The Stray Human: A collage age urban fantasy with werewolves, werewolf community center book 1

by Abigail Smith

He scoffed. “Lying under pressure, good skill to have,” he said before scribbling that one down.

  He put down the stack of papers, the top one filled with azure scribbles. He put his hands on his knees to get up.

  “So, we already know your pay. How about hours? From six to two every night. Sound good?”

  “Sounds nice, but I dunno. It’s like it’s missing something?”

  “One meal from the kitchen and any soft drinks you want?” he said sharply.

  “Make it up to two meals, in case I’m really hungry one night… every night,” I responded.

  “You’ve got yourself a deal,” he said, holding out his hand.

  I did the customary shake, and he picked the papers up. “So, the contract signing will happen?” I asked, a sudden well of dread sweeping over me.

  He smiled. “It’s right there,” he said, pointing to the pile of papers. I removed the first page of scribbles and found the rest to be a sizable contract. I picked them up, checked the back of the scribbled page, and examined it.

  “Why does a bar have an NDA?” I asked about the list of documents on the front page.

  “A non-disclosure agreement? Well, that’s probably because there’s something you’ll find out we don’t want you to disclose,” he said, holding out his hands in a shrug before he stepped out of the room.

  I looked through the documents, trying to find things that weren’t quite to my liking. It had the hours on just like he’d said, even the part about the two meals I’d suggested.

  “That’s… interesting,” I said, bemused, unable to comprehend how they could have guessed… or predicted what I wanted.

  A knock sounded at the door. “Contract looking good so far?” Lorenz’s voice came through.

  “Yeah, it just takes me a while to read them,” I responded, looking back down.

  “Why don’t you take a little break for a bit?” Lorenz said.

  I could feel the giddiness in his voice as he enunciated every little bit of the words with a lot of focus. I set the packet down and walked out. Right in front of the door, just outside of its swing radius, was Silvia, smiling wide.

  “So, you’re gonna work here?” she asked me and did a little hop of excitement.

  “Yeah, I guess,” I said.

  Silvia jumped up and threw her arms around me in a surprise hug. I yelped and threw my arms around her to catch her.

  “Yay!” she said, squeezing me a little.

  Her sweater was soft, and she felt light. I could probably carry her with one arm if I had to.

  “Silvia,” Gavin said in his low voice.

  It wasn’t a barking order, more a friendly reminder said in a bit of a raspy tone, like he hadn’t spoken in an hour and didn’t clear his throat sort of way.

  “Oh, right. Thank you very much for saving me from that guy!” the girl said, flopping down so she was on the ground level. She gave me another hug, this one more around the waist, and then she walked over to the bar area.

  “She’s quite cute,” I said, looking to Gavin.

  Lorenz smiled and nodded. “Cute and smart. The first day she was here, she’d found a way to wrap the majority of people around her finger.”

  “Don’t talk about her like she’s manipulative,” Gavin said, with a tough frown.

  “She’d never do something that devious, but she knows how to innocently get what she wants. Including helping out the girl who helped save her life,” Lorenz corrected.

  “Speaking of which, why was that man trying to attack her? This place doesn’t quite look like the big money-making venture of someone worth kidnapping, no offence.”

  “None taken. This place is just meant to be a cozy place where people like us can recuperate.”

  “People like y—”

  “Can I get a drink?!” Silvia said, calling from the bar.

  I looked at the guys, and then back to her and walked behind the bar. “Sure. I guess I should start familiarizing myself with the things here. What soft drink do you want?” I asked, putting a lot of emphasis on the words soft and drink.

  “I want a craft beer!” she said, smiling widely. I gave her a look, and all that did was cause her to bounce up and down in anticipation. “Aren’t you a little young to be having beers?” I asked.

  “Oh, didn’t David tell you?” she asked, tilting her head slightly.

