Exhausted, Aidan slides his back down the wall until he hits the floor. Every month brings the same thing. Josh gets more and more irritable until the full moon rises. Then Aidan closes and locks the cage, making sure the wolf can't get out.
It really isn't all that physically taxing; all Aidan has to do is shut the door. The problem is that it is so emotionally demanding to get Josh through his "time of the month." Though he's never really been one for strong emotional responses, when Josh gets pissed off or turned on by every little thing, it takes all Aidan's got just to keep his cool. He knows it isn't Josh's fault; the moon makes him this way. And it only gets worse the closer he gets to the transformation.
Obviously he doesn't enjoy a moody roommate, but Aidan can handle it pretty well. What he can't handle are the gut-wrenching screams that echo out from the stone-walled cage. After the incident with his sister, Josh made Aidan promise that he would stay at the door all night when he became the wolf. Josh is the closest thing to a healthy relationship that Aidan's ever had, and hearing him in such apparent agony is something that he never looks forward to.
Aidan is no stranger to the sounds of pain, but what he hears from Josh each month is not comparable to anything he has ever witnessed before. Therefore, he can only conclude that the wolf is a much greater monster than anything he has previously known. Josh has made it clear on several occasions that he believes he is a monster himself. But Aidan has never seen Josh that way. The wolf is the monster, Josh is just one of its most constant victims.
As he sits on the cold, concrete floor each and every month, Aidan thinks about a lot of things. Of all the things he thinks of, the subject he always returns to is Josh. He wishes he could get rid of the wolf, free Josh of his undeserved burden. He also thinks about how Josh has always been the kindest person Aidan has ever known. Even when the wolf begins to change his personality each month, Josh thinks of others and always tries to do the right thing. Bishop taught Aidan to look out for himself, not to care about collateral damage. But when he is with Josh, Aidan always tries to consider the consequences of his actions.
Tonight, while he sits, quietly awaiting the sunrise, Aidan thinks about his roommate. In an attempt to drown out the crazed howling of the wolf, Aidan recalls every detail he can about his friend: the way that Josh always cleans a dish right after he uses it; the way that Josh folds every random piece of laundry he finds on the floor and places it softly on the nearest nightstand; the way that Josh's eyes light up when he laughs at one of Aidan's not-so-funny jokes; the way Josh rubs Aidan's back instinctively every time he needs comforting-
"Hey. What's up?" Sally pops in and interrupts Aidan's thoughts, which were clearly leading somewhere he doesn't want to go. Now that she can leave the house, Sally constantly pops in and bugs Aidan while he waits for Josh to finish on these dreadful nights.
"Oh, well, you know… Just waiting on my werewolf buddy to get over his monthly freak out so I can give him some clothes." Even if he doesn't really want the company, Aidan isn't going to aggravate the ghost who controls the state of the pipes and circuitry in his apartment.
"So, how far along is he?" Sally asks just like always.
"He finished the shift. Now it's just trying to claw its way out."
In some ways Aidan is jealous of Sally. She saw Josh shift once before because she knew the wolf could not hurt her. Seeing such a transformation is extremely intimate, and Aidan knows that Josh thinks of it that way, too. But, there isn't really a reason to be jealous; all Aidan has to do is look through the small window on the cage door to see the transformation. The problem is that Aidan doesn't really want to see it. Even though it would bring the two men closer together, which Aidan is all for, it is hard enough to hear the screams of his friend, let alone see the massive skeletal shifts that must occur during the transformation.
Aidan notices that there has been a long silence, so he initiates the conversation. "Is there anything in particular you came to talk about, Sally?"
"No, I was just bored. Haunting isn't any fun when there are no people around."
Aidan quietly laughs at Sally's almost childish statement. "Well you probably won't be having much fun here, either," Aidan says with a smirk. "I'm not all that exciting when he's in there."
"Oh, please, Aidan. Just because you miss your boyfriend doesn't mean you're a boring person."
Aidan has gotten used to people thinking he and Josh are together, but ever since they corrected her the first time, Sally has never referred to Aidan and Josh's relationship in that way. So, Aidan is slightly thrown off by Sally's words.
"Sally, I really don't feel like talking right now. In fact, I was just planning on getting some sleep. Would you mind, you know, not haunting me tonight?"
"Fine… But I'll be back in the morning, so no canoodling when he wakes up, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. See you at sunrise."