Chapter 10: Choice and Change

The familiar blaring of her alarm startled Poppy awake at 3:30 that morning. She stretched, and slapped the off button before sitting up.

Yawning, Poppy raised her arms above her head and then froze. Arms?

With a yelp of surprise, Poppy jumped out of her bed, which was still finagled into a nest of blankets, and ran to her mirror.

There she was, pale, extremely messy hair, bright blue eyes, and very much a human.

And very naked. Since when did she sleep naked?

Everything seemed surreal.

“This had to have been the world’s worst dream.” She muttered to her reflection, splashing cold water on her face before staring at her reflection again.

But it had all seemed so real.

She straightened up and looked around her apartment.

The door was still slightly ajar, the lock broken. Her bed was a mess of blankets. And mud.

And then there were the muddy paw prints on the floor, the sink, the bed.

Nope. Not a dream.

Poppy had actually been a wolf last night.

She felt her heart sink.

If the wolf part wasn’t a dream, then the rest of it had happened, too.

She wondered how long she had been out of it at that strange mansion. She wondered how to explain the broken locks to Mrs. Crist. For once, she regretted not splurging on a decent TV. She had seen one at a thrift store a few weeks ago but talked herself out of buying it. First, it was $100. Second, she didn’t have time to watch TV. But if she had one, she could turn it on and at least watch the news. Maybe find out what day it was, see if there was anything about a missing waitress or wolf attack…

She wondered if Malcom would come looking for her. Or the wolf who had tried to kill her. Most likely yes to both. She was going to have to leave. Get out of the city, the state. She’d have to drop out of college, and maybe change her name.

Poppy looked around her apartment. Her cell, wallet, and other personal effects had been left in the locker at Jack’s catering company. Would she be able to go back and claim them? Or would Jack be so mad at her for the commotion at the party. She had dropped a tray of crepes. She had fled her post. She had disrupted one of the biggest social events of the season. He was bound to be pissed. This probably would hurt his business.

Would he even let her on the premises? Would he pay her?

Probably no to both.

Depending on how long had passed, he might have gotten rid of her stuff. If he was feeling magnanimous, he might have given her stuff to Melissa.

No matter what, she had to get out of here. Her address wasn’t much of a secret and as she had proven last night, it wasn’t impossible for a determined wolf to break into her apartment. Which meant it would be a walk in the park for a determined human.

First things first, she had to get dressed. Using what little furniture she had, Poppy blockaded the door. It wasn’t much, but it would at least slow down someone trying to break into. Next, she went to her closet and grabbed an oversized hoodie and leggings. Digging around she found an old baseball cap to hide her hair better.

She jumped in the shower and washed the mud and dirt from her as best she could in a hurry and with the low water pressure.

Poppy looked at her reflection in the mirror for a moment. Her hair was her most obvious feature; it hung down past her hips and was bright red. She loved it. It was the only thing about her physical features that she really liked. Hair care was the one thing she splurged on. But now, it could be easily used to identify her. The length alone was enough to turn heads and make people notice her; she needed anonymity if she was going to avoid being found by either Malcom or the mysterious wolf.

She sighed. She’d probably have to cut and dye it, though the thought made her tear up. Right then, though, she was just focused on getting out of her apartment and far away without being seen. Grabbing a brush, she worked out the tangles as best she could before braiding it and tucking the braid in her hoodie. For good measure, she pulled the baseball cap on and then put the hood over all of it.

It wasn’t a great, but it did hide her hair and most of her features at a quick glance. She knew it wouldn’t hold up to close inspection, though.

The next order of business was to grab her go bag.

She went to the small closet and gently pried the back panel off. Behind was a small crawl space area. A black back pack was there. Poppy did a quick check. Her emergency cash was there along with a burner cell and a few changes of clothing. She counted her money. She had exactly $578.

Moments like this made Poppy wish she had stashed more away. Unfortunately, she had used most of her emergency fund to pay for her classes last semester.

She wasn’t going to get far on that amount.

There were three options: risk waiting around and going to Jack’s catering to see if she could get her wallet and thus access to her bank cards, call Melissa and see if she had or could get Poppy’s stuff, or run with what she had and hoped she could take odd jobs here or there to make up the difference.

Voices outside made her stiffen.

She couldn’t clearly hear what they were saying but there seemed to be a group of people in the alley. And she remembered breaking in last night. The back door was open and the only thing between them and the stairs to her apartment.

Poppy held her breath and crept to the window. She didn’t dare to open the curtains to look out; her light was on in the closet and that would stand out against the dark of the predawn sky.

