Howling At the Moon

The sun was setting, I could hear the waves breaking against the shore. My eyes opened to find my hands clutching at my chest and a ragged breathing pattern. I was afraid to look down, but when I did, there were two small puncture wounds in my chest, and a small trickle of blood seeping from them.

"Oh no..."

I tried to stand up and walk over to the window, but I found that the wounds had already closed up, before even leaving a scar.

"What the heck is going on?" I said out loud, trying to think about anything else but what had just happened.

I then remembered that tonight was the night for our run on the beach.

Mark always did all of his running during the day, but I preferred running at night as it helped me clear my head. He always teased me saying that he could never catch me if he tried. My speed and reflexes were honed by years of martial arts training. Mark was strong, but he wasn't fast. But somehow... That wolf-like creature had gotten close enough to bite me by surprise! And while I may be physically stronger than Mark... If a wolf can get close enough to bite him without him knowing... Then what chance do we have? We need to figure this out as soon as possible!

I looked over at Mark's bed; he was still sound asleep so I couldn't wake him. Since tonight was our run, I decided to go for a jog around the station and research what this might mean for us on my tablet instead of waking him up.

After an hour or so of researching everything from infections to genetic changes to try and figure out what this might be, I had hit a brick wall. I finally came across something that led me to believe that this might be more than some kind of infection or disease; it was called "wolfsbane." According to one online article: "Wolfsbane is a special herb that causes symptoms that are similar to lycanthropy." When I read that sentence, all other thoughts went out of my head, and all I could think about was how much danger we might be in right now because if this is real... Then Mark doesn't stand a chance! He has no idea anything is wrong with him yet! How am I going to tell him? What do I say? If we don't figure this out soon, then who knows how long he will live like this! And what will happen if we ever get back home? Will he ever be able to make it? Or will they put him down like they would with any other feral animal? Those questions kept rolling around in my mind until something caught my attention from behind me: Mark's voice.

"Hey Chris!"

It was only when he called out my name did I realize that I had been standing there for almost two hours staring off into space thinking about what would happen next. Before I could turn around and reply, I could hear two heavy footsteps landing exactly where you'd expect them to: Right behind me.

"Chris! What's wrong?" He said as he ran towards me, putting his hand on my shoulder and turning me around so that we were face-to-face with each other. For some reason, though... Seeing Mark's face brought tears to my eyes, and before either of us knew it, our lips met almost magnetically locking together. Our kiss lasted only seconds before we pulled away from each other awkwardly, looking down at our feet, trying not to make eye contact with one another before Mark broke the silence between us: "What's wrong, Chris?"

I wiped away a tear from my cheek before replying: "Mark... You're sick." His jaw dropped instantly as he stared at me in disbelief, unable to speak for a moment before asking: "What do you mean 'sick'? Why didn't you wake me up sooner!? Where are we gonna go!?" At first, his questions seemed valid considering the near panic in his voice, but after answering every question he asked with one sentence each on why I hadn't woken him up sooner (because I thought I might be able to figure out what this might mean for us), I quickly noticed that his tone began shifting from worry and concern into anger (which made sense after I answered his last question). As soon as I finished talking, I watched as his entire body began shaking uncontrollably while trying his best not break eye contact with me, which made me think back to when I first met him five years ago at work; The man looked like he wanted nothing more than to kill someone before deciding instead just to turn around and walk off into the distance, muttering under his breath as he left, "Stupid freaking wolfsbane..." And just like that... A month's worth of memories flashed through my mind like a dream sequence being sped up 10x faster than normal before stopping on one memory from Valentine's Day five