Unleashed

My vision was growing fuzzy. I saw Jenny claw away the amulet from her flesh and finally rise up on shaky legs. She turned and saw me lying there. The pain of the silver had turned her panic and fear into a blind frenzy until she saw me clutching at my broken side. The animal was subdued long enough for me to see my Jenny one last time in those yellow eyes before she turned and barrelled toward the window.

The sound of shattering glass brought fresh tears to my eyes for I knew in that moment that I had lost her. The amulet laid on the floor in amidst the pool of blood, still red hot with thin wisps of smoke rising into the air above. I managed to stumble over to the window. My good arm lifted up to grab the ledge whilst my other hung at my side to ease the knifing pain of my ribs.

Jenny came into view between the shards of broken glass. Screams had risen up around the pub as the werewolf crawled through the final stages of its change upon the pavement below. Thick, blonde fur now sprouted from her bruised skin, blackened with the constant shifts of her body. She laid struggling on her front, her claws scraping over the solid concrete as her legs snapped backwards at the knee, making her heave in agony as bone and tendon realigned themselves. Her body had grown substantially to an overwhelming size. Pointed ears soon raised up through her blonde mass of hair to point back across her head. The remnants of her gown were torn from her body as her thighs and hips bulged with new muscle. A new hide grew outward over all the shifting bone and flesh and soon my Jenny was no longer recognisable, even to me.

The great beast lifted itself up onto its haunches. Its massive arms stretched outward for human-shaped hands tipped with enormous razor edged claws to lash out around her as she moved in her new body for the first time.

Above us, the silver light of the moon shined victoriously down over the world and its new victim raised its bloodied muzzle to release a deafening and unearthly howl into the night air. The noise was so raw and powerful that it momentarily silenced the screams of the people downstairs. Those terrified cries for help and blood curdling screams did not stay silent for long.

Whatever had been left of Jenny's humanity had been overwhelmed by the lunar light. She turned her body and roared at her prey as they stumbled over each other to try and get to the false hope of safety that the building provided. I saw Jenny burst toward the door and then the screams of terror turned into ones of pain to join in with other noises of ripping, splattering, and gurgling.

I knew there was nowhere for me to run. In truth I don't think I would have if I could. I'd lost her. She was everything I ever wanted, and I lost her. A broken heart hurts more than broken ribs. Emptiness burrowed its way through me as I slumped back down in the room to sit with my legs splayed across the floor and my back against the wall. The pain made me black out a few times as those hot knives continued to twist and gouge inside me with every breath I took.

I remembered hearing it all. The werewolf's hunt. Grown men crying and teenagers screaming their throats hoarse until it found them. Every time I spat the blood from my mouth I tasted it afresh. I think that one of the ribs must have punctured something. I should have ran, tried to climb out of the window or done something to prove I had at least a little self preservation instinct, but I just couldn't sum up the will.

Then I heard the heavy footfalls in the corridor outside. It was the werewolf. Big, heavy, and completely wild. It must have remembered I was up here. Hell, Jenny did say that if she ever turned then she'd eat me first. Apparently she wasn't all that picky about the order in which she killed, but I was still on the menu.

That morbid thought made me start crying again. I didn't scream or start pleading. I didn't even move. I just sat there with tears rolling down my cheeks as the thing outside came into view. Much of the blonde fur had turned red and the things face was coated with fresh gore. I looked into its yellow eyes and the horrid snarl that formed around them. Its long fangs were laced with the remains of what must have been several of my former classmates.

I'm not rolling you out of here you know. The words I'd spoken on our first date jumped into my head with such a potent and perverse force that I actually laughed aloud. It hurt like hell.

At the door, the huge beast grabbed the frame and kept those intense eyes focused on me. A low growl raised up to match my laughter with a much more sinister note. As my choking laugh faded, I watched the beast approach and tried not to think about those fangs and claws ripping into me.

"H-hey Jenny." I smiled sadly.

The werewolf snapped its jaws in reply and pounced from across the room. I closed my eyes and waited for the impact to hit. Yet the only thing I felt was the steady breaths of its snout heavily blowing across my cheek. After a few seconds, I dared to open my eyes and saw that its face was inches away. All I could see was those ferocious eyes looking right into mine. I didn't know what it was waiting for and so I stayed as still as I could and looked right back at it.

"Jen? Are you still in-"

The beast snapped its jaws at my neck threateningly and then lifted its head to look away as the sound of sirens started up in the distance. Great. More meat. It looked back down at me one last time and lowered its maw to let its thick tongue slowly lick across my chin where I'd been spitting up blood. Just when I thought Jenny wasn't gone, she leapt up to the window and rended the silence of the night with another ear-blistering howl. After that, she leapt away and disappeared into the night.

That was the last I saw of Jenny Taylor.

- - - - -

Four weeks later.

I stepped into the new age shop situated in the small, Victorian-era arcade and found Tisha was nowhere to be seen. I walked up to the counter and looked around whilst strumming my fingers on the antique, dark-wood counter top. I saw the familiar figure of Aphrodite's little statue stood nude now upon her plinth. She was utterly still and serene with a little sad smile settled upon her beautiful porcelain lips. It didn't take her long to give me a little wink.

