The Beast I Have Become

Chapter 20

        I meet the floor as my prey dodges and flees.
Not today, I snarl in my head. This is my kill. It's not getting away. I chase after it. He leads me outside, but I charge anyway. I then stop. Pain overcomes me. Pain way worse than before.
        "AAAARRRGH!!!" I howl/roar in pain. I feel my body jerking as I change. My hands to massive padded hands, my face contorts to a snout, and my back violently pulls as it allows me to go on all fours. The pain worsens. Let me just say that it's so damn bad, that I literally can't think of any words to explain it. The mist is pitch black and doesn't even look like mist anymore. Once done, I have to stop and recover as the pain slowly goes away. Apparently, while I was out, my prey escaped. I groan and my ears pop. My hearing suddenly becomes amazing. I can hear almost everything. I then hear shuffling and my ears perk up and my body stiffens. I then catch a scent, and charge.
        "AAAAH WHAT THE FUCK!!!" My prey cries. I then get a punch to my face before I sink my teeth into him. "OW!!! MARK! SNAP OUT OF IT! MARK, I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!" I stop.
        "Ryah?" I say the best I can. It's hard as hell to talk with a snout and weird teeth that feel big. What the fuck is wrong with me? I tried to kill him! I groan and collapse out of my all-fours position as my body shifts back. I'm actually scared now, tears starting to form in my eyes. I'm such a damn baby!
        "Mark..." Ryan trails off, I think this is too far. I don't look at him. I can't. "Mark, we need to figure something out. That wasn't the regular thing. That was..."
        "Different," I finish for him. "Yea, I know. I couldn't do anything. This just...came over me. I don't know what the hell happened. Before I know it, I'm falling to my knees in pain as my body shifts. Fuck. Can things get any fucking worse? It's like one damn thing after another! And so far, none of them are good things!"
        "Calm down Mark," Ryan says warningly. I feel my breathing becoming heavy. I can't. "Mark. Calm down." I clench my teeth in concentration, but I just can't. It's almost like a dude kicking you in the balls (or for a girl, in the groin) and then trying to be entirely nice and take the dude out for ice cream. It's some hard stuff.
        "I-I can't," I sputter, spit flying from my mouth. "It's just so frustrating! Things are just going straight down the drain for me! Nothing is going well! It's not even close to the full moon, and yet this complete and utter bullshit is going on! I mean what the hell?!" Ryan puts a cautious hand on my shoulder and leads me back home.
        "Come on," he says cautiously. "You just need to calm down. You can't get worked up over small things." I stop.
        "'Small things'?" I growl. "'SMALL THINGS'?! I ALMOST KILLED YOU! I SAW YOU AS MY PREY! AND HERE YOU SRE CALLING IT 'SMALL'?!" I feel my eye twitch. Ryan shushes me calmly, though his eyes show fear. I lighten up a bit. I'm scaring my friend. He's trying to help and I'm only pushing him away. I keep my fat mouth shut and let him lead me home.
         When we get home, I go up to my room without a word. Though I huff to myself, I'm surprisingly able to keep myself from throwing everything I see across the room. The only thing I throw is myself. Onto the bed. I sigh very loudly into my pillow. This sucks. I grab my phone and decide to tell Jack. I didn't want it to come to this, but I don't have much of a choice. I Skype him and wait for him to answer.
        "Hello?" Jack answers. I give a very fake smile and wave. "What's up with you?" I sigh and push my glasses up the bridge of my nose.
        "Something happened," I say. I tell Jack the whole story and especially about the part where that odd mist or whatever fitted over my body. Jack was concerned at first, but then I looked like something clicked. His mouth is agape and his eyes are wide.
        "I've heard about this before," he says in a distant voice. "My gran has told me about this before. They're so fucking dangerous and so damn rare!" I widen my eyes and do a gesture with my arms telling him to get to the point.
        "They call your situation, Ghost Animals," he explains. "They call it that since not everyone turns into a wolf. But it's something bad. It's basically when the animal has no mental cage. It's basically on free-roaming mode. I don't know what to say, but the best you can do is try to tell what feeling you get before it happens so that ya know before it actually takes place."
        "Is there something I did wrong? Or is it just something that just happens to one in a million random people?" I ask. I hope I didn't do anything to cause this. If not, I'll be really pissed at myself.
        "It's just random," he says. "But it depends on how strong the animal is. Some people have the gift to control it with no problem. Fer the rest of us, it's just a pain in the ass. Especially for the bitten. For the gifted (or born), it's easier for us since it runs in our blood."
        Well, that's reassuring, I thought while rolling my eyes. Jack rolls his eyes back and sighs while pushing his glasses out of the way to rub his eyes before adjusting them.
        "Look," he says, finally getting to the point. "With this going on, you're gonna be irritable and not in the mood for taking any shit from anyone or anything. Almost anything can trigger the wolf. You're just gonna have to keep to yourself and tie yourself up when ya feel necessary. You're gonna have to keep calm, and I know, you're thinking that it's fucking impossible, but just do your best, alright? I got to go, I'm very busy today. Just try alright?" And with that, it ends. Well, these next few days are going to be just peachy.
