Home -- Wolv book 3

Chapter 7 - I'll still hear your screams

The world was undulating before her eyes, twisting and morphing at impossible angles and filling her mind with dizziness.

Where am I?  It was a fair question by any accounts--the girl couldn't even remember her own name; he mind was so far out of it.

She lifted a hand to her face woozily, slowly curling her fingers. Near the limit of her vision, a familiar figure stood looking down at her.

I know him... She furrowed her brow, trying to make her mind work. Why was there so much fog clouding her senses?

Humfrey. That's his name! That's who he is!

But he looks so...different!

"Humfrey?" The word escaped her lips as nothing more than a slur. "What happened...to your face?" Despite the confusion running through her, she could clearly see that Humfrey--whoever he was--looked different. Something was missing from his features, something small yet noticeable...

The world lurched beneath her as Humfrey dragged Nadie's canoe onto the shore, with Nadie herself resting inside. She furrowed her brow even more. How did I get into a canoe? What am I doing here?

And why doesn't Humfrey have a cleft lip anymore? Nadie finally realized exactly what it was that looked so different about the boy in front of her--the two scars that had always been above his lip were gone. It was a small detail, yet it stood out oddly for her.

"You look...different! What happened to your face?" Nadie slurred again. Try as she might, making her body and mouth work the way they were supposed to was proving to be quite difficult.

"Go back to sleep, Nadie."

Wow. He sounds different too!  Had he always sounded so hoarse? His voice was genuinely ragged, as if he'd just swallowed a handful of gravel. Nadie tried to sit up in the canoe, only to tumble over her own limbs back down into the hull. What is wrong with me?

"Oh, for cryin' out loud," Humfrey growled. He grabbed a map and scribbled something on the paper, before leaning over and tucking it under Nadie's arm.

What is this? Why are you--"Ow!" Nadie's fingers brushed against something sharp, sending a quick jolt of pain through her fogged mind. Humfrey pulled back, staring at his claws, mortified.

It was as if the pain were a gust of wind; moments later, the haze in her head vanished, being replaced by a mildly painful clarity. Like a flood, her memories came rushing back to her.

She'd gotten Old Man Garett to fly her, along with a canoe, deep into the Atikaki Wilderness just a day or so before. She'd paddled for hours after being dropped off, traveling down the Bloodvein River, desperately searching for her friend in the hopes that she would find him before the change that was tormenting his body finally killed him.

But she'd ran into someone. Several someones, in fact, who claimed to be conservation officers surveying the river. They'd questioned her, even asking her about Humfrey Michaels--they'd claimed that he'd killed someone in the city. She hadn't believed them...they'd grown suspicious of her, and then they had--

Oh my word, I've been drugged! It was the last thing she could remember before waking up here; the cold, sharp prick of a needle being plunged into her neck. The people she'd met on the side of the river hadn't taken too kindly to her stubborn refusal to help them find her friend.

...But how did Humfrey end up finding me?

She looked up at him, cracking a weak smile. He looked exhausted; dark circles hung below his odd, glossy-black eyelids, and he was slouched over miserably. Nadie cocked her head at him, noting his pointed ears and twisted, almost paw-like feet.