Little Pig, Little Pig

The American Southwest still has so many secrets to find. That was a good title for her thesis. Now if only they could actually find something.

Sweat dripped from her temple to her cheek to her chest. Joselyn caught the dusty towel thrown to her and ran it over her face and neck without thinking about the streaks that would be left behind because of the dirt. She tossed the rag aside. “I’m starting to feel a really strong ‘fuck this place’ vibe.”

“You’re only feeling that now?” Eu said. “I remember saying ‘fuck this place’ after Day 1 and the Prof whacked me with one of those little shovel things.”

In two weeks of working in grids and finding nothing but a couple pieces of generic pottery, Joselyn was definitely ready to call it quits.

Eu was still talking. “And where is she, anyway? Do you see her? Because I don’t.”

“She has paperwork.”

“Inside. With AC and cold water.”

“I made sure you knew what this was. Even grad students have to do grunt work. And you were all, ‘Hell yeah, I’d love to spend my Summer in the desert with you. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.'”

“I was being sarcastic. You used my emotions for your own evil gain.”

Joselyn pushed one hip to the side. “You make it way too easy. All right, let’s start Zone 3. I’m tired of this place, too.”

Eu held a hand down to help her climb out, but she ignored it and did it herself. “Zone 3 is the one we – “

“We have to go by cart,” Joselyn confirmed and then covered her ears against the yelp he let out. Excitement turned him into a giant kid. “Gather tools, please.”

Eu gave her a salute. “Yes, Ma’am.”

“And stuff that.”

Zone 1, where they had been working, was the closest to the trailers and it was only a short walk to where Professor Mackey was.

Joselyn’s professor had seen better days. The annual trip hadn’t had nearly as many volunteers as usual and with the lack of any real, impactful finds, she’d had even more to worry about. Professor Mackey had confessed it all to her one night. How the University’s funding was being threatened and they need something big. Looking at the Professor now, Joselyn could see that she’d lost any faith that this trip would be salvaged.

The history of the Americas started long before white men ever set foot here. A long, rich history that they had a duty to find and protect.

“Prof…we’re going out to start Zone 3. You wanna come with?”

“Who all is ‘we?'”

“Me and Eustace. I need a change.”

Mackey made a note. “What about Mimi and Eli?”

“Haven’t heard a thing from them since lunch.”

“Bring gear to make camp at 3 and stop by Zone 2 to check on them.”

Joselyn nodded and took the hint to get out. Professor Mackey was right – they would probably need to make camp out at 3 because the Sun was a lot lower than she’d realized. Maybe three hours left. One sign of anything at Zone 3 would have her happily digging all night, though.

Eu met her at the cart beside the trailer that all of the volunteers used when they were close. The only plus side to having fewer people around was that they didn’t have to rent much living space.

They prepared two packs of food and water, a tent, and Joselyn grabbed a small spotlight that had spent all day charging in the sun. Hallelujah and praise solar power.

Eu slid into the driver’s seat. “Come on! We’ve got an adventure!”

Joselyn back-handed his shoulder. “You’re not driving. I’ve seen you in a car, remember?”

Eu held up one finger. “This isn’t a car.”

A second finger. “It’s not that far.”

His ring finger. “You owe me because driving this toy might be the highlight of this Summer.”

“If you crash this thing and I die, you will NEVER have a peaceful night for the rest of your life.” Joselyn went around to get in the other side.

“Can I have that even if you survive?”

“Gross.” The cart was so bare that it didn’t even have seatbelts, so Joselyn braced herself by hanging onto the support bars.

“Jesus,” Eu started the cart, “give a guy a little credit.”

Joselyn did not regret holding on when he popped the gas too hard and sent them off with a dust trail to follow. She grit her teeth hard and had to shut her eyes in an attempt to focus on not throwing up.

When he stopped the cart, her body flew forward and it was only her death grip on the bars that kept her from leaving the cart involuntarily. “Is that it? Are we dead?”

“I’d hope death would be somewhere that’s not more of the same desert.” Eu climbed out and yelled, “Mimi! Eli! Welfare check and you guys better not be naked! Or you can, I’m not gonna judge. You do you.”

Joselyn cracked open her eyes and they were still in one piece. She eased her grip on the bars and sank back into the seat. Eu is never driving again.

