Chapter Four :)

With Perseus in the hospital for treatment of his leg and Gabriel away on a family vacation to Florida, Andromeda had plenty of home-alone time to think about the old trailer and the mysterious person inside. She developed a great curiosity for it; there wasn't an hour of the day it didn't cross her mind and she wanted to know more about it.

So in hopes of gaining some facts and opinions, she took to the streets with a notepad, determined to solve the mystery of the trailer boy.

First she spoke to Norma Beth in the shoe store.

"I've been around a while, young lady," the old woman had said. "In all my years, I've never seen anyone go in or out of that trailer."

Next, Andromeda consulted with Justin the mechanic.

"I've heard stories," he'd told her. "They say there's a werewolf living there who only comes out at night."

Then she talked to a business man named Greg who worked at the office building uptown with Gabriel's father.

"They say he's of lupine descent," he'd said. "Raised by wolves and left an orphan long ago, but I don't believe such rubbish."

She conversed with Scarlett, a shady Goth girl from her school.

"I heard the government injected him with wolf DNA. But I think there was black magic involved." She'd gone off on some creepy rant, and Andromeda was glad to move on.

She avoided speaking to Carson and moved on to speak to the hobo on the street, who spoke with a Scottish, almost pirate-like accent.

"Cursed, he is," said the man in a guttural voice, "by his father 'fore he died. Me sources say he was an angry man. Didn't 'preciate nothin', not even his own son. Poor child. Never had no one to look up to, so he went off and lived on his lonesome. Aye, I pity the boy…"

Once her interviews were finished, she returned home to examine her notes. She linked some stories to others, a statement or word here and there that tied in with another. The term that repeated struck her as odd was "wolf". While Norma Beth was no help, everyone else's stories contained a reference of some kind to wolves.

More tenacious than ever, Andromeda set out to discover by sight. She would go to the east edge of Bluestone, sit in the trees across the road, and stare at the trailer until her eyes burned, camera at the ready and notebook and pencil beside her in the grass.

But for three days, after an hour of sitting there watching the trailer sit there in solitude, she saw nothing unusual or even any movement at all. She almost wished some strange thing would happen where the trailer grew legs and walked away. And yet it sat there, unmoving, minute by minute, staring her down in the same way she did to it.

"I've been spying on the trailer for three days now," she said over the phone to Gabriel after another hour of swiping away bugs and shaking dirt off her jeans. "I haven't seen that door open once. I'm starting to think it's just a person in there, someone who just doesn't like the outside world."

"Hmm… maybe. But I don't like the thought of you being out there by yourself. You could get kidnapped, or… or…"

"Or what?"

He paused. "…eaten."

She groaned, "I've heard enough of the monster stories, Gabe. If I haven't been eaten after three days, it's not gonna happen, so just forget about it."

"Fine, but don't put yourself in any danger, okay? Promise me that."

"I promise."

"All right, I gotta go. I'll call you tomorrow… Bye."

"Bye."

--

Andromeda began having dreams about the trailer and its bizarre inhabitant, starting the night of her third day of failure. In those dreams she saw a man shrouded in darkness like a fine mist, then herself running from a doglike animal that chased her until she got to her house, which was usually when she woke up. Each dream lasted about an hour, and she always awakened with a cold sense of déjà vu.

As the dreams persisted, she finally decided, around midnight on the sixth night, that she had to solve this mystery.

She got dressed, a dark t-shirt and ripped jeans would be fine, and quietly crept down the stairs, even though Perseus was still hospitalized. If any of her neighbors saw her, they'd suspect her of being up to no good.

But who says they were wrong?

Alone with nothing but her trusted throwing knife, she walked through the dark cool night for almost twenty minutes until she came to the east side of the town. She was being led almost in a trance created by her desire to know the truth.

At the edge of Bluestone where the trailer sat in lonely solitude, Andromeda pulled out her knife. She carefully tiptoed up the wood steps, attempted to push the door in quietly, and moved into the trailer.

The smell was the first thing to greet her, the uninviting odor of rotted food and unwashed dishes and laundry. It was just as messy as it had been the last time she'd been there.

