“Landon,” Payton said, as he closed the door. Inside the room was just an empty desk and a few chairs; nothing special. “Landon, there are some things about werewolves that you are just going to have to accept. Once a werewolf, always a werewolf, remember? There is no changing back, so you are just going to have to accept our ways of life!”

I was disgusted. “Payton, have you ever killed a human?”

There was silence for a moment and then Payton answered me saying, “Yeah, I have. We need to feast on human’s blood every other couple of days. It’s just our way of living! We can’t live without blood. Animal blood doesn’t cut it. We need human blood.”

I looked away from my teacher and said, “Well, that’s just too bad. I am going to change the werewolf way of life! Why do we need blood?”

“To keep us alive,” Payton answered, and then he gasped.

“What?” I said, looking into his sharp blue eyes.

“I have forgotten to tell you about Lacy,” he said in a hushed whisper.

My eyes widened and I leaned in closer to Payton, wanting to know more about my new friend. She was, after all, the only she wolf I had ever seen.

“Uh, Landon, is Lacy the first girl werewolf that you have seen?” he asked me. I nodded and raised my eyebrows.

“Well, that’s because we usually try to avoid biting females. Their blood can’t really sustain our blood. That is to say, werewolf blood. That is why you don’t ever see a she wolf. They usually only have a life span of about six to eight months.”

I gasped. “What? What do you mean?”

Payton sighed and said, “Landon, Lacy will never get to her trials. She will die before her first year is over. That is why she is considered an ‘accident.’ Someone bit her without realizing, and that werewolf was killed. It is a major crime to bite females, no matter what the age.”

My legs started to tremble, and I leaned against a wall. Lacy was going to die. How long had she been a werewolf?

“Payton, what is today?” I asked, my lips refusing to say the words.

“It’s November tenth.”

That was seven months. Lacy has been a werewolf for seven months, and they usually die off in the eighth month.

I slowly slid down the wall until I was sitting. I folded my arms across my legs and put my head down on top of them.

Lacy was going to die in December.

A door opened, and I kept my head still, tears gliding down my face.

“Payton, Wolfgang needs your presence with him, now!” a voice said, that sounded a lot like Jonathan.

I looked up and indeed, it was my friend. He met my eyes, and frowned. Jonathan urged Payton to come quickly, and Payton looked at me.

“Stay here until I get back, alright?” he said, and I nodded.

Payton rushed to and out of the door, and Jonathan closed it, leaving me alone in the room.

The walls started to move in. Another panic attack was surely under way, and I covered my head and yelled, “Stop! Stop!”

But there was no stopping my imagination. I heard screams, voices, crying. I felt the walls move closer and closer in, until I was totally surrounded in my own fear.

“Landon!” a soft voice called to me, out in the distance. I didn’t move; I couldn’t move. The walls were surrounding me and if I moved, I knew I would be killed. I don’t know how, but I would be.

“Landon!” the same voice called to me, and someone put their hand on my shoulder and shook me until I was awake.

“Huh? What?” I said, very groggily. Payton’s blue eyes blurred into vision and he looked very sad.

“What? What’s wrong?” my speech became all slurred as if I were drunk.

“Landon, I can’t help you anymore. I’m sorry. Wolfgang has called me to do a job for him. I’m so sorry. If I could have helped you, I would. I promise, Landon!”

What? What was Payton talking about?

“Landon, I have to go and search the forest for Vampires. Wolfgang has said that if I saw you one more time, then I would be killed. This is a great risk just for me being here!”

I yawned and said, “What are you talking about?” I felt a sharp slap on my check, and Payton said, “Wake up! This is important!”

So much for a good sleep. I opened my eyes all the way and said, “What? I was sleeping!”

“Landon! I have to go! They are coming! I’ll have Lacy explain it to you,” Payton said in a rushed voice.

I nodded sleepily and dozed back off. This could wait.

I woke up to Lacy’s voice saying, “Landon! Oh, there you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you! I swear, kid, one of these days I’m gonna loose you for good!”

Another pleasant awakening, huh?

“Lacy,” I said, sleepily. I wasn’t as tired as before, because I could focus on the she wolf’s voice. Suddenly, everything that Payton had said about female werewolves rushed back to me. She was going to die. Could it really be true?

“Lacy,” I said again, and I was now sort of alert.

“Landon, there is so much I need to tell you. Oh, no! Do you hear that?” Lacy whispered into my ear. I heard very, very faint footsteps and thought nothing of it.

“Oh, no! Landon! I have to hide! Don’t tell anyone I was here!” Lacy said, and then ran into a dark corner. I heard desks and stuff shift, until Lacy was suitable under wherever she was. What the heck was going on?

Lacy said, “Sh!” and I shhd. The footsteps grew louder and louder until they were at the entrance to the room. There was a voice, really deep, and it sounded like Wolfgang.

I gasped. What would Wolfgang want with me? The Trials? I gasped again, and Lacy was going to sh me again, but the door opened.

Were my Trials today? Had I been asleep that long?

“There he is,” another voice said, and a bright light was flicked to me. I squinted through the light and saw three figures striding towards me. I could feel Lacy’s eyes watching my every move, holding her breath.

“Trying to run away from your Trials, eh?” the deep voice asked me. Now I knew for certain that it was Wolfgang. He was the only one that spoke with that nasty deep voice.

“What? I don’t know what you are –”

Suddenly, the other two guys that were with Wolfgang grabbed my arms and hurled me through the air, and I landed in front of Wolfgang.

“Whoa! Hey, what was that about?” I asked, really pissed off.

“You know for a fact that one who runs away or hides like you do from his Trials gets punished. Or shall I say, condemned?” Wolfgang said, very evilly.

Condemned? I didn’t even realize that I had slept in past my Trials! There was no way to know, because you couldn’t see the sun in Fort Wolfgang.

“Well,” I started to say, but one of the guys that threw me over to Wolfgang plunged something into my back, and I started hollering in pain. Tears leaked out of my eyes, and darkness faded in, and then out. The walls. They were closing in. This must have been my second panic attack in like a day! They scooted closer, and I felt dizzy and nauseated. Not again! I closed my eyes, just as the man behind me injected me with something.

The last thing I heard was Wolfgang’s evil laugh.