Jennifer and her best friend Rachel had just come from the department store, where Jennifer had completed the final fitting for her Wedding Dress, just a day before her Wedding. She was driving Rachel home, when the car overheated...again. She had driven this car for over a dozen years, and she took extremely good care of it, which is why it lasted as long as it did. Still, things like this were inevitable from time to time in any old car, but this was a particularly inconvenient time, as it was early evening, and the full moon was beginning to rise.
"Hey Jen, are you ever gonna replace this old thing? I mean, I know you're really frugal and everything, and that's cool, but one of these days this car is going to stop at a really inconvenient location, and you'll wish you had broken down and bought a new one." How right Rachel was, right now Jennifer was silently kicking herself for not having done just that, but there was nothing she could do now. She was still a few miles from Rachel's place, there was nothing around, no-one they could ask for help, and it wouldn't be much longer before the moon was high in the sky. But there was nothing she could do but wait and pray that somehow this car, which she knew from years of experience wouldn't start again for at least an hour, would somehow start again in the next few minutes.
As Jennifer sat in quiet panic, she tried to remain outwardly calm, sitting back in the seat and closing her eyes, attempting to look relaxed. Rachel, who had been in this situation several times with her friend, was certainly calm enough, she knew the car would eventually start again and everything would be fine. "Hey Jennifer, do you really like my dress? I know I'm just the bridesmaid and all, but I want to look my best, you never know, maybe I'll meet a nice guy at this thing. They say that Weddings are a great place to meet people, right Jen? Jen?" Rachel put her hand on her friend's shoulder, snapping her out of the panicked daze she was in. "Huh? Oh, sorry Rachel, I must've been daydreaming or something. It sure is hot in here, could you roll down your window for a minute?". Jennifer was sweating, and not just from fear, she could see the moon off in the distance begin its inevitable climb toward the top of the sky, and more importantly, she could feel it. She knew she didn't have much time, and there was no solution in sight. "Roll my window down? But Jen, it's practicly freezing in here. I was about to reach for a blanket, and you're sweating buckets, are you OK?". Jennifer was not OK, and she knew she couldn't hide it from her friend much longer. Once the change begins, one of the first areas to be effected would be her hands, and even if the car were to start right now, she couldn't drive with her hands transforming into giant paws with razor-sharp claws. No, the situation was hopeless, soon she wouldn't even be able to open the car door with her hands, she had to get out...now...while she still can.
"Rachel, I, I don't feel so good, I've got to go...get some air" Jennifer said as she opened the car door and made her way out of the vehicle. Rachel, concerned about her friend, yelled out "Hey, what's wrong? Where are you going?" and as Jennifer took off into the forest across the road, Rachel did the only thing she could, she exited the car and followed her. "Jennifer! Jennifer, what's wrong? What's going on?" "Go back to the car Rachel, don't follow me, please!" Jennifer was running as fast as she could, but you can't outrun the moon, and even if you could Jennifer wasn't exactly a world class athlete. After what seemed like an eternity to Jennifer, but was no more than a couple minutes or so, Jennifer collapsed from the stress and fatigue, near a small lake. Rachel, who was far too worried about her friend to heed her request to turn back, found her and sat down beside her. "What's wrong Jennifer? Why did you run away?" "You...you can't see me now...not like this!" "Like what? Are you going to be sick? I've seen a lot worse than that." "You will again if you don't leave right now" Jennifer thought to herself, but she knew that arguing with Rachel was pointless, and she was just too tired to try. She knew her friend was stubborn, and if she wanted to do something, she was going to do it. "Rachel, you're my best friend, and I don't want to lose that, but I know that I will if you don't leave right now." Rachel again put her hand on Jennifer's shoulder, and said "Its OK Jen, just tell me what's going on. I want to help." Jennifer sadly replied "There's nothing you can do to help me, there's a side of me that I've never shown anybody, a side that I never wanted you or anyone else to see. Its horrible, you'll hate me if you see it, so please, please just leave me alone".
