I tossed and turned. Drifted off and dreamed so vividly of Layla and Lexa, I could reach out and touch them as they led me into the middle of a forest in the dead of night. A full moon peeked between slithering clouds, its lunar light slicing through the treetops, illuminating a glowing pool around us. Both of them wore long white dresses that trailed behind them as they moved farther away from me, a chilling breeze bringing goosebumps to my forearms and the back of my neck. The farther away they got, the faster they left me behind, until they were gone, leaving me alone in the desolate woods.

I awoke with a start.

A thick layer of pine needles dug into my shoulder blades and poked through my hair into the back of my scalp. Quickly, I realized where I really was, lying on the ground, surrounded by a forest of tall trees, laden with thick bark, not in my bedroom. I jumped to my feet and whirled around, my eyes verifying the truth of my situation, my heart pounding so hard I was breathless.

My gaze shot up to the full moon overhead as everything fell into place.

After I had gotten home from Layla's house, I couldn't forget what happened in her garage. What if I hadn't showed up when I did? Would she have died?! The thought of losing her made me realize how much she meant to me. I considered the incredible strength it took to lift and hold up a car! It wasn't normal for a person to possess that kind of power. All these things, including my interaction with Lexa during and after the game, contributed to my inability to sleep and also to the dream I had. But none of it accounted for sleepwalking and finding myself in the middle of the woods at night. Alone.

I groaned when I realized I was only wearing my boxer shorts.

I swiped at the pricks in my skin where the pine needles had jabbed my back, brushing away bits and pieces of debris. The effort did little to ease the discomfort. To make matters worse, it took me until now to notice my bare feet on the forest floor, needles sticking up between my toes.

The only sense I could make of my dream was that my subconscious mind was trying to tell me I could end up losing Layla and Lexa if I wasn't careful. Other than that, it made little sense. I was probably over stressed and reaping the consequences.

A high-pitched yelp split the night air. An animal of some kind was lurking somewhere on the perimeter of what I could see. A chorus of whines and shaky wails filled the surrounding area, all somewhere in the distance, but closing in fast. To begin with, I didn't know what kind of creature was out there, but as the animals drew near, I remembered what made cries like that. Coyotes. Several of them.

My feet started moving, rising and falling, digging into the damp earth beneath the pine needles. Before long, I was sprinting.

The creatures closed in, and I glimpsed the first one, a pale wraith slashing between the trees, angling toward me. It wasn't big, but I knew it had sharp teeth. Behind it, another coyote emerged from the gray darkness, barreling after me. On my other side, three more joined the chase, all of them narrowing the gap and channeling me deeper into the heart of the tall pines.

Their whines sounded more like cackles, as if they were laughing at me. I knew this was real. I wasn't dreaming.

The nearest coyote leaped at me, and I swatted it away. It yelped when my fist struck it and sent it hurtling into a tree. I had forgotten how strong I was now.

My pulse pounded in my ears as I fled. It felt like my heart was in the bottom of my throat, lurching upward into my neck and face, ready to explode. I remembered the adrenaline that had flooded my body when I stopped the Trans Am from falling on top of me and Layla. That same surge of energy doubled and tripled inside of me like a well of hot lava trying to melt through me and consume my extremities.

Another coyote drew closer and lunged at me.

This time, the animal bared its teeth and bit down on my forearm, pulling me to the forest floor. I cried out, pain stabbing up my arm as I tumbled, my back and shoulders raking across fallen branches and pinecones. When I came out of the roll, I slung the creature aside and gained my feet. But I had stopped running, blood streaming down my wrist and dripping from my fingertips to the forest floor as the coyotes, four of them, circled, growling, saliva falling from their mouths, hungry for my flesh.

Involuntarily, my arm extended out from my body, my muscles expanding beneath my skin, hair sprouting from every pore. The other arm did the same and my shoulders and chest rippled and flexed, changing, morphing apart from my will.

Terror tore through me as I lost control of my body. It felt like I was falling into a horrifying black hole, as if I were dying.

My point of view grew taller as I stared down at the remaining coyotes.

One launched toward me, and I caught it, ripped it to shreds with my clawed hands—hands that didn't seem to belong to me.

I tossed it aside.

Standing there with my back arched and every tendon spring loaded, I readied myself for the three that were still alive. Inside me, anger boiled into a furious rage, and I had to let it out or I'd explode.

I roared with such ferocity it caused the fur on the back of the coyotes to bristle and stand on end. The sound reverberated from deep within me, giving me a strange feeling I wasn't myself anymore. I wasn't me.

I roared a second time, and the coyotes cowered before me, and eventually, after retreating somewhat, they fled, leaving me alone in the woods once again. I had killed two of them and sent the others running away.

