The moon was full and the woods were dark, as Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson made their way through the darkness towards the spot their friends had chosen for a late night party. They didn’t often get to join their friends for these kinds of get togethers, so, by hook or by crook, they were going to make it there.

“Jeez, Tay, where the heck is this place, anyway?” Zac asked, irritation showing on his face as his pants were snagged again on a thorny bush.

“Well, there’s a shelter that should be just over this hill and that’s where they’re supposed to be.” Taylor replied, getting goosebumps as he walked through a spider web. Just then, they heard a loud howl cut through the night. All three stopped and looked at each other for a moment.

“I guess we must be close.” Isaac said, “And, they must be getting pretty rowdy. At least somebody is anyway.”

Taylor and Zac looked at each other, hoping their brother was right and it had just been a drunken teenager they’d heard. “Hurry up, guys. This place is creepy.” Zac said, trudging on ahead. Both his brothers followed his lead, wanting to find their friends more than ever now.

As they got to the top of the hill, sure enough, they saw a bonfire and lots of figures in the firelight. Making their way down was easier and less nerve wracking than the climb up and in no time, they were surrounded by people all handing them drinks and patting them on the back. “Man, finally, we get to hang with you guys!” their friend Sam said, grinning, “When do you all have to go back to sunny California?”

“Not for a couple weeks.” Isaac replied, taking a drink from the cup someone had pushed into his hand. “Geez, what is this stuff?! It tastes like crap.”

Laughing, Sam told him it was jungle juice. “What’s in it?” Taylor asked, eyeing the drink suspiciously. He looked over as Zac sniffed it, wrinkling up his nose.

They were now joined by a few other partiers, “Well, it’s fruit punch and pure grain alcohol. Don’t you little home schooled boys know anything?” a boy who looked like he had to be captain of the football team replied.

“Oh.” Taylor said. Zac tossed the liquid on the ground behind him and grabbed a coke off the table and refilled his cup. Isaac continued to drink his and Taylor wasn’t sure what to do, so he just mingled among the others, not drinking the vile tasting stuff, but not disposing of it just yet either.

As the night wore on, Zac felt that nagging fullness in his bladder become too much to bear. Looking around for his brothers, he noticed quite a few of the partiers had become so inebriated that they could hardly stand. When at last he spotted Isaac, he could tell immediately that he’d had too much jungle juice or whatever the hell it was. Shaking his head, he continued to search the crowd, praying Taylor hadn’t done the same thing. Hearing the giggle of females, he turned to the right and sure enough, there was his brother, surrounded by admirers, but thankfully, appearing to be sober. Walking over, he tapped Taylor on the shoulder. “Hey, man.” He said to him.

Taylor turned to his little brother, “Hey, what’s up?” he asked.

“I gotta piss, dude.” Zac said quietly.

“So, go.” Taylor said, turning back to the girls.

“I’m not going by myself, you come with me.” Zac said.

“Zac, you’re bigger than me—if anything’s gonna get you, I won’t be able to do anything about it. Just go. There’s a nice big tree right there,” Taylor said, pointing, “nobody’ll see you. Just whip it out, ten seconds, and you’re done.”

Though he didn’t want to, Zac decided he would just take Taylor’s advice and make the trek into the woods a bit and relieve himself. He wouldn’t really have to go far after all. He walked down the path a ways and soon found himself surrounded by forest. Looking back, he could still see everyone clearly, and so he thought, they would be able to see him. So, he decided to go a bit further. The moon was full and bright so that he actually cast a shadow. Now, when he turned, the partiers were farther away and he felt like he could do his business with no chance of anyone catching sight of him or his John Thomas. As he finally allowed himself to drain all the soft drink he’d downed that evening, a smile crept over his face, but quickly left as he heard the sounds of something in the woods behind him.

Taylor watched the path out of the corner of his eye. Though he’d found himself the center of attention with the girls there, he still couldn’t get his mind off Zac. Now that he’d sent him off, he was feeling guilty. He looked back to the pretty girl who’d been talking to him, but he realized he had no idea what she’d just said. “Uh, you know—I think I better go join Zac. You know, the call of nature…” he said, smiling. It wouldn’t have mattered what he’d said to them, they would have thought it the cleverest thing they’d ever heard and so, he handed one of them his cup and made his way down the same path his brother had taken a few minutes before him. He looked around once he got to the tree he’d thought Zac was heading for, but he didn’t see him there. “Zac?” he called. When he got no answer, he decided to go further down the path as he knew he’d seen his brother come that way. Once the trees got thicker, the woods got darker and he was really feeling sorry for not going with him.

A sound soon came to his ears that was very disturbing. A low growl, and then Zac’s panicky voice, “Tay, don’t move, there’s something out there and everytime I move, it comes closer.”

