I woke to a burning sensation on my chest. I scratched and swiped, taking far too long to realize it felt like my necklace—a little crucifix I'd gotten from my grandmother at my First Communion when I was like ten—felt like it had been left out in the sun for ten hours. I ripped it off, the chain snapping around the back of my neck, and tossed it across the room.

What the hell?

Sweat soaked my body. I pushed myself slowly to a seated position. My leg had been bandaged, and dried blood caked the gauze.

When had that happened? My memory was hazy. How much had I drunk? Visions danced through my brain. A blood-covered woman in a dumpster—that can't be right. Getting attacked by a rabid dog. Eric with two gorgeous women. That one was probably true.

My head throbbed, chest burned, and I was starving. But no matter how much my mind wanted to get up, my body wasn't having it. A fever had taken hold, and I was helpless.

Amid the damp darkness, I noticed a blurry orange blob in my vision. I shifted my eyes. It followed. I closed my eyes. It poofed away. Then, I opened them again. Surprise! There it was.

I shook out my head, thinking it was a weird side-effect of the alcohol, but it just wouldn't go away.

Then, I blinked, and it sharpened into a heads-up display with a bunch of numbers and symbols I didn't understand. Had I really hit my head that hard? Was I hallucinating what appeared to be a video game overlay in my vision? Finally, I stood, managed to waddle over to my desk, and opened my laptop.

I searched for "orange text vision," which came up with absolutely nothing. As I added keywords, the results got a little more interesting. At one point, Google suggested "gamification" as something I might be interested in searching. After clicking on that link, a bunch of results with thorough descriptions came up. It sounded like what I saw, but why was it happening to me? Had someone "gamified" me?

It was a dream. That's all. Had to be, really. A result of the fever.

But I felt very much awake.

My head ached, but I sat in front of the laptop and fruitlessly searched for answers. The more I looked, the more stressed I became as no answers were forthcoming. As much as I didn't want my father alerted to what happened last night, I was starting to think I should see a doctor.

But I couldn't.

Even if he somehow didn't flip out, they would institutionalize me if I told them what was happening.

I stood and shuffled back to my bed, where I collapsed. Just a few minutes upright, and I felt like I was going to die.

As I stared at the ceiling, the upper left of my vision intrigued me. For the first time, some of the letters became clear enough to read.

[Werewolf]

[Level 1] Cub

Huh. Interesting.

Concentrating on that spot, I gasped as an arrow cursor appeared. With a bit of mental effort, I could drag it around my field of vision with merely a thought. Trippy. Could I click the same way? I concentrated and tried.

Click.

Okay. I didn't have a file in my brain for something like this.

More orange lettering appeared—what looked like a computer menu bar. Two options stood out to me: [Wolf] form and [Werewolf] form.

Of course, I'd heard of werewolf legends, but I'd never heard about them having a menu about them.

Then I stopped and had a mini freak-out. Am I a werewolf? I was sitting there, considering it, but now I gave a real thought to it. Something bit me. The cross burned my skin.

What the actual...

I clicked on [Wolf] form.

Blinding pain shot through my entire body like I'd just been struck by lightning wrapped in barbed wire. I shook and trembled on the mattress, my body clenching. I couldn't open my eyes at all. It was like those muscles just stopped working.

I rolled into a fetal position, hoping again that I was just dreaming. After a few moments that felt like hours, the pain subsided.

I slowly sat up. But something was... off. I opened my eyes, and—my line of sight was all wrong. I glanced down. My legs were gone. I tried to raise an arm, but it was in the wrong place.

Then, I saw the fur. Lots of fur.

Oh. My. God.

I was a wolf.