Archive of Our Own

On Christmas day Montague Finch killed his whole family. He didn’t mean to – though from the whispers and panicked glances from others in his block of flats you’d think he did.

Monty was stood there, his Grandma’s cold, bony hand on his shoulder as she spoke to the police officers and Monty tried not to look at the paramedics that carted his dead family away on stretchers one at a time. They were each covered with a sheet but Monty could tell who was who. He knew. He just knew. His Mum went past first, then his Auntie Jemima, then his Dad, then Toby and Meg and Alice and Dan…

Monty looked away, buried his head against his Grandma’s hip and tried to block out the scent of blood by breathing in her perfume. It only made him feel sick. He couldn’t believe he’d done this, had killed them all. He remembered too much; didn’t remember it at all. Monty knew he recognized his family when he killed them but they smelt like meat, felt like meat, tasted like meat when he tore into them. The regret didn’t really sink in until the wolf licked its lips and settled down – deep down – inside of Monty where it slept until Monty called upon it or it hungered again.

Without the wolf Monty was all alone, he was the reason for it and didn’t deserve to cry for the blood that he’d spilled with his own hands. He had no right to sadness. His Grandma did and she’d cried for days on end after the wolf had come. She told him that she knew, had always known that the curse would befall one of her grandsons but didn’t play close enough attention to realise Monty was already victim to it. She blamed herself. She was always waiting for Monty when he’d come back in from Manchester Forest after a transformation, she’d wipe him down, gently sponge off the dirt and blood with a damp flannel until Monty had stopped shaking. She stroked over his head and sent him to bed with a glass of warm milk and cinnamon to rinse the taste of meat and blood from his mouth. It always did the trick. It hid the flavour of death well enough but did little to stop the nightmares Monty relived every time he closed his eyes.

On Christmas day, Montague Finch killed his entire family. He decided on that first day at St. Churnley’s that he wouldn’t kill his friends too.

Monty rushed down the main corridor of the St. Chusrnley’s East Wing. The school was a big, sprawling thing but no great feat for Monty, who was more than used to the tall wispy trees of Manchester Forest. He’d managed to find his way home even after shifting back into his human from, when the snow had fallen thick and fast and covered up his tracks. This school wasn’t as hard to handle as that. It was still bloody frustrating at times though. He’d got his bearings with the main corridors after a week of lessons. A week. 5 days. They’d had the weekend and Monty had been antsy at the thought of lessons again on Monday. 2 days. That was all he had before the wolf would come back.

Roland, Edgar and Kevin had gone on ahead, didn’t want to risk being late to Mr. Kelly’s class after lunch but Monty was sure he’d taken the right route and still couldn’t find them.

He rounded another corner, felt a growl rise in his throat.

Where are they? Where are they? Where are they?

“-Well I heard that he stretches, you know, like Big Ben.” Monty perked up upon hearing Roland’s voice. He’d found them. They were around the corner they were- they were talking about him…

Monty stilled, swallowed thickly and stopped in place. He shuffled a little toward the stone wall on his right and pressed his back to it. He could feel the cold even through his uniform but that didn’t matter, not when his heart was pounding in his chest like a drum.

“But he says he killed his family a lot.” Monty heard Edgar’s voice next. “I’m starting to think that he may not actually be joking.”

“No, he is.” Kevin piped up, emphasised that last word in a way that had Monty’s shoulders sagging with relief. Kevin was lying to protect him. Monty had never had a friend he could trust with his secret before. Somewhere deep down Monty felt the wolf wag its tail. “He’s joking. Monty’s got a dry sense of humour is all. It’s a Northern thing, you just don’t get it.”

There was a silence that followed and Monty poked his head around the corner of the stone wall. Edgar, Roland, Kevin and Brandon were huddled together talking quietly. Kevin tugged at the collar of his white polo shirt, looked about nervously. He caught Monty’s eye and froze. A beat of silence passed between them, then Kevin’s eyes hardened and he nodded curtly to Monty and looked back at the group.

“If you really want to know what Monty’s curse is, just ask him.” Kevin shrugged. “It feels a bit rude to talk about him behind his back like this.”

“No, no!” Brandon shook his head, held all three of his hands up in surrender. “I didn’t mean it like that! I’m just… I was curious is all. He seems so normal it’s weird.”

Monty had never been accused of being normal in his life.

Poe cawed from where he was perched on Edgar’s shoulder and swooped for Monty’s head. The other’s looked over in time to see Monty yelp, flail about to stop Poe’s talons from scratching up his face.

“Poe what are you doing?” Edgar dashed towards them, waved Poe away from Monty and beckoned him over towards the rest of the group. “Sorry about that. He- he’s behaving better but still insists on getting into trouble sometimes.”

“It’s okay.” Monty swallowed, looked between the four of them. “What are you all talking about?”

Brandon opened his mouth, shut it again, scrambled to find the words. “Class. We’re meant to have Mr. Kelly next, aren’t we?”

The others nodded, muttered some kind of affirmative but had trouble looking Monty in the eyes.

Roland cleared his throat. “I guess we’d better start making our way there, right boys?”

Edgar and Brandon stammered out an agreement and the whole group started moving down the corridor. Monty made an effort to lag behind, walk aside Kevin.

Kevin kept his eyes facing forward but he inclined his head towards Monty, tilted his chin up to talk quietly into his ear. “I didn’t tell them anything.”

“I know.” Monty paused, felt like he was missing something. “Thank you.”

Kevin shrugged but seemed to preen – just a little – under the gratitude. “It’s alright.”

“It’s coming.”

Kevin frowned. “What’s coming?”

“The wolf.  Two days – that’s all I have.”

“Alright,” Kevin breathed. “Shit, okay, um, what do you need?”

Monty blinked. Nobody had ever asked him that before. “Nothing, really, I’ll be fine.”

“Do you have your stretchy pants?”

“Yes.”

“What about timing? Do you know when the wolf will come out?”

“It’s usually the night but not always – at Christmas the wolf came out at the table. I don’t know why… maybe it was the smell of the turkey? Maybe it was hungry?”

“The wolf came out on Christmas day?” Kevin’s face was ashen. He looked stricken and Monty hung his head to avoid looking at him.

“Yeah…”

Monty felt Kevin’s arm across his back, a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry mate. Really, really sorry.”

Monty shrugged him off. He didn’t deserve Kevin’s pity, not when Monty was the one to kill his own family. He didn’t have the right to mourn. Monty shook his head, swallowed around the lump that had formed in his throat, forced it back down again.

Kevin pulled his hand away, stuffed them both into the pockets of his blazer.

“What are you going to do?” Kevin said at last. “When you transform, I mean.”

Monty didn’t half agonise over that question. It had been the most pressing thing on his mind since he’d first set foot in St. Churnley’s and there had only been one solution so far, even if it wasn’t ideal.

“Go into the plagueround. There’s plenty to hunt there.”

Kevin whipped his head around to stare at him, all wide-eyed and pale. “Sure there is but I don’t want you to be killed.”

“Oh.”

“Maybe I could go with you to help and stuff.” Kevin wrung his hands, looked at the floor. “I know I’m not all that strong but I can help you, my farts – my magic – it’s able to heal, to assist you-“

“No.” Monty shook his head. “You need to stay inside. All of you need to stay inside. If you’re out there I’ll kill you too.”

“If that’s what you want…”

“It is.” Monty said sharply, more than he’d meant to. “I’ll be fine as long as you’re all away from me.”

They walked in silence for almost a minute. Kevin kept sneaking glances at Monty out of the corner of his eye, seemed to be working up the nerve to ask something.

“You really think you’ll kill us, don’t you?”

“I know I will.”

Kevin pursed his lips, nodded. “We aren’t defenceless. We can help you but if you insist on doing this on your own-“

“I do.”

“Alright then.” Kevin sighed. “If it’s what you want, I’ll help as much as I can.”

Monty glanced about, made sure none of the others had taken notice of them. “Thank you. I… I’ve never had someone that’s helped me before. Well, I’ve had my Grandma but I’ve never had a friend that’s helped me.”

“Yeah, well it feels like the least I can do really.”

Monty turned to look at him, managed a shaky smile, which Kevin returned with just as much uncertainty. They were on the same page, or as close as they could get to it. Monty breathed, felt his shoulders sag and the panic in his mind slow just a little. He didn’t think he’d ever feel comfortable with anyone knowing about his curse but he felt safe with Kevin, felt safe in Kevin’s assurance that Monty wouldn’t actually hurt anyone.

That Monty wasn’t going to kill anyone he cared about this time. He wasn’t a monster; he was a little boy. He’d prove them all wrong – he’d washed the blood from his hands and this time it would take – Montague Finch wouldn’t kill anyone else.

~*~

Roland didn’t pick favourites. He couldn’t even if he wanted to. He loved all of his friends equally but it seemed like Kevin and Monty could. Over the course of the day they’d stuck together like glue. He wasn’t jealous, exactly, but he was suspicious. Something was wrong, Roland could figure that out from the furtive glances the pair of them would share – something conspiratory and nervous.

They’re plotting something, Roland, something sinister…

Roland swallowed, chose his words very carefully. “T- they wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. Monty and Kevin are nice boys.”

