A REASON TO FIGHT

(New character)

While on the large tree, lying on its huge branch with my back, cell phone in hand while wearing my white tank top that showed off my chiselled muscles and muscular frame, I smirked while listening to her lovely voice.

"..and I told her to go shovel it up her own-"

"Woooo ...slow down there, you rarely cuss someone out...let's keep it clean. But yea she can be a bit of a ***** ****** **** ****. Don't you agree?" I said.

"Look at you. Pulling the words right out of my mouth. Cussing on my behalf is a little sweet."

"Is it? Glad you feel that way. I got my own bottomless well of sh*t that I need to empty out."

"I'm glad I'm far away right now. If you said that exact same line in your true form you'd have to consider yourself dumped."

"Hahaha... Good one. Remind me to pull one on you the next time I swing by."

"I sure will."

I could imagine her twirling her hair as she lay half naked on her bed, in her white panties and shirt, her phone on her pillow.

Our relationship bloomed when she saw me in my true form. It felt good, finally showing my true self to someone after so many years of hiding and being eaten away slowly by the loneliness. In my profession, barely a soul cared. I was just one weapon in a vast arsenal of items.

Most people think having a supernatural quirk that turns you into something from a fairy tale is cool, thrilling, will get you laid every time you walk down the street, people singing praises, the governments asking for your help and bending the knee.

The reality couldn't be further from such pipe daydreams. The truth is that humans pretend to admire the stories from their fictional

imaginations, convincing themselves that they would wholeheartedly accept things that shatter the norm of their established life.

However, when those things lay themselves bare, defying everything they've ever known, they RUN.

They run with their bodies, they run with their minds, they run with their souls. They scream, asking for the norm to return, cursing you. Even if they don't, it takes one single exposed fang of yours for them to start calling you the F word. Freak. A cumbersome, mundane expression of the repulsive nature of the human mind.

I'm not a super paranoid individual by nature, believing stereotypes assigned to humanity are absolute, but I've seen the evil that mankind can carry, and believe ostracism is pretty in comparison to the deeper darkness that I've felt from us.

However, I give credit where it is due, there are among us good people, who don't take a person's face value as the summation of their whole being. Who at first are frightened by what you look like on the outside, but don't give you a segregatory glare without first searching who you are internally.

One such person is the girl I'm dating now. I met her while on an assignment from the Federal Bureau of Anomaly Containment, an organisation hinged towards pursuing unnatural existences and making sure that all adverse effects they have on mankind are neutralised.

I joined at the young age of 17, two years after my first transformation into what I later learned was a Lycan, short for Lycanthrope.

Transforming was a painful endeavour, having my human flesh ripped out to make way for the tougher, stronger muscle, steel like bones and large frame that dwarfs small houses, and instils an overbearing aura on its domain.

With the addition to strength, speed and defence comes a con. A rage that overtakes my being, with which I can barely contend against.

I met her when I was on an extraction mission in the United Canadian Nations on the western side of the world. A rogue CIA operative had gotten possessed by a powerful Ghast in a base with a team of ten of our own undercover personnel within.

A ghast is a type of violent spirit, seeking only carnage and bloodshed, however, this one was a special case, it being able to conduct intelligent actions. It tried to sacrifice every soul in the base to gain more power, which it partially succeeded, our own personnel using the bureau weapons at hand to ward off the ghast long enough for us to arrive and kill it.

In a nearby town, after the creature's rampage in a 500 meter radius that was caught up in it as collateral damage, I managed to save her, though she witnessed my Lycan form in the process.

While I expected the usual ostracism, she was only shaken by seeing my appearance for the first time, but looked for me afterwards to thank me, even giving me her contact.

She was fascinated by me. She was a biologist, her curiosity trumping her fears. It was fascination first, interest second and then she got more comfortable talking to me, even becoming more suggestive.

Every time we met up, I would forget that life wasn't just a job, revelling in the simple things in life that most people take for granted. Walking down the street while casually chatting, eating lollipops in the park as we cuddled, going on carousel rides with her holding her hand and seeing as she squinted her brown eyes in bliss as we went down at high speed, all made me feel like life wasn't as sh*tty as I thought it was all along.

By far my favourite activity was running my fingers in her short dark hair and bangs while jokingly comparing it to my lustrous lycan fur, seeing her frown and lightly punch me saying the classic ,'Again with your dog hairs. Give it a rest. Short haired beauties are the bomb in this century. It has nothing to do with my occupation.'

Sure I had dated many other girls, especially before constricting into the FBAC but without transparency there was barely a foundation. Excuses could only take me so far.

"So, I was thinking," I said, sitting up from the branch.

"We've been dating for a long time, at least compared to my previous relationships. I thought we could...take a big step."

She giggled on the other line, and I could hear her shifting.

"Like what exactly?"

"I only joined the Bureau because I thought it'd give me a sense of purpose. But now I found that the only purpose I could ever bend to is making you happy, being with you. I want to us to move in together."

"I feel the same way, Morgan. I love you. I didn't think I'd find happiness with a guy so... sophisticated. Its a big step though, considering the Bureau has you on a leash. I don't think they'd appreciate you dodging the service."

"Scr....Stuff that! We can make something work. I know where they live. Trust me I can handle escaping their sight."

"Hmmm. I-"

And silence.

"Linda? Hey Linda!"

What followed was the sound of something slipping and falling to the floor.

With my keen hearing, even through the phone I had heard a soft whistling sound, only ignoring it because I enjoyed the melody of her voice.

Something was wrong!

I hurriedly dropped from the tree and landed on my feet which were covered by black boots.

I darted out of the forest, where I was resting and connecting with nature as she had suggested, running at an unbelievable speed. My short dark hair was being blown away in the wind as I ran.

I was currently in Brazila, while she was living in the US, a cluster of 14 countries occupying the South East boundary below the United Canadian Nations.

In a frenzy, and knowing that I probably wouldn't make it in time, I roared and my body began to inflate, my muscles exploding and being replaced by bigger and stronger ones. The same happened to my bones and a massive snout appeared on my face, golden pupils appearing in my eyes as well as large canines tougher than steel.

My body grew, towering over 4 meters in height and 5 meters in length, grey fur covering it and a faint dark mist rustling in it. I howled into the sky in anguish and burst at subsonic speed in the direction of my beloved.

***

Two days later.

 "I'm sorry sir. We can't allow you to see the body. We need proof that you knew the deceased. Her family members were all accounted for yesterday," a nurse said to me.

'Screw it!' I shot from my position at breakneck speed, following my memory of her scent. I traversed corridor after corridor before catching a whiff of it.

The body having been put into cold storage a day before, the scent was very thin, but my prowess in olfactory outclassed any creature on earth.

I finally arrived, kneeling while looking at her cold body. The drawer to her lock, I had pulled with great strength to reveal her cold figure that had a small hole piercing through her head from side only to damage the innards.

The bitterness that strangled me in this moment was so strong that I felt no tears coming down my cheeks, but blood.

My purpose for living had left this world.