#Chapter 97: Fraying Lines

Ardal Julia and I lie atop the bed of my studio apartment, perusing my laptop in a flurry of desire as we craft a plan for our long-awaited travels. With each click and keystroke, this fantasy becomes a tangible reality - or at least as close to it as we can get. "What if we took the train," she muses, hastily bringing up the Amtrak homepage. My mind soars with technicolor Hollywoodesque fantasies. "Of course," she sighs disgruntledly, "Everything's become so complicated with the packs recently. You can be sure that they'd put some Weres on staff just to make sure no one manages to leave the territory without the proper authorization." "Who needs their permission," I grumble crossly, fuming over all of the recent political tension. I slump against my pillow, arms crossed behind my head, imagining burly Weres inspecting each car, hunting for any rogue passengers who hopped on board without approval, like a werewolf version of a Hitchcock film. "Oh Ardal! It's half past six!" "Wh