The Wherewolf of London, Ohio

Toby was a mistake. No… not like that. His parents were dutiful. High school sweethearts, Aaron and Janice Stapleton were the quintessential, good-natured busybodies. Everything was planned out; from the proximity of their colleges to the careers of their dreams, from the home of their choice on the street of their choice, they accounted for every minute and every dollar. Had it been the 1950s, they would have been on the billboard of soon-to-come white picket fence community. By the time Janice had become pregnant with Toby, the couple had been happily married for three years, had a room already set aside for a nursery, and had a college fund set up at the local bank. Toby’s childhood was, for all intents and purposes, perfect. Except, of course, for the bullying.

Thankfully, in the close-knit community of London, Ohio, it was mostly minor harassment and poking fun. The town was certainly not a violent place, and though Toby, and the niche he kept close to, were constantly made fun of, there were plenty of times when those feelings were dumped by the wayside. School spirit was huge at London High, and the pep rallies for basketball, football, and baseball were always times when the student body expanded their circles of friends and came together in joy and reverence to the rivalries. Wedgies, hallway tripping, and spitballing all took a backseat to the high fives and chest bumps of school sports.

Toby, for his part, never took to any sport. Instead, he was an academic clubber; physics, math, history, Toby loved it all and couldn’t get enough. That’s where he met Emily, a fellow academic and the only girl that could take his breath away. He would often get harassed when the pair walked down the hallway hand-in-hand, but, deep down, he could see the approval in the eyes of even his most boisterous detractors. They were genuinely happy for him. All but one, that is. It was thanks to Jimmy that Toby was introduced, mistakenly, to the dark underbelly of London, Ohio.

On Halloween night of his junior year, Toby and Emily were invited to a party. It came as a surprise to the both of them, but they gladly accepted the invitation. The party was at Jimmy’s place, however, and Toby’s hackles were on edge the entire night. Certainly not a ‘rager’, Toby did, without Emily’s consent, choose to partake of the more adult beverages that Jimmy offered. It was then that things went… awry.

He found himself separated from Emily and trapped in a dark corner of the dilapidated barn on Jimmy’s property. Jimmy’s parents were out of town, and their boy decided to have a little fun. There were three of them that Toby could see, but Jimmy’s face was the only one visible. And Jimmy’s eyes looked very strange.

Toby was supposed to be a meal, for Jimmy and his pals were werewolves. He watched them transform, which was a rather brutal and disgusting process, and then approach him, their mouths salivating. Jimmy-wolf got the first bite, but never got the first chunk. As the scream left Toby’s mouth, the barn began to crumble. The startled werewolves scampered out of there like three bolts of furry lightning, and Toby was able to hide underneath an old hay cart as the building fell upon him. He was only trapped in the wreckage of the barn for a couple of hours, but he would now be trapped in his own wreckage of personal humanity for the rest of his life.

Being a werewolf was not an easy task for Toby, which is why he thanked his lucky stars every day for Emily. Her understanding of the situation went well beyond normal human standards. Toby’s first change, on the next full moon, was a disaster. It was more of a disaster because it was Thanksgiving. Emily hadn’t known about it yet, but Toby could tell that she suspected something. As soon as dinner was over, Toby still wondering how his girlfriend convinced her parents to have a family dinner at her boyfriend’s place, she promptly excused the both of them and took Toby on a walk by Madison Lake.

“Do you have any idea what’s about to happen to you?” Emily asked, her bluntness causing Toby to trip over himself.

“Wha… What do you mean?”

“C’mon, Toby… I can see that there’s something different about you. It’s been this way ever since Jimmy’s party. You’re changing. Do you know what’s going on with you?” Again, Emily’s direct line of questioning threw him off.

Toby had tried his best to keep the details of his meeting with Jimmy a secret, and somehow he had managed. (He was never good at keeping secrets.) His behavior, though, obviously gave something away. Way to be a cool customer, ya dork! Berating himself came naturally…

“Well, yeah… I’m…” and he chewed on his lower lip. Just tell her! “I’m a were-” It was then, as darkness had completely fallen around them, that the full moon rose above the horizon.

Toby stopped in his tracks and gripped at his stomach.

“Toby! Are you alright?!” yelled Emily.

Like I said, the transformation is brutal and gruesome. And as Emily screamed, she also hid her eyes behind her hands. It was like watching a demon-possessed character in a movie get contorted in various and random ways, but with fur. Growl-barks began as the human part of Toby took a backseat to the wolf. In a few agonizingly long moments, the transformation was complete and there was silence. Emily uncovered her eyes and looked at her boyfriend, now a lanky, gray wolf as tall as her chest. The wolf’s eyes were black-rimmed yellow, and they were staring at her sheepishly, almost afraid.

“Oh my God-” Emily began, but was interrupted by a howl.

Well… almost a howl. As soon as the howl began, it ended, and Toby-wolf arched his back and began gagging and dry heaving. Soon, his Thanksgiving dinner was spilled all over the ground. The wolf looked at Emily, then turned and began walking away. Emily could swear that she could feel embarrassment coming from him.

