That night, as Nate laid in bed, he tried to imagine himself as he would look as a werewolf. He tried to imagine growing fur and claws on his hand. He could feel his heart beat with excitement. He quickly drifted off into a deep sleep.
As he slept, he dreamt of running through the woods, chasing animals, leaping over fallen trees. He awoke with a start, looking around the room, lit by bright sunshine. He glanced at the alarm clock beside his bed. It was already 11 am. He had slept for 12 hours. He felt sore all over as he stood up and walked across the room. He took one look at himself in the mirror and was in shock. While he still looked mostly like himself, he had a deep five o'clock shadow whereas previously he could barely grow facial hair. His ears seemed to come to a small point and his canine teeth, both upper and lower seemed a bit more pronounced.
"Holy shit, this is really happening," he whispered to himself.
There was a knock at the door.
"Yes?" asked Nate.
"It's Jamie. Are you up, finally?"
"Yeah, I'll be down in a few minutes. Just gotta get cleaned up," replied Nate.
"Okay," replied Jamie.
Nate quickly went into his bathroom and showered and shaved. As he shaved, he became aware of how much hairier he had become, with small dark hairs growing over his chest, shoulders and back. He noticed these same hairs on his legs and the tops of his feet. Also, checking himself out in the mirror, he saw he had a bit more muscle definition than he did before. These new discoveries only made him more anxious for that night, when he would finally transform.
Meanwhile, downstairs, the remaining housemates sat around the living room. They had been notified by the production that the main producer, James Romulus was coming to speak to them.
"What do you think they are coming to talk to us about?" asked Aaron.
"They're probably going to have us do a challenge or something. Probably at night, when the werewolves are out," replied Henry. "It'd be too easy for us to just sit around here all night."
"I was afraid you'd say something like that," replied Kelly.
Nate exited his room and walked down the stairs just as James walked in the front door. The two met at the bottom of the stairs.
"Ah, the late riser arrives," said James, smiling. "Have fun last night?"
"Yeah, actually I did," replied Nate, with a knowing smile. "Did you?"
"Oh yeah, threw some things around, had a quick bite. Good times," said James. "Now, let's join the others, shall we?"
Nate and James walked into the living room and Nate sat with the other contestants.
"I hope you all enjoyed a quiet evening last night, because its going to get a lot more harrowing from here on out. We're raising the stakes, as it is. Every night, the werewolves will be out to get you. This is true survivor stuff here folks. You can try to seek shelter here in the house, fend them off and wait for dawn or try to escape to the town for help. But I should warn you, the woods and the town are populated by many, many werewolves. The choice is yours. Of course, you always have the option to leave the show, but doing so forfeits your chance at the $3 million dollar grand prize," said James.
Each of the contestants looked at one another, trying to decide what to do.
"The choice is yours. And remember, there may already be a werewolf amongst you. Can you really trust your other team members?" And with that, James walked out of the cabin. Nate's heart sank as he watched James walk out. Luckily the other team member read that as panic that one of his team members was already a werewolf. Jamie shook him reassuringly.
"Don't worry, he's just trying to breed suspicion. If any of us were werewolves, we would have turned last night, or at least been missing, right?" she said.
"Right," replied Aaron.
"Right," said Nate, smiling.
Boy, are they in for a surprise tonight, thought Nate.