Chapter Six
Sarah looked around the parking lot of the apartment complex but didn’t see Logan. The sun had begun to set, casting an orange hue across everything. There was no sign of the fog that had permeated the summer months but the streets were still mostly devoid of people.
That was how she spotted him, cutting across the street, towards the woods that signaled the end of St. Neuri. She scurried after him. But Logan took long strides and Sarah was falling behind. Where was he going? There were only woods back there.
Something in her stopped from calling out his name. Instead, she silently went after him, knowing that she wasn’t doing herself any favors of explaining her behavior to act like this way. The woods used to scare her back when the fog overtook St. Neuri. Once it was gone, it brought her comfort. Her apartment didn’t face the woods, but she liked knowing they were nearby, knowing she could venture into them if she ever wanted.
Logan stopped suddenly, looking over his shoulder. She darted behind a tree. Her heart beat quickly, her breathing fast. No, once again, she was definitely messing things up. It would be impossible to explain to Logan that she came out here to talk to him only to be hiding behind trees.
A cold breeze started, kicking up leaves around her feet. Without a sweater, goosebumps appeared over her skin. Logan shrugged out of his jacket, leaning down and shoving his items behind a large rock. What was he doing?
He began to remove his clothes. Sarah’s cheeks flushed and she moved back behind the tree. What the hell was he doing? It was wrong to look at him right now so she remained still, trying to figure out why he was stripping near the woods.
A strange noise got her attention. An odd noise, like tiny bones cracking, something growing, shifting. Alarmed, Sarah peeked from behind the tree and almost fell over in shock.
Where once Logan stood, now stood something else. To her shock, she watched as Logan finished turning from a human into something…else. Something massive, hulking, with long talons and sharp teeth. She couldn’t believe it, could only stare.
His jaw finished turning into a snout and without a backwards glance, he took off into the forest. Sarah stood there, rooted to the spot by pure shock, watching the trees, waiting for something else to happen. How in the world – what was that – Logan had just turned into a werewolf?
But before Sarah could do anything, before she could begin to understand what she just witnessed, there was the sound of a twig snapping directly behind her. She whirled around only to see a glimpse of a leather jacket before everything went dark.
*
Sarah was dreaming, walking through the forest. Someone was singing above her. Tilting her face back, she saw Millie. Her voice seemed to cover the forest like a blanket, blocking out all other noises. Sarah couldn’t hear anything else as she walked away from Millie, who seemed completely at peace. She felt a stab of jealousy. When would she feel such peace like that? Millie, who lost her parents, still seemed to move with an inner acceptance Sarah couldn’t seem to ever achieve for herself.
The ground was soft against her feet but she felt as though she was lumbering through the woods. Her body was ungainly, large and uncomfortable in her clothes which were a size too small. Millie’s singing began to fade. The trees thinned out.
In front of her, near a pond, stood Logan. Across the pond was Liam. Their reflections merged in the water which had begun to bubble. Something insidious was rising from the middle of the pond. Sarah tried to scream, to let Logan know, but he was shifting, turning into a werewolf right in front of her.
The pond was bubbling up something thick and red, spilling across the water, turning it a murky color that Sarah didn’t like at all. She took a step backwards, and that was when darkness swirled around her, blocking her vision, barring Logan from her sight.
*
Sarah’s eyes flickered open as she let out a soft groan. Her head throbbed and her throat was dry. She propped herself up a little, looking around, wondering what in the world just happened. The last thing she recalled was…
Oh, that was right. Logan turning into a werewolf.
She had to be dreaming. Maybe after he stormed out, she fell asleep. She did feel pretty run down recently from the fire. It was possible. But where was she now? It looked as though someone tossed her into an empty walk-in closet. Alarmed, Sarah got to her feet, ignoring the dizziness that swept through her.
A cold feeling settled in her stomach. Something was very wrong here. Hadn’t someone snuck up behind her when she was outside the woods? She walked to the door and tried to open it but it was locked. She jiggled the handle harder. The door didn’t budge.
