Annie groaned as she opened her eyes. Her entire body ached, and the sunlight hurt her eyes. She breathed deeply before realizing she wasn't lying in her bed, but instead was outside surrounded by trees.

Her confusion quickly turned to fear when she realized she'd not only woken up in the dirt, but also wasn't wearing any clothes. What happened to me, she thought. The last thing she remembered was being attacked by an animal after leaving the library. She hugged her body tightly as horrible scenarios ran through her head, like the possibility that the animal was someone's pet and after the attack the owner violated her and then dumped her in the woods.

Trying to control her trembling Annie shakily got to her feet and looked around for something to cover herself with. But there weren't any clothes around, and she didn't see anything she could really use. Reluctantly she began walking as she was, hoping she'd come upon a road or something soon. After a little while Annie came to a stream. As soon as she saw the water her throat started gagging as she realized just how thirsty she was. She dropped to her knees and began scooping handfuls of water into her mouth.

Annie suddenly stopped drinking as she heard a slight rustling in the grass. She slowly lifted her head up before spotting a brown rabbit a few feet away. As she looked at the animal she was struck with a sudden urge to kill it. To rip its throat open with her teeth and bath in its blood before devouring its flesh.

What's happening to me, she thought fearfully.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"I don't care if it's only been a few hours; you need to fill a missing person's report right now!" Jeff yelled into his phone. His face grew more frustrated as he listened to the police officer on the other line. With a yell of frustration Jeff hung up his phone, almost throwing it to the ground before stopping himself at the last moment.

Not long after the wolf incident the group was informed that Annie wasn't in her hospital bed. They looked all throughout the hospital, but she couldn't be located anywhere. No one had any idea where Annie was.

"Maybe she woke up and left on her own?" Britta said once again.

"Annie wouldn't leave without calling one of us first," Abed said simply.

"Well we can't just stay here doing nothing," Troy said.

Jeff nodded in agreement as he formulated a plan. "All right, if the police won't help we'll have to find her ourselves. Pierce, stay here in case she comes back on her own or is brought back. Abed and Troy, go back to your place and see if she's there. If she isn't, wait there in case she goes back home. Shirley, you and Britta go to any shelters or anyplace someone who's wondering around might turn up. I'm going to drive around looking for her. Okay?" He waited, but no one seemed to argue with his plan. "All right, let's find our friend."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Annie stood in her apartment bathroom, staring at herself in the mirror. After what had happened last night she had expected to look much worse than she did. But she didn't seem to have any wounds or bruises on her. She pulled back the neck of her t-shirt (she was still wearing the shirt and sweat pants she had stolen from a clothes line on her way back home) to inspect her shoulder. But there was no wound there at all. It was like nothing had happened to her last night. And the complete lack of evidence disturbed her more than if she had woken up covered in cuts and bruises.

She glanced outside as the front door opened and Troy and Abed walked in. "Maybe we should ask the neighbors if they've heard anything-." Troy instantly stopped talking as the two of them saw Annie. "Annie!" He ran over and engulfed her in a tight hug. "We were so worried about you."

Annie kept her arms by her sides before dully returning Troy's hug. "I'm all right."

"We're glad we found you Annie," Abed said with a bit more emotion than usual.

"What happened to you? How did you end up here?" Troy asked as he released her. "I mean, we know you were attacked by some kind of animal, but you were at the hospital and then you suddenly disappeared. What happened?"

"I…I don't know. The last thing I remember was being attacked in the parking lot when I was going to my car, and then I woke up here," Annie said timidly. She wasn't sure why she was lying about waking up in the woods, but something inside of her seemed to say it was the right thing to do. She groaned in frustration as Abed looked at her intently. "Stop looking at me like that. I'm going to go lay down."

"Wait, don't you want to call the others and let them know you're okay?" Troy asked. "Everyone's really worried about you."

"I'll talk to them later. I'm just really tired right now." With that Annie went over to her room and closed the door.

"She's hiding something," Abed stated.

"Maybe she's just out of sorts over everything," Troy suggested. "She was attacked by an animal last night, and then sleep walked back here. Maybe we should just let her rest for a while. But let's call the others and tell them Annie's alright."

As she got into bed and pulled the covers over her Annie wiped the sweat from her face. She felt hot and itchy, like her skin didn't feel quite right. She tried stretching but still couldn't shake the feeling. She placed a pillow over her face, hoping she'd feel better if she got some sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Rich impatiently packed up his things before leaving his wood working class. He'd checked all the usual spots and hadn't heard any word on where Annie might be. He needed to find her before the sun set. It was imperative that he get to her.

He'd hoped he might get some clues to her whereabouts if he went to school. But no one from the group seemed to be there today. And since he didn't have any of their cell phone numbers, he had no way of contacting any of them.

