“We’re almost there, sweetie. You’ll get Ms. Pugsy back soon.” Tyrel said to his young daughter, Laura, while driving a sedan through the darkened mountain roads.
“Ok daddy, I hope so.”
The worry and sadness in her voice was palpable, and Tyrel’s wife, Kelley, gave him a concerned look. The both of them have been trying to gently persuade their daughter to let go of her stuffed animals, like her twin sister Hannah had already done. The two girls had just turned 11-years-old and would be going to middle school in a few years, and they both wanted to gradually teach them to be more mature.
“No need to be sad or afraid, Laura,” their teenage son, Bart, said, “Soon you’ll be reunited and we can be out of these dark woods.”
He playfully ruffled his younger sister's long black hair that flows straight down her back. She objected to it and made an effort to stop him. It didn’t take much and Bart started laughing while Laura looked away with a small smile on her face.
This sight made Tyrel and his wife smile as well. Bart was always the supportive sibling and son for everyone. Even though the first thing people would see about him was his extremely-thin frame and stringy black hair, his strong voice and gleaming green eyes made them forget whatever pity they had towards him and just treat him like a normal person. There was a great inner strength in him that few people had. Tyrel and Kelley would sometimes argue about which of them had passed that trait along to their son.
Tyrel Achard, 46, worked as a Restaurant Manager at an Outback Steakhouse, and Kelley Achard-Dixon, 43, worked as a Cardiologist and Cardiosurgeon at Arcadia Methodist Hospital. Both require their own sets of strengths in different capacities, but they have pulled through again and again for over 20 years.
As he drove with nothing but the car lights to guide his way, Tyrel thought back on why they were here in the middle of the mountains at night. During the recent weekend, their entire family went camping within these mountains. They spent the entire weekend there and returned on the second evening. But when they were going to bed, Laura realized that her stuffed rabbit, Ms. Pugsy, was missing. After searching their entire house and car, they figured that the only place left was the camp site.
So, Tyrell, Kelley, Laura, and Bart all got into the car while Sharon, their eldest child, stayed with Hannah. Weirdly, Tyrell noticed Laura neither argued for or against those actions. It was a quirk he noticed appearing from her lately, where she would just stand or sit passively and not react much to what happened to her. It had him worri-
“Ty, look out!” Kel shouted.
He was snapped out of his thoughts and saw his wife pointing at something ahead of them. All he could see were a set of glowing blue eyes and a pair of dirty human legs before he started swerving out of the person’s path. The car went slightly out of control but he was able to hold onto the steering wheel and managed to avoid a collision. At least, he hoped with the lack of a bumping sound.
Tyrell stopped the car and panted for breath. He tried to settle down, but his subconscious felt like it was screaming at him. That he saw something and didn’t notice, but also that something dangerous was nearby.
“Di-Did you see that?” Bart stutteringly asked.
“What?” Kel asked.
“H-he, that person. H-h-he jumped over the car.”
Tyrel and his wife turned to each other in confusion and disbelief. What their son said was impossible, especially as they didn’t hear the sound of someone hitting against metal. Sure, there are some people in the world that can cleanly jump over a car, but not while it is moving.
But yet, looking at his son’s serious look and reviewing his memories, Tyrel couldn’t help but agree that it might’ve happened.
He unbuckled his seatbelt and started to open the driver’s side door, but his wife and son both reached out and held his arm.
“Dad, you can’t seriously be thinking of going out there.”
“Bart, I thought we raised you better than that.” Tyrell said to his son, barely hiding how nervous he actually was. “Just stay in here with your mom and Laura.”
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“No, I’m coming with you.” Kel sternly said. “Whoever it is could be hurt, and I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
Tyrel gazed directly into his wife’s eyes and tried to express that he felt the same, but that he wanted her to stay. The expected stubborn and compassionate gaze was directed back at him, and he sighed in resignation. When it came to medical scenarios, Kel didn’t like to back down.
