The More Things Stay the Same

by Conan Young


The forest was much quieter at the end of the Sturgeon Moon, now that the parents had returned to work and the young ones had started the school year anew.  The summer crowds had come and gone, the eroding effects of the elements masking whatever prints they'd left behind.  It was a time of change for two ninth grade students as well.  They had crossed the hurdle from middle school into high school, and the adjustment to the new setting loomed large in their lives.  Despite the shift in circumstances, there were still many familiar faces among their classmates.

Adam had been Andy's best friend since elementary school, as loyal and trustworthy as they come.  His charcoal eyes, which some would say matched his gray coat, looked distracted as he peered down along the trail, lost in his thoughts.  In contrast with Adam's untidy habits, Andy was fastidious about trimming and combing his hair, which was brown as the earth itself.

The two longtime companions were not an unusual sight walking along the wooded path most days.  Ever since he was little, Adam's imagination would try to find shapes in the mid-afternoon shadows of leaves that danced in the wind.  Andy had to call out from further ahead on the well-worn footpath, snapping Adam out of his daydreams.  As short as the walk was from the picnic grounds to the fishing pier, it was always a race to Andy.

"You've heard about it, right?" asked Adam.

Andy could sense this coming from a mile away. "How could I not?  It's been all over the news.  Three hikers over the past two nights.  This part of the woods just isn't safe anymore."

"I wonder how that thing survives out here."  Adam could see a few broken twigs here and there, but nothing that resembled a burrow or shelter.

"Yeah, it must get chilly without anything to keep you warm."  Andy crossed his arms and shivered at the thought.

"Not only that, but I hear its face is flat like a gorilla's or chimp's."  Adam was hesitant to believe anything he didn't see with his own eyes.  "How can it smell anything with a nose like that?"

Andy picked up on the uncertainty in Adam's voice, which he decided to humor.  "Yeah, or hear anything with those ridiculous round ears."

The story that had local residents in a panic was the series of attacks that had occurred in the evening hours, similar to the ones from a month ago, and the month before that.  Every full moon, a savage creature appeared.  Witnesses described it as frail, apelike, and hairless, moving in a slow, awkward manner.  It had beaten several victims over the head with a wooden club, leaving behind bumps and bruises and giving one hiker a mild concussion.  The same question was on everyone's minds:  What was this strange beast and where did it come from?

Adam gave a dismissive laugh.  "I swear.  The things people panic over these days."

"You don't sound too concerned."  Andy had assumed Adam doubted the specifics of the eyewitness accounts, not that something was out there in the first place.

"It's all sensationalism, paranoia, things like that.  People around here need a diversion."  Adam shrugged.  "And let's face it.  The most exciting thing coming up is the annual harvest festival."

"You don't have to be a spoilsport about everything."  Andy had taken the lead on the path.  Let Adam preach to himself.

"Aw come on, don't be like that!"  However, Adam knew the debate was over.  Andy didn't have to know, but the thought of losing his friend to this creature was something that kept Adam up at night.

Andy was the first to reach the lake, which had swollen from the recent rainfall.  The day after a downpour was their favorite time to sit on the fishing pier, when the water was high enough to wet the tips of their toes.  Adam used to wait until Andy's back was turned to try and shove him in, but somehow Andy always heard him coming.  They'd long since outgrown such juvenile stunts, but no matter how much they matured, they were never too old to while away the afternoons sending ripples across the pristine reflection.

"What, not going to work on your report today?" asked Adam.

"I already finished the assigned reading.  Besides, it wouldn't hurt you to show a little responsibility."  Andy waved in front of Adam's eyes.  "I don't know how you can watch the same boring sunset over and over again."

"Yeah, I know."  Adam pushed his friend's wrist away from obscuring his view of the aureate splashes cast over the mountaintops.  Andy would never understand his appreciation of the simple things in life.

Nonetheless, homework was even further from their minds than the foolhardy plan the townsfolk were putting together to ensnare the strange creature.

