Beast Hunter

Chapter Four

We arrived home soon after, Stu looking sullen and tired, but at least the mystery of the anonymous invitation had been solved. Still, the arrival of Sky into our lives filled me with more questions than answers. Aside from her work, which I couldn't help but find utterly enthralling, she seemed like a very interesting person. She and Stu obviously shared a past, which was enough to pique my curiosity, making me want to learn more about her. If only I could talk him into taking her up on her offer.

I must have been giving off some sort of vibe because Stu picked up on it right away.

"I know what you're thinking," he said. "And the answer's still no."

I didn't want to argue. But I wasn't done with this just yet.

"What about Sky?" I asked.

"What about her?"

"Give me a break," I said, exasperated. "You can't possibly expect me to go through all that and not want to know more about her?"

Stu balked for a moment. "There's not much to tell."

I smirked, cocking my head in a, I don't believe you, gesture.

Maybe he got a sense that I wasn't going to drop it. Or maybe he really did want to get something off his chest. Either way, Stu finally relented. "Fine. Let's talk."

We retired to the dining room for evening drinks, Stu a cup of tea while I had hot chocolate. We sat across from each other at the dining room table, which felt kind of weird because we mostly ate our meals in the living room while watching TV. We only used the table as a catchall for random junk and the occasional game of chess, which I won nine times out of ten. But who's counting?

"We dated briefly, a couple of years ago" he said. "I wouldn't say it got serious, but it was edging toward that. We met in a class were taking together at the time. It was taught by this quirky guy I'll never forget. Professor Thomas Master. Man, what a character. The class was all about paranormal mysteries. It was one of them fringe elective classes you take for an easy A. But I could tell that Professor Master was really into it, like he believed in a majority of the weird, strange phenomena that he covered in his curriculum. I was hooked. The stuff was just so interesting, and he had a way of providing facts and pieces of evidence that made you start to believe in it all yourself."

The origin of the Crypto Files, I thought.

I'd never gotten around to asking him where the inspiration for the blog came from. Now I knew. It was nice to watch him reminisce about that time in his life, which had clearly been the spark that led to his current career. Funny, I'd lived with the guy for six months and we'd barely talked about anything personal. Then a girl shows up and suddenly he's an open book. Go figure.

"Sky and I got assigned to do a project together and we hit it off right away," he said. "She was just as into the subject as I was. We both shared a passion for things strange and weird. She approached it all from a logical and scientific point of view while I tended to come at it with a storyteller's eye. We complemented each other well."

"So what happened?"

Stu sighed. I could tell we were treading on rough territory, but maybe it was doing him good to get it out in the open.

"She got accepted to grad school out west," he said. "She asked me to go with her, but I said no. I wasn't interested in doing post-graduate work. Honestly, I was sick of academia and eager to do my own thing. My blog had just gotten started. I wasn't making any money yet, but I was determined to make it work. I felt that if I gave up everything to go out there with her, I would be distracted, and it would never get off the ground. She wasn't happy with me. Tempers flared. Things were said. So we parted ways and haven't seen each other since. Not until today."

Wow, I thought. He gave up being with Sky to start a blog? Maybe it was my teenage hormones talking, but it seemed to me – despite whatever success he'd found with it – that was one bonehead move.

"What about that letter she mentioned?" I asked.

He seemed embarrassed.

Finally, he said. "I'll admit. I've been thinking about her a lot lately. I love what I do, but there are times that I wonder if I made a mistake, you know? So I wrote her a letter and sent it to her department at Stanford. Even though we haven't seen each other, I've followed her career. She's done so much in her field. I guess I wanted her to see that I was doing okay too. I guess that's why I kind of freaked out earlier. Seeing her standing there brought it all back."

I thought back to the moment during dinner when she'd told him that she followed his blog. I'm no expert on the human condition, but I could see something in her eyes, a sense of pride in him regardless of how things had turned out between them. And more so, I could see the sense of relief in his eyes, confirmation that the dreams he'd chased had a validation they hadn't had before that moment. Man, if this is what adulthood is like, I think I'll stay in ostracized teen-mode for as long as possible.

"This is good," I said. "She came all the way out here to see you. Maybe this can be a second chance for you."

Stu stared ahead for a moment. I could see the wheels in his head turning as he contemplated this.

Then he said, "No. I don't think so. There's been too much time gone by. Too much baggage. We're different people now and I don't think there's any chance for romance. I'm pretty sure that ship sailed a long time ago."

I wasn't willing to let it go at that. I'm not about to claim that I have any clue how the adult heart works. Not-quite genius social outcast and all. But to just walk away again seemed stupid to me. And darn it, I wanted to know what the heck it she was going to over to Pennsylvania to see.

"Then forget about romance," I said. "You don't have to date her. You can just be friends."

"True. But she lives in California. It's hard to be sociable with someone who's two thousand miles away."

"She's not in California right now."

Stu sighed. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

I smiled and shook my head.

"Pennsylvania's not that far away," I said "We could be there and back in no time. Besides, I like Sky. She's cool."

"And I suppose you're dying to hear her big theory as to what might be lurking around in the woods out there."

"And you're not?"

Stu took another swig of his tea, thinking to himself. He was a smart man, I knew, able to make sound decisions quickly and responsibly. Yet for some reason, he seemed to be struggling with this one, as if it meant something deeper to him than I could accurately understand.

Finally, he set his teacup down, looked me in the eye, and gave me his decision.

"Fine," he said. "I'll call her in the morning and ask her to book two extra seats on her flight out."