'Shit' thought Sofia as she ran down the dirt road. With each stride, the heavy backpack bounced against her back, and hanging over her head was a leaden sky that threatened rain. It had happened again, she had overslept and classes were about to start. The worst thing was that the first class was physics, and the teacher was not exactly called the Stuck-up for his kindness and understanding. The last thing she wanted was to endure one of his scoldings in front of her classmates, especially when she felt the energy in her chest so unsettled.

“Damn full moon!” she said, not even trying to suppress the growl of frustration that rumbled in her throat.

That had, in fact, been the reason why she fell asleep. It always happened to her in the days before and after the full moon, when it was so large in the sky that it looked like an inflated balloon. Something inside her would awaken and begin to seep into her blood, her muscles and her bones, filling her with a strength so intense that her whole being would become alert. She was unable to sleep even if she wanted to. The problem was that, when the moon went down, exhaustion overcame her, and she remained drowsy and sleepy for the rest of the day.

Sofia was no fool, she knew why this happened to her, a family secret that she guarded jealously. For as long as she could remember, she had seen her mother dedicate herself to the ignoble profession of hunting supernatural beings, and she was very good at what she did. The skin and fangs of a cinanthrope paid very well on the black market, although that was not the reason why Helena did it. It really had to do with her father. Sofia didn’t know him, but her mother had not been shy about telling her how he married her and got her pregnant to then disappear with excuses before her birth. Inquiring was how Helena discovered that her husband and father of the child was a cinanthrope; a weredog, which was something like a domestic version of a werewolf.

That was the reason why Sofia was not able to sleep when the moon was almost full, because she had inherited her father's blood. Fortunately she knew a shortcut through the pine forest that would get her to school faster. Sofia left the dirt road and dived right into the woods. It was autumn and the humidity in the air had created a pale mist that covered the entire forest like a vaporous curtain. That was no problem since Sofia knew it well enough to be able to move nimbly among the trunks, while she dodged ferns, stones and roots without any difficulty.

So focused was she on reaching her destination that she did not see the creature that was running straight towards her. Nor did she hear its footsteps, so silent despite its frantic pace that her own covered them. In the fog she caught a glimpse of a pale silhouette, but that was all she saw just a second before she felt the blow that sent her rolling to the ground. It hurt, it really hurt. Groaning, covered in mud and leaves from head to toe and a little dazed, Sofia looked up.

“Oh, fuck!” she exclaimed, holding a hand to her mouth as she felt her heart skip a beat.

It was a dog, and it wasn't. It was a huge canid, the size of a mastiff, all white except for its muzzle, which was stained with fresh blood. The creature looked at her with his ears low and fear permeating his blue eyes, and whimpered. Before she could say or do anything, the dog turned and ran off up the forest, disappearing into the mist. For a few minutes Sofia sat there, panting, her heart pounding.

“It can't be. A cinanthrope…”

It began to rain. Irritated, Sofia let out a snort. She couldn't have had worse luck even if she tried, but it wasn't as if she could do anything about it either. After brushing some of the mud and leaves off her clothes, she started running again. Somehow, she managed to reach the high school as the shrill bell was already ringing. Skidding through the almost empty halls on the wet soles of her sneakers, she ran to the stairs and propelled herself up the steps three at a time. Panting, she burst through the classroom door just moments before the Stuck-up did, and her appearance was so pitiful that everyone stared. Raising her head somewhat haughtily she walked over to her desk, the last one at the back of the room. She didn't mind being stared at, she wasn't the most popular girl in class either. There was a reason she sat alone, and she really preferred it that way.

“New fashion?” said Lola, the class snob, as Sofia walked past her.

Her friends laughed at her joke.

“Lola, the repair shop called. They said you can go get your insult device back, it's already calibrated,” Sofia said, and the other girl, who always looked divine, twisted her face into a sneer.

As soon as Sofia settled into her seat, she pulled her notebook and pencil case out of her backpack and prepared for class. Her notes were a thing more akin to scribbles than notes, with cross outs here and crooked annotations, tight to the edge of the page there. They weren't pretty but she could understand them, and that was good enough for her. She wasn't going to get an award for having the prettiest and neatest notebook in the whole school. Besides, she was generally a hard-working student, even with all her problems, or rather because of all her problems. She studied hard because she really didn't know what else to do. Always having clear goals and pursuing them was a way of not sinking into despair. That morning, however, she was distracted. Letting out a quiet sigh she looked out the window, at the leaden, rainy sky outside. A cinanthrope in broad daylight, and its muzzle was bloodstained. Those were not good news.

“Miss Bregan, would you mind answering the question?”