        I groan. "And just when I thought that being bitten was bad enough," I thought out loud. "Now I can barely do anything without having to be sure that I don't murder someone." I text the new info to Ryan, too lazy to get up and tell him myself. I explain the things that he should prevent like getting me mad and stuff like that.
        Once dinner time comes, we all just grab something. Nothing planned. Basically just grab something to eat and that's that. I grab some leftover slices of pizza (four to be exact) and head up to my room. I usually don't eat in my room, but right now, I'm so on edge that I'll murder someone if I'm even looked at the wrong way.
        I tear a piece from my pizza and just look out the window. There's nothing much you can do while eating a big cheese ball of grease and sauce without getting anything greasy and I can't stand going to touch something only to feel an ass load of grease on it. I then set my extra three slices on some extra napkins and run to the sink to drink some water. I usually don't do that either, but ya know when you eat dry food or bread and it just feels like it gets stuck in your esophagus? Yeah, that happened. I've tested the limits before and ignored it, but after about ten seconds, my body acts otherwise and my body decides to try to regurgitate. I almost coughed it up. Not something I want to try again. For those who don't know how it feels, it feels like choking.
        I swallow down gulps of water before wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. To prevent it from happening again, I go downstairs and grab myself a bottle of water and come back upstairs with it. My eyes are still a bit watery from choking and I wipe them with the back of my hand. I sit in my chair and set my water bottle down as I grab another slice of pizza. I take a bite out of it before receiving a text.
        'Hey, Mark. How's everything so far?' It's Jack. I wipe off my hands the best I can, before picking up my phone the answer.
        'Everything's been surprisingly fine. I've just been keeping to myself to keep me from ripping off heads,' I type back. Jack sends the thumbs-up emoji. I guess he was just checking in. I pick up my slice again and continue to finish it, taking a sip of my water after I swallow.
        As nighttime comes, I feel and see that my teeth are a bit pointier than they usually are. They stay pointy anyway, but they aren't as conspicuous as they are now. Luckily, I've already recorded a video today and I did one yesterday. I squeeze in time when I get to it. I can already feel the first bits of the transformation starts. I'm not sure if I'm gonna transform like last time, but who knows? I take a sip of water as my body temperature rises to an unnatural heating temperature, making me feel like I'm wearing an Eskimo jacket in the middle of summer (and summers in LA aren't that cool either). My tongue hangs out as sweat drips from my face, my hair feeling like a wool hat. I even take my shirt off and turn of the ceiling fan, but they both do no good. I take off my glasses and once again, decide to leave them off. Taking off my shirt helped just a bit, and the ceiling fan just feels like it's blowing the same hot air at me. I go to the basement and let Matt know since I walked past him to go there. (Btw, I'm pretty sure they don't have one in real life, but it makes it easier instead of saying he runs to the woods every time.)
        Matt follows me and helps me chain myself down. He asks if I want anything before leaving. I tell him that I only want to be alone for now. I thank him for the help and he leaves. I groan as a dull pain starts all over my body.
        "Why me?" I groan. "Why is it me who has to have this one in a million special thing? Damn it!" I see the light black mist start to form. I'm on my knees as the first very small parts of the transformation starts. My teeth become pointy causing blood to drip from my already foaming mouth. The worst part of it all is that I can see. It's like my whole perspective turns around. I stay me, but my goals become different. I remember being me, but next thing you know, I suddenly feel that it's right to slaughter Ryan. I don't even know what the hell got into me!
        "Ngh," I groan as the pain gradually increases. I wrap my arms tightly around my torso as the pain becomes stronger and stronger by the second. I fall to my side as my groans become growls. My body jerks as pain wash over me with great waves of agonizing pain. My growls soon become small cries, my cries eventually turn to screams. My body changes and bones or muscles or whatever shift and move unnaturally with loud and muscle-cringing pops and cracks. I cough up blood and my muscles tighten up as the pain continues, the transformation is almost done.
        As my snout grows out (yes, it's painful as hell), I feel my mind changing as well. Bloodlust. The urge to rip any kind of living meat apart. Though I ate four slices of pizza not long ago, I become hungry. I snarl and pull on the chains.
        What the fuck are you thinking? a voice says in my head. Killing people? What the fuck?! This voice is very similar to mine but something's wrong. Oh! I see. It's speaking complete bullshit!
        What the hell are you yapping about? I snarl back in my head. I'm hungry. I need to hunt. I want flesh. The voice scoffs.
        Then go to the fridge or something, he says back as if it was the most obvious thing in the whole world. I growl.
        Now you're speaking shit, I reply back. Suddenly, I remember something that gives me major chills. On the day that I attacked Ryan...
        I bit him...

Author's Note
Sup guys! Thanks so much for reading, I hope you guys are enjoying it. Also, tbh, I actually didn't remember writing down when Mark bit Ryan. I forgot and only found out last night when I was reading over it. I glad I caught it, but decided to leave it. Again, I hope you guys are enjoying and if you like my work, then read more by me, Blackclaw565!!! Love y'all! 😜😋