“Eli, if you guys are in the tent, yell ‘Jeepers!’ before I unzip.” Eu waited a few seconds before opening the tent. He stuck his head out and pulled back out. “Joselyn, digsite…tent…is there anywhere else they could be?”

Joselyn pulled herself out of the cart. “Mimi!”

Eu came back. “They’re not here.”

“You’re kidding.” Joselyn checked the tent and then the digsite herself. Different from Zones 1 and 3, Zone 2 did have ruins nearby. The ruins had been part of a tourist attraction back in the ’80s, but it was closed after a severe storm in the ’90s turned it into a mess that no one wanted to clean up.

There were bits of pottery bagged and tagged along the sides of the grid they’d set up. “They have to be here somewhere.”

“Unless they left. Man, why didn’t we get to pick this site?” Eu walked into the ruins. “It’s so cool.”

“Be careful.” She called. “It’s supposed to be stable, but anything can happen.”

Joselyn picked through the pottery. It was possible that Professor Mackey had just forgotten that they weren’t going to be here. Maybe a run into town or –

“Joselyn!”

Joselyn wove through the ruins and almost walked into a giant hole. The only thing that kept her from falling in was Eu’s arm around her waist. “What the – ?”

Eu had pulled her away from the hole and back into the ruins. For a few very long minutes, neither had anything to say. Eu was the first. “Do you think they…?”

“Oh God…oh shit…We need to get back to Mackey and put in a call to…someone.” Joselyn babbled. “Is that a fucking sinkhole?”

“I think sinkholes only happen in wet places.” Eu said. “I think they were digging and the sides might have caved in on them.”

Eu pointed to a pile of dirt sitting along the edge of the hole that she hadn’t even seen. It didn’t look like any of that dirt had fallen in. He said, “Okay. Okay! So they went on a run into town without saying anything. This is just what they were working on.”

“It’s almost a crater, Eustace! Why would they keep digging like this? It’s not the way it’s done.”

Eu flinched at the sound of his full name. He walked up to the edge again. “Unless they knew there was something down there. Like treasure.”

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?! They might be – hey!”

Eu jumped into the hole. One second he was there in front of her and the next, she was at the edge watching him slide on his ass down the dirt into the deepest part.

“What is wrong with you?!” She yelled down.

Eu tapped his hand on something covered by dirt. “There’s something down here.”

“What kind of ‘something?'”

“Something hard.” Eu got on his knees and pounded his hand on the ground. “Throw me somethin’, Jo.”

Joselyn looked around and found a trowel sticking out of the ground. “Don’t call me that.”

“You know I didn’t mean it that way.” Eu caught the little shovel and jammed it into the ground. Joselyn flinched, expecting blood or a scream if either of them were still alive. The trowel sank in a couple inches and stopped.

Eu scooped dirt away and tried again. This time, Joselyn heard a hard click when it stopped. “Wait!”

Eu looked up at her. “Why?”

“Artifacts. If there are artifacts, then you’re going to break them if you keep attacking the dirt like that.” Joselyn tried to carefully step down the side and, like Eu, ended up sliding the rest of the way on her butt.

This time, she did let him help her up. “Let’s say you’re right and they left. For whatever reason. Okay. You felt it when you fell in, right?”

“Yeah…the ground didn’t feel right.”

“If they were this close to finding something, why would they leave it? A couple hits with a shovel and you’ve got something.”

“I don’t know, but I want to see what it is.”

Joselyn held her hand out. “Give me the trowel.”

She got down on her knees and gently slid the small spade into the soil at the depression he’d made. As soon as she felt the object, she eased the dirt up and dropped it aside. “I can’t believe they didn’t call this in.”

“Glory hogs? Didn’t want anyone else getting in on this.”

“Eli’s not like that. Mimi, maybe, but not Eli.”

“You seriously still defend him?”

Joselyn focused on carefully moving the dirt away to reveal whatever was buried. “He’s a good guy. He just doesn’t have a good grasp on his baser instincts.”

“‘He’s a good guy.’ Yeah, so you’ve been avoiding him this whole trip because he’s so ‘good?'”

“Eu, just st–” It shined in the light. Using her hands, now, Joselyn pulled more of the dirt away. “Does that look like glass to you?”

Eu crouched down. “Maybe an old bottle.”

Joselyn shook her head. “It’s thick.”

And big. She kept pulling dirt away and still hadn’t found the end of it. The next load of dirt uncovered a dirty boot with the bottom of his jeans tucked in the way Eli always did.

