Chapter 5

      Collette felt the metallic lock give way, and her wrist shackle fell open. The last of them. She was free. She tossed her long blond hair out of her face, and suffled across the matted dirt floor, trying to avoid moving so much as a single strand of hay, for fear of waking a guard. She made it to the bars, looked up at the open sky above. In a flash a wave of relief passed through her knotted stomach as she realized the full moon was still days away. She had time.
     Theoretically, anyway.
     Right now she had to move. Soon would be feeding time and the guard would appear, tossing a steak into her cage. A raw steak. At the thought her insides grumbled in anticipation. But she had to put that on hold.
     The back of the cage was the rock formation that the cage was built into. Easy enough to climb, but on the opposite side of the rocks the earth fell away a hundred foot into the sea. She recalled her last attempt at escape – she almost fell, and ended up in the shackles. This time it would be different. This time she would go out the front door.
     The guard was approaching for feeding, laughing down the row of cages, speaking a language Collette had no hope of understanding. She hid in the back under her blanket, now covered in dirt and dust, and meticulously positioned to blend into the rock wall. From the front of the cage, she simply disappeared.
     The guard approached her cage and tossed in the steak without even looking. Under the blanket Collette cursed his stupidity and apathy. She closed her eyes, mustering up her strength and trying to recall the pounding of adrenaline normally reserved for the full moon. She tried to force the transformation.
     The guard paused. He muttered something in his weird language, then shouted her name. The door lock turned, and the hinges of the cage door squealed in annoyance at having to move. “Collette?” he said again. Further, Collette thought as she peeked from behind the blanket. Further in, you idiot. One more foot in.
     Her hands were shaking, and her blood rushed in pulses through her body. She felt herself tighten up like a spring being crushed down. She moved. Not enough to cause her camoflauge to collapse, but enough to draw the attention of the guard. If he knew she was there he must not’ve thought her dangerous. That would be the last lesson he’d ever learn.
     “Collete,” he said. Then some more gibberish. But he knew where she was. He took two steps towards her.
     She lept. The rush of the adrenaline release was euphoric to her. She felt what she imagined the full moon activity felt like. She’d never been able to harness it or call it forth before. Now she could.
Her hands fell onto the guard’s throat, and her short legs climbed up his torso as he fell backwards. By the time he hit the ground, with her tiny five-foot frame crouched on his chest, her thumbnails had already started a tear in the horrified guard’s neck. His short-lived scream became a gurgle of blood, and Collette watched his expression go from horrified to pleading to vacant. With a final tear, she threw her arms open wide, taking bits of flesh and muscle with them, flinging them into the cage like raw steak.
     As the dirt floor became muddy with blood, Collete stepped over the body, out the cage, and away to her freedom.