Kill of the Night [BXB]

Chapter 12

 Tmp.

No. Fuck that.

Tmp.

Reluctantly, with the speed of an arthritic grandfather, I open my eyes and turn my head. My clock tells me that it's the middle of the night. I sit up, ruffling my hair and wetting my lips. I'm surprised I managed to stay unconscious for so long, but I don't want to stop now.

Tmp.

I make a sound of exasperation, moving to get out of bed. I notice how my pants stick to my legs and make a note to take them off when I get back. I approach the window and pull the curtain back, looking down at the wolf beyond the glass. Its tail wags.

"Dude, do you know what time it is?" I ask. It looks up at me like I'm supposed to know what it wants. I groan. "I promise you there's nothing interesting, so please go away. I just want to sleep, I didn't ask for some oversized dog to wake me up at, what, two in the morning?"

Its tail stops wagging entirely, and it sits on the ground, staring unblinkingly. I try to glare as best I can. It lowers itself until it's laying down, resting its head on its forelegs. It stares blankly into my room. It looks almost hurt at my words.

I crouch. An idea has come into my head, and I want to confirm it. I brush my hand against the glass, and it perks up, touching its nose to the glass. Its nostrils flare, and it breathes in like it's trying to scent me.

"You're making me feel bad," I say softly. "Listen, you pass as a really huge dog, so I don't think it'll be the end of the world if you come during the day. Is that good?"

It stands and trots into the darkness. I stand and close my curtain, glad to be rid of it. I've also confirmed that it's got some kind of intelligence, which obviously means it must be a werewolf. I don't know how I feel about that, but they don't seem particularly wary or insistent, so I assume they're here on friendly terms, for whatever reason.

I go back to bed and subsequently back to sleep.

——

"Hey, would you say Rion looks really bad recently?" Tao whispers to me.

I shrug.

"He's in my third period and I think his temper's gotten a lot worse. He isn't talking, like, at all. It's weird."

"I dunno, maybe he's just going through some stuff."

"Yeah, probably. I wonder what happened."

Lunch ends, and we part ways. I go with Yara to my next class and try not to think too much about what could be bothering Rion. For some reason, there's an itch I can't scratch when the topic resurfaces in my head.

Even when I get to my fifth period, I notice how he seems to take an extra long amount of time to come out. When they start warming up, he appears slightly sluggish in comparison to the past, which isn't saying much considering he still outpaces his classmates by a mile. I must not have noticed the change before, but now that it's on my mind, I can't do anything but feel the sickly emotion that tries to crawl its way up my stomach while I half ass some notes on the teacher's current lesson.

History takes a while to arrive. When the bell finally rings, I pack my stuff up and head over, dodging people in the hallway. Rion is already in his seat, slumped over with his head laid on his folded arms. I sit in my seat and wait for the rest of the class to arrive.

As soon as Ms. Joyce is done with attendance, I stand and leave the class. I pull my chair out and sit, setting my binder on top of the desk. Today, I brought my Bible with me to practice my reading comprehension, and I pull it out as Rion comes through the door. He closes the door much harder than necessary and flops down in his chair, going to the same sleeping position he was in before. I clear my throat. He doesn't move. I clear my throat again.