Joselyn changed her digging to uncover the rest of his body. “Eli!”

Eli had been lying face down on the glass where it curved deeper into the ground. His hand was holding a flashlight that was still on. When she got to his head, his eyes were wide and blank.

The second she realized he was dead was the second Eu pulled her up and away from him.

Joselyn was still reeling from the shock when a voice boomed over them. “Move to the edge.”

As one, they looked up to find the hole surrounded by men in army fatigues. Two men in suits stood at the side closest to them. Eu, unable to keep thoughts in his head, said, “We found the men in black.”

“Actually,” Joselyn said as a rope was thrown down, “I think they found us.”

Mackey was topside with the soldiers and arguing with more fire than Joselyn had seen in the past couple of weeks. As soon as Joselyn was out, Mackey pointed at her. “Get back in that hole! None of you have adequately explained what you think you’re doing here!”

“It’s a matter of National Security, Ma’am.”

“What threat could be buried in our desert?!” Mackey was foaming at the mouth. “Do you assholes think ISIS came all the way over here to bury something in out backyard to not use it?!”

Joselyn didn’t even notice that all of the soldiers were carrying guns. Not until the man raised his rifle and popped her in the face. Mackey covered her bloody nose and mouth.

“Hey!” Joselyn yelled at them. “What the hell do you – ”

The same man spun and pointed the gun at Joselyn’s head. Eu pulled her aside just before the bullet blew through where she had just been. A different man yelled, “Move it back, it’s spreading!”

Mackey jumped on his back, feral with the blood on her face. A group of men grabbed Joselyn and Eu, forcing them away from the hole. There were more gunshots behind them, but the men kept pushing.

Joselyn pitched forward when she kicked something big in the dirt. She hit the ground under two guys that quickly moved off of her. When she rolled over, she saw what she’d tripped on.

Mimi. Lying dead in the brush. Joselyn kicked away from her. She screamed and didn’t think it was ever going to stop.

#

How could things go so wrong so fast? Joselyn didn’t understand. She tried when she was lying in the dirt, staring at Mimi’s dusty face. She tried when they stuffed them into a truck and drove for what felt like longer than the usual twenty minutes it took to drive into town.

Joselyn was still trying now, sitting in one of those rooms with the table and chairs. Maxwell was a small town and if this was what she suspected, then they were either too poor or there just wasn’t a point in having a two-way mirror in it. Somehow, she still felt like someone had to be watching her.

The room was small and stuffy to add to the discomfort and even though a girl had come by and brought her a can of soda, Joselyn hadn’t really been able to bring herself to take so much as a sip. Behind her eyes, she could still see Eli lying in the dirt next to the curved glass.

There had been a murdered out there with them. Someone that saw what Eli and Mimi were digging up and killed them for it. Then what? They just disappeared when Joselyn and Eu showed up? If the military hadn’t shown up, would they have been killed, too?

And then there was Professor Mackey. Maybe she snapped at the prospect of having the find taken away with all of the stress that had been piling on lately.

Maybe she’d been the one to hurt – kill – Eli and Mimi. She could have been coming to kill them when the military showed up. Speaking of, why were they even out there?

The door clicked. The sheriff was holding a manila folder in one hand and a black tape recorder in the other. Very old school.

He put the folder on the table and sat down. “The ID you gave us matched with your fingerprints to a Josef Nash of Albuquerque. You don’t look like much of a Josef to me.”

“I’m a work in progress. My name is Joselyn.”

“Mind if I call you Joe?”

“I mind that a lot, actually…”

“Alright, Joe, I’m gonna need you to tell me everything that happened in the desert earlier.”

Joselyn grit her teeth. She wasn’t going to pick a pointless fight with a *sheriff* of all people. Not after everything else today. “I really don’t know.”

“Your friend Eustace says that the two of you were sent out to…Zone 2…by Carolyn Mackey. Is that correct?”

“Professor Mackey wanted us to check on Eli and Mimi. We hadn’t heard anything from them in hours.”

The sheriff flipped open the folder and read something. “And how was your professor when you last spoke to her?”

“She wouldn’t have hurt Eli and Mimi. This is – was – my and Eli’s third dig with Professor Mackey and she’s never been anything but nice. A little stressed this time – “

“Because of funding issues.” The sheriff flipped a picture onto the table. It was Eli lying completely free of the dirt. Concealed from them at the dig site had been a ragged wound in the right side of his neck. The way the picture was taken, it looked like he was staring at her specifically.

