Monster Mash | Packs and Sparks
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xp_logsProfessor Gibney runs Parkour club and turns into a creature of the night. Artie, Alani, and Alison find this out in unfortunate ways before America can step in.
The fat moon was barely visible behind heavy clouds, shining through the thick trees around the school to cast eerie shadows over the courtyard. The flickering lanterns did nothing to lessen the long fingers of black that seemed to creep over the tables on their own, and the wind that made the "back to school night!" banners flap noisily.
Moving between the clusters of parents and sullen teenagers and tired teachers, a tall man handed out stapled booklets of paper. Kyle winced as a high-pitched squeeing noise erupted from the commons to his left. He glanced over just in time to see Alison Blaire, school airhead and 3rd ranking squad member (excuse you, that's head flier to you, his brain unhelpfully echoed her oft-repeated claim), crashing into one of the taller girls, talking a mile a minute.
"--know how when you open up an avocado there's a toy inside of it like a kinder egg except the toy is always the same little wooden ball thing? Yeah, so, it totally turns out that those things are actually seeds. I know, right? Who knew--" He forcefully tuned her out, and focused on the new kid in front of him. Perfect.
"Parkour club. We meet at least once a month, go free running." He handed one of the booklets out, and grinned wide. "It's a good time. Get your run on, burn off some wild energy." He pulled at a half-knotted tie. "Usually there's snacks."
The young man in front of him blinked and fingerspelled back "Parkour?" Artie tugged on the hem of his sweater and shrugged, signing "Sure, why not? I'm new in the school .. " He paused, shrugged again. I'm new and lonely and don't go to friends wasn't what you said to a teacher. He gave a bright smile. "Sounds like fun. When do we start?"
"Aw yeah, that's cool. I'm the advisor for it, so." The teacher ran a hand through his shaggy hair and grinned again. "Mr Gibney, I teach English and do the Shakespeare Club sometimes too. Uh. My ASL is better when I don't have pamphlets. Anyway. Oh, first meeting after school tomorrow. You know that woodpile back by the back gate? There's a couple of flags, follow the one with the pawprint."
Artie gave what looked like a practiced smile. "It's fine, Mr Gibney. I'm Hearing, just can't speak." He gestured at his throat. "I've checked out the rest of the clubs and I'm thinking of trying out for cross country, maybe lacrosse, so I'm going to go and have a run of the course now, if it's okay?" He took a couple of steps and, when there was no objection, set off at a jog.
Kyle grinned, and for a moment, the lantern light made it appear as though his eyes were reflecting amber.
The path through the woods was rough, doubling back on itself. Artie couldn't be blamed for it when he smacked into someone he hadn't seen. He stumbled and fell, landing on his hands and knees on the track.
"Careful, pequeño gato," America said. "This path can be dangerous. Where are you heading?"
Artie pointed to the trail marked "ropes course" and mimed walking his fingers and looking around before tugging the flier out of his pocket and tapping the parkour club. He gave a slight bounce and looked down the track, slightly impatiently.
"Oh, yeah. That's a fun club. Try maybe bringing a flashlight next time?" America suggested before she went on her way.
~*~
Mr Gibney had changed into a pair of loose track pants and a slightly worn looking t-shirt, and was standing at the entrance to the ropes course with a grin and a plastic cooler of water bottles. "Hey hey, was worried we wouldn't see you here. Rest of the club's a little ahead of you, but no worries. You're the new guy. Nobody's gonna give you crap, or they answer to me." He passed Artie a water bottle. "Hydrate, but we've got a water source midway through, so don't worry if you lose it or get too thirsty."
Artie blinked at Mr Gibney. Damn, this place was weird. "Thought I'd be running solo, but okay." He drank a little and set the bottle down.
The course started out easy - a balance beam, tyre run, hurdles. Artie cleared the last hurdle and skidded to a halt, panting at the 12 foot wall. He grasped the rope and began to scramble his way up. He'd reached the top when he began to scream wordlessly, dragged back down by teeth and claws.
