Jordan’s eyelids slid open to a blank white ceiling. Panicked, she sat up, internally reaching for her undoubtedly cold but familiar grey cell walls. Her eyes flicked around her immediate surroundings, disoriented by the unfamiliarity. Instead of the usual tiny 4-inch window, there was entire wall of glass. A utilitarian metal bed frame and useless white mattress replaced her previous unforgiving concrete bed. But for Jordan, the divergent furnishings did nothing to hide that her prison was the same.

    The confidence from the previous day faded as the new day dawned, and the repercussions of her two-year isolation rose to replace it. Her lonely heart crawled back into the dark and isolated cage it had left the day before. The snarky ghost of her former self disappeared, and the normal silent shell appeared again.

As the prisoner caught sight of her jailers, the details of the previous day filled in. She squinted at the glass and could vaguely locate the four researchers in the adjacent laboratory. Jordan remembered everything now: YG, the experiment, the werewolf. Her eyes glanced over to the other side of the room at the most concerning of the three: Chen.

    Jordan shifted and swung her legs off the edge of the bed, letting her toes brush the chilly tile floor. She straightened her back and craned her neck to get a better view of him. He was asleep, curled up on the furthest corner of his bed. He still wasn’t wearing a shirt, just a pair of black sweatpants similar to her own. His lips remained turned up at the corners, she noted. It made him look surprisingly vulnerable now, like he was having a nice dream.

    Now that terror wasn’t clouding her mind, Jordan understood that Chen was in the same situation as she was. His pack was most likely trapped somewhere in this building enduring the same terror and frustration. He had people that he missed as well. She began to understand his earlier aggression, though she was no less wary of him.

    The panda-eyed girl put extra effort into maintaining her silence as she stood, but let out an involuntary groan as her back complained about the sudden change of bedding. She whipped her head towards the werewolf, terrified that she had woken him. Upon realizing that she hadn’t, her muscles relaxed again. Jordan glanced around and quickly identified a more immediate problem. The adrenaline rush she had felt the day before had long faded, and now she bore the full brunt of her fear. She was terrified of her slim chance of survival more than anything. Her only solution to address her dilemma would be to ask the researchers for help, something she did not look forward to. After carefully arranging a facade over her trembling reality, she ambled up to the glass and tapped.

    “Yo.” Her voice cracked. Jordan cleared and tried to remember how to stand tall. She struggled to recall what her mother had taught her so long ago: feet apart, arms crossed, chin up. Bangs, who was sitting by some type of control panel, looked up. Jordan continued. “You got a place for me to pee? And I hope you have a toothbrush for me, otherwise that werewolf will be running from my breath alone.” She pointed a thumb at the werewolf who, unbeknownst to her, had awakened as the first words left .

    Her voice reverberated through hidden microphones in the observation room and into the research lab. YoungBae was seated on a lab stool, wobbling precariously as exhaustion threatened to topple him. He had been up all night in order to do the usual nighttime monitoring. YoungBae, in an exceedingly rare moment of self-awareness, had decided to heed the subject’s advice, and wore a white tank top underneath his lab coat. He was unaccustomed to it, however, and constantly picked and scratched at the offending fabric. TOP and JiYong were absorbed in their work, busy putting finishing touches to data tables and procedures by the corkboard. DaeSung snorted in amusement at the girl on the other side of the glass. The uncertainty and fear was prominent behind her cocky pose: her chin was raised but trembling, arms crossed, but her hands were balled into shaking  fists. The most obvious indicator of her mask was her eyes. They glinted with a light of fierce desperation, but hidden behind that light lay a lifelessness only two years of isolation could produce. To humor her efforts, he pressed an unobtrusive circle on the panel: the intercom.

    “It’s by your bed. I’ll unlock it for you.” He replied to her. Jordan’s arms immediately bent akimbo.

    “Are you saying,” she snapped with genuine irritation, “that I’ll have to ask permission whenever I need to ?” She glared at him through the glass. “Does the werewolf have to ask for permission? He can’t even talk.”