They are going to unleash something evil upon the world. They are scheming, secretive, because they know you have the righteous power to stop them. Look at the way they talk and turn their heads away from you. They care not for your feelings, dear Roland, they care not for the safety of others that surround them, either. That is why you need to shepherd them to salvation, or if that fails: scare them into submission.

Roland couldn’t believe that Monty or Kevin would set out to hurt anybody. Monty was quietly clingy to their little group from the first day and Kevin looked out for everyone before he looked out for himself. There was no way either one of them would do the other students intentional harm but maybe accidentally…

Roland swallowed thickly, he sat down on the common room sofa beside Kevin and tried not to take too much offence when his friend stiffened, looked at Monty nervously.

“Sorry to interrupt chums but I just wanted to check… I mean, I noticed that you both seem a little on edge these last couple of days. Is there anything troubling you? Is it Morty again? Did he hit you?”

“No,” Monty shook his head but wouldn’t look at Roland. “It’s nothing. I’m fine.”

Roland swallowed, looked down at his lap then back up again. Monty wouldn’t look at him. Neither would Kevin for that matter. “I’m sorry to push you, old chap, but you don’t look like you’re doing well there. If there’s anything I can-“

“We’re fine, Roland,” Kevin said firmly and Roland couldn’t help the way he jumped a little. He wasn’t used to anyone taking that tone with him, especially not his friends. Even when Kevin wasn’t kind he was never mean. The boy had ducked his head, seemed to regret the words as soon as he’d said them.

“Look, I’m sorry, alright? I- I just, we’re fine. Everything is under control.”

“What’s under control?”

Neither Kevin or Monty spoke up and Roland was just about to get up when Monty beat him to it.

“I’m going to bed. I’m tired.”

Roland tilted his head. “We haven’t done much today. I don’t see how English and Maths has tired you out this much.”

“I…” Monty bit his lip, seemed troubled. “I haven’t been sleeping well. I need an early night.”

“Do you need anything?” Kevin asked quickly, his head tilted up to look up at Monty. Neither one of them blinked and something intense and unknowable to Roland passed between them. It was the first time that day he’d felt deliberately left out.

Monty shook his head. “No.” Then, the boy turned and walked into the dormitory he shared with Edgar without any further explanation. The sound of that door clicking shut seemed loud even against the chatter from the other boys playing board games.

Kevin wasn’t placated even after Monty left. He didn’t look at Roland, just kept worrying his lower lip between his teeth and looking to Monty’s door nervously.

Roland fiddled with the cuffs of his blazer, tried to tug them down over his hands. He stared at his lap as he spoke.

“Look, um, Kevin, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry if I’ve done anything to upset you or Monty. I care about you both a lot as friends and just wanted to say, really, that if I’ve done anything to make you feel like you can’t ask me for help then I apologise.”

When Roland glanced up again, he noticed that Kevin was looking at him, had turned his whole body so that he was facing Roland, his brows drawn together. It had only taken Roland a little under a week to figure out that Kevin Creeley wore a scowl almost by default but especially when he was concerned and he was always at least a bit worried on behalf of someone else. If Roland didn’t know Kevin as well as he did by now he’d have worried that he’d offended him. There was a fine but prominent line between Kevin being angry towards someone or on behalf of someone else, though, and the boy swallowed thickly, looked a little guilty.

“It’s not you. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped at you. Monty’s just having a difficult time right now and I don’t know how to help him.”

“Is there anything I can do? Is he worried about his curse?”

Kevin shifted, glanced nervously towards the door again. “I think he’s just missing his Grandma and feeling a bit homesick.”

“Oh well I should talk to him then! I know I’ve tried to be very brave about starting at St. Churnley’s but I miss my family a lot.”

“I know,” Kevin said absently. “I can hear you crying at night.”

Roland felt winded. His heart clenched in his chest and when he blinked his eyes were glassy, stung just a little. “O- oh. I didn’t realise I was disturbing you.”

“You weren’t. I just didn’t know what to do and I didn’t want to get up and embarrass you but I don’t think I’ve ever really been homesick. I haven’t missed my parents since being here, I mean I’m upset they’re going to Disneyworld without me but I don’t miss them and I don’t think I’d be sad if I never went back to Bristol.”

“I’m sorry, Kevin.”

“Why are you sorry? You’re the one that’s upset, not me.”

“I know but I feel rather lucky to have such a wonderful family that makes leaving them so hard.” Roland brought a hand up, pressed a hand to his chest to feel where his sunburst amulet hung heavy around his chest, felt its bulbus metal face through his thin polo shirt. He smiled, felt a little closer to them even all these miles away. They were all standing under the same glorious light of the sun – well, they would be when it rose in the morning – but still the sentiment was the same.

“They’re fine.” Kevin shrugged but something uneasy passed across his face. “They’re not bad or anything.”

“Of course not,” Roland said carefully, gently. He’d worried that his words cut deeper than he’d meant to and the last thing he wanted was to upset Kevin even more. Roland stood up, patted Kevin on the shoulder as he moved. “I should talk to Monty.”

“You should. But not tonight.”

“Why not tonight?”

“He needs to sleep.” Roland frowned, glanced at the clock on the wall. 8:00 pm. He was about to protest when Kevin spoke up again. “Please, just let him sleep tonight, he’ll really appreciate you talking to him tomorrow.”

Roland looked at Kevin, saw something more than a bit desperate in his eyes. This wasn’t just about Monty needing rest. Roland remembered what his Lord had said to him, knew not to ignore His guidance with such callous disregard. Roland heaved a deep breath that rattled his lungs, made him feel a little lightheaded. He trusted them. Maybe against Roland’s better judgement but he did. “Alright. I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”

~*~

Edgar squeezed his eyes shut, pulled the duvet up to his chin and tried to get some sleep. Edgar had let Poe out some time ago and was trying to make the most of the peace and quiet while he had it, but Monty was thrashing about in his bed. He had kicked the covers off with a huff, stared at the ceiling, then at Edgar, then the ceiling again.

Just as Edgar pulled the duvet to his chin, let himself relax, he heard Poe tap, tap, tapping at the window. He sighed, covered his head with the pillow but the noise didn’t stop.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap-

Poe had never been that insistent before. He jabbed his beak at the pane of glass so hard Edgar was worried he’s smash it. He sat up with a sigh, threw Monty an apologetic glance over his shoulder but Monty had burrowed under the covers again, curled up in a little ball. Edgar should really go check on him, but first: Poe.

As soon as he got the window open Poe attacked Edgar’s face, screeching and flapping about, scratched the skin of his cheeks with those little talons.

“Ack! Poe! Stop it, please!”

The crow hopped from Edgar’s grasp to the window, tapped on the glass again.

“Nevermore!”

Edgar tilted his head, brought a hand up to soothe his cheeks, felt blood smeared there when he brought his hand away. He blinked, tried to decipher what exactly it was Poe was demanding of him this time.

“Do you want me to follow you? You know it’s against the rules to go out at night.”

Poe hopped in place tapped the glass again and didn’t stop.

“What do you want from me? It’s not like I can fit out of there anyway, I’m not as small as you.” Edgar scooped Poe up in both his hands. “Here, you can make a nest on my bed, if you want but you need to be quiet, Monty is trying to sleep.”

Edgar turned around to look at his roommate, found Monty curled up in the far corner of the room. His back was rounded, head tucked between his shoulders but turned to stare at Edgar. Monty eyes looked bigger in the dark, two little discs that caught the light of the moon, seemed to throw it back at him. More animal than human.

Edgar’s heart thumped in his chest. Poe wiggled out of his grasp, sat on Edgar’s head and cawed again and again.

“M- Monty? Are you alright?”

Edgar took a very cautious step closer but stilled as Monty tilted his head up, sniffed as though to scent the air and licked his lips. He turned to Edgar and uncurled, placed a human hand on the floor but the bones up his arm broke and moved about under his skin. Monty threw his head back to wail.

“Monty!”

Edgar staggered back, shuffled away on the floor as Monty’s other limbs snaped and readjusted. Fur sprouted from his skin as Monty breathed deeply but quickly, he scratched at it but his right hand was unrecognisable, had long curved claws pierced through the skin of his fingertips. Monty itched his shoulder where fur had broken skin, only succeeded in drawing blood and tearing clean through his nightshirt.

Monty’s ears stretched, became fine points and he fell forward to rub that spot on his head against the cold flagstones. He panted, looked up at Edgar for a moment as realisation flashed across his eyes.

“Ed- gr?” Monty opened and shut his mouth but his jaw didn’t sit right anymore. The boy whipped his head up to look at Edgar with a horrified desperation. “R’n! R- rrrrr-“

Monty’s face contorted, stretched his mouth until it formed a muzzle, broke the skin there where it couldn’t fit properly as Monty cried, sobbed with his whole body as he transformed. His human teeth pushed themselves out of his mouth as new lupine ones grew in place and left Monty’s mouth a mess of blood and saliva and pearly whites. He heaved and they splattered in a mess on the floor. Monty’s longue lolled out of his mouth and he looked up at Edgar again.

Edgar was staring back at a hulking, bloodied werewolf. Monty’s curse.

He wasn’t joking. He’d done it, he’d killed his whole family. In that moment, looking at the wolf that had replaced his friend, Edgar couldn’t believe he’d doubted him. Something inside him ached, he couldn’t believe Monty had to live with this. This wasn’t musical farts, or a voice in his head, or a crow that was meant to be a raven-

“Y- you did well, Monty. That wasn’t, ah, easy, was it? You- you’re hurt?”

