Author's note: I've just gone through and fixed up several typos, and also fixed up the paragraph spacing which was messed up. Man, I wrote this SO long ago and promptly forgot about it. But you know what? I'm freaking HILARIOUS, dude. XD I seriously LOLed at my own lame jokes. Oh and just for the record: I lurrrrv Bright Eyes :P

Phase One: I Said Nothing

Dry leaves crunched under his paws as he ran deeper into the forest. The sky overhead was inky black, scattered with stars and the pale orb of a full moon giving off a faint glow that illuminated the outlines of the trees and leaf litter. The wolf's fur shone under the glow, deep brown with a scattering of lighter hair over his back and on his tail. He slowed to a stop and stood, feeling the ground beneath his four paws, the light breeze ruffling his fur so that it went against the grain. Sniffing the air delicately, he caught the faint whiff of a human's faint yet distinct odour. His ears pricked and he heard faint movements close by; it sounded like someone was tramping into the forest from the outer perimeter. The wolf growled softly, involuntarily, showing a trace of his pearly white teeth, long sharp canines visible over his black lips. He scrutinised the smell again, and heard a faint cry from the direction of the intruder. At once he took off at a run towards it, his strong legs moving with ease across the terrain in a steady rythmic fashion.

It was a Friday night, and all Merton wanted to be doing right now was curl up with a book before starting his current project for his psychology class. But far from the warmth of the cozy dorm room he shared with his best friend Tommy, he had wandered through the grounds to the perimeter where there was a dense forest. He rubbed his bare arms, wishing he'd worn his jacket. The night air was crisp and cool, the breeze sending ripples through his sheer satin button down shirt and raising small goose bumps on his arms. The grass was soft and made muffled crunching sounds under his black boots, as he paced back and forth in front of the unwelcoming enclosure of trees before him.

"Tommy?"

His voice wavered slightly, carrying quite well through the quiet night air. He took a breath and put his shoulders back confidently, and strode into the forest in what he hoped was a rather suave and entirely unafraid sort of manner. He was sure that Tommy was in the forest somewhere; he had heard a wolf's howl come from this place. But why was Tommy here? It was the night of the full moon and his lycanthropic buddy should by all rights have been hiding out in the dorm room with some fried chicken, just like he always did at this time of the lunar cycle. But Tommy had complained of not feeling right, and wanting badly to go for a walk in the grounds for a while. Merton had been apprehensive; told him he should stay out of sight. If one of the other students saw him while he was transformed, who knew what might happen? But it had been useless to try talk Tommy out of it, and Merton had given up, content that Tommy would return before the sun set. That had been hours ago and after hearing that howl, Merton had gotten worried and decided to come look for him. Presently, the dark haired and pale skinned teenager screamed, and fell backwards into a shrub.

The wolf was nearing its quarry, streaking silently through the night and keeping his focus on that tangible human scent. But presently something else drew his attention. It was a smell much harsher than a human scent. It intoxicated his senses and caused him to slow to a trot and stop completely, muscles tensed. The wolf wandered towards the source of the smell, the musky odour getting stronger still as he put his muzzle closer to the ground. There was a fox here, he knew. Something instinctive told him so, and he turned away from the smell at once. That was of no real interest to him. The small animal had run through here not long ago, that was certain, but the wolf turned away from his investigations, and continued towards his original target. His eyesight wasn't the best but his sense of smell gave him a distinct mental picture of the area by itself, so the dim light was of no consequence to him.

Merton sat up, pulling leaves from his hair and getting to his feet from his uncomfortable position within the shrub. He watched the spider, which had made him scream, continue its journey across the forest floor, its eight legs carrying it with a sort of disgusting grace deeper into the trees and out of sight. Merton shuddered slightly, shaking his head and running a hand lightly through his black, jauntily spiked hair. He hadn't been at all fond of spiders since his run in with a certain group of human flesh fancying spider people. He gave a sigh of relief and looked around the area, searching for any glimpse of Tommy. And he found himself face to face with a wolf. It was huge, probably twice the size of a normal animal, and it stood a couple of feet from him, looking at him intently, ears twitching. It was brown in colour, with large paws and intelligent looking amber eyes. The animal cocked its head to one side. Merton screamed again, and turned and ran.

[Merton!? Can you hear me?]

Tommy's voice..in his head! Merton looked back over his shoulder at the huge wolf, his legs still pumping under him, and the wolf pursuing him easily. It was gaining on him rapidly. Merton leapt over protruding tree roots and dodged under low branches, whimpering slightly and running with undisguised terror from the beast. But the wolf caugh up to him easily, and all at once the creature pounced powerfully, landing on Merton's back and pushing the goth onto the ground. Merton whimpered and yelled out for Tommy, his eyes squeezed tightly shut.

Oh great, I'm going to be eaten! I don't wanna be devoured! There was so much I needed to do! I don't wanna die a virgin! I mean...I need to write a book, too!

[Merton! Merton it's me!]

The wolf jumped off Merton and sat beside him on his haunches. Merton looked up at the wolf from his position on the ground. He blinked and his eyes grew wide.

"Tommy?! What? I mean how!? I mean why!? I mean..."

