Chapter 9: Pet Sitting

June and Gracie stood watching Evie pack her backpack with a couple changes of clothes, and some other provisions

"Pet sitting?" Gracie asked.

"Yeah," Evie said, "Ms. Davis said she had some stuff to do and wanted to know if I'd watch her dog for her until she gets back."

"Is it safe?" Gracie asked.

Of course was the response that came to mind first, but then she remembered that this was Davis she was dealing with.

"I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Well... how long will you be gone?" Gracie asked.

"Just a couple of days. You guys think you'll be good until Friday?"

Gracie took a half step forward. "Actually- "

"We'll be just fine!" June interjected with a forced smile.

"But June," Gracie muttered in a pleading tone.

June threw her a look that said "shut up!" Gracie stepped back, looking at the floor.

"What?" Evie asked. "Is something wrong?"

Gracie glanced at June for a second, then looked back at Evie.

"Um… it's nothing. Never mind."

Evie stood and slung her backpack on her back.

"Well, you guys can order food like we practiced, and you have my number so you can call me if you need anything."

Gracie looked uneasy, as if she still had something to say, but June stepped in front of her.

"Sounds good! Have a nice trip!"

Evie and Davis sat in silence for most of the ride. She wasn't sure exactly what, but Evie got the feeling that Davis was hiding something. Davis looked lost in thought, which bothered her considering she was driving.

"Ms. Davis?" Evie eventually asked.

"Hmm?"

"I'm happy to help and all, but this whole thing doesn't make any sense to me. Why do I have to go to your place to watch your dog? Couldn't we just bring her to my house? I mean I love dogs, and I'm sure June and Gracie wouldn't mind."

"Oh, well... she's just... a little aggressive is all," Davis said, tugging at her shirt collar, "I just don't want her to get riled up with a bunch of liminals around."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense."

Evie looked out the window at the passing buildings. They'd driven into the city, where Evie thought Davis was likely to live, but she was confused when they drove right through it and further out into the country.

"So... where exactly do you live, Ms. Davis? Seems awfully out of the way for how often you drop by."

Davis checked her gps, which said they were five minutes away.

"Ok, so... I gotta come clean about a few things."

Normally, Evie would have looked at her in disbelief, but this time she just sighed and leaned her head against the window and watched the clouds.

"So you lied to me again?"

"Hey now, I've never once lied to you!"

Davis didn't have to turn her head to know it wasn't the clouds Evie was looking at now.

"I've never lied, I've just... withheld information."

Evie gave an exhausted chuckle and went back to looking out the window, clutching her forehead with one hand as if dealing with a headache.

"You know what? Don't tell me. It's fine."

Davis looked at her in disbelief.

"It is?"

"Yeah, sure. Gracie and June have almost killed me a few times already, so at this point, I'm sure it'll be fine, whatever it is."

Evie was feeling unusually comfortable in the face of the unknown. Normally she would have tried as hard as she could to get out of her predicament while saying as few words as possible. This time, however, she felt like she could handle a dog, no matter how aggressive it was.

They pulled up to the gate of a large iron fence with electric wires stretching out in both directions at the top. There were two signs on the fence. One large official looking sign that read "KEEP OUT" in big bold letters. The other just beneath it was smaller and looked more like someone bought it at a craft store. The text was very loopy and surrounded by little decals of bones and paw prints, and said "beware of dog."

Evie looked in awe at the fence, and the small house she could see on the other side.

"How… how aggressive is your dog, exactly?"

"Well," Davis said as she punched in a passcode on the free-standing keypad outside the car window, "that's kind of what I wanted to tell you."

That confident feeling Evie had earlier was starting to shrink a little.

"So… she isn't my dog. Technically she isn't a dog at all. She's…"

She looked at Evie as if she expected her to finish the sentence for her. She only stared back with an uneasy expression.

"She's a Fenrir." Now she seemed to think Evie would know what that meant and react accordingly.

"Ok… What's a Fenrir?" Evie asked.

They pulled through the gate and up to the house.

"A Fenrir is a liminal that has wolf-like characteristics. They can be very… difficult at times."

Evie looked at the electric fence they just drove through. "Difficult enough for that to be necessary?"

Davis brought the car to a stop, but gripped the wheel a bit tighter.

"Look," she said, "there's nothing to worry about. She's just a little excitable, that's all. All this security is just… just in case."

It didn't exactly inspire confidence, but it would have to do.

They got out of the car and walked up to the house. Davis pulled out an ID card and swiped it in the reader next to the metal door. There was a loud buzzing sound, and the door popped open slightly.

"After you," she said, but after seeing the look on Evie's face that said "seriously?" she cleared her throat and walked in first.

Evie thought the house looked small from the outside, but inside it felt even more so. There was a couch with a tv across from it, which was enough to set Evie's mind at ease at least a little. Across from the couch was a large refrigerator with a feeding schedule taped to it. On the far side of the room was a large rectangular window on the wall with another metal door next to it. Beneath the window was a desk with a control panel and a chair flipped upside down on top. The only thing out of place was the constant buzzing of the fluorescent lights.

