Mitch sat bolt upright as Jerome's shout echoed from outside. He somehow managed to get himself out of his sleeping bag and the tent. Even though it was the middle of the night, he felt completely awake- the last time he had heard Jerome make a sound like that was when he had broken both an arm and a leg several years ago. "Jerome?!" he called, stumbling out of the tent. He would have expected it to be dark, but the full moon's light somehow found it's way through the trees. "Jerome!"

There was a short, pained scream in response.

Mitch felt his heart rate increase. Why had he even been outside in the first place?! He ran as fast as he could in the direction the scream came from, stopping when he saw Jerome's form. He was doubled over, clutching his arm. "What's wrong?" Mitch asked anxiously, standing there, his eyes wide. Jerome tipped his head up; something dark and wet was on the side of his nose. His hand was gripped tightly around his arm.

"Bite- attack- wolf-" he managed to get out. Mitch saw something drip from between his fingers; something just as dark as what was on his face.

Blood.

Mitch just stared. "Okay, uh- just calm down, we'll get you back to the car, we'll go to the nearest hospital-" Jerome nodded slightly and took a few steps forward, stumbling back to the car. Mitch felt his eyebrows pull up worriedly and he grabbed on to Jerome's shoulders to steady him. He darted back inside the tent, somehow managed to find the car keys in the darkness, and pressed the 'unlock' button with a shaking finger. Mitch fumbled with the tent flaps again and pulled open the door on the passenger side of the car for Jerome, who crawled in. With the car's lights on, Mitch could make out the horribly realistic blod dripping down his arm. It was stained on his shirt, dripping through his fingers, and smeared on his face. Mitch somehow managed to get into the front seat and start the car, driving down the dirt path and onto the real world numbly.

Jerome didn't make any noise, just clutching his arm tightly. Blood started to stain the seats. Mitch bit his lip and sped up, going down the road as quickly as he could. Even though it was the middle of the night, there had to be somebody at the hospital... there just HAD to.

***

Mitch stared. "But- it was there only a few seconds before! I swear! I saw him dripping blood!" Jerome himself had gone unconcsious, either that or he had just fallen asleep again.

"Sir, I'm sorry, but your friend most certainly isn't bleeding."

Mitch glanced at Jerome; there was no blood stained on his skin, and whatever wound may have been on his arm was nonexistent. He felt a surge of relief that he was okay, but something told him that this wasn't anything to be relieved about.

He shook his head. "Right, I'm sorry. I'll just- we'll get going now." He picked up his friend's limp form and carried him out of the hosptial and back to the car.

***

About a month later, Mitch had put the whole incident behind him. Jerome didn't even seem to remember it, and Mitch was beginning to think that it had never happened. "Mitch, it's a bacca."

"Do you know what this means?!'"

"We kill it?"

"Yes!" Mitch pressed the 'W' key, propelling Bajan across the blocky landscape and over to the Jerome impersonator. A few swings with an iron sword, and another tribute fell.

"D match is going to start soon, are you ready?" he asked, sorting through the loot to get at the iron leggings.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Jerome confirmed, switching to a cake instead of a stone ax. Mitch grinned to himself as he realized that he now was possessing three diamonds.

"You sure that that ax'll be enough to help you win?"

"Well, it's all I got, Mitch- it's dat ax!"

"What if you got... Betty?"

Jerome was silent for a little bit. "No."

"Yes," Mitch said, grinning. "I've got three diamonds and twostciks, let's make us a Betty."

"Mitch, I dunno what to say! It's... it's like Christmas!"

"Donz worry," Mitch said, just as they were teleported back to spawn. "Jerome, cover me, Imma go make Betty!"

"You got it," Jerome said, distracting the other two people while Mitch forced Bajan up to spawn. He right clicked the crafting table, organized the diamonds, placed the sticks, and-

"I got Betty!" he declared as Jerome somehow managed to kill a person.

