Prison Mate

•37- The Fresh Feeling of Freedom•

The morning sun shined through the tree tops and I slowly woke up in my wolf form. It's been about a month since Ace let me go, and it's been going okay for me. Of course I wasn't living the life because I had no money back then, but now I have a minimum wage job and no house. That's why I sleep in my wolf form, they're made to sleep in harsh conditions. As for hygiene, the river does me well.

I shake the dirt off of me and walk over to my bag full of cloths and food. I grab my work's outfit and walk over to the river. I shift back into my human form, changing into the cloths I despised, but not before rinsing off. Why do work cloths always have to be so ugly?

I sit down on a rock, munching on some Pringles Ive been surviving off of for a few days. Minimum wage is hardly enough for me to eat and save at the same time. Some might ask why I didn't just go back home, well, I know my family will reject me and probably turn me in. As for Darian, I meddled enough in his life, he's done so much for me and I've done nothing for him.

My legs pick me up and I begin walking to work, it took only five minutes to get there, so I'm glad about that. I didn't live deep in the forest.

I painted heavily as I reached my workplace, being away from Ace has had its consequences for sure. I'm a lot weaker and my wolf doesn't talk to me much anymore.

I push the door open and enter work, hardly awake anymore. "Good mornin' Charity," says Luke, a coworker of mine who owned a part of this restaurant. He had a country accent, but he sure didn't look like he was from the country.

When I came to this town, I changed my name to Charity. Nobody seemed to recognize me, this was a rural area after all. People here treated me fairly well.

I put on my apron and begin serving the few people in this establishment. They all ordered some type of coffee and breakfast, the standard morning meal.

After twelve hours of working and one break, my shift was over and t was time for me to go back to the woods to sleep and relive this day again and again till I could buy myself a small, dinky place.

"Buh bye Luke," I say, hanging up my apron by the door.

He smiles, "See you tomorrow," he says, sticking his tongue out at the end. He is a goofy guy, which was nice to have around. It cheered me up, he has one lucky mate.

I exit the restaurant and walk down the silent street. The street lights flickered above me as few cars passed by, probably on their way home from a late shift like me. I reached the edge of the forest and shifted into my wolf, who stumbled a bit as we walked to our area that we slept in.

The moon slowly grew darker as clouds covered it. I lay my head low, not wanting it to rain. But to my demise, I feel the rain start coming down. I growl, picking up my pace.

I quickly reach home and see that my bag is drenched from the rain. I cover it up with my body, trying to fall asleep as the rain continued to hit my fur. There were no caves, or thick enough trees o hide under and it was rare for it to rain. Just guess I'm not lucky today.

After a half hour, my eyes slowly closed and I fell into a horrid sleep as that rain continued to torment me.

I wake up when I feel water tugging at me. My wolf growls, we open our eyes and see the river right by our face. I hop up and back away from the flash flooding. It rained so much that the tiny river was at least twenty feet across now. The waters roared as I sat back and watched it flow.

I looked around, my bag nowhere to be seen. My wolf lets out a whine, knowing that all our money and work cloths were in there. The sky thunders and I lay down on the muddy ground. Half my body sinks, but I don't do anything about it.

All my hard work just washed away, literally. My life is falling apart and so am I. I'm just growing weaker and weaker as my financial stability is shit. I can try and bring myself back up, but I don't know how my work will react tomorrow with me losing everything.

Another half hour later and the sky clears up so the moon shines down on the river, making it shine. If only the moon goddess was real, I'd ask her to help me. Help me get healthy and get rich. Rich is a bit ridiculous, but I can only dream.

I get off the ground, half of my body muddy. It was already time for me to get up and go to work. so needed to get a new outfit from them, and I needed cloths. Oh god, I haven't thought about that, I don't have any cloths for when I shift back into my human form. Guess I'll have to go to work as a wolf and ask for an early paycheck as well as a favor.

I walk back towards my work, dreading what was going on in my life. I wish it could be simple with all the sugar and sprinkles, but no, I got this pile o' shit instead.

The walk felt long, but it was just as long as any other day. I paw at the entrance, people giving funny looks my way. It's was considered as rude when you're a wolf in public places. I didn't think like that, because it puts our wolves down below us. If anything, my wolf is above me.

Luke opens the door and looks at me, "Charity, you look... messy, what happened?" he asks me, leaning against the door.

I roll my eyes and paw at the pants, hinting that I needed a change of cloths. He quickly understands and rushes into the back while I waited outside. I'm very muddy and I don't want to have a mess to clean later, that's a part of my job after all.

Like comes back outside with a large hoodie of his and I pick it up with my mouth carefully. I go around back and shift, the cold air hit me like a wave and I was freezing. I quickly put on the jacket, ignoring the mud in my hair. I also need some undergarments, damnit.

I enter through the back door, I didn't want customers to see me like this. Luke raises an eyebrow, telling me to explain what the hell happened to me last night.

I let out a stressful sigh, "I fell asleep last night in the rain and the river flash flooded, taking my stuff away and leaving me in a muddy mess. I also have absolutely no cloths or money to get cloths, so I was wondering if I could get my paycheck for the time I've done," I breath out, hearing my stomach growl afterwards. Oh and I didn't even have breakfast.

"I'll buy you some cloths," Luke says, smiling, "and make you something to eat. We can't have our own waitress starving-"

"No, no," I intervene, "I don't want to cause you trouble," I say, waving my hands in a no type of way. Luke frowns, getting up to get something out of the fridge.

He tosses me some noodles and a Pepsi can, "At least this, and I'll get you cloths just for today. Don't be so stubborn, a little help isn't a bad thing," he tells me while handing me a fork to eat.

I gobble down the noodles, not disagreeing with him. If anything, Luke is wise, or at least has brains. He takes my silence as a yes and gets up, leaving without even signing out.

•••

Two chapters in one day? Ps, they were both written during school, so I have way to much free time. Honors and college classes still giving me so much time 😅 Oh well, more writing!

Suggestions for what I should do as a thank you?
•Q&A (Me or the characters)
•Challenge
•Gimme ideas