Davis pulled the chair off the desk and set it down facing the window, and sat in it backwards. She folded her arms on the chair's back and rested her chin on them.

"So, it's pretty simple. All you have to do is sit here and make sure the door next to the window and the door we just came through stay closed. That's it."

Evie walked slowly up to the window and peeked inside. She didn't like what she saw:

The room was a complete mess. The remains of furniture and scraps of fabric lay everywhere. There were also giant scratch marks all over the walls and on the floor, all of which radiated out from one corner of the room, and stopped in a circular pattern. In the corner where the scratches were thickest, on top of a shredded mattress, something shifted slightly beneath a blanket.

"Guess she's sleeping. Lucky break," Davis sighed. "There's a few things we need to talk about."

It took a second for Evie to tear he gaze away from the trashed room. She walked back to the couch and sat on the back.

"The main problem with Fenrirs is that they can be very ferocious and short tempered. Once they get riled up, it can be very difficult to get them to calm down, and the damage they can cause in a frenzy can be extreme."

Evie glanced back at the window. If the state of the room on the other side of the window was anything to go by, Davis definitely wasn't kidding.

"Now," Davis continued, "there are certain countermeasures in place to prevent this, but they're not pretty. Obviously there's the external security that you saw on the way in, but she's also fitted with a shock collar. If her heart rate ever gets too high, the collar will emit a high voltage electric shock until she calms down."

Evie winced and looked at the floor. "That sounds horrible."

Davis looked down as well. "I know, but nothing else has worked. It's the only way we've found that can keep her from hurting herself or someone else."

Evie walked back to the window and watched the blanket rise and fall with the girl's breathing.

"What's her name?"

"Well… we don't know."

Evie frowned and looked at Davis, who was still facing the other direction.

"We've tried to get her to tell us plenty of times, but she doesn't want to tell us for some reason."

Evie looked again at the girl, and couldn't help but feel bad for her. She was being treated like a rabid animal.

Davis stood and turned to the control panel behind her. She waved Evie over and showed her what all the buttons do, though she only needed to worry about two.

"This one here is for the intercom," she said, tapping the microphone protruding from the console. "She can't hear us right now, but she will if you hold this down. Try not to talk too loud into the mic, it'll piss her off. The big red one here is for emergencies only. If she somehow breaks out, it'll lock the building down and send a MON squad to capture and contain her."

There was a brief silence.

"You'll only be here for a few days, so there's really nothing to worry about. There's tv if you get bored and the fridge has enough food for both of you. Just make sure to follow the schedule for feeding her."

She looked at Evie, who was still looking at the girl's sleeping form.

"Is there anything else you need from me before I go?"

Evie shook her head.

Davis turned to leave, but stopped and reached into her coat pocket.

"Here," she said.

Evie turned and Davis holding out a key dangling from a short chain. She held out her hand and Davis gave her the key as if she were a parent handing their teenage son the key to a sportscar.

"This is the key to her shock collar," she said. "If it short circuits and is hurting her unnecessarily, use it to take it off. Otherwise, and I can't stress this enough," her grip on Evie's hand tightened slightly, "the collar stays on. Got it?"

Evie nodded.

"Good," she turned and walked to the door. "I'll be back in a few days. You have my number if you need me."

A few seconds later, she was gone. Evie looked down at the key in her hand for a moment, and turned back to the window again. Instead of the empty room, however, she was now staring into two yellow eyes.

Evie shrieked and fell backwards, landing on her butt.

The girl's gaze didn't follow her to the floor. She leaned her head against the window and pressed two paws against the glass like a kid looking into a store window.

"Did she leave?" she asked. Though her lips moved, Evie could only hear voice coming out through the speaker on the console.

"I'm sorry if I scared you," she said again. Her voice was dry and deadpan, almost robotic.

Evie slowly got up and crept over to the console, as if the girl would see her if she moved too fast.

She reached the console, but stopped for a moment and looked at her. She had jet black hair that was extremely long, with two ears of the same color protruding from it on the top of her head. She was only a little taller than Evie was, but her intense presence made her seem to tower over her.

"Hello?"

Evie snapped out of her trance and fumbled for the mic button.

"Um… she, uh… yeah, she left."

She leaned back from the window. "Thank god. I don't know who you are, but obviously you aren't with them. You're gonna let me out, right?"

Evie scratched the back of her head. "Well… I'm not supposed to."

The girl's brow furrowed and she pounded the glass with one paw. "Let. Me. Out." she growled, the monotone completely gone from her voice.

Even with the shock collar on the girl's neck, the thick chain connecting her to the wall, and the metal door between them, Evie felt extremely unsafe.

"I… I can't do that." Evie said.

The girl's expression soured even more than it already had. She began pacing back and forward, growling and staring at the window. Judging by the fact that she only looked straight forward and never looked at Evie, she decided it must be a one-way mirror.

Suddenly the girl leaped at the window and slammed both paws into it.

"Let me out!" she shouted.

She slammed into the window again, "Let me the fuck out!"

"I'm sorry," Evie said, "I can't."

