My Safe Computer Place
The bright lights from outside Jax made his
serious face look even harder. My heart was
beating super fast. The way he looked at my
ankle, like he knew something, made me think
my secret wasn't safe anymore.
"Can I… help you, Officer?" I asked, my voice
shaking a little even though I tried to sound
calm. I held onto the door, ready to close it
fast if I needed to.
Jax looked right at me. "Just need to ask you
some questions, Elara. About when the moon
was full."
I held my breath. "The full moon? What about
it?" I tried to sound like it was just a normal
question.
"We've had… reports," he said quietly, "that
some things were not normal. More anger
than usual."
My mind went fast. Did someone else get as
out of control as I did? Did Luna tell on me? I
felt scared in my stomach. "I… I didn't see
anything strange," I lied, my eyes looking
quickly at my computer screen, which knew
what I'd been doing.
Jax looked where I was looking, his eyes
getting a little smaller. "You seem… worried."
"Just tired," I said again, the usual excuse.
"Long day at the bookstore."
He didn't ask more, but his quietness made
me more nervous than if he yelled. He just
stood there, big and serious in my doorway,
making me feel uneasy and watched.
Finally, he talked again, his voice softer this
time, almost… unsure. "Look, Elara.
Something's not right. I can feel it."
The wall I put up to hide my fear started to
break. There was something strange in his
eyes, a look that wasn't like the cold,
not-trusting officer I always knew.
"What do you mean?" I asked carefully,
opening the door a little more.
He waited, looking around the hallway like he
thought someone was listening. "Can I… can I
come in for a minute? It's… complicated."
Complicated? A human police officer wanting
to talk to me, a werewolf, in my home, about
the full moon? Nothing about this felt right.
But the bad feeling he talked about… it felt like
the fear I'd had since last night.
I sighed and moved out of the way. He came
into my small apartment, and he looked big in
my small space. His eyes looked around the
room, at the piles of books, the papers
everywhere, and then stopped at my glowing
computer screens.
This was my safe place, my computer world.
Here, with the lines of code and the sound of
the computer, I felt a little bit in control.
Outside, where people were scared of me, the
computer world was the one place where I
could understand things, change things, and
maybe find answers.
Jax stood in the middle of the room, looking
at my computer. "You're… good with
computers?" he asked, sounding a little
surprised.
I shrugged, trying to make it seem like no big
deal. "It's just something I like to do."
He nodded slowly, still looking at the screens.
"I… I've been looking into some things. Some…
things that aren't normal."
My heart beat faster. Things that aren't
normal? Was he talking about the same
things I found?
"What kind of things?" I asked, trying to keep
my voice steady.
He waited again, running his hand through his
short, dark hair. "Look, Elara. I know what
happened a long time ago… what they say
happened. And I've always… I've always been
careful around werewolves." He looked at me,
his eyes honest in a way that surprised me.
"But lately… things haven't felt right. Some
things don't make sense."
My worry fought with a small bit of hope.
Could it be? Could this human, who I thought
didn't trust us, actually see that something
was wrong?
"What kind of things?" I asked again, my voice
softer now, a little bit of trust starting to melt
the fear inside me.
He took a deep breath. "Strange energy
around the government places. Secret
messages that don't follow their rules. And…
and some police officers have been talking…
about the chips."
I held my breath. Talking about the chips?
"What kind of talk?" I asked quietly.
He leaned closer, his voice almost a whisper.
"Talk of… more than just watching. Talk of…
making you do things."
Making you do things. That's what Tiber said.
The same scary idea that kept me up last
night.
"You… you think they're doing more than just
seeing where we are?" I asked, my voice
shaking with fear.
He nodded slowly, his eyes serious. "I don't
know for sure. But something feels… wrong.
And after what Tiber told you… about feeling
pushed…"
My eyes got big. He talked to Tiber? How?
"You spoke to Tiber?" I asked, sounding
confused.
His face looked determined. "I've been…
looking into things quietly. Tiber… he's seen
things. Felt things."
A small bit of agreement started to grow in
the quiet of my apartment. A werewolf who
found something scary, and a human police
officer who was worried about things not
making sense. An unlikely team, made
because they both felt something was wrong.
"I… I found something too," I said, pointing to
my computer screens. "In the chip's
information. Secret files. Words like 'angry'
and 'do what they say.'"
Jax's eyes got bigger. "You could get into the
chip's information?"
I nodded, feeling a little proud even though I
was scared. "I'm… good with computers."
He looked at my screens with new respect.
"Show me."
For the next hour, I showed Jax the secret
parts of the chip's information, the strange
things I found, the bits of code I could read,
the scary times counting down to the full
moon. He listened carefully, and the look on
his face slowly changed from not believing
me to understanding how bad it could be.
"This… this is bad," he whispered, his face
looking pale. "If what you think is true…"
"They could control us," I finished, the words
feeling heavy. "All of us."
As we both understood how serious this was,
a new, even scarier thought came to me. Jax
showing up so suddenly, knowing what Tiber
said… it felt too easy.
"How did you know where to find me, Officer?"
I asked, my worry coming back. "And how did
you know to talk to Tiber?"
He waited a second, a look on his face I
couldn't read. "I… I've been watching things.
The werewolf group. After… after what
happened a long time ago."
His answer didn't feel right, like he wasn't
telling me everything.
Then, his eyes looked down at my ankle again,
staying there a little longer this time. "That
chip… it's always on, right? Always sending
out information?"
A cold fear went through me. "Yes. To see
where we are."
He nodded slowly, with a strange look in his
eyes. "But what else is it sending out, Elara?
What else are they seeing?"
Jax reached inside his jacket and took out a
small thing that blinked. He held it up, and
when he did, the warm feeling on my ankle
got stronger, and the light on his thing blinked
faster. "This," he said quietly, "this is picking
up something… something more than just
where you are." He looked right at me, his
eyes showing both fear and understanding
something new. "Elara… I think they can see
what you're seeing on your computer."