Where Foxes Hunt with Wolves (Folk Lore 2)

He swallowed hard and faced parallel rows of elongated sheds reminiscent of the horizontal stripes of a prison uniform. They were tinted red from the glow of the sun just reaching the horizon.

Had all the animals been killed before the Christmas break?

What was this eerie silence? As if they were all holding their breath.

Even though he’d told Yev the animals lived in decent conditions, he now hovered his hand over the door handle to one of the sheds. If he believed what he’d told Yev, why was he so afraid?

Radek took a deep breath. He knew the answer. He was afraid of being proven wrong. Which was stupid, because he was clearly right.

He pulled the door in a confident move and walked into a wall of odor—dense and so choking it took him several moments to realize that there was in fact movement all around him. In the faint glow coming in through the open door, animals spun in circles, their paws stumbling through the wire floors of cages only large enough for the adults to chase their tails.

He didn’t have to switch on the light to know the floor was filthy, but he stepped farther in, his heart traveling up his throat and pulling Radek into a pulsing chokehold. Eyes shone in the dark, all turned toward him, awaiting food.

He’d always seen well in the dark, but now he wished he were like anyone else and unable to spot so many details. Some of the foxes had missing eyes or ears. Only a handful of the animals dared to make barely-audible whimpers, and Radek couldn’t explain how, but he knew why. They were afraid of making noise. All the hairs on his body bristled as he walked along the rows of cages and sensed decay. The rot of low quality food, of excrement, or swollen flesh and pus was all around him, throughout the length of this dark corridor with no windows, where everything was misery.

A small black fox with matted fur cowered in the back of a cage, and Radek bit his lips as sorrow filled him from head to toe, his blood dense with grief. The truth he’d denied and brushed off all his life was right in front of him, and he couldn’t deny its smell.

The fox was breathing hard, its chest heaving as it watched Radek with its remaining, reddened eye, but when it let out a louder whimper, Radek stiffened, afraid to exhale as the poor thing tapped its tail against the floor, revealing half of it as a festering stump.

{Hurts.}

It had to be his imagination, but he could swear he didn’t just interpret the sound, but understood it.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” he whispered, even though he could barely breathe. A shiver went down his spine at the sound of foxes rising in their cages, the movement so sudden and synchronous, he stepped back.

{He understands}, someone whispered, but when Radek looked around, he didn’t spot another person. It was just him and the foxes.

{Help?} The black fox whimpered, crawling closer, its ears flat in submission.

But that couldn’t be, because it only made a sound. Radek’s heart was in his throat. This couldn’t be a prank, since no one knew he’d be coming here. But if that was the case, what was this?

The black fox whimpered again, and once more Radek heard it speak without actually forming words. {Help.}

His first instinct was to open the cage and take the poor thing to the nearest vet, but if he saved this one, what about the others? His eyes watered as he looked down the rows of cages with a completely blank mind. He had no idea where to go from here.

Too overwhelmed to stand, he dropped to his knees, as if an unseen force shoved him down. “I’m sorry. I’ll work something out.”

What? What could he work out? He should have never seen this and gone to Cracow, leaving this hell hole behind.

But the black fox shivered, whimpering when its small paw slid between the wiring of the cage floor and made it lose balance. {You will?}

Radek was losing his goddamn mind.

He stared at the other cages.

A screech originated not far away, leading his gaze to the bright eyes of a large ginger fox.

{He understands!}

The animals began circling their tiny cages once more, their tails hitting the metal over and over. Barks, yelps, whines and ungodly screeches that sounded like human screams echoed in the endless darkness of the shed.

{Help!} {Food!} {Hate hate hate} {It hurts, it hurts!} {Help...} {I’m so afraid} {Don’t want to die}

Radek shivered all over, as if his soul was about to escape his skin. He couldn’t move, trapped in this hell his father had passed on to him as a family heirloom. The source of their wealth.

The cages crept ever closer, the walls grew taller, and he shrank, shuddering as the world around him hummed like a machine created to cause suffering. The ache in his bones was intense, as if invisible hands stabbed him with needles from every direction. He swallowed a cry, gasping for fresh air in a place that only had miasma.