The Seer (part 2)

Part 1 is here

Karina sat on the end of her bed, staring into the open doorway at the wood panelling that lined the hall. She hadn't had a vision for a few weeks now
– not even in her dreams – and so spent a lot of time contemplating the meaning of what she had seen so far. She'd seen a man fighting a dragon, the birth of a baby, a boy leaving his home with tears in his eyes, a massive tavern brawl ...

    They were all pieces of a puzzle, lengths of a story she had to put together. It was important somehow. Karina had always been plagued by her blackouts, a problem she had always tried to hide, lest anyone see her as a defective orphan, not worth taking on as a worker. But ever since she was a child, she had never been able to stop her best friend, Dee, from seeing that she sometimes went away for a time. It was the blackouts that had somehow sparked off the visions, a fact that had only made her all the more determined to find meaning behind her peculiarities.

    Dee appeared in the open doorway, a black bag slung over her shoulder. "You ready?" she asked.

    Dee had only breached the surface of Karina's contemplation with her appearance, and Karina looked to her own bag at her side to bring herself back to reality. The bag was full of everything she owned; she was never coming back to this farm, and the thought of making her own way in the world was scary. "I guess so." She mumbled.

    She must have stared at the bag for a little too long, or answered in the wrong tone of voice because when Dee sat beside her and put a hand on her shoulder, her voice was concerned. "What's wrong?"

    Karina didn't look back at her. She shook her head. "It's just ... so strange. We're going out there, into the world, to live a real life. Our own lives. Freedom." She continued to stare at the bag. "I hope we're ready."

    "You know ..." Dee said thoughtfully, shifting her position on the bed and dropping her bag. "I think we've been ready for a long time."

    "It all reminds me of my visions," Karina sighed wistfully. "That boy was leaving home in one of them."

    Dee took her hand away and pulled Karina around to face her. "You're not still dwelling on that." Her voice was cracking slightly. "I thought you hadn't had one of your episodes for weeks now?"

    Karina looked calmly into her panicked gaze. "Yes, that's right." She paused, letting the words sink in and smother Dee's fears of a lack of honesty and trust between them. "But they're important. I think–"

    "No." Dee hardened her look. "Don't think about them, you'll just bring them back. It was all just a consequence of stressing about our final exams, and that's all there is to it."  She turned her eyes away.

    Karina gave a questioning look to the side of Dee's head. She wanted her friend to understand. "Why would I see a boy I've never met in my visions?"

    "I don't know." Dee sounded agitated, and she stood up abruptly, standing over Karina as if the extra height would bring Karina around to her point of view. "Anyway, didn't you see me being born the first time this happened? What does that have to do with a boy? They're all disconnected, and you have to stop thinking about them."

    Karina looked down at her hands. "I wish it was that easy."

    Taking on her gentle air again, Dee fell back down into position next to her. "It will be. Like you said, we're going to have new lives. It won't be a problem any more."

    "Yeah." Karina sighed and finally looked back to Dee. She gave a tentative smile. "Who knows what we'll meet out there in the world? There's no point in worrying about the things in my head."

    "That's right." Dee patted Karina on the shoulder and stood back up, looking pointedly between her friend and the full bag beside her.

    Karina grinned and slung it onto her shoulder, Dee mimicking the action.
     "Besides," Dee said. "We'll always have each other."



The two friends had made an agreement with a trade caravan on its way to Mana, the capital of magic. The journey was to take a week, as they stopped at smaller towns and villages along the way. It wasn't strange for young people with no place in life to head to the city of magic, because it was the best way to find a place, whether in academics like Karina and Dee, or in labour or services. Trade caravans to Mana usually had an entire cart reserved for travellers, and while it hadn't had many passengers when they first departed Gaville, it was full by the time they had their last pick up before approaching Mana.

    They were still a few days' travel from Mana when the city was visible on the horizon. The road sharply inclined for quite some distance, and when it levelled, the view of the city from so far away was truly breathtaking. Buildings reached up as if they were trying to touch the sky. All of the young travellers were mesmerized, Karina and Dee included. How was it even possible for a city to be so huge? They started chatting excitedly amongst themselves.

