___

  Dane slowly walked in front of me, following the small path in front of us. I watched his form, a fox, twitch uncertainly.

  “Do you know where this leads?” He asks. “Do you know where we’re going?” His voice wavered slightly in my mind, and I watched as his tail lowered, and his ears pulled back.

  “No,” I replied quietly. I had no idea what I had gotten us into.

  ___

  Dane just showed up one day. And then wouldn’t leave.

  I read somewhere that they call them familiars, but I don’t know why they chose that term. There wasn’t anything familiar about having a fox follow you home.

  Closing the door behind me, I hadn’t spotted him yet. I was leaving work in the late afternoon on a Saturday. The small cafe I spent my evenings and good chunk of my weekends at. It wasn’t much, but since I was in college, it at least helped a little with the bills.

  The afternoon had been quiet, so my manager, Emma, let me head home a few hours early. And, I didn’t really mind, the weather was warm for September. But the trees were starting to change color now, and I could feel autumn approaching. Plus, I had my own projects that needed my attention.

  I left the store, taking my time walking home. In all honesty, I hadn’t been paying attention. A list of all the things I needed played through my head.

  Laundry. Prepare a lunch for tomorrow since I’d be in class all day. Try to resurrect my dead brother. And pay Tanya, my roommate, rent for the month. I was just trying to remember what I had in the fridge that I could make for supper when I heard him.

  Although it was a warm day, a few of the leaves had started to become crisp on the ground. I turned at the sound of the leaves crumpling behind me and saw a small fox coming from the park I had just passed.

  Its eyes met mine and froze. It had an orange coat with a white underbelly, but it looked dirty and matted. We stared at each other a moment, until I turned back around and kept walking. Wildlife wasn’t strange here. This was a small city, and there were forested areas within the blocks of apartments and businesses. Animals were to be expected.

  I got to the end of the street and turned right onto the one that held my apartment. It was nice working so close to my place. It have me some spare time, even with the large amount of school work I had given I was in my second year of Psychology studies. There were more pressing matters than my assignments.

  “She sees things.” I was reminded of those words and flash of my brothers’ face. I shook my head, clearing the image.

  I’d get him back, I promised myself under my breath. I’d find a way. I’d been saying that a lot lately.

  Again, leaves crunched behind me and I turned. The fox from before had followed me. Poor thing, I thought, and kneeled down, trying to think if I had any food left in my bag. Trying to move quietly, I shifted my backpack off one arm and placed it beside me.

  Opening the zipper, the fox flinched at the sound, but still, he stayed, watching me intently. It took me a moment to find the container that held my lunch, but I took out some crackers that I hadn’t eaten.

  Did foxes eat crackers? I wondered but figured in his current state, it probably wouldn’t hurt him. Holding one out to him, I watched his nose move. It took a few seconds, but then he sunk low and approached cautiously. Head down, but eyes still shifting between me and the food in my outstretched hand.

  As he got closer, I could see that there was more than dirt covering his fur. It was caked with blood too, so dry it looked brown. And his coat was missing fur in spots, like he’d been fighting.

  Careful not to move, I stayed silent as he took the cracker gently from between my fingers, then hurried back a few steps to quickly chew and swallow it. His eyes met mine again. I slowly took another cracker—

  “Kara!” I dropped it as my name was called, and turned to see my roommate, Tanya, jogging towards me. I turned to face the fox again, but he was gone.

  “Hey,” I greeted when she reached me, putting my leftovers back in my bag, and lifting it to my shoulder as I stood. “What’s up?” I took in her outfit briefly: dark leggings with a beige stripe down the side, a bright pink tank top and a beige sweater that looked like it had most likely been purchased with the pants. And her brown hair was tied up in her usual ponytail. Tanya was always moving.

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  “What were you doing?” She asked, ignoring my greeting. “Also, why aren’t you at work? And not to be one of those people, but you do still owe me rent before the fourth.” Tanya spoke as if all of that was one sentence. I gestured to the apartment down the block, and she nodded and we fell in step towards it.

  “There was a fox I was feeding,” I explained. “Work was dead so I got to leave early. And I know, I will pay you.” I answered each question in order, but my mind drifted back to the fox. I wondered where it had gone, and if it would be okay. I hoped so.

  “Hey, what’s on your mind?” My thoughts had taken me too far, and I had obviously missed something Tanya said.

  “Sorry,” I muttered. “Still thinking about work. What did you say?” She dismissed me with a wave of her arm, and I dug out my keys and used the fob to buzz us in.

  “It wasn’t important.” Tanya continues as we walk past the front desk where the security guard/doorman stood. We nodded to him, and continued up the stairs. “Though, what is important is that we’re going out tonight!” Tanya said excitedly.