Tyrel got out, briefly hearing Kelley soothe Laura and tell Bart to drive away if something bad happened to them. Tyrel didn’t think something like that would happen, and his son expressed the same thing. Besides, Bart didn’t have a driver’s license yet.
As he got out, Tyrel was startled by a silhouette against the Los Angeles skyline standing 20 feet from the trunk of the sedan. It looked human, if a bit taller than usual and with more muscles, so he figured it was the man he almost hit. He couldn’t make out any features besides the man’s blue eyes due to the darkness and the long black hair covering most of their face, but something about this made him even more worried.
“Uh, hi, sir? Are you alright?” he tensely asked.
Nothing came back in reply, but he could feel the strange man’s eyes glaring at him. It wasn’t a good feeling, but arrogant and almost malevolent.
“Sir, I’m very sorry for almost driving over you. It was completely my fault, I wasn’t paying attention to how I was driving. I’m glad that you’re fine, but we want to make sure. My wife here is a doctor, and if you just let her-”
“Silence.”
The voice was very deep and almost unrecognizable as speech as it came out like a growl. The word seemed to reverberate throughout Tyrel’s skull, echoing both inside and out. Something caused him to obey and closed his mouth, unable to open it again.
His mind went into a panic as he tried to reason out what was happening and how it was possible. When the word, the order, was spoken, it was like some forgotten thing deep inside of him was forced to listen. Like how a parent orders their child around, or more like a king demanding something from a peasant.
“Ty? Ty, what’s happening?” Kel asked nervously.
He couldn’t make a single sound, but he could still move the rest of his body. He tried to pantomime that he couldn’t speak, but by her confused face he probably didn’t get the message across.
Kelley then took out her cellphone and activated its flashlight, shining directly on the obfuscated man. What they saw made both of them completely freeze in fear.
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The werewolf had waited for over an hour on the side of the road, watching the strange vehicles move by at very high speeds. He couldn’t discern what allowed them to move, but he didn’t have to figure that out right that instant.
He had a plan to go forward, but he needed to wait for the right people. Ones who had his blood flowing through their veins.
It was hard to do given his repressed senses and the small timeframe he had to intercept the vehicles. There was only one time when he smelled the blood of his descendents but couldn’t catch up to them.
Finally, he got a second chance and he didn’t want to waste it. Despite the pain that came, he partially shifted into his other form. It was a good thing he did when the small vehicle didn’t stop in time and he had to fully vault over it.
Inside he smelled four people, two much younger than the other two, and only three of them were of his blood. It was very diluted, but it was a fair amount, and he could eventually fix the purity of their power.
He had carefully watched them argue and then get out of the metal carriage, as he thought of it. The father was babbling incessantly, annoying him, so he used the influence he had over his descendants to quiet the man. The secondary effects that caused subservience didn’t enact, alluding to how diluted their bloodline was. It didn't matter, this would work.
Then the mother shined a light from some unknown item, and he flinched back. The light revealed the hideous combination of human and wolf he currently was, his arms and legs partially formed into gangly limbs and claws, random patches of hair and fur formed across his body, and his face an ugly, half-formed muzzle.
The faded rags he was wearing were in tatters, just barely covering his chest and nether region. And in the center of his chest, was a large gem the size of a man’s fist, white with a black swirling pattern.
The two of them stood there in terror upon looking at his full, horrific form. The man thought it slightly strange that they looked on with unfamiliarity, but there were several methods out there that could explain that.
He growled at the woman and took a few steps towards her, wary of the light and the item it came from.
Even though he was only partially transformed, the monstrous instincts and emotions inside of him were out in full force. And after being asleep for however long, those feelings and instincts wanted some way to be let out.
He couldn’t fully blame his inner beast, though. The light came from an unknown source, he wasn’t sure if some kind of offensive spell would come next, and he thought he could smell nymph’s blood within her. So he did the only logical thing that came to mind.
He ran up to the woman and, using his enhanced strength and claws, smacked her entire body away towards the treeline. Drops of blood splattered against his claws and the road, and the screams of the father and his kids resounded through the area.