    “Unfortunately, if we left the bathroom open, you’d just hide in there. It’s happened before.” Daesung recalled Subject #2. He always went in there during his psychotic breaks and wouldn’t leave until forced. “As for Chen, the door to the bathroom isn't locked, he can come and go as he pleases. Werewolves don’t like enclosed spaces anyways; he won't hide in there.” He chuckled as he pressed another button further along the panel. “Just go and clean up.”

    Jordan heard a click, and saw a small door she hadn’t noticed before creak open from the wall. She abandoned her earlier intention of silence as she trudged through it with an irritated huff, closing the door behind her with a snap. Chen sat up on his bed soon afterwards, raising his arms and arching his back in a stretch. He scratched his nape and let out a small sigh.

    “YoungBae.” DaeSung called out. His coworker jolted upright. “He’s awake, better start taking notes. He’s relaxed right now.” He pointed at the loose set of Chen’s shoulders and his still half lidded eyes. YoungBae immediately took out his tablet to record observations, shaking his head back and forth to jolt loose any remaining sleepiness.

    Jordan emerged from the bathroom with brighter eyes, a mouth that tasted of mint, and a fresh face. Internally, however, she grumbled about the injustice of the bathroom arrangements. Even in her maximum security cell she had access to a sink, toilet, and shower. She hadn’t been reduced to asking for permission to relieve her bowels since elementary school. It was humiliating. While on her indignant march towards her bed, she peered over at Chen. Their eyes met.

    His eyes were a deep brown now, she noted, so dark that they almost looked black. His face seemed devoid of any emotion, though his lips were still curled in that permanent smile. Nervousness pinched the girl’s stomach, but less fear than expected. She didn’t think he wanted to kill her. If he had, he could have easily done it while she was asleep. She curled up on the bed again and alternated between taking restless naps, eating, and holding fitful watches on both the researchers and the werewolf.

    The next few days proceeded peacefully, which made the researchers both pleased and bored. The human and werewolf had seemingly established a pact to not bother the other. The two went about their daily routines: they ate their two meals a day on their beds, they went to the bathroom, and they wandered around the room to stretch out their muscles. When Jordan felt comfortable, she began her usual exercise routine again, doing sit ups and push ups on the floor nearby her bed.  The fear dissipated over time, but the two showed no signs of trusting one another; in the gaps of their routines, they kept watch on each other.

    DaeSung focused on Chen as the days progressed. He noticed how the set of the werewolf’s shoulders loosened day by day and how he flinched at lesser intervals when Jordan did something sudden.

    “Team Leader.” He called to JiYong. That day was particularly uneventful, because both the human and the werewolf seemed to be relaxed enough to sleep for most of the day. Normally, their suspicion only allowed them both a couple of hours a sleep a night. But recently, they both began to sleep for over seven hours each, displaying healthier habits. “I think we can move to Step 2. They have established a neutral relationship.”

    “I agree.” JiYong nodded. He was pleased with how everything was progressing. As far as he could see, Chen’s genuine “mellow” personality had begun to emerge, and Jordan’s day to day snark seemed to step away from her mask and into reality. He yelled out to his blue-haired subordinate across the laboratory. “TOP!” Youngbae woke abruptly from the call and fell from his chair with a squawk.

    “Yes sir!” TOP responded, but not without laughing at his coworker. JiYong walked over and tugged YoungBae to his feet with an amused smirk before continuing.

    “Initiate Step 2.”

    “Yes, sir!” Excitement colored TOP’s voice as he departed the lab to contact the Variant Maintenance Crew. He couldn’t wait to brag to the other teams. They were the only team to have progressed so far.

    Jordan woke to the clatter of her food being delivered. She had no clue why, but she surprisingly slept in peace in this convoluted experiment. Her dreams were void of the usual terrifying distortions of past memories. They were now dreams of the harmless sort, the ones that she never remembered when she woke. She tried to hang onto the calm when her eyes opened, to bask in the peace, but the only thing she ever remembered were tinges of blue. The rest was tucked too far into her subconscious to be found again.

