It would be egotistical of me to say I found it, perhaps verging on a downright lie. Sure, I had been looking for it, running myself ragged going after every little mention of a sighting or a clue left behind. What was left of my friends had just about given up on me returning to sanity; for a while there I was beginning to agree with them.

“Holy shit.”

Two years of obsession-level tracking and that’s the only words my mind would manage to form. Though, I dare anyone to come face to face with a werewolf and be able to invite him out for a beer. There’s something about seeing a paranormal creature with your own eyes that turns everything in your mind upside down.

“David, I could have eaten you already you know,” the wolf-man said with a surprising eloquence, “In fact, I’d already be taking down my next victim in the time you’ve stood with your mouth wide open.”

Now I was flabbergasted and confused. Nothing, out of all the months’ worth of research, had ever mentioned that werewolves could talk. A few sources had mentioned primitive communication while in wolf form, but this guy sounded almost cultured and in control. I shivered, the early morning air was pretty chilly, enough to produce a few patches of fog, but mostly I didn’t like being alone in the forest with a werewolf who wasn’t following the rules.

The wolf slowly padded closer to me, a look of intelligence in his eyes. Out of the shadows, the moonlight lit up his honey-colored fur. If I wasn’t so sure of what he was, I might have mistaken him as just a golden retriever and wolf hybrid. He stopped a few feet from me and looked up, cocking his head in the clichéd canine manner.

“I know you’re not quite this much of a simpleton, but I suppose I didn’t give any sort of warning. You went to relieve yourself and I can only afford to contact you, not that friend of yours,” he explained with a clearing of his throat and nod down.

I looked down and saw that I had been offering up a cold, meager view of my manhood in my hand. I hoped these kinds of things don’t make rumored rounds in the supernatural world as well. All put back away, I offered my hand awkwardly and he immediately responded as if trained to shake on command. He cursed under his breath and pulled his paw back.

“If you do that again, I’m going to have to kill you. There’s still some things I haven’t worked out yet.” He began to pace, seemingly antsy with his tail betraying his serious demeanor. “Don’t ask questions, but do you have some sort of food in your pockets?” he asked with a heavy sigh, feet still prancing.

We had been camping and I was paranoid of getting lost in the woods, so I produced a bag of trail mix from my pajama pants pocket.

“Good, good, now throw some down,” he commanded, clearly agitated.

I did as I was told and he pounced on the treat. Once it was devoured, he seemed more in control of himself.

“How degrading,” he grumbled, “regardless, I have one question to ask of you… why have you tried so tirelessly to track me?”

“I knew you were real and if werewolves are real, maybe magic is too,” I said with a small laugh. I understood how childish it sounded, I was never accused of being planted firmly in the realm of adulthood.

He seemed to consider my answer, staring up at me intently. His eyes were those of a calculating human, studying me with thoughts I couldn’t even begin to guess at behind the bright brown irises. They glazed over momentarily and appeared dense and dumb, his nose instantly went to work on sniffing every inch of my bare feet. Cursing loudly, he threw his head side to side and looked back up at me, the human part of him seeming to fade back into his eyes.

“On Monday night, leave your apartment door open,” he said briefly and darted back into the underbrush.

It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for what would happen when I had finally found my werewolf. I assumed that I would be like everyone else and get a few fuzzy photos, if I were lucky, a grainy video and spend the rest of my life on some internet forum trying to argue that it was real. Yes, I had been running with the assumption that I was wasting my life; some guys do it by working in a cubicle, I chose to chase werewolves. At least I had passion for what I did.

Daniel had talked me into this weekend camping trip in order to get me talking like a normal human being, of course I had insisted we camp in the middle of the most local sightings. He didn’t need to know and he was more than happy that I was willingly going to leave my stuffy apartment for a normal hobby. It tickled me a little to be able to tell him that I had met my werewolf thanks to him.

I hurried back to camp, glad that I still remembered which direction it was and zipped the tent open. He was still asleep, he had heard none of what had happened but twenty or so feet from his head.

“Hey, hey, wake up,” I said and nudged him.

He grumbled and rolled over, the only word I could make out was “dickhead.”

“I met the werewolf,” I blurted out excitedly.

“I told you that if you brought weed you had to share,” he muttered without rolling over.

“I’m serious,” I said and nudged him again.

“So am I,” he said with a yawn. He sat up and blinked the sleep from his eyes.

“I met him, he talked to me,” I said moving my hands around excitedly. This was like my birthday and Christmas rolled into one.

“Okay, okay, try not to get over excited and wank one out. Tell me what happened,” he conceded.

I told him the entire encounter, making sure to explain in detail what the wolf looked like. Talking about it cemented in my mind that it had indeed been all real, the scene wasn’t fading away like a dream.

“So, let me get this straight,” he said with a rub of his brow, “You go to take a piss and mid-stream the golden retriever were-thing steps out in front of you. It then talks to you with all the eloquence of a gentlemen, then tells you to leave your door open at home and runs away?”

“Yeah, still think I’m just high on weed?”

“No, but I think you’re fucking holding out on a stash of LSD,” he said and crawled out of the tent.

“Where are you going?” I asked after him.

“To piss and hope that by the time I get back you pay up on the hallucinogens or realize that you have been sleepwalking.”

He was off in the bushes before I could reply, but it didn’t matter, I didn’t really expect him to believe me outright. Normal people don’t go around with the assumption that anyone at any point could be a werewolf or an ogre in disguise, I was a special case. I was going to make him believe me though, mostly so I could confirm that I wasn’t just another fairy-light chasing crackpot.

Letting out a long, dramatic sigh of satisfaction, Daniel returned and plopped back into his sleeping bag. I waited until I was sure he wasn’t going to throw any more cracks at me, then nudged him in the dark with my food.

“Come to my apartment on Monday?”

He let out a loud laugh.

“I’m serious, just show up and if I’m wrong, you’ll still get free pizza out of it.”

The laughter quieted. “Double cheese, sausage, pepperoni, and bacon?” he asked seriously.

“Yes, whatever you want.”

“Call the good place too, don’t cheap out on me”

“Yeah, yeah, sure just be there and don’t be late. I don’t know when exactly it’s supposed to happen,” I said, relieved that he had agreed.

“I have class until six, the pizza better be there before six thirty or I’m not even coming in the door. I’m not hanging out in that creepy place without a bribe.”

He rolled over, signaling the end of the conversation. To my surprise, I had even won most of it, even if it was going to cost me more than I should be spending. Using all your spare time as an amateur paranormal researcher doesn’t really pay the bills. I wasn’t too worried about it for now though, if I wasn’t just high on something Daniel had slipped me for a laugh, I could make unfathomable amounts of money. Proof of werewolves would make me famous, rich, and best of all, I’d be able to rub it in everyone’s faces.