Page 19 of Bewitched By the Werewolf
“Not quite that extreme, but yes. Her family had her involuntarily committed when she was seventeen. Give me just a second and I can pull up her medical records…Yup okay, here we are. She was committed because she believed werewolves were real—huh.”
We’re both stunned silent while we scan through the doctors’ notes on Tess’s sessions at the institution. For a moment I feel like an ass reading her personal conversations with her therapist. It’s hard to imagine the smart-mouthed redhead I met today as insane and committed to a looney bin. I suppose she isn’t really insane though, is she? She believes werewolves are real, and in a sense we are. It’s one of the many names humans have given to shifters over the years. The most popular one in fact. The myth of us only turning on the full moon brought on because that’s the only time a shifter might not be able to control their shift and be spotted.
There are dozens of files documenting Tess’s time at the facilities. Numerous therapy sessions, medications, reports of violent outbursts and subsequent “punishment.” It’s a side of the human world we don’t see very often. We only see when they’retrying to out us, not the aftereffects of their rantings or memory loss after being fairy dusted. We just assume they go back to their lives and keep on living. None of us see when humans go to the extreme to try and fix someone who happens to believe in the paranormal or strange. I thought people had stopped trying to convince other’s things like werewolves weren’t real. There’s so many out there now online talking about alien abductions and yeti sightings, we just assumed no one cared anymore. I guess we were wrong.
I stop reading through the doctor’s notes on her “psychosis and delusions on the existence of mythical creatures” because I feel bad for her. She wouldn’t be the first human to be considered crazy because they believed in non-humans. But for some reason I don’t like that they treated her so poorly when all she spoke was the truth. My muscles bunch in irritation and a desire to punch this doctor in the face for his ignorant theories and complete dismissal of her claims.
Ginger clears her throat and continues clicking documents and windows, closing out the one with the doctors rather insensitive notes. “Looks like her stint in the funny farm didn’t stop her obsession with werewolves. She left the institution after a year, but soon after she started her website, werewolvesarereal.com. Guess the doctor’s insistence on our non-existence wasn’t convincing enough.”
She clicks open a link and pulls up the website. There are photo’s, all blurry, bad shaky videos, first, second, and third hand stories from people who believed they saw werewolves. Some might be actual sightings of shifters but none of what’s posted is clear enough to prove anything. There’re all kinds of links to other sites and “evidence” of sightings. There’s also a blog on her own searches or what she refers to as hunts.
The posts go back years, a dozen at least. She’s been after shifters for over a decade. She has to be one of the mostdedicated people I’ve seen. Even after being forced into a mental hospital to “cure” her of her belief, she still believes. Stubborn and thickheaded, sounds familiar.
“She hasn’t posted anything specific yet about Snowberry. It’s all very vague. She hasn’t even mentioned it by name, that’s why the site didn’t pop up in my scans. She’s claiming to have received the information on our location anonymously and doesn’t want to reveal her location yet. I guess that’s good news for us.”
Ginger does some more aggressive typing, this time into one of those black screens like in the movies that’s all code and gibberish I don’t understand.
“She’s good too. Redirected her IP so if anyone tried to trace it would think she was somewhere in the middle of Canada. I kind of respect her for that.”
My sister sounds impressed, which is not an easy task. That doesn’t mean she isn’t going to be trouble or at some point tell others about Snowberry.
“Anything else I should be aware of?”
“Besides her being a snoopy werewolf hunter with a website? No, I think that’s the gist of it. There’s not much online activity anywhere else and from what I can see of her phone records she doesn’t have many friends and doesn’t call home much. Definitely a loner. I can keep an eye on her site and remove anything that might point in our direction, easy enough.”
“Okay good. Keep me updated.”
“You’re not going to just dust her and send her on her way?” she asks.
I consider it. It’s what we do with a lot of humans who find their way to us. The problem here is she’s been obsessed with werewolves since she was a teenager. So much so that she was committed. Dusting her to forget the last couple days won’t do much good. Fairy dust can only erase or alter a person’smemories for so much time. Sometimes it can work up to a few weeks, but beyond that it gets tricky. There’s too much history and memories associated with shifters and hunting them to alter her memories. Eventually she’d end up right back here, which would only be confusing for the locals.
