Beth Norman sat at her kitchen island, a cup of coffee in her hands, staring but seeing nothing, her feet tapping away. The weather mirrored her mood as it was pouring buckets. Her mind was in an emotional turmoil, her eyes red-rimmed and devoid of tears but her heart was weeping. She had caused an irreparable physical transformation to an innocent man, probably unknowingly caused several other deaths by the hands of the monster she created. She couldn't find peace, no matter how much she tried to think herself out of the situation. Nothing could ever be right with her again.
She took a sip of her coffee and scowled. Cold coffee was the nastiest thing ever. With a laborious grunt she got up and shuffled to the sink where she poured the cupful of coffee away and poured another from the coffeepot. Before she could take a sip of the brew, someone knocked at her kitchen door. She scowled again and leaned against the fridge, closing her eyes and wishing the visitor would just go away.Another knock came, this one more insistent than the former. She opened her eyes and saw the silhouette of a man at the misty window, waving at her. She rolled her eyes and shuffled to the door, coffee in hand, to receive her visitor."You left the lab with no notice. What's wrong?" The man promptly asked as Beth opened the door."What do you want, Axel?" Beth responded, still scowing."Can I at least come in?" Axel askedBeth sighed "I am in no condition to receive visitors. My house is a mess, I am an emotional mess–""Beth I couldn't care less about the state of your house. I want to talk with you.""Suit yourself." She muttered and opened the door wide.Axel stepped into the kitchen and looked around "Trust me, your house is a way better frame of mind than mine." He said and chuckled. He shrugged out of his wet lab coat and shook his long blonde shoulder-length hair free, then sat at the kitchen table, hands folded.Beth resumed her position before the fridge. "So. What do you want?""Why did you leave?" He asked."Didn't you see what happened at the lab?" She retorted with a sweep of her arm. "I sentenced a man to a lifetime of torture. I created a Werewolf.""Beth, we have done worse things at that lab, and you know it." Axel noted. "Don't beat yourself down like this.""Dr Makovsky–""Frank Makovsky was perfecting an experiment he has worked on for the better part of ten years, Beth. You were only his assistant carrying out his instructions.""I was a lot more than his assistant, Axel. I practically made the werewolf serum–""While following his prototype!" Axel got up from the table, crossed the kitchen and held Beth's shoulders firmly. She looked up at him with teary eyes. "Never ever blame yourself for Dr Makovsky's mistakes, Beth. They were his errors to make and he made it. And whatever consequence comes out of all this, he would have to face it alone.""I can never live with myself." Beth shook her head, her eyes still on Axel "Dozens of people will die at my hands if we don't stop this monster.""And dozens more will die if Dr Makovsky has his way." He sighed and let go of Beth."He's not going to stop at one, is he?" Beth asked, her voice quiet. Axel nodded in affirmation."He's trying to gather more test subjects for his experiments. He hadn't finished the one he was performing on Mike before the man escaped from the lab. He's going to inject more people with the Serum."Beth closed her eyes as tears seeped from them."The werewolf has a daughter." Axel continued. "We found that out soon enough after he escaped from the lab. She was bitten–"Beth covered her mouth with her hand "My goodness–""–By her father." Axel continued. "She was only twelve.""'Was'. Is she dead?! Axel, is the little girl dead?!" Beth rushed forward and held the man by his shirt collar "Tell me!""She's not dead," Axel pried her hands from his collar "But barely alive. I was just able to rescue her from Mike's house when I went looking for him. She was bleeding and in so much pain. She is at my house as we speak.""Is Dr Makovsky aware that there's a little girl?""He knows Mike Sommers has a daughter. But he doesn't know she was bitten.""Oh God, oh God." Beth muttered repeatedly.There was a loud stretch of silence. Only the soft tapping of raindrops falling from the trees outside could be heard. Axel stared at Beth from across the kitchen while the woman muttered to herself, shaking and weeping."I thought you might want to see the girl." He finally said.Beth raised her head slowly and sniffed "Take me to her."