Under The Moonlight

chapter 10

TW: mentions of blood (mei got a flask with it in it)

"So what have you been up to?" Cas asked after a minute of walking in silence.

"If I'm being honest, there aren't that many interesting things in my live," Mei replied, "I spend most of my time either at home or at the hospital working, so there isn't much... Oh! Oh wait, I did do one interesting thing!"

"Hm?" Cas stopped to wait for Mei, who had let go of his hand, stopped walking and taken out her phone, looking for something.

"Wait just a sec, I must have it somewhere-" Cas walked next to Mei and peeked over her shoulder. Maybe peeked isn't the best word choice since he was almost a head taller than her and could easily see what she was doing without needing to stretch. Mei was looking for something in her gallery, but the movement was too fast for Cas to figure out what the pictures were of, "Here!"

Cas picked up the phone when Mei handed it over. It was a picture of a painting, a very good one in fact. A hand was holding a cup in the street's nighttime and- wait, that was his cup! It was the cup from the café he worked on! And it was Mei's name written on the cup-

"You painted this!?!?!" Cas exclaimed, lifting his wide-eyed head towards Mei, "It's gorgeous!"

"Aww thank you," Mei smiled shily, "It's not my best piece, but it is kinda-"

"What do you mean it isn't your best piece!? There's ones that are better?"

"Yeah... would you like to see?"

"Of course!"

Mei's smile grew larger, her eyes shining bright in the dark alley. As she scrolled through her gallery, the werewolf noticed how she seemed much more alive, as if art was the key to unlock a happy little place in her mind. Before, Cas had thought Mei was sweet, but it was nothing compared to the beam of genuine excitement and pride that radiated from her when she talked about her art.

"... And that's the best one I've done in the time being," Mei finished, showing up a drawing of a street at night.

It was a lonely street, with a mere shadow as the only pedestrian, hidden far away in the background. The main focus of the drawing was the corner of the street in the foreground, with ashy red bricks covered by a white, red, and black graffiti, an abstract shape or patters that simulated a raging storm, all of this enhanced by a streetlight who shone from above. The background was harder to decipher. It appeared to be a misty night; therefore everything was blurred and grey. The thing is it really looked like mist. The dim changes in tone and shadow made it seem like there was a park, with a humanoid shape walking through it, but as with real mist, the reality could be different.

"It's so good!!!" Cas awed, "How long did it take you to finish it?"

"Um... most people count in terms of hours, but I'm not sure how many of those it took. I started it on a Saturday and ended it on a... Wednesday, 4 days later? I'm not entirely sure, but I do know it happened about a month ago or so."

"Well it looks awesome. Which part of the city did you paint? I'm not sure I recognize it."

Mei laughed, "it's normal you don't recognize it, it's not an actual place."

"...what's that supposed to mean?"

"I made it up, it's not a real street of any real city. Look," Mei got her phone again from Cas and started to look through the gallery, picking up photos now and then, "See? I used this angle here to figure out a bit the placement, and these pictures here are from graffities I saw around that I thought where cool, and I took these photos a day that was very foggy so I could figure out how mist works, and in here I played around with different light and dark refences-"