by P. J. Night
“Okay, I have just one question, and it’s a simple one. ARE YOU COMPLETELY INSANE?”
“Ethan, I had to find out. I had to know.”
“And what did you find, Em?” Hannah asked, starting to take this whole thing seriously for the first time.
“Well, I didn’t exactly see the wolf. But I did see something moving very fast through the woods.”
“Like a bunny?” Ethan asked.
“This was no bunny,” Emily continued. “It was big, but it flashed past me so quickly, I couldn’t see what it was. I was starting to run home when I saw a bloody tuft of fur hanging from a tree. It looked like wolf fur.”
“Really?” Hannah asked skeptically. “Are you sure it had blood on it?”
“Pretty sure,” Emily replied.
“I think maybe you’re starting to get spooked from hanging around with Drew and Vicky all the time,” Hannah said.
“I think Hannah’s right,” Ethan added. “Maybe hanging around with those two has got you seeing stuff. I mean, a fox, yeah, but there aren’t any wolves for, like, a hundred miles.”
“I guess you’re right,” Emily sighed. “But what’s been making that howling sound?”
“It was probably just a neighbor’s dog or something,” suggested Hannah.
“And the bloody fur—that could have come from anywhere,” Ethan assured her. “Maybe two squirrels got in a fight.”
Emily let out a deep breath. “Thanks, guys. I’m probably just making too big a deal out of nothing.”
“Forget about it for now,” Hannah said. “Let’s talk about something fun, like my idea for the party—make-your-own ice cream sundaes!”
“I love it,” Emily said.
“Excellent,” Hannah said. “Now, for games I—”
The bell sounded, ending lunch period.
“Games will have to wait,” Emily said. “Can’t be late for history. We’ll talk later.”
“See ya,” Hannah said, grabbing her tray and hustling from the table.
“Don’t talk to any wolves on the way home, Em, okay?” Ethan added.
“Good-bye, Ethan,” Emily replied.
As she walked to class, Emily found her thoughts turning back once again to the wolf. Despite her friends’ reassurances, something didn’t seem right to her. She just couldn’t let it go. And even though Hannah didn’t like them, she wasn’t ready to give up her friendship with Drew and Vicky. She wanted them all to come to the sleepover. She was sure that once they all had some fun together, away from that creepy house, Drew, Vicky, Hannah, and Ethan would become friends.
But first she had to find out, once and for all, whether there really was a wolf or if she was simply losing her mind.
I’m going back into the woods tonight, Emily decided. And this time I’m taking Drew and Vicky with me!
CHAPTER 6
“So the sleepover party is definitely happening?” Vicky asked that evening when Emily went over to hang out. Vicky had just finished beating Emily in a game of Ping-Pong. They were each stretched out across a different tattered, overstuffed chair with their legs dangling over one of the chair’s thick arms and their heads resting against the other. Drew looked on from the corner of the room, where he was restringing his guitar.
“Yep, everything’s on,” Emily replied. “My friends and I always do something special at the end of the school year. Last year we went to an amusement park. This year we thought a party would be fun and a sleepover party would be extra fun. What’d your parents say? You guys allowed to come?”
“I’m not sure,” Drew said, never taking his eyes off the neck of his guitar. He tightened a string, then pulled another one from the package.
“What do you mean?” Emily said. “I thought you guys wanted to come. You know, since you don’t go to school, this is a way you can be part of a group of friends.”
Vicky looked at her brother, then at Emily. “We do want to come,” she said. “It’s just that we haven’t been able to nail our parents down about going over to your house.”
“Why not?” Emily asked. “You know my mom won’t let me officially invite you to the sleepover until she’s spent more than two minutes with you. And she’d really like to meet your parents, too. What’s the problem?”
“You know, they’re weird,” Vicky replied, slightly defensively. “Lots of people have weird parents. I mean, are your parents totally normal?”