☆The big, formidable Russian laboratory sat in the middle of the woods and overlooked the sleepy town of Perkins. Far below ran a shallow stream, flecked by fishermens' boats that looked tiny from the distance. Although the night was thick with mist and the clouds above pregnant with rain, the whole town could be seen from the top of the laboratory.However, the old man who stood in the shadows of the laboratory's tinted windows couldn't be less concerned about the view of the city. He was wracked with worry, and no matter how much he tried to hide it, he knew his lab workers could see it too. They all worked with a little less cowering when he was around, it was as though they could sense that he was losing his grip on the experiment. Makovsky knew that if given the slightest of chances, they will all flee and leave him in the facility. But he couldn't let them go: he needed them.His plans had been thwarted by Beth already, and although the escape of his test subject was a little bump in the road, he wasn't stopping soon. Mike Sommers was only the first in a long line of mutations, and if he had been given the chance to perfect his experiments, the man would have been much more than just a normal werewolf. Mike would have been the first, the absolute best of all mutations.Dr Makovsky sighed as he looked out of the window. Mike had escaped too early. He'd had other plans for the man.A knock at the door silenced his thoughts and the doctor turned away from the window. "Come in." He called, and a blonde, long-haired lab assistant walked in. The young man closed the door behind him and turned to the doctor."Any news?" He asked."None." Axel replied. "She seemed to have disappeared.""What is taking you so long?" Dr Makovsky demanded "It's been several days.""We can't find Beth Sommers, sir. We haven't heard from her.""She is still in this town. She couldn't have fled town without my knowledge. Find her!" He ordered, and Axel gave a small bow and left the office.Dr Makovsky turned back to the white wall and clenched his fists. The little doe-eyed bitch. She thinks she can hide from me, he thought. Nobody had ever openly defied him and lived to tell the tale. He would always get his revenge.But now he had other matters to worry about. The werewolf he created was at large and he'd been unable to track down the animal. Trackers and GPS devices couldn't work on werewolves. Their beast side made any form of GPS technology impossible to work around them. And a handful of his scientists had gotten bold enough to tell him they want to quit, thanks to the laboratory attack and Beth's disappearing act.The doctor unclenched his fists and turned away from the wall. She wasn't the first woman to defy him, and she definitely won't be the last. He would let her go, would allow her create a fake sense of security for herself and the werewolf's daughter. The girl would grow, and Beth would feel safe, he knew. She would continue to defy him as long as she was alive. But first he would have his revenge.Lauren was lying face up on a stretcher in Axel's living room, still in her pajamas, IVs and drips running to and from her. Her tiny body was pale and coated in a sheet of cold sweat. Her throat, or what was left of it, was heavily bandaged and soaked through with blood. Tiny, green branched veins showed through her papery eyelids, and the eyeballs underneath them were moving to and fro rapidly. Occasionally her limbs would jerk violently, and she would let out a whimper of pain.Beth watched the little girl from a safe five feet away, too scared to go too close. Gasps of tears escaped her lips as the girl thrashed and turned on the stretcher. Axel appeared behind her. He'd changed from his lab coat into a homely black sweater, and his blonde hair was up in a ponytail. He held a mug of something hot in his hands."Here, drink this," he murmured coaxingly "You'll feel better."She collected the mug from his hands without giving him so much as a glance and took a thirsty gulp. "Dr Makov
The little she-wolf continued to run into the woods, her sight blinded by bloodlust. Her vision was red, with black dots representing distinct objects, like the reddish-black coals of a dying fire. Run! A voice in her head screamed over and over again and she obeyed, racing as though trying to tear herself from her skin. The pain was intense and overwhelming, and all she could think of was the pain and flesh: delicious, intoxicating flesh. She reached a clearing in the woods and stopped, her little wolf heart racing unnaturally. She let loose a scary howl that could be heard from miles away, and staggered as though drunk, the pain wracking her bones. It bent her unyielding body until she was on the floor, whimpering in agony, her sight still tinged with red. Suddenly her head snapped up. She'd heard a sound. It could have been easily missed by a human but her wolf ears had picked it up. Her eyes adjusted and located the source of the sound: it was a massive moose, night-grazing an
The boy looked up at the tall, forbidding Russian facility, a cap and nose mask protecting his face from the howling wind. He sank his hands into the pocket of his leather jacket and walked forward, ignoring the two security guards at the front door. They approached him with their guns outstretched and pushed him back, their faces grim and rigid. "Who do you seek?" One, a bald muscular man growled. "Who's the boss around here?" The boy asked, staring defiantly at both of them. The security guards exchanged amused stares and shifted on their feet. "You want the boss around here?" The second guard asked, thrusting the head of his gun in the boy's chest "Trust me, you'd be better off not knowing who that is." His colleague chuckled and muttered something about puny teenagers. "I heard that." The boy said "And I'm not just a puny teenager. I'm more than that." "Oh, are you now?" The bald guard mocked, then pushed the boy forcefully "Get out of here, kid." The boy smirked and
