Book Five, Chapter 94: A Wolf’s Howl

~Kimberly~

I had pulled every thread. I knocked on every door.

It had all led me here to a field glowing beautiful and blue under the full moon with monsters approaching from the darkness.

We had guns. We had bullets, all left here for our final stand, for our last moments, our last chance to save each other.

Riley said we needed a showdown, and now we had one.

Were we ready?

Was I?

The wolves howled. I could feel the sounds in my chest they were so loud. The blue jars and bottles hanging from the trees were doing their job all around us. The wolves wouldn’t go near them.

There was one wide opening that the remaining pack members could walk through to reach us, and in the center of it all was the largest wolf, the pack leader. On the red wallpaper, she was called Serena, but I knew this was Sarah.

My character knew who this was, and I believed her.

Suddenly, the howling changed. It became more… frantic, confused.

The wolves started acting weird. They weren’t closing in for an attack; no, they were panicking. Some ran in circles, others scratched at each other, and others howled a pained, lonely cry.

Many ran away into the forest.

“What’s happening?” I asked. These wolves were not close enough to the rolling silver for that to be the culprit.

“Riley,” Andrew answered.

We were On-Screen. His answers were limited.

“The necklace,” I said. “He got to the necklace. Is that what’s doing this?”

We watched as more wolves ran to the woods while others ran toward the manor.

“He awoke the original,” Andrew said. “That crazy son of a bitch. Perhaps he was right about all of this. The wolves are connected by magic. The rolling silver… has a magical function beyond our understanding. He told me he thought that Clara was alive in some way, that her curse remained. Perhaps he was right. Perhaps the power that gives the pack leader control has been diminished.”

He was trying to explain what was happening to the audience in case Riley hadn’t been able to. The sleeping wolf, the original, had awoken to claim her pack again.

We had no idea how that would turn out when she arrived, but it seemed to be helping now. Sarah was losing wolves rapidly.

“The wolves are conflicted,” I said. “They feel another power.”

Riley might have had a better way to put it. I was trying. I delivered the line with awe and amazement. That was the best I could do.

“The remaining wolves appear loyal to the pack leader,” Andrew said as he watched those that remained. “When we use advanced rolling silver, many get disconnected from the pack. What if, instead of disconnecting the individual wolves, we use it on her?”

“Disconnect her?” I asked.

“If they are linked to her and their loyalty really is the result of some magical connection, then disconnecting her should be far more potent than attaching the other wolves individually. I wish I understood this phenomenon better; I really do, but given what we know, it is our best line of attack. Disconnect the pack, and in the chaos, take out the pack leader.”

I watched as more wolves fled, as more ran to the manor, called by some unseen force.

We would never have a better shot than this. Andrew had to be the one to state the plan. He was high Savvy, after all.

“You get the pack leader’s attention; I will look for an opening to get one of these rolling silver jars near her,” he said.

That was a plan. The trouble was we couldn’t just attack. We needed the villain to have a scene with me for the finale. We had yet to speak to each other. It was time.

Andrew moved away, closer to the stores of weapons we had left her near one of the blue trees.

As if waiting her turn, the pack leader, Serena, approached; several of her guard wolves trailed behind her, including Antoine. He was one of them now. I had to ignore that. My character wouldn’t know it was him.

She slowly began to transform back into a human. She was beautiful. Carousel was sure to show that.

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“What do you want from me, Sarah?” I asked, my voice trembling despite my best efforts.