“Toby… wait,” she said sweetly. Then she smiled at him.

Toby-wolf took off towards her like a Great Dane, and rammed into her full on, knocking both of them to the ground. Despite Emily’s cries of pain, he nuzzled her with a love he had never known.

* * *

Fast forward one year… Toby had become a bit of a local celebrity. The town was able to keep his uniqueness pretty well hidden, but he had become like a party favor. His clumsy antics when he was Toby-wolf had morphed into instant legend. Toby and Emily, and their families, took it all in stride. Toby’s parents, however, secretly saw their son’s ‘affliction’ as a blemish on their parenting record, and the celebrity it brought was just a constant reminder of it. They actually withdrew themselves from Toby’s life by quite a distance, and it hurt him deeply. Perhaps, if he had been more like Scott Howard from Teen Wolf, then it would’ve been easier for them to stomach.

There was one thing that frightened both Toby and Emily, and it was something they never told to anybody else. According to the police report, Jimmy and his two buddies had gone missing. Toby knew better. Nobody had seen the three of them since the Halloween party the year before, but Toby had felt their presence consistently on the outskirts of town. London was in danger.

Toby surmised that his celebrity kept him out of werewolf circles. So, he was able to play of his unique nature as a ‘one off’ accident to convince the locals that everything was fine. Things were far from fine. He had tried to prepare himself for the eventual confrontation, but as completely unathletic as Toby was for a human, as a wolf he was just plain clumsy. How could he hope to protect his people from the wrath of real werewolves. Hell, even his local nickname was ‘the Wherewolf of London’. He took it all in stride, of course. If his way of fitting in was to be completely outside the mold, then so be it. But how was he going to stop Jimmy?

The best plan that he and Emily could devise meant drawing Jimmy to the Tractor Supply on Route 42, on the north side of town. Fighting them as a wolf wouldn’t be enough, nor would fighting them as a human. But as both? Maybe Toby could make it work. He had to make it work!

As the full moon rose, Toby stood out on Spring Valley Road awaiting his transformation. He could feel Jimmy out there. The butterflies in his stomach heightened his fear, but he skipped dinner to prevent the butterflies from causing anything worse. Suddenly, the change happened, but it was by choice, not compulsion. Toby had been proud of himself when he learned how to control it. It would be pivotal tonight. He howl-gagged at the Moon (he was never able to get control of that, which had become a hit at any venue where Toby-wolf was requested) and waited.

It wasn’t long until he could feel Jimmy-wolf and his gang rapidly approaching his position. Toby-wolf turned and took off across the field and towards the Tractor Supply. His Great Dane gait didn’t add anything to his speed or maneuverability, but he was still able to cover large chunks of real estate while banging through the few tree lines and creeks between himself and the store. Jimmy-wolf was hot on his heels.

The store was all set up in accordance with Toby’s plan. The football team had helped with the setup, but only on the condition that they could make a video of him trashing the place. They all thought it was a prank that he had planned to pull on over on Old Man Haskins, the franchise owner. Haskins was not a big fan of Toby’s celebrity status and saw the boy as nothing more than an abomination of God. But the store was set up to take advantage of Toby-wolf’s clumsy nature.

He tore around to the front of the building, the nails on his paws clacking loudly on the asphalt. This was followed by a much more clamorous clacking as Jimmy and his buddies gained in their pursuit. Toby-wolf slammed through the front door and began to slip and slide on the waxed linoleum floor. On queue, he lost his balance and slid straight under the cart that was holding the 15-foot wall of bagged chicken feed steady. The wall collapsed just as the pursuers entered. They were buried under the chicken feed and the thick cloud of dust that came with it. But Toby-wolf couldn’t stop. He gained his traction and ran down the nearest aisle and waited, panting heavily.

Despite the weight of it, the Jimmy-wolf gang made their way out of the pile in only a few moments. Sniffing the air, they sprinted down the aisle where Toby waited. Again, Toby took off in his usual clumsy manner, looking much like Marmaduke trying to sprint from a dead stop. That’s when he hit the trip wire at the end of the aisle and sent a barrage of nails flying through the air.

The yelps of pain were gratifying, but not enough to stop them. Toby-wolf made it to the back counter and quickly became Toby. The nail-gun attack had slowed them down, but they came around the corner and into sight growling fiercely at the now human Toby.

“Hi, Jimmy!” he said. “Did you miss me?”

Toby’s tone made the Jimmy-wolf growl like the Devil himself. The fierceness in his eyes would have made anybody fear for their life. Except Toby…

“I may not make a great werewolf, Jimmy,” he continued with a smile. “But I have spent many months becoming a crackshot…”

Toby reached onto the counter and quickly aimed the pump-action Mossberg 500. There was no escape for the werewolves, as their only exit was in Toby’s line of sight. Now, Toby felt like a hero.

“Eat hot silver, you son of a bitch!”

It wasn’t the video that the football team had been expecting, but it was what the town needed. It was used as a warning to other werewolves that might think to try and force their supernatural will on the town of London, Ohio…