moonlit foolery ~ Benji

Thursday, August 18 1921
10:48 pm
full moon

She was sure she had heard it! Just a moment ago, deep and long, howling through the cloudless night. It had torn her from sleep, eyes wide and heart pounding, the rush of adrenaline immediately wiping every ounce of sleep from her body.

The echoes of it still rang in her head as she stared into the dark, unmoving and breathless. All the other girls were asleep but Maevie was straining her ears, afraid to make a move or sound lest she missed it.

And there it was again.

Excited fright pushed the blood through her veins with urgency as she sat up in one brisk movement, gaze towards the window hidden away by curtains. Only a sliver of moonlight fell through the small crack in the middle, pooling on the wooden floor.

Maevie didn't think, only moved, guided by curiosity and the thrill for the dangerous, reckless. Silently, her feet slid into her boots, the laces tied carelessly, stuffed into the sides. She left her pyjamas on, threw her bathrobe over and then she left the girls' dormitory on silent feet.

Softly, the door clicked shut and Maevie halted.

She wasn't supposed to go out alone, least of all at night. Least of all in search for something that could maul a girl like her to shreds in a blink of an eye. She had promised her mum.

But still...

Guilt ate away her conscience as she stood there in the hallway, suspended in time, trying to decide. Trying to find a loophole, the grey area, a way to slip through the gaps. She shouldn't, she had promised.

And yet...

Maevie chewed on her lip for only a second longer and then she turned. Not back to her bed like deep down she knew she should. But instead towards the dormitories' exit, then with swift strides through the cool night -- her pulse a vicious drum in her chest -- into the Grand Lodge.

Relief flooded through her when the door shut behind, closing out the night. No reason to stop though.

Someone must still be awake. Someone she could ask to go with her. Like she had promised her mother -- never alone.

A wide smile spread on her face when she saw him, lounged on one of the couches, snacks in hand.

"Benji!", she called excitedly, bounding over, all guilt forgotten. The sofa creaked merrily a she jumped up next to him, landing on her knees, hands shaking him by the shoulder. "Benji, you need to come outside with me! There's a werewolf somewhere!" She stopped her shaking, leaning in with an almost frantic glint in her eyes and she added, voice lower, "I heard it howling twice!"

Benji could be a melancholy boy with the best of them.

In the past two years he'd done his best to set aside the angry, brooding boy he'd become surrounded by partying, booze and bad influences. He'd reclaimed his peace, made amends with the original friends he'd started Hogwarts with and found the core of who he was again.

It had been a hard road, but he'd done it, and was better for it.

But life had a funny way of fucking with him. He'd done his best not to give in, and had been successful so far. No drinking, no smoking. He wanted to make his mum and uncle proud. Wanted to be someone his little sister could look up to. Wanted to be the man Rae somehow saw in him.

Still, it was on nights like these, when everyone else had gone to bed that he found it a little harder to reconcile and stay on the straight and narrow.

He laid on one of the couches, legs thrown over the of the sofa as he munched away on the bag of potato chips he'd found stashed away in one of the cabinets - likely one of the younger kids had been saving it for later, but finders keepers.

He was a boy of fifteen, but he was still Benji.

His mind raced, taking him back to June, echoes of that month unwilling to fade, instead playing over and over as though it were afraid of forgetting.

He wanted to forget.

"Benji!"

Hmm? Benji shook himself from his thoughts at the sound of Maevie's voice, cheerful, excited. Nothing like it had been that horrible night when she'd be taken by that psychopath. She jumped on the couch, landing next to him as an amused smile spread across his lips. Her hands shook him, her eyes bright and full of anticipation as his head bobbed back and forth with her insistence.

"Benji, you need to come outside with me! There's a werewolf somewhere!"

"What..." a puff of air escaped his lips as his eyebrows raised in skepticism, the little girl reminding him of what his sister had been like before she'd gone still and mute. "Marge, what are you talking about? Werewolves aren't real," he tried to argue, knowing good and well her name was Maevie. She knew that right? That they were fairytales meant to scare kids from staying out of the woods and sneaking out at night.

"I heard it howling twice!"

Oh well, in that case.

