Brenden’s body halted perfectly still, paralyzed as every muscle wrestled equally with its counterpart. Without the control to cry out, run away, or plead for mercy, he laid in silent agony as his body fought itself. A clenching grew in his chest and constricted the air from his lungs. With frightful force and timbre, he rattled his vocal cords past the out going gust and called, “HELP!”
Barely over the pounding of his heart, Brenden heard the stomp of heavy feet. As his body began to seizure, he could faintly hear his step father’s voice frantically calling his name. Brenden’s body kicked at the floor and threw him over onto his stomach.
As he laid in forced silence, he heard again the heavy footsteps and his step father’s frightened voice, however deeper then he remembered it. Brenden fought his body, gasping to call to his father again. “In here,” he cried, shocked by the sudden deep roaring voice he summoned.
A fist pounded on the door, and his step father shouted through it, “Brenden, what’s happening?”
Brenden couldn’t respond. He only growled as his body shifted around him.
“Brenden,” his step-father’s voice cried, as he shook the handle and threw a shoulder against the door. “Unlock the door. Let me in. Let me help you.”
Brenden drug an arm up along him, reaching it upwards towards the lock. What he saw was no longer recognizable as human, far more beast than man. A coat of dangling fur hung from his arm, and at the end of it grew a muscular paw like hand, tipped with ragged long black nails. As his arm rose, slabs of muscle shifted and flexed beneath the surface, audibly spluttering and popping, as tendon reformed around thickening bone. The pain was becoming exquisite, as endorphins washed over the reasoning portion of his mind.
The door broke open, and through the gray haze that invaded and burned Rick’s lungs and eyes, he made out the outline of something more than human. It raised onto its hind and front quarters, a fifth leg drooping down towards the floor hung between the furthest legs. The beast’s back violently popped and reshaped, as muscles flew across it like a notched bow string being released. Closest to Rick, he could see a face that might have belonged to his stepson, but it was elongating across a muzzle ridged with pointed teeth. About the face, the eyes shifted further along the sides, and the ears became pointed and drew up along the head.
Shocked, Rick stepped back. Intrigued the beast moved closer.