Get That Dog In Me
The full moon gleamed in the night sky, pale and white against the infinite black darkness. Strange sounds echoed through the silence of the night, raucous shouting, strange bubbly laughter, and the sickening sound of howling dogs mixed together to form a cacophony of the night.
On nights like this, any sane girl would be curled up in bed at home with the doors locked, or accompanied by a big strong man.
Not this girl though. The long blonde ponytail and five foot flat stature did little to hide her cocksure strut as Muffy took a walk back behind the apartments where she lived.
There had been a fight, that much was sure, but it looked like the whole thing was over now. Police tape cordoned off the alleyway and streaks of blood decorated the brick walls.
Muffy casually put the switchblade knife back into the pocket of her oversized sports coat.
"Damn, I missed all the action." She thought to herself, spitting on the ground as she pouted with a fury that could send grown men running.
She shifted her loosely-worn coat further up over her shoulders, and shivered a bit.
"Wish I'd bothered to change into something other than shorts." She thought as her bare legs quivered in the cold. Normally the cold didn't bother her much but tonight felt different. It was a clinging, misty, damp cold that crept up and made you sweat.
"Only a moron would still be hanging out here." She said aloud to herself, and was just about to turn heel when she saw a shape out of the corner of her eye running her way.
There, standing exhausted in the rays of the streetlight, was her moron. His dumb blond hair, usually done up with too much product, was an absolute mess of dark blonde over his head. His favorite japanese shirt was shredded, and his undershirt was ruined. Even his damn pants, tattered in the best of situations, were now tattered over his knees and ripped at the waistband.
And he was bleeding, all over himself.
---
"Jesus fuckin' Christ, Gary. You look like dog shit." She spat out at him. She had always been good with words of comfort. She put the knife away and approached him.
"Yeah? Well I
feel
like shit, Muffy." Gary said, staggering as he held himself up against the lamp post.
Muffy propped herself up under Gary's body. He usually wasn't much bigger than her, and he had a bad habit of getting into fights he couldn't win, so carrying him was like second nature to her at this point.
Getting a bit closer though, she could notice something strange going on. He felt a bit heavier than usual, and what she thought was just bruising around his chest looked like much thicker chest hair than he usually had. And there was an odd smell...
And then she caught a whiff of the other odd smell on him, and elbowed him in the gut.
"You punk! You got trashed by a broad you tried 'ta pick up, didn'cha?" She hissed at him.
"Hey, hey, hey, I'm tellin' you now she was tryin' to pick
me
up, I swear!" He groaned, though he was at least a bit more lively now that he had to defend himself.
"What, did she get a look at your ugly mug when the lights were on and clobber 'ya?" She chided him as they ambled down the sidewalk.
"...Nah, not exactly like that no
."
Gary replied, suddenly just a bit more cagey about it.
"Well, whatever she did serves 'ya right." Muffy replied, as she turned the corner towards a busted up old wooden door.
--
The place she had taken Gary was a dive bar, and you could tell it was a dive bar because instead of an actual sign it simply had the word "Bar" written above it in rough white chalk that was already starting to fade. It was a lousy place, but the owner fell asleep a lot and the bathroom had an open door policy.
When Muffy dragged Gary in over her shoulders, the owner was slouched asleep behind the bar like usual. Even with the shuffling they did to get inside, he didn't seem to rouse awake.
So Muffy helped herself to a pair of clean rags and a bottle of stuff that was more alcohol than liquor, as she pushed the door to the single restroom open and shut it behind her. She propped Ken up on the toilet seat and propped a broom against the door handle to keep the door shut.
---
Muffy twisted the cap off the bottle of alcohol she'd grabbed and took a sniff. She instantly regretted this decision as it hit her senses like a punch to the face.
"This'll sting like a bitch, but it'll keep 'ya from getting' any infections." She said to Gary as she soaked the rag in the fluid.
"Gee Muffy, treatin' me so nice an' tender, makes me think you kinda like-yoow!" Gary howled, as the sting of the alcohol hit his wounds.
"Don't get fresh with me, you dog." Muffy growled at him, rubbing the alcohol in deeper. "If we weren't friends I wouldn't even dream of doin' this for you."