"Yeah, yeah I know." Sixteen-year-old Lauren said, her phone lodged between her ear and her shoulder "Beth, I'll be back home before seven. It's just a date. Don't make my dinner. Yeah, love you too." She resolved and cut the call, shutting the door of her locker as she did so. She let out a whoosh of breath and laid her forehead on the cool metal of the locker, her dark brown hair shielding her face like a curtain. Tonight was the full moon, and she had to be home before her Change came. She remembered the first Change she had in this new town, four years ago, like it happened yesterday. Beth had locked her up in the attic and made her wait it out. She'd had to stand naked and face the milky moonlight until it happened. Hot currents of pain had ricocheted up and down her limbs, stretching them as far as they could go. Her real canines had fallen out, and new, longer, sharper ones had taken their place. She remembered screaming Beth's name in terror over and over again till she'd los
Lauren hopped down from the bathroom window on the first floor and landed on her feet, unscathed. She crouched and waited in the bushes, hoping no one saw her make that brave leap. Slowly she counted to twenty, stood and walked slowly out of the bushes. She made her way to the parking lot where her bicycle was parked, unchained it and tore out of the parking lot. She could feel her phone vibrating in the pocket of her hoodie but she ignored it. Her thoughts were with the caged werewolf at the station and how she could free it. In a matter of minutes she arrived at the station and saw a group of policemen gathered at the entrance, sipping coffee from mugs and talking. She approached them with what she thought was an innocent school-girl expression and cleared her throat. "Yes, miss?" A dark-skinned one asked. "Good morning, officers. I heard a wolf was captured last night? I was wondering if I could be allowed to take a look at it." The dark-skinned policeman looked at his co
Axel watched as Beth paced the kitchenette of her house, barely minding the cup of brew in her hands as its content spilled with every pace. Her bathrobe swished as it scraped the floor, her reddish hair cascading down her back like a fiery waterfall. At intervals she would roll her eyes and mutter murderously. "Stop it." He said "You're driving me nuts." She let out a groan and slammed the cup on the kitchen island. "No. Lauren is driving both of us nuts!" "Not me." Axel quipped. "I am perfectly calm. And I think you should take a break." He added. "Besides, what if she's just out with friends, doing normal human stuff? She's a teenager, you know. Try to calm down." Beth gritted her teeth, her hair like strands of flames "I am calm. This is me being calm." Axel smiled to himself as he watched her resume her pacing. He couldn't help but admit—to himself of course—that Beth was one attractive woman when she got all worked up like this. He remembered four years ago when he'd c
Lauren woke suddenly to the loud snores of someone else in the cabin. She groaned and turned, but her movements were restricted by the sleeping bag she was in. The sleeping bag itself was in near tatters, long tears running up and down the body. She rubbed her eyes and rolled out of the sleeping bag. The corners of her vision was blood-red and blurry, like her memories of the previous night. She turned around, looking for the other werewolf, and found him lying on the other end of the cabin, half out of his sleeping bag and snoring thoroughly, his arms flinged every which way. She groaned again and shuffled to the door, opened it and went outside. The morning was full of floating mist and the croaks of frogs, the trees whispering as the soft breeze went through their branches. She breathed in and closed her eyes, letting the breeze caress her, washing away the lingering soreness from the full moon. Last night had been thoroughly eventful. After her fight with Beth she had barely ma
Katherine was sitting cross-legged on the bed with a book in her laps. She looked up as her guard let the doctor in, the metal grate clanging behind him, her serene expression changing to one of distaste at the sight of his old face and white hair. Unusually for a prisoner, she was well taken care of. Her cell was clean and free of clutter, albeit sparse and quite ugly. Her lush brown hair was well combed and fell down her back in spirals. She was dresses in a white pair of trousers, white flannel shirt and an intrepid pair of white shoes. Dr Makovsky stopped before her, his expression bland, save for a noncommittal smile. He looked around at her cell and remarked. "Your wallpaper needs to be changed. It is quite—boring, is it not?" "I agree. Same as every other thing in this room, including my clothes. But then you have never liked flashy things, have you?" She replied and smiled at him with a hint of repulsion. "You know me too well, Kat dear. Little wonder we get along so well