Chương 5: Awakening

Lucas didn't even realize when he left the forest. All that remained behind him was heavy silence and the lingering smell of blood that seemed stuck to his skin. His steps were unstable at first. Then steadier. Then almost mechanical.

"… I made it out." His voice was low, almost empty. Only when the lights of the town appeared in the distance did he feel like he could breathe again. But it wasn't real calm. Inside him, something was still pulsing, still echoing—like his body hadn't fully accepted what had just happened. I killed someone… The thought didn't come like a conclusion. It came like a delayed impact, after all the adrenaline was gone. Lucas quickened his pace without noticing.

When he finally reached home, he stepped inside without looking back, closed the door, and leaned against it for a second. Silence.

"…I need to calm down." He stripped off his clothes without even looking at them, threw them into a corner, and walked straight to the bathroom. Cold water hit his skin the moment he turned on the shower. He didn't react at first. He just stood there, letting the water run over him, washing away the fresh blood—over his hands, his chest, over traces his mind still saw even though they weren't there anymore. Breathe. Breathe. After a few minutes, his shoulders slowly started to loosen.

"I need to think clearly about what I could've done better…" Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. His voice was more stable now, but still tense. After the shower, Lucas quickly dried himself and went back to his room, trying to regain control. He sat down on the edge of the bed. And for the first time, he replayed everything in his mind, step by step. The forest. The werewolf. Every movement. Every mistake.

Then he realized that if he had been more skilled with guns, he could've been safer and avoided unnecessary risks.

"If I had hesitated for even a second…" Silence.

"…I would be dead." His fists clenched. It wasn't pride. It wasn't even relief. It was just a cold realization: he survived, but he almost died, and something inside him had changed forever. Then he felt it again. That thing inside him. It wasn't pain. It was something else. Harder to define. Like a resonance still left behind from the fight. Lucas snapped out of his daze.

"I need to sleep. I've had enough for one night," he muttered under his breath as he fell onto the pillow, his eyes slowly closing. The next day. Sunlight entered through the gaps in the window, illuminating the room.

"Ugh…" Lucas slowly opened his eyes. He put a hand on his head, feeling a slight headache. Then he slowly got up from the bed and walked into the bathroom. Suddenly, he froze as his eyes landed on his abdomen.

"Incredible… the wound is already gone." Lucas spoke with astonishment in his voice. He knew what he had become, but seeing it with his own eyes was different. Then he quickly took a shower and dressed up.

"Okay… I need to be more careful from now on," Lucas said, knowing how careless he had been the previous night.

"First of all, I need to study the books my grandfather left and look for the weaknesses of supernatural beings. All I can clearly remember is mountain ash—a plant that is toxic to werewolves." Lucas walked to his desk. A couple of books he had taken from the basement library were still there. He opened one and flipped through it until he stopped at a section titled "Weaknesses of Werewolves."

"Wolfsbane, also known as aconite or monkshood, is an extremely toxic herb for werewolves, werecoyotes, and werejaguars." Lucas continued reading carefully, trying to gather information that might one day save his life.

"It's enough for now… and I need to go to school anyway." After an hour of reading, he was already exhausted. Maybe he needed more motivation… or maybe not wanting to die was enough. He closed the book, grabbed his school backpack, and headed for the door. As he opened it, sunlight hit his face, and a faint smile appeared—a smile that showed he was simply glad to be alive. As he walked, a sudden voice sounded loudly in his ears.

"Daddy, daddy, can I get that toy?" A child's voice filled with excitement.

"No, we already have that at home, Jessica." A deep male voice answered, with a hint of helplessness.

"What the…" Lucas looked around before focusing his gaze a couple hundred meters away, where a child and her father stood near a toy shop.

"So this is how it feels to be a werewolf…" Lucas said with a slight smile, then calmed down and continued toward school. Soon, he arrived.