The pack had turned back at their leader's direction, hungry for meat and blood and the chase. Deer and rabbits fell under their claws, but the largest prey had eluded them at first. The pack leader caught the boy-almost-man's scent on the wind, and skulked in the underbrush waiting for the signal .
A wolf, lean and pale brown stood on top of a rock and howled and then the pack sprung forward, coordinated and in tune with each other. They ran together, the leader just in front until they reached the wall and waited. The leader though - the grown wolf with his golden brown coat and his sharp teeth and claws leapt up, jaws biting down on the calf of the young man. It was a strange thing to attack prey that did not - could not scream, but it was a stranger thing to have the prey fight back. The younger man kicked and punched, and even tries to bite, and the pack leader pulled away from him. He circled the injured and terrified young man and let out a warning howl to his pack.
The clouds shifted and the moonlight broke through the shadows under the trees, hitting Artie. He began to thrash on the ground, muscles and joints shifting, tearing.
After a long moment, a small, brindled wolf couched panting in the remains of a set of boy's clothes. He scrambled free, licked the fur on one paw and whined. He was hungry. He wanted to hunt.
The sky had started to cloud over and with the moon obscured, it was much darker than it had been. The shadows under the trees were impenetrable. There was the sound of breaking twigs as something large moved in the darkness.
"This was a dumb idea," Alison said, straining her eyes to see through the darkness, "and I never should have let you talk me into this. I hate the dark." She was very proud that her voice didn't waver even once.
"It's fine, I'm sure we can rely on cell phone flashlights if push comes to shove," Alani laughed lightly to cover up that something felt... weird. Like they were being watched. To prove her point, she pulled her phone out. "Oh...I... have like 10%...Ha..."
"I hate you," Alison said, giving Alani her best 'I am so unimpressed right now' glance. "I hate you so much."
Deep into the trees, the shadows loomed over a clearing. Near a large boulder there was a flashlight propped up on a log, and it's light was covered quickly by a wrinkled button-down shirt, and then a t-shirt and then a pair of jeans. A pair of boxer briefs followed well after. "There's privacy tents if you kids need them." A voice, gravely and rough with discomfort called. "And towels. But I recommend embracing your wild. Be who you are. It is the very error of the moon." The man quoted. "She comes more nearer the earth then she was wont, and makes men mad."
A girl's voice came from one of the tents in the clearing. "Oh my God no more Shakespeare! This isn't homework time!" She said, annoyed, and then let out a hiss of pain, and a warbling yelp that broke into a high pitched howl.
Artie loped forward on hands and feet, the changed musculature in his legs and arms making that a better way to run. His clothing had long since torn off but it wasn't cold, not with the thick fur that now covered him. He was hungry. He paused, sitting upright and scented the wind. There was prey. He ran toward it, howling at the moon as he moved. It was time for the hunt.
Back with Alison and Alani, things were going... well. They were going, at least? "Well, I love you, in a totally platonic way. And I promise, this view is totally worth the trek!" Alani continued in her upbeat, and totally not false at all, bravado. "Honestly, I know it's called Make Out Point, but please know I'm not taking you there to ask you to make out... I would have asked before but this is just for the scenery."
"But why did it have to be at night? Why tonight, for that matter? Did you even tell anyone else where we were going before we left?."
"Hmmm? Oh, no, no I did not, which... in retrospect, maybe not my smartest idea, but-" Alani held up a pointer finger and turned to face Alison, flashing a quick, cocksure grin that dropped just as quickly as a wolf howled in the distance. "Did you hear that? That totally sounded like a track in a horror movie. Oh my god, I have goosebumps."
Alison shushed Alani, turning to stare into the darkness in the approximate direction of the wolf howl. "How is it that I'm the one with the reputation as the school bimbo?" she muttered under her breath. "...I don't like this," she said, louder. "We should hurry."
