The Waking Ramblings of a Night Owl

Dear Journal,

I'm awake again! Surprised? Nah, me neither.

Tonight, however, was different. And I'm not really sure if I'm glad or not about all of this... What happened, you ask? Wait till you hear this:

Yesterday, I fell asleep around 9, and when I woke up around eleven or twelve, the light of a full moon was beaming down on me through my window.

Which got me wondering, what happened to my curtain?! Oh, yeah... My cat. Again. Anyway! I digress.

I got up, because I knew I would be awake for hours, possibly days, and walked over to my window and gazed through the glass. Across the street, in my neighbors house, Mr. Karvonen, sitting in his home-made rocking chair (I've told you about Mr. Karvonen before. He's a man in his mid thirties and a war veteran. Also, he's a carpenter by trade and has taught me a few things... Very nice guy, btw). Just like I've seen him sitting in it a thousand times before. As I was about to turn away, Mr. Karvonen stood up abruptly, throwing his rocker to the floor... He gripped his head with both fists and his body began to distort, violently. Mr. Karvonen threw his head back as he started to glow, if you could call it that, a black gloomy aura. His mouth opened and suddenly transformed into a... Snout?! No way!

I rubbed my eyes, thinking sleep deprivation was making me hallucinate. I looked over to Mr. Karvonen's window again, and... Oh! My! Gosh! Mr. Karvonen was transforming into a... I can barely bring myself to write this, but... Mr. Karvonen was transforming into a werewolf!!!!!!!. I knew our town had a slight werewolf problem, but I could hardly believe it was my own neighbor! I quickly glanced around my street to see if anyone else was seeing this, but no. It was just me. I turned my gaze back to Mr. Karvonen. He was fully transformed now. He lowered himself onto all fours, his usually kind face now a menacing, beastly face. I ducked behind the wall, heart pounding. I was in shock. And yet, a tingle of excitement ran up my spine. I was personal friends with the town werewolf!

I was still dressed from earlier, so I grabbed my shoes and ran out the side door of my house. I figured Mr. Karvonen would go through his back door, so after a quick glance up and down the street, I jogged across the street and dove behind Mr. Karvonen's bushes. I crawled around the side of his house and peeked around the corner to the back. Mr. Werewolf, I mean... Karvonen, was standing next to the tall oak tree in his back yard. One paw was lifted daintily and his nose was tilted up, sniffing the wind. It was late fall, and thus chilly, so my scent would not carry on the wind like it would if it were summer or spring. He turned his head this way, and that every so often, his nose searching the wind for a particular scent. The werewolf pricked his ears forward then launched himself up the oak, nimbly making his way to the top.

Keeping my eyes on him, I creeped around the side of the house where I was, fortunately, cloaked in darkness. Mr. Karvonen leaped from the tree onto the house to the left of his. I made a dash for the fence that lined Mr. Karvonen's property line and swiftly, quietly jumped over the white picket fence, rolled into a flower bush... But it didn't actually have flowers on it, so that was kind of pointless. But anyway, I did an army crawl till I reached his neighbors house, then darted across the lawn to another tree, this one pine and still covered in green needles, which hid me perfectly. Phew!

Just as I came to a halt, I heard the soft click-click of claws across the roof, still heading left of his house. That was the direction of the park...

Unexpectedly, these memories came crashing over me. Mr. Karvonen killed a woman jogging in the park two months ago. And just last month, in Nashville, 35 miles south of here, there was a similar killing. Every three months the werewolf picks a different town other than this one. And earlier today, my friend Jacob said that he and some other people in town were going to form a search party tonight, since it was the full moon. Now I knew who the werewolf was! At least one, as far as we knew. 

Oh, man! This news is HUGE! I've got to tell everyone!! These killings need to stop. Before Mr. Karvonen strikes again. 

Just then, in the distance I hear the call of a lone wolf... Or is it another werewolf? That must be the direction that Mr. K was headed in! He's going to meet up with the other werewolf! This... This is bad.