Again Tommy's voice came into his head, from the wolf, [I don't know, man. It went dark and I started to change and it just kinda...kept going! Thank goodness you can hear me!]

Merton touched Tommy's face tentatively, bringing his hand down and feeling the soft furry ruff around his neck. He got to his feet and inspected Tommy fully, walking around in a full circle and touching the creature's tail, legs, back.

"This is incredible!" Merton exclaimed suddenly, his face lighting up with excitement. "Do you realise that this it what it really means to be an alpha! I've been researching it for a while, because it seemed odd to me that Carol-"

[Carrrhhollll] Tommy corrected him, pronouncing the name with a bad french accent.

"Yeah, right, her." Merton continued, undeterred, "That she could perform a complete transformation into a cat, yet you just get a little more furry and get some weird looking paws."

[And fangs]

Merton rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, that too! But this! This is...this is..."

[This is not a good thing! I can't even talk with this stupid wolf mouth!] Tommy whined softly and looked around conspiratorily, if that is possible for a wolf, [Merton, my...everything is so weird!]

Merton grinned and sat down next to his friend, before growing serious and staring again at his friend, a thousand thoughts (well maybe not a thousand but that's poetic exaggeration and I'm allowed to do that) racing through his head. Presently, Merton moved his fingers under the creature's stomach and tickled him experimentally. Tommy made an odd purring noise and pulled away.

"Hmmm...Seems like you're still ticklish.."

[No Merton, don't even think about doing any kind of tests on me, okay!? This is not a cool thing!]

Merton sighed softly and leaned back on his hands, his legs flung out in front of him. "Well, think about this. Remember the night you were bitten? You told me about it, and the way you described it, it sounded like it was a very wolf like creature." The goth shifted positions as his eyes grew wider and he leaned closer to his friend, "And remember when we saw Mr Dunleavy!? He didn't look like that did he? He was even bald as a werewolf, nothing like what you saw in the woods that night!"

Tommy seemed to jump a little with realisation. He paced on the forest floor, his tail swishing, [Hey you're right! I never really thought about that!]

Merton was on his feet again, looking up at the stars through the canopy of leaves in a whimsical way, "What if, there's a way to-"

He stopped talking suddenly, and turned to Tommy. The wolf was gone suddenly, and standing before him was Tommy in all his werewolf glory, very humanoid besides his furry face, paws and fangs. Although he was naked. That was a bit of a change.

Merton flushed and turned away, shielding his eyes. "Geez! Could you cover that up please, Wolf Man!"

Tommy yelped and took off at a run, leaving Merton standing in the forest alone. He glanced around apprehensively, before Tommy zoomed back again, with pants this time, and tugging on his shirt.

"Sorry man, they kinda just fell off when I transformed into the wolf." Tommy said, smoothing down his shirt over his lean frame and smiling awkwardly, showing a lot of fang, but still managing somehow to look endearing.

Merton rolled his eyes and patted the werewolf on his back, and two walked out of the forest, plotting ways Tommy could sneak back up to the dorm without detection. From a short distance away, stepping quietly out from behind a tree, a red fox appeared. The small doglike animal watched the two go, before turning and running in the opposite direction, its large bushy tail out behind it like a banner.

"Consider this!" Exclaimed Merton excitedly, pacing the dorm as he talked, his hands moving in large and grand expressions as he talked.

Tommy sat on his bed, watching Merton with a sort of half bored and half nonchalant expression. It was Saturday morning, and Tommy was wolf free, leaning forward on his legs with is forearms, and gazing up at Merton.

"If you think about our lives since your fabled turning, you will notice that our lives have progressed in..." He searched for a word briefly, eyes gazing far off, beyond the walls and dorm room, "...seasons if you will. First you turned, and it was you and me, fighting a new monster every week or whatnot. You were seeing, if you remember, Stacey but had a lot of trouble with this, due to the fact that you got furry whenever you guys even touched."

Tommy shrugged, "Yeah, and?"

Merton continued, "Then you will remember, Stacey left us broken men-"

"Me. Not us." Corrected Tommy.

"Yeah, yeah whatever!" Merton said impatiently, eager to tell the rest of his story. "So then we met the lovely and charming Lori who you also dated," He paused briefly and rolled his eyes, a faint trace of bitterness taking hold of his features, before he continued. "And with her you never had any trouble with touching, kissing, fondling, s-"

"Merton, get on with it." Prompted Tommy flatly, from his space on the bed.

"Okay okay, so with Lori you never wolfed out while you guys were getting all cozy." He grinned suddenly and put his hands on his hips, "Except of course, the time I was in your head and we kissed her. Truth to tell I am rather-"

Tommy stood up, ignoring his friend's rambling, "So what, you're saying I learnt to control my werewolf...ism, better as we went along?"

Merton nodded, stopping his pacing and standing before Tommy. He gestured wildly, "And now it seems not only can you control involuntary transformations, you can at will become a full fledged wolf. A sort of large wolf, but a wolf! With the teeth and the tail and growling! The running through the forest silently like a heartfelt but unheard whisper of unrequited love!"

Tommy rolled his eyes, "Yeah, okay Shakespeare. I get it." He paused in thought for a moment, before adding, "Yeah...I just kinda concentrated and thought about being my regular werewolf self, and I kinda just, transformed back."

