Howl of a Human

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I grabbed Faye from the couch on the way out and walked right out the door, certain that Mike was still standing in his office. When we went outside Faye went straight into the forest, not even stopping for a second. I followed her.

The forest was long and intensive to walk through, but we weren't in it long. Faye took me to a place in the middle of the woods. A house. 

She went to it slowly, like she was walking through caramel. Something in me made me go up to her and take her small, pale hand into my own. She looked up and me with an awed look on her face.

"Let's go in," I suggested.

She nodded, slowly before we went up the steps.

When I was little, if I ever was scared of anything my mother took my hand and made me go through it. It might sound awful, but she taught me something very important; you can't run away from things.

But, isn't that what you're doing with Mike, a little voice in the back of my mind asked. 

I blocked out that little voice, choosing to focus on Zoey instead. She looked around the house timidly, as if checking for ghosts.

Her eyes looked at the ominous staircase that was a few feet away from us. There was no dust in sight but it seemed like there should be, like it was a scene from a movie and no one had been here in decades. 

"What was this place," I asked in awe, picking up a portrait of a beautiful red haired girl and half a dozen children pulling on her and playing on her. She looked so happy. They all did.

"My home," she whispered.

I turned around to ask her to elaborate, but she was already halfway up the steps. Her hand slid carefully against the cold rail. I followed her up.

There were many rooms upstairs, at least 15. Each door had a friendly painting on it of some sort; flowers and trees, the sun and moon, toads and frogs, birds and berries. Someone had obviously taken a long time to paint these. Zoey walked to a door with a bee on it.

She opened the door, no hesitation clouded her steps as she strode into it. The room was small-ish with a window off to the side and a dresser and bed as the only furniture in it. A small, brown teddy bear rested against the beaten up headboard with his little arms out searching for one last hug. 

"Was this your room," I asked as she picked up the bear and held it tightly to her small chest.

"Yes."

"Do you want to leave? Is this," tears began to trickle from the eyelids she had closed tightly," too much for you?"

She didn't reply verbally, a simple nod was the only movement she made. I took her arm and gently pulled her out of the room before going back in to grab a blanket and some fresh sets of clothes for her along with her hairbrush. She was still clutching the bear when I got back.

Together we went out of the house and started back through the woods. It was getting along in the day so there were fewer wolves out, just a "scout" here and there as Zoey called them.

One stopped to ask us what we were doing about. I took one glance at Zoey before deciding it was best to lie and told him we needed to get back to the human town. He smiled softly at us and told us to follow him, obviously not recognizing Zoey.

During the walk he lent me his phone to call my father and have him go to Phelps road to pick us up when we got out, I thanked him and made the call.

"You girls should have never been out in the woods anyway," he laughed," it's the least I can do to lend a hand."

"We were hiking," I told him, lifting the bag for him to see. 

I remember Catherine telling me something about werewolves extreme senses of smell so I hoped that he would buy that the clothes in there were actually for what I said they were for. 

Can they smell different fabrics?

"Yeah, well, you should still be more careful. Are there anymore in your group or is it just the 2 of you?"

"Just us."

"So, what are you? Friends? Sisters? Cousins?"

"Cousins," I pulled Zoey over to me and held her in a friendly hug with one arm.

"That's good that you spend time with your family. Mine are way out in these woods, we're pretty close, them and me. Like a pack."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Zoey look down when he said that. I rubbed her shoulder, trying to remind her to be thankful he doesn't know that she is part of his pack. No one likes being forgotten.

He went on talking and blabbering about this and that, not really caring if we were listening or not. Zoey stared at the ground and I kept looking over my shoulder, terrifying that Mike would come charging out from behind one of the trees any moment, pissed that we'd gotten as far as we had.

He never did.

The man took us to the border and left us with a strict finger wagging at us and a voice telling us to be more careful next time. Apparently we could have gotten him in trouble.

My father was by the road, leaning against his red jeep when we got out. He bumped off of it, his enlarged belly seemingly wider when he held up his arms and smiled at us.

"Lacey!"

"Daddy!"

I ran up to him and hugged him tightly, he laughed. He didn't realize what had happened over such a short period of time.

"This is Zoey," I said when we pulled away," She needs to stay with us for a while. I hope you don't mind, she has nowhere else to go."

"Of course," he squatted down to her level and poked her nose," I bet you like thumbprint cookies."

She smiled widely and nodded, making him laugh.

"Let's go then, I just happen to have 3 dozen of them at the shoppe!"

We all climbed into the car and drove off. I let Zoey have shot gun and she was listening to my father talk about the many different flavors of jams to use for the cookies while she smiled. Once or twice I heard her stomach growl in appreciation, making us all laugh.

So merry, I thought, it's all so merry.

I took a single glance back at the forest.

A black wolf was hiding in the trees.