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Sam bent and reached into the grate. By the dim light of the dirty window, he unfolded and and read the charred chunk of newspaper.
"WOLF SIGHTING IN COLLSVILLE
TEEN ENCOUNTERS RABID WOLF OUTSIDE DRUGSTORE
Seventeen year-old old Samuel Derry claims to have come face to face with a wolf outside the twenty-four hour drugstore on West Abernathy Street.
Sent to fetch aspirin for his younger sister, the teenager instead found a canis lupus lurking in the shadows. The scene only lit by the neon glow, Sam described it as 'mangy-looking, quick-tempered' and 'very frightened'. Frightened indeed! The streets of Collsville are no place for a wolf. Animal control and the Collsville Canine Refuge are currently searching for it, but the creature seems to have vanished. We can only hope that it has returned to the moors, but in light of re—"
The clipping ended there, but another flaking fragment revealed the words "—ssing dog. Some claim the wolf is st—" and "—oaming our cit—".
Sam's lips pressed into a thin line, and he glanced up at the claw marks in the walls of the filthy apartment.
He remembered that first meeting, and the rumors that followed. Some claimed it was a vengeful spirit. Others said the zoo had neglectfully allowed one of their wolves to escape, even though the keepers and handlers adamantly denied that one. He didn't know what to believe, until he saw the creature again two days later and tracked it here. This rotting little flat in the heart of the city. Where was it now? He knew it left every afternoon, and, though the morning was dawning, it shouldn't return for some time.
As he stared down at the ashes, pondering his next move, he became aware of another sound in the room.
