"
" Werewolves don't need the full moon to change" said Justine, " you can thank Lon Chaney for that one, second the only way to kill a werewolf is to drive silver through its heart, I hope shooting it with a silver bullet will work. That is where I need you."
Stephanie knew that look in Justine's eyes, the same look got Stephanie to go down a Double Black Diamond at Aspen two years ago where Stephanie broke her leg. But it did result in being nursed back to health by Justine, but this was different, this was a werewolf. " I need you to make me a silver bullet or two" she said, " and steal one of those rifles your dad has in the basement."
" Ah, first, silver, where are we going to get enough for a bullet? Second, those rifles are my dad's life, unfortunately, one goes missing I'm going to convent school. Third, you are not going werewolf hunting, no way am I letting you get eaten by a werewolf" said Stephanie, " we'll have to go together."
" That's my girl" said Justine, she was flashing her biggest most loving smile, the smile reserved only for Stephanie, like most of her other smiles.
Stephanie sat in Justine's lap, " The biggest problem is finding the werewolf" said Justine, letting Stephanie continue to shed her of her awful school uniform, " we can't just wander the neighborhood carrying guns shooting at every stray dog and coyote we see. We are going to have to figure out who it is."
" Any ideas on that?" asked Stephanie.
" Not yet" said Justine, " I have a lot of research left to go."
" Later" said Stephanie.
" Can't argue with that" she said.

Eric could hear his sister's punk music rattling up the vent that was under his computer desk. Why she always had it on when Stephanie was over was beyond him. They are studying, he would never play music while studying it would distract him from the task at hand. True he had music on, but Eric wasn't studying, unless you consider strategies on killing of the Horde in World of Warcraft a subject. Suddenly the instant messenger in the game beeped.
Korgath: Dude.
It was Zack, Eric finished off the Orc in front of him and backed off to let the other finished up the raiding party.
Ibith: What's Up?
Korgath: You hear anything last night?
Ibith: Nah, you?
Korgath: Nope, spooky though huh
Ibith: No shit.
Zack stopped typing in mid sentence when from the corner of his eye. The lights in his neighbor's house had turned on. This was extremely odd because he knew his neighbor, Jane Monroe, was a nurse who had been recently working nights. Zack knew this not because he was spying on her but because he had called the cops twice because of Zack's brother Marcus' incredibly loud music had woken her up.
Zack cautiously made his way over to his bedroom window and looked out. Zack saw a dude walking around, he didn't know who he was but that wasn't a big surprise. Jane had a nasty divorce from her husband and now took in all kinds of stray men like crazy old ladies take in stray cats. This guy was no different, he was in his mid-20s fairly well built with brown hair and well shaped features, standard issue boy toy.
That was weird thought Zack, what the hell is he up to? The first thought was drugs, Jane was rumored to be a good source for pharmaceuticals without a prescription. Second thought was the guy was off his diet, Jane probably wouldn't keep him if he devolved into a standard fat middle aged slob overnight. The third thought was more of a joke to him, he thought the guy was the mysterious serial killer and kept Daryl's head as a trophy in the freezer.
Zack turned his attention back to his computer and saw he had ten messages from Eric. He decided enough spying on his neighbor for one night. He went back to playing the game until after midnight when his eyes burned and he was too tired to play anymore.
He stood up and stumbled his way over to his bed when he saw the lights flick on in Jane's house again. Zack stared in shock at what he was seeing, it was so strange.

The fear didn't abate as the days passed, it seemed only to get heavier as if it wanted to crush the entire neighborhood. Rumors flew thick, it was everywhere from over back fences, across cell phones, and the internet everybody had a theory of who was the killer and who was the next victim.