    The excitement died down when the city in the distance became a staple on the horizon and they had to stop for the night again. What had been energetic chatter was murmured awe in the late afternoon when they finally reached the outskirts of Mana, the passengers crowding the side of the road in front of a station building.

    As the caravan finally left their large group behind, they all took their first proper look from inside the city of Mana. As an orphan, Karina knew she had been in the city before – all children were taken to Mana before being re-homed – but she no longer had a child's eyes, and her grown-up eyes were excited at what she saw.

    The station building they were dropped at was as big as the Academy building, the biggest landmark in Gaville, but where all the buildings of her home town were dwarfed by the school, the station was tiny in a sea of giants. The huge but sturdy shining structures blocked direct sunlight and cast a massive shadow over the old stone building she stood in front of.
      Dee stood beside her, looking just as awestruck.

     The two girls stood and stared for longer than was strictly necessary, and it was Karina who finally broke their trance. "Well, I guess we'd better get started." She checked their map and nudged Dee with her shoulder to get her going and they started walking.

    The city was like the future compared to Gaville. Or maybe Gaville was just stuck in the past. Alongside the horses and carts on the streets, driverless machines whizzed by, delivering people and goods to their destinations. Karina found it hard to keep her mind on her own destination with so many things to look at.

    She saw it coming up: from a school in the country, to a school in the city. The university was the centre of this bustling city: a place where the magic that made this all possible was studied. Karina and Dee would have to prove their magical proficiency in order to attend the school, but Dee was amazingly intelligent, and Karina ... she was talented, at least.

    In the same way that the Academy towered over Gaville, shockingly, the university did the same with the city. It didn't seem possible to dwarf the already enormous buildings, but the university did it with ease. Karina and Dee stood in front of the massive front doors, open-mouthed and once again in awe.

    As the two girls stood staring, the giant wooden doors opened of their own accord, inviting them inside. This was magic, this city was the pinnacle of the world according to magic. The invitation for entry given, Karina and Dee had no more time to stare in wonderment, they entered the most gigantic building they had ever seen to embark on the biggest enterprise of their lives.

Animal Spirits (1)

Raine was on holiday with her four friends. They’d toured and trekked and played, and now they stood in a bustling marketplace, eating food from a street vendor and wondering where to go next. Zane pointed to a storefront down the street. There was a sign board out the front. Find your spirit animal.

“I want to find my spirit animal!” he said.

The five friends strolled towards the tiny shop. It seemed to sell crystals and power stones, incense and other spirit-inclined goods. The sign at the front seemed to be a temporary promotion. They all looked at one another. There was certainly no harm.

Tory shrugged. “Depends on how much it costs, I guess,” she said indifferently.

The others nodded in agreement.

“As long as it doesn’t break the bank, I don’t care how much it is, I’m finding my spirit animal!” Zane was really pumped, and his enthusiasm was infectious. The five of them squeezed into the shop, brushing past wind chimes and bells, creating an accompaniment for their movement.

When all five had somehow manoeuvred themselves into the space in front of the counter, a smiling woman appeared through the beaded curtain to the back of the store.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

Despite his enthusiasm, Zane didn’t take the lead, and Raine stepped forward. “We’re here about finding our spirit animals.”

The woman gave a glance back at the beaded curtain. As though he had been listening and waiting for this, a man made his way out. He didn’t look at them or say anything, but gestured for them to go through to the back room.

Raine hesitated for a moment when Tory gave her a meaningful look. “About the cost …”

The man looked straight into her eyes and gave a wry smile. “For a group? There will only be one cost.”

“Sounds good to me.” Zane was the first one to go through the beaded curtain. Dave and Adam followed behind him, then Tory. Raine was transfixed by the eyes of the man. They seemed to glow. Tory pulled on her hand to drag her along behind them, and Raine managed to tear her gaze away.

The back room contained a table and two chairs, and they all filed in and stood in a semicircle around them. The man came in last. He stood in front of them all.

“I am a shaman, from a long line of shamans. I shall unlock your spirit animals, but you won’t find out what they are here today.”

“Unlock? The sign said we’d find our spirit animals,” Zane said.

“And find them you shall. It’s not an instant process, though.”

“Then what are we paying you for today, then?” Tory asked.

“Today is a spirit ceremony allowing your animal guide to find you,” the shaman said solemnly. “If you would prefer to come back and pay me once the results have appeared, I wouldn’t object ...”

“No, it’s fine,” Raine said. “We’ll pay you to conduct the ceremony, it doesn’t matter about the results for now.”

The shaman met her eyes again and gave another of his small smiles. “Then the subject of payment? I would say four dollars for each of you who I manage to unlock a spirit animal for.”

“Four dollars? You’re not in this for the money, are you?”

“It’s a group discount. I only need to complete one ceremony for all of you, and that brings the total to twenty dollars. Unless some of you do not possess a spirit animal, then I might lose out.”

“How will you know if we do or not?” Adam asked.

“The ceremony will reveal it.” He bowed his head solemnly. “I will get things ready.” He opened the back door and walked out, leaving the five friends in the room.

“Well, he’s creepy, isn’t he?” Dave shrugged. “Looks like we’re paying for the whole experience.”

“I was kind of just expecting to sit down at the table and for him to give us an animal each, but this is better.” Tory said.

“Yeah.” Raine looked over to the beaded curtain. Something about the whole situation was making her nervous, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to go through with it. She opened her mouth to say so, but a cloud of pink smoke billowed in from the open back door.

“Nice!” Zane said.

The shaman walked back into the room through the smoke, waving a stick of incense and chanting something softly.

He approached Raine first. “Breathe in the incense, and it will attract your spirit guide to you,” he whispered, waving the stick in front of her face. He didn’t need to tell her, she had no choice but to breathe it in. It smelled sweet, and left a sweet taste in her mouth, too. The shaman moved onto Tory and whispered something to her as well, waving the stick in her face, too.

He went to each of the five crowded in a semi-circle, and then stepped on one of the chairs to get onto the table, chanting again. The room filled with the incense and the pink smoke, clouding everything. Raine felt a slight twinge in her chest, and suddenly the room was clear. The shaman was sitting at the table now.

“All of you had spirit animals to unlock,” he informed them.

“Surprise, surprise,” Tory muttered.

The shaman’s gaze moved over to Raine again. “Your spirit animal is special, though.”

“What does that mean?”

He tilted his head in a shrug-like manner. “I’m not sure. It is something I haven’t felt before. It should be amazing.”

The five friends paid the shaman and exited the shop, excitement buzzing around them.

“Well, that was an experience,” Adam said.

“Yeah, and that shaman was totally hitting on Raine.” Tory nudged Raine.

Raine felt her face get hot. “No, he wasn’t. It was totally creepy.”

Zane stepped out in front of her. “You’re the chosen one,” he said, wriggling his fingers in front of her face.

Raine smacked his hands away. “I am not.” She looked up into the sky. It had been around midday when they’d entered the store, and now the sun was low in the sky. “How long were we in there for, anyway?”

“Longer than we thought,” David said with a frown. “He shrugged. “Oh well, back to the hotel. It’s time to drink away our last night here!”

There was a cheer of agreement. Raine cheered to, letting the whole shaman experience sink to the back of her mind.

Three months later, Raine sat on the beach beside Tory, reminiscing about their trip.

“Remember that shaman?” she said, and laughed. “He was totally hitting on you.”

“He was not!” Raine laughed and slapped her shoulder.

“Hey.” Tory suddenly stopped laughing and looked into the distance. “What’s that?”

Raine looked over in the direction Tory was looking, confused as to what would change her mood so abruptly. The beach wasn’t busy, there were a few sunbathers and a couple of surfers in the waves, but Tory was looking over at the rocks to the side. Raine couldn’t see anything.

“I can’t see what you’re seeing. What’s what?”

Tory got to her feet and started walking over to the rocks. Raine jumped up to follow her. Tory had set a fast pace, and Raine almost had to run to keep up.

“Hey, hey, what is it?” Raine asked, worried.

Tory just stared straight ahead, driven by something Raine couldn’t see. Once they got to the rocks, Raine was already a few steps behind, and Tory managed to pick up her pace.

“Tory, be careful!” Raine had to slow down, trying to find footing on the uneven rocks, and her friend pulled even further ahead. Tory reached the water’s edge and bent down. Raine sighed, relieved that she was finally still, but Tory jumped into the water. She disappeared from view, and Raine scrambled to get to the edge as quickly as she could. Her friend was no longer visible, and Raine frantically searched the water’s surface for any sign of her.