  I noticed Lorenz looking at David with a cocked eyebrow, and David smiled and leaned in on the conversation. I raised my own eyebrow at their antics and looked Silvia in the eye to see if I could guess what she was referring to.

  “No, I guess not. What needs to be told to me?” I asked.

  “We’re werewolves, so since I have two livers, I can handle a beer even slightly underaged!” she said, looking me straight in the eye, like that was a normal thing to say.

  “Riiiiight,” I said, giving her another stare.

  I looked back to Lorenz and David. Lorenz seemed mildly amused, while David smiled wide. I suspected they knew about little miss wants to be grown up LARPing sessions.

  “Feel free to water it down!” David called out, trying to contain his laughter.

  “No! Then it won’t taste right!” Silvia whined.

  Lorenz strolled up to the bar. “How about having a beer and Coke? Mix it with a soft drink, then it’ll be a new taste and won’t be a problem.”

  “Alright, I guess,” I said calmly, grabbing a canned Coke from the fridge and a craft beer.

  “So, uh, why… E-lis?” Silvia asked, trying not to make eye contact.

  I sighed. This conversation was bound to happen.

  “Well, I hated being called Beth because it made me feel southern, and Lisa was off the table ever since the infamous cartoon family came on air so… E-lis.”

  “That’s… interesting,” Lorenz shared as I passed Silvia the quarter beer pop drink with a bendy straw. “Not Liz or Eliz?”

  “Trust me, the E is kinda required to make it through elementary and high school,” I said.

  I then went back into the kitchen area to retrieve the contract and continue reading it. Silvia pretty much nursed on the straw as her drink slowly went down, while Lorenz leaned onto the bar, his hair just touching the edge of it.

  He was pretty much the picture of long-haired handsomeness. I found myself staring and had to shake myself out of it to get the papers down onto the back area of the bar to start reading them over.

  Chapter 5

  It was about four in the afternoon, and I could tell Amelia was getting worried because my phone started to buzz like crazy. I picked it up, read the text, and then just put it into my pocket.

  Silvia’s gaze shot up to my embarrassing flip phone. I didn’t have the money for a smartphone plan, and I didn’t do much with a phone other than text my roommate.

  “Who’s that?” Silvia asked.

  “My roommate,” I sighed.

  “Is she your friend?” Silvia asked.

  There was an uneasy air to her question.

  “She insists she is and uses that to force her way into my life and control me,” I said.

  “I… But like, you have other friends to rely on when she’s making you angry, right?” Silvia asked.

  She wore a big frown on her face, quite like she was worried about me.

  “Oh, you’re thinking of what I shouted to my… the manager of the restaurant, aren’t you?”

  She nodded her little head cutely, and I let out a long sigh.

  “You just said the first thing you thought of to get out of trouble, right?” she asked.

  “No, I don’t actually have any friends. I guess since I found out those closest to you are only just waiting to twist the knife, I’ve been fairly distant from people.”

  Silvia had a worried look to her face, the kind my roommate got when I said the same things.

  I found myself thinking of the memory from all those years ago, from midway through high school. Where my family decided to put down my only friend. As if their a
ttitude towards me hadn’t soured my outlook on life enough already.

  I couldn’t wallow in memories long and, sooner or later, I had to turn back to Silvia’s face. Her hands grabbed mine as I spun.

  “Everyone needs a pack of their own! There’s gotta be someone in your life.”

  She was surprisingly forthcoming with this. Gavin walked over and gently pulled her towards another bar chair.

  “Nothing wrong with being a loner sometimes,” David said, using the first instance of his serious face I’d seen. “But other times, it’s best to accept the community around you – I’m sure E-lis’ll learn that one day.”

  “Okay,” I said, cocking an eyebrow and leaning my head forwards to try to get him to explain.

  He sat down at the bar beside Silvia’s previous spot and stretched his back a little before leaning on the bar. “So, what were you just thinking of?” he said, resuming his non-serious face once more.

  “Nothing,” I said, not appreciating the attempt to get into my head.

