Chapter Text
The dark house was lit by only the dim light of a half-charged phone and the brightness crawling out beneath the bathroom door. A shaken voice echoed through the empty house, spoken into the receiver.
“Logan, hey. It’s me. I need a favour.”
Roman sat outside his bathroom, curled against the wall. The chill of the unheated house shivered through his skin, yet he made no move to get up. It was as if he hoped the cold would shake him out of shock.
“Yeah, I know it’s a school night.” He rolled his eyes, but the attempt at fooling himself into nonchalance failed. Behind him, the bathroom door shuddered on its hinges.
“Listen, I’m… not sure I’ll be able to make it to classes for a bit.” He was cupping his head in one hand, his eyes drooping with exhaustion and anxiety. “It’s hard to explain. I… it’s Remus.” Roman’s knuckles blemished white against his phone. “We’re in trouble, Specs. I don’t know what to do.”
He was quiet as he listened to the response, frowning at the floor between his socked feet. His eyes widened with sudden horror.
“No!” he cried but abruptly snapped his jaw shut with a wide-eyed look towards the bathroom door. It shook again.
“Sorry, sorry,” he murmured into the phone. “Just… Can you come over? Please? I need…” He sighed, squeezing his eyes shut. His voice cracked. “I need some help.”
Not ten minutes later, headlights pulled up onto the house’s driveway. They were immediately switched off, leaving the car uncharacteristically carelessly parked.
Logan Berrycloth, a twenty-year-old forensics student, atypically dishevelled and flustered, burst into the Parata household, wide-eyed and hyperventilating.
“Roman!” he cried, immediately stumbling in the dark house. Receiving no response, he fumbled his way through to the only source of light: the closed bathroom door. The worst possible scenarios and outcomes and any potential solutions running through his head, he burst through the door – and immediately staggered to a stop.
Roman was sitting on the bathroom floor with pools of water splashed over the tiles. He was utterly drenched from head to toe, his usually meticulously styled hair plastered to his forehead and his woollen nightshirt clinging to his body. He looked utterly put out.
Behind him, in a half-filled bathtub, was a great hulking shape that choked Logan’s scream.
The dog was so unnaturally large that it almost didn’t fit into the bathtub. Its dark brown fur was dripping with water. Its ears were pinned back against its skull, eyes glowing ferociously.
“What the hell is this,” Logan breathed, floundering back against the far wall.
“A wolf,” Roman said with a soft groan, far too calm. Logan had a million questions.
“Why is it wet?”
Roman looked like Logan had gotten him in trouble in class. “I gave him a bath.”
Logan gaped, horrified. How had this canine gotten into the house in the first place? Did it belong to the brothers? Where was Remus? Why was the dog looking at him as if it wanted to lunge at his face?
Roman seemed to take his startled silence for judgement, screwing his face up the same way he did whenever he was ready to pick a fight. “He was stinky, okay?”
Logan shook his head. This could be dealt with later. “Where is Remus?”
Roman huffed, a bitter smile crossing his face. “You’re looking at him, Specs.”
“That’s impossible.”
Roman stared at the floor tiles, head in his hands. “He was acting weird all day. Fever, eating like he had been starved for weeks – and you know how much he normally eats during the day. He actually snapped at me when I got too close at one point. I thought he was just sick, but… I heard him scream earlier tonight.” Roman’s fingers curled tightly into his hair. “I watched him… transform… into this.” His smile was brittle. “I wonder what the government thinks about werewolves.”
Logan clenched his fists to keep the tremble at bay. “This is absurd. Your pranks have long gotten old. Tell Remus to come out here now and return this poor dog to its owner.” He scowled. “And get yourself off the ground. You’re sopping wet.”
Roman huffed with a breathless laugh. He glanced at the wolf, who was licking its jowls. “Hey, Rem. He’s calling your bluff.”
The wolf yawned with a whine and shook itself, somehow turning its baleful gaze upon Logan on command as if it could understand English. Logan stuck his head into the living room, scowling at the dark, empty house.
