Chapter Text
Mr Daugherty stepped to his table with his strict scowl.
“Give me your headphones, Kyle.”
Shit. Groaning, Kyle pulled said headphones from his head and handed them to his teacher. The middle-aged man nodded self-righteously after he had put the confiscated headphones into his drawer.
“You are here to think about your behavior, not to mess around. Why don’t you do something constructive instead?”
Mind you, Kyle was an honors student that did his homework in advance, Mr Daugherty knew that. Everyone in school knew of teen prodigy Kyle Broflovski. Everyone knew him – and hated him. Not that he cared.
Someone behind him tapped his shoulder and Kyle turned around in annoyance.
“What?” His tone was hostile even though the black-haired boy behind him smiled at him.
“Could you please lend me a pencil?”, ravenhead asked.
Kyle glanced down to the letterman jacket the other boy wore. Oh, he was one of those. A jock. Probably part of the football team. What was his name again? Dan or Stan, he didn't remember anymore. With a roll of his eyes, Kyle grabbed one of his pencils and gave it to the other teenage boy.
The jock’s smile became wider. “Thanks, dude!”
“Urgh, just leave me alone”, Kyle hissed and turned around again to space off.
Apart from them and Mr Daugherty, only Bebe Stevens and Kevin Stoley were in the room. Kyle wasn’t that surprised about Bebe getting detention, but he wondered what Stoley or the other boy had done to anger his teacher. As for him…let’s say, teachers didn’t like it if their narrow world views got challenged by nerdy snarky smartasses like Kyle Broflovski. If he had been as handsome and charming as Kenny McCormick, or as influential and charismatic as Tolkien Black, his punishment wouldn’t have been that harsh; of that, he was sure.
At the moment, Bebe was sleeping on her desk while Kevin stared out of the window, bored out of his mind. Kyle grabbed his notebook and started drawing sketches that looked horrible. What could he say, arts had never been his forte. Finally, the teacher told them they were allowed to leave. Kyle sighed a breath of relief. About freaking time. He put his reading glasses into his case and stuffed all his books into his bag. Then, he beat a hasty retreat. When he was almost out of the building, he heard it.
“Broflovski!”
Crap. He had hoped he would be spared today.
Slowly, Kyle turned around. Sean Fogelman, one of the seniors, was standing behind him with his arms crossed and a malicious smirk on his pale face. “Where’s my homework?”
Fuck his life, seriously.
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“Pass me the blunt, dude.”
The fatass didn’t oblige, so Kenny had to snatch it out of Cartman’s hands forcefully.
“Ey, that’s mine”, Cartman whined, but the blonde just gave him the finger and took a long drag.
The duo was currently chilling in Cartman’s basement to get stoned. Kenny wondered whether Ms Cartman knew and chose to ignore them, or whether she was really that stupid. Hopefully, it was the former. The weed gave him the munchies, so the blonde reached into the bag of chips and stuffed a handful of BBQ flavored chips into his mouth.
“Today is going to be a full moon, you know”, Kenny commented around a mouthful of chips.
Cartman shrugged. “So?” He had gotten a better grip on himself during a full moon ages ago.
“Aren’t you worried that something’s going to happen tonight?”
“Nah, why should I?”
Kenny scrutinized the heavier boy carefully and sharpened his senses. His pulse sounded normal, he didn't smell nervous sweat on the fatass either. Cartman must be telling the truth. With a sigh, Kenny took another drag from the blunt and handed it back to the other boy. “I dunno, man. Something is telling me that tonight won’t be like any full moon. But what do I know.”
“The weed is getting to your head, McCormick”, Cartman just answered with a shake of his head.
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“Dude, wait up!”
Kyle was speedwalking home when he heard that annoying voice calling out to him. He rolled his eyes and turned around to see the jock from before. For fuck's sake. The redhead fastened his pace, but ravenhead kept up with him. Maybe, he shouldn’t have taken that shortcut through the forest now that it was getting darker and darker. Forests at night always gave him the creeps.
Even though Kyle didn’t say a single word, the other boy kept babbling happily.
“You’re Kyle, right? I’m Stan, we went to preschool together.”
So his name was Stan. Pfft, as if he would remember someone from preschool.
“Okay...?”, Kyle answered in disinterest.
Much to his dismay, Stan didn’t give up that fast."You surely wonder why someone like me got detention, right?"
Nah, not really. Just do us all a favor and shut your goddamn mouth. Kyle took a deep breath to calm his nerves.
