Beast

You stare into the mirror eyes fixated on a single spot on your upper back. You noticed it as you were getting ready to shower and became transfixed on it. A patch of hair had begun to grow out of you. You touched it ensuring your eyes weren’t playing tricks on you. Then you pulled on it with the painful tug you felt confirming it wasn't just stuck to you. You had a patch growing on your back. You are bewildered as you have never heard of anything like this happening before. You wonder what might cause such a thing, but more importantly what you should do now. [[Ignore it]] [[Cut it off]]

You decide to step into the shower and hope it is nothing unusual. You knew that growing hair was normal as you got older, but the concentration and feel of this patch looked off to you. As you wash yourself, you check over yourself making sure there isn’t another patch growing on you. Afterward, you put on your clothes and head off to work, ready to put the strange occurrence behind you. [[head to work]]

You pick up your razor and swipe over the patch. It takes a few shaves from how thick and dense the hair is but it eventually vanishes. You step into the shower and clean yourself as normal inspecting yourself to see if any more patches of hair have emerged. As you wash yourself, you check over yourself making sure there isn’t another patch growing on you. Afterward, you put on your clothes and head off to work, ready to put the strange occurrence behind you. [[head to work]]

You begin a typical work day with nothing unusual going on. You talk to everybody you need to, attend all the meetings you've been asked to, answer some emails, and get some work done in your free time. However, questions about what happened this morning still plagued the back of your mind the entire time. You head home for the day and unwind back at home. You pass out on your recliner with the TV still on and wake up at 1 am dazed and confused. You trudge over to your bed still half asleep and collapse onto it sleeping for the rest of the night. When you wake up the next morning you head to the bathroom and notice there is even more hair. It now covers nearly half of your upper back and has begun to wrap around your side. You begin to panic as you don't know how to deal with all of the new hair [[Try to cut it off]] [[Hide it with your shirt]]

You take your razor, which looks even smaller today, and try to cut the hair off. You only manage to get a small section cleared before the blade is too dull to cut anymore. You throw the razor in frustration as you continue to look at your back. [[Hide it with your shirt]]

You grab a new shirt from your closet and put it on attempting to cover it up. However, the outline of the hair can still be seen pressing out from the outside. There is a bigger issue that you notice, and that is the shirt is noticeably tighter than you remember. You struggle to button up the shirt and the end barely reaches your waist. You get another shirt to see if this one had just shrunk, but the new was also felt too small on you. You don't know what to do and even if you did you don't have time to fix it before work. You look in your closet to see if there is a larger shirt you can wear and find an old graphic t-shirt with a band from the 80s a couple of sizes bigger than you normally wear. [[wear the bigger t-shirt]] [[wear a dress shirt that is too small]] [[call out sick from work]]

You throw on the band t-shirt, that had been sitting in your closet for years likely, and head into work. As you make your way to your desk you notice the weird stares and glances coming from your co-workers due to your attire. You decide to lay low for today and try to avoid people. You type away at your desk pretending to be busy when people walk by so they won't disturb you. After avoiding people all day you quickly make your way out of the office and to your car hoping no one saw you. You drive home and make a stop at a store to get some bigger shirts and hair removal cream. On the way home you pass a billboard for a local health center and you wonder if they would be able to help. [[Go to the doctor's]] [[Head home]]

You put on the dress shirt struggling to get the last few buttons buttoned, and you get in the car nervous someone will notice the lump on your back and ask about it. You get to the office and sit down at your desk and try to get to work. You are constantly distracted by how suffocating your shirt is and the hair irritating your skin. You head to yet another pointless meeting hoping to be able to get through it without any distractions. As your boss droned on and on you attempted to not reveal too much of your discomfort in your face. After what feels like an eternity the meeting ends and you can head back to your desk. Once you get back you hide behind your cubicle walls and begin scratching at your back. No matter how many times you scratch the itching never ceases, so you scratch harder and harder. Eventually, you hear a ripping sound and turn to see that you created a few large gashes in your shirt. You figure that you can't make things any worse so you continue to scratch until the end of the day. You drive home and make a stop at a store to get some bigger shirts and hair removal cream. On the way home you pass a billboard for a local health center and you wonder if they would be able to help. [[Go to the doctor's]] [[Head home]]

You decide to call your boss and tell him you won't be coming to work today. You add a few fake coughs and plug your nose during the call to make it sound more believable, but he didn't seem to care all that much about your absence regardless. You spend the rest of the day in a cycle of panicking from your condition and frantically researching it online to trying to distract yourself with various forms of entertainment. After a few hours of this, you decide to post anonymously on an online forum asking if anyone had experienced anything similar. After waiting for a few hours for any responses all you get is people claiming you are making it up or replies that suggest something that is completely unrelated to your condition. After reading them you decide to head to the store for some bigger shirts and hair removal cream. You get what you need and on the way home you pass a billboard for a local health center and you wonder if they would be able to help. [[Go to the doctor's]] [[Head home]]

You head into the health center trying to act calm as you approach the front desk. You receive a form to fill out and take a seat in the waiting room. As you rack your brain trying to recall information you haven't needed in a while you notice a child staring at you from the corner of your eye. You try ignoring her but eventually, the irritation gets the better of you and you turn your head to look at her. As you do she jumps back in fear and runs back to her mother who was too preoccupied with her magazine to watch her daughter. Her small hands covered her eyes before opening them the slightest bit to peek at you before quickly shutting them again. You decide it's best to ignore her and finish filling out the form returning it to the desk only to be met with more waiting. The whole time the little girl continues to stare in fear at you as if you were a monster. The nurse eventually calls your name and you head back to a room to be seen. [[start the examination]]

