Chapter 3

Jared woke up feeling disgusting. It wasn't the sleepover that had drained him, the loud games and talks and eating way too much junk food than even three grown men could have handled. He wished his problems were that simple, boring, easily rectified, but they weren't. Of course they weren't. This was Jared; he'd have taken teenage angst any day compared to what he was stuck with. It was his damn dream again. He couldn't remember a second of it, yet it was burned into his memories, and once the dream started, it would all come back. Jared was past the naïve belief that this was just some hormonal phase, and that the dreams would eventually stop tormenting him. Mainly because they meant so much, it was like the plot of a very complicated play, in another language. He could never understand, all he could do was feel, and that was all he dreaded from it. That feeling. All of the pain and confused urges that plagued his mind, they weren't his, but they were connected to him by a huge nerve that almost amplified the horror. Flashes of the unknown, except he knew them, off by heart at this point, right up until they changed, like the scenes were mixed up and each new act distracted him from the others.

Remembering he was at Carl's, Jared got up and went to hunt for his things. He could hardly walk; this heat was burning through him, a searing that engulfed him whenever he forgot about it for too long. He hadn't felt like this before, even after the dream, although that had also been particularly bad tonight. It was as if it had redoubled its forces because it had less time to occupy his mind with- Jared only having slept for all of about three hours.

It was very distracting, when you were looking for something, to have these shots of fire run through your system. So it took him half an hour to successfully collect all of his belongings, randomly strewn around Carl's house-what had they been doing last night?! After searching for so long for his shirt, he was quite scared to find it in a kitchen draw. Smiling to himself, Jared enjoyed the rest of his bizarre clothes hunt. The others only woke up when he had located his boxers, under Andy's head, and unsuccessfully attempted to dislodge them without waking him up. This slightly annoyed him, trust Andy, the laziest person he knew, to wake up the one time Jared had been trying not to wake him.

"Jared? What are you doing...? How the hell can you be awake right now? And up and doing stuff? I'm-"Carl yawned, "so tired."

Andy just made an unrecognizable moaning sound and rolled over. Carl seemed to have understood this. "Yeah, Jared mate, go back to sleep, it's really early."

Jared laughed his deep voice slightly husky and not used to being used yet. "I'm not tired, besides I better get home- 'K' will worry. Oh yeah, and you know you said it's too early to be up, yeah its two o'clock" He grinned and opened the curtains, letting the light stream into his friends tired faces. Carl squinted while his eyes adjusted; Andy winced as if the light hurt him, moaned again and pulled the blanket over his face. "See you on Monday!" Grinning, Jared went into the bathroom to get changed and found himself starring into the mirror. He wasn't being vain, he never cared about how he looked, but that was it. He looked better. Far from what he felt. But his russet skin was slightly tighter over his cheekbones, and he felt taller, more masculine… This was of course, insane. How could he have changed over night? This was weird. Something was up; Jared should definitely get home ASAP.

That fire was creeping back. His body was burning. Jared's vision was blurred and slowly clouding. He stumbled; the world was twisting before him. All he could hear was like the soundtrack to his dream, it muted all other noise, and Jared was trapped in the small cage that was his mind. He barely noticed he was home yet. He was going on instinct, all he could feel was pain. Jared tried hard to concentrate on getting to his bed but failed. He crumpled to the floor and lay there. The hard wooden floor of his room was strangely comforting. Savagely, the fire was scorching up him, licking softly and teasingly whiles what by now must be the charred remains of his body shuddered. A sudden jolt of heat made him roll onto his back, he slammed his eyes shut and moaned in agony. Jared had to grit his teeth to stop from screaming. The slow numb feeling of death washed over him, relieving his pain for a moment before it was gone. The receding wave of pain was unbearable; Jared arched his back off the hard floor and cried out in agony.

The next thing he knew, Jared was lying in bed, without a sheet or pillow and with a bag of water on his forehead. A sheen of sweat coated his shaking muscles which were now very defined under his dark skin. He couldn't remember what had happened since he'd come home from Carl's. But he felt terrible, like he was going to throw up but couldn't as there was nothing in his stomach.

Jared sat up; a bad idea. His head swam and he felt horribly luke-warm. He couldn't feel anything, as though his sense had been dulled. Everything was hazy and his brain took longer than usual to take everything in. He was at home. His room had been tidied, and there was a faint blood-stain on the wood a little bit away from the door. That was odd. As soon as Jared had thought it, he laughed darkly, what part of his weekend hadn't been odd? But it still puzzled him, he hadn't been bleeding had he? He remembered fire, burning like nothing he'd felt before, but no cuts. He was very used to those. When you were as clumsy as Jared, you had no choice but to get used to them. So he started scanning his body for signs of recent bleeding. He gaped at what he saw, no blood, no, no mortal injury, but his body. Was this his body? It was so strong and firm, he could now almost feel the absurd amount of power surging through him. He had defined muscles now, there was no missing them, strong abs and biceps and legs. He must have grown a fair bit too; he couldn't fit on his bed. Jared couldn't help but smile to himself. This was AWESOME. His once slender arms were now thick; the tendons protruded where there was no room for them, because his muscles were spectacular.

Then it all seemed to click. His vision was enhanced past any recognizable levels, he could hear cars rush past on the motorway, the motorway which was several miles away! He could smell the people on the street outside, taste different scents in the air that he hadn't even known existed. Was this all to do with the fire? That hungry mass that wouldn't let him go. Jared shivered at the memory.

