I gasp and fall against the wall of my bathroom. I look down at my hands and see the ghastly, bestial, and misty claws of the shadowy wolf. I entirely forgot about this Ghost Animal thing. Fuck! Why has it been so... dormant for a while? What the fuck?!
"Gah!" I cry out as the feeling of knives digs into my all-overs. My body isn't changing, but some kind of switch is being flipped the wrong way. I cry out as those damned invisible knives stab at my body. Matt and Ryan come through the door and see my writhing figure. I snarl and slash at them with my ghostly but yet apparently solid claws. I slash out again and get a snag at Matt's arm. The five streak claw mark instantly turns midnight black.
"Ah!" Matt cries out and immediately clutches his wounded arm. Ryan instantly makes a move and pins me by my shoulders to the wall and shows me his teeth with an additional growl. I bare my teeth right back at him and snarl.
"Mark!" Ryan says with a quiver in his voice. Probably from using a lot of his strength. "Dammit Mark! Snap out of it!"
"Mark!" Matt says. "Mark dammit! You're Mark! You're not an animal! You're our friend who would never hurt us!"
Mark. Mark! MARK! I thought angrily. That's all that's being crammed down your throat! Why don't you shut them up? Maybe even for good. I snarl and raise a handful of claws, ready to slash.
Everything then seemed to go in slow motion. Ryan avoided my slash and returned the favor for Matt and slashed my thigh. I give out a wolfish cry and fall to one knee.
What the fuck was that?! A voice snarls in my head. Apparently, you weren't fast enough. Do I need to draw a map to his throat or are you capable of seeing it?
Shut the fuck up! I say to the aggressive voice. I'm not going to kill him. He's my friend and I'm not going to do that!
Mark, the voice coos, you know it's hard to ignore the bloodlust that you're feeling right now. You know you want to feel the warmth of blood on your muzzle and in your mouth.
I slowly rise to my feet and give Ryan a death stare into his frosty blue-tinted brown eyes. Ryan has his big, long claws at the ready, his hand closely resembling a bear's paw. Suddenly that nightmare flashes through my head. The one where I killed my family.
I gasp. "What the fuck?!" I pant and allow my lungs to grasp onto precious oxygen. I then almost instantly notice the pitch-black five streak mark on Matt's arm. I just stare, my mouth partly open with shock of the unexpected.
"It's ok, Mark," Matt says calmly. "It's just a scratch. Even if it is... jet black. It should be fine." I look at Matt in the eyes for a second before glancing at the wound again.
"I need to be alone for right now," I say, my head throbbing with a headache. "I just need to gather my shit and let the current events wrap around my head." I head upstairs before anything else happens and immediately grab my phone and go to my messages.
'Hey Jack,' I type, 'remember the whole ghost animal thing? Well, I just scratched Matt and the scratch mark is black as pitch. This ghost animal thing isn't... contagious, is it?'
'Uh...' Jack types. 'I'm not sure. I'll check the book immediately though. Hopefully it'll say something about it. It should. Hold on.'
I sit there and look around, just waiting for the three dots to appear to show that he's typing. I just about rip my hair out until he starts typing. Right now, it seems like forever until he gets his message done. Jesus.
'It says that it isn't contagious,' Jack says, 'but it says to treat the wound immediately. It says that depending on what the animal is, it may have certain side effects if not treated right away. It says to use alcohol. Go do that now if you haven't treated it.'
I just about drop my phone and run to the bathroom. I know we have some non-drinking alcohol in here. There! I grab it and run downstairs and start dabbing at the wound with alcohol before Matt even knows what the hell is going on. He then jumps, grabbing his arm.
"Ow Mark!" He yells in pain. "What the fuck, man?!"
"I just texted Jack," I say while trying to get at the wound with alcohol, "he says that if the wound isn't treated immediately that it could have certain side effects."
"Well," Matt says while calming down and letting me dab at it, "is it supposed to feel like the devil is using his own damned tongue to clean the wound? Because it feels like Hell itself right about now."
"Probably bad bacteria dying away," I say.
"Yeah," Matt mutters, "more like killing bacteria and all cells that touch the alcohol." I roll my eyes to his sarcasm and continue to dab at the wound, ignoring the small winces he does. After dabbing it for about five whole minutes, I stop and observe the wound. It looks exactly the same, but Matt says that it still burns like Hell.
"Oh shut it, you big pussy," Ryan says from the couch. Matt rolls his eyes and covers the wound with his hand.
I head back upstairs and sit on my bed. Today has been one hell of a day. I run my fingers through my hair and push my glasses up the bridge of my nose. I hold my head in my hands as a headache throbs with every pulse that's going through my brain. I sigh and get up to go to the bathroom. I do my business and wash my hands. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I still have the light but a barely noticeable foggy ghost of the wolf surrounding my body. I worriedly observe myself in the mirror. I really hope that this whole ghost animal thing doesn't get out of control. I know I'm fine now, but what about later? Will something goes wrong and I'll lose control and maybe hurt or kill friends?