Emily shook her head. She couldn’t figure out what the big deal could be with Mr. and Mrs. Strig, but it wasn’t worth pushing too hard and risking her friendship with Drew and Vicky. “No, of course not,” she said. “My parents are weird just like everyone else’s. I mean, the other day my dad asked if he could come over with me and play foosball with you guys. And when I told him about the idea for the sleepover, he suggested we go play miniature golf instead. He is such a weirdo!”
Vicky and Drew both laughed.
“Anyway,” Emily continued, “there’s something else I wanted to talk to you both about.”
Vicky sat up. Drew continued working on the guitar’s sixth and final string.
Emily went on, “Last night, when I left your house, almost as soon as I stepped out, I heard—I heard—oh, boy, I just realized how weird this is going to sound. Well, I heard the wolf again.”
Vicky’s eyes opened wide. “The wolf from your dream?” she asked.
“It sure sounded like the same one,” Emily explained. “But I didn’t actually see it.”
Drew put down his guitar and walked over to the girls. “Well, at least we know you weren’t dreaming.”
“Unless, of course, you were sleepwalking when you were over here.”
“Vicky!” Emily cried.
“Just a joke. So what did you do when you heard the wolf?”
“Well, the sound was coming from the woods behind your house,” Emily began.
“Really?” Drew interrupted.
“Without a doubt,” Emily said.
“That’s strange,” Drew said. “I didn’t hear a thing.”
“Me neither,” Vicky added. “So what did you do?”
“I went into the woods to see what was going on,” Emily replied, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “I know, you’re going to say, ‘Are you crazy, going into the woods by yourself to find a wolf—a huge, man-eating monster?’”
“No,” Vicky said. “Actually, what I was going to say was that you’re pretty brave for doing that and I wish I had been there with you. Sounds like a cool adventure.”
“Oh,” Emily said, pleasantly surprised.
“Did you see anything in the woods?” Drew asked.
“Nothing I could identify. I saw something big move very quickly past me. Then I heard the howling again. I got scared and ran from the woods. That’s when I saw something hanging from a tree.”
“What?” Vicky asked.
“Fur from an animal. A wolf maybe. And it was covered in blood.”
“You’re not making this up to get back at us for making fun of your dream, are you?” Drew asked.
“If it really was a dream,” Emily said with renewed conviction that maybe she had seen a wolf that first night. “And no, I’m not making it up. In fact, I think we should go back out into those woods right now and find out once and for all if there is anything creepy and dangerous lurking in there.”
Drew and Vicky looked at each other. They both shrugged.
“Let’s do it,” Drew said, setting his guitar onto a stand and heading for the back door.
Outside, the night was quiet. The three friends hurried across the unkempt lawn and paused at the edge of the woods. Emily nodded to the others, then continued ahead into the darkness.
Leading the way, with Drew and Vicky close behind, Emily moved quickly but carefully through the thicket of trees and bushes. She shoved aside branches and squeezed her way around thick tree trunks.
Emily stopped short in front of an old tree with sharp bare branches sticking
out on all sides. “This is it,” she said. “I’m sure of it. This is where the bloody tuft of fur was.”
A bright light suddenly blazed to life, sending Emily stumbling backward, crashing into a tree.
“Who’s there?” she cried.
“Um, sorry, it’s just me,” Vicky replied, waving a flashlight around. “I guess I should have warned you that I was turning on the flashlight, huh?”
“Yes! No surprises, please! We’re in the woods, in the dark, hunting a monster, remember?” Emily screamed in an adrenaline-fueled shriek. She had been keeping her composure pretty well considering all this wolf-and-blood-and-creepy-woods craziness—until that moment.
She took a deep breath. “Okay, maybe I overreacted a bit. Anyway, now that you’ve got that thing on, shine it at the tree.”
Vicky trained the flashlight’s beam on the bare tree. She lit up the branches, moving her light up and down. Emily examined each branch. She saw no sign of the fur she had seen the night before.
Finding nothing on that particular tree, the trio moved deeper into the woods. The night was still. Even the usually fluttering leaves made no sound in the windless darkness.
