Chapter 20: Life on the Line

My chest felt tight from my hammering heart, leaping out at the chest with nervous fury, wanting to burst out and attack what I was mad at for me. Looking at the gray and black figure, dashing away from me on all fours, made me even more furious.

“Come back here!” I screamed angrily, jumping over a fallen tree as I did.

The werewolf kept running, either oblivious of me chasing him... which I don't know how he would be, or actually trying to lead me somewhere. I felt too angry to care, though. I was actually surprised at how angry I was, but I didn't know why. I mean, sure, I've been angry before, but never this easily. Did I subconsciously learn to hate him? Was just looking at the werewolf in front of me all I needed to be angry? Again, I didn't know.

I heard someone calling from behind me, yet they were too far back for me to hear anything, not to mention I wasn't listening to them.

I ducked under a low-hanging branch and was about to get back to my feet, but I suddenly found it a lot easier to go on all fours. Why was that?

I started to yell with rage, but found out that it wasn't a yell... but a howl. I suddenly understood. In my anger, I had transformed into my werewolf form, bounding on all fours toward my enemy, Scartooth. It felt... invigorating. I could almost feel my adrenal pumping through my blood, the feeling was overwhelming. Too overwhelming. Before I knew it, I had caught up to Scartooth.

In that instant, my back legs gave a large push against the ground, making the grass dislodge itself from the dirt and fly all around. I barreled into Scartooth, making him lose his balance and start tumbling with me toward a tree. While we tumbled, I felt my hands and feet clawing into what I thought was Scartooth. My ears were ringing now, hot from the chase, unable to hear anything... let alone reason.

In return to my clawing, I felt his claws, and teeth, ripping into my fur. He managed to make a big gash in my chest that sent a searing pain coursing through my body. Yet, despite the pain, and despite the tumbling, I didn't stop.

Although it felt like several seconds, it was actually very quick. The two of us tumbled into a tree, with his back hitting it first, knocking the wind out of him. At this point, my paws managed to grab hold of his shoulders, pinning him to the tree.

I looked him up and down, snarling. When I looked at his face, he was looking at me with his one good eye. There was a large gash on his forehead that took out a bit of his left ear. It was leaking blood quickly enough to have it already go into the socket of his scarred eye. His mouth was in the shape of a grin. Why was he smiling?

This was the same grin he had when he had pinned me to the ground weeks ago at the campsite.

After this quick image, I felt my mouth gape open wide.

This is the same person that threatened to kill me just for being awake at some place I wanted to be at.

I felt the muscles of my neck crane backward.

He is the same one that turned me into a werewolf, and attacked Stewart. The same man who was torturing my psych with ridiculous puzzles!

My neck sprung forward, ready to bite.

The rage I had before was increased ten fold at these thoughts. This man... no, this monster... was trying to make my life miserable! This man was a monster! He spared my life before, but only because of his companion! He really wanted to just kill me! He was a monster!

Then, it hit me. He wanted to kill me, but he didn't... and now, here I was, doing the exact same thing he wanted to do to me. Except, there was nobody to stop me. Not even myself. The adrenaline, the instincts... they were too high for any logic to get through. Any reasoning I had was disappearing, fast. My anger had an iron grip on me, and I was helpless. I couldn't....

“STOP!” The yell startled me. I hadn't heard anything from the ringing in my ears, yet those words were yelled out, loud and clear. Whatever had yelled those words had gotten me out of my rage of bloodlust. I gained my senses quickly, and soon realized I had control over my body. My mouth stopped its lunge toward Scartooth's throat.

I didn't know if I should feel relieved or mortified. Something had gotten me out of a crazed state, but made me realize that I had almost killed someone in cold blood.

I suddenly felt weak, and felt my arms fall to my sides. Upon the tension being released from Scartooth, he quickly got up and dashed away.

I couldn't stop him, even if I wanted to. I felt too drained to do that. I just sat back on my legs and let my head turn in the direction of the voice.

The person standing there looked much like a cheetah, but was wearing regular clothes. Stewart. He must have changed to catch up to me. He was a werecheetah, after all, they were probably meant for speed.

Stewart caught my gaze, his eyes filled with horror, and his muzzle scrunched up in a partial scowl. “You almost... killed him.”

I said in the best voice I could, which was merely a whisper. “I know.” I turned my head back to the spot where Scartooth had been moments ago. There was blood on the tree's bark from where his open wound made contact with the tree.

“Why? Why would you do that?” Stewart kept his distance, probably scared I would jump him, too.

“... I don't know....” How could I explain it? One second, I was in a huff from the argument with Stewart, the next thing I knew, I was chasing down a criminal who had started this whole mess.

“John... you're... covered in blood.... You're bleeding from your chest! John you're freaking bleeding from your chest!” Stewart forgot his worry from before and immediately ran to me.

It did hurt – it hurt a lot, actually. Yet, I didn't lay down to ease the pain a little more.

“Are you happy now? I had to transform to catch up to you. I had attempted to use those cheetah instincts to help me out.... It was harder than I thought.” Stewart forced me to lay down as he quickly grabbed his overshirt and placed it on my chest.

It may have been ironic to him, but I wasn't happy. In fact, I felt terrible. Not only was I in constant pain, I had my life changed drastically, and was going to implement revenge on the person who caused it by killing them. I felt like a monster.

“Well, this should slow down the bleeding.... Werewolf powers heal one fast, right? I hope so, because we're quite a long way from civilization, and you may bleed out before we even manage to get there!” He patted his overshirt down a little, already starting to get soaked with blood. “Your hands are cold, John, please tell me you aren't dead.”

I couldn't really find any words to say, I was too much in shock to do so. I merely gave a fatigued nod before letting my head fall back to the ground.

I lay there quietly, letting Stewart do what he could to help me. After a minute, I felt the pain start to die down as my wounds healed over.

He started to talk to me, but seemed like he was mumbling to himself. “John, you had me scared there. You looked so much like a beast that I could've sworn you had lost it and went completely feral!”

I shuddered.

“It was even scarier with that strange stare of yours. What is that, anyway?”

I tried my best to shrug, but felt as if I had only twitched.

“How about the 'commanding stare'? That's got a nice ring to it! When you use it in the future, you'll be like 'I use my commanding stare! Be afraid!' and the other person will be like 'ah! You're scary I submit!'” He seemed to be trying to lighten the mood, or at least make me laugh.

I did nothing.

“Amazing. That whole thing was so fast, yet it seemed to have lasted forever.... Oh, good, it seems you've stopped bleeding.... How are you feeling?”

I finally tried to speak. “Cold.”

“You did just lose... uh... quite a bit of blood. Your body is bound to be cold.” I could hear a bit of fear in his voice. His optimistic logic was not masking it very well.

He then grabbed the zipper on my jacket and zipped it up. “That should help you out! You'll be feeling warm in no time!”

I gave a nod. “Thanks....”

“Don't mention it.... “ He looked up from where he was, giving a little squint. “I don't know if I'm seeing things, but it looks like there's someone laying against a tree over there.... You wouldn't mind being alone for a second, would you? I could probably get them to help out!”

I wasn't exactly sure what to say, but I nodded my head, allowing him to run off.