The Howl of the Werewolf

Justin Kennelly

Dr. Hill

ENG 215

18 November 2012

The Howl of the Werewolf

A Fan Fiction of Angela Carter’s The Company of Wolves.

            Darkness has fallen upon a remote village deep within the dark forests of Germany, robbing the land of its warmth as the wind gusts bring with it a heavy snowfall, which threatened to entomb them in a wintry grave. Then suddenly over the cries of the blistering winds, came a blood-curdling howl so fearsome and melancholy, it sent a chill down the spines of even the most seasoned of hunters. At that moment they knew they were no longer alone and that I, the beast who terrorized these woods, striking down any who dared venture out alone after dark, had returned.

            For generations I had terrorized this village, returning every ten years to steal every young man and woman of marrying age and torture them mercilessly until they literally begged me to end their wretched lives. But wait…. How rude of me!  I haven’t even introduced myself! My name is Wilhelm Klawitter, and I am a 100-year-old werewolf. However, contrary to popular belief I was not born a werewolf, I was a hardworking huntsman engaged to be married to the love of my life.

Now you’re probably wondering, if my life was going so well, how did I become a werewolf in the first place? Well in order to understand my story you must travel back in time with me to the winter of 1726, to the very village I now lay siege to on this dark wintry night. I was a young 20 something hot shot, thought to be the best huntsman by far in the entire region, and engaged to be married to the young and beautiful Wilhelmina Barde. I had loved her with all my heart since the very moment I had laid eyes upon her when her family resettled in our quaint village 5 years prior when her family's estate burned to the ground in a nearby village. From that moment forward, I did everything within my power to make her mine, making a complete utter fool out of myself in countless foolish acts I would prefer not to divulge, until one day I had finally won her affections, or so I thought.  

When our wedding day came,  I was standing at the altar as the whole village piled into the tiny little church dressed in their Sunday best waiting for the ceremony to begin. However, from the very moment I awoke that morning I had this foreboding feeling in my heart that something was terribly wrong. Early that morning, the sky had darkened, the temperature had dipped well below freezing, and the snow had begun to fly. Despite the deteriorating weather conditions and the incessant feeling that something was quite right, I decided the wedding was to go on as planned. However, five minutes before the ceremony was to begin, my worst fears came true as the best man came dashing up to the altar and told me Miss. Barde was nowhere to be found! Fearing for her safety in the steadily worsening weather conditions, I immediately assembled a search party and we searched high and low for hours until in utter despair my friends pleaded with me to admit she was gone and we would continue the search for her body when the weather permitted. Heartbroken, I staggered home with my friends who were worried about what I would do in my grief stricken state. Once we reached my home, I told them they were welcome to stay until the storm blew over. What happened next will forever be seared into my mind for the rest my days. When I opened my chamber door, to fetch some blankets for my guests, there was Wilhelmina lying in my bed with another man! Distraught, I bolted out the door into the frigid night before she could even muster the words to defend herself. I ran deeper and deeper into the woods until my frozen legs were incapable of carrying me any farther. As I lay there face down in the snow heartbroken and praying for death, a strange man appeared out of nowhere and immediately seemed to know everything about my life.

“You disgust me! How do you call yourself a man? I thought you were supposed to be some sort of hotshot huntsman. But all I see here is a pathetic washed up bastard unworthy of life, wallowing in the snow over some wench who left him at the altar for another man! No wonder she felt the need to leave you, she needs a real man to hold and cherish her on these cold wintry nights! However, despite your unworthiness, I am willing to grant you the power to exact your revenge on those who have betrayed you and make their every waking moment a living hell! However, if I grant you this gift, you must first prove yourself worthy of it before you exact your revenge.

Brewing with anger at Wilhelmina for her most dishonorable betrayal and this verbal lashing from a man I had never met before in my life, I wasted no time in delivering my answer. “YES!”

While at that point I was willing to do pretty much anything to exact my revenge on those who had made such a fool out of me, I was completely unprepared for what I was about to witness. The man started to convulse as he let a blood-curdling scream, what used to be normal human teeth and fingernails became razor sharp fangs and claws, which he immediately used to cleave off the skin of his human prison, revealing a muscular body, more dog than human. However, it wasn’t until I stared into his glowing eyes that I knew the stranger was a werewolf!

When the transformation was complete, he let looked up to the moon and let out a most forlorn howl, the likes of which I never heard before. Between the utter disbelief of what I had just seen and frigid temperature, I was paralyzed where I lay as he came and over to where I lay wrestled a huge chunk out of my shoulder with his massive fangs right as I was passing out.  

When I finally came to days later, I was surprised to see my shoulder was completely intact, which led me to believe it had been nothing more than a bad dream. That is until I turned my head and saw him staring at me from across the cave.