  “Your body language didn’t seem like it was nothing.”

  “Why do you care?”

  “I think you should be able to figure that one out by now,” he said, winking.

  I just let that comment slide and started to look around the bar. I wanted to get familiar with how it was set up. Where the glasses hung, where each kind of liquor sat and, from time to time, I’d read some more of that contract.

  With only a couple of people inside, including the sleeping black dog on the bed near us, it was kind of a slow day. The perfect time to get a new employee up to speed, even if it seemed like this bar had only been a basement style serve-yourself bar.

  At one point, a dog came in through the door, grabbed some kibble from beside the bar, and walked out through a door opposite the bar, like it owned the place. I smiled and pictured all the dogs that’d be coming and going from this place just like that.

  I also wondered what was behind that door. It seemed to be a hallway. My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of pounding on a wall, which swiftly became more distant. I had no idea what it could be.

  “So,” I started, not quite sure how to talk about the dogs.

  Silvia perked up and got back into the seat in front of me. “What’s up?”

  “I… Nothing. I guess I’ll figure it out, and I can’t put it into words right now.”

  “Oh?” Silvia said, leaning in closer.

  “Just… I dunno. Wondering a lot about the concept of a community centre that allows dogs in its bar.”

  “Oh,” Silvia said, sounding disappointed.

  “So, this werewolf thing, is it only werewolves, or are there some vampires to round out the LARP?”

  “The LARP? Uh, no, there’s no vampires, but we do share the space with some mages and witches.”

  “I never understood why female magic users are referred to as witches. It has such a terrible connotation to it that mage just doesn’t have—”

  “Actually, witches can be any gender. It has to do more with what forces they command.”

  I poured myself a glass of water, rather impressed with how much thought she’d put into this. Putting that into the equation caused things to make a bit more sense but made me worried about Silvia’s safety.

  This could just be a large LARP area, possibly funded by some wealthy individuals. If that was the case, I felt like this “werewolves have two livers” thing would only encourage a lot of heavy drinking. With the kinds of folk that LARPing attracted coupled with heavy drinking, this place was not a great place for someone below the age of eighteen.

  My thoughts were interrupted when the door swung open.

  Chapter 6

  A man and a woman came in. They were in long, black leather coats, with a large dog. Quite like the one that’d been sleeping in the establishment. The two people walked up and sat at the bar while the dog went to the bed area.

  “Who’re you?” the woman asked.

  “Rude. My name’s E-lis. I’m going to be filling the bartender position at night,” I responded.

  “I’ve never seen you here before. Why are you getting the position?” the man asked.

  “Well, I’m rather experienced with restaurants and bartending, and I kinda did a favour for Silvia.”

  The two turned to look at David, who’d taken up a table with Lorenz and Silvia. They then turned back to me with a pair of tentative smiles.

  “I’ll have a Splashdown then,” said the woman.

  “Dragon’s Rise for me.”

  “Come again?” I was pretty sure I knew most drink names and how to make them. From martini’s to daiquiri and even Jell-O shots, but these were new names. Possibly LARP-based ones.

  “It should be in the little book over there. Check the blue pages in the back!” David called out.

  I picked up the book and the stand that’d kept it at a good angle. It was one of those spiral spine books, and with laminated pages, it felt like a children’s book. It had all the drinks I knew, and then in the blue pages, I found what they were talking about.

  “Splashdown, Splashdown. Some vodka, mixed with… aqua mushroom powder? And aqua mushroom stalks.” I turned to look at the two.

  David walked over behind the bar. He opened a cabinet. Inside were a bunch of different containers. None of them were labelled. Most of them were powders, which made me think they were dyed sugar. The thought they might be drugs crossed my mind, but you typically didn’t dye drugs.

  “This is the aqua mushroom parts,” he said, pulling them up.

  I took a glance at the pair. They seemed rather annoyed he was helping me with this. Most likely some new bartender hazing, or maybe they just didn’t like me.