I started to shake at the thought of this, but I realized there was a chance I could stop them. Glancing around the roof tops, I spotted Mr. K. He was running in the direction of, what I only assumed to be, a second werewolf.

As quietly as I could, I followed Mr. K in the darkness, always staying far enough behind that he wouldn't see, smell or hear me. How did I get so good at sneaking, you ask? All those years of sneaking out of the house to borrow my parents car, of course! Ha! Ahem Back to the story...

Finally, he stopped running. We were at the park, but there wasn't any coverage for me to hide behind on this side. It had to be well passed midnight by now. Not that it mattered, I was just thinking. Hiding behind a large tree on the other side of the park, I looked around the side to watch Mr. K. From out of no where another werewolf landed directly in front of him. They sniffed each others faces like regular canines. Then they started to lick each other's faces??

I started to sweat in the chill night air. Uuuuh, what were these 2 werewolves meeting in the park for??! I gulped as I slid fully behind the tree. It was going to be getting weird if they started to mate! I peeked around the tree again... And two pair of glittering, amber yellow eyes glared at me!!! The new werewolf parted it's lips, a low growl escaping it's throat.

I was too terrified to move. I froze in place, even my breath caught in my throat. But my heart beat wildly... fiercely, in my chest. I wanted to scream, run, fight, something... ! Was I about to die?! Was this the end?? Would my friend, Mr. Karvonen, eat me alive with his werewolf buddy?! Oh, God... No! Please, no! 

All those thoughts flashed through my mind in an instant. And in the next heart beat, Mr. K let out a vicious snarl in my face, flecks of spittle landing on my cheeks, mouth and nose. I flinched, lost my balance and fell to the ground. What am I going to do now?!

Staring up at the 2 beasts, I could tell they were communicating with each other. The second werewolf was being more aggressive and I had a inkling in my gut that they were discussing what to do with me. 

But why? It didn't seem like typical werewolf behavior... Not that I was an expert or anything. I just figured they'd, ya know... Tear into me? 

Something was off, though. 

Now that I think about it, having two werewolves made things more complicated. There was no way I could know for sure which werewolf killed what people. Two definitely complicated things, but I don't doubt that Mr. K has killed, and eaten at least ONE person.

Ok, back to the story:

Without warning, beast #2 lunged for me, while Mr. K leapt into his friend, bowling him over. He snapped at it's face and growled with ferocity. The beast on the ground simply snorted in Mr. K's face, acquiescing.

I took this opportune moment to start scrambling backwards. Just as I did so, Mr. K leapt on me, resting one forepaw on my chest.

"Mr. Karvonen, pleeease don't do this!" I whispered, tears of sheer terror welling in my eyes.

At the mention of his name the angry look on his face turned to confusion, then to astonishment. He glanced over his shoulder at his companion, then back down at me. The slightest whine escaped his throat, and suddenly he snapped his jaws and grunted at his werewolf friend. 

Mr. K took one step back, then the 2 of them took off into the night together, to find another victim. 

As soon as they were out of sight, I got up to run home, but my legs wouldn't cooperate. They wobbled like they were made out of jello for about 4 good seconds before I collapsed to the ground. I waited a few minutes, then carefully got to my feet and made my home as fast as I could.

I felt like I'd just escaped death, and werewolf freaking Karvonen just saved me! That was literally the scariest moment of my entire life. Scarier, even, than when I was in that car wreck and the car flipped twice! Mr. K and his companion could have eaten me but instead he'd stopped the beast from eating me alive.

Once inside, I checked my phone to see the time. 1:48am

I took a cold shower right after, then pulled out my phone again.

Hey, Jacob, I just saw 2 werewolves at Irene Smith Park. I texted, but didn't send. I left the cursor blinking, set my phone down and pulled out my journal. And here I am! It's 3 am, and I'm thinking about sending that text. But Mr. K saved my life... Should I send that text to Jacob?