06: The Police Finally Show Up

Richard was not used to the boisterous energy of friends and coworkers. He had visited a nightclub only once and only long enough to decide the music was too loud. He had never attended a concert or a packed baseball game. The loudest thing in his life was the distant cars whizzing past the farmhouse and its vacant fields.

And so as the woman filled his cramped apartment with a deathly shriek, Richard could not help but cover his ears.

As far as he could tell, the woman was just fine. She was covered from head to toe in blood, but he did not think it was her blood.

"Oh..." Richard winced as the woman tried to stand up. She slipped on the slimy gore and landed right on top of the deer's eviscerated torso.

More red paint was added to the woman's misery. She recoiled from the sopping meat as if it were a hot stovetop. Amidst the unending shriek, Richard could make out a veil of tears.

"P-please calm down!" Richard shouted. She jumped at the noise, turned to face him, and resumed screaming.

He took a step towards her misery, and she crawled away, great globs of wet fear streaking down her face.

"You...! I'm...!" Richard struggled to find the right words. "D-don't be afraid! That isn't your blood!"

The black-haired woman did not seem to find his words encouraging. Her screams were interrupted by wracking sobs, and she flailed her arms in front of herself as if he were a thief trying to snatch her purse.

"Please!" Richard could not help but laugh. It was not a healthy sound. He glanced up at the ceiling and reminded himself that he had an upstairs neighbor.

A white shape padded into view. The woman's chest swelled like a peacock's in fear. The whites of her eyes became two full moons as the deflated wolf stomped past the mutilated deer.

"H-hey!" Richard called out in alarm. The wolf placed one of its massive paws atop the woman's chest.

"Quiet," the wolf growled. Beneath her paw, the woman thrashed like a fish out of water. She may as well have been pinned beneath an overturned truck, however.

"Let's... not do anything unreasonable," Richard said as he drew closer to the wolf. He licked his lips nervously as his eyes flashed between the howling woman and the frustrated beast.

The wolf brought its dripping maw close to the woman's throat. Richard wanted to scream. The woman, however, finally stopped. Her body became deathly still. Even the mad rise and fall of her chest ceased.

"Undo the seal on thy The Telleh-Fawn..." the wolf growled with a familiar low rumble, "or I will riiiiiiiiiiip out thy throat!"

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The black-haired woman's mouth became an almost perfect O-shape. Her chest swelled one last final time, and then the life went out of her.

"S-stop that!" Richard knelt beside the woman. She had either had a heart attack and died or she had just fainted.

"The impudence of this one!" The wolf pressed its nose against the woman's face and sniffed noisily. "Will the seal come undone with her death, servant?"

"N-no!" Richard said immediately. Reluctantly, he smacked the woman's face a couple times. He was not altogether sure what to do with someone who fainted. "J-just get off of her for now!"

The wolf huffed as it removed its paw from the woman's chest. The beast padded away and looked past the shattered doorway.

"If I had the internet, I would know what to do..." Richard muttered to himself as he frowned at the passed-out woman. It was a small consolation that she had finally calmed down.

The situation was not good. The dead deer and the broken door had been one thing. The magical talking wolf had been quite another. But this...

"If I call her an ambulance, maybe they can drop me off at the mad house." Richard scratched his beard nervously. His eyes glanced between the ceiling and the woman. His upstairs neighbor's silence felt particularly damning.

"What be those lights, servant?"

Richard waved away the wolf's random question. He did not have time for her right now. Perhaps it was the cold or the hunger, but he could not focus his thoughts. It felt as if...

"Lights?" The word tickled free a familiar worry in Richard's chest.

He turned around slowly and found the wolf looking out at the dirt road leading to the farmhouse.

"Oh no..." Richard muttered numbly as the flashing lights of a police cruiser rolled towards the farmhouse. "No, no. Not now..."

"My memory fails me, servant," the wolf said. She sat like a watchdog on the cusp of the doorway. "Who are those men?"

Richard jumped to his feet. He had not eaten a bite the entire day, but his stomach churned with sickness. He felt lightheaded as the colorful sirens grew ever closer.

The floor was covered in blood. It was covered in bits and pieces of entrails. Slabs of mutilated meat had been flung from corner to corner like some messy child at mealtime. And then there was the woman. She was covered in blood and gore. Bits of unrecognizable slime stuck to her hair.

And she did not move. She looked like a corpse.

"I have to... run?" Richard felt as if his knees were going to buckle at any moment. An unhealthy laugh was trapped inside his belly as he remained paralyzed amidst the crime scene.

He would go to jail. If the police did not shoot him on sight, he would go to jail. But what had he done? Had he done anything? Was the magical talking wolf real? It suddenly seemed a little too optimistic to wish this was all just a hallucination.

"Ahhhhhhh."

Richard jumped as the wolf rose from its dignified perch. She filled the room with a happy noise.

"Those are human soldiers. Naalkaw acts quick!"

All of Richard's worries were sent scurrying as the wolf loosed an ominous howl. She turned towards him, the ivory white of her teeth gleaming in salivary excitement.

"Prepare thyself for battle, servant!" the wolf said. Richard could hear the tires of the police cruiser on the gravel. "Kyeeeeh heh heh!"

"You're crazy!" Richard shouted, forgetting for a moment that he was the one talking to a magical talking wolf. "You can't! You need to... We need to get away from here!"

The police were close enough that he could see one of them on his walkie-talkie. It did not take much imagination to wonder what he was telling police dispatch.

"G-get away from the door!" Richard begged. Fear made him bold, and he pulled frantically on the wolf's thick white fur.

"Wh-whatever is the matter?" The wolf's voice was full of confusion as the police cruiser slid to a halt outside his front door. Richard heard two doors slide open and then violent screams.

"HANDS! SHOW ME SOME HANDS!"

"POLICE! DON'T YOU MOVE! POLICE!"

The two uniformed officers filled the morning chill with violent screams. They had their service pistols drawn and aimed at Richard's face.