by Julia Chase
I tried to reason about it all. What else could the town be freaked about? Because that's all that they'd picked up on, right? That something was very wrong? That could be a million things. Many options that weren't paranormal at all.
Then one of the options sprung to mind. One option that actually made a lot of sense, even if it was a bit self-centered.
What if they were all just panicked because I'd gone missing? Because I'd been kidnapped? It was a small town. Most of the people there knew me. Not that I was some sort of celebrity. But maybe that was it. I thought about how panicked I'd be if I ever found out that Daisy had been stolen in the night. Probably panicked enough that I'd set out some mystical warning signal.
It was that thought that I kept on my mind to calm my nerves as we ran through the night. The thought that nothing was actually wrong at home. There was panic because I'd gone missing. Nothing more than that.
The rhythmic movement between my legs, plus the memories of what we'd almost done, where the only things powerful enough to distract me from what was happening. I couldn't believe how close I'd let him get.
Hours later, my whole body was tired from nothing but holding on. Though Darriel showed no signs of exhaustion, he slowed down as we approached Crestwood. It was still dark, but the sun couldn't be that far from the horizon.
And then we saw them.
Flashlights. The beams from them, at least. Sweeping the forest. Hollers rang out. They were calling for someone. Looking for me, just like I'd assumed.
Darriel skidded to a stop in the dirt, as did the rest of the wolves. Several flashlights pointed our way at the noise. And just like that the whole pack was running the other direction.
Five minutes later we came to a stop once again. Darriel phased back into human form as I dismounted, and the rest of the wolves phased as well. I was standing in the middle of a group of black men. My kidnappers. But somehow I felt safe.
"Alright," said Darriel, "What the fuck is going on?"
Several of the men spoke at once, but I thought I had the answer, so I tried to talk louder than the rest of them. "I think I know," I said. They all got quiet real fast and listened. "I've been missing for a full day now. As far as they know, I was just taken by some horrible people. They're probably just out looking for me."
A few of them nodded, while others shook their heads.
"Melanie," said one of them whose name I didn't know, "knew that you'd been taken. So she would have accounted for that. It must be something worse."
"I agree," said Tyson. "And Darriel, I can't imagine you'll let her go anyway."
Darriel was deep in thought. "It could be so many other things," he said. "And if the signals were so strong, there's no telling who else might be out there. There are werebears around here. Vampires are everywhere. Witches would be drawn to this kind of panic as well. That's what makes things go from bad to worse so quickly in situations like this."
"We all know that," said Tyson.
"All but one," I corrected. "So you're worried that there's more causing panic than just me missing?"
"Right," said Darriel.
"Well me going back would at least help," I said. "Right?"
Darriel shook his head. Then he began walking. Past me towards where the flashlights were. Towards the town. "Stay back everyone. Ruby, come with me."
I obeyed, as did the rest of the pack. We walked at a leisurely pace through the woods.
"Look," he said. "You can go back. It'll probably help. But you have to understand a couple of things."
"Sure," I said.
"There are other things out there. Things that are much more dangerous than me and my pack. Not more powerful - but they'll use their power in much more malicious ways. Understand?"
"Yes," I said. It was crazy, but I trusted him.
"So you'll need to be careful. My scent is on you. You might become a target."
"I understand," I said.
He stopped walking. The yells from the searching townspeople were growing louder. "And there's something else."
"Yeah?"
"Well, once you're gone, I won't be able to come get you again."
I was silent.
"Your whole town will be on high alert for a while. Even if I just walk in as a human, wearing my nicest white-guy suit, people will suspect that I'm up to something. And then if I try to steal someone's daughter away, they'll have been right."
I still had nothing to say.
"You're the One for me," he continued. "And if you walk away now, we'll never get to finish what we started."
That rush of blood one more time.
"But I'll understand if that's the decision you make. For your family, your town. After all, I'm just some guy who pulled you out of your bed."
I dropped the bag from my back, and pulled out my little blue suitcase. "Darriel," I said. The flashlight beams were almost reaching us. "I'm sorry."
And with that I got on tip-toe and kissed him. I pulled him down by the collar of his shirt, and his hands landed on either side my head.
I pulled away. Turned away. And began to walk towards the search party, trying to come up with some sort of excuse.
I heard Darriel phasing over my shoulder, and then dashing off into the woods. I sighed, knowing that I'd never see him again.
Chapter 7
"Ruby?!" yelled one of the voices. It sounded like my Dad. "Ruby!"
"Dad?" I yelled back.
A big figure that I knew for sure was my Dad lumbered over to me. His arms wrapped around me and lifted me into the air. "You're okay. Are you okay?"
"Yes," I said, with all the air being squeezed out of me. "I'm fine."
The squeeze continued. "I am so glad to hear that," he said.
He put me down, and then his voice boomed out into the woods. "Found her! I've found Ruby!"
A chorus of voices shouted throughout the forest, passing the message along. He put one arm over my shoulder and we began the walk back to the house. His flashlight lit up a path through the thick woods.
