And Then The Murders Began

Chapter Twenty-Two: Winds of Change

I don't know what to do, and I sure as hell don't want to seem rude, I mean, hello, I'm a wolf, isn't the stereotype already that I eat children in their sleep- or is it that I stuff them into ovens? Oh no wait I'm thinking of the Big Bad Wolf and I mean sure, I might be tall for a wolf and people might find me intimidating but that sure as hell doesn't change the fact that I'm insanely out of my element here, holy fuck...

"That look on your face, dear, it worries me, please, tell me what's going on? I know you love- loved, is it now- my dearest darling, how did she...?"

"S- see, m- ma'am, t- that's th- th- the th- th- th- th- thing," I stammer, and my tongue feels like a fucking cat's, rough, gritty, dry... "she told the school that I'd- I'd I'd I'd..." I stammer again and the words aren't fucking coming out... why the fuck aren't they coming out of my mouth I freaking hate this, just English Electra, you know, your first fucking language, it ain't that hard- "that I'd-," I stammer and the words just don't freaking want to come out of my mouth... "that I'd- I'd...."

"Shh, Electra, it's alright, I understand, I'm not mad at you, alright... she made her decision and it ruined enough lives... dear, I don't want to see it ruin yours as well... you've got hundreds of years ahead of you, I don't need you to become a mess like my ex-husband.... Got himself tied up with the mob and made a mess of the place, I dumped the bastard real quick after I found out about that, washed my paws... you know, I haven't thought about him in years, I think his name was Montimer or Larry or something like that... but for some reason he always went by Luke...," she says, and I can feel my ears flick down again...

"Was his last name 'Wilde,' by any chance, Irma?" I ask, feeling the prickles of fear start to run up and down my back, whole washes of cold... shit, I think I know...

"It was Selva- or Salvaje... he used either... but are you telling me something here dear?" Irma asks, looking at me with the same fearful and yet all too curious look that I'm sure I'm giving her at the same time...

"Well, um, 'salvaje' is Spanish for 'wild,' so make of that what you will...," I say, trying to make sense of it all in my head... so my step-father- shit, how old is the bastard?

"Thought maybe," Irma says, shaking her head. "Last I knew he had remarried a wolf like you... I mean, he was one, we never had any children... not of our own, anyways, but he'd adopted a little girl before he ever got married... and she was a darling... I haven't seen her in years but her name was Lylah... she was a lynx like me... and I loved her dearly, but she moved out and she- I don't know, she never spoke to me again, I don't know what I said, but when he learned that she wouldn't talk to me after she grew up, well he ditched me... if you see her I hope you'll tell her then... and he wanted her so badly- threatened to kill me if I dared speak up about what he'd said... but the last I'd heard of him he'd dumped her too and left poor Robin behind somewhere in the process...? And he got married to someone else last I'd heard, some other wolf or am I mixing things up here?"

"I- I I don't know but then- but then he ended up strung up, he's dead... and he was my mother's husband before he got spider-webbed and strung upside-down like Straker... fuck this doesn't make any sense, it just keeps getting more complicated... I hate it why can't it be simple... So he's, let's get this straight, you're Lylah's adoptive mom- originally- and then you guys got divorced and he took the kid- and the kid dropped off the map nowhere to be seen again and- and- and that lynx- gods it's a mess and even I'm barely keeping track of all of it, how the hell do you do it?"

"Real simple there, I don't," I shake my head. "But let me try- you married a guy and together with him you adopted a lynx- that guy broke up with you and married lynx like himself and when they got divorced she realized that he was an abusive asshole of a mammal and separated the two of them and then he went on to marry a wolf who already had a kid- and that kid was me, holy hell... which makes you Lylah's adoptive mom... fuck Electra you just said that... and that means that through some hella twisted logic Lylah and I would be sisters? Or cousins or something, fuck I don't know but fucking hell what the shit, that's just weird..."