pack? Would the others start giving me venomous looks, or thinking those terrible things about me?
Were they thinking them already?
Rubbing at the tears gathering in my eyes, I thought about digging out my cell phone and calling Sara. Maybe she would know what to do. I wouldn’t have reception, but I could get the number out of my phone and use the landline provided in the cabin.
Thoughts of home vanished when I saw the cabin. The door was open a crack. No lights shown through the gap.
Warily, I stepped a little closer, noting that the wood around the small lock had splintered. Something was burning, the scent strong enough to make me wrinkle my nose in disgust. I listened cautiously, trying to determine if anyone was still inside.
The only sounds I heard were some music drifting from one of the other cabins a few doors down and the faint drip of water pattering on the ground as the wind gusted today’s earlier rain off the leaves.
Pushing the door the rest of the way open, I immediately flicked on the light and stepped aside in case someone was planning to rush me. There wasn’t anybody inside, but what I found was worse. Far worse.
“Shit!” I cried, slamming a closed fist against the door, making it bounce against the wall.
Some of the furniture had been upended, one chair smashed to bits. All of our stuff had been yanked out of the drawers and tossed across the floor. It looked like my bras and panties were all missing. A bunch of Chaz’s stuff had been tossed in the fireplace, only a few charred scraps of his clothes and the vague remnants of a sneaker remaining. That’s where the bad smell came from, the lingering odor much stronger now that I was inside. I lifted my arm to use my shirt as a filter over my nose and mouth. It didn’t help much. My cell phone was in pieces, bits of pink plastic littering the small counter in the kitchen. Chaz’s phone was ground into shards on the table.
The slim laptop I’d borrowed from Arnold so I could check my e-mail had been turned upside down. The battery was missing, and I didn’t see the carrying case with the power hookup and extra cables anywhere. At least it wasn’t busted like the rest of the stuff in the room. There were coffee grounds spilled all over the floor, the coffeemaker smashed up against, and stuck partway into, the wall. Miraculously, the pot itself had survived, the last dregs of this morning’s brew congealed at the bottom of the glass container.
Moving in a daze, I picked a few shreds of torn clothing and a mangled paperback off the floor. Whoever had done this hadn’t gone through the closet, so our bags were untouched, the few things that hadn’t been unpacked left alone. Chaz was not going to be happy that the only clothes left that hadn’t been torn to bits in the break-in were the ones that would likely get torn to bits when he shifted. Unless he wanted to parade around naked until moonrise.
Interesting thought, that.
Who might have done this? Who hated me or Chaz enough to do something this crappy? Considering moonrise was so close, as soon as he got here, Chaz would likely fly into a rage, shift, and tear off into the woods after whoever had destroyed our stuff. Though I wasn’t sure why, maybe someone was trying to piss him off on purpose so he’d lose it. To make him angry enough to hurt me? Unlikely, but a possibility I couldn’t dismiss outright. Someone was pissed off enough to stir unrest in the ranks of Weres, but it was unclear whether this mess was the result of someone’s trying to get to me, to Chaz, or to both of us.
When I got closer to the bed, I froze, shock stopping me in my tracks. I could see the sheets and blankets had been shredded in a couple of places. There were claw marks on the thin birch logs that made up the headboard, so deep they stopped just shy of cutting right through. It looked like something large and monstrous had jumped up on the bed, put its talons up on the headboard, and raked down it
Were they thinking them already?
Rubbing at the tears gathering in my eyes, I thought about digging out my cell phone and calling Sara. Maybe she would know what to do. I wouldn’t have reception, but I could get the number out of my phone and use the landline provided in the cabin.
Thoughts of home vanished when I saw the cabin. The door was open a crack. No lights shown through the gap.
Warily, I stepped a little closer, noting that the wood around the small lock had splintered. Something was burning, the scent strong enough to make me wrinkle my nose in disgust. I listened cautiously, trying to determine if anyone was still inside.
The only sounds I heard were some music drifting from one of the other cabins a few doors down and the faint drip of water pattering on the ground as the wind gusted today’s earlier rain off the leaves.
Pushing the door the rest of the way open, I immediately flicked on the light and stepped aside in case someone was planning to rush me. There wasn’t anybody inside, but what I found was worse. Far worse.
“Shit!” I cried, slamming a closed fist against the door, making it bounce against the wall.
Some of the furniture had been upended, one chair smashed to bits. All of our stuff had been yanked out of the drawers and tossed across the floor. It looked like my bras and panties were all missing. A bunch of Chaz’s stuff had been tossed in the fireplace, only a few charred scraps of his clothes and the vague remnants of a sneaker remaining. That’s where the bad smell came from, the lingering odor much stronger now that I was inside. I lifted my arm to use my shirt as a filter over my nose and mouth. It didn’t help much. My cell phone was in pieces, bits of pink plastic littering the small counter in the kitchen. Chaz’s phone was ground into shards on the table.
The slim laptop I’d borrowed from Arnold so I could check my e-mail had been turned upside down. The battery was missing, and I didn’t see the carrying case with the power hookup and extra cables anywhere. At least it wasn’t busted like the rest of the stuff in the room. There were coffee grounds spilled all over the floor, the coffeemaker smashed up against, and stuck partway into, the wall. Miraculously, the pot itself had survived, the last dregs of this morning’s brew congealed at the bottom of the glass container.
Moving in a daze, I picked a few shreds of torn clothing and a mangled paperback off the floor. Whoever had done this hadn’t gone through the closet, so our bags were untouched, the few things that hadn’t been unpacked left alone. Chaz was not going to be happy that the only clothes left that hadn’t been torn to bits in the break-in were the ones that would likely get torn to bits when he shifted. Unless he wanted to parade around naked until moonrise.
Interesting thought, that.
Who might have done this? Who hated me or Chaz enough to do something this crappy? Considering moonrise was so close, as soon as he got here, Chaz would likely fly into a rage, shift, and tear off into the woods after whoever had destroyed our stuff. Though I wasn’t sure why, maybe someone was trying to piss him off on purpose so he’d lose it. To make him angry enough to hurt me? Unlikely, but a possibility I couldn’t dismiss outright. Someone was pissed off enough to stir unrest in the ranks of Weres, but it was unclear whether this mess was the result of someone’s trying to get to me, to Chaz, or to both of us.
When I got closer to the bed, I froze, shock stopping me in my tracks. I could see the sheets and blankets had been shredded in a couple of places. There were claw marks on the thin birch logs that made up the headboard, so deep they stopped just shy of cutting right through. It looked like something large and monstrous had jumped up on the bed, put its talons up on the headboard, and raked down it
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