Wolves by Ash Faith (ebook reader 7 inch .TXT) 📖

pointed to another grey door on the side of the TV, I hadn’t noticed.

“See for yourself,” I said, pretending I knew what hid behind that door. Hopefully not Ace, I thought as I raced to get to the door before Mongo could, peeking through the door to make sure the coast was clear before swinging it open for Mongo to see as well. It was just a hallway, still matching the grey and white theme. It had 8 doors in total and what looked like a cupboard that went into the wall.

“What’s in there?” Mongo asked, walking to reach the handle of the cupboard. The scent hit me. Ace was hiding in there. Panic mode, alert, alert.

“Uhm, just some stuff. It’s just a cupboard, some towels, all the basic boring stuff” I said, but his hand still reached for the handle. “And the stuff a girl needs, tampons pads, all that,” I said quickly, stopping him in his tracks and embarrassing him.

“And all these other doors?”

“Find out yourself.” I said, turning back out, knowing full well everyone heard that, and that they’d stay away, like fearful little boys. It was always the best excuse to keep them away. I went to grab my bags I’d left at the door, but Hue must’ve realised that, as he shot up grabbing them and turning my way, Lan and Franky hot on his heels.

“Thanks,” I said as he handed me my bag.

“How boring,” Mongo said, as he’d clearly finished his little adventure. “It’s just mainly bedrooms and bathrooms along with each bedroom. Except for the last one, it’s locked” he admitted, his boredom growing.

“What’s in that last room, what did the people here call you again? Lana.” Hue stabbed,

“Just more storage, for the stuff that matters.” I lied, fearing what was behind the door.

“I get the vibe you’re lying to me, sis” Hue pried on,

“Fine, you want to see? Let’s open it then.” I rushed to the door, so that if the door unlocked the same as the front door, they wouldn’t see the glow. Just as I thought the door unclicked and glowed just like before.

“How’d you open it? It was locked just a sec ago I swear!” mongo said surprised,

“You probably just turned it the wrong way, Mongo, it’s not the first time.” I said, as I pushed open the door. A cold wind drifted through, giving me Goosebumps and almost pushing my collar I’d used temporarily to cover my hickey. I pulled the collar back up straight and thumbed around for a light, unable to find one I stumbled a step into the cold darkness, and a light flicked on in my presence. Awesome! Was all I could think as I took in the room before me, not only did it have a light that turned on when you entered the room, but it was a garage. Not just a garage. My dream of a garage. In the centre amongst the casual tools, paints and other things, was a beautiful 4 door khaki green beauty of a four wheel drive. It was dangerous and beautiful, I’d seen them in some TV shows and even got to imagine being the lucky person driving them along the roads. But in all its glory, I knew questions would come at me like fire. The boys would definitely be confused on how I got a nice place, with the car of my dreams. They would have questions I couldn’t answer. Uh oh.

“I’m glad to see you so happy, sis, and that you’ve achieved all this. But we’ve got to get going, Jye, is back in one of our old places, we need to go…” he paused, looking at the swords on his belt. “give him his swords. You know how odd he can be without his two favourite swords.”

Bad lie. My thoughts rumbled, as I remembered telling them earlier not to lie to a liar.

“He’s either hurt, or found out something vital, I get it. Didn’t I tell you not to lie to a liar? Just…” Now it was my turn to pause, as I stared them all in the eye. “Make sure that he gets better, then tell the bastard to come see me, Okay?” I knew I wasn’t asking them to promise me, because honestly, they couldn’t promise anything. You could see the uncertainty in their eyes as they left, with a dainty smile attempting to comfort me.

I closed the door, feeling it lock under my touch. There was one thing for sure, I was alone. When we passed the cupboard, Ace’s scent was gone. The moment I needed somebody, no one was here. I slumped myself into the couch, the lingering scents of my brothers, and Ace, fading from the room as the sky began to darken. I slowly pushed myself up and off the comfortable couch, deciding to go and see if there was any water pressure, since there was clearly electricity. I walked over to the kitchen sink, knocking the dial into hot and watching as steamy water flooded through. Well, Mongo said that there was a bunch of bedrooms with bathrooms. A hot shower is something I could definitely use right now. Pacing myself, I walked through the corridor, looking into each of the beautiful and neat bedrooms, deciding the first one as the one I’ll reside in. I chucked my bags beside the bed, searching through the camping bag for a towel, there surely had to be a towel in this thing.

“Yes…” I said to myself, pulling out a blue cheap smelling towel. The smell of cheap stuff never worried me, it was what I practically lived on. I strutted in, sliding open the sliding door to find the most luxe bathroom I’d ever seen.

