Chapter 3 - Through the Window

The rest of the day turned up very little information. Julian and Nora had resolved to check out the Millers' place that night, which left them the rest of the day to come up with something to do. Without many other options, Julian decided to swing by the police station, so after they ate their breakfast in the car, he drove Nora over in the Cutlass and parked in the police station's parking lot. The pair of werewolves had gotten out of the car and headed inside. There was a woman at the front desk, a woman in her early thirties or so, wearing the tan police uniform, a bulky shirt and pants to match, with her nametag saying Bryan on it. She was quite plain-looking, and she also looked half asleep, which wasn't really the best kind of face to put forwards during a time in Crescent Hill when two children had been abducted.

"Oh, um, can I help you?" Officer Bryan yawned.

"I'm Nora Thomas, I'm hear for an update on my son." Nora said firmly, and the officer wilted.

"Ah, I see. Well, Mrs. Thomas-"

"Ms." Nora corrected sharply.

"Ms. Thomas." Officer Bryan corrected herself. "I'm afraid that at this time we do not have any update for you. I'm not sure if you're aware, but there's been a second abduction, so-"

"Yes, which is why I'm here for an update!" Nora snapped. "There's now two missing children, how does your police department intend to solve this problem?"

Julian raised his eyebrows in surprise at the genuine anger Nora was showing here. Without thinking, he put a hand on her back comfortingly. To his amazement, that actually worked, and Nora took a steadying deep breath.

"I'm sorry for yelling." Nora exhaled. "I just- it's been a long 2 days."

"Of course, ma'am." Officer Bryan cleared her throat, then glanced towards Julian. "Are you, um.. Andy's father?"

Julian blinked. "No, I'm not."

"My mistake, I just assumed- well, never mind. Look, if the two of you want, you can wait until Sergeant Murphy finishes up with taking the Millers' statement." Officer Bryan said, gesturing to the chairs lining the walls of the waiting room.

"We will, thank you." Nora said, and she grabbed Julian's arm, leading him over to the chairs, where she dropped into one and let out an angry sigh. Julian glanced over his shoulder as Officer Bryan got up and walked into the station properly.

"Total incompetence." Julian shook his head. "She shared way too many details of this case with us."

"That's what we want, isn't it?" Nora asked wryly, rubbing her forehead.

"Yeah, but it means they're really going to be very little help in all of this." Julian sighed.

"Sit down." Nora said, glancing up at Julian and patting the chair beside her. Julian nodded, and did as she'd said, dropping down into the chair beside Nora. The werewolf woman leaned into his side, her head on his shoulder as she exhaled loudly. Julian put his arm around her as she let out a small little sniffle.

"I'm so scared, Julian." Nora confessed, her voice quavering a little. "Another kid got taken, and nobody has any lead on Andy."

"I know." Julian murmured, rubbing Nora's arm. "But you have to have faith, alright? We have to keep up the hope."

"You're right." Nora sniffled. "I'm just... he's all I've got, Jules. You know what happened to my parents, and I never had any siblings, the only person I have is Andy. If I lose him... I can't lose him."

Julian squeezed Nora, closing his eyes as he tried to do what he'd just told her to do. It was real damn hard to stay hopeful sometimes. In the wide world of supernatural horrors, anything could have happened to Andy by now. Truly anything. Including him being perfectly fine and kept safe and alive for some reason, but something like that was real hard to believe in times like this. Especially considering the scent of death that lingered in Nora's backyard.

"We're going to find out what took him, Nora." Julian murmured. "And we're going to make the bastard pay."

He couldn't promise her they were going to find Andy in time to save him, but he could damn sure promise her vengeance if they didn't. Footsteps sounded, shoes on linoleum, and Nora sat up, wiping hastily at her eyes as Sergeant Carol Murphy walked out into the lobby. She looked back and forth between them, her eyes landing on the obviously crying Nora, and she gave them a small, grim smile.

