Chapter 4 The Fog Remains---So Does the Wolf
Leela didn't know how long she had been asleep, but when she woke up, the room felt heavy and still. She sat up, rubbing the grit from her eyes, and crept to the window to peek through the curtains again.
He was still there.
The wolf hadn't moved an inch. He was a sentinel, a dark statue guarding her cheap motel door. She couldn't tell if he had even shifted his weight while she slept. Beyond him, the fog was still a wall--so white and heavy she felt like she could slice through it with a knife.
GRR-GURGLE.
Her stomach gave a violent, painful protest.
"What is wrong with me?" she whispered, clutching her midsection.
She had never felt this hungry before. It wasn't just an empty stomach; it was a hollow ache that felt like it was eating her from the inside out. She looked at the cold, greased congealed burger and took it from the nightstand. She took a bite, but the cold fat coated her tongue and she spat it out into the trash can.
She needed real food. And she needed to secure the room again.
She sat on the bed and pulled her wallet out of her hoodie pocket. She opened it up. Five one-dollar bills and some loose change stared back at her.
"Shit," she told the empty room.
She reached for the duffel bag and dug until she found the heavy tube sock. She unrolled it. She knew she had a little over nine hundred dollars in there--her lifeline. She hated breaking into it. Every bill she pulled out felt like she was shortening the time she could be free.
She sighed and pulled out a single hundred-dollar bill, then shoved the sock back deep into the bag.
With the fog this thick, she wasn't going anywhere. She had to pay for another night.
She sat there for a moment, thinking about the house on Maple Drive. It was strange; the parents who had terrorized her for seventeen years didn't feel like a threat anymore. They felt like a bad dream she had finally woken up from.
"They won't come looking," she told herself.
"They're probably glad the spare room is empty."
Ginny Donovan had been her best friend since kindergarten-the only person who knew about the exploding lightbulbs and didn't think Leela was a freak..
I have to tell her I'm okay, Leela thought. But not yet. As soon as she was sure her parents weren't looking for her, she would get a tracfone and text her. She would tell Ginny she was safe. Ginny was a vault; she wouldn't talk.
Leela took a deep breath and opened the door a crack.
The wolf stood up immediately. He stepped away from the door, moving out into the parking lot to give her space, then sat down and watched her.
Leela slipped out, shivering in the damp air and hurried to the diner.
The place was empty. Hank was behind the counter staring into the white oblivion outside. He looked toward her as she entered.
"Morning, hun," Hank said. "Or afternoon, I guess. Fog's got the time all messed up."
Leela walked up to the counter, clutching her hundred-dollar bill. "I need to rent the room again. The fog is too thick to drive in."
Hank looked at her. He looked at the bill in her hand, then at her anxious face. He knew. He had seen enough runaways in his time to spot one a mile away, especially one spinning yarns about sick grandmas.
He pushed the bill back at her.
"Keep it," Hank said gruffly.
"What?" Leela stammered. "No, I have to pay.."
"You paid sixty bucks yesterday," Hank interrupted. "Look, nobody is coming in this weather. The motel is empty. I marked you down for the weekly rate on yesterdays tab. You're good for several days if you need them."
Leela's mouth fell open. "I..umm..thank you. Seriously."
"Don't mention it," he grunted. "And you look hungry."
"I'm starving," she admitted.
"Good, cause I got too much food and no customers." He reached under the counter and pulled out a styrofoam container." We made fried chicken for the lunch rush that never happened. Take it. Got some coleslaw in there too."
Leela tried to hand him the five ones from her wallet for the food. Hank shook his head. "I"d have to throw it out anyway. Go on. Eat."
Leela took the warm container, feeling a lump in her throat that had nothing to do with hunger. "Thank you, sir."
She turned and stepped back into the fog.
There sat the wolf. Staring at her.
It was funny--yesterday, seeing a predator this size would have sent her screaming. Today, she just felt...watched. But not threatened. It was weird, but she didn't feel scared.
"You coming?" she whispered.
She walked back to her room. she heard the rhythmic click-clack of claws on the pavement behind her. He was following.
When she got ot her room, she unlocked the door and went inside. The wolf stopped on the welcome mat, resuming his post.
Leela hesitated. She looked at the warm chicken in her hand, then at the cold burger in the trash can. She fished out the burger.
She stood in the open doorway. "Hey."
The wolf looked up.
She tossed the cold burger to him. He caught it in mid-air, He didn't even chew; it was just gone in one gulp.
Leela sat on the edge of the bed, leaving the door wide open. The wolf sat on the threshold, watching her.
"You're a curious one, you know that?" she asked him.
He cocked his head to the side, looking at her quizzically.
"If you promise not to bite me." she said feeling absolutely insane. "I'll let you in."
What in the world am I doing? She thought. This is a wild animal.
But the pullin her chest--the same one that led her to the motel--was humming.
"Come inside," she whispered.
The wolf stood. He padded into the room, his massive frame filling the small space. He walked to the rug at the foot of the bed, circled it three times--round, round, round--and collapsed with a heavy sigh.
Leela closed the door and locked it.
She sat on the bed and opened the styrofoam container. The smell of fried chicken filled the room. She ate ravenously, tearing the meat off the bone, wiping the grease on a napkin.
When she was done, she felt the exhaustion creeping back in. Running away was tiresome work.
She grabbed the remote. Click-News. Click-Old cartoons.
She settled for cartoons--coyotes falling off a cliff.
She slid to the foot of the bed, lying on her stomach. Her hand dangled off the mattress, hovering over the wolf. He didn't growl.
She lowered her hand and scratched his ears.
He leaned into it, letting out a low rumble that vibrated through the floorboards.
Leela watched his fur in the flickering light of the TV, It was mesmerizing. One way she rubbed it, it was dark storm cloud gray. The other way, it shimmered silver. At the tips, it seemed blinding white.
"Your fur is beautiful," she murmured. "I wish I knew what to call you."
The wolf opened one amber eye.
"Smoke?" she guessed.
The wolf closed his eye.
"Shadow?"
The wolf let out a sharp, indignant huff of air, twitching his ears away from her hand.
"Okay," Leela laughed softly. "Shadow is a hard no."
She ate the last bite of her coleslaw and lay back against the pillows. Her eyelids were heavy, the room was warm, the wolf was quiet, and for the first time in her life, she felt safe enough to just...stop.
She closed her eyes, and the darkness took her.