Sharp Teeth and Blue Eyes

The shrill ringing of an alarm clock broke the early morning silence, quickly followed by muffled grumblings from the cocoon on the bed. A hand emerged from the blankets and felt around blindly until it found the clock to silence the alarm. A few moments later, a head appeared, brown hair still mussed from sleep.

James glared sleepily at his alarm clock, then started the arduous process of untangling himself from his blankets. “Why did I ever decide to be a morning person?” he grumbled.

After escaping the warm cocoon of his bed, James made his way down to the kitchen, maneuvering around the boxes still littered throughout the house. Once the coffee was brewing, he leaned against the counter, eyeing the boxes with reluctance. He already wasn’t looking forward to the long day of unpacking ahead of him, especially considering the sleepless night to follow.

The coffeepot beeped, signaling that it was ready. James let out a sigh of relief, pouring himself a cup. He cradled the mug close for a few moments, warming his fingers and breathing in the steam before taking a cautious sip. Worrying about unpacking could come later. For now, coffee.

His mug was nearly empty when his meandering thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell ringing. James hesitated for a second, then decided that he looked decent enough, and whoever was at the door at this time of morning would just have to deal with him in pajamas. With that thought in mind, James downed the rest of his coffee before setting the mug aside and heading for the front door.

As he was in the middle of opening the door, the thought crossed his mind that he probably should have checked to see who was there before doing so. But it was already too late and he was far too committed, especially as he made eye contact with the person standing there.

His visitor was a young man around James’s age, with blond hair that just brushed his shoulders and warm blue eyes. And, James thought, unfairly pretty and put together considering the sun was still barely over the horizon.

“Hey!” The stranger flashed James a smile, holding out his hand to introduce himself. “I’m Aiden, one of your new neighbors. I’m a couple houses down that way.” He nodded in the direction of his house.

“James,” James replied, taking Aiden’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Once James let go, Aiden brushed an errant lock of hair behind his ear. James’s heart skipped a beat at the movement, and he internally groaned at himself. It was too early to be dealing with pretty boys on his doorstep.

“Likewise.” Aiden had continued talking as if he didn’t notice James having a minor internal crisis. “So, half the reason I’m here is introducing myself, but the other half is that Gary, he’s two doors down there, likes to throw welcoming parties whenever somebody new moves into the neighborhood. And as the only other young person here, I get the pleasure of inviting you.”

James couldn’t help a smirk as he leaned against the doorframe. “You make it sound like everybody else living here is old.”

Aiden glanced around, then leaned in conspiratorially. “Between you and me,” he said lowly with a wink.

James let out a snort of laughter. “Well, thank you for the offer,” he said, “but unfortunately I’m going to have to decline this time. I’m starting early on my quest to become an old man who’s in bed by 6 pm.”

He did feel bad for lying to Aiden, but the timing couldn’t have been worse. And experience had already taught James that it was better to lie and keep suspicion away than to tell the truth and be labeled crazy.

“And how’s that working out for you?”

James raised his eyebrow. “Trying to sweet talk me into coming?”

“Depends.” Aiden leaned against the porch railing with a grin. “Is it working?”

James sighed. Aiden really wasn’t making this easy on him.

“Look.” Apparently, Aiden had picked up on his reluctance. “I can promise you it won’t be that bad, even if we are the youngest by a bit.” Another wink. “And if you really want to, you can duck out early. It starts at 4, so that’s still two hours for you to come and hang out and meet people, and still be home in time for bedtime.”

James idly chewed the inside of his lip as he thought. Really, it was a huge risk he’d be taking, but it wouldn’t hurt to go for a few hours and be home before the sun set and the moon rose. Right?

“So?” Aiden asked.

And James could already tell he’d have a hard time saying no to those blue eyes. “Alright. Consider your sweet talking successful.”

“Me? Sweet talking? Never.” Aiden grinned as he stood up straight again. “I’ll pick you up at 4 then?”

“I thought you said he lived just two houses down?” James asked.

“Wouldn’t want you to get lost. Unless you’re confident you won’t?”

James chuckled. “Alright, I give. At 4, then.”

“Sweet. See you then.”

“Yeah.”

Aiden hopped down James’s front steps with a little wave, and James returned the gesture before closing the door. And even though he was still nervous about being out late, he couldn’t stop the stupid grin spreading on his face.

True to his word, Aiden was ringing James’s doorbell again promptly at 4. James had been fussing about the entryway, and so he opened the door practically before the doorbell was finished ringing.

“Hey!” Aiden said. “Ready to go?”

“Uh, yeah I think so.” James took a step out of the door, then stopped. “Wait, am I supposed to bring anything?”

“Nah.” Aiden shook his head. “I would have warned you earlier if you needed to.”

“Okay, good.” Relieved, James quickly closed and locked the door behind him, then followed Aiden down the steps.

As they walked down the street though, James noticed something odd. Most of the street was shaded by trees, but whenever there was a significant enough gap to let sunlight through, Aiden would pause, then hop from patch of shade to patch of shade. James paused in the sunlight, watching as Aiden eyed up this most recent gap, then used smaller shadows to skip over the beam of sunlight.

