CHAPTER I

Ryder waded his way through the thick black blanket of heavenly water that covered the atmosphere, the blinding effect of the downpour didn't tell much on his illuminated eyes. The day before hadn't really been the best of days and he was still being haunted—haunted by their screams. He scanned his surroundings for a few seconds, then, one side of his lips pulled up in a smirk that didn't give off any teeth, it was past midnight, that made for a solitary walk but it felt good to confirm that there was no soul around. He buried his gaze on the ground as he continued striding majestically, towards his destination.

"Woof!" A dog barked in the distance, a bark that instantly lifted Ryder's gaze off the ground, he looked ahead and made some mental calculations, "Woof..." The second bark came, that was Bullie, his nextdoor neighbor's dog, a Bull Terrier. Bullie once bit Todd when he was out playing, it was a pretty bad bite, Ryder wasn't having any of Ms Bells's explanations, but he couldn't do anything, his no trouble, easy going, super forgiving, very adorable mother wouldn't have it, Todd would have to carry the scare all his life.

"Woof! Arg..." Bullie continued, Bullie has always barked whenever Ryder was close by, so with the barks he needn't check, he knew he was almost home, close to his mother.

As he got to the ludicrously pink duplex of the Bells he stopped in his tracks then looked over their short pink washed wooden fence, he wanted to do this childish routine he was very fond of, it involved Bullie showing up and... "Woof!" Soon enough Bullie ran out from behind the house then stopped at the sight of Ryder. He looked at Ryder sneeringly whilst grinding his teeth, slowly opening his mouth to let out another bark.

"Grrrrrrrr..." This wasn't the dog, it was Ryder's turn now, he was grunting back at the dog and displaying his not so white teeth, they looked big, rough and sharp with even bigger, longer, sharper canines. Ryder's jaws began to build up and reform. Bullie began whimpering, pulling back slowly, then he bolted back behind the house where his kennel was at. Ryder chuckled, showing off a set of well arranged beautiful white teeth.

Just as he was about to proceed to his own duplex, instinctively he looked up. On the street light close to the Bells's house, even closer to where he stood, there was a CCTV camera, it was never there before, the sight of it made him so mad he got the urge to uproot the pole and break it to bits, that was ofcause after using it to break a couple things in the Bells house, Ryder had never been good at anger management, he moved a step closer to his enemy, the pole.

"Ryder." His mother's voice came from the unroofed porch of their own duplex, he turned to look at her, her hair was looking darker than they usually were, it looked as though she poured a bucket of water over her head — she was getting drenched. Ryder turned back to look at the pole, he glared long at it, contemplating what action to take, a few seconds later, he finally decided to save his mother from the cold rain instead. As he started on the steps that led to the porch, his mom threw her hands open for a hug but he walked right past her, he went inside the house and she followed after him.

Eliza had obviously been waiting for him, worry was evident on her face, she threw her hands open once again for her son and he went to her this time, hurriedly, he went into her wet, yet warm embrace, she was patting his back slowly and gently, running her hand over his back, hot tears were streaming down her cheeks, it warmed the cold skin on her face, as if her waiting for him wasn't enough sign that she was aware that something was wrong, she whispered into his ear, "It will be fine." In an attempt to comfort him.

"Hmm..." he grunted a reply, "Gossip at the Cafe?" Ryder asked where she got the news from

Eliza pulled back then cupped his face in her hands, she looked at her son while her eyes pooled up again, her blond hair was still wet, strands of it stuck to her forehead, not even her tight bun could keep them back, her beautiful round face was still wet, from the rain and with her tears and her bright blue eyes looked dull — she seemed to have aged.

"Ms Bells and her brood of bitches couldn't find a better topic to discuss today." She sniffled. Yes, that was Bells, their nextdoor neighbor. She frequents the Cafe Eliza works at.

Ryder pulled one side of his lips up, smiling, a smile which actually reached his eyes. His eyes looked bright and beautiful at that moment. He stared intensely at his mom, Eliza was never shy to curse in front of him, but she uses some restraints when with his siblings, the same ones who were eavesdropping from behind the door right now, they quickly tried to hide when he shifted his gaze their way, he would have gone to startle them, but he wasn't that cheerful at the moment.

He moved his gaze back to his mom, "How did anybody get to know in the first place?" It was a bit strange, although news would have circulated anyway, this was a bit too early, Ryder thought. It all happened early the evening before.

"It was on the local radio."

Ryder squinted slightly, subtle shock evident on his face, a few seconds later and the shock was replaced by confusion, how did it get on the radio? Why should it be on the radio!? He asked silently.

Eliza released his face from her hands, "Priest Johan announced earlier that he was gonna perform an exorcism on..." she hesitated a bit "...Wolfie." She completed, looking away, she didn't want to look at his face, she took a few steps away from her son, moving completely out of his breathing space.

'Wolfie' that was what some degenerates referred to him as, he hated it, and all those who knew him knew it.

"So there was little media follow up during the whole process." Eliza continued.

"And it was broadcast when something went wrong." Ryder completed, clenching his fist, Eliza nodded to confirm his comment.

Silence.

"Okay..." Eliza broke the silence, "... go up to your room and freshen up, you need a warm shower, I would bring your food up to your room." It was already too late for a dining table family dinner, 12:34AM.

"No I am fine, I don't want to eat anything," Ryder informed his mom, walking away, "where is your husband?" He asked, "And why are the kids still awake?" After hearing this, his siblings behind the kitchen door ran further inside the kitchen, chuckling, Eliza was mad about the fact that they weren't in bed.

