This is Episode 5-13 of a serial urban fantasy & paranormal story.

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Part 5-13: Wolf

Tired in general, and weary with The Minder’s theatrics, I decided to take a sprawling seat at the patio set. Fergus sat beside me, holding the book. Lobster fluttered around the grass, seemingly content to explore.

“I have a lot of questions,” I said, after rubbing my temples for a moment.

“Please,” said The Minder. “Tea?” He held up a pot.

I waved him off. “First—I guess—what’s the big hurry and what’s this about being out-hurried?”

“Simply put, my dear students, The Collector feels you cheated somewhat on the last test. You did not use the lessons you learned to prove his plans inferior to your oh-so cunning ways. Thus, he took the energy he was planning on expending to oppose you on that front, and immediately shifted it to a new test.”

“I don’t suppose he’d want to chill for a hot minute and debate the rules, hey?” said Fergus.

“You suppose accurately,” said The Minder. “I had wished to arm Alena with the third lesson before the third test began, for procedural and survivability reasons… but said test is already well underway. I can do what I can to show you what is happening in your world, but even if you can manage to find The Collector, his work will be done more than once over by the time you arrive.”

“Show us, then,” I said.

He motioned upward. The sky grew textured, first as thin grey clouds that swirled, then in shapes and different shades of black and white. I caught the notion of my square pattern as the roiling storm concentrated at the very top of what now seemed to be a dome overhead, its curvature suggested by the shape of the spinning smoke. A scene emerged, still in black and white, choppy and grainy as an old school TV set.

“It looks like leaves and trees?” said Fergus.

“And what’s that thing at the bottom?” I said. There was protrusion that seemed to be fixed near the lower part of the otherwise shaky, shifty motion picture impersonation.

“This may help,” said The Minder, and snapped his fingers. Audio kicked in, also of substandard quality, from everywhere. But I could make out stepping noises—an animal pacing through the woods, perhaps. And breathing: ragged, canine.

“Oh dang,” said Fergus. “This is wolf’s-eye-view we’re seeing.”

He was right. The thing at the bottom was a snout. The scene was indeed a wooded area. We were watching from the perspective of a dog, or coyote. Or wolf.

There was something else now. I saw my diamonds come wobbling into view, only to realize that all it was was a standard chain link fence. The wolf lowered its head, found a hole in the fence, and was through. After a few more leaves, the foliage disappeared. Instead, we saw a fuzzy playground. There were maybe a dozen figures, marked blue against the colourless skyshow. Four tall ones. The rest were small. The wolf growled low, started to move forward, and everything froze.

“And then you arrived!” said The Minder. “As you can tell, a touch of a predicament here.”

I leaned deeper into my chair as the damning picture overhead misted away into nothingness, and blew a strand of hair out of my face. At the very least, we had a chance to think here in this time locked universe.

“Question two,” I said. “Did you mess up Fergus’ ability to see faces?”

“Hey, yeah,” said Fergus.

“Fergus?” asked The Minder.

“Me. I’m Fergus.” He tapped his chest.

“Oh, Hotah! You all have an interesting habit of sporting two names. The other lady you introduced as Jane—what other monikers has she? Is she the one called Deluxe?”

“Need to know basis,” I said. “What about the faces now?”

“Very well. Are you currently afflicted with this facial malady at the moment, Hotah? Er, Fergus?”

Fergus looked at me, then back at The Minder. “No. I don’t think so.”

“Mm. Likely a symptom of our shared connection. I can sever the bonds, which may help, seeing as your lessons are no longer relevant.”

“Hold up,” I said. “Third question. What’s the third lesson?”

“Alena, surely you understand that this cause is lost?” The Minder drifted a finger up to the sky. “The Collector is all but upon several suitable locks. Soon we shall be free.”

“Call me curious. And like you said, it’d do well for me to gain an understanding of all this shit, right? Didn’t we agree on that much?” In reality, I was trying to convince myself that it might not really be over (another part of me begged to give up, go home, let the playground children die a messy, bloody death and be done with it all, but I pushed her away). The humans might be able to stop the wolf. The wolf might only kill one person, and The Collector needed two, as far as we knew. There was a chance I’d need this next damned lesson.

And there was one more thing.

The Minder had perked up, rousing at my argument. He stroked his chin and nodded. “Curiosity is it? Admirable. But I also promised that I’d improve on my tendency to underestimate you, Alena Bisk. So—you’re curious. But you’ve a plan or plot to defeat him, don’t you? Even with mere seconds left?”

I kept my face still, as I felt both The Minder and Fergus’ gazes beam into me.

“Will you teach us?” I asked.

He clapped and grinned. “With pleasure.”

 

Continued in Part 5-14

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