As soon as the question was asked, Gary could feel the palms of his hands getting sweaty and his heartbeat rising. These weren’t good signs, especially if he was going to try and hide it from Tom. He placed his hand on his chest and knelt over slightly, appearing to be in pain.
“What’s wrong, is the chocolate still hurting you?” Tom asked worriedly as he knelt down to see if his friend was okay. “Gary you shouldn’t deny it, being able to poison you is proof that I’m right!” He suggested as he pointed his finger at Gary taking on a pose as if he was some famous detective who had just solved a case.
The sight of Tom acting so ridiculous was somehow enough to calm Gary’s heart rate down a little.
“Come on, don’t you find it ridiculous? Chocolate being some sort of kryptonite for a werewolf? Next thing you will tell me you are a vampire or a dragon.” Gary tried to joke around, but the nervous smile on his face made him appear all the more guilty. He himself was struggling whether it might be better to just admit to it or not.
So far, he had tried to make sense of all those changes to his body by himself, having to learn all these new things on his own… he would actually welcome having someone to talk to about all those. Sometimes, he didn’t know if he was doing the right thing or not, but thinking about it, he couldn’t imagine someone better than his trusted friend Tom.
Since accusing him, and trapping him into a corner didn’t seem to have worked Tom tried a different approach.
“Look, I know that the chocolate alone would be ridiculous, but then how do you explain suddenly being able to tackle Blake? Or the puncture wounds on it? You were the only one who held it yesterday. If you have some other explanation, then I’m all ears. I’m your best friend, right? I’m not here to hurt you and I just want you to know that we can handle this together.” Tom offered in a soft voice.
From the look on Gary’s face this approach worked far better. He had already been on the verge of telling Tom, but with Tom pulling on his heartstrings, it was hard to remain silent.
However, now the question was how much should he tell Tom? Admitting to it, also meant he would have to come clean about his work as a member of the Underdogs gang, who had handed him the metal suitcase that had that strange Werewolf System inside of it. But if he were to tell Tom, there was a big risk of dragging him into all of this mess.
“You know what?” Tom asked while Gary was still debating on how much to reveal. “I’m just going to take your silence as a yes. I mean, you aren’t even denying it like you were just seconds ago. Now I have done a lot of research into this matter, because I know you’re bad with all this fantasy mumbo jumbo.”
“I don’t exactly know how much lore is true out there, but now that I have finally met a real werewolf and he’s my friend, it’s better to be safe than sorry. From all the stuff I have read on the Internet they all pretty much have one thing in common. All sources seem to agree that on the night of full moon, a werewolf turns without being able to control it. That gives us only twelve days to think of a way to restrict you, otherwise you might just go on a rampage killing everyone.”
When Tom said these words, he looked directly at Gary staring him in the eye, not facing away. Tom, his friend who never confronted anyone and was bad at all types of physical activity, looked powerful and reliable at this moment.
What worried Gary even more was that he already knew that something was indeed going to happen on the night of the full moon. His system had given him a Quest titled ‘Your first turning’ that had a countdown for that day. Even more worrisome was the fact that his Quest only specified that he would have to ‘survive’…
Since Gary still wasn’t saying anything, Tom sighed and was ready to leave the room. He had already done whatever he could and was now hoping that either he had been very wrong, something he seriously doubted after all the time he had put into thinking things over, or that Gary would come to him eventually to confess things on his own.
“Wait!” Gary called out. “Fine, since you’ve already figured things out, you might as well know the whole thing. You’re right…I’m a…I’m a werewolf..” Gary admitted, his face going red saying those words out loud, especially in front of someone who could hear him.
Closing the door, after making sure nobody else had been around, Tom turned towards Gary and jumped for joy, a sparkle in his eyes.
“I knew I was right! Tell me, Gary, since when were you a freaking werewolf! “How did this happen? Did you venture into the woods at night? Did an alpha wolf come, greet you and turn you? What the hell happened!” Tom asked a barrage of questions he had prepared, not being able to contain his excitement.
“Oh man, now my version sounds so boring in comparison. I just got turned by a briefcase.” Gary smiley wryly, as he went on to explain the gist of the story. Since the whole werewolf situation was already much to take in, Gary decided to omit the fact that he had been a gang member, and technically was now in another gang, from his explanation. Instead he told Tom that he had taken a part time job delivering items, like a delivery driver.
Of course, since he was sixteen and still in school, all of this was illegal, hence why he had hid the job from Tom. Technically all of it was true, so Gary’s face didn’t betray him for once. After that he came mostly clean, sharing how he had been sent out, how other people had wanted to steal the package and how the package had suddenly opened, turning him into a werewolf.
After saying everything he needed to say he waited to see just how Tom would treat him after all of this, would years of friendship be thrown away? This was a worrying thought for Gary.
*****
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