Luxury is the Wolf at the Door

The long dirt road narrowed into a track that was rough on the small car.  The petite dark haired woman driving it pointed it carefully around the various washaways and pot-holes that marked the rapidly degrading trail.  Her passenger gripped the comfort handle with white knuckles even though the car moved slowly.

"Are you sure your car is okay coming down here?"  Kim asked.
Melanie carefully pointed it diagonally over a washaway and the little car crossed it without scraping.  "I've taken it to the cabin before.  The road wasn't this bad last time though."
Kim looked through the windscreen critically  "It doesn't look like he's maintained it at all."
"No.  He's been so weird since he got back from France.  Coming up here to the cabin once a month was a little odd, but when he quit his job and moved out here permanently he really went weird.  Seriously, how can anyone change so much from a two week holiday!  The cabin was supposed to be a family retreat.  We all agreed no-one would live in it, you know? Just for holidays."  Melanie said as she concentrated on driving.
"I just wish he told me the truth.  I refuse to believe he cheated on me when he was away for work.  But he won't say.  He just called off the engagement and wouldn't talk to me at all."  Kim looked out of the window forlornly, but didn't look as sad as she had in the past.  

"I know"  said Melanie  "I get less and less email from him, and I can't remember the last time he answered the phone.  I'm sorry Kimmie.  I just hope he'll answer the door."

The track followed a ridge and dropped down to an open grassed area in front of the small two bedroom kit house.  On the right hand side of the dirt turning area was an open sided tin shed with a tractor and Lance's Mitsubishi station wagon.  Beside the house was a large water tank.  An old twenty-four foot long caravan was parked behind the tank.  The grass around the house was cropped short but everything else looked disused.
Melanie parked the car at the front of the house and they both got out.  Kim checked her mobile phone for reception and put it back in the car with a sigh.  Melanie walked up to the door and knocked politely.  There was no response so she knocked louder this time.
"Lance! Open up! Come on, we've been driving all day!"
Still no movement from the house.  Melanie tried the door and found it was unlocked.  She swung it open and stepped inside.  Kim followed, expecting the worst.  The interior of the house was far from what they were expecting.  At best Lance was untidy when he was on his own, though he never left food lying around or dirty dishes in the sink.

But the house was spotless inside.  Nothing on the bench; the kitchen table set ready for a meal.  The small living room had a little television and DVD player in front of a blue lounge that had originally belonged to an aunt.  The DVDs were stacked neatly under the TV, and the pile of old National Geographics beside the lounge right where Melanie remembered them being the last time she was here, maybe a year ago now.
Kim checked the bedrooms before coming back.  "He's not here.  It doesn't look like he's been here for ages! Are you sure…"
"Well, someone mowed the lawn!  I only have what he told me to go on.  He said he was here." Melanie replied.
Kim ran her finger along the kitchen bench through a thin layer of dust before wiping it on her dark blue jeans.  "He's your brother.  I guess you'd know.  Could he be in town?"
"His car's here still.  Lets try the caravan.  If he's not there we can ask around in town."

The caravan had a blue tarpaulin tied over the roof to protect it from leaves and sticks blown across from the nearby trees.  There were a few misshapen slabs of concrete placed as a walkway between the caravan door and the back door of the house.  
Kim and Melanie looked at each other nervously.  It looked normal and there was nothing to suggest anything was wrong, but something made them both feel uneasy.  Melanie pointed to the far end of the caravan as she put her ear against the side.  Kim walked carefully along the grass and did the same.  She could hear snoring, and looked over at Melanie, pointing at the wall with a smirk.

Melanie tried the door which was locked, then bashed on the side of the van with the flat of her hand.  "Lance!  Lance! Wake up, dammit!"
Silence.
"Lance, we know you're in there. We can hear you snoring!"
Again, silence.
Kim joined in with the banging on the caravan wall.  "Lance, talk to us dammit! We're not leaving until you come out!"

A voice issued from inside.
"Go away".  
It didn't sound like Lance, and they both glanced at each other, unsure.  Kim's eyes narrowed.
"No! Stuffya Lance.  I'm not leaving until you talk to me."
"Go away.  I told you not to come."  
Melanie looked nervous "I don't think that's Lance. Who the hell is it?  A squatter?"
The voice came through the wall again  "Mel, I told you not to come here! Piss off, I can't talk to you!"
"That's Lance" said Kim, equally nervous  "What's wrong with him? Why's his voice sound like that?"
She banged on the wall again  "Lance, what's wrong with your voice!  Why are you hiding!"

"For your sake" came the voice.  "Go away.  Please!"
"No" they chorused.
"Lance, open this bloody door or I'll pull it off with the tractor.  You know I can drive it"  Melanie shouted.
"I can't!  Please, Mel.  Go away!  I don't like it either. Just please trust me for once. Go away."

Melanie put her hands on her hips and scowled at the door "No.  This all started in France didn't it."
No answer.
"You've kept yourself away for ages, Lance.  You haven't seen the news have you."
Kim looked at her  "News?  What do you mean?"
Melanie stopped scowling at the door and looked back at her  "You didn't see that thing in France a while back?  That village that had a bunch of people die from Ebola virus or something?  Anybody outside the village after dark would die from a virus.  They'd find them lying in the fields with all the flesh fallen off them"  

Kim put her hand to her mouth  "That's horrible!  That's where Lance was?"  She rounded on the caravan again and rattled the door  "Lance! Are you okay? Tell us what's going on!  Do you need a hospital?"