As if to mock the fears of the residents on Friday afternoon angry purple black storm clouds began to creep slowly towards Orchard Valley. The storm hit at dusk illuminating the neighborhood in flashes of lightning and rolls of powerful thunder.
Stephanie and Justine were sitting at the kitchen table finishing up their dinner of take-out Mexican as they discussed their theory. Stephanie was spending the night, her father was hosting the weekly NRA meeting at the house and for the sake of her sanity she had fled for the quiet of Justine's house. " As I was saying" said Justine, wiping hot sauce from her lips, " I think I can protect us with Wolfsbane, it looks like they are almost allergic to the stuff, luckily I have some growing in the backyard."
" Are you sure it will work?" asked Stephanie, stealing one of Justine's tacos.
" Oy!" said Justine, " you eat your own."
Justine stole her taco back and munched away at it before continuing. " Maybe? Each book seems to have little differences here and there. Maybe it means there are different kinds of werewolf, or possibly they are second-hand stories. We'll have to find out."
" But we still have no idea who the werewolf could possibly be?" Stephanie reminded Justine.
" Maybe I could help" said Zack, standing in the kitchen.
The two girls looked over at him, " And what do you want?" asked Justine, looking at Zack with unimpressed eyes.
" I couldn't but help over hearing all this talk of strange things" he said, " I think I can add a little to this."
Zack walked over and sat down next to Justine with a big proud smile on his face. " This is about my neighbor Jane Monroe" he said, " she got a divorce and took her husband to the cleaners something fierce. She is kinda hot but is a blonde and I don't dig blondes."
" This going somewhere?" asked Justine.
" Yah, she likes to take in stray guys" he said, growing prouder by the moment, " the one she has now is a real strange one. On Wednesday I saw the guy inject something straight into his eye."
" He is an addict" said Justine, " same could be said about your brother."
" In his eye?" he retorted, " how many guys do it in their eye?"
" He does for one" she replied, " thank you for taking an interest but this isn't Worlds of Warcraft."
" Its World" said Zack, letting his geek flag flap a bit.
" Whatever" said Justine, " excuse us."
Crestfallen Zack stood up and left the kitchen. " That was mean" said Stephanie, " he just wanted to impress you."
Justin shrugged and went back to eating.

" What's she say?" asked Eric.
" She blew me off" said Zack as he walked into Eric's room, " she didn't believe me."
" Told you" said Eric.
Zack shook his head, he hated when Eric was right, especially when it involved Justine. He paced about Eric's bedroom working up an idea in his mind. After several minutes of silent pacing Zack stopped in mid-stride and turned to look at Eric with a look in his eyes.
Eric felt a shiver race down his spine, and wanted to run away before he get dragged into Zack's attempt to impress Justine. " I have an idea" he said, with a big smile, " and I am going to need you're help."
Zack crossed the room and stood next to Eric as he sat at his massive computer desk. Zack leaned close to Eric's ear and told him of his plan. " No!" said Eric, " no way in hell."
Zack just smiled, he knew Eric would go along with the plan. He would go along even if he didn't want to because Zack said so.

The next night Zack and Eric stood in Zack's bedroom watching and Jane and her new guy walked through the backyard for Jane's Ford Explorer. They climbed in and drove down the alley disappearing from sight. " Okay" said Zack, already dressed in black, " all I want you to do is stay here and keep an eye out for them or the cops. You see anything give a yell on your cell, hey that rhymes, so I can run for it."
" Are you sure?" asked Eric.
" For the 100th time yes" he said, " not like you are breaking in."
" But I am an accessory" he whined.
Zack opened his window and carefully climbed out on the roof. He gripped the gutter as he slowly edged himself along the little lip of the roof under his window. It was an overly dramatic way of leaving the house but his mother was home and if she caught him leaving through the backdoor dressed in black with a bag full of tools slung over his shoulder he would find himself up to his neck in trouble. If he got caught in the neighbor's house in this fashion he would be in even more trouble but he didn't plan to get caught.