"Yeah buddy," Jerome said. "G-" Mitch heard him slam his desk. "NO!"

"What happened?" he asked, making Bajan turn away from the crafting table.

Jerome didn't say anything for a second. Then, "...I died."

Mitch laughed. "Unbelivable," he said.

"Avenge me."

"Hokeyp, if you wish." Mitch made his character run over to the person who had killed Jerome. No more than two clicks later, and he had won the game thanks to Betty.

"GG!" he shouted, leaning back in his chair. "Anyways, thank ya'll for watching, slap that like button witcha' forhead, we'll seya doods later-"

Jerome interrupted him with a slurp that lasted a full twenty seconds.

"...anyways, bye!"

Jerome just laughed.

Mitch was grinning as well as he ended the recording and closed out the Minecraft browser. "That was an interesting game."

"Except for the fact that I died at the end."

"Are you kidding? That was the best part!"

"If I could, I'd punch you."

 "Ah, but you can't." Mitch cast a glance out his window; the sun was close to setting. "Ian should be here soon, wanna pull a prank on him?"

"In what universe would I ever say no?"

***

A prank later, and everybody was seated outside, laughing at Ian's embarassment- even Ian himself. "Why am I not surprised?" he asked, laughing. Ty grinned from his 'special' chair.

"It's Mitch and Jerome, dude, if you were surprised we would all have been very worried for you."

Adam cast a glance upwards. "Woah, look at the sky."

All eyes turned towards him.

"What? You're Sky," Jason explained.

Adam laughed. "No, that sky, the one with the epic sunset." Mitch followed his gaze to see the sun disappearing in the distance. It was made of many colors, all melding together into a storm of light. Mitch wasn't exactly one for colorful paintings, but even he had to admit that it looked pretty. "Cool," he aknowledged. Everybody else was staring at it, too- everybody but Jerome.

Jerome was gripping the arms of his seat tightly, staring at the sun with an expressino of almost terror on his face. Mitch turned to him, eyebrows furrowed. "Biggums, what's wrong?"

Jerome opened his mouth. "I- I'm not sure- it's just-" Without saying anything more, he jumped up and ran inside the house, slamming the door behind him. A minute or two later, and Mitch saw him draw the curtains on his bedroom window.

"...what's wrong with him?" Quentin asked, obviously confused.

Adam shrugged, "Beats me." Mitch watched his window; the even the blackout curtains were pulled over the glass, something Jerome rarely, if ever, used.

"I'm not sure he's feeling okay," he said slowly.

"Well, whatever." Adam shrugged again. "Maybe he's just tired." He turned to watch the rest of the sunset as the last few rays of light vanished beneath the horizon.

***

After Ian had gotten settled in, Jerome still was in his room. Mitch made his way upstairs and knocked on the door. "Jerome?" He tugged on the handle, but it was locked.

"What?" Jerome asked, his voice muffled by the door.

"Can I come in?"

Jerome took a while to respond. "I- I guess." The door handle shook, unlocking from the inside, and then Jerome swung it open. Mitch stepped in, and Jerome quickly shut it behind him.

"Jerome, I know something's not right," Mitch started. The room was almost completely dark- the lights turned off, the curtains still pulled over the window. He stepped over to it. "WHy don't we get some light in here, and then-"

"No!" Jerome said quickly. "I- I'll turn on the light, it's easier." He flicked the switch, finding it extraordinarily quickly considering how dark it was. Mitch gave him a strange look.

"Jerome, if something's wrong, you can just tell me."

Jerome was trying to avoid eye contact. "Look, Mitch, I don't know what the problem is, I just don't feel right, everything seems weird, I can't think straight-"

"You've been locked up here for three hours, Jerome, it's nearly midnight! It's no wonder that you can't think straight."

Jerome stared. "Midnight?"

Mitch nodded, unsure of where this was going.

"It's ONLY MIDNIGHT?!"

