Forever in Grayscale

Forever in Grayscale: Chapter Four

Chapter Four – Carmen’s POV

A few days passed since that incident in the woods – which, I might add, I still know nothing about, and I had been stuck at home, studying for a stupid but very important biology exam. Then, studying for this exam had pushed me back in photography – I still had to take ten creative shots by Monday. Chester and Nate were texting me nonstop, telling me how amazing the new Zelda game was, and I was stuck in my room with nothing but a textbook. It’s even worse, you know, when you’re a wolf half the time. You need to get out. You need to.

I tapped my camera impatiently, as if expecting to get a sudden, glorious idea. I looked around my messy, dismantled room and sat up on my bed. Slipping my camera around my neck and my shoes onto my feet, I left the house.

Outside my house is this really big tree stump. It once supported my favorite climbing tree as a child, but then it got termites and we had to cut it down. Now it was just somewhere I could sit. Only one person could’ve done this. His name was Chester, but I called him Chess. He was a whiz at chess, a video game expert, and to make his (and mine) nerdisum even clearer, we’d often have Lord of the Rings marathons. He was my best friend, and we could relate to each other because neither of us fit in anywhere. He was the fat, awkward kid, I was the Japanese girl who wasn’t smart or athletic, so I disappointed immediately.

Anyways, back to the stump.

Laying on the stump was a bicycle, an old one, the kind you’d expect your grandmother to show to you, the kind that your grandmother probably rode on as a child. It was cherry red, with a basket on the front, and a piece of paper in the basket. I approached it. The piece of paper said ‘Inspiration’ and had a little chess knight drawn beneath it, Chess’s signature and favorite chess piece. I smiled and pulled up my camera, clicking a picture of the bike on the stump before pulling the bike up and hopping on it.

It worked great. I couldn’t wait to get to Chester’s. If he had had the time to do all this then maybe he’d help me out with the rest of my creative shots. Or at least I could thank him.

I was taking a back road to avoid cars. My feet where a whirlwind; I loved going fast on bikes, to feel the wind blow through my hair and hearing the smooth spinning of the increasingly fast wheels.

But something caused me to squeeze down hard on both the brakes, sending me lurching forward off my bike and into the mud. I stood up, shaking. A huge black something had just crossed the road in front of me. I knew it was a werewolf. I also knew it was chasing something. I jumped off my bike and dropped it on the road, but then went back and dragged it to a tree. I didn’t hesitate, I just did it.

I shifted.

Transforming is kind of painful, but it’s quick and you feel freer when it’s done with.

I ran into the forest, fur bristling. Normally I wouldn’t have bothered but…

Never mind. Long stories can be told later.

My ears twitched as I listened intently for signs of the wolf ahead of me. I could hear it, rustling against tree branches and through weeds. I was stalking my prey, intentions set on fighting. My advantage was that I knew who this was but they had never seen me before in their life.

Then I lost them. I couldn’t hear them anymore or smell them. I stopped, defeated. My auburn hair flattened down on my back and I began to feel super happy. I think it was because after being cooped up in my house for what seemed like ages, being a wolf was almost like heaven.

I sniffed around a tree trunk, but then I caught scent of something. Humans? No, humans and pigs. Why the hell are there humans and pigs out here? Intrigued enough, I ventured forward.