“Um, Marty,” Dana said, “have you seen a moose before?”
“Whatever that mysterious beast is—” “It’s a wolf,” Curt said.
“Yeah, it’s a wolf,” Holden confirmed, grinning.
“I’m living in a womb of reefer,” Marty complained quietly. “Leave me alone. Okay, beastie, creature, whatever. Jules, I dare you to make out with the wolf.”
Jules drained her beer cup in one huge glug, threw it over her shoulder and clapped her hands in an I’ll do it! gesture.
“No problem,” she said, and the group cheered.
As Jules walked away from the seating area around the fireplace and toward the stuffed animal head, she put on an exaggerated swagger, swinging her butt gently from side to side. She reached the wolf and walked on by, raising her head slightly in mock-aloofness.
Damn, she’s good, Holden thought, and he could see why Curt coveted her so much. Hot, and fun, but. But Dana still shone brightest for him. He watched her watching Jules, and enjoyed that, too.
Jules paused and looked back over her shoulder at the wolf, pointing at her chest. “Who? Me?” She cocked her head as if listening, then continued, “I am new in town, how did you know?”
The friends laughed, cheering her on with whoots and whistles. But Jules kept her back turned now; she only had eyes for the wolf. She twirled her hair around one finger and stood with a hip thrust out.
“Oh my god, that is so sweet of you to say,” she purred. “I just colored it, in fact…” That tilted head again, and she was such a good actress that her friends all went quiet, listening for the voice she pretended to hear.
“Yes, I’d love a drink, thank you,” she said. She took a step toward the wolf then tripped, stumbling slightly. “Whoops! I seem to have dropped my birth control pills all over the ground… ”
Holden clapped, the others hooted and hollered, egging her on and enjoying the great display. Dana glanced back at Holden to see his reaction, and her own eyes were alight. She turned back to Jules, and Holden checked out her back, butt, and legs where she was kneeling up on the sofa.
Jules caught his attention again, turning her back on the wolf and bending down as if picking something from the ground. She arched her back and swung her butt left and right, then stood again, backing up until the growling head was directly over her shoulder. She nuzzled the creature, cheek to cheek.
“Oh Mr. Wolf, you’re so big. And bad.” She nuzzled some more, then lowered her voice, so low that they all had to fall silent to hear what Holden was sure would be the climax of her little play. “No no no, there’s no need to huff and puff…” She turned and took the wolf’s head in her hands, thumbs stroking across the growling muzzle. “I’ll let you come in.”
And then Jules leaned in and gave the wolf a kiss so passionate that, for a moment, Holden swore they could have heard a pin drop to the floor.
Curt shouted, and the others followed, jumping to their feet and cheering, whooping and whistling. I shouldn’t have got turned on at that, Holden thought. I really shouldn’t.
Jules let go of the wolf’s head and turned to the group, performing an extravagant bow before spitting out dust, fur and the taste of who-knew what.
Holden stood beside Dana, and she leaned into him and said, “Bet Curt’s glad they got their moment in earlier in the shower.”
“Yeah,” Holden whispered back, “imagine competing with a wolf?”
Curt hurriedly poured Jules another beer and she took a swig, swilling it around her mouth before swallowing with a grimace.
“I didn’t know it was possible,” Holden proclaimed, “but I think you just officially won Truth or Dare.”
“Or Lecture!” Dana added.
“The night is still young!” Jules said. “Now then… Dana—”
“Truth!” Curt called.
Holden noticed Dana’s frown as she glanced at Curt, and immediately the atmosphere thickened a little. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.
“I’m just skipping ahead,” Curt said, suddenly realizing his misstep. “You’re gonna say ‘dare,’ she’s gonna dare you to do something you don’t like and then you’ll puss out and say you wanted ‘truth’ all along.” “Really.” Dana studied Curt, and Holden shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. Not like him to be a dick, he thought. Maybe his friend was drunker than he thought. Curt was the only person in the room he’d known before today, but suddenly he seemed like a stranger.
Curt nodded. “Or lecture.”
“Oh, no, I wouldn’t want one of those,” she said tartly.
Holden looked around at the others. Jules had a somewhat bemused expression on her face, perhaps more to do with how things had moved on so quickly from her performance than at what was being said. And Marty was frowning, his usually relaxed expression troubled. He turned from Curt to Dana and back again, and seemed about to say something.
Curt, too, shifted and raised his head a little, mouth opening to speak, before Dana cut him off.
“Okay, Jules. Dare.”
Good for you, Holden thought, and then he cried out as a huge crash! came from the corner by the kitchen. Jules screamed, Curt span around, Dana stepped back into Holden, his hands grasping her arms automatically and squeezing. She huddled back into him and that was their first embrace, her shaking, his heart pounding, and neither as a result of each other.
Even Marty jumped, though a second after the others. A cloud of ash flowed down from his joint, speckling the front of his shirt and jeans.
“What the hell was that?” Jules exclaimed.
“It’s the cellar door,” Dana said. In the kitchen and dining area, just to the left of the dining table and close to the hallway leading back to the bedrooms, a rectangle of darkness had appeared in the floor. Holden blinked a few times, as if dust was obscuring his vision, because for a moment he thought it was simply an area of blackened boards. There’s nothing below us, he thought, but then sight of the shadowy, upturned hatch drove that strange idea away.
Dust motes, agitated by the sudden opening, drifted in the air, dancing around the ceiling lights and the several lamps they’d lit and stood around the place. The amount of light in the room made it seem even darker down there.
Dana shifted out of his embrace, but only so she could reach down and squeeze his hand. He squeezed back, taking comfort from the contact as well.
Spooky… he thought, and Holden was not someone easily spooked. As one, they moved around the sofa and other easy chairs and edged toward the cellar door. Jules glanced back at Dana, wide-eyed. She didn’t even acknowledge the fact that her friend was grasping Holden’s hand.
“I thought… it was locked,” Marty drawled.
“The wind must have blown it open,” Curt said.
Jules laughed nervously. “What wind?”
They gathered close to the hole and looked down. There was a set of wooden stairs leading into the darkness, the first three or four steps visible, the rest hidden away. The wall to one side of the staircase seemed to be lined with sacking of some sort, gray and dusty. The smell that rose from the hole was age, and something else, something…
Alive, Holden thought. But that was stupid. He was smelling rats and other critters, their shit and their dead, their lives hidden away beneath this dilapidated old place. That was all.