Mitch took a step back. "Jerome, calm down there-"

"I thought that it was almost morning! Oh no... no..." Jerome sat on his bed, burying his face in his hands.

Mitch approached him again, cautiously this time. "Jerome. What's wrong." It was more of an order to tell him than a question.

"I don't know," Jerome said, agitated. "It's just- I don't feel normal."

"Are you sick?"

Jerome shook his head. "No... I'm not... I just... well, I feel like there's this.. thing inside of me, but I don't know how to control it. Like all I can do is stay away from people..." he looked up at Mitch, confusion in his eyes. "I'm sorry, that just sounded- nevermind."

"Don't be sorry," Mitch told him. "We just need to find a way to get it off your mind for a little bit."

"I don't think that's going to happen. It's just- well- I wish I just knew what it was!" he shouted in frusturation, jerking his arm as if he was punching the air.

Mitch watched Jerome, worried. His entire body was almost rigid, like he was afraid that something was going to happen. "You're sure that you don't know what it is?"

Jerome nodded. "I'm sure, it's just- I don't know- yes," he said, giving up. Mitch stood up. 

"Right now we just need to get you out of your room- c'mon," he said, grabbing Jerome's arm and pulling him to his feet. Jerome stood up without resisting, following Mitch into the hallway.

"I don't get how this'll-"

"You need something to eat," Mitch said firmly. Although he was still conerned, he pulled at Jerome's arm, leading him to the kitchen.

Mitch, this can't be a good-" Jerome froze and whipped his head around, staring at something behind him. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Mitch asked.

"It sounded... almost like a howl," Jerome muttered. He shook his head, almost as ifhe was telling himself not to do something. "Nevermind," he said quickly. "Let's just... we were going to the kitchen." He stepped past Mitch, leaving him standing there, very confused.

Mitch quickened his pace to catch up to Jerome. "Jerome, are you sure that you're okay?" The normally dark hallway was lit by an open window only a few paces ahead, showing Mitch that Jerome looked anything but 'okay'.

"I'm fine," Jerome snapped, walking forward a few more steps. But he froze in place when he entered the small patch of light behind the window.

Mitch walked up to him, placing a hand on his back. "Look, you should probably just go back to your room and get some sleep- forget the food, just head back-" he stepped sideways to get a look at Jerome's face, to look him in the eye. Jerome was frozen in place, staring off intothe distance, the entirety of his eyes an almost golden-brown color inthe moonlight. Mitch took his hand off Jerome's shoulder and took a step back. Something told him that something... abnormal was going on. "Jerome..."

Jerome didn't even turn to look at him. His entire body seemed to shake, like he was shivering with cold. His hair seemed to lengthen, his hands curl into fists. He fell forward to the ground, landing on all fours, still staring off into space and quivering uncontrollably. Mitch took another step back. "Jerome?"

Jerome let out an inhuman scream, the first sound he had made since stepping in front of the window. His nose seemed to get longer, sticking out of his face- but then it wasn't just his nose, it was his entire face- his nose shrunk to a small black dot as his hair crept down his forehead, surrounding his mouth- his ears seemed to become covered by hair, but then Mitch realized that they were only moving up his face, lengthening and becoming covered by hair- his legs seemed to readjust themselves so that his knees stuck out behind him, they shrunk in width- his hair started to move down his entre body- his hands weren't fists, they were doglike paws- the hair wasn't hair, it was coarse brown fur-

And then it stopped.

Standing in front of Mitch, exactly where Jerome had been, was a gigantic brown wolf.

Mitch would have taken another step back, but this was just too strange for him to comprehend. His mind rushed back to the camping incident- hadn't Jerome mentioned a wolf? But that wasn't real... werewolves were just silly stories coupled with sparkly romance.

The thing in front of him said otherwise.

The wolf blinked, snapping out of whatever mental state it had slipped into. It turned to Mitch, but he couldn't read the expression on it's face- it was a wolf, for crying out loud! It let out a short bark followed by a growl, only to stop, staring at its muzzle halfway into whatever it was trying to say.