“Tory! Tory!” Raine didn’t know if she should get in the water after her. If Tory had been taken by something, wouldn’t she be caught, too? Panicked, she could only look around. Minutes passed, and it felt like forever. Then Raine saw someone surface quite a distance away from the shore, on the other side of the breaking waves.

Tory waved at her, completely calm despite the situation. Raine jumped into the sea after her, feeling a strong motivation to slap her friend, or at least yell at her.

“What do you think you’re doing!” Raine demanded as she approached her friend. She would have grabbed Tory’s shoulders, but they were both swimming at the moment, and it wasn’t exactly the smartest decision right now.

Tory tilted her head slightly. “I’m following the seal,” she said, as if it were obvious.

“Following … you’re … what?”

In the face of Wen’s confusion, Tory just got excited. “My spirit animal guide, Raine. It’s a seal!”

Raine didn’t know what to do with the friend who was clearly having an episode while floating in the ocean. She spoke in a calm voice. “Tory, I think we should go back to shore. Then we can talk a little about the –”

“The seal!” Tory giggled like a child as the marine mammal she was just talking about made its appearance. Raine was dumbfounded. Where did a seal come from? The seal brushed its head against Tory’s arm.

“He told me you were scared and looking for me, so I thought we should meet up so you won’t worry when I go.”

“Go?” Raine was on the verge of screaming again. “Where could you possibly go? Don’t follow the seal, come back to shore with me.”

“But he’s my spirit animal guide, Raine. I need to follow him.”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Because he told me. I’ve never been able to understand a seal before now, so it seems logical.”

“None of this seems logical. What if you’re having a mental break?”

Tory gave this some thought for a moment. “That’s possible …”

This comment threw Raine off again. Did people having breakdowns seriously consider the fact that they might be having one? She shook her head and held out her hand to Tory. “Let’s go back to shore.”

Tory shook her head. “We let that shaman do the ritual for a reason. So I’m going to believe that this seal speaking to me is the real deal, and I’ll follow him.”

The seal seemed to give an imperceptible nod, and stared at Raine. She had to admit, the seal was acting in a very strange manner for a wild animal. This was either an elaborate prank, or it was the real deal. Raine gazed sternly at the seal.

“You’d better bring her back safely,” she told him. Then she looked at Tory. “Be careful?”

“Of course!”

With that, the seal dived down into the water and Tory followed. Raine sighed. Was she crazy for going along with this? She looked back to shore. This wasn’t exactly a safe place to be, it was a good thing she hadn’t been caught in a rip while she’d been floating out here. Exhausted, she swam back to shore, trying not to dwell on strange things.

On the beach, Raine had a new dilemma: was she supposed to wait for Tory, or just go home?

I Know Where You'll Sit (intro)

         “Hey, hey.” Emma, nudged the guy who sat in the seat next to her. She hadn’t met him before tonight, but alcohol makes friends out of many a stranger, especially when mixed with a dinner party where you don't know anyone but the otherwise-occupied host, and so she and her new friend Rob had been sharing the wittiest of witty banter over many a glass of whatever they could get their host to pay for.

           He turned to her, looking significantly less lucid than he’d been just a few moments ago, and she wondered who’d been giving him shots while she wasn’t looking. She could do with some shots, too.

          Rob blinked at her blearily, but Em decided to go for the interaction anyway. It wasn’t as if she knew anyone else at this dull dinner party. No wonder most of the guests at their table were speaking and laughing just that little bit too loudly.

           Her new friend looked expectant and she sighed. “You see him, over there? I bet I know which party he belongs to.”

           He swung his head to look at the man in a suit who had approached the front of the restaurant. “Oh yeah?” Although his eyes were unfocused, his voice was strong and confident. “How do you know that, then?”

           Emma leaned in and lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’m psychic. I know where he’ll sit.”

           The suited man seemed to be chatting up the waitress trying to show him to a seat, and Rob glanced sideways at her with a small smile. “Go on then, impress me.”

           The dining hall was large. And from where they sat near the front door, all the tables weren’t even visible. Emma didn’t need to guess though. She’d seen it. A couple of minutes in the future, the waitress would become so irritated with his game that she would go and stand by the empty seat she was meant to lead him to. She pointed to a table of smartly dressed people.