  “And here’s the dragon salts,” he said, putting another container up on the counter for me. “But, like, only put in half for Daniel. Mister Twenty-Fifteen doesn’t need enhanced colour vision, too!”

  “Enhanced what now?” I said, looking down at the odd white powder he’d just taken out. I took out a vodka bottle and a shot glass.

  “That glass is too small. Give me a regular cup!” the woman protested.

  “Look, lady, I doubt adding some odd mushroom to the drink’s going to reduce its alcohol content. I’m not doing the first shift at a bar by breaking the regulations of serving alcohol. You’ll get a standard drink at a time, and I’m going to make sure you’re not drunk first.”

  She glared at me, and I glared right back, folding my arms. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, too.

  I put the vodka in, dipped in about half the powder it said because, for some reason, it was meant for a full pint glass, and put some stalks in. The powder kind of looked like bubbles dipping down slightly into the vodka. The stalks retained a lot of water despite being in that container, and they floated on top of the vodka, making them look like water splashing out.

  “One Splashdown. And…” I said, turning the blue pages over to find the other thing, Dragon’s Rise.

  The page followed the recipe I’d done countless times before for a Tequila Sunrise, only after it was all nice and sunrise-y, you added some dragon salts. The small salt-like crystals disappeared into the brew and made it look like stars poking through the sunrise.

  “Should I actually put in less than it says for you or…?” I asked the man, wondering what his take on the advice would be.

  “I’d rather like the full effect, so no, please give me all it says,” the man said, with a shrug.

  “And what exactly does it do?” I asked.

  “Dragon salts when ingested make colours more vivid. Oftentimes, when people are sad or have gone through trauma, the colours they see tend to look duller. People use it to counteract that,” the woman responded.

  That just made the LARP sound sad, but I guess they were going for a gritty realism sort of thing. I’d had enough of that with my favourite superhero. I wasn’t about to jump into it here.

  I looked at the man, and his face showed no emotion.
“Is that why you’re doing it?” I asked while making the drink.

  “No, I see colours fine. It’s just a nice effect to be under for a while.”

  I handed him the drink. “So, why’s it called dragon salts?” I asked, curious. “Werewolves and witches don’t tend to deal with full-on dragons, right? Or is it a brand name in the game?”

  “In the game?” the woman asked, lowering her eyebrows and looking from side to side.

  “Yeah, you know,” I said, waving my hand around a few times. They both had raised eyebrows and wide eyes.

  The woman’s eyes darted back and forth like she was trying to read me. Perhaps she was picturing a reality in which my statement made sense.

  “You know what, never mind,” I said.

  While they drank, I took a closer look at the containers under the bar. There were various powders, liquids, solids, and I even think one was a gas, which threw my coloured sugar idea out the window. Perhaps they just used that to flavour their LARP? Most of the things actually put into the drinks were coloured sugar, but the bartender would pull out a gas and possibly say an incantation?

  I determined a label maker was in order, especially if they expected me to play along.

  “Hey, David, do you have a label maker anywhere?”

  “Nope. Well, kinda, but no, not really,” he said, looking upwards as he remembered something.

  I sighed. “Well, I’m going to have to label all these blue menu ingredients so I can stay consistent.”

  “Do you need money to buy a company label maker?” David asked.

  His tone was rather neutral like he didn’t care whether or not he had to spend it. I didn’t want to be so bold as to ask for reimbursement on the first day on the job.

  “No, I’ve got one at home I use for organizing things. I’ll just bring it here. It came with two rolls of labels so one’s pretty much full,” I explained.

  “Hey, new girl,” the woman called out, with a sneer in her voice.

  “Yes?” I asked, looking her over.

  “I’ll have two more shots of vodka,” she said, handing me the small glass in which I made the micro Splashdown.

  “You sure two drinks so close together is a good idea?” I asked. “Maybe you’d like some water first?”