Read Werewolf Skin for Free Online Page A

window?”
    Hannah shook her head. Her olive-green eyes locked onto mine. “Alex, don’t
you get it?” she cried. “Haven’t you figured it out yet?”
    “Figured what out?” I asked.
    “The Marlings are werewolves!” Hannah declared.

 
 
15
     
     
    Why is everyone in Wolf Creek obsessed with werewolves? I wondered.
    I laughed at Hannah and teased her the rest of the walk to school. I mean,
how could anyone actually believe in werewolves today?
    “You’re only trying to scare me,” I told her. “But I don’t scare easily—remember? I saw one of the German shepherds. It was howling in the Marlings’
window.”
    Hannah shrugged. “Believe what you want to believe,” she murmured.
    “Don’t try to scare me with werewolves anymore,” I told her.
    But I had a surprise when we arrived at school. Even Mr. Shein, the
sixth-grade teacher, wanted to talk about werewolves all morning!
    He was about forty, short, and chubby, with thinning brown hair and thick
black eyeglasses perched on his round pink face. He wore a yellow sweater that
made him resemble a ripe pear.
    But Hannah was right. He was very nice. Very friendly. He welcomed me eagerly
and introduced me to the other sixth graders, and really made me feel at home.
    He assigned me a seat near the door in back. Hannah sat in the front row.
    I spotted Sean and Arjun near the windows on the other side of the classroom.
They nodded, but didn’t say hi or anything.
    They both looked rumpled and kind of tired. Their baggy clothes were very
wrinkled. Their hair was wild. They look as if they’d been up all night, I
thought.
    Weird thought…
    After taking attendance and making a few announcements, Mr. Shein sat on the
edge of his desk. His eyes traveled around the room. He waited for us to settle
down.
    “Does anyone know what the study of lycanthropy is?” he asked. Behind his
glasses, his dark eyes glowed.
    I had never heard the word. But to my surprise, several hands shot up. He
called on Arjun.
    “It’s about people changing into wolves,” Arjun said.
    “Werewolves!” Sean exclaimed.
    Mr. Shein nodded. “Yes. Werewolves,” he repeated. “That’s what lycanthropy is
the study of.” He cleared his throat. “Since Halloween comes later this week, I thought we might spend some time discussing lycanthropy.”
    “There is going to be a full moon on Halloween night this year!” a tall,
athletic-looking boy interrupted.
    “Yes, there is,” Mr. Shein agreed. “Many people believe a full moon is needed
to bring the werewolf to life—but they are wrong. Although a werewolf’s powers do grow stronger as the moon grows fuller.”
    Crossing his legs, he leaned back and began to talk. He explained how the
werewolf legends began over two hundred years ago in Europe. A normal person,
bitten by a werewolf, becomes a werewolf himself when moonlight shines on him.
    “It is a curse that cannot be removed,” Mr. Shein said, speaking in a low,
steady voice. Trying to sound spooky. “No matter how much he tries to live a
normal life, a man inflicted with the curse turns into a wolf under the light of
the moon.”
    “Girls too?” Hannah asked.
    Some kids giggled.
    “Yes. Girls too,” the teacher answered seriously.
    “The werewolf must rage and howl,” Mr. Shein continued. “And prowl the woods
or forest in search of victims.”
    “Cool!” a red-haired boy in front of me muttered.
    Everyone laughed.
    “At daybreak, the werewolves must shed their wolf skin,” the teacher
explained. “They return to human form. They must hide their wolf skin until the
next night. They must hide the skin in a safe place. Because if someone takes
the werewolf’s skin and burns it… the werewolf will die.”
    “Cool!” the red-haired boy repeated.
    More laughter. Kids started talking excitedly.
    It took a while for Mr. Shein to quiet everyone. He jumped to his feet,
pulled down his yellow sweater, and paced in front of the chalkboard.
    “Does anyone