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Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

Anita stared at Pete, waiting for him to continue the joke. Pete kept his face expressionless, and stared right back. After a long silence, Anita opened her mouth to respond.

“Where’s the pizza? I’m starving!”

The two of them turned to see Deedee stomp her way into the kitchen. She opened the first pizza box, took a deep sniff, and sighed happily. 

“Pepperoniiiiiiiii…”

“Hey! You’re supposed to be downstairs watching Tommy,” Anita pointed out.

Deedee grabbed a plate, and helped herself to three large slices of pizza and a piece of garlic bread.

“But I’m hungry!” she protested. “If you want to watch the werewolf, you do it. I’m going to eat.” She folded her first slice of pizza down the middle and chomped into it, eating half the slice in one bite. She waved at Pete.

“Hi Pete!” she said through a mouthful of pizza. Sauce dribbled down her cheek as she chewed happily.

“Hi Deandra. How’s the pizza?”

Deedee nodded her head enthusiastically, making a series of satisfied grunts.

Anita shook her head, and turned back to Pete.

“Thanks for stopping by Pete, I have to go downstairs and watch my little brother.” She began to close the door.

“I didn’t know he was a werewolf.”

“He’s not,” she lied, and gave her sister a withering look. 

Deedee paused with a chunk of garlic bread halfway to her mouth. She shrunk in her seat, rightfully ashamed of her loose tongue. 

Her apology was cut short by a large roar that drifted up from the basement, followed by the jarring sound of metal breaking. She froze, and Anita saw the panic in her eyes. The sounds of claws scraping on concrete followed, as if a large dog was padding across the basement floor.

Anita sprang into action.

She dashed through the living room and leapt over the couch, then three quick steps brought her to the basement door. She slammed it shut and threw her weight against it. The door shook as something slammed into it from the other side, followed by a whine, then a growl. 

The handle turned from the other side, and the door pushed outwards, but Anita shoved it back again, then grabbed the handle and held it in a panic.

“Pete, help! I can’t keep this door shut for long!” 

Without thinking, Pete dashed forwards, only to slam into an invisible barrier and cry out in pain.

“I can’t come in without being invited,” he yelled, rubbing his head. 

She had her back up against the door. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the handle hard to keep it in place. But she wasn’t strong enough, and the handle began to lower.

She grabbed it with both hands and turned her body sideways, bracing the door with her shoulder. 

“Then consider yourself invited!” Anita yelled in response. 

Pete dashed into the house, joining her at the door. His hand closed over hers, and the handle stopped turning. He brought it up, parallel to the ground, and held it there. He was surprisingly strong, despite his slender arms. 

She looked up at him, relieved, and he grinned at her. 

“Not a werewolf huh?” he asked.

Anita rolled her eyes, and turned to her sister.

“Grab your phone, and look up Allium… what was it?”

“Allium longicuspis,” he replied.

“How do you spell it?” Deedee asked.

He laid out the letters for her as she slowly typed them in. The door shook as Tommy slammed into it again, but Pete held fast.

Deedee stared intently at her phone, then made a face, and looked up at him.

“Are you sure it’s right? It takes me to the Wikipedia article for garlic.”

Anita frowned at her, and snatched the phone away.

“Garlic? Really? We make a potion with garlic,” she said dubiously.

The door bulged outward slightly, as Tommy threw his weight against it. Pete and Anita pushed back on it with equal force, then looked at each other. Keeping one hand on the handle, he reached out his free hand to grab the phone from Deedee, and quickly scanned the results.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise, then shrugged.

“Allium longicuspis is the name of the wild flower variety. It makes sense.” He handed the phone back to Deedee. “Garlic is bad for us vampires. Technically, vampires and werewolves are two sides of the same coin. Our curses work different, but we catch them in the same way. Stands to reason that we’d be vulnerable to the same things.”

He shuddered. “Plus garlic is gross. Even if I weren’t hyper allergic, the smell alone is enough to keep me away from it.”

The door bent outwards again as Tommy slammed his weight against it from the other side. They heard a grunt, followed by footsteps going down the stairs. Then a rapid series of steps, and another slamming sound into the door.

“We don’t have much time,” Anita said. “It sounds like Tommy’s getting a running start now. How do we make the potion?”

“The potion isn’t important,” Pete said. “It’s more about getting the garlic into the bloodstream. We can do that with an injection if you want. Besides, I don’t think we can convince a werewolf to drink poison. They’re aggressive, not stupid.”

Anita thought for a moment, quickly formulating a plan. 

“I don’t think we can get a needle under his fur, but I’ve got a better idea. Can you hold the door on your own?”

“Yea, not for long. At this rate he’ll crack the wood in a couple of runs.”

“Great, we won’t need long. Get the garlic Deedee,” Anita ordered, before quickly moving into the kitchen. She picked up two steak knives, and laid them flat on a cutting board.

Deedee handed her a large clove of garlic, which Anita proceeded to slice in two. She then grabbed each knife in turn, and rubbed the garlic roughly along the length of the blades as well as the tips, ensuring they were covered in a thin layer of the juice. 

