Ignar’s eyes grew to the size of fists. His lips pulled back, revealing black-spotted gums. His jaws opened and closed, blood rivering between his white teeth, down onto the sandy ground.

Andrew lowered his hand. He was breathing hard, the magic coursing through his veins like fire. His senses were heightened, giving him information about the world he didn’t know existed. He could see the remnants of electricity buzzing about Ignar’s head, hear the sound of the wolfman’s stuttering heart, superimposed on the drumming inside Andrew’s own chest.

And over yonder, he could hear Victoria’s scream even before she opened her mouth.

Then, movement exploded. Ignar threw Andrew off of him and staggered towards Victoria, bleeding a path along the sand.

Victoria screamed and threw rocks at him. Then she leaped back, flattening herself against the side of the cavern.

Ignar advanced, snarling, blood staining his grey fur black. His clothes were smoking ruins on his back and with a shaking claw, he pulled off everything that wasn’t naturally him.

“I am an animal,” he said, voice thick with saliva. “And animals should look like one, shouldn’t they?”

“What the devil are you?” Victoria demanded as she kicked at Ignar. “Go back to the hell you came from, fiend!”

Ignar growled, caught Victoria’s foot and pulled her into the air. Victoria shrieked and kicked harder, but it was no use. The wolfman leaned forward and opened his massive jaws.

Andrew slammed into Ignar’s back, bouncing off the thick hide. He scrambled up and grabbed a stick from the campfire. He ran into the wolf again, this time like a jousting knight, ramming the stick deep into Ignar’s back.

The stick snapped in half but the second piece caught the wolf’s flesh, piercing through the fur.

Ignar howled, dropping Victoria. Andrew tried to duck but he wasn’t quick enough. The claw came raking across his face, turning his world red.

Andrew flew back into the sand, gasping. He felt a massive weight crush into him, and smelled the rancid breath of the wolf bearing down his face.

“I should have done this a long time ago,” said Ignar. “But the Master was always in the way, see? But no longer. No longer.”

Andrew pushed against the wolf but it felt like pushing against stone. “What,” he gasped, “are you doing, Ignar? I’m the Doctor’s assistant!”

Ignar howled, splattering blood and spit into Andrew’s face.

“No longer! No longer! The Master is gone. Dead!”

Andrew froze. It couldn’t be. It was impossible.

“You lie.”

Ignar’s grin stretched his wolf lips to the limit. “No. But you die.”

Victoria let out a massive roar and brought a rock down onto Ignar’s head. The stone cracked like a coconut, the sound vibrating through the walls.

On top of Andrew, Ignar stiffened, his features twisting into agony. Trails of blood seeped from his head, past his yellow eyes and Andrew felt them dripping onto his own skin.

But the wolf did not fall.

“Run,” Andrew said, quietly at first then screamed. “Run, Victoria!”

Victoria didn’t hesitate. She dropped the two halves of the rock and dashed out the cavern entrance, disappearing into the wet foliage.

Ignar turned after her, howling words that didn’t make any sense. Andrew tried to grab the wolf but his fur was slippery from all the blood. Ignar shoved Andrew deep into the ground, then left him there and bounded after Victoria.

Andrew lay there, panting, sobbing. Doctor Davis was dead. The man who saved him from the sea, raised him in the same house, taught him how to live, was gone.

No, it couldn’t be. Andrew pushed himself up. The wolf had gone mad. He couldn’t be telling the truth.

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At the entrance, Andrew paused. He needed to go back to the castle. If Ignar had gone insane then so could Bartholomue and all the sheep servants. The Doctor was still recovering, and he was severely crippled. There was no way under the sky he could defend himself if the homunculi were to attack him.

Andrew started towards the castle, only to stop after a few steps.

He looked in the direction Ignar went, where the grass and leaves were parted and stained red.

Victoria.

Andrew grasped his head in his hands. Victoria didn’t know the island and she was being chased by a wolf. She couldn’t survive even if she was armed.

She needed him.

Andrew looked up at the sky. It was blue, tainted pink with dawnish light. It was going to be a beautiful day.

Someone was going to die.

Andrew started down a different direction, following the blood trail as it merged with the shrubbery.

No one was going to die. He would save them all, or what was the use of alchemy, the science which was supposed to change the world?

The blood led him through the forest towards the beach. Andrew quickly realized where Victoria was going. She was trying to trace the path she took with him yesterday, during the storm.