He spoke softer this time. “Money can make people do things they would never dream of.”

“She wouldn’t do this. What did they find in the hole?”

There was a knock on the door and Joselyn recognized one of the men in suits that had been at the hole. “This case is closed, Sheriff Bigby. I need to speak with,” he looked at Joselyn, “Miss Nash. Alone.”

“Now you wait,” the sheriff stood, “five people are dead!”

“And your case is closed. Have a nice day, Sheriff.”

The door opened again and Joselyn caught a glimpse of more men in camoflage outside. The sheriff looked down at her again before leaving them alone.

“Miss Nash,” the man took a seat, “I’m going to tell you a story and you’re going to have to remember it exactly the way I tell it. Once you can repeat it back to me, you will get a free ride back to Albuquerque.”

“Why were you even there?” Joselyn asked.

“The FBI is overseeing military exercises in the area. You screamed when your professor attacked you. It was good that we arrived when we did.”

“She never attacked us.”

“Professor Carolyn Mackey,” he continued, “had been isolating herself this entire trip. Staying in the trailer and talking to no one until she sent the two of you out to Zone 2 where she had already disposed of the other students. The attack came out of nowhere.”

“She never attacked us. Eli and Mimi had found – “

“There was nothing in the hole.” The man reached into his jacket and pulled out a folded paper that looked like a letter. “I need you to sign a statement that will serve as a record of what happened today.”

Joselyn took the paper and read the paragraph that everything had been condensced into. “I’m not signing this.”

This time, the door opened without a knock and she knew it had to be Eu. Joselyn got up and hugged him tight. “Glad you’re okay.”

“You, too.” Eu looked at the table. “Sign it so we can get out of here.”

“They’re lying about her – “

“We can go home. We don’t have to be a part of this.”

Joselyn studied him and went back to the table. As she was signing her legal name, she said, “Professor Mackey was not a murderer.”

Then she threw the pen down and they let them walk out.

#

Joselyn couldn’t tell if she was angry, disappointed, or disgusted by the relief she felt when they left the police station. Eu had made this decision for both of them and she’d let him.

It was all a lie. If Professor Mackey ends up in jail or…if she was still alive. The police or FBI or whoever they’d just dealt with hadn’t actually said she was okay. Those gunshots…

Joselyn couldn’t even look at Eu as they rode back to Albuquerque. There was one of the camo guys driving the van with another sitting passenger. Joselyn and Eu were in the back next to each other, but they hadn’t said anything most of this time.

Eli and Mimi were dead. Mackey might be. How had things gotten so fucked, so fast?

Eu’s voice was so soft that at first, she wasn’t sure she’d even heard it. “I’m sorry about Eli. And the professor.”

What was she supposed to say to that? It wasn’t like he’d contributed to any of it. “It’s over now. Exactly what you wanted.”

Eu turned in his seat. “I got us out of there. Okay? I don’t know what’s going on, but they were pretty damn set on that story.”

“She couldn’t have killed them. I know her.”

“Were they right about the funding?”

Joselyn shook her head. “There were problems, yeah, but Professor Mackey – “

“What if their story is right? What if she just lost it? You know how that feels.”

Being reminded of that episode was the last thing she wanted. Joselyn turned her back on him as far as the seat belt would allow. For the rest of the ride, she tried not to think about him or Mackey or anything. Just her reflection in the window.

#

Someone else had packed their bags for them. Someone had gone through all of her things before folding and packing them in boxes. Some random stranger touching her things.

It was a mild form of being violated, but it still made her skin crawl with just the thought of it.

Joselyn had her own apartment off campus and even though she shared it with Eu, she went straight into her room and slammed the door. Of course, as soon as her body hit her bed, her stomach growled.

A few minutes later, Eu knocked on her door. “I know grilled cheese isn’t going to make anything better, bun neither will starving. I know if I could eat a horse, you could eat a bigger horse.”

Joselyn grabbed the nearest thing – a pillow – and chucked it as hard as she could at the door. Eu took that as the invitation it was and opened it. True to what he said, he had two plates of grilled cheese with him. “I’m sorry.”

Joselyn sat up and took one of the plates. “Did you throw these in the skillet the second we got home or what?”

“Yeah.”

