{Connor}
The drive back home had an eerie and somber feel to it. None of us said anything, we just sat there and embraced the silence till we pulled into the driveway of our house.
I quickly got out of the car and headed inside the house to my room.
"Hey Kiddo, how are you feeling?" Jack said as I passed him on the way to my room.
"Fine," I said under my breath not even bothering to look in his direction. I rushed up the stairs and slammed the door of my room in anger.
Why was I so angry though, I couldn't even place my emotions correctly, everything felt strange. I grabbed my headset from my table and jumped on my bed ready to escape reality when I heard Laura's voice.
"I was so shocked I couldn't say anything till the man's knees hit the floor." She said.
I sat up and looked around my room but, she was nowhere to be found.
"So you mean to tell me that Connor, our sweet harmless Connor put his hands on someone for no apparent reason?" came Jack's voice as well.
They clearly weren't in my room so how could I hear them? Their voices were coming from their room all the way on the other side of the house.
"I'm telling you, Jack, he wasn't quite himself. That wasn't my Connor."
"Okay relax sweetheart, for all we know it's probably the medication that caused him to act out. I mean this is Connor we're talking about, the same Connor that ran away from that raccoon that got in the yard some months ago. There is no way he'd do something like that, just let him sleep and by the time he wakes up he'll be his old self again."
"Okay, you're right. He probably just needs to sleep it off."
I sat there on my bed with a look of utter bewilderment on my face. How in God's name was I able to hear my parent's entire conversation from all the way on the other side of the house? Maybe I was losing my mind or something but I clearly heard them didn't I?
I was so confused about all that was happening but a subtle part of me just couldn't be bothered, and so I chose to listen to that part of me. I shrugged it off and put my headset on, while I drowned all my worries in music.
As I blinked my eyes open, a dense forest surrounded me, its trees, tall and imposing casting long shadows. Suddenly, a piercing shriek echoed through the forest making me tense up immediately.
Without thinking, I ran away but it felt like something was following me from a distance. My eyes blinked rapidly, and I was attacked by something I couldn't see.
My vision began to go blurry and I slowly couldn't feel anything anymore. I shut my eyes to rest but as I opened them again, a huge beast with vermillion colored eyes was staring back at me. My instinct was to recoil and cower in fear but then I realized that I was looking into a reflective puddle of water.
Almost immediately the beast let out a menacing snarl and appeared to leap towards me. I sprang up immediately from my bed, my breathing ragged and heavy, my back drenched in sweat.
"It was just a dream?" The realization hit me and my breathing slowed, "It was just a dream." I fell back on my bed exhausted.
Almost immediately I heard a loud howl. My body instantly froze yet I looked out the window. A bright full moon was visible in the dim night sky, its light shone through the window.
Without even a second thought I hurriedly jumped off my bed and ran towards my window, flinging it open. I slowly climbed out and jumped down to the backyard.
As easy as last time I jumped over the fence and ran towards the forest, my heart and legs pumping with increasing speed.
I needed answers, and that howl was my best and only way to understand what was really happening to me. The fact that I couldn't remember anything except that howl made me even more frustrated, so I ran even faster.
As I neared the border of the forest, I noticed two shady figures in the distance entering the forest. I gritted my teeth and dashed into the forest after them without so much as an afterthought.
The familiar eerie darkness of the forest greeted me once again, goosebumps covered my entire body as I went in deeper and deeper. Almost like something was guiding me I took a sudden left and found myself in a clearing.
I spotted the two figures pretty quickly, they just stood there as if waiting for me. From what I could tell they looked like two men.
It was safe to say they had already seen me and were obviously waiting for me to make a move. I cautiously approached them keeping my guard up the entire time. As I got closer their faces came into view, they really were just two guys.
I momentarily let my guard down and let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding.
"Really? This is what we were sent over to investigate?" One of them scoffed, "He's just a kid!"
"Regardless, we can't leave any witnesses even if it's the target." The other one said crouching low and in a split-second, he disappeared on the spot.
Almost immediately I felt something cold in my back and then there was a burning sensation, it took me a minute to realize that I had just been stabbed.
I looked down and coming out of my stomach were five huge claws. I felt myself being slowly lifted off the ground and flung into a tree.
My vision blurred as I lay there in a pool of my own blood, I tried my hardest to focus on what had attacked me, and standing there under the silvery white light of the moon stood a giant wolf beast watching me bleed to death with its distinctive orange eyes.
The beast looked vaguely familiar, I just couldn't wrap my head around it. Then it slowly dawned on me; it was the same beast I saw looking at me in the puddle of water in my dream but this one had bright yellow eyes. Then the image of the wolf beast I saw with the vermillion colored eyes came into my mind and I felt a sudden rush.
I sluggishly pulled myself up from the ground, using the tree for support. My eyes burned with killing intent as I stared at the two figures in front of me. The blood pouring out of me began to burn at an intense rate creating some sort of steamy mist that covered my entire body.
"Seems like he's not so useless after all. Let's have some fun." The beast said.
"Careful Lucas, they wouldn't have sent both of us if it was that easy." The other man said.
"Relax Jonah, this will be over in a second." Lucas roared and shot towards me with his claws outstretched. As he got nearer to the mist covering me I flung a fist towards him catching him square in the jaw, the impact sent him flying back over 50 meters.
The mist slowly dissipated and there I stood, a 10-foot-tall beast of pure muscle mass. I carefully observed my claws and huge furry body and chuckled at the familiarity of the sensation, it felt like déjà vu… and I welcomed it.