Cycle of the Werewolf July By Stephen King

Cycle of the Werewolf By Stephen King   In the Stinking Darkness under the barn, he raised his Shaggy head. His yellow, stupid eyes gleamed. I hunger, he whispered. Henry Ellender the Wolf   Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November, all the rest but the Second have thirty-one, Rains and snow and jolly sun, and the moon grows fast in every one€ Child's Rime   "Even a man who is pure in heart and say his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolf bane blooms and the Autumn Moon is bright.” Laurence Talbot-1941 the Wolf-Man   Full Strawberry Moon - June This name was universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it the Rose Moon. Also because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June . . . so the full Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry!   On the shortest night of the year, Alfie Knopfler, who runs the Chat€™ n Chew, Tarkers Mills€™ only cafe©, polishes his long Formica counter to a gleaming brightness, the sleeves of his white shirt rolled to past his muscular, tattooed elbows. The Cafe© is for the moment completely empty, and as he finishes with the counter, he pauses for a moment, looking out into the street, thinking that he lost his virginity on a fragrant early summer night like this one the girl had been Arlene McCune, Who is now Arlene Bessey, and married to one of Bangor's most successful young lawyers. GOD, how she had moved that night on the back seat of his car, and how sweet the night had smelled! The door into summer swings open and lets in a bright tide of moonlight. He supposes the café© is deserted because the Beast is supposed to walk when the moon in full, but Alfie is neither scared nor worried; not scared because he weights two-twenty and most of it is still good old Navy muscle, not worried because he knows the regulars will be in bright and early tomorrow morning for their eggs and their home fries and coffee. Maybe, he thinks, I'll close her up a little early tonight shut off the coffee urn, button her up, get a six-pack down at the Market Basket, and take in the second picture at the drive-in. June, June, full moon a good night for the drive-in and a few beers. A good night to remember the conquest of the past.   He is turning toward the coffee maker when the door opens, and he turns back, resigned. Say! How you doin he asks, because the customer is one of his regulars although he rarely sees this customer later than ten in the morning. The customer nods, and the two of them pass a few friendly words. Coffee? Alfie asks, as the customer slips onto one of the padded red counter-stools. Please.   Well, still time to catch the second show, Alfie thinks, turning to the coffee maker. He don't look lie he’s good for long. Tired. Sick, maybe. Still plenty of time to€" Shock wipes out the rest of his thought. Alfie gapes stupidly. The coffee maker is as spotless as everything else in the Chat€™ n Chew, the stainless steel cylinder bright as a metal mirror. And in its smoothly bulging convex surface he sees something as unbelievable as it is hideous. His customer, someone he sees every day, someone everyone in Takers Mills sees every day, is changing. The customers face is somehow shifting, melting, thickening, broadening. The customer cotton shirt is stretching, stretching and suddenly the shirts seams begin to pull apart, and absurdly, all Alfie Knopfler can think of is that show his little nephew Ray used to like to watch, The Incredible Hulk.   The customers pleasant, unremarkable face is becoming something bestial. The customers mild brown eyes have lightened; have become a terrible gold-green. The customer screams but the scream breaks apart, drops like an elevator through registers of sound, and becomes a bellowing growl of rage.   It the thing, the Beast, werewolf, whatever it is gropes at the smooth Formica and knocks over a sugar-shaker. It grabs the thick glass cylinder as it rolls, spraying sugar, and heaves it at the wall where the specials are taped up, still bellowing. Alfie wheels around and his hip knocks the coffee urn off the shelf. It hits the floor with a bang and sprays hot coffee everywhere, burning his ankles. He cries out in pain and fear. Yes, he is afraid now, his two hundred and twenty pounds of good Navy muscle are forgotten now, his nephew Ray is forgotten now, and there is only the Beast, here now like some horror-monster in a drive-in movie, a horror-monster that has come right out of the screen.   It leaps on top of the counter with a terrible muscular ease, its slacks in tatters, its shirt in rags. Alfie can hear keys and change jingling in its pockets.   It leaps at Alfie, and Alfie tries to dodge, but he trips over the coffee urn and goes sprawling on the red linoleum. There is another shattered roar, a flood or warm yellow breath, and then a great red pain as the creatures jaws sink into the deltoid muscles of his back and rip upward with terrifying force. Blood sprays the floor, the counter, the grille.   Alfie staggers to his feet with a huge, ragged, spraying hole in his back; he is trying to scream, and white moonlight, summer moonlight, floods in through the windows and dazzles his eyes.   The Beast leaps on him again. Moonlight is the last thing Alfie Sees.   This Story is from the Book "Cycle of the Werewolf" by Stephen King. You can find a copy at www.Barnes&Noble.com   Carl Ray Louk "FRIENDSHIP NEVER ENDS" SG-1996 "LET LOVE LEAD THE WAY" SG-2000 "THE PHOENIX SHALL RISE" SD "EVEN A MAN WHO IS PURE IN HEART AND SAYS HIS PRAYERS BY NIGHT, MAY BECOME A WOLF WHEN THE WOLFBANE BLOOMS AND THE AUTUMN MOON IS BRIGHT." LT-1941 "FLESH OF MY FLESH; BLOOD OF MY BLOOD; KIN OF MY KIN WHEN SAY COME TO YOU, YOU SHALL CROSS LAND OR SEA TO DO MY BIDDING!" CVTD-1895 "FROM HELL'S HEART I STAB AT THEE, FOR HATE SAKE I SPIT MY LAST BREATH AT THEE" CA-1895  "I HAVE BEEN, AND ALWAYS SHALL BE YOUR FRIEND" Spock  "TRICK OR TREAT, TRICK OR TREAT CANDY IS DANDY BUT MURDER, OH MURDER, IS SO SWEET" CRL-2003  "EYE OF NEWT, AND TOE OF FROG, WOOL OF BAT, AND TONGUE OF DOG ADDER'S FORK, BLIND-WORM'S STING, LIZARD'S LEG, AND OWLET'S WING. FOR A CHARM OF POWERFUL TROUBLE, LIKE A HELL-BROTH BOIL AND BABBLE. DOUBLE, DOUBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE, FIRE BURN, AND CALDRON BUBBLE" WS MySpace.com: www.myspace.com/carlraylouk http://www.myspace.com/carlraylouk Yahoo Group: Yahoo! Groups : LouksHauntedGraveyardhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/LouksHauntedGraveyard/ Yahoo Group: Yahoo! Groups : TheWorldAccordingtoCarlRayLouk http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheWorldAccordingtoCarlRayLouk/