I scoffed and went to find Marek. He’d always been around, keeping a watchful but discreet eye on me. He looked no different from any ordinary human, except for that odd, solitary aura that clung to him.
At a street corner, I spotted him and called out to him. Then we headed to a nearby restaurant. I ordered some rare meat, knowing it was his favorite. Sure enough, he tore into it with obvious delight.
Once he was nearly finished, I leaned forward. “Have you noticed anyone watching me lately?”
“Of course. A few,” he replied between bites, matter-of-factly as always.
“Who? Do you know who took those photos of me before?”
Marek wiped his mouth. “A boy. Bit chubby, glasses.” His description was characteristically sparse.
Chubby with glasses? I frowned, mentally scanning faces. I couldn’t recall anyone fitting that description. A stranger, then.
“Was he following me?” I pressed.
“No. Left after taking the photos. Just passing by, I think.” Marek shrugged. “Didn’t seem dangerous, so I didn’t do anything.”
“How could you possibly be sure?”
“My intuition, Seraphina.” His eyes met mine, suddenly intense. “You must believe that a wild animal’s instincts are quite sharp.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
“Next time you notice something like this, could you tell me? They might not hurt me physically, but they can destroy me mentally.”
Marek’s brow furrowed in genuine confusion.
“I don’t understand. If they don’t approach you, how can they destroy you mentally?”
“They take photos, post them online, spread lies about me.”
“Ah.” His face cleared. “But why care about internet nonsense? Those people are just bored. Soon they’ll forget and chase something else shiny.”
His words surprised me. I hadn’t expected someone so young to have such ideas.
“That’s true, but I don’t want them doing it constantly. People who know me might think I’m awful.”
“Humans,” Marek chuckled, shaking his head. “Always fussing about these trivial matters. What’s so important about it? Not even as good as a decent meal.”
He returned to his meat with renewed enthusiasm.
I admired his philosophy, even envied it. But I knew I could never be like him. I was a product of society, bound by its rules and judgments. How could I ever become someone like Marek?
“So next time you see someone following me, you’ll tell me?” I asked.
Marek nodded, his gaze suddenly shifting to the window behind me. “Actually, someone’s been watching you just now.”
I spun around and indeed, I saw that guy-tall, lean, with brown hair. When our eyes met, panic flashed across his face and he bolted.
“Wait! Stop!” I shouted, launching from my seat.
He ignored my words, sprinting immediately away from us. He was taller, faster, clearly an athlete.
But something in me refused to give up. I pushed harder, feeling my body grow strangely lighter, my speed increasing. The gap between us narrowed.
With a final burst, I tackled him from behind. His phone clattered to the pavement. I snatched it up, finding photos of Marek and me at the restaurant. Marek, hood up, was hard to make out, but my face was crystal clear.
I deleted the photos and turned my phone’s camera on him.
“Who sent you after me?” My voice was cold, but calm.
The man looked genuinely terrified. “How-how did you run so fast? You were in there just now!”
“Enough! Who told you to do this?”
“Nobody! I swear! I did it on my own!”
Lies. There had to be someone behind this.
Fuming, I checked his WhatsApp and found them-messages with Vivienne. She’d asked him to take photos, and spread rumors online.
My hands trembled with rage. Clever Vivienne, never doing her own dirty work, always using different people each time. Her network was everywhere. If I was at school or nearby, no matter what I did, I almost did it right in front of her eyes. Any interaction with a man would be photographed, and then twisted into some new rumor on Facebook.
The man squirmed beneath me. “Jesus, why are you so strong? Are you even a woman?” he groaned. “Fine, I’m sorry, just let me go.”
“No chance. I’m posting your face online so everyone will know you are a stalker, a pervert!”
I turned off the camera and released him. He snatched his phone and bolted.
Marek jogged up beside me. “Seraphina, you didn’t pay,” he said, slightly breathless. “The waiter stopped me, but luckily I had some cash.”
“Sorry, I was in a hurry,” I said.
“Honestly though, your stamina’s impressive. You just ran two kilometers.”
Two kilometers? I froze. In my rush, I hadn’t realized how far I’d gone. Yet I felt… fine. Not even winded.
I watched that guy stumble away, gasping for air. Meanwhile, I stood there just alright, breathing normally.
Suddenly, Kael’s words echoed in my mind-his suspicion that I wasn’t human.
Maybe he was right. My stamina wasn’t natural.
But I didn’t want to believe it. My parents were human. Could I have somehow turned into a werewolf?
That sounded so unreal!
I’d rather believe it was from my previous close contact with Kael and other werewolves. Maybe, like science suggests, couples grow more alike over time. Our saliva, our bodies-they exchanged something, passing traits between us…
That had to be it.