Nate was walking home from his friend Dillon's house. The sun had long set and the cool night was illuminated by the moon high in the sky. Nate was cutting through backyards, making his way back to his own home, which he shared with his parents and younger brother. At the age of sixteen, he had an average build, decked out in a battered pair of Nike tennis shoes, jeans, t-shirt and royal blue hoodie.
Normally, their little slice of suburbia was as safe and benign as could be but lately, there had been some strange disappearances going on. People vanishing from their homes with only torn clothing left in their wake, sometimes not even that. There had been at least five disappearances thus far. 2 adults and three were kids from his own school. As he thought about it, he picked up the pace a little. He didn't want his parents to worry, if they were even still up that is. As he cut through another yard, he was tackled from the side. It took him a moment to realize that it was a large animal and by then the beast had sunk it's teeth into Nate's forearm, breaking the skin. Nate cried out and started hitting the beast repeatedly and kicking it with his feet until it broke free and ran off into the night. In the darkness he would've sworn it was a wolf, but it was too big and didn't look quite right. He picked himself up and ran home. The house was dark and clearly his parents had already gone to bed. Nate unlocked the back door and quietly entered the house.
He went to the bathroom and closed the door. He turned on the bathroom light and pulled off his hoodie, tossing it aside. He began washing off the bite mark and noticed it didn't look that bad. Barely even broke the skin. He knew he should wake his parents and have them take him in for a rabies shot, but decided against it. The animal that attacked him didn't look rabid anyway. It was barely even bleeding. He shut off the light and went to his bedroom to get changed into his pajamas. As he started getting changed, he momentarily thought to himself what if it was a werewolf that attacked me. That'd be cool, he thought with a chuckle as he undressed. He climbed into bed and shut off his bedside light, quickly falling asleep.
What seemed like only moments but was in fact several hours later, there was a knock on his bedroom door as his mother came in. She walked over to his bed and gently nudged Nate. He slowly woke up and let out a groan. He felt groggy and sore all over.
"It's time to wake up...time for school."
"I don't feel well...I don't want to go to school today." Nate let out another groan as he pulled the sheets closer. He was normally very studious, so she took him at his word.
"I'm sorry honey, I'll call the school and let them know." She walked back out of the room. "Try and get some sleep."
A few hours later, Nate awoke again with a massive need to go to the bathroom. He stumbled out of his bedroom and down the hall to the bathroom. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror as he flipped on the light and was shocked at the sight. As he slept, he had become decidedly hairier over his entire body. He cried out as he took a step back and looked in the mirror. His entire body still felt sore and stiff.
"What's happening to me?" he whispered as he sat down on the toilet to relieve himself. He momentarily thought he should be doing that outside around the house and then pushed it away, wondering why he would think something like that.
He began to feel a dull pain in his fingertips and looked down, watching as his fingernails slowly were pulled from their nail beds and fall away revealing thick sharp claws growing in. He cried out in shock and began to feel faint.
"Holy shit, I was kidding!" he cried out.