IT HAD BEEN TWO WEEKS SINCE ALISON cursed the four men, it was the night of the first full moon as the beasts they became. Malcolm had fled fearful and after Alison ran from the townspeople, they learned of her sheltering in an abandoned horse carriage far in the outstretch of bitter land. The hunger for flesh only grew in all of them each day, some fighting back more than others, others gave way. They took shelter in the near forest and waited for the dreaded nightfall to approach, and quick it did.

    Winter still beat down on the lands with an aggressive force that would seem to last for an eternity, whirling winds were no match for any life force. It became eerie and dark, the sun's warmth was no more and all source of light faded. An ominous and mysterious fog loomed at the in the forest and twist through the roots of tall, umber pine trees.

    Their bodies still ached and they wince from pain, but they held it in. The moon began to climb higher and higher in the darkened sky. The moon held a tint of crimson circling around it, the cycle had begun.

    The four men still reeled from Henrik's death and Viktor's memory of his brother Jesper and sister had gone. Viktor hasn't been the same sense, a darkness grew inside of him after that night, colder than it was already.

    Clayton sat with his head drooped low on an aged and rotting, fallen pine. Alric paced around frantic as snow flew up from his feet.

    Viktor leaned against a wide and knotted pine tree with his arms tucked together and a bleak expression.
    "Will you sit down," Viktor growled demandingly at Alric. "You're pacing is quite nerve-racking,"

    Alric furrowed his brows and eased his thoughts, turning to Viktor with a heavy eye. "I don't know how much longer I can take this." He said, his tone was deep and his face held a cold expression. "We need to feed," Alric told, pupils glistening the bright color of golden yellow as his chest rose and fell at a rapid pace.

    Clayton was the one who jumped up to Alric's quick words, his voice bellowed loudly. "We can't." He snorted.

    "And why not?" Viktor cut in and asked confused and consumed with curiosity, like the animal he was. He didn't mind the rancid thought of feeding on a man, for twas man who made the beast. "I don't think its such a bad idea." He grimaced.

    "Don't you fellows understand?" Clayton pleaded with both of them. "We can't kill an innocent human, they do not deserve the same pain and anguish we have endured."

    "I don't see why we couldn't kill one, I certainly could, easily," Viktor replied to Clayton and grinned with an evil flicker, bounding from the tree that held him upright and paced with heavy strides next to Clayton, tapping his shoulder in a 'good boy' manner.

    Alric simply shrugged at the idea and Victor's and Clayton' pointless rambling, normally he would revolt at the thought but he could care less now. They were all on edge and aggressive, they were starving themselves for what they truly desire most, a human heart.

    Clayton calmed, but he was still anxious. They could smell for miles around, every scent paved its way through their nostrils, nothing was amiss. "And besides," Alric resumed, gazing at Clayton. "You know What Alison said, we have to feed if we wish to live through the night." Alric reminded and Clayton gave a wave with his head.

    "It is not long till the moon reaches its peak." Viktor expressed through dim blue eyes,  twisting around to meet Alric and Clayton head on. His gaze bouncing from the two who stood hush merely a few feet from him.

    "I can feel the effects beginning to take place," Alric told them at the dizzy thought.

    "It feels like my head could explode, and my ribcage cracked open" A growl surfaced in the back of Clayton's throat, he rests his arm on his stomach and stretched it to his side.

    The winter's air was bleak and bitter, it felt like an arctic blast pushed wildly through the forest, snow began to flourish heavily and ice built against the tall wavering pine trees, the snow was blinding. Though the forest was cold and barren, their bodies were finely heated from the wolf that dwells in their spirits heartily.
   
    Viktor, Clayton, and Alric stood silent for a moment and took in the pleasant sounds of nature, though there wasn't many. It was pitch black in the night, shadows fell across the forest as stray beams of watery moonlight peeled in through the thick layer of cloud that parted moon from the sky like a veil. Viktor simply lifted his shoulders and turned away his back, leaving the two in confusion of what his thoughts were that paved in his mind.

    "And where do you think you're going?" Clayton calls as Viktor vanished through the dense snowfall and wind blur.

    "To have some fun!" He told from afar, his tone holding the slightest of smiles. Alric grinned, his head turning to Clayton and left him alone in the small clearing as he trekked forward to follow Viktor's footprints.

    Clayton soon gave in minutes later in the attempt to follow the two's straying tracks and strong scent that fluttered in the dancing winds. He followed their footsteps through the winding forest trees as it grew harder to continue, the force had grown stronger, and their will of any part left human in them would come to slip.

