The Bitten.

The Woods.

I could hardly stand to look at my 'hands'. In fact, I couldn't stand at all. My body was on fire. Or like all of it was asleep. Like flaming TV static in my veins. Even my eyelids hurt. My body contorted, worse than it ever had before, and soon I found myself on what I'd like to call hands and knees. Naked. My clothes burst to bits and littered the grass beneath me. My hands and knees? They were legs! Limbs with fur. Like a wolf. What have a become? I wanted to sob my eyes out, but all that came out were whispers and pitiful howls. I tried to scream, and all that came out was a rasp and ragged growl. No.

No! My job. My apartment. My family. My life! What was I supposed to do now? Would I ever look normal, could I ever be normal? Or would I be like that man and boy, and have that haunted air about me? That something off. How would I explain this? What if I just spasmed and became thus right in front of everyone? What if I hurt someone? I am a danger. A monster. You'll be what I am. You'll see. Sometimes there's not much food.

I yelped. Oh Gods. Would I, would I eat someone? No! No! My haunches shook as I whined. My coat was getting soaked from the rain, and I felt cold and alone. I ducked into the treeline when headlights came into view, scared of how people would react to me. I didn't know what to do now. Or where to go. How long I would be trapped like this. All I wanted, was what I always wanted, to go home. But when I thought about going home, all I could think about was if I went back to find myself confronted by the wolf man. What would he do to me now?

I stood sniffing and thinking for who knows how long before I finally decided to move. I had little choice. I didn't want to risk being found out here by him if he were here, as I first encountered him not far from here. And I didn't want to see another wolf, bear or car. I needed to go home. Perhaps I could jump up into my window somehow or sneak in. But I didn't have my keys! Damn it. How could I be so stupid? How could I not control my limbs then? That man and child could, and the man could control himself as a wolf too. So why could I not fight my hands to grasp my keys? Or not stop myself from becoming this? How does this work?

I follow the road through the treeline. Just far enough back to be unseen hopefully, but close enough to feel safe. Ironic, that even as a big beast I am just as big a coward. But I excused myself by saying I don't know how to be whatever this is yet. How to use it precisely. If I were to encounter anything, who's to say I could defend myself. Or would I convulse and do the painful awkward spasms and go back to being a useless little person again. I'm sure somehow I would screw it up.

A passing stag nearly made me swallow my heart, and I think I feared it more than it appeared to fear me. Birds would avoid me to move to higher branches. Bats would halt, and ascend when they drew too close. A skunk never once dared to cross me, going back towards traffic altogether when it popped out of the brush on me.

The hunger made its presence known by rumbling my stomach again. I dismissed it, but my new body did not get the memo. Smells became more intense, sounds were further amplified.  My body wanted to diverge from my intended path, and I was having to strain to keep myself straight. I don't know these woods. I could get lost if I wander off. I can see the road here. I want to stay on this path. Leaves crunched, small paws drummed the ground and in my mind's eye I could picture a rabbit hopping about. I could feel my ears perk, and once again, I was in auto pilot.

I was screaming in my mind, but my body floated about stumps and a small stream. I was fast, agile, and deadly silent as I feared I was tracking a rabbit.  I came to a skid short of a large thicket of brairs, and I sank back into my haunches with my front half lowered and my back half higher. I could feel tension vibrating in my muscles, like I was a mouse trap ready to spring forward and snap if triggered. My breathing was slow, despite my thumping heart, and I had only a second to see a flash of brown fur and a large ear before I realized I had crushed it in my jaws. No! Stop!