Karl Hurtz sat nervously in the chair that he had been given by the news crew for the coming interview. The lights were on at an appropriate level for an interview and that gave Karl the chance to look around the room. The set was a modest sized box with a single rectangular table in the center with four chairs set to its sides and one at its head, though Karl was presently the only guest on the program. The back wall was a not just a wall but a huge television screen, that Karl thought belonged on TNT's coverage of the NBA playoffs, but he didn't say that to anyone. The rest of the set looked rather professional, but very Spartan in terms of "decoration" in comparison to other news programs. Karl thought the costs went into the television screen, which didn't make a lot of sense given that the network and the show were new.
The channel was a new cable news station that had sold itself as not being connected to some major corporate CEO the way CNN was and wasn't biased as MSNBC and FoxNews were. The show was also intended to garner the opinions of the average people on the major issues in an actual interview rather than short one line answers that could be easily ignored by important people. For the past six months they'd done a lot of interviews with various people concerning the revelation of werewolves, and in some of them had lead into rather intensive debates among some of the guests. However, for Karl, the fact that the debates occurred at all was a problem.
He could understand the fear that had come out initially, but it had been six months since werewolves were revealed, ultimately between many of the actions that had occurred, humanity had learned quite a lot. Much of it came from the government's first action after the incident that revealed werewolves was that any and all werewolves in the country were to reveal themselves to be werewolves, and they did obey the law, and some were quite open in sharing what they could and could not do. Karl figured that would have settled the issue, but the debates continued and at times everyone seemed to be turning on their neighbors because they were wolves part of the time. Karl hoped he'd be able to set things right in the interview as he turned his glance to see the large cameras at the other end of the studio with the cameramen manning them. The set director was near the front and had one hand raised. He then counted out, raising a finger for each number.
"One, two, three," the set director spoke and then lowered his arm.
Karl sat quietly as the stations entry music played and the show's host came out from behind a door near their giant television screen, waiving to the camera crew as he did so, as if he were waiving to an audience. He gave his introduction as he approached the table.
"Hello and good evening ladies and gentlemen, I am Clarence Fishborne, and this is the People's Talk," Clarence Fishborne introduced himself, "where we bring to America the voice of the common man. Not the politicians giving their spin, but the actual opinions of the common man."
He flashed Karl a smile and moved to sit in the chair on the other side of the table from him. His main focus, however, remained on the cameras and the cameramen for the moment.
"Tonight, we will continue with our sampling of opinions regarding werewolves and their existence in our society," Clarence continued, "and we have a special guest, a Karl Hurtz, and Karl, I take it you were one of the people who was present for the incident that exposed werewolves?"
"I was," Karl answered.
"For those that might have missed "the incident" we will show you the file footage of what revealed the existence of werewolves to the world," Clarence continued.
Karl sighed, as this had been replied with nearly every news program, but it seemed to be used to set everything up. Clarence turned toward the big screen that made up the wall behind the desk and motioned for Karl to look as well. Karl did so and watched what he had seen plenty of times over the past six months. It opened with a field reporter doing a story about what a local business in the mall was doing to attract costumers and build the economy, and she looked to be near the front entrances to a major department store. The reporter was commenting on how well everything was going when a great pained scream cut him off, making both the reporter and the cameraman turn. The camera angle turned to see an athletic blonde woman standing on a walking path near them, and gripping herself. In the background, Karl could see himself and his girlfriend, Alice Pierce, standing in shock and looking at the blonde woman.
"Madam, are you alright?" the reporter asked and came forward into the camera's view again.
The woman looked up with her eyes going from blue to gold and opened her mouth to give a pained howl, "NoooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH!"
As the woman opened her mouth, she revealed the lengthening of her canine teeth into what would be wolven fangs in a few moments. At the same time, her body seemed to grow larger and was straining the seams of her clothing. Claws began to appear on her finger tips as sandy blonde fur began to grow on her, while her hair, which was almost a platinum blonde color began to darken and match the sandy blonde color that her fur was.
"Holy crap!" the cameraman from the "incident" spoke as the woman kicked off her shows to see snapping and crackling feet as she rose up onto long feet that clearly weren't human, with claws poking through her socks.
