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Timothy felt the pain in his gut before he felt the fire in his muscles. Every part of him was yelling to get out of there, and he couldn’t stifle the half sob as he doubled over. Nisha was at him in seconds, her hands on him in an attempt to comfort him. He pulled away, the growls already rumbling through his chest. Every touch from her set his senses afire, he can already smell every part of her. He could hear her heartbeat, feel her close to him. He knew they had seconds, maybe minutes if they were lucky. If he was strong enough.
“Nisha, g-get out of here!” She disobeyed him, staying closer to him to support and comfort him. He knew what this must look like, something was wrong. She needed to help him, he couldn’t fault her for that. He would do the same. This time, he was the one at fault, he never told her the truth and now he’s paying the price. Worse, she might pay with her life or end up like him.
“Tim, I’m not leaving you! What’s wrong? What’s going on?” Her voice was stern, but he heard the worry and fear underneath.
“You need to go- Agh!” He felt the wave of pain as he straightened so fast his back bent over backwards, the sounds of bones cracking as he stifled a roar of agony.
He didn’t feel her step away from him, but as he looked at her he saw her hand raise to cover her mouth. The look of confused fear on her face made his stomach churn, this was what he was scared of all along. He knew she’d love him, that she’d seen weirder things in her life… But he was terrified she wouldn’t be able to forgive the betrayal of his lying. Especially after what happened when she was a child, whether she knew it was a were or not. Still, looking at her, he could feel the sadness he was sure she saw on his face, “I’m so sorry, Nisha… I-I should have- FUCK!”
He couldn’t hold it back any longer, he could feel the moonlight pulling at every fibre of his being. He knew she must see the eyes glowing, the pull of his skin as his body shifted. She must see how disfigured he was. Still, she stood there. She seemed half rooted in fear, he could smell that on her, but also half rooted in the need to know what was happening. He loved her curious mind, and how she stood by his side no matter what, but he didn’t want that to be the death of her. He couldn’t bear it if he hurt her, or if he… turned her.
So, with one last look at her, and one last quiet, “I love you…” He turned to run, the shift ripping through his body all at once as he jumped into the brush. He still had a sliver of himself left, enough to get him as far from her as possible. So he hoped. Unfortunately, there was still enough of him left to think about what would happen if she came after him. He did his best to shake that from his mind, and he ran for both their lives.
Nisha watched in horror as Timothy contorted before her. His bones seemingly breaking as he screamed- as he howled in pain. Her heart stopped, and her stomach twisted as she watched, unable to do anything. His words, yelling at her to leave, echoed in her head. She couldn’t move, though. She couldn’t even stop herself from crying as she watched him apologize to her. Whatever was happening to him, whatever he was, she couldn’t bear the thought he couldn’t tell her. That he didn’t tell her. She thought he could tell her anything.
Now wasn’t the time for pondering motives, however, and she knew she had to act. Her mind went back to when she was a child, helpless and alone. The man she thought she could stand side by side with now stood before her, changing as she watched. His eyes glowed, a golden brown threatening to overtake his natural blue. She saw his bones shifting under his skin, the start of his hair spreading across his neck. His voice rumbled as he spoke, and she could hear the slightest of rasps in his words as if he struggled to form them. She had no idea what was happening, but deep down she remembered that day long ago.
A small gasp, a protest, escaped as he made the sudden movement to dart off. She just barely caught a glimpse of what he became as he ran. Her hand drifted up to her neck as she watched the brush move as he ran through it, the sounds of him crashing through grew distant enough. It felt like hours she stood there, just barely touching the scars under her choker as she processed what had happened. He- her lover, her best friend… He had shifted into a wolf, right before her eyes, and ran off. The terror of it all was paralyzing, but she couldn’t help but hear his voice in her head: I'm so sorry, Nisha
She muttered out a soft, “Timothy?”
It was in vain.
