Morning After

The next thing I knew after this failed ‘date’ was finding myself in the woods. Laying on my side with my clothes torn off me. Not even ragged pieces were left on me like they sometimes had been in the past. Not that this mattered. What mattered was where I was exactly in these woods. Along with where Orion had ended up too.

Where was he?

Obviously, I must have killed him. After all I had shifted in the car with him not that far from me. And my shifted mind didn’t care if it were human I were near. All it cared about was feeding its greedy guts. Ripping into whatever or whomever happened to be next to us. Unfortunately for Orion that just happened to be him. Because I was too damn stupid to just tell him ‘No’ instead of going on a date with him. I should have told him ‘No’ I should have. He would be alive if I hadn’t gone on a date with him but no, I just had to go out.

Cuz I was lonely.

But this is the part of being a werewolf even in the modern age. You are lonely. Even when you make friends sooner or later you must leave. Sooner or later your transformation will be seen by someone who doesn’t understand. Or does and wishes to murder you. But the worst thing that could happen is murdering someone you work with. And everyone knows you were the last person they were with beforehand. Even if they don’t believe that you’re a werewolf you’re still in danger of being arrested. Then it’s a matter of time before your secret is leaked to the entire world.

Just like mine was going to be.

I had to find the body and car. Hide both. Destroy the car and bury the body. Sure, I suppose I should have been destroying the body along with the car. But I couldn’t bring myself to ruin Orion more than I already had. He deserved to be buried like any normal human being.

Which he would be once I found my way out of the forest.

Looking in every direction I quickly realized just how lost I was. There was nothing that even looked remotely familiar. So much so that I had realized I wouldn’t be able to get out of the woods all that easily. Or finding Orion’s car with his body possibly still inside of it. My stomach twisted in knots as I started walking in a direction, I felt would be best. Not entirely certain if it was really the right way or not. But knowing that I hadn’t really got much of a choice other than to go that way. What else was I supposed to do?

Sit there and hope that someone can find me?

No, that wouldn’t be the smartest decision. Especially since I was naked covered in mud. Some splashes of blood that I kind of could tell was human. A good portion of it might have been deer blood or whatever animal lived in that state.

It wasn’t long until I found myself out of the woods and on the road. One that Orion had been driving us down not that long ago. Though I wasn’t entirely certain if I was walking down the right way. If I needed to go in one direction or the other. All I knew was that I had to keep walking. Even if I was completely nude and shoeless. It was better than standing there until someone drove past. They might be a cop and I couldn’t think of a lie at the time if it was going to be or not.

Cops are not your friends when you’re a werewolf.

A long while later I found Orion’s car. Or rather what was left of the thing. What I had done to it in my shifted state was in a word, horrendous.

Metal was pulled up in ways that vaguely reminded me of a can of fish. Both passenger-side, driver-side, and windshield were absolutely smashed to smithereens. They were scattered in and around the tiny, destroyed car. My heart dropped into my stomach as I got closer to it. Not caring that I was getting shards of glass in my feet. Or how they were hurting so badly as I looked inside of Orion’s car.

A giant lump filled my throat as I dared to peer inside.

Orion wasn’t there. Like I had anticipated he would possibly have been. Dead and lying inside with his guts on the outside of him. Or at least see a good portion of them gone. Along with most of his body. As my shifted state ate until its stomach was full and then some. But his corpse wasn’t in the driver’s seat, which was riddled with blood and pieces of fabric. Not just from the car seats but from Orion’s clothes. And the exploded pieces of what I had worn that day.

Along with my shoes.

They had been too tattered for me to even try putting them back on. This hadn’t been my concern at that time. My biggest concern was finding what was left of Orion. Poor Orion. What in the Hell had I done to this man? I thought that maybe I finally ate a human being whole. That I might have done to him what the big bad wolf did to little red riding hood and her grandmother.

Swallowed him whole.

That’s what I thought until I spotted blood splatter on the ground. I hadn’t initially noticed it as I approached the destroyed car. There were huge splotches on the ground that led towards the woods. I hadn’t wanted to go into the woods once more, but I had to. To find him and bury him. Just to properly honor him as a human being.

Following that horrible mess I inwardly worried what I was going to come face to face with. What little was left of my friend and date. My stomach was twisting as I started running after the trail as it grew bigger and bigger. It was so big that I knew there was no way that Orion could have survived. No normal human being could ever survive something like this. I felt tears rolling down my cheeks as I bolted towards the poor man. Feeling guiltier than I had ever felt in my entire life. Especially after my vacation a couple of years back. I prayed that his death was quick. That he didn’t have to suffer too much before he finally died.

When I finally got to what was left of him, I vomited right then and there.

It was even worse than I had imagined it was going to be. Far worse than the last time. There was barely anything left of Orion when I finally got up to him. Wiping bile from my lips while walking. What was left of him was something that I would never describe to anyone.

Even if I despise them.

Did my best to not vomit any more as I got down near the body. Not looking at what was left of my friend as I clawed at the dirt the best I could. Dug a hole as I cried over what I had done to him. Disgusted with myself for what I had done. It took me so long, but I managed it. Put him inside and covered him up as I apologized to him repeatedly. Unable to stop myself as I had done so.

Not that long later I found myself slipping on Orion’s pants and shoes. His shirt was too torn up for me to wear. I was disgusted with myself for putting on his clothes. After all I had murdered him. Eaten him. Wearing his clothes felt like a mockery but I couldn’t just go to my ‘home’ naked. Which took a while admittedly and I nearly got caught by other people as I hurried back to my place. Packed what little I had owned in garbage bags and left out the back. Grateful that I didn’t own a pet or anything like that.

As I couldn’t take them with me when I left.

I sprinted down the alleyway and found a car that someone had left there. It wasn’t the greatest, but it was better than absolutely nothing. Wiser than using a bus while looking like this. Like I had been involved in a wreck or something. Which wasn’t entirely far off what had happened to me. I was technically involved in a wreck.

The cause of it.

With this I managed to carefully open the driver-side window with a tool. It was something I took months ago, and I was so glad I got it. Otherwise, I would have had to smash the window open. And that would have drawn a lot more attention than what I wanted. Anyway, once I got it started, I started driving my way out of town. Unsure of where I was going but I knew I had to get away from town quickly.

I was the last person that was with Orion and the police would be looking for me.

It took me a week to get to this motel. Two days before ending up here to ditch the car. I got cleaned up five hours after I stole that damn car in some gross run-down gas station. There were a lot of shards of glass in my feet. I was lucky that I hadn’t healed over them. As it would have been a whole lot more difficult than that. Anyway, I turned on the T.V and there had been a whole report on what happened to Orion. How his body had been found by police. That they were on the lookout for me and that I was a person of interest. I knew I couldn’t stay in this motel for much longer.

So, I hurriedly packed up what I had again and slipped out into the parking lot. Stealing another car as I determined to find a place to hide once more. Somewhere that wouldn’t be easy to access.

I hope.