Karl watched as he saw himself as he and Alice called the blonde woman's name as her human cries of pain became deeper, more guttural, and were soon more like that of a animal's snarl. The blonde continued grow larger and larger. By now the seems of her clothing were starting to rip apart, and after a few moments the woman in a roar of pain and frustration gripped at her clothing with her claws and pulled. The clothing fell away leaving the woman in only her underwear as it tried to contain her growing frame, and was only just barely doing so. Sandy blonde fur seemed to cover her, and her ears had become triangular points rising onto the top of her head.
"Aaarrrkk... aaarrk... aaaaaaaarrrrrk..." the blond actually began to bark as her face pushed forward into a very wolf-like muzzle and as her underwear lost the battle against her growing sandy blonde furred breasts, and slowly a tail could be seen wagging behind her in a slow and the blond raised her head and let out a great howl that lead to screams from a lot of people, but the cameraman in the "incident" seemingly couldn't move. Karl again heard himself and Alice call the blonde's name as the newly transformed werewolf looked over her shoulder, gave a whimper and a whine and then bolted out into the night, shattering the glass doors of the store.
"So," Clarence spoke as the screen went to black, "not only were you there for incident, it would appear that you know the werewolf in question."
"Yes," Karl answered, "My girlfriend, Alice and I, know her. Her name is Sally Yeller..."
There was a silence for a few moments before Karl continued.
"She is... was... a good friend of my girlfriend and I knew her based on the fact that I am dating Alice," Karl spoke.
"And Alice is...?"
"Alice was the woman standing with me," Karl answered slowly.
"And was it that lead up this trip to Target?" Clarence asked.
"Sally had actually gotten an interview to become the principal at the local high school, but needed new formal clothes," Karl answered, "but work schedules and other interruptions left us little choice. The only time that Alice and I could take her to a formal clothing store in the mall in question... which we had to go through the Target to get to... was on that night, which happened to be during a full moon and she changed. She didn't want to go and was quite willing to skip out on the interview... probably to keep her secret... but Alice and I talked her into it... we..."
Karl broke down for a moment and raised his hand to his mouth and took a deep breath.
"You're taking this rather personally, did you know she was a werewolf beforehand?" Clarence commented.
"No, neither Alice nor I knew," Karl answered, "but she is... was... our friend and we wanted her to be happy, as she was excited about the job opportunity and we wanted that to go forward. So we talked her into taking the risk and inevitably we took longer than expected and she transformed in front a news camera that recorded her entire transformation."
Clarence didn't say anything for a few moments, which Karl took as an invitation to continue.
"And then look what happens!" Karl spoke, "over the last six months some three hundred werewolves or supposed werewolves have been killed nationwide out of fear and petty hatred! That's probably the reason they all hid what they were from us. They were afraid we would go and do something like this."
Clarence gave him a rather understanding smile.
"I take it you feel they deserve better than that?" Clarence asked.
"Of course," Karl answered, "those that have talked with the press have said they aren't mindless. They may have predatory urges, but they aren't mindless beasts out for blood..."
"People have pointed out that the fact that they aren't mindless is a bigger threat than if they were," Clarence commented, "after all, if they can think, they can plan and thus deceive people. Do you think there is any credence to that commentary?"
"In that they're no different than humans are," Karl answered, sounding a bit indigent, "the werewolves that have been proven to be criminal gave reasons that are no different than what a human criminal would give. Being a werewolf doesn't make them criminal or monsters. Shoot... many of them were our friends and neighbors before all this happened. They babysat our children, we babysat theirs. If Sally were some sort of criminal, Alice and I had given her PLENTY of chances kill us without exposing her secret... So, should we really change our opinion of people we know simply because we found out something about them? Do you know how ridiculous is?"
"From that point of view, it certainly is ridiculous," Clarence nodded, "and you aren't alone in that opinion."
"I'm glad for that," Karl said slowly, "but they've lived beside us for years. They're no different now than they were then. The only thing that's different now is that we know they're werewolves."
Clarence then nodded, "And you've taken action to support those lobbying for the 1964 Civil Rights Act be extended to werewolves?"
"Both Alice and I have," Karl answered, "as a means to show Sally that we're sorry and that we're still her friends."
"And since the "incident" how have things gone between you and your girlfriend and Sally?" Clarence asked.