“Marisol, whatever you do, don’t go outside tonight. Okay, babe?”

“o-okay, but-“

Before I could even finish my thought, Carla wrapped her arms around me and kissed me on the forehead. Warmth radiated off my cheeks, and I couldn’t help but give a little smirk.

“Love you” Carla growled in a register so low I could almost feel it.

“Oh! Tell your brother he can have the left over fried rice in the fridge!” I called after her as she grabbed her bomber jacket, patted Sarge on the head, and scrambled out the door of the house.

She gave me a thumbs up and we waved one last time before she rode down the suburban street on her moped. A worried sigh fell from my breath as I walked back inside. I know Carla was trying to play it cool, but something was definitely up. I had not heard that level of urgency in her voice since the night we went to that lunar eclipse party, and she got called to put in extra hours at the temp agency. At least her brother is with her so nothing too disastrous can happen right? I mean Jo is like ninety percent of the impulse control between the three of us. Although he has seemed more on edge lately. hmm…

As I get completely lost in thought, Sarge, our akita-ish dog, gives a soft head butt to my thigh and nuzzles my hand. I snap back to the present and give Sarge some good pats.

“Right, they’re responsible, grown adults. They’ll be fine. It’s fine.”

Sarge furrows his little doggy brow slightly in a worried expression as if not convinced by my flawless performance, so I spring up and do an action pose.

“Let’s go make tea and binge some Youflix!!” I decree and Sarge barks with excitement.

Later that night after going several videos in to a rabbit hole about small town crime syndicates, I finally laid my eyes to rest. Half a mug of ice cold tea still on the nightstand. I blacked out for what felt like hours, but was really only about forty-five minutes, when I heard Sarge making his low growling noises with the occasional “uff”. He does it so periodically that I don’t even question it anymore, it’s probably just a bear in the backwoods or something. Jo said one time Sarge even dragged him across the town park because he heard one small kitten mewing in a bush. I’m not sure how Sarge registers between friend or foe but tonight’s visitor definitely seems to be the latter.

“Ugh, come on boy, I got work tomorrow. I gotta get SOME sleep tonight.” I grumble as I pat the top of his head like the button on an alarm clock.

Then the biggest crash I’ve ever heard in my goddamn life happens in what sounds to be in the garage. I’m not really sure, it mostly sounded like crunching metal and …loud snarling? Anyway, Sarge was going ballistic, frantically twisting the door knob with his paws because… I taught him that. Shit. Panicking, I grab a broom and run after him. Shit! He b lines it to the garage and scrambles through the dog door. SHIT! SHIT!? I grabbed the door handle and froze as I remember Carla’s warning from before. I mean technically I’m going into the garage, but the crash came from outside sooo…. Then I heard canine whining and my fight instinct kicked in.

Now when I busted through the garage door, there were several things that I had in mind that could have been on the other side. Two bears going at it, possibly. A runaway stag chased by predators, perhaps. Even an ambush of wild cats would have made more sense, but before me, splayed on the ground, was a gangly looking… wolf? With no tail and a huge gash in their back. I cautiously watched Sarge sniff the massive beast, wag his tail slightly, and start tenderly licking their wounds, all while this huge red tinged canid whined a lot. That is until their eyes met my alert, but very confused, expression. Their body language immediately shifted like they were trying to save face. I don’t know what it was about that, but something felt familiar. Before I could dwell on that any further, Sarge spins around and starts growling at the gaping hole that was my garage door… I sure hope insurance covers that.

Like the night itself stepping into the light, two shadowy leopards emerge and saunter straight towards the wolf. Paying no real mind to me, but getting increasingly annoyed at Sarge who has moved to barking and snapping. The wolf, still on the ground, their eyes shifting around for what to do. Then one of the leopards decides they’ve had enough of Sarge’s bull and lunges for him, but before they can even touch a hair on his beautiful little scruff, I smack ‘em with the broom SO HARD. So hard that their jaw hits the floor, cutting their lip and my broom splinters from the impact. However, not hard enough to do any real damage, the leopard shakes their head and immediately locks eyes on me. But hey, at least they’re not focused on Sarge anymore.

“You have no permission to be here. Leave.” I decree in a cold statement.

The leopard that didn’t get hit looks in my direction, and does a double take, before lightly batting their partner’s tail end. This leopard was not having it today though. They whip around and chaos ensues as these two have a screaming match in the middle of the room. Paws swiping every which way. No claws though, just strife.

I groan and roll my eyes so far into the back of my head that I fail to notice the red wolf… creature lurch their way between me and the twin fur tornado over there. I didn’t notice how tall they were lying on the ground, but now seeing them by my compact car, they’re actually a couple feet taller than it. As the leopards finish their spat with each other, they realize they’ve lost their advantage in this fight. With Sarge still snapping at their heels, they make a salty retreat. Then the towering beast in front of me buckles and crumples to the floor. Taking me down with them.

So there I am flat on my ass with this –this… you know what, lets just call them like they look for now, a werewolf. ANYWAY, so there I am flat on my ass with a werewolf pinning me to the chilly concrete floor. I try to wriggle my legs out from under their ribcage with no real luck.