"Come on back, guys." the sergeant said, and Julian and Nora both rose to follow her. As they walked, Julian scanned the police station layout. It was a small building, basically just the one big room they were walking through now. It was dated, looking like something from the 1970s with worn linoleum floors, walls painted a dull yellowy-tan shade, and big old fashioned wooden tables, but at least they seemed to be using computers from this century, though he wasn't sure they were from this decade. There were probably about eight officers currently in the police station, and there didn't seem to be space for many others, which did confirm that this was a very small department. Julian wondered idly what his partner Abigail would say about this place, she'd probably be less than pleased. Abigail was a city girl through and through though, this random podunk town was not going to be something she enjoyed.

Sergeant Murphy led Julian and Nora to a desk against the far wall, which was a step up from the normal officers, considering they were sitting at big square wooden tables, a chair placed at each of the four sides of the table. There was a chief's office on the left wall, but the blinds were drawn, the lights were out, and the name placard on the door was empty. The only indication that it was a chief's office was the words CHIEF'S OFFICE written on the frosted glass of the door to the office.

"No captain at the moment?" Julian surmised. Sergeant Murphy glanced towards the clearly unused office, and she shook her head.

"No, we haven't had a Chief in years." Murphy sighed. "Coming up on three years now, I think. Not since the last chief retired."

"Is that... allowed?" Nora asked skeptically, and Murphy groaned.

"Well, I'm sure you're familiar with our wonderful mayor, he's perfectly happy to just keep things as they are." Murphy shook her head.

"Fair enough." Nora said, sighing as well. Murphy gestured to the two chairs placed opposite her desk, and Julian and Nora both sat down.

"Alright." Murphy exhaled, flipping open a manila folder sitting on her desk. "With the abduction of Jenny Miller, we are looking into your son's disappearance again under the lens of it being an abduction. Our search party last night turned up no sign of your son, but with Jenny missing as well, it'll be continuing tonight. We're looking into any connection between Andy and Jenny, but so far, we've got nothing."

"What do you have on file about Jenny?" Julian inquired. "I don't know anything about her."

"Well, she's two years older than Andy, she's 7. Second grader at the same school Andy attends, Crescent Hill Elementary, but they have no real connection beyond that. Ms. Thomas, do you have any connection with the Millers?" Murphy asked, looking to Nora.

"No, nothing." Nora said at once, shaking her head. "I know who they are, of course, but as far as I know, Andy and Jenny have never even spoken, and I've only ever said a few words to the Millers."

Carol Murphy nodded, looking grim. "I figured as much, that's what the Millers said in regards to you."

"Did the Millers hear anything? See anything?" Julian asked, and the sergeant gave him a look.

"I know you're probably pretty unimpressed with our department, LA, but I do need to remind you, this isn't your case." Sergeant Murphy told him.

"Sergeant, please." Nora interjected. "I called him here, I really value his help. Is there anything that you can do for us?"

Murphy hesitated, looking between the two of them, before she reached into her folder and pulled out a sheet of paper, sliding it towards them. "I'm not giving you two access to my crime scene, but here. This is what my officers and I picked up on."

It was a painfully short document, but Julian scanned over it quickly. The document mentioned the cut in the curtains, and they had identified it as not being from a knife. From the blurry photo on the page, Julian thought it looked a lot like a claw or a talon had caught on it. Beyond that, the report was pretty uninteresting. The bedroom window had been left open, much like the ajar back door in Nora's house. The slice on the curtain, however, indicated that something had indeed come inside the Millers' house, it was just a question of what. According to the Millers' statement, they had never heard or seen anything. They'd put their daughter to bed and then went to bed themselves a few hours later. They had checked on her before going to bed, and she was sleeping soundly. So sometime between 10:30 at night and about 7 the next morning, something had entered the Millers' home, and taken Jenny.

