Anima's Ghost: The Summer Before (Song Line Echoes, book 2)

Chapter 20: The Wolf and the Devil

By the time I wake up in the afternoon, everyone else is already awake. I hear them talking downstairs when I open the door, but before I can go much further than into the hallway, Gatsby comes out of the master bedroom. He's changed into clean clothes and his hair is damp. "Good morning," he smiles when he sees me. "The gas and electricity's on now, so you can take a hot shower if you want."

"Oh, definitely," I nod. I follow him down the stairs so that I can go outside and get my camping bag, then go back upstairs to shower and change into clean clothes and vet wrap. Unsure about the laundry situation, I just set my dirty clothes aside for now. If nothing else, I can hand wash them and hang them to dry overnight.

By the time I go back downstairs, everyone's in the living room. It looks like they've all taken advantage of the hot water too. And, somehow, they're even eating a pizza.

"Where'd this come from?" I ask, going over to get a slice.

"I went to the nearest town to pick it up," Spyro says. But it's still hot, as if it's fresh. "Heated it up in the oven," he adds, which suddenly makes much more sense.

"We were just discussing our next move," Gatsby says, a little more grandly than seems necessary. "We certainly can't go back the way we came now."

"Rune keeps asking if the trip's over now," Spyro adds in between bites of pizza.

"I asked one time," Rune protests.

"Twice." Borden corrects. Rune casts an irritated glare in his direction that Borden either doesn't notice or ignores.

"We are not abandoning the search!" Gatsby declares.

"We know, we know!" Spyro laughs. "Calm down, you lunatic."

"That's one of them, sport!" Gatsby points to Spyro. I look at Spyro, not understanding what Gatsby's talking about.

"It's just one of those urban legends," Spyro tells me. "Like Bloody Mary. Except, more demented."

"The story's always different though," Rune adds. "Some say she appears as a wolf with metal instead of fur, some as a girl dressed in steampunk clothes. Some say she kills whoever calls her, some say she'll do the summoner's bidding no matter what it is. Some say she'll go on a murder spree until the summoner kills either her or themselves, except she's impossible to catch so it's always themselves that end up dying."

"The stories always differ in how to call her, as well," Gatsby says. "Some say you just have to say her name, some say she comes if you call someone a lunatic or crazy. Some say she haunts asylums in between appearances."

"The Bloody Mary legend is not that controversial," I point out.

"That and Bloody Mary was actually real," Gatsby nods. "Wolf Eyes is a complete mystery."

"Wolf Eyes?"

"Well nobody can say her name, but whether she's in human form or wolf form, she, apparently, always has the eyes of a wolf. Literally, they're wolf shaped in a human head. So she's known as Wolf Eyes so she can be talked about safely," Spyro tells me.

"I've never heard of that before," I shake my head.

"And I thought you were supposed to be a paranormal researcher," Gatsby mocks, but he's smiling teasingly at me as he does so I know that he doesn't think I'm a bad one for never hearing about Wolf Eyes. Because maybe it's just one of those things that didn't make it onto the internet, because as vast as the internet is, and as small as it makes the world seem sometimes – there is more out there than even an entire species could know.

The cabin has a washer and dryer. While the boys work out what to do next, Edelweiss does the laundry. I stay with the boys at first, trying to convince myself that this is where I belong, that I'm one of them – at least for now. But eventually I end up outside. Maybe because I'm still somehow a country girl before anything else.