Howl (Howl #1) (4 page)

“It was kind of frustrating actually,” Luke replied, keeping his eyes on the road. “I went over to the Phillips’ house. I don’t know if you’ve heard, bu
t Lilly Phillips is missing.”

“Yeah, it was hard to miss. It’s been all over the news,” Samara replied, thinking about the photo of Lilly that kept popping
up
everywhere she looked since that day at the general store. It had been on the front
page
of the newspaper this morning and on the news again. Samara shivered. Something about Lilly being missing really gave her the c
hills. “How do you know Lilly?”

“The Phillip’s are close friends of my parents. Lilly and I have known each ot
her since we were in diapers.”

“I wonder
where she is,” Samara said.

“Me too. That’s why my day was frustrating. We spent the whole day going throug
h
her stuff, checking her email,
looking
for any signs that might help us figure out
where she is,” Luke replied.

“So, they have n
o ideas at all?” Samara asked.

Luke shrugged his shoulders as he pulled onto Old Mill Road. “If she was planning to run away, she probably would have left behind a trail of evidence. There was nothing on her computer that let us know she was looking up bus station times or plane ticket prices. She didn’t mention anything that looked out of place. The police are looking at Josh
Masterson
as their primary suspect. Even though they haven’t found a body yet, they’re pretty sur
e that he, well . . .
you know.”

“
What?
Josh is the sweetest guy ever. Why would they think he did it
?” Samara asked.

“He was the last person who was seen with her and the last person who admits to seeing her,” Luke replied. “That casts a lot of suspicion on him
, considering he also doesn’t have a good alibi
. Usually, when these types of things happen, it’s also someone who the missing person was really close to, like a jealous boyfriend or husband. I think that the police are looking a
t the case from that aspect.”

Samara remembered what Edda had said about Josh the day before. She claimed that Josh had acted really controlling in the general store, but that wasn’t the same Josh who Samara knew. He had always been really sweet and outgoing. Maybe they had gotten into a fight that day, so he was
angrier
than she had ever seen him. Or maybe Edda, in her old age, was just used to the days when boys opened doors for girls and stuff like that. How could someone who was born in the 1930’s really be the
best
judge of a relations
hip in the twentieth century?

“T
hey haven’t even found a
body yet,” Samara began. “I know
Josh totally didn’t do it. I’ve known him for years. He wouldn’t hurt a fly, let alone a person. Maybe she had another boyfriend or something
that no one even knows about and he’s the one that did it.
”

Luke reached over and grabbed her hand. His touch gave Samara goose bumps. “Hey, I didn’t say that I thought that Josh did anything. There’s no reason to get so defensive,” he said, his voice softening. “Let’s not talk about this, anyway. I really just want to enjoy the night with you and not worry about anything else. I’m sure that Lilly will come back when she’s ready.”

When Luke reached the end of Old Mill Road, he pulled into a dirt parking space behind a grassy field. There were no other cars around, and the place looked completely abandoned. It was dark out, and the forest that lined the road look
ed incredibly dark and eerie.

Samara froze. Did Luke have the wrong idea? She really liked him, but she wasn’t like most of the other high school girls who were willing to have sex on the first date. Samara was a virgin, and she planned to keep it that way until she was positive that she had found the right person. She had seen Luke around school and it was obvious from Emma’s party the other night when they kissed that they had good physical chemistry, but she didn’t know him well enough to know if he was the right one (or the wrong one) for her. If sex was what he was expecting, he was in f
or a world of disappointment.

Luke reached
behind them and pulled a bag out from the backseat.
“
I have lawn chairs in the trunk,”
he told Samara be
fore stepping out of the car.

Samara opened her own door and climbed out of the car. She was glad that
she had talked
Emma into
letting her wear the
black sequined flats instead of the kitten hee
ls that she had been insisting she
wear because wherever they were seemed a bit like the wilderness. Luke might want to take a hike or something
–
although that didn’t explain why he was getting the chairs
out
of the trunk. Samara didn’t mind a date involving nature; she’d always been somewhat of a tomboy.
In fact, she would rather go hiking than pretend she was cool, calm, and collected in her heels.
When she was a child, her mom had always hated this about her because she wanted a girly-girl daughter who she could dress only in
cutesy
pink
outfits
and buy Barbie dolls and Easy Bake ovens for, but Samara
had always
preferred her denim overalls
, playing with Transformers,
and making mud pies.

Luke came around to the passenger’s side of the car, unfolding the chairs as he carried them. “Okay, so, the surprise is over here,” he said, leading her over into the grassy field. He stopped abruptly, planting the chairs into the grass and taking a step forward.
Samara gasped as she looked around and saw
that
a section of the field was lit by a dozen flaming torches. He must have already been there to set it up before he picked her up for their date. The fact that he had planned their date out this much meant a lot to Samara. No one had ever done anything this romantic for her.

Luke reached for her hand and led her over to where he had laid out a blanket on the ground.

When they were standing on the blanket, Luke set up the lawn chairs and placed the cooler on the blanket. Whi
le she waited for him, she noticed that he had also set up a telescope.
Samar
a looked at Luke questioningly.

“You mentioned the other night at Emma’s house that you love stars,” Luke explained. “So, I thought that our fir
st date could be stargazing.”

