How to Take Care of a Stray Were

Chapter three

After the bizarre and humiliating Friday night, Mia was glad to burrow at home for most of the Saturday. She ordered take-out, dimmed the lights to a cozy cave-like dimness, buried herself on the couch and watched bad romantic movies.

The weather outside seemed to only grow only worse. The rain pelted down and beat at the windows in angry bursts, carried by the strong gusts of wind. After a particularly strong gust rattled her living room window, Mia wandered to the low window bench she had in front of it and peeked outside. She could see that the water level on the street in front of her apartment building had reached some of the lower doorsteps of the buildings on the other side of street. The streets were empty, unsurprisingly. Mia sure was glad she had nowhere to be.

Mia rested her back against the side of the bookcase standing next to the window bench. Staring out of the window at the flooding streets, she let her mind wander. And her mind seemed to have a clear path it wanted to follow: her thoughts kept circling back to the young man in drenched clothing. She remembered the way he had looked, slouching on the pavement with his head bowed. He had seemed defeated.

Perhaps it was Mia's own feelings of utter weariness that had made her feel such strong sympathy for the young man. After her complete failure at work, topped by the humiliation of having to listen to her self-assured ex-boyfriend criticize her work (and not even in a mean manner – that Mia could have perhaps dealt with; the condescending note in Kyle's voice had felt much more humiliating), she had ached fiercely for the man whose whole being was emanating the feeling of being lost, of having no place to go.

She wondered not for the first time if the man had actually stayed the night at his friend's place. She sure hoped so: she wouldn't wish having to spend the night on the rainy and windy, flooding streets even to her worst enemy. Okay, maybe to Kyle. In his case it would be a much-needed character-building experience.

She also found herself wondering about the reason for the man's homelessness. From the little information she had received, she had gotten the impression that werewolves lived in groups. Packs. It made sense: it must be beyond terrifying to be alone in the world when everyone around you were suspicious or downright scared of you, acting aggressively if you tried to ask them for something. Had the young were been kicked out? He had seemed to be perhaps in his early twenties: not a teenager anymore, and were he human, he should have been able to take care of himself. For a young werewolf, the situation must be quite different – Mia could imagine that it would be difficult to get a job or find an apartment if people found out you were a werewolf.

Her mind deep in contemplation, it took her a minute to realize that someone was moving on the street below. Several someones, actually. Seven men were wading through the flooding streets, the water reaching them to mid-calf. With a startle, Mia realized she recognized the men. They were the same beast-like guys who had roughened up the younger man last night. The men did not look to be in any better mood today: their stance was aggressive, their movements weirdly excited even though the rain pelted on them and their shoes must be soaked. One of them lifted his face a little, making Mia quickly lean further behind the curtains. He seemed to take a deep breath, almost like he was... smelling the air. After a while, a grin spread on his face and he barked something to the other men. The men seemed to grown even more excited, hurrying forward through the water splashing around their feet.

After the men had gone, Mia found herself staring at the street, feeling weirdly cold. She knew the men could not find her – hell, they had no reason to be looking for her – but she still couldn't overcome her sudden feeling of deep concern. Finally, she realized it was not her she was worried for: she had a sinking feeling the men were chasing the young man from yesterday – the man who had told Mia he had some place to go, that he wouldn't have to stay on the streets.

Mia chewed on her lower lip in frustration. She knew it was not a smart decision to stick her nose into the werewolves' business; they seemed scary enough as a gang of big and muscular, rough men, not even taking into consideration the fact that they were actual werewolves. On the other hand, she simply couldn't ignore her worry for the young man she met yesterday.

Anxious, she got up and walked to the couch, grabbing her cellphone from the coffee table. She could call the police. For real this time. But she didn't have any proof the men were doing anything illegal. Sure, she had seen them being aggressive yesterday, but she didn't think that would be enough to make the police come check the situation.

Finally, after several moments of worrying her lip, Mia knew what she had to do. She couldn't let go of her worry, and she couldn't get the police to come if she didn't actually know what was happening. She went to her coat cabinet and dug out her yellow rain coat. She would have to go out, follow the men to the direction they had walked, and try to spy what they were doing, to make sure that the young man wasn't anywhere on the streets, especially anywhere near the other men.

Mia pulled the coat on top of her over-sized grey sweater and pushed her feet into her rubber boots. She considered changing her leggings for something thicker for a while, but decided that the rain would get her soaking wet anyway, and no fabric would be thick enough to keep the chilling wind at bay. She stuffed her keys and phone in her pocket, considered the umbrella for a second before deciding that it would only be blown away by the wind, and headed out.

The weather outside felt at least as bad as it had looked like. The wind snatched her coat and pulled hair loose from her messy ponytail. She tightened the rain coat's hood around her face and stepped on the street. Her rubber boots were barely high enough to keep the flooding water at bay.

Mia started her laborious journey through the empty streets, plodding through the water and hoping that it wouldn't grow deeper. She wondered whether she should stay on this street or go back and forth between different streets. In the end she ended up walking to the end of the street before moving to the next one.

She walked endlessly and couldn't see anyone, checking her phone clock every now and then as minutes turned to a half an hour, and that turned to an hour. She had left her place at around seven in the evening, and when the numbers lighting up on her phone screen showed 8:19, she decided that her wandering through the empty streets was to a no cause. She was dripping wet now, and some of the rain had found its way inside her rain coat. Her socks were also damp as she had stepped too heavily a couple of times, causing the water to splash inside her boots. Her teeth were chattering.

Mia stopped in the middle of a street and tried to come up with a plan. She had covered several streets around her apartment building, focusing on those located in the direction the men had been heading to, but also checking the streets around the convenience store. She had a bad feeling that the men had already found the young man if he was somewhere on the streets – they had seemed to be able to smell him somehow. If they were looking for him in the first place. It was possible that the young man was at his friend's place at the very moment, cracking open a cold one and laughing at the poor souls who were outside in this weather. And it could be that the men had not actually been looking for anyone. They could have been out on a nice evening stroll.

Mia doubted it.

She tried to put herself in the young man's position. Where would she go if she knew that she was being chased and had nowhere to go? Where could she hide?

The convenience store? She had already checked that, and it wouldn't be a good hiding place because you could hardly spend hours there.

The men had been heading towards the older neighborhood. There would be hardly any better hiding places there, unless...

The park! Mia smacked herself on the forehead. Of course! She had seen the young man there before. The park also offered much more hiding places, and there were even some gazebos that could offer shelter from the rain.

Mia turned on her heels and hurried towards the park though the wind and rain.