Chapter 3
A New Beginning
A few weeks after Theodore had last seen Lenora, he had gone to his grandparents’ house for the weekend. He had recently seen that a new neighbor had moved in next door, and Theodore went over to introduce himself. He found that his grandparents’ new neighbor’s name was Anton, and he had just moved there from somewhere in Illinois, and he was of a strange sort of person. He had semi-long dark brown shaggy hair on his head, and was about the same age as Theodore’s sixteen years, but about a head taller, with a very thin, muscular build. Later that same day after a fun and hyperactive day of throwing rocks at things, bike races, and tree climbing, Theodore and Anton were sitting in the top of a tall tree, and it was about dusk and they were reminiscing of what they had done that day, and what they would do tomorrow. In the middle of their plotting to uproot a cranky neighbors fence posts, Anton grew silent and stiffened, but then relaxed, as if a great weight had just come onto his shoulders and off of them again. This startled Theodore slightly, although it was mostly curiosity. The Anton spoke after the long silence, “I can hear what you are thinking” Anton continued, “you are wondering if there is something more than human that exists in the world… and you are wondering if I know of something more, and especially of my recent actions… as well as that girl that you saw a few weeks ago.” Theodore was shocked at his immense vocabulary and his understanding and capability to listen to peoples thoughts. “How do you know all this?” Theodore asked, scared and curious at the same time. The Anton held out his hand, and said, “feel my hand”, as more of a command, rather than a request. As Theodore reached for Anton’s hand, a smirk appeared on Anton’s face, but quickly faded. Theodore noticed this, but ignored his smirk. When he grasped Anton’s hand, he noticed that it was surprisingly warm, but not clammy. Then all of a sudden, Anton’s hand jerked, and then began to turn a light brown, a contrast to his pale skin, and then grew to a dark brown, and grew what looked like fur and claws. Then it actually looked like a paw, and it was about the size of a small watermelon. It had short claws on the ends of the toes, and these were about a half inch long. At the sight of this, Theodore reeled his hand back and almost screamed in horror, but didn’t. Then Anton sighed and continued speaking, “I’m not human… as you’ve probably noticed. Im really far from human, actually. What you have seen, in those woods, was real, and it actually happened. That girl, you obviously have feelings for her outer beauty, but her inner beauty is what you truly see, and it is what you love, her abstractness, and her differences from the “normal” humans. She is different and you like that. Am I right?” Theodore nodded, amazed at the level of his understanding. Anton Continued speaking again, “This is what I am… and I’ve been like this a very long time. And I have learned to love it.” He stopped for a moment, bearing an odd, contemplative expression, staring at Theodore, and said “Just curious, why aren’t you freaking out right now?” Anton said, with a level of disbelief. Theodore replied with the only words that he could muster, “I don’t know.” He made a stupid facial expression, and laughed. they both laughed briefly, and Theodore continued, “so, if you’re not human, what are you? A bear?.” Anton gave theodroe a glare. “sorry… just kidding” “alright then.” Replied Anton, then he, after a pause, said “the types of humans vary greatly: races, ethnicities, values, social groups, they all set you apart from each other, and, when you’re like me, there are no differences, besides mental differences. The humans are obsessed with differences, never seeing the similarities.” Theodore didn’t respond, interested by antons musings. Anton continued “ I have been meaning to ask you something all day, almost from the moment I met you… there’s something different about you from all other humans. Something sets you apart. And I was wondering…” Theodore could see that he was choosing his words carefully, “if you wanted to be like me?” Theodore was shocked, but still asked, “What do you mean?” Anton pondered his words for a moment then replied “I want to give you my powers, my capabilities, by form, my strength. I want you to be a Wolf, like myself. Humans would call me a Werewolf. That term actually offends me a bit.” He pondered out loud. Theodore was thinking of jumping out of the tree and running, but somehow didn’t want to take this course of action, for he thought Anton wasn’t giving him a choice. Anton took a time and addressed him quietly, “I am giving you a choice” he continued “I was making it a question to you, and it is completely up to you whether you accept it or not.” He said this with a rather high amount of sincerity and Theodore believed him. Theodore thought very hard on this for a few moments, assessing the situation and kicking himself on the inside wondering if he was drugged. Then after a long pause, he replied, “yes” Anton questioned his answer, “are you sure? You can never come back… once you’re gone…” and his voice trailed off. Theodore rebutted his statement quickly, “yes I’m positive. So how do I do it? Are you going to perform some ritual or are you going to…HOLY SHIT!” Theodore exclaimed in pain, for in that instant while he was speaking, Anton was already sinking his very sharp teeth into the flesh on his lower arm. He proceeded to flail around a while before calming. “Damn…” he said to Anton, who had stopped biting his arm by this time: “I feel like I am all tingly, and burning on the inside, like there is electricity coursing through all of my veins, every pore, every muscle, every bone .I feel like I’m burning, why isn’t my outer appearance changing? Theodore questioned Anton on these new feelings. “I felt much like you do now, when I was changed” he proceeded “The burning you are feeling is your biological makeup changing on the microscopic level. All of your cells are becoming literally re-shaped, giving you massive physical strength. You will also gain increased intelligence, as well as vocal chances…, scientifically speaking. In other words your voice will deepen, you’ll be stronger than any human ever was, and you will be able to shift. “What does “shift” mean?” Theodore asked. “It means to transform, or turn into a wolf” Anton responded “You will also have many mental abilities, such as the capability of reading minds, as well as mentally being able to speak to people. Those take some practice though. You can run with extreme speed, and jump extraordinarily high, but you are incapable to fly, unfortunately. But there is one issue” Anton whispered with amazing seriousness “people shouldn’t be aware that we exist. Keep your new powers secret, and if you are in a pinch, let people kill you… you won’t really die. You'll just end up somewhere away from the danger. You are also now immune to death. Nothing can kill you… except for them…” he shuddered as he said the word. Theodore was obviously confused with who “they” were. To a point that Anton began to tell him who “they” were.
