Dystopian Future

"Are you doing that intentionally?" Rivik asked as the dust went his way.
"Do you think I am some kid?" Ezra turned towards the fox's direction.
"Well you are young, a new blood"
"Fine; compared to you" it was a ridicules comparison, seeing that one of them was a spirit, and lived forever. Ezra turned towards the counter once more, cleaning it from things he didn't wish to know about.
"You missed a spot" Rivik looked down at the part he missed.
"You could clean it yourself"
"And ruin my fur, it's beneath me"
"The werewolf did it yesterday"
"Well he was a moron" Ezra didn't comment it as he removed the spot pointed out by the fox.

"Why don't you summon some spirit that will help you?"
"Do you know any?" The fox went silence for a short moment.
"All of them could do something"
"Yeah, and make it worse, also if someone walked in here, I would look like a freaking princess"
"That would be adorable" the fox teased, making Ezra blow some dust towards him.
"Oh for fuck sake" Rivik's voice was angry but Ezra didn't respond as he walked over to the shelfs, throwing away all the bottles being left behind, followed by the fox's loud complains.

“You’re the Wang kid, correct?” One of the guards asked as he let his gaze travel up and down Zemin a couple of times. Did he know? Well probably, as he also seemed to be supernatural - guarding the entrance to the apartment complex.
”Yeah, this was delivered to me yesterday”, the werewolf began and handed over the paper. “I’m guessing it’s not a fake, considering the mark at the bottom”, he continued and relaxed his shoulders, making the hood of the jacket fall down, thus revealing his dark hair and tired face.
The guard stayed quiet for a bit, before he stepped aside and pointed towards the elevator doors some meters away.
“Take him to the boss, Matt”, he shouted towards another guard, standing right next to the elevators. Then he turned towards Zemin again and returned the paper. “Go ahead.”

The journey up the elevator was pretty long, which was quite natural as the building was one of the taller ones in the area. Around a hundred and fifty floors maybe? A couple less? When the box finally came to a complete stop, the guy named Matt stepped to the side and guided Zemin towards a large set of glass doors.
“You can go inside the lounge and wait for the master”, he said and held the doors open for the werewolf, who looked absolutely blown away. His mouth was involuntarily gaping and the eyes seemed to grow larger and larger for each step he took. The place was amazing, spotless and detailed with no visible flaws. He’d never seen anything like it before, not even when he’d lived with his parents.
“Should I just sit or?” Zemin asked and pointed towards one of the armchairs.
“Yes, what else? Why have comfortable chairs if you can’t even sit in them”, Matt said and laughed shortly.
“O-okay”, the wolf mumbled and sat down in the one closest to the door. The cushions were soft as clouds and the chair basically swallowed him whole. It actually ended up too comfortable for the poor guy, who shortly after fell asleep, only to be woken up maybe half an hour later.

“The master wishes to speak with you”, a middle aged woman carefully said, while mildly shaking Zemin in an attempt to wake him up.
“Oh fuck! I’m so sorry ma’am”, he blurted out and flew right up to his feet. He thereafter made a small bow towards her, before she led him inside a huge room. The ceiling was high and almost everything in the room seemed to be white, which for some reason made the werewolf think of the weird guy from the day before. But before he got a chance to further explore that like of though, a deep voice cut through.
”Mr Wang, I’ve been expecting you”, the master said, leaning back against his seat behind a large desk.
“Master”, Zemin replied and bowed again, only this time he almost touched his knees when doing so.
“Please, have a seat”, the man continued and made a gesture to the lonely chair in front of the desk. Everything seemed ridiculously surreal at that moment, with the majestic room, large windows and fanciness of the place. Plus the fact that he sat right across from one of the most powerful men in society. Once again, Zemin bowed before placing his hands in his knee.
“Why did you call me, sir?” He asked, stating right into me blood red eyes of the boss. Vampire? Fucking hell, why? Blood stealing bastards.
“I summoned you here to ask for two things”, the man began and held up two, long, skinny fingers. “Firstly I want you to track someone down”, he continued and slid a piece of paper across the desk. It wasn’t a document full of text or anything similar. No, it was a picture of the weird man from the day before.
“What did he do?” The werewolf wondered and scowled for a short moment.
“He didn’t do anything, and that’s why I need you to find him. He’s a rouge, acting outside of the association”, the vampire explained and smiled briefly. “Or maybe he’s underground, working for someone else? I want him under my control tho..are you sick? You’ve become extremely pale..”
Zemin quickly shook his head and wiped the sweat of his forehead.
“N-no, sir..it’s fine”, he assured and forced a small smile across his face.
“Well, I’m relieved”, the man said and handed over another paper - this time a document. “There’s another werewolf in the area, we only caught the surname so far”, he said and studied the wolf on the other side of the desk. “What I need for you to do is sniff them both out, as soon as possible. You’re the only werewolf in the association and we all know your kind is good at tracking.”
But Zemin couldn’t hear the masters voice any longer, as all he could think of was the name and info stated right before his nose. Xue. They wanted his little brother. And not only that, but also the weird man with the creepy eyes and ass fox. Fuck.