Jennifer again looked into the sky, the moon was much higher than before, but thankfully there had appeared some clouds in the sky, which were obscuring the moon a great deal, and that was slowing the transformation. Still, she could feel her hands, which she had put into her pockets to hide them from Rachel, starting to expand, as were her fingernails. The nails were beginning to dig into her, and she knew she would have to take them out very soon. Rachel said "Is this about my car comment earlier, are you upset about that? Because I was just teasing you, I know how much you love that thing". Jennifer shook her head no, she was barely listening to Rachel, she was focused on the moon, willing the clouds to cover it so that she could retain her human form for as long as possible. She knew she had to tell Rachel the truth, as painful as it was going to be, there was no hiding it now.
"Listen Rachel, I'm going to tell you something I've never told anyone else in the world, and I'm only doing it because you're going to find out anyway. I know you're going to hate me once you find out, that's why I did my best to keep it a secret, but here it is. I'm a Werewolf, and tonight is a full moon, that means I'm about to change into my wolf form. It's actually already started." Jennifer sighed, a great weight had been lifted from her, but a greater weight still remained. She had told her friend the truth, but that didn't change the unpleasant nature of that truth. How would she react? "Say something Rachel". Rachel looked bewildered, unsure what to say. She started to laugh "You're kidding, right? We've known each other for over 20 years, how could you possibly expect me to believe something crazy like that?". "You don't have to believe me Rachel, you can see it with your own two eyes, although I wish you wouldn't, just leave me alone and we can pretend this never happened". Rachel took a closer look at Jennifer. She didn't seem like a werewolf, she looked like her normal self, although she did notice that Jennifer was covered in sweat, in a way that didn't seem possible for such a cold night. And wasn't her hair shorter just a few minutes ago? Also, was she imagining it, or was Jennifer's sweater, which was a very loose fitting sweater, suddenly looking a bit snug? Jennifer certainly wouldn't have any reason to be pretending any of this. Rachel had to find out the truth. "OK Jennifer, you definitely seem...different. But are you telling me the truth? You're a werewolf, and you've managed to keep it a secret all this time? Its just so hard to believe". Jennifer was getting a bit irritated, she had bared her soul to Rachel, against her will, and now Rachel wasn't believing her? It was perfectly understandable, of course, but particularly with all the stress she was currently under, both mentally as well as physically, she couldn't help but become annoyed, and responded as such "You don't believe me? Then look at this". She removed her hands from her pockets and showed them to Rachel, hands that were considerably larger, somewhat paw-like, and with halfway-grown long sharp claws. "How do you explain that Rachel? And while you're trying to think of an explanation for that, just wait a little longer and you can explain the tail I'm about to grow." Rachel looked at Jennifer's hands with shock and realization, she couldn't believe it, but it was true. Her best friend had kept this secret from her for her entire life, she was a werewolf, and she was transforming right before her very eyes. Rachel didn't know what to say, for a brief moment she wanted to close her eyes, to run, to pretend none of this had ever happened, she wished for a moment that she had never followed Jennifer into the woods, to this beautiful lake, if only she had turned around when her friend asked her to, gone back to the car, waited patiently for Jennifer to return from doing whatever she had to do, she never would've known, and everything would've been fine.
But that was only for a fleeting moment, as Rachel quickly realized that kind of thinking was totally selfish. Her friend was going through something extremely emotionally painful, and she needed her, and when Rachel knows that Jennifer needs her help, she's always there for her. She couldn't do anything differently now. With resolve, she looked up at Jennifer and said "I'm not going to lie, this is something I never expected, I never imagined something like this was even possible. I don't know what to say, I don't know what to do, but I'm here for you, just tell me what to do and I'll do it, but I won't leave you, we always said we wouldn't have secrets from each other, and you broke your promise. I understand why, and I'm not mad, but I'm going to hold you to it from now on." Jennifer began to cry, she wanted to believe her friend, but she knew that the transformation was going to turn her into a scary beast, and that process was surely going to remove whatever resolve her friend had to stand by her side. Who could stand by someone as they turn from the human they've always known into a monster? "I appreciate your kind words, more than you know, but I'm about to turn into something hideous, and you can't possibly deal with that. You think you know me, but you don't know the real me, and if you do you won't like it, so please go back to the car and pretend this was all just a horrible dream, or a stupid joke".