“Zac, what is it?” Taylor asked, squinting into the darkness. Just then, the clouds parted and the moon again shown it’s light down on them. As Zac came into focus for him, Taylor also saw what looked like a huge dog begin to walk towards his little brother. “Oh god, Zac!” he yelled. The creature then turned it’s yellow eyes upon Taylor and shot forward. Both boys turned to run but, Zac didn’t get far before it caught up to him. As he tried to keep up with his older, longer limbed brother, he felt sharp pain to the back of his leg as claws dug into soft flesh.

“Oh God! Tay!” he screamed.

Taylor turned and sprinted back towards him, grabbing his arm and pulling with all his might. The growling now had become snarling and gnashing of sharp teeth and Taylor watched in horror as the thing sunk it’s teeth into Zac’s pants and into his leg. Zac yelled and kicked at it with all his might, hitting it squarely on it’s sensitive nose. It yelped and backed up, shaking it’s massive head. Taylor took his chance, pulling Zac up and forcing him to run again. “Zac, we gotta run! Run!” He shouted. They were able to get a few feet ahead of the beast before it began to descend upon them once more. “IKE!!!” Taylor screamed as loud as his voice allowed. It didn’t matter that Isaac was drunk and probably out of earshot—it was a natural instinct to call for his older brother as sheer terror overtook him as he turned his head to see the hulking figure gaining on them both and glaring at them with wolfen eyes. Again, he yelled and this time, he heard the beautiful sound of human voices just ahead of him.

Isaac may have had a bit too much to drink, but not so much that he hadn’t heard Taylor’s cry for help. “Did you all hear that?” he asked his friends, turning his head towards the woods. “It sounded like Tay…” he said, setting his cup down on the wooden picnic table and stepping off the concrete of the shelter. Now, everyone listened, and a moment later, they heard Taylor. Immediately every testosterone laden guy was off down the path at breakneck speed.

No one was sure later what they had seen—some had sworn it was a huge dog, others a wolf and still others claimed it had been a man in dark clothing. But one thing was for sure, it had scared Taylor and Zac down to their souls.

“Zac, are you sure about this?” Taylor asked Zac as they were getting ready for a concert that evening.

“It’s been four weeks, Tay. It’s all healed and the stitches came out. I’m fine. I can do this.” He answered.

Isaac watched as his brothers talked. After the wolf or whatever it was had attacked Zac, it had turned and run back into the woods when he and their friends had come running after hearing their pleas for help. Twenty one stitches had been enough to close the wound in his little brother’s leg, but it hadn’t helped either of them get over the emotional trauma.

“Yeah, but…I mean, can you ….you know….” Taylor stammered.

Zac sighed and looked at Isaac, then shook his head. “Taylor, you’re like some old mother hen.” Isaac stated, chuckling. But instead of laughing along, Taylor gave him a sobering look.

“You didn’t see that thing, Ike.” He said evenly, “It would have eaten him. Like a shark. And then it would have eaten me afterwards.”

“Taylor!” Isaac spat back, “Stop it! It was just some big dog or something. Stop scaring him.”

When Taylor spoke again, he had tears in his eyes, “If I would have gone with him, maybe that thing wouldn’t have attacked him—“

Now Zac stood up, “Tay, that’s crazy—it wasn’t your fault. Like you said, as big as that thing was, it wouldn’t have mattered if you had been there. If you wouldn’t have come when you did, it would have really gotten me. Worse than it did.”

“Besides,” Isaac added, “If it wouldn’t have been for your loud mouth, we might not have known anything was up.”

Taylor had to smile at that. “Yeah, well, whatever.” He said.

Zac continued, “We just gotta forget about it. I mean, we’re in L.A., it’s not like we’re anywhere near the woods, right?”

Taylor smiled, “Yeah, you’re right. It’s just…..I just can’t get it out of my mind, those eyes…….” He said, shaking his head.

“Well, forget about it for tonight, ok?” Isaac said, “This is just a promo—five songs and we’re out of there. Alright? Just, keep it together.” He looked over at Zac, “If your leg starts to bother you, just give me a sign and we’ll do something acoustic—no drumming.”

“Ok, dude.” Zac said, “But it hasn’t bothered me this past week, really. You can hardly see it anymore.”

“Great.” Isaac said, slapping him on the back. Just then, their father walked in the door.

“Guys, are you ready?” He asked, “They’re on their last song out there.”

Taylor took a breath and looked at both his brothers, “Yeah, Dad, we’re ready.” He said.

