The last of the souls regenerated within Nate’s basement. He looked around at the dead spirits. Given enough time even these wolves would come back. Most spirits couldn’t in the strictest terms be killed. In the case of these they had simply temporarily killed them.

  Souls were a law of the universe. They were created that was true, how or from where was hotly debated. Destroying them didn’t really work. Their energy could be taken, devoured, dispersed, or banished. In other cases they could be trapped into an object or stored away into a special container. Thus, the essence of souls, those small particles never truly died. It was the consciousness that pulled them together that had to be dealt with.

  In chapter three of his book it gave a brief explanation on the reforming of spirits along the margins. A note from one of the prior owners. Spirits would reform because they were like memory foam or habits. After enough repetition their parts would naturally return to how they were.

  “Can you take in these little pups?”

  Karah asked from where she sat on the old wolf. She’d pulled all the bodies into a semi-circle. Nate pondered a moment before pulling the book from within his spirit hideout. Items imbued with spiritual energy could be freely stored for a small price of energy.

  Flipping through the book he found the desired page. His basement was limited but that didn’t mean that was his only option. In this section it explained he could co-opt their bodies to form objects and items at a reduced cost.

  “We can make them into something for the Hideout. Any suggestions?”

  “Could make them into a rug.”

  Karah scoffed half-heartedly.

  “Come on something that is useful.”

  “We need weights for the gym, but I almost feel bad doing that. I mean it was a fun fight. Are you sure we can’t keep them?”

  She asked with upturned eyes that didn’t work well from her positioning above Nate. He thought about it and stood with a bit of quake in his body. A small amount of blood trickled down his chest. Seeing this, Karah went to his side. Pulling his shirt up to expose the wound.

  “Did you forget I can heal you?”

  “Kind of slipped my mind.”

  A long tongue ran across the stitches. It didn’t fully heal him, only sealing it away. Another shock would easily reopen the wound. Blood staunched and pain receded instantly. With a smile he patted her on the head.

  “If you really feel bad, they would be more useful as components instead of furniture. After we defeat the boss we’ll come back. Even if we have to kill them again I can spend the time and energy to renovate. I’ll expand the basement enough to house whatever amount of them forms. If we’re lucky they could fully form and become more than a convenient spell component.”

  “Hell yeah, thanks Babe.”

  She kissed his cheek as she went to play with the severed head of one of the smaller wolves. It was a macabre scene which he considered just part of his fate. Stretching lightly he prepared himself for the seemingly long walk ahead. The souls fully charged and raring to go.

  “Lets head out.”

  On and on they walked it was a distance that felt both long and short. Their senses being toyed with by the purple miasma. After what felt to be anywhere between half an hour to three hours walking his vision cleared. With excitement he grabbed Karah’s hand.

  “Do you see that?”

  “See what? All I see is more damn road. And after that more fucking road.”

  “Hah, we’ve arrived, just keep hold of me. I don’t know how this is going to work.”

  Nate strode forward and Karah dutifully held onto his arm. Reaching out he turned the door knob and pushed it open. A long low creak came from the hinges. They were prepared for the disturbing beast that would lay beyond. A monster of tremendous proportion. Snapping claws and gnashing teeth. Four times the size of the old wolf, so big standing would block out the light above.

  Inside was a simple room. A bed pushed into the left corner, bean bag chair to the right. Along the right wall is a bookshelf of numerous volumes, much made up of Manga or fantasy novels. On the back wall posters of werewolves and odd fur covered suits. In the middle of the room stood a girl or at least what was mostly a girl.

  She stood up right, a cardigan sweater hung just off both shoulders. Blue jeans contained her large fluffy legs. A normal girl around Karah and Nate’s age except for one thing. Where skin should be tufts of white fur poked out, a small snout pushed out of her face, and large ears perked up on the top of her head. Normal human-like hair splayed out from around the ears obscuring their base. It was a werewolf.

  “EEEEEKKKK.”

  The air of intimidation they had approached to find was shattered as the girl panicked. Nate and Karah’s appearance did nothing to calm the girl as she screamed. Karah was still covered in blood from head to toe and Nate wasn’t much better. It was an incredulous situation. Wasn’t this supposed to be the old woman's “Pet”?

  His sense that something was off had proven correct. Now he just needed to figure out how to approach the situation, an optimal decision was to… His thoughts didn’t get to reach that point as Karah strode forward. The wolf girl's panic was irritating her. Bloodlust once prepared for a magnificent battle was doused in cold water.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  The wolf was taller than Karah and had a soft look about her. The softness seemed to go beyond just her fur. Defying what one thought of a werewolf she was shorter than Nate by a good few inches. Before he could do anything Karah had ripped a sheet into makeshift rope. Binding the girl's flailing limbs and gagging her screaming mouth.

  Quiet settled over the room. Karah sitting on the bed in frustration and the girl kneeling on the floor with watery eyes. Muffled sounds still spilling forth. Nate smacked his hand on his face. Wayne had not given him any clues with how to deal with something that would take less combat.

  “Was the ropes on the arms necessary?”

  “Don’t want her to take the gag out and scream again. Damn loud bitch.”