The girl began breathing fast and hard. She threw her head back and howled with rage. She crouched down, ready to take another leap at the window. Just then, her collar began to beep rapidly. She stopped and clutched at it. "No!"

The beeping turned into a rapid, ceaseless clicking sound akin to that of a taser. She howled in pain and collapsed onto her back. Evie watched in horror as the girl rolled around on her back screaming in pain and anger.

She rolled onto her knees, fighting through the pain to look up at the window. She had to be very strong to resist that much electricity. One look at the girl's teary eyes was enough to bring tears to Evie's eyes as well.

"I wanna go home! Please!" the girl screamed.

The collar began beeping again and the girl was hit with a second wave of even stronger voltage. She fell onto one side and rolled onto her back, her arms stretched out and her paws clutching at the floor.

Evie collapsed back into the chair behind her, now sobbing after what she had just witnessed. As the girl began to scream again, she got up and ran to the couch. She buried her face in the cushions and covered her ears, waiting for it to end.

It went on for a whole twenty more minutes before the collar beeped again briefly and the clicking stopped. Evie slowly sat up and looked over at the window. After a few seconds, she ran over to it, fearing the shocks had killed the girl. When she was about halfway there, the girl slowly stood up, drenched in sweat and looking unsteady on her feet.

"I'm calm," she croaked, the deadpan returning to her voice.

"I'm calm, I'm calm, I'm calm, I'm calm, I'm calm- "

She repeated the phrase over and over, her voice cracking and tears intensifying with every repetition. She turned and slowly staggered back to the mattress in the corner, her bushy tail between her legs. She curled up on the mattress with her back to the window and continued to cry.

Evie stood shaking in the middle of the room, which suddenly felt much bigger and emptier than it had before. This wasn't confinement, it was cruelty. How long had the girl been trapped in the windowless room with nothing to do? She hadn't thought to ask Davis. How many times had she been shocked like that? Probably too many to count.

Thinking that nothing she could possibly say would console the girl right now, Evie walked back to the couch and collapsed onto it. She thought about calling Davis, she thought about calling Marcus, but she decided that ultimately, neither would help.

She suddenly remembered the key Davis had given her, and realized she had lost it. She checked her pockets, but they were empty. She looked around and saw it on the floor in front of the desk. She must have dropped it when she fell after seeing the girl for the first time.

She looked at it for a moment, then looked back at the girl, still crying in the corner. She decided it would be better to leave her be for a while, and turned on the tv.

Over the next few hours, Evie tried a few times to talk to the girl through the mic. She would ask her for her name, if she was ok, but she never got a response. Eventually it came time for dinner. She was supposed to retrieve the tray from the fridge, put the required amount of food on it and slide it through the slit under the door for the girl to retrieve herself. Evie, however, decided she was going to enter the room to give it to her.

She filled a tray with the list of items described on the fridge (and then added a little extra) and walked back to the console. She set the tray down and pushed the mic button.

"Um… it's dinner time, so… I'm going to come in now and give it to you."

The girl remained motionless. She'd stopped crying by now, but for some reason Evie got the feeling she wasn't sleeping.

She pushed the unlock button and heard a loud buzz, then the door popped open slightly. All you have to do is sit here and make sure the door next to the window and the door we just came through stay closed, Davis's words bounced around in her head. Was this the right thing to do? The tray shaking slightly in her hands, she took a deep breath, pushed the door open and walked in.

Evie had already felt bad for the girl from outside her room, but once she was inside, she felt even worse. She was right that the window was a one-way mirror, and since there weren't any other windows in the room, it made the room feel much smaller than it already did. This also meant that there was very little ventilation, so the room smelled awfully musty, which must have been even worse to the girl's keen sense of smell.

The scratch marks on the floor stopped just shy of the door, giving Evie a small space in which the girl couldn't reach her because of the chain attached to her collar. She stopped right at the edge of this area.

"Um… hey," she said.

At her words, the girl's head sprang up. She didn't move otherwise, just watched Evie with wide eyes.

"I… I'm sorry I made you go through that earlier. It looked horrible."

Still no response from the girl.

"Um… I brought you dinner! It says I'm only supposed to give you a little, but…"

The girl still just watched as Evie set the tray down on the floor and slid it a few inches towards her.

"Ok… I-I'll get out of your way."

She turned to leave and put a hand on the door.

"W-wait," she heard from behind her, "don't go."

Notes: Since the long waits between chapters have started to become a regular thing with me, if you want, you can follow me on Twitter mistbrave, where I can post updates on chapter progress if that's something you'd be interested in. I've also been working on my drawing skills, so I can also start drawing my characters as well. There are a few drawings on my Twitter already, as well as a link to my DeviantArt page if you're interested in that too. I haven't drawn any of the characters from this story yet, but I definitely will if anyone wants to see it.

Once again, if you came back to read this new chapter, thank you so much for sticking with me, even after the long wait. I already have a really good idea of where I want the next few chapters to go, so expect them to come out much quicker than the last few did. Anyway, thanks again, and see you in chapter 10!