Author's Notes: Hello there. This is my first fanfic so please bear with me. English is not my mother tongue, so if you find anything wrong gramatically, please message me.

Iwill appreciate any kind of review. And the lasi thing - enjoy the reading!

words in italic - thoughts

Chapter 1

"One of those days"

Do you sometimes feel the urge to do something or go somewhere that doesn't necessarily make sense? Maybe you suddenly thought of going to the library at 6 o'clock on Monday. And while going there you decided to turn left to the first alley and not the second, like you would usually do? Perhaps at 5:46, on that one particular Monday morning, half way through the first alley, you ran into someone and immediatelly thought "that's the one" and fell in love at first sight?

Was it fate? Was the Universe telling you something important? Or maybe was it some divine force making you go and meet your destiny? We will never know the answer. The only thing we can do is to take what we are given. Whether it's good or bad is up to us to decide.

Well, today was one of those days for me.

I woke up earlier than usually. It was 7:20... I shifted to the other side of the bed hoping to get some more sleep, but it wouldn't come. Sighing, I got up, changed into a very comfortable prussian blue dress and went to the kitchen to eat something.

"Anarie? What are you doing so early in the morning? You usually sleep till 8." said soft voice behind me.

I turned around and saw my cousin, Nora, standing in the entrance to her bedroom, which was right next to mine. Although we were realted, we didn't look alike.

Nora was tall and pretty with beautifull short black hair and bright, green eyes. She was always polite and smiled a lot. People liked her. There was something in her - like some kind of posivtive vibe radiating around her. As for me, I felt like a chameleon. Most of the time people didn't notice me, even if I was standing next to them or participated in the conversation. They always seemed to forget I was there. Even my appereance was plain. My heirht was average, my face was constantly considered as 'sad' although most of the time I felt indifferent to everything around me. The only thing that was not plain about me was my hair. Because of my hate to any fashion rules I let my hair grow out to my waistline, so now it was coming down in soft dark-brown waves. I would never let anyone cut my hair - I'd feel naked without it.

"I don't know. I guess I couldn't sleep." I gave her a half-smile. "Want me to make you breakfast?"

"Yes please! But make it edible, not like last time." she laughed.

"Ha, ha. Very funny." I grunted. "Now go change, or I'll eat by myself."

"Fine! I'm going!" with that she dissapeared into her room, leaving me alone in our not so large, but very comfy kitchen (which was a dining room at the same time).

Just as I said, I ate alone. Nora came to the kitchen just when I was standing up to clean the table. Her fancy lavender dress fitted her perfectly. She gave me the you-should-have-waited look and started eating.

"It's not that bad." she said surprised.

"Why, thank you, The Greatest Gourmet of All Time." I joked with an evil smile spreading across my face. "Oh and by the way, shouldn't you go home? I mean you got married like a month ago and you still come here for a sleepover" I asked.

"I didn't want to leave my little cousin alone." she responded sweetly.

"Well then please stop. I'm perfectly fine living alone. Plus, your husband's gonna hate me if you stay here longer. Just eat your breakfast and get out."

She snorted, but didn't say anything and continued eating in pleasingly sulking silence. Nora was very protective over me and tended to overreact sometimes if she felt that there was something wrong with me. She had a loving husband, who I worked with. Very convinient, eh? Maybe her staying with me sometimes was sweet, but come on, I could take care of myself!

I would have probably started reading some book to kill time, but I suddenly felt the desire to go outside for a long walk to work. With this in mind I put my shoes on and wrapped myself in my favourite black coat. Just as I was about to grab the handle, Nora said:

"You want to go to work without your wand?"

I stopped in my actions. Right, my wand. I knew I forgot something. Looking anywhere but on Nora I ran to my room and put my wand inside a hidden pocket in the coat. With a quick "goodbye" I ran out of the appartament into the busy streets of New York.

Like always when I went outside, my whole body shivered a little being bombarded by everything around me. The smell of tobacco, perfumes, horses, food and rotting trash. The sounds of footsteps on the pathwalk, people talking, screaming or snoring in their beds, horses neighing under their riders and cars beeping every now and then. My hightened senses were almost screaming from all the information they were recirving. I took a deep breath trying to calm dawn. Focusing on one thing at a time always seemed to help, so I chose to listen to my footsteps.

I guess I didn't mention it before, but I'm not an ordinary human. I'm a witch and a werewolf. Or a lycantrope, to be more precise. I was attacked by a werewolf pack over a year ago. Being a lycantrope in a world full of discrimination torwards fantastic creatures was tough, but I got used to it pretty quick. The only ones I told about me being a werewolf were my parents and Nora. They were shocked at first, but accepted me either way. That's why I loved them so much. They tried to accept anyone and focus on their good sides. Seeing that my family was full of such kind and loving people made me very happy.

Walking in New York was an interesting experience. You could see every kind of people any direction you looked at. I had a habit of creating their history. Maybe this man on the other side of the street was buying flowers for his wife? Or maybe for his lover who he met in a cafe next door?

As I was walking slowly through the street I tried to suppress all feelings reaching me. Another treat of being a werewolf - I could sense people's feelings or emotions. Sometimes I called myself a wolfy empath. What a joke, right?

Suddenly a massive amount of sadness moxed with sorrow hit me. I stopped, surprised of the amount of negative emotions. Somebody was hurting really bad, probably for many years now. Involuntarily my legs started to move. I had to see this person. The closer I got, the bigger sorrow I felt. It was hurting my heart to know someone was so alone. I could hear someone falling on the ground and a quiet "ouch".

"Watch where you walk!" was the response.

When I finally reached my destination, I gasped in awe. There was a boy (or maybe even a man, he looked like he was in his early 20's) sitting on the ground, surrounded by a large amount of pamphlets. His raven bowl-cut hair contrasted with his pale skin. He had very neat black suit with thin tie of the same colour. The outfit and haircut made him look pedantic, sterile even. Although I was standing about 20 metres away, I could see little red cuts on his palms. They seemed to be fresh, very fresh. I could hear his tissues multiplying to close the wounds.

My mind was blank. My mouth was dry. Everything around me became faded, the only one clearly visible was that man. I was dumbfounded, because it was the first time for me to feel like that. I didn't know what to do with this new experience. With thumping heart and shaking legs, I quickly walked to him to help with the pamphlets. There was something about witches and how they are a threat to human race. Right, people like that still existed. We worked in silence. Once we were done, I stood up and helped him do the same. His hand was cold.

I felt that he was hurting, mentally and physically. If my werewolf senses were correct, he was being beaten. Judging by his difficulty straightening his back (apart from it being part of his enormous shyness and fear) I assuned he had some kind of injury there. Oh, what a poor soul!

"I know it is not my business, but you should treat those wounds on your back." I said while giving him the pamphlets " You don't want to get an infection, right?"

He looked at me with wonder, his brows furrowed. "I don-"

"Just clean it once a day with a wet towel." I interrupted him. I know I was blabbering, but I wanted to talk with this broken man for a little longer, to get to know in even just a bit. I hoped my spontanious help for him would brighten his day a little. "My name's Anarie by the way. What's yours?"

He didn't say anything at first, but after a moment of silence he responded: "Credence"

I gave him the brightest of smiles.

"Nice to meet you Credence."

Yeah, that was deffinitelly one of those days.