Zack gently hopped down from the roof onto the ground and felt the shock jolt through his feet. He hurried through the backyard and disappeared into the alley. Eric nervously watched the neighbor's backyard anxious for Zack to appear. After what felt like a sweaty eternity to Eric Zack appeared in the neighbor's backyard and began to move towards the house.
Zack was in love with the thrill of what he was doing, his heart was pumping like a jackrabbit rising higher and higher in his chest until it felt like it was trying to push its way through his throat and out into his mouth. He finally reached the back door of the house and took a moment to survey the area.
The house was dark and silent, the neighboring homes were also dark, the only light Zack could see was anywhere was his own bedroom window where Eric, hopefully, stood watch.
Zack took a deep breath and unzipped the bag and took out his two lock picks. He wasn't a practicing burglar but had spent a couple of summers at summer camp and had picked up a few usable skills that didn't involve archery or tying fancy knots.
He carefully slipped the two picks into the deadbolt and gently turned the lock. He wasn't worried about the security system, Jane was stretching her alimony payments to the limit just to afford the house, no way could she afford a security system, he hoped.
Zack felt the dead bolt pull all the way back and took a deep breath, no way she has a security system, there was no sign, no way she has one he reassured himself over and over. Zack gripped the handle and gave it a twist. The door slowly opened and Zack didn't hear a beep. " Okay, I'm going in" said Zack into the headset that was attached to his cell phone.
" Okay" said Eric, it was good to hear his voice, at least he was watching.
Zack took a step inside and entered the house.

Eric swallowed hard as he watched Zack disappeared into the house. He wiped the heavy sweat off his forehead and felt the sweat start to run down the back of his neck and from under his arms. He was more nervous than Zack and he was in the safety of Zack's house. He looked as he saw a beam of light sweep through the empty house.

Zack carefully scanned the kitchen with his Mag-Lite looking for any signs of strangeness. Other than an overpowering smell of freshly ground coffee which would put Starbucks to shame it was very normal.
He took his first steps into kitchen expecting to be caught at any second. Suddenly the cell phone's walkie-talkie crackled to life and Eric's terrified voice squeak, " CAR!"
Zack leapt into the air dropping his flashlight and feeling an intense wave of pure, uncut fear pour through his body. " No, no" said Eric, calmed down, " it does went down the road."
Zack dripped his headset and hissed, " ASS! Only tell me when a cop car pulls up or a car pulls into the garage."
" Don't yell at me" said Eric, " I told you I didn't want to do this."
Zack took his cell phone out of his back pocket and turned the volume down to one bar above mute, he didn't want to lose his hearing next time Eric screams. Zack looked down to find his lost flashlight and saw it resting against the leg of the kitchen table. Zack grumbled as he bent over and scooped the phone off the floor. As he grabbed the flashlight the light spilled down the tile floor and illuminated a pair of feet.
He carefully lifted the flashlight and saw a pair of pants. He got ready to start spinning the craziest lies of his life as he straightened himself up. He let off a long breath and grinned as he saw his mysterious guest was nothing more than Jane's nursing uniform hanging on a hanger on a door with her shoes at the bottom. Zack could be forgiven for freaking out over something so silly, this was the first time he had ever broken into a house.
Zack composed himself and returned to business, finding proof to make Justine believe him and through that admire him a little bit which was step on in his multi-stage attack plan to win a date with Justine.
Zack started for this first target, the refrigerator. He made his way over and opened the refrigerator. To his disappointment and relief there were no human body parts in Tupperware in the refrigerator. It was fairly standard for a single health conscious woman who liked wine, there was at least three half empty bottles in the door. Zack was closing the door when something caught his eye.
There were three medicine bottles in the butter storage area. He carefully flipped the door up and took one of the bottles out. The bottle was full of clear liquid with the word Haloperdiol. " Dude" Zack said into his headset, " I found something."
" What?" asked Eric.
" It is called Haloperdiol" he said, " look it up."
" Ah, can you spell it?"
" Halo, like the game" said Zack, " P-E-R-D-I-O-L."
Eric typed it into Google and watched as the information came up. " Aah" said Eric, " it is a typical anti-psychic, it is all medical stuff."
" Save it, we'll have your sister look at it later" he said.
Zack snapped a couple of pictures with his camera in his cell phone before closing the refrigerator. He next took a quick peak in the freezer, just to make sure the body parts weren't in there. To his surprise the freezer was a complete reversal from the refrigerator, there was meat, all kinds of meat wrapped in tin foil inside. This was different from the tofu and vegetables in the refrigerator but there were no body parts so Zack really didn't care.
Zack carefully exited the kitchen and headed through the living room. He checked out the TV, it was an old tube TV, and it was only a tiny little 36 inch. There was nothing out of the ordinary, it was time to head upstairs.
Zack looked up the open stairway to the second floor and began to ascend the stairs. The stairs creaked and groaned but Zack didn't freak out, nor did he freak out when he heard Eric take in a long scared breath through the headset as another car passed. Zack was actually beginning to enjoy himself, this was a lot of fun.