"I picked a fight with Craig Tucker. The weirdo got jealous just because I complimented Tweek's new haircut. How low must his self-esteem be if he feels threatened by someone like me? Seriously, Tweek and Craig are dating for almost seven years now, their relationship must be stable and immune to charismatic guys like me. I mean, I do indeed swing both ways, but Tweek's kinda not my type..."
Would that dude ever shut up? Kyle felt like going up the wall. That's exactly why he preferred to be alone and with his headphones on all the time. When Stan suddenly nudged him, he looked up and frowned at him, bugged out. What was it now?
“Whenever we cross ways in the hallways, you’re alone. Why’s that?”
Because people were so annoying these days - Stan was no exception. Kyle used to be convinced that there was a kindred spirit for everyone in the world. But he must be wrong. Whenever he tried to befriend people, they ended up fucking with or ghosting him. One day, he decided he was done. He was sick and tired of being played like a fucking violin, so he decided to drop all his so-called friends. After he had cut the toxic people out of his life, he had never felt better.
“That’s none of your fucking business”, Kyle decided to answer hostilely.
And was surprised when Stan grabbed his wrist and stopped walking. “Dude, what’s your problem?”
“You are my problem.” Kyle ripped his wrist away. “Take a fucking hint, okay? I don’t want to talk to you. You jocks are all the same: Superficial and annoying the shit out of me.”
With that, he turned on his heel and started speedwalking away from him.
“You know what? Fuck you, Kyle!”, Stan shouted behind him. “I get now why you have no friends: You have a stick up your fine ass!”
If he said so. Kyle gave him the finger without turning around.
And that’s when they heard it. A howl.
“Shit, what was that?” Stan was suddenly by his side again, his tone was anxious.
Kyle did his best to stay calm even though he was a little worried himself. “Probably just a dog.”
Another howl, but this time, it was a lot louder. Nope, no dog. The two boys exchanged worried glances before they both broke into a run. Behind them, they heard swift steps and how something growled menacingly. Kyle didn’t need to turn around to know that some kind of wild animal must be chasing them. It was only a matter of time until it outran them.
To make matters worse, Stan suddenly tripped over a tree trunk and fell. “Fuck!”, he exclaimed panickily while he jumped to his feet, his jeans had torn up and his knees were bleeding.
Kyle halted to check whether the other boy was okay. Big mistake because that gave the animal enough time to catch up with them. They were now face to face with a large beast with glowing yellow eyes and sharp fangs.
“Holy shit”, Kyle breathed.
Stan just gulped.
The beast lunged at them and the boys threw themselves to the side to dodge the attack. But it was no use: It had already grazed them with its claws. Kyle held his bleeding upper arm, Stan’s thigh had a nasty deep scratch either. As the boys helplessly lay on the dirty ground, the beast was looming over them, ready to end their lives according to the murderous glint in its eyes.
“Hey, man”, Stan tried to tame the wolf-like monster. “We mean no harm. Please don’t kill us, okay?”
“That monster has no conscience nor feelings, you fucking idiot. It will kill us without batting an eyelid”, Kyle hissed at him angrily.
The monster roared at them so loudly they could feel its foul breath against their faces. Kyle thought that this creature needed to try breath mints.
“Yeah, no feelings, I see”, Stan hissed back sarcastically. “Don’t anger it unnecessarily.”
“Pardon me I’m inexperienced in handling supernatural monsters”, he shot back.
Kyle was convinced his last hour had come when the beast was about to lunge at them once again. However, a loud painful howl let the monster stop in its tracks. Someone had shot at the beast.
“Boys, run!”, a male voice called out behind the giant wolf.
Stan’s eyes widened. He knew that voice. “Uncle Jimbo?”, he gasped after he and Kyle had gotten up again.
His uncle was holding a rifle gun in his hands that was pointed at the beast. “I’m going to keep that thing away from you, but you two run and get medical help!”, he urged the two teenage boys while he looked at their bleeding wounds in concern.
“But what about you?”
“I’ll be fine, boys. But you won’t if you bleed to death. Go to hospital, I will meet you there. Now.”
The boys did as the older man said and turned around to leave the forest.
When they were standing in front of Kyle’s house, the redhead shook his head. “I don’t think I need to go to hospital.” He looked down his upper arm that had long stopped bleeding. Instead, the scratches were slightly glowing in a golden hue. Creepy.