    Alric paced steadily through the blanket of snowfall close behind Viktor while the near Village came close into view. Alric soon stopped. "Does this useless wondering have a meaning, Viktor?" Alric began to question where he was being led.

    "The Village," He called over his shoulder loudly.

    "On a full moon, at the time we wish to devour something, and we turn into vile beasts?"  Alric became even more irritated and left the heat pumping in his system.

    "Exactly," Told Viktor, the shadows soon came to consume him through darkness and wide eyes, not to be seen again by Alric again till coming to a swath of pine trees grouped together in a perfect manner that perswaded slivers of moonlight to gape through. The scene of the village began to melt into a perfect darkness and silhouettes crept far across the bare land, the light that the moon gave as it climbed higher and higher in the cloud sealed sky. Effects started taking their shape.

    Viktor took in the moment, replacing the air in his lungs with Alric perched at his side, the smell of dogs and other fine animals freshened his nostrils, but the most prominent smell was that of a human. Victor's once iced blue gaze reflected brilliantly the color of scarlet red, the beautiful shade of blood.

    Viktor's head bolted down to a young girl who collected water from one of the far wells in the Village, it was deep enough down to where it wouldn't freeze in times like this. He nudged at Alric's shoulder, eyes fixated on the girl. He slid down a fairly small bank encased in deep snow and jogged loosely towards her eventually slowing down to greet her without another thought of Alric crossing his mind.

    "Hello," He smiled charmingly. "Can I help you with your load?" He was kind and spoke gingerly as the young lady lifted her head to the sounding voice and pushed her golden hair behind an ear. "Oh forgive me, I didn't know anyone else was around." She gleamed, pulling the pail of water at her side. Victor motioned the palm of his hand, stepping closer to her fridged body.

    "No thank you, I can manage." She replied, for no more than a moment they stood in silence, Viktor's hunger only developed more by the second he was in the range of the lady. He saw her nothing more than a mere human, food. Her gaze then grew confused. "Your eyes? Are you alright?" Viktor snapped his head around his shoulders to conceal his vision from her in a panic, his crimson eyes glowing in the gray shadows. He calmed and returned slowly, swallowing hard and clenched his jaws tight. "You're seeing things, It must've been the moonlight darling." He told. "It has some strange effects on some people."

    She simply laughed at his quiet charming remark. "What is a beautiful thing like you doing so close to the forest?" He stepped closer, becoming merely a foot from her. "A lot of things can go bump in the night." His eyes squinted on her earthy colored gaze and grew cautiously. "I came to collect some water for my Family," Victor followed her eyes to the pail obviously and shrugged. "And you?" She asks eagerly.

    "I was out hunting with a friend," He generously smirked, self-absorbed. "But I certainly wasn't expecting to run across a pretty thing like you darling." Viktor stretched out his arm out to her head stroked down her golden locks as her gentle voice spoke again. "Wheres your friend?"

    "Oh he's still in the woods, I saw you first so I told him I would see if you needed a hand with your load of water."

    "Did you leave your weapon with him? You are not carrying a bow on your back." She noticed reminding him of the web of lies his story held, but still true. He pondered a moment at her words. "No darling I am the weapon. So tell me, dear, what do you desire?" He distracted her from the painful question she asked. The snowfall and ice were like a delicate lace on the exposed skin around her neck, it reflected beautifully. Her eyes were solid and conceal no emotion, "What do I desire?" She whispered at his charming words in a heavily dazed state.

    "Yes," He hissed in stressed words, with a growl behind it. The back of his frozen hand glide across the skin of her warm neck. He could feel every heartbeat and smell every drop of blood and flesh rising inside of her, he was a wolf in sheep's clothing, the one townsmen warned to stay indoors about.

    He leaned close against her smooth porcelain skin, his teeth grazing the top of a shrouded vein. Her arms wrapped around his muscular back. "What do you want from me." Her words managed to escape in several hushed breaths in a wavering trance.

    "Your heart,"

    Viktor's teeth grew painfully into long shards and his eyes returned to their once held scarlet gaze. His fangs sunk deeply into her skin and his claws grip tightly at her arms, she clutches around his back and tangled her fingers in his shirt gagarmenttightly.

    Soon, she grew unable to stand and collapsed to the froze earth in a merely a second. Her heart no longer gave a warm beat in the cold winds and the pail flew towards her feet, she was still, and lifeless. All was silent and a grim, dark scene. Viktor drooped at her side with his head pressed against the body, then a voice called out through the thick sleet and forceful winds that riled up.

