Wolf's Hunger

I eyed the giant steak, poking from the add on the billboard at the side of the road. A low, painstaking grumble reached the ears of my best friend standing in the passenger seat.

“Wow! That is really something.” Eric muses, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.

“Shut up!” I groan, turning the car in the school parking lot. “I am genuinely starving.”

“Haven’t you already had breakfast?”

“I did. But its like I haven’t. I will stop to grab a bite at the cafeteria before the beginning of classes.”

“Damn, man! How do you do? It must be nice eating up for an entire football team and not gain a single pound.”

I shot him a dirty look. “Maybe if you start coming to practice with me, it would be the same for you.”

He gawks towards me, and I regretted right away what I just said. “N-not that you need it.”

Eric arches his brows and shakes his head, crestfallen. 

“Ugh. Look I’m sorry; I don’t know what’s wrong with me. After that night at Summer Camp, I always feel... kind of edgy.”

Erics expression changes, softening a bit. “You never told me the whole story.”

Without realizing it, my grip tightens around the wheel until my knuckles whiten from the pressure.

I could still remember the chilly breeze caressing my face, bringing to my nostrils the tangy smell of blood even before I saw it. So much blood everywhere. Then the earsplitting howling of the pack still hunting my nightmares... 

“Mars?”

Eric's hand was resting on my arm as he called me repeatedly. “Dude, are you ok?”

I look at my best friend, and he’s staring back at me, concerned.

I let my hands slide down, patting them on my thighs to dry the sweat from my palms.

“I am sorry.” I only manage to say, "It's still fresh.”

“No, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have asked.”

I glance outside the window to a group of students laughing and chatting as they cross the parking lot.

"Nha,” I shrug trying to shake off the bad memory, but Eric pats me on the shoulder, making me look up at him. “Still, if you need to talk or anything, you know I am here, right?”

“Yeah.”

-

The school cafeteria is buzzing with the chattering of the students. I glance at the watch on my phone as I walk to the food vending machines next to the kitchen.

Good, I still have 5 minutes.

But as I scan all the goods, there is nothing that catches my eye. Small bags of chips, chocolate snack bars, mixed roasted nuts, candies… My stomach roars again, so loud that I look behind me to make sure no one hears it.

I curse silently as I dial a random number, and the metal spiral behind the glass starts whirling, pushing down a bag of Doritos.

As I reach for the chips, a sweet smell prickles my nose, making my head turn toward the kitchen.

Behind the counter, Diego, the school chef, is unwrapping some chunks of meat to chop and make it in lunch for the students later.

I stare at the redness of the steak, the white strokes of fat on its side glimmering in the strobing neon light of the kitchen. When Diego picks it up and slams it on the cut board, I can see the trail of blood dragging behind the chunk of meat, blood still dripping in dark lines. I don’t know when, but in a moment of awareness, I found myself a few steps from the counter, my eyes glued to the chef’s hand and the piece of meat between them.

My mouth is watering uncontrollably as the smell of raw meat crawls up to my nose, straight to my brain, arousing my hunger. And as that happens, I can taste the meat on my tongue, smashed and teared under my teeth. I gulp once, then twice, but I can’t stop fantasizing about it. A small part of my brain is telling me that I am insane and that I need to wake up, hurrying to class. The school bell already rang 5 minutes ago. But I can’t do it. I want it now, and as it is. Raw.

I see myself walking around the counter as the chef is yelling at me to get out of the kitchen, but I just ignore him until he leaves, exasperate to call a teacher. I reach for the steak; I grab it with my bare hand, and I can feel his softness and slipperiness under my fingertips as I lift it to my lips. Its juices are running down to my elbow.

Then I sink my teeth into it, giving in to hunger, and it just explodes on my taste buds, sliding down my throat to my stomach. And then it hit me.

A shock of pure ecstasy ran across my body, leaving me numb. I never experienced anything like that.

But when I look up at the glass in front of me, I freeze. I am standing in the school kitchen, pushing my face into a raw chunk of meat. My face is smeared with blood; my mouth's dripping. But the most horrifying thing is the smile rising to my crimson lips; my teeth are sharp fangs stained with blood, and my eyes are wolfish and cruel.

A scream wakes me from that vision, and I realize that I am still standing near the vending machine, Diego unbothered, still prepping the meals for lunch behind the counter.

I catch a breath, as all the other students are emptying the canteen, rushing towards the source of the scream.

I run too, hoping to distract myself from that hellish trip that I just had. Did I just hallucinate from hunger?

What the fuck was wrong with me?!

I slow my pace as I see a crowd of people forming in front of the theater’s entrance.

“What happened?” A curious student asks another.

“I am not sure; I think they found a body.”

My heart skips a bit.

“What?! Who is? Can you see it from here?”

Someone grabs me and tugs me toward them. When I turn, I see my best friend.

“Where were you?”

“At the cafeteria, I told you.”

“Right. Do you know what happened? The professors just called the police. Have you seen it?”

“See what?”

“The body!”

“How the hell did I see it?! I just heard a scream and rushed here with everyone else.”

Eric ignores me and tugs me further between the crowd. After some struggle, we reach the higher seats, and we finally see it.

Down below, on the main stage, there is the dead body of a girl.

The lights are all pointing at her, like the main heroine of a play. Only that she is not acting, and the blood and viscera are not props but her own.

She lies there, on her back, in a pool of blood. Her legs fold on one side, while the arms turn upwards with the palms pointing to the ceiling. The long, honeyed hair scattered around her head like a golden halo. Her ribcage torn open, the chest and stomach exposed to dozens of strangers’ eyes. Her insides are scattered and chewed around the stage.

But the most eerie thing were her eyes. They must've been a beautiful teal blue when she was alive, with sparks of green. Now, a layer of gray was already covering them, wide open, staring into the void.

I hear Eric gasp next to me as he looks at the body. But all I can see is the blood and the intestines sprawling on the waxed wooden floor.

My breath starts to become ragged as her image overlaps with another corpse that I saw not long ago. Another young girl, just like this one. Her mangled corpse on a carpet of dead leaves, her mouth still open in a silent scream. And her eyes were gaping impossibly wide, staring back at me.

“Are you ok?”

I barely hear Eric standing at my side, calling me like a distant echo.

Without realizing it, my hands are balled tightly into fists, and my nails bit into my palms painfully until tiny red droplets teared out.

The theater hall feels suddenly very small, and I hear the faraway howling of those hideous beasts reverberating in my ears once again.

“I’m sorry. I have to go.”

“What?”

“I can’t—

But before he could call me again, I was already running down the hall, pushing through the suffocating crowd.

I am spread in bed holding my phone above my head, losing track of time, scrolling Instagram in hope to distract myself, until I feel my eyes burning.

3:00am. It’s already late, but I am afraid that if I close my eyes even for a second, I can still see that girl on the stage.

My arms feel tired. I roll to one side, setting myself into a more comfortable position.

A bubble text popped up in the corner of the screen.

Eric: “Hey Mars. How’re you doing?”

I swipe on the notification, ignoring the message without opening it.

What a jerk that I am. 

My best friend saw me flee out the school this morning, and he texted me several times, genuinely worried, and here I was. Ignoring his texts. Hiding in my room, busting my brain and eyes of stupid videos, trying to wash away what I saw.

It was just like that night at Summer Camp. When I found the body of that student in the middle of the woods.

It was one of the last days of the camp. The cold chill woke me in the middle of the night. As I pulled the sleeping bag under my nose and tried to fall asleep, I heard some older students still awake outside telling horror stories before going to bed. The more I tried to ignore them, the more I found myself to listen, and by the end of it, I couldn’t go back to sleep at all.

“This is just a local myth, but my brother once told me that this camp was once a native village in the past. When the Dutch found it, they slew half of its people. A group of survivors hid in these woods with their shaman. They were so angry and desperate that they begged him to make them stronger to avenge their families. So, the shaman called the power of the spirits and turned them into wild, bloodthirsty beasts, unleashing them on their enemies. But even after eating their bodies, they still hungered. It is said that even after centuries, they still hunt around these woods.”

“What a bunch of bullshit!” I sneered at them coming out of my tent.

“Scared Marshall?”

They started laughing, and I got out for a walk to distract myself.

There was a clear sky that night. Its vast black surface is sprinkled with stars, like a gargantuan cloak, filled with holes, draping the Earth in its cold embrace. But after a while of walking between the trees, the moon poked her head between the branches. Full and majestic. I found myself staring at its round shape. A perfect sphere of silver and white. So bright that was startling against the deep blue sky.

I realized I walked more than I planned, and I turned to go back when I heard a high-pitched scream chilling completely the blood in my veins.

I ran after it, hoping I could help, but when I thought I was near it, another sound stopped me in my tracks. A deep growl that made me flinch. It was so close that it sounded too unreal to be true.

Soon, a pair of glowing eyes peered from across the clearing. A big, hunched, furry shape is approaching.

A wolf! 

But it couldn’t be a wolf that big?!

