Werewolf in Warehouse

In the rainy and dark night when I was walking alone, I was accosted by a shape which growled menacingly at me.

I asked “who are you?’ and it replied “werewolf.” I said the sentence was grammatically wrong. What? it asked. I said “you should be saying I am a wolf” to my question. Then it repeated “I am a werewolf.” I corrected it once again and said “you can either say I am a wolf or I was a wolf. But since you are alive you can only say I am a wolf. Were is used in case of plural only.” But the thing growled “I am a werewolf and asked me irritatingly don’t you ever see western episodes in TV where werewolves were popular in the horror genre?”

“Oh! That werewolf, a mythic creature. How come you are here in India? Have you lost your way or what?” I asked.

“I am hungry and I want some flesh to eat. Why aren’t you scared?” it asked me.

“Like you said you are a horror myth in the western world, here people are more scared of Nagin” I replied.

“What is a Nagin?” the werewolf wanted to know.

I said “First thing first you wanted to eat some flesh. Why don’t you try a dog on the street?”

“Meaning hot dog?” the werewolf asked me.

“No, no I am referring to the street dog. Unlike in the west, dogs breed on the streets here and belong to no one. You can have one as a meal and no one will bother you or file a suit against you like in the west.”

“Got it” werewolf said and it was off on a flash. After about fifteen minutes the satiated werewolf came and said “tell me more about this Nagin business.”

I said “Nagin are female snakes. They take the form of good- looking women like Sridevi, Mallika and Mouni Roy. She comes to take revenge on the men folks who killed her boy-friend during mating season.”

“And you are scared hell of a lot” observed the werewolf.

“Not at all” I replied “but all the same it is amusing to see them on the TV.”

“What about lycanthropes? Are you scared about them at least?” the werewolf asked.

I said “no. although there is a difference between lycanthropes and werewolf both are myths.” I continued “I understand wolves are ok as any other animals. It is the man who has made idioms in the English language and attribute bad qualities to a wolf. I know that wolf can eat a lot. So, if you say he wolfed his meal down, it makes sense.”

“So, you are an animal lover?” the werewolf asked.

“I do a bit of reading and I was reading about wolves and werewolves recently” I replied. Since I know the facts about them, I am not scared by such talks about werewolves as you are doing. I am not even sure what you are” I said.

“I had taken the wrong flight from Zurich and landed in your country. I am a bit jet lagged. Wont you suggest a place I can catch up with my sleep?”

I said “walk towards the junction and take the first left and after a few buildings you will come across a ware house and you can rest for the night.”

It laughed at the idea of a warehouse for werewolf and got off in a flash.

The street lights flickered back to life and I wondered if I was so scared shit so as to have imagined the conversation with the werewolf!! I let out a hysterical laughter in relief. But when I looked closely on the ground, I saw a blood trail. I ran like hell from that place into the safety of my home.