Sheep's Clothing by Gary Lewis (dark books to read TXT) 📗

"I said I didn't think it was Tony." Her voice rekindled to its stern fire in an instant. "Never said a word about you."

"I know it's not David," Terry said. "So let's say it isn't Vance or Tony. I'm not completely convinced we can rule Tony out."

"Me neither," Sarah blurted out before Terry cleared his voice and continued.

"But if we did rule out Vance and Tony," Terry said as he looked to David and quietened his words. "That would leave these two." Terry pointed with both index fingers at each side of David as Sarah and Janice glanced across at one another.

The silence that fell enveloped the forest itself. Not even the birds had anything to say. David forced himself to continue looking toward Terry, but thoughts of the night before flooded his mind. Sarah never made him leave before. The fact that they had just made love made things even more out of place.

"David was with me last night," Sarah said assertively, stepping closer at his side. The way she just volunteered him to lie for her tightened the suspicion that squeezed around his stomach.

"Well, that settles that," Terry said, placing his hands in his pockets with a slow turn in Janice's direction.

A solid wall hung over David's right shoulder, preventing him from turning in her direction.

Janice leaned forward to speak. "Sorry. I haven't been having fun filled nights with promiscuous friends lately." Janice's glance could almost be felt along the side of David's face and her words fell like a stack of bricks inside his chest.

"I guess we haven't really gotten anywhere today," Terry said. "Maybe we're a little more sure that it wasn't Vance, but if we're right about that..." He took a slow look toward his boots as his voice softened to a somber tone. "Then I suppose it was too late."

"Terry?" Janice spoke out softly.

"Yes, what is it?" he asked.

"Why are we trying to figure out who the werewolf is anyway?" David turned to Janice, unsure if he misunderstood what she just asked.

"Are you serious?" Sarah's voice blurted out from his left. He watched Janice, waiting for what strangeness she might say next.

"What are we going to do when we learn who it is?" Janice asked calmly. The only obvious answer pulled with a ton of gravity from David's feet. The only sensible thing to do was insensible. He watched Janice open out her hands in front of her as she continued. "I mean, I can't kill Sarah. Can either of you?" David could feel the shockwave of surprise hit everyone around him with the same force as himself at her oddly inappropriate comment and she still wasn't done. "I'm sure she wouldn't have a problem killing us."

"Me?!" Sarah shouted with such volume that David had to step back, giving a direct line of sight between a strangely nonchalant Janice and a hostile Sarah, aiming her finger as she yelled. "Listen, you psycho bitch! Why don't you just go set fire to the fucking town and kill everyone. I'm sure that would do the trick."

David forced his way in front of Sarah, grasping her shoulders. "Okay. Okay." He wrapped his arm around her upper back as he began to pull her away.

"Like fucking clockwork." Sarah shouted in his face. "Go ahead and take her side!"

"We've got to go," he said quietly to Terry as he led Sarah toward the footpath beside the well. She huffed with a furious fire and David swore he could feel the heat radiate from her body.

"I'm here for you, Sarah. Not anyone else," he said as they walked past the well, the dirt road now visible ahead.

"Sorry, Terry," David shouted behind. Terry waved them off just before they emerged onto the dirt road.

David walked briskly past Terry's car, trying to keep pace with Sarah as she stomped off ahead. The heat had intensified since when they entered the woods earlier and not just outside. Sarah was still fuming by the time David caught up.

"She sure didn't seem like herself," David said.

"Ha!" Sarah said, turning to meet his eyes. "You mean to tell me you finally snapped out of her weird spell and see her for what she is?"

"Come on, Sarah,” David chuckled lightly. “You're both mad right now. She doesn't normally act that way."

Sarah finally slowed down, allowing David to relax his pace. "Oh no you don't." She shook her head. "Don't even give me that. That bitch is crazy. We shouldn't have even left Terry back there alone with her."

David held his breath in order not to laugh.

"How can you even smile right now, David? What in the actual fuck?"

"It's just that we're talking about Jan, here. I mean, really?" He shook his head with a light grin.

"David, she baited me and was absolutely calm about it," Sarah said before forcefully poking her finger into his chest. "Let that shit sink in for a minute."

David nodded his head. "It was definitely strange."

Beads of sweat moistened David's forehead as the familiar sight of passing cars signaled the paved street just ahead. David had left the car parked in a lot near the trailer park. It wouldn't be long before he could blast the air conditioner. Hopefully it would be enough to dissipate the inferno that marched beside him.

"You know it's her, right?" Sarah asked.

"The werewolf?" David cracked a bewildered smile.

"David, she sat down and told us straight out that it was her."

"The fire," David said. He watched her squeeze her lip across the side of her face and shake the sarcasm in her head up and down intently at him. Sarah does have a point. It was a strange way to put it. 

"And the people that died in the fire?" Sarah swept her hand horizontally. "No fucks given."

"So, cool," David said, gesturing his hands in front of him. "So, you think it could be Janice."

Alongside the road, David hopped over the ditch, jogging to the top of the embankment as he reached for Sarah's hand. She ignored his gesture and trekked it alone before they