Abracadabra, Howls, and the Furry Guardians

Teetring Between Reality and Illusion

I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar place surrounded by people who seemed somehow off. I didn't know what it was about them but I could tell that they were not like me, that they were different. I jumped up in bed ready to make a run for it, to escape the situation that made me feel unsafe and that was when the pain cut through my neck, a burning pain stronger than any I had ever felt before.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," a vaguely familiar male voice said as I let out a sharp scream of pain that it took me a while to recognize as my own.

"Sir, it's not your fault. It could have happened to anyone," a quiet, subservient voice said sounding to my confused mind like an employee sucking up to his boss.

"It shouldn't!" the guy whose voice I finally recognized as Tate, the hot guy from the party said. "Something like this should never happen to anyone. I've been a werewolf long enough... I should have been able to control myself... I shouldn't have gone to that party in the first place."

"But, sir, she is-," the guy started to say.

"Werewolf?" I exclaimed at the same time drawing their attention to the good old me lying there in tons of pain while they argued about the nonsensical stuff. "What are you two weirdos jabbering on about?"

"I'm afraid that everything you thought you knew about the reality you live in is wrong," Tate started explaining sounding more like a professor at a university than a guy trying to tell someone the bad news in the most painless way possible.

"Cut the dramatics and get right to the chase before I call the cops on you," I said bitingly, the only reason I hadn't called the authorities on them yet being that I remembered really liked the guy, I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt even under those circumstances.

That showed how desperate I was to have someone by my side, to share the good and the bad. Someone to offer me comfort and companionship when I needed it the most, and a few hot kisses on top of that wouldn't hurt.

"Very well," Tate said taking a deep breath causing me to finally look at him properly. "I'm a werewolf. Last night I lost control and bit you. Now, you are in the process of becoming a werewolf. There is no cure."

With every sentence he uttered, he lowered his head lower and lower as if each admission was a burden put on his shoulders as if it pained him to say each word. And I didn't care at all.

It didn't matter that he was so crushed by what he had done. All I could think was how much pain I was in, both physical and mental pain. He was the first guy I had ever opened up to and this is what he did to me! I was furious.

Without thinking about anything, even the excruciating pain that felt like being persistently stabbed by extremely sharp knives, I jumped at him punching and scratching making far more damage to his pretty face than I anticipated never having had such power in my hands before.

After I punched him in the face and saw his lower lip bleeding, I stopped looking at my clenched hand as if it were a foreign object surprisingly attached to my body, something I didn't recognize as my own.

"How is that even possible?" I asked looking from my hand which looked the same, to his bleeding lip with horror.

Sure I wanted him to suffer for what he had done to me but I didn't really expect that I could hurt a guy as big as him. It was more shocking than all the talking about bites and werewolves.

"You are getting stronger with each passing hour," Tate explained just lying there on the ground underneath me, waving the other guy off when he approached as if he was to restrain me. "Tonight, when the moon rises, you'll complete the transition. Then, you'll be even more powerful. Your body will be much more powerful than any other human being because you'll no longer be human."