I'M A WHAT? (TAG: DARYL)

[zach]

Zach glanced up at the clock and watched as the second hand clicked away every notch forward thrusting bolts of pain into his already agonizing headache. Why was it so freakin’ loud? He couldn’t concentrate to begin with because of the headache. Now, there was the clock that sounded like a gun going off right next to him, the adulteress instructor’s gliding piece of chalk gliding along the dark green chalkboard that sounded like a thousand nails scraping along that very same chalkboard, the homewrecker of UCLA’s water bottle pressing up to her lips and the water being sucked down her throat that sounded like blasting waterfalls. Zach lifted his hands to cover his ears as he closed his eyes and tried taking in as much air as possible and letting it out slowly. What was happening to him? It had been going on all day long. Just last night once he got home from the attack he’d tried so hard to fall asleep, and it had taken him forever. When he finally did fall asleep, he was woken up by vicious dreams that he couldn’t explain. The girl in his dreams looked like Shannelle which was a tad bit weird considering the fact that he had no interest at all in Shannelle like that. It was all so crazy. He was a wreck. A complete and utter wreck. Not only was he dealing with dreams and inhuman amounts of hearing, but when he had woken up this morning, he had smelled something rather disgusting. Come to find out, the milk that Zach had bought last month wasn’t gone yet and still sat in his mini fridge spoiled as ever. How did he smell that from a closed fridge? No freakin’ idea. It was impossible, and right now, everything was just a bit too much for him.


Zach stood up grabbing his bookbag and bolted out of that lecture hall. Maybe the hallway would be a bit better. When he reached the hallway of Strenhelm Hall, he had been right. The noise was much more tolerable than in the lecture hall, but now, the hairs on his neck were standing on end. For some reason, he felt that someone was watching him which was strange because he had felt the same way when he had walked to his Psychology class this morning.

[Daryl Matthew Carter]

After having paid a visit to Shannelle and making sure they understood each other and agreed on that it was better for her to come with him, to his house so they could make sure she wouldn't hurt anyone else in her wolf form, Daryl had also caught onto the smell of Zach after he had made sure he knew what that was. It had been hard to be around Shannelle and trying not to talk about anything of what there was between them, but it was this night that they would all transform whether they wanted to or not and he had to make sure that this situation didn't get worse than it already was, than what he had actually started to begin with...

So Daryl had spent some time first following him from a distance, studying his behavior, wanting to make sure first that he was actually showing the signs of the transformation already going through his body, it always took the most time to transform when it was the first time, but it also hurt the most of all of them. It became clear soon enough that Zach was totally behaving the way he should when he was under the effects of the bite he had gotten and after sighing, closing his eyes and taking a moment, he followed him again to try and find the right moment to confront him.

Finally it was when Zach was walking through Strenhelm Hall that Daryl thought he should take his chance now that there weren't too many people around, so he made his way to him from a direction so he was soon in front of him and put his hand on his shoulder to stop him from walking and looking at him straight and seriously, also examining the look in his eyes and bit his lip. 'Zach? I think we should talk, and I think that if you think clearly, you'll probably know what about, I can help you.' Daryl said a little quietly, keeping in mind how it would be for his hearing right now since he still needed to get used to it, as he kept his eyes locked on him, waiting for his reaction, like his meeting with Shannelle it probably wouldn't be very easy or pretty, but at least he didn't have to tell Zach that it had been himself that had done it, that would make it a little easier he hoped to make him listen.

[zach]

Zach stopped in the hallway. He peered around slowly trying to see if he was indeed the only person left in the hall. When he saw no one, he swallowed hard shaking his head and stepped on. But when Zach looked up and began moving, he was halted by a hand on shoulder and a familiar face. Zach jumped clearly not expecting anyone to be in front of him let alone this person. Zach didn’t know him very well. He had seen him maybe once or twice with Shannelle. He had heard Cassie talk about him every now and again if Zach was around, but he hardly ever spent time with Cassie or Shannelle which lead Zach to wonder what Daryl was even doing here in front of him. ”Holy shit, Daryl! What the hell dude?” Zach brushed Daryl’s hand off his shoulder and stepped back a bit. He wanted to be like Chris Brander from the movie Just Friends and start pretending to stab at Daryl’s hand with a fork because of the personal space being invaded here. But Zach neither had a fork nor the patience to sit in a jail cell because he supposedly attempted to assault a man of the law.

Zach watched Daryl as he told him that they needed to talk about something that Zach probably already knew about. It could probably be one of three things. Either Shannelle, Cassie, or….or what was happening to him. Judging by Daryl’s very straight and serious expression, Zach was pretty sure he knew which ones were ruled out. Zach sighed slowly not sure if he even wanted to open that new can of worms. ”Listen, that is great that you want to talk to me about whatever, but I’m just tired and want to get home.” Zach turned from Daryl and began to walk away. Zach knew something was up. He wouldn’t be feeling the way that he did at this moment if there wasn’t. He wouldn’t have been puking up everything that he had eaten in the past 48 hours. And his veins probably wouldn’t be popping out around the bite wound he had gotten those same 48 hours ago.

[Daryl Matthew Carter]

Daryl narrowed his eyes a little when Zach responded like that and pulled up an eyebrow then while tilting his head a little to the side. 'Really? You're going to tell me that you didn't have any suspicions and ideas of that you were being followed?' Daryl asked him pretty straight to the point while he shook his head then. He didn't have much time for this whole routine of telling him, most of the time it was the last night that these things happened for what he had been witness of, but in this case they had only a few hours to make sure of this, so there was no time to be all respectful of personal space here.

