Fateful Meeting

It’s eyes were a deep brown with a tint of green, it’s body completely black and it’s size was twice that of a normal wolf. I couldn’t help but notice because for some odd reason I was no longer cautious, just curious. When it noticed my body relax, it too relaxed.

I was thinking about it’s eyes for a long moment realizing that they were familiar, extremely familiar. I thought back to the times when I would run through the forest at home and stop at the stream I thought how I would stare at my reflection in the water. I remember that no matter what my body looked like, wolf or human, that my eyes never changed. Even in wolf form they still remained human like in depth and in colour. The bright blue against my snow white fur, the human emotions shining right through them, fear, love, understanding. No matter what emotion it was there, and all to obvious.

We stood there, our eyes locked, for what seemed like hours. Then with no reason, it turned and headed back towards the forest. I stared at the spot that it disappeared my mind racing. It’s eyes were too human like to be a wolf, its body language too vast. Though I knew the repulsion wolves felt to being too near to humans, I figured that it was just my imagination getting the best of me along with the lack of sleep.

Then something else caught my eye, from where the wolf had disappeared a human figure now emerged. I narrowed my eyes attempting to catch a better look of who it was, and when I did I stood in shock. I fought the urge to pinch myself, I think I’m still dreaming this really can not be happening. There is no way that this was possible, no way that I was truly awake and not sleeping.

“Uh, hi Tiffany,” his husky voice came from across the lawn.

At that moment I knew I wasn’t dreaming, that there was no way a dream could be this real.

“What are you doing here? How did you find out where I live?” I growled, bending into a crouch.

“Yeah about that, I .. uh .. kind of followed you home,” he answered timidly, running his hands through his black no longer spiked hair.

My mind began to race once again, too many thoughts trying to be processed at once. I thought back to this morning, back to the group of guys in front of the locker. I remembered the conclusion I came to when he walked me to my music class, the blood lust. Was he scouting me out as some sort of prey? Then something else came back to me, the  conversation between his friends. “He thinks she is” “No it all fits the smell, attraction, attitude and lack of family history”.

He knew, he knew what I was. He knew because he was one of my kind. How could this be? I’ve lived for 60 years and never have I once ran into another of my kind. The only exception was when I had been bitten, but I figured the village would have found and destroyed that one, like they had tried to do to me.

“How do you know? John, why did you follow me?” I questioned cautiously as he moved a few steps forward.

“Well, it’s kind of a long story. If you don’t mind me staying for a few I could try to explain. I don’t mean any harm I am just here to talk, nothing more, nothing less.”

“Pfft yeah, and how do I know you’re not going to try and attack me? Why should I trust you, I barely know you?”

“Tiffany, we are one in the same. Why would I harm you, especially when I know nothing about how strong you are. That would be far to careless on my part don’t you think, honestly I’m not the big bad wolf.”

“Hahaha! Oh my that is so original,” I replied snidely. Come on, who is immature enough to use that.

“Lighten up Tiff, I’m just trying to cool you down,” seriousness taking over his voice.
I took a moment to calm myself and allow my mind to stop jumping ahead of the time, it took a lot of effort but it worked and I returned to the patio chair. I strummed my fingers slowly over the strings of my forgotten guitar and listened as each note pricked a different sensation to my ears. That moment I almost for got that I had an unexpected and unwanted visitor, that was until he broke into my “happy moment”.

“You play?”

“Nope it’s just here for show, figured I’d remind myself that I am an untalented piece of s**t. What do you think?!”

“You know you really have some temper problems, I think you should get some help with that.”

“Oh yes, because a psychiatrist would be so happy to hear my problems. “Well ma’am you see, I’m an orphaned werewolf that’s about 60 years old”, I can really see that going well. Hello padded walls, and goodbye use of my arms.”

“There’s that sarcasm again….” John huffed, folding his arms over his chest and taking a couple more steps towards the deck.

“I’m sorry… I guess that I am still a little miffed about this whole idea of not being the only one of my kind,” I apologized, leaning my head back against the chair allowing my mind to catch up with my emotions.