Edgar gathered his nerve, extended a shaking hand towards the wolf. The tips of his fingers were still slightly bloodied from his own injuries which all seemed rather trivial after what Monty had been through.

The wolf scented the air and growled at Edgar. The blood in his veins ran as cold as ice.

The wolf set one clawed paw in front of the other, head lowered and ears pricked. Staking his prey. He was- Monty was-

The wolf leaped for him and Edgar felt his heart lurch in his chest as he tried to dive out of the way.

~*~

Kevin woke to the sound of a bloodcurdling scream. He bolted upright, turned to see Roland awake, a hand splayed across his chest and eyes wide looking just terrified as he glanced about in the darkness of their shared room.

“What the hell was that?”

Kevin leapt out of bed. He already knew.

He wrenched the door to their dormitory open and ran out into the common room, didn’t feel the cold stones beneath his bare feet. He was sweating, heart racing and blood rushing as he made it to Edgar and Monty’s room. Kevin knew Roland was behind him without even needing to look.

“What is it? What’s-“ Roland cut himself off as Kevin turned to him, pressed a finger to his lips.

He could hear snarling behind that heavy wooden door accompanied by the sound of distressed squawking. There was the sound of clattering, crying and then finally, after a few agonising seconds, the door swung open.

Edgar stood before them, shaking and pale and drenched in blood, holding his bird in one hand and a key in the other.

“Close it!” He hissed, pressed the key to Kevin’s hand as he staggered forward, collapsed into Roland’s arms, staining his Sunset Dawn pyjamas red.

Kevin nodded, opened his mouth to speak but the words died on his lips. He stared into the room, saw Monty looking back at them. His claws were tipped with red and he licked blood off of his muzzle. He turned upon seeing Roland and made a lumbering step towards him.

“Ffffff-“

Kevin saw the distress in his eyes, made macabre by the little spark of excitement in there. He was trying to say something but it came out like a growl. The wolf’s muzzle wasn’t made for forming words, it was made to kill and eat.

“Kevin!” He heard Roland yell from over his shoulder but didn’t dare turn his head away from the wolf in front of him. “Is Monty still in there?”

Kevin swallowed, heard Monty whine, long and loud at the sound of his own name. The wolf rolled over, pushed itself up and tried to walk towards them on its hindlegs but couldn’t get the balance right and fell.

“That is Monty.”

Kevin rammed the door closed with his shoulder, fumbled with the key in his hand. It was slick with blood and slipped in his grasp until he managed to jam the end into the keyhole, wiggle it about until it clicked just in time for the wolf to slam against the wood, had it lurching in its frame as Monty howled behind it, distressed and upset and angry.

“What do you mean that’s Monty?”

When Kevin turned he saw the other boys starting to emerge from their respective rooms, looking about scared. Aaron and Malik made a break for the door, gestured frantically for Ben and Christopher to follow them and the four darted away.

“It’s his curse,” Kevin said at last.

Edgar whined and gasped around a pained breath. He was shaking, seemed to have trouble staying upright. Kevin saw Roland adjust his grip to cast cure wounds across Edgar’s chest. Roland’s hands glowed with that warm white light, lit both himself and Edgar up and Kevin could see them properly for the first time since waking up.

Edgar’s blue pyjamas were stained with his own blood, looked brown in large patches where it sank into the fabric. The only visible open wound was across his chest but from the look of it, Edgar had spent more than a little time scrambling across the floor to his escape.

Kevin swallowed around the lump in his throat, couldn’t imagine how scared he must have felt, the agony of having to evade the swinging claws of the wolf while holding his own wound shut in a desperate if feeble attempt to slow the bleeding.

The light beneath Roland’s hand subsided and Edgar’s eyelids fluttered before he sagged in his friend’s hold, unconscious.

“Shit.” Roland breathed, grunted under the weight of Edgar’s body. “He’s passed out. He needs Nurse Lenny.”

“Can you get him there?”

Roland nodded, frowned as the words sunk in. “What about you?”

“They’ll be sending for Sarge. I need to make sure she doesn’t get in.” Kevin’s voice wavered. “I can’t let her kill him.”

Roland’s face paled in a moment of horrified realisation. He nodded once, curt. “A- alright.

Kevin saw Roland heave one of Edgar’s arms over his shoulders, take careful but urgent steps out of the room, a trail of dark red blood left behind in their wake.

And just like that Kevin was left alone. He faced Monty’s door again, heard him yowling frantically. Monty’s voice was something awful, discordant and pitchy like the very act of forcing sound out hurt. Kevin heard a wrangled howl that sounded like a human scream. A beast trying to be human; a human trying to sound like an animal.

The scratching became more insistent, desperate, and the howls turned to whimpers, the closest thing to crying Monty could manage.

The door thumped again, strained against its hinges and Kevin flinched but didn’t back away. He should say something. He should-

“Kevin?” Brandon took a careful step into the common room. He had pulled a dressing gown over his pyjamas, walked on the balls of his feet as though he was scared to make any noise. The boy’s eyes were wide, afraid under the fingers that made up his fringe as he stared at Kevin. All of his hands were shaking, Kevin noticed. “What’s that sound? What’s wrong?”

“Everything’s fine.” Kevin tried to smile but it wavered on his lips, just wouldn’t take. “Get inside your room. Lock the door.”

Brandon’s attention shifted to the blood on the floor, a trail of little red puddles where it had been smeared against the flagstones by Roland and Edgar when they had set off for Nurse Lenny’s office. Brandon’s face paled and he glanced over his shoulder, said something to Terry quietly. Then, he looked back to Kevin.

“It’s Monty, isn’t it?”

Kevin swallowed. “It’s not his fault.”

“Do you want to come inside with me and Terry?”

Something big and sharp crashed against the wooden door of Monty’s dormitory and Kevin jumped back, worked up the nerve to shake his head even as he head the wood splinter, give under the weight of something big and sharp that carved into it from the other side.

“No, I need to stay here. I need to help-“

The common room door slammed open and Kevin spun around to see Sergeant Kerry Lewis, breathing deeply, a hand splayed against the door as her eyes swept over the room, took inventory. Her face was stern as she finally stepped inside.

“Where is he?” She said to Kevin.

“He didn’t mean it! It’s not his fault!”

Kevin stretched his arms out as far as he could, walked backwards until he pressed up against the wooden door of Monty and Edgar’s dormitory. The door thumped and Kevin lurched, felt it slam against his back but regained his footing quickly.

Sergeant Lewis’ eyes looked past Kevin to the door. They were a pale blue, had never seemed colder than they did in the moment.

“Get out of the way, Creeley.”

Kevin swallowed thickly, his voice wavered but he’d already made up his mind. “N- no.”

“It was not a request, it was an order. Move.”

“You’re going to hurt him.” Kevin shook his head. “I’m not going to let you hurt him, it isn’t fair that he’s getting punished when he literally can’t help it.”

“I know.”

Kevin blinked. There was sympathy there, buried deep under her layers of steely composure but Kevin saw it, that little fissure in her tough exterior.

“I know it’s not fair but that is the hand Monty was dealt and we’ve already got one boy unconscious in Nurse Lenny’s office from a wound that Monty has caused no matter how much he didn’t mean it. My job is to keep everyone here safe. It is to keep you from losing it and dealing with you if you do.”

“Then you need to keep Monty safe-“

Monty howled behind the door and Sergeant Lewis took a couple of steps closer, reached for the truncheon on her belt.

“How do you think Monty would feel if he hurt another one of you, hm? Do you think that’s what he wants?”

“Everyone else has left, I don’t mind if it’s me.” Kevin swallowed thickly. “I mean, I don’t want to get hurt, but I can hear how scared he is in there and I don’t want him to be on his own.”

Sergeant Lewis was quiet for a second. “If he goes near you, Monty will kill you. Nurse Lenny can’t fix you up then. You’ll be dead and Monty will have to live with that forever.”

Kevin choked. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head but could only see the wolf’s eyes in the darkness of his mind. He was scared. Terrified. Kevin had never known fear like this and even worse still: he didn’t know why exactly. He was scared for Monty – scared of Monty. It all blurred together. Every possible worst-case scenario ran through Kevin’s head until he was frozen in place and shaking. He didn’t know what to do. How to help his friends. The only real ones he’d ever had and now Kevin was going to lose them and he had no idea how to stop it all from happening-

Kevin didn’t see Sergeant Lewis move closer. Her footsteps were quick and quiet and Kevin only looked up in time to see her seize the front of his pyjamas. She threw him a look of pity – or apology, it was hard to tell in that beat of silence that passed between them – then she hauled Kevin out of the way and he fell to the side, rolled over in time to see her jam something into the keyhole of Monty’s door.

Kevin shouted, felt his voice jump up his throat but it was already too late. “Wait!”

~*~

Monty’s transformations had never felt like this. Before now, he was never present when the wolf came out. Monty slept when the wolf took over and he only came round again once it had raged and killed and eaten its fill but now…

It felt like he was dreaming. The world felt distant and hazy and loud in those pointed wolf ears. Monty whined, reached up to cover them but his movements were stilted, not really his own. He closed his eyes and tried to breathe but even that felt wrong. His nose wasn’t where it should be. His lungs weren’t either. Monty’s legs were longer than he ever remembered them being and bent in all the wrong places. Every time he took a staggering step his claws dragged across the ground, forced him back onto all fours like an animal.

