Phoenix Drop University- Freshman Year

Chapter 21: Animal

Aaron pounds desperately on the headmasters door, and it is opened with such haste and worry, that Aaron is dumbstruck.

"What's wrong son?" Headmaster Forestter is pale, and grey hairs have started showing in his long brown strands, he looks exhausted, but still as friendly as ever.

"Aphmau, she's been taken, sir, I tried to save her, I-I had to turn her, this needs to end Headmaster, I can't take this anymore!" He almost yells, he just wants out, he wants to take Aphmau somewhere that she'll never get hurt again.

"Shhhh... It's alright son-" Aaron loses his mind, but then again, he lost all reason on the way up the stairs.

"No! Nothing is alright! You keep saying that you'll take care of it, that everything is going to be okay. But it keeps on getting worse! Either you do something about this or I will take matters into my own hands!" Headmaster Forestter is not angry, he is not disappointed, instead, he nods, and hands Aaron a bottle with clear, fizzy liquid.

"I've been waiting all year to hear that from you." Headmaster Forestter smiles, almost chuckles at the speed Aaron's face turns from angry to confused.

"I needed to make sure you had a reason, a want strong enough to end this, and now, you have one. To save the woman you love."
Aaron blushes, but shakes it off, still having more questions than either of them have time for.

"But why sir?" Headmaster Forestter is very patient, chuckling glumly at the question.

"Because Drake is Phycological, he makes you mentally break before the physical symptoms start. You are immune to the physical aspect, not the mental one." Aaron still has many questions, but those can wait, the only one he needs to ask is:

"If you are so sure of this, why can't you go yourself?"

Headmaster Forestter looks blankly at him for a split second.

"I'm not strong enough." It's said in a whisper as he shuts the door, and Aaron stares at the burnished oak door.

Aaron takes a deep breath as he downs the clear, fizzy liquid, filling him with warmth, and clearing his head of any thought that didn't matter.

He takes off, knowing exactly where to go, when he finds the fake wall that hides the corridor, he slips inside, immediately becoming cold, and the potion, wearing off.

Everything is quiet, too quiet, the cobwebs on the ceiling move eerily, and a cold mist crawls up Aaron's back like an icy snake.

He hears footsteps coming from all around him, they stop, and he hears a familiar, Deep, cold laugh.

"Wow, you don't waste any time do you?" The voice echoes around in Aaron's head, but he keeps his cool, continuing to walk down the old hallway.

"What? No angry banter? No cocky remark? I really have gotten on your nerves haven't I?" Aaron ignores him again, but flashes of Aphmau laying in a pool of ink keep plaguing him.

"Come on! Aren't we pals? I did tell you when Aphmau was sick didn't I? I mean, she was never going to, someone had to let big Alpha Aaron know." This makes Aaron stop in his tracks, and his eyes burn with anger.

"Leave her out of this, this is between you, and me." Aaron starts to walk again, but what Drake says next drives his vision into a rage induced blur.

"Okay, Okay, I'm just saying, she didn't want you to know, honestly, you were the only person who didn't, she didn't trust you with it."

"That's not true! She was scared! She didn't know how to handle it!" Aaron feels his hands start to sprout fur, his teeth sharpen, and his bones start to crack.

"Is that so? Are you sure she isn't just scared of you?" Aaron's vision slowly went normal, was she scared of him? Did he make her uncomfortable?

"I mean, who wouldn't be? You have sharp jagged teeth, your eyes are the color of blood, and look at you! You're covered in fur! You're not a man, you are an animal." Aaron looks at his fur covered hands, his tail, and feels his teeth.

"And what have you done? You turned her into what you are, you stole her humanity to serve your selfish needs. You are an Animal." Drake sighs, and Aaron feels a cold, squishy hand on his shoulder.

"Don't feel so bad,you can't help being an animal, it's in your blood, in your programming, it's just who you are." Drake grins, feeding off of Aaron's misery, building up his physical form behind Aaron's slumped body, until he was almost completely corporal, a figure made of ink. Brown hair, and black jacket, and pure yellow eyes forming from the ink.

Aaron shudders to a halt, feeling cold and empty, Drakes words swirling around his head like a tornado.

"No. You're wrong..." Aaron says almost below a whisper, his eyes lighting up in rage.

"Hmmmm? What was that? I didn't quite catch it." In a sudden surge of blood to his muscles, he fully transforms, but with a white, golden glow around him.

" I said you're wrong. I may be an animal..." Aaron lunges for Drake, slamming him into a wall, spraying ink everywhere.

"But that doesn't define who I am." Drake slips out of Aaron's vice grip, but still ends up getting slashed across the chest, his new body spraying ink.

"I am Aaron Lycan..." Drake barely gets out of the way when Aaron punches a wall cracking the bricks with it's force.

"I may not have many friends..." Drake gets caught by Aaron's swipe and gets thrown across the room, his physical form slowly fading.

"But my friends are understanding!" Drake gets clobbered in the face, Aaron very quickly throwing him again, this time, through a glass mirror.

"And kind!" Aaron runs on all fours and bites and and uses Drake as a rag doll, throwing him around and knocking him off walls.

"And Aphmau is what brings a light in my darkness!" The golden light around Aaron suddenly flares, Aaron himself has no idea what's going on, but he feels a warmth and power surging through his veins.

"I won't leave her to suffer the same I did!" Drake suddenly goes pale, his body going back into an inky goo.

"I will be there for her! Help her!" Drake gets thrown up in the air and crashes into the floor, his body an almost amorphous blob of black now.

"Even of the best thing I could do for her is leave!" A powerful golden flame erupts from Aaron's fist and as it makes contact with Drake's body the ink bubbles and broils until catching fire and exploding into thousands of pieces.

Aaron stares at the millions of black, flaming slivers of ink floating down, as some sick reward for suffering through so much emotional pain in such a short amount of time, he looks down at his flaming paw, it doesn't burn him.

The warmth in his body suddenly leaves him, and a snake made of ice forms a vice grip on his heart, his vision becoming dark, exhausted.

Aaron heaves and falls over, the light around him slowly fading as his vision blurred, his huge furry body heavy, he doesn't understand what just happened, but he doesn't have time to think as he gets pulled down into his subconscious, and into the the dark recesses of his mind.