Instead she pressed as close as she could to the drafty windows and hoped to catch some of the conversation. It was rare that people were in the alley at four in the morning.

She didn’t need to overhear their words to figure out their next move.

Almost as soon as she moved there, she heard the stairs to her apartment creak.

There was no place to run. She was trapped here.

The only exit was her door; Mrs. Crist hadn’t bothered to keep the fire escape up and it had partially rusted and fallen off. There had been a brief complaint from the city, but Mrs. Crist did something and the fire department dropped it.

That left the crawl space in her closet.

Poppy had never gone far, just enough to place her go bag. She had no idea where it went if it even had an exit.

But now, it seemed her only option.

Grabbing her bag, Poppy slipped into the small space, doing her best to fit the panel back into the wall to hide her escape. Again, not perfect, but hopefully it would bide her some time.

Being in the walls was her worst nightmare. It was dark, and cramped. Poppy was not a big person, barely five foot four and was skinny, mostly due to not being able to afford food. Still, she had to crawl on all fours and her shoulders brushed against the walls.

To top all of that off, there were tons of spider webs. She couldn’t even use her hands to clear them before she ran into them since she was crawling.

Despite all this, Poppy did her best to avoid making a noise. Crawling in a small space without making a sound while still being in a hurry was hard.

Still, she did her best.

Behind her, she could hear the sounds of whomever trying to get into her apartment. She grinned a little thinking about her small blockade. It had worked! For once, something seemed to be working in her favor.

Too soon, though, she heard the sounds of things breaking. They had apparently been able to get into her place. Poppy tried to crawl faster.

Her hands and knees were getting raw from the splintered wood of the old walls. Her eyes watered from the dust and cobwebs.

And this stupid thing seemed so long.

She really hoped it didn’t end in a dead end.

That would be the worst. First, she would have to back out, which would suck. Second, she couldn’t go back without getting caught by whomever was currently in her apartment.

Through her fear, Poppy thought she smelled something familiar. Like pine trees and a cold mountain breeze.

She shook her head a little. That was crazy. She was in a dusty, moldy wall of a building that probably should have been condemned.

Forcing herself to keep moving, Poppy eventually found the end.

It was a wall. Like the one in her apartment.

She gave it a tentative push, through dust and cobwebs, she felt it give a little. Poppy pushed harder. Eventually, the wall crumbled and she found herself in one of the other apartments in her building. Unlike hers, this one was obviously deserted and in disrepair.

She didn’t have time to consider her surroundings. Trying not to cough, she stumbled into the dark space. Her hat and hood got knocked off as she exited the tunnel. She turned to grab them when she saw a pin prick of light at the other end of the tunnel. They had found her escape route.

“Poppy!” Malcom’s voice called through the tunnel and sent a shiver down her spine. It wasn’t necessarily a bad shiver, but she didn’t dwell on that. “Poppy, love, come back!” For a moment, she felt compelled to obey his command. She even took a tentative step back toward the crawl space before she shook herself out of whatever trance he’d put her in.

She heard running toward the door of this apartment. It wouldn’t hold up to a direct assault.

She started to run to a window, hoping to be able to flag someone from the street for help. She didn’t get that far.

The floor beneath her gave way and she felt herself falling. Fortunately, the ceiling of the bakery below her stopped her from falling completely through, though her feet crashed through. She landed straddling a support beam and grunted in pain. That at least was newer than the rest of building, which was something. Not great, but something.

Sharp splinters scraped at her as she fell. Her hoodie and bag tore and the top of her braid caught on something. She was stuck.

Poppy tried to squirm her way out of the hole, but the more she struggled, the more her clothes tore and her hair was pulled.

She tried to feel around and free herself, but she started to slip off the beam. Her position was precarious, she was starting to slide off her one support and she couldn’t figure out how to get herself secured. Her braid was caught on something sharp and it was pulling painfully on her scalp. If she fell, she was pretty sure her hair would be ripped out at the roots.

Taking a deep breath, Poppy tried to calm herself and reach behind her carefully to release her braid.

It was a nail. She could feel some of it poking her in the neck.

Trying to get her braid unstuck without being able to see what she was doing was hard. She thought she felt an old nail and was trying to pull her hair off of it. Above her, she heard voices. Soon, a light was aimed down at her.

“Poppy, love, don’t move.” Malcom sounded… worried?

Poppy didn’t want to think about it. With one final tug, and a tearing sound, she felt her braid come loose.

She didn’t have time to consider her next steps. She slid off the support beam and through the ceiling into the empty bakery below. Everything went dark.