Monty wasn’t sure why this time was different. He was scared, didn’t feel in control and wanted his body back. He didn’t want to be this thing. He didn’t know how to make it stop. Maybe he had to be a wolf forever now. Maybe Monty was trapped in this body in this tiny room in the dark. Doomed to be on his own because he would only kill the brave fools who decided to stick around.

And he couldn’t help it. He was hungry. He was so, so hungry…

Monty licked his lips, tasted blood. He could smell blood.

He felt himself being pulled under again. Moments of lucidity were brief, felt like sticking his head above water in a raging sea. It was only a matter of time before the wolf pushed Monty out of the way and he couldn’t tell which was worse. He didn’t want to be awake for this but he had to fight it before the wolf did something Monty would have to live with.

He needed to resist. He needed to refuse to be dragged away to the back of his mind again. He needed… meat.

Monty growled in frustration. It sounded worryingly animalistic even in his own ears.

The wolf needed to hunt. To eat. It would go away when it ate something. Then Monty could come back and-

Wait.

No…

Monty ran his long tongue over his teeth, found blood between them. He stuck his tongue out to lick over his own muzzle and hated how good that metallic coppery fluid tasted. Without even realising that the wolf was pulling him out of the way, Monty pressed his wet nose to the floor, sniffed along the flagstones, followed that scent to a little pool on the floor. He lapped at it, felt the wolf stirring inside – wild and pleased – but weaking ever so slightly as it drank.

That had to be it. Monty had eaten something. Not enough to satiate the beast inside but he’d got enough of a taste to partially wake Monty from inside.

There was another scent there, beneath the blood, something familiar that pulled Monty back into control for a moment and he flicked his eyes up, released he was crouched down near Edgar’s bed.

Edgar.

He’d hurt Edgar. He was licking up Edgar’s blood.

Monty felt sick. Forced himself up and staggered to the other side of the room. He couldn’t throw up but heaved anyway. He felt the wolf clawing at him from the inside. It demanded more. It demanded blood and meat but Monty couldn’t let it – he’d let the wolf starve even if that meant he did with it. Monty wasn’t going to kill his friends. He wasn’t an animal. He wasn’t.

Monty threw his head back, tried to scream but it came out like a howl.

There were voices nearby. Monty’s ears pricked at the sound and he lumbered to the door, heard Kevin on the other side and whined. He didn’t want to be on his own. He wanted his friends. He wanted to apologise. He was scared. Monty was sorry. He didn’t mean it. He didn’t want to stay locked up in here forever with the wolf and the darkness and the blood.

Monty raked his clawed hands down the wooden door, did it again and again as the desperation rose from inside of him. He was slipping again. The wolf was breathing down his neck and Monty only had precious few seconds before he’d be pulled back under. Out of control.

He wanted Kevin. He wanted Edgar. He wanted Roland. All Monty wanted was his friends. He let an earnest howl rip free from his throat. A anguished, animal thing. He wanted meat.

~*~

“Come on now, old boy, we’re nearly there.” Roland grunted under Edgar’s body. The boy was thin but his limbs were long and Roland had done his best to keep Edgar’s body upright as he carried him down the corridor.

He still had trouble mapping the school out, wished Edgar was awake to refer to the blueprints, or that Monty was around to point him in the right direction. Actually, it might be for the best that Monty wasn’t with them. Roland glanced down, saw the claw marks that had torn through Edgar’s pyjama top. Four long slashes running diagonally across his chest. They’d had been smoking when Edgar had first collapsed. Long thin whisps of smoke that were very fine, almost seemed to glitter a little in the moonlight. Roland didn’t know that that meant. He didn’t know if Edgar was poisoned or had been scorched or something worse.

Roland didn’t know what had just happened. Everything was fine and then it wasn’t. Was this the evil his Lord had warned him of?

Monty wasn’t evil. He wasn’t. But Roland knew what he saw and he saw an animal in that room. A great big wolf with a grey muzzle sained red with blood. He let loose a shuddering breath, had to adjust Edgar over his shoulder to stop his friend from slipping. It wouldn’t do any good worrying over what could have happened, not when Edgar needed help and Roland was in charge of getting him there.

Nurse Lenny would help and Edgar would wake up and maybe Roland would too and the whole night would be one bad dream.

Poe cawed weaky and Roland turned his attention to the crow, saw it shuffling in Edgar’s tussled hair. It was hard to see what state the bird was in but there was something slick amidst his feathers. One wing stuck out at an angle. Poe was quieter than Roland had ever heard him. Usually the crow didn’t stop flapping about or squawking and as much as Edgar hated it, Roland just knew he’d hate this more.

“Are you alright, Poe?” Roland turned his head to look up at the nest Poe had made of Edgar’s hair. The bird shifted, couldn’t seem to find his footing. “Here, let me help-“

Roland reached a hand up and Poe summoned what little strength he had left to peck Roland’s hand hard, had him pulling back with a yelp.

“Sorry! Sorry chap.” Roland sighed, saw Nurse Lenny’s office up ahead and walked ever so slightly faster. There was a very slight yellow glow from under the door and the warm light made him feel a little better.

Roland was getting tired now but he didn’t dare stop for even a minute. Edgar hadn’t stopped bleeding and Roland could heal minor injuries but this was far beyond his skillset. He didn’t know how long it took someone to bleed out but he didn’t want to find out. Edgar was cold but not dangerously so and when Roland pressed his ear to his friend’s chest he could still hear a heartbeat there. It was slow but it was there.

Roland didn’t knock, he slammed his weight into the door until it swung open, caused the hinges to squeak as it hit the wall with a bang.

The room was dim, lit with only one candle that had almost burnt down to its brass holder. Nurse Lenny had been asleep at his desk, violin abandoned just out of reach while his other hand still rested over his bow. He started awake at the sound, turned to see Roland dump Edgar onto the nearest bed, panting heavily.

Nurse Lenny blinked, rubbed his eyes as though he was still asleep.

“Please, Nurse Lenny, you need to help him!” Roland gestured to Edgar but Nurse Lenny’s eyes were on him, on the blood that coated his hands and stained his pyjamas.

“What happened here?” Nurse Lenny took a stilted step forward, seemed unsure whether he should approach Roland or Edgar or neither.

Roland swallowed, wasn’t sure how to answer that. He didn’t know what happened, had been trying to get his mind off of it.

“I- I don’t know.”

“Really?”

“Edgar knows but he- I- you’ve got to help him. Please.”

Nurse Lenny nodded, walked to Edgar’s bedside and gently lay his hands over the boy’s chest.

Roland took the moment to scoop Poe up. The bird had slid from Edgar’s head when Roland set him down and just lay there on his side, unable to get up again.

“Hello there, chap.” Roland said quietly, gently. “Nurse Lenny is going to heal Edgar, you don’t need to worry.”

Poe cawed, jabbed Roland’s palm again but it was weak and Roland didn’t waste any more time, focused on Poe and felt the warmth of his Lord flow through him, light his hands up and heal the bird he held in them.

Roland felt Poe take off as soon as his wing had righted itself. A little bundle of black feathers and hollow bones and air. He landed on the thin mattress and hopped up the bed until he was able to fly up onto Edgar’s thigh and call to him over and over again in shrill squawks.

For the first time that night, Roland heard that voice in his head. It was quieter than usual, little more than a hiss in his own head.

Like I said, Roland, something sinister…

~*~

Edgar jolted awake with a surge of energy, saw Roland opposite him, biting the nails of his left hand while the right clutched his sun-shaped pendant so tight it left pointed impressions in the skin of his palm. He held on to it as though that alone could save him.

Edgar heard Nurse Lenny behind him, retching, coughing up lumps of coal. Edgar turned, saw a plastic dish with 6 lumps of coal as big as Edgar’s fist sitting inside. Nurse Lenny had snatched a water bottle from his desk and was swallowing mouthful after mouthful of water until he was panting.

“Some trouble you got yourself in, huh?” Nurse Lenny looked Edgar up and down wearily and Edgar followed his gaze, saw the tears in his pyjama top. Memories of the night hit him, left him winded. Nurse Lenny winced, took another gulp of water and rubbed his throat. “That didn’t half hurt…”

Edgar snapped his head towards Roland. The motion made him feel ill. “Where’s Monty?”

Roland shuddered, let go of his pendant at last. “In your room, trying to tear the door to ribbons.”

“We need to help him.”

Edgar made to push himself up off of the bed. His body felt healed but he was exhausted, dizzy and nauseous and his hands were shaking inexplicably. They were clammy when Edgar brought them up to inspect them more closely. Poe took that opportunity to flap his wings, glide into Edgar’s cupped hands and settle there.