Merton nodded and checked his watch. He turned from Tommy and started rummaging through his belongings noisily. It was a strangely decorated dorm room, to be sure. One side was a simple single bed with a blue duvet with a few posters of football players and girls in bikinis on the walls. There was a dresser with a broken silver clock on it, and some stray socks on the floor, along with a football and football jersey, and a standard desk against the wall with a few books on it, and a small television set. The other side was bedecked with assorted wall ornaments and hangings, including swords, shieilds and a tattered Marilyn Manson poster. The bed was a single bed with intricate black cast iron frame that had arcs and curves on the bedhead, and the initials of MD rather pretentiously positioned in the center. It was made with black sheets and a black shimmering quilted blanket over the top. There was a shelving unit stacked with bottles full of assorted odd things floating in preservant. And there was a desk identical to the one on the other side of the room, but this one with a computer on it and a great deal more books and other items as if this was a desk much more often used than the other. Merton had pulled a large black, ornately carved chest from under his bed and was pulling out assorted books, all very thick, with worn hardcovers.

He looked over his shoulder at Tommy and called, "Hey, can you grab my frock for me? It's the first meeting of the Gothic Fantasy Guild. Or, Gamma Digamma Gamma!" He shrugged, "Sure, it's not very catchy. But forget other fraternities, we're really going somewhere!"

Tommy got up off the bed and went to Merton's wardrobe. "Well good luck with that then, man." He pulled out the frock, holding it up and shaking his head before throwing it at Merton. "Anyways I'm gonna go throw the pigskin around with a few of the guys, I'll see you later."

Merton heard the jock leave the room and close the door. Merton stood up and sighed softly, "Ah, those crazy athletes. They know not what they do."

The room was a small one, once occupied by another fraternity who had died out and left the room vacant. After a lot of persuasion, Merton had been allowed to use it as the meeting place for the Gothic Fantasy Guild. There were a couple of threadbare couches and chairs, with a window that looked out over the grounds, although this window had been covered by a dark black velvet curtain, shutting out the natural light. The room was dimly lit by candles, and Merton stood before his assemblage in all his frocked out glory. Besides Merton, there was one other person in the room, an odd looking kind of boy of Merton's age, with dark reddish brown hair that stuck out of the back, and a bangs that framed his face and hung in his eyes. He wore a brown jacket with a scattering of one inch pins on it with band names on them and other slogans. His tshirt was a faded orange one that said something about an extremely outdated brand of dishwashing detergent with a cartoon lady on the front holding a sparkling wine glass.

"Where's everyone else?" he asked, looking up at Merton through his hair.

Merton seemed to take notice of the boy properly and he lost his authoritive composure. "Hey! You're not a goth! You're one of those..." He looked around, eyes narrowed as if there were people listening to him in the walls, "emos." He said it in a conspiratorial whisper.

The boy scoffed and folded his arms, looking away as he replied, "I'm not emo, I just like the music. And hair. I'm more indie if anything really." He looked up at Merton again, "Besides I kinda dig occult stuff so why shouldn't I be here?"

Merton seemed to gaze off into space as he spoke, "Ah if I could turn you from your leanings, that you might embrace the dark more fully. Turn from your whining music full of its tortured crying about lost love and broken promise rings." He snapped back to reality and looked at the boy again, "Besides, you are the only one who showed up. So sure, why not."

The boy stood up from his spot on the couch and smiled softly, "I'm Mitch, by the way. Merton Dingle, right?" He held out his hand in greeting.

Merton returned to the dorm room that night, arms full of books which he promptly fumbled with and dropped on the floor as he tried to open the door. Tommy, who'd been watching TV while lying on his stomach on his bed, got up and opened the door for the smaller boy. Merton smiled sheepishly in thanks, and began to pick up his dropped books. Tommy stooped down to help him.

"Hey man, you're back pretty late. Did the meeting go well?" Tommy asked nonchalantly, as the two boys entered the dorm room, both now carrying books.

Merton threw the books on his bed and headed over to the small bar fridge which was in between his and Tommy's desks. He opened the door and pulled out an apple, which he began noisily eating at once.

His voice was rather muffled with apple, "Yeah, well we got into talking about a few things and headed to the library to find out more." He took another bite of the apple and sat down at his desk, turning on his computer.

Tommy was still half watching a some obscure program on TV which was in French with subtitles, "Oh man that chick is so hot!" He exclaimed, and Merton glanced at the TV set before shaking his head and turning to his computer.

The dorm room was silent except for Merton's rythmic typing and Tommy's crazy French tv show playing quietly. The jock had fallen asleep on his stomach and was twitching slightly in his sleep slightly, dreaming of running through the woods after a deer. He began to snore softly and Merton glanced over his shoulder at his friend. He scoffed quietly and turned back to his computer, checking the goth forums for new updates.

"Pffft...Cam whores. Not again." He sighed and closed the browser and all the evil of its photos of goth girls and boys looking up at the camera with such stark contrast that even the elephant man would look cute.

