[ WP ] Last night , you were bitten by a werewolf . You have 30 days before you too go on a mindless killing spree .

# The Night of the Attack 
 
 It hurt. Oh god did it hurt. There was blood everywhere; my blood. It coated my clothing and gushed out of the jagged wounds on my arms and legs. I was certain that I was going to die. I could n't move, could n't breathe, could n't do anything but watch as the beast tore through my stomach. He ripped the skin apart and I was treated with the horrifying feeling of his muzzle digging around inside my body. I always thought you'd pass out from extreme pain, but I was wide awake as I watched the thing start eating me. 
 
 There was a sound in the distance, a gunshot. The beast took notice, and pulled his head out of my abdomen with a sickening squishy sound. Bits of gore were visibly dangling from his muzzle and my blood stained his white chin pink. When more shots rang out, the creature turned tail and ran, leaving me to die. I thought I was lucky; at least this way I would die in peace. I tried to call out in the vain hope of rescue, but my voice came out as a quiet squeak. 
 
 At some point I did pass out, because I was awoken by sun streaming through the trees. I blinked at the light and sat up before I could think about why that might have been a bad idea. Every part of my body was sore as I moved. Even my stomach hurt, and I clutched my belly in pain reflexively. My eyes shot open at the memory of last night, and I looked down fearing the worst. 
 
 What I saw was even more horrifying than I could have imagined. My ragged shirt was soaked in blood and torn open, revealing smooth unbroken skin beneath. A quick glance at my arms and legs showed no signs of injury. The bloody, tattered remains of my clothing were real enough to tell me that last night was n't just a bad dream. I shuddered in horror as the obvious explation dawned on me. 
 
 I stood up, half expecting to fall back down. Though my legs were sore, especially around the areas where I had been bitten, I was able to stay upright. I dug through the pockets of my pants to retrieve my phone only to see that it had been smashed sometime during the attack. I sighed and sank to the ground. It was probably for the best that no one else knew what happened. 
 
 It took me a while to walk back to my car. I had gotten turned around during the chase last night and I wandered aimlessly until I ran into a road. Thankfully the back roads were deserted, so I was able to walk back to the parking lot without attracting any attention. I hoped my luck would hold for the rest of the drive home. 
 
 I managed to make it all the way to my apartment without anyone seeing me. I was so relieved that I did n't realize my roommate was making breakfast in the kitchen until he turned around to say hi. I froze in surpise, too shocked to even open my mouth. 
 
 `` Hey, sup -- Woah! Dude, awesome costume! Hey, where were you last night?'' 
 
 It took me a few seconds before my brain belatedly reminded me that Halloween was in a few days. My roommate frowned and gave me a look of concern. `` Hey, are you all right?'' 
 
 Finally, my mouth started working, and I blurted out, `` I'm fine. I was at a party last night and I'm hungover. Please do n't bother me.'' I rushed to my room and shut the door, leaving my roommate blinking in confusion. Were I the kind of person who actually went out partying regularly, I might have noticed sooner that parties are n't usually held on Tuesdays. 
 
 # Two Weeks After the Attack 
 
 I growled and bared my teeth at the screen in front of me. I did n't think it was because of what had happened to me; I had always done that when confronted by particularly unpleasant bits of code. However, a small part of me was concerned my growling had n't always sounded quite so animalistic. I took a deep breath and clenched my fists. After a few moments, I was calm enough to start typing again. 
 
 As the days passed after the attack, I became more and more doubtful about what had happened that night. Part of me was convinced that it had been some kind of memory trick, or a bad dream, or anything else. Every night I made myself look at the torn and bloody shirt just to remind me that it actually happened. It was just so hard to make myself believe it. After all, there was n't really such a thing as werewolves, was there? 
 
 The research I had done seemed to confirm that statement. After I had cleaned myself up the night of the attack, I went onto the internet to google `` werewolves'', `` werewolf attacks'', `` bitten by a werewolf'', and anything else I could think of. As expected, I got nothing but junk results about everything from horror stories to people claiming they were werewolves. The latter group made me hopeful at first, but the flowery descriptions of their supposed animal forms did n't even come close to matching the thing that had attacked me. I guessed it was more of a case of wishful thinking than real-life lycanthropy. 
 