           “That wasn’t difficult to work out. They’re all dressed the same.”

           “Well, that’s what she thinks, too.”

           The waitress had started to move in the direction of the table and the man just stood watching her, eyebrows raised.

           “But he’s going to sit over there.” She inclined her head to a small table in the corner. A mixed bunch of snappy dressers and casually dressed men. The man shrugged and moved in that direction.

           Rob’s eyes widened. “How did you ...?”

           Emma grinned at him. “Neat trick, right? I pull it out for especially boring dinner parties.” And for entertaining easily-impressed company.

           Emma was, in fact, psychic. But all her minute-into-the-future-seeing talent was good for was as a party trick. A minute wasn't much preparation. It wasn't nearly enough time to win the lotto or save someone from being murdered. It had never worked for cheating on tests or predicting the weather. The crowning moments of her power were ones exactly like these: inebriated people being impressed that she was psychic.

Princess Tilly and the Heroes

The stunningly gorgeous Princess Tilly stood alone in her tower, watching the handsome superhero fly into the distance. She gave a heavy sigh. Eterna Cavaliere would never see her as anything other than a damsel in distress, the princess he always had to save. And how could he get to know her — how could they fall in love — if he would always just save and run away?

She sat down on the bench in the window and pondered her dilemma for a moment. Truth be told, she would only ever notice him as his super alter-ego, wouldn’t she? The point of a secret identity was to keep private lives private, and even though she had no secret life, she did have a private life no one else knew of, didn’t she? One where she wasn’t a damsel in distress at all, not just a princess, but a confident woman in her own right.

“Matilda!”  The king’s call rang out over the stone walls of the tower. “Are you up there, my dear little princess?”

Tilly once again looked wistfully in the direction her hero had disappeared before heading down the narrow spiral staircase into the courtyard to meet her father. “I’m here, Father!” she called back, curtsying as he turned to her.

 

The smile under his bushy moustache was loving and patient, and his eyes looked tired. He had been worrying about her again. “Where have you been all morning?” he asked. “I was beginning to think that maybe you’d been kidnapped again.”

Tilly averted her gaze from the concerned look in her father’s eyes.

“Tilly?” he prompted when he saw her look away.

Her father’s use of her nickname made Tilly look back at him guiltily. “I… I actually was taken this morning, Father. But it’s okay! Eterna Cavaliere stopped the new supervillain and—”

“Matilda,” the king’s voice was stern, but gentle. He looked down at his daughter and placed his hands on her shoulders. “You’re the princess of this land, and my only daughter. There is no other heir to the throne and all of these abductions are becoming a little too frequent and more than my poor old heart can take. You should really reconsider the offer to have a superhero bodyguard.”

“Father!” Tilly exclaimed in his face before realising and pulling back out of his grasp. She spun around, hands to her chest in a wistful manner. “You know my opinion on bodyguards! I want privacy, I want freedom.” She turned back to him with a stern look of her own. “I can’t have that if there’s some super-powered, overly-eager man watching me every second of every day.”

“Why would it have to be a man? What about a woman?” His voice had a slight pleading edge to it.

“They’re even worse!” Tilly waved a hand dismissively. “They’re girls on a power trip who want to prove they’re better than any man they meet.”

“I bet if we knew the identity of Eterna Cavaliere, you’d be quite happy to have him watch over you.”

His smug tone irritated her, but Tilly still put her hands on her cheeks as she felt herself blush. “Don’t bother yourself with silly ‘what ifs’, Father.” Tilly tried to keep her angry tone through her embarrassment. “Eterna Cavaliere has made it clear that he’s not interested in anyone knowing who he is.”

The suggestion had turned into another argument, and her father's eyes reflected his anger at her response. “Well then, Matilda,  it seems there is only one choice for you: If you won’t have a bodyguard, you will stay inside the castle so that there is no chance that anyone can snatch you away again.”

“Fine Father!” Tilly stormed away from him, through the massive arched doorway that lead from the courtyard into the main entranceway of the castle. As she was on her way up the large, red-carpeted stairway, she saw her mother coming down.