"Huh? Wait, do people think I'm smart? I just take really detailed nose." Contrary to Alison's suggestion, Alani stopped moving. She pursed her lips, cocking her head slightly to the side as she tried to strain her hearing. It was no use, as her heart was racing in her veins. "Are we near that abandoned shack? Ya know, where they found all those bones last year?"
The prey didn't see him and didn't care. He leaped, bit, tasting blood as he did so and stopped to howl again.
And then the werewolves attacked, streaking out of the woods, It was all so sudden that the scream that formed in her throat stopped just as soon as it started and made a loud, choking squeak.
The first blur slammed into Alani, and with a muffled crunch the two disappeared into the dark overbrush. Already high strung, Alison turned and bolted around the nearby tree as something heavy whumphed by where she'd been standing just a moment before. In the next moments, a massive weight slammed into her front as a second landed on the back of her leg, and she was thrown bodily through the air.
There was the sound of something wet squelching, and of a loud pop, and then her back exploded in pain as she hit the ground.
Something was on top of her. Knives were digging into her shoulder and side. She thrashed her arms and beat the side of something hard and yet soft at the same time. She screamed. A knife slashed across her face, leaving a line of fire from brow to collar. Her mind went white from the pain.
Kyle howled, muzzle raised towards the full moon and unfolded himself. There was the wet sound of muscles shifting and bones cracking, and then he stood, still more wolf than man, and howled again. He took a moment to look over his pack, bending here and there to scratch a furry set of ears, or run his clawed hands over a lupine head. He paused at the youngest, and smallest, the quietest and newest member, and then shifted back to his fully animal form.
A butt of his head later, and he nudged Artie away from the whimpering girl with a shake of his head. He had run the prey down, was ready to tear her throat open, but she had fought back, and she wasn't going anywhere with one of her legs looking like it was only held on by a strip of skin and gristle. He would wait and see if she turned and survived, or not.
Artie whined and snapped his teeth in response but accepted it. He turned to face the other girl, running at her, teeth bared. He'd feed tonight.
The chances of her outrunning a wolf point blank were slim. But somewhere in her brain, Alani remembered that it was possible to outpace a shark, briefly, yes, but it was possible. And what were wolves if not the sharks of the land? Silently, she apologized to Alison before she turned on her heels as fast as she could and ran in the opposite direction. Endurance training be damned, the ice cold fear in her veins was the only thing driving her forward.
Artie ran after her, newly formed instincts driving him out of full wolf form into something halfway between that and human. He leaped, catching Alani, teeth sinking into her shoulder, claws into her legs. They tumbled to the ground, rolling and blood filled his mouth.
The fall sent Alani tumbling forward, and she squawked at the initial pain. While her mind was still trying to figure out how this had all happened, she desperately tried to squirm, kick, or otherwise throw her weight around to get out of the wolf's jaws. It was to no avail. After a moment of rolling and kicking around in the dirt, she punched blindly backwards with her mostly uninjured arm, hoping to hit eyes or the nose, in hopes of stunning. But a horrible, hot pain was spreading through her injured shoulder. "Fuck you! Fuck off! FUCK!"
Artie stepped back. He'd been were for all of 35 minutes but some knowledge came with the shape. Prey that fought too hard should be left. Moonlight stroked across the field, hitting Alani's body. He waited to see if she'd turn.
Had that worked? Did wolves stop attack? Oh, why hadn't she gone to that 'Canis Lupus and You' seminar? She scrambled to look at the wolf, but the movement tore a half-scream from her as her shoulder pulsed in a blinding pain when she hit it against the ground. Looking down, she stared at the growing stain on her shirt and shivered. When did it get so cold? "Oh, that's blood?"
Artie licked the stain on her shirt, teeth bared. Was she going to shift? Or was she food? She smelled of food and he was hungry.
The man-wolf that was Kyle huffed, and seemed to almost roll his eyes. Too many of these girls were fighting back. Who was even teaching them to do that, it certainly wasn't him, he was teaching good essay structure and about the fart jokes in Shakespeare when he wasn't chasing human beings through the woods and either cannibalizing them or forcibly turning them into monsters.
