Chapter 3

Panda raced down the hall as fast as he could. He finally reached the main room, and everyone was there already.

Boss, noticing the look on Panda's face, spoke up. "Hey, what's wrong, Panda? You look like you've seen a ghost or somethin'."

"I did see something. But I didn't exactly see it clearly," Panda said.

"Could you make out any parts of it?" Maxwell asked.

"Well, whatever I saw had fur, and...and...," Panda shivered at the thought of it.

"What?" the others said in unison.

"It had these claws. And they looked really sharp, too. That's why I ran, because I was afraid it would come after me," he said. The look on the ham-ham's faces turned to fear as he talked.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm seriously freaked out now. Maybe we should just go home to sleep tonight," Oxnard said.

Panda quickly replied, "I-I don't know for sure if it was like an animal of some kind, though. It could have been a coat or something. Things seem to be scarier in the dark, you know."

"I say we go check out this room before we start making any judgements. Who wants to come with me?" Boss asked. None of them raised their hands at first, but as seconds passed, a few of them decided to go with. They were Dexter, Howdy, and Stan. Panda almost had no choice but to go with because he knew what to look for. Then they looked back at the others, and then down the hall at the room Panda went into.

"We'll be fine guys. Its probably nothing, anyway," Boss reassured the group as they walked down the hallway. When they reached the room, they entered cautiously and looked around.

"It was right there," Panda said as he pointed into a corner. "Maybe it left."

"Well, if it's gone now, either you saw a real animal or you're having hallucinations," Howdy said.

"No! I'm sure it was real! I saw it with my own eyes," he said.

"Sure it was...," Howdy replied.

Their conversation was interrupted when they heard Dexter scream like mad. They stopped talking and looked back at him only to find a set of huge claws digging into his ribs. Not knowing what it was at first, they looked up and saw what was doing it. It was the werewolf. The same one that had killed Cappy earlier. Teeth barred, it was looking down at them with a wicked expression on its face. Boss hurled himself at it, but the creature didn't budge. It took the hand it was grabbing Dexter with, and ripped it across his chest, leaving huge cuts where the claws had torn into him and causing him to scream even louder. He fell to the ground in pain, and couldn't get back up. Barely being able to move, he couldn't resist the wolf's strength when it flipped him onto his stomach. He tried to look up at the beast, and pleaded in vain to leave him alone.

"Leave me alone! Someone! DO SOMETHING!"

Not seeming to pay attention to what Dexter was saying, the werewolf flashed its teeth at him and bit down hard on the center of his back, cracking his spine and completely severing his spinal cord. The others looked on in horror as the wolf released its grip from Dexter. Then, a voice was heard from the main room.

"What's going on back there? Did you see something?" one of them said. The werewolf heard it and perked up its ears. Soon, the other ham-hams were running down the hall to see what was up, and the wolf took off because it didn't want to face more than what was in that small group at the time. The original group didn't pay attention to where it went because they were watching Dexter like a hawk, waiting for some sign of life.

"Guys! Are youaaaAAAHHH!" The others froze as they saw Dexter lying motionless on the floor, his fur covered in blood. Stan, Boss, Howdy, and Panda were still panic-stricken from what had just happened, and could barely explain what just happened.

"You would never believe this, but Howdy's story was true! There is a werewolf! It killed Dexter!" Stan said, still wide-eyed. "I bet that's what got Cappy, too!"

Maxwell was astonished. "You're not serious, are you? And this whole time I thought all those stories were just legends."

"And, uh, don't get all worked up over this, now, but, uh, I think it might still be in here. We just don't know where," Boss said. The ham-hams apparently didn't take this news well, because either they began to panic or they started to cry.

"Oh, Boss! We're not safe here! What should we do!" Bijou said, half crying. Suddenly, they all went pale as they heard a blood-curling howl come from inside the clubhouse.

"We need to do something, hams. This thing can't take any more of our friends . . . "