He stands in the doorway, looking out into the cold night, firmly gripping a shot gun in one hand and a half empty bottle of Jack Daniels in the other, from which he take a large mouthful. He hears twigs breaking in the forest beyond his house and then the rustling of bushes and he raises the shot gun up, swinging it towards the forest wall.

“I’m just standing here waiting for you boy, so you best stay the fuck away from my daughters or you and me are going to go down that road I promised we would all those years ago, you come try me to see if I won’t!” he says as he takes another mouthful.

“Daddy, please,” a voice says softly from behind him.

“You get to bed Tabitha, this is between me and the boy, and nothing you can say will make me think different, it’s time he learns what really matters.”

“No, daddy, please, just come on inside and leave him be, he means no harm to us,” she says as she places a hand on her father’s shoulder, sounds of movement come again from the darkness beyond and he pushes it away, stepping out into the cold night air, letting a shiver run though his body.

“You get inside with your sisters, this is between me and the boy,” he says as he takes another mouthful of the bottle and tosses it to the ground, wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his arm he lets out a loud, volatile burp. “Get in now Tabitha, lock the fucking door until I come back,” he says, Tabitha just stands the looking distraught, tears rolling down her face. “Do it now for fuck sake, I won’t tell you again!” He yells, she jumps in shock and nervously shuts the door and locks the eight padlocks firmly in place, and takes a step back, cradling herself in her own arms, it’s then that she feels a warm breath on the back of her neck and she freezes as she feels something sticky drip onto her shoulder, and run down her chest. She dares not move, but her eyes dart down to see a large, red stain forming on her white nightdress and she softly beings to cry to herself.

“Hello sister,” a deep, rough, gravelly voice says into her ear. “You should have listened to Daddy.”

“What have you done?”

“Do you really want to know, are you that intent on trying to save me you will look past what I have done or do you just truly want to know that Father is right about me, that I am nothing more than an animal that needs to be put down?”

“I know you’re still in there Ethan, I know underneath those teeth, underneath that fur, my baby brother is still in there, and I know you can control it, I know you can win, just fight,” she says, tears rolling down her face.

“Dear sister, I’m touched, I really am, but there is no fight inside, the beast and I are one in the same, Father always knew that, it’s why he tried to drown me in the river all those years ago, but now the time has finally come for me to rid myself of all these human trappings, to finally accept the wolf, don’t morn for me my sister, for I am whole, I am one.”

She screams at the top of her lungs as he bites down into her throat and her Father rushed to the door, screaming for her to open it, banging frantically on the doorway, but the rich puddle of red blood that flows from underneath the door tells him it’s too late, and he falls to his knees, soaking in it, screaming, crying, cursing everything and then he feels a warm breath on the back of his neck.

“Hello Father,” a deep, rough, gravelly voice says into his ear.

END