“So what are we looking for now?” Drew asked, ducking under a branch.
“I don’t know,” Emily replied. “Something. Anything. Whatever it was I saw last—”
The sound of footsteps tearing through the woods stopped Emily short.
“Here it comes!” she whispered. “It sounds like what I heard last night. But I don’t see anything.”
The woods grew silent again for a moment, then the sound returned.
“Whatever it is, it’s running through the dead leaves on the ground, kicking up a storm,” Drew said, staring into the darkness, trying to find the movement that went along with the rustling and running sounds.
“There!” Vicky said a few seconds later, aiming the flashlight at the ground. The brilliant beam picked up a scurrying movement.
“That’s it!” Emily cried, relieved to learn that she was not imagining things. There really was something out there.
The creature froze in the intense circle of light, then turned and flashed its dark eyes right at Vicky.
“Um, Emily, that’s a raccoon,” Drew said.
The small creature stared up at the friends, looking at first puzzled, then annoyed. When it flashed a set of sharp-looking teeth, Vicky turned off the light, allowing the critter to go about its nocturnal business in private.
“That’s what this was all about?” Vicky asked. “A raccoon in the woods at night?”
“No!” Emily snapped defensively. “I don’t know. Maybe we should just—”
A-hooooo! Ow-ow-w!
Emily stopped talking and clutched Vicky’s arm. “That’s the sound—the exact sound, I swear,” she said in horror. “It’s the wolf! Shine your light! Shine your light!”
Vicky fumbled clumsily with the flashlight, trying to turn it on as quickly as she could.
Emily’s frantic insistence didn’t help. “Come on! Come on!” she cried.
A-hooooo! Ow-ow-w!
The howling came again, closer this time. Vicky dropped the flashlight onto the ground.
“It’s getting closer!” Emily whispered.
Vicky dropped to her knees. She began to feel around desperately among the leaves and twigs. Emily knelt down beside her and helped with the search. If they were going to get torn apart by a wild beast, the least they could do was see the thing.
“Got it!” Vicky cried after a few more seconds of panicked searching.
A-HOOOOO! OW-OW-W!
The howling was right upon them now. Vicky lifted herself to one knee and flipped the switch. Her light blazed to life, and she aimed the beam right at the sound, which now seemed to be directly overhead, ready to pounce down onto them.
A-HOOOOO! OW-OW-W!
In the circle of light casting skyward, perched on a thick branch, stood an owl. The bird cocked its head as it peered down at the kids looking up at it.
“A-HOOOOO! OW-OW-W!” the owl screeched again. Then it spread its wings and took off into the night.
“Well?” Vicky said questioningly to Emily. “Seen enough? Do you need any more proof that there is no wolf, no monster, no bloodthirsty beast?”
Emily sighed. She still could not explain all this, but she also couldn’t continue to search for something that most likely did not exist. “Yeah, let’s go home. Sorry, Vicky. Sorry, Drew.”
But Drew didn’t respond. “Drew? DREW?! Vicky, where’s Drew? He’s gone.”
“Drew!” Vicky called out.
“Drew!” Emily cried, their voices echoing through the trees.
“What are you two yelling about?” Drew said suddenly from behind them.
“Where were you?” Emily asked sternly, like a frightened mother reprimanding a child.
“I had to pee,” Drew explained. “Did I miss anything?”
“You missed Emily being attacked by a killer owl. A-hooooo! Ow-ow-w!” Vicky did a pretty good impression of the owl.
“That’s it, guys,” Emily said, throwing her hands into the air. “I’m done with all this wolf stuff. I promise. I’m sorry I dragged you out here.”
“It’s no big deal,” Vicky said. “It’s a nice night for a walk.”
Vicky had barely finished her sentence when the first drops of rain began to fall. The trio picked their way back through the woods. By the time they emerged into Drew and Vicky’s backyard it was pouring.
“Sorry again, guys!” Emily said through the teeming raindrops. “I’ll see you soon.” Then she ran across the street.
