A bath had been drawn for Hazel and the maids helped her undress and then bathe. The gown Hazel had chosen was brought out for her and hung next to the bed. The maids were all very excited about the party, almost as much as Hazel was.
They dressed her and fastened the mask on, entwining her hair with projecting pieces of it. Her hair was teased and curled, entwined with strings of jewels, predominantly rubies and pearls. Feathers were stuck in her hair so that at the end of their primping, Hazel looked more like an exotic beast wearing a dress than she did a woman.
A knock on the door interrupted Hazel’s contemplation of her reflection in a sheet of polished metal. A pageboy informed her that Lord Hardstaff was awaiting her presence in order to escort her to the ball. She followed the pageboy to the top of the stairs where Lord Hardstaff had his back to her. As he heard their footsteps, he turned. She heard him gasp as he caught his breath. Hazel felt herself blush under her mask. Oscar offered his arm and led her across the balcony to a set of doors. As the page opened both doors, Oscar went through first.
“Wait here whilst I announce you please, my dear,” he instructed. The pageboy closed the doors behind Oscar.
She could hear his muted but still distinct voice through the heavy doors: “My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen. May I announce a debutante in our midst; the newest member to grace our fold.” Oscar paused whilst the smattering of laughs died down. “I would like to introduce Hazel, the wife of our good friend Luke!”
The doors were once more opened by the pageboy and Oscar beckoned Hazel forward. As she stepped to the top of another set of stairs, she saw a crowd of animal masks looking up at her. Hazel had not imagined what to expect so she stood waiting, next to Oscar.
“I am not expected to make a speech am I, my Lord?” she stammered.
Oscar looked at her for a long moment, studying her eyes through her mask. “Oh good gracious, my dear, no, no, you are not expected to make a speech, your presence is all that is required,” Oscar chuckled. “Luke! Come and escort your lady in the first dance.”
She saw someone striding up the stairs and assumed that it was her husband. He took her right hand and bent forward to kiss it. Then he led her down onto the dance floor. Everyone moved out of their path as he escorted her to the centre of the room. There was no music however. She gazed up at Luke and saw that he was not looking at her as she expected, but his attention was focused upwards on one of the highest windows that lined the ballroom. Curious, she also looked up. The moon was just rising above the sill.
The atmosphere in the ballroom was charged with tension. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath, paused and waiting. Hazel did not realise that it was her whom they were waiting for.
Luke gently positioned her in the centre of the floor, then, instead of leading her in a dance, he left her on her own and melted into the crowd. The eyes behind each mask were focused on Hazel. Just then, the chandelier started to dim. The crowd started murmuring with barely controlled excitement.
Suddenly Hazel was aware of growling and snarling. She wondered if there were real animals here in the elegant ballroom; surely not. It took a while to realise that the snarls and growls were coming from her throat.
She felt her skin begin to tingle; the sensation started at her left hand, spreading quickly up her arm, across her chest and down the other arm as well as radiating through her whole body. The sensation was quite pleasant to begin with, but quickly became more intense and very soon was unbearably painful.
She was confused. She rubbed her arms, trying to alleviate the tingling, burning sensation as she looked for Luke. She could not recognise anyone under these masks. She turned around and around, trying to find someone that she could distinguish or at least someone who would help her.
Her gown was becoming constrictive, she clawed at it and it tore right down the bodice. She shook herself and the ruins of the dress fell away from her. The mask was pulled off. Hazel could not think straight. Why were all these people surrounding her, crowding round? They were making her angry and defensive.
Hazel snapped at hands and faces that were too close. She was a full Wolf now, on all fours.
The people surrounding her were laughing and taunting her. She did not - could not - understand. She dearly wanted to be outside so she made a break for the glass doors. Unfortunately for Hazel, many hands restrained her. Ropes were put around her neck and were pulled from different directions and so she felt herself trapped, held secure. Still she snapped at anyone that got too close.
After what seemed an age of frenetic fury, Hazel appeared to calm down a little. She allowed the crowd to get closer to where she had lain down. One of the young men who had been taunting her from the start got a little close and, quicker than he could react, she snapped at him without warning. She didn’t go for his hand or face, something that could be pulled away quickly and on instinct, but she went in low and hard, biting almost clean through his calf muscle.
With a triumphant howl she yanked her head back and a piece of flesh came away in her teeth.
In an instant, she was face to face with another Wolf. He had changed in front of her eyes. Hazel’s hackles rose even more than they were already. She would not back down and despite the ropes that held her, she knew that she would fight with all the new fury that had been bestowed upon her.
“ROGER!” Oscar yelled, “Change back and have your wound tended to.”
The Wolf was suddenly a man again. Fury still flooded through Hazel’s new form. She could feel her raw strength flowing through her new body in waves. Yet still she could not escape. The men holding her were too powerful. Realising and coming to terms with this new experience, it was at this time, when she calmed herself and took control of her anger, that she realised she could rise up and balance on her back legs. When she had done this, Oscar approached her. She snarled a little, her upper lip curling away from her teeth.
“Hazel.” Oscar said in a quiet and gentle voice, yet still keeping a safe distance from her terrible jaws. “You now realise what you have become. You cannot realise all of the implications however, I doubt if the majority of the guests here realise that much either. You are a Werewolf, a legendary monster, although we prefer the term Wolf when we refer to ourselves. Yet you in particular are so much more than that. Your creation was foretold by a wise man many years ago. A Wolf fell in love with you unexpectedly. It took three nights in which to take you. You menstruated on the winter equinox and your first Wolfing is on All Hallow’s Eve. Well actually, that requires a little help so as to be fulfilled. Halloween is not until tomorrow, so in order to adhere to the prophecy, you must endure tonight without a kill; hence this masquerade ball. Unfortunately my dear, not making a kill, especially on your first Wolfing, will be excruciatingly painful for you. The hunger you are experiencing at the moment will become unbearable very quickly and you will be prepared to try anything in order to escape from us and make your kill. You will probably not have the strength to escape from all of us, but I have no doubt that a few, if not many of us, would be injured; which is why you are to be moved from here whilst we still have a semblance of control.
