A perfume she knew well, his own eau de toilette, was floating in the air when she resurfaced. Selfish Chanel. Beautiful lucidity of the manufacturer, this name of perfume for men. She was about to laugh when she opened her eyes, when what she saw as she opened her eyes made her scream madly. A cry that seemed endless to the creature standing above her.

The handsome brown werewolf towering over Roxanne, didn't know how to stop the screams that were piercing his ears and risking alerting the neighbors and the cops.

"Roxanne! It's me! I'm begging you, listen to me. It's me, me, me! Do you recognize my voice? No?

She instantly stopped screaming. The huge head of the beast was a foot from his face. She did hear her husband's voice, but just as unmistakably, she had a werewolf above her wearing Chanel perfume.

Despite the tremors that shook her from head to toe, she felt her composure return.

"What the hell is this?" she screamed. "Damn, I thought I was dying. And take off this ridiculous disguise.

"But, honey, it's not… a disguise.

She felt her fear turn to fury.

"Lawrence, you're going to stop with your bullshit! And she grabbed the hairs of one of the cheeks of The Werewolf. To her surprise, it resisted and her rage was increased tenfold.

She tugged so hard that she fell back, lying on the carpet, a large tuft of brown hair in her hand.

The animal was rubbing with its paw the place where the hair had been pulled out and Roxanne looked alternately at the tuft in her hand, and the yellowish claws, two centimeters long which ended the animal's paw. She felt bad. She was going to pass out, and The Werewolf sensed it.

"No!" he said in that low, warm voice she knew. Don't turn a blind eye. It's far too terrifying a story to leave me alone. hear?

She remained with her eyes closed, and The werewolf, believing that she was losing consciousness, cried:

"Roxanne! Please!"

There was a hesitation, then she opened her eyes again, so he could see she was fine, and closed them immediately.

"It's ok...It's ok, it's ok, I'm not fainting. I just feel like it'll be better if I keep my eyes closed...

"Will you see more clearly if you close your eyes?" He had said it in the mischievous tone he sometimes used, but she didn't want to laugh.

Before regaining sufficient strength to be able to get up, she remained a moment longer with her eyes closed in the silence disturbed only by the noisy breath of the werewolf who was looking at her, leaning against the wall of the office.

"So, can you explain it to me?" Her voice was weak and she wondered if the sounds had even crossed the threshold of her lips.

"You want me to tell you how I became…a werewolf, right? Well, I don't know.

"What do you mean, you don't know?

"I mean I don't know! I don't know how I became 'it'.

Black magic, operation of the Holy Spirit, voodoo. I have no idea who cast this spell on me. But it's really strong as a spell!

He came to sit next to her.

"You were working on your book?" she asked.

Since the orders had dwindled, he had tried to keep a foothold in his profession by working on a children's book project. This had allowed him not to stay idle waiting for the phone to ring. " No, I didn't really want to work. Tired of the little rabbits. I started to take an interest in the history of the neighborhood.

You know, it's really interesting. I even found traces of the first occupants of the house. I'm in the 18th century. I spent hours there yesterday. I wanted to stretch my legs and see if our basement didn't contain some treasure. A nest egg would suit us well, wouldn't it?

She shivered. For a moment she had forgotten his appearance. He talked about treasure like a kid dressed up as a werewolf. No, the game was not won… But he resumed his story.

"Anyway, I'd say it must have been nearly ten o'clock when I got back from my coffee at Jeffrey's. I unpacked my 'frying pan'. I wanted to probe the corner of the garden where the ruin was. we fired when we bought the house. He paused as if the snippets of his memory were being put back in order, but without rushing. The neighbor had just left, I had heard the sound of his Mercedes .

I just had time to put the helmet on my ears and turn on my engine and there was like a sudden and super high-pitched whistle, and I picked up a discharge in the skull that you didn't idea. A dazzling cigar ache and then a curtain, complete darkness. He paused, raising his muzzle to look at her. Roxanne stared at him, flabbergasted, and he turned his head away for fear of not being able to continue his story.

"I don't remember anything else. When I woke up, I was sprawled in the garden with my detector right next to me. I immediately saw this fur, and these arms with claws, but I didn't realize right away that it was me. I was all stunned. It was only when I wanted to get up that I understood. I let out a terrible cry, just like you. Fortunately, there aren't many people here in the morning.

I also nearly fainted, but eventually I remained conscious. I snuck into the house to see what I looked like. Sure, it's funny. I drank a shot of armagnac, in fact I liquidated the bottle. You must have felt it when I called you...

Apparently you didn't like me calling you, eh?

"I'm sorry, I had problems at work...

