Anything Can Be Dangerous (21 page)

“
What do you suppose made
these?” she said.

“
Who knows?” Roy shrugged
and went on inside.

Karyn followed, thinking about the
marks. Absurd though it was, the angry furrows in the wood
suggested only one thing.

Claws.

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GARY
BRANDNER - THE HOWLING

* * *

Preview of:

GARY BRANDNER’S - THE HOWLING II

LOS ANGELES (UPI)––A fire of
undetermined origin swept through a narrow valley in the Tehachapi
Mountains north of Los Angeles yesterday, virtually wiping out the
tiny village of Drago. Firefighters from Los Angeles and Ventura
Counties brought the blaze under control early this morning, and
had it extinguished before it could threaten any of the neighboring
communities.

As yet there has been no reported
contact with any of the residents of Drago. Authorities refused to
make an estimate on the number of casualties as crews were still
sifting through the ashes for victims.

The only known survivors at this hour
are Mrs. Karyn Beatty and a friend, Christopher Halloran, both of
Los Angeles. Mrs. Beatty’s husband was missing and believed to have
perished in the fire. Halloran and Mrs. Beatty declined to speak
with reporters.

According to U.S. Forest Ranger Phil
Henry, the final death toll may never be known. Since Drago was not
an incorporated town, no accurate records were kept of its
population. It is estimated that between one hundred and two
hundred people lived there. So intense was the blaze, which
destroyed two hundred acres of timber in addition to the village,
that searchers are finding it difficult to distinguish human
remains from those of animals.

1

Karyn knelt on the moist grass and
worked with her fingers in the dirt around the roots of the
rosebush. There were no flowers on the bush, and there should have
been. Karyn felt she was somehow responsible. Although David had
never mentioned it, she was sure his first wife had been a gifted
gardener. That was the trouble with marrying a widower––the
departed wife was always good at everything.

As for Karyn, except for her
houseplants, which enjoyed a special place in her affections, she
had little interest in or aptitude for gardening. Outdoor plants,
she felt, ought to be able to take care of themselves. However,
David and Dr. Goetz thought getting outside and working with her
hands was good for her, and she did not want to disappoint
them.

While she poked idly at the damp
earth, Karyn let her mind wander. There was vacation time to be
worked out for Mrs. Jensen, the housekeeper, and a Parents’ Day
coming up at Joey’s summer school. She smiled, pleased at the
commonplace concerns that occupied her mind these days. It was a
healthy sign, she thought.

Karyn did not hear the soft approach
of the padded feet behind her. The first indication she was not
alone was the huff of warm breath on the back of her neck. She
started to rise, lost her balance, and fell awkwardly to the
ground.

She looked up and saw the other face
staring down into hers. Its black lips were stretched in a canine
grimace, the yellowed teeth bared. She tried to squirm away, but
two heavy paws pinned her as the animal dropped its weight on her
chest.

In that instant, all the horror of
Drago flooded back from the closed-off portion of her mind. The
wolfish face with its long, cruel teeth came at her. She screamed.
The weight on her chest lessened for a moment, and she rolled away,
curling herself protectively into a ball. She felt the animal prod
at her, trying to turn her over. She screamed again.

The back door of the house banged open
and a solid woman with graying, blond hair rushed out. She ran
heavily toward Karyn, still lying on the ground by the
rosebushes.

“
Bristol, stop that!” the
woman called. “Come here, you bad boy.”

Cautiously Karyn opened her eyes. A
few feet away, Mrs. Jensen stood with her hands planted on her
hips. Sidling toward her, a ‘don’t-hit-me’ look in its eyes, was a
coltish young German shepherd.

“
Shame on you,” Mrs. Jensen
scolded the dog. “Frightening people like that.” She seized him by
the collar and tapped him lightly on the nose. “I’m sorry, Mrs.
Richter. He’s just an overgrown puppy. He wanted to play, that’s
all.”

The back door burst open again and
David Richter hurried out. He was a man of forty-eight, with a
strong, serious face. He wore a sweater and slacks, this being
Sunday, but he never seemed really comfortable without the
three-piece suit he wore daily to the brokerage.

Karyn rose unsteadily to her feet.
David ran across the lawn to her side and took her arm.

“
Are you all right?” he
asked.

“
I’m fine,” Karyn said,
still out of breath. “It’s nothing.”

David turned on Mrs. Jensen, who was
still holding the dog by his collar. The dog kept lunging up,
trying to lick her face.

“
What’s that dog doing
here?” David demanded.

“
It’s my sister’s puppy.”
Mrs. Jensen said. “He didn’t mean any harm.”

“
You know we don’t allow
animals here,” David said.

“
I was just watchin’ the
dog for an hour while my sister went to the dentist. She didn’t
want to leave him alone.”

“
Well, get him out of
here,” David ordered. “And don’t ever bring a dog to this house
again.”

“
David, it’s not that
serious,” Karyn said. “The dog just caught me by
surprise.”

“
He didn’t mean any harm,”
Mrs. Jensen said again.

“
Yes, yes, all right,”
David said, softening his tone a bit. “But I want him out of here
right now.”

“
Yes, Mr. Richter,” she
said. And to the dog: “Come along, you bad boy.”

As Mrs. Jensen led the dog around the
side of the house, a dark-eyed boy of six dashed through the door
and across the lawn to where Karyn and David stood.

“
What happened,” the boy
said, looking from one of the adults to the other.

Karyn ruffled his hair. “It’s all
right, Joey. I was just startled by a dog.”

“
A dog?” The boy looked
around eagerly. “Where is he?”

