The Many Regrets of a Cyborg Werewolf

Trespassers will be Disemboweled - XXIII

Erin's feet slid off each step of the stairwell as she lazily made her way downstairs. She felt like she had just hibernated for the entire winter, and getting out of bed was next to impossible until she saw how late it was. Now she was shuffling through the hallway of her parents' house, towards the kitchen, guided by the alluring aroma of toast and coffee.

"Sleep well?" Jim asked as Erin groggily tucked her arms into her housecoat.

"Must have," she uttered. He handed her a cup that wisped with steam, "thanks." She took a sip and silently thanked that whatever mechanism now governed her sense of taste, coffee was mercifully exempt from its judgement. "Guess my alarm didn't go off."

"Oh, it did," he said as he prepared his own cup, "but you slept right through it. We figured you must need it."

"Thanks," Erin nodded. She glanced at the cat-shaped clock on the wall. It was just after nine in the morning, which for her was late enough, let alone for her farmer parents.

"Mercer and Mahi are already up," he explained as he took a sip as well, "something about needing to make more 'shots?'"

"Ah," Erin nodded, "that's its own whole thing."

"That Mahi, he's pretty..." Jim searched for the right words, "boundless in his enthusiasm. I've never seen someone so refreshed after sleeping in a bathtub."

"He is," Erin continued to drink her coffee. Mahi's ceaseless optimism was enviable when it seemed like everything around her was so depressing, but it also made it indispensable.

"Eddie touched base," Jim explained as Erin moved to gaze out the kitchen window, "he's on track for tomorrow, but Erin, I wanted to tell you-"

"No way," Erin uttered in disbelief at what she saw. She quickly placed her cup on the table and rushed to get her shoes, "hold that thought, dad!" Jim let out a chuckle as she excitedly got dressed and jogged from the back door towards the field. The day-old snow crunched beneath her boots as she passed the chicken coop and ignored the cows at their hay. Erin stopped at the fence to the open grass that stretched for acres towards the treeline as she watched one of her mother's beloved horses run. Yet it wasn't her mother who rode the magnificent mare, it was Luke.

"He's a natural," Monica said as she approached Erin from the stables, "honestly Matilda has always been temperamental, but she seems to like him."

"I had no idea," Erin uttered. What surprised her most was not Luke's seemingly natural affinity for riding, nor the grace of which he controlled the horse, but as he turned and put the beast through her paces Erin glimpsed something she rarely saw. Luke was smiling happily. Not a grin or a smirk, nor was it reluctant, but an open and honest smile.

"Not gonna lie," Monica joined her daughter as she leaned on the fence, "him staying up all night was kind of creepy at first, but as soon as I came out this morning he offered to help feed the animals. It was weird, though, how quiet they all got while he was around."

Erin continued to watch Luke as he rode. Erin had never ridden a horse, even when her mother offered, but Luke made it look so easy. He hardly moved the reins, yet the horse seemed to go exactly where he wanted, and finally he seemed to slow her down and turn her back towards them. The mare trotted happily as he brought her back towards the stables, and Luke hopped off gracefully as he led her through the gate that Monica opened. Erin approached him with a sly grin of her own.

"You can't drive a car," she mused, "but you can ride a horse?"

"Make your jokes," Luke shrugged as he gently guided the horse into her stall.