Werewolf Dreams

Ava
hopped out of her father’s army green jeep and stared around the depressing little valley. She pulled her long, wavy dark blond hair back and twisted it into a knot. She winced at what she saw. Nothing but trees, abandoned vacation cottages and a small lake. If there was ever a setting for a horror movie, this was it.
This was how she was going to spend her last summer before college?
Ugh. She sighed and then smiled quickly as her father glanced at her suspiciously. 

“
Ava?
Something wrong?” he asked.

Harry
Paskell didn’t look like the typical single father. He looked like he was only about ten years older than her when in fact he was forty-three. He wore a white button up shirt open at the neck with tan cargo shorts. His high tech running shoes were his only nod to his wealth. Everything else screamed poor college student. His dark, golden brown hair waved back from his forehead, showing a handsome, austere face that her friends assured her was gorgeous.

Ava tried to smooth out her features but her dad was on to her.
He’d always been able to sense even her slightest changes in mood. It was kind of annoying. Being a teenage girl with a dad who could practically read her mind was awkward to say the least.

“Well, you said that we’d be spending the summer together and helping your friend Tobias
investigate a crime.
This
isn’t what I pictured in my head. When you said Canada, I was thinking ski resort. You know, with um . . .
people
. There’s no one here,” she said, pointing at the eerily quiet valley.

Harry
grimaced and glanced behind him. “It is a little deserted feeling. It’s called Wolf Song Lake. It’s named for all the wolves that populate this area. I spent a lot of time here as a boy,” he said wistfully as he shaded his eyes.

Ava glanced at the lake curiously now. Her father never talked about his childhood or past.
Interesting
. She glanced around curiously. “Wolf Song Lake. What a pretty name for such a creepy place. I’d love to see a real wolf in the wild. Remember those dreams I used to have all the time when I was a kid about that beautiful light brown wolf running wild?”

Harry frowned and looked at her piercingly for a moment before smiling.
“How could I forget? You had that dream constantly. Your bedroom walls were covered with drawings of wolves.”

Ava smiled, remembering her childhood obsession.
“Soon taken over by my obsession with soccer. Followed by karate, followed by soft-ball, followed by gymnastics. Yeah, I’d like to move on to socializing for my new hobby if you don’t mind.”

Harry’s eyes warmed and he
smiled at her “Don’t worry. I know you’ll see at least one person today out here. Tobias told me he’d send someone out to meet us and show us around, so I can guarantee you’ll be meeting someone soon.”

“I’m sure that’ll be
so
exciting,” Ava said under her breath picturing an old grizzled mountain man. Harry raised an eyebrow at her sarcasm but ignored her comment.

“I’ll be taking samples here but we’ll be staying
in a town about fifteen miles away. It’s where I grew up. There will be plenty of people there.
Sort of
,” he added quietly. “But we’ll be so busy here, I don’t think there’ll be much time to socialize,” he said, his eyebrows coming together in a V as if he were suddenly worried.

Ava closed her eyes and counted to ten in search of patience. She got to three and gave up. “It’s almost as if you don’t
want
me to socialize. This is my summer before I go to college and you’ve kept me so busy these last few years that I’ve never even had a boyfriend. I’m sorry dad, but if there’s a town with people, then I want to meet them. I’m going to find the cutest boy there and then I’m going to go on a date,” she said, throwing her hands in the air and turning away from her father as she automatically went into emotional control mode.

Ava closed her eyes, gripped her arms and concentrated on breathing slowly as she recited the alphabet backwards. She could feel the blood rushing through her veins begin to slow down gradually. She stopped when she felt her father’s hands on her shoulders.

“Ava, I’m sorry. I know that your life has been a little different compared to other girls. I know that you look at all your friends going to dances and dating and you feel cheated and left out. I’m sorry for that. Someday soon, you’ll understand why.”

Ava opened her eyes and glared at her feet. “I hate that word
someday
. I’ve heard it all my life and it’s just a carrot that you’ve held in front of my face to keep me quiet and in the shadows. I’ll give you this summer Dad, but then my life is my own. No matter what,” she said quietly.

She felt her father step away from her and turned to watch the man who had raised her single handedly since she was three. He had his hands on his hips and he was looking down at his feet with his face in shadow. Ava was so irritated with him she could scream, but she could never deny her love for him. He raised his head finally and she felt her heart soften against her will. He looked so torn, guilty almost.

“Ava, you’ll have all the answers you’ve ever wanted at the end of this summer. For good or bad. Then you’ll understand why you’ve had to live your life the way you have. I’ve done the best I can Ava. I love you,” he said, looking at her with tormented eyes.

