Reese shook his head. If he slept, the monster might come back.
“Sleep, Dr. Dante.”
Voices hummed, movement shuffled, footsteps, laughter, the distant thump and bang of heavy objects lifted and dropped.
Activity from people Reese didn’t know, yet found himself keenly aware of. Some of them vibrated with potential violence, a storm waiting to erupt. Others more like sunlight kneading into his muscles and wrapping him in peace.
The yin-and-yang of energy pushed back and forth, charged atoms vying for control, crackling with chaos every time they came close to each other.
But even in the turbulence, a point of darkness stood out. A gravitational force that consumed the sunlight.
Reese huddled deeper into the cocoon of fabric, cradling him on a slightly lumpy bed. A strip of fluorescent light escaping a partially opened bathroom door cast just enough light to reveal a dresser, hardwood floors, a bedside table, and a…
The wolf stood less than ten feet away. Its silver fur caught the light, and it watched Reese with bright blue eyes.
Reese squinted, fully expecting the fuzzy shape to meld together into something logical like a chair with a coat or a pile of laundry.
The wolf lowered its head. Like the Anubis, it had long prehensile toes. Unlike the Anubis, it wasn’t much larger than a normal wolf, and the sight of it didn’t spurn fear.
But the longer Reese stared, the more he questioned whether the glow of its coat was actually light from the bathroom or created by tiny stars.
The door to the room opened and Reese startled.
Seung walked in carrying a tray with a bowl and a glass of orange juice. “You’re awake.”
Reese pushed himself up.
“Hang on. I’ll help you.” She set down the tray at the foot of the bed.
“My glasses?”
Seung picked them up from the bedside table next to the lamp. Reese put them on and she arranged the pillows against his back.
The wolf lifted its head and swiveled its ears.
“How are you feeling?” Seung moved the tray to the bedside table and sat on the edge of the mattress.
The wolf sat.
She put a hand on his forehead. “Your fever’s gone.” Silverware clinked. “You really had us worried there for a while.”
“Fever?” Had it been bad enough to cause brain damage?
It would explain the wolf.
“You don’t remember?”
“No, no, I…”
The wolf cocked its head, and Reese had the strangest feeling it was trying to tell him something.
“Dr. Dante?”
“Ye… yes?” He looked at her knowing full well the wolf would vanish because that’s what hallucinations did. “Oh, um, fever, uh… what was the question?”
“Do you remember the ride here?”
“Here?”