Under his black mask Stanley’s lips curve upward, the secret smile twice hidden. Firstly, it is covered by the protective veil, and secondly, it is obscured by the thin wall of the hut whose glowing blue windows shone so brightly in the dim morning. Leaning against this, his ready ears invading the little cabin, he overhears their two voices.
“It’s better this way,” a male voice was concluding.
“But what if?” the feminine voice responds. “What if?” she repeats.
“You saw it yourself, what he was,” counters the first speaker.
The two are quiet. Stanley can almost see their postures, imagining her with crossed arms and hunched shoulders turning away from her companion, and her companion stepping forward half wanting to embrace this disillusioned woman while lacking the temerity. Reasoning this the end of some lover’s spat, a minor branch in the intertwining drama of living in a small secluded town, the hunter prepares to forget the mystery of the blue window-light, but their next words, faintly traveling to his ears, arrests him.
“Maybe we can help him, keep him from turning into a wolf.” Her pleading tones tell she knows his answer.
Stanley presses his ear against the wall, stifling his wanton tongue from betraying him with an excited exclamation. To the consternation of his pounding heart, the two seem wrapped in wordless debate. They had covered their points over and over again, and each knew the other’s objections to what would be said.
Finally, like the soft trickle of water through a crack in a dam, she says, “I have to try.”
“What are you going to do?” he asks.
Click here to finish reading this week’s installment of Wolf Head: Eavesdropping
Wolf Head
Part 1: The Job
Part 2: Foreboding
Part 3: Aftermath
Part 4: Into the Night
Part 5: The Struggle
Part 6: Expelled
Part 7: Out From the Bones
Part 8: Respite
Part 9: Sunset
Part 10: Transformation
Part 11: The Shepherd
Part 12: The Party
Part 13: The Wolf
Part 14: Partners
Part 15: Foreshadows
Part 16: Freedom
Part 17: Eavesdropping
Tale Told 
1 Comment