Even now, she wanted to go home.

Andrew felt a pang of regret. Except it wasn’t a pang so much as a spear jamming through him.

He shouldn’t have done this. It was wrong. All of it. He hurried, pushing through vines and leaping over puddles. He could hear crashing not far in front of him, and his legs wanted to slow, in case Ignar turned around and decided Andrew was the one to go first.

But Andrew pressed on, willing his body to move faster. His head pounded with pain and his ribs ached. He knew he must be hurt from grappling with Ignar and instinct told him to slow, to access damage.

Andrew gritted his teeth. He wanted to keep going. But despite it all, the crashing grew more distant and his legs grew sluggish.

Andrew had to stop then. He was out of breath. Leaning on his knees, his eyes darted across the trees, trying to see if maybe Victoria had looped around, that somehow she might’ve lost the wolf and was actually safe.

He heard her scream, and knew it was too late.

“No!” he cried, sprinting after the sound. “No, gods, don’t do this!” He shoved through low-hanging branches and burst onto sand.

The beach was blue. The waves far. Sunlight shot across the horizon, and on the beach, Victoria was dangling from Ignar’s jaws.

Andrew's world shrank.

Ignar was on all fours, his back hunched and his tail high up in the air. He looked indistinguishable from a real wolf, save for the places on his body where skin grew instead of fur like some disease.

The wolf stood still on the beach, snarling at Andrew. Victoria’s neck was between its teeth, her blood pooling beneath the both of them. She was facing the sky, mouth opened in a silent, un-ending cry.

Furry lashed around Andrew’s chest, pulling him up. He started across the sand, first running, then sprinting, then throwing himself forward with a maddened howl of rage tearing from his lungs. The wolf startled, lowered itself and snarled. But Andrew didn’t care. He leaped at the wolf straight on, arms wide like a mad man embracing death.

The wolf turned and bounded away, letting Andrew fall into the sand. But at the last moment Andrew reached out, grabbed the wolf’s hind leg and held on as the creature started to kick at him.

Claws dug into his cheeks. One scraped over his eye. Andrew bit back the desire to let go, instead grabbing on with both hands.

The wolf started to jump, trying to get away. Then when it seemed to all be in vain, it finally opened its mouth and snapped at Andrew, dropping Victoria in the process.

Andrew was waiting for this exact moment. He let go of the wolf’s legs and went to grab for its mouth. His hands caught the wolf’s fangs. Too quickly, the creature bit down. Andrew screamed. He didn’t let go, though, and with the last ounce of his desperate strength he commanded an alchemical reaction right there, into the wolf’s body.

This time, lightning struck from the heavens. The wolf’s body stuck straight up, flinging Andrew high into the air. The reaction broke, electricity shooting up into Andrew’s arms.

By the time he fell into the sand, his world was already dark.

Andrew got up. The world was dark. But it was because his eyes were glued shut. He clawed at them, feeling flakes gathering under his fingernails. Finally, he could crack open his right eye.

The sky was in turmoil. Black clouds rolled around each other as thunder drummed through the thick air. Every hair on Andrew’s body was standing straight, but everything else couldn’t. Limping, Andrew made his way back across the sand. He’d spotted the bodies lying a few hundred feet away, his vision too blurry to make out any details. As memory came crawling back, he prayed Victoria wasn’t caught in the alchemical rebound.

He got to Ignar first.

The wolf was jerky. There wasn’t a bit of fur that wasn’t singed and what human skin it had, had fallen away to reveal the messy flesh underneath. Andrew kept his eyes averted from the creature’s white ones, and stepped over the closest thing he ever had to a friend, continuing down the beach until he finally got to Victoria.

The girl that started it all.

She was lying on her side with her hand pressed against her neck. Andrew knelt down to feel for a pulse but his hands were shaking too much to be of any use. So instead he tried using his voice, which cracked just as the sky lit up with lightning.

“Victoria?”

Victoria’s eyes fluttered. Her lips twitched but no sound came out. When Andrew tried to move her again, she whimpered, so he stopped.

“Victoria,” he said again, this time his voice sounding firmer. More certain. “We need to get you back to the castle. I can heal you there.”

Victoria didn’t move.

“Please,” Andrew said. “Please let me fix you.”

Victoria opened her eyes, and gazed fixedly ahead. Then her mouth opened, and she said to Andrew, “I’ll be waiting in hell for you.”

Then, her eyes closed, and with one last shuddering breath, she died.