It was easy getting Erik's body out but painfully hard discreetly dragging the shopkeeper's body all the way from her store to my home.

That was the only setback though. About people catching me in the act? I wasn't phased at all. That was apparently the main reason why I'd chosen this night in the first place.

With the time so close to midnight, everyone's windows and doors would've been shut tight, sealing their interiors from the beast that was surely preparing to come out of the shadows, since the full moon just passed.

It was a tradition in this town -  coincidentally after I'd arrived here - and the residents constantly blamed me for attracting the beast with my witchery.

That was a load of crap of course, but who would take my word for it aside Ellie?

Huffing out an exhausted breath, I dumped the shopkeeper's body on top of Erik's before pulling my coat tighter around me.

Despite the amount of energy I'd exerted just doing such a simple task, the chilly weather made it impossible for me to even release a sweat. That was how terribly cold it was, but that wasn't what was plaguing my mind at that moment.

The freaking bodies.

I had no idea whether I should just bury them at the back of my house, burn them and throw away their remains, or send them into the woods and bury them there.

I immediately crossed out the second option, although I didn't care if the town's people conjured up a bucket full of scenarios that might have led me to be setting fire to whatever so late in the night if they so much as peeked out their windows or smelled the smoke drifting across the atmosphere.

The third option seemed the best, but I didn't want to risk getting attacked in the woods. Even staying out at this time of the night was dangerous enough.

So I chose the first option. I certainly didn't like the idea of a couple of dead bodies rotting in my backyard nor did I think I had the energy to dig up a six feet hole in the ground, but it was worth the effort.

Though thinking about it, I should care and not give them any more reason to suspect me of evil doings or witchery in the village, but at this point in time, I didn't give a rat's bottom of what they'd think. I was already in too much trouble to shy away from a task so little compared to what I'd completed mere hours ago.

So with a sense of determination, I managed to drag both their bodies to the back of my house, gradually growing conscious of the way the atmosphere had begun to change.

I hadn't felt it at first, but now - after I'd completed my task and stood still for a moment - the dying sounds of nocturnal nature were so painfully evident that I'd have to be deaf to miss that.

Suddenly wary and fully aware of my surroundings, I moved slowly and backwards towards the shed that stood abandoned here in my backyard to look for a shovel, all the while eyeing the dark forest which seemed to grow thicker with each movement.

Then, before I could make contact with the shed's door, I caught a pair of red eyes illuminating from the blackness surrounding the woods.

Promptly, the hairs on my neck stood up.

Those pair of eyes were so dangerously intense that I lost myself in them, forgetting for a split second that I was supposed to be retrieving a shovel - to which, by the way, I quickly ditched in my mind for a shotgun I knew was in there.

The low growl reverberating from the animal, however, snapped me from my momentary hesitation.

The intensity of its gaze didn't fade, so it wasn't necessarily that which made me spin around and shove the shed's door out of my way. It was actually due to the fact that the beast had used my moment's pause to swiftly advance towards me.

Without stopping to take a breath, I snatched the shotgun that lay idle in the left corner of the small shed. But before I could turn around to aim, the enormous wolf stealthily barged through shed's entrance and collided into my figure with its paws, knocking me painfully to the ground.

"Urgh!" I clenched my teeth and tightened my grip on the shotgun. Nevertheless, that particular act proved worthless as my attempt to wound the beast with it failed terribly. The creature merely stomped its huge paws on each of my upper arms, rendering them defenceless.

When I realized that there was no escape, my ears rang. My heart had never beaten at such a fast and uneven rate and rhythm before. The back of my head, along with my backside, was burning due to its impact with the ground. My heavy breathing echoed throughout the small shed, even overriding the wolf's.

I couldn't move. Couldn't speak. Just stared with a great feeling of panic evidently rising within me. I had never been in this position before. Never actually dreamed it would happen.

And what made things worse was that the beast didn't look like it had used even a tinge of energy at all. Its breathing was composed, although gruff, plus all it did was to stare back.

That was probably the worst part. It not granting me an excruciating dose of the pain I'd anticipated to arrive.

But rather just...staring.

"What...?" I managed to utter whilst forcing my breathing to return to normal. Even though my effort was in vain - because I was still recovering from the panic - I tried again. "W-What are you doing?"

Was I crazy?

Maybe.

Yet even so, for some unexplainable reason, I felt like it could understand me.

I wasn't expecting it, but someway somehow, the beast cocked its head slightly and assessed me with its blood-red eyes, as if considering whether it should bother to give me an answer or not.

My upper arms, on the other hand, were beginning to ache worse than they did already.

The beast was freaking heavy. 

"Won't...Won't you kill me?"

The response I'd received wasn't in the least bit coherent, but I could tell from the snort that it gave that it somehow knew that I was being mildly sarcastic.