Rachel could see Jennifer shaking, from the cold, from the effects of the moon, from the emotion of the whole crazy situation, and she reached out and put her arm around her. "There may be a side to you that I don't know, and maybe at first it will be a little scary, but you're my best friend, and I want to know all of your sides, not just the ones that are easy to see". "But Rachel, aren't you scared that I'm going to like, eat you or something? I could you know." Rachel laughed "Oh Jen, we've watched some bad horror movies together over the years, but I know the difference between a movie and reality. Reality is that the only kind of werewolf that would eat somebody is somebody sick enough to do it whether they were a werewolf or not. You know that." Jennifer smiled for the first time in a long time "I know, I was just trying to scare you away, I guess I can't get rid of you can I?" Rachel smiled back "Nope, you're stuck with me, through thick and thin, fur or skin. Hey, that rhymes!" and they both laughed, before Jennifer yelled out in pain.
Rachel pulled Jennifer closer to her "What's wrong, is it the moon? Is there anything I can do to help? I know you've never had anybody to help before, but think." Jennifer replied "The change is painful at times, usually it doesn't last very long, but if you look up you'll see the moon is covered by the clouds right now, and that's slowing the change to a crawl. If the sky was totally clear I'd probably already fully be in my wolf form right now. But if you really want to help..." "I do want to help Jen, anything" Rachel interjected. "Then you could help me take my shoes off, they're really hurting my feet, they're growing and the shoes aren't going to last much longer, and they're my favorite pair. I obviously can't remove them with these paws." "Of course Jen, I'll do that right now." Rachel reached down and removed one shoe, and was shocked by what she saw, Jennifer's foot wasn't human at all anymore, and was covered in fur. She refused to stop and stare, she knew her friend needed her help, so she quickly reached over and removed the other shoe also. "Thanks Rachel. I'm sorry you had to see that." "Its OK Jennifer, all I want to do is help you through this, I don't care what you look like."
"By the time this is over you will, nothing can prepare you for what you're going to see" Jennifer said. Rachel replied "Lets not dwell on that right now, is there anything else I can do? Anything else I should remove?" She looked at Jennifer, all her clothes seemed to be considerably tighter than she had ever seen before on her friend. "Well, to be honest I usually change naked, it's easiest that way, but I don't think that's going to be necessary right now, because I always make sure my bra and panties are extra-loose, just in case I can't get them off in time, but if you could help me with my pants and my sweater, that'd be great." "No problem Jennifer, looks like they need to come off pretty quick by the way they're filling out". She unbuttoned Jen's pants, and worked and worked to get them off. Because the transformation was causing Jennifer's body to grow the pants were incredibly tight, and extremely difficult to remove. It took every ounce of Rachel's strength, and Jennifer's growing muscles as well, to work together and remove them in one piece. However, while they were doing that, a loud ripping sound was coming from the area of Jennifer's sweater. "Aaaaahhh!" Jennifer exclaimed. She was relieved to finally be freed of the pants and the tightness of the sweater, but at the same time upset to see her beautiful sweater basically torn in half. "Sorry Jen, but at least we saved the pants. And don't you feel better now?" "Yeah, thanks Rach." "Hey Jen, you know, I might have to re-think my whole attitude about this transformation thing." Jen looked sad, and replied "I knew it would be too much for you. Its OK, just go back to the car, I'll be fine." Rachel smiled and replied "Its not that, its just, I think I'm going to have to start envying you now, your breasts are huge, and amazing! I wish I could make mine look like that" Jennifer blushed and replied "Well, I'd be happy to trade places with you right now." They sat quietly for a few moments, as ever so slowly Jennifer's body changed, enlarged, and fur covered more and more of it. Suddenly Jennifer yelled out in pain again. "Where is the pain Jennifer? Can I do anything else?'" "Its my back Rach, the pain of the transformation is always worst in my back" she said and winced as the pain continued. "Well, I've never worked on a Werewolf before, but I'm the best massage therapist in the state, and I'm gonna do my best. Roll over Jen." Jennifer slowly rolled over, and Rachel noted the beginnings of the tail that Jennifer had mentioned earlier. "Hey Jen, nice tail. I bet guys tell you that all the time." Jennifer laughed despite the pain she was in "Very funny, I thought you said you were a massage therapist, not a comedian." "Who said I can't be both? I'm a very talented girl, as you're about to find out."
