HOWL : Tales of 1859

Westminster, London, England, 1859. In Buckingham Palace, a well-known scientist, Darran Pecker, demonstrated a new experiment for the Queen. She was impressed with his work and handed him a golden nameplate as a token of acknowledgement. A few minutes later, Darran exited the palace. Before he could close the doors, he collapsed. The Queen’s guards rushed to his aid. A couple of hours later, he woke up in a hospital, his vision blurry. A doctor approached him and said, “Good day, sir. Are you okay? How are you feeling?” Darran, confused and in pain, asked, “Why am I in a hospital? What happened to me?” “You collapsed in front of the palace,” the doctor replied. Darran started to panic, his face turning pale. “Why did I collapse, doctor?” The doctor’s expression shifted from cheerful to calm and somber. Darran grew worried. “Come on, doctor!” Darran shouted. “I don’t have all day. I’m a very busy man.” The doctor handed him a file. He read it: “Patient No. 6, Darran Elias Pecker, has been diagnosed with stage-four cancer. He has been ill for approximately two and a half months.” After finishing, Darran stared at the file for a while, then started laughing. “This is preposterous!” he said. “Me? Diagnosed with cancer? That’s absurd!” He stood up, grabbed his coat, and tried to leave. The doctor tried to stop him. “Sir, you need to stay here for a few days. We still need to run some tests.” Darran pushed her aside. “Why the f**k would I stay in a hospital? I’m not sick, Doc. I’m a scientist. Good day.” He walked out of the hospital. Two hours later, Darran was in his lab, sitting in his chair and thinking. “This can’t be possible! How… how is this possible? The doctor said I’ve been ill for two months, but why didn’t I feel anything back then? Why now?” He pulled out the file and read it again. Footsteps approached. He quickly put the file back in his drawer. His fiancée, Alyssa Vanguard, came in to check on him. “Darling, dinner’s ready. We’re waiting for you.” “I’m not hungry right now, my love,” Darran replied. He stood, kissed her, and said, “I still have a lot of work to do, so you guys don’t have to wait up for me.” Alyssa left. As she walked away, Darran thought, “I can’t tell her. She’ll look at me differently, and I don’t want that.” He paced back and forth, trying to find a cure. When nothing came to him, he slammed his desk. “For God’s sake! Why can’t I find a solution? I’m a f*****g scientist, for crying out loud!” He looked at his pet wolf, Fenris. Suddenly, he remembered something a fellow scientist had told him years ago. Another scientist with cancer had tried something called ‘devil’s play’ — he mixed tiger’s blood with his own. It worked, but he died three days later. Darran decided to try it anyway. He placed Fenris on the operation table. Taking a scalpel from his drawer, he said, “Don’t worry, buddy. I’m doing this for a good reason. You’ll be helping me. And I promise, it won’t hurt much.” He made a small cut on Fenris’s paw, took a drop of blood, and placed it in a jar. Then he cut his own arm, added his blood to the jar, and stared at it. “This experiment was done before, and the results weren’t promising. Maybe I should add something extra to prevent problems.” He mixed in a bit of the formula from the experiment he’d shown at the palace. When combined, the mixture turned yellowish. “Voilà! How beautiful! I’ve created a cure… and all by myself,” Darran said happily. A few minutes later, Alyssa came down to check on him. “My love, you’ve been working for hours. Aren’t you tired? And what are you so joyful about?” Darran hid the ‘cure’ in his drawer. “Nothing, my love. I’m still happy about what happened at the palace today.” “I heard she gave you a golden nameplate. Is that true?” Darran pulled it out and handed it to her. “But of course, my dear. Here it is.” “It looks absolutely stunning.” Alyssa smiled. “But I came down to tell you to come to bed. It’s late. The bed’s lonely without you.” Darran held the cure in his hand. “I’ll be with you shortly, my love. I just need to clean up here.” “Very well, my love. I’ll wait for you.” She blew him a kiss and left. Darran held up the cure, ready to drink it. “Better faster than never. That was terrible, but it was for the best.” He drank it, threw the jar away, and went to bed. He didn’t feel anything yet. The next morning, Darran woke up unusually early. He never woke up before his alarm. “This is weird. I never wake up this early,” he muttered. He got dressed and went to the bathroom. When he passed the mirror, he stopped, stunned. His beard had grown back — ten times thicker. His eyes were yellowish, and his chest looked bigger. “How the hell did this happen? Did the cure cause this?” He went to shower, but before he could, he saw something disturbing. His whole body was covered in hair. “What the f**k?! What the hell is this?!” he screamed. Alyssa heard him and knocked on the door. “Darran? Honey? Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Panicking, Darran locked the door. “I’m fine, my love. Just dealing with manly stuff right now.” He grabbed a razor and shaved off the hair, putting it in a black plastic bag. Then he unlocked the door. “Honey? Are you okay?” Alyssa asked. “I’m okay, my love. Really, I’m fine.” Alyssa looked him up and down. “Are you sure? You look a little different.” Darran laughed awkwardly. “What? No, I’m still ol’ Darran!” Alyssa hugged him tightly. “No matter how you look, or if you change one day, I’ll love you.” They kissed. Later that evening, around 7 PM, Darran went outside to dispose of the hair. The night was clear, the air fresh, and the moon full. Before going back inside, he looked up. It felt like the moon was calling to him. He froze, unable to move. All he could do was stare. Alyssa saw him through the window and got worried. She opened the window and called out, “My love? Darran? Are you okay?” No response. She went outside and shook his shoulders. “Darran? Honey, what’s wrong?” Still nothing. Frustrated, she slapped him hard. “Ow! What the hell are you doing, Alyssa?!” Darran shouted. Alyssa smiled. “I had to. You were frozen. I called your name several times. That was the only thing I could do.” Darran rubbed his cheek. “Okay, but was that really necessary?” They both laughed. Then Darran frowned. “Alyssa, you said I was frozen? I just stood still?” “Yes. Like a statue. I don’t know, to be honest.” He stared at her. “And what was I looking at?” “The moon. It’s very beautiful and full tonight.” Darran’s face fell. “Full moon? I was staring at the moon? That’s odd.” They went back inside. An hour later, Alyssa was asleep, but Darran couldn’t rest. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw himself as a monster. He got up, went to the bathroom, and looked in the mirror. “What the hell is happening to me? This never happened before.” He turned on the shower, but his body started to hurt. He fell to the floor, screaming in pain. Alyssa rushed in and found him writhing on the floor. “Grrr! It hurts! f**k!” “Darran? Honey! What’s wrong? Let me help you up!” When she touched him, he turned his head. Alyssa froze. It wasn’t her fiancé anymore. It was a monster — yellow eyes, grayish skin, sharp teeth. Darran pushed her aside and ran out of the house, still screaming in pain. He ran into the woods and was never seen again.