Ava shook her head and walked into his arms, hugging him tightly. “I know you have. But it’s time I had a little freedom. I love you too, but the cage has to open or I’ll go insane,” she said softly stepping back.

Harry let his daughter go and nodded. “I know. I was the same way at your age.”

Ava smiled and nodded
her head. “
Good
, then you understand how I feel. So I’m warning you. All the cute boys in a fifty mile radius better watch out.”

Harry winced and then gave up and laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind
, but Ava, all the boys your age around here are a little different and not the type of men I want you dating. It’s probably wise to wait for college to start socializing. ” he said running his hand through his hair.

Ava raised an eyebrow and tilted her head as she studied her father. Sometimes she could sense her father’s feelings and right now, she could tell he was honestly worried but was trying to hide it.
But why?

“If you didn’t want me to socialize with the people who live around here this summer, then why did you insist that I come with you? Kendra invited me to spend the summer with her family at their vacation house in
California. I just don’t get any of this,” she said with a frustrated groan.

Harry held up his hands for peace. “I told you Ava. This is our last summer together before you leave for college and
you start your life on your own. There are certain things I need to explain to you and I realized that this was the perfect opportunity. Sometimes showing is better than telling.”

Ava let her shoulders drop and she shook her head.
“Fine, fine,
fine
. Let’s get on with it then.”

Harry’s face relaxed into an easy smile.
“Exactly what I was thinking. Let’s grab our packs and head down to those cottages. I need to take samples and do a little investigating. We’ll stop for lunch in a couple hours. Sound good?” he said, opening the back of the jeep and grabbing their back packs. He tossed the light tan pack to her and kept the black one for himself. She slipped her pack on and then watched wide eyed as her father attached a lethal looking gun to a leg holster as if he did that kind of thing every day.

“
Uh Dad?”
she asked softly, trying to swallow back her unease.

Harry glanced up and gr
imaced as he saw her reaction. “It’s a Beretta Px4 9mm. Just a precaution. The research I’ve been hired to do is kind of specialized. There were quite a few attacks on tourists here about 6 months ago. The place is totally deserted now, but it’s my job to discover what exactly happened here,” he said as he grabbed a couple water bottles, throwing one to her.

Ava caught the bottle automatically one handed and nodded. “Not your typical research project, huh?” she murmured, wondering why anyone would hire her father to do something on this scale. Harry
Paskell was a geneticist, not a CSI investigator.

Harry glanced at her and grinned as if he could read her mind. “I’m
sort of a specialized investigator on
this
project. Everyone leaves a DNA imprint. Whatever or whoever attacked the tourists will have left their DNA. I’m here to track them down. I owe it to my friends and family to find whoever did this,” he said quietly.

Ava blinked in surprise. For a moment, her dad had looked a little dangerous.
Weird
. “So where’s
my
gun?” she asked jokingly as they walked down the hill towards the lake.

Harry glanced at her and slipped on his sunglasses. “
Actually I thought about it, but there wasn’t time for you to take a class before we came. If anything happens just use your instincts,” he said cryptically.

Ava stared at her father’s back in shock. She’d heard nothing but the opposite her entire life.
Ava, control your natural impulses. Ava, think logically. Ava, you’re different than other kids. You must never lose control
.

“So what you’re saying
is, that whatever attacked those people six months ago,
might
attack us?” she asked, feeling a little better about their summer now. Kendra would be so jealous when she told her the real reason they were spending the summer in Canada. The beach couldn’t compare to mysterious attacks on tourists.

Harry glanced over his shoulder at her and shook his head. “Probably not, but just be on your guard. Listen to what your senses are telling you,” he said.

Ava’s eyes went round in awe. “And then what? Do a back hand spring? Scare them off with a hand stand or cart wheel?” she asked, grinning at her father’s back.

Harry laughed and jumped over a pile of branches lying strewn on the path. “That’s not a bad idea. Being a trained gymnast means you’re physically strong enough to handle just about anything. But if anything happens, just yell for me and I’ll take care of anyone that is a threat.”

Ava leaped gracefully over the branches, landing beside her father. “And what if you’re too far away?” she asked, just now realizing that they really could be in danger.

Harry gave her a half smile. “Trust me, I’ll hear you.”

Ava shrugged and walked in silence beside her father. She closed her eyes for a second and let her senses take over. The eerie silence caused a slight shiver to run down her back but she blocked it out. And then she felt it. Someone or something was watching them.