The Beast

Adrian has a strange experience after he recovers from an attack in the forest.

“Running as fast as he can, his lungs, side and legs burn, but he knows that he can’t stop. He can hear it, crashing through the underbrush behind him, panting, snuffling and growling. Closer, closer, and closer it comes. He’s seeing spots now, and he can feel its hot breath on the back of his neck, stinking of blood and raw meat. He strains his eyes, trying desperately to see in the half light of the moon. He turns, and runs into the side of a cave, a dead end. Dazed and bloodied, he gets to his feet trying to see the beast that’s been chasing him, but the only thing he can see is a wall of fur and muscle, and then he hears a deep rolling growl, followed by a searing pain in his neck and shoulder then everything goes black.” 

Adrian’s eyes snapped open as he falls out of his bed, his t-shirt plastered to his body by cold sweat. He takes slow deep breaths and tries to calm himself down. "It was just a dream, just a bad dream." He tells himself, he'd been having the same nightmare every night since his "accident". He rubs his throbbing bandaged shoulder. The memory was still a little foggy for him, he remembered going to Brent’s party in the woods, drinking too much, and wandering off. He had thought that the forest was so pretty, then he remembered stopping to pee and hearing a sound like a really big dog growling, then running. But after the attack, nothing. Apparently he had stumbled into the road with his neck a bloody mess and deep claw wounds on his ribs and chest, a local farmer saw him and took him into town. When he woke up three days later, the doctor told him that a large animal had attacked him, probably a bear, even though his older brother Demarcus (who was a veterinarian) had said that he had never in all his years seen bite marks or claw wounds that looked the way his did. He stayed in the hospital for a day before his best friends Claire and Brent came to take him home; he remembered how Brent repeatedly told him how sorry that he was.

Adrian shook his head, he needed to focus on the here and now, he had an algebra test due in two days, he went to his mirror and brushed his shoulder length dreadlocks out of the way, the same face gazed at him that always had. His large hazelnut eyes, set in his milk chocolate skin, the only decent (in his opinion) features he had. He was 6 “5”, and had always been on the pudgy side. He looked down, and his eyes widened. "WHOA! I'm freakin' sexy!" He ran his hand down his toned muscular stomach. “What the hell? When did THIS happen? HOW did this happen?” His self admiration was interrupted by his stomach growling, he was so hungry! Last night he had eaten an entire ham that his older brother had cooked. He sniffed the air, something in the kitchen smelled delicious, and he went softly down the steps to see what it was. On the way he passed the window, had a strange urge to look up. The full moon shone from behind wispy gray clouds. He felt a twinge in his gut, then his hunger returned stronger than ever. When he got to the kitchen he followed his nose the counter. There was a thick slab of venison, freshly thawed on butcher’s paper. Before he even knew what he was doing, Adrian grabbed the meat and ripped into it, licking his fingers and the paper clean. He felt full, satisfied, and disgusted. “What in the hell did I just do?” He asked, horrified at himself. He felt as if he was going to be sick, he needed fresh air. Adrian ran out of the house into the night, the screen door banging shut behind him.

Adrian ran and ran, as if he could outrun the taste of the raw meat, and the feel of the juices running down his chin, as if he could outrun the memory of what he just did and how much he enjoyed it. The night air felt delicious on his skin; it filled his lungs and seemed to fuel his legs. He ran faster and faster, until it was the only thing on his mind, the action overtook him. He had no idea why he ran now, but he did, faster and faster until something made him stop and look up, the full moon shone down on him from above.

A gut-wrenching feeling rushed through him, and even though he fell to his knees he couldn't tear his eyes away from the moon. His muscles began to stretch and expand, ripping his clothes as he held his stomach. His shoulder throbbed and burned as his skin darkened. "W-what is h-happening t-to me?" He groaned desperately as his bones began to painfully pop and crack, grower thicker and moving to new locations, stretching his skin. Coarse black fur sprouted all over his body as his mouth and nose fused into one and elongated into a whiskered snout. Razor sharp teeth filled his black gums and his groans turn to a rumbling growl, then to a savage snarl as his body jerks and grows.

Everything takes on a strange sharpness in Adrian’s hazelnut eyes, he can see for miles, and smell even farther. The scent of cattle invades his nostrils, and before he can even think his new body reacts, taking off at top speed through the moonlit forest. He reaches a farm bordered by the 6 foot fence and leaps over it without hesitation, landing amongst a flock of sheep. By the time the sheep react it’s too late, he's already tore into them, a farmhand sees him, but not before Adrian sees him, the farmhand shakily tried to load his shotgun. Adrian leaps onto the man and tears into him like he did to the cattle, then he runs back into the forest.  He’s never felt like this before, such power! "I feel so...so..." Adrian stops running, throws his head back and calls at the full moon with all his strength, letting his body shake with all his newfound vigor and energy. Somewhere not very far away, an old man sits in his shack sharpening a blade as he hears the call. "Challenge accepted" He says, turning his silver blade in the light.