My Werewolf Experience

by Brian
(Camden, AR)

My story begins in 5th grade, a boy in the midst of puberty. I had always held an interest in the supernatural. My mothers side of the family is Cherokee, so I'd heard many stories from them. So I was delighted when I found a book about werewolves in the school library. I suppose they figured it was harmless nonsense. Haha.

Well, at the time, my neighbors had a unique pet that I had grown quite fond of, and had grown quite fond of me. A white wolf. Huge for a wolf, it was my height. And I was tall for my age. Of course, now I know what he really was.

One day I was sitting on my front porch reading the werewolf book, which I had checked out several times. The wolf came up to me and sat and watched me read. I kept glancing at him and back at my book. And it struck me to say, "I wish I could be a werewolf." The wolf rested his head by my feet for a moment, then in a single quick action, snapped his jaws down on my leg. It wasn't a deep bite, but it was enough to draw blood and hurt like hell. I don't know whether I angered him at my impudence, or he was granting my request. For the next few weeks, I barely saw him. I also kept going through feverish sicknesses that would come and go.

I think the first time I changed was the day I was chewed out for tearing out the screen on my bedroom window. I had no recollection of it, but somebody had to have done it. I heard rumors about something happening to a neighbors dogs.
The next time I changed, I woke up on our front porch. Another neighbor was missing a cow. I started to wonder.

The next time I made it in the house. Woke up on the couch. Our cat was missing. Rumors started flying from the church down the road. Things got tense when my sisters boyfriend claimed a monster like a big dog tipped him and his fourwheeler over on the way to my house one night. Kids I had told about waking up in strange places started to talk about me and my werewolf book. The church started paying more attention to me and my family. The white wolf disappeared.

I began getting extremely worried about things. I was slowly connecting the dots, and I was afraid. I didn't want to hurt anyone. I was afraid for my family's safety. My best friend and I started looking for a way to cure being a werewolf.

I change again. More livestock is killed, they find mutilated bodies and large tracks that lead into the fields near my house. The area begins to freak out.

My dad catches men in the fields late one evening. They were armed. My friend and I find a ritual that locks it away.

I spend a night at a friends house, his parents are gone. I don't remember the entire ritual, but it involves me being changed. So he ties and chains me to a metal chair.

After the ritual is done, he tells me how I passed out, then started screaming in agony. Says I changed into a werewolf alright. He was scared I would break out of the chair, so he fed me packages of ham to try to calm me down. It didn't work, so he rushed through the ritual and I changed back.

I never changed again. I have dreams about running through fields at night, the damp grass under me, the smell of the wind in the air. I still have the instincts, I use them when I go hunting. I can hear a deer walking several hundred yards away sometimes. And sometimes I can even smell them coming. I've been known to snarl or growl at things that displease me, and I've even been told I sleep like a dog. I get along quickly with dogs. I occasionally have outbursts of ravenous cravings for meat.

Through it all, I still have this feeling of wildness inside me. I can feel the wolf in me. And even after all that, its become one of my most trusted instincts. Its a part of who I am.