When Night Comes (Unedited)

Chapter Eight

   Angela Percy

    
     I hadn't been outside in a while. Ever since the wolf attack, I had been working from home because both Mesa and Dr.Jules were gone.

     I wished Mesa could be here with me. I had called him but he didn't answer. I didn't want to worry him though. I felt like he was the only one I could trust, the only solid thing I had to hold onto since moving here.

    It had been a quiet week so far, nothing out of the ordinary. But even Charm didn't want to go outside. It was hard to make him go.

   We only went as far as the front yard. There was still blood staining the gravel but it was slowly washing away with the fresh powders of snow.

    Even so, I couldn't get the image of the wolves out of my mind, nor could I stop thinking about Lane.

     Lane.

    I hadn't seen him since Sunday. I felt bad for leaving his house so quickly, like maybe I should've stayed and talked to him.

   But I had been afraid, my nerves were fried and it felt strange to be so near him after everything.

And, I hadn't seen him since and it was taking its own toll on me. It was like every day I woke up and searched the street for his lonely figure. I watched the gate for his sleek car.

   It was odd, his car didn't leave all week, he didn't come out of his house, I didn't even see Safír or Veronica.

    The house, although lit, seemed darker in a way, like someone had turned off half the lights and dimmed them.

     I sat in the desk in my home office, trying to focus. Charm was sitting at my feet, napping as he had been the past few days.

    We spent our nights curled in my bed, him close to my side. He hadn't left it since my return Sunday.

   So many thoughts were bouncing around in my head. The wolf, Lane, the note.

   I pulled out the old book and touched the inside cover. A smudge from the note was stained in it, like it had been written so quickly, the sharpie didn't have time to dry.

   I couldn't stop thinking about who it could be. The more I'd thought about it the more I began to wonder if maybe it was Simon.

   Simon had been nothing but unpleasant. His sneers and comments made me uncomfortable. His eyes were unsettling, it was almost as if there was no pupil at all in them. But why?

   I sighed, sitting back in my chair and looking at the ceiling.

   I'm losing my mind. I thought.

    The late afternoon sun filtered through the thin clouds, shining on the sparkling snow of my backyard below the window.

   It was one of the few days the sun had actually made an appearance in the cold Alaskan sky.

    Charm yawned and licked his nose. His fur rubbed against my toes as he stretched out under the desk.