Howl Your Appellations

Missing Someone

Reese Lanterman

“That one’s for the Alpha.” Boen explains almost falling over, “I know she isn’t here right now but when she’s back I’d like her to have a bracelet as well. This way, no one’s left out and… Is everybody okay?”

The group is visibly uncomfortable about the topic of their Alpha coming back. Reese actually considered Boen finally remembering what had happened that night. But Boen isn’t reacting as if she remembers.

“Yes! Our Alpha, Lissana, of course she deserves a bracelet too. She’s probably on her way back now.” Reese blurts out. “Hold on her bracelet dearly, Bobo. You have to be the one who gives it to her, okay?”

“Oh, yeah, of course! I intended to give each and every one myself but I got too excited. Thanks for accepting them you guys!” Boen smiles but feels a gloomy atmosphere afoot.

“Small thing, B.” Cain interjects, ‘’Now everyone go to your stations! We have to make sure everything’s clean when we show Boen the rooms! Scoot!” Everyone’s heads perk up and they began to run inside The Train, possibly to clean up a few things they forgot to put away or are embarrassed of. Koto, Cain, Reese, and Boen remain.

“Don’t you have things you need to clean up too, Koto?” Reese asks scratching her head.

“I don’t. ” she blankly replies, “You can start the tour. I’ll wait here.’’ Koto places the roses she’d saved up on the grass and began to eat them slowly.

“Uhhh…yes! I forget Koto’s like this. Come on, Boen. Cain and I will show you the insides hehehehe~~!”

“Ah okay! See you later then, Koto.” Boen recites but the peculiar girl gave no answer.

Back again, inside the narrow halls of The Train. There is no door that protects the cockpit from peeping eyes and so, the girls enter the room without a hitch, “You can look at the itinerary from time to time, we drew in a tiny map for you there.” Reese jabs. Once again Boen  failed to notice a drawing of a train scribbled on the itinerary but in all honesty, the train looks like a flow chart rather than an actual train.  “We’re here.” Reese points at the first box with her pointy-nailed finger. Boen looks at the box and then the whole room and realized how cramped it is there.

There is a long cabinet with two compartments where the engine should be and there are three paintings placed on top of it. One is half-covered by a white cloth. Two are next to each other on the left end of the table, leaning on the wall and a bit on the window; on the opposite end of the table is the painting that is covered. The first painting is that of a dark forest with crimson spider lilies  and a specter with bright white eyes at the center. The next painting is a little more soothing with a meadow shaped into a hexagon and a little white fox and snow fairy bird sleeping peacefully in the middle. A calming but isolating piece. After reflecting on the peaceful fox and bird,  Boen takes a closer look at the last painting and realizes that it is unfinished. It is a painting of a girl wearing a wolf over her head but her eyes stayed unfinished with no color but the white of the canvas.

Boen examined the paintings and thought that they were beautiful and were probably made by a talented, melancholic individual. “Do you like ‘em?” Reese asks, shaking her poncho. “Yeah, the brush strokes on these paintings seem really harsh but in the end, the pieces make the whole feel calm and calculated.”

“That’s some observation. An old pack member painted these. We never really met them but we’ve got a bunch of their paintings scattered around the premises. You can see her signature at the bottom right corner if you’re interested. ” Reese points down.

“Grey.” Boen whispers, “this feels like Deja vu. I feel like I’d read this name before…Ah! The journal! ” Boen yelps.

“What? What journal?” Reese yelps back. “I think it was in my backpack. Agghhh, why are there so many holes in my memory?!”

“Hey, hey. It’s okay. Don’t try to force it or you’ll end up hurting yourself.” Cain grabs Boens arms and tries to keep her from shaking and fall down, “Your backpack, along with your belongings were all ripped apart or crushed. It hardly matters now, okay?”

Boen takes small hurried breaths, there’s something keeping her from remembering what happened the night she left, she went to look for Reese but why at night? And why on such a hurry? She’s sure the name “Grey” was written on Skia’s journal but…

“Boen,Shhhhh, it’s okay. It’s cool, it’s fine.” Reese strokes her head. Now two fairly attractive girls are consoling her, which makes Boen blush at the thought. She’s only ever hugged by Isa since she came to Abalone. She blushes even more, realizing how embarrassed she is about the way she’s acting. She calms herself down by imagining a little picture of a cute Bedlington Terrier  puppy, the dog with the cutest snoots. She names him “Bubbles” and feels herself relax at the absurdity of her coping mechanism. She doesn’t usually use this method as she tries not to break down when there are people around, this time, she needed to calm down as much as she can without having to cause more trouble.

“Guh…Ughh…” She manages to say. “You good?” Reese asks, unsure if her friend is recovering or recoiling. “Ugh, yeah…sorry..sorry. This is the last time, I promise. I just need to, phew, hm…”

“Hey, it’s fine. We get why you’re like this. This pack is full of nervous-nellies, you like it when we feel like we’re helping, right? ” Reese directs at Cain, “Definitely.” She replies.

“Stay determined, outsider! You’ve got a long stretching road ahead of you!” Reese holds out her hand and helps Boen manage to stand on her own, with the help of the crutch. “Now, hopefully we won’t have anything that might trigger you. Would you still like to continue the tour?”