If one believed the old legends, a similar incident occurred in the town of GĂ©vaudan, France, where a wild beast terrorized the countryside, attacking civilians and livestock alike.  The attacks continued until the famed hunter, Jean Chastel, shot the beast with a bullet cast from lead, the toxic heavy metal.  As fanciful a tale as it was, old Fergus who ran the local rifle shop found it convincing enough to stockpile enough lead bullets to distribute to the residents for the hunt.  That night, they were going to rid their town of the creature once and for all.

Adam and Andy didn't realize how late it was getting until dusk fell over the lake and the pearl of polished silver took its place in the skies for the third night of the lunar cycle.  The trouble they'd be in for getting home so late at night wasn't as much of a concern as what the townsfolk believed the night brought with it.

"Ah great, I forgot what time it was," said Adam.

"No problem, it's not that dark out yet."  Andy's eyes were quick to adjust to the dimming conditions.  "Besides, when was the last time we ever got lost out here?"

"Yeah."  Adam was confident the two of them could navigate the woods in their sleep if they had to.

"Hey, you know what?  That gives me an idea.  What if we're the ones who catch the thing that's been attacking the hikers out here?"  Andy could already feel the excitement coursing through him.

"Yeah!"  Adam put on a semi-serious grin.  "If we get it before everyone else does, we'll be heroes or something."

"Yeah, heroes."  Andy tilted his head up, gazing into the full moon, which gazed right back at him.  A twinge of pain appeared in the base of his spine and spread throughout his entire body.  He doubled over and grunted something incoherent.

"Dude, what's wrong?  Something you ate?"  Adam reached out to help him up.

Andy tried to warn Adam to stay back, but only an apelike screeching escaped his lips.  When he tried to shoo Adam away, it came off as a random swipe in Adam's direction. 

Adam watched his friend's sleek brown pelt disappear, retracting under exposed pink nakedness.  Andy's feet got shorter and flatter until he was standing on his hocks.  Gone were his tail and pointy ears, which had shriveled into useless round stubs on the sides of his head.  His snout had shrunken down as well, until there was nothing left but a flat mouth and an odd fleshy nose.  There was no hair left on the creature's body except in a few sparse patches, including one atop its head.

Adam cursed under his breath, staring wide-eyed with his hackles raised and his ears flattened against his head.  He watched the creature amble about, clumsy and plodding.  It picked up a stick from the forest floor to use as a weapon, swinging it at Adam's head.

"Andy, listen to me."  He tried a staying gesture on the creature.  "Stop it!"

Adam's attempt to reason with him was to no avail.  He ducked once and jumped backwards to avoid the beast's frantic swings.  It would be a simple matter of sinking his fangs into the creature's throat, just as his father had taught him to defend himself.

No, Adam thought.  No way was he going to do that.  That was his best friend Andy trapped inside the creature's body.  He wasn't going to hurt him.  He would have to restrain him; use necessary force.  The problem was how to get the stick away before he could cause any harm.  The creature made aggressive grunting noises, baring its dull teeth and thumping its chest like a gorilla.

Before Adam could come up with a plan of his own, he heard the confident chatter of torch-waving townsfolk from further down the old hiking trail.  They moved in lockstep like a seasoned hunting party, tinged with the excitement of exterminating an elusive pest from their midst.

"Aha, right where we expected it to be!"  Mayor Truman thrust his paw at the creature.  "And it's found its next victim!"

Fergus brought his hunting rifle to bear.  "Don't worry Adam, we got the situation under control."

"No wait!  You can't!"  Adam had spread out his arms.

"Now you listen, young'un."  Fergus cocked the rifle, but couldn't target more than a sliver of the creature behind Adam's larger frame.  "You did good in luring the beast out, but now you gotta leave it to the adults."

"You don't understand."  Adam shook his head, not taking his eyes off the mob.  "That's my friend Andy in there!"

