The car ride went about as smoothly as could be expected with three children crammed into the back seat. The car didn’t crash and no one wanted to kill anyone by the time they were getting closer to the farm, so it could probably be called a success.
Arriving at Rose and Jackson’s house was basically the same as it was the first time, leaving Ainslie feeling startlingly prepared for how the night was going to go. Andy seemed to enjoy tracking her father and her grandmother through the woods. Ainslie couldn’t say she didn’t find her own entertainment in it, and she had remembered to bring a water bottle and a supply of her favorite granola bars with her that time. Andy may have been twelve and may have had the energy stored to go all night gallivanting around without feeling an urge to refuel her tank, but Ainslie was not so lucky.
Everything seemed rather the same as last time when they arrived. Horses to one side, cows to the other, and the lights cheerfully alit within the windows. A few decorations had been added, so wreaths made of dried sticks and cloth leaves in reds and oranges and browns and golds hung from the outside of the front door and from the second story windows, making the house look even warmer.
Ainslie wondered if Thanksgiving would be happening at the farm or if it would be happening at Malik’s house. In either case, Ainslie decided that coming up with something exciting for dessert would be prudent.
No sooner did they pull into the driveway and cut the engine than the front door of the house was opening and Rose and Jackson were jogging out to meet them. Once again, Ainslie was enveloped in a pair of equally warm hugs before the group filed into the house once again. Malik led Ainslie by the hand as they walked.
Rose insisted that Ainslie and Malik didn’t need to help with dinner, and as it was, the girls were demanding Malik’s attention as Jackson took them outside to see the newest baby goat. Ainslie stayed behind though, keeping Rose company in the kitchen and making idle conversation. They didn’t know each other—there hadn’t been a chance to get to know each other—but Ainslie would have liked to.
She did manage to convince Rose to let her help set the table at least, and once the settings were arranged and the food was laid out, it was Ainslie who leaned out the back to holler, “Dinner’s ready! Get in here or we’re eating it all without you!”
And just like last time, everyone ate an amount that seemed like it should have fed a small army rather than just a single table of people. Conversation around the table was cheerful, whether it was Rose and Jackson filling everyone in on the goings-on around the farm, Malik explaining the newest project at work, Lily complaining about the barbarianism that was math class, Paisley rambling at length about anything and everything that came to mind, or Andy explaining the inspiration behind her next song. For her own part, Ainslie was content to simply listen and offer commentary when asked for her thoughts on something.
And afterwards, Ainslie and Malik dealt with tidying up the kitchen while Rose, Jackson, and Andy disappeared into another room so Andy could offer a sneak peek of the song.
Everything seemed to be going so similarly to the last visit that Ainslie was taken more than a little off-guard when it finally deviated.
She didn’t hear anyone return from the other room, and when Rose pulled Ainslie aside just after dinner was cleaned up, she wasn’t sure if she should be mildly anxious or if she should fear for her life. Rose didn’t look angry, but Ainslie also didn’t know how good of an actor she was, so she wasn’t willing to rely on her surface impression.
With two mugs of apple cider in her hands, Rose led Ainslie out onto the back porch. Handing one of the mugs over, she stated plainly, “You’re more to my son-in-law than just the girls’ nanny.” It was not a question. She wasn’t asking; she already knew.
Even so, Ainslie nodded stiffly a few times, staring down into her mug and swirling the contents in slow, lazy circles. “Yeah,” she confirmed. “For about a month now.”
Rose hummed, low and thoughtful, but she didn’t say anything at first. Eventually, she observed, “The girls adore you.”
A smile ghosted across Ainslie’s face for a moment, unconscious and unbidden, as she thought of the girls.
Quietly, Rose huffed out a quiet laugh, as if she had already found what she was looking for. “You know,” she sighed gently, “I think my daughter would have liked you.”
Slowly, Ainslie offered her a lopsided, slightly bewildered smile. She hadn’t even known she was being tested until just moments before, but she still got the impression that it was a test she had passed.
They lingered on the porch for a short while, drinking their cider and watching the sun sink towards the horizon.
*
“Ready to go?” Andy asked, sidling up to Ainslie’s side as Rose and Malik disappeared into the woods in two different directions. She was holding a camera in both hands, its strap looped over her head.
Ainslie shrugged her jacket on and patted her oversized pockets to make sure she had her granola bars and her water bottle. Upon feeling that they were all there, she nodded once. “Ready.”
Andy didn’t bother saying anything else. She simply hugged the camera closer to her chest and set off at a spritely lope into the woods with Ainslie trotting after her.