“Poe?” Edgar swallowed thickly. Poe was acing strange. Affectionate. Edgar couldn’t place why until he remembered what had happed in that room. Monty swiping for him and Poe flying in front of those claws, how his tiny body had been launched across the room, hit the wall, and lay in a heap of feathers and blood. “You’re alright!” Edgar swallowed thickly, felt choked. “Thank god you’re okay… I was so worried…”

Poe cawed, pecked at Edgar’s hand, pinched his skin in in his beak lightly and Edgar laughed despite it all. He didn’t always understand Poe but he did in that moment, saw his own concern echoed back in Poe’s glassy black eye. Edgar raised Poe to his shoulder, set the bird down there and felt him step a little closer to the crook of his neck, dig those little talons into the fabric of his pyjama top.

Edgar tried to stand again and saw the world around him tilt. Nurse Lenny was at his side right away.

“Slow down there, alright?” Edgar felt Nurse Lenny’s hand on his shoulder. Gentle and heavy. Made him want to sink back down against the bed again. “You’ll be fine but you’re going to feel swimmy for a while until the magic subsides.”

Edgar shook his head, only managed to make himself more ill in the process and reached a clammy hand up to nurse the headache he could already feel forming.

“I need to go back. I-“

“You’re not going anywhere until you tell me what happened.” Nurse Lenny’s voice was hoarse and he rubbed absently at his throat. Edgar eyed the lumps of coal on his right, how big they were, the sharp and shiny edges.

“Monty attacked me.” Edgar swallowed. “He didn’t mean it though and now Sarge is going to kill him and I can’t let her.”

“Well if your friend had lost control, then you’d best let the teachers handle it. Sarge won’t kill anyone she doesn’t have to.”

Roland’s head snapped up, he looked at Nurse Lenny with eyes harder than Edgar had ever seen them. “But she has killed people?”

“Only when she’s needed to.”

Roland swallowed thicky, had to sit down.

Edgar fiddled with the blood-stained hem of his pyjama top and when he pulled his hands away, saw that his thumb was sained red.

“Do you have your hammer with you?”

Roland turned to him, brows pinched together. “No, it’s in my bag in my room.”

Edgar nodded. He didn’t have his swords or his bow either but that didn’t matter. If there was one thing they could agree on, even without needing to say it, it was that they couldn’t let Sarge kill Monty. Edgar would still fight with all he had no matter what and if all he had were his own two hands then he’d make do for Monty.

Edgar stood up again, brushed Nurse Lenny’s hand off of his arm when the man reached out to steady him.

“I’m going back,” Edgar said to Roland. The boy nodded in return but there was something nervous in his eyes.

“Me too.”

“No,” Nurse Lenny moved between them. “Nobody’s going anywhere until it’s safe, alright? I do not want to spend the rest of my night throwing up coal so you’re both going to stay here until it’s safe to leave.”

At that moment the door to the Nurse’s office swung open again and Kevin stood there, panting and sweating and bloodied.

From the corner of his eye, Edgar saw Nurse Lenny step closer but Kevin just shook his head. “It’s not mine. Not really” He heaved another large breath of air. “What I’m trying to say is that I’m fine.”

 Kevin looked to Edgar, seemed visibly relieved. His shoulders sank and hid body sagged and he leaned a little more on the doorframe.

“Thank god you’re not dead.”

Edgar smiled, amused despite it all. “Thank god you’re not dead either. What happened back there with Monty?”

Kevin shifted from foot to foot, didn’t seem to know where to look. “It’s his curse. Every 10 business days he turns into a wolf and needs to eat.”

Edgar saw Nurse Lenny step back with a sigh, run a hand over his face as he sank back down in the chair at his desk. He pulled open the drawer on his desk and began leafing through a stack of files.

Edgar swallowed, processed Roland’s words as Poe moved about, unsettled suddenly but unwilling to move from Edgar’s shoulder. “You know, I’m starting to think that maybe, just maybe, Monty wasn’t joking when he said that he’d killed his whole family.”

“No,” Roland cut in quickly. His face was pale and he was holding tight to his amulet again. “I don’t think that was a joke at all come to think of it.”

“Yeah, I do see that now.” Edgar felt his heart pick up, the realisation of how near he’d come to death hit him hard and fast, left him dizzy all over again. “It all feels a bit obvious in hindsight.”

Kevin shrugged, one hand still holding the door open. “Well that’s why I didn’t want to tell you.”

Edgar reeled on him, saw Roland turn with just as much indignation.

“Oh so you knew and you still let me sleep in the same room as him?” Edgar’s voice sounded loud in his own ears, shrill, even if he knew it didn’t to the others. Still, it was a harsher tone than Edgar had adopted before. He wasn’t used to confrontation, wasn’t used to talking back or speaking up or defending himself. But he could have died. Poe could have died. If the crow hadn’t been there, Edgar might have been killed in his sleep, not even given the chance to escape.

Kevin, to his credit, did seem apologetic. The boy ducked his head but his cropped ginger bowl cut did little to hide the guilt behind his eyes. He bit the inside of his cheek. “Well we’ve got to give everyone a chance.”

“What about giving me a chance?” Even shaking with fear and anger Edgar’s words came out as little more than a hushed bark. “He could have killed me!”

“But he didn’t-“

“No, I only got my chest ripped open instead which is so much better.” Edgar’s voice dripped with sarcasm as he gripped the thin sheets of the hospital bed. Poe squawked in his ear and Edgar somehow knew it was in approval.

Roland cut in suddenly, shook his head and looked at Kevin severely. “Did you even consider how this could have affected Monty? He’s already killed his family, think about how he’d react if he learned that he’d killed Edgar too.”

“Oh come on, you can’t blame me for things that didn’t even happen!” Kevin let go of the door to step inside, matched Roland’s glare with one of his own. “I thought Monty had it under control. He prepared. His biggest fear was hurting us – losing us. I’d have told you but what good would it have done, really? Can you honestly tell me that you wouldn’t have thought badly of him or treated him differently?”

Roland shuffled in place. He pursed his lips. “Well, Monty has killed people and murder is a sin, so-“

“That’s not fair, you can’t judge him as though he’s a part of your church! I knew you’d do this, that’s why I didn’t tell you when I found out…”

Roland seemed surprised, then embarrassed, then righteously angry again. He folded his arms. “I think murder being bad isn’t all that controversial.”

“But it wasn’t Monty that killed people, it was the beast.”

“That doesn’t explain why you didn’t tell me. A heads up about what I was getting into would have been nice.”

“I…” Kevin looked from Edgar to Poe. Worried his lower lip between his teeth. “Yeah, sorry, I should have said something, warned you at least. I promised Monty that I’d keep his secret and I swear I didn’t think it’d go this wrong, I thought he was going to go out onto the plagueround when he was about to turn.”

Edgar nodded, felt his anger subside. He was too tired to hold grudges, too worried about Monty as well and as much as he didn’t like how Kevin went about things, Edgar knew it came from a place of care. Loyalty as well. A stupid, stubborn commitment to his word and as irritated as Edgar was that it had nearly killed him, he respected Kevin for it nonetheless.

“Where is Monty now?” Edgar said at last.

“Sarge has him under the Control tower. She told me to stay away but-“

“We can’t.” Roland cut in. He looked to be struggling the most. He was weary and still covered in blood and grappling with something internally Edgar just knew he’d never be able to understand. His thoughts were always so refreshingly clear when they arrived in his head.

“Exactly.”

~*~

“Are you sure he’s down here?”

“Yes,” Kevin insisted with a groan. It was the third time Roland had asked and he was far too tired and anxious to afford his friend any more patience.

“But it’s just so dark down here and the walls are narrow and Monty – Monty’s huge when he’s a wolf.”

“Well he’s down here.”

Kevin held both of his arms out at his sides, palms flat against both the stone wall to his left and right as he descended down to the secure rooms below the Control tower, the others at his back. The steps of the spiral staircase weren’t level and he’d already stumbled twice. Roland had lit the palm of his right hand up and tried to hold it out as to light their way but the basement was dark, seemed to eat the light. Kevin didn’t know how long they’d been walking but it felt like too long.

It was quiet down here, Kevin noticed, almost painfully so. They were so far down that they couldn’t hear the howling wind or any signs of life beyond each other. There was the occasional dripping of water from somewhere nearby that Kevin had no hope of placing but there was no sound of Monty’s distressed howling echoing up the staircase to them either.

Kevin jolted upon hearing Poe caw suddenly. The sound echoed in the narrow stairwell, bounced off the walls and made Kevin’s ears hurt but he didn’t dare take his hands off the walls. Poe swooped past his head suddenly and Kevin heard himself shout, followed by the first 5 seconds of Echo & The Bunnymen’s The Killing Moon.

After a moment Edgar cleared his throat and Kevin craned his head to look back at his friend adjusting his glasses. “That feels a little on the nose, doesn’t it?”

“Oh for fuck’s sake- I can’t control it!” Kevin groaned. “It just comes out!”

“Do you have to know the song you’re farting? Or can it be anything?” Roland piped up.

“I haven’t heard a song I didn’t recognise but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Look, is this really that important right now?”

“I think it’s a valid question. I want to know the answer as well.” Edgar’s voice came just a little clipped but there was amusement there, Kevin could practically hear the smile on his face. “Besides you’re taking so long getting down the stairs-“

“I’m trying not to trip!”

As if on cue, Kevin stumbled, felt Edgar catch him by the back of his pyjama top before he could pitch forward. Kevin scrambled for the wall, dug his nails into the mortar of the wall, practically clawed at it. Kevin couldn’t see how far he had to fall, the dark swallowed everything in front of them, but he didn’t want to find out. Kevin’s heart hammered in his chest, his blood rushed in his ears and faintly, beyond it all, was the sound of unhappy growling.

