Chapter Eight
“What the hell is this thing?” Alex poked the pup between the eyes. It blinked and squirmed and gnashed its teeth, and Alex drew his hand back. “Rabid husky mix?”
“No.” Pip hesitated. They sat in Alex’s backyard around the patio table. Pip still held the pup to his chest. “It’s a wolf-dog. Well, that’s what I’m calling it.”
Alex looked at him, eyebrows raised, then laughed. The sunshine glistened in his bleached-blond hair, and he leaned forward on an elbow, jaw resting on his fist. “No. Really. What is it?”
“It’s a wolf-dog,” Pip insisted. “I found it in the forest. I went out there after the old lady told me she'd given my summer job to her granddaughter.”
“You, my friend, have officially lost your mind.” Alex leaned back in his chair and shook his head. “But then again, I guess we’re all mad here. Beaumont does things to a person. How did you get him away from his mother? I thought wolves were all about packs and things, but I don’t know.”
“Well, it isn't a wolf; it’s a dog. I don’t know the actual breed. I’ve seen them fully grown, though, and they’re beautiful. They look powerful and fierce, but they’re well trained and obedient.”
Alex sighed. “Then how did you get it? You didn’t steal it?”
Pip considered it a good sign when Alex appeared to accept the pup as a type of husky dog and not a wolf.
Not wanting to push things too quickly, Pip chose his next words carefully. “I didn’t lure it away from its mother or steal it. I was out walking through the woods, and I heard a noise. I found him with his collar already fastened.”
“So someone else is out there, stealing wolf cubs and turning them into pets?”
Perhaps Alex hadn't completely accepted the dog-as-a-dog idea just yet.
“All right. So the plot thickens. I’ve got a few questions, but the first I’m going to ask is: why come to my place after all of this went down?” Alex picked up his soda and took a sip. “You don’t think I’m the one out there, stealing baby dog-wolves, do you?”
“No,” Pip said. He shook his head. “Not at all. And I think we’ve already established it: he isn't a wolf. He’s a dog. A breed that looks a bit wolfish, that’s all.”
Alex’s glass clinked against the glass tabletop. “Then what’s going on? Why are you collecting stray dogs and bringing them here?” Alex frowned.
“I didn’t know where else to go,” Pip admitted. “Aunt Lauren isn’t a dog person.”
“Is she a wolf person?” Alex arched a brow and chuckled, before leaning forward and looking serious. “Because there’s a difference, Pip. A pretty big frickin’ difference. Even with a collar, it looks like a wolf to me.”
Pip pursed his lips. He ran his fingers through the puppy fur, savoring the softness. It was different from the coarse fur on the older dogs. He wondered how long it would be before the pup matured. “I know. I know.”
“So why didn’t you leave the animal in the woods, then?” Alex asked. “You could've taken off the collar and let it go. It’s a wild animal. It may be a baby, but I’m sure it’d find its way on its own. Mama wolf is probably looking for it right now.”
“She’s not,” Pip said.
“And you know that because…?”
“Because this dog is a gift for me.” Pip’s voice trembled. When he said it out loud to someone else, it sounded as insane as he knew it would. “I know it,” he added, which only made it worse.
Alex fiddled with the handle of his teacup. He tucked his legs up onto the patio chair and gazed distractedly into the depths of his drink. Pip watched as he processed everything he’d heard. They’d been best friends for a while, and there were very few things they kept from each other, but Pip wasn’t sure how much further he could push before Alex called him out and wrote him off as crazy.
“Okay,” Alex said softly. He looked up from his tea. “So, what did they put in the punch at graduation? Because there’s been a lot of craziness going down, and I’m not sure what to make of it.”
The puppy yawned, his tongue curling and stretching as he did so. He settled onto Pip’s lap and closed his eyes. Pip let him sleep. “I don’t know. If it’s any consolation, I know I sound crazy, but I can’t help it. So much has happened in the last couple of days that I’m just… I’m overwhelmed.”
“I figured, since you didn’t show up at all on graduation night.” Alex lifted his cell phone and waved it back and forth. “I got your text, then nothing. Mom said your aunt called to ask about where you were. Did you get in trouble?” Before Pip could answer, Alex's eyes widened as a thought occurred to him. “Did you get laid?”
“Um…”
“Who? I need to know every last detail.”
“No. I mean, I’ll give you details, but I didn’t get laid. And yes, I got into trouble. Big trouble, but nobody knows. Except Stevens and Co., and they don’t know the half of it. Aunt Lauren was all over me, wanting to make sure I wasn’t with Oli the night of graduation, so I didn’t dare tell her that I went with them into the forest. As if I’d ever choose to hang out with them.” He snorted in disgust.