The teacher's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. Abruptly, she looked away from the steel-colored sky to stare at the wiry, stiff, stern-looking man in front of her. On the blackboard was a series of written formulas next to a drawing showing the orbit of a group of stellar objects interacting with each other. After briefly analyzing the formula she did a quick mental calculation and blurted out the answer. From the way the teacher twisted his face, Sofia knew that the answer she had given was the correct one. She didn't expect anything different, she worked hard while in class, she did her exercises and she was good at the subject. After all, she didn't want to fail, she needed to pass that second high school year if she wanted to leave her home as soon as possible.

“Hum…” With a gesture that made him look indignant, the teacher turned his attention to the rest of the class. “For tomorrow I want you to solve the equation by applying it to different bodies in the Solar System.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Aware that she had ceased to be of interest to the teacher, Sofia looked down at her wrist, at the white, dog-shaped scar on her skin. It was not just any mark, it was yet another reminder of the blood that ran through her veins, the blood of the children of the moon. Most of the teachers preferred to ignore her, as she never made trouble in class and always handed in her assignments on time. However there were two who seemed to be obsessed with her; the biology one because she wanted to help her, and the Stuck-up because he seemed to always be trying to catch her off guard.

“Imbecile…” she mumbled, gritting her teeth and holding back the urge to bare her teeth and growl.

She wasn't really sure which of the two he was referring to either. Sofía appreciated Rosa’s efforts, but things were too complicated. Pursing her lips in a grimace she let out a deep sigh and turned again towards the window to let her gray eyes rest on the sky of the same color, a sky very much matching her emotions. Thick raindrops fell on the glass and slid lazily, like tears, across the cold surface. Even through the closed window the aroma of wet earth was intense. Yes, she thought again as she wrinkled her nose, annoyed by that scent she could perceive so clearly, things were too complicated for anyone to help her.

The shrill sound of the bell pierced her ears, making her cringe and increasing the sensation of being wrapped in a cold and wet blanket. After years of going to high school, she should have gotten used to the sound by now, but she hadn't. Every time it rang, and it did so several times a day, it was as if a high-pitched screeching sound was drilling into her head. She couldn't stand it, and not just because it was annoying. Her senses were more acute than those of her companions, especially smell and hearing, and she had heard that this was nothing compared to a cinanthrope who had already gone through its first change. If it was already unbearable for her, she couldn't even imagine how it had to be for one of those.

“Hey, Sofi!”

That loud voice calling out her name across the classroom could only belong to one person; Sara. The girl, who was a year older than her but she was retaking the year, Sofia suspected because she hadn’t wanted to leave her completely alone, waved her hand in a vigorous greeting as she approached. It was quite a sight to see as she was a huge girl, with her meter eighty, maybe a little more, her broad shoulders, her freckle-covered face and the thick black hair she always wore short and spiked. Sara’s good mood made Sofia feel a little better, and the shy shadow of a smile began to creep onto her lips. She wasn't just her best friend, she was her only friend and the only person who had approached her when she joined the school as a new student the previous year. It’s not like she could blame the rest of her classmates either, Sofia had made it clear from the very first day that she didn't want anything to do with anyone, but Sara had seen beyond her armor and had been obstinate enough to become her friend.

“Mate, I've come to offer you an indecent proposal," said the girl, who had a smile from ear to ear, as she leaned onto the desk with her elbows.

“I'm scared. What have you come up with now?” asked Sofia as she closed her physics notebook and put it in her backpack.

“A guy my sister knows introduced me to a boy who is new in town. He hasn't made any friends yet, and I thought we could meet for a drink and I could introduce you to him.”

“Seriously, Sara, you're going to pick up all the lonely weirdos like we're stray dogs?”

Sara let out a thunderous laugh that caused a few of her classmates to look in her direction.

“Looking at it like that, I might have the makings of a shelter volunteer," she said with a broad grin.

“Come on boys and girls, everyone to their places, we're going to start,” said Rosa, the biology teacher, who had just entered the class.

“Well, mate, see you after class. You're going to like him a lot, you’ll see. He's a great guy.”

“Wait Sara, I still haven't said...” she said, reaching out her hand towards her friend, who was already leaving towards her desk at the other end of the classroom. “That I agreed...”

After letting out a long, deep sigh, Sofia dropped her hand and looked down at her backpack. She wearily rummaged through her notebooks until she located the biology notebook and opened it in front of her. As she looked up she exchanged a brief gaze with the teacher, one in which she abruptly lowered her eyes wanting to make it as clear as possible that she didn't want or need her help. However, she had gotten enough time to see the expression of obstinate patience on Rosa’s face, and that was enough to make something in her stomach churn. Rosa was a good woman and she didn't deserve the way Sofía constantly disregarded her, but she couldn't do anything else. It was the only way to keep her as far away as possible. Rosa could not help her, and all those who had tried in the past had not come out well. Maybe she shouldn't allow Sara to get close to her either, and in fact she had tried to keep her away too, but she couldn't deny that she was still a teenager and needed some friends if she didn't want to go completely crazy.

“Fuck, Sara, why do you get me into these messes?”