Saving Hope

Three Ways to Change: Walt

Please comment someone.  I would like to know where  I need improvement. 

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Walt   

     "The first thing you should know is I am 50.  We don't age as fast as humans and we also live considerably longer.  At 18 I was just finishing high school.  My friends and I went camping that summer.  It was supposed to be our last trip before we all went to college.  None of us were going to the same place. 

     There were eight of us.  We had all been camping before with different groups and several places.  All of us had been camping since we were about ten.  We had grown up together and been taking various trips since we were about ten.  There were four couples .  Each couple had their own tent.  We camped and played games.  Our trip had been planned for about a month so when we heard about a killer in the area we would be in we didn't think too much of it.  Who would go after such a large group anyway? 

     So we went in July.  We had an excellent spot we camped at near a lake.  We also followed all the safety rules.  Camp away from the food and anything that smelled good.  We all camped together.  Even in the daytime we explored some but nobody went anywhere alone.  At the beginning of the second week my girlfriend had gotten up to use the bathroom.  It was just at dawn.  I heard her gasp as I was following her out.  Looking up I saw these glowing yellow eyes.  Then I heard growling.  My girlfriend Sara started screaming right as he jumped at us.  I didn't even have a chance to get in front her.  He just tore her open.  I remember trying to pull her away and the wolf scratched my arm.  He slashed my chest open with his claws as well. 

     I can't remember anything else until I heard the howls.  I woke up surrounded by wolves.  I saw the biggest one fighting the one that had attacked us.  I also saw the other tents had been destroyed.   The wolves surrounding me watched the fight.  All but one.  He changed into a person and put his hand on my chest.  The wounds knit back together and all I had left were scars.  He had even managed to make them fairly small and unnoticeable. He said he was sorry for what had happened but he could not make the infection go away.  When I asked what he was talking about he said he would explain everything at the house. 

   While he was talking the fight had ended.  The wolf that had attacked us was dead.  It was then I noticed another group of wolves guarding a Cassie. She was sobbing but unhurt.  I think her boyfriend, Greg, had tried to hide her because she was covered in his blood after the attack.  She later told me she had been under him after he died.  The other wolves had pulled him off to get to her.  We tried to get to each other but they wouldn't let us.

      The big wolf changed to a person and said wait a few minutes.  We need to make sure you are both safe.  Right as he said this I started to shake.  It was almost like seeing a seizure.  I fell but one of them caught me before I could hit the ground.  I only shook for a few seconds before I began screaming in pain.  I remember hearing my bones break, and my hair growing.  I also remember Cassie screaming before she passed out.  She had thought I was having a seizure until I changed.   The full change took about a minute but it was agonizing torture at the same time. 

     When I could stand again I started growling and tried to run.  I remember trying to attack the wolves because of all the blood.  But then I heard that big wolf growl.  When I tried to attack it he just said stop in my head.  There was no sound but I couldn't move.  He told me to calm down and I was safe now.  Even then I still tried to fight.  After a second he just said submit, but it came out so strong that I had no choice but to do exactly that.  I had rolled over onto my back with and my neck exposed, whimpering.  He put his jaws around my neck and just held them there.  After I had calmed down, he let me go.  He had me change back and one of the others gave me a pair of shorts. 

     We walked back to their house and he told me about the rouge that had invaded the land attacking people.  The murders we had heard about were all done by him.  What most people thought was a serial killer was a wolf that had lost all its humanity.  They had tried to get to him and didn't know my friends and I were in the area until it was too late. 

     I collapsed from exhaustion about then.  I remember having to be told all this again about a week later after I had recovered from the shock and accepted everything that had happened.  The wolf that healed me was Micheal's dad, Doc, but the one that fought to save us was Peter's dad."

       Charity had listened the whole time without questions, only occasionally glancing away to check Hope a few times.  She had cried as I told about my friends dying.  She waited a second and asked, "What happened to Cassie?" 

     I smiled, "She wanted to go home at first but couldn't handle being the only one that would have survived.  I needed to learn to live as a wolf so I had to stay.  I would have been dangerous to everyone around me.  She also faced the scary possibility of always being afraid of the woods.  A couple have tried but after an attack but the trauma and memories have traumatic effects.  We also believe that everyone who gets among wolves are destined to be there.  After about a year she met her mate in another pack and moved there. My mate was here so even though we were separated I stayed. He changed her when they mated and she was nervous but comfortable around wolves by then." 

     "Would you change what happened if you could?"

     I sighed a little but said, "No I wouldn't change anything I have no regrets about that.  I only wish my parents were able to know I am alive and could have met my family.  They had closed casket funerals for each of us, even Cassie.  There weren't enough bones for all of us but Jim was able to convince the right people to close the cases.  None of the families ever saw bodies and it was before DNA testing so nobody knew any difference."