    Half asleep, she dragged herself into an upright position. She heard the bathroom door click open. DaeSung had gotten used to her routine by now, and unlocked it whenever she sat up. She stumbled into the small room, looking quite like a hungover college teenager on a Sunday morning. Daesung noted with a sting of guilt that that was what she could have been doing had life not been cruel: a college kid preparing for the future, partying with her friends, and increasing her already high potential.

    The other researchers kept their eyes glued on the werewolf. Step two would begin that day, and they anticipated a stark change in routine. JiYong noted that Chen was pacing around his side of the room, head tilted in confusion, glancing at the section of wall where his meal usually appeared. The werewolf’s stress levels appeared to be low: his shoulders were loose, his nostrils weren’t flared, and his lips were neutral, save for the corners. At the moment, at least, he was ambivalent to the absence of food. Not aggressive, only confused.  

    Jordan emerged from the bathroom and made a beeline straight for her bowl. She noticed right away that there was only one. She contemplated the situation while taking hers. It was a part of the experiment, obviously, which inherently meant she didn’t like it. Chen wasn’t displaying any aggression, however, so she proceeded about her normal business.

    Four more days passed. JiYong observed as the days passed that Chen was becoming more aggressive. He spent more time in front of the glass glowering at the researchers. Some resentful looks were thrown at the human subject, though significantly fewer. The four researchers prayed that the human subject would do what they hoped she would. There would be fatal consequences if she didn’t.

    Although the research team could see the tension building, they could not feel it. Jordan was not afforded the same luxury; she was not detached from the strained atmosphere by a glass wall. She could feel the angry pressure growing in the enclosure. The werewolf paced in erratic circles and let out low growls that vibrated through her chest. Fear trickled back into Jordan’s veins and muscles. She didn’t understand the point of removing Chen’s food, though her strongest suspicion was that they might be testing if werewolves would be tempted to eat humans under duress.

    She was going to avoid that under all circumstances. She had come to the conclusion that she was not going to die in here. When her next meal arrived, she didn’t eat it all. The meals were always the same: dry white  rice, soggy vegetables, and a hearty serving of over-salted chicken or beef. This time, she ate the rice and the vegetables, but saved the rest. Sure enough, the werewolf grew irritable again. Had she not been so frightened, Jordan would have likened his reaction to a hungry baby throwing a tantrum. But most babies did not have the capability of tearing her apart, so she humored this particular one.

    Before the growling ensued, Jordan carefully placed the metal bowl on the floor and slid it towards the other end of the room. Chen’s head snapped in her direction, eyes narrowed. He approached the bowl slowly, sniffing at it. He cast one final look at the human on the other side of the room, eyes contemplative, before taking the bowl. The tension dissipated. Jordan closed her eyes for a brief second and let out a silent sigh. The storm had calmed, for now.

    After he finished, he placed the bowl by the wall, as he was supposed to. He glared sullenly down at the floor for most of the day, but occasionally, he would glance curiously at the girl sitting across from him.

In the adjacent room, JiYong nodded with a smile as the rest of his team cheered. Though Jordan didn’t know it, sharing food in a pack was a innate sign of trust. To be honest, the other two stages were less relevant, this stage of the experiment was the real indication of if werewolves and humans could form camaraderie with each other.

It continued for the next week. Once her food arrived through the wall, she ate a portion and then shoved the bowl towards Chen. After she did, she brought her knees up to her chest and kept an eye on him. Sometimes after he ate he would just brood at the floor and glance up at intervals. In those instances, she would stare him down until he looked at the floor again. But recently, he wouldn’t look away. They just gazed at each other. The intensity of his gaze was unsettling. It wasn’t hostile, no, but it stirred something in her. She wished she could tear her eyes away, but she never wanted to sever the moment. Sometimes she looked away, sometimes she didn’t, but every time, she was conflicted.

The next time she raised her head, he was looking at her again.

The corners of his eyes crinkled for a moment, the edges of his mouth raised.

He smiled at her, then looked away.

...

This chapter was beta'd by HunHan623, my savior.

Please leave comments and constructive criticism, it helps immensely.