“Holy fucking shit,” I pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. It had grey and white tiles, the colours winding together but never mixing, and a shower the size of my old bedroom. It had a square shower-head that promised an amazing shower and don’t get me started on the vanity sink, even the bloody toilet looked good. I stripped down quickly, curiosity getting the better of me as I quickly stepped in and reaching for the handle. I pulled, twisted until I felt the right temperature. The water jetting lightly on my skin, but easing the deep tightness in my muscles. Dipping my hair and rinsing it out as much as possible before I leant onto the wall, closing my eyes, just letting the feeling of the water jetting onto me. I felt like an hour had passed, but I didn’t want to move, it just felt so nice, relaxing like this – with no worries.

Ding. Dong.

The dreaded noise rung out, breaking my no worried feeling. As I quickly stopped the shower, grabbing my towel and whipping it around my body to cover vitals. I quickly patted the dampness of my feet on the bedroom carpet as I fast-walked to the door.

Ding. Dong.

There it went again, I quickened my pace reaching the door and unlocking it. My eyes stared straight ahead at the woods in the dark. There was no one there. That’s not creepy at all… I thought bracing my hand to close the door again, but something tapping my foot stopped me in my tracks. I looked down to find a pair of brown eyes staring back at me, it’s tail tapped and it’s mouth opened, it’s tongue hanging out.

“A dog?” I questioned myself, peering down at the animal as it only seemed to get happier at the sight of me within each passing second. Bending down, I reached for a letter that stuck out of its leather collar. “To Katalana” it read. Infuriated by the use of my birth name, I ripped open the old tattered letter.

“Dear Katalana, I know this may surprise you, but do not act negatively. His name is Callin. Treat him with love and respect, and he’ll give you the same. He is smart enough to know exactly what he is doing and why, do not misunderstand his actions. Promise me, you’ll take care of him. And he will do the same. – Love, Mum.”

That’s…. impossible. I watched my mother die, I watched the plug get pulled. There’s no way. Even out of all this recent madness, there’s no way a ghost can send a dog and a letter. I ripped the letter to pieces, scooping it up and chucking it in the bin next to my stone counter. None of that made sense, it wasn’t even sincere, it was just straight-forward. Despite my anger, I felt something soft and comforting push its way into my hand. I looked down to see the dog, it’s brown eyes huge and sad. I forgot all about the things I’d read about them, that they could sense emotion and know when people needed comforting. Maybe it was a legacy, something she set up? That was the only explanation I had. That my mother had set this up before she died on that musty hospital bed. But why a dog? Out of all things – a living creature somehow found its way to this house, that surely isn’t registered for an address considering it being a few hours old and in the middle of the woods.

“So, Callin… How did you get here?” I asked the dog, bending to pat him. Obviously, Callin didn’t reply but instead wagged his tail at my change in mood, his tongue sticking back out as he barked at me happily and trotted back out my door. Take care of him, those words repeated in my head as I realised the dog had literally just ran out in the dark, in the woods, and I was in a towel.

“Wait, Callin! Bad boy, come here!” I yelled wailing after the dog like an idiot. As I was about to race down the porch stairs, I got a bark from behind me. turning to see Callin right back where I’d found him, in front of my door, but with a medium sized wooden pallet-like crate next to him. The crate was spray painted with the word ‘Callin’. How original. So mother didn’t just send me a dog.

Considering I had no idea whether I had a crowbar in my, amazing, garage, I decided it was better to pry the thing open with my bare hands. It wasn’t like I was too weak to do something like that anymore. I walked up to the crate, sticking my fingers into the small opening it seemed to have and slowly prying it open. As I slowly heard the crackling of the wood, it opened, the opening landing onto the ground revealing an inbuilt pillow-bed in the crate, with a couple of toys, a large bag of dog food and two bowls with the words Callin engraved on them.

“You’re one set dog, huh, Callin?” I said, eyeing off the dog’s stuff. Realising I now had to get this inside. “Now I got to just put this thing inside.” I mumbled to myself. I closed it back up, thinking that would make it easier if the stuff didn’t fall out of it. I eyed of Callin himself for a second now, he was quite the large dog, maybe a greyhound mixed with something musclier, I couldn’t really tell, I wasn’t much of a dog person, they apparently cost too much money. His head was kind of thick, but his eyes were promising, loving and loyal. I heard a rustling from the trees in the darkness, my guard immediately rising up, my face slapping with seriousness. Someone’s here. Callin’s tail was straight up, his loving eyes had turned stone cold, even slightly terrifying. His manner suggested that maybe at some point someone taught him to be a guard dog, or hunting dog. Either way, he knew his stances.

“Need some help with that, Lana?” I heard Jack’s voice from the darkness, his smile brighter than he was in the reflection of my inside lights.

“Actually,