Merton got up and went to his bed, picking up his books he had dropped there, and beginning to stack them into his shelves on his desk. He decided to headed to the bathroom to change into his pajamas, passing close by Tommy's sleeping form. In his sleep, the other boy growled softly, as his dreams turned from deer to an elusive red vulpine that yapped at him, its intoxicating scent so palpable that he awoke with a start, certain it was in the room. But there was only him, and the sound of Merton turning on the shower.

Tommy was sitting at his desk in the dorm room, tapping his pen on his A4 notebook. He had written three words for his essay on social sciences. Unfortunately those words were nothing to do with social science. He'd been thinking for a long time about the essay and his mind had wandered to football, and he'd rememebered that he needed to get his jersey washed. So naturally, he had written 'must clean jersey'. The lean footballer sighed and threw his pen down, his mouth set in a line sourly. All he wanted to do when he graduated was play football and maybe fight the occasional unspeakable evil with Merton and Lori. Was that so weird? Yeah, bring on the vampires, the shapeshifting monstrosities, the hot girls with ulterior motives that'd make you spit your drink out. Presently his thoughts snapped back to Lori, and he grabbed the phone which hung on the wall, and hit her number which was on their speed dial. He cleared his throat self consciously and waited for his friend to pick up.

"Hello?"

Tommy grinned, "Lori! It's Tommy, how's it going?"

On the other end, Lori was surrounded by books, sitting at a small desk in her dorm room. Her roommate was on the other side of the dorm doing the same thing. At the sound of Tommy's familiar voice, Lori smiled prettily and put down her pen.

"Tommy, hey! Everything's okay here. I'm pretty busy but I love it. How're you and Merton doing?"

Tommy was quiet for just a moment and then replied heartily, "Yeah great, just great, really really...great!"

Lori's brow creased slightly in a frown, "Tommy?"

"Lori."

"You're still the world's worst liar." Lori leaned back in her chair, putting her feet on on the desk, "What's up?"

Tommy sighed audibly, "Ah it's nothing, nothing. It's just I hardly even see Merton anymore. He's always off with this weird guy, researching weird occult stuff or whatever."

Lori smirked twirled a strand of her golden blonde hair around one finger as she replied, "Oh really? Shouldn't you be happy he's found someone who likes the same things he does?"

"No no! I am! It's not that it's not that at all! What, you, you think I'm jealous or something? I mean come on!" Tommy countered, leaning on the desk and resting his head on his hand, "It's just that the guy's a little weird. I only met him once really quickly. But like...he smells funny."

"Tommy, you're so jealous!"

"I'm not jealous! I'm serious! He smells really weird!"

Lori sighed and decided to change the subject, "So any other news?"

Tommy began to reply and then started suddenly, "Yes! Yes there is actually! The other week, on the full moon, I was out and..."

Merton and Mitch were huddled in a hedge, near the town square, totally out of sight from the passing townspeople. Merton poked his head out and peered through some binoculars.

"Pssst, Merton." Mitch whispered.

Merton dropped back down and out of sight into the hedge, and turned to the red head, "Yeah?"

A look of consternation passed over the emo boy's face. "I was just wondering. State U is fifteen minutes out of town; why do you live on campus if your house is so close? We do go to State U don't we?"

Merton looked confused for a moment before he replied, "Well, I moved out of the lair when I thought I was going to Heidelburg so I guess I just..." He trailed off, frowning again.

"Why does Tommy live on Campus too?"

Merton regained his composure and grabbed the other boy's shoulders, "Look, I guess it's just easier for us to get to our classes that way. It was something never fully explained to anyone, but I go home for vacation and whatnot. Could we please have a little focus on our mission, hmm?"

Mitch nodded and dropped the subject, "Yeah right. So what are we doing anyway? Is there a vampire cult that has set up base somewhere around here?"

Merton shook his head, his expression grave. He clutched the large medallion that hung around his neck nervously.

"It's far worse than that, my musically challenged friend."

"I'm going to ignore that." Mitch said boredly, rolling his eyes and flicking hair out of his eyes.

"My sister Becky's got a date at the Rialto today. Seems things are getting pretty serious between her and the young man she's seeing." Merton peeked out of the shrub again, positioning the binoculars once more.

A gaggle of teenagers passed by them, all looking decidedly depressed. This was nothing unusual. But suddenly Merton did a double take a looked again. Something about the way they were dressed. The careless hair. The 1" pins. The band patches on their identical messenger bags. The way they sighed and scuffed their converse shoes in unison and shook their heads as if debating the meaninglessness of life. And weren't those guys all former football players?

"Oh my gosh! They all look like..." Merton glanced at Mitch who had also poked his head out of the hedge, "You!"

Mitch shrugged and looked nonchalant, "Yeah. I must commend their excellent wardrobe choices and that girl's Bright Eyes tshirt. Conor Oberst is a visionary."

Merton took his gaze away from the group and inspected other townspeople who were milling about the place. Now that he noticed it, they were all dressed like that, all with the same hair, the same too small tshirts, the same plastic bracelets and many with labrett piercings.

"Oh man this is weird!" Exclaimed Merton, standing up and forgetting about hiding in the hedge, "Those girls over there used to be on the cheerleading squad!"

