12. Mike Newton's Bad Day

Mike had just walked out the front doors of Newton's Olympic Outfitters when he got a string of text messages from his fiancée in quick succession.

"Are you running late?" –Jessica 9:30 PM

"Babe?" –Jessica 9:35 PM

"Did Something happen?" –Jessica 9:45 PM

"Where are you?" –Jessica 10:05 PM

"Are you ignoring me!?" –Jessica 10:30 PM

"Mike!" –Jessica 11:45 PM

"Just got done with inventory. I'll be home soon, babe" –Mike 11:46 PM

"Why didn't you answer me!?" –Jessica 11:46 PM

"I was in the back of the store. I told you already that the reception is bad there. Now it's really bad after that Tornado. I just got all your texts when I walked out the door" –Mike 11:48 PM

"Just come back home" –Jessica 11:49 PM

"Leaving now" –Mike 11:49 PM

Mike got to his red Mustang and started to drive off onto US 101 Southbound. He looked up at the moon in the cloudless sky and noted how unusually bright it was. After he got passed the airport he turned right on Russell Rd. He received another text message this time from his mother.

"Are you home yet? You're making Jessica worry" –Mom 11:52

As he turned left onto Bogachiel Way he got a phone call from Jessica. He grew annoyed and answered it shouting, "What!? I'm almost there!"

"Don't you talk to me like that…I wanted to know where you were. There's some weird noises outside. I think might be a bear. Just be careful" She warned him.

"A bear?" He muttered before he saw a deer run out onto the road and he swerved clipping its legs as it attempted to jump over his hood. The hind end rolled up over and spun the deer around like a top into the oncoming lane. "Fuck!" he shouted slamming his palm into the steering wheel.

"Oh my god! What happened!?"

"I hit a god damn deer!" He shouted before he got out of his car. Instead of checking on the deer he went to check the damage to his car. His headlight was busted out and a huge dent in his hood, which he got his phone out and took pictures.

He turned to look towards the deer catching a large shadowy movement in the corner of his eye. The deer was already being devoured by a carnivorous creature with a voracious appetite. He dove to the ground using his car as cover. "What the fuck is that!?" he muttered.

"What is what?"

"That's not a bear!" He muttered. "Let me take a pic"

"Babe, the 4G is out!" She told him.

He took a pic and the flash went off. "Oh shit!" he shouted pulling his camera back. He looked over the hood again only to see that it disappeared. He stood up and looked around seeing no signs of the creature. When he looked down at his phone he saw a wolf man eating guts from his paws. "Oh my god! Is that a fucking werewolf!?" he muttered.

"What? A werewolf!? Don't be playing with me!"

"No! For real!" He said before he was knocked off his feet flew twenty feet and instant pain in his back and neck from whiplash. At first he thought he was struck by a car, and he still clutched his phone. "Call an ambulance" he wheezed into the phone.

He looked back and saw the creature already approaching him from where he once stood. "Oh Fuck!" He shouted standing back up. He clutched his head with both hands while still having his phone pressed into his ear. "It's going to kill me!" he shouted.

Jessica stared crying hysterically not knowing what to do, and he turned to see the wolfman take a swipe at him only it looked like it was aiming at his hand with the phone but missed hacking a huge gash into his chest. He did not feel it and though he got lucky, but he got a glimpse of his laceration down to the bone. It was not like a movie where there was blood gushing instead the blood started oozing out like someone squeezing out water from the pores in a sponge only it did not stop.

He grew sick, but the urge to preserve himself made him press on. "Get help!" He screamed.

He ran down the road but the creature tackled him to the ground pinning him face down into the pavement with its blood hand wrapped securely around the back of his neck. Rocks and debris got into his wound and now he could feel it. He let out a loud agonizing painful shriek.

He heard something off to the side then saw the wolfman get tackled by a cloaked man wearing a wolf mask. Just as the man had overpowered the wolfman into submission, car lights were illuminating the trees on the slight bend in the road. It sounded like the car was going a hundred miles an hour before it turned the bend. The car turned the bend blinding them with its brights on before it slammed on its brakes.

The wolfman broke free from the man and took off into the woods, and the cloaked man grabbed his phone appearing to delete the picture that was taken. Jessica ran out from her car over to her fiancé lying face down in the ground still crying uncontrollably. "Michael!" she screamed.

"Jessie?" He muttered weakly. "Am I gunna die?"

The cloaked man stood over them vigilant and facing down the road into town. "He'll live…" he muttered with his arms crossed over his chest. His voice sounded monstrous, and Jessica noticed fur under his sliced open bandaging on his arm. Red flashing lights came into view before he vanished into the woods.

Mike woke up in a hospital bed with Jessica laying halfway over the bed face down into the pillow. Sue came into the room with a solemn expression as she checked his wound which had almost completely healed. She stared at it and looked into the confusion in his eyes. "H-h-how long have I been here!?"

"8 hours" she spoke quietly as she closed the door behind her. "Fen, do you know anything about this?" she asked. There was no response. "Fen?" she raised her voice. Again there was no response. She stomped over and flung the curtain open shouting, "Fen!"

Jessica was jarred awake, and she looked over at Fen sitting on an adjacent bed facing away with his music blaring from his headphones. A long cord stretched from his phone into the wall where Mike's heart monitor was supposed to be plugged in. She walked around to face him with her arms crossed over her chest waiting for him to notice.

When he looked up, he putted his ear buds out and stared at her. "What? Are they awake, yet?"

