Shifted

Part 1 - Evan

I've been alive for seventeen years, and I still haven't Turned. At this point, my parents are a bit worried, since most Turn by the age of fifteen. Hell, I might not even have the ability. Sometimes I worry more than my parents, and they worry a hell of a lot. What am I to do if I'm unable to Turn? I don't have any options to fall back on. I live in the middle of the country, I've never even set foot in a school before, and I rarely even leave my family's large mansion. You could say that we're rednecks, I guess. White, American, Western; we got it all. There is just that tiny thing: we're all werewolves. Odd, right? Yeah, some asshat in our family tree studied alchemy and created a potion for shape shifting. It never surfaced outside of our family, so we're one of the few families that are werewolves. There are others, of course, but they aren't nearly as powerful as us. Luckily, we outran the whole 'keep the bloodline pure' thing a few generations ago, so nobody's married to their cousin or sibling anymore. We kinda figured out that if you have even the smallest trace of werewolf blood in you, you were born a werewolf.

But, there are always exceptions (like me); I'm sort of the runt of the litter. I wasn't predicted to survive even a day after I was born. Lo and behold, here I am on my seventeenth year of life. It still surprises everyone, as I don't even weigh one hundred pounds; my parents had thought about taking me to a nutritionist before, but my father's family advised him against it. Thanks a lot, family. Instead, I Skype call a nutritionist once a month. I can personally tell you that it's not as effective as visiting once a week. I've been doing this for about two years, and you can still see my ribs. I try to stuff my face as much as possible, but I'm still skinny. I'm sorry to all the teenage girls who wish they had my metabolism; If I could trade you, I would.

Anyways, I still haven't Turned, which in my family means shifted into a wolf. It's not like I don't want it to happen, but I don't want it to happen. All my life, I've been beaten up by my family because I'm the runt. My father and mother try to protect me as best as they can, but sometimes it's not enough. Trust me, I have the scars to prove it. I harbor no hate though, since I've read enough about wolves to know that preying on the weaker wolf gives the other a morale boost and asserts dominance. Personally, I could honestly care less about dominance and all that jazz.

The latest anyone has ever Turned in our family was ten minutes before they turned eighteen. Anyone who hadn't Turned by their eighteenth birthday are considered 'normals'. I have about three weeks until I'm considered normal, and everyone is at the edge of their seats. Family from all over the country have flooded in to see if I would Turn or be the first normal in the family for almost five generations. I've had three panic attacks in the last two weeks. Many of my relatives told me that they had started getting wolfish urges before their first Turning. I felt normal, other than the crushing amounts of stress and responsibility I was balancing on my shoulders. Most people got a car or a new laptop or something for their birthday. Me? I got panic attacks and unreal expectations.

Depressing, right? The most depressing thing right now to my family is I'm eating cornflakes for breakfast and not raw squirrels. I'm pretty sure some of them are betting on my Turning or not, since I have a steady pack of them watching my every move. It's annoying, Especially when you're trying to enjoy a bowl of cornflakes.

"Hi, Can I eat in peace?" I told the three people staring at me. At least they were just my little cousins and not my eccentric uncle. It is creepy to see a forty year old man twirling their mustache while watching you eat.

"How can you eat that?" Kayla piped up. They were seven-year-old triplets who'd Turned when they were two. They're the second youngest in our family. The first was my great-uncle Fernando, who'd been born in his Turned state. The doctors were confused when he came out.

"Yeah, I would barf if I had to eat corn." Adrian added, making the gesture for barfing.

The last one, Joey, faced his brother and said, "But these don't look like the corn mommy cooks us!" He reached into my bowl and picked out one of the flakes, "see? It's a flake! Like the ones mommy feeds the fishies!" He turned towards me, "are you a fishie, cuz?"

I pushed the bowl forward. I wasn't sure about the last time that they took a bath, or if they hunted before they came inside to pester me. I looked at the one who'd asked me a question and replied, "No, I'm not a fish. I'm just... normal." I stood up and ruffled his hair.

Kayla, the only girl in the triplets, climbed onto the island I was sitting at and said, "So you're saying we aren't normal?"

"Yup." I replied, stretching my arms. God, another stressful day of judgment awaited me. "I'm the only normal one here."

"But if you're the only normal one, then wouldn't that make you the weird one?" She asked me. The other two pups had climbed up with their sister, sitting very dog-like on the counter.

I pondered on her words for a second. She was pretty smart for a kid who'd never stepped in a school. It made her seem like she was a hundred years older than she actually was. "Yeah, I guess you're right." I looked at all of them. "Get off the counter."

"Aww..." They all whined. "You aren't gonna tell Mommy and Daddy, are ya?", Joey asked.

I stared at them blankly. "If you assault my cereal again, I will. Now get off." My poor cereal was the true victim here. Kayla pushed the two boys off and then jumped off. I laughed, "you shouldn't push your brothers, Kayla."

She stuck her tongue out at me and ran out of the room with her siblings. I smiled. They were cute. What a shame that they'd be stuck in the hunter-gatherer society that our family forced everyone to be a part of. I was glad that my parents had even allowed me to have a phone and a laptop. It was the only way that I communicated with other people outside of my family. I had a few internet friends, but I'd never met them, and unless I left this estate, I never would. See, I would love to meet them, but even if I had the audacity to sneak out, I wouldn't get that far since my physique isn't as developed as some members of my family. To simplify a simple thing, I'm not athletic. At all. I never liked to run outside as a child, so that didn't help me, but I've always been frail. I look malnourished, but I eat a bit too much, even for a seventeen-year-old. It was probably because I'm the runt of my immediate family. My two brothers are esteemed huntsmen, and my sister is the leader of a sub-pack. My mother once told me that she didn't know that there could be human runts; yet here I was: living proof.

Then, I collapsed, nearly over flooded with pain. 'What the hell?!', I thought to myself. It was the only rational thought I could form. It was agonizing; I felt my skin stretch over whatever was my body, my bones breaking and reforming just below my flesh. Nobody was here, nobody was even in the three rooms near the kitchen. Nobody could hear the screams I was uttering. Right when I felt like I was about to fall unconscious, it stopped. I was lying on the ground, only hearing my labored breaths. I felt different. My body felt different. I did not feel normal. I felt the opposite of normal. I tried to call out to someone, but all that came out of my mouth was a ragged howl. I couldn't move my legs, I couldn't even see correctly. Everything was just a blur of pain and muddled senses.

Only one thought surfaced over all the chaos in my head. 'Did I Turn?' 

--

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

This chapter (as well as all of Evan's chapters) were written by @yurio- ! Go give 'em some love! This is a collab account with @Yurio-and @yusvith___ ! We'll be posting the first two chapters on both of our accounts, but the rest will be on here :)

Yurio's notes

As the person who wrote that chapter, I love Evan, and I hope you do too. I was quite reluctant to write a werewolf story, but I like it so far (even if I have no experience with them and generally don't know anything about werewolves).

Blue's notes

hellloooooo and bai 

ps enjoy