He shook his head, and leapt, landing with his front paws on the girl and ripping into her shoulder. He ripped away a chunk of flesh, and took another leap away, snarling as he ate.
Alani screamed, her moment of shock forgotten as a whole new pulse of burning pain took over her brain. This could not be happening. Both of her hands shot up to apply some pressure to the gushing wound, thinking that she should try to staunch it some as more hot blood slipped through her fingers and down her arms. “No. No. No. Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
She looked back up, frantically looking for something that she could use or someone to help.
Alison's vision was getting dark. Flashes of brown and green kept flickering past when she found the strength to open her eyes. Dammit. She was just... so... tired. She coughed, wondering why it was so hard to breathe.
One thought stood out in her mind, over and over, even as everything got dimmer: I hate them.
Another howl, and pack leader tore another chunk off the second girl. The first, however - he padded over and nosed at her wound. The blood was still trickling but slower, and he could smell the forest and wind and the bitter bite of hate under the blood. Another fighter for his little pack.
Another scream, this time hoarse and weaker, but Alani still did her best to glare at the retreating wolf. Then she turned her glare to the wolf that had started this whole mess. Regardless of what bringing a friend to a forest in the middle of the night might imply, she wasn't an idiot, there was no way -- even if medics had been called for some reason and knew her exact location -- that anyone would arrive in time. Weakly, she raised a bloodstained hand, middle finger extended. "Fuck you."
And Alani died.
Artie ate, driven by instinct and hunger before moving on to fill the rest of the night.
Hours later, he woke, naked, aching, in the woods. Every muscle in his body ached and his mouth tasted terrible. He teased a lump of ... meat out of one tooth with a prehensile tongue and spat it out, staring at it in horror. What had he done? He had vague memories of. Oh god. He'd eaten her. He'd eaten her.
He could feel another change in himself. Knew that he'd shift again when the moon rose once more. He'd bloody eaten her. Oh god.
[Placeholder for Part III]
Dr. Darcy Lewistein, her companion Kurt, and latest creation Doug run into trouble from inspectors Matt and Bobby.
[Log Placeholder!]
The fat moon was barely visible behind heavy clouds, shining through the thick trees around the school to cast eerie shadows over the courtyard. The flickering lanterns did nothing to lessen the long fingers of black that seemed to creep over the tables on their own, and the wind that made the "back to school night!" banners flap noisily.
Moving between the clusters of parents and sullen teenagers and tired teachers, a tall man handed out stapled booklets of paper. Kyle winced as a high-pitched squeeing noise erupted from the commons to his left. He glanced over just in time to see Alison Blaire, school airhead and 3rd ranking squad member (excuse you, that's head flier to you, his brain unhelpfully echoed her oft-repeated claim), crashing into one of the taller girls, talking a mile a minute.
"--know how when you open up an avocado there's a toy inside of it like a kinder egg except the toy is always the same little wooden ball thing? Yeah, so, it totally turns out that those things are actually seeds. I know, right? Who knew--" He forcefully tuned her out, and focused on the new kid in front of him. Perfect.
"Parkour club. We meet at least once a month, go free running." He handed one of the booklets out, and grinned wide. "It's a good time. Get your run on, burn off some wild energy." He pulled at a half-knotted tie. "Usually there's snacks."
The young man in front of him blinked and fingerspelled back "Parkour?" Artie tugged on the hem of his sweater and shrugged, signing "Sure, why not? I'm new in the school .. " He paused, shrugged again. I'm new and lonely and don't go to friends wasn't what you said to a teacher. He gave a bright smile. "Sounds like fun. When do we start?"
"Aw yeah, that's cool. I'm the advisor for it, so." The teacher ran a hand through his shaggy hair and grinned again. "Mr Gibney, I teach English and do the Shakespeare Club sometimes too. Uh. My ASL is better when I don't have pamphlets. Anyway. Oh, first meeting after school tomorrow. You know that woodpile back by the back gate? There's a couple of flags, follow the one with the pawprint."
