March 31, 2025
Carmen lifts the hand holding a pen, stopping me from continuing. “Was that a vision?” she asks.
“I’m not sure what it was exactly,” I reply with a slight chuckle. “I was practically blind at the time and still recovering from extensive injuries. It could have been a hallucination or, like I said, a daydream.”
“Hmm…” Carmen taps her pen on her clipboard. “I’ve conducted a lot of interviews in my career, and sometimes when someone wakes up from a near-death experience, they claim to see the other side or dream of angels or loved ones who passed. But I have never encountered anyone who experienced awakened visions. This is a first for me.”
I laugh. “Are awakened visions a thing?”
“Certainly, it represents a state of increased awareness or a spiritual awakening, often accompanied by symbolic imagery.Take your wolves, for instance. Together they can symbolize something greater than yourself.” She shrugs and jots down notes on her paper.
No one ever described what I saw that day as an awakened vision. Then again, I only ever told one person about it. “I mentioned to Alpha Agnus later on about what I had seen. She believed it was Quartz Lake, giving me a peek of what’s to come. I honestly forgot about it until just now.”
“What made you think of it?” Christian asks from behind the camera.
“It’s silly, actually.” I dip my chin as a blush warms my cheeks.
“You would be surprised what’s considered silly in our line of business,” Carmen counters without looking up from her notetaking.
I reach into my pocket and retrieve a folded sheet of paper. Opening it, I stare at the drawing that my new little friend gave me after my interview with Sammy Cane. He drew five wolves sitting near a lake.
Unlike my vision, where the wolves were behind the lake, his drawing places them in front of it, depicted as a messy glob of blue. He drew every wolf in the exact order I saw them so many years ago. Bright yellow for the golden wolf with green eyes. The chestnut brown wolf with two different-colored eyes, different-colored legs, and a circle around him. The red wolf like he is on fire. And even the black wolf with two heads. The white wolf with sky-blue eyes sits between them. He portrayed her much larger than the others. On the corner of the paper, he also included the ugly wolf with a scar on its muzzle, half gray, half brown, baring its sharp teeth.
I show them the boy’s picture, and Christian zooms in on it. “I made a new friend last week, and before he left with his nanny, he gave me this. His nanny said he’s been drawing wolves sincehe could hold a crayon, but he’s never done a group of them with so much detail before.”
Christian motions with his hand, and I lean forward to pass him the paper. “Amazing detail for a little kid. How old is he?” He asks, studying the drawing.
“Maybe five or six, judging from his size.”
Carmen hums, peeking over Christian’s shoulder. “Did you get his name, by any chance?”
“Yeah. His name is Jackson—cute kid, smart. He kind of reminded me of an old man with his mannerisms and the way he spoke.”
Carmen taps her finger on the arm of the chair. “What’s this?” She points to a mark in the upper corner.
Christian shrugs. “If I had to guess, it looks like two angels—one with black hair and one with white.” He smiles at me. “The one with the white hair looks like she’s carrying a candy cane.”
“Obviously, the one with the cane is your Alpha Agnus, but who is the one with the dark hair?” Carmen ponders.
I frown. I studied that picture so many times, but I never saw angels. Christian turns the paper around, showing me. They’re so small. That must be why I missed it.
Christian passes the paper back, and I glance at it one more time. “Emily… she died a few years ago.” I trace my finger over the tiny angels. “She was my best friend and just as important to me as Alpha Angus.” I blink to stop the tears threatening to fall and clear my throat. “I guess this could only mean one of two things. I either made up the whole story in my head after seeing this, or it’s confirmation that what I saw really happened.”
Christian winks. “My instincts tell me it’s the latter.”
I nod as I carefully fold the paper and slide it back in my pocket.
Carmen reclines in her chair and clasps her hands together, resting them in her lap. “Okay. So let’s take it back to what happened two weeks ago and the reason you’re here.”
Chapter 14
The Funeral
JESSICA
TWO WEEKS AGO:
March 14, 2025: 9:05 a.m.