Silence stretched out between them. Joselyn felt like her mind had been put back together wrong. That two – possible three – people that she’d known were now dead was too much to take in. And the glass in the hole. The FBI.

“What do I do now?”

Eu took a deep breath and ended up just shrugging. He looked at her and then his eyes moved past her. “Where’d you get that?”

Joselyn followed his gaze to her dresser. At first, she didn’t see anything different and then it was just there when her brain registered it. “I…that’s not mine.”

Joselyn put her plate down and picked up the small stone carving. The stone was smooth and cut in the shape of a pig. She didn’t recognize it from any of her things or anything she’d seen in class. “Did you put this here?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Some kind of weird surprise gift-giving or something.”

“You would be able to tell it’s me by the love note attached. No note.” Eu took it from her. He immediately dropped it with a yelp. “What the…it’s hot! How were you holding it?”

Joselyn looked at him like he was nuts. She bent to pick it up, but it had apparently rolled under her bed. “What are you talking about? It wasn’t hot. It wasn’t anything.”

“Leave it.”

Joselyn ignored him and went all the way onto her stomach to look under the bed. The little pig had miraculously rolled onto its feet and was facing her. She had just got her hand on it when she saw them.

There were two orbs – *eyes* – under her bed. They stuck out from the shadows with a faintly golden glow.

Joselyn froze with her fingers curled around the pig. That wasn’t right. It was something else under the bed. It had to be. Something with an easy explanation as to why she was suddenly being dragged back to childhood when the monsters under her bed had seemed very real.

That’s it. Some normal, everyday object under her bed with a shine that looked like eyes. It was a sound, adult explanation except for one key fact.

Joselyn never kept anything under her bed.

“If you’re trying to hide from me,” Eu said, “you’re not doing a good job.”

Joselyn pulled the pig toward herself and the eyes seemed to come closer, though there still wasn’t a body anywhere around them. Very carefully, she said, “Eustace, I need you to take my arm and pull me out of here very fast.”

Eu’s voice changed to concern. “What is it, Joe? Something down there?”

Joselyn eased onto her side and inched backward. Most of her had been outside already. She held up a hand and the eyes didn’t move until she felt Eu’s hand on hers.

Joselyn pulled on him harder than he pulled on her. SHe scrambled up and away from the bed. Any second now and the owner of those eyes would come rushing out to swallow them whole.

A gust of hot air hit their legs, pelting them with small objects that scattered into Joselyn’s carpet. But that was all. No monster with teeth and claws.

Eu bent and picked up some of the bits. “Hey, does this look like…?”

Joselyn nodded. “Sand.”

She looked at the pig in her hand and put it back on the dresser. When she turned around, Eu was on his belly, looking under her bed. Slowly, he pushed himself up onto his knees. “Are you feeling okay?”

“If you’re gonna ask, ask. Don’t dance around with asking how I’m feeling.” Joselyn rubbed her eyes.

“FIne. Did you see something real?”

“What I had was a momentary loss of control brought on by the man I loved telling me that he thinks I’m disgusting. I never saw anything that wasn’t there. Unless you count my whole relationship with Eli. There was something under my bed.”

To prove it, Joselyn got back on the floor. The area under her bed was clear, the way it should have been the first time. “I saw eyes back there. It came at me…”

“Maybe you just need some rest. It’s been a really horrible day.”

“What about the wind and the sand?” Joselyn stood again. “You saw that.”

“I…I don’t know.” Eu looked at her bed again. “But you can always come stay the night with me if you’re bothered by the boogeyman.”

Joselyn shook her head. “I think I’m gonna do a little research. Maybe nap on the couch.”

“You know where to find me if you need me.”

Even though it was night, the hospital parking lot was pure chaos. Joselyn couldn’t even get close to the building for all of the lookees and they were on this side of a barrier made out of police cars.

Joselyn pulled into the flash of blue and red, parking with plenty others that had gathered to see the show. She glanced at the pig and left it in the car.

“Any idea what’s up?” She asked no one in particular when she entered a branch of the onlookers.

A man with a greying mustache looked at her. “No. I was inside visiting my wife when they began evacuating. I figure maybe a leak of some kind. With the way they moved us out.”

Joselyn opened her mouth, but a man came outside to a microphone she hadn’t seen when she drove up. He looked like he could be with the police. “You can return to visit your loved ones in the morning. All patients from the Intensive Care Unit are currently being moved to another floor. You can ask them more at the front desk tomorrow.”

