Curse of the Suburban Werewolf

A Story by Karl Herzog

Poor Sean so distracted by his emotional turmoils he wonders the suburbs in the evening. The full moon's out and the change starts. Where can he go to change where he won't hurt anyone?

With the stress of work, his wife leaving for an obese-middle Aged-Santa impersonator with chronic flatulence, Sean needed to go for long walk! It's summer so the afternoons were long and the suburb he was walking through was upper class, two storey houses to Sean’s left and to his right gum trees going up the hill.

Sean walked for hours when a pain struck throughout his body. Like a burning metal rod going up his spine, into his skull, every muscle tensed up in pain. To Sean it felt like the stomach flu, migraine and food poisoning all in one.

'No...not now.'

Sean thought as he was bent over clutching his stomach. He looked up, it was twilight and the full moon was out. He was so overwhelmed with problems that he forgot about his condition. The nature reserve was ideal but too close to the suburbs, best he could do is break into the nearest home and lock himself in, after all it was Christmas holidays and clearly everyone was away.

Sean found an empty house. He smashed the side window to the laundromat. Covering the broken glass on the window sill with his shirt, Sean carefully crawled inside. He picked up his shirt from the window sill and walked throughout the house. Sean found the parent’s bedroom, conveniently with a lock. He stepped in, closed the door, locked himself in, took off his clothes and braced himself for the painful metamorphosis Sean was terrified to go through.

Hours passed and all was well until the family of that house arrived, they were back early from their holidays. Pulling up in the driveway, glad to be home from a long drive. The father and mother entered first with what luggage they could carry from the van. The father, struggling with the door and a gym bag on his shoulder tried opening the door to their bedroom.

"Hey the door's locked. I don't remember doing that."

Their eight-year-old girl stood behind him, clutching her stuffed toy Panda/tiger her mum won her at the shooting gallery at the local annual show.

"Why do you and mummy have a lock on your bedroom door?"

The father struggled to unlock the door.

"So you don't interrupt mummy and daddy's nightly, warm, fuzzy feeling, playtime tingles."

The little girl stood confused as her mum stood behind her.

"...what?"

The mother chuckled and covered her mouth just as the dad opened the door.

"Nothing."

The Paul Rudd look-alike dad swung open the bedroom door to reveal the Wolf Man on all fours breathing heavily and growling.

"Puppy!"

The girl cried out with a huge smile.

"What!? How did a dog get in here?"

The mother exclaimed as she clutched her daughter’s shoulders. The man beast paused, confused, staring at the family with its head tilted like a domestic pet dog. The mother walked away as the father stood shielding the little girl and keeping an eye on the strange and very large dog to see how the ‘animal’ got in.

"Oh...the Laundromat window's broken. Not sure how…there’s no sign of a break in. He must've walked along the hill right next to the house and jumped through."

Her explanation seemed ‘far-fetched’ and even the mother new that They were too astounded that now there was an oversized ‘husky’ in the house.

Astounded by their lack of fear, Werewolf Sean went along with the moment. The small family owned a big dog, a boxer which sadly died a few months before. In a way they were elated to have a pet again but it was only for one night, the father would wait until morning when he'd try to find its owner. As much as they’d like a new dog it was the right thing to do.

They kept the shapeshifter chained up in the garage, with a doggy bed, bowl of dog food they found and a bowl of water.

"isn't this a bit cruel that we have a stray dog chained up I our garage?"

Pipped up the mother as the little girl was patting and cuddling the beast.

"Normally I'd think so but I'm keen to find its owners and we don't know how it got in here so we don't know if he'll get out."

The girl stopped and asked.

"How do you know it's a boy, dad?"

The father’s face went red and he scratched his head as he did when his daughter asked him an awkward question he didn’t have a smart a*s answer for.

"Well…I ahhhhh.....checked its plumbing."

The Werewolf groaned.

"Besides, he's got a soft bed, water, he won't freeze and the chain is long enough so he can walk all around the garage."

The night came and went, the little girl woke up all excited about their temporary pet. The parents got up not long after the girl and had breakfast over discussing taken the dog to the vet. As they did this the girl quickly finished her bowl of cereal and rushed to the garage, the parents breakfast ended with their little girls scream.

Mother and father bolted for the garage. Inside the garage was a naked man sitting on the doggy bed, covering his genitalia, dog collar around his neck. Red faced and embarrassed all he said was.

"May I get my clothes back, please?"

© 2018 Karl Herzog

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Arial Wicklund

Just reading over your first sentence I think it would be more punchy to start with, "His wife left him for an obese-middle Aged-Santa impersonator with chronic flatulence." Although, it doesn't fareshadow the story, it does generate interest because... I've never seen that in a sentence before, especially not in a werewolf story. The sentence sticks with me. But, I would play with it a bit to see if there is a way you can put some foreshadowing in the first sentence.
Look up some resources about how to show rather than tell what is going. Use all the senses like smell and taste. Like, wouldn't he taste something foul or rusty as he is experiencing the pain of the change? Don't tell me the full moon is out. Show me how bright everything is and how the moonlight cascades over him. Don't tell me he punched through the window, show me how the glass splintered around his fist and shattered into diamond dust (although, a tip, Sean should probably wrap his hand in his shirt so he doesn't cut up his hands beyond repair unless he rapidly heals as a werewolf? If so, show that). Things like that.
Story structure is good. The character has a goal, get to a safe place to change. But, the family comes home and finds him. Therefore, they mistake him for a dog and keep him likea temporary pet. And to raise the tension, he changes back into a human while in their care. Bravo!