"You are making tea, now?"
"I needed a break, but judging from your tone, you don't want any?"
"Of course I want" Rivik muttered, making Ezra smile as he prepared another cup. "By the way, a break from what? You aren't even half done!"
"Well, since you are old I should have expected that you forgot. I am using magic to clean the other floors as well" Ezra handed over the cup and for a second Rivik was about to answer something sarcastic, Ezra could just tell.
"I forgot, how are your energy?" the fox was asking gently and resulting in Ezra stroking him.
"It's alright, will be better after the tea. But I have learned my limits. I won't repeat the misstakes I did as a kid" he said with a smile, almost laughing.
"Good, because you were a moron back then, fainting all the time"
"It was far from all the time, but yes I was a moron, one you chose to go with"
"Well someone had to" Rivik pressed himself against his hand, showing affection and Ezra smiled. They both had needed each other back than, and maybe was thy why their relationship was deeper than other shamans and spirits. Ezra hadn't asked, only gotten angry when people called their relationship abnormal, and not understanding why he chose Rivik.

"Earth to Ezra!" Rivik hit him with his tail, making him cough, removing the fur from his face.
"What?"
"You stopped listening"
"Sorry, so what did you say?"
"I wondered if we should see how the other floors was doing?"
"Well can't be worse than down here"
"Hopefully not" Ezra placed the fox around his neck as he started walking up the stairs.

"At least it's clean" Rivik looked at the grey walls, bored if nothing else. "It's awful, why are you looking at this"
"Because you are showing it to me" Ezra teased as he stepped inside the room, counting the steps as he did, memorizing where he could walk without using Rivik's eyes.
"You care if it's grey, or am I allowed to furnish the room?" he asked the fox.
"Well I am not going to spend more time here than needed, so do as you please" Ezra only shook his head, needing no colours in a room that would be black for him anyway, and he soon started to pull some of his things from the spirit world, setting up a part of his workshop.

Zemin observed the document in silence, not even sending the man a single glance. His eyebrows were pulled together and the hands holding the paper had started shaking. How on earth would he be absle to hand over Xue to the association, just so they could send him off to one of those fighting pits? No! He simply couldn’t do it and would rather die.
“Sir..” he quietly began, trying to not loose his trembling temper. “..I can’t. Xue Wang is my younger brother and he’s got a whole future ahead of him. I can’t just hand him over knowing that he’ll end up dead in one of those pits”, the werewolf whispered and looked down towards the other paper, with the picture of the man. “And I can find this guy, for sure, but..I’m not sure if I actually want to”, he continued and straightened up.
“That’s not an option”, the vampire stated formally and leaned over the desk. “We need another werewolf in the pit and as I said before, I need this man”, he sneered and grabbed the collar of Zeemin shirt. Fuck, this really wasn’t good, was it? There was a ninety percent risk of him never being able to leave that building, ever. Probably not even if he was actually murdered.
“I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t!” The wolf repeated and tore himself loose, scrambling away from the chair with the eyes wide and terrified. “I’ll get the man, okay? I’ll get him and then you can..you can throw me in the pit instead. Just leave Xue alone, promise me that”, Zemin begged as he dropped to his knees. “Please, I’ll do whatever it takes, sir!”

The silence that came there next was thick and long. Zemin kept on the floor, in some weird kind of twisted bow, whilst the master thought long and hard.
“Okay”, the man answered eventually, finally cutting through the disturbing silence.
“Thank you, sir”, Zemin stuttered and leaned back, to meet the blood red gaze of the other one.
“You’ll have to go to the pits right after you’re done though, for evaluation. There’s a chance they won’t actually choose you, but by the looks of it..you’re a pure breed after all.” It didn’t fucking matter if he was a pure breed or not. He was part human as well and certainly didn’t belong in one of those hell holes. According to himself, that goes by saying.

"Why do you even own paintings?" Rivik had placed himself in front of the picture, showing space.
"I like to look at them"
"Why?"
"You really don't enjoy art do you?"
"No, and you don't either, because then we would wondering around in one of those shitty museum all days" Ezra couldn't help a laughter escaping from him.
"I like some art, and it give the place a more character. It also cover some of the walls you just hated"
"That is true, well guess it isn't half bad" Ezra rolled his eyes as he finished his amulet crafting space, with hanging different spices from the ceiling.
"Only 6 more rooms to go. What are you even going to do with them?"
"I don't know. One of them is going to be the shop, another one for potions, curses, and a office, the other three, empty I guess"
"What a waste"
"I can always look you up in one of them!"
"You could try" the fox bite back as they walked down stairs again.

"It's going to take forever to clean the windows" Rivik protested as he stared at them.
"Well all you need to do is look at them, so stop complaining"
"It's boring" Ezra sighed before he summoned Jax.
"Would you mind staring at the windows for me?" the wolf seemed a bit surprised at first, before he grinned towards the fox.
"No problem" Ezra changed his sight to the wolf as he sat still, without complaining. Rivik taunted the wolf for being more like a dog, but Jax didn't seem to care, and Ezra ignored them as he concentrated at one window at a time.

A couple of hours later, Zemin found himself walking next to the river. His eyes were empty and the hands still trembled an awful lot. So this was it? He was going to be sent to one of those underground arenas to fight until death? The problem was that he in fact was a pure breed, and he knew that he’d have to take many lives before someone even had a shot to get to him. But he didn’t want to kill others of his kind. It went against his values, and he held tightly on to those. That’s why he didn’t want to find the man from the other day either, as he’d helped him. Wasn’t that like backstabbing someone? Well, if he actually ended up finding him, it’d totally be considered as backstabbing. The werewolf wandered a couple of blocks west, until he reached an abandoned building. He was pretty sure that it’d used to be a pub, just because of the smell. It wasn’t bad, but still not exactly good.

Zemin sat down on an old park bench facing the river, leaning back against the back supporting with a sigh. Then he just sat there for a while, breathing in and out, trying not to freak out. He really wanted to tho - to loose all control and just rip everything to pieces. That was what he was going to do anyways, so why not start right there and then? Maybe it’d be easier to handle everything later if he wasn’t a novice.
“Fuck..fuck, fuck, fuck”, he exclaimed and let out a frustrated growl, continued by a raged shout. “All I’ve done for you, and your just gonna throw me away? I’m a person, for Christ’s sake! When are any of you ever going to get that?” The words echoed across the still water a couple of times, before everything turned quiet again. Zemin stood up from the bench and dug his hands down in the pockets of the jacket, pulling both papers up. Thereafter he ripped them apart and threw the pieces in the river, letting out a frustrated scream of anger.
So the anger management wasn’t that great, something that could easily be concluded by watching the scene. At least he hadn’t thrown himself in the cold water, which was probably a good thing. Sure, Zemin knew how to swim, but the streams could be strong in parts of the river and he didn’t want to end up risking his life. Ironically enough, so to speak.

