“Neil!” Topaz looks alarmed, upon seeing you troubled. “What is wrong?”
“I need to talk to Caroline, when – if – she comes back,” you announce. “Did she…leave a door unlocked, when she left – by any chance?”
Topaz points at the side door.
“I’m going inside, and I’ll lock the door behind me. Stay in your pool, Topaz,” you instruct her.
The mermaid nods, biting her lip. You sense that Caroline has told her about her secret.
Inside the house, you turn the key left in the door on the kitchen side, and make sure all the curtains are pulled to. You don’t need a light on – your eyes are already becoming attuned to the dark.
Despite using Caroline’s first aid kit to treat the wound, you start to feel feverish after an hour. Even though it is blocked off, you can somehow feel the moonlight calling to you, wanting to caress the animal taking shape deep inside…
You are burning up! Stripping off completely, you discover the clumps of blond-brown hair forming around your bite wound, spreading outwards – even as you watch. It’s like seeing a time-lapsed film of grass growing. You panic as you feel fur sweeping all over your body.
Bones soften, then twist, stretch, and ‘crunch’ into new positions inside of you. A tail bursts outwards from your rear. Your hands and feet reform themselves into talon-tipped paws, and your cries of anguish gradually turn into animal-like snarls as pressure builds in your face – only for it to be released as your nose pushes out into a muzzle. Meanwhile, your now-pointed ears stretch to the top of a reshaped skull. Your legs and hips, too, have shifted, so that you are now evolved for life as a four-legged beast…
There is nothing you can do to stop the metamorphosis. Giving in to the new instincts that are overwhelming your being, you manage to pull a curtain aside with your shrinking fingers, exposing yourself to the light of the gibbous moon – accelerating the change. Collapsing onto the lounge carpet, you shudder as the painful transformation completes itself – then pant to recover your breath.
Before long, you raise your head and howl joyously to the moon. You are now a fully-fledged dog wolf! The latest host of the potent werewolf condition. You have become a predator, a creature of the night!
Getting up, you start to explore your new quadruped body and sharper senses. The dizziness in your head fades – to be replaced by a feeling of feral satisfaction with your new form. Following the scent of food, you discover the bony remains of an unthawed chicken on a plate – the last meal of your wolf-creator. Shoving your head into the pantry, however, you find some packets of pastries to rip into with your claws. Caroline had also left behind a bowl of berries on the floor. You scoff them – and your hunger fades.
Having secured yourself in, whilst in human form – you find you can’t get out! After fighting with the locked doors and windows, you eventually tire and fall asleep on the lounge rug, grateful for your new thick fur coat to keep you warm as you rest...