Stan cocked his eyebrow. “You sure, man? Shouldn’t we at least drop by for rabies shots?”
The prospect of catching rabies didn’t sound that appealing, and Kyle groaned in defeat. “Fine. Hopefully, they won’t tell my parents. Ma would flip.”
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The hours in hospital were a blur to Stan. He didn’t remember the shots or how the nurses bandaged the scratches. He didn’t even remember how Jimbo drove him and Kyle home after the doctors said they were free to go because they weren’t hurt seriously.
All he remembered was that he had suddenly been so tired. Getting up the next day was so hard. Throughout the day, he was irritable and short-fused, so his friends left him alone. He noticed how the school flirt Kenny McCormick and the school asshole Eric Cartman were staring at him from across the room during lunch. Kyle was sitting at a table by himself and watching TikToks on his phone, like he always did. The glances the redhead threw Stan all throughout lunch didn't go unnoticed by the football player, though. With a sigh, Stan got up, took his foodtray and left the cafeteria. He had no idea why, but he felt restless. The scratches on his thigh had mysteriously healed overnight. It scared him to no end. Something mysterious was happening to him, he could literally feel it.
Since all the students were still in the cafeteria, the hallways were deserted. Maybe he could use the rest of the break and smoke some cigs with the goth kids outside to calm his nerves. Yes, he wasn't that much of a smoker because he was a competitive athlete and needed to be in peak form during their season, but every now and then, he allowed himself to smoke and drink. Before he could leave the building, however, two certain boys suddenly blocked his way.
“Hello, Stanley”, Kenny spoke up. “We need to talk.”
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Stan cocked his eyebrows. “Talk about what?” That was a good question. He never had interacted with either of the boys ever since he started highschool. He and Kenny didn't really move in the same social circles nor had common friends - while Cartman was just a dick almost everybody, including him, avoided.
Cartman sighed as if he was already annoyed. “About what happened last night, idiot.”
“Wait-how the hell do you know?” As far as he knew, he had told nobody about it, apart from his parents.
When someone else joined them, Cartman groaned. “Shit. Did the stupid Jew get bitten too?”
“Fuck you, fatass”, Kyle shot back without missing a beat. “Besides, we got scratched. There's a difference, you know, but I'm pretty sure you are too stupid to understand that.”
“Guys, guys, guys”, Kenny tried to deescalate the situation when he heard the throbbing vein on Kyle's temple and a barely audible inhuman growl escape Cartman's lips. “That doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is how we go about that.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about. Would you please enlighten me?” Stan pinched the bridge of his nose. He really needed a cigarette or a drink now, depended on what he would find first.
“Not here where we could be overheard easily.” Kenny looked to the back to check that no one else was around. “Meet us at five at Bennigan’s. We will explain everything, I promise.”
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“Oh well, where shall we begin?” Kenny played with the straw of his chocolate milkshake while the four of them were sitting in a booth at South Park’s only Bennigan’s four and a half hours later.
Kyle would rather not be here with three boys he barely knew. He had no idea why he even came when he was honest with himself. Hell, he didn’t even like those guys, especially the antisemitic fatass. But something had drawn him to them, something he couldn’t quite explain. It almost felt like invisible strings had pulled him all the way to Bennigan's.
While Kenny seemed to search for the right words to break the news to them gently, Cartman wasn’t as considerate.
“You are werewolves now”, the brunet blurted out. “Just like us.”
Kenny elbowed him. “What the fuck, man? That’s not how we were supposed to tell them.”
While Stan stayed silent, Kyle started glaring at the two teens across from him. “Yeah, sure. Do you think we’re so stupid to believe you? Tell them, Stan.”
But Stan only stared at Kenny. “Prove it.” His voice was barely above a whisper.
“Shit, are you stupid or something? They are clearly fucking with us. They are-” Before he could end his sentence, Kenny’s eyes started turning yellow. Holy fuck, so did Cartman’s. They both had the exact same yellow eyes he had seen on the beast last night. Kyle almost choked on his apple caramel waffle.
“…uh, Kyle?”, Stan said tentatively.
“What?!” It took Kyle a lot of willpower to turn away from the vibrant yellow eyes of the other boys and look over to the black-haired teen next to him.
Whose eyes were yellow too.
Good lord.
“Stan…your eyes…”, he croaked. “They’re-they’re glowing yellow...”
He was almost afraid of Stan’s answer. “So are yours.”
That’s it. His life was officially over.