Fur the Record Excerpt

Chapter Fifteen

You know that moment when you are balanced on that fine line between sleep and awake, where you control your dreams and you have the chance to go back to sleep- yeah, that passed me by completely when my phone buzzed on the nightstand. It was eleven the next day and I felt a little more normal.

“Purrowells.” I tried to keep the yawn out of it.

“Purrowells, there have been two more murders, or they are just now being reported.” John told me.

“Ugh! Can’t I get a break? Do we have a team headed to each location?” I blinked the sleep out of my head.

“They are waiting on your okay.” John stifled his chuckle.

“Send them. Let me know if you find out anything useful. Pretend like I’m there. I’m going to start getting ready. Thanks, John. I’ll talk to you soon.” I hung up.

My shoulder already felt heavy. There was so much depending on my own success in my latest crazy ass mission. It was like I couldn’t fail. But what happens if you can’t come back? My inner voice whispered one of my greatest fears.

“Then I’ll get to know the Knowers really well.” I told myself.

I shuffled to the bathroom. My hair was matted and looked like someone had taken a weed whacker to my head. Instead of taking a brush to it, I just turned away and switched the shower on. My hopes that conditioner would tame were the only thing keeping me from shaving the hair I had left.

The shower helped my hair, but didn’t do anything for my thoughts. Fear played on every dark secret I could imagine on why I had Knower blood. It was one of those moments when I really wished that my favorite uncle was still alive. He would’ve known. He knew everything about our family line. I was almost certain that it had to trace back to somewhere with my grandma. There was magick on that line. Although, I didn’t really know anything about my biological grandfather other than he was abusive.

Thinking about my uncle made me sad that I was always losing people. Probably a good reason it was hard for me to get really close to people. I didn’t like to let them in. Who would when you have lost so many close to your heart? I mean, seriously, what’s the point if you’re only going to end up hurting because they’ve left or died or left this world? My thoughts darkened.

“Like this is fucking help!” I shouted at myself as I dried off.

Once I was dressed I headed downstairs. Sophie had a plate and mug ready for me.

“I heard the shower come on” She smiled at me.

“Thanks, Soph.” I would really miss her if I didn’t come back.

“What’s got you down, honey?” Her baby blues looked at me like she knew everything.

“Just dark thoughts.” It was honest enough.

“Yeah, those will do it. Try not to focus on them. Life is too short. Enjoy it while you can.” It was hard not to laugh, she had a very extended life.

“I’ll definitely try.” I chuckled.

I decided I was going to the Depot alone. Andrew was asleep, and I didn’t want to call Gus. I knew it was against everything that was supposed to be my cover, but I didn’t care. At this point, I really didn’t care if they suspected that I wasn’t really part of the community or whatever. I went upstairs and grabbed all the different coins from the Depot. I wasn’t sure what any of it meant, meaning I’d have to show my hand to someone. Maybe Rex would help a girl out? Even though I had been warned against trusting the orc, there was something about him that told me I could.