Rachel went to work rubbling Jennifer's back, and right away she noticed that as she kneaded deeply into her friend's back, she could actually feel the bones changing, moving underneath her fingers. She heard her friend whimpering in pain, and she was determined to find a way to compensate for the changes that were interfering with her technique. She closed her eyes, seeing nothing, only feeling the skin and fur beneath her fingers, as she worked on her friend's back that was causing her such pain. Slowly she began to get a rythmn that was able to overcome the extreme circumstances working against her. Eventually Jennifer's cries of pain became less and less frequent, and there was even the occasional moan of yet another satisfied customer. "Oh Rachel, you are amazing, I never imagined that anything could help with this awful pain, I've taken all kinds of pain medicines, natural remedies, you name it, nothing ever worked, this is incredible!" "Just doing my job babe, by the way you owe me 50 bucks. Will that be cash or credit card?" she said as she finished her work, Jennifer's back now seeming to be completely transformed. "You can have anything you want Rach, I've never felt anything like that before. Thank you so much." "Anytime Jen, anytime." Rachel took a long look at her friend, who now pretty much looked like a wolf, except for her face which still looked somewhat human, despite some fur and the extra long teeth. "So Jennifer, is that it?" "Sadly, no, the face is the last to change, it'll probably be any second now, and then I proooobably won't be tooooooo talkative for a wwhoooooooile" Jennifer struggled to say, as her face began the final phase of her transformation into the wolf. Rachel watched as her friend completed the change. "Thats OK Jen, you talk so much your tongue probably needed a break anyway" she laughed. Jennifer growled in reply, but there were just enough human features remaining in her face that Rachel could tell Jennifer was smiling as well. And then it was over, Jennifer's body had completely become the wolf.
Rachel's mind began swimming with questions. "What do I do now? If I can't communicate with her while she's in wolf-form, does that mean I can't do anything else for her now? Should I just go wait in the car? Maybe I could take a swim while I wait. How long am I supposed to wait anyway? Is she going to be like this all night? Am I going to have to sit here with her all night? I wish I had a pillow." Her train of thought was broken as Jennifer began loudly howling at the moon. At that moment she realized what she should do. She wasn't going to the car, she wasn't going to lie down, she wasn't even going to go for a swim, as tempting as that was in such a beautiful lake on such a cold night (even though the air was cold, the water there was known to always be warm, due to a natural hot spring beneath the lake). No, there was only one thing she could do. She stood beside her friend, and began howling at the moon as well.
Not being a Werewolf herself, and having normal vocal cords (that she wanted to still be able to use tomorrow) she wasn't able to howl as loud, as long, or as often as Jennifer, but nonetheless she stood beside her and howled at the moon for what seemed like days, but was in reality about an hour. Eventually Jennifer's howls came to a stop, and a look of satisfaction and fatigue crossed her wolf-form face. "Come on Jen, let's get you home. I'll drive", and she took her friend's furry paw-hand and led her back to the car. They entered the car, Rachel putting her own, and then her friend's, safety belts on, and she began driving her home. "Good thing we're pretty much in the middle of nowhere, or else you'd have to lay down in the back seat to hide from view, and with all the wedding stuff back there I don't think there's any room. Listen Jennifer, I know you can't tell me when you're going to change back, but if you need me to stop the car and give you another back massage just let me know." She looked over at Jennifer, who slowly nodded her head.
In about 10 minutes they were at Jennifer's home, it was pitch black, the moon no longer shining in any meaningful way whatsoever, as Rachel first made sure that no-one was awake or around, and then made her way out of the car, coming around to help Jennifer out of her seat belt and out of the car also, then leading her into her house. "OK Jennifer, we're home. I'd like to talk to you about...everything that happened, but I know that you can't right now. And I know that you can take care of yourself from here, apparently you've been doing it for many years, but I'm not going to leave you alone. Let me put you to bed, I'll stay with you in case you need me. I don't suppose you wear any special wolf-pajamas? Didn't think so. Lets go." She took Jennifer to her bedroom and put her to bed. Under normal circumstances that bed might be big enough for two people, but in Jennifer's present condition there was no way that Rachel could lay down beside her, so she sat in a near by reclining chair, and they both went to sleep. A few hours later, Rachel heard a moaning sound, she opened her eyes and looked over and saw Jennifer starting to change back into human form, and she knew that sound could only be the pain she was in. Even though Jennifer seemed to be asleep and Rachel didn't want to wake her up, she couldn't allow her friend to suffer needlessly, so she walked over to the bed and climbed up, and used the same massage technique she used so successfully before. Careful to not do everything exactly the same (since after all, the process was going in reverse this time) but patiently feeling and adapting to the changes, she quickly silenced the painful noises from Jennifer, once again turning them into sounds of pleasure. "Yes, I truly am the Massage Master" Rachel said quietly to herself. "Mmmmmm, you sure are" came Jennifer's unexpected reply.
