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"As he lay there in the muddy grass, he could feel the power of the beast welling up inside him. What he had been dreading since the night of the attack was finally becoming his reality. His bones cracked as they grew longer and more dense, tears flowing down his face out of both pain and sadness. He tried to stop the grotesque transformation, thoughts of his wife and child running through his mind, but the darkness began to leak past them, clouding his mind with baser instincts as the changes raged on. He writhed on the ground as his body and limbs contorted into new shapes and sizes, the humanity being stripped away as a new entity began to take shape.

It huffed and puffed as the changes began to slow down, its ragged breaths visible in the cold morning air as it became accustomed to its new lungs, built for long runs and the intense act of the hunt. It turned and stood up on its new hands and feet - if they could even be called that now - in a quadrupedal stance, tail flicking behind it excitedly. New scents began to bombard the creature as it gazed up into the night sky to see the light of the full moon shining down upon it, eliciting a loud howl from the creature's throat. Its head dipped back down quickly, ears twitching in a direction as it could hear soft footfalls behind it, a quick sniff confirming the direction and the source of the noise: a soft rabbit. The creature's lips contorted into a sinister grin as it took off deeper into the forest, all memories of its past forgotten as it bounded after its prey, and towards its new life as a werewolf, a creature of the night!"

Uproarious applause suddenly sounded in the once quiet room, as the speaker gave a bow towards the audience.

"And you can read all about the rest of Mark's adventures in my new book, A Beast's Soul, which I'll be signing for the next three hours. Thanks again for coming out!" the speaker announced, before stepping off the stage and moving out of sight. The people in the audience began to stand up.

"Lucas, we have to hurry and get in line before it gets too long!" one of the audience members with fair skin exclaimed. His brown eyes, which matched the colour of his hair, were alight with jubilation. He batted at the tanned arm of his athletic companion, whose messy hair and partially closed emerald eyes gave the impression of exhaustion rather than nodding off during the author's presentation. Though nearly the same age, the young man bouncing with excitement in his collar shirt contrasted starkly with the one slouched in his seat, slacks all wrinkled.

"Okay, Marco, okay," Lucas replied, standing up along with his friend. The two made their way out of the row of chairs and towards the front of the store, where the signing was going to take place. Several people were already standing in line, and Marco joined them with fidgety anticipation. "You seem more excited than usual for a book signing."

"Naturally, Lucas. I wouldn't expect you to know who this author is anyway - and it's surprising that you came along in the first place. For that you have my thanks." The two stepped forward as the line progressed.

"Well, I didn't want you to come to this alone, and, even though I don't know anything about this author, I at least knew that he was your favorite. I wanted to be here when you met him. What's his name again?"

"Stanley Rand, only one of today's biggest horror writers," Marco answered, pushing his glasses up his nose in an astute manner. "You know, it was kind of strange when I learned that he was going to be coming to Walden, since it's nowhere near any of the big metropolises, but that just makes me even more excited to meet him in our hometown!"

The two continued talking as they slowly inched closer to the signing table. Twenty minutes later, they were at the front of the line. Marco was practically writhing with excitement as he tried to calm himself down.

"Dude," Lucas said, pulling Marco from his thoughts, "aren't you listening? It's your turn. Go ahead."

Marco looked back at Stanley, who was beckoning him forward with a wave of his hand. Marco slowly made his way forward, legs feeling as if they were suddenly made of jello.

"Hurry it up, Marco," Lucas stated as he grabbed Marco by the shoulders and lead him quickly towards the signing table. Marco was completely star-struck, unable to say or do anything except smile awkwardly at Stanley in front of him.

"Hi there, Mr. Rand," Lucas spoke up, "My name's Lucas and this is my best friend Marco. He's pretty much your biggest fan." To that, Marco chimed in, speaking quickly.

"Mr. Rand, it's an honor to be meeting you here today. I've read every single one of your books, all of which have been great testaments to the horror genre." Marco took a deep breath at the end of his long sentence.

"Haha! Slow down there, buddy," Stanley chuckled, "It's always great to meet such a big admirer of my work. And for that, I have a special copy of my new book, just for you." Stanley reached back behind himself into a rather small box and pulled out a different looking book than the other copies that he had been signing. The book was hardcover, like the rest, but lacked a dust jacket. Instead, the front of the book was engraved with gold foil, creating the image of a wolf howling at a full moon.

"This is a copy of the book that I'm going to be releasing in a few months, but they gave me a couple of printing copies just to see how they'd turn out. I really only need one. Would you like to have the other?" Stanley offered.

Marco nearly fainted from joy, but managed to center himself before heartily accepting the book.