“Thought it was a dream huh? Sorry to disappoint you, but it wasn’t a dream. As far as your shoulder goes, werewolves are quick healers and are capable of surviving wounds that would prove fatal for a human. Now for the next year, you must dedicate yourself to learning to live the life of a werewolf. I’m going to teach you how to hunt, how to survive, how to adapt to your environment, and most importantly how to control the beast inside.”

“But I thought…”

“You thought what? That werewolves only transform during the full moon? That’s a load of crap that mothers tell their children at bedtime, when they can’t sleep at night. In reality, you can change at any time day or night and as a new werewolf, it will be nearly impossible to control, but with time and my guidance, you will learn to change back and forth on command.

And that’s exactly what I did, for the  next year, I learned the ins and outs of being a werewolf, how to hunt, how to survive and how to keep a low profile to keep the angry villagers from finding and killing me when I was at my weakest right after the full moon.

By now, winter had once again graced the dark forests of Germany and it was about a week away from the anniversary of my becoming a werewolf, when my master told me he had taught me everything I needed to know about being a werewolf, and now to officially graduate I was to do what I had been waiting so long for, I was to stalk and kill Wilhelmina and the bastard who stole her from me. With that said, my master took off into the woods and I was never to see him again.

Immediately I set out for the village, anxious to exact my revenge! For four days after I reached the village I observed from a distance, seeing that in my absence she had married the man I’d caught her with the year before and she had borne him a son. What irked me the most however was the rest of the village had just as soon forgotten about my existence and openly accepted her and her family into their little community. No matter, they would feel my wrath soon enough, but for now, I set my sights on Wilhelmina and her happy little family. On the fifth night, I quietly snuck into the nursery and snatched their young son and ran off with him into the forest, where I enjoyed consuming the little boy’s body, not a big meal but the feeling of exhilaration I got listening to their screams when they discovered their baby's severed head lying next them more than made up for it! The next night after the young grieving parents had gone to bed once their babies remains had been interred in the local cemetery, I returned to their house and kidnapped her dear husband as he slept and dragged him to the forest where his screams rang like music in my ears as I dismembering him piece by piece and left the pieces scattered around the house for his darling wife to find the next morning. Having robbed her of her family, she finally snapped and sat in a corner rocking herself back and forth until the next night, the anniversary of her betrayal, when I paid her a visit in human form. Oh, how I loved the sheer look of terror that ran across her face when I finally transformed in front of her.

“PLEASE… PLEASE, you’ve already taken everyone I love away from me! Have Mercy!”

I stared deep into her eyes and told her, “You should have thought about that before you left me at the altar to jump in the sack with your now deceased husband! Now you can go join your family and burn in hell!” With that, I tortured her until sunrise at, which point she finally succumbed to her wounds and I had consumed her entirely, after which I plotted my revenge for the village that had taken in the little harlot and her illegitimate family.

On that night, I decided from here on out, every ten years I would return to the village and slaughter every man and woman old enough to partake in the bonds of holy matrimony. And this was how it was for the next 79 years, I would return on the anniversary of Wilhelmina’s betrayal kill all who were old enough to marry, before they had the chance to engage in the same treachery I had been subject to and then leave before the remaining villagers had the chance to track me down and kill me. However, when I returned for the decennial slaughter in 1806, I came across a young woman now known to the world as Little Red Riding Hood. Her parents had been stupid enough to allow her to go wandering alone in the woods, knowing perfectly well that the decennial was upon them, so I stalked her for a while through the woods waiting for the perfect moment to strike. After about an hour of trailing her, I had had plenty of opportunities to dispatch her, but something about her kept me from doing so. Therefore, I decided I needed to get a closer look so I shifted back into my human form and presented myself as the young huntsman I once was. When introduced myself, there was something in her eye that almost immediately calmed the inner beast. Captivated by this strange spell she seemed to have over me I decided to gain her trust and walk along with her, while I tried to figure out what was wrong with me. After a while, I devised a plan that would finally allow me to kill her and continue on with my mission. I had found out she was on her way  to her grandmother’s house, so I made a bet with her I could make it there she could knowing full well that with my werewolf abilities it would be no contest. Once there I would kill her grandmother, not my usual target but hey, it would be an appetizer for the main course, and enraged she would try to kill me forcing me to respond in kind.

My plan went off without a hitch, until Red arrived. Instead of the murderous rampage I expected, she started stripping down to her bare skin! What in the world was she doing? Didn’t she know what I was and that I was here to kill her? But one look into her eyes and I knew I was never going to be able to kill her, and that despite everything I’d done to her she had for one reason or another accepted me for me!

Now most assume that I simply ate her and went on with my life, but I will tell you right now that is not what happened. As I stood there staring into her eyes, part of my icy heart thawed just enough to realize that maybe there was enough room in my heart for a companion to accompany me through my eternal life. Therefore, in a completely unexpected turn of events, I made her a werewolf and she has been at my side ever since, feeding on passersby brave enough to wander the woods alone and every ten years joining me in my ongoing vengeance against the village where it all began.