Quietly, I sneak out of my room and begin walking soundlessly downstairs. I navigate my way around the loose, squeaky floorboard I'm already familiar with because of how many times I've heard the ugly screech, and be careful where I step. This castle straight out of a Gothic horror movie is in pretty good conditions, but as Chloe discovered yesterday when a ghost led her out onto a balcony, it's not altogether safe.

I step over another loose stair, and try not to concentrate on the muscles writhing like snakes on my forearms. My legs twitch with contractions, and the skin behind my knees, which has been itching, begins to burn. Shoot. That hurts. I need to hurry my butt up.

I break into a jog, skipping two steps with every step. Sweat runs down my temple. I don't have much time left. But, this is as fast as I can go. I straighten, the bones in my back already protesting, because I've already begun to end down. The stairs cut off into a hallway leading to the next flight, and I trot down it briskly. As I reach the girl's room, I stop in front of it and listen. Chloe and Tori's deep breathing from sleep fills my ears, and I nod, satisfied they're ok. Blankets rustle, and I'm already moving on.

I clunk down two more flights before reaching the ground level. My head is whirling, and it's hard to concentrate. Now my whole body is burning like it's caught fire. I switch into a full out run, and yanlk the door open. It clanks loudly into the frame, and I hear Andrew yell "Derek?" Dang it. He's awake. I ponder whether to explain to him what's happening, but the pain prompts me to leave him. I can deal with him later.

The cool air feels good against my burning face, but it's doesn't really help. My stomach is beginning to churn, and I feel like puking. I gulp hard, and then jump as the neighbor's(or at least the people who live about a mile away) pesky dog barks, and vaults over the fence, which is actually very short. It stands, examines me, and then snarls. I ignore it. I don't have time for this. As I enter the woods, it yelps loudly and follows me. With a growl, it grabs my arm and shakes it. I shove it as gently as possible away. Snarling and barking, it followed, and I, extremely annoyed, pushed it. With a loud yelp, it hit a tree and fell limp. Shoot.

Did I kill it? All I can think is Add it to the list. I know a little girl lives nearby, and I'd probably just killed her pet. Sure, enough, I hear a young girl's voice calling "Rufus? Where are you, you rotten dog?" She's coming nearer but my legs are frozen, feeling like jelly. "Rufus-rufus!" She emerged into the small cluster of trees, and gasped when she saw her dog unconscious against a tree, and the wacky man staring at her. She opened her mouth, and screamed. I took off.

I get about a mile when I find a secluded spot to collapse in. I brushaside some more painful rocks and stick, and sit down with a gasp. Dang, this hurts. Pain wracks my body so bad my breath is cut off, and I stretch out against the ground trying to ease it. Nope. Doesn't work. It never does.

I promptly get rid of my dinner, and held my breath to not breathe in the awful, sour smell. I whimper a little bit, but not much. I know a bunch more is coming.

With a jerk, I spasm as the bones in my legs and back crack with loud snaps. My teeth burn(who knew that was possible? Not me) as they develop sharp points, and fur sprouts out of my skin, feeling like millions of tiny needles bursting out from my body.

My nose and mouth elongates, and my infrequent cries of pain sound more animal than human. Sweat pours off me in buckets, and I truly must smell. I close my eyes as I feel a tail bursting out of my skin. The hair is more animal like now. Smoother.

Leaves crunch, and a stick snaps. I look around fevereishly, searching for the source. It's hard though, because my eyes are alternating between black, white, and gray and color. My nose is smelling a familiar scent, one full of perfume like flowers. Only one person could smell like that. Victoria Enright.

"Tori," I gasp. She stops, staring at my quaking figure, and sits cross-legged. "Go away," I choke. My voice is guttural. She glares at me, and snaps "Since Barbie's fast asleep, I figured you'd want someone to sit with you. Now shut up and change, wolf boy." She spreads her jacket under her, and gets comfortable. "Go now. Go to sleep." "Goodness gracious, you're like a broken record. Shut it, and quit wasting you're breath. I'm not going anywhere."

Her eyes settle on me, and I have to strain for breath. I whimper as I feel my ribs began rearranging themselves. They are cracking like nuts, and I can't help but think something's wrong. I begin to hyperventilate. The little voice in the back of my head is ordering me to calm down, and let the Change work it's magic, but it's drowned out by my panic. As I'm one of the youngest werewolves experiencing the Change ever, I don't know what's going to happen. It could end badly

"Do you want to hold my hand?" I jump, and look at Tori. He face turns a deep red, and she scowls. "I don't care. If it helps, do it. If not, don't." She's embarrassed, but then another rush of pain washes over me and I reach for her hand. It's a lot of help to have something to cling to, even if I have to be careful not to crush it. "So, do you want to talk? I don't know if that'll help. I think Chloe might of said something, but…" Tori's aimless, nervous chatter does help, even though I want to order her to shut up, or make her talk about something other than Halle Berry's ugly haircut.

I begin to choke, really choke. What the flipping heck is going on? I can't breathe. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Dang it! "Tori," I whisper. "What, Derek?" Her face is worried, a new expression. "I can't breathe-ahhh!" I keen loudly as pains begin piercing my chest. Tori examines me, and then shrieks. I expect her to run, screaming, back into the house, but she doesn't. "I think you're heart and lungs are rearranging themselves." She says softly.

Sure enough, the iron band cutting off my air releases, and I suck in the oxygen. The Change should complete itself, or stop soon. My body is leaning towards looking more wolf like than human, and the pain is starting to wane. Thank goodness. More fur sprouts, and begins to even itself out.

Suddenly, agony seizes me and I scream. But now it's a howl. Tori has stood, and stepped back, fear in her eyes. "Derek? Derek!" I can't talk. It hurts to much, and if I open my mouth I'll howl loud enough to wake the dead(sorry, Chloe. Shameless necromancer figure of speech).

For ten seconds, I am filled with pain so horrifying I swear if I live I'll never change again. Tori presses her hands to her mouth, and backs into a tree. Then, suddenly everything goes black. I'm back in an instant, but my world is gray. "You did it!" Tori says. She's terrified. I let my tongue loll out in victory, and spin and begin to sprint.

My legs stretch out, and I feel truly powerful. Dang, this feels good. I weave through trees, jumping over logs and bushes. The air burns my eyes, and the ground bruises my feet, but that helps it feel more real. I don't want ever to stop.

I circle around the house and property, taking in the smells and sights. They're so different I could swear I'd never been here before. A rabbit pauses, terrified in front of me, and then takes off. I chase it, for fun, diving through the shrubs. When it disappears into it's rabbit hole, I realize it's been almost an hour, and Tori's probably ready to scream. I run back to the clearing, only to find her fast asleep at a trunk of a tree. Come to think of it, I'm tired too. I don't think I can sleep in the house tonight, anyway.

I curl up and close my eyes. Leaves rustle, and I can hear Tori breathing slowly. A deer pads through the forest, and takes off when it sees me. An owl hoots. I smile, and allow myself to drift to sleep.

Me: AWWWWWW!!!!!!

Prince Charming: Aw what?

Me: Terek! Or just a squint of it.

PC: Whatever. I like Chlerek better anyway.

Me: SACRILEGE!!!!!

PC: I'm going back to bed.

Me: Lazy.

PC: She doesn't own Derek, Tori, Chloe, Andrew, or me. She doesn't own Darkest Powers and Simon too.

Me: Sadly. Let's go get some chocolate.

PC: Fine. But then I'm going to bed.