The tape recorder clicked, and I returned it to my coat jacket. No need to dredge up the past. Once this job was done, Jackson would return to being a memory and I would return to a cold one back at the office. I looked up at the darkened, cloudy sky and then down at my watch.

 

"God forbid a full moon."

 

With that, I entered the street again returning to civilisation. Clouds gathered in the sky, but throes of merrymakers still emerged to make the most of the young night. There was a time when I would have joined in. Those nights wasted in drinks and meaningless brawls would have been to many, including myself, reminiscent of their youthful blunders. It beckoned to me, trying to drag me back to a time when I fawned over pretty ladies and bemoaned the evening duty rotations. I felt my pocket for another tape and played it on the recorder. I yearned to hear their voices again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listening to their voices again, I felt like I was spinning. Just like those waltzing along to the evening jazz swings. Spinning. Spinning with Lindsey. Our eyes locked. Spinning with Milly. Laughing along with her sweet chuckles. For a moment every day, I bring myself back to that past life that felt so much like a dream. Many nights I am left to wonder if the grand sum of a human life amounts to no positive, then for what purpose shall one keep living? The only thing that keeps me going these days is the monotonous routine. Sober up, read the mail, pay the bills, then work. And by the evening I drown myself. It's an infinite cycle, and I wait till something eventually comes to claim my soul.

The man was on the move. I snapped back from my reverie. Quickly, I tucked the tape recorder back into my pocket. I lowered the brim of my hat, following no more than twenty paces behind him. Behind me, the bustle of the street began to fade.

I hear the clack of his dress shoes against the pavement, wondering what he may sound like if he turns. I watched intently, imagining the man if shifting into his primal form. Bones grinding as his frame grew larger, the soft growl as the bloodlust sets in, and the tapping and scraping of talons on the smooth stone ground. I imagined myself living the few microseconds the silver round drills into the beast's forehead and lodges itself there. It would be quick, but he would savour it. There was a thrill to be had putting these dogs down. It quenched a thirst for retribution.

 

The man stopped by a two-story townhouse. The lights inside were on but I could only make out moving silhouettes. I watched as the man checked his letterbox, skimming the letters before tucking them into his coat. He walked up to grab a trash bag by the front door. Then he walked back down his front yard and continued past the bins, checking the empty streets before proceeding down and into an alleyway. I followed closely in pursuit.

 

As I spun around the corner, I found a shadow standing at the centre of the alleyway. The bag was gone. He stood so still, as if he had always been part of the alleyway. While I could not make out his face, I could sense that watchful gaze fall upon me. The wolf's eyes settling on its prey.

 

"Hands up."

 

He said nothing. I raised my pistol up, repeating my words even louder. He remained there. Existing. I should just shoot him now and get this over with. But none of this was sitting right with me. I'm the one holding the gun here. I stepped closer. Moonlight gleamed down on his countenance, letting me trace out every line and edge on his face.

 

Moonlight?

 

I looked up to the clear sky, and there the moon was in its fullness, gloating at me. I cocked my pistol and aimed it down on the man's head, ready for the skin on his face to peel and for the black fur to emerge. But nothing. He continued staring at me. And then I heard a growl come from behind.

 

I was taken off my feet and sent into the wall. Writhing pain, I turned up to see the shadowy beast descend upon me. It roared as it clawed at my arm, ripping flesh apart. Letting out a growl of my own, I clenched the trigger and let loose two rounds. It whimpered, then sent me flying down the alleyway. My whole body went numb, and I could only make out the moon hanging over me. I readied myself for it to all go to black.

 

But nothing happened.

 

As the sensation returned to my body, I winced at my left arm which had been shredded to the bone. Everything ached and I could barely hold myself up. The beast lay just a few metres from me, itself whimpering and breathing laboriously. The man was standing over it, trying to bandage the injured mutt. I look down to see my hands still wrapped about the pistol, my knuckles white. I raise it up, my finger slowly tightening round the trigger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tape recorder stopped running. It lay on the ground, broken. I looked at the man, and then at the beast. I looked into its eyes and saw I saw her again – Milly. My mind wandered back to the silhouettes in the house, causing my hand to tremble. The pistol clattered to the ground.

 

"Leave, and don't come back here again." I muttered as my vision was engulfed in blackness. As I drifted off, memories of the night swirled in my mind. I felt like I was floating. This was it. I tried to imagine Lindsey and Milly's faces, but they remained obscured. But I could still feel them. I could still feel their love. And so, I struggled for what felt like eons before the light returned.

 

When I awoke, I was on a hospital bed. My wounds bandaged. Nothing short of a miracle, the nurse said. I could still feel it as I lay there, for the first time in forever, their love. Love granted to me by the mercy of a beast I thought to be less of a human than I was. It made me see the light again, and at the sight of it I cried. And I just kept crying.