~~~ The Wolf

I remember the first time I died. Each and every time was excruciating, but none of them were like the first. You see, books, movies, and television all depict it as a transformation. It’s not. Things do not transform from one thing into another. You don’t grow more hair and longer nails and fangs. No. You have a freaking animal growing inside of you that bites and claws its way out. If I were to describe it as anything I would say that it is an evacuation, or like giving birth to a Xenomorph.

The wolf and its host are completely separate. It isn’t until the wolf turns around and eats the brain of the host that they become one. And to be honest, there are a couple times that my wolf left my corpse for days before coming back to make the bind, lord only knows what he did during that time… I… I don’t want to know what he did during that time.

Let’s see, what other misconceptions are out there? Oh, the moon has nothing to do with when you Vacate (that’s what we call it, makes sense right?). Every month, like clockwork, you Vacate on the anniversary of your birth. Down to the minute. For me, being born November 16th at 11:11am means that I have had to rush out of quite a few lunch dates. And the shift lasts until the wolf finishes its meal. You. Usually, this takes a couple of days. Now, if you think having a full grown wolf explode out of you is painful imagine how bad it is in reverse. Hmm, what else?

Anna, thank you for letting me include this picture in this post

You are born with this. Just like everything else, it can skip a generation or two, but it is genetic. There have been cases made that it can be transferred via sex, like an STD but I assure you that the only way to “become” a werewolf is to already have the gene hidden somewhere in your DNA. The first time that you Vacate can happen at any age. I’ve heard of people coming out of the womb as a wolf, and I’ve heard of people dying of old age and Vacating on their death bed. Wow, I got really off track there, what were we talking about?

Oh, yea, my “transformation”. So the first time that I died was in Iraq. This was back before anyone really knew about werewolves. The movies depict it as some long drawn out process, it’s not. Start to finish, the beast outgrows its cage (your body) and pushes itself out (forcefully) in a matter of seconds. I spent my 21st birthday on a long convoy on MSR Mobile. Luckily, we were on a long halt when it happened. It happened so fast that my brain was unable to register any of the pain before it shut down. I just remember hair. So much hair exploding out of my chest like some kind of xenomorph, and my ribs giving way to the beast as my torso gave birth to it. The next thing I knew, I was the beast. Cracking and licking the last bit of marrow out of my human carcass’s rib.

So intoxicating. I wish I could describe the feeling to you, I really do. The flood of emotions is overwhelming to say the least. So much so that on more than one occasion I’ve actually lost control of my bodily functions while eating. In my wolf state my teeth are like

Thanks Dug for letting me use this amazing picture!