Can't Fight the Moonlight

“You are probably wondering what happened? Why are you here?-“

“Why am I naked?”

“That too…and I will explain all these things to you-“

“Can I ‘ave those pants?” I stick my closed fist in through the bars of the cage to see that there’s nothing but air between my fingers and palm. I make a ‘oh’ noise and bend down to grab the pants I apparently dropped.

“Here,” I say handing him the pants and turning around. How am I supposed to explain this? He is not going to believe that he is now a dangerous dog three nights out of the month with a blood lust of wild primitive hounds. I sigh out loud to my thoughts, staring at the crack in the cement floor as I wait for some cue to turn around. “Are you done yet?”

“Yea’ but maybeh I don’t wan’ yeh to turn around,”

“That’s a little mean,” I say before stopping myself. He’s a little mean? He is the one that woke up naked in a barred cage… I turn around and look at him, this can’t be right. “You’re a werewolf.” I say flatly, getting to the point, maybe he’ll pass out and I can explain later.

He starts laughing of course and I sigh, putting my hands in my pockets and leaning against a ceiling high stack of boxes.

“I’m not drugs, I’m not crazy. I’m a vampire slayer, you happen to have had an accident where you were attacked by a werewolf I’ve been hunting and the disease has spread to you. I’m sorry.” I add a full heart apology at the end, this just blows. My eyes lock with his and the sincerity in my features catches him, I can see it in his eyes as his laughter subsides.

“Yeh’ trying to tell me that that night after the show that dog was a-”

“A werewolf, yes, I wish I was kidding or something but I’m not.” I mumble with sorry eyes and a sympathetic pout to match.

“Why can’t yeh be some crazy obsessed fan?”

I almost silently chuckle but a few bars of noise manage to escape. “In this situation I wish I was. You mentioned an attack the other night? Your scream must have been the one of the ones I heard…if I was only quicker…” I mutter to myself, my eyes falling to the floor as the guilt really starts spreading.

“Yea’ after the show we were ‘anging out back and I went out for a smoke…It came outta’ no where.”

“Were you bitten or scratched?” I ask, raising my eyes again to see him sitting there on the bare floor with his arms resting on each of his knees. He bends his arm outward to show a long gash up it, one I hadn’t noticed until now. It was definitely a scratch. “You’re going to have to stay here tonight again; tonight is the last cycle of the full moon.”

“Yea’ meh mates are gonna be lookin’ for meh.”

“You can call them, have them over if you want but you’re staying here tonight. I can’t have you out there loose, harming other people.” And for a moment his eyes drop, I feel a little awkward standing here staring at him. Awkward? Really that’s how I feel at the moment? A bunch of other emotions are swimming up inside but I think that’s the only one I’m making out at this very second and it’s not like I want to concentrate on the others.

“Do yeh’ know if I ‘urt anyone?” He whispers, his eyes looking up and catching mine. I shoot my eyes to floor and take a few seconds to answer; I really don’t know what to tell him. I’m not prepared for this.

“I really don’t know…There’s another one on the loose so any attacks that come up today could have been from him…” I reply, taking small glances at him, this situation is pulling at my heart strings, it really is. This sucks. He’s a musician, with fans and tour dates and friends. He’s a guy with a life and now it’s been altered. Like an STD. I’m not sure which is worse… “Are you hungry or anything? Want a shirt? I should bandage up your arm or something, I mean you don’t have to stay locked up in there for the whole day…”

“That’d beh nice.” I nod, as I unlock the door of the cage he gets up to his feet, putting his hands in the pockets of the pants to wait there uneasily. “What’s yer name?”

“Oh, it’s AJ.” I reply with as much of smile I can muster; I don’t think it was much.

Matt follows me through the basement, up the stairs and up through the halls to my apartment, all in silence. As we walked I kept a close eye on him, in case he decided to try and make a run for it. I really don’t want to tackle him or anything. Though I must say he is taking this rather well, maybe it hasn’t all sunk in yet and he’s still in shock.

“El get out here, you won’t fucking believe it.” I yell as I walk through the door, closing and locking it behind Matt. She comes rushing out of our bedroom quickly and when her eyes take in our resident wolf she slams the breaks into the couch, falling pretty much face first into cushions. “Yeah…” I mumble.

“Why is he here!?” She asks in a hushed whisper, (like he wouldn’t be able to hear her) after she pulls herself up off the couch.

“He is the big bad wolf I caught this morning.”

“What? You’re saying this in front of him?” She asks, still whispering and still standing by the couch arm.

“Matt you can take a seat; I’ll grab some peroxide and a shirt for you. El, help me please.” I say as I walk across the room towards the bathroom. Hey, I called him by his name, and wow what a silly thing to notice.