"Hm, you did a good job" Rivik almost pressed his nose up against the window, as he couldn't see otherwise.
"Glad that you improved" Ezra stated sarcastic as he put away the cleaning suplie he had used. "Thank you Jax"
"No problem" the wolf wagged his tail.
"So what now?" Rivik asked, looking at the almost empty room.
"We finish another of room. Can't do much about this one now" Ezra needed to by things, things humans wouldn't be suspicious of, id they dared to walk into the shop. But he couldn't do that now, so it had to wait.
"Why didn't you do that earlier" Rivik pointed out as they walked up the stairs.
"Because they weren't done yet. And I know someone, who don't like visiting dirty places"
"Well it isn't like I have been forced to do so already"
"You are always so fussy, a bit of dirt can be fun" Jax nodded, proud of himself for saying so.
"Oh how lucky you aren't white than, hiding the dirt" Rivik said sarcastic, Ezra chose to stay out of it once more, stepping into another room, seeing that it was without windows and dark to begin with, making it impossible for people to see him he chose to make it his office.

"How handy that it has a fireplace, I can throw Jax in when he gets irritating"
"He would win that fight, and you know that Rivik" Ezra pointed out. It was true that the fox was older, having more powers,but the age difference wasn't that much, and Jax was bigger and stronger.
"One can dream" Rivik said sitting down, just as Ezra started decorating.

Surprised by a sudden shout, he almost dropped the books he was stacking.
"I thought this was a isolated location"
"It is, doesn't mean people come here" Ezra said looking at the fox when Jax suddenly ran away, almost giving Ezra motion sickness from the sudden movement. Normally he didn't felt that, but he was so unprepared, and Jax was making quick turns as he run out from the building.
"Where is he going?"
"Out, apparently" Ezra responded, grabbing the desk for suport, before he shut of contact with Jax.
"Are you alright?" Rivik was clearly concerned.
"A faint case of nausea"
"What the hell was he thinking, doing that to you!" Ezra smiled, knowing the fox could be a bit overprotective of him.
"I guess he heard, smeller or felt something, I am sure we will know when he returns"
"Still" Ezra let his magic flow, soon charing eyes with Rivik.
"It's alright" he let go of the desk, placing the books in the shelf. "But I need tea"
"Then lets go down" Rivik stood up from his spot and started leading him downstairs.

Just as Zemin started making an attempt at pulling his own hair, he was rudely interrupted by a mysterious noise. The dark brown eyes turned towards the direction it came from and his heart immediately sank.
“Oh, it’s you”, he mumbled and studied the wolf, as tears slowly started making their way down his pale cheeks. “Just go away, Jax”, he continued sadly and buried his face against his knees. It was to no use to get attached to anyone, even though he kind of liked the spirits company. But the master of the spirit also happened to be the guy that his boss was after. Zemin still didn’t understand why, but it obviously seemed like a really important task. However, he would be locked up as soon as he’d captured the man and that didn’t seem like an option either. He wasn’t going to accept his fate, no matter what.
“You remember yesterday, when you guys asked if I needed a hug?” The werewolf asked and squatted down on the ground. “Well..I really need a hug”, he sobbed and started dragging his fingers through the white fur. “I-I’m sorry, I know you probably d-don’t approve of random people petting you, because I know I don’t.” But he still continued to stroke the white wolf, knowing it was wrong. It just felt so comforting being close to something that resembled home, and wolves were simply home. Any other being would probably consider that way of thinking extremely odd, but it didn’t matter, did it?

The slow pace of the flood made Zemin find a small amount of peace in himself. With the fingers finding their way through the white fur, the man started to finally calm down.
“Is the stranger here as well?” The werewolf wondered and looked out over the water.
“Yeah, inside”, the wolf answered and nodded towards the old house.
“Ah, so he’s found a new place? That’s nice..” Zemin mumbled and let his gaze follow the direction of the nod. “Is he coming outside or? Can’t he like see through your eyes or something?”

"Why not open a tea shop?" Rivik asked, looking down in his bowl.
"And charing this with others? I don't make tea, to have filthy humans have it!" Ezra told him. It didn't take much time for him to create his own tea, but he didn't wish to sell it to humans, or other races for the matter. "Despite giving them the strength and magic boost I get from the tea, not a good idea"
"Well guess you are right, I would hate seeing human drinking this. But a tea shop had still been nice"
"Yeah maybe I should give up crafting amulets, curses, spells and everything else people ask for, and sell tea" he answered sarcastically.
"Are you feeling better tho?"
"I am, thanks for worrying"
"Someone has to" well it was probably right, it wasn't like he had anyone else who worried about him. "And I am going to curse Jax when he get's back, where is he?"
"I don't know, give me a few seconds" Ezra switched his sight, to Jax's eyes.