However, the darkness was consuming. She could scarcely see anything in front of her. She felt around her pockets for a flashlight, but when she didn't find one, she flipped open her phone. Its light was powerful enough to illuminate several feet ahead.

Cautiously she walked further across the room, her heart pounding against her ribs. The light revealed the heaps of worn clothing and abundant trash, along with a few shelves and end tables which seemed generally empty.

Bending down, Andromeda examined a box of cereal that had been sliced down the middle by what appeared to have been massive claws. The top of the box had a hole in the right corner large enough for a rat to crawl through.

Andromeda grimaced at the sight of a rather large spider skittering between piles of blank papers. She raised her phone's light to the wall, where a single framed photo caught her attention.

She approached it.

The glass was cracked, broken over the face of a tall black-haired man with a stern face and pale hazel eyes. He was beside a long-haired woman whose face radiated beauty and kindness, her bright blue eyes as comforting as her smile. In front of her was a shorter less-beautiful girl who was only half-smiling, and the man's hand rested on the shoulder of a young boy with short ebony hair, pale eyes like thin gray clouds over the vivid blue sky, and a full youthful grin.

She frowned, looking harder at the photograph. One of them lived here… one of the males… the boy.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing in here?"

Andromeda spun so the light of her phone fell upon the wall adjacent to her.

There was nothing there.

Quietly she spoke, "Hello…?"

"You're trespassing! Get out of here!"

She had to know who it was. She wouldn't be able to sleep if she didn't.

In a rush of adrenaline, she grabbed the photograph and bolted.

"Where do you think you're going with that? Come back!"

She jumped down all three steps, landed in the dirt, and started to run. Her pulse was racing, almost as fast as her feet. She looked over her shoulder to see when something grabbed her waist and pulled her down into the grass.

Andromeda kept the photo under her stomach while she squirmed inside the person's hold. She felt a heavy pressure on her waist as a hand reached for the picture.

Rape, she thought, scream 'rape'!

The hand simply rolled her effortlessly onto her back. In her panic she slipped the photo beneath her again before opening her eyes to see the person who'd attacked her.

Her fear faltered when she actually saw him. Against the light of the moon above them, his thin well-defined face was sketched in white outline. Aside from several pimples, his skin was smooth and pale, his eyes fluid blue-silver and fixed angrily upon hers.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he said sharply.

"I… I…" Andromeda found herself at a loss for words. He was… handsome. Not Gabriel-cute, but handsome.

"Give me the picture you just stole from me and maybe I won't call the freaking cops on you."

"Wait, I… who are you?"

"Your mom, now hand it over."

"I will after you tell me your name."

He exhaled heavily, looking aggravated. "This is such a waste of time," he muttered. "My name's Ezekiel. I want my picture back."

"Did you save my brother?"

"You said you'd--"

"Answer me!" she demanded.

"Yes, I did! He got jumped by a gang and I chased them off, okay?"

She presented him with the photograph. "Thank you."

He swiped it from her, grumbling, and stood up. It gave her the opportunity to view his whole body, from his lean muscular chest to his flat slender stomach attached to thin convex hips leading to long slim legs. Her gaze locked on his rear end and her veins blazed with heat. Was this boy real or was she still at home, tossing in her bed, dreaming?

"Hey!" she called after him.

He paused to glare back at her.

"Uh…" She swallowed her increasing saliva. "You know the rumors about you being some kind of beast?"

"What of them?"

"Are they true?"

"No. And if you know what's good for you, you'll forget about me. Just forget this night ever happened." He loped to the trailer and disappeared through the door.

Andromeda got to her feet in the grass. Heart hammering, she turned away from the house and started for home. The night was unmoving around her, the trees still, the stars twinkling, the moon casting a milky glow. The road was even quieter at night; even fewer cars than the few that drove by during the day used this road after dark.

When she arrived home, she moved like a zombie up the staircase and collapsed limp onto her bed. For the first time, during her dream, she could clearly visualize the boy's face.