Much bigger window of time there than eight minutes, unfortunately. Julian spotted movement out of the corner of his eye, and glanced down to see Nora was rubbing her palms on the sides of her thighs anxiously as she sat there. Julian reached out to still one of her hands, and he did, their hands ing on one of Nora's thighs. Her other hand stopped in response, coming over to clasp his hand as well, so his hand was clasped between both of hers. She squeezed him tightly, and Julian felt a pang for what Nora was going through. She was holding it together as well as could be expected, but it made his chest ache seeing the sorrow, the grief, and the terror in her pretty blue eyes.

"So is your plan to find these missing children just... searching the woods?" Julian asked skeptically.

"For now, I'm afraid so." Murphy sighed. "We have zero leads, nothing directing us to anyone. We have no evidence to acquire a warrant, so we can't just be busting down doors trying to find these missing kids."

"Well, hopefully after Andy and Jenny, parents keep a close eye on their children." Nora exhaled.

"I expect that is already the case." Sergeant Murphy said reassuringly. "Look, we'll keep you guys posted in case anything else happens, but for right now, I'm afraid it's just a waiting game."

"Ma'am!" a voice called, and Julian turned to see a younger police officer holding a desk phone to his ear. "We've got a body."

"What?" Sergeant Murphy exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "Who?"

"Apparently a neighbor went and did a welfare check on a... Ruth Martin." the officer read off his notepad. "They found her dead inside, they said it looked like she had been mauled by an animal, maybe a few days ago."

"What the fuck is happening to my town?" Murphy scowled, then looked to Julian and Nora. "Thank you two for coming in, we'll keep you posted if we find anything."

The police sergeant barked some names, and most of the eight officers in the bullpen currently jumped to their feet, scrambling to grab their things as the sergeant led them out to the parking lot.

"An animal attack?" Julian shook his head, looking to Nora. "Something's weird here. Kids and old people? Weird targets to be going after."

"Weak targets." Nora said quietly, releasing Julian's hand as they stood up. "Maybe the creature doesn't want to tangle with someone who might be able to fight it off."

"Could be." Julian shrugged. "Do you wanna try and follow them?"

"Uh, for sure." Nora said, and Julian nodded back.

The pair of werewolves hurried out to the Cutlass, and as Julian opened his front door, he watched as a little line of police cars took off, sirens blaring and lights flashing as they headed presumably towards Ruth Martin's house. Julian turned the Cutlass on quickly, and didn't even bother to buckle his seatbelt before he threw the Cutlass into reverse. He whipped out of his parking spot, threw the car into drive, and tore after the cop cars.

———

Ruth Martin lived nearer to the Millers' than to Nora, but it was a whole different neighborhood altogether. Yet again, Julian and Nora pulled up to a hectic crime scene, but this crowd was mostly elderly people, some of whom looked horrified. One woman, this woman a little younger, maybe in her forties, was throwing up in Ruth Martin's yard. An ambulance was on scene, several EMTs were present, and the police cars that had left the police station were pulling up just as Julian and Nora turned the corner onto Ruth Martin's street, Almond Avenue.

"This might be a gruesome one." Julian commented, his eyes on the vomiting woman.

"I can handle it." Nora said, climbing out of the Cutlass. Julian raised his eyebrows to nobody in particular, then followed Nora out, stepping out into the snow as he shut the driver's side door.

"Why don't you sneak around to the tree line and see if you can pick up on any scent?" Julian suggested to Nora, the pair of them standing on opposite sides of the Cutlass. "I'll go show my face, Murphy expects to see me here. If she asks about you, I'll just say you needed to rest."

"Works for me." Nora said, looking back down the street. "I'll go into the woods a few houses down, then make my way back over."

"Good luck. If need be, wolf out and run." Julian told her, making her smile a little as she nodded at him. For just a second, Julian let himself ire Nora's curvaceous hips as she walked away, but then he forced his attention away from her and focused up on the crime scene. He made his way towards the crowd, stepping around some elderly onlookers as he made his way up to the cordon. Well, it was kind of a loose cordon, it was just a couple of officers telling people to stay back, they didn't have any actual barricades or police tape in place.

