In the year 1971, astronomy student and aspiring guitarist Brian May's ill-fated camping trip may have more consequences than he first realized. Small but unexplainable things start to happen to him after he is bit by a dog in Humpy Bong Forest. His...
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It had been two weeks since the trio returned from their camping trip and they failed to find a suitable bassist for their band. Tim did say that it was going to be difficult, Brian thought, but I didn't think that it was going to be this difficult.
Brian sat on the couch in Freddie's flat with his precious Red Special resting in his lap. He stared at the ceiling with his mind a million miles away. A fortnight ago, he found out that he was a werewolf and he made a choice to keep it a secret. He almost told Freddie and Roger when he took them to the clearing where he shifted under the full moon, but something held him back. He was terrified of how they would react. Would they think he was crazy? How would he prove that he won't hurt them? How could he answer becoming a monster of legends? I will tell Roger Freddie when the time is right, he decided, and until then I will live life as normal as possible. And might as well try to have some fun too. Brian didn't even want to think about breaking the news to his parents. To him, he would cross that bridge when he got there.
Freddie scribbled things down in a notebook beside Brian making the pencil squeak as he dragged it over the paper. Roger sat on the floor from him and added finishing touches on new fliers as Freddie's cats walked across the old ones.
"There. That should do it," Roger said, "The glammed up advertisements should attract some new prospects."
"Mike, Barry, and Doug. Goodbye, goodbye," Freddie mumbled to himself as he penciled down another word.
Brian rubbed his head. "It's either the personality or their ability to play," Brian complained, "Why can't we find a bass player that doesn't have a shit personality that can actually play along to a song?"
Roger leaned back against the floor and groaned. He added, "I'm never going to be able to look at the name 'Doug' the same ever again."
Freddie shivered. Then like magic, a lightbulb went off in his head and he flipped the notebook open again and wrote down the words 'Send shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time.'
Roger pounded his fist against the floorboards and said, "If it's really so difficult, why don't we just drop instruments all together and do a cappella? Ya know, like the old days with the stuff our parents listen to?"
Brian absent-mindedly hugged his guitar and shook his head. He gasped, "Oh god, anything but that!"
Freddie snorted and said, "Well, I'd be down."
Roger looked up at them from the floor. "I was joking," he said matter-of-factly.
The more Brian thought about it, the more he wished that Roger's idea had been sincere. During one of the follow-up jam sessions with one of the bass auditioners, Brian almost shifted into his wolf form during daylight due to the stress. Come to think of it, I'm catching bits of it out during the day anyways, Brian thought. Since he was bitten, he found his sense of smell and hearing to be more than ten times better than before. He would also find himself wanting to rub his scent in new areas or a feeling of kinship when he saw a flock of ravens. Most notably, he found himself more and more protective of Roger and Freddie, his band, his friends, his family. Now he had an explanation.