Merton stepped out of the hedge, brushing leaves off his trenchcoat, and wandered down the street, looking around at everyone. Now that he noticed it, there wasn't even one person who didn't at least have a 1 inch pin and a pair of faded converse, or a faded tshirt with a band's name on it, or obscure logo for a forgotten item.

"What in the name of all that's chocolate is Mary Jane's Typewriter Repairs!" Exclaimed Merton, starting to freak out.

Mitch crawled out of the hedge, fixing his hair, and went to Merton's side, putting his arm around him, "Hey, settle down will you?"

"I will not settle down! This is not natural!" Cried Merton, his breath coming in short gasps. Suddenly he screamed and yelled, "That lady is my old science teacher and she's wearing a Dashboard Confessional tshirt!"

"Pfft, yeah. DC did sell out a bit with the whole, Spiderman soundtrack thing." Agreed Mitch. He grinned and laughed shortly, "I think it's kinda funny, though. It amuses me."

Merton brushed the other boy off him and folded his arms, "Something really weird is going on."

There was a slamming of the door and then Merton heard Tommy's heavy footsteps as he entered the room and flicked on the light. Shielding his eyes, Merton sat up in bed and pulled the covers up to his chin modestly.

"Tommy, do you know what time it is? Where have you been? I've got an early class tomorrow."

He heard Tommy scoff and kick off his shoes. Still slightly blinded by the light, Merton blinked tiredly at his friend. There was something different about him, but in his post sleep-fuzzy state he couldn't place it right away.

"What does it matter?" Tommy asked with a melodramatic sigh, "I went out for a walk. I just wanna listen to some Julianna Theory and go to bed."

Merton jumped out of bed, standing bare foot in his pajama pants and no shirt. His pale chest gleamed slightly in the bright light, "Listen to what!?" He exclaimed.

At once he circled Tommy, looking him up and down, "Oh my no! They got you too!" he cried, embracing his friend and wailing into the other boy's shoulder, "Say it isn't so, say this is some awful dream!"

Tommy flicked his hair out of eyes - how did that get so long suddenly? - and straightened a 1 inch pin on his Get Up Kids tshirt, "Reality may be an awful dream that we only wake from when we die." His eyes glazed over for a moment, "Man I need to write that in my journal."

Merton released his friend and took a step backwards, tripping on Tommy's converse shoes and landing on the floor, "You have a journal?! Tommy what happened to you tonight? You were fine this morning!"

"Yes...yes how quickly things change." Tommy said darkly, "Like the girl with the reddish gold hair. She was my angel but fate took her from me. She never even wrote or called. Not even at all."

"The what!? The who!?" Merton was beside himself, pacing in small circles and throwing his hands in the air.

Tommy reached down and picked up his much loved football. He seemed torn for a moment, before his eyes glazed over again, and he threw it at the trash can next to the fridge. It fell short and landed on the ground.

Merton continued his pacing, concentration all over his face. He moved to his desk and started pulling out book at random and throwing them over his shoulder, "Let's see, Animal Transformations, Secrets of High Magic, Man Into Wolf, Encyclopedia of Occult Sciences, Episode Guide to Buffy Season four..." He paused in his throwing of this book and held it close to his heart for a moment, "Oh and what a season it was..." He shook his head and dropped the book, stalking away from the desk to resume pacing. "There's nothing in any of them about mind controlling cults that turn everyone into emotional wrecks with terrible music taste!" He bit his knuckle and whined, looking at Tommy for help.

Tommy however, was sitting on his bed listening to his discman, while writing in a small black book, his tongue out at the side of his mouth in concentration. Merton threw his hands up in the air and sighed. He ventured over to his friend and peered at the book.

"Tommy, betrayal only has one r." He said, but Tommy couldn't hear him over the music in his ears, and Merton walked back to his desk, turning on his computer.

Mitch was lying lethargically on one of the couches in the Guild's headquarters. Merton paced in front of him, noticeably agitated. The other boy seemed not to notice the black haired boy's state, and was casually twirling hair around his finger and humming some repetitive tune. His foot moved in time with the tune, danging over the arm of the couch.

"What if-!?" Merton stopped and started pacing again. He stopped suddenly and exclaimed, "Or maybe they-!"

Mitch watched him in a nonplussed sort of way, as was his custom, hair hanging lankly in his eyes, as he began drumming the beat softly on his chest with one hand. His large amber eyes watched the goth boy in a bemused sort of way.

"That's it!" Cried Merton, stopping in front of Mitch and dropping to a crouch in front of him. He grabbed the other boys hands in his and said dramatically, "What we are dealing with, are obviously body snatching fiends from a parallel dimension who...are...going uh...who...have..." He trailed off, shoulders slumping. He grew serious again, "Me and Tommy will just have to...have to..."

Mitch smirked slightly at one corner of his mouth, "Maybe it's a werewolf."

Merton's eyes grew wide and he dropped Mitch's hands, staggering backwards, "But...What would a...a werewolf have to do..with.."

Mitch sat up gracefully, emitting a soft purring noise before stopping himself, and looking up at Merton through his hair. "Did you know there was a werewolf spotted on the grounds a few weeks ago?"

Merton laughed nervously, "Werewolf?" He laughed again, "Yeah right, what else was seen, the Swamp Thing? Britney Spears?"