As they made their way toward the stage, Taylor shivered, wishing he had worn long sleeves. Though they were in California, it still got cold at night and this show was at an outdoor amphitheatre. Looking up, he looked at the stars twinkling in the black sky. The moon was bright, shining down on the crowd, illuminating their faces in a bluish glow as well as the lights from the stage. He smiled, glad to know they would be performing in a few minutes. Even though they weren’t the headlining act, he still looked forward to the time he would spend doing what he loved the most. The only thing that had relieved his nightmares and memories of that night in the woods was music. Zac had gotten well much quicker than he had thought possible. The scratches on his back and his arms had healed entirely and the deep cuts from the things teeth had pretty much disappeared as well, leaving only a few reddish places on the back of his leg. Taylor thought back to that night—their friends had had to drive them to the emergency room as neither he nor Isaac were in any condition to drive. Ike, because he’d had too much to drink and him because he was pretty much hysterical. Once they’d called their parents, his mother had come in and finding Zac to be in one piece, she immediately had given Taylor two of his little sister’s Benadryl to calm him. He smiled thinking about it. Then the smile faded. He knew no one understood how awful it had been. 

Only he and Zac knew. 

He looked over at both his brothers. Isaac looked out at the crowd, carrying his beloved guitar and Zac seemed to be staring off into space—much like he imagined himself looking. As the previous band left the stage, the crew made small changes to the set to ready it for them. The crowd shifted as their fans pushed and clawed their way up to the front and the last band’s retreated to try and meet or at least catch a glimpse of their idols. As the radio station DJ teased the crowd into a frenzy, Taylor felt the adrenaline start to pump and he took a deep breath. The man yelled out, “Hanson!!!” and he heard the familiar shriek of their loyal followers, as well as some booing from others. But, that didn’t put a damper on his excitement. As he ran out onto the stage, followed by his brothers, all the unpleasant memories of the past month flew out of his mind and the showman in him took over.

Zac ran to his drum kit and sat down, and he watched his brothers take their places. Taylor looked back at him and nodded his head, and Zac began to pound out the beat. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed the music, what with Taylor walking around on eggshells around him for weeks. They hadn’t really even practiced until that morning. Luckily, the set was only five songs, all ones they could play in their sleep. As the crowd got into it, Zac found his energy building. By the fifth song, he could hardly contain himself. As their set ended, Taylor motioned for him to join he and Isaac at the front of the stage. As he walked past the row of lights overhead, he looked up and he could see the sky. It was a clear night and the moon shone brightly. He grasped both his brothers’ hands and they bowed to the audience. Suddenly, Zac felt a rush—like he’d never felt before. Shaking his head to clear it, he looked over at Taylor and then Isaac. His vision was a bit off and he felt very strange. “What’s wrong?” Taylor asked.

“I don’t know—I just feel…sorta freaky.” Zac answered.

Isaac turned to both his brothers, “Guys, we’re on stage here, chill out.” He said, smiling, so that the crowd didn’t realize anything was wrong. Suddenly, Zac hunched over, obviously in pain. At once, Taylor stooped down to his level and was met with a pair of golden eyes.

Zac turned and ran off the stage as Isaac waved and then followed. The crowd wasn’t sure what had happened. Taylor still stood, in shock, not wanting to believe what he knew to be true. A sound from behind the curtains woke him up from his stupor. “IKE!” he shouted, “Come back!” and he ran to follow, knowing Isaac would have no idea what was happening. When he got behind the curtains, he could hear the crowd’s murmuring along with more guttural sounds coming from the darkness. “Ike, where are you?! Stay away from him!”

Isaac had tried to find out what was wrong with Zac, but he wouldn’t let him get near him. Finally, he’d just gone to get their parents as other backstage workers watched. In the darkness, no one was witness to the incredible change overcoming the young boy. But Zachary could feel it. His muscles were rippling and growing larger as were his bones and a fine honey colored fur was quickly covering his body. His senses were heightened to unnatural levels and as his ears grew large and pointy, he found he could smell and hear everything around him with a keen awareness of the beat of human hearts and the smell of their fear. If it hadn’t been for the excruciating pain of the transformation, he might have enjoyed it.

Now, Taylor began to hear screams as onlookers realized there was a beast of some sort loose. People began to run to get away from the monster. Zac ripped his shirt away from his body and stood up to his full height. He turned toward the people who had watched him and they all scattered. Hunger hit him as he smelled the blood rushing through their veins as they ran from him. The chase was too much to resist. He began to run to the area backstage where most of the people were—there he saw his brother and his parents running toward him. When they saw him, they froze. Though Isaac had told them, they didn’t believe for a moment that that was their son in front of them. Suddenly, the tiny part of his brain that still was Zac flared up and he turned to run the other way, now meeting his other brother. As instinct kicked in, Taylor ran back to the stage feeling the hot breath of the creature on his heels.

Moonlit Night, part two