The officer standing there, one unfamiliar to Julian, held up a hand to stop him, but Julian had already stopped in place. He gave the officer a little nod, and the officer went back to scanning along the line, making sure nobody was pressing forwards. Julian peered past the officer, scanning the scene intently. The front door was open, and while he couldn't make out the body from this angle, he was able to see several EMTs huddled around something.

"Such a tragedy." Julian heard someone murmur beside him, and he turned to look at a pair of women probably in their sixties, talking quietly to each other as they stood there watching.

"Real terrible." the other woman agreed. "Ruth was such a sweetheart, it's terrible to go out like this."

"Do you know who found her?" Julian asked, keeping his tone gentle as he looked between the two women.

"Oh yes, that was her daughter Willow." the first woman said, pointing over to the woman who had been throwing up, but had since stopped. "Ruth's neighbor George had tried checking on her, but there'd been no response, so George called Willow, who has a key, and Willow showed up to unlock the door. She walked in and apparently found poor Ruth laying dead in the living room."

"She came running out hollering and screaming, shaking. George called 911, and Willow has been beside herself since she came out of that house. Not that I blame the poor girl." the second woman lamented, shaking her head. Julian nodded in sympathetic agreement, looking back to the house as the second woman started whispering to the first.

"Excuse me, are you Nora Thomas' new man?" the first woman asked politely, startling Julian.

"I think you'd be quite good for her." the second woman nodded encouragingly. "She's a very sweet girl, just one caught in a terrible position. First, that no good man runs out on her and her baby, and now the poor child has been kidnapped. She could use someone like you."

Julian had to laugh, shaking his head. "I am here in town for Nora, that's true, but I'm not her man or anything like that. I'm a detective, actually, from Los Angeles. Nora and I are old friends. She called me when Andy went missing."

"Ohhhh, so you're here on business." the first woman said with a smile. "I hope you find the boy. He's a sweet kid, I've seen him in Earl's Diner often, coloring in one of the booths while his mama works."

"Yeah, I hope I do too." Julian nodded, a little choked up by the weight of that settling on his shoulders. He was fully committed to helping Andy, he'd do that and a lot more for Nora, but hearing about who Andy was made his responsibility feel even more serious. A sweet little kid who colored while waiting for his mom to finish working, a kid who helped his elderly neighbors water their plants... Everyone had great things to say about Andy, and each of those comments hit Julian harder and harder. He needed to find this kid before anything happened to him. He didn't know what it would do to him, or to Nora, if he didn't.

Nora was a tough woman, but she was falling apart with Andy missing for longer and longer. Julian was doing his best to try and help her through this, but it's not like he could really help, not in any way other than bringing Andy home. Julian sniffed the air curiously, wondering if he'd pick anything up. There were a lot of scents, a lot of people and things out and around here, plus the overwhelming smell of blood coming from Ruth's house. Well, Ruth herself, most likely. The death scent from Nora's yard had been strong, but very localized. From outside the house, he couldn't tell if the scent was in there. Being stuck on this side of the police cordon was infuriating, but he didn't have many options. He could muscle his way through and get a whiff of the house, but that seemed more counterproductive than anything else, especially with Nora already going around back to check the woods behind Ruth Martin's house.

Movement caught Julian's eye, and he watched as a pair of EMTs made their way out of the house, a cloth-obscured stretcher held between them. Sergeant Carol Murphy followed the EMTs out, and she glanced towards the crowd, her eyes meeting Julian's for just a second before she looked away from him, calling out orders to her officers. The EMTs loaded Ruth's covered body into the ambulance, and Julian turned away from the house, trudging back down towards the Cutlass. There didn't seem to be much more to see, not with the body being taken away and him unable to access the house.

"LA!" a voice called, and Julian stopped, turning to see Murphy crossing the snowy grass towards him.

"Sergeant Murphy." Julian greeted as politely as he could, his hands tucked in the pockets of his winter jacket. "What can I do for you?"

"You just going to follow me to all of these crime scenes?" she asked wryly.

"Well, seeing I can't come in to any of them, it's the best I can do." Julian shrugged.