If Andy had a particular goal in mind or a particular target she wanted to aim her camera at, she said nothing to indicate it. She didn’t slow from her lope until both of them were deep in the woods, though it seemed so much brighter than last time with the lack of leaves. As they slowed, Andy looked around, head craning in every direction. And then her expression brightened as if she was remembering something and she turned on her heel and bounded farther into the woods, Ainslie following close behind.
It wasn’t until they got closer to the newly acquired goal that Ainslie could hear the sounds of a stream burbling, and as they got closer, she could understand why Andy had decided that was the goal. With the surface of the water covered in leaves and all sorts of plant life sprouting along the banks on either side of the water, it was quite an impressive sight to behold. Not in the way mountains or a thunderstorm were impressive, but in the way a painting was impressive; in a way that simply meant it was a joy to look at it.
Andy lifted the camera to her face to peer through it, and she shuffled back and forth for a moment before she found an angle she was happy with. The flash lit up the area as she clicked the button.
Afterwards, she stared down at it for a moment before nodding once in satisfaction. She held the camera out to the side after that so Ainslie could see it.
Ainslie peered at it with interest, and… well, photography was not one of Andy’s skills, but the beauty of the stream was still apparent and the memories attached to it were more important than the aesthetic value, anyway. With a grin, Ainslie offered a thumbs up, and with an answering smile, Andy tucked the camera close to her chest before taking off once again, Ainslie bounding after her to keep pace.
They bounded along at an easy pace, until Andy abruptly stumbled to a halt and Ainslie nearly crashed into her back. If she squinted, she could just see the hulking, slightly rounded shape of Malik in the distance. They watched him for a few moments until he turned to keep walking, throwing himself into profile as he did. Not wasting a moment, Andy lifted the camera to catch a slightly blurry, too hasty photo of his silhouette.
As Ainslie looked at the photo, she thought the hazy quality worked, making Malik’s shape look almost ghostly in the distance. If nothing else, Andy didn’t seem bothered by it, as she was content to let the camera dangle from her neck as Malik continued lumbering away.
At least he kept lumbering away until Andy cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, “Hi, Dad!”
Malik paused mid-stride before he turned to look at them, head cocked to one side. As Andy and Ainslie both waved, Malik made a low, grumbling noise in their direction in acknowledgement. It looked like he was going to turn the whole way in their direction, until Andy flapped a hand at him, signaling to him that he could carry on with whatever he had been doing.
He paused for a moment longer before he shrugged as best as a bear could reasonably be expected to and turned to mosey along on his way.
They watched him go for only a moment before they turned almost as one and kept moving. There was a lot of ground to cover if they wanted to see anything they hadn’t already spotted last month.
*
They moved at a leisurely jog, so Ainslie didn’t need to worry about dropping anything and Andy didn’t need to worry about her camera trying to strangle her. They were a few hours into the night when they finally paused, sitting down on a toppled log. Ainslie pulled two granola bars out of her pocket and offered one to Andy, who accepted it, tore it open, and started eating it without even bothering to check what flavor it was. Evidently, she didn’t mind it.
Ainslie took a long drink from her water bottle before she started eating her granola bar at a more leisurely pace.
For a few moments, everything was peaceful. Not quiet, since the woods were never quiet, between the birds and everything wandering around, but peace and quiet weren’t necessarily the same thing. Eventually, though, Andy observed, “You make full moons a lot more entertaining than they used to be. I mean, I know I can do stuff like this on my own, but then I would have Dad and Grannie constantly checking in to make sure I wasn’t sitting at the bottom of a sink hole or something.”
She picked up her camera to begin scrolling through the camera roll, mostly for something to keep her hands occupied. Luckily, she had been busy and there were plenty of pictures to scroll through. “Besides, it’s just not the same without any company.”
Before Ainslie could think of a reply, Andy evidently decided that the moment had lasted long enough, as she shoved the empty wrapper of her granola bar into her pocket, stole Ainslie’s water bottle to take a swig from it, and then handed it back and hopped to her feet. Ainslie was left to scramble after her as she took off at a lope into the woods.
Catching up with her was easy enough, and Ainslie could take a hint; she didn’t mention the previous conversation. If Andy wanted to pretend it hadn’t happened, then Ainslie would follow her cue.
They walked in silence for a time, until Andy once again ground to a halt, though to her credit she wasn’t stopping from a run that time, so Ainslie managed to stop without nearly walking into her.
As Andy readied her camera, Ainslie peered through the trees to see what had caught her attention.
As she looked, a massive canine form ahead of them paused, lifting her head and peering back at them. Her eyes glowed in the silver moonlight as she watched them, and quickly Andy snapped a photo before Rose could look away.
Rose cocked her head to one side, just before she threw her head back and howled, cocking one front leg off of the ground as she did, clearly posing for her audience.
