As soon as Gary saw those messages appear, he started to feel a change in his body. It began with his heart beat. Someone seemed to have put the intensity all the way to the maximum setting. When he checked his status in the system he saw that the BPM was constantly rising, already having surpassed 200 BPM with no signs of stopping.
It felt like his organ was trying its best to either burst through his chest or jump out of his mouth. The increased oxygen flow inside his body led to Gary experiencing everything more vividly, from his feet all the way to the top of his head. The high schooler immediately pulled on the chains from the pain, yet they did their job perfectly, preventing him from touching his head.
Unfortunately for Gary though, the strange sensations didn’t stop there. The next thing that he noticed was that his skin started to feel uncomfortable. He felt constricted, as if he had put on a shirt that was a few sizes too small. He wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating or not, but he believed that he saw it start to fall off of him.
“ARGHHH!” Gary loudly screamed out in pain, his throat on the verge of ripping, but he needed to do something to release this pressure that was piling up. The veins on his arms and neck became visible. They had grown in size looking like faint tubes about to burst due to the pressure they were under. His muscles started to grow, and more skin started to fall off from his body, being replaced by dark black fur.
‘Someone, please make it stop! This pain, I can’t take it anymore!!!’ Gary begged internally as he screamed out all his frustrations, aware that nobody was out there to hear or help him. It was getting too much for him and he was sure that he was losing his mind.
‘I have to stay focused! I have to stay conscious!’ The high schooler thought to himself, concentrating on the ones he tried to protect, his friends and family. Gary feared that something very bad would happen if his transformation overwhelmed him and he wasn’t sure that he would be able to live with himself if he hurt any of them.
Just when he believed himself able to tolerate that amount of pain, his very bones started stretching. It was a hundred times worse than any growth spurt and it affected all of them at once. At some point they collectively cracked, before they all began to regenerate on the spot, growing longer and more durable.
Finally, his face was itching all over as if a million tiny invisible bugs were crawling on it. His mouth, jaw and nose seemed to shift around, his eyesight and vision was changing. Gary didn’t even register that his ears had also elongated as his consciousness was slowly fading.
‘I’m sorry…’ was the last thing Gary had running through his mind.
———
The four teenagers had been diligently following Tom around for a while now, ever since he had left the locker room. He had led them to an area of Slough called Cipen side. It was one of the more upmarket sides of the town. As nice as a Tier-3 place could get at least. It was obvious that a lot of the money had been put into this area, as the teenagers saw a lot of night life despite how late it was being. There were restaurants, bars and even clubs.
It was an unusual sight in Slough, making Tom’s presence more than strange. So far it had looked like he had been walking around aimlessly. Kai had carefully made sure that they stayed a distance away from him, cautious that Tom wouldn’t spot them, but as time went on they noticed that the one in front of him was oblivious to his own situation. He wasn’t even paying attention to his surroundings, being far more concerned with his phone.
“Huh, so this is where all the big wigs of slough live? I don’t even see any gangs here, that’s a nice change.” Innu commented.
“Of course there are gangs here.” Kai sneered at the other’s naivety. “Otherwise this place wouldn’t be able to operate the way it is. In fact this area is one of the more important places due to how much money it generates. You not seeing anyone just means that this particular area is protected by some gang nobody dares to mess with.”
They were on a pretty busy main street, and some of the adults were giving them funny looks, wondering what kids were doing here at this late hour. The only one who didn’t look out of place among them was Kai. He even walked like the others.
‘He’s right, but who is this guy to know so much?’ Xin thought.
Continuing to follow Tom, it honestly didn’t feel like he was doing much, and constantly the group would check with each other to see if it was okay for them to be staying out this late. Since they were all school students, tomorrow would be a school day. Innu had no problem, he was free to do as he wished, similar to Kai and Marie.
However, for Xin, she just had to check that a certain someone was still following them.
“Well, you guys surely have nothing better to do. It’s almost midnight and this is what you’re doing?” Kai asked. “Well, I guess everyone has their special circumstances.”
No one said anything, so they continued on their wild rabbit chase, until their target decided to eventually head out to the park. It was a shortcut that would allow someone to head to Yellow Stack and the warehouse side of Cipen.
His plan was to stay here, since it should be far enough away for Gary to notice him, yet still close enough that he could get to Yellow Stack if something were to happen. Eventually they all just watched Tom sitting down staring at his phone. The group waited hiding behind trees a distance away.
They waited and waited until one of them got frustrated.
“Ah, this is getting annoying!” Marie called out, pacing over quickly. “Hey, Tom!”
Immediately, he turned his head, facepalming as he realised that he had been followed. Since Marie had revealed herself, the rest came out as well, heading towards the high schooler together.
“We all have better things to do. Just tell us where the hell Gary went. Don’t even try to bullsh*t us that you just came here for a walk. Cipen might be considered safe and all but it’s still incredibly dangerous!” The girl demanded an answer, impatiently whipping with her foot.
As the group continued to walk towards Tom, he got off from his seat and started to panic, looking for where to run off to. When he could see they were close he had almost given up, but suddenly all of them stopped in their tracks. Standing behind them, they could see two glowing eyes from the foliage.
They could hear the nasty sound of someone heavily breathing, letting out a nasty snarling noise.
“Look out!” Kai shouted, as he sprinted to Tom, grabbing his underclassman by the wrist, pulling him forward. At that moment, two large claws swung down and a loud bang was heard. When they looked at what had happened, they could see that something had destroyed the bench Tom had been sitting on just moments ago. Now turning around, Tom could see what Kai had just saved him from. There was a figure that looked to be close to two and a half meters in height.
It had bulging muscles, claws and was covered in dark fur making it hard to see in the darkness. Its snout was large, and it’s razor sharp teeth could be seen sticking out from its mouth.
“It’s a…a…W-w-w-Werewolf!” Tom managed to stutter out, his hands shaking. At that moment, all of them froze in place, unsure what to do. Its glowing eyes had something hypnotising to them, making them feel like prey in front of a large predator.
Fortunately someone else ran in front of them all, waking them up from their stupor. It was a man in a suit who had followed behind them.
“Xin, get away!” The man yelled, turning his head. “I will deal with this Altered!”
The professional bodyguard was about to pull something out of his jacket… yet he never got the chance. The mythological creature had swiped once with his mighty arms. Before any of the teenagers could blink, the head of the man who had wanted to save them separated from his shoulders, flying past them into the park.
The next second the body fell to the ground, releasing a torrent of blood.
All five of them knew that their lives were in danger… their chances to survive this were slim to none.