Chapter 16: A Reason for Disgust

I was about to open the letter when Stewart stopped me. "Hold on, John! What if that letter was for me?"

"I thought it would be for me," I replied, taking another look at it. "I mean, they are targeting my friends."

Stewart was silent for a moment before replying. "Point taken.... But, I am a part of this now, aren't I? Can't you, y'know... read it aloud to me?"

I sighed. "You are involved now, yes." I ripped open the envelope and pulled the contents out. Like before, there was a letter in there, only, this time, there was a feather to go with it. Ignoring the feather for now, I opened the letter and tried to read it. It was, unfortunately, too dark.

"What does it say?" Stewart asked, seeing that it had been silent for a while.

"I don't know, it's too dark!"

"Can't werewolves see in the dark?"

"I would... assume."

"That reminds me... aren't werewolves supposed to be big, and rip out of their clothes when they transform? You seem rather small for a werewolf. I mean... in comparison to those two psychopaths."

"Uh.... I'll get back to you on that!" I said, grabbing a flashlight from the glove box and turning it on. I started reading:

Dear werewolf in training,

We saw that you had figured out who was the target. Congratulations! You are a lot smarter than you appear.... Don't take that as a compliment, though. That was simple riddle solving. Nonetheless, you were so close to stopping us from "wereifying" your friend. Surprised? He's a werecheetah. We thought about making him a werewolf as well, but Troy insisted that we try something a little more complex. We didn't expect him to survive. If he did, then good for you! We had the right dosage, if that was the case!

I assume you have more questions about this "werewolf" business. Which, you have the right to know, right? To, hopefully clear some things up for you, being a werewolf doesn't mean you're a blood-thirsty creature who wants to murder the innocent and live feral. No, being a werewolf is more like... being human... with a side of wolf in you, giving you strange wolfy habits, and, on the occasion, strange wolfy looks. How a werewolf acts is all about who became the werewolf, or who is the werewolf.

Now, for the size of a werewolf, I bet you're confused. You saw both Troy and I transform into big snarly... scary werewolves, while you seemed to merely grow a wolf's head and tail. Well, a werewolf's size varies. There can be some that are giant, and there can be some that are normal sized... like you... and your very... non-threatening look.... No offense, but you're just too cute, thinking you can be the hero.

But, I digress. If you must know, we need to do more "experimenting" before we actually decide to implement our "plan." So, you'll be happy to know that we have another friend targeted. Of course, for this one, you'll have to find out who it is on your own....

I stopped reading momentarily to look at Stewart. "On our own? How on Earth will we figure out who is their next tar-"

Stewart interrupted me, "Just keep reading!"

I cleared my throat and continued.

Don't be scared. I'm sure you'll figure it out, Wolfyboy. Use your instincts, or something. Learn about being a werewolf. Really, we enjoy it.

Sincerely, Scartooth and Troy

Down at the bottom, there were tiny scribbles that were barely legible:

P.S. Troy insisted that we give you little blurbs about werewolves... to help you cope. Strange, isn't it? Oh! By the way, Troy wants to be called "Alteros" now!

I finished reading, realizing that my fists were clenching the paper so hard that my knuckles became white. "They're toying with me, Stewart! They're treating this whole thing like a stupid game!"

Stewart did the best he could to get up, finding his strength returning. "Cheer up, John. We can do it. In this case, you don't have to be alone! I'm here for you, now!"

"I kinda wish I was alone...." I mumbled, crumpling the paper up a little in my frustration.

"If you're still upset about not stopping them in the park, don't worry about it! John, I'm happy to help! As far as I can tell, I'm normal.... Well, aside from being a 'werecheetah.' Man, I gotta learn how they did that! It's a revolutionary science!"

"A science that goes against the laws of nature, Stewart!" I said, slapping the paper onto my lap. "All this science will bring is a bunch of mad-men who would want to declare dominance over the human race or something!"