  I sighed quietly to myself. I couldn’t go out tonight, and this would be the sixth time in the last month that I had told her no.

  “You can’t cancel on me this time.” She started protesting before I had even answered. “You’ve said no too many times already. Just come out this once, and I won’t bother you for a whole month. Please?”

  It was the please that made me hesitate. Usually Tanya just let me do my own thing, but she must be really concerned about me if she’s resorting to pleading. I guess it couldn’t hurt to go out this once, I told myself. Plus, right now I hadn’t had any leads on how to bring my brother back. Which was, I reminded myself sternly, not to say I was giving up — but perhaps a night out wouldn’t hurt.

  “Okay, fine, I’ll come.” I agreed and then winced as Tanya screamed next to me. She jumped up and down as she unlocked our front door. Walking inside, I slipped off my sneakers, and set my bag on the couch and I could feel Tanya glaring at me. “I’m not going to leave it there, it was just for a moment.” I told her before grinning, grabbing the bag again, and hauling into my room.

  “You know I’m just worried about you, right?” Tanya had followed me and was leaning against the doorway now. I was glad I had the sense to tidy up my room a few days ago. Setting my bag on my small twin bed, I sat down in my bed, turning to face her.

  My room was small, with a full length mirror, a desk and a chair — both of which were currently buried in clothes, a dresser, and a closet at the foot of the bed — thankfully with the doors shut.

  The closet’s doors were always closed since I used it to store numerous curious items and papers. But overall, there wasn’t anything glaringly dirty, or announcing my newfound interest in witchcraft. I had taken the embarrassingly tall stacks of dishes to the kitchen already. Though I couldn’t remember if I had actually gotten around to washing them.

  “I’m sorry, Tanya. I know you’re just looking out for me.” She sighed and came and sat beside me. I had to admit, I probably wasn’t the easiest roommate to live with. I kept late hours working — and admittedly, failing — to try different spells. It had been weeks already, telling Tanya I couldn’t go out because of my studies at the college.

  Part of me felt bad for lying to her, but over the months it had gotten easier to use it as an easy excuse. And I really did have classwork to get done too, but what Tanya didn’t know was that with all that extra “late night studying”, I was barely scraping by with C’s.

  But I really do enjoy my job at the coffee shop down the street. It’s filled with people with so many different lives. And there were even some customers that I got to know fairly well, especially if they order the same drink at exactly 8:16am every morning during the week. But I was still often behind on rent, and I kept to myself too much for someone like Tanya to understand.

  She almost always has plans with her friends, and well, let’s just say that announcing you have a new hobby of trying to resurrect your recently deceased brother using magic… It just doesn’t come up easily in conversation.

  “Look,” I start, glancing at Tanya who is peering around my room looking like she’s trying to organize my room in her mind. “Give me an hour, I’ll shower, change into something more appropriate for going out, and I’ll get you the rent for this month. I got paid today anyway. And I’ll try to be more—“ I stopped. More what, exactly? What was I trying to prove? That I could pretend to be normal? Tanya stood up and thankfully saved my scrambled brain from finishing the sentence.

  “Okay!” Tanya agreed loudly, and turned to walk out, hesitating at my doorway.

  “What is it?” I asked. She had a worried look on her face.

  “Just,” She sighed and turned to face me again. “You know you can talk to me, right?” I nodded but felt a pinch in my stomach. I couldn’t tell her what I was doing, which meant I didn’t really trust her.

  “Of course,” I forced a smile and hoped the fact that I had just finished work would allow for a tired smile. She seemed to have bought it, since she smiled back and closed the door softly as she left.

  I laid back on my bed, width-wise so my legs dangled almost completely over the edge. Placing my hands over my eyes I wondered how I was supposed to fake being happy about going out tonight. Then I remembered Tanya’s worried expression. Even if I wasn’t exactly telling her what I was meddling with now, she had still been my friend after — well, after last spring. If tonight made Tanya more relaxed about me, I supposed I could fake being normal for one night out. Probably.

  I wasn’t in too bad of spirits after thinking that, and I walked over to my desk, trying to sort through all of my clothes. After moving some things aside, I managed to uncover my laptop as well. Password protected login, and even more password-protected files were on it. All containing different attempts and ideas of things I might be able to try to save my brother.

  But it had been a lot of work over the past few months. Even just finding information on the subject had been difficult, and everything I had tried so far hadn’t worked.

  I saw something out of the corner of my eye — I wasn’t even really sure what it was at first. My eyes had been drawn to something outside the window. Something brown, out in the street below me.

  No, I realized as I looked and saw the shape move again. It was orange. The fox had come back.