Chapter Five: Instincts

I sat at the table, my eyes glued to the screen. Adam was sleeping, an odd noise coming from him. It wasn't quite snoring but wasn't quite wheezing either. It was a sound I had never heard before and one that was completely obnoxious. When it rose too loud to ignore I tossed something at him and it quieted enough for me to concentrate. I wasn't sure what I was looking for but my eyes kept searching for something. Only it wasn't just that they were searching but it was what they were searching through. The obits came and went. Nothing out of the ordinary. But I didn't know why there should be. I didn't know why but since the vampire I needed to find something else to kill. Something to save the world from. But I didn't know why. I didn't know why I thought the world needed saving or why I thought I was the one who was supposed to save it. It was just something inside of me. My instincts I suppose. Or was it? Either way I was still looking when Adam woke up. He sighed and walked over to me.

"Do you ever sleep?" He asked as he looked over my shoulder.

"I find that I only need a few hours to fully function. Plus, your snoring, or whatever you call it, makes sleeping a bit hard sometimes."

"Is that why I keep waking up to a bed of crumpled paper?" He frowned.

I laughed and elbowed him lightly. "That might be the reason."

"So what are you doing?" He asked.

"I've been researching." I told him.

"Researching what?" He asked with that concern back in his voice.

"The supernatural." I grinned at him.

"Why is it that you want to know so much?" He asked.

"It's not that I don't know." I told him. "I'm not searching for answers. I'm searching for the next hunt."

"The next hunt?" He asked surprised. "I don't know why you want to go hunting. I don't understand what your fascination is." He stated.

"It's not a fascination." I said turning to look at him. "It's a feeling that it's right. That it's something that I have to do."

He sighed and rubbed his head as he paced the room. I watched him but he looked too deep in thought to interrupt. "Okay." He told me.

"Okay what?" I replied.

"I'll go with you." He told me.

"I haven't asked you too yet." I stated.

"Weren't you going to?" He smiled.

"Maybe." I smiled back.

He looked at me and smiled. "So what've you got?"

"A possible vengeful spirit." I replied turning back to the screen. "It's been going on for a few decades or so. A family moves in and in six months or less they move out with no reason as to why. Sometimes there's a casualty and sometimes not. You'd think someone would call it haunted but this ghost must be badass or something."

"Or something." Adam said looking at the screen.

The house creaked as we made our way through it. It had to be here somewhere. My shotgun was loaded and ready for whenever it finally showed. The damn thing had been causing trouble for several years. One family after another. The most current one had currently left town. Leaving nearly everything behind. As we moved, Adam was right behind me. He didn't think it wise to separate. I thought he was ridiculous but didn't have time to argue with him. Adam jumped forward into me when I heard a scream. He yelled out and knocked me down. The shotgun slid just out of my reach. I cursed and scrambled forward. My ankle was grabbed and I was pulled away from it.

"Do something!" I yelled at Adam.

He scrambled forward and grabbed the gun. He turned and aimed…poorly. My shoulder seared with pain as the ghost threw me against the wall. It turned toward Adam and he slid the gun to me. I shot the ghost and it dissolved in the air.

"God damn you!" I yelled looking down at Adam. "I swear! I thought you'd done this before."

"Well…" He said getting to his feet. "I never said I did it alone or was the one in charge of it all."

"So basically I know more then you do even though I don't know I know it until it happens." I said and nodded. "Perfect."

He sighed and frowned at me. "Sorry about your shoulder."

"Whatever." I told him as I rolled my eyes. "Let's just find these damn bones. You stay up here and keep her busy while I look downstairs."

He didn't argue. I was grateful for that. He had been nothing but difficult. I didn't know what his deal was but I was getting tired of it. If my instincts were trying to tell me something then they were telling me to cut my losses. But at the same time I owed him. He helped me from the grave and I couldn't deny him what he deserved. Or what I thought I owed him.