    "Lenora?" It was the voice of a young man, none of whom Viktor could recognize. His mind ran wild and he gorged himself on her heart, crimson stained the corners of his untamed face. He was satisfied, he had fed. He could live again, it was a life for a life, disheartening. Viktor didn't feed on the thought he might not see the fire-glow of dawn's light, he fed on instinct, the instinct of a true blooded killer.

    "Lenora, this isn't a game. Where are you?" The voice angered him, it broke into his absent thoughts, egotistic. He rotated from the human's body lying motionless in the scarlet snow beneath.

    Viktor sensed the man to be near him, his scent was strong and his ears picked up on his long strides and quick pace. Then, he came in to view from around another Village home, his eyes widening at the fowl sight of the body.

    "No, no, no, no!" He cried in panic, rushing to Victor's side without paying him any mind. "Lenora, Lenora listen to me." He raised her head from the cold snow, her body turned like ice. Viktor stood from the ground and resized the damage he'd done, it settled in his mind and the hunger calmed.

    "How long has she been here? Did you find her?" The boy spoke frantic and scared, his eyes never once turning to face Viktor. Viktor could clearly see the crystal tears that slipped down his cheeks. "I found her lying on the deathly cold ground merely moments ago." He said stiffening, no emotion no sympathy, nothing but darkness filled his heart.

    "The blood, there's so much, so much of it." The young boy began to hyperventilate as his tone fell into a murmur. "Where did it all come from?"

    "She must have slipped and hit her head on a patch of ice," Viktor told in a continuous lie he weaved. After long minutes passed the boy turned to see Viktor's face for the first time since seeing his kin lying on the packed ice beneath their feet.

    He was shocked and mortally terrified, Viktor's mouth gaped open into the darkness to reveal illuminated fangs and what little amount of blood left trickled from his parted jaws, head hung low and eyes piercing red.

    "You," He shook, crawling frantically backward in the blanket of snow and he pulled himself against the cobblestone walls of the well, his arm reached the rim above his coal black hair. "You're a monster." He stuttered.

    "I know what I am boy." Replied Viktor. "Haven't you ever seen what beast lays sleeping inside you, waiting to have a little fun." The tone that came from Viktor's throat changed while the night grew still and eerie. "Well, now you have. You've seen what we are capable of, we kill for a taste to redeem the life within ourselves." He broke down on his knees with a pang of sympathy, the part that was human inside of him began to show again. For two weeks it had been turned off like a mental switch, the rush Viktor felt from taking the young girls like disappeared and grief started to settle in.

    A glint of silver catches his eye, the boy pulled a silver knife from the back pocket of his cream-colored garments. Viktor simply gave a fake grin. "The knife," He questions startling the boy that he had noticed his hand reaching at his back. Viktor closed his eyes and took in a long breath of the cold air, he was broken and sad.

    The boy still shook in fear, his hand wrapped around the knife handle as he glanced quickly down at it and furrowed his brows.

   "If you wish to drive it through my heart I won't stop you. Go ahead, give it your best shot,"

    "Kill me," Viktor whispered, "Death welcomes me at his doorstep."

    The boy pondered in deep thought, his sister lays dead beside of him, a hideous beast at his feet. The choice was simple. His palm and fingers gripped the handle tighter, his tears had dried and left nothing but a cold heart, much like Viktor's.

    Viktor's breathing was shaky as he peeked open his eyes. "Take your shot. Come on, do it!" He exhaled. "I didn't just kill your kin not a have a little rumble on the edge of death."

    The boy lunged himself at Viktor, his body falling in the snowfall as Viktor' moved in a blur of blinding speed.

    "That all you got!"

    An angered yowl escapes from the boy's lips, he hurried up from the ground in panic shifting his feet to square up Viktor.

    Once again he hurdles towards Viktor, Viktor's hands grasping onto his shoulders and slinging him at the ground. He ached in pain, the knife fell out of his hands and at his side.

    Viktor kicked the glinting silver knife to the side as it dug into the pearl-white snow that once was perfect and untouched, now riddled with footprints.

   "Get up!" Viktor rumbled, he smelled the fear and temptation that spilled off the boy as he squirmed around in the mud mixed snowfall where they had quarreled. The boy rolled and reached for the knife inches from his hand.

