THE REALITY

Crimson and Furs

Created and Written by:

Ifecowriter

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Pegasus Concepts

Book One

Chapter Fifteen: The Reality

#caf1_15

Uh!

Ah!

My body hurts so badly!

Daniel groaned as he struggled to sit up, his right hand reaching to rub his temples gently. He was having a splitting headache right now that seemed his skull would be torn asunder.

"I won't have to wake up this early if today wasn't Sunday," Daniel groaned painfully as he felt his temperature by touching his neck with his left hand. He was scorching hot as if he just came back from a picnic in the sun.

My temperature is high, he sighed inwardly as he struggled to stand up only to realize one thing. He was naked! This left him in a state of severe shock. How the hell was he naked when he slept with his clothes?!

"What the hell happened?" he asked himself as he took a deep breathe, mustering all the strength left in him to stand up. It was at that time he saw the situation of the room. His eyes couldn't help but narrow in panic as his heart began palpitating. The glass window was broken, there were shreds of his clothes on the ground and the whole bed was dyed in a crimson liquid which he knew to be blood.

Daniel held his head and tried to recall what had happened last night. His whole memory was hazy and he was finding it difficult to remember anything. This made his head to have a buzzing sensation which made him to become dizzy. He had to close his eyes to lessen the effects.

What really happened last night? he asked himself as he tried to piece bits of memory together. I was planning to read and then I saw the full moon. My body experienced an undescribable pain as I began transforming into some sort of monster. My nails grew long and my entire body was covered in fur. My size seemed to increase and then my bones seemed as if they were been ground with a grinding machine.

"Wait a minute," Daniel told himself as he reined in his emotions. "I've become a Werewolf? I've passed through the transformation? That was a hellish torment I passed through."

He opened his eyes, his condition becoming better. He then began thinking why there was blood on the bed or why the glass window had broken. He knew those weren't just any random stuff as he believed he had actually transformed into a Werewolf last night.

"I need to remember everything," he said to himself. And then the memory began flooding his head, bit by bit. Recalling the memory, he couldn't help but become frenzied. That night he had transformed into a Werewolf and dashed out of the house through the glass window. He had ran across the streets into one of the woods around. He had seen a man sitting by a bonfire and had attacked him. In the end he had mauled the man, devouring him in rage.

Wait, wait, Daniel staggered backward at the realization of what had actually happened. All these things had happened last night and he had thought he was dreaming. He was in a trance when all these happened and didn't know that they were real. And now the reality was clear: he had killed a hunter. That was the saddest thing he had experienced in his life. It wasn't just sadness but guilt. He had taken an innocent human soul for no reason.

Tears welled up in Daniel's eyes as his legs became weak. If not for the wall behind him, he would have directly collapsed to the ground. His heart was very heavy at the realization of what he had done last night. In his first transformation, he had killed someone. That hunter was definitely someone's son, husband, brother or even father. Yet, he had killed the poor man that night.

"I...I am a murderer," Daniel soon began sobbing as he fell on his kneels. "I've killed someone."

He tried remembering the person's face but could not as the appearance was hazy in his memory. At least he should know who he killed even though the guilty weighed him down.

"I shouldn't have been in Crimson Woods at that point of time," Daniel muttered amidst sobs. "I regret been scratched by that Lycanthrope. He is a monster! A thoughtless monster!"

Daniel cuddled up at the position he had been kneeling, his body hugging his kneels. Is this how I'm gonna turn out? This is the kind of monster I'm gonna be as a Werewolf?

He wiped his tears and struggled to his feet, moving towards the glass window which had been broken. As he walked he saw wolf footprints deeply imprinted into the red rug carpet, only this time the footprints were unnaturally big. He stopped by the window pane and stared down to the ground. There were more footprints leading away from the compound. Seeing this, his expression turned grave.

Daniel took a deep breathe as he walked towards the mirror to look at himself. His brown eyes couldn't help but narrow as he saw his reflection, his guilt being instantly suppressed by the momentary shock. His body now looked more muscular, his abs, biceps and triceps standing out as if he had been to the gym daily for a whole year. This physical physique instantly matched him with a professional gymnast. Also, he felt very energetic as if he could run a mile without breaking a sweat.

The transformation left some physical changes on my body? Daniel thought as he continued looking at himself. Also, he felt a kind of boldness he had never felt before. It was as if he could deal with anyone that crossed paths with him. Staring at his reflection in the mirror he couldn't help but feel that he was very domineering unlike before. The current Daniel wasn't that weakling that everyone knew. He had a deep masculinity to himself despite him being just 15 years old. This wasn't something he had expected with the transformation.

"This is the reality," Daniel muttered to himself. He should have been happy but he was not. The reason was simple: he had killed someone and this was a guilt he was gonna leave with for the rest of his life.