In the pale moonlight, I stood, my arms and legs covered in awful, coarse hair or fur. My skin felt stretched, and my muscles swelled to capacity. A horrible feeling punched me in the gut. I was a monster. When I was a child, my greatest fear was monsters in the dark. The last thing I expected was to become the Monster in the dark.

My thoughts ran rampant, the forest swirling around me. As I stumbled forward, I felt as if I was shrinking, my biceps drawing up, hair sinking back beneath my skin.

I dropped to my knees and threw my hands out to break my fall. I had the distinct sense I was returning to normal. The claws retracted into my fingers and my vision darkened. My stomach twisted inside of me, and my face felt like it had gone from a swelled, extended mass, filled with sharp canines, back to normal cheeks and teeth.

I curled up on myself, lying in the fetal position, legs bent, and knees pulled tight to my chest. My body quivered, racked with spasms.

But soon the shaking stopped, and I came to my senses. Finally able to stand, I gasped when I saw my boxers torn and tattered, barely covering my body.

I lumbered through the woods, lost until I recognized some of the trails behind my house. My second-floor bedroom window stood open where I had scrambled out of it, down the roof and onto the limb of an enormous oak tree. From there, I must have jumped to the ground in my sleep. It must have been muscle memory because I had taken that route out of our house a thousand times as a teenager growing up. I had also climbed that tree just as many times, getting back into my bedroom, often without my mother's knowledge.

Sticking a leg through the window and then an arm, I slipped back inside.

With the light on, I stood in front of my dresser mirror and stared at myself. I couldn't believe what I saw. Whereas before, when my biceps appeared marginally larger than earlier in the day, now they looked noticeably bigger. I didn't look like a bodybuilder; I was still lean, but my body now had definition. Not to mention my stomach had a slight ripple of abs.

I remembered the coyote biting my arm. When I raised it to inspect what should have been a terrible wound, I saw only clear, healthy skin and streaks of dried blood.

I couldn't believe it. I had no words to describe any of what had happened to me.

After washing the blood off in the bathroom and changing into a new pair of boxers, throwing the old pair away, I put on a T-shirt and sat on the edge of my bed. I looked at my arms and legs, peered up at my face in the dresser mirror again. All good. No excess hair or fur, or whatever I had seen before out in the woods behind my house.

What was I? What had I become?

I was sitting there thinking about all of this when I ran my tongue over the bottom edge of my top teeth. On both sides, I felt a pointy tooth sticking down.

I stumbled over to the mirror and raised my upper lip, exposing my teeth.

I jerked back and snarled, revealing...

Fangs. I had fangs.

What was I? I had seen enough movies on Netflix and read plenty of stories on Wattpad to know what I looked like in the mirror. I looked like a... a... a freaking vampire! What was happening to me?

But what had happened in the woods? That thing I turned into... My mind started running in crazy circles as I tried to make sense of it all... but sense of what? Of taking that pill? It was then I regretted not asking more questions about what the coach had given me. What was in that bright red capsule? What else could it be except the pill? Had it done something to me? Was it still doing something to me?

I could only stare at my canines on my upper row of teeth... as they protruded down much farther than normal and ended in sharp fangs. As I observed them over the next thirty seconds, my jaw dropped in disbelief when they retracted up into my gums and once again resembled normal human teeth.

I stood there, peering at myself, waiting for the next strange thing to happen to me, but it never did. Several more minutes passed, and with my mouth appearing normal again, I breathed a sigh of relief.

I felt drained, weakened by all that I had experienced tonight. It was three-thirty in the morning, and I had the funeral to go to tomorrow. I curled up in bed and pulled the covers over my shoulders, feeling ripe for sleep. I would have to figure out what I had become in the morning because I couldn't hold my eyes open any longer. With exhaustion racking my body, I drifted off and fell into a deep and satisfying slumber without a single dream.

When I awoke with the covers pulled over my head the next morning, I hurried over to the window, slammed it shut, lowered the blinds, and pulled the curtains to block out the sun. It was so bright outside! With my eyes needing to adjust to the sudden darkness, I almost tripped over my shoes on the floor. But after a few minutes, thankfully, I seemed good with the dim setting. Most importantly, there were no fangs, no excess hair, nothing out of the ordinary except the new muscle definition. I was just a normal eighteen-year-old boy, living a normal life.

Or so I hoped.

——
Chapter 10: 2,027
Story: 19,879
——
So this was a transformative chapter for my MC, literally. Any thoughts on this reveal? Did I get it right? I hope I did. There's more to come... and everything is not what it seems.