"You are over-thinking this, John. So far, we only have two people that actually want to do this. Scartooth and Tro- Al...teros?" Stewart looked at me, shrugging  questioningly.

"Alteros, indeed." I sighed, slumping into the driver's seat, wiggling my toes in the extra spaces of my stretched shoes from the werewolf feet I had half an hour ago. "I'm gonna need bigger shoes."

Stewart considered my remark as a blurb to myself and ignored it. "John, how do I change back? I've had enough of feeling furry for one day."

"Uh... just will yourself back to normal?" I suggested in a half statement, half question.

"I'm still not strong enough to will myself to do anything...." He  smirked, mainly because of how helpless he felt at that moment. "I can lift a finger... if that counts as will."

"Please... no jokes. Now's not the time." I mumbled, slumping back in the car seat and sighing.

"Just wanting to lighten the mood, John. You're prone to worrying... and, who knows? Maybe you're worrying over nothing? Maybe it's just some harmless fun."

"Fun?" I looked over at Stewart, eye twitching with annoyance. "These two psychos stormed my campsite! They almost killed me! They attacked you! And they are going to attack another person if we don't do anything to stop them! HOW IS THAT 'HARMLESS FUN?'"

"John... your giving me the 'stare' again."

"I don't care! You seem to not understand the severity of our situation! Need I remind you about what is going on?"

Stewart shook his head. "That won't be necessary. I know that this situation is bad, but we can't get stressed about it. It'll only cause troubled thoughts! Like what it's doing for you! You always get the stare when you have troubled thoughts!"

"What stare?" I asked, looking away.

"It's your stare, John. It's unnerving. Kinda like looking at an army general after you messed up terribly in the rifle range... or something. You seem to get it when you have troubled thoughts."

"Apparently, I don't have control over it!" I mumbled.

"Look... just be careful with that thing. As for now, let's get back to changing me back to normal!"

"Well, you able to will yourself back to normal now?" I asked, happy to change the subject.

"Nope! I still feel too weak!"

"Alright... it's time for another idea." I thought, trying to think of a new way to go about doing this. "Erm... how good are you at being a stuffed animal?"

"You're joking...."

"I wish I was... but, it's the best I have! You'd have to sleep in my house tonight. I'm sure your parents wouldn't mind if I called them in the middle of the night to say that you were staying over at my house since it got to be so late."

"Would your parents buy it?" Stewart asked.

"They'd probably ask questions... and I could, hopefully make up some answers," I mumbled. "aside from the fact that I'm a terrible liar...."

"How about a costume?" Stewart suggested, giving a weak smile. "Wouldn't that be easier to believe?"

"Oh, I don't know! It's getting late! I can't think straight!" I grabbed my hair in agitation. "Let's just get you inside and go from there! We'll wing it!"

"If you say so.... Would you like to drag me inside? Don't know if I can walk."

"Fine... sure." I opened the car door and got out, quickly going to the other side to grab Stewart.

Without any sort of hesitation or resistance, he let me grab him and drag him out of the car. Other than his head, his body seemed rather limp... like a dead animal.

I locked the car so it would be secure for the night before dragging Stewart up the steps to the house. It was troublesome to open the door, but when I did, I was instantly welcomed by my mother's voice.

"Welcome back!" she said from upstairs in her room. For a moment, I thought I would be fine. If she stayed in her room, she would not notice Stewart and his awkward werecheetahness.

"Thanks!" I replied, already dragging Stewart to the nearest couch, carefully laying him down on it so as to not break his tail.

I looked down at Stewart and whispered to him, "Stay here!"

"Don't worry... I'm not going anywhere," he replied with a bitter looking smirk.

"Good. I'm going to go up and talk to my mom. Hopefully, I can find an explanation by that time."

"Just be careful. You don't want to slip up and reveal any unwanted info!"

"I know.... It's just going to be difficult." I grumbled.

"Why?"

"Because..." I flashed Stewart a look of self-pity, "I'm a terrible liar, remember?"