~

Several cops were at the woods, their eyes staring at the corpse which was lying by the extinguished campfire. Its flesh was badly eaten away that no one could remember what it had once looked like, its arms and legs twisted into odd angles. All of them were petrified by this horrid sight and couldn't help but feel their hearts palpitating. In their entire careers, they had never seen such an incident. Some cops who couldn't bear to see the corpse immediately bent down and began vomiting bile.

"Mac, what do you think of this scene?" a bald and ugly cop asked the grey haired and grey eyed cop beside him. He was an officer and was Mac's subordinate but then he still chose to call him by his name because they were friends. Well, he didn't do this in the public and only called him by his name when no one was hearing.

"It seems like a case with wolves, James" Mac said as he walked towards the place where the campfire had been, staring at the burnt boar above the cluster of black charcoals and ashes left from the burnt woods. He wore some gloves and scooped a handful of the ashes, feeling them between his thumb and index fingers.

"Wolves? Like the same case with the Daniel of a kid?" James asked as he observed what Mac was doing. He wasn't unfamiliar with his sergeant's action and knew it was just a part of the investigation skills he had learnt at the Police Academy. Even at that, Mac could be seen as a genius when it came to investigation.

"Not hardly," Mac said as he poured the ash he had collected and removed the hand gloves. "This incident happened around 10:00pm. It was immediately when the full moon showed up."

James narrowed his eyes at what he heard. From the rumours that were spread, Lycanthropes were believed to be active during full moon as that was the period of their transformations. He decided to tell Mac his suspicions. Not wanting the others to hear his statement, he suppressed his voice and asked:

"Lycanthrope?"

Mac rubbed his palms together, his eyes narrowing. For some moments he didn't reply as he was in a deep thought. He then answered after looking at the pale sun standing in the sky, "Not hardly. That can explain the big claw marks on this corpse."

Mac looked around and then said, "There's one thing that surprises me. There are not footprints belonging to this socalled animal. Where did they all go?"

James looked around and his eyes narrowed the more in shock. There were no footprints indeed! Not even one! This helped to prove his suspicions had been right. It was a Lycanthrope! Only a supernatural creature can have such an effect.

"This is really bizarre," James scanned the whole area, wishing in his heart that none of the other cops realized this. They were all engrossed in writing down reports or surveying the whole area, carrying out series of investigations about the incident.

"Indeed," Mac said quietly as he looked around the woods. "Recently there have been dangers lurking in the woods around Crimson Springs. The mostly dangerous woods turn out to be Crimson Woods."

James remembered the Lycanthrope incident which Daniel had mentioned and shuddered. So the kid was actually telling the truth when he said a Lycanthrope scratched him. Judging from how they couldn't see a single footprint from the Lycanthrope—as if it had vanished into thin air—he believed what Daniel had actually said. A Lycanthrope had actually scratched this kid but they couldn't see any claw marks because all of those were interfered with.

"The case with Daniel, it appears to have been true," James said. "When he said that he was clawed in the right chest by a Lycanthrope, there were no claw marks. I believe they suddenly vanished into thin air just like the footprints in order to prevent any clues from leading to it."

Mac listened attentively, grasping every single word James said. If the Lycanthrope wanted to prevent any clues leading to it and erased the claw marks on Daniel's right chest as well as the footprints, why didn't it erase the claw marks found on this corpse as well? Does this feral supernatural creature have any reason for its actions?

He then opened his mouth and replied to James' statement, "The Lycanthrope didn't erase the claw marks on the body of the corpse."

"Hmmm," James couldn't come up with any good reason but he knew Mac must have already found one. His grey eyes were burning with enlightenment already.

Mac cleared his throat and said, "We're gonna relay this uncanny event to the journalists around and get them to publish newspapers. The citizens lives are in danger and mustn't loiter around in the woods. Lycanthropes are definitely real."

James couldn't help but felt his entire body shudder. The woods are now unsafe. He remembered when he was a kid and his late father used to take him along into the woods when he was hunting. Recalling those memories he couldn't help but feel that the world was safer then and devoid of those evil and monstrous creatures called Lycanthropes. Now no one would dare to venture into the woods again. It was scary and yet sad at the same time.

James walked away from Mac and went to say something to his comrades far away. His voice was inaudible but Mac knew what he was saying as he was the one who gave him the order. Everyone had to be dismissed and return home. The woods weren't safe anymore.

When James returned, Mac opened his mouth and said, "The Lycanthrope which killed this figure and the Lycanthrope which erased the footprints are different."

At that time James felt a lump in his throat.

¶

¶

Daniel is now filled with guilt about the incident. No doubt he's not going to clear it from his mind.

Mac seems to have a clue about the Lycanthrope incident but he's keeping it to himself. James on the other hand knows Mac knows about the incident and is actually keeping it to himself. The cops have been asked to relay the information to the journalists. The woods are dangerous now