Author's Note: Hiya! This is a short story I'm working on for my Creative Writing class, and I thought I'd post it here to get some opinions on what I could do to make this better. However, I warn you. If you don't like m/m couples, then don't read it. This is a fairy tale retold with a gay twist on it. And please don't leave nasty comments about homosexuality. It'll just piss me, and other readers, off.

Wolf's Clothing

Sebastian was lost. That was the only word he could use to describe his current state. No, on second thought, he was lost, freezing, hungry, thirsty, and possibly near death. Was this truly some divine punishment, just for being who he was? Who he was born to be? He silently curled up beneath a bare tree, its gnarled roots barely any shelter from the blistering winds and snow battering his half-covered face. Resting for the moment, he thought back on the events that had transpired earlier that same day…

Sebastian was in a candle-lit room, faded stones glimmering dully in the weak light. Behind him was a wall of silky warmth. He slowly turned in the strong arms around him, gently pressing his face into the calescent chest. His arms slithered up to cradle a thick, muscular neck covered in hot, honey-smooth skin. No, not skin… fur? He nervously, reluctantly, turned his face upward, and saw-

Sebastian was brutally torn from sleep, snapping up in bed. Panting a little from the frightful dream, he glanced out his window to find a gentle snow falling outside.

He was safe at home, in his twin sized bed, cocooned in his black and white sheets. But the dream, nightmare more like, had seemed so real. Shaking off his aimless fright, Sebastian tossed the sheets aside and got up to dress for another day in Paradise, Canada.

Sebastian supposed Paradise was okay. It'd been a year year, almost, since he and his mom, Angelica, had moved to Paradise, Canada. A small town, it had a population of about two hundred people. Unfortunately, it snowed so hard here during the winter season, going outside was impossible without running into an eight foot wall of snow. The weather channel, in all its murmuring, static words, had said a blizzard was expected later that day.

The people were friendly enough, though, maybe a bit too religious. Well, too religious for him anyway. Since tenth grade, Sebastian had become fully aware of his sexuality, his attraction to other males. Once he'd discovered his preference, after having none until that point, he found himself satisfied with it. He'd even been able to turn some boys' heads back home with his cloud grey eyes and apple-flesh white skin. Sebastian's hopes for his first relationship with Aaron, a member of the football team, had been dashed when he'd been forced to move from Vancouver.

It had been so hard, still was, when he couldn't tell anyone; not even his mother. If his secret ever got out… he didn't know what would happen.

"Nothing good for sure", he said to himself.

The only person who knew was his best friend, Todd, whom he'd had to leave behind in Vancouver. Todd had always been an accepting person, and hadn't minded in the least that Sebastian was gay. But Fate would have none of that. He and his mother were evicted from their home. After her losing her job as a newspaper editor's secretary, they had been forced to move from their barely existing home, to the barely existing town of Paradise.

He loved his mother, would do anything for her, but he knew that if she found out about him, the consequences might be dire. Thank god for email passwords, or she'd be able to read everything he'd ever sent to Todd over the dial-up on their ancient Macintosh.

Pushing these foreboding thoughts away, he dressed in his usual prison gray jeans, plain gray v-neck sweater, and slightly darker gray socks and boots. Looking at the clock, he saw he had about twenty minutes before school began, and it was only a five minute walk. He had enough time to email Todd.

Flipping on the computer, which took up about half his time, he typed a quick email to Todd, who always checked for Sebastian's letters before school. When he was done and the progress bar told him the email had been sent, he clicked the 'Shut down' button with barely a glance. Grabbing his backpack of obscene mustard yellow, the only thing of real color he owned, he headed out the door…

Six hours later, Sebastian walked through the door and paused for a moment at the solid wall of oppressive silence that greeted him. His mother didn't start work until 5:00 p.m. She was normally making dinner and humming La Vie en Rose, her favorite song, in the kitchen, or watching the snowy television. Now there was nothing. Setting the hideous mustard colored pack on the kitchen table, he wandered into the livingroom… and stopped short. His mother was sitting at the computer desk, the screen throwing eerie shadows over her face, outlining every normally invisible line and wrinkle in her skin. She looked like one of Hades' harpies in Greek mythology. And when she turned to him, her light brown eyes, which had always looked at him with love, were burning lanterns of rage.

It took a moment for Sebastian to realize that, in his rush to school, he'd forgotten to 'Okay' the 'Shut down?" window that always popped up, even though it had already recieved the command to sleep. In that moment, Sebastian hated his computer so much; he wished it'd expolde into billions of glass shards and bits of wire.

"Mom, I-"

"Shut up!", she screeched, arrows of sound piercing his ears.

He could feel the waves of her rage engulfing the room now as she stood up from the desk chair. This was when the first few jolts of real fear spurred through his body, replacing his rage for the computer. She approached slowly, her hands hooked into harpy claws.

"I raised you better than this! This is how you repay me!?"

"Mom, calm down, it's not a big deal…"

Those were the wrong words, he realized, when she roared, "NOT A BIG DEAL!? This IS a big deal! No son of mine will be a FAGGOT!!"

Her words cut him, a lightning strike in his mind's bark. Before he could open his mouth to respond, she was in front of him, swinging her hand with demonic speed. Her blazing pink nails first hit his skin's surface, gracefully breaking and ripping the soft tissue, tearing four jagged lines into Sebastian's cheek.

Sebastian fell back against the wall to the right of the doorway. He saw motion in the corner of his eye, and glanced to his reflection in the wall mirror. Four angry scrawls wept bright crimson, adding morbid color to his pale cheek. And in the mirror, he saw a fist aimed for his face, coming in slow motion. He turned his head, but wasn't able to move himself quick enough before his mother's knuckles made contact with his left eye.

Sebastian let out a yelp as the bony hand connected with his face. Sliding down the wall to the floor, he opened his uninjured eye and focused on his mother's twisted face, her distorted mouth breathing a firestorm of awful words on him as she drew back her pink-and-green pump to kick his ribs. Instinctually, Sebastian lashed his hand out and grasped her ankle, catching her off balance.

"Oomph!", Angela grunted when she hit the floor, the breath wooshing out of her.

The moment she was down, Sebastian scrambled to his feet and stumbled out the front door. Snow was just beginning to fall as he made for the woods at the border of the dead end street…

And that's how he'd wound up here. After wandering the woods for a good two hours without stopping, the predicted storm had escalated into slashing winds
and burning snow. Sebastian lifted his hand to his torn cheek and grazed his fingers over the etches his mother had left. They barely stung, now that the numbness of
hypothermia had begun to set in.

Pushing himself to his feet, the wayward teen stumbled onward, running from the pain behind him toward an uncertain future…