"I asked Joshua to tuck them in!" She exclaimed, "But lately they have been keeping late nights."

"Guys, come on out now, you need to go to bed," Ryder called on his siblings, they had snuck down the stairs, probably to join their mom in her wait for him, "I would tuck them in." He said to nobody in particular as he watched his little siblings come from inside the kitchen, Eliza stood with her hands akimbo, glaring at them but they knew better than to look at her face, they all kept their heads down and each of them hugged Ryder gently before walking past him, heading back to the hallway where the staircase was at.

'Family Is sacred' the words were stenciled on to the living room wall, too big to be missed, their mom had Josh do it there to remind him that the only ones who won't turn their backs on him was his family, so he shouldn't do the same to them. Courtesy of him being a total brat some years ago.

Ryder hung his head directly under the shower, while he kept the other parts of his body away from the running water, his hair was getting soaked rapidly, the wetness made his jet black hair shine under the white bathroom light, his hair looked as smooth as silk. He placed both his hands on the white walls of the bathroom for support then closed his eyes, trying to reminisce on all that had happened the day before.

Father Johan, a gaunt grey man in his late 50's moved to town about a month ago and had these great ideas on how to cure him of his supposed 'ailments'. Johan was a well known Celestial, who is reputed to be a great exorcist, so, the afternoon before, Johan had showed up at Ryder's school and had forcefully taken him to the town's old Solarium, a squeaky construction which looked hunted, since worship was mainly carried out in the newly constructed one, this old one was abandoned, which made it the perfect place for Johan to perform his exorcist rituals. There was no resistance from the school at all when Johan had come to take Ryder away, the school authorities didn't seem to care, almost as if it was planned by them, the school.

Johan had locked him up in a cage that had these burning effects on his skin, there were these continuous loud prayers he made which disturbed Ryder's ears a great deal. Lifting his left hand from the wall, he inserted his index finger in his left ear and frantically moved his hand, as though he was still at the Sol' and the prayers were still disturbing him, "I cast out the spirit of evil..." Johan's voice rang in his ears. Ryder shook his head, with his eyes tightly closed he let out a grunt.

He then opened his mouth, licked his perfectly perfect pink lips and spat the water out, he ran his long fingers through his shiny black hair then afterwards raised his head up, facing the running shower directly, he moved his body to stand completely under the shower — finally letting the water run down his whole body.

"Rye!" That was his mom, "I brought your food up, I left it on ur reading table." She announced, he already told her he didn't want it, but his mom wouldn't let him be, would she? It was a habit, him keeping late nights, sometimes he returned to meet his family still waiting so they could eat together, other times he returned home too late for that and met everyone asleep. He isn't the phone type of person, so his mom is most at times unable to call him home.

The warm water that came from the shower was really soothing, it was running over his back, returning the warmth to his body after the long walk under the cold rain.

It was the burning of his skin and the disturbance to his ears that made his body react, he always knew he wasn't completely human, right from age 5 when he wolfed out for the first time, it happened at home, his mom seemed prepared, sad but prepared. She gave him some guidelines she seemed to have memorized, guidelines on how to try controlling his powers and on how secrecy was of utmost importance. But the secret didn't hold for long, nobody in this town apart from his family has actually seen him become a wolf, but for some other reasons they nicknamed him wolfie. Or have they seen him?

"Ahhhhhhh!" The screams re-echoed in his head, he pressed his palms over his ears and shut his eyes tightly. The building came crashing down. "Let him be crushed!" That was Johan again, as he ran for his own life, his assistant had stopped him and asked about letting Ryder out of the cage, but he thought Ryder being crushed by the bricks was a better idea. From all Ryder had gathered Before heading home, no one was dead, yet.

"Rye you are wasting water!" His mom called from his bedroom, she hadn't left, why hadn't she left? They weren't very rich, so, wasting water wasn't a great idea, and he had been in the bathroom for about 25 minutes, the first 15 were spent on running water over his head alone. With his eyes still closed he felt his way to the switch of the shower, which was located an unnecessary distance away from the actual shower, he turned the water off then took his towel, wrapped it around his waist and with a smaller towel he started dabbing his hair in an attempt to dry it. He was too muscular for his age although he didn't work out.

He stepped out of the bathroom to meet his mom still waiting in his room, she was seated on his bed, she had a magazine of his in her hand, an adult magazine, she got up and placed it on the bed the moment she noticed his presence, her baby boy was all grown now and was getting real interested in sex, she thought. She wondered if the girls at his school would allow him to be with them, if they'd go out with him, the thought of them avoiding him made her feel sad, but she had gotten with her own 'Wolfie' even though it was well known what he was. But it would still be hard on Ryder, she half blamed herself for how Ryder turned out, all would have been okay if she had married a human. It was better to find ppl like himself, she concluded.

"Goodnight" she stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheeks. He didn't give much of a reaction. They stood there for a minute looking into each other's eyes before she said, "Okay, bye." She then slowly retreated away from him, she opened the door carefully, left the room then closed the door, Ryder didn't move, he stood there still staring at the door, as though he was expecting something to happen, a few seconds later the door opened slightly then Eliza poked her head in from behind the door, she looked at him for a while, smiling, a little while later she wriggled her fingers at him then finally she closed the door. Ryder shook his head then jumped on his bed, still in his wet towel.