“Oh, there you are Matilda. We thought you’d—” Tilly cut off her mother’s words with a huff and turned to stomp off in the other direction, towards the castle gardens. She heard her mother sigh loudly. “What did you say to her this time?”

“Michele, you know as well as I do that this is getting out of hand…” Tilly didn’t hear the rest of her father’s speech as she picked up her pace, making a beeline for the stables.

At the stable doors, Tilly stopped. The only one inside was the horse trainer, Corinne, and she was nickering, huffing and making cooing sounds at the castle’s newest acquisition, the golden stallion, Ajax. She didn’t notice Tilly’s presence as she seriously continued what seemed like an actual conversation with the horse.

Tilly leaned on a beam supporting the door and watched the two interact. It was a peaceful scene, and had already calmed her considerably. Corinne continued to stare into the stallion’s eyes, and she held her hand out towards Tilly. Tilly straightened, thinking she’d been noticed, but a bucket of oats and a bridle floated through the air towards her, surrounded by a soft silver aura.

Tilly gasped. “Silver Guide!”

Corinne spun to face her, looking guilty and ready to run. Tilly held up her hands to show she was harmless.

Corinne lost her panicked look as she realised who it was who had interrupted her. She bowed deeply. “Princess Matilda, I’m sorry to—”

“Tilly.”

Corinne lifted her head to glance up at her. “Princess Tilly.”

“Just Tilly.” Tilly approached her, smiling. She liked Corinne, and Corinne was a superhero. This was her chance to finally get her father — and those supervillains — off her back.

Corinne stood very still, and Tilly was cautious on her approach, like with a wild animal, as she knew one of Silver Guide's abilities was teleporting, and she didn’t want to scare this chance away.

“I’m not going to tell anyone, Corinne,” she said.

The assurance seemed to ease Corinne's fears a little, but she was still tense as she let Tilly get closer.

Tilly sighed, she had the chance to talk without scaring the other girl off. “I do need your help, though. My father wants me to be protected from all of these villains who keep kidnapping me.”

“I’m not much of a protector, I just —”

“— You just train superheroes, and I want you to train me.”

Corinne finally let out the breath she was holding, and it turned into a sort of laugh. “I bring out a superhero’s potential. I can’t do much if it’s not there.”

“Have you ever looked at the royal family’s potential?” Tilly asked. “There has to be something.” She cleared her throat, pleading was beneath her station.

Corinne sighed. “If I do this, I can continue being the palace horse trainer?” She reached out her hand to Ajax and stroked his nose.

Tilly could barely contain her excitement. “Of course you can! If we’re going to do this, it’ll have to be our secret, no visible change in our relationship.”

“You don’t want your father knowing? I don’t think I can —”

Tilly cut her off a second time. “Of course you can keep this a secret. This will be just another secret identity, just like every other superhero. If you can do it for them, you can do it for me.”

Corinne let out a final sigh. “I get the feeling I don't have any other choice.”

Full Moon

Tal looked through her dining room window out into the cold, dark blackness. The stars winked cheerily from beside the shining moon. Its brightness gave a warning of the coming nights of the full moon – the wolf moon.

It was strange, to live one’s life by the cycles of the moon. She remembered a time when she was young and the full moon was a wonderful surprise once a month, something to be admired. Back then, children in schools weren't taught to fear its coming. It was a time before they lived in suspicion of their neighbours, before the werewolf curse became an epidemic.

Tal looked away from the moon. It had always been a symbol of insanity, now it was so much more, and staring at it for too long would do no good. Looking into the sky brought no happy memories, just dread.

She turned back to the meal in front of her. It was just an easy thing she’d thrown together and reheated in the microwave, as she usually did whenever she worked late.

The phone rang and she looked up, glad to have something to distract her from thinking about the moon while she ate. The screen told her it was Mike. She grinned as she picked up the phone.
 

“Hi Mike!” she very nearly yelled into the phone in her enthusiasm.

“... Hey babe.” The response came after a slight pause. She imagined the surprised blink of his eyes at her reaction and grinned. “I guess I caught you at just the right time.” She could hear the smile in his voice.

“I was just having dinner, but I’d prefer to chat, you know.”

Mike chuckled. “I know, babe. I bet it’s one of those awful microwave dinners again.” He paused for a moment, waiting for her to deny it. “I don’t know how you can stomach those.”

