“Excuse me, sir, do you have...” As Lucas went to speak, the man’s head lolled forward, a final breath slipping past his lips.

  Frowning, Lucas’s hand fell to his side, and he sighed. He could search him, but then blood would get all over his hands. And how would he explain patting down a dead man in the middle of the day as wolves hunted people? No, that would make him look quite the villain indeed.

  He glanced back at the German shepherd and frowned. The dog whimpered, and he could have sworn he saw it shrug. Getting to his feet, Lucas dusted his hands off. The man had said to travel further down the street, and that was on the way to where he was going anyway, so it was kind of like taking out two birds with one stone.

  Examining the street one more time, making sure he didn’t see anyone or anything, Lucas stepped around the man and his bloody puddle and shuffled further down, the dog following behind.

  Though he was only delivering a message, this little kindness felt as if he’d somehow made up for abandoning those people.

  He hadn’t been able to do anything back then, but he was doing something now, something he and only he could do. After all, no one else was coming out on the street to help this man.

  His gaze travelled to several of the houses and the windows as he passed. None of them moved. Were there people inside? There could be, but even then, why hadn’t they left? Were they waiting? Perhaps for the military or the police, though the idea of those authorities turning up was becoming more distant with time.

  Even during the peak of lockdown, the police hadn’t exactly had a significant presence within the town, most of them concentrating in the cities to protect the people who could actually afford to keep them in service.

  A few moments later, he stumbled upon the sign the man had spoken of and frowned. The door stood open. His heart sank a little. Perhaps the wolves and boars had made it up the stairs, though there were no tusk marks, and the breakage didn’t look like a short, round animal had rammed into it. This suggested that perhaps something else had broken in. Were there other types of those creatures around? The boar, wolf, and crow had been enough.

  “Hello,” a voice came from inside, and Lucas paused.

  That tight, nasal voice was unmistakable. It was Ian, his neighbour. But what was he doing?

  “Come on, just open up. I just have a few questions. If you answer them, I’ll be out of your hair in a moment. There are monsters out here; I don’t want to be eaten. Surely you can help a guy out.”

  What was Ian doing here? And who was he talking to? Glancing back at the dog, Lucas shrugged and made his way inside. But before he could, a shout came from the stairs leading up.

  “I’ve told you already. Go away. I don’t have the information you want. What are you not understanding?”

  There was a low grumble from Lucas’s neighbour. This couldn’t be good. Ian wasn’t a bad guy, per se. He just... had a temper. Everyone in the neighbourhood knew. Once, a boy had simply been riding his bike and fell onto his lawn. Next thing everyone knew, Ian was outside taking the boy’s bike and shoving him away. The only reason he even got it back was because the boy’s father went to the house later and gave Ian a stern talking-to.

  “Listen, you little twit!” Ian’s voice rang through the building, and Lucas’s frown deepened. There it was. “If you don’t open this door right now, I’ll kick it down. And trust me, girl, I can do it!” His voice echoed, shaking the few remaining windows in the building.

  Lucas glanced around the street. No signs of any activity; there were no wolves at least. The shouting had thankfully attracted nothing. Had this been earlier, this place would probably have been swarming. But then again, that raised the question: How did Ian make it through all this? Had he... snuck? Or did he awaken as well? Lucas’s brother had had the panel. He was poking at the air before the wolf attacked.

  His gaze drifted down the street. Part of him wanted to walk away now, leave Ian to whatever he was doing, and head home. He glanced down at the locket, still gripped tightly in his hand. He’d made a promise, and he couldn’t break it.

  “The police aren’t coming, so you’d better open up. Because if you make me angry, you won’t like what happens. The world’s already gone to crap. You don’t need trouble, little one.”

  Okay, he was being beyond strange. Ian was a struggle at the best of times, but threatening violence? This was a little out of character for him. Though, was that it? Was this who Ian actually was?

  Lucas rested a hand on the doorframe, and his knuckles tightened. What would he do? But then again, if Lucas went up there, would Ian even see reason? Would he calm down? It was unlikely. Guys like Ian, when they got worked up, calming them down would be difficult to say the least. But there was also the fact that he was the only one who knew where—or if—Lucas’s family was okay.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  The dog nudged his leg, practically urging him forward.

  “I know,” Lucas practically whispered. “But I don’t know how.”

  The dog narrowed its eyes at him, shaking its head. What kind of dog was this? This level of judgment, this... it was almost as if someone had taken over its body.

  “I don’t need that from you,” Lucas hissed. Sighing, he then moved towards the stairs. He had to do this. Sitting by and letting those people get hurt earlier was something he could not prevent. But this time was different, especially with the dog here. Maybe Ian would at least be cautious.

  He took a step forward. The stairs creaked below him. Of course, the owners of this house hadn’t maintained the stairs well. He continued up. As he slowly crested the stairs, he caught sight of his neighbour’s boots.

  But a moment later, the door swung open, and a crackle filled the air. His neighbour flew back, his body slamming onto the wood with a groan as a scream, coming from inside the flat, split the air. And then silence.

