Ryan herded Dylan back through the police station and out to the truck, then started the drive to Arden’s house on the other side of the city. Dylan said nothing the entire way, only looking down at his hands as if they had become suddenly fascinating for him.

He wished he could offer something, some words that would bind together all these broken pieces to put Dylan’s life back together, but there was nothing anyone could say to do such a thing.

Traffic died down as he entered the neighborhood roads. By the time he parked out in front of Arden’s little house, the sun was beginning to slip towards the horizon. A film of soft pink coated the clouds’ edges, and the moon was a pale coral crescent.

When he turned off the truck, a sudden silence descended over the neighborhood. The cold was coming in even stronger than before as sunset continued to slowly deepen, which meant no one dared be outside to enjoy the coming of night. There were no children, no barking dogs, only the distant roar of traffic from busier roads. This residential street might as well have not existed at all for how abandoned it seemed.

Also conspicuously absent was the sound of another truck door opening. Ryan glanced back over his shoulder and saw Dylan still sitting in the passenger seat, head down and face in shadow. He hadn’t moved at all and was still buckled in.

Screw Arden, he thought suddenly. She could wait a little longer. After all, she had made Dylan wait. He had already examined the timeline offered up by the police and realized that Arden had reported her son missing long before he and Dylan were at the orchard. Rather than letting her ex-husband know about this as soon as possible, she had dealt with it all on her own.

Whether this was from bravery or selfishness, Ryan didn’t know and he was unwilling to find out. The woman who had broken Dylan’s heart wasn’t his favorite person.

He opened Dylan’s door and looked down at the omega wolf. “Hey,” he said. “We’re here.”

“I know,” Dylan muttered in response. “I’m getting ready.”

“For?”

Suddenly, the front door of the nearest house burst open, and here came Arden. Ryan winced at the sight of her because her appearance was downright painful. She had always seemed like the kind of woman who could never be content in her own skin, constantly tanning or changing her hair color or applying ever-thicker layers of makeup. There was a sort of false brightness and cheer about her, as easily discernable from real joy in the same way that electric lighting couldn’t be mistaken for sunshine.

The woman coming towards them, shambling down the driveway, was now only a shadow of everything she had tried to be. Her hair was an entirely unreal shade of bubblegum pink, perhaps luxurious and shiny at one point but now it had been mussed into a bright cotton candy frizz. Her makeup was streaked and smeared in tear-track lines. She brought with her a cloud of gloom so oppressive that the temperature outside seemed to drop even further.

Ryan wished for the false cheer. He wanted the old Arden. He wanted this whole entire shitty situation to go in reverse so he could prevent it, somehow.

Dylan moved out of the truck to intercept his ex. They embraced and then Arden leaned back. “Oh, Dilly! This is simply awful! If only you could have been here sooner!”

And so it begins.

As much as this Arden seemed to be nothing but a shell, she was somehow very much still herself. By the third sentence, she had already cast a shadow of blame onto another person so that she wouldn’t be the only person who felt guilty.

Dylan didn’t seem to notice this. He clutched at his ex and wept into her frizzed neon hair. “I’m so sorry! I never would have left if I had known this was going to happen!”

This went on for several minutes, both of them saying exactly the sort of things that all people fall back on when they have no idea what to do with themselves. Ryan stood awkwardly off to the side, trying not to look as if he was just there to eavesdrop.

Eventually, Arden drew back, sniffling and wiping at her face, smearing her makeup even further. “You’re here too, Ryan?”

“I wasn’t about to let my best friend go through this alone. I’m your pack leader, after all.”

Arden was hardly part of the pack. She never came to the monthly meetings at Portsmouth City Park that he’d set up, and she lived very far away from most of the others now. Nevertheless, until there came a time when she declared herself separate, he considered her one of them.

“You’ve always been so good to Dylan, haven’t you?” This comment had a definite edge to it, implying that he was unfair in his attentions and used favoritism, but he didn’t call her out on it. Now wasn’t the time. “Do you both want to come in?”

Ryan hesitated but agreed, and followed the two wolves inside. He was Dylan’s ride, after all. He couldn’t just leave, not until Dylan made it clear that he should.

He hadn’t ever been inside Arden’s home before, and the sight that greeted him when he crossed the threshold was a surprising one. This didn’t look like the home of a mother and child. There were no toys strewn about, no mess on the furniture. From where he stood in the foyer, he could see the living room and into the kitchen and dining rooms. There were no arts-and-crafts projects taking up room on the table, and no drawings on the fridge. It didn’t look as if a kid lived here at all.

Ryan nudged his shoes off to the side and followed Dylan to the couch. The tidiness of the place probably shouldn’t have surprised him. Arden had always liked to be in control, was always on top of everything. He suspected that controlling nature of hers was what allowed her to do the work she did, as a small-time talent agent. She was never going to see any famous entertainers, but she was a common fixture at play tryouts and open mic nights at bars. People with talent paid her to find them places to continue displaying their talents.

Perhaps it was only natural that she should have such a clean house. She might make sure her son always picked up after himself. A damn good habit for a kid to have, he thought. That was one thing he couldn’t fault her for.

The whole entire stay was an unpleasant one. Arden made coffee and heated up leftover slices of a pizza purchased the day before, saying that she hadn’t felt up to eating before.

Ryan drank terrible, floral coffee. The pizza might have been good had it been heated up in the oven and not the microwave. However, his stomach was throwing a fit and he managed to eat his fair share.

Dylan only picked at a single slice, shredding it until it resembled spaghetti more than it did pizza.

There was no conversation aside from a few statements made here and there. There was only waiting, looking at the phone in intervals as if their attention could make it ring.

It never did.

When night had well and truly settled in, leaving not a single ray of sunlight anywhere to be found, Arden slumped against the back of her chair. “I’m exhausted.”

“Me too,” Ryan admitted. “I really need to get home. Are you coming or staying, Dylan?”

Dylan hesitated, mulling this over and over in his mind, but there was really only one course of action for him to take. “I’ll stay here. They could call any minute now.”

“All right then. I’ll see myself out.”

There were no stars in the sky; all of their light blocked by the glow of the city below. The wind blew ferociously, wailing as if the world was about to end. There were clouds approaching quickly, great thick billowing clouds pregnant with snow.

Shaking his head, Ryan went home. Sleep was a long time in coming and when it finally arrived, there was really no difference. Waking or dreaming, he thought of what he had seen in the well.