“Well fuck, now what do I do Sarge?” I rhetorically ask at my dog who just stands there with an adorable, but dumb, grin on his face.

I sigh and decide to take a closer gander at this hulking beast in my lap. It’s not like I have anything else better to do since I forgot my phone in the bedroom. Their head and neck unmistakably say wolf, but the rest of this hmm… I don’t know. The gash seems to have stopped bleeding, so that’s good. Oh! Their elbow joint is a lot lower, which means a longer humerus, which… looks kind of human like, to be honest. The proportions on the back legs don’t seem to be one hundred percent canid either. Man, why did I leave my phone on the damn bed! I could’ve asked Dr. Luna at work if they’d seen anything like this, but they probably wouldn’t believe me without proof. I sigh again, but with a little more defeat this time. 

“Sarge! baby! Can you get my phone? Go get my phone on the bed!” I say excitedly to Sarge, who doesn’t seem to register any of it except for ‘bed’.

Sarge yawns, shakes a little, and ambles back into the house. His little nails clack down the hallway, and even a little ‘wump’ can be heard as he flops onto the bed. Yeah… he’s probably not coming back. Thanks BUD.

A few minutes pass, and everything is silent. Not that anything would be awake at this hour, it’s like four in the morning. I try to doze off myself, but my foot falls asleep first. Through the blanket of insufferable pins and needles I can feel their breathing stablizing, and their muscles relax for the first time since they fell. At least I make a good werewolf pillow, I guess.

Minutes later, the werewolf’s nose starts twitching, and their ears swivel around. They groggily lift their head off the floor, putting pressure on my feeble, sleep stricken legs. I wince and the red wolf reflexively rolls right off my legs. They stare, cock their head, and then start darting their eyes from their paws to my face with increasing panic in their body language. I feel like I should care more about my immediate safety, but honestly I’m just so tired. I’m SO tired that I’m starting to have double vision right now… wait, nope. That’s a whole second werewolf. Sure, why not, the door’s wide open.

This one’s easily twice the size of the one in front of me. They barely fit through the garage door…hole, but they managed to keep a composed air about themselves. That is, until I make eye contact with them and they stumble backward out of the garage hole. As if they’d been caught in an employee’s only area by mistake or something. They let out a little ‘uff’ at the werewolf next to me and I could have sworn they rolled their eyes before staggering back up. The red wolf gazed at me one last time, pushed their big wet nose on my forehead, and leapt after the other werewolf. I wait a couple extra minutes to regain feeling in my legs, and possibly to wake up from this weird dream I’m having? …hmm?? Nope, I’m definitely still awake.

I get up to stumble back into bed and take whatever few hours I still have left before my shift at the vet office tomorrow. Just before succumbing to slumber however, I drunkenly call Carla’s phone. No answer. Then I call Jo’s cell. Also no answer.

“They’re probably just busy.” I yawn out as I fade into unconsciousness.

The dream plays out again. The one where I’m watching a movie next to Carla on the sofa. I excuse myself to the bathroom, but the bathroom is nowhere to be seen. I panic and start walking, then running, eventually galloping down the hallway to the bedroom. I grow sharp claws and pack on muscle to dig into the ground. Desperately trying to propel myself forward. It’s never enough, it’s always just out of reach. A concerned Carla walks in from behind me, and leans in to comfort me. I can never look her in the eyes at this point. Not like this. Stripes slowly creep up my arms and my teeth grow longer. Sharper. She continues to be sweet to me while I feel absolutely undeserving until I finally wake up from sheer frustration.

Jeez! Like it’s not enough that I have to deal with all that nonsense from last night. Now my own brain wants to betray me too?? uugh…at least Sarge looks cute, curled up on Carla’s pillow. My phone starts vibrating, not from my alarm, but an incoming call. I swipe accept.

“Hey, Mar. Are you okay? You called pretty late last night. You’re not hurt are you?” Carla says in a sort of heightened, nervous tone.

“…uh. Y-yeah, no, I’m alright. I just wanted to know when you’re coming home, since you’re… not. Well, here. Right now.” I say while mentally debating whether or not I should talk about last night.

“Yeah, the boss has me delivering a couple packages to the neighboring towns so I might beEOW-*pound,pound*… be out. For a few days." Carla says.

“Are you okay, babe?” I ask

“hmm? Oh, yeah. There was just a, um, stray cat. I poked their little belly, and they did NOT like that.” Carla answered.

“Most cats don’t.” I say.

“Heh heh, YEP!” Says Carla.

“…”

“…”

“Anyway, I guess I’ll cook up something big in a few days then. Should I marinate pork or beef for the occasion.” I say.

“Beef sounds good, oh and I’ll get Jo to look at the garage door so don’t worry about it.” Says Carla.

“Okay, bye.”

“see ya!”

I end the call, and go about my routine. Make coffee, let Sarge out, fry up some eggs to top my rice, Feed Sarge, eat, et cetera, et cetera, BUT something was nagging at me though. Carla was still acting really strange on the phone this morning. I mean she’s usually very good with cats, seeing as Jo has six of them. Well at least she got Jo to fix the garage door so I don’t have to sweat i-HEY WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE.