Mister Nomura waits until I am done shaking and stuttering my way through my recounting of how Lisa attacked me, how she turned and how I finally got her. I make sure not to mention anything about what happened afterwards; about Betty and her father and the mine. Something in his eyes tells me that he knows I am not telling him everything, but he doesn’t push it. When I’m good and done, he hands me a glass of green tea and then he makes me tell him the story all over again. He wants to know everything, about Lisa and Gunda’s Gunners and the bullies at school and Anton, the whole damn mess.

At the end of it all, Mister Nomura only shrugs and says:

“We threw the first punch. They retaliated. We’re going to need bigger weapons. That little knife there, it might have saved your life but it’s still no weapon to use against them. It’s a miracle you made it this close without it killing you.”

I nod, try not to let him see me shaking. Mister Nomura goes on:

“The baseball bats, they don’t hold on to the plating. Most blades work, but none of those has any reach worth a damn. Maybe I am doing something wrong, or maybe it’s because I don’t know anywhere near enough about chemistry to pull this off.”

“There is someone we can ask.” I say. “My chemistry teacher, at school.”

“How will you even be able to break this to him? Are you just going to walk up and tell him that you need something to keep werewolves at bay?”

“I’ll come up with something. Just…let me give it a shot.”

“You need to stay here, at least until the end of the week. I can’t even imagine what they could possibly do next…”

“I don’t want them to see that I am scared. Not now, not ever.”

“I can’t protect you when you are there. You know that.”

“Then I’ll protect myself. They’ll stay good and scared, at least for a while.”

“Until they stop being good and scared and they turn bad and very, very angry.”

“Then I guess you’re going to have those bats and all the other stuff ready by then,

right?” I grin and Mister Nomura scoffs.

“Off to bed with you, young lady. No more adventures for today.”

I barely get any sleep that night. Every time I close my eyes I see Lisa’s face shifting from the bestial state, the fur and the teeth and the sheer naked brutality receding. Again and again, Lisa turns from an animal into a dead little girl. The knife is still clasped tightly in mya hand. She makes tiny noises every time I twist it.

I don’t get up. I just curl myself up into a ball and wait for morning.

***

Mister Nomura doesn’t greet me when I head out for school. My packed lunch is on the counter and the entire place smells like burning tinfoil. Going up Ellisson, I step in with the rest of the crowd and then pick up my pace, trying to stay ahead. Anton’s going to be there at the last minute and Betty will be waiting at the gate. The last thing I want is to be alone at a time and in a place where I can get surrounded. I keep my head down to the ground, skirt the edges of the pavement and jump over a grille. I’m so caught up with the idea of making myself invisible that I don’t even notice it when Billy bumps shoulders with me. I try my best not to yelp.

“She wants to speak with you.” he tells me, keeping perfectly in stride with me.

“What is this? Your little cloak and dagger schtick? Gunda doesn’t even have the guts to come tell me herself?” I ask.

”You need to be at the smoker’s lounge, behind the gymnasium on third period recess. She wishes to discuss terms with you.” Billy says, stepping away from me. He makes his way to the rest of his pack and I catch a glimpse of Gunda. She looks serious. A chill runs down my spine, but I make sure not to break eye contact. If she wants a war, she can have it.

I’m too busy acting the badass that I don’t notice Cynthia bumping against me with her shoulder. I stagger and trip, catch myself at the last second so I won’t end up face-first into the asphalt.

“Watch it, snitch.” she sneers and her gaggle moves along ahead of me. I make sure to keep back so I can hide in the rest of the crowd.

Anton and Betty are at the gates by the time I arrive and judging by his expression, Betty’s told him about as much as she could get away with. The little snitch.

“What the hell, Finn?” Anton blurts out, as soon as we’re through the gate “why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what? It wasn’t anything important…” I shrug, trying to play it cool. The look on his face makes my stomach tie up into a neat little knot.

“You could have gotten killed, Finn! You would have died in that place. I mean…what did you even do? With Lisa?” he whispers her name. I try my best not to look him in the eye when I lie:

“Nothing. She got away. Betty wasn’t around to see it, but she did.” I stare at Betty. She nods. She might not be much in the stones department, but she has a great poker face.

“So she’ll come back. She’ll come back and she’ll want some payback and then what will you do? Damn it Finn, you aren’t alone in this.”

“Funny that. You were fine with playing at being Major Steele just a month ago.”

That puts a lid on him and just in time for the first period bell to sound off. When he gets some time on his own he’s going to work out my little distraction tactic and come back at me full force. At least he'll stay off my case for now, give me plenty of time to pore over Gunda and her pack and God knows what else.

Miss Knight drones on for a good thirty minutes, telling the story of a man named Malachi Constant as he scoffs and tries to mock a man who exists in every possible place in space and time all at once. Next to me, Betty is doing her best impression of actually paying attention, her eyes darting back and forth between me and the text, jotting down nonsense when appropriate.

“They found us.” she whispers to me as we’re turning the page, lowering her head. Her hushed, strained whisper snaps me back to reality. “When dad tried to hide it. They found us.”

“How?” I say, fighting back the rising tide of panic.

“I don’t know. We went pretty deep, but it didn’t make any difference. They were always a couple steps behind us.”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing. They wanted to see her, so we showed her to them. I didn’t want to, but there were too many of them. They lingered for a while.”

They were marking me, looking for me. They know my scent and they will know where I am now, no matter where I run to. And if they wanted to see me…no, they aren’t dumb enough to try attacking me in the middle of the day. This is something else entirely.

“Do you think they’ll come after us next?” Betty whispers and there’s nothing I can tell her to reassure her, just corny lies and empty promises.

“This is between me and them now. Don’t you worry.” I smile at Betty and she seems relieved, if only for a second. Anton looks for me during recess, so I just hide in the girls’ restrooms until second period.

Mister Rothchild hasn’t shown up by the time I make it in class. The back rows are packed and I find myself forced to pick a spot beside Cynthia and her cronies. They train their eyes on me the second I get inside. After a good twenty seconds of fidgeting, I finally plop myself in a chair next to Hilary. She looks at me like I'm month old dog-poo. I do my best not to acknowledge her, until she tells me:

“You’re a little freak, Don.”

“Excuse me?” I ask.”

“You’re a sick little pervert freak and we know about Lisa. She told us.”

“What did the big grumpy giant tell you?”

“She told us she was going to kick your ass.”

“Guess she never did because I didn’t see her.”

“That’s weird. Because Anna Stoltz says she saw you go to the old theater yesterday and we know that’s where she said she’d meet you.”

“Well, she wasn’t there.” I lie.

“You know what I think?” Hilary says “I think that you did something to Lisa and you’re trying to hide it. And I’m going to make sure you’ll pay for it.” she stares at me, gauging me, trying to see if I’m scared and the truth of the matter is that I am scared, just not of her or her gaggle of cronies.

Mister Rothchild walks into the classroom, hastily setting up his equipment. Hilary keeps playing tough for a little while, then pretends to take notes herself. She passes me a piece of paper.

We'll get you. It reads. I make sure she seems me tear it into confetti. I’ve got much more on my mind than to waste my time on stupid classroom bravado.

I get out of the classroom the second the recess bell rings and head for the restroom. I make sure to avoid Betty and Anton who are prowling the corridors looking for me. Just to make sure, I lock myself into one of the stalls and pull up my feet. It’s just one more hour, I tell myself. I can take one more hour of this and then this whole damn day will be over and done with.

To keep myself occupied, I close my eyes and try my breathing excercises, thinking back to the isolation cell in Chancel Road, where Dad had made me stay for a whole day each week, to teach myself to adapt in total darkness. To pass the time, I would count the sound that droplets of water made, as they dropped down from the ceiling. Here, I count the pairs of feet shuffling across the tiled floor.

I’m busy trying to fous on a pair of sneakers when the stall door burst open and Hilary with Cynthia and her cronies reach out and grasp me by the hem of my jacket and drag me out on the floor. One of them tugs at my hair before they finally drop me down on the cold marble tiles.

“Payback time, snitch.” Cynthia says and she kicks me, her leg coming over in too wide an arc, too slow. And I can stop her; all I need to do is grasp her ankle, twist it and she’ll come tumbling down, slipping on the floors, probably fall on her stupid little face except I can’t, not when I want them to believe I couldn’t have hurt Lisa.

Cynthia gets me on the shoulder, as I roll to minimize the impact. The tip of her shoe hurts like hell. A pair of hands grasp my arms and I can slip out of their grasp if I want to, just twist my hands so my wrists will slip out her grasp and still have enough time to turn around and put her in a headlock. Instead, I let her pull me to my feet. Hilary slaps me across the face with her backhand, splits my lip. I take it, even though I could break her dainty fingers in the blink of an eye.

“Just tell us what you did with Lisa, Don.” Hilary says in her best tough-girl voice “if you tell us, we promise not to hurt you too bad.”

“I didn’t…” I say. Anna, one of the girls, punches my arm as hard as she can. She hits a nerve, possibly by accident. It goes numb for a while. In the split second it takes me to blink as she hits me again (a blow that glances off my shoulder and gets me on the cheek), I could break her arm in three places.

“You wanna play along with your little game? Okay” Hilary says, producing a pack of smokes from her purse. She lights one up. She drags on it, as Cynthia kicks at my shins. I move just enough for her to miss, let her kick at the s-bend under the sink with all her might. She lets out a yowl and I hope that she’s broken her big toe. “Hold her down.” Hilary orders. Suddenly, their hands are on me, pinning me down against the sink. Hilary drags on the cigarette again, blows a big puff of smoke into my eyes. “Have it your way.” She sneers, bringing the cigarette close to my eye, the cinders at the tip burning as they close in. I can feel my eyelashes getting singed as she comes close so I turn my head, twist my arms to break through their grasping hands. Fun and games are over. A kick to the knee to break her leg and screw Gunda and her games and her threats. Hilary’s a couple centimeters away from plunging her cigarette into my eye, when I hear Principal Kiernan bark:

“Just what the hell is going on here!”

The girls relax their grip, let me go. Hilary tosses the cigarette in the sink, but the stink of tobacco lingers in the air. I stay stock-still, looking at the giant of a woman blocking the doorway.

“Nothing, Miss Kiernan.” Hilary says “We were just…talking.”

“Good. You can tell me all about it in my office.”

“Miss Kiernan, we didn’t…it was Don…”

“My office, the lot of you. Now. You too, Don.” She commands, her voice as stern as a drill seargeant's. The girls freeze, file out of the restroom and into the corridor, with Hilary at the head and myself at the back. Kieran keeps pace with us. Her eyes weigh me over, looking for a weakness, something to exploit. I make sure not to give her an inch.

I miss third period PE to linger outside Kiernan’s office, listening to her muffled howls over the protestations of the girls inside. It lasts for a good twenty minutes before the door opens and they come out, shooting hate-filled glares at me. I make sure they don’t see me shaking, brimming with rage.

“Dun! Inside!” Principal Kiernan barks and I do so, sitting down on the little wooden chair laid out in front.Principal Kiernan makes a show out of leafing through some papers, pretending to study them before finally saying:

“Now that I got their side of the story, I’d like to hear yours.”

“Nothing happened.” I shrug.

“I know you are having trouble adjusting and coping with this crowd. If you are being bullied…”

“I’m not.”

“I saw four girls holding you down. I saw what Hilary was about to do with that lit cigarette.”

“It was nothing. Just a dare.”

“Just a dare? She tried to put your eye out on a dare?”

I nod. Principal Kiernan sighs.

“If you are in some sort of trouble, you can tell me. I’m on your side here, Don.”

“I appreciate that, but nothing happened. That’s just the way it is.”

“Very well,” Principal Kiernan says, gritting her teeth. “Then I trust you won’t mind, if I give you three hours’ detention along with the rest of them.”

“What for?” I protest. “I was…I mean, we didn’t do anything!”

“You were smoking in the girl’s restrooms, weren’t you? I can’t let that one slide.”

I want to explode when I see the way she looks at me, listening to the condescending tone in her voice. It brings my blood to a boil, the way she raps her fingers on the desk and acts like nothing happened, as if…

The third period recess bell rings and I know I need to be out of here and fast.

“Okay.”

“You will report to Mister Cavenaugh at the end of the day. He’ll tell you what to do. And we’ll have no more of this, you hear?” she grumbles that last part. I grit my teeth and give her a big old grin. “Dismissed.”

“Yes, Miss Kiernan.”

I bolt out the door the second she lets me, heading for the smoker’s lounge behind the gym. I duck my head as I pass by Anton.

“Finn! Hey!” he shouts and I pick up the pace, run outside to the back of the school yard. Anton runs right behind me. “Hey! Wait!”

“Anton, just…just go away, okay? I’ll be right back!” I shout back at him and he stops. At least he’s got this much sense.

Gunda and her little pack are waiting for me, right on schedule. I count heads: Billy and his friends from the bookstore, a girl from the seventh grade with a face like a Rottweiler; there’s a boy that I hadn’t noticed before, hunched in the corner. He looks too old to still be a student here. A couple of children from Miss Knight’s class. She showed up with just a few of the pack. This is a show of strength.

“You wanted to see me?” I ask Gunda directly. She grins at me, her lips peeling back, revealing two rows of gleaming white teeth. She crosses her arms and I can see that she’s all lean, wiry muscle. Her eyes are the color of permafrost.

“About time we talked, I think. You can guess what this is about.”

“I’m guessing it’s a little bit of bravado. Showing off your muscle to scare me off, right?” I say and I realize how ridiculous I sound, trying to act tough when I know that all I want to do is bolt, get as far away from here as fast as I possibly can.

“We’re not your enemies, Finn. Even when you harmed one of us, we still don’t want to fight you.”

“I was defending myself.”

“It does not change the fact that you transgressed against us.”

“I should have let her rip off my head then? Like she said she’d do?”

“Lisa was not following my orders. She had become…obsessed after her little accident the other night. She disobeyed a direct order, acting against the pack’s best interests. Frankly, Finn, you did us a favor.” Gunda says and Billy looks at her, eyes going all wide with terror. “This does not change the fact that you took the life of one of our own.”

“What is this?” I ask her, suddenly feeling mad at her, wanting nothing more than to lash out, do anything but stand here and talk “Your idea of a schoolyard trial? Just get on with it.”

“Very well” Gunda says “We are an ancient people, Finn. We come from a long lineage that stretches to the time before humanity. There are precious few of us left and the loss of even one of us is a crime that demands retribution. Our law requires that we would kill you. Instead, we will draw the blood of one close to you. You can choose whom it will be.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I am the only thing keeping this pack from tearing you apart, Finn. The last alpha, he wouldn’t have even considered granting you this mercy.”

“You can’t make me do it. I’d rather…”

“Finn! Where the hell did you…oh” Anton says, coming down the corner, blundering rright in the middle of the negotiations and I can see the look Gunda shoots at him, just dripping with malice.

“No. Don’t you dare. Don’t you even think about it.” I snarl at her.

“Would you prefer it to be the old man in the sushi place? Or maybe the scrawny little monster-girl? We know them both. They cannot hide from us.”

“Finn? What’s going on here? What’s she talking about?”

“Anton, just stay out of this.”

“No, I think this one will do nicely.” Gunda says and suddenly I’m seeing red, I’m running towards her before I even have a chance to stop myself, the world slows down and I can see the clouds of dust billowing under the soles of my feet. Gunda reacts with lightning speed, brings her leg up. I run right into it, knocking the wind out of my lungs and crash down on the ground. She brings her foot down, stepping on my chest.

“You think I’m a blind little beastie, don’t you? You think I’m all talk.” She snarls, as she grinds her heel against my chest. It feels like she’s about to crush my heart like a grape. “I could kill you, Finn. I could crush you like an insect.”

She moves her foot away from my chest and pushes me with the sole of her foot on the dirt. “You should choose, by the end of the week. One of yours for one of ours. Or we will come for all of them.”

Anton helps me as I scramble on my feet. He makes a move, tries to lunge at them but I hold him back. Billy makes a move, bares his teeth. The testosterone in the air is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

“Have a nice day, Finn. We’ll find you when it’s time.” Gunda says and the pack turns back, files out from the smoker’s lounge to the schoolyard with her at the head. Billy stops for a moment, winks at Anton.

“Smooth moves, Pushover-Boy.”

Anton’s forehead cracks against Billy's nose the next instant.Billy screams in his cupped palm, blood flowing down his chin. His eyes shift as she commences his transformation.

“Not here.” she barks. Billy stops dead in his tracks.

Anton waits until they are gone before he asks me:

“Are you okay?”

“I’ll live.” I tell him.

The recess bell rings, for the fourth period. We stay there for a while, long after everyone has retreated into the school. Anton holds my hand in his, squeezes it a little bit too much, but I don’t mind. There’s an ache in my chest and my eyelashes are singed. Something stirs at the back of my head, gnashing its teeth in the dark. I want nothing more than an excuse to hurt someone.

“I won’t let them hurt you.” Anton says.

“I don’t need you, you idiot. I was doing just fine on my own.” I snarl at Anton and I break away from him. He lingers for a while, staring at me as I stomp away. I didn’t mean any of it, but I don’t want him here. Not when I am going to have to choose. Not when I am weak and angry and unprepared.

If Gunda wants her little war, then she’s going to have it. And if I have to die, then I’ll make sure I break her little pack in a thousand pieces.

Betty tries to talk to me for the rest of the day. The way she sounds, her tiny voice going on and on, whispering, talking about how sorry she was, but…

“Betty.” I snap at her, while she’s hunched over me, trying to catch my eye while I’m pretending to be going over a textbook. “Just shut up, will you?”

The way she looks at me, when I say the words, it’s not really sadness or anger. It’s this empty look, her eyes like holes threatening to suck me in, drown me. She turns away and leaves. One less person to worry about, for now. I spend the rest of the day alone, trying not to think about the big bruise on my chest where Gunda trampled me. How fast she was, how downright vicious. Lisa was a runt, next to her; she was fierce and she was strong and even then she nearly killed me. The thought of her, transformed, creeping in the night to burst through the door.

I wonder if Mister Nomura would even have the chance to make a sound, when she’d come at him. How long it would take until she sank her teeth in his neck and there was this horrible, ripping noise like the one I made, when Lisa ran her claws along my back. I spend the last recess with my head in my hands, fighting down the horror doing my best not to think about Adam Erstellt and Betty and Anton and the horrible things that will come for them. But there’s an ache in my chest that won’t go away. It’s not just from Gunda’s footprint-shaped bruise; it’s something that reaches in deeper, wraps its fingers round my heart and squeezes.

“Sulking, snitch?” I hear Cynthia’s voice and something inside me gives way, snaps. The terrified thing in the back of my head takes over and I’ve grasped her wrist just as she’s about to shove me. She lets out a squeal as I twist her arm all the way around her back. My hand moves up, grasps the back of her head, brings it down in a big arc, aiming her nose at the wall.

I stop, just before impact, let her linger there, an inch away from having her pretty little face horribly disfigured. The other girls take a step back. I lean into her ear and whisper:

“I could kill you.”

Cynthia makes a sound like a crippled kitten. When I let go, she drops to her knees on the floor. I’m shaking all over, lips pursed and I realize that I want to explode, I want to hurt her and her little gaggle. I can do it so fast they won’t even have time to run. I could cripple them all with a handful of gravel and then crush their little faces under my sneakers. It would be so easy…

‘We could crush them, if we wanted.’ Dad’s voice echoes from somewhere deep in the halls of memory. ‘All the little people, the whole herd of bumbling apes.’

Hilary runs first, for all the good it does. Her pretty little head of blonde hair is in arm’s reach. I can reach out and tug it, pull her down, pin her arms with my knees. I could make an example of her. Easy as pie…

‘There are weapons on Chancel Road. Weapons that could annihilate all their little empires in a weekend. Reduce their shining cities to dust. We have made these, for just such an eventuality. And yet, we have never used them. Because our gifts, our abilities, who make us so much better than them; these are what make us responsible for them.’

I let her run. I let them all run. Cynthia is crying her eyes out. Mascara runs down her cheeks. With her blue bangs and that ridiculous expression, she looks like a clown at a funeral. For all their tough guy acts, they break so easily.

‘We suffer and we bleed and we skulk in the corners for them. We fight the things that prowl the night for them. We are born and we die for them. Never forget that, Finn.’

***

I skip last period to look for Gunda. She’s prowling around the smoker’s lounge with the rest of her pack. Some of them actually bother with lighting up, keeping up their little façade of the normal, regular slacker. She’s leaning against the wall, her retinue of suck-ups and personal bodyguard clustered around her. The place smells like blood and matted fur. They part when she snaps her fingers, letting me pass. I walk toward her as far as my legs will take me. She towers over me, when she stretches. I try my best not to look too afraid.

“I won’t give up any of my friends.” I tell her. “If there’s someone you want to punish, you should punish me.”

Gunda grins a death’s head grin, all eyes and teeth. She could reach down and bite into my jugular now, if she wanted. She probably will, if I showed any sign of weakness.

“Giving up your life for some people you don’t even know? Aren’t you a brave little thing.”

“They’re my pack.” I say, using words that I know she will understand. “I can’t let you hurt them.”

“Then you’ll leave Orsonville. Tonight. You’ll go away, run to whatever little backwater you crawled out of and never come back. And if we ever see you again, we’ll come for all of you.”

“How can I trust you?”

“Would I ever lie to you?” she says and the pack guffaws all around her. The grin slowly recedes from her face. “Run along now, little girl. No more adventures for you.”

It’s amazing, how quickly I do as she tells me. I don’t even bother going back for my things, just leave them in the locker. Running past the monitors, I climb the fence and run down Ellisson street, down the rows of houses and shops, my feet beating the asphalt, running as fast as I can…where? South seems like a good option. Past Etchison, I sneak a glance at the GoodSushi sign. Mister Nomura isn’t looking. It will take him a few hours before he notices I’m not coming back. By that time, I’ll be on the road, away from Orsonville heading…

Someplace. Somewhere far away, but not too far. In some other little mountain town, or a place by the sea. There won’t be any creepy crawlies there, or friends or monster hunters. There won’t be any packs of werewolves or hidden tunnels beneath. It will just be me, living out my life somewhere where I can’t hurt anyone.

Outside Orsonville’s limits, I stop running. There’s an ache in my chest and my lungs feel like they’re on fire, so I walk. Past the outskirts of the frakking facility, under the shadow of the industrial chimneys, pumping poison into the atmosphere. I skirt along the fenced borders of Henderson Lake, the rotted scum from its bottom dancing on the surface, driven by unseen currents.

I move down along the main road. A few more hours’ walk and I’ll reach one of the back roads, maybe hitch a ride and disappear. Maybe Mister Nomura will come this far, just to find me but I know how to make myself stay gone. This way, he’ll be safe. He and Anton and Betty. Adam Erstellt’s secret will be safe with me, with them.

The road forks as it moves through the forest. The paint on the road signs has long since fade away into nothing, the rust eaten away at the finish. Picking a road at random, I keep moving. I’m bound to be able to see the interstate soon. For now, I keep my eyes fixed on the ground, looking down at my shoes as I put one foot in front of the other.

“Silver-plated baseball bats. That would work.” I mutter to myself “What was I even thinking?” I laugh at how ridiculous all of this is; I didn’t want to be a Helfwir. I gave up on that, only to…what? Find myself in another place, chock full of creepy crawlies. I killed a werewolf, for God’s sake.

Something rustles in the distance. I can hear someone grunting as they step on pine needles. A drag, then a hiss. The sound of a body thumping against the ground.

“This isn’t my problem” I tell myself. “I don’t care. This has nothing to do with me.”

Again, the thumping noise. It’s just a few meters away from me. I can move over the pine needle floor, silent like a snake. This is nothing next to Mister Nomura’s creaking floorboards. I know exactly where to step on, how to move without making a sound. To make sure, I pull up my jeans a little so they won’t rustle together. I open my mouth a little bit, just to hear better and then I inch my way into the woods.

It’s in a little canopy, by a pile of abandoned refrigerators when I see the hunched figure standing over another, dragging the body. Judging by the size of him, it’s a man. There doesn’t seem to be any blood on him but that doesn’t mean he’s okay, not by a long shot. The one dragging the man, propping him against one of the ancient, rusted refrigerators is dressed in a trenchcoat, and fedore. It doesn’t look like he’s armed. While the trenchcoat man is fidgeting around in his overcoat, I crouch down as low as I can and get behind him. He pulls something out from one of his inside pockets; it’s a dull, metallic thing. There’s a switch on it. I don’t have any weapons handy, nothing but a sizeable rock on the ground. I grasp it in my hand and run the half-meter, closing in the distance. The man in the trenchcoat hears me shuffling, turns around to point the thing at me, too late. All it takes is one blow to disarm him. His fedora flies off, as my swing knocks it off his head. I stop my swing halfway, about to bring the rock down on the side of his head, when I see his face.

“Mister Pettus?”

“Finn? God’s sake girl, what are you doing here?” He says, massaging his bruised fingers. I guess I got him a little too well. I drop the rock, raise my hands up to show I’m unarmed.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t even know it was you, I thought you were…well, you looked kind of shady.” I apologize.

“I damn well should be! I’m disposing of a nosy little twerp that tried to kill me.” Mister Pettus groans, turning back to kick the unconscious man once before turning back to me. “Isn’t this a school day? What are you even doing here?”

“I skipped class.” I lie. “I just thought it would be nice, to have a little time on my own.”

“Aren’t you deep? How about you used that time for something, then? Grab his ankles, I’ll get his arms. I want to get him inside the fridge.”

“Won’t he die if he gets stuck in there?”

“He won’t. All of those things had their padlocks busted ten years ago. But he’ll get a damn good scare. Least I can do after he locked me up in my own bleeding basement for three days. Now on my mark, hoist. Hup!”

“You were locked up? For three days?” I groan, as we pick up the man. He’s Asian, around 30 years old. His right eye is bruised something fierce. “What about Mister Guttierez? Didn’t he notice?”

“That fat selfish hog? He just left the bloody sandwiches at the door, didn’t even check if I was going to answer! Easy now, this is the tricky bit…” he grunts, as he opens the refrigerator door wide and pushes the man inside halfway. “What if crazy old Mister Pettus doesn’t answer, hm? If he’s dead, then we’ll know when he smells, won’t we?”

I push the man’s legs inside so he’s stuck upside down in the fridge. Mister Pettus slams the door shut. “That should teach the little bleeder. I swear to God, I keep getting harassed by amateurs! Back in my day, I’d be attacked by properly trained ninjas! At least they had the decency not to attack a man relieving himself!” he shouts the last bit at the refrigerator, kicking at the door. It rattles inside and I know that the man is going to wake up with a serious headache.

“I’m sorry.” I say.

“Why should you be sorry. You’re the only person that gave a damn, until I got you in danger. You did the right thing, Finn.” He says, picking up his fedora and placing it on his bald head “Come on, I’ll walk you back.”

“I can’t.” I say and then add, stuttering “I can’t go back, not right now.”

Mister Pettus looks me over. He seems to be examining me, in the same way an entomologist might look at a particularly fascinating butterfly that he’d just pinned on a sliver of cork.

“You’re running, aren’t you?” he says. “Oh, don’t try to hide it, I can see it plain as day. What did you do, Finn?”

“I hurt someone. But she was going to hurt me first.”

“And now they’re out for blood? Is that it? Good God, what kind of trouble could a girl your age ever get into?”

So I tell him. Just like that, I let him have it. Every last bit of it: where I came from, why I’m here. What happened on my first day in this place: Billy and the rat-things and Mister Nomura. About Gunda’s Gunners and the werewolves and Lisa. I make sure to keep Betty and her father out of this, of course. Mister Pettus waits until I am done and then says:

“Judging by your age, that would make you…Lucius’ granddaughter, I gather?”

“You knew my grandfather?”

“Knew him? I fought with the man. Him and his mother, that is. I escorted them across the frontlines in Berlin, toward the end of the war. The Wanderers, we use to call them.”

I try to make sense out of the information that Mister Pettus just laid on my lap. Dad didn’t like to talk about Lucius and I only knew my great-grandmother’s name, which was the name that was given to me, in turn: Finn Dunn, daughter of Lludd. Mom had told me once, how the records in the Chancel Road libraries made passing reference to Helfwir involvement in the War, but there was nothing definitive in them. How much did I not know about my own family?

“They always appeared through their shifting road. The ‘Rainbow Way’ we used to call it. Our people in MI6 had known that it existed but they weren’t sure not until it showed up in Iwo Jima and people with bloody knives and lances started killing those kappas. The allied forces approached them after that, offered them a chance to aid in the war effort. We needed all the help we could get at that point.”

“What were they even doing in Berlin?” I say. Mister Pettus gives me a knowning little grin, gets up, stretches and then starts walking.

“I’ll fill you in on the way back. Oh, don’t give me that look. Where are you even going to go? Back to Rainbow Road? Or are you just going to up and leave right as we’re getting to the good part?”

“Just for a little while. Then I’m off.”

“Fair enough.” Mister Pettus says, guiding me through a hidden little path in the woods, where the treeline starts getting so thick, that not even the sun’s dwindling rays can pierce through it. Behind us, the man in the refrigerator has woken up, realized where he is and is busy screaming his head off.

“Ever heard of Project Kriegshund?” Mister Pettus asks me.