Kiss Me, Curse Me - By Kate Shay Page 0,51

up a leaf with a large drop of blood on it.

“I was just seeing things, that’s all.”

The three men stood, all eyes on Hank—an unspoken pressure for the kid to speak. “His eyes were funny, like an animal. They flashed out from the dark, like the light reflected on them or something.”

Doby sniffed the leaf, “It looks like someone very injured came through these woods. The direction, coming or going, I’m not too sure of. They should be dead by the looks of the amount of the blood I’ve seen. It’s definitely a man.”

“That room stunk, but there was no blood. I would have noticed that.”

“Well, thanks for going up there,” said Doby.

“Sure. I guess. I don’t get it, but sure,” said Hank.

“I wanted to see what the man would do. I know that he’s following us now,” said Doby.

In a sudden, frantic movement, Hank turned to check the trail behind them, seeing nothing. He seemed close to completely losing it.

“How do you know that?” said Ed to Doby.

“I saw him back there on the trail, right behind them just as they caught up,” said Doby.

“Now what?” asked Patty, looking down the trail for a glimpse of this person, gun at the ready. No movement, no sound.

“We keep going. He didn’t do anything to Hank when he had the chance back there, which is what I wanted to find out and—”

“What are you saying? You used me for bait?” Hank was miffed.

“You could say that,” said Doby. “Willing bait—you were up for it. Let’s see what he does. We keep going. Ahanu’s mother’s place is just up here.”

***

The trail of blood led the young lovers and Roy to the looming maw of the cave. It seemed even blacker than before as the sun began its decent in the sky.

“I don’t want to go back in there. It feels different, much different than before. I don’t like it.” The fear in Coreen’s voice was obvious.

“That’s where he is though. He’s in there—my father.”

“How do you know this?” Roy asked, eyes curious. “I just know. This is where he’d go. I mean, well, it’s the only place I can think of. It all starts here. This is the birthplace of the curse.”

“Curse?” asked Ron.

“Yes, the wolf’s curse. The dead are in there. He collects them.”

“I’m definitely not going in there,” said Coreen.

“We have to go. We have to kill him. We have to finish this.” Ahanu kicked the ground.

“Wait a minute. Let’s take one step back here. Assuming we go in there, we have no supplies, we don’t have a thing—no food, no water. We could get lost,” said Roy, moving to the opening and ducking in at the cave entrance. He turned to face the young couple.

“I know my way around. I can see just fine.” Ahanu closed his eyes, hearing a very, very distant scream. He felt deep pain in that scream. It was a call to him.

“No,” he fumbled back suddenly. “No, this can’t be. He’s not here.” Ahanu fell to the ground and tucked himself into a ball to better focus on what he’d just heard. He cleared his thoughts and reached out into the woods with his wolf senses. He pierced through the trees, under the brush, down through the dirt, and back up again to the peaks of the pines, only to find his sense of smell zooming in on a place he knew well . . . down and down he went till he settled on the location.

He saw the cabin where he was born in its early, skeletal form, fresh-cut wood, no walls, just the simple frame. He stood in the center and watched it take shape, saw his mother, in her younger days, looking fresh and happy, belly big, then small from having her baby. He saw his father bringing in the latest catch; over and over they did the same things, season to season, and his grandmother barely moved from her chair in the living room. Everything flashed before him in a matter of seconds, even his sister’s death, body covered in her bedroom while his mother wept at night. He saw himself leave for the woods and come back day after day. But his days there in those places increased till one day he just didn’t come home, till he stood where he was in that very moment.

Darkness came next as he saw a knife rise in the air over his sweet mother, standing alone in her shattered bedroom, cowering from