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His eyes were darting across the words, skimming the article quickly.

“You should stay away from this. I’m serious.”

Why was he warning me to stay away from looking into the wolf attack? This wolf had invaded my favorite place to go, and likely attacked Mrs. Madden. I certainly wasn’t going to let it go when this could be a lead into finding this thing and figuring out where it came from. And why it was here. If it’s still on the loose, it could be a danger to everyone in town. Was I onto something here? Was he nervous that I would piece this all together, and did he not want me to? I could feel Tess’ eyes on me as I returned to my artwork.

“What do you know about it?” I asked.

“Nothing, but this isn’t the kind of stuff two young ladies such as yourselves should be searching after,” he said. I glanced up and met his heavy gaze.

“Ok, dad.” I replied, deadpan. Tess stifled a laugh with the back of her hand, but Nik’s eyes were on me again, serious.

“Wouldn’t want either of you getting hurt now, would we?”

There was a threatening tone that lingered in his words. He knew something about this. I could feel it, and I was going to get it out of him.

“I know how to be careful,” I said with an exaggerated wink. Who was he to tell me what to do, anyway?

“You might not like what you find,” he said, voice stern. “Be careful.” His eyes turned dark again.

“I will,” I replied.

He was practically a stranger—why did he care either way what happened to me or Tess? He slid the article back across the table to Tess, who grabbed it and folded it away. I was sure I would be hearing all about this later on our way to the coffee shop.

The rest of art passed in silence as we avoided conversation and worked on our portfolios. When the bell rang, Tess and I went to put our supplies away and by the time we returned to the table, Nik was gone.

When the last bell rang, I went to my locker to get my books before driving Tess to the coffee shop. I turned the knob and pulled, but it would not open. Frustrated, I mouthed the numbers as I entered them, again and again.

“Fifty-two, sixteen, seventy-nine, twenty.”Come on. I’ve had this locker since sophomore year and it had never given me this much trouble before. It felt as if the world was cosmically against me this week. I tried again, and again, but it was stuck. Maybe it was jammed? I tried pushing it a few times, but nothing happened. I reached back to put my heavy bookbag on the floor behind me before trying again.

“Open, dammit,” I whispered, bending down to unzip my bag. The red locker swung open with a squeak, smacking me in the back of the head.

What on earth? Did this locker just open…when I told it to? I grabbed my biology book from the locker and slammed it shut. Looking up and down the hallway to make sure nobody was watching, I tried it again.

“Open,” I whispered, closing my eyes and concentrating. I heard the squeak of the door and opened my eyes to see the locker door swinging open and clanging against the wall.I had to be imagining this.This shit only happened in movies. I slammed the locker shut and rushed off to the parking lot to meet Tess.

I was going crazy; Ihadto be going crazy. That was the only explanation for any of this. Or was I dreaming? Had everything that happened since last weekend been a dream and I was about to wake up any minute? If this was real, if that actually happened…had that been me who had broken all the glass at home? Who had miraculously started the fire? I walked to the Subaru quickly, too anxious to be careful about slipping on the black ice in the parking lot.

“Woah, woah, woah, who peed in your cheerios?” Tess asked, leaning against the Subaru as I stormed towards her.

“Get in,” I responded, hurrying over to the driver’s side.

“Are you ok, Diana? You look seriously upset,” Tess said.

“Get in,” I repeated as I tossed my bag in the back seat and got in.

Without another word, I tore out of the parking lot towards The Daily Drip to drop Tess off. She buckled her seatbelt and held on, trying not to swing back and forth as I took each corner.

“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” she asked in a small voice, “you took off from school like a bat out of hell.”

I didn’t respond. I had to get to the coffee shop first. I had to get away from school. I needed a minute to digest this and sit with my thoughts. Could I have…no. No. I couldn’t even think it. But could I be something…supernatural? Could I be something…other,too? I had no explanation for opening the locker and no explanation for breaking the glass. There was no explanation, because this kind of stuff justdidn’thappen.

I turned onto Spring Street and pulled the Subaru into a spot on the street in front of the row of shops. I closed my eyes, taking a few deep breaths to center myself. I could feel Tess waiting nervously in the passenger’s seat beside me.

“Tess, I opened the locker at school by…by telling it to. I said ‘open,’ and it did. I thought I was imagining it, so I tried it again…and it worked,” I confessed.

“Youwhat?” she asked, incredulous.

“It was jammed. I tried opening it a million times and all I did was whisper ‘open,’ and the damn thing did. And the broken glass, I think I did that too,” I confessed, swallowing hard.