can monsters still be human?

“Hey, us law enforcement types have a certain stereotype to live up to, and I wouldn’t want to let the side down.”  Mystic Falls did actually have a bakery, and since things reset every day she could just provide the same box of donuts each morning.  She juggled one of the boxes slightly, pulling the door open with her free hand for Theo to walk through.

She shook her head as he passed, chuckling.  “Fortunately not much.  It’s more just for people’s peace of mind right now - if they see someone in a uniform, they know there’s someone looking out for them.  But the more people that keep showing up here, the more chance we’ll actually need a police force sooner or later.”

“Oh of course. You gotta pull your weight, I get it.” He laughed, stepping through the door, and walking confidently forwards to get out of the way. Where they were going, he didn’t know. But confidently he would go, boxes clutched tight against his chest. 

“Indeed.” He couldn’t pin down exactly what she was. She definitely wasn’t human though, and smelt like something sour and bitter and awful. Maybe sulphur. The terrible smell was only faint, thankfully, overlaid by something human, more like an aftertaste. “Do you all just get to make up the law then? Do we get to vote? Or is it more of a ‘hope nobody ever questions my authority’ type deal?” 

Derek stops growling and his head cocks to the side, as if trying to figure the animal out.  If he could roll his eyes in wolf form he would, but instead he gets off Theo and nudges at the coyote’s chest and makes a rumbling growl sound and nudges his chest again.  Trying to convey that growling comes from the chest, and he’s perfectly capable of making the sound as well.

Jeremy nods his head in thanks not only for the guy not pressing for details but just accepting that Jeremy had some rough shit going on that he rather forget for a little bit. “To be honest most wine is pretty gross but after a bottle you don’t really care what it tastes like.”

Theo’s lips pulled back in distaste, and head shaking slowly. “I’m not drinking a whole bottle of shit just to make the second bottle taste mediocre.” Was it normal to drink until disgusting things tasted good? This sounded like one ‘normal’ teenage experience Theo was happy to live without. “Does anything in this store taste good by itself?”

He was going to kill this coyote, if he gets dirt in his eyes one more time, he was going to rip his throat out.  Trying to blink dirt out as a wolf was much harder than as a human, it irritated him more.  He picks up speed and tackles the smaller animal to the ground, pinning him there and growling.

“I guess squatter fits better than anything else.” He mumbles with a lazy shrug of his shoulder as he takes a swig out of the bottle in his hand. He picked this place for a lot of different reasons, one he didn’t really like the old guy who owned it in the first place, two easy access to anything with a decent alcohol content and he didn’t think a lot of his own friends would look for him here. “I’ve been going with whatever had the highest alcohol content but that’s just me.”

He slowly stalked down alongside the walls of glass bottles, eyes drifting from label to label as he moved. “Sounds like you’re trying to drown out something. Not that I particularly care, or really wanna hear about it. My condolences though, man.” Theo laughed quietly, wrinkling his nose at one particular bottle before moving on. He couldn’t even begin to guess what any of these drinks tasted like. “Is wine any good? I know red wine is good in food, at least.”  

The wolf almost loses his footing as the coyote wiggled his way out from under him.  He was about to tackle him back down when he realized the hunters were gone.  So he sets off after the idiot on four legs, growling at him so he knew Derek was close behind, could overpower him if he wanted.  He couldn’t let the coyote think he had any sort of power over him.

Seriously what was wrong with this guy, he was trying to get home, safe and away from hunters and more bullets.  His shoulder was burning, there must have been wolfesbane on the bullet.  Next thing he knew the coyote was running past him, but at least he was going in the right direction.  He can hear running footsteps and he runs up, even with only three good legs, and catches the coyote and tackles him to the ground, rolling them into a ditch.  He growls low to keep the coyote quiet until they run past them.

He had turned in the right direction when he realised the coyote hadn’t left his side.  He was sort of circling him, energy buzzing around him, what in the hell was this guy thinking?  A nip at his heels had him spinning around, and it hits him out of nowhere, was he playing with him?  The coyote is almost totally out of sight before he started walking slowly in the direction he was.  He gives him a soft growl, because he wasn’t chasing him, he hasn’t played with a pup since before the fire.