  The girl's ears drooped as her body stilled. Rubbing at his eyes he could already feel something was set into motion. Would something like this even be useful? He could back track to the wolves from before. Maybe he could make a contract with the biggest one?

  “Nothing to be done about it. Are you Lupita?”

  At his question she tried to mumble out some form of answer from behind the gag. It was unintelligible. Nate felt that she had to be lacking some brains.

  “Just nod yes or no.”

  Her head bobbed up and down.

  “Good. See this is easy. Now if I take off your gag do you promise not to scream again?”

  Another nod prompted him to give a pointed look at Karah. She took the hint and removed the gag. The girl coughed, clearing her mouth of the ripped fabric. Her eyes were filled in fear and confusion.

  “Ok. Let's start from the beginning. You are Lupita, we are Nate and Karah. Can you tell me why you aren’t a spooky powerful ghost? And just some fur covered girl?”

  “I’m sorry that I’m not a big spooky ghost.”

  Nate waited for more but it didn’t come. He looked over at Karah who simply smacked her fist in her hand. Her method would take violence into the equation. Saving that option for later he decided to keep trying the diplomatic approach, probably for the best.

  “Again. Are you the family dog? Was that your grandma at the front of the house?”

  At the mention of her grandmother her body began to tremble terribly. She moved her arms which were still bound trying to hug her own shoulders. It was a pitiful sight that was chipping away at Nate's irritation, at the same time it heightened Karah’s. She hated such a pathetic display.

  “God, can you speak properly? My man just asked you a question. You need me to bust your knee caps or somethin.”

  She wasn’t using her cutesy approach for this one. The image of her as a delinquent perfectly aligned, nearly making Nate laugh. It was a blast from the past. Seemingly feeling his amusement she shot him a look that said not to laugh. Or else.

  “If you don’t talk we’ll never get anywhere.”

  “*SNiiff* I’m not a pet. Grandma did call me that the last time she tried to come in. But I’m me, don’t you understand? Who are you people?”

  “He already told you who we are. Do you not even have the captivity to hear? I can’t believe you're the Mawe town Shotgun Slayer. I mean come on you don’t even have a gun theme.”

  “That is weird. What’s with that Lupita?”

  “What? I never did anything. I’ve been here the whole time. Ever since… Ever since… Why was I in here?”

  Confusion took over her face as the two delinquents looked at each other. Had she forgotten killing everyone? Neither had enough experience with the undead, especially a haunted house. Could the shock of the incident take away her memories? It certainly couldn’t be from people forgetting.

  “No, it can’t be.”

  She suddenly shot to her feet, taking them both off guard. Body writhing as she seemed to remember something she thrashed against her restraints. Nate didn’t have to move as Karah subdued her onto the bed. No real change happened much to Nate’s disappointment.

  “So do you think we just get the contract done? She is conscious enough to make the agreement without strain. At least from what I can tell.”

  “She’s useless. What good could she do? I say we feed her to the wolves and hope one of them evolves.”

  Karah was now sitting on top of the girl who struggled on the bed. Face down and fully muffled once more. After a few moments she finally seemed to calm down. All in all she was chalking up to be a handful of trouble. She shifted so her snout poked out where she could talk.

  “I didn't kill them.”

  It was the first thing that she said that could actually be used. Nate’s nerves eased as he grasped at the single life line. If there was any salvaging the situation then he would do it.

  “Then tell us what really happened.”

  “Can you get off me first? Please.”

  Karah obliged, seeing that the girl wasn’t going to make anymore of a fuss. The bean bag chair was claimed immediately by her as she zoned out. It was normal for her not to care about dealing with people. That went double with those she deemed weak.

  “Start from the beginning.”

  “I know you’ve heard the story. My story. That's right. They’ve kept me back here so long that I nearly forgot what happened. I might have become something else if not for you. Sorry. The story. Right.”

  Lupita explained what from her perspective truly happened. She was being bullied at school but not at home. People at school couldn’t understand her hobby. Which happened to be wolves and everything that involved them. She’d even taken to making a suit for cosplay. This revelation caused a grimace to pass on Karah’s face.

  “So basically I was ostracized at school. My family was supportive. They even let me do the weird stuff that I wanted to try.”

  “Such as?”

  “I wanted to know what it was like to be a wolf. I know I sound crazy but I'm kind of obsessed.”

  She said her last line with an unhealthy amount of pride. Nate looked around the room at the wolf and werewolf paraphernalia. He had to agree she was obsessed. It was an off putting revelation. It was not any stranger than seeing spirits so let it slide. At least he rationalized it that way.

  “Soooo. When Thanksgiving came around my family got me a dog bowl and bed as a joke. Yeah, it was totally just a joke, ok? You’ve got to believe me right.”

  Nate just gave her a nondescript smile. He wanted to be past this part of her story. Karah was much less tactful.

  “It’s weird you freak.”

  “Hurtful I prefer enthusiasts. So we had a laugh about it but Grandma wasn’t laughing. She never laughed about the whole Wolf thing. In fact she only laughed the one time.”

  She hesitated, wavering on the next words to say. Deep fear racked her body. As Nate was about to prompt her a voice old like the crackling of dried paper rang out behind him. They had left the door to the room wide open.

  “I laughed when I gunned down those mongrels. Just like I will finally do, as I kill that Bitch.”