Bogleech.com's 2016 Horror Write-off:

THE HUMAN WOLF

Submitted by Sabedile

There was once a human wolf. Coarse was his fur, sharp were his claws, and there where he went all would yell, "wolf!", they yelled. "Wolf!"

He hated the moon, its pale halo, for it reminded him of his beastliness. Up there in the sky it seemed to mock him, silently laughing at his wolf paws, his wolf jaws. He despised all in him that was wolf, because he was human. He knew. Wolves were terrible creatures and that he was not.

He saw a farmer's green crops and, disgusting as they seemed, they were human food, so he ate them all. The farmer saw him. "Wolf!", she yelled, and she chased him off. He felt sick and he vomited it all as tears were streaming down his face.

Seeking reassurance, he began walking on two legs. He was slow, but wonderfully human, he thought. Then he looked at his legs and they bothered him. They bent wrong, not at all like a human's. So when he saw a hunter, he submissively approached him and with his head low he begged him.

"Please, hunter, please! Fix my legs, so that they do not bend like this!"

Then the hunter took his axe and with its poll crushed his hind legs. He thanked him crying tears of pain mixed with tears of joy. The hunter was bewildered, but that did not matter to him. Even if he could not walk, he was more human than ever. But yet again he realized there was still wolf in him. His fur. His dirty coarse fur was still attached to him, and how itchy and gross it felt.

"Please, hunter, please! Flay me! Cut all the skin off of me!"

And the hunter flayed him. It was the most painful experience of his life, but he could not help but smile. When he finished, the hunter took the pelt home, and left the rest there. A writhing mass of muscle and blood.

He howled.

"Let it be known that there was once a human wolf!".