Cross ran full speed through the woods, his breath fizzling away fast through his nostril and open mouth. The queer looking men that chased him didn’t seem like they were going to back down anytime soon; he ran without looking back. Suddenly, something unreal happened. He felt a presence move passed him in a flash, he couldn’t phantom what this entity was; human or animal? he didn’t know. He forged ahead running for dear life, not minding the unrealness and dread he felt within him; he had not taken too many more steps after, when he was suddenly tossed to the ground by a force so severe, he thought he would die from the heaviness of the thud he landed with;

‘No, no, no’ he cried as the queer looking men that chased him caught up with him and surrounded him slowly; chanting an incantation over him in unison;

‘On the sea, on the ocean, on the island,

On Bujan, on the empty pasture gleams the moon, on an ashstock lying in a green wood in a gloomy vale,

Toward the stock wandereth a shaggy wolf, horned cattle seeking for his sharp white fangs;

but the wolf enters not the forest, but the wolf dives not into the shadowy vale.

Moon, moon, gold-horned moon, check the flights of bullets, blunt the hunters' knifes,

break the shepherds' cudgels, cast wild fear upon all cattle, on men, on all creeping things,

that they may not catch the gray wolf, that they may not rend his warm skin!

His word is binding, more binding than sleep, more binding than the promise of a hero’

‘Cross, Cross, Cross!!!’ his girlfriend Daine called on him, shaking him vigorously awake. Cross suddenly woke up, raising his upper body aggressively, panting and sweating profusely. He was scared to see Daine by his side at first; probably she was one of them, one of the queer men he had seen chasing him in his dream.

‘It’s me, it’s Daine’ she said, holding him firmly until he became stable under her. Daine had woken up to find Cross struggling and groaning in his sleep; the sweat that formed quickly on his forehead spread through the rest parts of his body quickly, suddenly his pyjamas was soaked; as if he had dipped in a pool. She had screamed his name for a long time, trying to get him to wake up from the dream she knew he was in but he didn’t give in to her yelling until the men chanting incantations over him suddenly disappeared. He got a hold of himself after a small while in Daine’s arm and freed from her grip. She let go, staring at him with concern, waiting for him to reveal details of his dream to her, instead he stood up and left for the bathroom. He was about to take off his clothes and head into the tub, when he heard a sound continuously follow in a certain pattern; it was a strange sound he had never heard before; he squeezed his face, wondering what it was, following the sound until he got to the small cupboard where they kept their toiletries in. He opened it, expecting something huge to have been causing a sound so vivid; he was shocked to see a small spider weaving a web; his sight was so precise, he could see the workings of the spider, and also when the spider turned to look and acknowledge his presence. Cross and the Spider zapped away from each other quickly, Cross wondering why he would be able to notice and subtly communicate with a spider, and the spider sensing Cross had a different presence than the usual human presence it was used to.

‘Are you okay babe?’ Daine asked, suddenly showing up in the bathroom, startling him. He turned around to the direction of her voice dramatically, staring at her, trying to curtail the dread he felt.

‘I’m fine’ he replied, coughing profusely to cover up the fact that his voice had a small growl in it. He said no further, giving Daine a sign for her to leave him to his privacy; she made a confused face, she didn’t seem to understand what was wrong with him. As soon as she left, Cross locked the door behind her, his eyes wide with wonder. The previous night, under the full moon he was with some of his friends who said they would make a Lycanthropy potion. This was a potion made from the famous wolfsbane plant. They jokingly made it under the full moon, but all backed out from actually drinking it, except Cross; he fancied the movie they had watched earlier in the day that triggered them to make the potion; he admired the lead character that turned to a werewolf, protecting his loved ones and getting everyone against him off his radar;

‘I’m going to try this potion’ Cross told his mates, taking note of the ingredients they used to make the potion in the movie.

‘Let’s see if it really works’ he said, gulping every drop of the potion and cursing at his friends for backing out;

‘Pussy’s’ he called them while he waited to transform; when there were no after effects, he concluded with his friends that there was no such thing as werewolves and it was all just entertainment, what they watched on TV.

He took off his clothes and head into the shower, noticing a small yellow patch on the last finger of his left hand; he examined it for a while, it seemed harmless; maybe it was just a coincidence he thought, ignoring it and continuing his shower.

‘Babe, you’re acting strange’ Daine said when he came out of the bathroom;

‘Am I? I’m fine’ Cross said, trying hard to hide the fact that he was in fact very afraid. It seemed like a dream; he hoped it was just his mind playing games, considering he had altered his thoughts into becoming a werewolf.