Whispers in the Dark

Howling at the Moon

What Kol saw shook him to the core. In front of him stood a familiar blond boy.

"Patrick?" he asked, and then the boy took off. Kol followed after him, but was struggling to keep up.

"Catch me if you can!" his friend called from the darkness of the forest.

"Is that really you? Patrick, stop!"

Kol was suddenly knocked to the ground by something big and heavy. When he looked up, he was surprised to see the dog. It growled at something in front of them, and then a bear trap was sprung.

Kol paled. Had he kept running, he would've taken Igor's body straight into that.

Did that mean he'd have to ignore his friend? Was it Patrick's ghost?

The symbol, he realized, then turned back and ran, the dog following after him. When he reached the place where the bones had been buried, he picked up the one with the symbol on it. As expected, a flashback hit him.

Little Kol was playing by himself in his yard when he heard a fake bird call coming from around the mansion. Knowing who it was, Kol gathered the box of tools he had assembled, then headed to meet his friend. Patrick was hiding in the bushes just outside the fence, and looked worse than ever before. His skin was pale, there were bags under his eyes and his lips were starting to turn blue.

"D-Did you get it?" the blond boy asked, then nervously looked around. "He said he's coming for me."

Kol pushed the small box through the bars of the fence, and Patrick took it. "I couldn't find anything about a ghost that does that, but I brought a bunch of general stuff."

"Wi-Will it work?"

Even then, Kol had known it might not, but he gave his friend a confident smile anyway. "Sure it will. Ghosts are super weak against this stuff."

"You're lying," Patrick accused him. "I can always tell. Isn't there someone you can ask? Please, Kol."

Not having the heart to refuse his only friend, little Kol went inside and talked to his father, and the current Kol followed.

"Why would you be asking about that?" the man asked. "Nothing good can come of messing with forces as powerful as that."

Kol took a small piece of paper, then drew the symbol Patrick had seen on it. His father paled as soon as he saw it, and grabbed his son by the arm with quite a bit of force.

"Where did you see that?"

Too scared to lie, the kid broke down and confessed about everything. His meetings with Patrick, the ghosts he had helped move on, and the things Patrick had seen all came pouring out. By the time he was done, the kid was in tears.

"You foolish child!" the man roared, throwing the piece of paper into the present fireplace. "Outsiders are dangerous for us! They're especially dangerous for you! You have no idea what you could've caused!"

The boy tried to run away, but his father closed the library door on him with a wave of his hand. "Enough of this. If you won't be trustworthy enough for us to let you out into the yard, you're not gonna go out at all."

"But Patrick needs my help!"

"He has already been claimed! You can do nothing for the boy!"

Little Kol was sobbing by now, begging his father to let him out.

"I'll hear no more of this," the man said. "You will stay inside until the incident passes."

The flashback ended then and there, but Kol still couldn't help thinking about what had come after. He'd stayed locked inside for a few weeks, until he managed to sneak out. Going to Patrick's place, he had been shocked to learn his friend had died in his sleep, without explanation. That had been the straw that broke the camel's back. Soon after, he ran away from home.

Looking at the bone with the symbol on it, Kol got lost in thought. What did it mean? His father had clearly known something back then, but that tie was broken. He ran his thumb over the symbol, and a vision came to him. He heard animalistic cackling, and caught a few glimpses of a haunted house. Finally, he saw a distorted version of himself, then the world returned to normal.

The dog nudged the bone with its snout, yelping meekly.

"You thought we were a threat the first time we were here, didn't you?" Kol spoke to it. "Attacked us to get us away from these bones, huh? You only started trusting me when you saw me being attacked by the woman who killed Oliver." The dog, of course, did not respond. It simply stood there, the red glow in its eyes slowly fading. "You stayed behind to make sure someone found out what happened to Oliver. You wanted Martin to get the message, didn't you?"

At the sound of his other owner's name, the dog yelped again.

"I'll take care of Oliver's spirit, and I'll let Martin know about everything that happened. You must be so tired, huh? Watching over this grave for years had to have been hard. It's okay; You'll be able to rest soon. You only have one more thing to do."

The reds in the dog's eyes were completely gone now, replaced by a much more comforting brown.

"Take me to the town. I need to get out of this forest, then I can help Martin and Oliver."

Kol heard Patrick laughing all around him, but knew getting worked up wouldn't do anything. In that instant, the dog was his lifeline. He would not be able to fight off a spirit in Igor's body.

The dog calmly started walking through the forest, and Kol followed it, taking the bone with him. The two made their way through the dark woods, and eventually reached an old road that ran just outside the forest. Kol walked across it, then realized the dog was not following.

Turning around, Kol saw it standing there, on the edge of the forest, staring at him intently. "You can rest now," he said, and the dog lied down, emitting a very quiet yelp. "You're a good boy."

With that, the dog faded away, its darkness disappearing completely.

One stage of the job was now finished, leaving only Olivia and the spirit aiding her.

Looking around, Kol realized he was on the street that lead to the one on which Natasha lived. When he looked up at the sky, he saw dark smoke coming from that direction.