“Yes, of course! By all means! I’ll stay determined!” Boen balls her hands and pumps her right arm. It’s obvious that she’s still a bit anxious so Cain comes up and says, “This room, is our meeting room but we mostly go here to relax. You can see the garden from the window, the breeze enters through the front opening and Grey’s paintings are always a treat. I hope you remember this room as a good one.”

Boen surveys the room, once again, it does feel like a nice room to rest and read a book in. It’s a good room. “It’s a great room.” Boen answers. As the two smiled in mutual agreement, Reese secretly takes their picture from behind her poncho, a garment with multiple uses. She wags her fluffy tail with content.

“Hmm? What are you smiling about, Tail wagger?” Cain questions. “I’m smiling because our guest is okay~! Now let’s go to the next room. Let me just jot a few things down first.” Reese then pulls out a blank hard-cover book and writes on it fanatically. She’ll be out of commission for a few important minutes.

“What’s she writing about?” Boen asks in a whisper. Cain lowers her mouth close to Boen’s right ear, “She mostly writes about her fictional worlds but sometimes she pulls out books and journals that we don’t even know about. She’s the oddest out of all us, just saying.” Reese replies.

Boen blinks and stares at the frantically writing Reese. “I guess she is a bit on the weird side, minus the fact that you’re all such interesting people.”

Cain smiles and leads her out of the room. “With Reese aside, I can now properly show you the following rooms! Well, Imus’ anyway! I’ve always wanted to try and act like a tour guide!” They take a few steps out of the Cockpit room with arms conjoined as if in a dance and reach the door of Imus’ room in less than a second. “As you can see, this is Imus’ room ,obviously,from looking at the cursive writing on the door. I’m not entirely sure who carved his name on it since it was already here when I became a member. I think it might be Lissana’s handwriting though!”

Boen stares at the carving the same way she did the first time she saw it. She felt the crevices and the coolness of the door. A familiar tenderness overcame her but lost it in a blink. It felt sort of like breathing in your sleep. “So this is your Alpha’s handwriting. I imagined it would be a bit more messy.”

“Ha! I might be wrong though, but I can’t think of anyone else who’d dare piss off Imus. Then again, a lot of members came and went. We’ll never know…unless Sana finally admits she did it!” Cain laughs. Boen, however, thought about just how many members came and went. Did they all perish one way or the other? Or did they leave the pack to look for a new one?

“Where’d all the other pack members go?” Boen cautiously asks. Cain stares at her and places her chin on the gap between her thumb and index finger. “I’m not sure how to tell you this without you tensing up so, um, think of the worst case scenario. What do you think it is?”

“D-did they all die?” Boen shivers.

Cain stays silent; a cold breeze enters the hallways as if on cue, “That’s just how it is in the forest. You’re very lucky on that regard. But this is the life we chose to live and we’re pretty content of it. We’re not as easy to kill as you think~!” Cain gives a cool wink.

“Haa~ you guys are so incredible. I didn’t even know people like you existed and I’m here just throwing my standards everywhere.” Boen pouts, “Awwww, don’t be like that Bobo! We’re lived long enough to expect these things. No worries, no worries~!” Reese pounces out of nowhere pinching Boen’s chubby cheeks.

“Anyways, where were we?”

“We were just talking about Sana’s graffiti.” Cain informs Reese, crossing her arms knowing full well that Reese is going to disrupt her flow again. “Ah so you guys haven’t peeked yet?”

“No, we haven’t.” Reese gives Boen a sly smile, a smile that only people who lived as a cat in the past life can have. “W-what?! We’re gonna peek inside your second leaders room? Did he give you guys his permission??”  Before Boen got her answer, Reese had lifted her up and her line of sight can now see through the door window.

“What are you doing!? Don’t cover your eyes you i***t!” Reese screams. “It’s against my moral code to look inside a person’s room without permission! You can put me down now!”

“He gave us his permission, now just look!” Reese rebuts while shaking from the uncomfortable way she’s carrying Boen. Boen uncovers her face and opens her eyes to see an incredibly narrow room, with the walls touching the edges of the bed that is just a huge mattress, two white pillows and a fluffy blanket. The walls serve as shelves as well as the majority of it is stacked to the brim with all kinds of books; the the opposite end of the bed, a small table is carved into the wall and a little lamp sits at the very edge. A little window sits in the middle of the wall to let a small spotlight of sunlight in.

After a few minutes of inspecting, Boen noticed a fallen piece of paper at the end of the bed facing the door. In caps-lock the words said, “Congratulations Boen!”. Boen’s eyes glint and gives out a happy exhale.

“So? Did you see him? What did he do?” Reese asks with full intrigue. “What do you mean? He isn’  in there.”

“Huh?!” Reese and Cain look at each other in terror. They both took a peek together. “Aahhh!!! The man fell asleep!!” Reese lets out an irritated cry. “What? He’s in there?!” Boen props herself in the middle of the two Weres, “Where?????”

“He’s under the puff of a blanket. You can see how it rises and falls ever so slowly.” The white cotton cloth does indeed rise and fall ever so slowly. “Ah!”

“Ah well at least he left you a note. He’s probably the most tired man on Earth. Forgive him, ‘kay?” Reese clasps her hand together. “It’s no problem at all, but I would have liked to give him his bracelet today.”

“Oh you don’t worry about that! He’ll be awake when we have dinner. We told everyone to eat together at least for tonight!” Reese exclaims, “Besides, we have a special gift waiting for you after dinner.”

“A-another gift for me?” Boen wondered anxiously.