The Monster Within

Vanessa survives an accident

It’s a Monday morning, bright and early. It looks like a normal busy day in the town of Kampala with new sights to see, food to eat and activities to take on. Meanwhile, Vanessa makes sure to enroll in a nearby school just to keep herself busy and maybe learn the culture of Kampala and its citizens. However,she spends all day and night thinking of the wolf she saw. She can't keep still, knowing that the wolf is out there. She pulls out her notebook to write down where she saw the wolf from and the time. Even so, Jacob is trying really hard to blend in and not cause any suspicion from the local community. While Jacob is figuring out a way of introducing himself to Vanessa or at least getting close to her. Vanessa is stuck in class, wondering when the day will end and she can go hunting for the wolf that gave her the stare back at the lake. So, as soon as class ends on her first day, Vanessa goes back to the forest to see the wolf. As she approaches the lake, she stumbles upon a boat that she uses to see if she can find the wolf. So she hops onto the boat and rides her way onto the waterfall even though she is a bit anxious and afraid of what might happen to her considering the stories she read the past day and how mysterious the whole day was.

As Vanessa is out on the lake searching for clues, Jacob is enrolling in the same school as Vanessa and is successful in getting a place, but he doesn’t know that he will be in the same class as Vanessa. Jacob realises he has to go back to the cave since he forgot to close the entrance to the cave with the large stone. He doesn’t know that Vanessa is on her way to finding out where Jacob the wolf actually resides. So he rushes so fast. Being a werewolf, he can get to the forest and cave very fast. However, he tries to be careful so as not to raise suspicions. When he can, he makes sure to transform into his animal self and move ten times faster. As he is on his way to the cave, he finds footsteps and he realises that they might be those of Vanessa or someone else who is uninvited. Meanwhile, Vanessa stumbles onto a pathway that leads to the cave above her head. She is amazed by how the waterfall hides the cave perfectly. No wonder Jacob chose that location. Seems fate was bound to interfere with his plans. Vanessa takes the pathway all the way to the cave opening after parking the boat. She calls out “ Hello, is anyone here? “. No response. She enters the cave, very scared with her heart beating very fast, but she soldiers on. As she takes the first step inside, she sees firewood, blankets, pillows, a bed, a toilet just like a normal house, though smaller.

Vanessa is so shocked to learn that maybe the wolf he saw is an actual human being living among them and she wonders what kind of person the wolf is, if it’s a she or a he, whether the wolf has feelings like normal people. The questions she had in her head were plenty full, but at the moment all she could care about was how excited she was to finally be proven right. She was amazed by the fact that the legends were true and she got out her phone and took pictures so that she could keep them as a memory. She then found a picture of a young boy with his mom. She wondered whether this could be the wolf in human form. However, she couldn’t find any trace or book that had the boy's name on it. So she decided to leave the cave and go back home since it was getting dark. She was worried that her mom Jenny would search for her in a panic. So, as Vanessa makes her way to the main forest using the boat, Jacob arrives in time to see a lady on a boat drifting towards the main land. He couldn't get closer since the lady would recognise him as a wolf. So he moves around stealthily and would you believe it? To his amazement, it was Vanessa all along. So he quickly transforms back to his human form and pretends to be fishing around the lake. He quickly says hi to Vanessa as Jacob and introduces himself as such. Vanessa found it strange that she hadn't seen any man around the lake fishing, though she didn’t pay attention to that thought.

Jacob comes closer to Vanessa and tries to befriend her but she was hesitant to shake his hand or even come closer. She was so afraid of Jacob because it was dark and she was so worried about her mom's reaction once she got home. Vanessa says hi back in a freight and runs very fast home. At this point, Jacob remembers that he has to protect her from anything and keep her safe. So he waits for Vanessa to have a 30-min head start. He transforms into the wolf and off he goes to watch over Vanessa as she makes it home. As Vanessa is about to cross the road to reach her home on the other side, a truck out of nowhere almost knocks her over, but in an instant, the wolf jumps and grabs Vanessa and saves her from being run-over. Jacob makes sure to push her onto the pathway to her home and then disappears as fast as he can so that Vanessa doesn’t suspect a thing. In shock, Vanessa looks on to see who saved her life. The only thing she can see is a long tail among the trees. She smiled to herself, thinking that she knew who that was. The same wolf that she had seen across the lake. So she hurries home still in shock, but as soon as she enters the house, she tells her mother about the accident and the mysterious stranger who saved her life. Jenny gets worried about her daughter and thinks that it must have been the hunters but she cant confirm it. So they sleep on it until the next day when Vanessa's mother goes out into the woods in a search for any clues about whether the hunters were really there in town.

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Jenny, as a game ranger, is meant to safely guard the forest and its animals, so it gives her licence to investigate anything she finds suspicious. On her hunt for clues, she stumbles across foot prints larger than her hand. She gets very curious and brings out her tape measure to see if the size is that of a human or an animal. Unfortunately, the size is way larger than both a human's foot and an animal's. So she gets out a picture she had taken many years back of Mufasa when he was moving around as a wolf. She remembers Mufasa and all the good memories of when they first met come rushing back to her mind. She pauses for a moment to remember the good times and how she discovered Mufasa. She remembers the first she kissed Mufasa, and made love to him as if there was no tomorrow in the moonlight. This was even before she found out he was a shape shifter. She remembers how, in one incident when she had almost fallen off a cliff, Mufasa transformed into a werewolf and saved her from dying. She remembers how shocked but also how even more in love she was with such a special being like Mufasa. Even so, when they had a baby, it turned out to be Vanessa. As she snaps out of the flashback, she starts to think that it might be Mufasa following them or keeping an eye on them. She doesn’t know that Jacob is the one. So she goes back to her house and gives Mufasa a call.