“Monty…”

“What?” Roland asked from over Kevin’s shoulder. “Where?”

“I can hear him. We’re getting close now.”

Kevin reached into the waistband of his aristocats pyjama bottoms and pulled his little dagger free. He didn’t have time to grab his other one before rushing to the nurse’s office and if they did end up needing to defend themselves, Kevin was sure the little blade would be useless but even so, it felt good to hold it.

After far too long they emerged into a narrow corridor with heavy wooden doors lining both walls. Sconces were placed between them and every other torch was lit, glowed with a brilliant orange flame.

Roland shuffled in after Kevin. “Where are we?”

Edgar looked about, took very cautious steps over the cold flagstone floor. “I don’t know, I don’t recognise this from any of the blueprints. It looks like a dungeon of some sort.”

Kevin padded towards the nearest door, noticed a little cutout in the wood with a metal grid of black bars embedded into the wood, fixed in place with thick bolts. Kevin pushed up onto the balls of his feet to clutch the bars and pull himself up just enough to look inside. The room was empty and furnished sparingly. Not inhumane but not pleasant either. It was clear the quarters were designed with security over comfort in mind.

There was a loud squawking up ahead and Edgar darted forward into those tall shadows. “Poe!”

“Be careful, Edgar!”

Only the vague shape of Edgar’s tall body could be seen amid the darkness. Kevin heard him say something quiet and chiding to Poe he couldn’t make out, then Edgar gasped, stumbled back a little bit.

“Edgar! Fuck!” Kevin jumped up to grab one of the torches from the sconce on his right. He braced a foot against the stone wall to yank it free before taking off down the corridor after Edgar.

“Kevin!” Roland called after him and only a few seconds later Kevin noticed the glowing light of his friend’s hand following him a little way back.

When Kevin caught up to Edgar, he noticed that the boy had paused at one of the doors, was looking through the bars of the window.

“I found Monty…”

Kevin pushed up onto his toes to see inside, could barely make anything out in the darkness but he caught the sound of deep breaths very faintly from the shadows, it came out a little raspy, half-growl; half-grumble.

Roland joined them, wheezing a little with each gasp. He made as though he were going to reach into his pocket for his inhaler and grimaced when he realised he was wearing his pyjamas instead of his uniform.

“Do you need to go back?”

“No,” Roland said quickly. “I’m fine. Let’s help Monty.”

Kevin nodded, cleared his throat. “Monty? Can you hear us?”

The deep breaths cut out. There was a beat of silence. Then, a deep sigh that gave way to a rumbling, reverberating snarl.

“We aren’t going to hurt you. We’re going to get you out.”

Kevin jammed his little dagger into the lock of the door, threw his whole weight behind it until he heard a metal clang and found that he could wiggle the door open with only a little difficulty.

He stepped inside the room first, held the torch in front of himself as he went. The growling didn’t stop and Kevin was distinctly aware that he was horribly unprepared if Monty decided to lunge at him. He only had one dagger and wasn’t even wearing his armour-lined uniform.

“M-Monty?” Kevin moved the torch about, saw it light up a little cot in the corner of the room, the little bedside table and them a pair of glowing amber eyes that watched him closely from the far corner. Kevin gasped, saw a grey blood-stained muzzle wrinkle.

“He’s trapped…” Roland shuffled around Kevin to run his glowing hand over the outline of Monty’s body, revealed the sturdy net that held him down.

Each knotted end of rope had a heavy weight secured and now that he was looking closely, Kevin noticed that Monty’s arms and legs were tangled around pairs of bolas, just as thick and unforgiving in their grip.

“I guess that’s how you get a huge wolf down into the basement.” Edgar mused, but there was something that wavered, unnerved, in his voice. “Sarge really is strong.”

“Why would she bring him down here?” Roland stepped forward, took the torch from Kevin’s hands to push up onto his toes and light the sconces in the room.

Kevin heard Monty move before he saw him – the drag of his claws against the stone, the click of his jaw as he snapped it shut in their direction, drool dripping in a little pool beneath his chin.

“She’s in charge of keeping us under control, if she can’t then she’s in charge of stopping us.” Edgar’s face seemed even more pale than usual. “I can’t think whey else Monty is down here than to stop the others from seeing that.”

Kevin didn’t feel like he was breathing.

Roland whipped around to face Edgar. “You think she’s going to kill him?”

“It makes sense.”

If Monty understood what was happening he didn’t seem bothered. He licked his lips, wouldn’t take his eyes off of Kevin who still, foolishly; bravely, stood closest to him.

“How do we stop her?” Kevin asked, breathless.

“Well we’ll probably have to get Monty out of here. He’ll have a better chance of surviving in the plagueround than here. I can distract her, I’m getting good with prestidigitation now.”

“Edgar, I don’t think Kevin and I will be strong enough to get Monty up those stairs and onto the plagueround. It’s not like we can just cut him free and have him walk up, either.”

The whole situation was looking terrifyingly, worryingly bleak. Kevin looked down at the little dagger in his hand, turned it over in the light. The tip was broken where he’d jammed it into the lock but the sides were still relatively sharp. Kevin looked at Monty, felt the sudden urge to apologise.

Monty didn’t acknowledge the pity, just looked at Kevin as though he was a slab of meat and he had been starved for so long.

Oh.

“Monty, don’t…” Kevin stepped closer, took a shuddering breath. “Don’t kill me, alright?”

“Kevin.”

“What the fuck are you doing?”

Kevin heard his friends voices over his shoulder. He glanced back, saw Edgar and Roland staring at him wide-eyed.

“Roland, if Monty catches me do you have enough energy to cast Cure Hands?”

“If Monty catches you, I don’t think my ability to heal will be able to undo all that, um, damage.”

Edgar caught Kevin by the arm.

“Think about what you’re doing here. As someone who has already been clawed by the wolf this evening, I can tell you that it is not fun.”

Kevin tugged his arm free, took another step closer to Monty. The wolf’s wrists tried to scramble against the floor, raked long fine lines down the stone in frustration. He was growling again and Kevin slowly reached for the net that covered his muzzle. He got his fingers under it just as Monty snapped and Kevin pulled back with a gasp.

“Okay, Kevin, you tried whatever it is that you’re doing, let’s try a different plan now,” Roland said nervously, shuffled a little closer to him reluctantly.

“It’s fine. I know what I’m doing.”

Kevin pulled at the rope again, managed to get the dagger under it too before Monty lunged again and when Kevin pulled away he sawed at the rope, cut it in half and left a hole just big enough for Monty to slip his wet black nose through.

“Okay well we don’t know what you’re doing.” Kevin felt Edgar’s hand on his shoulder and found himself spun around to face the others again. “You need to talk to us, no more keeping secrets.”

Kevin pursed his lips, nodded. “The wolf needs to eat. When the wolf is fed Monty will come back and if Sarge returns to find boy instead of a beast then she’ll have to let us go. I mean, we’re probably getting detention for this anyway, we may as well bring Monty back alive as well.”

“Alright.” Roland nodded. “That’s not actually a bad idea.”

“But how are you going to feed him? If he gets free he’s going to eat one of us.”

“I’m only going to cut a hole big enough for his mouth and we can just push food closer to him.”

At that moment, Poe swooped between them, dropped something small red packet on the floor at their feet. Edgar bent to pick it up.

“A king size KitKat bar.” He smiled. “Poe’s already one step ahead of us, it seems. You got this from our room, didn’t you?”

The crow didn’t reply, was already off out the door again. Edgar passed the chocolate to Kevin.

“Roland, you’d better stay with Kevin in case Monty gets loose and you need to cast Sleep. I’ll look for food with Poe.”

Roland nodded, shook his hands out. “Sounds good, old boy.”

Edgar and Poe disappeared back down the corridor as Kevin turned to Monty again. He adjusted the grip of his dagger, edged closer again and, with a trembling hand, pinched the rope.

He flicked his eyes up to meet Monty’s. “Don’t bite me. Please, Monty. I know you’re in there. It’s Kevin, your friend, I’m going to help you – we’re all going to help you – but you need to let us. Alright?”

Kevin kept his voice level and his eyes on Monty’s. They didn’t look human and Kevin couldn’t tell if there was any sort of recognition in there but he took advantage of the tense moment of hesitation between them to slice another of the ropes. Monty jolted at the sudden movement, lunged against his restrains and landed on his lower jaw.

“Are you alright?” Kevin felt Roland’s hand on his shoulder, gently patting him on the back. “Did he get you at all?”

“No.” Kevin shook his head, saw that the hole was big enough for Monty’s muzzle to fit through. It was a tight squeeze but it’d have to do. Kevin fumbled for the chocolate bar, tried to pull open the wrapper with shaking hands.

“Here, let me help.” Roland took it from him and tore the plastic open without any issue. He passed the chocolate back to Kevin.

Kevin heaved a deep breath. “Okay, Monty, this is for you. We know you like these.”

Kevin kneeled down, chucked the KitKat towards Monty. It landed in front of him and he dove for it. Even with the rope bearing down on him, Monty was able to break the bar of chocolate and wafer between his teeth with ease. It crunched in the quiet of the room as Monty pressed his nose to the floor, sniffed out and licked up any crumbs.

