Maria Spotlight - The night is ours

In the evening I often sat with the boys in one of the living rooms of our castle. We played cards, drank wine or blood and told each other stories. My father used to invite Stephan and his family to dinner with us several times; my uncle Michael, my aunt Margot and my cousins ate with us almost every evening. From time to time others joined in, such as Emily and to my great regret Claus as well. I couldn't stand him. He was wrong and deceitful, only my father had always been too blind to see it. After we had eaten, I felt an incredible heat inside of me, which worried me very much, because vampires never got hot. Despite everything, I got involved in a game of chess with my brother. Tim was just starting to checkmate when my head started booming and I noticed things that seemed impossible. My senses, it seemed to me at least, had suddenly been sharpened many times over. My head was still grumbling violently, I heard the flies crawling on the walls in the kitchen and could that be possible? Yes, I even heard the very clear snoring of my dragon in his cave.

"Check and mate, sister, you've lost“, Tim looked up and became perplexed at my sight, "Um, tell me, are you all right? You look strange.“

To cover up the situation would take more questions off my shoulders, at least until I knew what was happening here.

"I think I caught something at dinner that wasn't so fresh. If you'll excuse me, I'll go to bed.“

Sven had also noticed that something was wrong. He stared at me with Argus‘s eyes. He stopped me at the stairs in the great lobby.

"Lis, are you all right?"

"I don't feel so good, I'm going to get some sleep, hopefully tomorrow morning everything will be better.“

"I may be wrong, but there was a great heat coming out of you. I’m surprised that nobody else has noticed it. Maybe you should contact Emily sometime.“

"Maybe. Good night.“

I turned my back on him and walked straight into my room. The night was hell. After hours of turning back and forth, I finally fell asleep. I was dreaming of confusing things and I felt so hot, like I was in a fever. But I knew it couldn't be. We vampires never got sick. In my dream the moon suddenly appeared in its full splendour. A full moon. The balcony door was wide open, had I left it open? But it didn't seem like a dream to me anymore. No, I opened my eyes. The moon shone in on my window and lured me with its cold hand. Am I crazy? That wasn't the body I was stuck in anymore. It was covered all over with brownish fur. Since the balcony door was already open, I jumped out of the ledge into the deep black night. Hopefully nobody had seen me, in the village never all slept at the same time. There was always a certain hustle and bustle. Where would I go? All I could think of was the forest. As inconspicuously as possible I sneaked there. When I arrived at the clearing, I accelerated my pace, the woods just passed me by, but I still saw everything clearly and unambiguously. In a fraction of a moment, I had reached the forest lake, four miles from my home. The moon shone brightly over my head, in the reflection of the water I saw another figure. Could it be? Or was that a dream? No, I'd never dreamed so real. I had felt the heat inside of me, had noticed how my body was changing and now I saw something. A werewolf whose fur wore the same colour as my hair, that of the ebony; even my eye colour didn’t seem to have changed, it remained sapphire blue. To make sure it was really me, I bit myself in my own paw. Ouch! That hurt, and I still didn't wake up. That was actually me, wrapped up in a body still alien to me. A lot to start with, I had to digest that first. How could that be? Was there possibly a spell behind it? Further away I could hear a noise, a grunt. It was a boar. His strong smell penetrated deep into my nostrils. Immediately my hunting instinct came up and I hurried to the sow. I hid behind a stone. It was a wild boar big enough to impale a human. But no match for me. I stalked myself, made a huge jump, grabbed it with my claws and bit it in its throat. It died instantly and I ate most of it. Then I howled once strongly up, straightened my snout thereby towards the moon. For a while I still walked around in the wolf costume, this body wasn‘t so bad at all, I will get used to it quickly. The dawn was indescribably beautiful. With the rising sun, I turned back into a vampire. I wasn't far from the castle, if I hurried, I could still get to breakfast in time without anyone noticing. Past the horse stables, through the garden and finally climbed up the house wall and I was back in my room. As if nothing had happened, I slept another two hours.

The kitchen bell took me out of my sleep and signalled that breakfast was ready. I was sitting at the table like I had been whacked. My metamorphosis had demanded a lot from me physically. I couldn't stop thinking about last night. I looked over to Tim, looked at him closely to see if he had any signs of being a werewolf. But he only stuffed himself with a large slice of bread with fruit spread and drank warm milk with it. My father saw that my plate was still empty.

"But, child, don't you want to eat anything? You're always a brave woman when it comes to eating, aren't you?"

I was still full of the wild boar, but of course, I couldn‘t say that.

"Oh, you know, I should lose some weight. After all, I'm your daughter and I have to make a good match to get married.“

"Whatever you say.“

That's bullshit. Of course I didn't have to lose any weight and getting married was out of the question. But my little lie was enough, everyone continued to eat happily. My mother always took her tea after breakfast in the ladies‘ room. Today, for once, I joined her. Mother had always had an open ear for me and I urgently needed advice. The ladies' room was located in the basement, in the rear part of the castle. It was furnished according to mother's taste, playful, with comfortable armchairs, a large canapé, at whose feet a warm lambskin lay, and wine red velvet curtains on the windows. A fireplace provided the necessary warmth and a massive bookshelf provided good reading material. Since I had never accompanied my mother to her tea before, she had become particularly attentive and immediately turned her attention to me.

"My child, I‘m glad that you‘re here with me. But my gut tells me something's bothering you. Are you heartbroken?"

"No, Mother", I smiled slightly, "that's not it.“

How and if I should even tell her, that worried me. But why keep behind the bush when that's exactly why I was here? I loosened my tongue.

"You know I went to bed early last night. I couldn't sleep for ages, and then it happened.“

"What happened?"

„I, I … have turned into a werewolf.“

She was speechless. As strange as it seemed to me, it was for her.

"Please don't be angry about it, Mother.“

"Why should I be angry? I knew this day would come.“

"Come again?"

I couldn't believe my ears. Had she known all this time what was inside me? She took my hand and put it in her lap. That's what she used to do when she wanted to calm me down.

"Listen. You were born that way because I wanted you to be. I wanted to have a special child carrying the blood of all three tribes. Therefore, when I was with you in other circumstances, I always carried an enchanted moonstone with me, which caused you to be endowed with the powers of a werewolf. Your father, he knows nothing about it and he must never experience it either, you hear, nobody must experience it.“

"Why not?"

"Because he knew nothing of my plan, he could misunderstand it. And it's none of everyone else's business, not even of the witches. I don't know how they‘d react to it, when they’re always worried about the balance of nature. You have to promise me you won't tell anyone, you hear?"