Bi-weekly challenge (Deadline: 25/11/17 - 08/12/17)

Ahol helped himself to another plate of steak, garnishing it with gravy and a large spoon of a special sauce his mother had made. The clang of knives and forks on China plates mingled with chewing and swallowing, with occasional uhm's and ahh's from everyone around the table. The food was divine, fit for a feast. Ahol knew his mother and sisters had outdone themselves.

His father rose to his feet, a giant of a man, clicking his red filled flute with a spoon to get the family's attention. "Cheers to life and the wonders of it."

"Cheers," everyone chorused, raising their glasses for a toast before taking sips of their wine.

His father sat back down and Ahol turned to his immediate younger sister, Bertha with a puzzled look. His sister, only a year younger than he was, shrugged before stuffing her face with more curried rice.

His father had made an announcement earlier that morning that they would be having a feast, but he hadn't stated the occasion and of course no one had questioned him. But as they went around enjoying the hard work of their labor which included shopping by Ahol, cooking and set-up by his mother and his three sisters, barked orders by his father, Ahol thought his father would finally disclose the reason for the feast. But he didn't and it was indeed strange.

Nevertheless, everyone ate and drank to their fill and chores were carried out until no trace of the delightful banquet was left. It wasn't everyday they got to enjoy themselves this much.

And so after his chores were completed, Ahol sank into his bed with a full and greatly satisfied stomach. His index finger of his right hand was rod straight as he spun a basketball on it. He would occasionally glance at the clock on his nightstand to see how long he could keep the ball spinning, and he was so preoccupied by his little game that he didn't take notice of his father stepping into his room until his name was called out.

The ball clumsily dropped from his finger and bounced about before coming to rest on the tiled floor of his bedroom. He sat up awkwardly and cleared his throat, waiting for his father to speak.

"I saw the look you gave to your sister, Bertha. You would like to know why I asked for such an extravagant dinner tonight, wouldn't you?" His father stood like the imposing figure he was rather than sitting to have the conversation with his first and only son like normal dads did.

Sometimes Ahol easily mistook his father for a soldier rather than a scientist.

"Yes, dad. I am very curious to why we had a feast today," he finally found the voice to answer.

"We had a feast because I am celebrating, and I have come to share with you what it is I am celebrating."

Ahol could only nod and stand to his feet to follow his already moving father out the door, down the staircase, and into the basement or more specifically known as the room his father used as a laboratory.

Ahol had never been into his father's lab. It was forbidden territory, but here he was today surrounded by a mass of white and translucent blue. The room looked sterilized and spotless. Machines and mechanisms he hadn't seen before was the ordeal here. There were about four large screens with equally large keyboards spotting at corners of the rather large room. They resembled a cross between super computers and theatre sized television sets. Series of buttons dotted and aligned walls that looked like force fields. Tubes both narrow and wide connected the floor to the ceiling the way pillars would. But what got his eyes to widen in shock and shameful surprise was what appeared to be floating in one of the tubes.

"How well are you acquainted with the topic, The Evolution of Man?" he heard his father speak.

He turned to the man, trying to be as calm and collected as he was. "I know...well I know that--that it's said we evolved from apes." He was failing miserable.

"Is that all you know?" His father looked disappointed. "Oh well, nevertheless, I'll tell you that the theory has led me to my life's work."

"Who... is she?" Ahol dared to ask.

"Wrong question, Ahol. The right question is what is my life's work and how has she helped me achieve beautiful success in it."

Ahol nodded meekly, eyes glued on the woman in the tube. Her head hung low from her neck, her jet black hair covering her facial features but only grazing the top of her breasts which were bare. Her limps were lifeless and dangling. Her skin had a glimpse of the beautiful porcelain color it once was—but it was only a glimpse because she looked bloodless and somewhat the faintest of blue. At least his father had allowed the decency of leaving her panties on. "Is she dead?" Another question he couldn't help but ask.

"Of course not. What do you take me for?"

Ahol tightened his lips and diverted his eyes from his father's gaze. He didn't think his father would like to know his answer to the question.