You head home dejected and with no idea what to do. You enter your house and pull out the hair remover you got from the store. You head to the bathroom and remove your shirt to find that the hair had spread even more. It takes nearly the entire bottle but you eventually get all the hair off your back. You spend the rest of the evening flipping through channels hoping that this is just a bizarre dream. After a few hours of mindless watching you prepare yourself for bed and hope that you don't wake to any more surprises. [[The next day]]

"What seems to be the problem today Mr. Ornson?" the doctor asks strolling into your room. He sits down at the computer and looks at the file already pulled up. You've been waiting in this room for what feels like an eternity, and you are eager to figure out what is wrong and leave. "Well, I've been having a problem with the amount of hair growing on my back," you say looking down hoping he doesn't think this is some kind of joke. He lets out a small laugh amused by your concern. "Mr. Ornson, it's completely natural for men to have hair grow all over their body as they get older but I'll take a look," he stands up from his seat and moves closer to you. You hesitantly decide to pull your shirt off and turn around to show him your back. "Oh my god," he says frozen at what he's seeing, "this is the most hair I've ever seen." He reaches out and touches it brushing his hand through it. "There's so much and it's so thick," he says continuing to examine, "It's almost like fur." He continues to examine your back for a few more minutes before you interrupt. "What's the cure?" you ask beginning to feel like an attraction rather than a patient. "I'm not entirely sure," the doctor says honestly, "I don't even know what condition this is exactly, but I'll tell you what I have some people over at the University of Texas who would love to see this. Give me a few days and come back and I'll have them examine you." You agree and leave the office with no real answers. [[Head home]]

You wake the next day to a weird soreness all over your body. You swing your legs off the bed and make your way to the bathroom rubbing your eyes. As you do you feel a harsh grating against your eyelids. You turn on the light in the bathroom and look in the mirror to find your neck covered in fur. You look down and notice it has begun to cover your arms and hands too. Your body is even larger and more wolflike. Your panic has reached new heights as no level of hair removal and clothes could fully hide yourself you pace around your home wondering what to do. [[Call the health center]] [[Panic in your house]]

You pick up your phone and dial the number of the health clinic. "Hello, this is Total Health Solutions. Did you call to schedule an appointment?" the cheery voice on the other end of the line asks. "Yes!" you reply your voice now a deep snarl "I need someone to see me now! My hands and arms and back are all covered in hair, and I can’t stop growing I've gone up two sizes in two days!" "Sir, this is a health clinic. Prank calls will not be tolerated," the call ends as you are left listening to the hum of the dead line. [[next]]

You look around for anything that could help you. You look back at the forum post to see if anyone commented anything useful, they didn't. You decide to make a follow-up post with more of your symptoms but it gets removed and you get banned from posting again due to the moderators believing you are a troll. You research human biology online and read papers about hair growth and rapid size growth and find nothing close to useful. You even try to text one of your old friends from high school who became a doctor but he doesn't reply. [[next]]

As you continue to panic you look in the mirror and see what an unrecognizable monster you’ve become. Your large fur-covered body, sharpened teeth and nails, and pointy ears and long nose are all unfaithful mutations of the person you are. For as much pain as it causes you to stare you can’t look away, like a horrific car accident on the side of the road, your foreign and disturbing appearance creates obsession in you. You can’t force yourself to leave your house like this, so you remain inside all day completely missing work. As you spend most of the day in your house trying to avoid yourself you sink deeper into hopelessness. You lay on your couch and in your bed watching TV and scrolling mindlessly on your phone as you eat whatever junk you can find in your house. After days of this endless misery, you decide it is finally time to try and leave your house. You stand in front of the door trying to build up confidence wondering what people would say or how they would act, and how would you respond. Were you overreacting or would others be as terrified at you as you were with yourself? After a deep breath you turn the door handle and step out into the world. [[Step out]]

When you wake up it is the middle of the day. You walk out onto the sidewalk and hear the sound of kids laughing and running around. You follow the sound until you see a few a group of kids playing in a yard. You watch them for a bit before one of them spots you and screams in fear causing the other to turn and scream as well all running back to the house. A woman comes to the door to see what is happening and, when she sees you, screams as well. At this point, multiple members have seen you out in the street and a group of men have gotten out of their houses to hunt you. [[The chase]]

You are chased down the streets panting as you run. Eventually, you reach your house and rush inside locking the doors as the mob stands outside shouting. You wonder what to do as you look around your house for some way to distract them or turn them away. After a while you hear a police car drive up and a knock on your door. "This is the police open up or we’re coming in!" the loud voice hurt your ears. You search around for a plan but before long you hear a large pounding against your door as they get a battering ram. It slams once, twice, three times before your door collapses and they come in. They look around for a while seeing the place in utter chaos but after a thorough investigation, they find nothing and leave. You watch from the forest behind your house as they leave. You are unsure if they will continue to search for you. You are unsure if you can ever return. You are unsure if you are fit to ever be a part of society again. Fin