“Avoiding the sun?” James asked.

“The sun and I do not have a good relationship.” Aiden shook his hair out of his eyes. “I get very easily sunburned.”

“In five seconds?”

“I’ve learned to not trust the sun, period.” Aiden narrowed his eyes, peering up through the leaves. “I swear it’s plotting something.”

James laughed. “Obviously your demise,” he teased, finally joining Aiden in the shade. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ll protect you for the next gap we go through.”

“Oh, my hero,” Aiden said with a wry grin. But he took James’s arm and stayed practically glued to his side as they crossed the next patch of sunlight, only separating once they had reached the safety of a covered porch.

Aiden barely had the chance to touch the doorbell before the door was being opened. “There you are Aiden!” the man greeted before turning to James. “And you must be our new neighbor.”

“Hi, I’m James,” James introduced himself, holding out his hand.

The man took it with a smile. “Gary. Come in, both of you. You’re not the last here, but everybody else is already gathering in the backyard.”

James followed Aiden into the house. “Staying on door duty for a while?” Aiden asked.

“For a little bit longer, at least,” Gary replied. “You know your way around, feel free to show James to the backyard.”

“Will do.” Aiden took James’s hand and led him through the house. James made note of their path in case he couldn’t find Aiden or somebody to show him the way out when he left.

They emerged into the backyard, and James stopped short in surprise. Similar to the street out front, the backyard was heavily shaded by the surrounding trees. The trees here were denser though, meaning the backyard appeared to be shrouded in twilight despite the late summer afternoon.

“Yeah.” Aiden had stopped and was watching James with a grin. “Another reason why these get togethers are nice. No chance of sunburns back here.”

“No kidding.” James shook off his surprise, just in time as the other occupants of the backyard noticed them.

James quickly lost track of time as he quickly became entangled in a circle of introductions and subsequent returns to previous conversations. He was so distracted he didn’t even notice Aiden leave, until Aiden handed him a cup with a wink before slipping away again, sipping at his own blood-red drink.

James was listening to what was apparently the latest in a long-standing series of debates between Gary and another neighbor when he accidentally bit his tongue.

“Ow!” James’s hand flew to his mouth at the sudden pain.

“You okay?” Gary asked, pausing the argument to look at James.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” James lied. “Just bit my tongue is all.” But he could taste blood, meaning his teeth were sharper than usual, and he realized with a start that it was much later than he had intended on staying out. The eternal twilight that shrouded the yard had really messed with his perception of time.

“Are you sure?” Anna, Gary’s wife, moved closer in concern. “If you think something’s wrong, Tom could check you out real quick.”

“No really, I’m fine,” James reassured, reluctantly lowering his hand. He just had to hope that nobody would notice in the dim lighting. “I actually just realized I need to get home. Trying to get on a schedule for work and such, so early bedtime and all that. I’ve actually stayed a lot longer than I meant to.”

There were disappointed mumblings, but Anna silenced them with a look. “Well in that case, you’d better get going,” she said. “But don’t be afraid to stop by if you ever want a chat, alright?”

“Of course.” James almost flashed her a smile out of habit, barely catching himself before he showed his teeth. “Thanks for having me, it was nice meeting you all.”

With that, he made his escape from the yard as quickly as was polite, only relaxing somewhat once he’d made it into the empty house. He was almost to the front door before he was stopped by a voice.

“Leaving without saying goodbye?”

“Aiden!” James whirled around to face him as Aiden appeared from a shadowed hallway. “Sorry, I just—it’s a lot later than I meant to be out, and I need to get home—”

“Are you okay?” Aiden suddenly asked. “You’re bleeding.”

James instinctively touched his lip, but he hadn’t bitten his tongue hard enough to bleed that much. Nevertheless, he answered, “I bit my tongue just a bit ago, but it’s not serious.”

Aiden looked at James for a long moment, and James felt uncomfortably like Aiden knew something James didn’t, and was debating whether or not to tell him.

Finally, James broke the silence, reaching for the door handle. “I should—”

“Full moon tonight.”

James stopped short. “Uh, yeah, I guess.”

Aiden held his contemplative stare for a moment longer, then let out a long breath. “Alright, I’m just gonna go ahead and take a stab in the dark here. You’re a werewolf, and you think you have to go home and lock yourself up to protect the rest of us from whatever you might do?”

James debated dismissing him for half a second, but something about the knowing look in Aiden’s blue eyes stopped him. Instead, he asked softly. “How do you know?”

“I had my suspicions when you were acting cagey about staying out late,” Aiden admitted. “But you really tipped me off just now, since it’s about the time a werewolf might start to shift, and you’re dashing out and biting your tongue with suddenly sharp teeth.”

“No, I mean how do you know?” James asked. “About werewolves and all that?”

“Oh.” Aiden laughed, and his teeth flashed in the low lighting; white, sharp, inhuman. “You’re not the only one around here with a secret.”