“We are going to take you down to the dungeons and secure you there. You will not regain human form until you have made that first kill, I’m afraid, so you must spend tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night as a Wolf. It grieves me to put you through this, Hazel, but for the sake of the pack in general and your husband in particular, it must be done this way. Take her downstairs.” Oscar waved the large group of masked figures towards a doorway under the stairs that Hazel had walked down only a little over two hours before.
Hazel snarled, growled, howled and barked as men and half-men dragged her out of the ballroom. She snapped at people if they got too close, biting more than one on her short journey. Bizarrely, when her teeth did connect with flesh, there were shouts almost of triumph that she had bitten one. The wound was worn almost as a badge of honour.
When they reached the dungeons, she was forced into a cell. One of her ropes was threaded through a ring on the far wall and passed back through the bars. The rope was pulled tight so that she was pulled right up against the wall, her face pressed painfully against it. When everyone was out of the cell, the rope was released and the Wolf that was, of late, Hazel, slammed herself full-force against the bars, trying to get to her captors.
After a short time, Luke came down to see her. She recognised him by his scent first and when he was close, he removed his mask. Hazel whined pitifully. He dare not put his hand to her; he had already seen that she could be sly.
Luke stayed with her for a few hours, but he left when Hazel’s hunger became too apparent and she started throwing herself at the bars again.
The next morning, Oscar accompanied Luke to visit. They brought a tray full of offal in order to try to assuage her painful hunger pangs. She was still beside herself with pain and fury but she did not refuse to eat the raw liver, kidneys and hearts they offered. The tray was pushed under the bars using a stick; they still would not chance getting too close. She demolished the trayful of meat in no time, but it was not enough. She redoubled her efforts to escape and Luke and Oscar left her alone again.
At around lunchtime, they brought another tray of offal for her, pushing the tray under the bars as before, but they left immediately. Luke could no longer bear to hear her whimpering and anguished howls.
Luke returned alone a few hours later. He sat in one of the other cells, talking to her, trying to calm her but to no avail. Hazel was almost insane with fury. Luke could see the pain and bewilderment in her eyes.
“You only have a few more hours, my love.” he whispered when he left her.
As the moon rose again, Oscar gathered his guests together. Still in the ballroom, he announced: “We are ready. We shall commence the hunt shortly.” He waited until the cheers and howls had died down then continued: “There will only be two of us to go and release her, the rest of you will have to watch for her exit from the dungeons. I advise extreme caution; I doubt she would be stopped from killing at least some if she encounters any of you on her way out. I also advise you to change before she is released; you stand a much better chance of keeping up with her and not being attacked yourselves that way.”
Oscar beckoned Victoria to join him. Luke changed to Wolf and made his way outside to where Hazel would emerge. Others changed too and followed him, leaving piles of clothing on the ballroom floor.
Lord and Lady Hardstaff went down to the dungeon via the house steps. Victoria waited whilst Oscar opened the door on the opposite wall to the one adjoining the house where they had just entered the dungeon. He could see tiny pairs of yellow lamps - Wolf eyes - burning in the darkness above him.
“Move back!” he advised them.
Then he turned back to the dungeon, passing the cell where Hazel was quite and curious, watching his every move.
“Are you ready, Victoria?” Oscar shouted.
At his question, Hazel became animated again. She understood that something was changing and her excitement was voiced in renewed snarls and howls.
Hazel’s howls were almost screams by the time Oscar was ready and she was throwing herself at the bars with no regard to her own safety or well-being. Her nose and muzzle were speckled with blood from hitting the bars so hard. Victoria was clearly shaken by Hazel’s fury but she nodded to Oscar that she was indeed ready.
Even though Oscar was a Wolf - and therefore extremely powerful - to be able to unlock the cell door, he had to have human hands and so left himself very vulnerable to Hazel’s desperation and raw power. It was also exceedingly dangerous due to the fact that Hazel would not know to control her power, or even how to control it yet.
Victoria was shaking, her instincts were screaming at her to change to Wolf, but Oscar had asked her to help, so she too had to stay human for now.
Hazel realised something different was happening, her ears pricked forward, she sniffed the air, she could smell their fear. A low growl started in her throat. She crouched in the middle of the floor, ready for attack. A line of fur along her spine stood on end. She was ready, even if they weren’t.
Oscar unlocked the cell door but left it closed for the moment. Victoria opened the door on the opposite side of the corridor and pulled that towards her. When Hazel’s door was opened, the two doors if pulled together would make a sturdy enough barrier to encourage Hazel to go in the other direction, to the outside, thus keeping Oscar and Victoria in relative safety.
Hazel would wait no longer however. She sprang at the unlocked cell door and hit it with such a force that the door burst open, trapping Oscar between the two cell doors.
His left arm snapped as the heavy metal door smashed it into the other door. Hazel raked his left leg with her teeth as she passed him. Oscar roared in pain, Victoria screamed and dragged him backwards, behind the doors in order to shield him from Hazel. After another attempt at mauling Oscar, Hazel gave up and with extreme caution made her way to the three steps leading up to the outside door.
All images from Pixabay