"The theory is that man evolved from primitives known as hominoidea--apes. Now the key word for me has always been primitives because that brought upon the thought that what if not all men came from apes. What if not everyone was retained within the hominid family? What if some developed from wolves?"

Ahol noticed his father's eyes had a keen spark.

"So I set to work and endless research until I came across my breakthrough: the Madagri kin." His father placed a palm on him that instantly felt like lead. "I believe you are familiar with the term werewolf. Part man and part wolf. Or as science has led me to believe, man that evolved from wolves but can somehow reverse their bipedalism when put under the right conditions."

His father's words became foggy, losing proper sense. What was he trying to say? How could this mystical creatures be real and explained by science? Fantasy creatures popularized by TV shows like Twilight and Teen Wolf. Shows with actors his sisters and practically every other female drooled about.

Werewolves are so much cooler than vampires. Like Taylor Lautner over Robert Pattison any day.

It just makes more sense to go to bed with an animal that will rock your world rather than an undead guy. Why should I have sex with a technical corpse? So gross.

Those were just some of the few and endless points to the meaningless argument he normally heard around school. Sometimes the void chats would become so much that it drove Ahol mad. There were a million and one other things to talk about, better things, rather than overpraised shape shifters.

But now, his father was beaming with the prospect that they truly existed. He couldn't suppress the chuckle that erupted from his throat. If this creatures were real, scientifically justified or not, he doubted the positive response the world might have towards the discovery. People gushed over them because they were like glittering gold painted jeweleries, not real gold but all the same pretty looking. But a prove to their existence and awe would seize, fear taking over.

His father took his laughter for support and smiled. "I knew the beauty of science would finally appeal to you, my son. That's why I brought you here. I knew you'd see that the right path is by my side and not after that unfruitful basketball dream of yours."

His father continued to smile as he took out a small remote from the lab coat he wore. "To be honest, there's still a lot of work to be done, still so much undiscovered about the Madagri people and their wolf heritage. So what I'm about to show you might be said to be supernatural or uncanny, and in its own way it is, but that's because science hasn't smoothened it out--and it will. Your father might just be winning a noble price very soon."

He pressed the single button on the little remote and frosted air started to swivel round the occupied tube. "Two things activate their ability to reverse bipedalism and anatomical changes, completely restructuring their DNA," his father explained. "In other words two things make them turn from humans to wolves: cold and the sense of danger."

The button was pressed the second time and Ahol watched the woman's head jolt up, her body shake as if she had been electrocuted. She bared her teeth and growled. Her human dentition started to reform, canines became sharper, incisors jagged. Her round pupils became horizontal slits with the whites of her eyes changing from white to yellow. The tip of her fingers and toes blackened before growing out claws.

The sickening crack of bones had him covering his ears. The unnatural angles at which the woman's body bent almost had him in tears. He opened his mouth to scream at his father, to ask him to stop.

Luckily his father pressed the button again. "I've turned off the effect. She is merely in the middle of transition and will turn back to human in a couple of minutes. I would have loved you to see a full transition but I can't afford that now."

Ahol stood with his mouth agape, his eyes wide. What had he just seen? What did this mean? The woman remained afloat but would have probably collapsed if she could. She was still human right, so she didn't deserve this torture.

Would his dad really subject someone to this pain in the name of science? Was his dad truly that kind of person or was this all a hallucination? He recalled having two glasses of wine; although, the  label of the bottle had read three percent only. Maybe this was just a bad dream then.

"So, what do you have to say? Are you intrigued?" his father asked.

Help me.

The voice hit Ahol's head with dread and torture. Where had it come from and why did it awaken him in a way he could not explain?

Help me, please.

"Dad, do you hear that?" The voice creped deeper into his inner mind, a sound for only his ears.

"Hear what, son? I'd still like to know your overall view."

He turned to his father. He had asked what he thought of the unfold of tonight's event, right?

Ahol shook his head. You're playing with fire, dad, he wanted to say. Science isn't the only one at work here.