Benji sat up, welcoming the distraction from his own brain, and tossed the crisps onto the nearby coffee table. He wiped his hands together, ridding himself of the salt and crumbs before settling hazel eyes on his younger housemate. "What are we waiting for then?" he asked with a little shrug of his shoulders. He had nothing else going on and wouldn't be sleeping anytime soon. He had his wand and could protect the girl if need be.

He wouldn't, because werewolves weren't real.

"Hop on kid," he said indicating she should climb on his back for a ride. When she was comfortably situated, arms around his neck and all, he started out the door and into the warm night air.

"Which direction then? Let's find this thing before it eats the rest of the campers."

"What, of course they're real!", Maevie insisted as Benji sat up to clean off his hands, rattling on excitedly as his expression remained sceptical. "I've seen pictures in books and even read a little bit and one time I walked past a couple older students talking about them, too! They said one of the professors might be a werewolf because they never saw him on full moon days but I think they were just stupid because I saw him and he looked pretty normal to me."

But all this convincing wasn't even necessary because Benji was already agreeing on going to search with her, offering his back for a ride.

Beaming and squealing happily, Maevie jumped up, arms around the boy's neck, thighs clinging onto his sides. Her brother gave her plenty of piggyback rides back home, especially before he had had to leave for studying but this felt almost exactly like it.

So even if her mum ever found out she had been roaming the grounds after hours, she couldn't be mad because Maevie had found someone to accompany her and it was an older boy from her own house with a wand and those were all good things, right? She hadn't exactly planned it that way -- she would have asked anyone to join in on her adventure as long as it prevented her from breaking her promise entirely.

But this outcome sure made the guilt bite a little less.

Benji pushed through the door and into the dark of night, the moon bright and making the grass appear shiny and pretty, asking which direction to go.

Maevie loosened one arm to point ahead, towards the gleaming, still lake. "That way! I heard the howl come from there." The howling that lingered in silence now, leaving no more than the sounds of softly rustling trees, chirping crickets and their own voices as Benji's footsteps crunched over the ground. "I bet it's hunting right now." For silly, little campers such as themselves.

"Do you think one of the campers could be a werewolf?", Maevie asked, both arms back to holding onto him, voice quieter now as a low thrum pulsed into her body again, dwelling somewhere between thrill and fear. "I bet there are people we talk to every day and never even know they transform into beats at night." The thought send a pleasant frisson down her spine.

"I've seen pictures in books and even read a little bit and one time I walked past a couple older students talking about them, too! They said one of the professors might be a werewolf because they never saw him on full moon days but I think they were just stupid because I saw him and he looked pretty normal to me."

Whew. Benji had forgotten what it was like to be a second year. All chatty and rambling words. Of course during the summer of his second year, he'd spent the entire time following around an older girl and trying to shoot his shot. Nevermind that Benji wouldn't have known what to do with the shot had he been given it.

"Most people are stupid," Benji agreed as the warm air greeted them, welcoming them into the dark quiet of the night. "If there is such a thing as werewolves, I highly doubt one would want to waste his time teaching kids when he could be out doing wolf things." Right? If he were a werewolf, Benji would spend his human time and his wolf time in the woods. No bills, no responsibilities, no nothing. He could survive.

Probably.

"That way! I heard the howl come from there."

He followed her hand, hoisting her up a little higher as they wandered in the direction of the lake. "If it is hunting," Benji said, still not believing the creature existed. She likely heard a wild dog or something. "I'm tossing you as bait." He grinned, even though she couldn't see it, giving her ankle a little pat of reassurance. In truth, he'd probably throw her out of the way, tell her to run and make peace with his maker as he shot off every spell he could think of. The boy was strong in magic and physicality, but it was a magical monster they were talking about.

"Mmm, maybe," he said, giving in to her strange little fantasy as he walked along the water's edge. It sloshed and lapped gently at the shore, while the sounds of crickets and bullfrogs floated through the dark. He'd always liked the atmosphere of summer. The gentle sounds, the bikinis, freedom from schoolwork. It was too bad things couldn't always be this way. "If they are, they're really good at hiding it."

A rustle in the bushes ahead made him pause as he flicked his wand and pointed it in the direction of the noise. "Shh," he hushed the smaller girl, knowing with the way Maevie chattered it was likely a fruitless request. "Probably just a rabbit or something."

Were there rabbits out here? The boy took a step a back up as the bushes rustled again.