He couldn’t hear her. He was long gone. She wasn’t entirely sure he was still him. She’d read about werewolves, and she’d seen her fair share of weird, but they were fiction. The world of werewolves and vampires and shit was fantasy. This couldn’t… It couldn’t be happening. But it was. She’d been through enough to recognize a dissociative state, and she knew she had to get out of there before it truly set in. Her survival instinct, and her experience, helped her in this, but she looked around at the clearing and realized she’d forgotten which way they’d come. She knew which way he’d run off, and she had to have enough faith that he was running away from where she needed to go. He might be something else entirely now, but she knew in his heart of hearts that he was still her Timothy. She knew he could trust where he went, and trust her instincts. Their relationship worked well that way, they were cohesive. Well, they were.
But she had to trust, all her doubts had to be shoved aside. She was good at that. So, she turned and ran too, in the direction she thought she needed to head. She was good at directions, usually, but with the mix-up and with the shit she just saw? Well, she got turned around. Quickly. It wasn’t long before she realizes she should have been out of the woods by then. She should have been back at the bikes, but she felt like she was deeper in the trees than before.
That’s when she felt something else. Something was watching her. She froze in her step, her eyes darting to the peripherals to see if she could gleam anything in the dark. In her good ear, she heard the soft brush of the bushes making way for something… something big. Her seeing eye couldn’t spot anything moving, not even the glint of eyes. Her mind raced with the possibilities of what it was, her rational mind trying to explain it away as maybe a deer or some other nocturnal animal. After what she’d seen, though, no rational option was plausible.
“T-Timothy?” She heard her own voice shaking, the fear leaking through in a way she hadn’t felt for years. She felt small.
Especially as the beast before her stepped out of the bushes, growling and baring his teeth as he did. She stood there, terrified and unable to stop her mind from bringing her back all those years. The only thing keeping her from a full blown episode was his eyes. The brown had taken over, the moonlight dancing across and making them shine out to her. But she saw the blue in them, around the irises. She knew those eyes, no matter how strange they were to her.
“Timothy,” Her voice was steadier now, this was more familial footing. She knew he was still in there, the beast couldn’t have consumed him completely. “It’s me… It’s your Nisha. C’mon, come back to me…”
Almost playfully, the wolf before her tilted its head to study the situation. She waited as it sniffed out the situation. She hated this. It had the upper hand, and she never did well in this position with anyone. Facing off after an animal like this? Like the one that bit her? She felt like she could melt away and drift off into nothingness.
“Please, Handsome. I need you to come back to me,” her heart fluttered as she finished speaking, watching as he stood there and relaxed a bit. The wolf laxed his chops, shaking its hide to settle down. He took a few padded steps closer to Nisha and she felt her heartbeat hasten, but she didn’t step back.
The beast came close to her, she could feel his hot breath as he investigated her scent. He seemed to almost shift, his demeanor changing to that of a curious young pup with a new friend. She felt like he was shy, but he was clearly intrigued by her. In a different situation, she would have laughed. It felt almost as if she was meeting Timothy twice, which helped her relax. The situation seemed a lot less dire, she could see Tim in the wolf’s coat and in his manners. The way the red jumped out of the brown fur, the moonlight shimmering across it. The way he sauntered around to her side.
The moment was short lived, as a branch broke in the woods behind her. She spun instinctively as she heard it, and the wolf snapped back as well. She looked back at the beast in terror, seeing the primal wildness return to his eyes as the snarl came back too. Her scream was cut short as the beast tore past her, growling as it sent her flying back against a tree. She yelped as the breath was knocked from her, and the impact hid the pain from her arm as she slide to the ground. She felt the black creeping in on her vision, her body going numb as she drifted into unconsciousness. The sting on her arm tugged at her attention, and she looked down as she closed her eyes. Her skin had been shredded, the clear pull of claws had sliced through almost clear to the bone.
“Fuck,” she whispered, finally giving in to sleep.