"Kim.  I'm so sorry Kim!  It wasn't a virus.  Not a virus."  Lance's voice was deep and rough, and he sounded stressed.  "You don't understand.  It can't be helped. It can't be undone."

Melanie bashed on the wall again "I've had enough of shouting through the door, Lance.  I'm getting the tractor."
His voice was startlingly loud  "It wasn't a virus, Mel!  Dammit!"
"You saw it?  That's really what this is about?  They have quarantine at the hospitals you know, you don't have to hide out . . ."
"Mel! It wasn't the virus that killed those people! Okay! It was me!  Dammit, Mel.  It was me.  There were others but I didn't know how to. . .  I couldn't. . .  Oh God, I'm so sorry."  
Melanie and Kim both took a step back.  "Lance, what did you do?"  Kim asked through the wall.
"I couldn't help it.  I didn't know how to control it.  I could see everything but someone else was driving!  I've been trying to learn out here. . .  I don't know if I have a good enough handle on it!  Please, go away.  I don't want to see anyone anymore."

Melanie stepped forward again  "Lance, I don't care.  You're my brother.  Kim is still here and we both love you very much.  So open this Goddamn door, because we're not leaving."
There was silence for a full minute or so before the van shook slightly as Lance moved around inside.  The door swung open with a crash against the wall of the van.
Melanie's face drained of colour and she took a slow step back, then another.  
She turned and ran the few short steps to the house and slammed the door behind her.  Kim was left standing between the van and the house as the werewolf leapt from the doorway, thick grey and brown fur covering his huge unclothed frame as his yellow eyes and snarling teeth moved from their focus on the back door to Kim.  She suddenly realised how vulnerable she was, and had no thought but for the danger this creature exuded like poisonous vapour.
The creature's demeanour changed slowly.  The lips lowered over the fangs and the tense muscles of his body relaxed slightly.

"Please don't run" he said slowly, forming the vowels carefully with his long muzzle and tongue.  Kim started stepping back slowly and involuntarily, while her eyes were fixed to his.
"Please" he repeated  "Please, don't run.  I don't have a very good handle on this.  If you run I can't help but chase."

Kim stopped moving, her hands clenched in front of her chin and her forearms and elbows pulled across her chest in fear.  She stammered a little "Lance?"
He nodded and then carefully sat on the step of the caravan, looking away.
Melanie's panic-stricken face appeared in the kitchen window  "Kim! I'll get the car! Come on! Run!"
Lance ignored her, looking at his own hands instead.  He turned his hands over staring at his long furred fingers and clawed tips as he spoke  "When this. . .  When this first happened.  I had no control.  Everything was instinct.  Act and react.  Like a robot.  Something would run and I would chase.  If it smelled like meat I would pull it apart and eat it.  I couldn't stop the change, Kim.  Every full moon and I'd turn into this. . .  this thing!"
Kim hadn't moved.  She watched him fearfully, too frightened to run but too frightened not to.
"When I came home I didn't want to pass it onto anyone else.  I didn't want to kill anyone.  Who could I see?  Nobody can help me.  Maybe nobody should."  He spoke without looking away from his hands, and Kim wondered if he even remembered she was there.
"I came out here to learn to control it.  To stop these instincts.  But I can't.  I can only steer them.  I gave in to it.  I found that I could not stop the change, but I could force it.  I accepted it, Kim!"
He swung his large lupin head around to look at her with his golden eyes.  "I accepted it!  I became this beast voluntarily.  I found I can steer my instincts if I don't fight them.  I have been hunting here for months and months.  I have stayed this way because I can control things easier.  If I stay human and the change comes, it is like a flood.  I just get washed away by the animal."

Kim lowered her hands slightly  "Lance"
"I'm so sorry" he said, and looked down at the ground.
She moved forward a tiny step.  "Can you change?  Can you really become human again?  From this?"
"Yes.  But I can't stay human.  And it hurts.  Oh God does it hurt."
"I won't run."
He looked up from the ground to meet her gaze.  She had stepped forward again.  He held his clawed animalistic hands out to her from where he sat and she placed her small smooth skinned hands in his.  With him seated she was level with his eyes, and looked into them for a moment before wrapping her arms around him, breaking into wracking sobs.  
Lance held her tight, his eyes closed  "I'm so sorry, Kim."

Melanie watched from the kitchen window.  Pieces in her mind from news articles dropping into place like a jigsaw puzzle.  "Ebola virus my arse"  she muttered, moving to the back door.

Lance looked up as Melanie opened the door a crack to cautiously peek through.
"You're not going to bite me are you?" she asked.
Lance lowered his jaw to show his bottom teeth in what she presumed was a smile.
"No.  Just don't run in front of me.  It is like flicking a switch sometimes.  I can't always control it."
Kim still had her face buried in the fur of his ruff before turning her teary eyes to look at him.  She was still sobbing a little when she spoke "You smell doggy, Lance.  You need a wash."
Melanie opened the door fully.  "So let me get this straight.  You can actually change back to human?"
"Yes.  It hurts like Hell though."
Melanie was always one to ask difficult questions.
"So can you go all the way the other way?"
Lance cocked his head to one side  "Become fully wolf?  Yes.  It's easier to control this in a lot of ways too.  It feels like the instincts that the wolf part of me carries feel more at home that way and I can guide those impulses easier."
"So why this half-and-half thing?"  Melanie asked.
Kim looked up for his answer as well.

"Well. . . "  Lance held his right hand out and made a pinching motion with thumb and curled fingers as he replied in the slow drawling mannerism that was all his own.
"When I do, I can't operate the TV remote."