“Isaak, I love you and all—you know, platonically—but you’re full of shit,” Naomi teasingly remarked as she and her friend slowly tread across the Raccoon River from within the confines of a rail bridge.
The carcajou and the silver fox were wary enough to ensure that their feet only landed on the wooden planks on the path set before them. And with midnight creeping ever closer, it had become much harder to see each plank that lined the train trestle. The crisp aroma of silt and moss wafted up as the two strolled over the murky, muddy water below their feet. The coarse yet pleasing scents along with the night’s cool, tranquil air had made their walk back feel almost like a pilgrimage into springtime. And with their last semester of high school coming to an end, there was no way to know if this would be their last little hurrah before the relentless progression of time turned this chapter’s final few pages.
“It’s not like I actually believed I’d meet a vampire tonight, but you didn’t have to play it so straight the whole way here. Looks like Jakub didn’t miss out after all.”
Of course, she was speaking of their mutual friend Jakub, an American badger. He originally agreed to make the trip with Isaak and Naomi, but an unexpected familial obligation kept the high school linebacker from accompanying them. Jakub was undeniably disappointed that he’d have to stay home, but thankfully this was not likely to be the last time they’d travel for rumor’s sake. In the end, Isaak and Jakub’s shared interest in the supernatural didn’t need much physical proof to brook the scrutiny that came with rational skepticism. Ultimately, what mattered most was that such an activity gave them reason to deepen their bonds of friendship.
A standard outing was rarely regarded with the utmost significance. Each fabled locale they really wanted to visit was either three hours away along the Mississippi River or found in some mythical hamlet of little importance like Villisca. Either way, very few things were nearby at arm’s length. In the end, it was only childish fun to drive a little over an hour to romp around a cemetery, but it did not need to be anything more than that. The silver fox valued such excursions and appreciated the fond memories they fostered. The few cases when the wolverine did, in fact, tag along were among the most memorable. And they were this way for the simple fact that then they were all much closer together.
“It makes no sense,” Isaak sincerely insisted, scratching the back of his head. The silver fox had come to this conclusion a while ago, and had voiced his suspicions every so often during their twenty-minute walk back from Booneville Cemetery to his parked pearl white Scion off the Utica Trail.
“He was fine with the idea of having the two of you come meet him, so it’s weird for the guy not to show up. It makes me worry for his sake.”
“Dude, everything makes you worry,” she argued, brushing a strand of fiery ombre hair from her tan face. Naomi then nudged the fox in the ribs with her left elbow before continuing, “It’s kinda your thing. Anyway, if this guy’s the real deal, I’m sure he’s got the strength to take care of himself if he’s attacked or whatever. I swear, Isaak, if you keep this up, I’ll get involved in your love life again.”
“Oh God, no,” he lamented theatrically, trying to shroud embarrassment under the cloak of humor. “Even you aren’t that cruel.”
The wolverine’s mood became all the more spirited as she discerned the fox’s discomfort. Her smiled sharpened mischievously as she schemed a sneaky new strategy.
“Hey, you think it’s cruel to offer my sage advice to an old friend?” she asked with firm and frisky forcefulness. “I know plenty. Plenty enough to act on your behalf.”
“Naomi, what makes you think you’ll succeed where Tyson and Khloe failed?”
“Tell you what, I’ll make the trip and find you a nice guy at UI. A business major who’ll sweep you off your feet. The man of your dreams—“
“Iowa City, eh?” Isaak inquired, his eyes alit with incitement. “I’d go myself to see the Black Angel. There’s one in Counciltucky, too!”
“And once he’s in the bag,” she continued, chuckling, “he’ll knock some sense into you whenever I’m not around to do it. Then we won’t have to go on these wacky adventures whenever you get bored on a Friday night. There’ll be no need for this nonsense. You’ll be kept busy,” Naomi added with a wink.
“But, Naomi, you love our wacky adventures,” the young man maintained as they both took their first steps off the bridge near the steep gravel slope that led into the water’s edge. “That’s why you never leave me alone. I’m just too much fun.”
“Vampires notwithstanding, dude, I don’t call an hour’s drive to Booneville much of an adventure. The only thing they have here is a Kum & Go. ‘Too much fun’ he says,” she scoffed in good nature. “You’re lucky I like spending with you, dude. ‘Cuz you often go outta your way to push your luck a little too—“
Those words soon evaporated from her throat once she saw the light race past them from behind. At some point, while the two were busy chatting away, an eruption of indigo and violet light had flared to life behind them in rhythmic, undulating pulses. They both came to a complete stop and silently turned toward the other in order to verify that they each had the same idea in mind. But before they both could turn around to gain a better view of the light’s source, a strident, unforeseen sound suddenly barreled down the bridge toward them like a shotgun’s volley.
“Naomi?”
The carcajou gasped as an invasive voice spoke her name aloud.
“Oh man, is that really you, Dalton?”
It didn’t sound like they were directly in the path of an oncoming train, but the voice she heard, that of an apparently brash young man around their age, was almost as loud as any air horn.
For a moment, Naomi had presumed that she’d imagined everything entirely. But intriguingly, a sidelong glance at the silver fox—startled and speechless—proved that she was not the only one to take notice. Whomever it belonged to, it had spoken to them in an indistinct, reverberating delivery that made it feel like he was speaking to them from the other end of a long tunnel. They tried to parse every word in an effort to understand, but there was a slight warbling, flanging effect at work as well. And even with the man’s voice being as loud as it was, this effect only served to make what he was trying to say all the harder to comprehend.
“And Isaak? You still remember, right? Isaak, I did it. After all these years.”
The silver fox held his breath as the bodiless voice paid him interest with specific emphasis. Isaak had recognized the voice the moment they both heard those pleas. It was a voice he often heard intermittently for years, but it had since grown silent in latter months. And its absence in that time had been a source of unease for the silver fox. It was a voice whose timbre was both charmingly familiar yet outlandishly alien. In Isaak’s mind, his was a voice as sweet and ethereal as the scent of any violet. Yet he’d soon forget it as if he’d never once partaken in its transitory presence. Tears began to well behind Isaak’s eyes as his heart became overwhelmed with simultaneous joy and dismay.
“I made it home.”
ns216.73.216.148da2
and then Add to home screen.