 After my jaunt on the internet produced nothing helpful, I tried just getting on with my life. On a whim, I had subscribed to some of the forums I found, but nothing interesting came up. After twelve invites to role-play, three people asking me about my `` wolf spirit'', and countless more calling me a liar, I stopped bothering to even check them. So here I sat at work, trying to pretend everything was normal even as I began to growl at things and crave meat. 
 
 I noticed that those were n't my only symptoms, either. I found myself focusing more intently on my tasks. It began to feel almost thrilling when I was able to hunt down and squash a particularly nasty bug. At first I figured I was just trying to forget about things, but after doing some reading on wolves I discovered something called the `` prey drive''. That realization should have scared me, but I found myself laughing instead. Who would have thought that turning into an animal would *improve* my work performance? 
 
 Unfortunately, the bug I was looking at right now was proving to be very agitating prey. I pounded on the desk in frustration as I realized I had just spent the last hour and a half with no progress. It was almost a half-hour after I should have left work, and I was getting hungry. The hunger did nothing to improve my mood. 
 
 I shut off my computer and stalked out of the office to my car. I had been planning on making dinner for myself tonight, but as I pulled out of the parking lot I decided I was too hungry to wait. I could smell the tension on the cashier as she took my order, no doubt caused by my less-than-friendly expression. She blinked in surprise when I told her how many burgers I wanted, but she did n't say anything. 
 
 I took the bag out to my car and ate there. It felt extremely satisfying as I tore through the first of the large burgers, and by the time I had finished the third I was n't angry anymore. I crumpled the last of the wrappers and threw it in the empty bag, then slumped down in my seat, content. After a moment's rest, I sat back up and started the car. 
 
 I found myself blinking in confusion at my home computer. I must have been operating on instinct the whole way home, because I did n't remember the drive at all. I shook my head and opened up a web browser. A combination of boredom and morbid curiosity had me opening up one of the werewolf forums. I glanced over the messages, not really reading them, but one near the end caught my eye. 
 
 Chicago_Musician sent you a message 11/08/15 9:54 pm 
 sorry if this is a bit forward 
 I saw the post you made about your attack. most people who post here are a 
 bunch of fakes, but your story sounded different. PM me if you want to talk. 
 I might be able to help you 
 
 I felt conflicted. On one hand, it felt so good to finally have someone believe me. On the other, I was n't sure I could trust this random person on the internet to be telling the truth. I sat thinking for a while before finally giving a mental shrug. What could it hurt? 
 
 Replying to Chicago_Musician 
 Thanks for believing me at least. What kind of help are you talking about? I do n't 
 want to shoot myself with a silver bullet if I can help it... 
 
 Also, I do n't mean to be rude, but I'm a little skeptical myself. Sorry, like you 
 said theres a lot of fakes here. 
 
 I did n't really expect anything from it. Too many false leads had made me pessimistic about finding any real information. I wasted the rest of the night looking at pictures of cats, then got ready to go to sleep. I checked the forum again, not really expecting a response so quickly. To my surprise, the mysterious forum user had sent me another message. 
 
 Chicago_Musician sent you a message 11/10/15 11:07 pm 
 I understand your suspicion. Im a werewolf too but no one believed me either. they 
 all want to believe that werewolves are'guardians of nature'. they didnt 
 appreciate my story about how dangerous we really are 
 
 proof: fear smells a bit tangy with a bit of a sweet aftertaste. werewolves crave 
 meat but we prefer it cooked the same as we always did. we tend to focus really 
 well on tasks. I can think of more if you want, but those were the ones that i thought were the 
 thing that stuck out the most 
 
 You dont have to shoot yourself. I can help you keep your wolf side under control. 
 I've been a werewolf for almost a year and i taught myself some tricks to help. 
 
 I had to read the message three times before I was able to process the whole thing. I could n't believe it. There was another werewolf out there who promised to help me. I typed up a quick reply, then shut off my computer and went to bed. Though I had been tired a few minutes before, I found myself unable to sleep. I was too busy feeling excited for the first time since I was bitten.
