It was dark when she woke up. The light from the street lamps cut out the black outline of their house in the office window.

She looked up at The Werewolf. His two shining eyes looked at her.

"You must have been exhausted.

She nodded.

"Did you sleep too?

" No. I thought about it... I made a decision... I'm going to leave.

“To leave? But to go where?

"Listen! I can't stay here. It's impossible. At some point or another it's going to be known. I'm going to be discovered, and I'm not ready for that. I don't want this celebrity. .

"Wait! There are people who stay with the corpse of their wives, their frozen babies and what not, without the neighbors noticing, so, a werewolf… He looked at her without answering anything .

"And your gangster bunnies?

"Well they're going to have to wait until dad becomes a man again. Have you seen my hands? he said, waving his two clawed paws like puppets. Everything is as I left it yesterday and is in danger of stay there for quite a while. Roxanne got up and pressed one of the keys on the keyboard of the computer which woke up, illuminating the room with its bluish light. The screen was filled with rabbits dressed like gangsters. That made her smile. Lawrence was a great artist. Even though the flow of orders had dried up, she knew her talent had nothing to do with it, and that was even worse.

" It is very beautiful.

"Do you like it?" She didn't answer. When would he get the chance to draw rabbits with machine guns again?

The werewolf must have read his mind.

"Are quiet for a while, the rabbits...

She rubbed her shoulder. She was in pain. He noticed her gesture.

"I must have hit myself when I fell.

"You left like a board. Luckily it's carpet.

She massaged herself for a moment while watching him. Even his eyes looked like werewolf eyes, yet upon closer inspection she recognized the gray green she liked. It wasn't a werewolf eye. She could at least hold on to that color in those two eyes glinting deep in hair-lined sockets.

Lawrence was still sitting on the ground, one hind leg bent, and his back straight. It was massive, and she felt like it held most of the room. Was he aware of it?

“Who are you going to tell?” he asked. “Bradley?

"Not to Bradley, not to anyone, yet.

"Nobody? Too bad, we could be famous.

“You would especially risk ending up in a zoo, and later, stuffed!

"Ah… Do you think so?

"No, I don't think so! I'm sure of it!

He said nothing, and silence enveloped them with its invisible arms, loosening them only to let the sound of a car pass from time to time.

Much later, the ringing of the telephone, over there, in the house, made them jump "I'll be back. It must be Bradley, I have to answer him otherwise he will worry and it will be difficult to get away from it. .

Roxanne disappeared and he heard her slam the door behind her. Shortly after, the house lit up. The wait seemed endless, then finally the lights went out one after the other and the silhouette of the house reappeared in the windows of his dark office.

Roxanne entered her cabin. The blind in the first room suddenly fell and light shone through the entrance. Then she also lowered the blind of the room where he was and turned on the lamp of the drawing table.

"It was good Bradley.

" And… ?

“I told him how the Blanchard affair ended in Berezina.

"Did you tell him about me?

" No, but I told him that I was exhausted and that I was going to take my leave. I'm full late. He agrees. He will take over my files while waiting for me to come back.

He wanted to say something mean about Bradley, but the stormy blue in Roxanne's eyes convinced him to close it.

" You are not hungry ?

"I didn't dare tell you...

“Do you think you will continue to eat like us?

"I don't know. In fact, I'm hungry, but I don't know what yet.

" You have to experiment. And I have to learn urgently how to feed a werewolf. Not easy. He laughs, and it was still a human laugh, but for how long?

In this preposterous situation, at least one thing was certain: they were not at the end of their troubles. He turned off his computer and they left the cabin, Roxanne followed by her big werewolf waddling behind her. Vivid image from The Jungle Book.

As soon as they arrived in the kitchen, she realized that Lawrence was agitated. He danced imperceptibly from one paw to the other.

" What's the matter ?

"It's that smell...

"What's in the fridge?" she said, holding the door wide open.

"Um, yes, probably… I don't know.

“Nothing you fancy? Luckily, he had done the shopping the day before and the fridge was full to bursting.

“If… melon, maybe…

“Well, go for the melon. She grabbed a knife that was hanging on the credenza and sliced ​​it in half.

She was about to empty him of his seeds.

" No need. And a leg as big as a melon seized it and in three jaws the mass was said and the half-melon devoured.

"Do you have to eat like this?

"I think I eat like a werewolf. Sorry, but I must have the same dietary needs and education as any werewolf.

And he began to sniff as he moved delicately into the kitchen. Roxanne followed him with her eyes, trying to guess what he was looking for. And she understood.

" Wait! She grabbed a newspaper that was lying on the central island and grabbed the trash can.

" You come ?

She opened the basement door and without waiting for him descended the flight of stairs leading there. He followed her. She spread the newspaper on the ground, in an open place and away from the passage, and spilled the contents of the garbage can on it.

“Ah! That smell, that smell! She thought he was going to dance.

Lawrence approached so quickly that she jumped. He gently pushed it aside and on all fours on the newspaper, he began to rummage around, swallowing whatever he liked.

“Better than compost, adopt a werewolf,” he said, his mouth full. Roxanne felt like laughing when she saw him finish the peelings, the expired products and lick the wrappers while holding them in his paw.

" You like this ?

"Yeah. That's what I need. Well, it's a bit of urban werewolf food, but it's still good."

“Glad you like it…Lawrence didn’t answer. He was looking at her, licking his paws, but the sad look she read in his eyes took away all the desire to laugh.

His feast over, he sat up. His head almost touched the neon lighting up the room. He looked around. On the shelves, all the accessories of his life as a man, neatly arranged, seemed to be watching him.

His archives meticulously classified by year. A ranking that would probably end this year. The boxes of memories of his life before Roxanne. And his tool cases lined up as if at attention, ready for hypothetical exploits of distinguished handyman.

"I'm already sick of doing Werewolf," and he cowered against a wall, his head between his paws. His werewolf way of expressing his distress.

As in the cabin, Roxanne came and sat down next to him, and rested her head on his arm. There was a slight smell of trash floating in the air, but she paid no attention to it, enjoying the softness, and also the warmth that rose from her husband's fur.

To be continued....