Yes, she was definitely in trouble. She pounded on the door and called out, expecting someone to reply but no one did. She kept slamming on the door, trying the handle, panic surging through her. After what felt like ages, the door suddenly opened.
A massive man stood in the doorway. He was bigger than Logan and Liam, with a long scar across his face. It went over one eye, sealing it shut. His hair was long and dirty looking, sticking to his head and shoulders. His clothes looked badly in need of a wash, and he wore a leather jacket.
Sarah balked at his appearance, sinking back into the closet. He smirked. Every nerve in Sarah’s body was screaming that she was in danger but there was nowhere to run.
“Good, you’re awake.” The man said gruffly, his voice sounding as though he was chewing on gravel.
“Who are you? Where am I?” She demanded.
“Don’t worry your pretty little head. I have no interest in hurting you – yet. It all depends on your boyfriend.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend.” Sarah frowned, wondering if the man kidnapped the wrong woman. It would be just her luck, wouldn’t it?
“Don’t play coy with me. I know you’ve been tramping around with Logan. Letting him hide out at your place as if we wouldn’t learn about it.”
“What? I’m not dating Logan. I barely know him. We just met.”
“Not my business if you move fast.” The man growled and Sarah balked at the anger in his voice, “We just need you so Logan will show up. Let’s hope he cares about you enough or we will have to…make an example out of you.”
Her eyes widened and her stomach dropped. If there was any hope this was some odd misunderstanding, that she would be able to leave, it had died.
“Bill!” Someone called out, “She awake?”
The man didn’t look away from her as he answered, “Yeah, she is. Get me my phone.”
“Wait, I don’t understand what is going on,” Sarah spoke, her voice wavering, “I don’t know anything about Logan or why you would want him –”
“We can’t get Jin so we will get the next best thing. The man who ran around with Jin like a puppy, who stood by as Jin murdered people.” He spat at her feet and Sarah stared at it, fixated, her head swimming.
“M…murdered?” She asked faintly.
Bill smiled. It was a cruel smile. He was missing teeth. “Did he not tell you Jin ran off from Liam’s pack? That he thought he could create more werewolves even though it is a genetic trait? The fog, the people vanishing, the murders – Jin was to blame for all of them. Logan can claim innocent, pretend he had no clue but I don’t believe that for a moment. Not when Jin killed my brother in a fight, left him to rot in the woods. By the time we discovered his body, we couldn’t even give him a proper burial!” His voice was rising with each word, the anger surging through him, and his fingers twitched as though he would shift at any moment.
She felt overwhelmed at this new information. Her head ached and she tried to understand what Bill was telling her. Jin was the reason the fog overtook St. Neuri. He killed people, tried to turn them into werewolves. He killed people – Bill’s brother. He broke away from Liam’s…
Liam’s pack. Liam was a werewolf as well. Of course he was. Sarah should have realized that when she saw Logan shift. To be fair, however, it wasn’t as though she had a lot of time to let it all soak in.
She thought of the way Millie and Liam shared a look at the picnic table. At the time, Sarah hadn’t understood. But now she did perfectly. Millie was well aware of Liam, of the real history of Jin, of Logan and what part he had in it all. This whole time – and she couldn’t have let her know, gave her a warning?
Sarah could feel anger prickling at her skin. She was furious with herself for falling into this situation, with Bill for thinking a man who knew her for a couple of days would save her regardless of their connection. She was angry with Liam who lied to her, for Logan for his skewed story.
“I’m very sorry for your loss but once again, I barely know Logan. We aren’t dating. I have no clue about any of this or even what this Jin person was doing.” She hoped that she could get through to Bill; she needed him to understand that he had made a mistake.
“I don’t want to hear your lies!” He suddenly screamed, his face contorting with rage, “If I cannot kill Jin then I will deal with Logan!”