Daryl rolled his eyes when he heard what Zach told him about that it was great for him wanting to talk to him but just wanting to sleep because of how he was tired. Yeah, no shit, you're turning into something, who wouldn't get tired of that? He bit his lip and waited for a moment before he stepped forward but stayed there, looking at Zach. 'Let's be honest here shall we, you smell things you never thought you would, or even wanted to, even when they're not even close, your body feels like crap and like it could start breaking every bone inside of you at any moment, you can't eat anything without throwing it up, and the bite wound you have is feeling it could pop like a balloon any moment, how close am I?' Daryl asked seriously as he put his arms in front of him as the material of his leather jacket squeaked because of it but ignored that.

'I wish I didn't have to do this like this again, but I have to, we don't have time to play the whole if I'm just insane crap, we don't have time to take the time! In a few hours you're going to turn, and if you don't let me help you, or lock yourself up at least, you're going to hurt someone, and without my help, it's going to bring you to a point for a moment where you'd wish that bite wound had just killed you...' Daryl told him without any hesitation and not turning circles around it right now before walking toward him again.

[zach]

As soon as Zach turned away, Darryl’s voice had raised showing how important this conversation had been to him. And as soon as Darryl mentioned that he could hurt someone, Zach slowed his pace and stopped completely. Zach had hoped that all of this was a joke, but Darryl was being real with him as much as Zach didn’t want to hear it. Even when Darryl went on and on about the things that Zach would be feeling at this very moment, all of them were actually happening which showed Zach the actual severity of the situation. Everything that was going on was real and yet another thing he was going to have to deal with. He had a feeling he knew exactly what was going on with him but didn’t want to admit it to himself. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt the people he cared about. Jace? Jayla? April? Lelia? All people that meant a lot to him that could so easily be hurt or even killed from what it sounded like.

Zach swallowed hard and slowly turned around to face Darryl again. ”What am I, Darryl? What is happening to me?” His voice was shaky and his mind unstable. Those words that were about to come out of Darryl’s mouth would change his life forever. He didn’t want to hear them, and he was almost positive that dealing with them was going to be even worse. But it was something he needed to hear. He couldn’t run from it.

[Daryl Matthew Carter]

Daryl sighed once Zach finally turned around and looked at him, and when his question came out, it was actually the one Daryl had expected sooner, but was still happy that it followed, because it was at least some progress. 'I think you might have an idea of what you are, besides, you can't tell me that you haven't seen flashes of what attacked you, and probably... Even flashes of who it actually is.' Daryl said as put a somewhat more analyzing tone in his voice with the last that he said as he put a step closer to Zach again.

'Your body is going through it's first stages of the transformation, unfortunately for you, it happened right in the middle of the three days cycle of the full moon, so yours is kicking in sooner than usual, which makes it even more unpleasant and... Painful soon enough.' Daryl told him with complete honesty as he kept looking dead serious at him, hoping that he would at least be so smart to take in what he was telling him, every minute counts was what he figured. 'You're turning into a Werewolf.' He eventually said it straight to the point after noticing that they were still mostly alone here.

Eventually Daryl sighed again and looked down, while raising his hand at the same time in case Zach was going to interrupt him with what he was going to say. 'I know this is a lot, but we don't have time to go through the whole shock thing like I totally understand Zach, if you choose to not go with me... You won't leave me a choice but to force you.' Daryl said while narrowing his eyes to show how serious he was about that, because he could, he just didn't like to do it, that's why he had never even done it to Shannelle. 'It's simple in case you're wondering why, if you don't come with me, if you take too long with whatever you want to go do, you're going to do the exact same thing that Shannelle has done to you, because of me... I won't let any of this happen again, I won't, so what is it going to be?' Daryl asked, ready to make it an order to come to him before the moon actually began to show itself if he had even a slight doubt that Zach might not do it on his own.

[zach]

Zach didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to hear any of it. Especially the part where Darryl confirmed the flashes of images of the person he'd been seeing since the attack. That monster that bit him. He had told himself consistently that it was just a large dog or a wolf, but no. It was too fierce to be that, and he couldn't continue to lie to himself. It was a werewolf and that werewolf was Shannelle. And now, he was a werewolf because of her, because she was raging and wild. This was too much, all way too much for him to handle. Why couldn't he just rewind and not walk into those woods to be alone? Why hadn't he just walked over to Marina when she had first called his name? He had really screwed up this time, and now all he wanted to do was run....be alone yet again for a few minutes, but what would happen to him then? Would he get bit by something else? Anything was possible at this point. But he wouldn't be alone. He just wanted to see Jayla.


Just as he was about to make it known that he was not dealing with any of this right now, Darryl lifted his hand to protest. Darryl's eyes narrowed as he basically threatened Zach telling him that if he didn't go with him, he'd have to make him which would be done by force. Zach would normally have none of that, but something right now was telling him not to disobey especially when Darryl explained what could happen if he didn't go with him. But he really needed to sort things out, and to be honest, he was terrified. He wanted so much to just sit down with Jayla and talk. Zach finally looked up at Darryl. "Give me an hour, and then i'll meet you where ever you want me to be." He was too scatterbrained and confused to argue with him, and the last thing he wanted was to hurt Jayla which could have been prevented if he just listened. Surely an hour with her would do no harm. "It's just an hour....I think you owe me that much."