Emily remained still for a moment, shocked, and then started to sob uncontrollably. It took another few minutes for her to regain her countenance and muster a few coherent thoughts. She needed professional help, hallucinations were a sure sign of mental disorder. Unless her brain was having an altitude meltdown?
Feeling very depressed, she decided to call her boyfriend. There was a good chance that she wouldn’t get through to him, he was working hard for his exams, staying late in the library and used to hit the gym early, but in her current state, it was worth a try. He could be a real pain sometimes, borderline OCD when it came to health, and always too busy to go out, but he was generally supportive and would comfort her. With a bit of luck, he might even offer some useful advice, considering that exercise science was his major.
Kieran’s satellite phone sat on the kitchen table, and she grabbed it, with a slight pang of guilt. She would compensate him for the price of the call, as her own device wouldn’t work. She must have been ill advised when picking the network.
For her first try, she dialed her landline and was pleasantly surprised when it was answered nearly immediately.
“Damian?”
She could hardly hide the relief in her voice.
“Emily, honey, are you OK? I was starting to worry.”
“I’m fine, just stuck in the mountains by the snow, and I’m safe, at least physically…”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I think I’ve been sleepwalking and now I might be seeing things, I don’t know, I feel so silly saying it…”
“Don’t say that love, you are the brightest and most mentally balanced person I know. You might just be confused with the new environment, the stress and the lack of sleep. Wait a little bit before rushing to conclusions, right? You don’t have a headache or any dizziness, don’t you?”
“No, nothing like that.”
“Then I don’t think you’re mountain sick, maybe you just need to rest and have one of those long walks you love. Is the place nice? Are you eating properly and taking your vitamins?”
Emily sighed; he didn’t change. There was noise in the background on his side and she could hardly hear his last sentence, but she could easily guess.
“Yes mum! The food is honest to God local stuff and I could bet it’s organic. You’d feel at home here. And the scenery is to die for.”
“…………”
This time, there was a faint female voice mixing with his, and she couldn’t understand his words.
“Is there something wrong with the line? I didn’t get anything you said.”
Suddenly the noise died down.
“Sorry love, I’m feeling a bit lonely so I have the radio on. I have to go anyway, I’m already late for my first lecture. Call m…”
He was interrupted by the distinctive sound of a door opening behind him:
“Damian, darling, why are you talking in the bathroom? Come back to bed, we have two more hours before starting and I thought we could try some new things…”
“Samantha, shut up!” he whispered urgently.
Emily had paled. She looked at the phone as if it had grown legs. It took her a little while to manage to speak again:
“Damian, what was that? Who is this girl?”
She could clearly feel his embarrassment.
“It’s not what you think Em, OK? Call me this evening, I’ll explain it to you.”
Emily scoffed; did he really think she was that naïve? She was shaken, hurt, mad, not stupid.
“You sure will need longer than that to come up with a good enough lie, Damian. Sorry I trusted you.”
She hung up, before he could say anything more. He wasn’t worth her anger; she would have happily fed him to the nearest pack, these animals deserved a healthy snack, but she wouldn’t loose her dignity by yelling and crying on the phone, while her replacement told him how better off he was without this harpy. She would retaliate, in her own time; the rent agreement was in her name only, given she was the only one with a regular income. If he were still there when she returned, she would put all his stuff on display on the footpath and change the locks. He could go live with ‘Samantha’.
Having plans for revenge soothed her down a bit. Putting the phone back where it belonged, she paced up and down the room, wondering what to do next.
At least, she was now more angry than worried, and she got some helpful pieces of advice, so the call hadn’t been entirely wrong. Positive thinking, that had always been her forte; she strongly believed that every bad had to be balanced by some good in the grand scheme of life. She was going to bury her concerns for a while, review her notes and email Bob to run her next steps by him. Then she would research the valley, check if there was any report of cases similar to hers: if other people had presented with the same symptoms, they could be environmental.
Energized, she walked out of the cabin towards the school, where the computer room was installed. Kieran’s bare footsteps were printed in the snow outside the door, going in the same direction, and she followed them, surprised that he didn’t bother putting on shoes. His feet might have been frozen.
She was about halfway when she found tracksuit bottoms, a tee shirt and a pair of boxers carelessly discarded on the side of the path. They seemed suspiciously identical to those worn by Kieran earlier.
Emily frowned: barefoot and naked, in this weather? She definitely wasn’t the only one having mental issues. Rolling her eyes, she took a few more steps and dropped on her knees in the snow. The human footsteps had vanished. Instead were larger than life wolf prints, and it got weirder: hind foot only.
Pulling out her phone, she took a picture of them; if the camera could capture them, it wasn’t only her mind playing tricks. And the proof was there, white on white, on the screen. She saved it twice, on the sim card and in the memory card, just to be safe.
Getting up, she realized that she was left with a puzzle to solve. Out of habit, she mentally listed the facts: she had seen and heard wolves last night. They were huge, and had no tail. The one that pushed her back could speak and had human eyes. She had noticed abnormally large prints in several locations, at different times, and just documented some. And several seemed to indicate that the animals walked on their back legs only. Then Kieran appeared to be transforming into a wolf before leaving abruptly. And he was very strong, and fast. She was a highly trained hiker, and couldn’t keep up with him, yet he could run while carrying her, and she was no feather.
Emily connected the dots, but the only obvious conclusion, matching all the facts, was impossible. She was a scientist, she didn’t believe in legends. And science said that werewolves didn’t exist.