“Sir, can you – ” A woman began, but the man cut her off.

“No questions tonight. Any answers tomorrow will be very limited because we are looking at a homicide investigation.” The man walked off.

Joselyn backed away from the others and got back in her car. She grabbed the little stone pig and threw it into the parking lot before driving away.

Back at the apartment, she found Eu sitting on the couch with his phone at his ear. “…yeah, I’m seeing it.”

He stood when he saw her, hanging up the phone. “Your professor – “

“I went to the hospital. There were cops everywhere. Did she attack someone?”

“Joselyn…she’s dead.”

Joselyn sat close to Eu on the couch. They were seeing what little the news’ cameras could get on the situation unfolding at the hospital.

The latest conference the police chief had outside only a few minutes ago did reveal that there seemed to be no further threat to patients in the hospital. This attack appears to be related to another ongoing investigation.

“I guess you were right,” Eu said. “Your professor didn’t kill them. Some sicko was out there with us…”

Joselyn knew better, now. That wolf thing had left after she thought Mackey’s name and all of a sudden, she’s dead?

It was Joselyn. Somehow, she’d sent it after her. Whatever ‘it’ was. Is.

In the end, Joselyn killed her. No one would ever know that because no one would ever be able to connect her to it.

There was a certain thrill to that that should have bothered her, but really didn’t. Professor Mackey had to be punished for

*waking it*

for killing Eli.

Joselyn looked around the room, expecting the wolf to be waiting somewhere inside. Waiting for another command.

The pig! She’d thrown the pig…

Joselyn’s eyes went to the little figure sitting undamaged next to the TV. She hadn’t seen it even a minute ago.

“God…you know? This is just…insane.” Eu said.

“Yeah. Insane.” Joselyn stood and went to the little figure. “Did you put this here?”

“What? I am *not* touching that thing again. It burned me.” Eu held up his hand to show her the blister that had formed in his palm.

“You could’ve got that in the desert.” Joselyn pointed out one of her own. She was smart enough to know how to avoid them at this point, but it still happened sometimes. “Don’t blame my pig.”

Joselyn picked it up. The only warning she had that it was coming was the hot wind suddenly swirling around the room. From behind her, Eu yelled, “Jesus Christ!”

When she turned, the wolf was there. Its back was to her, standing between them. A deep calm fell over her in its presence this time. “You might not like what happens if you do.”

“Joe…” Eu backed up and fell onto the couch when the wolf took a threatening step in his direction. “Joe, what is this?”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Joselyn, tell me what’s happening.”

“Eli and Mimi didn’t find something out there. Something…” Joselyn looked at the pig in her hand, “something that found me.”

“Is it going to hurt me?”

“I don’t think so. Not if I don’t want it to. If that’s even how this works.”

“How what – ” A knock on the door stopped his question.

11

This was a better room than the small one. Maybe double the size with the mirror that TV had led her to expect. The officers sitting across from her didn’t have uniforms, either.

The pig had appeared after they led her into the interrogation room even though she knew she’d kicked it under the couch. It was a heaviness in her pocket that shouldn’t have been there. Joselyn wondered if she’d ever get to see it do that. Appear out of nowhere. That was what she was thinking instead of worrying about the real reason they’d brought her in.

‘Questions about your Professor.’

“Miss…or…” One began and she cut him off.

“Miss is fine.”

They asked her questions about Mackey that she hadn’t even thought of and didn’t have answers for. ‘Did your professor have any family?’ ‘Had she had any personal problems? Drugs or alcohol?’ ‘Anyone with a reason to harm her?’

Joselyn didn’t have answers to any of those. She was pretty sure that Professor Mackey didn’t do drugs and she never showed up to anything with Joselyn in any obvious state of inebriation. And realizing that after three years of knowing Professor Mackey, she didn’t know anything about her personal life other than she wasn’t married came as a bit of a shock. It wasn’t something she ever thought about. Professor Mackey never really talked about stuff like that anyway.

Joselyn thought about telling them that she’d been on her way to the hospital when whatever it was happened, but decided that the less connections between her and Mackey, the better. Even if they would never in a million years guess what kind of hand she might have had in the event.

The whole time, the pig sat there in her pocket. Patient. Waiting for her to make a choice. There was a nugget of want deep inside that was telling her to reach into her pocket and take hold of the pig. Call the wolf here to destroy the man that had given her ‘a look’ when she told them to use ‘Miss.’