“I don’t think that’ll work on someone with so many years of shifter obsession. I think the best course would be to convince her there’s nothing of interest here and have her leave of her own accord, thinking we’re nothing but an odd little town that doesn’t require further investigating. If she concludes on her own that this was a dead end, it’ll be better for everyone. Last thing we need is word getting out this could be a hot spot for werewolf activity.”
Ginger nods in agreement. Even her stubborn ass has to concede that diverting attention away from us is a good thing. And since this isn’t just a post on a website she can delete, that means I’m in charge. I check the small satchel at my utility belt that holds the sack of fairy dust I always keep on hand just in case. It’s secure and still plenty full if I need to use it.
“Let me know if you find out anything else important. She hasn’t admitted why she’s really here yet. Telling some story about wanting to witness the blood moon through a clear sky. Which means we might be stuck with her till then, which is not ideal.”
There will be dozens of extra shifters in town for the eclipse and all of them will be shifting and running through the woods that night. It’s going to be a difficult task keeping her away from them. Guess that means I’ll be keeping a close eye on Miss Rowland. Exactly what I wanted to be doing right now. I’m a sheriff not a babysitter.
“Let the others know not to shift unnecessarily, or in the public woods around the lake. She’s staying in a trailer at the farend of the campgrounds. I don’t want to risk her spotting anyone out for a casual evening run.”
“Got it.”
Ginger immediately picks up her phone and starts texting. I don’t ask what she’s saying or who she’s texting, I trust her to word everything appropriately and tell those who need to know. This will at least keep most shifters in human form and away from Tess for the time being. At least until I can figure out what to do with her. First, I have to get her to confess why she’s really in town and then convince her there have been no sightings or strange events that might suggest werewolf existence.
Anyone else would probably call her crazy and claim werewolves aren’t real, but I can’t do that to her. Not after knowing what she’s been through in her past. I’ll just have to be persuasive enough that she believes she’s looking in the wrong place. I may want her gone but I’m not cruel.
Chapter 11: Ryder
I spent all night coming up with a plan to track and monitor Tess. It’s not the most elaborate plan and involves a lot of me stalking her. There’s not much more I can do. There’s also very little chance she’ll admit why she’s really here on her own. I’ll probably have to confront her about it. Which might not come as much of a surprise to her now that she’s given me her name. Her website is publicly accessible, it’s completely plausible that I found it on my own with a basic google search.
Armed with new purpose and an irritated determination, I set out in search of Tess and where she might be snooping today. It doesn’t take long. I catch sight of her inThe Ugly Mugfirst. Watching from across the street I see Tobias smile and chat easily with her. He must not see anything unscrupulous in the colors of her aura if he’s acting so casual and calm. I’m pretty sure he spots me watching through the window but doesn’t call attention to me. Tobias is a very, very old fairy and there’s very little anyone can get by him. Which, again, speaks volumes about Tess if he likes her.
Tess sips at her to-go coffee cup and exits the shop. I follow at a safe distance behind. It appears like she’s making rounds through town. Stopping in atThe Marketand picking up a local newspaper, popping intoSnap Shotand purchasing somethingsmall enough to fit in the interior pocket of her leather jacket. It’s like she’s making up reasons to enter these stores and be seen and talk with people.
With the newspaper folded under her arm she strolls down the street, as casual as a local sipping at her coffee, making herself right at home. On the way down the street pastDottie’sand towards the other end of town, she stops on the sidewalk to talk with Larken. Which means she’s probably already been in theCloset Carouseland befriended the moon fairy. Tess is just making all kinds of friends in town, and she’s only been here a few days. Impressive and highly suspicious.
I watch in objectionable interest as Becca, another fairy in town, joins their conversation. If Tess only knew she were speaking with two fairies, she would give up her obsession with werewolves. But that would just open an entirely new can of worms. One that I very much want to remain sealed.