"Ew! How dare you speak of such evil here." Mitch made a face, before regaining his calm, cold expression again, "Anways, I'm gonna get going. I've got a few assignments to do." He stood up and stretched, holding his arms above his head so that his tshirt lifted slightly exposing a little of his stomach. He grinned and slapped Merton's cheek playfully, "Good luck catching the scary emo people, Merton."

With that he trotted out of the room lightly on the balls of his feet. Such a weird, weird guy. Merton shrugged it off and collected up his assorted amulets and artifacts the boys had been examining earlier. College sure wasn't what he'd been expecting. A place where he would finally have a huge band of goth followers to hang out with, kinda like Tommy with his football buddies. But no, instead the only friend he'd made was Mitch. Sure, the guy was interesting, if a little eccentric and his gazes a little too intense. Although, he mused, not getting shoved in a locker everyday was really something to be quite pleased about. So really, college was as step up from highschool...but then, many things were a step up from highschool. But now everyone in the entire town seemed to be turning into Mitch clones. The air elicited a faint musky smell, and Merton licked his lips. It reminded him of something but he wasn't sure what. He sighed, and left the room, wondering how to help Tommy.

Tommy was running through the forest again, in his full wolf form. It seemed the only way to get any peace from the meaninglessness of life was to do this. He tramped over leaves and leapt over shrubbery, enjoying the feeling of being so sure footed and agile. And his sense of smell and hearing were so much keener than they'd ever been in his original werewolf form. He also honestly didn't mind having a tail. But the best thing was the way that the wolf seemed more a part of him than ever before. His whole way of thinking seemed to alter slightly, his perception of the world seemed to change. Suddenly everything was so much easier to understand. When he was sad, he was miserable, but when he was happy, the world was wonderful. Nothing mattered but the delicious smells on the wind, the earth under his paws. The heat of the sun or the cold of the night. His thick coat protected him and was so comfortable around his muscular frame. When he was the wolf, even his sudden realisation that life was an undreamt dream trapped within a nightmare, and that nothing he ever did would ever amount to anything, and that he'd had his heart broken so many times, suddenly that stuff didn't matter quite so much anymore, and he could gambol with leaves and gnaw on sticks and everything was dandy.

Then he smelt that familiar smell again. The fox was nearby again. He briefly remembered smelling it the night before when he'd been out here, right before the realisation of life being an undreamt dream and all that. He stopped in his tracks suddenly, and something seemed to click. He wasn't sure what, but he pursued the smell of the fox stealthily, making sure that the wind was blowing in his face so that the smaller creature would not smell his presence. He crept nearer, the pads on his paws hardly making a sound as he stepped lightly over the ground. He spotted the fox as he climbed a small rise. It was down near the lake, drinking delicately, seemingly oblivious that any college students might pass it. And why should it be worried anyway, Tommy reasoned. It wasn't as if anyone had ever been scared of a fox devouring them. The same however could not be said for him, for he knew the sight of a large brown wolf would be something that most would run screaming from.

He lay down in the grass, his furry belly pressed firmly against the warm earth, his tail stretched out behind him. He rested his head on his front paws and watched the fox dolefully with his sharp eyes. The small reddish brown animal had stopped drinking. It seemed to sense his presence, and was doing spy-hops in order to see the area around it more clearly. Being so close to the ground, it was hard for the fox to get a bearing on where it was. Suddenly its ears pricked, and it shrank down into some long grass near the lake, almost totally out of sight. When it kept absolutely still, Tommy's poor eyesight could barely make out the other animal. He saw the fox open its mouth slightly in a foxy grin, long pink tongue hanging out between its lower canine teeth. Tommy's ears pricked and he got a sense of danger, as he heard a small group of students walking towards the lake. All carried clipboards and Tommy's hearing could pick out most of their conversation. It seemed that they were doing a biology assignment of some kind. He saw the fox stand up from its hiding place, and the students cried out in surprise at first, and then they all grew quiet and started to comment on how cute the creature was.

Pffft, cute. Why doesn't anyone ever call me cute? Thought Tommy bitterly, Well...except maybe Merton. But I mean...he has a pet snake that he thinks is cute, too.

The fox walked slowly towards the humans, and Tommy cocked his head to one side. He crept a little closer, keeping very close to the ground. He saw the fox's amber eyes begin to glow with an unnatural light, which burst forth all at once and engulfed the students. The light was gone as quickly as it came, and the students all looked at one another suddenly. Tommy did a double take. Suddenly the students were all wearing different clothes, and their hair was...lank and hanging in their eyes. Tommy overheard fragments of their conversation. Life was meaningless, they all wanted badly to listen to Taking Back Sunday. The fox took off from them, scampering back towards the forest.

Why did it do that!? Tommy thought.

He didn't expect the fox to respond, but it paused beside him and grinned. [It amuses me.] The fox yapped happily and bounded away with little hops and jumps, as agile as a cat.

Tommy lay on his bed, gazing at the roof, still listening to his music. Something had happened in the forest the night before. Trouble was, he was so damn depressed about everything, he couldn't remember.

"Merton, when people die, they become nothing more than words, you know that, words!" He exclaimed, putting another cd in his discman.