" Dude, where are you?" Eric asked, his face awash in sweat.
" I'm almost to her room" said Zack, " if I don't find anything good I'm heading out."
" Hurry" said Eric, " I can't take much more of this."
Eric felt his stomach clench as another car drove down the street disappearing around the corner. This was too much for him, way too much.

Zack reached the bedroom like the rest of the house it was unnaturally clean, the entire house had the feeling like it was cut out of a Martha Stewart magazine. Even his house was messier than this and his mother was a total neat freak. Zack scanned the room and hit the jackpot. Sitting on the dresser was a pile of official looking papers. He made his way over and shown his flashlight on the pile of papers. The fates themselves smiled upon Zack, sitting on top of the paperwork was a voided Texas Driver's license for a man named Larry Talbot and next to the name was a picture of the guy he'd seen shooting drugs into his eye socket that night.
" Jackpot" he said with a big grin as he raised his cell phone.
Zack snapped photo after photo of the driver's license, this was fabulous proof, it would make Justine think of him as the coolest hero of them all.

" I'm coming out" said Zack, the words Eric had been desperate to hear for the last twenty minutes.
Eric looked through the binoculars and saw Zack emerging from the backdoor of the house. He hurried to the fence and leapt over the seven foot high privacy fence and landed safely in his own backyard. Eric let off a long sigh of relief, this was over.
Zack came back into the room flush with success and ran over to his computer. He plugged his cell phone in and downloaded all the pictures he'd taken from his camera in his cell phone. " Tomorrow we'll show this stuff to your sister" said Zack, talking a mile a minute, still high on adrenaline, " she will have to believe me now."
Eric decided not to reply, he knew his sister wasn't going to be impressed, she was never impressed by anything or anyone, she was Justine.

Justine and Stephanie were in the greenhouse on a pleasant Sunday morning. Justine was fast growing a new Wolfsbane plant she had purchased from the crazy hippie plant store out in the county. She had the plant under a 24 hour grow light and placed it in a heated pot and was watering it with a special plant food mixture that would ensure it would be growing big healthy flowers within two weeks. " You are a plant master" said Stephanie, " now we just have to worry about where to get the silver?"
Justine slipped off two of the four silver rings she wore, " These should do the trick" she said, " you'll have to take me into the city to buy new ones."
" It is a deal" said Stephanie, " we'll go to the spa too, we'll make a weekend of it. A weekend out of the house."
" You have a dirty mind" said Justine.
" And you don't?" asked Stephanie.
" Mine's filthy" she teased.
The girls were all giggles when Zack and Eric entered. Zack was marching in like he had just conquered Rome and Eric was treading nervously, he knew Justine hated when he came in here. " I have something that may help" said Zack, holding up a folder.
Justine was going to make a smart ass remark, it was only fair that was her natural reaction but she knew Stephanie would scowl and frown so she took a deep breath, counted to 10 and replied, " What is it?"
Zack placed the folder on the table in the middle of the greenhouse and flipped it open. " Larry Talbot, 24" said Zack, " this is the guy I saw shooting up in the kitchen. I think he was shooting up something called Haloperidol."
Justine looked down at the pictures, rather good work for him but Justine didn't want him to get any ideas. " Okay" she said, keeping the tone of her voice, flat as possible, " thanks I'll keep this in mind."
" If I'm right, I want in" said Zack, " to whatever you're planning, I want a part."
" Okay" said Stephanie stepping in, " you two can lend a hand, four heads are better than two."
Eric and Justine both wanted to protest but both knew Zack was not going to turn back. " Okay" they both said, rather defeated.
" When we need you, we'll call you" said Justine.
Zack turned and triumphantly walked out with Eric in tow looking like a man condemned to death. " Thanks" said Stephanie, rubbing Justine' shoulders, " we may need him if we really have to go after this monster."
" I suppose you're right" said Justine, " let them get eaten by the werewolf not us."
Justine and Stephanie took the information Zack had gathered and took it down to the basement to add with the rest of the research. Justine went to her computer and typed in the word Haloperidol, expecting to find it was some sort of anti-allergy medicine.
Instead she found that Haloperidol was a powerful anti-psychotic, so powerful it wasn't routinely used in hospitals anymore because of the power. Justine and Stephanie both stared in amazement, Larry Talbot just went from the bottom of the suspect list all the way to the top. As much as Justine didn't want to admit it, Zack had really done a great job in finding their werewolf. At Stephanie's insistence Justine called Zack and told him he did a good job, basically Stephanie had to jam the phone into Justine's hand after she had dialed it giving Justine very few options. Zack was ecstatic and Justine knew she'd never hear the end of this.