“Well, I never thought you’d be sitting in my backyard with a wolf cub sleeping on your lap, either, but here we are.” Alex shrugged. “It’s a crazy world out there. So why don’t you back up and explain it from the start? Tell me what happened.”
“It’s…” Pip reached for his tea, doing his best not to disturb his new pet. “On graduation night, Oli, Jason, and Rhett cornered me and forced me into the woods by the football field. They tied me up with a bunch of rope and left me there.”
“Shit.” Alex’s expression tightened, and he looked at Pip with concern. “You’re kidding.”
“I wish.” Pip took a sip. Honey lemon. He smiled despite himself. “They tied me up so tight, I couldn’t move. Left me for dead. While I was trying to figure out how to get out, a pack of wolves appeared out of the forest and surrounded me.”
“No way.”
“They turned out to be dogs, actually. I’ll get to that. Anyway, then this…man appeared.”
“A man?” Alex looked riveted. “Is it the guy collaring pups? This is like a soap opera. God.”
“No.” Pip laughed and felt his face flush as he thought of the Hunter. “He, um… he was only kind of a guy.”
“Only kind of a guy? What the…? Pip? Did he do anything to you? Like, do we need to call the police?” Alex’s eyebrows wrinkled with concern.
“No, Alex. Listen. He had…antlers.”
Alex said nothing.
“He had antlers, and his skin looked like bark, but it was so dark, I didn’t get a good look at it. He had his wolves tear the ropes apart, and when I was free from them, all I wanted to do was be close to him. It was kind of like how I imagine moths feel at night when they see a light—an instant kind of pull you can’t shake, no matter how hard you try. And he… he kissed me.”
“Okay, screeching on the brakes here.” Alex held up his hands, palms toward Pip. “Seriously, what did they put in the punch? Because I think I might want some.”
Pip scowled. “It wasn’t a hallucination, Alex.”
“I’m sorry.” Alex shook his head. “I couldn’t help myself. Go on. I want to hear how this ends.”
“He told me to sleep, and I did, just like that, and when I woke up I was in this kind of…hut, I guess. There was a bedframe lined with furs, and a few dogs were sleeping on it with me. That’s when I figured out they were dogs, not wolves. And there was a fire burning in the middle of the room in a pit. It looked like someone lived there, or at least visited it occasionally, because there were pots and pans on a makeshift shelf across the room. But really, no one could’ve lived there. It was too basic. There wasn’t anything else. No electricity, no appliances, not even a door. There was just this furry pelt on the wall.”
“Like a logger’s cabin or something? It sounds unreal.”
“It was.”
The pup kicked in his sleep and made a noise in his throat. Pip smoothed a hand down his back to reassure him.
“The man came back looking like an actual man, no antlers, no bark. He brought me food and wine, but he refused to tell me much of anything. When I asked where we were, he just answered, ‘Home’ and ‘Elsewhere.’ I don’t know his name, or where we were, or what happened between the time when they freed me from the tree and when I woke up in his bed. When he left again to get me some water, I ended up falling asleep, and I woke up in the forest.”
“Drugs,” Alex said sagely. “Not even once. Twice. Are you sure nothing, um, happened to you?”
“I swear, I wasn’t high! And I've not been assaulted. Not by him, at least.” Pip rocked forward, disturbing the cub. It woke and hopped down from Pip’s lap to shake itself off, then wandered across the deck and settled in a beam of sunlight. “When I woke up, the bread and cheese he’d brought me before were still there, in the same cloth bag.”
“I don’t really think that’s good evidence,” Alex argued. “I’m not saying you got high on purpose, but let’s assume for a second someone spiked the drinks at graduation. There are probably some things that did happen. Maybe some dude found you out in the woods while he was tripping, and the two of you had a midnight adventure. And the two of you made out”—Alex grinned and waggled his eyebrows—“although it’s a shame you don’t know who it was. It’s plausible. Maybe he went and got the food and left it with you after wandering off when you tapped out.”
“No.” Pip ran his hands down his thighs and squeezed his knees. That wasn’t it. It couldn’t be. The Hunter wasn’t a hallucination. Too many coincidental things had happened for it to be a hallucination.
Pip could still feel the Hunter’s lips on his. That wasn’t fake. It couldn’t be.
“Well, what makes you think not, then?” Alex asked. He settled back in his chair, and Pip watched as he looked him over. “I’m not trying to tear you down—I’m just trying to be rational.”
