The Beast I Have Become

Chapter 23

        Well, kinda. I'm just able to control turning every night. Not the full moons. It's been about a month or two since that day. Today's the full moon, and I've been ill all day. I've been craving meat all day and I have a headache and feel the squirming in my stomach. I groan as nighttime comes closer and so does the transformation. I go ahead and tie myself down and sit with my back leaning against the wall. It's been a long day, and I'm tired and ill.
        "Fuck all of this," I groan as the pain starts to coil and tighten like a boa constrictor. I wrap my arms around my torso and then press my hands tightly to my head. I growl this time as my teeth grow and become pointy. My body shifts and changes right under my skin. I groan and growl as pain washes over me like water from the shower. I shake my head fiercely we if a dog were trying to shake off a clip from its ear. I don't know why I did it, but the urge just came. I then get an even stronger urge. I try to hold it back, but it feels like a lump in my throat. I then do it, my howl echoing loudly, the sound waves bouncing off of the cement walls like a bunch of bouncy, rubber balls. I finish and to be honest, that felt GREAT!!! It felt so good that I've never felt better and freer before in my whole life. I go for another, the transformation going more smoothly than usual and a little less painful. I guess since I was letting the old out easily, it made shifting easier. I don't know.
        I seem to remember a bit of what I did last night and kept a bit of my humanity. I awake the next morning with a bloody mouth, a bump on my head, and my teeth a bit pointier than usual.
        It's just you, I thought to myself. Your k-9's and those other two on either side of it aren't pointier. You're just imagining things, Mark. I continue to rub my tongue over my 'pointier' teeth for the whole day it seems. I'm just imagining things. Nothing to worry about. Ryan and Matt seem to notice, but though they don't point it out, it's a bit obvious that they noticed it.
        "It's the teeth, isn't it?" I ask, seek the looks upon their faces. They look at each other and back to me before answering. By the tone in their voice, it's obvious that they're trying to pull anything big up.
        "No, no not at all," Matt mumbles out.
        "Yeah everything's fine, don't worry," Ryan mumbles too. Also, just remember that they're talking at the same time, making it a bit hard to understand what the hell they're saying. I raise my eyebrow and cross my arms.
        "Really?" I ask them. "It's very obvious. Also, I can feel it. My teeth feel a bit bigger in my mouth, usually the same feeling when my teeth are growing during the transformation." I suddenly get a small surge of anger through my body. There's nothing here that would normally make me angry, but I feel it in my chest and in the pit of my stomach. I give a small growl and glance at Matt and Ryan before kinda dismissing myself. I head up to my room, I can tell that they saw the anger in my eyes. I didn't mean to give them a look like that, but it kinda slipped through.
        I go into my bathroom, close the door, and splash water onto my face. I look tired and have a bad, throbbing headache (nothing new here, right?). I groan and sit on my bed and run my fingers through my floofy hair. I run my eyes, moving my glasses out of the way and adjusting them when done. This is earlier than usual. What's going on?
        "Maybe it's because it was only the first full moon last night," the actual full moon (they count the first and the third as a gibbous) is tonight. I groan and lay on my side. I can't help but rub my tongue over my pointy teeth. I grab my phone and flip-up for the camera and observe my teeth some more in the camera. My teeth are so noticeable and actually kinda menacing. I bare them at the camera and see the light glint of dark yellow in my eyes.
        "Eh!" I say before rubbing my eyes. "I think that's enough examining for right now." I set my phone down and groan again. I can feel my insides squirm uncomfortably. I groan and lightly wrap my strong arms around myself.
        Why is this happening? I ask myself. I thought I finally tamed it. What's going on? Is this just me or is this actually because of the wolf? I get a shock through my body, the feeling of the shock going through my 'tail' and 'snout'. The reason I say it like that is that I don't have either at the moment, but that's what it felt like.
        I decide to head down to the basement just to be on the safe side. I tie myself down and pace a bit, not being able to just sit down. I need to move and get my muscles going. My head immediately shoots up and I growl. It was only Ryan coming down to see if things were alright. He freezes in a bit of surprise.
        "Whoa!" He says with his hands up in a defensive way. "It's alright, Mark. It's just me. I'm not going to kill you." I relax and sit down, putting my head up a bit. He gets the idea and sets his hand on my head. I rub my head against his hand and he scratches my head as he would to Lego. I can't help but close my eyes and give a small growl of comfort. I know it sounds kinda gay right now, but you know how it feels when someone scratches your back in the good spot? Yea, it feels like that. My tongue kinda hangs out, and I look like a 100% doofus right now.
        "Ok Ryan," I say after I finally get myself together. "I think it's coming, you better back away unless you want me to rip your arm off next." Ryan does as told and back away to a safe distance. I go through the motions and transform in front of my friend. Before turning, I took off my glasses and stripped down to my boxers (and the fangirls freak).
        I wake up and undo the chains. This is so regular now, that's it's a bit boring for you guys and for me. It's just the same damned thing over and over. Almost. I get up and Ryan and Matt aren't here. I'm not sure where they are, but I don't smell any blood, so it couldn't have been me that has done anything to them. They're probably out shopping or whatever. I go upstairs and wipe my face. I then go and grab my phone. I check to see if the two doofus brothers left any say, but I have no messages.
        That's odd, I thought. Matt and Ryan would usually let me know that they went somewhere before just leaving like this. I shrug it off, kinda positive that they're fine. I head downstairs and eat some brunch. They haven't returned and it's been two hours since then. I've had this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach ever since I noticed they were missing, but I've been pushing it away the whole time.
        After another hour with nothing from them (yes, I've called and texted). I get my shoes on and get myself dressed into something casual. I get their scent and head out. Their scent is kinda faint since it was a few good hours ago. I follow anyway. Suddenly I feel a drop on my arm.
        "Fuck!" I curse under my breath. Not rain! Rain will wash the damn scent away. At this point, I'm a bit desperate and start to run. It's a little harder to follow, but I can still do it. I run down the oddly empty streets except for a few cars here or there, but a light drizzle starts. That drizzle then becomes a downright mother fucking waterfall. I lost the scent now and ignoring the rain, lean against the brick wall of a building. Lucky for me, I put one of those otter cases on it. The ones where you can put your phone in the water and it won't get wet. I then remember that "Find My Phone" app. I turn on the mobile data and open the app. It shows their location, and they're in the same place. Perfect. I start at a speeding pace as I follow the map. This is in the bad part of town, this isn't good.
        I then come up to an old, broken down hospital. I know this place. Kinda. It used to be a hospital for the mentally insane. Classical horror/haunting location. I groan and roll my eyes. Of course, it's gonna be in this creepy ass place. But with my friends being in there, I don't have much of a choice. It's either stay and try to find them or be the worst friend in the world and pretend I didn't know they were here.
        I run my fingers through my hair and adjust my glasses before heading into the musty building. I open the huge metal door and enter into a huge dark lobby. I let my eyes adjust before letting my eyes go dark yellow. My vision becomes clearer and I see the rubble and mess all over the floor. Surprisingly enough there is no graffiti. This place must be so damn haunted and so damn creepy that nobody wants to paint their art about Satan or whatever (I'm no stereotype about any graffiti artists out there, you guys are great at art!).
        "Eeh," I groan to the bare, cracked walls. There are old wheelchairs strewn about, though it's daylight, the place is still black as pitch, and it's cursed with the reeking smell of decaying corpses. I wrinkle my now more sensitive nose and keep my brunch down. I walk around the old furniture, straight jackets, and whatever other medical equipment about the floor and try to find my friends. I would try to find their scent, but the obscene smells in here are so damn strong that I don't want to inhale, and also, their scent is covered up with the smells around here.
        "Grrr," I growl softly to the echoing, eery sounds. "OH FUCK!!!" I yell once I see one straight jacket that's still occupied. It's not alive and looks like it's been here for a good, long while. The body is almost bones and the skin barely there and tightly covering the bones like a literal skin suit. I gag, for sure thinking that I'd lose my brunch. I hold it back with my hands over my mouth and back away from it, my eyes glued to the corpse. I then trip and fall over whatever. I scramble to my feet and compose myself. I continue through the hospital, jumping every now and then when I hear the loud, banging slams of the metal doors, or the light squeaking of wheelchairs, or the banging of medical instruments being thrown across the room. I do my very best to ignore it, my ADHD not helping one damned bit.
        I then walk down one particularly long hallway. This hallway has no doors, not counting the one at the end of the hallway. How more nightmarish can this place get? Before I get to the door I have to stop due to the shadow that runs past my vision. I snap my head in that direction. I growl, slowly and menacingly.
         "Hello there..." says a low, raspy, bird-like voice. I turn and find a man hidden in the shadows. At least I think it's a man. He's got a very odd figure. He steps out into the light, his figure showing. My mouth drops.
        "That's right," he says. "Part griffin. Part man." His mouth is a small sharp beak, he has huge feathery, eagle's wings protruding at his shoulder blades, and light feathers on his body, and sharp eyes and hands appear as the feet of an eagle but everything below the waist remains lion-like. Basically, try to imagine an anthro-griffin. His wings spread out a bit to make him appear bigger. His piercing eyes paralyze me. I don't know if this is magic or if it's me, but I can't move. He walks closer, not taking his eyes off of me, barely blinking too.
        "Change for me, puppy," he growls in my ear. It sounds sexual, but his voice is a growl.
        "What the fuck are you talking about?!" I almost yell. He just laughs at me. The bastard. "I'm not gonna transform!" The griffin man smiles evilly. He then kinda waves his hand, like he's signaling someone to come. Then, a wolf version of the man comes through the shadows. Fuck. I have a bad feeling that I'm screwed now. The wolf one walks up to me and growls in my ear.
        "Change for me," he growls. I feel a bad feeling rising in the pit of my stomach. Without knowing, I put my hand to my stomach. I can see where this is going. With the man being a part wolf, he'll be more successful with making me transform. But since there's no technical alpha, and since he's the one winning, I can't help but obey.
        "No! Stop!" I growl to him. They both smile and look at each other before looking back at me. I growl as blood rolls down my chin.
        "Aw, is the puppy get-" I slash his face with one clawed hand, leaving a five-mark streak on his cheek. I then make a run for it while they gather the past events.

Author's Note
Hey guys! Sorry for the late update, but the family's been over and I had a church event to attend. With family here, I've not much time to write. I'm trying as best I can. I also thank you all for giving currently 709 readers!