"Great! Let me just sign the cover, 'To Marco, my biggest fan. I hope this book changes your life in ways you never thought possible.'" He completed the dedication with a flourish of his marker to create his signature. "Alright...There you go! Enjoy the book," Stanley said, handing the book over to Marco. "It was great meeting you two. You both make a pretty good pair of friends. I'd stick together as long as you both can, because friendships start to fade once you enter the real world." Lucas's face lit up at that remark, but Marco didn't notice it behind him.

"Thank you so much for this!" Marco exclaimed with airy disbelief. Lucas nudged him and Marco cleared his throat. "And it was great to meet you, too. I hope the rest of your trip in Walden is awesome!" Stanley nodded and waved as Marco and Lucas walked out of the store.

"Can you believe how lucky that whole encounter was?" Marco asked, marveling the new book in his hands. "Thanks for speaking up for me at the beginning. I was star-struck and completely blanked on anything I wanted to say."

"Huh?" Lucas grunted, clearly deep in thought - a rare sight. "Oh, yeah. No problem." There was a short pause before he spoke again. "Hey, Marco, do you really think what Stanley said was true? That our friendship might fade one day?"

"I doubt it." Marco quickly replied. "We've been friends since before we were born, and, even though we might have done some different things in high school, we're going to the same college."

"See!" Lucas said, as he stopped walking right in front of Marco. "That there. What if we go our separate ways in college? I'll probably be on the field for practice, just about everyday, and you'll probably be doing something nerdy indoors. We really don't even share a lot of interests - except for video games."

"Well, I guess that's true," Marco answered half-heartedly, now seemingly downcast.

"Woah! No, I didn't mean it like that," Lucas said, placing a hand on Marco's shoulder. "I just wanted us to realize that we need to find some more things in common."

"Oh! Well, that shouldn't be too hard," Marco replied excitedly. "There are so many things I'd love to get you into. There are comics, television shows, card games-"

"Woah, woah, woah!" Lucas interrupted. "What about my interests?"

"Haha! What interests? The only thing I know that you're into is soccer, and you know how well I do with sports."

"Hey! I have other interests besides soccer. Sure, most of my other interests are sports related, but there are a few television shows and movies that I really like and know you haven't seen."

"Well, do you want to come over tonight? I have the house to myself for a while, since my parents decided to take a two week vacation for their twentieth wedding anniversary."

"Sounds like fun! OH! That gives me an idea." Lucas started backing away down the sidewalk, looking distracted. "I'm gonna go pick something up for tonight, but I'll be over at around six o'clock."

"Alright! See you then!" Marco called out as Lucas started jogging off in the other direction.

Marco's walk home did not take very long. His family lived in a charming, two-story, house that they had owned ever since Marco had been born. Lucas's family lived right next-door, to their left, in a similar-looking two story house. The neighborhood was quiet, as many of the families had gone off on their summer vacations.

Marco walked in and kicked his shoes off by the front door. It was nice that his parents trusted him enough to let him stay alone in the house while they were on vacation. Their two weeks away from him probably also had something to do with the fact that he would be leaving for college soon, which meant that he'd have to learn how to live on his own for a while. It was just like them to prepare him in such a practical manner.

He walked up the stairs to his bedroom and quickly changed out of his nice clothes into shorts and a t-shirt brandishing various atomic models across the front. The treasured book was placed next to his bed where it would be waiting for him later that night. He made his way back downstairs and turned on the TV to watch while he waited for Lucas to stop by.

About an hour later, he had just finished an episode of Silicon Valley when the doorbell rang. He jumped up quickly and opened the door for Lucas, who had his backpack slung over his shoulder.

"Hey, Marco!" Lucas exclaimed as he walked into the living room. "I hope you're ready to watch a bunch of movies." He set his backpack gently on the coffee table, zipped it open, and proceeded to pull out several Blu-Ray cases.

"Sounds great! I just ordered us some Chinese food for dinner."

"Good. I'm glad you've realized how bad you are in the kitchen since the last time you tried making macaroni and cheese," Lucas joked as he gave Marco a prod of his elbow.

"Haha. That was pretty bad," Marco admitted with a smile.

"So, ready to get started?" Lucas asked, inserting a disk into Marco's Playstation 4.

"Definitely!" Marco said excitedly as he jumped onto the couch, remote in hand, and pressed the play button.

* * *

The food arrived halfway through the first movie, and the two paused the entertainment to eat. For whatever reason, Lucas refrained from speaking much, but Marco didn't really mind, simply pondering the silence, until Lucas finally said something.

"Hey. I thought since you met your favorite author, we'd celebrate a little." Marco raised his eyebrows as Lucas walked over to the coffee table and opened up his bag, retrieving a nondescript bottle of wine. The label had been torn off the dark glass bottle which had already been opened, judging from the quantity of wine left inside. "I know you're classy, so I decided to get what I thought you'd like. Unfortunately, this is all we had left." Lucas laughed a bit. A second passed, but Marco didn't make any comment, instead chewing slower.