Despite how loud the howl was from so close, Andy paid the volume no mind and simply snapped another photo.
Rose lingered for only a moment longer before she turned and bounded deeper into the woods, fallen leaves, twigs, and underbrush rustling as they were crushed beneath massive paws.
Ainslie watched her go, but Andy’s attention was elsewhere. As Ainslie glanced over to see what was up, Andy scowled down at her camera’s display screen as she groused, “My card’s running out of space.”
Not that it really slowed them down.
They carried on as they had been, regardless of an inability to take photos. Even if she couldn’t take pictures, there were still plenty of things Andy wanted to show off. Like the tree house deep in the woods, with the rope leading up to the house and the pole to slide back down to the ground. Or the tangle of berry bushes that had wrapped around each other in an almost perfect circle, with a gap in the thorny branches just big enough to crawl through and stare up at the sky.
The night was calm after that, for the most part. Every so often they saw Malik or Rose in the distance, but all seemed peaceful. Eventually Andy turned the camera around so it hung down her back, so it banged against her shoulders rather than her chest as she loped from place to place.
It wasn’t until later that things took a turn for the strange, and then a further turn for the awful.
It was late in the night as Andy squinted through the trees, before she gestured carelessly for Ainslie to follow her, flapping one hand at her. “Come on,” she commanded, her tone distracted. “There’s something by the road. I want to see what it is; this is private property.”
Ainslie fell into step behind her, and it was as they got closer to the tree line that they could see that it was a car. Ainslie squinted at it in bemusement, wondering why it seemed so familiar, only to nearly walk right into Andy as she ground to a halt.
“That’s Maria’s car,” Andy stated, staring at it with wide eyes. Her tone sounded slightly muddled, as if she wasn’t sure whether she was confused, concerned, or annoyed, and so she landed at a complicated intersection between all three of them. The sort of intersection that didn’t have enough stop signs and where everyone always got traffic violations.
Ainslie glanced from Andy to the car and back again. “You’re sure?” she asked slowly, taking a few steps closer to it, though she had never paid enough attention to what sort of car Maria drove to be able to recognize it on the spot.
“Positive,” Andy replied, nodding once, just a sharp jerk of motion. “I’ve seen it tons of times. I recognize the beads hanging over the mirror.”
Indeed, as Ainslie peered through one of the windows, she saw a string of beads draped over the rearview mirror.
“What’s she doing here?” Andy asked, her tone rising with unease. “She’s never wanted to come along before. Why would she want to now? And if she wanted to why didn’t she just tell my dad?”
“What’s the quickest way back to the house?” Ainslie asked, in lieu of an answer to any of Andy’s actual questions.
Once again, Andy gestured for Ainslie to follow her before she turned on her heel and broke into a sprint into the woods with Ainslie following hot on her heels.
As they were emerging from the trees around the backside of the cow pasture, a wolf started to howl, but it was unsteady and high-pitched and lasted for only a moment; Paisley, not Rose.
Andy’s steps stuttered for a split second and then she put on a burst of speed that should have been impossible, and Ainslie tore after her.
As they got closer to the pen the girls stayed in, everything was chaos. Jackson was sprawled out on the grass, looking like someone had clobbered him over the back of the head to get him out of the way. Maria was standing on the lowest rail of the fence, leaning over the top of it. She had a catch-pole like a dogcatcher, the rope end of it cinched around Paisley’s neck. As Paisley growled and thrashed, Lily snarled and gnawed at the rope, gradually fraying it between her teeth.
The world seemed to slow down as everything Ainslie had seen in Maria’s house began to slot into place. Subject Grey; a wolf that still had a lot of growing to do. Subject Black; a bear that, while still growing, was considerably larger than Subject Grey. And a client who wanted… something made from the hide of a child who just happened to also be able to turn into a wolf. And Maria, who was willing to provide that pelt.
The world snapped back into clarity as Andy demanded, “What are you doing?” and in that moment, it didn’t matter that she was neither a wolf nor a bear; her ferocity could put both to shame.
The catch-pole fell from Maria’s hands as she whipped around to face Andy, her eyes wide, shock painted across her features. No sooner did the catch-pole hit the ground than Lily tugged it over Paisley’s head and both of them scrambled over to the far side of the pen.
Andy crashed into Maria, wrenching her off the fence rail and throwing her down to the grass. They scuffled for a moment, until Maria hurled Andy aside and started to sit up.
Ainslie moved on autopilot, acting on instinct before Maria had a chance to get near Andy. Ainslie picked up a rock off of the ground—it was sitting in the grass near Jackson and there was blood on one edge, but she was a bit too tunnel-visioned to process those details just then—and she stalked across the grass. As Maria was preparing to push herself to her feet from her knees, Ainslie lifted the rock and brought it down over the back of Maria’s head.
