There was no wolf in the house.
There had been. I picked up faded notes of Daniel and Santos and a few select others who had access. Michelle had been here too, though it didn’t seem recent.
Ezra permeated everywhere because his magic was in the walls, in the ceiling, in the floor beneath my feet, and he’d told me it was a wolf, he’d told me it was a wolf—
A heartbeat.
From down the hallway in front of me.
There were three doors. All of them were closed.
It wasn’t the heartbeat of a wolf.
It was human.
The heartbeat was slow and steady, a repetitious beat on a hollow drum.
I followed it.
It didn’t come from behind the first closed door.
Or the second.
It was the last door at the end of the hall.
Nothing hung on the walls. No paintings. No pictures. The house felt blank. Unused. Hollow.
I hesitated in front of the last door before knocking.
The heartbeat inside didn’t speed up.
“Hello?” I said. “My name is Robbie. I’m here to… check on you.”
No response.
“I’m going to come inside. I would really appreciate if you didn’t attack me or anything. Because honestly? I’ve had a very weird day.”
Nothing.
I took a deep breath as I put my hand on the doorknob.
I expected the door to be locked. It wasn’t.
The knob twisted easily. I pushed the door open.
The hinges made no sound.
The room was filled with shadows. There was an empty bed, the blankets pulled tight in the corners. A rug lay on the floor at the foot of the bed.
The windows were covered in the same thick drapes, barely letting in any light. I could hear the rain through the walls. It was getting louder. In the distance came a peal of thunder.
A chair sat in the middle of the room.
And in this chair sat a man, facing away from me. He didn’t move.
“Hello?” I said. My voice cracked. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Hello. Can you hear me? My name is—”
“Ahhhhhh,” the man said.