Merton rolled his eyes and looked over at his friend from where he was studying at his desk. Tommy had been going on like this all day, and it seemed nothing Merton did made him feel any better. Searching for something to say, the pale skinned boy straightened his tight fitting black shirt with a red dragon on the front. Several amulets clanged together when he moved to stand up.

"Tommy! If you could only hear yourself!" He sighed in resignation and kneeled by Tommy's bed, stroking Tommy's face. "I'll find out who did this to you, okay?"

Tommy sighed melodramatically and caught Merton's hand in his own gripping it lightly, "Oh Merton, if you could only see the total wasteland that is around you. A boulevard of broken dreams."

Merton shifted to a more comfortable position beside the bed, frowning slightly, "Tommy, Greenday aren't emo."

"Yeah well I-"

They were interupted by the sound of the door creaking open. Mitch stood in the doorway, arms folded across his jacket. His eyes flicked from Merton to Tommy and back again, lingering on the boys' apparent intimate embrace. Merton stood up, seemingly unaware that his comforting Tommy had been misconstrued and walked towards his friend.

"Mitch, hi. We're having sort of a crisis so-"

Mitch stepped close to the goth and fixed him with a stare, "Need some...personal time, do you?" he said softly.

"What do you mean?! Well yes, maybe! But no, not like, uh..." Merton trailed off and wet his lips. He grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair at the desk and gestured to the door, "Nevermind, let's get down to the library."

Mitch continued to stare at Merton all the way to the campus's library. They entered the large, air conditioned building and made their way towards the occult and paranormal section. It was rarely frequented by anyone else.

He cocked his head to one side, "What's up with you and the jock boy?"

Merton looked confused, "I'm sorry, what?"

Mitch grinned, and turned to face Merton fully, shoving him playfully against the bookshelf, "You like werewolves?"

Merton rolled his eyes, still pressed against the shelf, his head resting on a thick volume pertaining information about spontaneous human combustion, "Again with the werewolf thing!" his eyes narrowed and he looked at Mitch, noticing for the first time that the boy was slightly shorter than him, which was odd. He wasn't too tall himself, "And what...what would Tommy have to do with...?"

Mitch grinned, and Merton saw his eyes glow amber for a moment. The goth stiffened and whimpered, looking around frantically for an escape route. But Mitch had him wedged firmly against the shelf now. Although shorter, the other boy was slightly stronger than Merton.

Mitch pressed a finger to Merton's lips, "I know he's the werewolf, Merton. But I have a secret too. It's way better than regular old boring lycanthropy."

Merton made a muffled sort of noise, a hot flush creeping over his face. This whole physical proximity thing with the glowing eyes and the touchy feely against the bookshelf shovey thing, it wasn't cool. Mitch looked around michievously, and again Merton saw the amber glow. And suddenly Mitch seemed to exude light for a second, and there was a bright amber flash. Sitting before Merton was a reddish brown fox, all fluffy fur and bushy tail with a white tip. His legs were inky black, the backs of his ears also. In spite of the situation, Merton couldn't help but think it was the cutest thing he'd ever seen. And that musky smell, it was stronger. Mitch grinned at him foxily and took off, his clothes in a pile on the floor where he'd been sitting. Merton took off after the small fox. Mitch caused quite an uproar in the library, leaping lightly across desks and between people's legs. Girls screamed in shock at the small doglike creature, others dropped stacks of books. The fox streaked out of the library gracefully with Merton blundering behind. He followed the fox through the grounds, oblivious to the confused looks of the students around him, although most all of them seemed far too preoccupied with being depressed about the meaninglessness of life to really care. Merton stopped, gasping for breath, as Mitch paused in front of a pretty looking girl with long blonde hair. His eyes glowed and suddenly she was enveloped in amber light. The light fell away and she suddenly had black, short messy hair that hung in her eyes, and a tshirt that informed the world she spoke Mongolian. She sighed deeply and trudged away. Mitch turned and looked at Merton, yapping teasingly, before streaking away again.

"Oh my gosh! He's a shapeshifting, human...changing...emo...boy...fox...! Who is evil!" Merton exclaimed.

He whimpered and ran back to his dorm room.

"That's it!" Cried Merton enthusiastically, looking up from a large worn volume he was poring over.

Tommy looked at him from where he was writing in his journal on the bed, "What?" He asked boredly.

Merton picked up the book and went over to Tommy, speaking enthusiasically, "The Japanese called them Kitsune, mischevious fox spirits who can take the form of a fox or a human!" He frowned, "Of course, most of them were hot girls not emo boys, but..."

"Well, he does seem a little gay." Tommy put in helpfully, before he seemed to recover himself. "And how very meaningless that is."

Merton rolled his eyes, and continued reading, "According to legend, the Kitsune never caused any serious harm to mankind, but loved to play tricks on people. As they matured, it is said they would get more tails, as many as nine." He considered this for a moment, "Mitch only has one tail, so I guess that means that he's just an adolescent. Or something."

Tommy had returned to his journal, where he seemed to be writing poetry about how bright the stars had been in the sky that night, how blue her eyes, and the salty smell of sweetness.