There was a tenseness in his step though. Although he has found me, there was something else that' wasn't quite right.
I noticed that the rest of the search party just carried on searching.
"So what's going on?" I asked.
"I should be asking you," he said. "You're the one who just ran off like it was no big deal. In the middle of the night. Your first night back."
"I didn't-"
"You know," he said, "it doesn't even matter. We don't need to be fighting at a time like this."
He was talking much faster than normal. "Dad," I said, "What's happened?"
He stayed silent. I tuned into the voices in the background for the first time. And I heard, clearly, what they were yelling now that I'd been found. They were all yelling "Daisy!"
"Dad," I said, not managing to keep the panic from my voice. "What's happened to Daisy?"
He shook his head as we continued to walk. "Honestly I was hoping that she'd be with you. Sisters sticking together, you know?"
"Daisy is missing?"
"Yes," he said in an exhausted voice. I got the feeling that he hadn't slept in a while.
"What happened?"
"I have no idea. That's the scariest part. You disappear one morning. We think you've just slept in until the morning. Daisy goes out for the day like nothing's wrong. And then she's not back for dinner. Not back for bedtime. The both of you, disappeared. No message. No screams. No struggles. Just gone."
"I'm really sorry," I said. "I don't know what came over me. There was just something about the woods. I was drawn in."
"Magic woods, eh?" he said. There was a strange cheeriness that accompanied his exhaustion.
"Something like that," I said. My mind was racing. Daisy. Gone. Captured. She was just barely eighteen. Left without a fight. The idea that the same thing had happened to her and I seemed a bit far fetched. So what had gotten her?
And would it be so willing to let
me go?
We got back to the house and Mom was a mess. She'd clearly tried to put on her regular makeup in the morning, but at this point it had been strewn all over her face with tears.
A huge smile came onto her face the second she saw me though. Showing off her teeth, and gums. She ran over and wrapper her arms around me, and I returned the favor.
I assume her and Dad were making eye contact when he said the words, "It was just her. She was alone."
I feel her legs go weak, and my hug keeps her from collapsing on the floor. Her face moves into my shoulder as she begins to sob.
"What are we supposed to do?" she says, between gasps.
The sun was beginning to rise in the east. That gave me a bit of hope, because all of those night-specific monsters they'd mentioned would become powerless. Or at least much less powerful.
The police showed up not long after I did, and they sat me onto the couch for questioning. It's standard procedure, I guess, when more than one person goes missing at once. They hope to pick up on a pattern. But I knew that if I told them the truth, they wouldn't believe it.
So I went with that still-crazy but not insane-asylum-crazy explanation that I'd felt a strange pull into the woods that I could resist. They chalked it up to some hippy stuff I'd picked up at college, and thanked me for my help.
I learned from them that me and Daisy were the only two people who'd gone missing. That did explain why Melanie had picked up on the extra panic - more than just one missing person would cause.
But I also learned from them that the cops had no idea what they were dealing with. I don't know what they thought they were up against, but there was no mention of paranormal anything. No questions hinting at their knowledge of anything more than you learn in elementary school.
I went up to my room. My parents understood that I must have been tired, so they let me lie in bed for a while. And I was tired. I was exhausted. But I couldn't fall asleep.
I thought back to my dream. The one about the invasion of suave people into my town. The people who end up murdering everyone. The image of Daisy dying somehow - bleeding to death - was stuck in my head. It made my stomach turn.
But the exhaustion was enough that I became very drowsy. My mind managed to wander a bit. And there was only one man who it was interested in wandering to. And wandering up and down.
We'd been so close, and I couldn't decide if I was glad or not that we hadn't done it. Clearly he wasn't. And I couldn't help but wonder if I'd made the right decision in leaving him. I wondered if I really was the One for him. Or if that was just a line that all shifters used to pick up girls.
The way he'd talked to me though - describing exactly why he found my body type beautiful - that was genuine, I knew for sure.
It wasn't until noon that I shot up in bed. There was a knock on my door, and then it opened slowly. Dad poked his head in and saw that I was awake. Then he stepped the rest of the way in.
He sat at the foot of my bed. There was a deadness in his eyes. "So there's news about Daisy."
All the most horrible possibilities ran through my mind. I felt like a horrible person for having fallen asleep during all of this.
"Her friends led the cops to a place she liked to hang around. A swing set, behind Crestwood Elementary. Apparently that's especially her hangout during the summer, when school isn't in session."
"Okay," I said, trying to get him to hurry up and get to the point.
"Well a friend of hers finally came forward and said that they had plans to meet there today, but that she wasn't there when he showed up."
"And?"
"Well," he said. "They found bear tracks. Leading from the forest to the swing set, and then back to the forest. It's part of the woods with a steep incline, so the search parties weren't looking there last night. Too dangerous."
"They think she was taken by a bear?"
He let out a long sigh. "Taken is not the word they used." He was blinking back tears. And I my eyes were swelling up as well.
But then I remembered something. A word that Darriel had used that I'd never heard before. Werebear. He had also mentioned that some shifters turned into other things - they weren't all wolves. Maybe some were bears?
