Nick knocked on Sebastian’s bedroom door. “Hey, buddy, are you up?”

“Uh, yeah. I’m awake.”

“Can I come in?”

“Sure.” Nick opened the door to find the teen sitting on his bed. “Did you want something?”

“I just came to tell you that your mom and I are leaving now, but breakfast is downstairs, and there’s still pizza from last night if you get hungry later on.”

“Okay, thanks. You guys will be back this evening, right?”

“Yep. We’re bringing take out home for dinner. Is Edmund coming over today?”

“Um, I don’t know. I’ll text him to ask.”

“Alright. Just message me so we can get something for him too. Are you feeling alright? You look a bit flushed.”

“I feel fine.”

“Hmm. Can I test your temperature?”

“Sure.”

Nick stepped into the room and put the back of his hand against Sebastian’s forehead. “Did you sleep alright last night? No weird dreams?”

“Nope. A perfectly normal night.”

“Well, okay then. You feel fine so maybe it’s nothing. If anything changes though, call me immediately.”

“I will. Thanks, Nick.”

Nick nodded with a smile then turned and left the room, closing the door behind him. Sebastian waited until his footsteps had faded away before breathing a sigh of relief.

“That was way too close. You can come out now.”

Edmund rolled out from under the bed. “Where are your parents going?”

“Mom has a court case in the next town over and Nick’s going with her for emotional support. Wait, why were we hiding you anyway? You're dressed now, and it’s not like you haven’t slept over before.”

“I said goodbye to all of you last night, then you went to bed. Wouldn't it be weird that I ended up back here without your parents knowing?”

“...yeah, you have a point there.”

“I hear them locking the door now, so we’re safe.”

“Right, which brings us to our current situation. How the hell are you able to hear them downstairs like that? Sometimes, I can’t even hear when they’re walking in the hallway without straining my ears.”

“I think it’s linked to the weird heat thing too. It's like my senses have turned up to eleven. I can hear, smell, see and even taste better.”

“Okay, so you can shift your physical form, heightened senses, and increased speed and stamina. Anything else?”

“Bruce seems to have noticed some kind of change in me. My hand healed overnight. Oh, the burn mark from that spoon faded away too.”

“Right, the silver one,” Sebastian remembered.

With each of the puzzle pieces from the past two days slowly falling into place, he finally felt like he was seeing the full picture but, no, there was no way. Even with all the evidence, he still couldn’t believe it. There was no way Edmund was a fucking werewolf. Those didn’t exist.

Did they?

“Alright, this is going to sound insane, but I think we need a way to test if you’re a werewolf,” Sebastian proposed.

Edmund nodded. “How though?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“You don’t know.”

“Yet. You're missing a key-word there. Just like with the werewolf theory. While all of the signs point to a possibility, you didn’t get bitten by anything so how could you become one?”

“I supposed you have a good point there. But what if there are other ways to become a werewolf without being bitten.”

Sebastian nodded. “Maybe we should google it?”

“And what? Get a bunch of results from various TV and book fans talking about fictional characters?”

“We can just go straight to Wikipedia. They have answers for pretty much everything there.”

“Okay then. Can we eat breakfast first though? The pancakes smell really good right now.”

“Fine. We’ll eat first.”

After eating the pancakes and some leftover pizza, the boys went to the living room and sat down together to try researching werewolves. They found the Wikipedia page to be quite informative but also no real help.

“You haven’t put on some kind of wolf skin belt?”

“Uh, defiantly not.”

“You didn’t drink water from a footprint?”

“What the hell? No.”

“And you haven’t upset any deities or magic users?”

“Not that I know of.”

Sebastian huffed. “Alright, this is getting us nowhere. Looking at the facts, something has happened to you. There don’t seem to be downsides to this though. Apart from perhaps the overwhelming feeling of smelling, seeing and hearing everything. Like spiderman!”

“Wouldn’t it be more accurate to compare my situation to Wolverine? I don’t think Peter Parker can smell stuff like me.”

“I suppose as far as powers go, you are similar, but up after a fever with incredible new powers is more Spiderman than Wolverine.”

“You have a point. But it isn’t helping us with anything. If I am a werewolf then what now? Am I going to start craving human flesh? Is there any way to change me back into a human? Will I have to give up chocolate?”

“As far as the chocolate thing goes, you ate all those brownies yesterday without a problem, so I’d say it’s fine. Do you think you’re craving human flesh?”

“No.”

“Then we don’t have to worry about that either. And lastly, regardless if there’s a way, do you want to change back?”

“...I don’t know,” Edmund groaned and put his head in his hands. “What am I going to do, Bas?”

“I don’t know either, Eddie,” Sebastian sighed. “But, no matter what, we’ll face this together. Okay? You’re not alone”

Edmund nodded and leaned closer to his friend. “Thank you.”

Sebastian carded his hands through Ed’s hair as he thought about what to do next. He’d never taken any interest in learning about werewolves. They were popular enough in fiction that he knew the basics of what they could do and such, but Edmund was a real-life person [Wolf? Wolf-person?]. He wasn’t even sure what the extent of Ed’s physical abilities were. They really needed someone who could help them with this. But who could they trust not to possibly spill the secret and gather a mob to attack Edmund or something like that?

Sebastian paused as someone came to mind. “Eddie?”

“Hmm?”

“I think you need to make good on your promise and visit Doctor Hayden.”