The gradually rising moon thrust a pallid glow across the forest, complimenting the silence that had now descended on Lupinoath. While the majority of villagers huddled in fear behind barricaded doors, Micah and Adrian stood side by side in a barren clearing.
"You don't have to stay with me, Micah. It's going to be bad enough when it happens."
Micah forced a smile, tightening his grip on his sword's hilt. "I need to stay here with you, keep track of you through the night. This forest is dangerous, Adrian. Even for you."
A shiver crept up Adrian's spine, distributing itself across his whole body. Sweat gathered in beads across his bare arms, as his bones began to quiver simultaneously. Micah began to back away.
"I'm sorry Adrian, it's already started. Be strong."
Adrian opened his mouth to protest, but only a strangled cry came out, as his throat tightened. Every limb, bone and joint in his body began to seize up at random intervals - Adrian's skin rippled and contorted, as an unimaginable pain consumed his body. As his legs gave way beneath him, Adrian shrieked inhumanly - the transformation had begun.
The rhythmic beating of Adrian's heart became a furious pumping, as the muscle pounded against his expanding ribcage. Rib bones cracked and snapped, as a horrified Adrian choked. Averting his gaze, Adrian noticed that his hand bones were acting in a similar manner - his fingers dislocated themselves, and his wrists snapped backwards, elongating and contorting.
The remaining bones of Adrian's body tore and rearranged, plunging Adrian into a world of agonizing pain - his whole form was re-adapting, and he was powerless and fragile to prevent it. Adrian cried out again as his spine arched and thrust against his skin, rising and falling in an uneven pattern. Knee and elbow joints twisted into lupine equivalents, and Adrian's body became even more muscular.
Adrian's dwindling attention again turned to his hands, where sharpened claws had begun to emerge from his fingertips. As if in answer, Adrian's feet exerted outwards into one continuous limb, the pressure almost unbearable. Gasping in sheer disbelief, Adrian realised that dark wiry hairs had sprouted from beneath his pores, covering his body in a carpet of bristle.
Feeling his face start to strain, Adrian lifted his hands in defence, but instantly recoiled as monstrous claws split his flesh. Adrian's skull strained outwards, moulding his smooth jaw into a ragged snout - pronged canines burrowed outwards through his gums, and keen ears developed.
At last, Adrian's human spirit could resist the change the no longer - as the werewolf supressed his human consciousness, Adrian slumped to the ground, his pupils widening unnaturally.
*****
The wolf lifted its head groggily, gaining a sense its new surroundings. A cacophony of sights, sounds and scents erupted, but one thought trail stood out. Food. Hunger. Meat.
Human flesh tempted the wolf, and to good effect. The tantalising aromas prompted the beast to lift its head and bellow menacingly, before bounding into the undergrowth at unparalleled speed.
Elsewhere, deeper in the forest, a resounding howl answered.
YOU ARE READING
Blood Curse
Horror"By day the lycanthrope retains his human form, but in the light of the full moon he is cursed to walk the earth in the skin of a wolf. His hunger for flesh is insatiable, his speed is incomparable, his cunning is uncontrollable. The curse is passed...