Samara smiled up at him. “I do love stars,” she admitted. Samara glanced up at the nig
ht sky. “It’s so pretty out.”

“It is really pretty, but not as pr
etty as you,” Luke whispered.

Samara felt her heart skip a beat. She moved in closer to Luke. Just as she brushed her lips against his, she heard a low growling
sound coming from behind her.

Turning around slowly, she found herself staring back into the icy blue eyes of a gray wolf, which was baring its teeth. Samara froze, unsure of what to do. The car was only feet away from them, but she knew that running would draw even more attention to herself and make the
wolf even more ready to attack.

The wolf, which had a patch of light brown hair in the shape of a heart on its side
, took a step towards Samara.

Before she had a chance to do anything, the wolf lunged at her. Samara opened her mouth to
scream, but no sound came out.

Chapter 4

****
 

Samara stared at her arm, completely mortified by the river of blood that streamed out of her wrist and drippe
d down the back of her hand.

“Are you okay?” Luke asked after a few moments, his voice even. Samara felt relieved that he wasn’t acting nearly as panicked as she felt. At least on
e of them had to remain calm.

“I - I don’t know,” she replied hastily, knowing that the shock in her voice was obvious. “I’m bleeding pretty bad. I hope the wolf didn’t have rabies or
anything.”

She saw Luke nod his head in the darkness. “Yes, it was a wolf. We should probably ge
t you to the hospital
to bandage up that wound.”

Luke opened the car door for her. She climbed inside and sunk back against the leather seat. Was this a bad omen? Of all the times for her to get attacked by a wolf, it just
had to ruin their first date?

“I’m really sorry this had to happen,” Luke said when he got into the car, as though he had read her mind. “I honestly didn’t know there were wolves in this area or I never would have brought you here.” Luke reached into the back seat. “Here, wrap this around y
our arm to stop the bleeding.”

“Thanks,” Samara replied, taking the t-shirt from him. “It’s okay. I know it’s not your fault. What’s kind of weird is that it wasn’t even really a vicious attack. I mean, yeah, it bit me, but…I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. It’s like it bit me and then it just walked away. I thought you were going to need to pry it off me. I wonder why it even bit me if it was
n’t going to attack me worse.”

Luke shrugged. “Wolves are supposed to be really territorial. It was probably just tryi
ng to put you in your place.”

“I guess,” Samara replied. As Luke drove past her street, she said, “Actually, I think I just want to go home. I’ll bandage
my arm
up myself and if I still think that I need to go to the hospital, I’ll have one of my parents take me. There’s no reason you should have to sit with me for
hours in the emergency room.”

“If that’s what you want,” Luke sh
rugged. “Where’s your house?”

“We passed it already,” Samara said. Luke did a U-turn in the middle of the street and turned onto her
street when she told him to.

“I didn’t realize you lived that close to
Starlight Lake,” Luke said. “I went there a lot this past summer
.”

“I’m surprised I’ve never seen you there
then. I’m always at the lake
once school’s out. It’s that house,” Samara said, pointing to the narrow driveway that led to her family’s two-story white house. The McKinley’s house wasn’t as huge as Emma’s
family’s
house, but it was big
enough for the four of them.

“Alright,” Luke said, as he put the car into park. “I’m sorry that our date got ruined, but I was really glad to see you. I’m so happy that you agreed to go out with me. Do you want to try it again sometime soon? I think we’ll stick to something indoors this time, like dinner and a movie. Something where no wild animals
can ruin it
.”

Samara nodded and smiled at him. “I would lo
ve to go out with you again.”

She waited for a few seconds and, just as she was about to get out of the car
, Luke leaned into her. Running his fingers through
her hair, he pressed his lips lightly against hers. Samara felt her hear
t skip a beat.

After a few minutes, she pulled away and got out of the car. Once she was in the house, Samara went into the kitchen to grab some paper towels. She figured she was going to need the
m to take care of this wound.

“Samara?” Mrs. McKinley as
ked. “How was Emma’s house?”

Samara whirled around. She hadn’t realized that her mom had been sitting at the kitchen table in the dark. “Um, it was fine,” she replied, hiding her arm behind her back. How would she explain that she had been attacked by a wolf if she was supposed to be at Emma’s house the whole entire time? Her mom had taken her over there earlier and, even though their houses were only about two blocks away from each other, Emma’s mom always drove Samara home if she was there after dark. It wouldn’t sound believable for her to say that she had gotten att
acked in their own front yard.
Her mom
would have heard her scream.

Samara sighed. If her wound was really that bad, she was going to just have to fess up and tell her mom the truth, but she really hoped that it wouldn’t come
to that.

“What did you
girls do?” Mrs. McKinley asked.

“Just makeovers,” Samara answered
shortly
. That, at least, explained why her hair and makeup looked different now than it had when her mom
had dropped her off earlier.

“That’s nice. I hope you had fun. Seth still hasn’t come home yet,” Mrs. McKinley said, twirling around the tea bag
that was resting in her mug.

“He hasn’t?” Samara asked, surprised. Her brother was known to go away for a few days at a time, but for some reason, she expected him to be back by now. If he didn’t come home by tomorrow, he would probably skip school, and Samara already knew that his attendance hadn’t
been great so far this year. The last thing he needed was to get into
more
trouble at school.