"What did I tell you about unplugging the medical equipment to charge your phone?" She scolded him.

"Uh, you said not to unplug anything in this area" he gestured pointing around the curtain partitioning. "Besides, It's not like he's going to need it anyway" He muttered going back to play a game on his phone disinterested in Mike's situation.

Jessica huffed and glared at him. "What an asshole!" she muttered through her teeth. She went over to him and tried to slap him only to have her wrist caught inches away from making contact with his face. She momentarily froze with fear as he looked into her eyes showing a slight smirk before she pulled her hand back rubbing it.

"The hell does this guy think he is?"

"Fen…do you know what's going on? He kept mumbling about being attacked by a werewolf…I did not see any bite wounds on him, and his wound has nearly healed" Sue asked.

"Wait! You believe that werewolf bullshit!?" Jessica scoffed.

"Your cognitive dissonance is most amusing" He muttered.

Jessica glared at him with disdain. "Don't you dare lump me in like I'm one of these dumb hicks around here!"

Fen laughed at her and shut his phone off. "Okay then…how do you explain what happened last night? Do tell…and don't leave out the juicy details…" he asked with a condescending tone.

Jessica's nose curled looking to try to hit him again, and Mike looked between them before he looked down at his chest. "What's happening to me?"

"That werewolf was eating the deer wasn't it? From the looks of that picture you took, he was eating from his paws? I'm pretty sure that the werewolf did not go to wash his paws before he tried to hack you to pieces…wait maybe he did wash them with his tongue" Fen said.

Mike's face went white, and he started to get sick. "How do you know all this?"

Fen unplugged his phone and plugged the heart monitor back in with a sadistic smile. Mike's heart was beating past 150 bpm. "You might want to calm down…we would want you to furslode in here" he teased.

"What?" Mike shouted.

"Really Fen…you're supposed to help him, not make him into a nervous wreck" Sue chewed him out.

"Well I hope that he's into being chained up and wearing a muzzle. Some can be really kinky like that" he said simply.

"What the hell? Why do you care what we do in the bedroom!? He's not a werewolf!" Jessica yelled at him.

"We'll see…only one way to find out" Fen said before he approached Mike and touched his shoulder closing his eyes. Mike's eyes widened and felt incredible pain, which his heart monitor reflected this jumping to 200 beats per minute. He tensed up screaming in agony while grabbing at his chest.

"What's happening!?" Jessica shouted. She ran to his side and saw that fur started growing on various parts of his body, but it was sparse and were thicker the closer to his wound it got. "What the hell is this?"

"Oh wow…I wasn't expecting it to be this far along. He doesn't have AIDS or anything like that does he?"

"What does that have to do with this!? He doesn't have anything like that!" Jessica cried out.

Sue watched the fur on Mike recede back into his body or to somewhere. "I see…this is because of his immune system. He does take immunosuppressants for his Lupus" she mused before she looked towards Fen hoping to gain more of an insight onto how he figured it out so quickly. "Are there a lot of people with AIDS that turn into werewolves?"

Fen shook his head before he paused a moment thinking on how to word his thoughts. "No, but…around the region with drug use and needle sharing, lycanthropy has been making a comeback. I have encountered quite a few who have contracted HIV and/or Hepatitis who got infected with Lycanthropy. Their weakened immune systems made it so that the slightest trace could thrive. Their transition can take less than three days" he explained before he glanced between them.

"Will he transform tonight?"

Fen shook his head. "No, the infection hasn't spread to his brain yet or other internal organs. I'll give him a week before it reaches his brain"

"What happens when it gets to his brain?" Jessica whimpered.

"That's when the craving for raw meat starts. Your fever is so high that you start hallucinating…really really crazy dreams. Then your personality changes…you get more aggressive and primal. That's when you'll start avoiding people if not from this then from involuntary partial transformations. It's truly horrific for someone to go through…At least his Lupus is cured" he stated.

Jessica raised her hands up to her mouth inhaling sharply and started to cry. "No…is there a way to change him back?"

"No, the wolf has already merged with you deep down to the cellular level. To get rid of the virus would not separate the wolf from you. To separate the wolf from you would be very messy…take it from me magic has its own rules. To get something, you have to give something. You could even shortening your lifespan or lose the ability to speak, walk, or feel…" he explained before he crossed his arms over his chest.

"You have an important decision to make. If you stay with him, you will most likely be turned. Loved ones are the first to be bitten" He said simply.

Jessica stood beside Mike slumped over in defeat falling into a great depression as she started to think about her next move. "I don't know what I'm going to do…I'm scared" she muttered.

"Jessie…" Mike muttered.

Fen rolled his eyes and started to leave the room, and Sue glanced over at him worried. "Don't you have anything else to say that's positive?" she asked.

"Not right now. This isn't my highest priority right now. He still has a couple days. We have more important things to worry about tomorrow anyway" He said before he left the room. Sue sighed heavily then looked off towards the window wearily as Jessica saw how quickly he ran off and leaped over the fences.

"What the hell is he?"

"Werewolf" said Sue.

"I figured that out! I mean how the hell did he do all that to him!?" Jessica shouted.

"It's hard to explain" She muttered.

"What am I going to do now?" Mike asked.

"I'm going to have you discharged, and…hopefully he'll help you"

"What do you mean hopefully!?" Jessica raised her voice.

"He's got his own problems. There are a lot of werewolves who want to know his secret in how he's able to do the things he can do, but…I don't know" Sue answered back.