Strangers▪ Matei Covaci imagine

Twenty four

The ruins has quickly become one of our favourite places to spend time together. Not only is it away from the suffocating smog of city life, but away from family, friends and humans. At this time of the day - 4:34 to be exact - the icy northern air makes being outside almost unbearable. Nevertheless, the two of us huddle together, perched on the highest stone wall, watching the city sink into a collage of lit windows and darkness.

Matei kicks a used cigarette around on the ground, rolling it under his boot. I watch the orange and white paper slowly cover itself in mud and it's own ashes.

"Why do humans feel the need to poison their bodies?" I mumble, half to myself.

Matei thinks for a moment, a heavy sigh lifting his shoulders up and down. "I guess even poison can feel good sometimes. Just for a bit".

He's never usually this poetic. It must be the moon. I look up and catch a glimpse of the full moon as it momentarily parts the thick November clouds. It should be another hour until it takes effect.

Suddenly he bends over, picking up the cigarette and dumping it in a nearby bin.

"This would be so much better than transforming in a cramped basement." He says, stretching his arms out wide as he walks back to me, eventually enveloping me in a hug.

I look around at our surroundings. It reminds me of the first time I transformed: my parents and I drove out to the middle of nowhere, a forest with no sign of human intervention for miles. I'll never forget feeling like one in a million components of not just the wild, but the entire universe. It's what we were born to do, but in the modern world so few of us will ever experience it.

"I wish we could..." I say quietly, still lost in my memories.

"Why not? All of this could be ours, just for tonight." Matei gestures around the empty environment again. He's right; not a single person has come by in hours.

I shift so that I'm cross legged, turned away from the view and towards Matei instead. "I can't. my parents are expecting me. Besides, there's only so many fake trips to the Kafe I can make before they get suspicious and call Katrina."

"Well, maybe you should tell them." He suggests, mimcing my maneuver so that we face each other. I look away, but the silence is enough to convey my uncertainty.

"Why not?" he pleads, gently taking my hands in his. "Are you not happy?"

Actually, the last few weeks have been better than I ever could imagine. TJ and Selina had fully accepted me into their pack. Both were helping me get through school in their own unique way; Selina showed me how to use our powers in sport without looking too obvious, and TJ was working on what he called "our collective street cred". This consisted of watching him trying to chat up human girls and consoling him when he - inevitably - failed. As for Matei, he had been tutoring me in basically every class we took. Admittedly it was difficult to concentrate, as I was frequently distracted by just how clever he was, and the eager glint in his eye when he was explaining something he found interesting. The other day I had to kiss him just to stop him from obsessing over Galileo. "I don't care if he was a wolfblood" I whispered, "I'm sure he'd understand if we took a break from studying his work to do something more fun". Matei agreed.

As for Hannah and the others, they seemed hardly bothered I'd gone. After one week the party invitations stopped, along with Charlie's texts. It always surprises me how quickly humans forget about others. Aria still flashes me the occasional smile in the corridors, but somehow I think it's more out of pity than friendship. She probably sees my maneuver as a fall from grace, but the truth is she couldn't pay me to be where I was a month ago.