After Winter Break, things quieted down. We started classes again in January, which also included the Powers and Talents club. Professor Ryan began teaching us werewolves how to stop ourselves from biting anyone if we did transform on the full moon. This was a difficult concept to grasp for most people. I had a little trouble, but I’d already done this before, unlike most of the others. During dinner on that Friday, the six of us shared the different things we’d covered in our individual groups. “Shifters can be dangerous,” Brazen started as he grabbed a slice of pizza. Today was pizza day for dinner. “If we lose focus while we shift or are already shifted we could be stuck there for a while if not forever. Same for if we shift other people.” I nodded as I bit into my slice. “We learned how to restrain ourselves when there’s a full moon. Both from biting someone or from transforming, both are really hard to resist,” I said after I swallowed. “Memorias are slightly different from Telepaths. We learned that it takes a good deal of resolve to change the memories of another Memoria, but it’s easiest for us to change the memories of a Telepath. It’s also easy for us to be controlled or have our minds read by a Telepath,” Naomi said quietly, taking a sip of her lemonade. “We moved on from healing physical injuries to mental ones,” Calli said in between bites of her Hawaiian pizza. Harlow gasped. “That’s cool! We worked together with the Glowers to practice balancing out our different powers.” Shadow nodded, quickly snatching the last slice of spinach and chicken pizza. “We obviously did that too. If a Shade’s magic gets too strong, we can use our light to help them get it under control. Vice versa for us.” Raza was sitting with us today. He had regular cheese pizza with extra cheese. He was a little short for his age, and his feet barely touched the ground when he sat on the bench. “Us Speeders can go so fast we can teleport. We have to be careful, though. If we go too fast we could phase in and out of existence.” He shuddered. “A few of us did it accidentally today. It is /not/ fun.” After dinner, Shadow, Harlow, Naomi, and I ran down to the woods. I was going to teach Ren what we’d learned today, Naomi was going to talk to Carlos, and Harlow and Shadow… what they were doing unsettled me. They were going to explore the shadow part of the woods, see if they could either figure out the illusion or break it. We parted ways at the main crossroads of the path, I was going straight, Naomi, Harlow, and Shadow to the left. As usual, Ren scared me out of my wits as I walked down the path towards his house. I heard footsteps behind me and turned around, seeing no one. “Looking for someone?” a voice came from behind me. I nearly jumped out of my skin. “Was that necessary?” I asked Ren, turning around to face him. He was biting back a smile. “Yes. Here to show me some more tricks?” I sighed and nodded. “Yeah. C’mon.” We walked down to the lakeside, the house just barely in view. I taught him what I’d learned, then had to run back up to the school at the bell. As I opened the door to my dorm, there was a faint gray light coming from the bookshelf. I looked over and saw the gray crystal glowing. I reached out to grab it but it disintegrated at my touch. I glanced at the note that had come with it and froze. The writing was different. /You neglected this message. You’d best pray that you earned the forgiveness and it isn’t a lie./ I reached out tentatively to grab the note and it didn’t disintegrate. I read the note again and again, and finally crumpled it in my fist. It was wrong. All of the crystals had been a lie, something to distract me. I threw that note and the one that had come with the black crystal out the window and went to sleep.
Notes/Credits: If you're reading this, you probably know I wrote The Wolf Boy. Well, here's the sequel: The Monster's Curse. This is Chapter 19. Previous Chapter(s): Chapter 1: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/652476202/ Chapter 2: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/652950608/ Chapter 3: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/655177024/ Chapter 4: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/655177565/ Chapter 5: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/655621072/ Chapter 6: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/656955201/ Chapter 7: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/657580423/ Chapter 8: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/657583863/ Chapter 9: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/657586191/ Chapter 10: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/657668860/ Chapter 11: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/658404211/ Chapter 12: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/659115920/ Chapter 13: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/659116659/ Chapter 14: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/659117186/ Chapter 15: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/659420154/ Chapter 16: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/661425573/ Chapter 17: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/661428771/ Chapter 18: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/661974554 Credits: Me, for being the author Shannon Messenger, JK Rowling, Eoin Colfer, and many other authors for inspo @aqua_di_angelo, @AL600AWESOME, @Lanze_cupcake_face11, and @Yayabinks for inspo and supporting the story! QOTC: Who do you think is sending Wolf the crystals?
