Shane's POV:
I woke with a start, covered in a cold sweat, my heart was racing and I was panicking. I had to take several deep breaths to calm myself down. Once I was calm and had some semblance of reality back, I sighed and lay back down on my pillow to recollect my thoughts. It had been the same dream again; the one where I was trapped in a steel cage with no door and no way out. You don't have to be Freud to figure what that means. But this one was different, usually there is just a dark abyss on the outside of the cage but this time the darkness was replaced by raging flames. This was confusing but I suppose dreams don't always make perfect sense (sorry Sigmund).
I glanced out the window. I could see the red and white striped lighthouse on the cliff and the boats in the harbour today. I usually couldn't spot them in the morning because it's so dark when I get up for work...work!
"Shit! What time is it?" I asked no one in particular. I grabbed my alarm clock; I was almost an hour late! Mr. Squilley is going to go mental. I grabbed a shirt and jeans from the floor and pulled them on as I flew down the stairs, I snatched my shoes from beside the door and shoved my feet into them; no time for socks today. "If I can sneak in before he has his morning coffee maybe he won't even notice," I repeated this in my head over and over, trying to reassure myself as I sprinted out of the house and down the street towards the office block. Despite my panic and haste to get to work, I couldn't help but wonder about the strange flames in my dream; there was something very unsettling about them that I couldn't put my finger on.
When I reached the glass doors I took a moment to catch my breath and quietly snuck into the office on the ground floor. So far so good, I thought, now all I have to do is get to my desk and...shit. Mr Squilley was leaning against my desk, arms folded with a smug look on his face, god I hate him. I knew what was coming now and I decided to accept it stoically instead of pleading with him pathetically for the job that I despise most in the world.
"Well, well, well if it isn't Mr. Can't be bothered to show up on time even though my job is on the line," he said, grinning and unaware of how stupid that sounded. I said nothing and just stared at him, emotionless. This seemed to annoy him.
"Hello? Can you hear me, boy? You may think you can do whatever you like just because you're some kind of freaky orphan child but I have news for you...you can't" he finished lamely.
"I have parents," I answered him, letting my façade slip slightly. He jumped on this, seeing that he had struck a nerve.
"Do you? Because as far as I can tell all you have are two misguided fools who think that it's a good idea to bring any old piece of rubbish into their homes and treat it as part of the family," he taunted.
"Shut up," I growled at him. My head was getting hot with anger, which was very rare for me. I'm usually quite calm and level headed, but then again I've never really had a reason as good as this to get mad.
"Don't you tell me to shut up, you pathetic worm, what makes you think that you can just float into our town and just do whatever you like? You don't belong here, everyone knows it. Everyone except your stupid, delusional parents."
And no sooner than those awful words had left his mouth I felt a connection being made in my head. The intense anger I was feeling had awoken something that was lying dormant in my brain. And then I started changing.
It began with a bubbling sensation in my bones and muscles which slowly intensified into a burning pain. I yelled out and fell to the ground, the look on Squilley's face changed from smug to bemused as he watched me writhing on the ground. I had forgotten that he was even there at this point. My body had begun to change shape; my muscles began to stretch and expand and I cried out as my bones broke one by one and reformed longer and stronger. My clothes were in shreds within seconds. My face was changing too, I could feel my nose and mouth extending into a snout and my teeth lengthening and sharpening. Claws grew slowly and painfully out of my fingers and short, coarse, brown hairs started sprouting all over me. The agony was causing me to howl madly and I was attracting a small crowd of horrified onlookers. Many people ran for their lives as they saw what I was becoming, others were rooted to the spot in sheer terror. Squilley was among those who stayed, eyes wide and mouth opening and closing like a fish.
After what seemed like an eternity of breaking and tearing, the pain started to subside and I started to regain control of my limbs as well as my thoughts. I slowly got to my feet and stood up to find that I had grown about a foot and a half, my now shaggy head was touching the ceiling. I dropped back to all fours and looked around the room for help. I tried to speak but it appeared my vocal chords had shortened and I was unable to get out anything more than a low growl (which caused one middle aged woman to faint and a dark patch to form around the crotch of Mr. Squilley's trousers.)
In a panic I turned my huge body and ran straight through the glass doors, barely registering the pain as the glass shattered on impact. I took a sharp left towards the beach; I had to get away from anyone who might see me looking like some kind of monster. As I ran I became aware of many different smells and sounds that I hadn't been aware of this morning; I could smell a fresh pot of coffee in a house half a mile away and hear the heartbeat of a seagull flying high above my head. These new sensations bombarded me and it was all I could do just to keep myself on course, never mind trying to figure out what the bloody hell was going on with me!
I reached the beach in just over a minute, a journey that would have taken me ten times as long if I didn't have massive wolfen legs propelling me forwards. I bounded to the cliff face and found the cave that I came to sometimes to think. I stalked inside the high ceilinged cavern and slumped to the ground, my long jaw resting on the grainy sand.
My brain was doing back flips trying to put together a logical chain of events which would provide a rational explanation for my transformation but, try as I might, I kept arriving at the same conclusion. Werewolf. I knew it was impossible, that werewolves only exist in movies and fairytales, but it was the only way I could explain it.
"This is bollocks," I thought to myself "it's not even a bloody full moon! And what the hell is... Christ! I have a tail!" I forced myself to calm down; I wasn't going to get anywhere panicking like a child all day. As I my heart rate slowed and my breathing shallowed I started to feel the bubbling sensation again. I braced myself for the pain but it didn't come. Instead I felt a sort of mild electric current on my hairs which quickly enveloped me. As this electricity built, my canine body began to morph back into human form. The change was much quicker than before and a lot more bearable, it only took about thirty seconds until I was regular size again.
Relief swept over me; for a second I had thought that I would be stuck like a Sasquatch for the rest of my life but I guess at least some myths about werewolves are true, if that's what I am. It was a few moments before I realised that I was standing completely naked... in a cave... on my own, weird even by my standards. I decided to try and sneak back home before anyone tries to start up some kind of a lynching.
I take a step out of the cave and stop as I realise that the heightened senses I had possessed while in wolf form had stayed with me. That was going to take some getting used too. I sighed; at least my life wasn't boring any more. As I thought this I heard some shuffling on the cliffs above me. I turned just in time to get enveloped by a large metal net that had been dropped from the cliff face presumably. I tried to shake it off but every time it touched my skin I felt an extreme burning sensation causing me to yelp in pain.
"Hey!" I screamed "get this thing off of me!"
Through my screams I could still hear a low, mocking voice say "Quiet mutt, we're gonna go for a little walk."
I felt a sense of foreboding and fear wash over me and I started howling as I was dragged along the ground with someone I had no intention of following.
This was turning out to be one hell of a day... literally.
Author's note: Big chapter this time both in size and content. Tell me what you think of it and please vote if you like it. Back to Lauren next time to see how she handles a fire! Exciting isn't it? By the way if anyone is confused by the first paragraph, Sigmund Freud was a psychologist in the late 1800s that analysed dreams to find repressed desires and emotions. Just dropping a little knowledge on ya.
Cheers
CoastSide