“I know,” Pip said. He frowned. “What I feel is irrational but I know it’s real because of what it did to my soul. It’s like… it’s like meeting him woke up something inside of me that I’d forgotten existed. Besides, since that day, he’s been leaving me presents. He left fish waiting in ice on the porch, and then this leather pouch, and now the puppy… All of it’s from him. I know it.”
Alex nodded. He folded his hands across his flat stomach and looked skyward. “Funny you should mention the whole ‘forgot it existed’ thing. I mean, I can’t say I believe a hundred percent some supernatural being visited you, but…”
“But?” Hope welled in Pip’s chest. Maybe coming to see Alex had been the right choice after all. “Do you know something?”
“I know a lot of somethings.” Alex winked. “But I think I do know a certain something that fits in with what you’re saying. When I was little, before my grandma passed, she would tell me stories about how Beaumont used to be, way back when.”
“What do you mean?” Pip asked. “Back before electricity or something?” Pip glanced at the pup. He’d curled up in the sunshine, the white color of his coat dazzling in the light.
“Well, technically yes, but even before then,” Alex replied. “Before it was officially a town, there was a little colony here in Beaumont where they worshiped the forest or went into the forest to worship nature. I can’t exactly recall the details. I do remember Grandma telling me about a weak spot between worlds. They were like portals to different dimensions I think, but she didn’t use those words. I got that from gaming. Anyway, strange things were passing in and out of the woods, sometimes only there for a little while, but sometimes things came to stay.”
“You’re kidding.” Despite everything he’d witnessed over the past few days, he found Alex’s story hard to believe. “A weak point between worlds?”
“Hmm. Kind of like when you wear out the knees of your jeans or the sleeves of your hoodie. You know when fabric starts to get so thin you can see through it? Or maybe so threadbare there are holes? Apparently, Beaumont is kind of like that.”
Pip’s discomfort didn’t wane.
“You don’t believe me?” Alex said plainly.
“You don’t believe me,” Pip countered.
“Fair enough.” Alex shrugged. “I mean, it was just stories my grandma used to tell. I figured they were made up fairytales, you know, the kind of thing you’d tell your grandson when he was over visiting. I didn’t think much of it. And I’ve watched a helluva lot of sci-fi since then, so those stories have probably merged with my memories. But, you know, she did bring up an antlered man from time to time when telling her stories.”
“Did she?” Pip looked Alex over. Alex had a particular sense of humor, and sometimes Pip couldn’t tell when Alex was bullshitting him for a laugh. With the situation so confusing, Pip was even more at a loss than usual. “What did she say?”
Alex sighed. “I wish I’d paid more attention. We’re talking more than ten years ago, and honestly, I’ve forgotten most of her stories. Just little pieces remain. I do remember she used to call him the God of the Forest, or…something. Some kind of foresty god. He borrows his form from nature. The antlers of a buck, the skin of a tree, and the shape of a man. It’s just so weird you described him that way, too.”
“A god?” Pip reached for his tea and held it close to his chest for something to do. If he couldn’t refocus his attention, he’d start fidgeting and getting nervous. “Like, a deity?”
“I guess. Unless you know something about gods that I don’t.” Alex shrugged.
“Do you remember anything else?”
“Grandma used to say he was a gentle god and he meant man no harm, even though man means harm to nature. Unless, of course, a man goes after him, or something he cares about.” Alex sucked his cheeks in as he thought. “He’s sort of a peacekeeper, I think. The guardian of the rift. Sounds spooky, right? I guess. I always thought he sounded kind of boring when I was little. He was a little too goodly for my tastes. But I guess if that is what’s going on, then he’s got a little crush on you. Leaving you presents like that. He’s trying to woo you, Pip.”
Pip blushed, which made Alex burst out laughing.
“God,” Alex said. “You are crazy. You’re getting worked up over a god from my grandmother’s stories?”
“He’s real, even if her stories aren't. I know it sounds crazy, but I promise, it’s true.”
“Then why don’t you go meet up with him?” Alex asked. “Go back to the woods and find somewhere you know he’s been. Demand he show himself. If he’s this Forest God dude, he’ll hear you. And if he’s into you, he’ll probably show up.”
“And what then?” Pip asked. “What if he does show up?”
Alex winked and worked his tongue around his lips slowly and suggestively.
Pip slapped him on the arm.
“And you can get to the bottom of why he’s courting you, for one. But really, a chance to meet a god isn’t reason enough? What else do you have to do with your summer, Pip? So what if it’s crazy? If you think he’s real, you don’t have anything to lose.”
Pip couldn’t argue with that logic.