Marking my Territory

On a hilltop, a wolf-like figure watches a residential area below. Twilight has fallen and most people are in their cosy homes, making dinner and settling in for the evening. Their figures are illuminated in the windows, making them clearly visible to the creature that is silently watching them. It crouches in the shadows, watching the scene below intently. Then the thing it has been waiting for finally happens…

Chris arrives and gets out of his car, carrying several bags of late-night shopping he has picked up. Lots of beer bottles and take-away food mostly- he is planning a relaxing evening in. It is Friday after all, and it has been a very long week. Not as much fun these days though as he is still getting used to being on his own since the break-up. Weekends were the worst, and he had to try extra hard to keep really busy just to keep the silence and loneliness at bay. Why did she have to go and do what she did? These thoughts often came and hit him in the gut out of the blue, even though it had been over six months now. He often wondered how his ex was, especially during these crazy times when people were still dying everywhere with the virus. Part of him thought “I don’t give a shit if they both die,” but another part of him knew he would still be heartbroken. After all, they had spent over ten years together until he came along.

The Moon was full tonight, and Chris paused at the door before entering to look up at it. How beautiful it was! Pure silver light glowed around it, almost giving it an ethereal halo. It occurred to him that he should stop more often to take in such beautiful things. Even though it was a warm evening, he felt a slight shudder, and his eyes were drawn to the hill nearby. It was too dark to see anything and there were trees around that obscured his vision, but he felt sure there was something there watching him. He could sense it. He fumbled with his keys and quickly opened the door, carrying all three bags in with him. He then slammed the door tightly shut.

On the hilltop nearby, the creature continued to watch him as he went inside his house, two amber eyes glowing in the darkness, which he would never have seen from that distance. Even if he had, he would have mistakenly thought they were perhaps the tiny orange pinpricks of two cigarettes, belonging to lovers secretly meeting there, as they often did. She could wait. She had been watching him for a while now these past months and he was marked as hers. Time soon to make her move.