Artie gave what looked like a practiced smile. "It's fine, Mr Gibney. I'm Hearing, just can't speak." He gestured at his throat. "I've checked out the rest of the clubs and I'm thinking of trying out for cross country, maybe lacrosse, so I'm going to go and have a run of the course now, if it's okay?" He took a couple of steps and, when there was no objection, set off at a jog.
Kyle grinned, and for a moment, the lantern light made it appear as though his eyes were reflecting amber.
The path through the woods was rough, doubling back on itself. Artie couldn't be blamed for it when he smacked into someone he hadn't seen. He stumbled and fell, landing on his hands and knees on the track.
"Careful, pequeño gato," America said. "This path can be dangerous. Where are you heading?"
Artie pointed to the trail marked "ropes course" and mimed walking his fingers and looking around before tugging the flier out of his pocket and tapping the parkour club. He gave a slight bounce and looked down the track, slightly impatiently.
"Oh, yeah. That's a fun club. Try maybe bringing a flashlight next time?" America suggested before she went on her way.
~*~
Mr Gibney had changed into a pair of loose track pants and a slightly worn looking t-shirt, and was standing at the entrance to the ropes course with a grin and a plastic cooler of water bottles. "Hey hey, was worried we wouldn't see you here. Rest of the club's a little ahead of you, but no worries. You're the new guy. Nobody's gonna give you crap, or they answer to me." He passed Artie a water bottle. "Hydrate, but we've got a water source midway through, so don't worry if you lose it or get too thirsty."
Artie blinked at Mr Gibney. Damn, this place was weird. "Thought I'd be running solo, but okay." He drank a little and set the bottle down.
The course started out easy - a balance beam, tyre run, hurdles. Artie cleared the last hurdle and skidded to a halt, panting at the 12 foot wall. He grasped the rope and began to scramble his way up. He'd reached the top when he began to scream wordlessly, dragged back down by teeth and claws.
The pack had turned back at their leader's direction, hungry for meat and blood and the chase. Deer and rabbits fell under their claws, but the largest prey had eluded them at first. The pack leader caught the boy-almost-man's scent on the wind, and skulked in the underbrush waiting for the signal .
A wolf, lean and pale brown stood on top of a rock and howled and then the pack sprung forward, coordinated and in tune with each other. They ran together, the leader just in front until they reached the wall and waited. The leader though - the grown wolf with his golden brown coat and his sharp teeth and claws leapt up, jaws biting down on the calf of the young man. It was a strange thing to attack prey that did not - could not scream, but it was a stranger thing to have the prey fight back. The younger man kicked and punched, and even tries to bite, and the pack leader pulled away from him. He circled the injured and terrified young man and let out a warning howl to his pack.
The clouds shifted and the moonlight broke through the shadows under the trees, hitting Artie. He began to thrash on the ground, muscles and joints shifting, tearing.
After a long moment, a small, brindled wolf couched panting in the remains of a set of boy's clothes. He scrambled free, licked the fur on one paw and whined. He was hungry. He wanted to hunt.
The sky had started to cloud over and with the moon obscured, it was much darker than it had been. The shadows under the trees were impenetrable. There was the sound of breaking twigs as something large moved in the darkness.
"This was a dumb idea," Alison said, straining her eyes to see through the darkness, "and I never should have let you talk me into this. I hate the dark." She was very proud that her voice didn't waver even once.
"It's fine, I'm sure we can rely on cell phone flashlights if push comes to shove," Alani laughed lightly to cover up that something felt... weird. Like they were being watched. To prove her point, she pulled her phone out. "Oh...I... have like 10%...Ha..."
"I hate you," Alison said, giving Alani her best 'I am so unimpressed right now' glance. "I hate you so much."
Deep into the trees, the shadows loomed over a clearing. Near a large boulder there was a flashlight propped up on a log, and it's light was covered quickly by a wrinkled button-down shirt, and then a t-shirt and then a pair of jeans. A pair of boxer briefs followed well after. "There's privacy tents if you kids need them." A voice, gravely and rough with discomfort called. "And towels. But I recommend embracing your wild. Be who you are. It is the very error of the moon." The man quoted. "She comes more nearer the earth then she was wont, and makes men mad."