    Viktor snorted and left the boy for the scavengers to pick off. He gave one more glare at the girl's body in the icy cold and continued to track forward. He took several large paces before a rustle surfaced behind him, the silver knife digging deeply into his shoulder. A roaring outcry came from Viktor with a thundering growl behind it.

    Viktor filled with an indescribable anger, his blood boiled as he gripped the wooden knife handle and jerked it from his shoulder blade, and threw it in the snow. He winced in an amount of pain and heat that surrounded his shoulder and crept down his muscular arm. The force of the pulled him into an unscapeable pit. He growled and shouted in rage, thw blood in his veins turned black.

    Viktor's wolf had taken over into a painfull morph. His teeth bares as he shifts  around to meet the boy's terrified green eyes. Viktor was determined to take his lifeas was wellefore something intervened.

    Alric's body flew from the shadows and hurdled towards Viktor, throwing him off balance as he collapsed to the ground. Alric's massive force caused him to slide in the snow as it piled around him in a wall of coldness.

    "No Viktor." Alric grimaced, his iris's bled through to deep yellow swirling with orange.

    Viktor's wolf  winced and tried for a struggling breath that Alric knocked out of him. He rolled up from his side with his head hanging low, opposite to Alric.

    "You've taken one life, that's enough." He told, sullen.

    The wolf growled and bared its large teeth, his eyes flickered with fire. He shook away the pain and slammed himself into Alric. Alric stumbled from the force and flew backwards, landing on the boy. Scratching him in the process. Viktor anger gave way and returned to his human forme.

    Alricdidn'tt rrealizeshis claws dug into the boy's arm in a rage of anger. He bounced off the ground and lunged at Viktor, dragging him to the ground, his hand at his throat.

    Viktor's face scowled in disgust at his weakness and loss. "Move and I'll tare your throat." Alric stood grimly and loomed over Viktor's body,  motioning his hand out to his friend.

    "You fight like a child." Viktor glowers his expression at Alric and sulked upright to his feet without Alric's helping hand. He peered around at the fear and damage he caused with dizzy thoughts.

    "Guess that makes you the dog." He growls back.

    His eyes that were once the color of a scarlet bird had turned to the palest, and frozen icy blue. It was colder than winter itself.

    Viktor huffed out his breath at Alric and brushed the snow off of him.

    "Your eyes." Alric pointed out quickly

    Viktor scoffed and rolled his eyes around. "One too many times Alric,"

    "They're blue," He quarrels. "Pale blue," Alric's grim face lightens up holding back a grin. "You look like you plowed your face into the snow and your eyes had frozen over."

    "Alric I'm not in the mood to play cat and mouse with you." Viktor's forehead creased annoyingly. "My eyes are blue dimwhit."

    "I'm not playing Viktor." The happy expression on Alric's face turned stone-cold. "They're not your human eyes, dimwhit. Your still partially shifted. They were once red? Why have they turned." Alric's worry grew for his friend and he pushed aside the thought of their half fight.

    Viktor shook his head back and forward. "We'll worry about it later, I'm not dead yet." He grumbled.

    "You were about to be a dead man if that knife had hit your heart." Alric painfully reminded him his shoulder beginning to ache.  "Let's go," Alric pleaded in a hurry to move along. He struck Viktor in the arm in a playful way as he chuckled at his pain.

    Alric twisted and faced the boy a foot from him looking dead straight in his eyes. "You will go home, and never speak of this again. I'll hunt you down in your sleep if you spill anything." He growled viciously.

    Both men flashed away in a single blur and stalked back through the dense line of trees, leaving the gloomy and well-lit clearing bare with no motion. The full moon gleamed brightly with a red ring luminously circled it, the mist that loomed grew to merely a foot high, perfect for predictors and unsuspecting prey.

    They tracked across an old worn snowy path that had been worn out over long periods of time. They used to walk the long pathway before their turn when they would hunt and thrive through the trees. The stretched far across the land and headed where they both had last seen Clayton.

    "Why'd you do i,,",Alric questioned tired and weak, his head turning to his friend.

    "Do what,"

    "You took the young girls life. You never flinched nor though twice."

    "I'm a beast Alric, we all are. We kill for the fun and pleasure of it."

    "You, kill for the pleasure of it," Alric stated. "You enjoy it."

    Viktor stopped in the path, dead in his tracks glowering down into Alric's gaze. "We all enjoy the rush and thrill from it. Don't lie Alric.

    Alric huffed and pasted up Viktor. "We need to find Clayton, maybe he hasn't devoured any human hearts while we've been gone."