“
Never mind,” said David.
“Mrs. Jensen took him away. You go inside now and wash up for
dinner.”

Joey looked wistfully off in the
direction the housekeeper had taken the dog. “Can’t I just go and
see him? Just for a minute?”

“
Inside, Joey,” said David.
The boy trudged back across the grass and into the
house.

“
I feel so guilty because
he can’t have a pet,” Karyn said.

“
It won’t hurt him to do
without one. Now let me help you inside. You’re still
shaking.”

“
Really, David, I’m quite
all right,” Karyn said, but she allowed herself to be led into the
house.

“
Sit down there in the big
chair,” David said when they reached the living room. “Put your
feet up.”

Karyn did as she was told.

“
Now wait right there and
I’ll get something to calm your nerves.” He went off to the
kitchen, and returned a minute later carrying a tall
glass.

“
Here’s a nice glass of
milk,” he said.

A nice shot of Scotch would do her
nerves a whole lot more good, Karyn thought, but she smiled her
thanks and took the glass from David’s hand.

He stood with his arms folded,
studying her gravely as she sipped at the milk. “You gave me quite
a scare.”

“
I’m sorry.”

“
What a shame that this
should happen just when you seemed to be getting
better.”

Karyn set the glass down carefully on
the end table next to the chair. “I hate that expression,” she
said. “Getting better. It’s a constant reminder that I’m a
convalescent mental case.”

“
I didn’t mean it that way.
It’s just that I’m a little disappointed that, after a year, Dr.
Goetz hasn’t done more for you. Do you think we should try someone
else?”

“
Dr. Goetz is as good as
any of them,” Karyn said. “Really, David, you’re making too much
out of this. The dog came up behind me and took me by surprise. I
overreacted, that’s all.”

“
The dog,” David said,
watching her. “It reminded you of that Drago business, didn’t
it?”

Sure.
That
Drago business.
The unpleasantness in the mountains.
Nothing remarkable, really––just fighting off a pack of werewolves
and seeing your husband change into… Karyn broke off the thought
and shuddered.

David moved quickly to her side. “I’m
sorry dear, I shouldn’t have brought that up.”

Karyn squeezed his hand. “No, darling,
it should never become a taboo subject, or I
will
be in trouble. And you’re right about the
dog. Seeing its face suddenly so close to mine took me back for a
moment to Drago. It’s been only three years, you know, and we’ve
got to expect incidents like that from time to time.”

“
And you’re still having
the dreams, aren’t you?”

“
Yes,” Karyn admitted. “But
not so often, anymore.”

David frowned. “When is your next
appointment with Goetz?”

“
Tomorrow.”

“
And you really think he’s
helping you?”

“
As much as anyone
could.”

David patted her hand awkwardly. “All
right, then, we’ll go on with him. I just hope he can make you see
that this Drago business is all… behind you.”

As she lay that night in bed beside
her sleeping husband, Karyn recalled his words. She knew that what
he had started to say was, “All in your mind.”
She
would be happier than anyone to be convinced of that, but it was
not so. Drago was as real as the moon outside their bedroom window,
and much closer. The werewolves were real too. And somewhere, Karyn
knew, one or more of them survived.

* * *

Nine hundred miles away, in the grape
country of California, another woman lay awake beside her man. Her
long, supple body gleamed like old ivory in the moonlight. Across
the pillow, her hair spread in gentle waves of glossy black, shot
through with a startling streak of silver.

The man stirred in his sleep. The
woman quieted him with a hand on his broad, bare
shoulder.

“
Rest easy, my lover,” she
whispered. “Soon we will have much work to do.”

2

From the window of Dr. Arnold Goetz’s
office in the new Farrell Building, Karyn could see the sailboats
skimming across Lake Washington under a stiff westerly breeze. It
was one of those brightly washed summer days when the dreary months
of rain are forgotten and the people of Seattle go outdoors to
celebrate the sun.

Karyn stood at the window talking in a
flat, emotionless voice. Finally she said, “So that’s all there was
to it. Just a silly incident with a dog, and it was all over in a
minute.”

Dr. Goetz waited a full fifteen
seconds. It was a technique of his that Karyn recognized. The
purpose was to encourage the patient to elaborate on, or perhaps
contradict, the last thought. When Karyn did not offer to continue,
the doctor spoke.

“
There is no doubt in your
mind, then, that it was only a dog yesterday.”

Karyn spun around to face him. “Of
course it was only a dog.” She walked over and sat down in the
chair facing the doctor’s desk. “I was frightened for a moment
because it brought back bad memories. That’s all.”

Dr. Goetz nodded sagely. “Yes, I see.
And tell me about the dreams. You say you still have
them?”

Karyn bit her lip and frowned. “Yes.
And they worry me more than the business with the dog. Will I ever
stop hearing it at night, Doctor? The howling?”

“
You
do
understand that it is only in
dreams that you hear this… howling?”

Karyn leaned back in the chair.
Sunlight from the window caught her pale blond hair and made it a
glowing frame for her face. She was twenty-eight now, and there
were little lines at the corners of her eyes, but the touch of
maturity only emphasized her beauty.

“
Yes, Doctor,” she said
wearily, “I know it only happens in dreams. Now. But three years
ago in Drago, the howling was real. As real as death.”

Dr. Goetz touched his glasses. Karyn
had determined that it was his unconscious gesture of disbelief. He
put on an understanding smile.

“
Yes, I see,” he
said.

“
Bullshit.”

The doctor brightened. Gut reactions
always encouraged him.

“
You don’t see at all,”
Karyn told him. “You don’t believe Drago actually happened any more
than my husband does. Any more than all the other people I’ve told
about it.”