Murphy nodded, casting her gaze around at the snow-covered neighborhood. "We've got a whole lot of trouble in town right now. A hell of a lot more than we've had in years."

"I hope you're not blaming me for that." Julian said warily.

"No, no." Murphy shook her head. "Ruth Martin died several days ago, Andy Thomas was taken before you even came to town, and I don't think you had anything to do with Jenny Miller. However, I do have a problem with you trying to run this little side investigation. I get it, we're an understaffed small-town police department, but I cannot have you running around playing cowboy."

"Look, sarge, you don't have to worry about me." Julian told her, shrugging. "I'm not interfering in police business, but I do want to know as much as I can about what's happening in the case."

"How does this one connect to Andy Thomas?" Murphy asked exasperatedly.

"Couldn't tell you." Julian itted. "I'm just here just in case."

"And your partner in crime?" Murphy asked, tipping her chin past Julian's shoulder. He turned to see Nora coming back towards the Cutlass, her eyes on Julian and the sergeant.

"Went for a walk." Julian lied smoothly. "Is that all?"

"I'm serious." Murphy scowled. "Stay away from all this."

"No offense, but you have bigger things to worry about than me." Julian told the sergeant in a tight voice, and he gave her a nod before turning and continuing the walk back towards his car.

"Everything alright?" Nora asked worriedly as he approached.

"Just peachy." Julian scowled as he unlocked the car. "Did you smell it?"

"I did." Nora confirmed. "It's the same thing that took Andy, or at least the same kind of thing."

———

Night had long fallen on Crescent Hill when Julian and Nora returned to the Millers' house, not long after eleven. It was empty tonight, the Millers having opted to stay in the lone hotel in town, unable to face their house empty without their daughter in it. Nora drove this time, as Julian's green 1970s muscle car drew a little bit more attention than a beat up minivan. Said minivan was now parked on the corner, with a view of the Millers' house. There was a single police car parked in the Millers' driveway, but the lights in both the car and the house were all off. Julian didn't know for sure, but if he was a betting man, he'd guess that the cop on stakeout duty had ed out.

Him and Nora both had their eyes glowing full brightness, which also meant full enhanced night vision. Julian hadn't seen any movement in the car or the house since they'd gotten there, and he was feeling pretty good about their chances.

"Are we doing this?" Nora asked, and Julian nodded.

"Yeah, I think it's time." Julian answered. "We need to be careful though, every house on this street is going to be on high alert tonight. Anyone seeing two figures walking around at night is calling the cops, no questions asked."

Nora nodded her understanding. "We'll be sneaky. Besides, we have the advantage that we can become wolves on a dime if needed."

"Very true." Julian chuckled. "Alright, let's do this."

Julian and Nora quietly exited the minivan, and Julian looked up at the night sky. Snow was falling soundlessly, a light flurry that dusted the shoulders of his black winter jacket as soon as he emerged from the minivan. He nodded towards the trees, and he and Nora headed that way. The minivan was parked on the adjacent street to the one the Millers lived on, right at the end of it. They walked past the last house on the street, heading past it into the woods. They didn't go in far, just enough to be obscured from the view of anyone looking out their back windows.

Nora turned right, and they started walking parallel to the row of houses, snow crunching underfoot, the wind howling through the trees as the snow continued to fall upon them. It was very nearly pitch black out here, so Julian was particularly glad he was a werewolf. They continued their walk until Nora stopped him, a hand on his chest.

"That's the Millers." she said, pointing through the tree trunks to the back of the red brick house. Julian assessed it as best he could from this distance. He heard Nora sniff beside him, and he turned towards her curiously.

"I smell it." Nora told him, and Julian breathed in through his nose as well. The noxious smell of blood and decay filled his nostrils, and he wrinkled his nose as he nodded.

"Yup. That thing definitely came through here." Julian scowled.

"Are you leaning towards it just being one creature? Or are you thinking a pack of them?" Nora wondered.

"I don't know." Julian itted. "I don't know how we could know."