"A'ight A'ight, and please don't call me 'dog' right now." Gary said with a groan. "Last thing I wanna hear is anything about dogs."
"What, did the bitch who served you have buncha mutts?" Muffy asked, working her way towards the less severe scrapes.
"Somethin' like that, yeah." Gary replied, his eyes drifting up towards the small window in the dingy bathroom.
"Shit man, maybe we need to get you a rabies shot then." Muffy commented, as she worked her way around his face. "Look, they even bit part of your ear clean off.
A few moments passed without a wise-ass response from Gary, which was more than enough to cause Muffy to worry.
"Ey, you listin' to what I'm sayin, Gary? I said-"
Muffy's train of thought was interrupted when she looked into the man's eyes. They weren't his normal dark brown eyes that she'd seen a thousand times before. They were a pale sickly yellow she'd only ever seen before in animals, and his pupils were pinpoint and razor thin.
And they were wide open with his gaze transfixed on the pale white moon shining in through the window.
"Hey, hey 'dere Gary, c'mon, don't go all weird on me man." Muffy said, snapping her fingers at his face. "Ey, quit starin' up there and pay attention to me!" She waved her hand in front of him to block his sight line.
With a sudden, unthinking motion her arm was grabbed and she was tossed aside, her little round butt hitting the brown floor tiles as she caught herself with both arms, wincing at the pain as it shot up her spine.
As she looked up at him from the floor, she could see the arm that had thrown her down was rapidly starting to grow thicker, and the wiry hairs that hung off it were rapidly growing and covering it from top to bottom. The hand that had grabbed her flexed palm-out, and then as it rolled back grew longer and began to sprout claws in place of fingernails.
When Gary put both hands up to clutch at his head, she could see that both arms had become hairy and deformed like this, and also saw his round ears turning into long points with hairy tufts growing along the edge, and his messy hair spreading down from the top of his head, along his neck, out in front of his chest, and even down to his legs.
Backing herself up to the wall, she saw his body swell up to nearly double its normal size, ripping apart the last bits of clothing he had on himself. When the coat of bushy brown hair had fully enveloped his body, his face began the most gruesome transformation yet. His nose and his mouth stretched out in front, forming a crude snout in which rows of sharp teeth gleamed in the moonlight, and his skull twisted its shape, only half-resembling a man now, and now half resembling a fearsome wolf.
Seeing him stand up now, Muffy could see that Gary's new form stretched an impressive seven feet tall, from the top of his shaggy head to the bottom of his canine legs, and made him a highly intimidating sight as he stood in front of her silhouetted against the moonlight.
"Holy shit, Gary." Muffy breathed out. She reached for the knife she kept in her pocket, but found nothing but empty air. Out the corner of her eye, she could see the glint of it beneath the sink where it had slid out moments earlier.
As soon as her focus was back on the monstrous figure before her, it lunged forward in a blur of speed. Landing on all fours, its lumbering body stretched out towards her with a mouth full of teeth and tongue. All she could do was throw up her hands and close her eyes.
She felt something...wet, slide over her hands in a long and sloppy stroke.
Tentatively, she opened one eye to look. The huge wolflike creature before her, with its head lowered to eye level with her, was panting and slobbering like a family dog.
It stretched forward again, and she winced only for a moment as that long sloppy tongue rolled over her face instead.
"Ick! Pttpht! Stop it 'ya dumb dog!" Muffy yelled and pushed her foot up against his snout, which managed to get him to back up a foot. Now that he was a bit further away, Muffy could still see the shape of a big, fearsome predator all around his body, but the dopey shaggy shape of Gary was still in there too. Somehow, his innate stupidity and his werewolf transformation had created the perfect blend to result in a dumb family mutt.
A big mutt, to be sure. Huge, in fact. With a mouth full of teeth and arms and legs decked with massive claws.
But also a mutt with a round wet nose and a curly fluffy tail that was wagging back and forth happily.
"Jesus fuckin' Christ you're a damn werewolf, Gary." Muffy said as she looked into his yellow doglike eyes. In response, Gary made the sort of noise a dog might make when scolded by its owner.
