Jessica's Transformation

"Hi Jack, here is the final draft of the Kaufman story," Jessica typed. "I'will see you tomorrow."

She closed the browser and shut the laptop screen. Jessica was a 29-year-old freelance reporter. She'd been out of commission for nearly a month. It happened while covering a story late one night. Jessica never knew what hit her; she only remembered waking up in a hospital bed to doctors telling her she'd been attacked by some kind of animal. They told her she was lucky to be alive.

For the past month, Jessica had mostly kept to herself in her apartment in Santa Cruz. She covered stories that she could do mostly by phone interview. It had taken her a while to finally start feeling normal again. It hadn't help that a college friend of hers who was also a journalist and a bit of hack fantasy and horror writer, was convinced Jessica was going to turn into a werewolf. She ended up having to be somewhat firm with him to get him to shut up about it.

Just as Jessica was about to get up, she glanced out the window and noticed it was indeed a full moon. Her friend's words raced through her head. It was almost as if a tinny part of her believed him.

She went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. As she waited for the water to heat up she went to the mirror and looked closely at her reflection. All appeared normal. Jessica also ran her hands along the exposed length of her arms.

"See," she said to herself. "Perfectly normal. Alan doesn't know what's real and what's horror movie."

The shower was starting to get steamy as Jessica took off the rest of her clothes. But just as she was about to step in, a bolt of pain shot through her body.

"What the hell?" She gasped, doubling over in pain.

Her heart began to race as she sank to the floor, her body starting to shake and twitch. Jessica stared in horror as her finger and toenails grew longer, become razor-sharp claws.

"This can't be happening," Jessica Whimpered as she watched her palms grow and thicken and her fingers lengthen. But she knew it was real; she was actually changing.
Meanwhile, the insteps of Jessica's feet began to grow longer and narrower. Her toes and the ball of each foot started to grow longer too widening and thickening until her feet resembled canine paws.

Black hairs sprouted from every pore on Jessica's body. Her fair skin vanishing beneath a course pelt of fur. Her thighs bulged and grew longer as her calves shrank.
Jessica fell to all fours as her legs snapped into their new position. Her forearms shortened as her arms reformed into front legs. Finally Jessica's human head began change as well. Jaws pushed forward, fusing with her nose into a lupine muzzle. Her ears grew into points as the moved to the top of her head.

Then, just as suddenly as they had started, the changes stopped. Jessica gathered her four legs under her and looked in the mirror. Instead of a petite young woman, a large wolf-like creature stared back at her.

"Werewolf," Jessica though to herself. "I'm a werewolf."

Jessica walked into her living room, quickly adapting to walking on four feet instead of two.

"I though werewolves were mindless, remorseless, killing machines," she thought. "I don't feel like killing anybody."

Jessica continued to walk around her apartment.

"I can smell everything," she thought. "And I can hear all kinds of things. The change was scary and quite painful. But otherwise, this is actually kind of fun."

The cool air drifted in through the open balcony door. The night was calling to her. Jessica ran and leapt over the railing, landing in the courtyard. She looked to the moon.

"Aaaawooooo!" She howled.

Jessica tore off into the night as fast as her paws could carry her. The immense power was intoxicating. The night went in a blur.