Nora sniffed the air a few more times, turning her head towards the deeper blackness of the forest. "What do you think about me following the scent, and you searching the house?"

"I think that could work." Julian nodded.

"No arguments about how I need protecting?" Nora arched an eyebrow.

"Dunno how I feel about wasting my breath." Julian smiled. "Be careful though, alright?"

"I will." Nora affirmed. "And I'll howl if I find it."

"I'll come running if I hear that." Julian confirmed. "Wait, you don't have other wolves around here, do you?"

"I'll do two rapid howls then." Nora amended.

"Sounds good." Julian said. "Good luck."

"You too." Nora smiled, and then she set off into the woods while Julian focused his attention back on the house. He glanced back and forth along the row of houses. The Millers' neighbors on his left had their backyard fenced in, but on the right, it was two houses of open yard before a fence. He'd be fairly exposed during this part, but it was late at night, no lights were on, and Julian could move damn fast. Exhaling to steady himself, Julian took off at a full sprint. He tore across the yard at a werewolf's top speed. He wasn't moving at vampiric super-speed or anything like that, his was a much more human speed, but it was a very high speed for a human.

He was hauling ass across the yard, and then when he reached the Millers' house, he jumped. He didn't have that kind of vertical, but he jumped, kicked up off the brick wall, and landed mostly quietly on the overhang of the back patio. He held his crouched position there, waiting to see if any lights turned on, or his ears picked up any noise, but everything seemed normal. Letting go of a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, Julian crawled along the overhang, approaching the window he and Nora believed was Jenny's. It was the one facing the woods, which alone made it a top contender, but when Julian peered inside, he saw an awful lot of pink. Seems like they had picked right.

Julian, his hands gloved to prevent both cold hands and fingerprints, tested the window, tugging lightly on it. It did not give, which was unfortunate. He debated his options here. He didn't really have the tools or the experience needed to pick the lock, but giving it a good ol' werewolf yank would be pretty obvious if any cops came looking tomorrow. As much as it sucked, Julian needed access to this room, and he didn't think a cop would be able to look at a torn open lock and determine he had anything to do with it, so for now, that didn't leave him with many options. He braced his feet carefully, brushing aside snow to some good leverage as he gripped the window with as much of his hands as he could.

Getting a good grip on a locked window was not an easy feat, but Julian did about as good as he could, then he tensed his arms, tried to summon all his werewolf strength, and he yanked. There was a popping sound that was way too loud for Julian's comfort, but the window was open. He hastily shoved it open, and rolled inside. Snow dusted inside, but Julian didn't have time to worry about that. With his night vision eyes, he quickly swept the room. The smell of death associated with their mystery creature was impossible to miss in the room, for a werewolf anyway. Julian looked to the curtains, where sure enough, there was a gash in the fabric, looking a lot like a claw mark.

Julian looked once more around the room, and then got to work. He methodically searched the room, seeing his way by night vision as he examined everything with his senses. Smell, sight, and hearing working in tandem as he combed through the room with a finer comb than any human being would be able to manage. Probably ten minutes had ed before Julian finally found something, a handful of coarse black hairs, probably just a little longer than the length of a toothpick. They had fallen beneath the bed, and they weren't all together either, but he gathered them up into a little cluster, tucking them into one of his jacket pockets and buttoning it closed.

He was about to go back to searching when a noise filled the night, the howl of a wolf. Julian froze, waiting, and he was kicked into gear when a second howl followed that one in short succession. Julian scrambled up to his feet, moving swiftly to the window, which he slid open before climbing out of it. Carefully, he closed the window behind him, shutting it as much as he could with the lock broken, before he moved to the edge of the overhang and jumped back down onto the snow. He rolled across his earlier footprints, then was up on his feet and sprinting.