A girl's voice came from one of the tents in the clearing. "Oh my God no more Shakespeare! This isn't homework time!" She said, annoyed, and then let out a hiss of pain, and a warbling yelp that broke into a high pitched howl.
Artie loped forward on hands and feet, the changed musculature in his legs and arms making that a better way to run. His clothing had long since torn off but it wasn't cold, not with the thick fur that now covered him. He was hungry. He paused, sitting upright and scented the wind. There was prey. He ran toward it, howling at the moon as he moved. It was time for the hunt.
Back with Alison and Alani, things were going... well. They were going, at least? "Well, I love you, in a totally platonic way. And I promise, this view is totally worth the trek!" Alani continued in her upbeat, and totally not false at all, bravado. "Honestly, I know it's called Make Out Point, but please know I'm not taking you there to ask you to make out... I would have asked before but this is just for the scenery."
"But why did it have to be at night? Why tonight, for that matter? Did you even tell anyone else where we were going before we left?."
"Hmmm? Oh, no, no I did not, which... in retrospect, maybe not my smartest idea, but-" Alani held up a pointer finger and turned to face Alison, flashing a quick, cocksure grin that dropped just as quickly as a wolf howled in the distance. "Did you hear that? That totally sounded like a track in a horror movie. Oh my god, I have goosebumps."
Alison shushed Alani, turning to stare into the darkness in the approximate direction of the wolf howl. "How is it that I'm the one with the reputation as the school bimbo?" she muttered under her breath. "...I don't like this," she said, louder. "We should hurry."
"Huh? Wait, do people think I'm smart? I just take really detailed nose." Contrary to Alison's suggestion, Alani stopped moving. She pursed her lips, cocking her head slightly to the side as she tried to strain her hearing. It was no use, as her heart was racing in her veins. "Are we near that abandoned shack? Ya know, where they found all those bones last year?"
The prey didn't see him and didn't care. He leaped, bit, tasting blood as he did so and stopped to howl again.
And then the werewolves attacked, streaking out of the woods, It was all so sudden that the scream that formed in her throat stopped just as soon as it started and made a loud, choking squeak.
The first blur slammed into Alani, and with a muffled crunch the two disappeared into the dark overbrush. Already high strung, Alison turned and bolted around the nearby tree as something heavy whumphed by where she'd been standing just a moment before. In the next moments, a massive weight slammed into her front as a second landed on the back of her leg, and she was thrown bodily through the air.
There was the sound of something wet squelching, and of a loud pop, and then her back exploded in pain as she hit the ground.
Something was on top of her. Knives were digging into her shoulder and side. She thrashed her arms and beat the side of something hard and yet soft at the same time. She screamed. A knife slashed across her face, leaving a line of fire from brow to collar. Her mind went white from the pain.
Kyle howled, muzzle raised towards the full moon and unfolded himself. There was the wet sound of muscles shifting and bones cracking, and then he stood, still more wolf than man, and howled again. He took a moment to look over his pack, bending here and there to scratch a furry set of ears, or run his clawed hands over a lupine head. He paused at the youngest, and smallest, the quietest and newest member, and then shifted back to his fully animal form.
A butt of his head later, and he nudged Artie away from the whimpering girl with a shake of his head. He had run the prey down, was ready to tear her throat open, but she had fought back, and she wasn't going anywhere with one of her legs looking like it was only held on by a strip of skin and gristle. He would wait and see if she turned and survived, or not.
Artie whined and snapped his teeth in response but accepted it. He turned to face the other girl, running at her, teeth bared. He'd feed tonight.
The chances of her outrunning a wolf point blank were slim. But somewhere in her brain, Alani remembered that it was possible to outpace a shark, briefly, yes, but it was possible. And what were wolves if not the sharks of the land? Silently, she apologized to Alison before she turned on her heels as fast as she could and ran in the opposite direction. Endurance training be damned, the ice cold fear in her veins was the only thing driving her forward.
