Unfamiliar Territory

The very next sensation was pain, followed by the smell of a wet forest. I woke up in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room, with an all too familiar face smiling down at me.

“You’re awake!” he exclaimed.

I grabbed the nearest thing—a pillow—and hit Mutt with all the force I could manage. It hurt like crap to do it, but it was satisfying to see him fall back on the floor. He looked up at me and—dammit, I almost felt sorry for him with the way his eyes almost seemed to water up.

“Why’d you do that, Foxy?” he asked. He seemed to be on the brink of tears.

“Because you almost killed me!” I shouted, gripping the pillow harder. “Not only that, but you even dragged me to your...”

We were in a small room. The very first thing that caught my eye was the posters. Sports posters, art posters, music posters—posters of different sizes and more colors than I could count. I could see no sign of a wall—the posters took up everything. Compared to them, the plain wooden desk and the mattress on the floor were pretty dull. Was this really his room?

“So, you’re still scared of me then, huh?”

My focus shot back to the scraggly teenager with the floppy hat. He was smiling again, and looked more like the boy I first shook hands with all those months ago. But the ache in my muscles reminded me of his other side. Of the monster that tried to kill me.

I stood up, but the light headed feeling returned. I stumbled. Mutt reached out and grabbed my arm in a flash. I felt my hairs all raise at once before I tore my arm free from his grip, falling back a few steps. I braced my hand against the wall, knocking loose a few of the posters. I watched them fall slowly to the floor and saw I was wearing a pair of my own pajamas.

“Who changed me?” I asked.

“Stallion and Mr. Mallard,” Mutt answered, managing a smile despite the miserable look in his eyes. “They’ll be happy to see you’re awake.”

Happy that I’m alive, maybe.

“I want to leave,” I said.

“Do you wanna go outside?” Mutt asked me, his smiles gone.

“I want to talk to Mr. Mallard.”

The light feeling in my head wasn’t going away. What really happened before I passed out? How much of it was real? I had to know.

Also, it was time to tell him I was done with his club, once and for all.

“We should go outside, then,” Mutt said.

I followed Mutt outside of his room, and was immediately stopped short. We were standing in a large hallway, its walls cracked and gray. There was little light as most of the overhead lights were busted and the few windows I could spot were small, near the ceiling, and coated in years of grime and dirt.

It didn’t look like any house or apartment complex. Down the hallway were long abandoned wheelchairs and gurneys, each one rusted and dusty. I stood there staring at them for so long that when I looked to Mutt he was already halfway down the hall.

“Where are we, an abandoned hospital?” I asked him as I hurried to catch up. “Why did you take me here?

“Cause we live here,” Mutt answered without turning around or stopping. I forgot what I had planned to say next.

He led me to a set of old stone stairs. He started to descend without explaining further. I reached out to stop him, but my hand wouldn’t touch him.

He might chase me or attack me or kill me or...

I lowered my arm, clenching the fist. I didn’t need any more answers. I just wanted out.

Downstairs was another long and dark hallway, but this one had less doors than upstairs. Mutt nodded straight ahead as he stopped. “If you go to the end of the hall and turn the corner you’ll find the doors that go out back.”

He turned back around to go back up the stairs. I called out to him, but he ignored me.

There were no paintings or photos on the walls, just imprints where a few used to be. All the doors were closed; many had the remains of yellow police tape on them, though what was left was grey and barely visible against the dark brown of the doors.

Did Mutt’s family really live here? It would explain why he never seemed interested in talking about home.

I saw my shoes by the glass doors Mutt had indicated. I was grateful to put them on. While the floors seemed to be the only thing maintained in here, I was glad I had a barrier against any stray nail or sharp object that would be at home in this place.

When I went outside, it was like stepping from Mutt’s room into the hallway. Stepping outside was like stepping into a new world.

It was early morning, the sun not yet high in the sky. This building was on a rather tall hill that descended down a ways. Apple trees dotted the hill as it went down until it ended in a forest. I shuddered at the sight of it, hoping it wasn’t the same one that lay behind the school.

A breeze hit me almost full in the face and I had to look away from the great expanse before me.

That’s when I saw Kat.

She was kneeled over a basin of soap and water, washing clothes against a strainer like one of those women you’d see in old black and white pictures. She wore her usual jeans, but also had on a shirt with rolled up sleeves and an apron. Her long strands of hair were held back by a yellow bandanna.

She could look good in anything.

Kat’s head suddenly jerked up and I was trapped by her eyes.

Crap. I had stared for too long.

“Good morning,” I tried, even throwing in a sheepish smile.

“What are you looking at?”

I tried finding those elusive right words. I tried to break free from her eyes.