As he made his way down the hallway he smiled as he spotted Neil. The fates might just be smiling upon me, he thought. "Neil!" he yelled out as he made his way over to the man. "How's it going? I'm not sure if we've ever been introduced, I'm Rich."

"I know who you are."

"Great. I saw you at the hospital last night with Annie Edison's friends, and I was wondering if you've heard anything about her, since she's been missing since last night."

"Um, yeah. Abed texted me and said she's home and she's fine."

"Really? That's great. I've got to go, but thanks for the update. I've been really worried about her." With that Rich made a beeline to the dean's office. He hid in the shadows until the man left before sneaking into the office and going through student records until he found Annie's current address. Armed with that info Rich marched out of the school and to his car. He opened the trunk and made sure he had all his supplies with him: guns with silver bullets along with spare ammo, a tranquilizer gun, bombs filed with liquefied silver and wolfsbane, and a pair of pure silver hunting knives. Seeing that he had everything he got in his car and made his way to Casa AnnTroBed.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Annie woke up in a daze, clutching her bed sheets tightly. She felt feverish, and more off then when she went to sleep. She frowned as she saw shadowy sunlight coming through her curtains, then gasped as she looked at her clock and saw that it was 6pm. She had slept almost the entire day away. That must be why she felt out of sorts, and why she was ravenously hungry.

When she opened her door and walked out into the living room she wasn't expecting the sight before her: Jeff sitting in Troy's recliner watching TV with Abed.

"You're awake," Abed said without even turning around.

"Annie," Jeff said as he got up and went towards her. "I was so worried about you."

"What are you doing here? Where's Troy?"

"He went to get some sandwiches."

"Well, what are you doing here?" she repeated.

"I'm worried about you. You were attacked by an animal last night and then just disappeared without a trace. And then you just went to sleep without telling anyone you were alright."

"I've been through a lot Jeff! I wasn't exactly up for having a ton of heart to hearts with everyone!"

"We're all just worried about you. Everyone's stopped by during the day to see how you're doing. We care about you."

"Well maybe you should-." Annie paused as her eyes widened and she started making gasping noises.

"What's wrong?" Jeff asked as Abed got up and went over to them.

"I don't know," she said. She took deep breaths as Jeff took hold of her arms.

"You're burning up. Let's get you over to the couch and-." Jeff let go of her as Annie cried out and dropped to her hands and knees, shaking with uncontrollable spasms. "Abed, call 911 right now!" Jeff yelled as Annie's arms and legs bend at impossible angles, the sound of broken bones ringing through the apartment.

"Jeff," Abed said in amazement as he pointed to Annie. Jeff looked on in horror as more bones in Annie's body seemed to break. But every time one broke it seemed to repair and reshape itself. As her shirt and pants ripped apart Jeff saw that her spine actually seemed longer than any human vertebra should be, with an extra appendage forming just above her butt. And her hands and feet were reshaping in front of his eyes, becoming paws as claws took the place of her finger and toe nails.

Jeff backed up in unexplainable terror as Annie's human nudity disappeared, replaced instead with a complete covering of shiny dark fur. Her screams morphed into feral growls as her entire face stretched and lengthened. She bit down into her lower lip, drawing blood as her teeth lengthened into sharp fangs, howling as her transformation became complete. Jeff and Abed looked on in amazement as instead of seeing Annie, they were now seeing a large wolf in her place.

With a snarl the wolf charged at the two men. Abed pulled Jeff out of the way as Annie skidded into the kitchen, crashing against the refrigerator. She was up in a flash and leapt over the counter, looking at each of them in confusion.

"Abed!" Jeff yelled as the younger man ran into the blanket fort. In desperation he grabbed the Raiders model and threw it at Annie. It shattered upon contact, seeming to have no effect. As the wolf crouched Jeff noticed with amazement that he was looking at the same wolf that had been at the hospital last night. His suspicions were confirmed as he realized the animal not only had the same blue eyes as the creature he'd previously seen, but that they were indeed Annie's eyes.

"Hey!" Abed yelled as he reappeared from the fort, brandishing his Indiana Jones whip. He cracked the whip in the air, causing the wolf to growl and snap its jaws. Abed cracked the whip once more, this time just in front of her. Annie skidded backwards, looking at the men with a purely predatory expression.

"Hey guys," Troy said as he opened the front door and walked in. "They were out of Swiss cheese, so I got, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!"

The wolf turned around and leapt at Troy, ready to tear his throat out. Before he could react he was shoved to the ground by Rich, who'd seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Rich pulled a gun out from his trench coat and shot at Annie, grazing her shoulder. She howled in pain as Rich pointed the gun at her. But just as he pulled the trigger Jeff tackled him to the ground. The shot ricocheted to the ground as the wolf jumped out of the apartment and ran down the hall.