She balked, flattening against the wall, wondering just how in the world she ended up in this situation. Bill was breathing heavily now. He was covered in tattoos, the muscles on his arms double hers, and she realized that he also must be a werewolf. Is every buff man in St. Neuri a werewolf? Sarah thought distantly.
“When Logan arrives to claim you, I will put an end to this.”
Before Sarah could say anything, he turned around, storming out, slamming the door behind him. The door locked. She threw herself against it, jiggling the handle, yelling out Bill’s name. But there was no response.
Despair wiggled into her stomach, traveling up her spine. How was she going to get out of this? She wasn’t going to wait around for Logan to save her. After their fight, she had no clue if he was even going to come here. It wasn’t as if they had been on good terms.
Even though she hadn’t known Logan for long, she couldn’t deny a connection she felt towards him. It had been instant, new to her, something she barely understood.
She hoped he would come for her. But she wasn’t going to be a damsel in distress about it either.
Sarah searched the small space for something she could have missed. But the room was bare, tiny, like a broom closet, offering nothing. She spent twenty minutes going over it with a fine-tooth comb but discovered nothing to help her. She was feeling another surge of panic when the door swung open.
Looking over her shoulder, Bill entered. He was holding his phone, raising it up towards her.
“Smile for the camera.” He grunted.
Sarah just stared at him as he took the photo. He would be sending to Logan as evidence. Would Logan care? Please, she hoped he would care. She needed him to care. The intensity of her feelings took her by surprise.
“Are you sending that to Logan?” She asked, taking a step forward.
Bill glared at her with his one good eye but didn’t reply. She needed him to stay around a second longer so she could try to see over his head, see what was in the room beyond here.
Wildly, she tried to think of something to say. “Logan didn’t know what Jin was doing. He was in the dark. By the time he found out, it was too late. Jin went off and died.”
“Bullshit.” Bill growled.
Sarah could make out a couch and a lamp behind him. A window was open, a streetlight pouring in yellow light. Close to a road then. That was good. If she got out, she could make a break for it, try to get help.
“I told you – you’re making a mistake. I don’t even know Logan. I just met him the other day. There was a fire at a house my job was going to sell.”
“We know about the fire,” Bill replied coldly, “We set it. Tracked Logan through the city. Knew he was hiding somewhere. Found him, tried to catch him in the blaze.”
Sarah gawked, shock rolling through her. She remembered that day – remembered seeing a hulking shape dart in front of her car. She almost hit it, thought nothing of it. A large animal. The fire, engulfing the house, Logan saving her, all the stress that had come with it. Logan could have died. She could have died.
Bill was still speaking, “He got away, slippery bastard. We tracked him, lost his scent. Had trouble finding him. Then Liam was on our case. We haven’t officially spilt from his pack, you see. He wanted us to play nice. We knew he would be looking for Logan too.”
Bring him to the homeless shelter near the park. He had been trying to protect Logan. Even with everything Jin had done, Liam knew that Logan had no clue, that he was innocent and trying to lay low.
“Liam might be our pack leader but he is too soft on this. I will have my revenge.”
Door on Bill’s right side. To where? It didn’t look like a front door. The window would be her best bet. She shoved her hands in the pockets of her jeans, pretending that she was cowering, that she was terrified of him. In reality, she was praying that she had a gum wrapper in her pockets.
“Logan won’t come for me.” She said, half believing it, half praying that she was incorrect.
“Then you die.” Bill said simply.
He turned to leave. Sarah propelled herself forward, letting out a cry of help. Bill moved through the doorway, turning around to shut the closet door. She hit it just in time. She kept screaming, distracting him, as she slipped the gum wrapper into the lock. He shut the door, locked it, stormed off, telling her if she didn’t shut up, he would make her.
Sarah fell into silence, staring down at the lock. The gum wrapper peaked out on her side, showing it had stopped the lock from completely closing the door.