I saw the scrapes on her face instead. There was a deep, nasty claw mark down one cheek with fresh stitches. It looked like the kind of injury that would leave a scar.

I stared down at the grass. It felt like my heart was breaking.

“Foxy?”

“You look like a mother,” I said. I glanced back up in time to dodge a wet and soapy shirt that was hurdled in my direction. “I meant that in a good way!”

“Right.” She went back to cleaning and I stood there, watching her.

I wasn’t sure why I said it. I had to say something.

So, those dogs were real. And I ran away, that was real.

I was not one of them, like she had always assumed. I was not brave like them. I did not have strength like them. They would only get hurt worse if they had to worry about someone like me.

“Is Mr. Mallard here?”

“He’s out in the woods with Stallion.”

“I...” I bit my lip. “Actually, you might be relieved to hear it, but I’m leaving.”

Kat continued to wash the clothes, her eyes gazing down into the soapy basin.

“Kat? Did you hear me? I said I’m going to be quitting. You were right; I’m not one of you. I guess you saw it before everybody else. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you. I just...” I bit down harder. I thought I could taste blood. “I like...I liked hanging out with you all. I liked having you guys as friends. But I see now that it takes more than that. I’m sorry I couldn’t be more.”

I wiped my eyes before she could see. But it didn’t matter. She was still washing clothes, still acting like she hadn’t heard me. Maybe she didn’t. Maybe now she saw me as no more than the other people at school.

Insignificant. Background noise.

“I’ll see if I can find him,” I said, turning away from her. I wasn’t looking forward to trekking through more woods, but it was better than standing there any longer.

“Wait here. You will get lost if you try to find them on your own.”

Kat was still washing and I was still standing. I looked back at the building. It was almost bleached white and appeared as old, if not older, than the insides. I could see areas where there was crude graffiti. The windows looked worse on the outside; cracked and coated in grime. The building was pretty large though, at least three stories. I was tempted to go around to the front and see what it was, exactly. If it was a hospital, it was long since abandoned.

Abandoned...

“Mutt lives here?!” I exclaimed, turning to face Kat who was still elbows deep in her washing. She let out an irritated sigh, like I was bothering her, but I wasn’t about to let up with her this time. “He doesn’t really, does he?”

“We all do,” she answered. At my horrified stare she went on. “What of it?”

“It’s filthy!” I cried. “It’s run down, it doesn’t seem to have electricity—it looks like some abandoned hospital!”

“It’s an abandoned asylum,” Kat corrected.

“Oh, is that all?” I looked back at the building—the asylum. Alone on a hill, surrounded by apple trees, miles and miles away from civilization. I started to feel dizzy again.

“What the hell is going on?”

“I’m not sure I know what you mean,” Kat said, wiping her wet hands on her apron.

“Enough of that, you guys can’t keep dancing around this anymore! Something really messed up is going on and I want to know what it is!”

Kat folded her arms, watching me. It was very cold, standing out there in my pajamas, but I held my ground and waited. She did not say a word.

I turned and marched down the hill.

“I told you already, you’ll get your answers as soon after you make more progress with Mouse.”

“That isn’t good enough anymore!” I shouted back, not stopping. “After everything I saw, after everything you guys put me through, you can’t expect me to just sit around and pretend it’s all alright. I’m going to find Mr. Mallard and then I’m—”

I had reached the tree line when I felt the hairs rise up on my neck. I looked back up the hill, but Kat was gone. Like she was never there.

I turn back towards the trees and spotted her right away, sitting on one of the higher branches on the tree right in front of me—like she had always been there.

I had to do a double take. Same apron, same bandanna. It had to be the same person. But it was impossible. It had taken me seconds to get down to the base of the hill. There was no way she could have gotten there without me noticing.

It was impossible.

She landed on the ground with hardly any sound at all. I back-pedaled away from her.

“What the hell are you people?”

Kat matched my retreat with her own graceful and silent steps. “No more questions, Foxy. I think you know by now they aren’t going to be answered any time soon,” she said in a voice as cold and deadly as the way her green eyes bore into me. “You are too far in the hole to go back now, do you understand? You are going to stop with the questions and do whatever Mr. Mallard asks of you, or—”

I misjudged how steep the incline of the hill was and interrupted Kat’s threat with a slip and a pathetic little yelp as I fell hard on my backside. Kat did not halt her advance; she kept walking until she was standing directly in front of me—until she was nearly on top of me.

I couldn’t move. My legs were shaking, my heart beat painfully in my chest. The pain in my muscles pulsed in time with my rapid heartbeat.

I looked up and saw every scar and scratch in her face. I looked deep into the eyes of someone who wouldn’t think twice about killing me.

“You do as you’re told, Foxy, or Mutt, some dogs, a witch, and a few unanswered questions will be the least of your worries.”