  Lucas, who had ducked briefly below the stairs, poked his head back up to find the neighbour’s unmoving body strewn on the floor, an arrow firmly in his chest. Someone had just shot him with an arrow.

  Gripping the railing, Lucas pulled himself higher and stepped onto the landing. But then, a girl suddenly poked her head out of the room. She narrowed her gaze at him.

  “Are you with him?”

  Lucas rapidly shook his head, not wanting her to mistake his timely arrival for some form of ambush. “No, not at all. I mean, I know him, but...”

  “You know him?” She frowned. String tightened behind the door, and tension was building in her shoulders. She wasn’t about to pop an arrow in him, was she?

  “No! Not like that,” he said, raising his hands higher, sweat trickling down his neck. “We’re just neighbours, that’s all. Neighbours.”

  Her gaze moved from the man to Lucas. “Some neighbour you’ve got.”

  She was being sarcastic, if a little mean, but she wasn’t wrong. Ian was not a good guy. Stepping closer, Lucas’s gaze lingered on the man whose mouth was frothing a little, dribble slipping onto the laminate wood underneath him.

  “What did you do to him?” The arrow that was currently stuck in the man’s chest didn’t punch through—at least it didn’t look like it did. There was no blood around his torn t-shirt, just what seemed to be a tear growing from where the arrow had entered.

  “I just shocked him a little,” the girl said, lowering the bow she’d been hiding behind the door. “If you’re not with him, what are you doing here?”

  Lucas gulped. Would she have shot him if he’d come up a little earlier? “Um, I’m looking for someone,” he said, his memory jolting. “You wouldn’t know a man about yay high,” Lucas said, holding a hand just slightly above his head, “kinda bushy beard? He gave me this locket.”

  The girl frowned at him while he spoke, as if he were asking stupid questions, but then her eyes landed on the locket dangling from Lucas’s hand.

  “Where did you get that?” she said, her voice shrinking.

  “I—he gave it to me,” Lucas said, turning from her to the dog. “He was dying.” The words slipped from his lips, almost as if he were apologising for finding the man.

  The girl stepped forward, her eyes welling up, and snatched the amulet from Lucas’s grasp. “Where is he?”

  “Um,” Lucas’s gaze moved back down the stairs. He could tell her how he’d found the man, how he’d died in a pool of his own blood, and that she’d see his body just a few doors down. Would he want someone to tell him that if it were his mother?

  “It’s quite a while away from here,” Lucas said, shaking his head. “I would offer to take you there, but I have people of my own to find.” He turned back to Ian, his one source of immediate information on his family—or that’s what he used to be.

  Now, any information he had would have to be extracted when he woke up. But there was no telling how long that would be.

  Lucas raised a brow at her and tilted his head to the side. “You didn’t kill him, did you?”

  The girl barely responded and just muttered, “No, I don’t think so.” She turned, her steps unsteady as she moved back into the room.

  Lucas turned his gaze from her to the dog, and it shrugged at him again. What was he to do here? Did he follow? Should he check if she was okay? Of course, the answer to that was obvious.

  Maybe he should just leave? He frowned, massaging his forehead and glancing at his neighbour on the ground. Was he really going to leave her with a hopefully not-dead Ian right outside her door?

  He stepped over to the doorway and scanned the room. Messy, but not too messy. Clearly, they were packing to go somewhere in a rush. Food cupboards were open, their contents stacked in piles on the floor. A window was half open, with suitcases beneath it. On the far side of the room, peeking out from a bedroom door, a little girl, probably a few years younger than Marcus, gazed at him with wide eyes. A sister.

  “Are you going to be okay?” Lucas said to the girl, who’d listlessly moved over to the window and slumped down, tears streaming down her cheek.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered, her voice so small the wind almost took it. “Maybe.” She locked her eyes on the locket, unblinking.

  Lucas’s gaze moved away from her. He couldn’t exactly console a random stranger, nor did he have the time. He took a step back, looking down the stairs, then back to the girl.

  “I think I’m going to go now, if you’re alright here.”

  Her gaze moved unsteadily from the amulet and lingered on him. “Please.”

  He frowned. “What?”

  “Please, can you help us?”

  “Help?” Lucas glanced at the dog, which sat wagging its tail and looking toward Ian. It clearly heard what she just asked, yet was now acting like this was none of its business. It was the dog that had urged him up here to begin with.

  He glanced back at the girl. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know what’s going on, and I can barely help myself.” As the words came out, and his gaze lingered on her—the sadness, the loneliness, the vulnerability—this was more than a difficult situation for her. Could he rightfully leave her like that?

  He stopped speaking and brought a hand to his chin. He was going to regret this decision, wasn’t he? But it was the right thing to do, wasn’t it?

  “Alright, um, you clearly have something going on here—you’re packing. If you can finish that quickly, you can come along. But as soon as it’s safe and we find more people, that’s it, alright?”

  The girl nodded, wiping a tear from her eye. “Thank you.”