The more it closes the distance between us, the more massive it seems. It advanced slowly and carefully, as the slightest movement could have scared its prey.

Then a deep chill ran down my spine as I realized I was the prey.

I stepped backwards as it moved closer, and then before I noticed, I tripped on something falling on my back.

I cursed as I scrambled for my phone that felled between the weeds. When I finally snatched it, my hand touched something wet in the darkness, and I jerked back.

For a brief instant, I forgot about the predator standing less than 10 feet from me, and I pointed the torch toward the thing that toppled me. And I wished I didn’t.

Glistening under the flashlight was a mass of blood and limbs. My brain couldn’t process; maybe it didn’t want to process what I was seeing, but later, every time I recall that picture burned inside my head, I realize it was a corpse.

I screamed and I scuttered on my feet, while I felt the sickening sound of the wolf jaws snapping right behind me, and I ran.

Thankfully, all the years of training on the football team were paying back as I sprinted through the woods, avoiding ground obstacles.

I dashed between the trees without ever looking back, but I could hear the rustling of something big chasing me, growling.

Panic filled me as my heart pounded so fast that I almost expected it to break through my chest and jump out.

My ears were ringing, my lungs were aching, but I couldn’t stop. Not if I wanted to reach the camp in one piece. Speaking of… Where the hell was it?!

I didn’t remember to have walked so far. When I couldn’t see the path, I realized I got lost.

I couldn’t keep a small whimper. No, no, no.

I slowed down, scanning the forest around me. Surprisingly enough, I was alone.

I wasn’t yet so stupid to think I overran a wolf, but perhaps he got tired of chasing me and decided to go back to its previous target.

A shiver ran down my spine thinking at that body, and my guts twisted and churned. I almost threw up if it wasn’t for a distant howling that jolted me.

Then, as it grew lower and waned, another joined in, not too far from where I was.

I whipped my head toward the sound, but a third one followed, then a fourth, and I felt like my legs buckled up.

Then I remembered one time when I was watching a documentary as a kid, I heard they said wolves used to howl to each other to locate their prey and hunt down as a pack.

It wasn’t just one; there was a freaking pack of ferocious wolves near the camp! How could it have happened?! How did the teachers and coaches allow that? Where the hell was everyone?!

Suddenly I heard a rustle from the nearby bushes, and I felt my heart sinking. I grabbed a thick, broken branch at my feet, and I held it in front of me like a baseball bat.

If I could at least have a chance to defend myself...

Oh, I was so stupid.

A huge shadow jumped at me; sharp, long teeth bared at my face. I tried to swing the branch at its head, but the animal was faster, and before I could blink, it pushed me down and was crushing me under the weight of its body, pinning my arms with its claws. The branch lost somewhere.

I could feel its warm breath caressing my face as it sniffed me. It reeked of carrion and blood.

I struggled to shake it off me, but I could barely move as I felt my bones groaning painfully under what seemed the weight of a car. Its snout got dangerously close, and I instinctively tilted my head on one side, hoping that it wouldn’t hurt when it would start tearing my eyes out of my sockets.

But for a horrifying second, I noticed something wrong with the beast, and I stopped breathing. Those holding me down weren't canine paws. They were human hands, big clawed human hands, covered in thick fur.

It was the biggest wolf that I ever saw, only because it wasn’t a wolf at all. As I turned to see its face, I noticed the angular, long snout covered in ebony fur. It looked like a wolf, yet there was something monstrously human behind it.

I screamed, terror-stricken, my mind crumbling. The monster answered with a snarl before sinking its muzzle into my shoulder. A flash of red, and I gasped, shocked by the sudden pain.

It was so painful.

I felt the muscles tearing and the nerves snapping. And I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

I could only scream from the bottom of my lungs until I'd lost my voice.

When I almost passed out, I heard a gunshot, and the werewolf spun his head up toward the noise. Shouting followed. People were coming there. I recognized the voice of my coach, plus two other men that I couldn’t place, maybe rangers. They heard me perhaps. That was enough to send the monster back from whatever gate of hell it came crawling out of.

I jolt up, covered in sweat, my hair sticking to my forehead, my hands still shaking.

Just a nightmare. It was just a nightmare. Just a damn nightmare!

I keep repeating myself, breathing slowly several times, trying to calm down.

But when I turn the light on, I force myself to hold down a horrified scream as I glance at the state of my bed.

The pillow and sheet are shredded to ribbons, and my spasming hands are now robust and covered in honey soft fur, with long knotty fingers sprouting dark, sharp claws.

Familiarly monstrous, like a werewolf.