The White Wolf in the Dark.

Chapter 7

He woke and looked around. At first, he didn't know where he was, but then his memory seemed to come back in a flash of memories. He pulled up his hospital gown and looked at his chest. The purple was gone. He looked around and a nurse came in and said "You're awake? Okay, good. We can't find anything wrong with you, but we might want to monitor you for a few hours. What happened?" He shrugged. He knew they'd never believe him if he told them why it had happened. He'd've sounded insane. So, instead, he said "I don't remember. It's all a blur."

The nurse nodded and walked back out. A few hours later, he was walking out of the hospital. He looked around and decided to go back to those woods. When he was walking, however, he saw Kyle and his jock friends. He turned and ran back, but they chased him down yelling "You're gonna get it! You gave Ron a concussion! It's your fault we lost last nights game!"

He kept running and dodged into the woods, but he tripped over a fallen tree and landed on his hands. They caught up and lifted him off the ground by the shirt. Kyle hit him in the nose, hard, then in the jaw, then in the side of the head. He pulled his fist back again, and everything slowed down. 

Jayce watched, extremely alarmed, as Kyles' fist came closer to his face, he lifted his hand and caught Kyles, then everything sped up again. Kyles' eyes widened, then narrowed, then Jayce squeezed. Kyle yelled in pain, but it wasn't as loud as the crunch of bones snapping. Jayce had no idea what had just happened, but he didn't care. He then stood up and pushed the jock, and he flew a few feet back.

Jayce looked at his hands. Rage was pulsing through his veins, pounding in his head, making him feel like his nerves were on fire. He seethed, as Kyle got up. His jock friends advanced, throwing punch after punch at him, but every time, they seemed to slow down, and Jayce sidestepped, blocked, parried and dodged every attack. He seethed even more and looked down at his hands again. His nails were growing, sharpening as if they were turning into claws.

He threw another punch, hitting one of the jocks in the side of the face. He went flying, slammed against a tree, and collapsed in a heap. Jayce looked at his hands and seen that his nails had dug into his hand, and were bleeding now. He slashed instead, and barely missed one of the oncoming attackers, and hit a tree instead. His nails dug into the tree instead and tore the bark off. Kyle got up and backed away, then looked at his friends and said "What the hell? Let's go!"

Jayce watched them run away, two of them stopping to pick up their injured and unconscious friend. He looked at his hands again. The claws were still there, and suddenly, he felt a pain in his gums unlike any other. It felt like his teeth were trying to push out. He yelled and grabbed at his mouth, biting his finger to quiet himself. He felt his teeth sink in and yelled even louder, feeling his teeth. His canines had grown more and were extremely sharp. He pulled out his phone and looked at his reflection. He had fangs.

He ran deeper and deeper into the woods, yelling as more things kept happening to him. Every time he thought of what Kyle had done, he sped up without meaning to, slamming into trees. He collapsed and yelled into the darkening sky. His face felt tingly and scratchy. He reached up and felt his cheeks, and his hand caught hair as if he had sideburns. He looked back into his reflection. His eyes had turned a glowing, bright purple. His fangs had grown even more and were protruding from his lips. 

But the worst part was the hair, it was growing down his jawline, under his chin, down the middle of his forehead. He collapsed against a tree and howled with pain. He managed to get back to his house, but it was all a blur. He burst inside and ran up to his room, unaware of where he was going. He looked in the mirror he had hung on his wall. His eyes were blazing. He couldn't take much more of the pain, and he looked down at his hands. The marks his claws had made were gone.

He looked again, then ran his hand over the other. He looked back into the mirror, breathing heavily. He felt his heart slow, and his eyes turned back to their normal color. He watched as his fangs shrunk and disappeared, though they stayed rather sharper than usual. He watched the hair disappear into his skin, and his claws retracted into his fingers. He panted and stared into his eyes.

"What... Just... Happened...?"

Jayce heard it, but he didn't remember speaking it. He spun around, locking eye contact with the speaker.

"What the hell, Jay?!" Anthony said, his eyes wide and fearful, his voice very much alarmed and shaky.

"I... I don't know. It just... Happened!" Jayce replied, his eyes also wide. "I got bitten by this great white wolf in the woods, and ever since then, weird things have been happening to me!"

Anthony raised an eyebrow and said, "You're a werewolf then?"

"Of course not, Anthony, werewolves don't exist. I thought I've been hallucinating this whole time. Maybe it's just..." Jayce didn't have an excuse, an explanation. His mind was coming up blank. "It's just what? Unless the cafeteria put some special mushrooms on my burger earlier, you're a werewolf."

Jayce shook his head, disbelieving. "There's no way. Things like Vampires and Werewolves and Witches? It's just stories, Anthony. There's gotta be some kind of explanation, science stuff." Jayce pulled up his computer and started typing.

After an hour, Anthony decided to speak again. "How about trying these symptoms. 'Facial hair growth, fang growth, nail growth, werewolfism-"

"Shut up, this isn't funny, Anthony! There's gotta be something!"

Anthony raised his hands. "Just saying, if you aren't a werewolf then you're a weredog."

Jayce spun around, his eyes glowing purple. His voice came out rough, and barklike. "I said SHUT UP!" He felt his teeth grow again and knew his nails would be out too, as well as the tingly, scratchy sensation on his face. 

Anthony backed up, now looked terrified. "Okay, man! I was just sayin'!"

Jayce seethed. He stared at Anthony and felt his teeth grow more. He could hear his friends heart beating, he could see the throbbing vein in his neck. He wanted desperately to attack, to pounce, to rip out his best friends throat with his teeth. He couldn't control it, he had to do it. He leaped across the room, open-mouthed, aiming right for Anthony's jugular.