• “Better start running,” he said with an evil grin, patting the shrouded cage beside him. “You’ve got a thirty second head start and then I let it out”. He caressed the shroud over the cage, clenching the top in his hand. Pure glee shot through his whole body as he saw the look on his companions face.
    “What?” she asked confused. “Why? Why would you-”
    “Twelve seconds”. She saw the menace in his cold staring eyes. Knowing this was it, she turned and ran. In the distance she heard his maniacal laugh and she knew he had unleashed it.
    “You can’t hide, Jenna, it knows you, it knows your blood.” He bellowed into the forest.
    Panicking, she jumped over a fallen tree and landed in a pool of murky water.

    Snap.

    It was near now, it must be. It could smell her, her DNA. There was no escape, but maybe, just maybe the water would throw it off her scent.

    Snap.

    She looked round in the darkness. There was nothing around her but the thick cover of trees and shrubs. The moon glistened in the murky water of the pool. Strange how only yesterday the moon would’ve been her ally, yet tonight, it would be her death.

    Crunch.

    Its’ dripping fangs round her head were the last things she saw. How could he do this to her after everything they’d been through? He was lost. Maybe she could save him? “It’s me” She cried, “Fridolf, it’s me, it’s your moth-”.

    CRACK.

    It crushed her skull with one snap of its mighty jaws. Her scream echoed through the trees, all the way back to where he was waiting.

    “Good boy!” His wicked laughter rang through the blackness.
    It ran back to him, blood oozing from its mouth, panting. His smile faded as he saw the hunger in its eyes.
    “In the cage. Be a good boy.”
    It growled ravenously and lapped the blood from its drooling lips. It wanted more.

    “In the cage”. He gestured towards the cage, hoping the look in its eyes was purely confusion. Its gaze penetrated deep with into his soul.
    “Don’t do this, I made you! I can help you!” It was no use. His time had come. Its thirst for blood overpowered it. It lunged at him, knocking him clean on the floor. “No-no please…”
    It launched its mouth at the soft flesh of his stomach, just puncturing the flesh. He wailed in pain, scrambling in his pockets and trying to kick it away. It backed away, the moon reflecting in its eyes. It launched at him once more this time pinning him flat to the ground. He was still helplessly rummaging through his trouser pockets. He could hear his heart pounding round his head, as he felt its warm saliva dripping down between his eyes. It growled and went for the exposed flesh of his throat.

    It stopped dead.

    The light faded from its eyes as the moon disappeared behind the castle walls. It whimpered, as it felt the fluid pumping through his veins.
    “Foolish boy”. He scowled as he tossed the motionless mass aside. He threw the syringe he injected it with down clutching his wound. His stomach was seeping blood. The burning sensation was overwhelming. He turned and crawled towards the castle as he left his two failed experiments to rot in the woods.

    He remembered how it had all started. How he was so naïve to think that such a thing could work. It had been five years ago. He had been conducting research into the relation between mutations in wolf DNA and human DNA. He thought that he had made the greatest evolutionary discovery of modern times. If he’d know how much grief he would’ve caused himself, he wouldn’t have bothered. The ultimate discovery needed to be backed up with evidence. Solid scientific proof. Living proof that wolves and humans were very closely related. There was only one way in which to get this evidence. Experiment.

    He commenced further research, formulating the right chemicals to make it work. Once he had that, there was only one more thing he needed. Test subjects. Wolves.
    He began his search in the remote countryside just outside the borders of England in a castle once used by the great Earl of Bane himself. The perfect place to find a family of wolves, in a castle perched just on the outskirts of a dense forest. Far away from human contact. Far away from those pathetic animal rights campaigners.

    He hunted them for weeks, stalking, waiting, watching for the perfect moment to grab the stragglers of the pack. A she wolf and her cub were his pray.

    He captured them when the moon hung low in the sky. At first he monitored them, kept together in metal cages for several days, feeding them carcases of rabbits that he’d deemed too far decayed to stew for himself.

    When the time was right, the moon was full and the wolves were at their full strength, he began his experiment. Although he was optimistic, he was not delusional. He knew that these two wolves probably wouldn’t survive his first formula, no matter how precise it was or how convinced he was that the calculations were perfect.

    He took the she-wolf first.

    He injected her with a mild tranquiliser before strapping her to his purpose built rack. Then came the moment of truth. The first injection.

    At first nothing happened, and he knew that even if it was working, he wouldn’t see anything for the first few hours, maybe even days. He kept her in a separate cage adjacent to her cub so that, if it did work, she wouldn’t be eaten. A month later, the transformation was complete. He had done it. The first successful mutation of a wolf, into a human. ‘I think I’ll call you…Jenna’. He then concentrated on her, moulding her into a member of human society. She spoke to her cub in barks and howls, all except for one thing his name.
    ‘His name Fridolf… means peaceful wolf ’. She was also naïve back then. She asked him to transform her son also, so they could be together, properly. However with him, it was a painstakingly slow process and everything went horribly wrong. Instead of becoming calm and reserved, he became aggressive and restless.
    Upon conducting further research, he later found that the transformation would only ever be successful with female DNA.

    The Experiment had failed.

    That was five years ago, before Jenna could communicate effectively. Before she understood. Before she threatened to tell the world what he’d done to her. What he was planning to do to the whole human race. That was why his experiments had to be terminated. He waited for her to return from her weakly prowl, communication with her wolven relatives. He saw her approach.
    “They were hungry so I took them some rabbit stew, how’s Fridolf doing? Is he getting better?”

    “Better start running,” he said with an evil grin, patting the shrouded cage beside him. “You’ve got a thirty second head start and then I let it out”.