The Club: My Chapter 1 – Transformation

Just stay calm…just stay calm… The thoughts seemed to emerge from my desolate mind into the silence of dusk as I paced down the lone highway. Keep your thoughts clear, just keep them clear. I knew that it was coming. I knew that I could not stop it. Empty thoughts…blank thoughts. Everything is fine. It taunted me in the back of my mind as the sun inched closer to the horizon far off. You’ll be safe. It’ll be all right. The horizon seemed to be the blade of a knife as I waited for night to come, for with night, death would follow. Just don’t think about it. Don’t think of the pain. I could imagine the gruesome scenes before me with my heart rate increasing. No, don’t lose control. Don’t lose control. I shook the bloody thoughts from my mind as I tried to regain control of myself. I noticed that my breathing had become sharp and quick along with each beat within my chest. Happy thoughts…happy thoughts. I could not live with this forever. I had to do something about it. What to do? What to do? I felt the shrill pain of fear bite into me along with a nagging at the back of my mind. Look at the moon…look at the moon. You must look at the moon. “No!” I screamed aloud, grasping my head within my hands. I was surprised at my sudden action and found that I had stopped walking. The sun is setting. It won’t be long now. I glanced back in the direction that I had come from, checking to see how far from the Air Force Base I had actually walked. This seems far enough. This is good. Flashing my dark eyes about, I found that I was beside a wide spread field of wheat with the empty highway to my left. “This is good,” I said aloud, confirming my thoughts. The sun is almost gone. Darkness is approaching. I knew that my mind was correct but I didn’t want to believe it. Ignoring the instinctive thoughts, I turned from the pavement, placing my tennis shoe into the wet snow of the field. It is coming…it is coming.

The sky faded to a dim glow as the sun sank lower in the sky and I found that there was little time left. I quickly ran farther from the road, insuring that I was surrounded by wheat. This is good. This is good. Stay here. I sat down within the center of the field and began to pull my socks and shoes off. Throwing them to the side, I checked the clock overhead. The sky was much darker now and I could barely see the sun peeking over the barren horizon. It is almost time. It is almost time. Get ready.

Suddenly, my eyes flashed open as a prickled shiver drove into my spine. I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth, trying to bear the excruciating pain. I could feel the tremors within my body. The transformation was starting. With the bright, full moon greeting me overhead, I lost control of my body and was flung to the ground in a series of rapid shakes. Screams emitted through my clenched teeth as I pulled at the wheat around me. I felt the need to close my eyes, yet the force held them wide open. Pain enveloped over me with the burning of my dry eyes and the aching that seemed to pulse through my bones. Tides of pain and stiffness came, each worse than the previous one. My mind went wild with thoughts, almost too many for me to handle. I felt as if I was going to explode and could hear the rapid thudding of my heart as it pounded within its internal prison. My breathing was choked as my throat closed, the muscles along the side expanding in a webbed display.

Just then, I heard the ripping of fabric as my spine burst through my oversized shirt. I had planned for this transformation and was not upset to find that the black shirt I had been wearing was now ripped to shreds, barely clinging around my body. I stared at the sky overhead as I lay on my back in the field and did not have to look to know that my body was constantly changing. I could feel the intense sting of growing bones and muscles as my legs became longer than usual. My arms felt as if they were being ripped from my body as they grew, enabling my fingertips to grace my toes. A sudden warm feeling came about me as I felt the thick, shaggy, brown fur rapidly spread about my entire body, growing in matted clumps. My fingernails expanded and curved into sharp claws that gleamed beneath the moon’s white light along with my teeth, which had sprouted to pointed tips. Each time I had been through the terrible transformation, I felt as if I was going to die, and this moment was no different.

My mind told me of death. My heart told me of death. My lungs told me of death. Yet the moon just watched in its innocence, unaware of what it was doing to me.

All of a sudden, the pain escaped from my body as if it hadn’t been there at all. I gasped for air as my throat opened up and my eyes were finally allowed to close and rest. I did not lie for long with my body under new control. My mind and my thoughts were no longer there. The last bit of me was gone with the sunlight.

I stood on my new hind legs and sniffed the air around me with the sensitive nose that rested at the end of my long, wolf-like snout. I scanned the dark horizon with my flashing green eyes and readjusted to the world three feet taller. Just then, my new mind took over and began to command me. I could not control it. I could not ignore it. I had to obey it. Blood.

With my final thought, I pointed my snout to my master in the sky and gave a long, shrill howl. The sounds of the wolf echoed over the desolation of North Dakota, pleasing me as a new feeling swept over my soul. A new sense of pride and ambition came over me before being taken over by sheer rage and determination. I was gone…

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