Tal shrugged. “It’s food. And you'd be surprised how good it is.” She took another mouthful of microwaved broccoli. “So … I guess you’re finally calling to schedule in our date night?”

“Yeah, I finally have time off work the day after tomorrow.”
 

Tal stopped with a new forkful of food halfway to her mouth. “Mike, you know we can’t do that night.”
 

“Because of the full moon? Babe, it’s the only free time I have. Who knows when I’ll finally get another night off.”
 

“Yes, but it’s … it’s not safe.”
 

“You could stay at my place?”
 

Tal frowned into the phone. “You know I don’t like staying there. I wouldn’t feel safe on the wolf moon.”
 

“Well I could–”
 

“Don’t even try it. We're just going to have to make another date.”
 

“Okay, Tal. How about a compromise? We'll have our date in the afternoon. You can be home and in bed before the moon is even out.”

“You’re serious then, this isn’t a joke? That’s the only night you have?” Tal tapped her fork on the side of her plate, potato making its way back into the mushy pile.

Mike sighed. “Tal...”

Tal put her fork down. “Fine. It’s fine. We'll do the afternoon. We can’t go another month without a date night. This is ending up like a long distance relationship.”

“I’m glad you understand, babe. I'd hate to go that night without seeing you...” He seemed like he wanted to say more, but an uneasy silence stretched between them.

“I’ll see you then, Mike.”
 

Tal sighed as she hung up the phone, her eyes drawn once again to the moon.
 

Figured that the only night Mike would have free was the full moon. Mike was a truck driver, working early and returning home late, and his free time at this point in the year was rare, but no-one worked on the full moon. It was the night the city stopped, leaving the wolf sensors to alert the populace to danger.

Tal didn’t dress up too much for her date. She wouldn’t admit it, but she was still annoyed at Mike for only having this night free. It wasn't a proper date, anyway, she told herself as she stepped out of her car into the afternoon sun. She gave the small yellow convertible a pleased pat as she left it behind on her way to Mike’s front door.

She didn’t get the chance to knock before Mike pulled the door open, a giant, eager smile on his face. Before he even greeted her, he reached off to the side of the door and pulled out a champagne flute with a flourish, presenting it to Tal with that excitable grin in full force. He was awaiting a bit of praise for his thoughtfulness, and Tal bit back her aggression to give it to him. She gave her best smile in return, taking the offered drink and leaning in for a kiss.

Mike gave her a chaste kiss and pulled her inside the house, not wasting any time. His enthusiasm made Tal laugh; she allowed herself to be pulled along and tried not to spill the drink.

At the door to the dining room, Mike stopped and swept his arms out in a grand gesture. The room was dark, heavy curtains shielding the room from the afternoon sun. He'd set the table with candles and a flower centrepiece. No wonder he was so excited, having gone to so much trouble. Tal felt momentarily guilty for having made next to no effort, but as Mike turned back to her with his infectious grin, his eyes shining, she knew that it didn’t matter to him at all.

 

After the main meal, when Mike left the room to retrieve dessert, Tal noticed the world was slightly fuzzier than normal. She frowned at her champagne glass. At the beginning of dinner, she'd told herself to only have one, she had to drive home. But without realising it, she'd drank so much more. It was difficult to say no to Mike when he was in a mood like this. It was fun to giggle along with his deep laugh as he poured glass after glass.

Tal was washing her hands when she noticed something was wrong. It had been dark in the dining room because the curtains were drawn, but it was dark in the bathroom, too. She burst out of the room.

 

“Mike, take me home now!”

 

Mike looked lost, his sad gaze moving down to the plates of cake and cream he held.

 

“Look out the window! It’s already dark, the moon will be out soon.” Tal clenched and unclenched her hands, feeling more anxious with every passing second.

Mike pulled the curtains back and looked dumbly up at the sky. “I … Tal … I can’t take you home. Not now.”

 

Part of Tal’s brain registered that he was scared of the werewolves after all, but a bigger part of her brain was scared and had been plied with alcohol all night.

 

“Mike, your neighbourhood doesn’t have proper werewolf sensors. I want to go home where it’s safe.”

“But–”

“Now!” Tal growled. “Take me or I’ll drive myself.”