I went to the basement, pushing aside the cobwebs as I made it to the bottom of the stairs. It was clear that no one had cleaned the thing in years. It would be a little bit of a search in order to find what I was looking for. Or so I thought. I had barely stepped past the base of the stairs when growling filled my ears. From the shadows I caught the glimmer from the tapetum of the dog's eyes. I lowered the gun and waited for the dog to do something. It just stayed back and growled. There was no time to play games with a stray and I was anything but afraid of it. I found the string to the light bulb and turned it on. The dog jerked and bared its teeth but I just frowned at it. Its ribs were clearly visible, a chain wrapped around its neck. I frowned harder and took a step toward it. It was clearly a mutt of some kind but it looked primarily like a pitbull maybe mixed with an American bulldog. It was tall but its head screamed pit to me. It was muscular, I could see them shaking with the dog's fear and anger. It was shorthaired, white with brown patches covering its body. I stared at it before sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"Okay…" I said looking at the dog. "I can only see two options. I need to search this basement to get rid of whatever it was that made your family leave you behind. You can let me take care of it. Get rid of it. Otherwise, I don't see it looking good for you. I need to get the job done but I can't have you attacking me so I will put you down." The dog growled more fiercely. "Okay, not literally." I said putting my hands up. "But I can help you. If you let me I'll fill your tummy and get that chain off your neck." I told it. For a second I thought it wasn't going to back down but then it sat down, its eyes still locked on me. "Good dog." I said standing up. I raised the gun again and looked around. The dog turned its eyes from me to the wall. I moved past the dog but then I felt a paw scratching my leg. I looked down at the dog. It looked back at the same spot on the wall. I frowned but realized that the dog had probably witnessed more then any human. I wasn't sure if it was actually trying to tell me something but I wasn't skeptic enough not to go with it. My instincts were telling me to listen to the dog. I went to the wall and the dog put its front feet on the wall, pressing its nose against a brick. I waited for something to happen but at first nothing did. I lowered the gun and was going to move on when the brick moved. I frowned and when I stepped forward the dog moved back. I moved the brick from the wall and flashed my flashlight into the hole. To my great delight there was a pair of empty eye sockets looking back out at me. I grinned at the dog and quickly pulled brick after brick from the wall. I went to my bag and quickly took the lighter fluid and matches from inside of it. I doused the bones and quickly lit the match, throwing it onto the corpse. I heard the scream upstairs before footsteps.

"Evy?" Adam called from the top of the stairs.

"Be up in a minute." I called back. "Okay." I said looking at the dog. "I don't know what it is about you but this feels right. Like you being here was the way it was supposed to be." It just cocked its head at me. I was sold. "Now, I'm going to take that chain off but you have to promise me that you won't bite me." It gave a short yap. "All right, here we go." I stepped forward and took a look at the chain. It must have been there for quite a while. The chain had cut into its neck. "Shit." I said when I noticed this. "Okay, I don't want you to run off but I don't want to pull on the chain either. You have to just trust me when I tell you that I'm going to get you some help." I told it. When it showed no sign of aggression I tore the chain from the wall they had attached it to and followed as it ran up the stairs.

"What is that smell?" Adam asked as he jumped out of the way.

"A tortured dog who only had a ten foot area to use the bathroom for a least a month." I told him as I followed the dog to the door. I opened it and it ran into the grass. "So you're a girl." I smiled at her.

"Why is it that you can never be without a dog?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" I frowned at him. "I've never had a dog before…that I remember." I added.

"Never mind." He told me.

"She needs help." I told him. "We need to find the nearest vet." He just sighed and nodded. "Thank you."

We had taken her to the vet and after undergoing some simple surgery to remove the chain that had imbedded into her neck she was the newest addition to the team. She was standoffish and extremely quiet but she needed someone to take care of her and I couldn't bear to bring her to the pound. Dogs like her didn't always make it. Just by the way she looked might have sent her to an early grave. She was barely a few years old and was already spayed. Someone had loved her once. It was sad that her life had taken such a wrong turn. She lay on the bed next to me, only she would leave as soon as I made a move to touch her. I understood her uneasiness. I didn't blame her and I wouldn't push her. She needed time to heal. The only problem with her was her appetite. She was always hungry but due to her long fast she needed to slowly bring her eating back to a healthy level. Four to six small meals a day to let her stomach absorb it but still give her what she needed. I was a sucker and let her sad brown eyes convince me that she needed wet food. For a while it worked. We traveled from town to town and for a while I let her have her wet before I added dry and after little over a month she was on dry and looking much better. Her ribs were barely visible beneath her skin and all around she looked much healthier.

"Bella!" I called when she had wandered too far off. I saw her head poke around a tree and look at me with perked ears. "What do you think you are doing?" I asked her.

