Can't Fight the Moonlight

I grit my teeth and huff back the whimper that should have came out, I’m too stubborn to let even a dog hear that. The back of my shirt is torn and shredded; I think I’ve hit the pavement a few too many times.

Staying out of any train of thought, just in time I leap out of the way of what could have been a very fatal scratch. I force my fist into its muzzle and he falls back a few steps, this is the chance I’ve been looking for for the last twenty minutes. I lunge at its middle and take it down. A heavy thud vibrates through the ground when its back crashes down. I dig practically my whole arm into the huge gap seen as the throat of the beast; I’ll make him pass out like the last time.

His paws…his hands…well they start flailing around, the irate noises of claws scratching cement tampers with my ears and that causes my arm to bury itself deeper in the fur. It’s a very stupid policy, not being able to kill werewolves. They’re dangerous, just as dangerous as any vampire. And this guy deserves to die, he knows what he is and still he puts others in danger.

I’m comfortable enough now to be able to think, its body is limping and soon it’ll be passed out and I can drag it home. “I should have a tranquilizer gun like they do in the movies.” I mumble to myself in amusement.

The minutes seem to pass ever slowly but it was finally unconscious. Time for a break, there’s a good hour before sun up and I can get it back with no problem. I sit on the curb and crack my knuckles…And then my wrists and neck. “One more night of this,” I mumble as I’m staring up at the moon.

After a couple minutes in the silent dark I’ve had enough and I’m ready for some food and a nice soft chair. I get to my feet and grab an arm and then a leg; I sling it over my shoulder and make my way back home.

“There you are, that took long enough…Are you okay? Nobody got hurt did they?”

“Not that I know of,” I answer as I walk through the door. I drop the overgrown mutt on the floor and all the pretty little glass things jingle.

“That isn’t staying there is it?” El asks from her chair, all bundled up with the remote. Damn her.

“No, I will move it. I have to get the basement ready first. And I wasn’t carrying that down there with all the crap in the way.” I say with almost gritted teeth before turning abruptly around and walking out to get to the basement.

After about ten minutes of fumbling and moving big boxes of nothing, I get to the corner I was looking for. A big caged in corner. We built this a couple years back for demons that need to be interrogated.

“I need a shower.” I say as I finally sit down. The dog is downstairs, locked up tight where no one will get hurt. “I smell bad,”

“What happened to your arm?”

“What-Oh this? I used myself as real live bait. It’s nothing. It’s already closed up.” I can feel the material of the chair against the exposed pieces of my back, I’m glad I didn’t wear a shirt I really liked…

“Why don’t you go shower and changed and I’ll get you some food?”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

After a good, hot shower I come out to a warm breakfast from McDonalds, I’m glad El didn’t try cooking…or using magic to cook…she tried that once…It didn’t end well.

“When do you think he’ll be up?” She asks through the straw that’s jabbed into a cup of orange juice.

“After I’m done eating,”

She replies with a nod and we fall into silence.

“Thanks for the food,” I say five minutes later, tossing my napkin and juice cup into the pancake tray before getting up and crossing the room to the kitchen. “Do we have any junk clothes? That would fit that guy? I really don’t want to see him naked again.”

“Um…we might. I’ll check the closet.” I follow El intoour her room, she starts looking through a box on the floor and I take a seat on her bed. I hardly ever sleep in here, I usually just crash on the couch, not that I mind. All her herbs and sticks of smell can keep me from sleeping.

“Hey! Watch it!” I yell at her with a mild laugh, she starts tossing pieces of this and that over her shoulder.

“Does he need a shirt? Or just pants? ‘Cause I think I can swing pants. If he needs a shirt we’ll have to give him a band tee-“

“If he didn’t pull the shit he did in running and making me search for him, sure I’d give him a band shirt but no, not after all that unnecessary work.”

“A simple no would have worked…”

“Nah.” I reply just as El stands up and turns around with a pair of black jean-like pants in clenched in her right hand. “Are you staying up here?”

“Yeah, I’ve seen enough of the naked guy.”

“He’s not good looking at all.” I mumble and shake my head as I take the pants from her. “I couldn’t get someone attractive? Only the bloodsuckers have half a chance of looking good? Why is that?” I say to myself as I walk out of our door and venture off towards the basement. “Sometimes I think of that one Slayer that hooked up with the vampires, and think she wasn’t half crazy. Humans flee, demons have…other parts…and gross skin…Maybe vampires are the way to go in this life.”

I flick on the lights and thickly walk over to the cage, making sure to stomp all the way there. “Alright buddy, time to get up and don’t try faking you’re asleep to make me come in there. Because it isn’t going to happen, you can stay in there all day and all tonight for all I don’t-“ My sentence drops like the pants that I loosely held in my hand. I take a few steps closer and don’t realize my shoe is touching the bottom of one of the bars. My eyelids shrink closer to one another to try and get a better look but my mind just isn’t grasping what I’m seeing.

“’Ello…” He whispers completely puzzled.

“Ohh my---god…” I sputter. My jaw is dropped, my eyes are bugling and it’s been a good minute since I’ve blinked. My hand thinks the pants are still in my grasp but really it’s just clenching the basement air.

“Yeh’ staring.” He says uncomfortably maybe a minute later, and that’s when I start pulling out of whatever little trance I fell into.

“Sorry, yes I am…Oh jeez…I have Matt Tuck in a fucking cage…” I out loud, that last part to myself.