I sigh and take my glasses off. "What if I end up killing my fam-" I couldn't finish. I choked on my own words, not being able to finish the sentence. My fists then double, anger starting to run through me. Why am I angry you may ask? I don't know. Except for the fact that I'm a hazard to a lot of the ones I love and care for. That's it though. Nothing big right? That's sarcasm for those who don't know.
I growl and bare my teeth at my reflection, fighting the urge to not throw my fist into the reflective glass. I take a deep, shuddering breath and undo my iron grip on the counter and walk out. I'm so furious that I don't even know what to do. It's like those times where you don't know whether to punch the wall, rip your hair out, or both at the same time.
"Oh dammit," I groan to myself. "I need to leave. Now." I leave without thinking twice, I hurry out the door. I go into the woods and fall onto my hands and knees, my breaths rough and kinda loud. I get up and put my hand against a tree for balance and look up at the slim, waning crescent moon. My hand rakes my fingers against the tree as if I bore claws. I blink a few times as my vision goes from blurry to super sharp and clear and back again. I close my eyes tightly and rub them with my fingers.
"Mark?" Ryan says from behind me, causing me to jump.
"Ryan?!" I say. "What the fuck? I didn't even hear you coming! What do you want?" Ryan looks a bit taken aback at how harshly I responded.
"Well," Ryan says. "We heard you leave and I just came to make sure everything was ok. You left in such a rush that we didn't get to stop and ask."
"Well," I say a bit irritably, "don't you think maybe I left quickly for a reason? AAAH!" I fall to my knees, leaving actual claw marks in the tree I was keeping my balance on. I snarl and shakily get to my feet, Ryan backing up a bit.
"Mark," Ryan says a bit slowly and now a bit worriedly, "w-what's going on? Why is this happening so often? Mark?"
I have my back turned to him, my breathing kinda fast and sharp. I feel him cautiously put his hand on my shoulder. I slowly turn my head to the side to see his face in my peripheral vision.
"Get your hands off of me," I growl slowly. Ryan obeys instantly and takes a few steps back. "Go back home. Get some help from Jack. Go. Now."
"Ok," he hesitates a bit before quickly leaving. I cough up some blood and fall to my knees again.
What's happening to me? I ask myself. Everything wrong. What the fuck? I can't don't even finish my thought before another strong wave of pain rolls over me. I cry out, my muscles tightening in pain. Suddenly, everything stops. I take a second to realize what the hell just happened, I then slowly get up. My eyes are wide with shock and confusion as I face the blurry world. I find my way back and ignore Matt and Ryan's questions and head straight to my room. Matt catches up and grabs my shoulder and I instinctively turn around and grab his wrist.
"Don't. Touch. Me," I snarl, my vision going back and forth. "Got it?" Matt nods his head vigorously as he sees my venomous glare. I jerkily release him and stalk away. I groan once I close the door and lay on my bed. Apparently, I fell asleep.
***
I wake up, hearing a foreign voice coming from downstairs. Jack. I then groan once the feeling of a hangover comes over. Of course, I don't have a hangover, but my head really hurts. Jack then slowly opens the door, probably trying to see if I'm asleep or not.
"Oh," he says, "you're awake."
I don't say anything and just look at him. I put my glasses on and let my eyes focus. I cock my head, in a way, telling him to state his business.
"Well," he starts while entering a bit more, "Ryan and Matt explained everything to me. I've come over last night once I heard the news. This is worse than I thought. The book said that it's a sign of instability. Your wolf is stronger than you. Way stronger than it needs to be."
I bare my teeth a bit. Jack narrows his eyes and lowers his head a bit to the side. Not really cocking his head, but turning it a bit. He then comes a bit closer, but slowly. He's kinda approaching me like someone who is trying to catch a dog but is trying to appear friendly to it. I go from breed teeth to a deep-throated growl.
"This is for your own good, Mark," Jack says. I then get the idea and my instincts take over. I scramble out of bed and shoot down the stairs, only to be caught by Matt and Ryan.
"Get off of me!" I yell as Matt, Ryan, and Jack grab a hold of me. "Stop before- AAAAAH!" Pain suddenly takes over my body.
Authors Note
Sorry for the late updates. I'm not making up excuses, but my schedule has unfortunately a bit busy. Which really sucks. Especially for summer. But as always, please enjoy!
-⚔🐺Blackclaw565🐺⚔
YOU ARE READING
The Beast I Have Become
WerewolfI don't know what happened... I was walking and then this thing comes out of nowhere and sinks its teeth and claws into me. My skin tears and seemily gallons of blood pooled on the forest floor. I knew then that I would die... But life had somethi...