"Why do you talk to her like she's a human?" Adam asked.

"Because she's smart." I told him. "Get over here!" I told the dog.

She trotted back to my side and I pulled gently on her ear. It was strange but it felt like I had done this before. I kept trying to remember but nothing came to me. Adam said that my memory may not come back and the more time went on I thought he might be right.

We were walking through a park in Boise Idaho. We were passing through and I needed to stretch my legs. Me and my dog. We stopped at a park to walk and to let Bella play a little. Her favorite was the Frisbee. I was getting better at it but she still didn't seem impressed with my distance. At least I tried.

"I am so sick of hotel rooms." I told him when we checked in to our newest home.

"So let's give up the fight and just get an apartment or a house." Adam replied.

I laughed and just looked at him. "I think our mission is more important."

"Sure." He replied and inched away as Bella walked past him.

"Why do you do that?" I asked him.

"I don't like dogs." He told me.

"You're not allergic are you?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Look at this and maybe you'll understand."

He pulled back his sleeve to show me a line of scars on top of and underneath his forearm. They were clearly teeth marks. There was also another where an incision had been made. I frowned and looked at him for an explanation.

"I was attacked by a dog. It broke my arm, had to have surgery to get the fragments out." He told me.

"Jeez…" I said and gently touched it.

As soon as my fingers touched his arm my head seared with pain. It forced me backward. I sat on the edge of the bed, feeling Bella's paw on my knee. I closed my eyes as I put my head in my hands. Images flashed in front of my eyes. A German shepherd, Adam on the floor…me in a chair. Others things flashed but they were so quick and the pain was so fierce that I couldn't focus on them. When the pain finally dulled I blinked and looked at Bella. Her eyes looked worried. I put my hands on the sides of her head, putting my forehead on top of her head. After a moment I looked up at Adam.

"Did a German shepherd do that to you?" I asked him.

He frowned. "Yeah, how did you know?"

"I just saw it in my head." I said and put my palm to my forehead. "That was weird…yet strangely familiar."

"Hmph." Adam said still frowning.

"I think I've seen that dog before but I don't know from where." I told him. "I wish I could remember." I said putting my head in my hands again.

Just when the throbbing started to die my head seared with a new stream of pain.

I saw myself sitting in a car, a man sitting next to me. The scene moved quickly to two men in the front then back on me. I watched as a light intensified and then the car was blindsided by a semi. I watched from the outside as the car was forced off the road before finally stopping. The scene moved back into the car where everyone was unconscious. I saw myself lying across the back seat, blood flowing from my side, the trickling filling my ears.

"Ow." I said as the room came back into view. "I don't like this." I said as I laid back on the bed. Bella jumped up and rested her head on my stomach. I put my hand on her neck as I put my other to my head.

"What did you see?" He asked.

"I'm pretty sure it was my death." I told him.

"What?" He asked.

"Yup, car accident. Huge, deep laceration to my side. Bled out on the back seat." I told him.

"Jesus…" He whispered.

"But I wasn't alone." I frowned. "There were three men there. I didn't get a good look at any of them though. Just mainly myself."

Bella moved up to my head and licked my face, leaving a nice patch of drool. I smiled and kissed her muzzle. She got all wiggly and draped herself over my chest, licking my face. I laughed and wrapped my arms around her. Her long whip like tail thumped on the bed. I grinned and grabbed her jowls, gently pulling on the loose skin. I sat up with her in my lap and looked at Adam.

"You look pensive." I told him.

"Sure." He replied.

"Listen, I'm beat. I'm going to go to bed." I told him.

"You're actually tired?" He smiled.

"My head hurts." I replied and crawled under the covers. Bella laid next to me and she groaned a little. One of the only sounds she made. "Night." I said and kissed her head.

I shot awake when my head started to throb. It didn't feel like a vision but the dream was vivid enough. Only it had been of Adam and it didn't show anything good. It showed him using some kind of power. He was using it against someone but I couldn't see who it was before I woke up. Bella was looking at me but she didn't make a sound. I frowned and put my arm around her before trying to get back to sleep. My instincts were telling me something horrible about Adam, I just wasn't sure if I should listen to them.

I hope you liked the chapter! More will hopefully be coming soon! Reviews are always appreciated! =]