"Oh, you're awake, and you can talk again. I'm sorry if I woke you up, I could tell you were in pain and I just wanted to help." "Thats OK, I was trying to sleep, but the pain was making it hard. I really REALLY appreciate you doing that for me again. You don't know how many years I've suffered with that, how many times I've cried myself to sleep just thinking about the inevitable agony that the transformation would bring. You'll never know how much your help means to me." "Hey, what are friends for?" Rachel replied, and finished her massage as Jennifer's back, and much of the rest of her, had returned to normal. Rachel said "I'd really like to talk about what happened tonight." Jennifer rolled over, her transformation now completing, "Rachel, I don't know what to say. I know you must've been horrified by everything you saw, and I wouldn't blame you after everything that happened tonight if you never want to see me again, you have to be freaked out bigtime right now, but you stayed with me and you helped me more than anyone ever has, and more than I ever dreamed anyone ever could. I just want to thank you so much for everything" Jennifer said and she threw her arms around Rachel, who hugged Jennifer back. "It meant as much to me as it did to you Jen, we've always been best friends, for as far back as I can remember anything, I can remember being friends with you. I would never let anything change that, certainly not some little detail like your being a Werewolf." she said with a smile. "And for the record, there isn't anything horrifying about you, before during or after your change, if anything the changes just sort of show off your beauty in a different way. You've always been beautiful to me, and you always will be, no matter what."
Jennifer began crying again, and held her friend tightly. "Do you really mean that?" "Of course I do. I think its safe to say that if I didn't mean every single word I just said I wouldn't be here right now, you certainly asked me to leave enough times." Jennifer looked into Rachel's eyes and said "But you didn't leave, you stayed with me, and I'll never forget that, and I'll never ask you to leave again. In fact," she said taking hold of Rachel's hand "I want to ask you to say. Stay with me Rachel, stay with me..." she said as she grabbed Rachel's face with both hands, and kissed her passionately, with more intensity, love, and desire than she had ever felt before. Half a minute later, she released Rachel, and continued talking "Please say you'll stay with me, now, always, I love you so much." Rachel sat with a stunned look on her face, trying to come up with something to say, anything at all, she was at a total loss for words. She looked at her friend, the transformation was complete, she was again the same as she used to be, and yet to Rachel she was somehow different, in a way that she couldn't describe but a way that made her somehow...irresistable. She replied in the only way she could "I will. I love you too, more than I can say, and I'll stay with you forever if you want me to. Heck, even if you don't want me to, you can't get rid of me, you know that" she said and laughed. Jennifer smiled, they kissed again, and Rachel laid down beside her friend as they drifted off to sleep.
Rachel awoke around noon the next day, alone in Jennifer's bed. Thoughts were running through Rachel's head, what actually happened last night? Was it all real? Was it a dream? Was part of it a dream, if so which part? If it was real, where was Jennifer? If it wasn't real, why was she in Jennifer's bed instead of her own? She had to have answers, so she got up and walked out of the bedroom. She heard noises coming from the kitchen, where she saw a very active Jennifer trying to do several things at once, she clearly seemed to be in a hurry. She heard Rachel walking toward the Kitchen and greeted her "Morning Rachel, sorry I don't have time to talk, I'm super busy." Rachel thought to herself "Uh-ho, this isn't a good sign. Maybe last night was real, and now Jennifer is ashamed of what happened". Rachel replied "You look like you're trying to be Superwoman here, what's the big hurry?" Jennifer looked at her friend curiously "You know what the hurry is, I have to be at the Church in less than two hours, I'm getting married, duh." Jennifer finished with cooking her breakfast and sat down and began to eat quickly. Rachel did her best not to show that her heart had just sank to the floor. Whatever did or did not happen between them last night was clearly something that Jennifer didn't want to discuss and if it did happen, she obviously wished that it hadn't.
