Stories AHalf p3

### **Chapter 3**

I stood there dumbstruck, scared to move and hoping that the werewolves were still blind while in an inhabited dwelling. I was so terrified and confused that instead of thinking about how we can get out of this situation, I began to think about the reasons for this unexpected weakness of the monsters. Like, whether it was unique to werewolves only, and how I could lure a ghost or a ghoul into my house to conduct some experiments. I don’t often get petrified; in Coastal Hill you generally have to think quickly, otherwise you will quickly get a membership card from the association of the living dead, but at that particular moment... apparently, my mind just stopped coping with the abundance of new troubles. Fortunately, Catherine was there.

‘Why are you just standing there, Nightring?’ she whispered, dashing past me as a furious hurricane. Only when I felt her warm breath and the scent of cheap candies on my face, I finally came to my senses. ‘We must barricade the stairs.’

‘What? Careful with ...’ I turned to Catherine. The woman had already grabbed one of the mirrors glowing with uneven blue light.

‘You said that you didn’t pay for these,’ Catherine hissed, placing the mirror on the step that was the closest to her so that those poor werewolves would have to bump into their own reflection. ‘Stop whining and help me.’

I turned to the mirror in front of me. The girl with spiders in her hair was looking at me with cold contempt.

‘Don’t you dare,’ she said, and thousands of spider eggs started falling out of her mouth. I turned away, unable to look at that, but did dare to grab the frame. The mirror wasn’t heavy at all. ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Nightring.’

I wanted to let go of the mirror, to throw it off, to toss it aside, but my fingers gripped the frame even tighter. Something cold and evil hit me in my chest. My eyes were closed, but I knew for sure that the girl didn’t even move her hand. She just blinked, and the mirror surface exploded, but instead of being cut by its shards, I was thrown back onto the stairs. My mind blanked out for a second, then pain came. Groaning, I heard Catherine’s voice, but couldn’t make out the words she was saying. Opening my eyes with great difficulty, I saw the ceiling and a wolf’s head with a drooling mouth right above me. The werewolf was standing on all fours and seemed to be sniffing at me.

‘Get away from him, you freak,’ Catherine said quietly, looking straight at the werewolf. ‘Ain't it what you need? You all need this, don’t you?’

‘Don’t…’ I tried to speak, but my tongue didn’t obey.

With a quick and confident movement, Catherine pulled a half-disc out of her purse. The monster whose saliva was already dripping on my forehead twitched and its blind, empty eyes stared directly at the half-disk shining in Catherine’s hands. The werewolf growled, and I finally groped for a piece of broken mirror. The creature prepared to jump, drooping its head even lower, and at that moment, I stabbed it in the neck with the mirror shard. The werewolf squealed — of course I couldn’t do any real harm to it — but that was enough. Catherine rushed to me, pushing the half-disc back into her purse, grabbed me by my legs and pulled me aside. Our attacker — just one of the many monsters crowding on the stairs — quickly regained consciousness and had a throw at the spot where Catherine had been standing a few seconds ago. Running into one of the mirrors, the werewolf lashed out at it with the rain of blows terrifying in their strength and fury. Each swing of the clawed paw literally smashed the frame to pieces, and the mirror fragments flying around only drove the monster even madder.

‘Faster,’ I said, palpating the back of my head. It was warm and wet, meaning things were not so good. ‘Take the snips and cut out a moon and a piece of cheese from two lids.’

‘What?’ Catherine looked at me in astonishment. ‘What piece of cheese?’

I sighed. What else can you expect from people who have never studied astrology? Fortunately, I could resist the urge to start explaining to Catherine all the subtleties of this complex science, from the origin of the Moon Rabbit to the ascension of heroic personalities into the night sky as living stars. Instead, I patiently said:

‘The first or the last quarter of the moon. It either immediately follows the young moon — the Waxing Crescent — or appears right before it. There’s not much difference for a moon charm: you don’t need to cut out all eight phases, three will be quite enough.’

‘Okay,’ Catherine nodded with a smile, but almost immediately her round face got serious: she looked worried again. ‘But you know, sweetie, I didn’t have time to take all your stuff when the werewolves burst in. It’s all lying on the floor, right ...’

I nodded. There was no need to continue. Werewolves — there were already four of them, not to mention the other monsters on the stairs that were simply unable to force their way past their friends — were turning the mirrors into glass dust. They were clearly convinced that if something hurt them in response, that something was alive and dangerous. I didn’t blame them however — blindfold me and I’ll beat with a stick everything that gets in the way and tries to bite. What made things worse was that the items Catherine had collected were lying right under the monsters’ feet, and it was a miracle none of the werewolves had stepped into the jar of silver paint yet.

Grabbing an old vase from the floor — I had no idea how it got here — I threw it to the opposite corner from us. The vase shattered to pieces with a loud noise. Unfortunately, the werewolves, busy as they were with the destruction of mirrors, did not pay any attention to this.

‘Your plan seems to have failed,’ Catherine said with a teasing grin. She put her hands on my shoulders and almost sang in my ear. ‘Come on, champion, you’re going to make it.’

‘Maybe I’ll just ask the werewolves to eat me?’ I mused, picking up an old, long-forgotten spyglass from the floor. My old man bought it for me for my eighth birthday being all sure one could look at the stars with it. Unfortunately, it could distract the werewolves only if I managed to hit one of them right in the skull. Meanwhile, it got darker and darker with each destroyed mirror. I had no choice.

I made a few steps forward, ducking slightly without knowing why. Some things that we do are not even instinctive; they are probably nothing but imitation of actions of the heroes from the covers of our favorite books. I was moving slowly, and when I was just a couple of feet away from the raging werewolves, I put the spyglass down on the floor. Then I gently pushed it forward, right under the feet of one of the blind monsters. This time, I got it right — the werewolf did step on the spyglass and, having rolled forward on in a bit, fell on its back with a crash. The monsters growled, turning to their fellow, and I quickly scooped up the things Catherine had collected. I rushed back, almost wimbling into one of the werewolves, but against all the odds I somehow managed to jump aside at the last moment and got to the corner where Catherine was waiting for me. Behind my back, the monsters tore apart the last, ninth mirror, and the basement was plunged into darkness.

‘Can you cut metal in the dark?’ Catherine asked tauntingly. She touched my face with her hand and pulled me towards her. ‘Well done, sweetie.’

‘There’s no other way anyway’ I just said. Sitting on the floor in complete darkness, I spread the metal discs in front of me and took the first one. ‘Just don’t try to turn on the light and stay still. Even the slightest squeak of the snips will be enough.’

Catherine probably nodded. I couldn’t see it, but I knew this woman too well. A sound of metal screeching on the stone floor was heard. The wolves howled again, celebrating their victory over the mirrors. Just ten feet from us.