 

Mike gave a heavy sigh and turned to look back out at the sky. “Whatever you want, Tal. It is your date night, after all.”

 

The car ride was silent apart from the relentless tapping beat Mike was playing on the steering wheel. Tal wasn’t happy at having to leave her car at Mike’s. She was tempted to make him drive it to her place and then find his own way home. But even in her irritation and alcoholised haze, she wasn’t going to put Mike’s life in danger.

Tal had calmed down a lot since she was at Mike’s, and she'd be a lot less antsy when she finally made it back to the safety of her own neighbourhood. Mike’s lack of wolf sensors unnerved her. She didn’t know how anyone could feel safe without alarms and warning systems, but Mike wasn't home a lot, so she supposed it made sense. The car didn’t have wolf sensors, either, but it was easier to outrun a werewolf in a car than on foot.

 

She looked out at the sky, then at the car’s clock. They were cutting it so fine. Mike was looking somewhat edgy, too. He kept glancing sideways at the clock as he tapped the wheel to his own silent beat.

 

Staring out the window and trying to keep her breathing even, it was a while before Tal realised that the tapping had stopped. She only really came back to reality when Mike pulled the car over. The next thing she knew, she was running. She'd probably fumbled with Mike’s sticky car door, fallen out of it and screamed, but she couldn’t remember anything but the sudden contortion of Mike’s features and the instant instinctual flight reaction that it caused.

 

Tal took in a deep breath, finally getting her thoughts back in line. She glanced at her surroundings as she sprinted down the road. She'd chosen the right direction to run in, at least, and wasn’t far from her home estate. Trees lined the road, and the houses past them weren't even lit up. All she could do was pelt down the main road and hope she made it to the guard house and the wolf sensors before she was caught by the fear-inducing monster that her boyfriend had just turned into.

 

The road in front of her lit up in bright light, and she was tackled to the ground. The last thing she saw before her head hit the road was the glittering of the full moon through the trees.

 

“Talitha Simmons. 28. No history of violence. She should be safe.”

 

“Yes, her background seems fine, now we're just waiting on those tests for that scratch, then we'll know where to move her.”

 

Tal could hear two men talking somewhere close to her, but she couldn’t muster up the energy to open her eyes. Was she dead? She was pretty sure she'd be dead after being attacked by a werewolf.

 

She listened to their voices for a few more moments before the words sunk in.

 

“Scratch?” Jolted into reality and an upright position, Tal quickly realised she was handcuffed to the bed. Her brain jumped from the previous thought to that fact, and she stopped to tug on the chain on her right hand before actually catching sight of her surroundings. 

 

She stopped her panicked yanking on the chain to see that she was in a hospital room, the moon glaring in through the window menacingly. She couldn't have been out for too long. She shied away from it before realising there was a hand on her shoulder.

 

“Talitha," a male voice said soothingly. "You've just had a major shock and concussion. We need you to lie back down.”

Tal let them push her back into the pillows as she took deep breaths to slow her racing heart and speeding thoughts. Shock: yes, of course. Concussion: clearly, she'd hit her head. Scratch? She lifted her left arm, which had a bandage wrapped around it. Before she was able to think about it, her hand was on the bandage. A gentle, but firm touch stopped her from ripping it off.

“The results of tests will be back tomorrow morning. We can’t worry about what it might mean until we know for sure. You should get some sleep.” The soft voice was reassuring, and her brain finally slowed down from panic mode so that she could think rationally.

Tal let her line of sight drift from the hand on her arm, up to the face of the hand’s owner. He was a handsome young doctor, dark hair framing a soft face and kind eyes. He gave a genuine smile as their eyes met, and Tal was reminded of another man she had found handsome, reminded of his long blonde hair, puffed in a poofy mess on top of his head ... She scowled and turned her head away from the doctor.

Mike was a werewolf. How long had he been one for? Did he even know about it until that night, when he'd changed on their way home? She thought about the afternoon, his piercing blue eyes pleading for validation when he handed over her first glass of champagne at the door. She shut her eyes, then all she could see was his pointed chin morphing into an animal, and she could hear her own scream as she scrabbled to get out of the car ...

When she opened her eyes again, Tal was alone in the room. She sighed and slumped backwards into the pillows, trying to get comfortable with her right arm handcuffed to the side of the bed.