Monster

It was a cold, dark, snowy night in Holoska. Chip and I had just returned to the village from the Dark Moray eel's lair, its treasure in hand, when the sensation hit me. It nearly caused me to double over.

Chip came flying over to me immediately. "Sonic, what's wrong? Did that icy eel thing manage to hurt you?"

I shook my head, mouth frozen in a feral grimace, one I hoped Chip perceived as a wince of pain. "Yeah," I lied. "I thought I could handle it, but it looks like I'm staying here for the night. You and Tails go on ahead and report to Professor Pickle."

Looking at me with uncertainty, Chip nodded. "Well, okay, but Tails and I will be back first thing in the morning, with some supplies for your injury."

"Don't bother," I said quickly. "I'll be fine by morning."

And with that, Chip flew away to where Tails was waiting by the Tornado. I let out a sigh of relief, followed quickly by another sharp intake of breath. I hadn't sent Chip and Tails away because I was hurt. The real reason I wanted them halfway across the planet was because of the bloodlust rising within me, threatening to overpower my better judgement.

Ever since Eggman had unintentionally turned me into a werehog, I could feel hints of rage, bitterness, hatred, and a thirst for blood nagging at the back of my mind, growing stronger every night. When Amy didn't recognize me, it felt like she'd slapped me in the face. I had never been particularly fond of her, but it hurt all the same. Later that night, once she knew who I was, she went on to say something about how she couldn't believe her "beloved" Sonic could be trapped inside such a hideous mound of fuzz. Or something to that effect. Even after returning to the lab, both during the day and at night, she continued to make such comments. At night, she'd regard my body with disbelief. While the sun shone down on me, she'd regard me with reverence, saying how much better I looked as a hedgehog than a monster. Night or day, I always left the Pickle lab with a tinge of bitterness in my heart, and it grew stronger with each hateful comment of hers, whether she meant to insult me or not.

The last night she'd said something, I ran into a travelling salesman with a Chao puppet. He seemed like the shut-in type, afraid of everything and everyone around him. He was probably just lost, and understandably afraid of a giant furry wolf-thing, but the fear in his eyes caused something in me to snap. He'd barely gotten a word in edgewise before I snarled, roared, and took a vicious swipe at him. My claws scraped against the wall of the building that had been behind him, and I just barely resisted the urge to chase after him as he ran away.

Immediately, Chip came up behind me, saying something like, "Hey, what was that for, Sonic? All that guy probably wanted was directions."

Still feeling the rush of blood through my veins, my body pulsing to the beat of my heart, the pounding resonating in my ears, I turned to him and snarled, "Shut up, morsel. Test me again, and I will devour you," before running off. For once, Chip didn't follow me.

The next morning, I woke up on my side in a Spagonia alleyway, unable to remember much of what had happened the night before. Instead of sitting around, I got up and started to look for Chip – we didn't have much time to put the planet back together, and I'd just wasted a full night sleeping. After finding Chip and greeting him like usual, something about his reaction seemed off to me. He looked at me with a mixture of fear and confusion in his eyes. Trying to take a guess at what he was thinking, I stared back at him. After a few minutes, he simply flew away, towards the direction of the Tornado. Before we got there, I stopped him. "Chip, hold up. Something happened last night, and I wanna know what."

Chip turned and looked at me with outrage, as if I should have known. "How can you not remember?"

Taken aback, I couldn't think of anything to say, but I knew whatever Chip was about to tell me couldn't be good. Finding my voice, I asked unsteadily, "Chip, what happened last night?" fearing his answer.

It could have just been my imagination, but I could have sworn I saw tears forming in Chip's eyes. "Something was wrong with you last night. You roared at and attacked a harmless salesman on the street, and you threatened to eat me, just for talking to you!"

"I…what?" I forced myself to calm down before saying another word. "How can that be? You were just saying the other day that, even though I change shape at night, I'm the same inside. You've been telling me ever since that it doesn't matter what Amy or anyone else says; I'm still the same guy, no matter what form I take."