"Thanks Lucas, but you know I have an aversion to alcohols," he attempted with a smile.

"Yeah, you say that, but you've gotta at least try something before hatin' on it!" Lucas said as he proceeded to grab a cup despite his friend's hesitation. "I'm hoping you'll like it," he added when he brought back two cups from the cupboard. "Shame you don't have any wine glasses." Marco simply shrugged, still apprehensive.

"Come on now, you don't think I'll honestly just have a drink after avoiding it for so long?" Marco protested meekly.

"Nah, I think you'll love it." Lucas poured the ruby liquid into the glasses, one fuller than the other. To Marco's surprise, Lucas pushed the fuller cup towards him. "What are you so afraid of?" Lucas lifted his own glass, took a sip and turned his head to the side.

"You are well aware what I'm afraid of. I've told you the detriments of alcohol consumption time and time again. Though mostly when you were drunk, so I can see why you wouldn't retain memory of their adverse effects. But... today is special," Marco admitted as he dropped his gaze onto the blood like wine presented to him.

Marco looked back up to Lucas quickly setting his wine down and smiling encouragingly. He sighed and picked up the glass, which felt weighty in his hands.

"There's a lot in here," Marco commented.

"Just drink it already!" Lucas urged, and laughed again.

Marco sighed and brought the cup to his lips, taking a sip. Immediately, he made a face of disgust as he quickly swallowed the liquid in his mouth.

"Ugh! That's disgusting!" Marco exclaimed.

"What?! Come on, just take another sip," Lucas prodded.

Marco briefly hesitated before taking a larger gulp of the liquid, which was, again, met with a face of disgust.

"Alright. Something is really wrong with this wine," Marco said, setting his cup down on the coffee table. "I don't know how you can stand that taste. It's like rotten grapes mixed with rubbing alcohol and then a salty aftertaste."

"Man, I thought you'd really like it." A look of disappointment appeared on Lucas's face as he stared at Marco's cup on the table.

"Well, now that it's completely out of the question, why don't we forget about it and keep watching the movie. We still have quite a few we need to get through." Marco said, picking up the empty take-out cartons.

"Yeah," Lucas replied, halfheartedly, not even bothering to finish his own glass. "We might as well." The two cleaned up the remnants of their meal. Though Marco felt a bit guilty about Lucas' dejected attitude, the mood quickly picked back up when the resumed movie lit up the screen.

Even when they had burned through the stack of Blu-Rays, the two didn't feel like ending the night and proceeded to switch to some casual gaming. Lucas flipped on the Wii U for Super Smash Bros. and slumped back onto the couch with the controllers.

Soon enough, however, Marco felt his eyes droop, and a tiredness seemed to weigh itself onto him, making the controller feel heavier than it was. As Lucas won yet another duel, Marco yawned and decided to speak up.

"Hey Lucas, it's getting a bit late and I feel weary. You mind if we call it a night?" Marco said, rubbing his eyes.

Lucas grinned before saying, "Hey, don't be a sore loser!" He laughed and gave Marco a slap on the back. "Kidding. I should be headin' back anyway."

"Thank you, Lucas," Marco nodded and shut off the console as Lucas shoved the movies back into his bag. "Do you want to hang out tomorrow?"

"Sure thing! We haven't been to the pool in a while. Wanna head over there tomorrow morning?"

"That sounds like a fine idea! I'll meet you at your house around ten and then we can head out, together."

"Alright, then. Night bro," Lucas waved a salute with the backpack thrown back over his shoulder and stepped out the front door.

"Good night, Lucas," Marco called out to his friend's retreating back before shutting the door and ensuring it was locked.

The tiredness had inched its way into a feverish exhaustion and Marco grumbled silently to himself as he trudged up the stairs to his bedroom.

"Ugh. If this is what alcohol makes people feel like after drinking, then it's just another reason for me to have no part in it."

The waxing moon was past half-full, and the moonlight cast a bleached silver across everything in Marco's room. He walked into his bathroom and proceeded to shower and wash up for bed. He returned to his room and changed into a pair of pajamas and a worn, white NASA t-shirt, before hopping into bed.

The glint from the new book's cover caught Marco's eye, having almost been forgotten after hanging out with Lucas. Despite the growing fatigue that nagged at him, Marco couldn't help reading his new book for a while, speeding his way to chapter six before his eyelids began to droop against his will. He reluctantly returned the book on his bedside table, turned off his lamp, and snuggled into his covers, ready for a restful sleep.

Morning seemed to be a world away.