As he did he was taken by surprise, seeing that Jax had found the man from yesterday. Ezra wasn't sure if it was the world biggest coincidence or not. It was true that it was only one town, but still.
"He has found our friend from yesterday" he told Rivik who cursed.
"He ran away for that lame of excuse" Rivik left through the door before Ezra had time to react, most likely to school the wolf, and he felt like he needed to follow. Grabbing the tea cup, and a extra for the man, who seemed to be in worse state than yesterday he walked out.

It was with carefully eyes as he did, since Jax's eyes was on Rivik.
"How can you be so stupid?"
"What?"
"You made him feel dizzy! You are so irresponsible!" That made Jax look at him, resulting that he saw himself once more.
"Ezra I am so sorry!" the wolf ran over, a bit more carefully this time.
"It's alright, everything went well" he smiled towards the wolf as he guided him towards the man, sitting on a bench.

"You want some?" he asked, offering him the other cup as he sat down, Rivik soon placing himself in his lap, glancing at the stranger, and Jax placed himself in front of the stranger. Ezra switched to Rivik's eyes once more, feeling they was more useful.
"Seems like Jax has taken a liking towards you" Ezra didn't blame the wolf, who happily wagged his tail.
"It's because he doesn't have any taste"
"I made you disappear yesterday Rivik, so behave" Rivik looked at him, before he nodded. Ezra lifted the cup to his lips and drank from the tea.
"You seem to have a gift for finding my spots, luckily for you this isn't secret"

“I guess I was just simply l-lucky this time”, Zemin sobbed and turned away from the stranger, pulling his legs up against the trembling chest. “I’m sorry, I just kept walking until I could see clearly again”, he later explained and let out a deeply troubled sigh. “And I like Jax, he’s a wolf and in my eyes, all wolves are family in this wicked world.” The dark eyes once more fell upon the river. It wasn’t too filthy and the water seemed to be far from completely contaminated. And with that fact stated, there was a big possibility that creatures like mermaids resided deep down in the murky depths. They were scary beings, usually extremely beautiful surrounded by a mysterious tone, that lured people into the murky waters only so they could tear them to pieces and devour their flesh. Gruesome, really. Zemin shouldn’t have a say in it tho, as he’d also torn people apart. The only difference was that he never ate them. No, beings who ate other beings were just yucky and gross.

“Anyways”, the werewolf said, as he turned towards the man. “Believe me or not, I’ve got some bad news for you”, he began and placed his hands on the strangers shoulders, keeping them in a firm grip. “I work for a corporation that’s led by this mastermind vampire and he’s after you. He wants you to join his weird ass association, which is the line of work I’m under. But that’s not even the end of it! No no, not only does he want you to work for him, but he’s forcing me to join the fighting pits and if I refuse he’ll send my stupid brother instead”, Zemin blurted out, quickly draining all the words from his system. Damn, it felt really good to just get rid of all that worry, or at least share it with somebody.
“My apartment is owned by the association, which means that me and my brother have to go somewhere else..but we can’t. I don’t have any money to pay for a new place and..and I’m out of ideas. We can’t just live out on the street!” He continued, ending his rant with a thundering growl, falling back against the park bench again. “Maybe I’ll just go to the pit and be over with it, because the world is clearly not worth living in.”

The werewolf let out a short laugh, lacking any sort of emotion whatsoever. In the end, that was probably the best solution. Why couldn’t he just stop being such a coward? If fucking sucked.
“And no, I don’t know why I’m telling you this”, Zemin confessed and looked down at his shaking hands. He was so far away from home - home which wasn’t even home any longer. Now it was just as cold and unsafe as any other apartment out there in the slum quarters. The place had never been his favourite place on earth or so, but it was a safe place where he could sleep and eat, shift and beat up Xue. So in a sense, it had been absolutely perfect, all the way to end. Because that certainly as the end of their stay at the shitty ground apartment, whether they liked it or not.