“Okay…” Kevin stepped back. “I think that helped.”

“How much does he need to eat?”

“I don’t know but I think the wolf has a big appetite. Let’s hope Edgar is able to find enough from the cafeteria-“

Kevin was cut off by a small black missile swooping into the room from overhead. He held something that looked at least three times his size and dropped it onto the floor near Monty’s head. The wolf tore into it, ripped meat from bone and crunched gristle between his sharp teeth.

Kevin heard Edgar’s footsteps echoing in the corridor, followed by heavy panting when the boy poked his head around the doorframe. He had an entire rotisserie chicken under each arm. “We could only carry three between us. Do you think we’ll need more?”

Monty looked up and licked his lips, eyed the food in Edgar held with undisguised interest.

Kevin nodded. “Keep them coming.”

~*~

Monty woke up with a piercing headache. He never felt good after his transformation days but he rarely felt this bad either. He could still taste blood and meat and something sweet in his mouth. He spat onto the floor, saw blood beneath his cheek as well as a collection of his wolf teeth that had fallen out when his human ones grew back in their place.

His body ached – that much was normal – but the delicate human skin around his wrists and ankles felt tender and raw. Areas of his toro and jaw throbbed as though they were bruised and Monty allowed himself a slow countdown from twenty before opening his eyes.

The room was bright. Monty shut his eyes with a groan again.

“He’s awake!” Monty heard Kevin’s voice, hushed and excited a little way away.

Monty’s blood ran cold. Kevin shouldn’t be here. None of his friends should be here. If they were around him when the wolf took over then Monty would have killed them.

Monty forced his eyes open again, noticed that he was on the floor and that he was staring up at his friends through a tightly woven rope net.

Kevin was smiling in disbelief. Edgar shuffled over to look Monty over. Roland rubbed the sleep or disbelief from his eyes, it was hard to tell.

Monty counted three. They were all here. He hadn’t killed any of his friends. He felt his body sag with relief. It was short-lived, though. Every one of them was covered in blood. Edgar more than the other two, had long claw-like slashes in his pyjama top and Monty felt sick.

“Did-“ Monty broke off to cough and hack, sent a sharp pain up his throat. His voice was hoarse, came out strained but Monty forced himself to use it anyway, it was one of the things that separated him from the beast. “Did I hurt anyone?”

Both Kevin and Roland opened their mouths as though to speak but Edgar beat them to it.

“No,” he cut in quickly. “You did great, didn’t he guys?”

“Y- yeah.” Kevin cleared this throat and took a seat on the floor opposite Monty. “Well done, mate, you went through a lot last night but you made it.”

Edgar nudged Roland and the boy took that as his cue to nod as well.

“Yes, of course, you… you handled your curse really well.” There was a beat of silence and then Roland looked up, met Monty’s eyes with a sincere kindness. “Good job, old boy.”

“Oh…” Monty swallowed thickly and nodded. There was a lot they weren’t telling him, that much was clear but all three of his friends were alive and not one of them looked at Monty like they hated him, so that had to mean they weren’t about to abandon him just yet. “I was so scared of hurting you.”

Monty shifted, felt a burning pain around his wrists and looked down. A length of rope was coiled around them as well as his ankles, pairs of heavy steel balls on either end. Monty was able to slip out of them easily enough, rubbed his skin where it was pink and sore. He stared at the bolas for a long while and said nothing. His friends didn’t fill the silence either. Monty had seem Sarge carry them before, caught sight of them dangling on her hip while she took them through drills and made them run laps of the field.

Monty turned to look at his friends again, saw them through the net. Monty swallowed. “Can- can I come out now?”

Roland blinked. “Oh! Of course you can, here let us help you-“

Monty shook his head, lifted the corner easily enough. “It’s not that… are you okay with me coming out? You aren’t scared of me?”

“Oh Monty,” Roland’s eyes were round, full of pity. “We aren’t scared of you. You’re not-“ he glanced at Kevin, a beat of understanding passed between them, then his eyes were back on Monty again. “You’re not the beast. You’re not the wolf. It’s a part of you but you’re our friend and that means we accept every part of you no matter what.”

Monty nodded, didn’t dare raise his head. He could already feel a lump forming at the back of his throat. After a moment, he released a shuddering breath. “What happened last night?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to talk about that just now, yeah?” Kevin stepped forward, set a hand on Monty’s shoulder without any hesitation, without any fear.

Monty shook his head, stepped away, couldn’t bear Kevin’s kindness, not when he already knew what he did.

Monty raised his hand, brought it up so that it was splayed over the slash in Edgar’s shirt. The boy let him. Monty’s human hands were far too small to match up to the large claw marks and they were large. Huge, even. Monty saw Edgar’s bare chest beneath the holes in his pyjama top. There wasn’t a scar to be seen but Monty remembered his visit to Nurse Lenny on that first day, knew that he could heal without a trace. That didn’t mean Monty hadn’t hurt Edgar, wouldn’t have done worse to him had Monty not been stopped.

“I need to know.”

“Okay,” Kevin said at last, painfully gentle. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Going to bed.” Monty couldn’t look at Edgar. He fidgeted in place. “I couldn’t sleep, then at some point I did.”

“I saw you transform.” Edgar cut in quickly and Monty’s head whipped around to look at him without him even thinking about it. “It looked painful and you were out of it. Really out of it. You didn’t know who I was.”

“And then I hurt you?”

“You didn’t mean it. It was the wolf.”

Monty stared down at his own hands. Hated his curse. Hated what it made him do. Hated that Edgar and Kevin and Roland didn’t blame him – still stuck around after Monty was at his worst.

“We locked you in your room.” Monty heard Kevin’s voice but it sounded distant even though none of them had moved, put distance between them. Monty wouldn’t blame them if they did. “There was a moment when you looked up and it was like you recognised us for a second. I don’t know, it was dark, but you came closer and we locked you in.”

That felt familiar actually. Monty didn’t remember his transformations but there was something strange about that last one. His memory was distorted, full of shapes and colours and images and – very strangely, smells that Monty recognised – which was a little disturbing. That was the wolf’s thing. The wolf was able to track people by their smell alone, not Monty, but the line was already blurred and he worried it was already too late. They were one in the same, eternally interchangeable.

“I took Edgar and Poe to the Nurse’s office while Kevin stayed behind.”

Kevin nodded. “I was really scared what would happen to you if anyone saw and I knew that Sarge would find out, so I tried to keep her out.”

“You what?” Monty looked Kevin over as best he could from where he was standing. He seemed alright, a few bumps and bruises maybe but nothing too bad. Standing up to Sarge was a stupid idea, but Kevin was so stubborn and Monty had made him promise to keep his curse a secret, hadn’t he? He was the one that put Kevin in that situation in the first place.

“I was scared she was going to kill you-“

“She should have!” Monty felt his voice break and his knees buckle and he landed hard on the ground, shoulders shaking violently as he sobbed. “She should have killed me…”

He’d hurt his friends. Done the one thing he swore never to do. They trusted him to keep this curse under control and Monty couldn’t. He was too much of a liability to have around and he could see that as clear as day so why couldn’t the others? Why were they still here? After everything why didn’t they want him dead as well?

“No, Monty.” Kevin’s hand came to rest gently on Monty’s shoulder. He shook him off, curled around himself tighter. Hated the thought of anyone being close enough to catch with his claws again.

He didn’t deserve comfort or patience or kind words. Monty would never have a family or friends again – all he got now was that cold aching emptiness because that’s what was left when Monty had slaughtered or driven everyone away.

“I’d have never let her kill you.” Kevin’s voice was loud in the room and Monty heard him clearly even though he’d buried his head behind his knees. “We’d miss you too much.”

Kevin’s voice was warm, almost playful and Monty felt something sore lurch inside of him, squeeze his throat tight, made his words painful as they spilled from his lips. “I’m a monster! I’m always going to be a monster!”

“You aren’t.” Roland dropped to the floor at his side, nudged him gently. “Children can’t be monsters.”

“But I-“

“It was an accident and you’ll learn to control it. Might not be today, might not be for a long time, but you’ll get there and we’ll be helping you every step of the way, old chap.”

“I just don’t feel like there’s any way for me to go on. Not like this. It’s only a matter of time before I kill one of you – before the wolf eats one of you – Nurse Lenny can’t save you then.”

Monty shuddered, felt tired and sore and hopeless. He wanted his Grandma, or his Mum and Dad, or his friends. He knew he didn’t deserve any of them.

Poe cawed and Monty looked up at last, saw the bird watching him from where he was perched on Edgar’s shoulder. He hopped onto the floor, skipped a little closer to Monty and struck his beak on the floor. Monty didn’t know what that meant and it seemed Edgar didn’t either. The bird didn’t seem angry, though, not that Monty figured he was all that good at reading animals. The only one he was beginning to understand was the wolf within and even then, he wasn’t sure he wanted to.

“We aren’t going anywhere,” Edgar said after a moment, level, decisive. “You’ll make it. We all will.”

It was easy for Edgar to say that. He had an unruly crow to live with and he’d never be a monster in the same way Monty was but even so his words were firm and sure and Monty clung to them, let himself believe it.