Just the orange kid again, thank god. Sam almost wanted to laugh at himself for freaking out; this whole damned town was making him lose his mind. Being the base level of hunter-paranoid was all fine and good, but, there was that, and then there was being scared of a teenage fruit farmer. 

“Didn’t know it was you,” he said, trying to force himself down to some measure of calm. “Sorry- you okay?” 

Not like there’s monsters or anything. He grimaced, at that, though he tried to turn it into some kind of smile. “Y’never know; could be all kinds of shit out there. I’m usually inside by now, but- decided I was gonna take a walk. See what was going bump in the night.” 

“I’m good, minus the heart attack.” He laughed, wincing at the loud, echoing sounds of the noise in the quiet of the night. 

It was hard to gauge how much people knew in this place. There was a high density of supernatural people, but there was also a fair few, very normal, people. Generally ones who smelt like gunpowder, or wolfsbane, or something else. This guy definitely knew something, and it would be a comfort to know exactly how much. 

“All kinds of shit? You think a lot of things go bump in the night in this town?” He kept his shoulders slack, one hand reaching behind to scratch his back and the other with the palm facing Sam. Nonthreatening. “I mean, it is pretty weird here.” 

He ran until he couldn’t smell anyone aside from the coyote on his tail, and slid to a stop.  He’s panting, ignoring the sting and burning in his shoulder to stare at the smaller were.  He huffs and turns to limp away, he would go find somewhere to hide until the trembling stopped and he felt safe enough to emerge again.

He wanted to move, everything in him was telling him to move, but he stayed just as he was, curled up against a tree.  The coyote wouldn’t leave him, head butting him to try to get him to move, but he was frozen.  It was like his body was accepting its fate, waiting there for everything to fall apart all over again.  It’s when a bullet grazes his shoulder, just nicking him that it snaps him out of the trance like state he was in.  The pain, it woke him up and he turn and sprints in the opposite direction, running in front of the coyote until they’re far away from the hunters.

If he was in his right mind, and he knew he wasn’t, he would laugh at the sight of a giant black wolf trying to look small.  But he was slowly backing against a tree, no snarling, not even a growl.  How did they find him, how did they know he would be here?  He thought he was safe, he didn’t even realize he was shaking, his limbs trembling under his fur.  A blur of coyote almost passed him, it takes him longer than he’d ever like to admit to realize Theo was still there, still beside him growling.  Why wasn’t he gone?  He knew he was trying to get Derek to move but his legs were too heavy, like they were covered in stone.  He tries to make himself even smaller, curling up in a ball and hoping the coyote would run off, and maybe the hunters wouldn’t see him.

He was about to turn and run back towards his little house when the familiar smell of wolfesbane hit his nose.  His first instinct used to be to shift and fight, but right now all he wanted to do was hide.  They found him, in some alternate dimension or something…they found him.  He hit the ground, unsure if he was even hit, his entire body had went numb.  He doesn’t notice until the world shift that he shifted, clothes tore under him as he did his best to hide in the shadows.

“Right”, he realized who the boy was, at least he seemed to fit the description he heard once.  Either way Derek was in no mood to socialize, so he just turns away from him, wiping off blood from a healed cut on his leg.  “I’m aware, I’ll take my chances, but thanks for the…concern”.

He glances around, trying to remember where exactly he was headed when he decided to just head back to the house he found.  If he had known there would be people wandering around, he would’ve stayed home.

Theo hadn’t met a born wolf that hadn’t considered him with distaste, and it didn’t surprise him that Derek didn’t buck the trend. He wasn’t a real wolf, after all. Fucking elitists. 

“Anytime.” An awkward smile stretched across his face, as his hands lifted up in a dismissive gesture. “Just let me know if-” His voice was cut off by the faintest whistling sound, before he dropped straight to the floor. An arrow embedded itself into a tree right behind him. His heart stopped. Wolfsbane didn’t effect him like it did real wolves, but the scent did not bode well for anyone. “Fuck dude-” His head spun, left and right trying to search for the source, before bullets started to rip through the air instead. They weren’t close enough to grab, and he wasn’t trying to get any closer to those guns. It was time to run.