"I dunno what happened, Sonic, but…I guess I was wrong. You're a strong person, and there's nothing wrong with being unable to fight off Dark Gaia, but I don't think Dark Gaia can make people violent. From what we've seen, it just makes them act a little off, but otherwise they stay in character."

A couple minutes later, it all came back to me. Amy's comment, attacking the salesman, and practically biting Chip's head off right on the street corner. I couldn't believe it. What the hell was wrong with me? I thought long and hard for any explanation, even if it was unlikely. "I've been feeling a little run-down at night…could that have been it?" I wondered aloud. Chip said nothing. I knew then that a wedge had been driven into Chip's and my relationship. We were still friends by day, but he always eyed me warily at night, even though nothing else happened.

At least, nothing had happened up until that dark Holoska night. I shook my head, clearing it of all thought. Logic and sentiment were cast away. All I wanted was blood.

I tried to fight it, I really did, but it was a fight nobody could have won. I couldn't hold myself back any longer. I don't remember the details of that night, just the screams of terror, the delicious tang of the blood sliding down my throat, the stark difference between the clean and bloodstained snow on that night. The white snow glistened under the moon's light, but the dark crimson stains littering the ground seemed as if they were pools of black, shunned by the bright silver light. I turned and padded away on all fours, blood streaming down from my muzzle, dripping onto my paws and the snow underfoot. I relished in the scent, and I wanted more. I wanted nothing but to sink my fangs into another creature and feel the absolute rapture of taking its lifeblood, making the blissfully metallic crimson liquid mine.

And then, as if someone had turned a switch on inside my brain, I came back to my senses. I stared down at the destruction I had wrought, at the pure and unabashed slaughter that lay beneath me. I could feel all that blood, mixing with bile, rising up in my throat, but I held it back and made a run for it.

When I was far enough away from the village, I stopped on the bank of an ice floe. I wanted to bust some Dark Gaia fragment heads, or destroy a pack of Eggman's robots, but I'd done enough harm. Instead, I turned my face to the moon and howled my ashamed, sorrowful rage to the heavens in a call that surely carried for miles in every direction. It wasn't my normal howl; there wasn't a trace of my voice in it. For that moment, I sounded like a real wolf, a beast of the frosty lands of Holoska. I spent that night running, marring the fresh snow with my unique set of foot-and-pawprints. Chip and Tails found me the next day, having emptied my stomach of all the blood I drank the night before and washed it all out of my thick fur coat with Holoska's freezing waters. At first, they seemed to pity and fear me at the same time, but as my aggression and tendency towards violence at night went on, they realized something was wrong with me. From then on, whenever we traveled at night, Tails made me wear a shock collar. He made two remotes; one for himself and one for Chip.

I am not a werehog anymore. I lost that transformation the day Chip and I defeated Dark Gaia, the day I also lost Chip…but something still isn't right. Every month, on the night of the full moon, an indescribable and irresistible rage takes over me, along with an insatiable thirst for blood. I can feel my claws and teeth sharpening, but the change never comes. Still, I always make my way to some sort of high ground and, despite the fact that I'm still a hedgehog, I howl. I sing the song of a real werewolf. Tonight, the thirst is strong. I can't take it anymore. Despite the fact that I'm no longer designed for it, I run on all fours and chase down a squirrel in the forest. I sink my normal-sized, but still sharp, fangs into it. The taste, the scent of blood…there is nothing better.

Now, I know it for sure; I really am a monster.

Perhaps I always was.

Author's Note: This one was rather out of my typical genre, and definitely out of my typical length. Please tell me what you did and didn't like about it; I want the feedback. I plan to post a few other oneshots/drabbles as examples of the way I write, so I can snag people who might want to read my stuff who aren't prepared to look into a 37-chapter story.

Once again, I would really appreciate some reviews on this one, please and thank you!