Monty felt his eyes well up again and he reached a hand up to scrub over his face before the tears could fall. He felt a hand over his back again and gave up fighting it, let Kevin pull him in for a hug. Roland’s hand found his shoulder, kneaded the muscle there with his thumb lightly in little reassuring circles. Edgar shuffled back so he was back was resting against Monty’s legs, as though he was standing guard, caught between giving him privacy and comfort at the same time. He was trying and Monty felt something in his stomach warm at the effort. He was so lucky, could barely believe that he wasn’t dreaming, but then he couldn’t be, Monty didn’t have good dreams like this anymore.

Monty felt himself relax ever so slightly. Hot tears slipped over his cheeks quietly but it felt cathartic and none of his friends made fun of him over it. They just sat with Monty quietly as he came down from that awful spike of fear and dread.

As Monty finally felt himself losing the fight to exhaustion, the door swung open with a bang and his head snapped up, his body tense as he locked eyes on Sergeant Lewis. Her jaw was tight, her face slightly flushed and brows drawn together. A second of silence passed between them, then another, and like a switch had been flipped, her shoulders dropped and her face softened.

“Why did I know I’d find you three in here?”

Edgar was the first to stand up. He shuffled in front of Monty, blocked him from Sarge’s view. Kevin and Roland jumped up soon after, took the hint to stand on Monty’s left and right so he was blocked in on all sides.

“Monty’s human again.” Edgar said quickly. “He isn’t going to hurt anyone so you have to leave him alone.”

Monty poked his head around Edgar’s side, saw Sarge sigh and pinch the bridge of her nose in exasperation. “Boys-“

“Edgar’s right,” Kevin jumped in. “You’ve got to let him go.”

Roland looked down at him and whispered. “It’s okay, we won’t let her hurt you, I can cast Command and get her to leave. It’ll only work for a few seconds but you’ll need to run. We’ll hold her off. Just-“ Roland’s eyes flicked up to her for a moment but Monty couldn’t figure out what he was looking at. “Just be ready.”

Roland straightened again, seemed to be bracing himself and Monty shifted onto the balls of his feet, felt dizzy with adrenaline and still tired. His body was sore and he could still taste blood and something sweet between his teeth.

“Boys I’m not going to hurt anyone, alright?” Sarge sounded just as tired as Monty felt. He risked looking at her again. She was still blocking their only exist but there wasn’t anything openly hostile in the way she held herself. “I don’t just go around killing kids for no reason.”

“You kill monsters,” Monty spoke up from behind his friend.

He felt Kevin nudge him, incline his head to whisper, “shut up!”

Sarge heard him, though, she took a step into the room and Monty felt his breath catch in his throat. This was a longtime coming. He shouldn’t feel as scared as he did.

“I have done, Monty.” She stopped a little ways in front of them, just out of reach. Her arms were folded and she was able to see over the top of Edgar’s shoulder to where Monty was still crouched on the floor. “I’ve killed people that deserved it and people who didn’t. I’ve killed monsters plenty of times, know what they look like, and can tell you right now, that you aren’t one.”

Sergeant Lewis paused, her hands clasped together behind her back and the movement felt natural, like it had been trained into her until it felt instinctual. In control even when she was at ease. Monty wondered how long it took to learn that, if he had that kind of time before the wolf would wake up again.

“I brought you down here so you wouldn’t hurt any of your fellow students.” She turned her attention to Monty’s friends again, took the time to throw a stern glare at Kevin, Edgar and Roland one by one. “Makes my effort rather redundant when three of your classmates sneak down into a restricted area of the school to put themselves through unnecessary risk-“

Roland ducked his head. Even Edgar seemed a little bashful. Kevin, though, squared his shoulders, seemed to rise to her sharp tone like it was instinctual. Monty could only imagine the trouble he’d found himself in at his old school.

“It wasn’t unnecessary risk,” Kevin folded his arms across his chest and shrugged. “Not when you could have hurt Monty.”

“You were in here with a werewolf, Mr Creeley.” Sarge’s voice hardened and Monty felt himself shrink back a little instinctually. Even Kevin’s resolve wavered and he looked down, back up again when Sarge continued. “All of you were. If you need a reminder of the danger surrounding curses that are not properly controlled, I would be happy to bring you back out to the plagueround and show you the fate of those that do not make it to graduation.”

They fell into a tense but nervous silence as Sarge looked between them again, seemed to be evaluating how likely they were to do something stupid and reckless again. The results seemed inconclusive and Sarge sighed.

After what felt like the longest three seconds of Monty’s life he heard Roland speak up carefully. “I- I think what Kevin meant was that we knew how to help Monty but there wasn’t anyone around who would listen to us.”

“We, um, had to feed the wolf.” Edgar shifted from foot to foot. “That’s how you make it go away on a transformation night. So, we knew that while Monty was in the net we could just keep giving him food until the wolf was full and then it’d go to sleep and Monty would wake up.”

Sarge nodded, seemed both weary and as stalwart as ever. “What poor member of staff did you bother to give you that much food?”

Edgar shook his head quickly. “O- oh no, it wasn’t any of the lunchtime staff, we just gave him chocolate and some of the lunches Roland’s Mum had given him – I think Poe even found a rabbit from somewhere? The wolf seemed to like it, um, sorry, Monty.”

Monty shrugged. “’S fine.” He didn’t really care what he ate as long as it wasn’t people – wasn’t his friends.

“That was a very stupid thing you boys did there.” She looked between them. “It was very brave of you but I don’t want to catch you trying anything like that again, do you understand?”

They each mumbled an agreement but Sarge didn’t take an issue with it.

“Next time, if you know something important about another student’s curse you come and tell me, alright? I am on your side here, I want to keep you all safe.”

Sarge unclasped her hands again to push a stray hair back over her head where it had fallen out of her bun and Monty froze upon noticing the bandage around her hand. Blood had soaked through, stained the white dressing bright red and Monty was so sick of that colour. Hated it. He’d hurt her. He’d even managed to sink his teeth into someone with so much training and experience.

“I-“ Monty’s word’s got stuck in his throat. He didn’t know what he had even planned to say. It didn’t matter. He’d caught Sarge’s attention and there it was – irritation and exhaustion and familiarity in her eyes but no hatred. None whatsoever. Monty could cry all over again.

Sarge’s lips twitched. Not a smile. Far from it. But there was something warm there, even if it was overshadowed with something deeply sad.

“I’ll work with you, Monty. We’ll practice control and the next time the wolf comes around you’ll be ready. I’ll make sure I’m around you when it comes out again.”

Monty felt something heavy fall from his shoulders. He nodded. “Thank you. But if it doesn’t work…”

“It will.” Sarge didn’t take her eyes off of him for a moment. “But if it doesn’t then I won’t let you hurt anyone.”

Sergeant Lewis bent to retrieve the severed net and bolas from the floor, examined the damage with a grimace but otherwise didn’t comment on it. She bundled them up together and shoved the tangled mess of rope and metal under her arm.

“You boys should go see Nurse Lenny, get him to give you a sick note for the rest of the day, you’re in no state to be going to classes-“ Sarge’s face twisted into a disapproving scowl. “And please change your clothes, the cleaners don’t need you tracking any more blood through the corridors.” She paused, drew a beath before speaking again. “Hex Master Singh will want to hear in your own words what happened last night, he’s already had my report.”

 Sarge didn’t stick about to wait for a reply, she’d already shoved the broken door aside and was retreating down the long hallway.

Monty let out a breath he didn’t realise he was holding and used the wall to pull himself back up onto his feet. His friends seemed just as cautiously relieved as he felt.

“Do you think we’re in a lot of trouble?” Roland said at last.

“No more than usual.” Kevin sighed but there was no real annoyance there, he seemed more tired than anything else. “If he tries to suspend us I’m sure Sarge will back us up, she seemed pretty willing to help us even if she is a bit intense.”

“They can expel us?” Monty’s voice leapt from his throat. It was still sore but the pain felt secondary now. Monty couldn’t get expelled, he couldn’t go home. He still hadn’t mastered his curse and he had just gotten attached to this group of friends. It felt like Monty was doomed to lose them one way or another – either due to his curse or because of the trouble it got them all in.

Edgar shook his head. “I don’t think they can. We aren’t allowed back from St. Chunley’s until we have graduated and have control of our curses and the only other alternative I’ve seen is, well, what we saw in the plagueround when Hex Master Singh first led us here.”

Kevin shrugged. “Detention it is then.”

“Maybe,” Roland said mildly. “But I’m sure Hex Master Singh will understand. Either way, we should clean up and head to breakfast first. I don’t know about you boys but I am starving.”

Edgar nodded his agreement and Poe took off from his shoulder, glided out of the room ahead of them. He stretched his arms above his head and yawned loudly. “I would love a cup of coffee, actually.”

“I think we’re a bit early for Mr Porridge but I don’t mind waiting around if you guys don’t.” Kevin cast a glance back at Monty, saw him standing there with scraped legs that just wouldn’t let him move. The boy reached out and pulled Monty along by the wrist until he took the hint and was walking with the rest of them. “What do you think Monty? Got room for a bowl of porridge?”

He swallowed, couldn’t believe how normal this all felt. Monty looked around him, saw his friends faces, smiling and kind and still right there at his side.

Despite it all, Monty’s stomach rumbled.