"Don't apologize! It's no worse that you didn't come home right away. It gave me time to get used to my new… situation.

Then I went back to the garden, where it happened to try to understand. I've found nothing. What a mess! Then I spent the rest of the time in the office pacing around like… like a werewolf in a cage.

Roxanne just wanted to cry, more so hearing him try to joke around, but she held back the tears.

"You who never have a headache… In any case since I've known you, the few times you complained about it, it was because you had drunk too much. She was talking about her headache to not having to talk about the rest.

"Who knows if werewolves have headaches... Well, I would say not. It's over. I'm fine, so to speak." to a yawn.

"Anyway, I'm pretty sure you're the only woman in the world to have heard a werewolf speak.

"I would have done without, you know.

"You are really difficult!

Each of them tried to play down the situation for the other, protecting him as best he could, but the fear that had settled in their minds was very present. Roxanne, however, tried to think clearly. The problems to come jostled in her brain and she decided to put some order in all this mess.

"Look, I'm going home to change. I need to be alone for a while. I couldn't think properly if I had a werewolf behind me.

"I understand. No problem. I'll poke around a bit. I'm tired," and he lay down on his old couch, giving her squeals of pain.

Roxanne ran into the house and rushed into the bathroom. She undressed faster than a transgender, and threw herself in the shower. The hot water did her good and she lingered there. When she came out, her skin was a beautiful shrimp pink color. As she finished drying off, she thought of Bradley. She was in no danger of telling him anything. He would really take her for a crackpot.

Not only did he not understand that she remained attached to her husband when their relationship had been faltering for quite a while, but if in addition he learned that she was living with an animal… She even came to fear that he doesn't think she's in danger and warns the authorities, the pound, or worse?

She put on jeans and a T-shirt and went back down to the garden. She made the detour to the place Lawrence had told her about. She found herself in front of the low wall, a remnant of an old building. What connected this corner of the garden with what had just happened to her husband?

She was trying to perceive something, a vibration, some manifestation that could help her understand, but apart from the song of the tits nesting a little further away, she felt nothing. With her fingertips, she lifted the metal detector, and leaned it against the rest of the wall, then she returned to her husband's cabin.

He was not sleeping.

"Very cute! And you smell good! He hadn't even had to come near, just sniffled a couple of times. You know, I really didn't know what to do. Lawrence's voice taking up his story surprised her.

She looked at him again and realized that he hadn't finished emptying his bag.

"I almost called the hospital, you know, but to tell them what? That I had a terrible headache and turned into a werewolf?" Describe yourself! Well, I look like Baloo and I'm tall, burly, and very hairy.” Hard to explain!

Roxanne wanted to laugh, but she restrained herself so that he could go through with his story.

“I also thought of phoning Leborgne, as he has his consultations in the morning.

But I was scared of what he was going to say, and especially of what he might decide.

That's why I called you.

“I understand and I regret having answered you so badly earlier, at the office.

I am so sorry. But you fell so badly. I had a rotten date waiting for me. Besides, of course, nothing worked. Alright, next to what's happening to you it's a joke.

"Stop! I know that nothing is easy in your job.

She put her hand on the dark fur. It was sweeter than she expected.

"You did well not to tell me why you were calling me. I would surely have fucked you and maybe I wouldn't even have come back. Who knows?

"Actually, I didn't want to tell you anything on the phone. You never know…

"Eavesdropping?" she asked, smiling. "We're being spied on?"

"And why not? After all, if I can be turned into a werewolf, what's stopping us from being watched at the same time?

"Of course! And you're thinking of someone specifically? The CIA of the werewolves? The FBI of the real estate agents?

"Fuck me! If it is, at this moment, "they" have requisitioned two veterinarians and a biologist and "they" will not be long in disembarking and "they" will take me to one of their secret labs, and you too, to experiment.” He paused and looked at her for a long time.

"For the moment we haven't seen anyone. But when it comes to nightmares, it's fortiche, she says

“Yeah, I find that too, and all that without sleeping. And for how long?

15 He walked away from her, knocking over a box of pencils, and returned to his seat against the wall. Roxanne heard him moan softly and was heartbroken. She knelt in front of him.

"I promise you, my darling, that we will find a solution to all this and make you go back to the boring type that you are in normal times. Well, you have to recognize, all the same, that you have always had this side a little bit wolf -were. The big beast's tears changed into a serious laugh. Roxanne came to snuggle up against her big teddy bear and closed her eyes. When she was little, with her recurrent ear infections, she tried to sleep on her pain with hoping that when she woke up the pain would be gone, and that's exactly what she did.

To be continued....