I pull out the brown bottle, some gauzes and tape, turning around and El is my shadow. I bump into her slightly before walking off to the bedroom.

“Explain this to me!” She whispers urgently as she follows. I drop the medical supplies in her arms and go to the closet, looking for a band shirt.

“Explain what? You know how werewolves work.”

“That is Matt Tuck! How the hell-“

“He was attacked, he’s a werewolf now, and I told him. There’s your explanation.” I reply. Not in a whisper but in normal volume and with an edgy, attitude-full tone. I pull a black Aiden shirt that should fit him out from a stack and turn back around to El. “I don’t need to be explaining things to you, you know this world.” I huff, strangling the shirt in my right hand, really sick to my stomach with this situation, as it continues to hit me. “Now if you don’t have anything else to say, let me get back out there and tend to him.” I tell her, taking the supplies from her and passing her. “And drop the whispering and the fan act please? He doesn’t need it.” I tell her right before crossing the threshold of the bedroom.

“Here, this should fit.” I hand him the shirt after putting the supplies down on the little table, he’s sat himself on the couch ineptly looking around the room at all the books, relics and weapons. He nods as he takes it, pulling it over his head then adjusting the bottom with scratched fingers.

“Do you want anything to eat or drink?” El asks, coming out of the bedroom.

“Yea’ a beer beh nice, to take this all in,” Matt replies with a small laugh and grin.

“I’ll go out and get some,” I say as I sit down next him and take his arm. I really didn’t realize what I was doing when I first did it, I took his arm and I’m sitting here holding it while his hand is brushing my leg. I can slightly feel my mouth twitching and for a few seconds my eyes are looking into his and I feel dazed.

“I’ll go get it,” El’s voice wakes me up and my head jolts towards her. She’s already at the door and pulling on a hoodie. “You stay here and tend to him, ‘be back in a few.” And before I could start an argument she was out the door. Did she really have to say ‘tend to him’? I hope I’m the only one that picked something up off of that and I’m just freaking myself out.

I make myself snap out of it and continue what I was first starting. I grab the washcloth that’s sitting on the table and pour some peroxide on it, Matt has left his arm out and it’s resting on my knee-leg area. “This might burn,” I mumble, feeling awkward. I apply pressure and repeat the pouring of the peroxide again, making sure to clean it very well.

“Yeh’ve got a grip,”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I burble while throwing the rag to the table and picking up a package of gauze. After wrapping two packages around his arm I take the tape and tape up the edges, just to make sure it’s going to last through the day.

“There you go, all done.” I say, scrunching up the excess papers before getting up to throw them away.

“Thanks,” He says as I walk back to the couch and sit back down.

“Do you want the phone to call your friends?” I ask, jumping to a question to fill the silence, and before he asks why I do what I do and that good stuff. He blinks a few times, looking at me sort of frozen in thought for a few good seconds before nodding. I get up again to go and grab it. I walk back to him and hand him the phone and start off towards the kitchen, to give him some space to explain.

“Where are we?”

“Oh, yeah you need the address don’t you? 3698 Roe Road, apartment 2B.” He nods then dials in a number and within the seconds he’s starting a conversation with someone.

I lean against the stove and sigh silently, running my fingers through my hair and even pulling out a few strands, they fall the floor slowly and I watch them. I crack my knuckles against my thighs as I’m standing here in almost a crumple.

I know I can’t save everyone but knowing that doesn’t making losing someone any easier to deal with. And yeah maybe I didn’t ‘lose’ him but I didn’t prevent him from being attacked. Now he’s going to have this totally different life, this life in the dark with the monsters. Where I live, and I never want to put anyone there. My job is to fucking be out there preventing that. Yeah, I’m beating myself up about this hell of a lot, that’s something else I do. When this is my life, all that my life is, it really hits me hard when something like this happens.

I don’t even recognize the tears leaving the ducks when they do. My hands are covering my cheeks and overlapping my nose as I slowly fall apart in my kitchen.

“’Eh why are yeh crying love?” I jerk at his first accented syllable and he’s there standing next to me and I hadn’t heard a single footstep. I dry my cheeks in a rush, only a few tears fell along my cheeks so within one swipe my face is dry.

“No reason.” I whisper, yeah I’m lying but I had to say something, I couldn’t just stand here being mute. His arm is around me a second later in a hug and I almost let myself melt into him. I take in his scent, the scent of my shirt, the smell of the peroxide that lingers from his arm and I simply hug him back.

“Back with the beer,” El calls from the door and I lock up for a split second against him before pulling away promptly a millisecond later.