"What the hell are you doing, you let her get away!"

"You tried to kill her!" Jeff yelled as he and Rich ran after her.

"Will someone tell me what is going on?" Troy cried as he and Abed ran after the two other men.

The four of them ran down the hallway, seeing the wolf slam into the stairwell door. The wooden door splintered as Annie tore through it and ran down the stairs. As they reach the stairwell Troy looked around, seeing they were one person short. "Where's Abed?" They looked around just in time to see the door to the other stairwell close. Troy ran after Abed as Jeff and Rich ran down the first stairwell.

As they got to the lobby (which thankfully was deserted) they saw Abed yelling and waving his arms at Annie. She charged at him as he flung the basement door open and raced down the stairs. Troy appeared just as the three of them followed Abed and Annie down to the basement.

They looked around as Abed ran to a storage closet, with Annie hot on his trail. He flung the door opened and leaped out of the way just as Annie crashed headfirst into the closet. With a savage snarl she leapt up as Abed slammed the heavy metal door shut. The four men pushed against the door as Annie threw herself repeatedly against it.

"Let go of the door!" Rich yelled.

"Are you insane?!" Jeff yelled back.

"Just do it!"

The three men let go as Rich inched it open and threw a bomb into the room. He slammed it shut just as an explosion was heard, followed by the horrible sound of an animal in pain. As Jeff instinctively went to check on Annie, Rich pushed him aside and locked the door before jamming a nearby chair under the door handle. "That should hopefully hold her off."

"What was that?" Abed asked fairly calmly.

"Wolfsbane and liquefied silver. Unless it was a direct hit, it shouldn't kill her."

"What's going on?" Troy asked. "Why is there another wolf here?"

"Troy," Rich said gently. "This is going to be hard for you to accept, but that wolf is Annie. She's been turned into a werewolf."

He stared at Rich before letting out a nervous laugh. "Oh, very funny. Good one guys." His laughter died down though when he saw the grim looks on each of their faces. "Guys, it's a joke, right? I mean, that thing can't be…"

"It's true," Abed said simply. "Jeff and I saw her transform before our eyes. She's a werewolf."

Troy leaned again a nearby chair in shock as Jeff looked at the door, trying to come to grips with this earth shattering revelation. "How is this possible?"

"It would seem Annie was attacked by the werewolf I was chasing last night. I'd hoped I could take it down before it hurt anyone. But she was attacked, and is now infected," Rich explained.

"But if she's a werewolf, why did she turn tonight and yesterday?" Abed asked Rich. "The full moon isn't until tomorrow. Though on Buffy werewolves turned over the course of three days .

"A werewolf's transformation isn't strictly tied to the full moon. It occurs during a five day cycle: the two nights preceding the full moon, the two nights following it, and the night of. Given her transformation last night, we're in day two of this cycle."

"How do you know all of this?" Jeff asked Rich.

"My family is descended from a long line of werewolf hunters. We're sworn to protect people from the abominations, and do what is necessary to eliminate the threat." He sighed deeply as he pulled out a gun.

"What are you doing?" Troy cried.

"I'm stopping the threat and putting her out of her misery."

"You can't…its Annie!" Jeff yelled.

"That thing in there is no longer Annie. She's a monster that will rip your throat out if you give her half a chance," Rich told him seriously.

"Maybe there's a way we can save her," Abed asked.

"There's nothing that can be done Abed. The best thing we can do is to kill her while she's still weak from the wolfsbane."

Rich started to remove the chair when Jeff grabbed him and slammed the doctor up against the wall. "You're not doing anything to her."

"Let go of me Jeff! This is the only way!"

"NO! I'm not letting you just kill Annie like this. There has to be another way." He let go of the doctor as he backed up and pressed himself against the door. A moment later Troy and Abed went over and stood on either side of Jeff, the three of them forming a human shield.

Rich raised his gun and pointed all of them, who stared down the barrel determinedly. They stood there in their stand off before Rich lowered his gun and grabbed a chair before sitting down in it. "Get comfortable men, because this is going to be a long night."

The four of them stayed in the basement all night, guarding over the door. After a few hours they heard Annie stirring in the closet. They tried to block out her cries of rage as she howled and threw herself against the door. The door shook from her weight, but held. Troy and Abed kept looking at each other, not able to believe that this was happening. And Jeff blinked back the anguish he was feeling, hating that she was behind that door alone and trying to make sense over what was happening.

And all the while Rich watched the door like a hawk, hating that these fools were just dragging out the inevitable. Because whether they could accept it or not, Annie Edison was now a dangerous animal. One that had to be put down.