We hit the black asphalt going about a hundred mph, the wheels' uncontrollable spin on the loose gravel changing to a rocket-fire death drive down the empty highway. Julie likes to drive crazy, so I was behind the wheel this time. I maneuvered the suicide machine smack down the center of the road, to make my point, see--13I13 was king of the road tonight--though mostly it was to impress Julie, scare her a little bit, like she was always scaring me.

She squealed excitedly next to me, clutching at my arm with those long red nails of hers, squeezing hard  enough to puncture the skin, not enough to bleed, but enough so I pulled a little away from her. She pouted at me from behind her Micky Mouse sunglasses and let go of my arm. "What's the f---ing problem?" she asked.

"Nothin'," I answered, eyes on the road. "I just don't want no one touchin' me right now." I shook my shoulders out and gripped the steering wheel with both hands.  "O-kay!" Julie moved more over to her side of the car, as if repulsed  by me. The car felt like it was going to shake itself apart. I slowed  it down a bit, down to ninety, and that seemed to help a bit. The sun  was just beginning to set, the moon a nasty smiling white crescent in my  rear-view mirror. I grimaced back at it, baring my teeth. Julie looked  over at me making faces at myself. "It's almost nighttime," she yawned. 

"Yep." Black trees loomed along the sides of the road, leaning  slightly inward as if ready to pounce. Part of me wanted to leap out of  the car right then, run into the woods and disappear, but I kept a hold  of the wheel, determined to reserve my strength for the madness I knew  would come later on, ignore the beginning traces of paranoia I was  already feeling for the full-fledged rage it would turn into later on. 

Julie could tell she was already starting to loose her grip on me. She  took her sunglasses off and folded them up carefully. "You need to pull  over?" she asked quietly. She was just a wee bit scared--I could smell  the prey-scent on her skin.

"Nah. I'm okay." I reached out to her with one hand and rubbed her  shoulder gently. I could feel the tendons in her neck pulsing gently  through her flesh. "You're a good kid," I added, trying to put her at  ease.  "Thanks." She was trying to force herself to relax, but I could still  feel the tension in her muscles. She wasn't a real carnivore like  me--she just liked to kill every once in a while. We both knew she was just along for the ride.

A thin string of white city lights appeared on the horizon. Just in time--I was beginning to see things in the night--the shapes of low  bodies moving alongside the car, eyes glowing red in the darkness, like  tiny cigarette cherries. I gripped the wheel tightly and tried to  control my breathing. It was happening already, and we weren't ever  close to town yet. 

"Pull over," Julie barked sharply. "I'll drive the rest of the way." I nodded weakly and slowed to a halt at the side of the road. She  helped me out of the car, sighing exasperatedly at my attempts to walk  upright, and ended pushing me into the passenger side, head-first. I  floundered around in the car for a little while before finally sitting  comfortably in the seat.

"You can make it," she soothed, somewhat condescendingly, lighting  herself a cigarette before pulling back onto the road. "Just hold on."  

I sunk into the plastic seat and hugged my body. I could feel my skin growing soft, pliant, as we drew nearer and nearer to the bright lights.  I dreamed of a diner, some low-life truck stop where people only  stopped at on their way somewhere, never came back to, couldn't be  traced to when they turned up missing. Not that I was afraid of cops,  mind you. Just didn't like them much and preferred not having to deal  with them at all.

  "We're almost there!" chirped Julie, grinning over at me. I nodded  weakly and stared down the road at the approaching houses and small-town  store fronts. There was a diner, right on the edge of town, all lit up  with tacky neon lights and faded menus plastered to the windows. I felt  my strength roar back into me, adrenaline pumping into my bloodstream,  quickening the change. I growled low under my breath, opening and  closing my fists. Julie pulled into a parking space just in time.

I leaped out through the open window, stumbling a little when my soft pads hit the pavement. I ripped at my clothes until they hung like  streamers around my body. Julie quickly got out of the car and got  right behind me, her trusty short-barreled twelve-gauge already in her  hands. She fired directly at the window, the glass falling in prisming  shards into the diner. The few people inside stared at us in horror,  the gun and the monster leaping in at them. I took down a fat truck  driver first, hitting his so hard he fell on his flabby white ass and  almost knocked himself out. He screamed like a baby when I ripped his  throat out with my teeth, blood gushing all over my face, his chest, the  floor. Julie gunned down the waitresses heading for the telephone, her  face frozen in a wicked grin. I leaped from the dying truck driver to a  thin woman sitting in a corner booth, nervously rolling up her newspaper  as though I was just a dog and she was planning to smack me on the nose  for misbehaving. I bit her all over, just for thinking that stuff about  me, before I ripped her throat out as well, spitting the perfumed chunks  of flesh back in her face.

Julie had made short work of the diner's employees. She stood behind  the cash register, stuffing money into her pockets. I stumbled towards  her, bloodrage in my eyes, and she pointed the gun at my face and shook  her head. "You know better than that." I slunk back to the  body of the truck driver and busied myself by wrestling pieces of meat  off his corpse, not really hungry anymore.

"You done yet?" Julie suddenly asked, slamming the cash register shut. She bent down to pull an exceptionally gaudy ring off the fingers of one  of the corpses. I nodded and followed her out the door. 

I was able to pull myself to my feet and climb into the car by myself, a human being once again. Julie handed me a damp handkerchief,  silently, shaking her head.

"What?" I asked. "What are you lookin' at?"

"You," she answered. "You're such a friggin weirdo." She started the car and pulled out onto the road.   I stared at her in disbelief. "You're not going to pull that shit  again, are you? You can't tell me you didn't see me change into a wolf  back there."

She snorted. "No--I didn't see you change into shit. You are not a  werewolf. I don't give a damn what you think happened--I saw the whole thing, and you did not change."

I ignored her and worked on cleaning myself off. The bitch was either crazy or in a major state of denial. I wondered how safe it was for  someone in my condition to travel with someone as mixed-up as she  obviously was. I sighed and pulled my ripped-up t-shirt off, over my  head, and threw it out the window. I watched it fly down the road, a  white spot in the darkness, finally settling on the road and lying  there, like some exotic roadkill's ghost finally finding peace.