Johnny

Johnny.

Johnny sat on the bench at the top of the hill overlooking the small town he had lived in all his life. It had been a happy town, once. Children had played in the street, parents had gossiped over fences, half the town had gathered to watch football in the local bar, cheering on their favourite teams. Now though, it was a ghost town. People shut themselves away after six o’clock, the sheriff insisted on it. It was fall and the evenings were drawing in sooner. Johnny was violating curfew, it was almost seven, but he couldn’t go home. He was the reason they locked themselves away at night, only they didn’t know that.

It had all started with the strange old man. He came to town searching out the teenagers' hangouts, following them around, putting an already terrified town on edge. Finally, he had singled Johnny out from the others. Following Johnny home after a school football match he had tried to tell him, warn him. Johnny had refused to listen. Believing him to be a crazy old man, he had ignored him, had denied all knowledge of the things he claimed until the next full moon. Johnny soon started believing, when they found the old man dead. So far, there had been three murders, roughly once a month. After the third murder Johnny had checked his calendar, all three had happened on the full moon. He looked up at the darkening sky, in another hour or so the moon would rise, the full moon, and then he would change, because Johnny was a werewolf.

Johnny’s life had slowly declined over the past few months. Before, he had been the pride of the town. A straight ‘A’ student, he had the highest GPA in the school’s history, not to mention being the best skipper the football team could wish for.

Then he turned sixteen, and everything changed. Johnny had wished countless times for his old life back but it wasn’t to be. He was doomed to this now, as surely as he had been a hero before. Doomed to kill and doomed to mourn; doomed to the knowledge that he would kill again.

He stared down the hill, a shadow loomed on the horizon; it was the sheriff. Johnny sighed, the sheriff was sure to send him home, but he knew he couldn’t do that; he’d be putting his entire family at risk. As the sheriff approached, Johnny could see he was scowling.

“Johnny? What are you doing up here? It’s way past curfew, you should get on home, it’s dangerous out here at night. Come on, I’ll drive you home.” The sheriff turned and headed down the hill, expecting him to follow. Johnny lingered, he knew if he didn’t go the sheriff would remain, and Johnny would kill him. However, if he let the sheriff take him home he was putting his entire family at risk. He stared after the sheriff, agonizing over the decision. But what if he gave himself up as the killer? The whole town would be saved!

“Sheriff, wait!” Johnny called, running after him. “Sheriff, could you take me to the station? I need to talk to you.”

“What’s wrong, Johnny? Want to confess to the murders?” The sheriff let out a raucous laugh. Johnny said nothing, the sheriff didn’t realise just how dangerously right he was.

“How many more times, Johnny? It couldn’t possibly have been you. I know you’re strong kid, heck, I’ve seen you on that football pitch, but these murders; you just aren’t strong enough. I’ve seen the bodies, Johnny. It’s like the person has some kind of super human strength, these people have been ripped apart, not hacked, ripped.”

Johnny paced the small jail room, he’d been arguing with the sheriff for fifteen minutes now.

“I’m telling you, Sheriff, I did it, I killed those people, and I’m gonna do it again! You’re in danger, Sheriff. You gotta lock me up or I’ll change, I’ll change and I’ll kill you!”

The Sheriff sighed, “I know you and your friends wanna be able to stay out late like you used to, Johnny, but confessing to murders I know you didn’t do? It’s just ridiculous! You’re not thinking of the implications of what you’re saying. I expect more from you, Johnny, the whole town does.” The sheriff paused, trying to keep hold of his patience. “What’s happening to you, Johnny? I was talking to the coach just the other day, he says you’ve not been on form, and if your grades drop any lower he’ll have to leave you off the team altogether, and now this? Saying you’re the killer isn’t going to make things any better, Johnny, it’ll just make things ten times worse.”

“Sheriff, I did it! I killed them! I’m a werewolf. Please, if you don’t believe me then just give me the keys, I’ll lock myself in and you can see for yourself.” Johnny snatched the keys from the desk and strode into the small, single cell. As he turned the key, he could feel the first stages of his transformation beginning. He threw the keys away, just in time, as he fell to the floor, writhing in agony. Johnny’s youthful good looks contorted, slowly twisting into the face of a wolf, fangs dripping with saliva the wolf turned to face the sheriff.

“Johnny, what? I… Johnny, don’t, please, Johnny, I’m sorry I didn’t believe you, it… it’s not what happens in a town like this. No! Johnny! No!” The sheriff watched, horrified by the scene unfolding before him. The bars of the cell groaned as the wolf tore his way out.

Screaming, the sheriff reached for his gun as the wolf pushed through the bars. The sheriff aimed his gun, his hands shaking uncontrollably as the creature stalked across the floor, growling.

“Johnny, please, don’t make me do this. I don’t wanna shoot you, but I will if I have to.”

The wolf pounced, lunging at his jugular, the Sheriff fell to the floor as the full weight of the wolf hit him; his gun lay, forgotten and useless, as the wolf ripped at his flesh.
As the people of the town came running, nervous and afraid, the Sheriff’s body lay lifeless on the floor, his mouth wide in a silent scream, his dead eyes open in terror. Unseen, the wolf shrank away, back up the hill.

The next morning Johnny woke, curled up like an animal, at the top of the hill. The memory of the night before hit him suddenly. He was an animal. Johnny groaned; he’d really done it this time. As he walked down the hill he could see a group of people looking around, someone noticed him and shouted, as everyone looked up Johnny saw his parents, they began running up the hill, calling his name.

“Johnny! Thank God you’re okay, we were worried sick!” Johnny’s mother grabbed her son and hugged him tight.

“Sorry… I… I…” Johnny didn’t know what to say.

“Never mind, we’re just glad you’re alright. Johnny, the sheriff was killed last night, just like the others. We all ran but we didn’t get there on time. He was already dead when we got there and the killer was already gone.”

“Mom, I’ve got something to tell you, the sheriff, he was…”

“Johnny, I know, it’s very sad, he was a good man. But he didn’t die in vain, the city police department have finally taken an interest, there are a few of them here already investigating the murders, and I think even someone from the FBI!” She finished, whispering confidentially.

“They won’t be able to help, I know what did it, Mom; it was a werewolf.”

“Werewolf? Johnny, don’t say such things, people are afraid and upset, you don’t want them getting hysterical. What has gotten into you?” Johnny shrugged, giving up. His mother, nobody, would ever believe him without proof. He let his mother lead him away. Next month, he would just have to wait until next month, another full moon and yet another murder. Maybe one of the city detectives would discover the connections. Johnny could only hope.