“Remus!” he yelled up the stairs. “That’s enough! Come here!”
“Maybe calling you wasn’t the best idea,” Roman murmured wearily.
“This isn’t funny, Roman!” Logan snarled, whirling back towards him.
“It’s not a joke!” Roman snapped back.
“For once in your life, learn when enough is enough!”
“You need to learn when to listen to others,” Roman argued.
“For god’s sake, Roman –”
“You are so insufferable –”
“I will drag you outside myself –”
Abruptly, the wolf started barking, spittle dripping from its jaws. It stood, stepping out of the bathtub with ease, its hungry gaze fixated on Logan. Its barks almost rattled the door hinges. It certainly felt like they were rattling Logan’s ribcage.
As the wolf took a slow step forward, Logan realised only now that there was a pile of ripped clothes on the floor. Logan recognised Remus’ green jacket, one he hardly took off and whined like a baby when so much as a stain got on it. Logan didn’t think there would be a single force in the world that could ever encourage Remus to willingly tear up that damn jacket.
Logan took a step back, despising how his legs had begun to tremble.
The wolf had a mark – only a small one, but it was identical to the scar Remus had over his left eyebrow from when he was twelve and had face-planted off the school playground trying to tackle Roman.
Logan forced his voice not to shake. “Roman. Get over here.”
“Oh, believe me now, do you?”
“Roman –”
With a snarl, the wolf lunged.
Logan snatched Roman’s wrist and yanked him from the bathroom. He darted through the house and out the front door. He slammed it behind him, heedless of the wood shuddering, and vicious barking followed them all the way out to the driveway.
“Get in the car,” Logan snapped. Roman jerked away from him.
“What are you –?”
“Get in.” Logan shoved Roman into the passenger seat and flew in beside him, throwing the car in reverse and gunning it down the street. In the rearview mirror, Logan watched as one of the Parata’s windows exploded and the wolf leaped through the glass onto the front lawn. It took after them, running down the middle of the street relentlessly. It chased the car for a few blocks but trailed off after Logan made multiple turns at a highly illegal speed limit.
“What the hell, Logan?” Roman shouted.
“That’s not your brother anym– right now, okay?” Logan kept his gaze on the road. Rain pattered against the windshield. Roman was deathly silent. His eyes burned the side of Logan’s face.
“What were you going to say?” he whispered.
Logan sighed heavily. “This is insane.”
“I wouldn’t make this shit up, Logan,” Roman muttered darkly.
Logan’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. “I –”
“You were going to say ‘anymore,’ weren’t you?” Roman interrupted with fire in his voice. “He is my brother, and no matter what he is or does, he will always be my brother, understand?”
Logan shook his head mutely. Anger flashed in Roman’s eyes.
“Stop the car.”
The car swerved with Logan’s surprise. “What?”
“Let me out.”
“Roman, I’m not going to –”
“Logan, if you don’t let me out of the car in the next five seconds, I’m calling the cops right the FUCK now.”
Logan blanched. Roman glared furiously at him from the passenger seat, his phone between his clenched knuckles.
The car pulled over to the side of the road, the yellow indicator light reflecting off the rain puddles on the asphalt.
Roman slammed the door behind him, inattentive to the rain beginning to patter against his hair and clothes. He stood with his back to the car, even as Logan rolled down the left front window.
“Roman,” he called, ducking his head to meet Roman’s baleful gaze as he glared over his shoulder. “Don’t go back to the house tonight. Please.”
Roman looked away. Logan glanced down the road. “There’s a motel just around the corner. I’ll… send you some money.”
Roman said nothing.
“I’ll see you in class tomorrow,” Logan said carefully. “Okay?”
Roman didn’t respond. Slow with hesitance, Logan pulled away from the curb. Roman watched the red brake lights fade into the rainy night, standing on the corner of Moa Street, soaking wet, shivering, and alone.