Zack spent the next week staking out Jane's house, he still didn't completely buy Justine's theory that Larry Talbot was a werewolf, he was much more ready to believe he was just a normal serial killer. He was amazed at how boring their life was together, it didn't even look like they had regular sex, poor bastard, he was an uncontrollable psycho killer and wasn't getting laid.
It was Thursday, Zack was edgy he'd just drank two big cups of coffee from the local coffee shop, that stuff would kill you sooner than a werewolf he thought. He was watching Larry watch Sports Center as Jane left for work. Larry waved bye and Zack watched her go. As soon as the Jane closed the door on her Explorer Zack watched in amazement as Larry leapt over the couch. From a sitting position he leapt over the back of the couch like he had taken a running start. He moved through the house as nothing but a blur. He skidded to a stop in front of the refrigerator and flung the refrigerator door open. He grabbed one of the packages wrapped in tin-foil and tore at it. He threw the tin-foil away and began to feast upon the hamburger, cold and raw. He attacked the meat like an animal, Zack couldn't believe his eyes, it was so fucking freaky.
As Larry neared the end of his meal he suddenly stopped, his entire body tensed and he slowly rose his head. He looked straight out the window.
Zack was laying flat on his floor, his heart was pounding in his chest, his mouth was burning hot, and his brain was running in a thousand different directions at once so nothing made sense. He slowly looked up and could see Larry from the reflection of reflective side of his computer case. He was looking about, a piece of hamburger still dangling from the side of his mouth. He slowly slurped the meat up and suddenly the lights in the house all blinked out.
Zack laid flat on the floor for over an hour, convinced that if he got up Larry Talbot in full werewolf form would be staring at him through the window just before he leapt through and devoured him. Finally in dire need of relieving his very full bladder he decided werewolf or no he had to pee so he slowly got to his knees.
Jane's house was totally dark and there was no sign of Larry. Zack hurried into the bathroom and closed the door. He securely locked it and took a deep breath. That was intense.

Brian Shurig slipped out his girlfriend's window and crushed the flower bed beneath the lattice under his Converse. That was intense, he thought to himself hiking his baggy jeans up. He made a note to take back everything he had said about tennis chicks being dykes. Brian pulled his t-shirt back on and hurried through the backyard slipping through the gate and escaping into the alley. He pulled his skateboard out of its hiding place and hoped on for a quick skate home.
He was soaring down the alley, smoking a Lucky Strike he'd scored from the dude at the skate shop wondering when he could next hook up with that tennis chick. He zipped across the street was had just started down the next alley when something big, heavy and furry hit him. It felt like a furry Volkswagen had just slamming him into him as he flew off his skateboard.
Brian hit the ground, violently coughing and gagging from the cigarette he nearly inhaled whole. He looked up into the drooling maw of the biggest dog he'd ever seen. It was then he realized the dog was walking on its back legs.
Brian scrambled backwards on all fours until he managed to get into the street. He got to his feet and began to run for his very life.
Unfortunately he didn't get very far, his ultra baggy skater's jeans quickly left his narrow hips and became tangled around his ankles and he fell hard onto the sidewalk getting a worse case of road rash than he had in years of skating.
The werewolf almost felt sorry for the kid as he desperately wrestled with his jeans but it didn't stop him from pouncing on him.

Brian's screams awoke the entire neighborhood. The grisly crime scene was soon invaded by police and voyeuristic onlookers who stared at the half of a body under a white sheet. Despite the police's best efforts the attacker was not located, he had disappeared into the night.

School was cancelled the next day, the students showed enough mock grief to make believe they weren't happy for a day off of school.
Despite school being cancelled Zack was over at the house by 8 in the morning. He found Justine in the kitchen having her morning tea. He didn't even notice she was topless.
Justine on the other hand was mortified by Zack's sudden appearance and barely had time to grab the dish towel to hide the fact that she wasn't dressed. Zack talked a mile a minute, he rambled and talked in squares, triangles, and circles. By the look of it, he hadn't spent all night and instead spent the evening drinking coffee and taking caffeine pills. Thankfully Justine was a master at deciphering gibberish and got the gist of what he was saying. Larry Talbot was a werewolf, he eats raw meat and this morning fifteen minutes or so after the scream woke the entire neighborhood up he appeared in the backyard totally naked. Justine thanked Zack and all but threw him out the front door. She sighed and went back to the kitchen where she found Stephanie already drinking her tea. " I miss something?" she asked.
" Apparently Zack saw from freaky stuff last night which confirmed to him that Larry Talbot is the werewolf" she said, " I think we have our werewolf."
Stephanie nodded, she still wasn't sure, the idea of shooting him hadn't set in yet. " Nice to have a day off at least" said Justine, " if all it took was killing one skater to close school I would have done it years ago."
Stephanie shook her head, " You're evil."
The pair sat in the greenhouse laying out their plan which involved Stephanie manufacturing the silver bullets and Justine harvesting her Wolfsbane.
Stephanie gave Justine a big kiss goodbye and hurried back home before the sun began to set, leaving Justine to quietly harvest the flowers off her Wolfsbane and slowly braid them into talismans to wear.
Outside was a gloomy day, a real oddity for California, the sky was grey and brooding which didn't help Justine's mood of apprehension. All she could think about were werewolves. She'd seen just about every movie ever made about werewolves and after a solid week of reading book after book about them she knew enough to be very afraid. She did her best not to think about it, but it seemed the harder she tried to put it out of her mind the louder the thoughts became. She and Stephanie were the main characters in the rather gory little drama that played out in her head, scenario after scenario always ended with them being eaten.
Justine scowled, and tried to concentrate on her work. As she worked she thought she saw something brown and shaggy zip through the yard from the corner of her eye. She froze and slowly gripped the pruning sheers in one hand and grabbed a handful of Wolfsbane in the other. She could hear claws clicking away against the bricks of the patio and listened as they slowly circled the greenhouse. The sounds stopped and Justine found herself moving towards the door. She couldn't stop herself, she knew this was how all the girls died in horror movies and her rational brain was desperately trying to stop her but curiosity was too powerful and by now had taken totally over.
The greenhouse door slowly opened and Justine looked out. The big brown shape suddenly lurched out from around the corner at her. Justine let off the loudest most girlish scream she'd ever made as she flung as handful of Wolfsbane at her attacker before losing her balance and falling flat on the ground. She kept her eyes clamped shut, she didn't want to see her own death coming. But after a few moments and she found that she was still very much alive now confusing took over from the sudden burst of fear. Justine slowly looked up and saw her attacker.
It was the neighbor's German Shepard, the poor dog had the most confused look on his face, a face that was covered in a big handful of Wolfsbane. The poor dog's big eyes were filled with questions of what he could have done that was so evil that he would deserve this? Justine looked around, hoping that nobody, especially her brother, saw her little outburst. The entire area was clear of prying eyes and now feeling very safe Justine began to laugh really taking her in her own stupidity. She cleaned the poor dog's face off before sending him back to his own yard. Justine shook her head, Stephanie better get those bullets done soon or the next time she'll end up killing the meter man.

