I opened the door of the house and the cold air hit my warm skin, and at once I slipped my hands into the pockets of my long black coat as I sped towards my car parked outside, my brown hair flying over my face, I was not yet accustomed to the cold Moscow climate.
I got into the car while rubbing my cold hands hard with steam coming out of my mouth. I remembered the temperate weather in New Jersey in America when I was studying there, and despite the cold weather, I did not deny my happiness to be here after waiting for a long time to finish my school years and join my father's center for biological research, To be appointed as the youngest trainee in it.
I left towards the bus station, which is located in the center of the big city. It did not take long until I was in front of the parking lot. I parked my car in its designated place and continued on my feet to where the rest of the employees were waiting for the bus to come. One of the conditions of our work was for all employees to come in a bus belonging to the center. .
"Hey Eileen," said a voice behind me, and turned to the big blond young man who was smiling at me as he adjusted his glasses to his eyes.
"Hi Andrei," I replied
Andre was a new apprentice like myself who had recently been assigned to the centre, and he showed extraordinary interest and effort when he stayed up late at night to work hard, which impressed the officials there and was given many tasks.
"I know you've been assigned the new case," he said, getting ready to sit next to me on the bus.
"Really?" I said surprised
"Didn't your father tell you?" he said
"No, I haven't seen my father in a week," I said, embarrassed, and turned to the window that was on my side.
In fact, I did not lie about it. I rarely met my father on the pretext that he was busy all the time with research and studies, and he would not have taken care of leaving me alone at home, and this is not something new for me, I have remembered his absence since my childhood.
His frequent absence had caused him many quarrels in the past with my mother, who had recently preferred to remain silent in exchange for getting money from him every time he was late to return home.
Andrei interrupted my thoughts and looked at me, "He's ranked 109th, but he's actually Alexei...you have to deal with him carefully," he said in a low voice.
"Why? Is he sick?" I said
"I don't know anything about his health, he was downstairs," he said
Andrei stopped talking to me and I saw him take out his phone and start making a call. He did not seem ready to go into much of the matter, for I had once heard, through side conversations among the employees, of other cases in the center but I had not met any of them.
While I was watching outside, I repeated on my lips repeatedly...Case 109 Alexei...Time passed slowly until we reached the Biological Research Center, which was located in a quiet place away from crowds.
I was excited about what Andrei had just told me about my new assignment and when I got to my private office, I found Roman in charge waiting for me.
"Hello Eileen, I wanted to inform you that we have assigned you to follow up on changes in status 109, and this is important work for us, but you should not come close to him, we do not yet know the effects of the drugs on him" he said.
He pointed to the side of the corridor, "The room from here, follow me." He said to me and I walked behind him, while my heart was beating fast, I wondered what kind of person Alexei was and why he was brought here alone?
His room was surrounded on the outside by glass through which he could be watched. Roman opened the door to the room and slowly entered the room. The first thing I saw was that young man sitting on the floor, he seemed to be in his mid-twenties, his hands and feet tied in long chains to the wall.
He looked up at us, then stood up quickly and backed away, I contemplated him a little, he was only wearing short pants, while the muscles of his body were drawn in a perfect way with the jaw of his sculpted face, which added a cruel and masculine character to his features.
"Be careful of him...just sit back and continue to record your notes on him. If something happens, call me immediately," he said.
I nodded to him and left the room leaving me alone. I brushed my hair out of my face while I was looking at a report in which he wrote notes on Case 109: A mentally ill and out of his mind, selected for some experiments.
The report that was written about his condition was ambiguous and I doubted its authenticity. It does not appear as it was mentioned in the report. How can a sick man who has lost his mind have a strong and athletic body? Something inside me tells me that he was an important person before I brought him here
I sat on the chair watching him while he just stared at me, the moments passed by boredom, there is nothing to write in the follow-up report about him. I saw him come back to sit on the ground and tried to communicate with him,
"Okay, my name is Eileen," I said and smiled at him.
He looked at me but he didn't answer, I got up from the chair and walked towards him, I know that I go against Doctor Roman's recommendations not to approach him, but I was curious about him, I wanted to know more about him.
"You're Alexei, aren't you?" I said, staring into his dark green eyes.
He lowered his head, and turned to the other side. I saw a deep cut and a fresh bruise on his shoulder, and I wondered if he had been beaten here. I walked towards the medicine table and brought gauze and a bottle of sterilizer to clean his wounds, and as I got closer to him he turned quickly towards me and grinned at his long fangs with a weak snarl.
He was not human! I swallowed my throat, "A gift, please... I won't hurt you," I said and moved closer to him.
He was looking at me cautiously and did not take his eyes away from my face, I put gauze on his wound and gently wiped it with my trembling hand, this was the first time I dealt with a werewolf! Suddenly I felt his calm, after I thought for a moment that he was going to bite me.
I had previously learned about the presence of werewolves in Russia, after doing a lengthy study project about them, and I learned that the werewolf was living alongside humans naturally many years ago, but with the increase in the huge number of humans, the werewolves retreated towards remote areas and fell Agreements with humans not to expose one to the other, I really loved the way werewolves lived and interconnected, and one of my wishes was to meet one of them and get to know them closely.
I put a bandage on his wound, "I'm done," I said
I returned to sitting in my place worried because of the thoughts in my head, I was wondering in myself why my father was bringing a werewolf to a human research center? This was not legal! ?
Suddenly I got up to leave the room quietly and shut the door without turning back, I caught Andrei standing near the room and I hurried towards him, without thinking of me I grabbed him by the arm and took him to the corner of the wall
"Andrei...there's a werewolf in the room, do you know that?" I whispered
He looked me in the eye and then watched the place around us, "Do you mean you don't know that?" he said in a low voice.
"No...I don't know, and if I did, I wouldn't accept working here," I said
He kept looking at me cautiously for a while, but I didn't pay attention to his looks and continued, "I found a cut and bruise on his shoulder, he must have been beaten too, I can't believe my father is doing his biological experiments on werewolves," I said nervously.
He looked down, "Unfortunately it is... This is a center for experiments and research on werewolves only," he said
My eyes widened, "You knew then...Are you OK with this?" I said
He remained silent and when I did not answer I left the place and left him standing there, then I heard his footsteps as he followed me. I was angry with everyone here. I could not bear the idea of my work in this suspicious center, especially since my father is the one who runs the place. I thought of going to his office and objecting to what he was doing.
"Eileen, wait." Andrei said behind me. I didn't listen to him and walked until I got to my father's office. There were two guards standing at the door and they prevented me from entering.
"Get out of my way. I'm the daughter of Albert Lars and I want to meet him now," I said out loud as I tried to get to the door.
One of the guards pulled me by the arm, "We'll put you in custody, if you continue like this," he said
Suddenly the door opened from the inside, "What's going on here?" That was my father's voice