Deedee watched her work, while helping herself to a generous portion of pizza and garlic bread. Anita raised an eyebrow at her.

“What?” Deedee said. “I told you, I’m hungry!”

She filled her mouth with pizza, then looked anxiously at her sister.

“Are you going to hurt him? It’s not his fault he’s wolfenating.”

Anita sighed, and took a long breath. Would she hurt her brother? She knew stabbing him was the fastest way to get the garlic into his blood. Hopefully she wouldn’t stab him too deeply.

She grabbed the knives and joined Pete at the door. She handed one to him. Pete made a face and shook his head.

“Are you crazy? I’m a vampire,” he said. “This stuff is even more dangerous to me than it is to your brother.” He waved the knife away, being careful not to touch it. “Keep that with you, and don’t stab me by accident. Ugh.”

“Suit yourself,” Anita said. She moved to the left side of the door, and winced as Tommy slammed into it again with a sharp crack. “I’m going to stand here. The next time we hear him run, you open the door and get behind it. Hopefully he’ll lose his balance and fall. I’ll get on top of him and give him a short stab.”

Pete nodded his understanding, and moved behind the door. They could hear Tommy’s footsteps getting farther away. Then they approached again at high speed. 

Pete locked eyes with Anita. She raised both knives above her head, and nodded once. He waited for a moment, then pushed the handle down and swung the door open at the last second.

Tommy the werewolf lunged through the doorway and slid across the floor, losing his balance as predicted. 

Anita jumped at him, and brought both knives down in an arc, ready to ram them into his back. But he was too fast!

He quickly regained his footing and twisted his body around to catch her in the air, using her own momentum to fling her across the room. She fell hard on her back, seeing stars for a moment. She blinked and shook her head, and pushed herself up onto her haunches, only to be slammed down again as Tommy landed on top of her.

He growled menacingly, his teeth inches from her face. She winced as his claws dug into her flesh. She could smell his hot, foul breath, and feel his spit dripping down onto her skin. She grabbed his arms, trying desperately to get him to release his hold. 

He slowly opened his mouth, and licked his lips. Then he lunged down at her throat. Anita shut her eyes and heard his jaws snap shut. When she didn’t feel his teeth, she opened them to see he had stopped short. Or rather, Pete had stopped him.

Pete’s arms were around Tommy’s neck, catching him in a headlock. Tommy thrashed and struggled, but Pete’s grip was like iron. He turned his head and tried in vain to snap at Pete’s face.

“What do we do now?” Pete yelled. “I can’t hold him for long without getting bit!”

Before Anita could answer, Tommy released his hold on her and grabbed Pete’s arm, digging his claws in deep. Pete yelped in surprise, loosening his grip, and Tommy quickly turned and flung him across the room. He landed with a dull thud, his head bouncing on the floor, before laying still.

Tommy turned back to Anita and crouched low, getting ready to pounce again.

Anita was paralyzed with fear. This was it. She was out of ideas, and out of options. Her brother was going to kill her, and he’d probably kill Pete as well. Hopefully Deedee would get out of the house before… 

Suddenly, Deedee appeared behind Tommy. She winked at her sister, and gave her a giant grin.

She dove between Tommy’s legs, and grabbed him by the ankle. Then she opened her mouth wide, and bit him as hard as she could, right on the tendon. It was one of the few fleshy spots on his body, covered by the barest layer of fur.

Tommy screamed out in pain, and turned to swipe at his sister, only to lose his balance and fall on top of her as his body began to convulse.

“Deedee!” Anita yelled, and rushed over to her siblings.

Tommy was shaking uncontrollably, and slowly began to shrink in size. His fur receded, and his face became more human-like. Anita cradled Tommy’s shrinking body in her arms, and lifted him gently off his sister. 

Deedee opened her mouth and gave her a ghastly grin. Her teeth were filled with breadcrumbs, blood, and… fur? It was gross.

“Look, Tommy’s reverse wolfenating.” She pointed at her brother. “I think it worked.

“How… what did you do?” Pete said, as he slowed limped over. 

Deedee wiped her mouth, and spat. “Vampires bite you and turn you into a vampire. Werewolves bite you and turn you into a werewolf.”

Deedee looked up at him proudly. “So I ate a lot of garlic bread, and I bit him.”

Pete and Anita stared at her in amazement. Then Pete burst out laughing, and ruffled her hair.

“You sure you’re not part vampire, kid?” he said. “Because that’s some pretty good vampire thinking right there.”

She beamed at him, then pointed at Tommy, who was slowly coming to.

He blinked several times, disoriented, then looked up at everyone.

“Um… hey guys, is there any pizza left?” he said. Then he looked down with a puzzled expression on his face. “And why am I naked?


And so, dear reader our journey with Anita, Deedee, Tommy and Pete has come to an end.

What started off as a short story about a girl biting a werewolf turned into a sprawling week’s worth of writing.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

As usual, please don’t forget to follow/like/share as much as possible.

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