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By Emmanuel Williams

July 26, 2026

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From Chapter Two:

“Roy drew himself a bath as the darkness of the heavens breached the marble balcony, the floor, the carpet, and swept over the couch, spreading into the bathroom where he sat soaking. Sadness sagging his eyelids and creasing up his forehead.

Memories kept flooding his mind from the changes. He walked through the village of the hollow, prowling low as to avoid fathers, brothers, and husbands, even stronger women who would kill him out of fear, council law, or pure panic if they glimpsed him in his wolven form. 

He still had the skull of a human under the curse, though it had made him frail over the years, and his ears protruded from the black fur that covered him head to toe. His vision enhanced. Another intrusive symptom. As if he could ever heal from this… this…

Then he saw a soul detached from any group. He galloped immediately and sank his teeth deep into flesh as he found it. It awoke and put up a fight, but if you tear its neck apart with ferocious claws, it doesn’t move anymore.

Roy gasped as he remembered the bathtub, the water, the steam, the dissolution of soapy bubbles, and made himself rise.

Drying off he saw a strangled kitten who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. How brittle her bones were sliding down his throat. How the claws had scratched as well all the way into his belly. This was how the change started.

He would see all of the collateral damage of his moon curse. Homes destroyed by claw and tooth alone. Tirades through the trees who stood no chance. And the children…

Roy dressed lightly, simple pants, a simpler shirt. Not bothering with slippers or socks. Then he laid in bed, and waited. By now the light was completely gone, and the moon’s cascade could be seen creeping his way. By now his beard had grown by inches in minutes.

What a shame. The real Roy had been so friendly and kind. Decidedly unimportant to the community, why be vital if all you’re going to do is kill anyone or anything that got too close? Perhaps Lady Madison dodged a bullet never approving his advances. It now occurred to him that on nights like these, she would be in danger. Grave danger. And how could he do that to such an angel?

Come to think of it, he may never have a meaningful relationship that led to deep love, children, happiness…

Hair on his body lengthened four times its nature, he curled himself into a ball, but his back snapped backward, and the beast had arrived.

I’m still here. For now. No one else need be harmed by this cruel creature. If he is not my own self, and he is destruction manifest. Then he must die. It is the only…“

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