Page 81 of Wilde's End
But this is Wilde’s End.
This is myhome.
I refuse to go down without a fight, but maybe I’ve been using the wrong weapons.
“You going to help them?” I ask him.
After a moment, Ziggy nods.
“Okay then. I’ll give you a ride down there.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE
HUDSON
Feeling happy shouldn’t be this off-putting, but there’s literally nothing that could have brought it on. It’s like I have this little spark in my chest, and whenever I try to fall into bad thoughts, the spark jolts me back to this sense that good is coming.
There’s no other way to explain it, so I’m going to hope it means something and that I don’t get let down.
The external frame of house two is done, which means we really have to decide on whether we’re going to commit to bricking the whole thing or going with a more modern finish like metal. Wilde’s End gets hot in summer but is supposed to snow in the winter, so we have to make sure we cover all bases. Insulation is a must, but we can’t fucking decide on what to do first.
“Did you hear that?” Kennedy asks, cutting through my thoughts.
I look around the gutted room. “What?”
There’s a pause as the three of us strain our ears for a sound, but there’s nothing other than the birds outside.
“What did it sound like?” I ask.
“Hmm … An animal, maybe?”
“Wearein bumfuck nowhere,” Hart reminds him.
“No, butinthe house.”
I stop to listen again, and my brothers do the same. There’s still nothing. I’m about to call Kennedy out on making up the sound to distract us from what to do on the exterior walls when deeprwwwoalbeats me to talking.
“Okay,thatI heard.”
“Sounded like a cat,” Hart murmurs, turning back to the plans.
A cat? That tickles the fight or flight in my brain when I remember that feral bobcat I came across. What if there’s a whole feral family of them and they came to eat our faces?
I get up and head in the direction the noise came from. It was more toward the front of the house, I think, and I strain my ears over my heavy footsteps in case it comes again. There’s nothing.
Until I open the front door. With the snick of the door, a gust of cold breeze rushes inside. The dark storm clouds are sitting low and heavy above us, and on the bottom step of the house?—
A bobcat.
I have no idea if it’s the same one or not, but considering it’s larger than I’ve ever heard of a bobcat getting, there’s a good chance it is. As soon as it sees me, it shifts upright, fur prickling around its shoulders, little razor teeth bared as that deeprwoalvibrates in its chest.
“Fuck off!” I tell it, one eye on the animal as I search either side of me for something to throw.
Its tail twitches in agitation.
“Move.” I stomp forward, trying to scare it. The giant cat doesn’t react. “Get the fuck out of here!”
