Collins

Humans should have had the magic to predict what would happen in an hour or even the next second. I would have laughed if I had known that I would become a wolf.

But it was time to accept a new life, a new role, the dark and boring life of a carnivore.

Angelina knelt before me and cried. She wept hard as the transformation started. And when it ended, her face was a blend of tears and snot. But did that change a thing? Did I regret this?

No, it was a crazy night, the roller coaster of excitement, fear, despair, romance, love, and confession. Now, sitting as a furry creature, I had the calmness of ice water. My love life had morphed me into a new being, but all the memories were still with me, the smell of Angela's dress, the taste of her lips, the feeling of me inside her.

She got up and began to wear her gown. She was talking to me. I just stared at her, not ready to test my voice or whatever the voice of a real wolf.

"This is us," she said. "We will spend the rest of our lives together. I'm a wolf too, and I can change whenever I want so we can be together in the same form." She spoke animatedly and distant, as if she wasn't really talking to me but to someone else.

I could smell better, too, and I could read her heart rate by staring at her eyes. From what I was seeing, she wasn't doing pretty well. She was afraid, too afraid.

"Yes, I am afraid,” she said. “I was afraid that this would happen, and it did happen. Yet I am afraid." She walked to the mirror and used a towel to clean her face, which was messy. Then she stopped cleaning, turned around to look at me, and burst into fresh tears. I walked closer and tapped her legs. She knelt before me and embraced me in a hug.

"We will be fine," she said. "You and I will be fine. I just. I was used to seeing you as human. I love you still. I will always love you."

This pouring out of affection and words. This was how things changed people. When you lose something, the words that were hard to find — the words you have kept secret for years — would come to the surface.

She wiped her face and cleaned up, and then we heard a knock on the door.

It was her grandmother.

Angelina opened the door to let in.

Mrs Adeline glanced at me. "Don't worry, you will be back by the next full moon," she said.

She walked closer and knelt before me too. Her face wasn't happy or sad; her heartbeat was normal. She lay her hands on me and stared into my eyes. "Whatever you are thinking, just know you are different. You are special. We can hear. Just use your mind. You're a super being now."

I whined a little and looked away. I was close to tears too, but a short glance at Angelina and I sniffed it back. It wasn't worth it. She had shed enough tears already, and the last thing I wanted was to make her break down into fresh tears. Another full moon was just in thirty days or less or more. I could hold it.

"What about mum?" Angelina said. "I need to tell her."

"She is not returning home tonight," her grandmother answered.

"Why?"

"You know why?"

"Right, I guessed so."

"A gentleman is in the sitting room. Eric. He’s waiting for you. I didn't know what to tell him," her grandmother said.

Angelina glanced at me, and then her grandmother did the same as if I should be worried about hearing that name. I hit my punches on the floor and snarled. This wasn't the plan. I stared at Angelina to let her understand I didn't want to meet him.

"You’re going to tell Eric that you can't see him anymore," I said in my mind.

"Okay, okay, relax,” She said, looking at me and then her grandmother.

"Calm down," Angelina said. "I have to tell him the truth that I don't love him." Then she turned to her grandmother. "Tell him I went out with my friend," she said.

Her grandmother nodded.

Angelina picked up her phone and walked to the window. "Come, Collins, let's go for a walk."

She climbed out of the window and held the frame for me as I climbed out too. Then she shut it close.

It was cold outside since it just rained a few minutes ago. The town was extra bright with Christmas lights. We could hear the greetings, the joyous noise, music, and kids shouting. This was supposed to be a night for families to be together, but Angelina and I had to walk around town.

She was silent, but I listened to her. She was thinking about that man that had come to greet her for Christmas. Eric. She looked back at me, and I looked away quickly. She laughed at me.

"You look funny when you're jealous," she said.

We were heading towards that mountain where we used to hang out during childhood, and the farther we went, the quieter it got. We stopped at a small store at the end of town, and she bought two cans of malt.

We walked past the old Catholic church that signified we had reached the end of town. The next thing would be the signboard that said “bye-bye to our town.”

"You remember we used to walk like this," she said.

I laughed, but it would look like breathing with my tongue out to her.

"Yeah, I know you do. It's one of my best moments."

I slowed down so that she could walk ahead. I listened as she spoke. She would look back at me as if she understood why I had slowed down, and she began to cat-walk.

"This hasn't changed, has it? You’re walking behind me so you can look at me. So yeah, let's do this."

She said as she swayed left and right, giving me that sexy look with her hazel eyes.

We reached our destination eventually, the foot of the mountain. Then we climbed it and sat at the top, looking down at the town, Angelina telling jokes, holding my can of malt while I drank. Our town was a piece of land with a few giant buildings and some factories, most of which were there before we were born. To the right, it was bounded by a forest. To the left, it went and went until we couldn’t see more but clouds.

As a wolf, I looked at everything I had seen as a human differently. Many of them had smells, of course. The insects that flew past us. The butterfly flying round and round. I could hear the movements of rats around the grasses some feet away even though it was moving so stealthily.

Her phone rang, and she answered.

It was her mother, and I could hear their conversation.

"Your grandmother told me about Collins. Where is he?"

"He is fine,” Angeline said and looked back at me. “We are at the mountain, having a private Christmas."

"Angelina, there is an old man who can help him," her mother said.

"What? What man?"

"A witch? All we need is a witch. And your grandma knows a man in Japan who could help. He’s a witch," her mother said on the phone.

"What? She didn’t tell us about him?"

"She knew him when she was young, though. Like thirty years ago. Grandma believed he could be dead. But we could still be lucky."

"And what can this man do?"

"Help Collins become like us. You don't want him to be a wolf for most of his life. Do you?"

She nodded. "Yeah, no! I mean Japan?" Angelina asked again, and then she looked at me with a smile.

“Yes, we have to try.”

She nodded again.

When the call ended, Angelina screamed so loud. "Yes!" as if she wanted the whole town to hear her voice from the top of the mountain. "Yesssss!" she repeated.

She turned to me and repeated the good news, and I joined her and howled so loud that the town and the next town would have heard it.

There was hope in love after all.

I looked down at our town and smiled. We had to go to Japan to find someone who could have been dead.

Then she sighed and looked back at me. "We have to try," she said.