Saving the Wolf (On Hold)

Chapter 7

All too soon the alarm clock went off and Sara literally had to push herself out of her bed.  She sulked into her bathroom and drowsily started her shower.  As she sat beneath the hot water and felt it hit her shoulders, random flashes of the night's dreams slipped through her mind and she shook them off, concentrating on getting clean and ready for the day.

Stepping out of the shower, Sara was wide awake and calculating if she had enough time to eat a reasonable breakfast before she headed out.  She slipped on some sweatpants and a worn out t-shirt then ran into the kitchen and grabbed a bagel.  She thought about toasting it, but quickly discarded the idea when she looked at the clock and saw she was running behind.

Just before she ran out the door she saw her reflection and quickly pulled her long blonde hair back into a ponytail and bolted.  As soon as she had her car started, she hit the gas and screeched off.  She knew she would get some dung for that from the neighbours when she got back. 

Sara was a self-employed woman, living on her own.  She cleaned houses, and though you would think that someone could not be late for such a job, Sara had put it off for 3 weeks and the real estate lady was coming to see the house that afternoon.  She hadn't even stopped by to look at it yet.  As she saw the address on the mailbox and pulled in the driveway, she gaped at the massive house that loomed over the yard.

"Now that just isn't fair," she complained.  

She was hoping it was one of the small houses with two rooms and a bathroom.  Clearly she had her work cut out for her.  

She made several trips between her car and the house to bring all of her cleaning supplies in and promptly went to work.  It was a two-story house with 5 rooms upstairs and the master bedroom downstairs along with a master bathroom, kitchen, dining room, living room, and library.  There were 2 much smaller bathrooms upstairs as well.  

She started from the top and worked her way across and down.  She had the air conditioning on high to cool the place off and get rid of the musty smell that had settled on the place from lack of residents.  She finished upstairs rather quickly because that area of the house had been left in good shape and it seemed that the rooms and bathrooms had barely been used.  

Downstairs was a different matter entirely.  The kitchen was messy and the master bedroom looked like a rat had lived in it.  The worst though was by far the library.  

Tons of papers had been left strewn about the room and rotted food was all over the place.  The previous residents had left all of their furniture in the house along with some other possessions.  The furniture in this room had been tipped over and some of it broken.  Empty bottles were in several places and when Sara picked up one to get a closer look, she saw that it was a whiskey bottle and she crinkled her nose in disgust.

"Don't people have respect for their own homes anymore?"  She sat for a moment imagining someone in a drunken rage throwing things around the library and sitting in their own misery, never leaving the room.  She shook her head and chastised herself for wasting time and left the library, deciding she'd save THAT for last.

Once Sara had started on the kitchen, it wasn't all as bad as she had thought since all of the cabinets were empty and it was mainly the counter and floor that were splattered with food.  Like upstairs, the dining room and living room were practically untouched.  

After tackling the last bedroom and bathroom, Sara entered the library with several trashbags and set to throwing everything away.  She went for the food first since it smelled the worst and she needed the room to air out within the next two hours.  It took two trashbags to clear the food out and several minutes of gagging.  

Sweeping through the room again, she picked up all the papers and pens laying around.  As she was stuffing them into the trashbags, she noticed several diagrams of animals and others of the human body.  She wondered what kind of weirdo had lived there. 

If this is a mad scientist's house, I had better not run across any creepy experiments or I'm out of here.  Seriously, I am not going to......

Sara's thoughts came to a halt as she came across a book on the ground.  It was worn and looked like any other book, but what had stopped her was the diagram that was on the page it was opened to.  It was almost grotesque in how vivid it was, the picture of a man/beast.  It seemed he was transforming, caught in between two forms.  

Her work almost completely forgotten, she stooped down and turned the page.  

She looked in horror as a scene of carnage lay before her eyes.  It showed a man, handsome to say the least, with dark hair and pale skin leading an army.  This army was ripping animals to shreds and the picture left no detail out.

 Sara thought she could hear growls and screams and the sound of metal and before she became completely overwhelmed, she slammed the book shut.  

She came back to reality and realized she had wasted even more time and was now feeling ill.  She quickly stood up and set the book on the shelf with several others and resumed cleaning, trying to forget the fear she had felt.  Soon enough she had thrown all the broken furniture out along with the rest of the trash and finished her cleaning with ten minutes to spare.  

The real estate lady arrived shortly and Sara handed her her spare key to the house.

"The house is completely clean, if you find anything that isn't up to your standards, you have my number.  Just call me and I will come and fix the problem."

"Thankyou, and here's your check," the woman said handing her an envelope and then turning away.  Just before she entered the house, Sara called out to her from her car.

"By the way miss, I was just wondering if you knew who lived here before?"

She stopped for a moment and after some thinking, smiled and said, "If I recall, there was an old man by the name of Mr. Kenton."

"So he died then?"  Sara couldn't imagine an old man making the mess in the library, but if he did, she could imagine him having a heart attack after doing so.  

The lady shook her head. "No, he disappeared for a while and when he came back, he could barely wash himself so they brought him to the Three Oaks nursing home on the other side of town.  He doesn't have any relatives, so he called us to sell the house instead, unless he changes his mind before it is sold.  I don't see that happening though, since the poor thing can barely walk and he wouldn't be able to live here alone again."

Sara thanked her and then got in her car and pulled away.  After hearing what the real estate lady said, she had come to the conclusion that some homeless person or ruffian had decided to use the house as a hideout while Mr. Kenton had gone.  When people came to the house to check on it, the person must have hit the road so they wouldn't get caught.

"Thanks a lot," she muttered to herself, peeved that they would leave the place in such a mess when it wasn't even their own.

Entering her small house, Sara gave a sigh of relief and then looked at herself in the mirror.  Her blue eyes seemed a bit dull and her hair had tufts sticking out everywhere.  She looked, and then discovered that she felt, sticky from all the sweating she had done while cleaning.  

The bathroom was the only place she wanted to be at this point so she went straight for the shower to wash off all the grime and the musty smell.  After she had finished, she dried herself, pulled on a t-shirt and shorts, and then collapsed on her bed in exhaustion.

Slowly she drifted into sleep, and the last clear thoughts she had were those of Mr. Kenton at Three Oaks and the old book she found on the floor at his house.  She had to go find Mr. Kenton.