It was the same kind of look she’d been getting her entire life. Over her clothes. Over her hair. Over stealing her big sister’s makeup.

Joselyn could see it. The look of fear on their faces when the sand begins to blow. The wolf attacking so fast, they couldn’t be sure what was killing them. And Joselyn sitting here watching it all. Making plans for the next time. Maybe those fucks that made her sign that paper in the desert.

“Miss Nash?”

Joselyn blinked. “I’m sorry. I…this day has been too much for me.”

“We understand. You can go home. Do you need a ride?”

“I can find one. Thanks. I hope you can find out what’s happening.”

“We will. And we’ll contact you if we have any more questions.”

Again, Eu had gotten done before her. Of course he had. He’d barely known her professor and this was his first year in the desert. He was sitting in the waiting room out front, staring at his hands.

“Do you think we can find an Uber or do we need some good old-fashioned hitchhiking?”

Eu didn’t look up. “You were gone when she was murdered. What did you do?”

Joselyn grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the seat. “Outside.”

Away from the cops, she said, “I didn’t do anything.”

“What about that…that thing in the apartment?”

“Are you really asking me if I killed my professor? I worshipped her! I wanted to be just like her-“

“What about Eli? How long have you had that pig?”

Joselyn shook her head. “I’m gonna find my own way home.”

Joselyn had started off down an increasingly dark street when he called after her. “Joselyn, wait.”

Joselyn stopped and realized that she had put one hand over the bulge in her pocket. If her hand had slipped inside, would she have done it? Called the wolf and…?

“It’s been a really long day.” He said. “Let’s go home.”

That sounded like a good idea.

#

Not that she really slept. Her eyes were shut and her body might have been resting, but her mind was on fire.

The dreams were bright even when what they contained was dark. Blood spread across the desert. The blood of men and women that wanted to ruin it. Build their houses and businesses. Dig up the treasures and sell them to the highest bidder. Or outright destroy them so that they didn’t have to worry about anyone stepping in to stop them.

Not that the government would step in anymore. They’d probably help hide the evidence of long dead civilizations that were going to be destroyed just for a healthy cut of the profits.

Money. History was worth so much more than any pieces of paper. History was filled with pieces of paper and coins that had meant something once and the same fate was waiting for any and everything of value.

Joselyn didn’t just see blood in the deserts. Rivers of it flowed around trees in some of the oldest forests on Earth. It wrapped protective barriers around crystal clear lakes. The wolf was with her the whole way.

Joselyn woke at dawn knowing exactly what she was going to do. The wolf was a protector, but it needed direction. It needed someone to understand that sacrifices are necessary for any great thing to happen.

It meant leaving everyone and everything she cared about behind. Disappearing so that she could do the most good.

Joselyn packed her things and found a picture of Eu in the bottom of a drawer floating in a spring. They’d been little and had been swimming in a place that no longer existed. Eu’s family had had a cabin in the woods when they were kids and every Summer, they would go and sneak past the property’s border to swim in that spring. No one owned the property next door anyway.

A pool of clear water surrounded by rocks and trees. Joselyn closed her eyes and saw the way it would sparkle in the light that made it through the trees.

The last Summer before someone did buy it and tore up everything, they’d been ten and she’d been constantly thinking about kissing Eu. But there was always next Summer.

Places just like that were being torn up right now. Dreams like hers being destroyed every day.

On the back of the picture, she wrote a message and set it on her bed, picture side up. With just the things she wanted, Joselyn left.

With her hand on the front door, she knew she couldn’t leave. Not yet.

Eu didn’t move when she pushed his door open. Joselyn should have guessed he wouldn’t – he’d been like that when they were kids. Not even a bomb would wake him up if he was out.

She was so stupid for not doing this before it had to be the last time.

Joselyn barely had to move his head so that she could get to his mouth. She didn’t linger log in the kiss to keep from accidentally waking him up. If he opened his eyes, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to leave and she needed to.

#

Eu felt empty when he did wake up. He wasn’t sure what he believed from yesterday. The murders and the wolf and Joselyn was going to have to talk to him today. Give him answers because what he remembered was nuts.

Eu found the picture on her empty bed. God, he’d had such crooked teeth before braces. There was a simple message on the back:

There’s so much to do, I don’t know if I’ll be able to come back. I’m sorry.

END