He had his gun tucked into the back of his pants, so he wasn't quick to jump to his wolf form, opting instead to tear through the forest on human feet. He moved with a speed and surety that no normal human would be able to match as he ran at full speed through the woods. He bounded over roots, dodging thick tree trunks as he hauled ass towards the sound of the howls. His run was made a little easier by the scent trails he had to follow. The decay scent was impossible to miss, and Julian was focusing especially on the sweeter, honey and vanilla scent that was Nora. It cut an easy path for him through the trees, and Julian was running at full sprint until something tickled at the back of his neck.

Some awareness, some sense that something was looking at him. He came to a quick and sudden stop, reaching out with his enhanced senses as he swept his gaze through the trees, scanning urgently. His heart was pounding, he was breathing hard, and it took him a few seconds to calm himself so he could look and listen properly. As he looked, motion up in the trees drew his gaze, and he whipped his head up just in time to catch a glimpse of... something. It was leaping from tree to tree, a creature Julian had never seen before.

It had long, lanky limbs, and big, bloodshot eyes. It had long fangs and sharp claws, and while the creature itself was mostly hairless, coarse black hair ran along the backs of its' arms. The thing hissed at Julian, and in an instant, it was gone, jumping easily out of sight. It moved with incredible agility through those trees, and Julian lost it almost immediately.

"What... the fuck was that?" Julian exhaled, looking up at the trees incredulously.

At a loss, Julian kept running after Nora's scent, though he kept glancing up at the trees. Whatever fucked up nightmare fuel that creature was, it was fast, and he didn't want that bastard jumping down on him. It didn't take long for Julian to find Nora, even with him going a little slower than before. Nora had switched to wolf form, and she was nosing around a clearing, a sleek gray wolf with intelligent blue eyes. Julian stepped over a ruined pile of her clothes, though he knelt to pick up her glasses, her wallet, and her keys laying amongst the snow, which he tucked into his jacket.

"I saw the bastard." Julian panted, and Nora's wolf head whipped towards Julian. "I didn't get it though, it was jumping from tree to tree, I'm a werewolf, not a were-chimpanzee."

Nora snarled, shaking her head. The gray wolf shuddered a little, and then it began to morph, rippling into the very naked form of Nora. She blushed lightly, putting a hand between her thighs and putting an arm across her large breasts, though Julian still got eyefuls of both, it was simply unavoidable with her shifting right in front of his eyes.

"Oh, here." Julian said, shrugging off his exterior winter jacket and moving to wrap it around Nora. She took it gratefully, and Julian fished her glasses out of one of the pockets and set them on her face gently for her.

"I heard it too, some kind of weird growling." Nora reported. "That's when I shifted and howled for you, but I wasn't looking up at the trees. This is where the scent ends, but if it's jumping up trees, maybe that's why we keep losing scent trails."

"I thought I had tried sniffing upwards, but the way this thing was leaping, it wouldn't surprise me if it could jump up higher than we can smell." Julian scowled.

"Is that it then?" Nora exclaimed. "We lost it, that's it, everyone goes home?"

"For tonight? I think so. We're not catching that thing the way it was moving. We have a description now though, and I found some of the thing's hairs in Jenny's room. Maybe the town witch could help us identify them." Julian suggested.

"We can go tomorrow morning then." Nora sighed, looking out into the blackness. "Andy's out there somewhere. Alone."

"I know, Nora." Julian sighed, wrapping an arm around her. "We'll find him, alright? But tonight... I just don't think it's possible."

Nora took a shaky breath before nodding. "I'm so scared for him, Julian. It's eating me up inside."

Julian didn't have the words to make her feel better. The look of that monster, he didn't know how Andy could have survived that. He doubly didn't know how it had lured Andy out of the safety of his home. Nothing was adding up, but right now, Nora was basically naked in the snow, and he needed to get her home. Werewolf or not, hypothermia was still a thing.

He squeezed her as comfortingly as he could, kissing the top of her head. "Andy's a fighter, like his mom. We'll figure this out, Nora."

She leaned into him, crying softly, and Julian helped guide her back through the forest, back towards the minivan. As they walked, he glanced up occasionally, scanning the trees for any sighting of the monster he'd seen earlier. Whatever it was... it was nothing Julian wanted to be messing with right now.