He was quickly distracted by the sound of his sister waking up. How could he hear that?! She got out of bed and routinely walked down the hall to check on him.

"Jared! Oh honey, are you feeling better? Speak to me, are you okay Jared?"

He blinked, "yes 'K' I'm fine, and honestly I'm perfectly normal." Jared's eyes shifted as he remembered that wasn't exactly true. Normal was hardly the best way to describe this.

"But you've been out for a week; I was really worried you'd died of something." Jared went pale, a week? He'd been out for a week!

"Well I'm fine now. I think I need some fresh air though, if I've been stuck inside for seven days. Probably a shower too I think. So I won't see you until tonight okay?" He was really eager to try himself out, test the limits of this new indestructible body.

"Be back by six then, I'll have your tea on the table by then, and take care, try not to die okay?"

Jared was already walking past her, out of his room, not caring what he had on. He couldn't care less who saw him now, and he was secretly proud of his new look. Jared never really having had much to show off about before.

Before he knew it Jared was in the woods and running, running unbelievably fast to his favorite spot, he felt so free and accepted here. He arrived within five minutes of running. This shocked him as it normally took at least half an hour; this spot was in the centre of his forest, the most remote. The furthest place he knew from human life. Thinking about it, Jared had never really been that human to begin with. So what was he? He hadn't been bitten by a spider, to his knowledge, and he was pretty sure he wasn't an alien; it was of course, only recently he'd – what had happened?

Jared was quickly distracted from this trail of thought by more ideas. Firstly, he was fast, that wasn't hard to work out, and he was determined to find out how fast. Today's experiment would be about limits. Oh god, he really was such a nerd sometimes. He quickly forgot this when he started running again, sprinting, as fast as he could possibly go, and then he shuddered. The shudder didn't make him stop, but it was so unexpected, he wondered if something had gone wrong.

His body was changing, he could feel his clothes shredding as he grew, again, he felt as thought he were melting. He closed his eyes in hope that this would pass. When he re-opened them, he felt different. More instinctive. He looked around, and was shocked to find that there was white fur obscuring part of his vision. Jared saw the scraps of his boxers on the muddy forest floor. So…What? He was naked now? What kind of weird change was that? He glanced down again, in the slight hope something else was better..

His eyes were drawn to two large grey-brown paws. WHAT THE HELL?! If he were still human he would have stumbled over backwards in sheer shock. Jared tried to turn and look at himself but he couldn't see much other than a huge fluffy tail. Now he was panicking. Jared sprinted to where he knew there was a nice lake in the forest; there he would truly see himself. Only Jared wasn't sure that he really wanted to now. Did it really matter what disgusting monster he was now? There was no going back. And he decided he might as well know.

Approaching the massive, dark pool, Jared gulped and took a few deep breaths before building up the courage to look at his reflection. Starring back at him, with dark, intelligent eyes, was an insanely big wolf. After composing himself, he started to look at the wolf in awe, it was magnificent. Definitely strong, and impressively controlled for what looked like such a dangerous animal.

Jared was there for hour's just starring, taking in what he was. He wasn't sure how he felt about it. But he ended up thinking that he couldn't change it anyway, and went back to testing himself.

By the time the sun had set, he had discovered that it was easy to snap trees and break boulders. He could jump over the lake with a small run up, and he really, really loved being this free. Jared had finally found the escape he had been subconsciously searching for since his best friend was taken away from him five years ago. This was a place he couldn't feel the pain, or such emotions that he'd hated and felt weak for all those years because of.

It was about time he headed home, by the angle of the sun, and the colour of the sky. This may seem weird but Jared had never carried a watch in his life, and was used to having to guess the time from the sky; that was so much less delicate and more practical than these stupid little watches. So he headed back home to his sister. Only now realizing how hungry he was. After finally discovering how to change back to human form he also started worrying about needing clothes..

When he arrived home, Jared jumped into his room through the open window and pulled some clothes on. It seemed pointless as he needed a shower anyway, but he should at least be decent. Once downstairs, he ate everything K had made before remembering that she needed to eat as well. K just laughed, apparently glad that he had his appetite back, and insisting that it was fine, and she didn't need dinner anyway. Jared quickly gave up on the argument, he knew his sister was too stubborn to give in and besides, he was too tired to bother using up all the effort.

He barely summoned the energy to shower, which he direly needed. So Jared dragged himself up the stairs and stripped his clothes back onto the floor. The shower felt nice, but Jared had to set it to full power to feel the water properly, it barely tickled. About an hour later he half heartedly dried himself off, and collapsed onto his comfortable bed.

For the first night in ages; Jared slept soundly, whether it was due to his complete lack of energy, or something to do with this change. He wasn't complaining.

When Jared walked into school on Monday he was incredibly self-conscious, as if people would be able to tell he was a ware-wolf, just by looking at him. As well as having grown and developed to a very fit 25 year-old, his eyes had widened and, although usually very bright, had darkened somewhat. He looked more solemn and darkly impressive. Weirdly rugged yet innocent and uniquely superior. He now made Andy-who was, although a geek, by far the best looking guy he knew, look crudely cheesy and boringly the same as everyone else. But Jared didn't really count as one of them anymore did he. A knew race, a freak, an outcast. And the slight modifications would only ostracize him further. Great. He could already tell that school was going to suck today. He went over the story he'd thought up in his head before sighing, and walking into Mrs Blod's class. Jared braced himself for the routine interrogation that was registration.