"Want something to eat?" Jennifer said between bites. Rachel couldn't eat anything now even if it was her favorite food of all time, she just felt sick, and she wanted to be alone so she could cry. But she did her best to put on a brave front, as she said "No thanks Jen, but I've got to get home and get changed, I've gotta get ready too you know." "You sure do, it'd be pretty embarrassing if the whole ceremony got held up because you were late." Clearly Jennifer didn't mean anything by that, but Rachel, who was already feeling rather hurt, was quite annoyed by the comment. She turned to leave, and walked toward the door, when Rachel yelled out "Hey, don't forget about my vows!" This was the last straw. Jennifer hadn't said anything to her about helping write the vows, this clearly was her responsibility anyway. And now because she hasn't written them, she wants Rachel to do it for her? This was just too much. She angrily walked back into the kitchen, and replied "Listen Jen, I'm not having a very good morning right now, I'm late, I'm doing the best I can to be supportive here, and now you want me to write your vows for you too? Forget it, I can't do this anymore. I just can't. I hope the two of you will be happy together". She turned away to leave as she silently started to cry, she couldn't hold it in anymore.
She had just started walking away, when Jennifer said "Rachel, wait!" Rachel stopped, her back still turned to Jennifer, who got up and walked over to her, and saw that she was crying. "What are you talking about Rachel? And why are you crying? Why did you think I wanted you to write my vows? Did you think...oh, you did!" she said and started to laugh. Rachel didn't see the humor of the situation, and replied "I don't see anything funny right now." Jennifer put her hand on Rachel's shoulder, "I'm sorry Rach, I guess you got the wrong idea. I called my fiancee, well ex-fiancee now, earlier this morning and told him I couldn't marry him. I've been making calls all morning trying to straighten everything out, you have no idea what that's like by the way. That's why I've been so rushed today, and I guess I must've said or done something to give you the wrong impression, but when I asked you not to forget my vows, I didn't mean what you thought I meant. I meant my vows, as in, the vows you're going to say to me. I've already written yours."
Rachel, who had managed to slow her crying before, now had the waterworks going full force, a mixture of shock, relief, happiness, joy, so many emotions at once, and she couldn't contain them. Jennifer looked at her and smiled, then put her arms around her. "I'm sorry Rachel, I should've explained things earlier, I guess you just assumed that I wanted to forget about last night, and pretend it never happened, huh?" "Yeah, something like that" Rachel managed to say through the crying. "I would never do that to you Rach, I love you more than you'll ever know, and I'm going to spend the rest of my life showing you how much." she said, then kissed Rachel. The two remained like that for several minutes, before Jennifer broke the kiss, and said with a bit of panic in her voice "but now you really do have to go, you've gotta get your dress and get to the Church, we can't be late for our Wedding!" Rachel smiled and nodded, kissed Jennifer again, said "I'll see you there" and left.
A few hours later, after the ceremony, they were sitting in a plane on the way to Hawaii. "Its a good thing I was the one who made the Honeymoon reservations, it made everything so much easier" Jennifer said. "So Jen, now that I've found out about your big secret, is there anything else I can expect? Are we going to run into Zombies, or Mutants, or Vampires, or something like that?" Rachel asked with a smile. "Well Rach, I honestly don't know much about the other sort of 'Super-human' groups out there, but I do know that we don't want to run into any Vampires. They hate Werewolves, and I don't want anything to ever happen to you, especially not because of me."
Rachel put her arm around Jennifer and said "Don't worry about me Jen, I can take care of myself, especially from Vampires. You might say I'm sort of a vampire-buff, have been since I was little. I've seen every Vampire movie ever made, and I know exactly what to do if we run into one." Jennifer smiled and said "Oh really, and what's that?" "Well Jen, you know there are all sorts of techniques people use to try to stop a Vampire. Some of them work pretty well, some not so well, but there's one thing guaranteed to keep you totally safe from a Vampire, all the time." "And what's that Rach?" Rachel smiled, and opened her mouth widely, revealing teeth much sharper than Jennifer had ever seen before, teeth that could only be those of a Vampire. Jennifer had a shocked look on her face, Rachel closed her mouth, opened it again revealing her teeth had returned to normal, as she said "The one thing that always works, is True Love." She took Jennifer in her arms and kissed her, Jennifer embraced Rachel as well, and they kissed until the plane finally landed, several hours later.