“Yeah I know what you mean, trust me you are taking it fairly well for what I had imagined, most of us had a hard time coming around to believing it. I remember Alec’s reaction when we met up with him, it was so intense. I went and talked to him like I am telling you and he phased while I was in human form, I don’t think that I have ever phased so fast in my life. I swear that the whole saying of your life flashing in front of your eyes is true, all my years gone by in a mere second. I was afraid at first that this was going to be exactly the same as then, but once again you surprised me,” he laughed.

“You’re saying that there is more of us! Next you’re going to tell me that vampires aren’t imaginary and that fairies are going to come out of the woods and fly around my head.  Damn, give me a second I just need to allow my thoughts to get processed here or I am going to snap and you will be toast.”

He allowed me to  sit in silence which surprised me, I was trying to get everything straight yet my mind wouldn’t let me. I was playing twenty questions with my own mind, yet I wasn’t getting the answers I needed. This entire day was my true hell, I had gone from insanely cocky to totally unsure of anything, and to be entirely honest I didn’t enjoy it at all. My thoughts finally arranged themselves and I lifted my head to look at John, ready to get the answers I needed and deserved.

“Before you start in telling me anything else that I can’t handle right now I am going to ask some questions and I want answers. I don’t know how this whole werewolf s**t works when there is more than one of us, but right now I honestly could care less. I want these answers and I will get them, no matter if you have any god damn rules about this junk. First off, how old are you? And I don’t mean the age you pretend to be I want to know your actual age.”

“Well I am 105 years old, give or take a couple. My guess is that we stop aging about the time our bodies hit puberty, but I don’t know the exact science behind it.”

Great I’m going to be this age forever, I’m never going to grow old and die,  thought to myself. My blood starting to pounding through my veins. It will never end, never get better. I’ll have to live in fear for the rest of my life, like an  animal hunted to extinction.

“Alright, I guess I can deal with that. Next one is how many of you are there? And I want to know the gender ratio too, please don’t tell me that I am the lone wolf out, excuse the pun.”
“ There are five of us, all male. There is Alec, Abe, Bennett, Quin and myself. Abe’s real name is Abraham, and Quin’s is Quiton. We haven’t felt the need to change our original names because I guess we are all hanging onto our lost pasts and futures in one way or another.”

“To be honest I have tried my best to forget, but trust me it’s always there even if you want to. Believe it or not my real name is Josephine, my mother named me after my great grandma. I can’t believe that after sixty years I still remember that but it’s there in my memory tucked back into a section I hate to get into.”

“Josephine is a beautiful name, but I think I like Tiffany a lot more. I find it fits your personality better, and sometimes it is better to get rid of the past then to hold on until you hit your breaking point.”

“True enough, I loved my parents completely, but I find that holding onto the past lets my emotions get the best of me.  I’m sure you know what that means for us to, and let’s just say I’m not always Miss Personality as it is.”

“You’re telling me, I’ve known you for how long already and I think you’ve almost bitten my head off at least three times. For us though, you have to have some spunk if you want to be able to make it through alright. You just have excess of it, and to tell the truth its kind of hot.”

“Alright … good moment ruined by teenage male hormones, but hey what else is new. To tell the truth John I’m tired of today, I have a headache that’s radiating my skull and to be frank I just want to go into my bed and pass out.”

“I’m really sorry, I don’t know why but this is pretty hard for me to do. I don’t have any experience with the whole teenage female werewolf, and so far I can see that next time if there is one I should hand it over to someone else,” he replied running his hand through his hair once more.

“No it’s fine John, sorry I flipped out so many times. I am so used to being one of a kind that it feels like my thunder is being stolen, the whole alpha thing comes into play with us too I guess. Trust me you did fine and I am sure that any other female would have taken it better but all I can say is that I really am one of a kind no matter what. Good night John I might see you tomorrow,” I replied with a smile walking through the sliding door into the kitchen without another word or glance back.