Stephanie watched as her father's big black Chevy Yukon pulled out of the garage and drove down the alley. She couldn't believe she was actually doing this. It was Justine's fault, she had such power of her, damn love through Stephanie, makes a fool out of me every time.
Stephanie left her bedroom and took in the silence of the house before heading downstairs to the first floor. She made her way through the house to the basement door and stopped of opening the door. She hadn't been downstairs in several years, it belonged to her father.
The door slowly opened, the smell of gunpowder and cosmoline filled Stephanie's nostrils as she descended the stairs. Her father's domain was divided into two large sections on either ends of a hallway with a bathroom in-between the two, a TV room full of antique guns and his most prized animal trophies, the other end of the hallway was the gun room, or Stephanie referred to it, the arsenal.
She walked down the hall and pushed the heavy door open into the gun room, this is where her father kept most of his guns, including the massive collection of Mosin Nagant rifles that filled four entire shelves. There were over 120 of these rifles, lined up in a specific order that Stephanie had once heard and promptly forgotten. She always did find it a tad ironic that such a gung-ho American would have a giant collection of Soviet made rifles in his basement. But now irony wasn't on Stephanie's mind, bullets were. She took out Justine's rings and set to work. She dumped the rings into a cup and heated it up. Thankfully her father made his own bullets which made this entire process much easier. Stephanie was nervously tapping away at the work table as the silver rings melted away, but slow enough to drive Stephanie goes nuts. Stephanie waited until the metal was liquid and it was time to follow the instructions from the big poster on the wall that had step by step instructions on how to make your own bullets.
Stephanie poured the metal into bullet mold and watched as the liquid silver filled the two slots perfectly. She smiled, ah Justine she is just so perfect even her rings are filled with her perfection.
She paced about the gun room waiting for the silver to cool. She spent the time picking out a pair of rifles. She chose two from the middle, her dad wouldn't miss the ones from the middle as easily as the ones from the ends. Stephanie picked the rifle up and felt its weight, the entire situation felt weird, the reality that she was planning to go hunt an actual werewolf was setting in fast.
Stephanie opened the mold and looked at the two shiny silver bullets, they worked like a charm. She set about putting them into two 7.62mm shell casings with the appropriate amount of powder, not the amount her father had scribbled beneath the poster's number, she didn't want this bullet to go through the werewolf and the nearby house.
Stephanie crept out of the basement with the two rifles and her two newly minted bullets. She hid them in the back of her car until tomorrow when she could transport them to Justine's house.

On Friday night Stephanie arrived to a house already in chaos. Stephanie went inside and found Justine trying to calm both Zack and Eric down. The look in her eyes made it clear she wanted to strangle them both. But the storm clouds in her smoldering sapphire eyes suddenly lifted when she saw Stephanie. She slung her arm around Stephanie and led her out into the greenhouse away from the two panicking boys. " I've had a fun afternoon" said Justine, as she began to recount the tale Zack had told her.
Zack had come home from school and went back on Larry Talbot watch. He witnessed Larry run out of his Haloperidol and then get into a loud and angry fight with Jane, apparently the candy woman couldn't come through this time. He stormed out and disappeared into the alley. Now Zack was convinced Larry would come for him tonight and eat him because Zack just knew Larry had seen him while he was eating. Now Eric was freaking out because Zack had come here and that meant the werewolf would also eat him. Justine was just about to throw them both out when Stephanie came with the salvation in a 7.62mm rifle cartridge.
" Why don't we use some bait?" suggested Stephanie, after listening to the entire story.
" I was thinking about that, but I don't think Zack would allow himself to be tied up" she said.
" No, smaller."
" Like steal the neighbor's dog?"
" Like steak" said Stephanie, " werewolves must be like dogs right, our dog Max always goes for the easiest meal, that's why dad was never able to make him a hunting dog. Why don't we cook some steaks and leave them in a pile in the middle of the yard?"
Justine wanted to kiss Stephanie, but with Zack and Eric in the kitchen the odds of them seeing was too great, she made a mental note to kiss her later for her brilliance.
The pair re-entered and Stephanie unrolled the two rifles on the kitchen table. " The only problem is we have two bullets" she said.
" I'll take one" said Zack, trying his best to act brave, " I don't want to get eaten without a fight."
" I'll take the other" said Justine, " unless you want it, Eric?"
Eric stared in shock and got even whiter than he was now. Everyone shared a good laugh, the laugh really helped to break the tension. The laughter slowly died off and Stephanie shared their plan as Justine went to the freezer to get to work.

Justine began to cook as fast as she could, the streetlights were turning on, soon the werewolf would come. They all stood around her, Justine never enjoyed performing for an audience and this was no exception. She finished the first steak and dropped it with a plop on a plate. Without missing a beat she began on the second. She watched as the clock on the microwave seemed to mock her as the minutes ticked by at a seemingly faster rate than normal.