Maria seemed to crumple in slow motion, her arms going limp at her sides and her torso tumbling forward. She hit the grass with a dull, meaty thump. Ainslie watched it happen as if she couldn’t quite process it. As if her nerves had all gone numb, her fingers went slack and the rock fell from her hand, landing quietly in the grass.
Slowly Andy sat up, and on her hands and knees, she shuffled closer to Maria’s body. Her voice was very calm as she stated, “She isn’t breathing.” She rolled Maria over and ducked her head down, and noted quietly, “And I don’t hear a heartbeat.” She looked at the rock, and then over to where Jackson was still splayed out in the grass. “Does that mean he’s…?” She trailed off, as if asking the question would make it true.
Finally, Ainslie snapped back into the moment, turning and making her way to Jackson’s side. She pressed two fingers to the pulse point on his neck, and she watched his chest rise and fall.
When she looked up, Lily and Paisley had gathered at her end of the pen, peering at her anxiously through the rails of the fence.
“He’s alright,” she informed them. Granted, no one would know for certain until he woke up, but she was hopeful that he simply had a concussion. Lily and Paisley both relaxed, though Andy looked only moderately comforted. At her age, though, she likely already knew that head injuries were more complicated than that.
The underbrush rustled, and everyone tensed as they turned to face it, only to relax again when Malik and Rose emerged. They froze a few yards away as they took in the sight before them.
Finally, Ainslie observed flatly, “You both missed quite a party.”
Andy giggled unsteadily behind her hands. She sounded and looked a great deal like she was using the slightly hysterical laughter as an excuse not to burst into tears right there on the lawn.
Carefully Malik prowled closer to Jackson, and Ainslie assured him, “He’s alive. Andy and I are going to bring him back into the house.” As it was, she suspected both of them needed a bit of space to gather their composure and finish compartmentalizing the night’s events into the proper boxes. She knew she did, at least, though she wasn’t sure she would actually be able to.
Andy scrambled back to her feet in reply and carefully, she and Ainslie began to heft Jackson off of the ground. It wasn’t the least awkward thing either of them had done, but considering they were the only two people there that were both conscious and in possession of hands, they made it work. When they were halfway between the pen and the barn, Ainslie paused, glancing towards the pen to call, “I’ll explain what happened when we can have an actual conversation.”
Malik dipped his head once in agreement and turned his head towards Maria’s body. Ainslie watched as she and Andy retreated, walking backwards as she held the bulk of Jackson’s weight under his arms, and as she watched, Rose paced around the outside of the pen before laying down beside it to keep watch and Malik seized Maria’s body by one arm between his teeth and began to drag it towards the woods.
Ainslie refrained from contemplating the fact that there was a body because she had killed someone. That wasn’t something she was ready to think about just then, even if it had been in defense of the girls. That was just not something she was ready to think about, so she turned her attention back towards getting Jackson back into the house and making sure that Andy was alright.
*
“Are you alright?”
Ainslie handed Andy a mug, and she peered into it curiously before taking a sip of the cocoa.
“I guess,” she answered, her voice a low mumble. Slowly, she slid a glance up to Ainslie. “Are you?”
“I guess,” Ainslie parroted back at her wryly. Her fingers were curled around her own mug, though hers was filled with coffee and a healthy dash of whiskey. Not enough to get drunk, of course, but hopefully enough to make her nerves stop jangling like a set of keys.
Andy nodded slowly in understanding and they lapsed into silence, watching Jackson intently and slowly sipping from their mugs.
Within twenty minutes of getting him back into the house and depositing him on the living room couch, Jackson began to stir. He recognized Andy and Ainslie on sight and when Ainslie asked him a few questions about his name, the date, and the location, he could answer them, and Ainslie could practically see the knot of tension between Andy’s shoulders unravel.
He was probably okay, even if he couldn’t quite remember what had happened for a chunk of the night. Despite that, Ainslie kept him awake first by explaining what had happened and assuring him that everyone was alright, and then by prodding him into regaling her with stories of the past.
Andy helped, asking questions here and there even if they were stories she had already heard before. At least until she fell asleep in her seat. Ainslie dragged a blanket over her and let her be, and she continued carrying on quietly with Jackson.
She didn’t really want to go to sleep. Considering everything that had happened that night, she was willing to bet that she was not going to have a good night’s rest.
So, she rather shamelessly used Jackson as an excuse. Not that she was inclined to feel guilty about it, considering she was pretty sure the standard operating procedure for head injuries was to keep the injured party awake to be sure nothing was going to suddenly go wrong.