Pausing under the awning at her front door, she glanced back at the Strigs’ house. She saw Vicky slip through the front door. Then she heard the all-too-familiar howling again. Leaning to one side to get a better angle on the woods, Emily saw something running—something larger than a raccoon or an owl.
She turned quickly away. “No,” she muttered to herself just before stepping inside. “I am done with all this wolf stuff!”
CHAPTER 7
Emily tossed and turned, trying to force herself to fall asleep. She knew it was hopeless.
“I’m done with all this wolf stuff. I’m done with all this wolf stuff,” she kept repeating over and over, hoping that she could convince herself it was true, or at the very least use it to help her fall asleep; kind of like counting sheep or listening to music.
No luck. The more she tried to push the weirdness out of her mind, the more it clawed at her. Sure, she could put on a brave face to Drew and Vicky and Ethan and Hannah, saying things like “I know it was only a dream,” and “Yes, I love scary movies, and yes, I know I have an active imagination.” But in her heart, she didn’t buy it. Not for one second. There was something strange going on in her neighborhood, across the street, in the woods beyond the Strigs’ house.
And at that moment Emily knew for certain that she had to find out what it was. She had to do this by herself, and she had never been surer about anything in her life. Jumping from her bed, she quickly got dressed. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was three forty-five a.m.—no time for anyone in their right mind to be getting dressed and going outside for any reason, much less to search for a monster.
Then again, Emily was far from sure that she was still in her right mind.
A-hooooo! Ow-ow-w!
The howling drifted through her window, as if somehow the creature knew that she was coming after it, and calling her to join it. Emily found it strange that this sound didn’t scare her. In fact, it didn’t even surprise her. She felt as though she had an appointment with the beast to settle their score. To end this.
Moving swiftly but as quietly as she could, Emily hurried down the stairs and slipped out the front door. She had never been outside this late before. There was that time when she was nine, her family had to make a trip to visit a sick aunt, and her dad decided it would be better to drive all night than to fly out the next day. But other th
an that and a few restless nights before big tests, Emily had never really seen what three forty-five a.m. looked like. But now she was out in it.
Her safe, comfortable neighborhood felt odd. The quiet was startling. No cars, no music or TV sets, no one mowing the lawn. Only her footsteps tapping against the blacktop as she crossed the street.
Without pausing, she walked right onto the Strigs’ front yard, went around to the back of the house, and reached the edge of the woods.
A-hooooo! Ow-ow-w!
“I’m coming,” Emily said boldly. “And I’m not afraid of you.”
Emily had been in these woods so many times that she felt she could almost find her way around blindfolded. And she might as well have been, given how dark it was. Fearlessly she pushed through the thick branches, annoyed at their latest attempts to scratch her. She couldn’t see or hear the wolf, but she felt she knew exactly where to go to find it.
Deeper and deeper she plunged until she came to a slight clearing that she somehow knew was right in the center of the woods. Emily looked in every direction, peering into the dense growth just beyond the small opening in which she stood.
“Where are you?” she muttered. “Show yourself. Show me that you are real!”
Snap.
A small twig snapped behind Emily. She spun around and spotted a thick, hairy paw emerging from the undergrowth. The paw was followed by a leg, then the wolf’s large head and long jaws slid out from the thicket.
The creature turned its head sideways and narrowed its eyes, as if it were sizing Emily up. She stood her ground. She had not come this far to turn away now. Emily had never felt so brave. She met the wolf’s gaze with a penetrating stare.
The wolf drew back the skin around its mouth, revealing the same bloodstained teeth Emily remembered from the first time she had seen the animal—in that so-called dream that clearly was no dream.
Crouching low, the wolf let out a deep, low-pitched growl. Brave as she was trying to be, Emily began to feel afraid . . . very afraid. The creature seemed to sense this change of emotion, from her rock-steady conviction to the overwhelming fear that now threatened to hold her paralyzed where she stood.