And if that wasn't enough peculiarity, out of the freaking blue, the fur on the beast began to lie and flatten against its skin and the huge paws pressing down none-so-gently on my upper arms started to decrease a fraction in size - but strangely not in strength.

What the hell...

Its entire outward features just transformed right before my eyes.

Its forelimbs morphed into large arms, its hind limbs into long thick legs, and its once furry body into a less hairy yet chiselled and muscular physique. Its shoulders also broadened and its biceps thickened and bulged as the transformation proceeded.

Up till that point, I wasn't so sure what I had expected anymore.

The last feature to change was the beast's head, and when it finally did, I was struck by how dark and beastly his face appeared to be.

Black hair hung from the top of his head and curled long and haphazardly around his face down to his shoulders. Adding to that, a deep ugly scar ran from the right side of his nose down to the bottom of his left ear.

But what I noticed overall was how insanely silver his eyes had become.

And what was most shocking about this scene was that the strange wolf-turned-man was looking right in my eyes without flinching or going berserk.

At that revelation, my mouth involuntarily opened in shock.

"Who the hell are you?" I whispered out loud, not intending to but knowing it was too late to take the words back.

The stranger didn't answer me immediately though, just took advantage of my stunned demeanour to take my appearance in.

"You look just like her." The words were barely audible - as if he rarely ever spoke - but they were there. And I had heard them.

"What the hell are you talk-?"

"I have been watching you," he continued, interrupting my inquiry. His facial expression - the way his eyebrows had scrunched furiously and his mouth had tilted downwards to form a dark frown - gave off the impression that it took a great deal of effort speaking the words he wanted to say out loud.

His voice was deep, gruff, unclear, and if it weren't for the fact that he was in such close proximity, I wouldn't have been able to make out a single word.

And also, for some bizarre reason, I knew that he wouldn't cause me any harm just yet.

I wasn't sure what made me not struggle to get out of his grip after he'd morphed into a human, but noting that the only slight pain being inflicted was on my upper arms, I weirdly found no need to worry about him permanently maiming me.

"You've been watching me," I repeated slowly, softly, although not knowing why I dared do so. "Why?"

Once again, he didn't answer. Just stared.

"You look so much like her," he murmured almost inaudibly before leaning his face down towards my neck.

Impulsively, I jerked out of his reach, but my movements were restricted by the traitorous ground and his huge fingers.

"Stop." I twisted my arms in an attempt to free them even though I knew it was of no use. Him moving in to close the distance between us in such a manner was making me weirdly uncomfortable and fidgety.

And I hated the feeling.

"What the hell are you doing?!" I could feel his hot breath brush against my neck so heatedly that I was finding it difficult to breathe.

Not to mention, the heat radiating from his body wasn't helping in the least. It was gradually suffocating me, threatening to overwhelm my whole being.

Too much.

"Stop!" I struggled to free even just a fraction of the hold he had on me, but the heat from his body was becoming too unbearable. So unbearable that I didn't even realize that I was trembling until I felt his nose graze my skin.

"Get off of me!" I suddenly became frantic.

"You don't smell like her. You smell different. Untouched. Though not so pure. I can't decipher it."

Is he bloody serious? "Get the hell away from me!"

This time, he did, but not as far as I'd hoped he would. However, I could breathe a little more freely, so I didn't complain about it, although I was still shaking.

"What are you doing to me?" I glared at him. "Stop this!"

"I am not doing anything," he answered in slight annoyance, his frown deepening with each word spoken, "you are reacting to me."

"Then make it stop I can't take it!"

He didn't respond.

I gritted my teeth in frustration, anger and great discomfort. He also didn't bother to give me more space, which infuriated me even more.

"I will let the pain go away," he started to say with caution before I could speak, "but you have to do something. For me."

"What?" I was almost afraid to ask, but I didn't have time to waste.

However, before answering me, he leaned in close once more and bore his gaze deep into my soulless eyes, making me involuntarily catch my breath.

"Come with me."

It took me a while to process his answer. "You're insane."

His annoyed expression didn't change. "And you make me talk too much."

I opened my mouth to retort, but the soft, hesitant thumping of footsteps seemingly approaching the shed made me freeze.

Whether the stranger on top of me heard it or not, he didn't bother to show it.

"Get off me!" I whispered frantically and began struggling all over again. "Someone's coming!"

"Then let them come," he said nonchalantly, not breaking eye contact. "I will kill them."

Without warning, an unwanted shiver raced down my spine. Despite the town's people being the first I'd ever wished to maim with my bare hands, I didn't want any careless deaths following my name.

Or mainly, deaths that occurred randomly without them being planned out. Carefully.

Snapping out of my thoughts, I stiffened when the footsteps drew closer.

However, when it suddenly clicked together who exactly would be approaching the shed at this time of the night, I inwardly groaned in despair.

"Miss Lenny?" A small yet familiar voice shakingly called from outside the shed, and one couldn't mistake the fear in the owner's voice. "Are you okay?"

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