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---November 10---

Karella is a strange case. Throughout the year, you wouldn't be faulted to think she'd throw herself out a window at some point. The moment the clock rolls over to midnight on December first, though, she changes completely. Her demeanor becomes euphoric and even flirtatious, her eyes light up, and even her fur changes color. I haven't observed this in an isolated event, but I've heard other people's observations that she'll enter her flat and emerge minutes later, completely transformed. Now, there's no way anyone can bleach their fur and then dye it that fast. This sort of metamorphosis, this extreme and this fast, I'm sure it's possible through magic. This makes no sense either, though, since San Antonio Rodriguez has plenty of wizards and they're all very open about it. She'd have no reason to hide her possessing magic. There aren't many options left within the realm of possibility. Werewolves exist, but they're extremely rare and function no different be it July or January. Perhaps it's Seasonal Affective Disorder, but that focuses down to seasons, not months. Of course, I shouldn't neglect Occam's Razor. Maybe she is magic, and just very punctual. I can't jump to conclusions, though. I need to observe. I am considering everything, so my first observation will be in two days.

---November 13---

I've gained access to the camera watching her flat block. I'm gathering data to learn her schedule. This is an extremely crude observation, but there are only two days until the full moon. I am considering every possibility, I'd like to get the werewolf one out first. On November 10, she only left her flat during the day. On the 11th, she left in the night just to bask in the relative cold. On the full moon, she didn't leave her flat, to little surprise. I can't draw much of a conclusion from this. The next full moon is on December 12.

Next, I'll test for SAD. Her records going back to 2014 make little mention of it. Her psychoanalysis records definitely tell me depression, but it still baffles me that her mania kicks in and out so abruptly and punctually. Perhaps it could be SAD, maybe mixed with an extremely unusual case of bipolarism; actually that's my best lead.

---November 19---

I've been mulling over her file for the past week. Her case is so unusual, I can't make heads or tails of it. I'll go ahead and make the diagnosis for SAD, the evidence is there. That still doesn't explain the fur, though. Maybe she's magic, but has little control, and something in the turning of the month triggers some sort of spell she has tied to her. Maybe she's cursed, like Tara was. There are several ways I could test several components of these hypotheses. There are apparatus for magic manipulation and detection. I'll need her to sign a consent first to use any of them. Assuming there's nothing to hide, she should sign.

She exhibited no reaction to any of the magical instruments. First, I scanned her with the detector, and that revealed she had no magical capacitance. The blaster stunned her, but she was back to zero potential in ten minutes. All of the tests turned out negative for magic.

There's no explanation for her fur changing in a matter of minutes. I don't have any more tests, so I'll have to put this case to rest until December.

---November 30---

Today's the final magic test. To completely prevent any magical influence, I'm keeping her under an electromagnetic field. It isn't exactly the nuclear option, but it's pretty damn close. Electricity scrambles magic, so anything that reaches her would be interpreted as just magical noise. I'm keeping six cameras trained on her. It's almost midnight.

As the day shifts, her face completely changes. Her cheeks lift up, her eyes open wide, and she starts shedding her fur, very rapidly. Before I know it, her entire coat is on the floor, replaced with her December coat. This is extremely fascinating. I collected her shed fur for analysis.

---December 2---

Nothing about her fur stands out. As far as things go, it's just a pile of dead hair. I'm completely stumped. The only standing explanation is that she's a werewolf. But how? How does a werewolf shift according to the Gregorian calendar? How can one stay shifted for a whole month? This calls for a whole line of investigation led by a team. I need DNA from her. Now that it's December, it shouldn't be too hard.

---December 6---

Her genome has changed since I last mapped it in October. Some of her genes suggest a different color of fur, so I guess that explains that. But what causes the genes to change in the first place? Werewolf thesis is still in the air, I could test for that again. I'll see if she'll let me hold her on the twelfth. Just in case, I'll start tracking her nighttime activity again.

---December 11---

Her nighttime activity has been pretty constant: Sleeping in someone else's bed. She signed the second consent form, so I'll be observing her through the 12th.

---December 12---

If Karella turns out being a werewolf, this would be the first one I've ever seen with my own eyes, in all 60 years I've been alive. I have no idea how I should contain one, or if it needs to be exposed directly to the full moon. Just to be safe, I've chained it down outside on the train platform. I've got the police here as secondary and tertiary containment with their riot control robots. Karella looks nervous; highly unusual for her December self.

The sun finally set and the moon rose over the horizon. She started squirming, which turned to writhing and struggling within the hour. She was becoming slowly, almost imperceptibly slowly, larger. Her nose grew long and wide, her fur became long and rough, and her normally plantigrade legs changed digitigrade, and oddly enough her tail didn't change size or shape at all. Her shackles, which I intentionally left loose, fit snug around her wrists and ankles by the end of her shift. In all my years studying people, I doubted whether I'd ever even see one of these things, and here one is, right in front of me: a werewolf. Understandably, I couldn't contain myself from collecting all sorts of samples: her fur, her blood, her saliva, even her vaginal discharge, and I would've collected her stool if I could have. I only had so many containers, though, so I could only gather so much. Imagine the things I could learn from this one sample here.

She kept wriggling throughout the night, grabbing the chains, mostly moving her hips around, occasionally growling, but she never tried to break her bonds. It seems she's learned to control it, to an extent.

The moon disappeared behind the horizon, and she started going back to her normal shape. Her limbs shrank back down, her body went back to a petite figure, her nose became short and stubby again, and her tail stayed just the way it was.

---December 13---

Wow, a werewolf, right here in San Antonio Rodriguez. I can't stop thinking about it, and I can't stop studying it. To think it's been right under my nose for five years and I never even considered it. The source should next present itself on January tenth. I anxiously await the day.

Enough about lycanthropy, though. I still don't know what causes her DNA to change so rapidly, and specifically centered around December. I should introduce an entire line of investigation, sending her case to a university. I have her old genome stored and countless different types of samples to present, as well as a psychological and physical record. Which university, though? Should I be a part of the research team? Will all the teams gather around her like Muslims at Mecca whenever a full moon hits? I can't subject San Antonio Rodriguez to that sort of population spike, there's not enough room here. Karella's also a person, and I feel she wouldn't be too fond to being chained down once every month to be stuck with needles and probes. I can't just say it's unknown and call it a day, though. I'm a woman of science, it's my responsibility to learn as much as possible.

What if there aren't any more like her? I'd guess that there are only sixty or so werewolves on the entire planet, and I've never heard of one undergoing metamorphosis for a full month, as well as shifting. As if she wasn't extremely unique as she was. This is one of those ultimatums in scientific ethics, isn't it? A few years ago, I probably would have already sent it off. Now though, I have credibility. I'm not in Houston anymore. I have government funding now, and I have to actually listen to the surgeon general. I guess I'll ask around for advice.