I winked right back.

"Hello again!" The cheery greeting was voiced from less than a few inches from my ear.

I turned smoothly to see Tisha stood behind her countertop with her hands casually resting on its surface as she greeted me with a beautiful smile. She wore a small and rather clingy sea-green top with thin spaghetti straps lifting over bare shoulders leaving her arms naked except for a golden bracelet on her right wrist. The light scent of roses lifted through my nose as I looked at her.

"Hello, Tisha." I returned the greeting.

"What? You're not going to fall on the floor this time? I must be losing my touch." She flashed me a grin that made certain parts of my body begin to get very warm indeed.

"I just wanted to return this." I raised my hand to reveal the silver amulet hanging from its simple necklace.

"Ah yes! I'm so sorry, love." Tisha's expression shifted from sultry to sorrowful as she reached out and took the amulet to look it over. Seeing no damage to it, she quirked a brow at me. "It didn't work?"

"I think it would have. It got torn away. Someone sent his friends to hurt her and..." I stopped suddenly as I felt a surge of memory return. My eyes closed tightly as I heard screams in my ears and tasted the coppery flavour of blood once again.

When I finally regained control of myself and opened my eyes I found myself looking at Tisha's hand that had come to rest on mine. Her inky-hued fingernails gleamed up at me before I looked back to her and found her face full of such strong sympathy. She seemed to be looking at me like she was unravelling some sort of mystery before sad eyes reached out with an unspoken understanding.

"I read in the paper. They said it was some terrible Halloween prank, letting a rabid animal loose in the pub. Only one survivor. Such a terrible thing." She shook her head and pulled her hand away, I immediately missed its warmth but stopped myself from pursuing it.

"It was terrible." I cleared my throat and took a breath. "Anyway, I wanted to give you that back in case anyone else needs it. And I wanted to thank you for helping me out like you did."

Tisha's lips formed a beautiful curve. "Us crazy people need to stick together, yes?"

"Yeah. We do."

"Did you want to take me up on my other offer?" She asked and made it abundantly clear with a mere look that I could have had her right there and then.

"No. You're very beautiful, Tisha. But I'm going to go look for Jenny." I slid my hands into my pockets.

"She will not be the same." Tisha's warning came with a tone of someone who already knew that my mind was made up.

"I know." I closed my eyes again and took a few moments before finally putting a voice to my thoughts. "When it's over and the full moon sets, do they change back?"

"It depends." She settled her hands together on the counter and didn't meet my gaze.

"On what?"

"On if they have anything to change back for."

I slowly nodded and found the ghost of a smile tilting the corners of my mouth.

"Your name is Larry, yes? That was the name in the paper."

"Yeah, that's me."

"It said there that you had been injured."

"Did it?" I cocked a brow at her.

"Were you bitten that night?" The question spilled forth with such a burst of tension that it was clear it had been all she'd wanted to ask me since she'd laid eyes on me.

"That night? No." My sad little smile broadened as I lifted my left hand. I could almost feel the teeth marks still there, simmering under the skin.

It hadn't been that hellish Halloween night when Jenny had bitten me. It was when we were in bed together, when her parents had called me over to try and bring her out of her nightmares. I knew now why she'd screamed then. I'd had those nightmares too. They brought you out of yourself. They let the animal in.

That night, when I'd first looked into those yellow eyes of Jenny's, she'd lashed out with hungry fangs at my already-bloodied hand. I'd lied to her about the bite and bandaged it over. Then, nothing had happened. Well, nothing had happened until a few weeks after the full moon when I'd woken up to find a pair of pointed ears flanking each side of my head in the bathroom mirror. I guess the blood needed time to get hot enough for the change to happen. Jenny had a whole month. I'd only had a couple of weeks.

But that was changing, and the full-moon would soon rise again.

Tisha gave me a long, hard stare and I brushed it off before turning away and starting toward the door.

"Larry?" She called after me.

"Yeah?" I stopped and looked back over my shoulder.

"What happened to the guy who sent his friends to hurt your girl?"

I held Tisha's gaze for a long, testing moment. Then I felt my mouth slowly quirk at the corner before splitting into a broad, wolfish grin. I ran my tongue across the edges of my teeth and felt my elongated canines pressing against the soft, wet flesh. Jenny had always had me there to keep her calm, to keep the anger subdued with love. Now I didn't have her to return the favour. I didn't have her because of Stuart. It hadn't taken me long to find his scent and follow it to where he was hiding. I'd found him in some smashed up, old factory. He'd been high out of his mind on hallucinogens. I don't think that made what happened next any easier on him.

I turned away from Tisha as she stared after me and made my way out of the door of the little shop and out to sink myself into the ocean of passing people.

My name is Larry Howard, and I'm not afraid anymore.

I'm not afraid of love.

I'm not afraid of pain.

I'm not even afraid of werewolves.

Of course, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be.