My mind raced, but I felt like the wheels weren't on the pavement. I knew so little about all of this. And the only man I'd ever met who knew anything about it was probably far away by now.
Dad scooted up the bed and put his arm around me. "They aren't giving up," he said. "The cops are on it and some animal experts are coming in from other states."
"I need to go," I said. I stood up and started pacing in my room. I had no plan.
"Go where?" he asked. "I think your mother and I would appreciate it if no one ran off for a while. Maybe you could watch some TV with her? Like everything was normal?"
"No," I said. "I need to go. I really do. I promise I'll be back." I leaned in a gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then I ran out of the room, and thumped down the stairs.
"Be careful out there," he yelled from my room.
***
The sky was overcast. Mom was sitting on the couch where she always sat when we watched TV, but the screen was blank. I leaned down and gave her a kiss on the cheek as well.
"I will be back," I said, "I promise."
She didn't respond.
I grabbed for my jacket, but I guess I hadn't unpacked it yet. So I just grabbed the closest one. That stylish brown one that Daisy had been wearing when I'd gotten home.
And then I was out the back door. Through the field, walking at a pace that almost counts as jogging. Just hoping beyond hope that this plan would somehow work out. I needed to come back in one piece, and I needed to have Daisy with me.
I found the place where the cow had been killed not long ago, and I looked into the forest. Like I had just a couple nights ago. This time hoping to see some huge scary animal. And hoping that scary animal would be Darriel.
At first I saw nothing. Then a pair of eyes opened. Brown. Wolf. I smiled. "Darriel?"
He let out a bit of a whimper, then ran back further in the woods. I followed
Once he was fully out of sight of the house, he phased into a human. "You smell different," he said immediately.
It wasn't the kind of weird wolf comment that I wanted to hear right then. "My sister. She's gone missing."
The look on his face became stone serious in an instant.
"And there were bear track right near where they think she last was."
"Bear tracks?" he asked.
"Yes," I said. I bit my lip. I had to keep it together.
"And there wasn't a bloody carcass or anything? Bears aren't really known for their civility. Or for bringing their prey home before devouring it."
A tear rolled down my cheek. I didn't like hearing about that kind of stuff. Not when we were talking about my little sister.
"But what I'm saying is that didn't happen. So it wasn't a normal bear."
In an excited whisper, I said, "A werebear?"
"Well the moon's not full, and a werebear is even more violent than a normal bear. So no. This would be a shifter, like me. But one who turns into a bear, not a wolf."
"I knew you could help me."
"What do I get in return?" he asked with a sly grin.
"Now is not the time," I said.
"Alright," he said. "Let's go find those bear tracks. It's near the perimeter of the woods?"
"Yes," I said, pointing. "That way."
"Good," he said. "Hop on."
Then he was once again a wolf. And I straddled him. And then we were off.
There were a few straggling flashlights in the forest, but that did not slow Darriel down. He ran right past them, moving fast enough that they wouldn't know what they'd seen. I held myself close against him, because if anyone saw me riding a wolf they'd understandably have some questions to ask.
His body was so warm. And that rhythm was so breath taking. And just the skill of it. Jumping over bushes
. Dodging around trees. The whole thing was amazing. And on top of that, he seemed confident that he could help with Daisy.
I worried about what my parents would think right now. I'd run off into the forest again. I hoped that they believed me when I told them that I'd be back.
I pulled his fur hard when we got to the playground. He skidded to a stop, I got off, and he phased into a human.
"So this is where she was when she was taken?"
"Probably," I said. "That's what people are saying."
"Alright," he said. The nostrils on his wide nose flared. Then he looked at me. "That's her jacket."
I tilted my head. "Yes."
"Great. It smells like her around here. We can follow that. Track her down."
"Do you need to become a wolf again?"
"No, many of the abilities remain in my body when I'm human."
Then he started sniffing around. Crouching slightly. "This way," and he took off running through the forest.
I stumbled along behind him. My ankle was starting to hurt again from all the activity. But every now and then he needed to pause and figure out which way to turn. Those were my opportunities to catch up.
He still wasn't wearing a shirt, and it kept distracting me from more important things.
At one of the points where I caught up to him, he turned and grabbed me by the shoulders. "I don't want to leave you behind, but you understand that there are more important things. I need to hurry. I don't know how long your sister will be safe for."
"I understand," I said.
"You'll know when I find them," he said.
Then he stared at me for another second. Then he pulled me in, pressing his lips to mine, and then pushed me away and took off running at full speed.
I walked in the direction that he'd run in. And I could tell where he was going from the sound of the breaking bushes, and the patted-down forest floor where he walked. I wondered if the floor was already patted-down before he got to it.
The sun in the sky beat down on the forest, and everything was well-lit in the forest. I wasn't paying attention to the passage of time. Or how far I was travelling. I didn't pay attention to anything until I heard it. The forest-penetrating sound of a howl. Darriel. He'd found her.
I took off into a run. Not a fast run. I'm not exactly built for speed. But I hustled.