Merton grabbed Tommy's shoulders and shook him, "Come on Tommy, we gotta go get him, you can wolf him up, make him turn everyone back to normal!"

"Normal? What's normal anymore?" Tommy asked, turning his music up to drown out Merton, "Leave me. There is no more that can be done. Nothing will ever be, not ever."

"What the hell are you saying?!" Yelled Merton. He gave an exasperated sigh and stalked over to his desk."Looks like it's up to me." He complemented himself on his drama, and flipped through the book, searching for more information.

Merton tramped into the forest, apprehensive and shaking slightly. It was dusk, and the whole forest was lit with the ghostly half light.

"Mitch?" He called tentatively, "I know what you are, and I'm afraid I'm going to have to...stop you?"

It was more of a question than a threat, as Merton moved deeper into the forest. He had left Tommy in the dorm, the former jock bawling his eyes out over 7th Heaven. Merton wasn't sure if that was so much emo as it was bizarrely disturbing, but he knew if he could just reason with Mitch, the fox boy would surely turn everyone back. Right?

Merton continued walking, boots crunching the leaves. He held an amulet before him menacingly, as if it would protect him from all unseen dangers. Presently, he heard a twig snap, and whirled around to face the source of the sound. Mitch stood there, human again, jacket and hair blowing gently in the soft breeze. Merton took a step backwards, holding the amulet up in front of his face.

Mitch looked bored, "What's that, Merton?" he asked, stepping closer and running his eyes up and down Merton's form, finally resting on the amulet.

"It's a...talisman for safety in travel." Merton said lamely. "It was all I could think of. I don't happen to have anti-kitsune amulets. They don't stock those on Ebay."

Mitch folded his arms and fixed Merton with his unblinking gaze, "Merton, I'm not a kitsune. One of my ancestors was posessed by one, and the result was that a few people in my family have the gift of shapeshifting, and we can make small changes. Harmless ones."

Merton backed away further, "And the...the glowing eyes and the making everyone despair with desperation!?" He put his hands on his hips, "Not to mention the music. Just try tell me you're not evil!?"

"But I'm not!" Exclaimed Mitch, looking stricken, "I thought it was funny is all. To make everyone feel the way I do."

Merton rolled his eyes and scoffed, "What, feel delluded? Life isn't meaningless. There's plenty to live for. You don't have to listen to awful music and write depressing poetry all the time." He looked around before adding, "And on that note, Tommy's poetry is terrible."

"The music is good." Mitch said huffily, looking away from Merton and letting his hair fall in his eyes. "And don't worry about your precious werewolf or anyone else for that matter, they'll be back to normal by tomorrow. It's the new moon. My powers only work while the moon is waning."

Merton stepped closer to the other boy and patting his arm awkwardly, "Well, you may have just ruined the fight scene, which makes this absolutely useless as anything other than a lame fan fiction-"

"What?" Mitch asked, confused and bewildered.

"What? I didn't say anything." Merton said, "Just that, well, can you please not do this again? I don't really enjoy having to see Tommy think. He's gonna have cluster headaches for weeks."

Mitch smiled softly and patted Merton's hand lightly, "Yeah, whatever."

The two boys headed off back towards the dorm rooms, feet scuffing the dirt. Merton turned to his friend, "Hey Mitch, why didn't you use your crazy emo-magick on me, too?"

Mitch grinned mischievously and stopped in his tracks, stopping Merton also, and leaning close to him to whisper in his ear, "Because you're way too cute with spikey hair for me to ruin it."

Merton yelped and started to say something, but felt Mitch's lips lightly brush his own, before the other boy drew away and gave a short laugh. He turned on his heel and trotted away, leaving Merton standing in the darkened grounds, that faint musky aroma all around him. Merton watched the red haired boy walk towards the dormitory.

"Mitch! Everyone knows that the fans don't wanna see me get all smoochy smoochy with some obscure new character!" He threw his hands up, "They want it to be Tommy or at least someone that they're already familiar with!"

Mitch turned back suddenly, "What are you talking about?"

"I said nothing." Merton shrugged, shaking his head.

Sure enough, the whole 'emo' thing wore off the next day. Although a few students did seem to hold onto their Bright Eyes cds, and some of the girls kept the black hair thing going, and well everyone loves converse high tops. There were a hell of a lot of 1 inch pins found discarded around the place over the next few days, something Mitch felt was a personal outrage. And as for Tommy's brief stint as a tortured emo, he went back to playing football and thinking only as was required in order to talk to walk at the same time.

"O! But what is this sweet pain!

In that sweet oblivion I saw the distance in your eyes

I gave it all away!

So bright the stars reflected,

All those things I couldn't say!

I did it for you, I did it for you!

I meant every word! Beloved! Your name...'

"Quit it, Merton!" Cried Tommy, throwing a pillow at Merton and covering his ears.

Merton giggled and turned from the journal, "Oh but Tommy, it gets even better...listen: I hearken to the sweet, sweet sound of-"

Tommy snarled loudly and his eyes glowed yellow. Merton promptly dropped the book and laughed nervously. From the doorway, Mitch watched the exchange with a cold expression. His eyes lingered on Merton, and then on Tommy. Tossing his head so that his hair fell in his eyes, he put his head down and walked away.

ZE END!