    "He'll survive off rabbit hearts before anything else." Viktor teases and joked darkly that made Alric grin at their friends vow not to feast on humans.

    Alric nodded in agreement as his palm stung like venom. He held his hand in the beam of moonlight and blood trickled from it. I must've cut it on a thorn bush. He told himself.

    "What's wrong?" Viktor asked concerned glaring at Alric from the other side of the path.

    "Nothing," Alric drew his brows together and shook his head. Viktor replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

    They continued to roam in the dark, their eyes were lanterns in the blackness. The moon was a gleam of yellow in the sky, a disk of dim light peeking through the thick layer of cloud cover.

    They enjoyed the peacefully night air and strolled calmly next to a small stream that raced its way towards the path that they had come. It was shrouded by a small patch of bushes and thorns and small stones line the bottom.

    Alric turned down the dip on the side of the path and bent down to his knees to scoop the clear water in his cupped hands. Then he furrowed his eyebrows and squinted his gaze that fixated on his palm. The cut had healed and fades away as he ran his fingers down his hand in confusion. He knew what had happened when Viktor slammed him to the ground and he landed on the boy he had cut him deeply, he dug his sharp claws into it in a wave of anger.

    Viktor stood wearily behind him, gazing down at Alric who crouched down over the stream, he squinted his eyes in confusion. "Your hand," He noticed from afar.

    "Nothing," Alric retorted quickly and twisted around to stand beside his friend, shaking his head and paced hastily down the path.
   
    "What'd you do?" He asks worried, beating next to his side as he grabbed his arm and spun him around, his eyes glowed in the shade of theironce-icyy blue.

    Alric's jaws tightened as he scanned the forest floor and closed blinked his eyes in annoyance. "I turned him," He forced the words out of his mouth.

   Viktor's forehead creased and he still hadhihishand walled around Alrkxs arm.

    "The boy," His voice raised mid-tone bitterly. "I scratched him," His shakiness alerted Viktor.

    Viktor took in a long and slow breath that pushed in and out of his lings. "Oh how fun, something new" He whispers roughishly. "Maybe he'll join our little frenzy since I killed his family."

    Alric was worried and contorted his face. "What's wrong with you Viktor?" He snaps. "Clayton's right, you haven't been yourself sense Henrik's death. You've grown darker"

    Viktor gave a nervous chuckle. "You wanna know why I've been acting so strange?" He rolled his head, irritated and ignorant.

    "Maybe, just maybe." He teased.  "It's because i killed my own brother!" His eyes shifted to something sinister and dark, in a fit of rage pulsing through his blood, his mind only held grim thoughts. He backed Alric against a large oak tree.

    Alric's brows knitted  together. "You didn't take Henrik's life Viktor. You know that." He raised the tone in his voice.

    He pondered. "Your right," Telling in surprise. "Alison took his life, maybe we should kill her instead." It began too hard to think of Henrik, it broke Viktor on the inside and sent him spiraling in a mental craze.

    "That's too late," A strange yet familiar voice beacons from behind Viktors back, Alric could see a clear face shadowded by moonlight. "Malcolm has killed her."

    "Someone should put a bell on you, Clayton." Viktor huffs and bounds off of Alric, he warped his figure around to find Clayton giving him a once-over through marbled eyes.

    The forest was mottled in earthy hues and swallowed in silver highlights. Viktor and Clayton stood parted a good six inches from each other, their gazes both deadly.

    "Good," Groaned Viktor. He stepped past Clayton's gray shadow and peered off through the woodland.

    "You're a natural stalker, Clayton." Commented Alric, the corners of Clayton's lips curved upward slyly.

    "Where have you two been?"   

    Silence was said till it broke "Out killing innocent humans," Viktor gleamed like a mychivious child up to no good while flashing a deadpan gaze.

    "Alric also turned a boy."

    "Maybe," A growl suppressed from beside the oak tree."We don't know that for sertan."

    Clayton's brain was overloading with their acts and no good comentary. He flashed the two a sardonic eye. He had a mouthful to say but they sunk to the back of his throat.

    "I won't comment. The only reason I came to find you two baboons was because I needed to tell you news.

    They were drew in like animals reeling for a piece of meat, they loomed still and wide-eyed.

    "We must'nt stay here much longer. The townspeople have already sent out fine hunters for our heads. They're growing weary and scared of us." Clayton told terrified himself. "We must leave here imeadiently.