To say that I was shocked would be a complete understatement. I swallowed hard. My throat felt as though it was burning and my heart was racing, but that was mostly due to the fact that I hadn't stopped running ever since I had left the circle.
Werewolves in England? Yeah, apparently stranger things did happen. Much, much stranger than I had ever thought of before, but strange nonetheless.
At first, I thought I had simply been imagining it.
As soon as I got into bed and stared up at my ceiling, I pinched myself just to establish that I wasn't, in fact, dreaming.
I wasn't dreaming.
Thus, I had to accept what I had seen in the forest as the cold, hard, truth- make that the warm, fuzzy, truth.
Werewolves were real.
It was either that, or I was completely losing it.
Despite my racing thoughts, I eventually managed to get to sleep.
//
The next morning, I decided to take a trip to the meadow again after breakfast. I needed some time to clear my head. I wasn't sure how exactly I was going to do that, given that what I had seen was by no means normal. Regardless, I knew that I, at the very least, had to try to preoccupy myself.
"I'll see you later, dad! It's a beautiful day. I'm going to the meadow and then I'm going to get the bus to school," I explained.
My dad appeared thoughtful for a couple of moments, but he soon nodded to signal his agreement to this plan.
I scarfed down my pancakes and then wandered out of the front door, only pausing a moment to yell a "Thank you!" to my father.
My mind may have been preoccupied, but I also knew that I could not skip out on my manners.
As I walked towards the meadow, I couldn't help but look around me for some sign of strange activity.
There didn't seem to be any wolves, make that werewolves, in sight, so I assumed I was alright.
I kept walking on and eventually reached the meadow, where I was able to observe a supply of fresh flowers and fruits- tulips and berries, as I continued to walk on across the soft green grass.
I didn't stay long. As I looked towards my watch, I became conscious of the fact that I needed to be at my mathematics class in the next hour or so, and I didn't want to be late for Mr. Z again.
Detention would have to wait. I had a lot that needed to be done.
I rushed to the bus stop and got on. I noticed that Uma was sat at the back of the bus, chatting away with Accalia, so I soon began to walk to join the two of them.
I couldn't let Accalia know that I had seen anything of what had happened the previous evening.
Her brother was a werewolf, for God's sake, I had to pretend I didn't have the faintest idea.
"What did you get up to last night?" Uma asked Accalia, her lips twitched upwards slightly. "Need I even ask?" she added.
"Be quiet," Accalia said in a hushed tone, as she offered me a kind smile in greeting.
I sat down next to the two of them and the bus soon began to make its way towards our school building.
"I stayed in and watched a movie," Accalia said.
It was clearly a rehearsed answer.
"What did you do, Uma?" she added, as she nudged her slightly.
"I was at a ritual," Uma said.
Accalia's eyes widened.
It didn't strike me that anyone else I knew could have been there the previous evening, but my eyes had been locked on Accalia and her younger brother, for the most part.
"We sacrificed a KFC leg to pass our mathematics exam," she joked.
Accalia rolled her eyes, but appeared relieved that Uma hadn't outed her, or their, secret.
As I sat beside the two of them, I became increasingly aware of the fact that I honestly wasn't too sure who I could truly trust at the school. How many people were in on this? Did anyone else know?
As soon as the bus stopped, I didn't wait up for Accalia or Uma.
I rushed, immediately, to Kate's locker.
She closed it and took a step back, visibly startled by my sudden appearance.
I didn't apologise. Ordinarily enough, I would have, but not this time. I had too many questions and not enough time to get them all answered. That was how I felt, at least.
"Do you know anything about the Full Moon Ceremony?" I asked, in a whisper.
Kate's eyes widened and her eyebrows rose with the action.
"The Full Moon Ceremony?" she asked, visibly surprised, "Should I?" she added.
"I don't know," I said, as I leant against the lockers. "I'm going to the library. Can you cover for me in maths class today?" I inquired.
"Sure," Kate said, though I didn't wait long for her to answer.
My back was already turned and I was on my way to the library, before she could utter another syllable.
I grabbed my glasses case out of my pocket, once I had sat down at one of the computers.
Nobody else was sat nearby me, thankfully.
I placed my glasses on and started a Google search: werewolves.
Rolling the mouse wheel to scroll for a few seconds, I eventually clicked on one of the main links.
The same word kept creeping up, time and time again- 'mythological'.
Either I was wrong or these web pages were, and I was beginning to believe the latter was the case.
Then, stranger still, I began to find a lot of forums posted by people who had experienced similar things to me.
I've been having so many dreams about wolves lately- strange but normal, right?
IÂ had a dream a wolf stole my sandwich. I don't know if it was a werewolf, but I woke up completely pissed off, even if the sandwich wasn't real.
Edit: You don't have to keep telling me it was just a dream, I know that much.
The last post made my heart sink.
Apparently, dreams about wolves occasionally mean that an alpha wolf has picked you as their mate.