🐺Wolf Creek:Volume One🐺

Chapter Sixteen: The Medicine Room

          Em parked her car in front of my house. She had Theo's habit of parking as close to the building as she could get. She had offered for me to spend the night, but I suggested the next day. I felt bad because with everything that had been happening lately I hadn't spent hardly any time with Gran. It was time to stop being angry.

          I made my way into the house and to the kitchen. It would be a good idea to do something nice. I set to work making smoothies for us. A banana, some milk, a dash of cinnamon, and some ice cubes was as creative as I got. I didn't hear Gran come in as I turned the blender on. She stared at me for a few moments, and just as I started to get concerned she spoke.

"How did you make that?" She pointed to the blender.

"A banana and some other stuff." I answered vaguely out of slight nervousness. Gran's eyes were watering. I frowned in concern. She smiled at me whistfully.

"You used to make those before the accident. Every morning you would make them to go with your breakfast. Sometimes you would make them in the evenings when you were stressed out or busy." Gran explained. I remained silent for a while. I hoped she wasn't getting her hopes up. Remembering a smoothie recipe was a long ways away from an entire life.

We eventually settled into the living room with our drinks, and Gran went on and on about how we used to watch certain shows almost every night. I smiled and nodded along politely, but I wasn't liking what she was saying. It felt less like she was filling me in and more like she was giving me pieces of information in hopes that they would jog my memory.

There was one show that Gran said I had liked in particular. It was a murder mystery. Even though Theo had assured me that Mr. Bernz hadn't been murdered my thoughts instantly flew to the mystery of his death. If he hadn't been killed then how did he die? Why was he in the woods at night? No one in their right mind would go for a leisurely stroll in freezing temperatures...in the dark...after a wolf attack! Unless someone has put him there.... The image of Cecil, battered up and wild-haired as he rode away popped into my head.

I shook the thought from my head. It was just the paranoia of the show getting to me. If the police weren't calling it a murder investigation then that meant there was no outer evidence that someone had killed him. He and the scene would have had to have been clean. Like if he was staged and put out there... No! I mentally chided myself for dwelling on the subject.

That was enough murder mystery for one night. I quietly excused myself with a mighty yawn and stretch. Pumpkin zoomed past me on the stairs as I trudged tiredly upwards. When I got to my room my camera once again beckoned from my desk. My exhaustion was put on hold in an instant.

          I picked it up and turned it in my hands to figure out how to get it on again. It looked like it needed new batteries, and so I fumbled through my drawers until I found a half empty box of AA's. I was in such a hurry to get the camera on that once I replaced the batteries I left the cover off. The buttons were still unmarked, and I made a mental reminder to myself to get a paint pen sometime. At last I found the right one.

          The screen lit up once again, and I waited not-so-patiently as it loaded. I immediately went to the camera's memory before skipping the pictures I had already seen. At first it was more pictures of friends around the campfire. Gran had mentioned that I had met James at a camp. The campfire must have been from there.

          The scenery began to change. There were picnic pictures of the field behind Gran's house, some school field trips, and a few places I didn't quite recognize. I wondered where they could be as I absentmindedly clicked. Then I got to a place I did recognize. The Wildlife Center.

          Pictures of animals filled the screen. I stopped for a moment on one in particular. It was the wolf from the memorial. Only the cage was no longer filled with objects, and the wolf was happily laying in front of her door. Her name tag was tied into place with bows made out of strips of leather. Bailey. I went to the next one.

           I was petting her! The wolf panted happily as my hand rested on the top of her head. Clearly this wolf was not like the others. She was docile, and cheerful even. I clicked through her pictures with a smile. Now it was easy to see why everyone had loved her so much. With another click a new picture flicked onto the screen.

          The white door at the Wildlife Center. Curiosity filled my mind. What was so interesting about the door? I went to the next one. It was the inside of the medicine room. I froze. It was filled with filing cabinets, a desk, and a telephone. It was the room from my nightmare.

          Why was I so interested in the medicine room? The next picture was a small box of syringes sitting in the bottom of a filing cabinet. I frowned. They didn't look like normal shots you would give injured animals. The box was sporting William Acuna's business logo.

          Mr. Acuna has mentioned that his business made medicines and such for endangered species. Still...something felt off about the picture. The medicine room probably had tons of syringes and other medications. Why would I have taken a picture of that specific medicine? The next picture made my blood run cold.

          The wolf had flung itself against the cage door with a fierce snarl curling her lips. It was dark, but the light of the moon shone through the window in the front door and gave off at least a little light. I pulled the camera closer to my face so I could scour the frame for every detail. Then I recognized its demeanor. I couldn't believe I had been so stupid!

          Bailey was the wolf from my nightmare... I leapt out of bed so quickly that it scared Pumpkin off of the bed. He scrammed under my bed as I began to lace back and forth in sheer panic. I looked at the camera over and over and over again before tossing it on my bed and putting my hands over my mouth in shock. I went back to my bed and picked the camera back up.

          Just then my phone began to buzz, and I flinched so hard that the camera slipped out of my grasp and fell back into the bed. I took a deep, shaky breathe before grabbing my phone. It was Theo. I quickly answered before I could change my mind. Instantly the background sounded as if he were somewhere crowded. I could have sworn it sounded like there were cars with loud motors speeding by.

"HEY!" Theo shouted into the speaker, causing me to jerk away from the phone for a moment. "My car is fixed again, and I was just curious if you wanted to go to a football game with me tomorrow night! We'll have to stop by the Wildlife Center before I drop you off, but you don't have to go in this time!" He yelled. Inside! Exactly! I needed to go inside! The syringes could still be there! If I found them then I might be able to find out what they were!

"No!" I blurted out.

"I mean...no. I would actually like to go in. The wolves caught me off guard the first time, but it wasn't that bad. I really like it there!" I added. I could hear Theo laugh happily on the other end.

"That's great! I'll see you tomorrow then?!"

"Yeah! See you then!"

Without a goodbye Theo ended the call, and I looked down at the phone. What on earth had he been doing? There wasn't a race track in Wolf Creek. Was there? The town was a lot bigger than I had originally though, and so it was very possible that we did in fact have a race track. Then I was brought to my senses.

I stared down at the camera on my bed. Whatever those syringes pertained to...I had a feeling that whoever put them there didn't want anyone to know. And I had good reason to believe that William Acuna was that someone. I ran to my window and pulled the curtains shut before snatching the camera up and hurrying into my closet. I shoved it down into one of the boots on my shoe rack before closing the doors firmly.