Becoming the Wolf, pt. 1

Every year in November is an event called NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. While I have not had a lot of success with this (I only completed 1 out of 4 years), I still got some interesting stuff, I think. "Becoming the Wolf" was my attempt this year. It's fairly long, and I'll have to add to it as I haven't finished it yet, so I'm going to post segments of it at a time. Let me know how you like it, and maybe I'll do this again with another story.


From my position, all I see is a parade of fluorescent lights on the ceiling, but I still know when to brace for the bump the gurney always hits on the way to the operating room.

"Sorry, Mr. Wilkes," Rich says, the same pained expression as every time.

I say nothing, but give a reassuring twitch of my mouth.

When we pull into the OR, I look around for a second. "Oh, I see we got the big room today."

"Only the best for you, Jack," the surgeon says, walking up to the gurney. Her voice is muffled slightly by the mask on her face, but over the top of it her eyes portray a practiced look of concern. "How are you feeling, anyway?"

"Oh, the same."

"Same shit, different day, huh?"

I smile up at her, never having heard her curse before, and wonder just how few patients have had the privilege. "Yes, Ma'am."

The skin crinkles slightly beside her eyes. "Well maybe this time we can figure everything out and fix you up."

"Tired of seeing me already, doc? And I was just getting used to it here."

A polite round of laughs.

The crinkles deepen for a moment, then she nods to Rich. A few seconds later, I smell and taste something like rubbing alcohol and then the world fades to black.



Cold. Everything is cold. Everything but my face, which is alternately warm, wet, then cold over and over until I open my eyes. And shriek. Some kind of dog was licking me, but my reaction caused it to jump. I think for a moment that I was just being skittish, and so I laugh at myself, but then I take a second look at it.

This beast is the size of a bear.

For a moment, I am terrified, but soon I notice its eyes. It is that same look of concern the doctor gave me. How long ago was that?

The look was quickly replaced by another, but this one more difficult to read. It doesn't matter anyway as he turns away and pads into the fog.