As I peered in the darkly lit house, I considered the evidence. My sister had died under the teeth and claws of something whose tracks had led to this quiet residence. Choking down a sob of grief at the memory of her rent body, I tried the back door. It opened with a tiny squeal. My baseball bat at shoulder height, I crept into the kitchen, taking care to avoid the cracks in the linoleum.

If only I had been there in time! But her screams had died suddenly, cut off with a choking gurgle. And as I had reached her body, a low-slung shape with fire eyes and a bristled ruff had darted into the bushes.

This kitchen was very like my own. Even the toaster was the same brand and model. In truth the place looked like a typical bachelor pad, with a plate of stale tortilla chips on the IKEA table. On that table a ragged old leather-bound book lay open. On the pages, one word ensnared my attention: 'Lycanthrope.'� Underneath were words in a tongue I didn't recognize. Quietly I read them, sounding them out loud.

And then, the world shifted. I was eye level with the table now, and seemed to have four legs. My tongue snaked out to lick my snout and I realized I was a wolf! I sniffed the air, exploring the air with my newly heightened senses. A musky, sharp odor prevailed, and a stealthy padding made me whip my ruffed head around to the bedroom door. There stood my twin, a wolf equal in size and ferocious aspect. A growl thundered across the space between us.

I answered with my own roar and launched myself at him, ducking under his shoulder check and slashing his paw with my razor teeth. Rage drove me. Righteous anger gave me the speed and ruthlessness to press the attack, even as the other whined and held his front paw aloft. He tumbled to the floor and I was on his throat. His whining turned to a squeal and then went silent as I bit down. His blood flowed over my maw and I lapped at it greedily, a hunger for more of it suffused me. The corpse abruptly rippled into a figure of a young man. My teeth tore open his stomach as rage and blood hunger roared through me. I bolted down soft tissue and slick ropes of intestines as I searched out his liver.

I awoke on the floor much later. Dawn had come and gone, and evening shadows beckoned. Standing up in my human skin I saw the open book once again and a fluttery, pulling NEEDING urged me to read. I remembered the power and the exhilaration - the blood. As my trembling lips formed the now familiar words, one thought remained.
'How long until I become the monster?'�

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