Artie ran after her, newly formed instincts driving him out of full wolf form into something halfway between that and human. He leaped, catching Alani, teeth sinking into her shoulder, claws into her legs. They tumbled to the ground, rolling and blood filled his mouth.
The fall sent Alani tumbling forward, and she squawked at the initial pain. While her mind was still trying to figure out how this had all happened, she desperately tried to squirm, kick, or otherwise throw her weight around to get out of the wolf's jaws. It was to no avail. After a moment of rolling and kicking around in the dirt, she punched blindly backwards with her mostly uninjured arm, hoping to hit eyes or the nose, in hopes of stunning. But a horrible, hot pain was spreading through her injured shoulder. "Fuck you! Fuck off! FUCK!"
Artie stepped back. He'd been were for all of 35 minutes but some knowledge came with the shape. Prey that fought too hard should be left. Moonlight stroked across the field, hitting Alani's body. He waited to see if she'd turn.
Had that worked? Did wolves stop attack? Oh, why hadn't she gone to that 'Canis Lupus and You' seminar? She scrambled to look at the wolf, but the movement tore a half-scream from her as her shoulder pulsed in a blinding pain when she hit it against the ground. Looking down, she stared at the growing stain on her shirt and shivered. When did it get so cold? "Oh, that's blood?"
Artie licked the stain on her shirt, teeth bared. Was she going to shift? Or was she food? She smelled of food and he was hungry.
The man-wolf that was Kyle huffed, and seemed to almost roll his eyes. Too many of these girls were fighting back. Who was even teaching them to do that, it certainly wasn't him, he was teaching good essay structure and about the fart jokes in Shakespeare when he wasn't chasing human beings through the woods and either cannibalizing them or forcibly turning them into monsters.
He shook his head, and leapt, landing with his front paws on the girl and ripping into her shoulder. He ripped away a chunk of flesh, and took another leap away, snarling as he ate.
Alani screamed, her moment of shock forgotten as a whole new pulse of burning pain took over her brain. This could not be happening. Both of her hands shot up to apply some pressure to the gushing wound, thinking that she should try to staunch it some as more hot blood slipped through her fingers and down her arms. “No. No. No. Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
She looked back up, frantically looking for something that she could use or someone to help.
Alison's vision was getting dark. Flashes of brown and green kept flickering past when she found the strength to open her eyes. Dammit. She was just... so... tired. She coughed, wondering why it was so hard to breathe.
One thought stood out in her mind, over and over, even as everything got dimmer: I hate them.
Another howl, and pack leader tore another chunk off the second girl. The first, however - he padded over and nosed at her wound. The blood was still trickling but slower, and he could smell the forest and wind and the bitter bite of hate under the blood. Another fighter for his little pack.
Another scream, this time hoarse and weaker, but Alani still did her best to glare at the retreating wolf. Then she turned her glare to the wolf that had started this whole mess. Regardless of what bringing a friend to a forest in the middle of the night might imply, she wasn't an idiot, there was no way -- even if medics had been called for some reason and knew her exact location -- that anyone would arrive in time. Weakly, she raised a bloodstained hand, middle finger extended. "Fuck you."
And Alani died.
Artie ate, driven by instinct and hunger before moving on to fill the rest of the night.
Hours later, he woke, naked, aching, in the woods. Every muscle in his body ached and his mouth tasted terrible. He teased a lump of ... meat out of one tooth with a prehensile tongue and spat it out, staring at it in horror. What had he done? He had vague memories of. Oh god. He'd eaten her. He'd eaten her.
He could feel another change in himself. Knew that he'd shift again when the moon rose once more. He'd bloody eaten her. Oh god.
[Placeholder for Part III]
Dr. Darcy Lewistein, her companion Kurt, and latest creation Doug run into trouble from inspectors Matt and Bobby.
[Log Placeholder!]