The second was finished and Justine set the it on top of the first and watched it promptly slide off. " Damn it" she groaned.
" They're too greasy" said Eric, panic still ringing shrill in his voice, " you're cooking them too fast."
Justine growled, " It isn't like we have lots of time here" making Eric scurry back.
She closed her eyes and then her eyes flashed open lit by the spark of inspiration. She hurried into the pantry and came out with a jar of peanut butter. She covered the top of the first steak with peanut butter and sure enough the second steak stayed put. Justine smiled with the feeling of satisfaction, peanut butter can fix any problem.
Three steaks later and it was done, the bait was ready. Stephanie picked up the plate and carried it out into the backyard and set it down in the middle in plain view. She hurried back and they began to wait.
Minutes pasted but still no werewolf, everybody was edgy, the waiting was always worse than the actual event. " Doesn't we know dinner is getting cold?" grumbled Zack.
" Somebody should call him" said Eric, " like our mom use to."
Stephanie stepped out onto the patio and put her fingers to her lips. She whistled loud and shrill, the whistle echoed through the dead silent neighborhood and lingered in the air for a few moments before being answered by a lonesome howl. " He's coming" said Justine.

They didn't have to wait long, within minutes a giant brown shape leapt over the hedge and landed in the backyard. He moved slowly but in a fluid motion as he sniffed about. He wasn't an idiot, he could smell a trap but he could also smell five hot and greasy steaks. His muscles were tense under his bristling fur, he knew it was a trap but it looked too good. Finally his hungry took over and he ran for the meat.
The werewolf leapt on the pile of meat and grabbed in his paws before dashing away in a blur. " SHOOT IT!!" shrieked Eric.
Both Justine and Zack burst out of the kitchen door tried to aim but it was just moving too fast. It leapt on the roof of the garage and suddenly jerked. It rose up, its arms twitching its head rolling back and then fell backwards. It slowly rolled over and over until it slipped off the lip of the roof and dropped onto the driveway with a thump. They all looked at each other, " Did you shoot?" asked Zack.
" Not me" said Justine, " what the hell happened?"
The four slowly crossed the yard, expecting any second for the werewolf to leap over the fence and devour them all. Stephanie bravely opened the gate and both Zack and Justine burst into the alley with their guns drawn ready for a fight. But the werewolf lay motionless on the driveway, foam dripping from its mouth down the side of its furry face into a large pool on the driveway. " No fucking way" said Zack, starting at him, " he really dead."
Justine took several steps forward and bravely poked his side. He didn't flinch as the barrel jabbed into his side. " He's dead all right" said Justine.
" How?" asked Stephanie voicing the general confusion of the four.
Justine set the gun down and took a closer look at the body. A streak of tan caught Justine's eye. She pried the long mouth open and a piece of meat fell out on the ground, along with a lot of drool which made Stephanie say, " Eew."
Justine poked the tan streak and took a quick sniff. " Peanut butter" she said, " he must have had an allergy to peanut butter."
Suddenly the body began to move making Justine leap up and race back to the safety of the group. They watched as the body slowly morphed back into the body of Larry Talbot, his face puffed up like a big red balloon. Finally Larry would have peace. " Now what?" asked Zack, " we can't just leave him here."
" He's right" said Justine, " dead bodies kinda get people's attention."
" We have to bury him" said Stephanie.
Everybody looked at each other for a moment, " Not me" said Justine, " I just killed the damn thing."
" I made the bullets and it's my dad's gun" said Stephanie, " even though we didn't get to use them, after everything I did."
" I found out who Larry Talbot was" said Zack, " no way am I digging the hole."
The three looked at each other, " Eric" they all agreed at once.
Eric looked at the trio in shock, " No way" he said.

Eric grumbled to himself as the shovel bit hard into the ground dirt of Spring Meadow Hill. He dug and dug under the watchful eyes of his sister and friends until he was waist deep in the ground. The four rolled the body into the hole and watched as Eric covered the ground back up. It was the final resting place of Larry Talbot, the Werewolf of Suburbia.