My Wolf

He's in there somewhere

I must find him.

Men in orange scattered along the hill

With weapons ready to kill.

I am panting with panic

I run in search for him.

I plea for stillness within the woods;

They do not quit.

Bang! Bang!

No, my vision becomes a blur.

An unknown illness in my stomach begins to stir.

There's a hand upon my shoulder

"I'll take you home," says the officer.

I walk with worry and weariness.

Where's my wolf?

I've grown cold.

Maybe from the winter air, maybe my death arriving soon.

I approach the wooden stairs.

I halt; there's a whimper.

Human or beast? Unsure.

The light flicks on;

And the snow beneath my feet is as red as the heat on my cheeks.

I smell wolf, but it's a boy

Curled up, exposed bloody skin.

A bullet hole in his neck.

I drag his limp body inside

His blood staining the marble floor.

I apply pressure to the wound

I look for recognition,

But his traits are like a cloud;

Hazy and undefined.

He looks up with bright yellow eyes

These eyes piercing into my mind

Controlling every possible sentence from forming.

I'm speechless.

"I'm Sam," he struggles.

It's him; it's my wolf.

Out of his pelt and paws

In a new skin with fingers and palms

From the cold to the warm,

He's not himself.

From wolf to Sam,

He forgets as he's reborn to this world.

With nothing, but memories from a past life.

A wolf life.

Soon, months pass us by

Sam fought to stay the same.

We have fallen in love.

He fights the cold to be with me.

He fights the wolf snarling inside him

He fights the pain back down his throat.

He will not be defeated

But soon, it all comes to a close.

We seek answers to keep Sam in his human skin.

We travel through

Snow and sleet

Fighting for warmth

Fighting to stay together

What's that?

Crash!

Sam! Sam!

He shivers in the leather seat.

The windshield busted in.

The engine is dead.

The heat is escaping from every corner.

My eyes burn with water

As I try my hardest to save him from the beast inside.

No, I can't lose him.

"Grace," he whispered.

He kisses me.

A gush of winter wind

Pours through the holes of the truck.

Sam hangs his arms out

Looking like an angel.

The wind carrying his human skin away.

Sirens, the ambulance.

"Are you alone?"

I don't speak, I nod.

He's gone.

My wolf is gone.

Weeks pass

Questions hang above our heads,

Still unanswered.

Solutions filling my mind

Isabel is still angry with Jack.

Olivia has not spoken to me since our spat.

Sam is out in the woods,

Covered with fur and fleas.

Oh, how I wish I were with him,

Running through the trees.

Everything is coming together

I am a human.

With a different creature's senses within me

A wolf's senses.

Yes, everything makes sense.

Finally, the answer is here.

Sickness, illness

A boiling fever must rise in his blood

To cook the wolf out.

Injection

Jack, Olivia, and Sam;

Three precious lives that need saving.

Jack is first to be injected;

Olivia is somehow hesitant.

She's afraid, not of a wolf life,

But no life at all.

She waits.

Sam's turn;

But what will happen to him?

I can't lose him.

"Do it quickly.”

From wolf to man, back to wolf.

I jab him with the needle.

His pelt has returned and he runs on all fours.

Towards the woods into the night

And he's gone again.

Olivia doesn't fight the wolf

And she follows him

Into the pines away from us.

We're back.

Waiting patiently for the fever to rise in Jack.

It rises, but no change.

He screams!

He's sweating!

He cries for the pain to stop.

He waits for the wolf to burn out of him.

It cooks the wolf out.

Cooking Jack out as well.

He's dead.

I want to cry.

Jack has died.

Olivia is free.

But where's Sam?

I fear the sight of a dead wolf with yellow eyes

In my backyard.

No longer alive

With joy and amusement.

Cold and stiff

With no pulse.

There's a lump in my throat.

I need air.

As I fill the empty stomachs

Of chirping birds,

There's movement behind me.

But not strange presence.

I turn, I'm shocked.

It's Sam in the cold,

But he's Sam in the cold.

No more pelt and paws;

Just fingers and palms

"Grace," he speaks.

"Say something."