Living in the Shadows

Chap. 5

Casey was cleaning off one of the arcade games before Willy came in. But then walked away. Gus walked in though. Of course leaving her alone. "... Is it okay if I play one of the games?" He asked. "I don't care." Casey answered. Gus stared at her for a minute. Casey heard the cricket and looked at Gus. "What?" "N-Nothing." Gus played one of the games. 'He was probably judging me.' Casey thought before starting to clean the last game. She walked into Tito's play place cleaning of the walls. She heard Tito's guitar play. It was pretty good. The light flashing on and off was annoying her so she decided to just shut it off and use her night vision eyes. When she was done cleaning the room, her watch beeped and she turned it off. She went to where she could hear Tito. She leaned against the door frame when she saw Tito. Tito played for a while before he sensed Casey. He looked up. "Umm. S-Sorry, was I too loud?" "No. In fact I just came by to listen. Its pretty good." Tito blushed a little. "G-Gracias." "De nada." Casey responded. "Would you like to play something?" Tito asked. Casey shuffled a little. "Well I played guitar before, but that was a while ago. I guess it wouldn't hurt playing it a little though." Tito handed his guitar to Casey as she sat next to him. She tried to play the only song she recognized. She tripped over a few notes but other than that, it sound peaceful (Note: its a song you can find on YouTube. Its called "Four strings of sweet home"). Tito watched her play it. He actually liked it. It reminded him of his home before he possessed the turtle animatronic. The entire restaurant heard it. They liked it too. They felt at peace. It actually made some of them fall asleep. It nearly made Tito fall asleep. When she was done, Tito opened his eyes and saw Casey gently put the guitar down. "Where'd you learn that song? I like it." Tito asked. Casey looked at him with a gentle smile. "My mother played it for me and my sister when... We were little..." Casey stopped for a second. She remembered her family. "What's wrong?" Tito asked. Actually feeling worried about someone who weren't his friends. "Nothing." She lied. Her watch went off. She got up. "Work calls. See you later." Tito waved to her before she walked out of the room. Tito walked out of the room too, but went to find his friends. He found Gus playing an arcade game. "Hola Gus." Tito said. Gus didn't look at him but still responded. "Hi Tito. I heard a guitar song over the game noises. Good job. I liked it." Gus turned off the game and looked at the turtle. "Actually amigo it wasn't me. It was the werewolf." "Oh, really? Wow that was good." "Si. She said her mother used to play it for her. She must've wanted at least some peace for her children with a beautiful song like that." "I agree." Gus and Tito walked out of the arcade room. They saw Casey cleaning the floor now. She look a little sad. Cammy walked into the room now. Tito and Gus decided to leave the room and find Knighty for games. Cammy saw Casey's expression on her face. She honestly felt a little bad. "Hey, umm I have a small question for you." Cammy said. "Hm?" Casey hummed. "Last night. You had many chances to kill us but you didn't. Why?" Casey looked at the chameleon. "I just wasn't in the mood for killing anyone." Cammy hummed before laughing a little. "Ya know, after you left Willy wouldn't stop complaining on how terrifying you are. I've never heard nor seen him be so terrified of someone." "Haha, its a gift I guess." Casey laughed. "For a werewolf that nearly ripped Willy's face off, you're not half bad." Casey looked at her again. She stared for a moment. "Thanks.. I guess..." "What's wrong?" "Nothing, its just no one's told me that in a long time." "Oh." Cammy stared at her for a second. "Uh, I'll leave you to clean." "Okay." Cammy left. Casey continued cleaning. Yet another memory occured.
Casey was roaming the base. She just got out of an enemy base. She was enraged. She knew who killed her sister. So she decided to follow the scent of the killer and destroy their base. Her sargent did say "Dogs gotta hunt". So she did hunt. Like what she was made to do. She saw bags of dead bodies. She opened one that had her sister in it. She gently dragged her fingers across her sister's dead face and gently dragged her same fingers across her lips and nose. As it is in wolf culture, 'I will remember this scent and taste'. "What the hell are you doing?" She opened her eyes to see her sargent walked up to her. Clearly angry. "You're not a soldier. You're a fucking animal." She stood and walked in front of him. "I am what I am born as." She tore off her dog tag. "And I'm done wearing your collar." She dropped it on his feet. She went back to her sister, closing the body bag, and lifted her into her arms. She walked to the doors. One of the soldiers and her made eye contact. She glared, he stared. "Open the door." He said to another soldier. Two soldiers pulled the door open. The sun shining in Casey's face and she walked.

A few hours later, she was burying her sister. She rested a hand on Cassandra's grave. "I'll see later." She cried. She got up and walked away. She transformed and made a sorrowful howl.
She was snapped back into reality. She heard Willy walk in. Casey looked at him. "Hey. Sorry for last night. And about calling you a human." "There's nothing for you to be sorry about. Its fine." Willy looked at her. She said "Its fine" so causally. Maybe she's said that one too many times before. He nodded to her and walked away.

Casey was done cleaning up the restaurant. She decided to lay down and try to get some sleep. But the memories prevented her from doing that. She sighed and walked around. She heard Arty in the vents, Knighty swinging his sword around, Tito playing his guitar, Gus playing his video games again, Cammy and Sara talking about girl stuff, Ozzie and Willy wrestling each other. She walked outside, stripped herself from her clothes and transform. Willy and his crew heard her howl. They cautiously walked around the restaurant to find she was outside. They saw Casey running circles around the restaurant. She was very fast. She saw them watching her. She slid a little to a stop. She stood and stepped towards them. The full moon luminating onto her and giving the gang a better look at her. She had many scars on her. She was fit, and tall. They noticed she had a little tail. She wasn't bareing her teeth like they thought she would. Instead she just calmly walked to them. She stood tall in front of them, they looked up at her, feeling calm, even though there was an 8 foot werewolf in front of them. She looked at Willy first. They didn't expect what she did. She gently rested her forehead on Willy's first, then did the same to the others. They were confused. One night she nearly killed them, the next she's doing this. They walked in as she transformed back and put clothes on. "What was that?" Arty asked Casey. "In wolf culture, when we do that to a family or lover it means 'I love you'. When we do that to a stranger, it only means 'I acknowledge you, and I would like to befriend you'." Willy and his crew stared at her. Casey grabbed her duffle bag. "Its time for me to go. Now that I'm done her, I'll be out of your fur now. I hope to see you again." She walked out of the doors. Willy ran after her. "Hey, I can't believe I'm saying this but, can you come back tomorrow?" Casey looked at him. She smiled a little and said "Sure."