The creature waved its fists and danced back and forth on its hind legs to issue a challenge.  It tripped and fell over a tree root, struggling and thrashing on the ground for a few moments before it tried to get back up.

"Oh, so Andy has been the one attacking innocent victims every month?" said Mayor Truman.

"No, no, it's not his fault!  He can't control it!  I don't think he ever meant to hurt anyone!"  The creature lunged while Adam was distracted and clonked him on the head with the stick, which splintered and broke.  "Hey, ow!  Knock it off, will ya!"

"The beast is a dangerous wild animal that needs to be controlled.  Now stand aside!"  Fergus waved Adam off and started to circle around for a clear shot.

"But he needs my help!"  Adam sidestepped to keep up, but realized too late that he'd left a direct path between his transformed friend and the mob.

The creature bolted as fast as its skinny flailing legs could carry it, making a bold charge on the gathered townsfolk.  This was all the justification Fergus needed to take aim and squeeze the trigger.

"No!"

In an instant, Adam had leapt in between the hunting rifle and the charging creature.  The wind was knocked out of his lungs as a hurtling hunk of hot lead tore an unerring path.  Adam was aware of little more than the dull thud of the hiking trail slamming against his back and the warmth seeping from his body to stain his gray coat crimson.  The creature, staring in primal confusion, took the opportunity to flee into the woods.

* * *
Groggy eyelids parted to rays of scattered sunlight and floating forms of bluish white.  The breezy ambience and chirping that reached his ears could only mean they'd left him where he fell.  He remembered a loud bang, but the searing pain was gone, having given way to numbness that spread throughout his body.

Time had to be short then.

His awareness began to reassemble like mosaic tiles.  The sounds had a mechanical regularity, like the ticking of a clock.  The clouds and the sky solidified into the angular shapes of overhead lights and curtains.  He smelled rubbing alcohol and fabric softener. 

Adam realized it was early the next morning.  So they hadn't left him behind after all.  His attention fell on the spot where a patch of his fur had been shaved off and a small bandage affixed to the wound.  He tried moving his leaden arms and legs to mitigate the effects of the anesthetics.

One question remained.  What had become of his friend?  More than anything, he wanted to get up and run back to the old hiking trail to see if he could find Andy there.

"Finally up, I see?" said the attending nurse.  "There's someone here to see you."

Great, thought Adam.  It was probably Fergus coming in to brag about how he chased down the creature and killed it for the good of all.  That kind of slap in the face would hurt worse than anything he'd been through over the past twenty four hours.

Instead it was a familiar voice; the last one Adam expected to hear.  "Hey, how are you feeling?"

 "Andy?"  Adam's heart skipped a beat.  His best friend was standing at the foot of his bed, back to normal now that the full moon was over, looking none the worse for wear.

"I wanted to thank you.  You know, for what you did for me."  Andy's eyes looked regretful.  "It's funny, you know?  All this started thanks to a souvenir chimpanzee belt I bought from some African shaman, not knowing it was cursed."

Adam didn't know what to say.  "You would have done the same thing for me."

"I suppose."  Andy lowered his head as his voice sunk.  "What I meant was... thank you for not seeing me as a monster."

"I don't think you're a monster."  Adam scratched his neck.  There were so many things he wanted to ask at once, which all came out as, "So what happens now?"

"Well, now that everyone knows," Andy wrung his paws, "and I know now, I'm just going to have to cover myself in cloth pieces and tie myself to a chair every full moon."

"Wearing cloth pieces?"  Adam had on a quizzical look.  "Now that IS weird."

"Trust me, you'd be surprised how cold everything is without your coat."

Adam looked Andy up and down, reminiscing on the previous night.  He couldn't help but to burst out laughing.

© 2010 Conan Young.  All rights reserved.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kyle Chu currently writes poems and short stories under the pen name Conan Young, and is working on a series of fantasy novels entitled "Lunar Realm."  He is a student at Bergen Community College in New Jersey, where he has had a poem "Contrast in White" published in their Labyrinth magazine.


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