Page 51 of Finding His Fox

Was this somehow part of the favor Cal was asking of me? Did it involve other people?

I shook my head. Ridiculous. In all the time I’ve known Cal, I’ve never heard him mention or associate with anyone else in town.

Aside from Owen, he rarely talked about anyone else.

Either Cal was a lone wolf, or I never asked him enough questions about himself.

I made a mental note to do just that, adding on to the list of questions I’ve accumulated in my head since we last met.

A few nights ago, over dinner, Cal dropped a bomb on me. First, he slid a small, unassuming brown package across the table.

A gift, he said, which I opened excitedly. Wrapped in a plain cotton cloth was a simple silver bangle with some markings around it.

At first, I thought it might be some kind of promise bangle. Oh, how wrong I was.

It turned out the wendigo that had attacked us when were kids had come back.

He saw it with his own eyes, and he was sure it was the same one.

Cal explained that it might have returned to exact revenge. The bangle he gave me would protect me.

It was imbued with magic to help hide my presence from the monster.

The entire time Cal was telling me all this, his voice was laced with a mix of anger, anxiety, and fear. I had never seen him like that before.

A million thoughts whizzed through my mind. How was the wendigo still alive?

Why did it come back now? Was it because I was staying here longer than I used to?

Or was it because Cal and I were spending more time together, somehow making ourselves recognizable to the creature?

How much danger were we in? If the bangle was meant to hide me, did that mean the wendigo could somehow track us?

But I didn’t manage to ask Cal any of my questions. I was speechless, frozen with fear.

Who wouldn’t be? A supernatural being I thought had died had come back, not just to haunt us. It wanted to hunt us down.

I was in complete shock and must’ve been staring blankly at the bangle for a long time.

It was only when Cal took my hand and carefully slid the bangle onto my right wrist that I realized where I was.

“Promise me you won’t ever take this off,” Cal urged.

I nodded, fingering the thin silver around my wrist. It was such a small, simple thing.

I was doubtful about how effective it really was. However, I trusted Cal. And if he said this would work. I would wear it for as long as I needed to.

I couldn’t sleep that night, worried that the wendigo was just lurking around the corner. If I closed my eyes just for a moment, I could see the monster lunging right at us.

Cal held me, and I fell asleep eventually, feeling safe in his arms. However, I couldn’t ask him to spend every night by my side.

Also, I didn’t feel safe staying all alone in my big house.

Thank goodness Rory and Josie didn’t mind me sleeping over at their place again. After a few quiet, uneventful days, I realized that the bangle must be working.

I was grateful to Cal for all his help and asked him if I could do anything for him in return. And now here I was waiting for him in his surprisingly full parking lot.

What was I doing here in the middle of this hot, cloudless day with my camera? Who knew?