The Beast I Have Become

Chapter 8

        I'm walking through the woods. Nowadays, for dreams I have, it seems that I enjoy the woods for my dreamscapes. Everything seems pretty normal, but I'm not getting my hopes too high. My hands are wet with a thick liquid. Man! My hands must be pretty damn sweaty! I wipe my forehead with the back of my hand, the feeling of me being in a one hundred degree desert coming over me, the humidity of the forest not helping my situation at all. Memories flash before my eyes.
        Blood...limbs...death...
        I gasp as the plain dark woods come back. I look up and see a blood red moon shining down upon me and the forest, its redness casting a light, eery glow onto the forest around me. The light comes in patches on the ground because of the trees. I continue walking. Then, I start sprinting. Then, I start running. For what reason you may ask? Good, because I don't know either.
        After running, I come upon a big tree. From the looks of it in the darkness, a birch tree. I don't think I've seen any around here before. It really stands out with its light-colored bark compared to the other brown ones. It's the only light color I can see for miles. Not knowing what I'm doing, I feel the bark with the tips of my fingers before pressing my hand to the tree.
        Suddenly, I bright light flashes like lightning and I'm now in the same place, with my hand to a tree. This time, there are bodies surrounding me and the tree. I gasp and pull my hand back. I look around.
        Matt, Ryan, Jack, Bob, Wade, Ken, Felix...
        Did I do this? I thought to myself. I push my glasses up the bridge of my nose and become very worried when I see blood drip onto the lens where my finger lightly ran over it. I look down at my hands and I start breathing quickly and sharply. I look down at myself and see my torn clothes. I look more closely at the bodies and see that the wounds are bites, claw marks, and ripped flesh.
        What did you do?! I thought to myself, the voice in my head quivering. I then fall to my knees in pain, my shrieks and screams echoing into the seemingly eternal darkness of the forest. The wolf taking me over.

***

I wake up screaming, the pain feeling so very very real to me. I hear Jack wake up with a start and runs into my room.
        "Holy shit!" He yells when he runs through the door. "What the fuck is happening?!" I'm already sitting up, my breathing really fast, and sweat moist on my forehead.
        "Bad dream," I reply in between pants. "Very bad dream. Don't want to talk about it, so don't even ask."
         "What was the dream about?" He asks with a goofy voice. I smile, Jack's always there to cheer me up.
        "Holy shit, Jack," I chuckle. "I already told you that I'm not saying. It's way too disturbing to think about, much less talk about it. No way." I run my fingers through my hair and look at the clock on my bedside table. It reads 7:45. I decide to get up and get some coffee. I slip on my glasses and walk out like that. Fuck shirts, at least I'm wearing boxers. That's good enough, right? I get the coffee maker started and sit on the couch. Beep beep. I pick up my phone to see who texted me.
        'Hey, Mark,' Matt texts me. 'Is everything alright over there? Your 'condition' hasn't been acting up, right?' I look over at Jack and see him on the other couch with his head rested back and eyes closed. I look back to my phone and start typing.
        'Nope. Everything's cool over here. Nothing went wrong. Except for my nightmare, but that was it. Nothing huge.'
        'Good,' he types back. 'That's very reassuring. I'm not getting my hope up just in case. We never know when it's gonna act up.'
        'True,' I reply. I set my phone down and look over at the coffee maker. I get up and pour me some coffee. I put some cream and sugar and stir it, tasting it to make sure that it takes right. I sit back down while Jack pours some coffee for himself. Not much talk goes on. We aren't really the kind of people to immediately wake up and start laughing. For me at least. My body is awake, but my brain is still off. Jack is the same. He's usually jumpy all of the time anyway. I'm not sure if it's just an Irish thing or not, but not only is Jack the loudest guy in the world, but he's also one of the jumpiest I've seen. Jack sits down on the couch and sips his coffee.
        "So," he replies casually. "What are we gonna do today? Make a video?" I let my brain wake up a second, my gears slowly starting to grind. The words process in my head slowly.
        "Sure, I guess," I reply. "If we don't upload videos, then the fans will probably think that we're too busy having sex or whatever the hell they think we do when we're off camera."
        "Ya," he replies. "I don't know what's up with people these days. A man can go and give their guy friend and hug and people think that they're gay. A woman can go hug and squeal and they'll probably be looked upon as normal."
        "True," I reply. Nowadays, a guy and girl can't be good friends without other people thinking they either like each other or are dating. Some kids even date in kindergarten! I don't get what society has become.
        We decide to go and record a video. We decide to play I Am Bread. Yeah, that stupid ass game that pisses me off and the one that Jack is pretty good at. We take turns and Jack makes it to the next level. I start on the first level and almost throw my controller across the room. We finish after about an hour of this bullshit. I'm sure that that werewolf thing has something to do with it. I didn't notice much of a difference, but my eyes might've turned lighter, and if they did, Jack didn't say anything about it.
        "Well, it's about lunchtime," I reply now looking at my Apple Watch. "Do you want anything to eat?"
        "Yeah, sure," Jack replies raising his eyebrows. We decide to go and get steaks. I like steak and Jack does too. Steak is pricey, but it's heaven. We go out and bring it home, our mouths watering. I sit down, not even thinking about knives.
        "Hold on there, smiley pants," Jack chuckles. "You better get you and your happy self up and get some silverware." Silverware? I didn't even think about that.
        "Uh, yeah," I reply I little shyly. I didn't mean to let that slip. "I was so hungry that I wasn't even thinking about that. My bad." Jack didn't take much notice of it, but I feel like he's connecting the dots about something. I decide to ignore it and hand him a serrated knife and a fork and finally, we eat.