The Full Moon Night.

"And then, what happened?" my friend Ganesh asked me with tons of curiosity in his eyes. I'm in his small, messy room, in middle of all the unwashed cloths and undone bed sheets, sitting on his dirty stinking bed. He's on his clean computer desk, playing PUBG PC game. He is a kick-ass gamer. Not boasting but I, too, am a good gamer in my childhood. I have finished almost all the levels in Mario. (well, by 'almost' I mean about 3 levels).

"She was panting", I told him, "I was panting. We both were panting. We were drowning in sweat. I was so exhausted. I'm running out of breath but she didn't stop".

I put a plastic bag of ice cubes on my pants between my legs. "ooh..." i said trying to resist the pain. "Is it hurting?" he asked me, still playing. "So badly" I said, pressing the ice bag on my crotch.

"Tell me what happened next?" he said rolling away his chair from the computer desk towards me.

"I was damn tired. I stopped", I said, "But Priya held my hand and dragged me behind her. I stood back up and started running again. We are in woods, with a pack of ugly wolves chasing behind us."

Ganesh asked, "wolves?! Are you okay, akhi? There are no wolves in our place. I think you are making it all up in your head!".

I said, "I know you won't believe it, Ganesh. No one believes it. But it really happened, Ganesh. There are double dozens of ugly wolves around us, growling and racing behind us. To catch us. To kills us."

"Why did you go into woods? Idiot!" said Ganesh.

"I didn't, Priya took me." I told him, slurping the weird tasting apple juice I took from his fridge, "yesterday eve, we accidentally met in a bus stop. You won't believe but she was so gorgeous. I couldn't take my eyes off her. Her hair is all braided neatly. I wonder how she looks with loose hair. Just imagine the beautiful girl like her, standing in a not-so-crowded bus stop, her face sunlit, her hair long and loose and shuffling to the wind over her face. She looks like an angel waiting for bus. Isn't she?"

"Angels don't wait for buses", said ganesh, sharing none of my enthusiasm, he then added "and the only time I find girls beautiful is when I'm horny. So please stop your Shakespeare stories and tell me what happened actually".

How on earth such a tasteless people take birth?, I thought. "Okay. I tried talking to her. But got only one word replies. I followed her, I took the same bus, I stepped out on the same stop she did, and then she suddenly turned to me and told me to leave. Her voice is so serious that for a moment I'm terrified if she will beat me then and there if I don't leave. I started talking, trying to convince her about my feelings for her. What to do, she was so gorgeous, I don't want to leave her. The night was getting darker. From the corner of my eyes I can see a car come and stop far away from us. Some young guy in jeans and Tee shirt stepped out. He started speaking on his phone. Priya saw him now. She then grabbed my hand and started running into the woods. I asked her, 'what's wrong?'. She didn't say anything. I heard the rustle of dried leaves and breaking of old twigs behind me. Next moment, there's a man running behind us. I shouted at him to stop following us. She's running even faster now, still holding my hand. Her skin felt so smooth on my gym roughened palms. Her touch felt so special, like a tickle of electricity passing through my hand from her hand."

"Shakespearrrrr...." said Ganesh rolling his eyes.

"okay, okay", I said, " I was running behind Priya and was shouting at that guy. The forest is dark but is vaguely dimly lit as the night took over the evening sky. Then suddenly the guy running behind us started bulging. I mean, he is swelling like a.. a..."

"hulk?" Ganesh helped me finish.

"yeah. but not into green and big. But into woolly and wolfy" I said.

"what's a 'wolfy' ?" he asked, making the weirdest face with his already weird face.

"I mean, like wolf. His Tee is torn off. His pants are split. Messy brown hair emerged from his skin all over his body. Claws plunged from his fingers. And suddenly he appeared like a wolf running on its two hind legs. I'm terrified. I never saw something like that, not even in movies. I'm not sure if it was sweat or I pissed my pants but I'm all wet. I asked her what is happening. She slapped me and told me to run fast. There was another woolly man behind that 'wolfy' guy who is also turning into 'wolfy'. Then came one more. Soon there are about two tens of such wolfy guys around us. Some of them started chasing us on all their four legs. The first guy with torn Tee almost reached us and took a final jump onto us. It all appeared slow motion to me. The wolfy guy jumping above us, mid air, with his claws shining to the moonlight. A big bright full moon behind his snout, his teeth ugly, sharp and ready to pierce into our flesh. Other wolfy guys are just a leap away from us. We are a moment away from their fierce claws and our terrific death.

"But then suddenly the wolfy guy froze in mid air. The other wolfy guys, who were just a feet away around us, have all stopped running at once by digging their claws into mud, stopping their run like racing car does when a disc brake is pressed hard. Then all of a sudden they all froze, like when you are watching a movie then you suddenly press 'pause' button and all the characters in it stop in middle of the action: All wolfy guys are held motionless - some wolves were in mid air, pouncing, some are tipping, some are about to stumble. For a moment, I did not understand if it were all for real.

"I looked at Priya with a face full of questions. And what I saw made me awe-struck. My jaw drooped in shock. She's standing behind me, facing towards the wolfy guys, with one foot in front of other, like a swordsman stands in a fight. Her back is straight, her black dress fluttering to the rapids gusts, her braid set loose itself and is floating behind her, flapping to the wind, like a long black tide raising towards the shore. She stretched her both arms and spread her palms wide as if she was holding all those wolves motionless with some invisible force. What really terrified me wasn't all this, it was her eyes. Her eyes have no whites.

"Her fair skin was brightly lit with full moon's light and her hair was shining as they flew behind her as if they have a life of their own. Her both eyes were pitch dark as if there's nothing inside them, no pupil, no iris, nothing. A beautiful face with coal black eyes.

"Believe me, she scared the shit out of me."

(To be continued...)