There were a lot of dangers that everyone needed to look out for in a Tier-3 town like Slough. The teenagers were being cautious, yet each one of them was quite confident in their own skills, believing that no matter what they would face today, that they would be able to deal with it.
However, that was limited to their own common sense. A werewolf had naturally not been one of the things any one of them had been prepared to ever see in their life, much less tonight. As such, they had all slightly frozen in fear from the mythological beast that had appeared in front of them. Before they could really react, they witnessed how that large mass of muscle killed a man in front of their very eyes without any effort whatsoever.
Tom immediately became watery eyed, and he could feel something warm soaking his trousers. trickling down his leg.
‘Did I just…wet myself…werewolves have a sensitive nose… let’s hope this will make me unappetising to eat…’
However, the beast didn’t attack them outright, instead it started to dig into the dead person who was on the ground, ripping the corpse to pieces with its sharp teeth.
“Everyone, we need to get out of here now!” Kai instructed and he didn’t need to tell them twice. Xin noticed that Tom was still slightly frozen, so she grabbed him, dragging her classmate alongside them. Now that he was no longer looking at the beast, he continued to run with the others.
“What was that? That thing didn’t look like any Altered I ever saw!” Innu asked as he ran.
“Who knows, it might be the thing responsible for all those killings on the news!” Marie theorised.
At the moment the group was following Kai. Unfortunately, the park was large with big open fields. The impromptu group leader had a bad feeling that once the beast was done with his meal, that he would follow after them. At this late hour the chances weren’t great for them to find someone else in the park that might catch the werewolf’s interest.
“Let’s go through the trees. It will directly take us to the main street, with a lot of people. It seems hungry so hopefully it will be distracted by all the adults that will make more of a meal than us.” Kai suggested. The others agreed, if only because they had no better idea and just wanted to get as far away from that thing as possible. Only Tom had a different thought running through his head.
‘That… must have been Gary! I bet he came right for me. One of those books mentioned that a werewolf would come after those that were closest to him as a human. So he either came for me…or Xin…or maybe even one of those people I don’t know. This is probably the worst group to be with right now!’ Tom panicked, but he didn’t dare to seperate.
At the same time, Xin had tried to make a call to a certain someone during their escape. Until today she had thought that her trusted bodyguard would have been able to stop any gangsters that were after their group, but when faced against an Altered, only another Altered stood a chance.
‘Come on, Jayden, why aren’t you picking up?! I really need your help right now!’ Xin prayed sincerely, but there was no answer on the other end. She could only send him a text about her emergency, hoping that he would read it sooner rather than later.
The group entered the park’s forest and began running through the trees, but that’s when they noticed something up above. They could hear a being move at a fast speed, breaking down large branches as it went from one tree to another.
‘Damn it! Why couldn’t there be some large fat guy in the park today hoping to lose a few pounds, that would have made for a tastier target!’ Kai lamented their lack of luck. His plan was sound, yet he didn’t know that the werewolf was after one of their group in particular. Before they could get out of the forest, the beast had dropped down, blocking the path of the entire group.
Now they were practically in the middle of nowhere, with no one around to help them, but Marie had finally gotten through to someone on her phone.
“999, what’s your emergency?” The operator asked.
“HELP, WE’RE IN CIPEN PARK AND THERE IS AN ALTERED ATTACK-!” Marie shouted, but before she could finish, someone grabbed her head from behind and pushed it down into the leaves. It was so sudden and hard that some dirt had flown into her mouth. It was Xin whose quick reflexes had saved the other girl’s life.
The werewolf had leapt at Marie with the phone, seemingly understanding that it was a bad idea to allow her to finish the call. Luckily for the group, it’s hasty action had not only missed the werewolf’s target, but it had also crashed into one of the trees behind them.
Unfortunately, they all knew better than to hope that this would be enough to keep such a creature down. The werewolf stood up, and started to look at them all, sniffing the air with its bloody snout.
“Gary!” Tom shouted with tears in his eyes. “Please…please don’t attack us! Look at us, we’re your friends! Part of you knows that, right?! Please, you have to recognise my voice!”
The others believed that Tom had lost it and was now talking nonsense. How could this beast be Gary? Was he so far gone that he was hallucinating before his death? However, that name did elicit a reaction in the werewolf and it stopped for a moment.
“Are you crazy? What part of him looks like that green head? This is a monster!” Innu shouted at Tom.
Hearing the sound of Innu’s voice, the beast turned around facing the high schooler. The teenagers weren’t sure if they were imagining it or not, but it almost looked like the beast was smiling, revealing its sharp teeth that still had parts of flesh stuck between them.
‘It’s…going after Innu?’ Kai wondered. It dropped down on all fours, before it charged at Innu. The teenager tried backing up, but found his back against a tree.
‘Oh sh*t!’ Innu was convinced that would be the end of him, regretting having opened his mouth just now. As the beast was moving though, two rocks came flying towards it, hitting it right in its face, with one of them nearly getting its eye, causing it to close it slightly.
Innu did the only thing he could do, and decided to jump to safety as he saw the beast flinch. He successfully managed to roll on the ground underneath its side. It caused the werewolf to crash into another tree, breaking part of its lower half, and a few seconds later the tree toppled over.
“Why did you guys stay? You should have run!” Innu shouted, confused but thankful as he saw that Xin and Kai were the ones that had thrown the rocks. From the looks of it, they had gathered more and were ready to throw them again.
“Just look at you. Once that thing would be done with you, it would swallow you whole in one bite. A few seconds won’t do us much good. If that thing is going to kill us all anyway, might as well try and put up a fight!” Kai explained his actions, while Xin just nodded along.
“Fight?! Kyle, have you gone completely mad? This isn’t your average gang member! That thing killed a bodyguard in one hit! We’ll be done if its claws so much as graze us!” Marie shouted.
“Gary!!!” Tom continued to sob. The werewolf, recovering from its daze, turned around, yet once again focused on Innu.
“What the hell did I ever do to you? Do you have some sort of fetish?!” Innu was ready to cry. He had never been a dog person, but was that really a reason to kill him?
‘So it wasn’t a coincidence. This thing really seems to have a grudge with Innu…’ Kai realised. Even in a situation like this, Kai’s mind was busy trying to make the optimal decision and right now it was connecting the dots. ‘Hang on… a grudge against Innu… the news reports… sudden strength… It can’t be, is that thing actually…’
The werewolf ran forward, and the group had to prepare for the worst.
“GARY!!!” Tom shouted once more at the top of his lungs, afraid his friend was going to kill someone in front of him.
*Ahh-wooo!!!*
Another howl resounded and Tom felt a gust pass him, before a blur of fur came out from his side. The blurry black object leapt and slammed into the werewolf’s side, sending the two figures toppling through the woods.
Soon, both of them stood up, and the group couldn’t believe their eyes.
“There are… two of them!” Xin cried out in despair.