Mitch mentally slapped himself. It wasn't an 'it'. It was Jerome. Or at least that was what it seemed like.

Wolf-Jerome spun in a circle, eyes wide when he found he that he had a tail and was covered in fur. He let out another bark, his ears pulling back and laying flat on his head. He turned his head again, shaking himself like a... well, like a dog. He whipped his tail around a couple of times and took a few steps forward, like he was getting used to it. Mitch backed up a few steps until his back was against the wall, staring. Wolf-Jerome turned back towards him, his mouth half-open, staring at Mitch as well. He took a half step towards him, lifting his tail somewhat, and let out something that sounded like a growl. 

Adam chose that moment to emerge from around a corner, looking very tired. "What's going o-" he suddenly seemed a whole lot less tired when he saw a gigantic wolf standing in the middle of the hallway. His eyes widened and he backed up a few paces. "Oh sh*t-" then he noticed Mitch. "Mitch, back away, that thing could kill you easily-"

"It won't," Mitch said, stepping away from the wall. He walked a little closer to Jerome. "You should probably stop growling, I think you're scaring Adam." Jerome turned to see Adam and stopped growling immediately, wagging his tail half-heartedly.

Adam's mouth fell open. "What- how-"

Mitch gave Adam a half-smile. "Dude, it's Jerome."

For once, Adam seemed at a loss for words. He opened his mouth, but let it close again, staring. "That's- what- he's not-"

Micth sighed and ran a hand through his hair. This was going to be hard to explain. How to put it delicately... "He's a werewolf."

Adam laughed, a forced, high-pitched laugh that caused a bleary Jason to open his door. "Whazzgoingon?"

Jerome chose that moment to bark so loudly that there was complete silence for a full minute. Mitch facepalmed as Jason and Adam stared and even more faces poked out from down the hallway. This was going to take even more explaining than he had thought.

***

A few hours later, the sun was up, and everybody was seated outside again, having just watched a somewhat terrifying transformation of Jerome back to normal. Jerome stretched, his clothes somehow back-they had disappeared when he had been a wolf-and sat down in a chair. He shook his head. "That was just... terrifying."

Everybody was staring at him.

Jerome put his head in his hands. "Everything felt weird. It was all distorted to weird angles, and the colors weren't recognizable. I felt like I could either run a hundred miles or stay completely still for a year." He looked up. "It wasn't- it wasn't normal."

"I think that we can all tell it wasn't normal," Mitch said slowly.

Jerome looked over at the sun; the instant he had been exposed to its light, he had gone back to normal. "I don't ever want to see a full moon again."

"You might not have a choice," Jason said; he seemed to have recovered from the incident fairly quickly. "You can't just lock yourself in your room every time the moon comes up. What about winter? You'd be confined before dinner."

Ian held up his hands. "How can you be talking about this like it's perfectly normal? He was just a WOLF, for God's sake!"

"I'm going to have to get used to it, aren't I?" Jerome said dryly. "We might as well treat it like it's normal now."

Ian shook his head. "Right. It's just- I go back home for two months, and when I come back you're furry."

"I just thought of something," Adam announced, completely randomly. Everybody turned to look at him. "Now we can call you Fluffy outside of recordings!"

Not many people laughed. Mitch himself was extremely concerned about one thing in particular. "Jerome," he began, "The- the one that bit you a month ago. Why do you think it did that? And how do we know that next time... next time it happens, you won't bite us?"

"I don't know," Jerome said quietly. "I'm just glad I kept my mind. I had the urge to- to attack, to kill, to run."

Nobody said anything for a while.

Then Ty stood up, clapping his hands together. "Welp, that's enough parnorma for one sitting. Whaddaya say we all do a Cops and Robbers and forget about this for now?"

I kinda sorta maybe stole the idea from Gina, so credit to her I guess.