Collins woke up on a rock hard sofa with a headache. He had managed to carry the drunk man last night into his temporary room with only a slightly concerned look from the innkeeper. 

   The room wasn’t much; a bed, a couch, a small kitchen all crammed into one room. The bathroom had a slanted ceiling, which made it hard to stand in for someone as tall as detective Collins. There was a bathtub tucked in the corner but it didn’t have running water, which meant that he would have run to the community well to fill the tub, bucket by bucket. Welcome to the countryside, Collins thought. 

   

Soft snores could be heard over from the bed. Collins had graciously let Elliot Hemmingway sleep in his bed for the night as he himself took the uncomfortable sofa. He was a gentleman at heart after all. 

   As such, he also couldn’t make breakfast for himself only. He would feel guilty if he did. So he got up while Elliot still slept and made two meals as quietly as he could. Despite his efforts, the sounds and smells woke up the young man. 

 

”Fuck”, could be heard from across the room. Collins didn’t turn to look at him and only kept preparing the food. He poured two cups of coffee and served them on the small counter attached to the kitchen. Only then did he glance over to Elliot. 

 

He looked like he had been through a lot more than just a rough night at a bar. And he still had those wolf ears attached to his head. Incredible commitment to a prank, if Collins was asked. 

 

”Where the fuck am I?” Elliot asked with a mumble. Collins didn’t answer him, just waited for the man to clear his mind a little. For a moment Elliot just stared into nothingness but then glanced up, his gaze locking with Collins. In a moment he began to realize his situation and it was very apparent on his face how embarrassed he was. He got up quickly, only to regret it immediately from the sudden wave of dizziness and nausea. He sat back down on the bed and breathed deeply to stop his brain from spinning. 

 

”Woooow~”, he said before regaining his regular vision.

 

”Do you need help?”, Collins asked despite himself. He was supposed to appear angry and stern to this young man so he would learn something from this experience. It seemed that something in this idiot made him feel worried though. 

 

”No, no I’m fine. I’ll get up in just a moment”, Elliot said reassuringly. He seemed to struggle but got up again, this time a lot slower and made his way to the kitchen area. He glanced down at the breakfast that was served for him and furrowed his brows. 

 

”Did you put onions in this?” He asked, appearing very disgusted by the food.

   Collins was a patient man, which was why he didn’t let it show how annoyed he was at this moment. He only nodded and answered: ”I did”

 

”Wolves can’t eat onions”, Elliot then stated. As though what wolves could or couldn’t eat had anything to do with what he could. ”They can’t drink coffee either”, he added.

 

”Right…” Collins was simply lost for words at this point so he decided not to even try to have a conversation. Everyone in this town was insane. Great. 

 

Elliot rubbed his thumbs together nervously. He hadn’t meant to make the mood so uncomfortable. ”Thank you, though, for making this”, he tried to desperately save the situation. It was unfortunate that Collins had decided not to care anymore.

 

A long silence filled the room. Elliot looked on edge. It hadn’t been Collins’ intention to make him look so scared out of his wits. But then again, this might be good. A little intimidation for a detective was never a bad thing. 

 

”Your parents seem pretty strict”, he broke the silence, almost causing Elliot to have a heart attack. The idiot looked to his sides as if looking for someone else the detective could be talking to before realizing they were the only ones there. He coughed before answering, ”Uh, yes I suppose”

 

”From what you said last night, they seem to have quite old fashioned worldviews” Collins pushed his empty plate aside and began eating the one he had prepared for Elliot. He wasn’t one to waste food. 

 

”What do you mean?” Elliot asked, clearly confused about what Collins was talking about. Maybe he had forgotten already. He had been very drunk last night after all. 

 

”You said your father didn’t approve of Mrs. Sherry because she ’couldn’t give birth’, did you not?” 

 

This had indeed happened but Elliot appeared a little uncomfortable once reminded of this. He scratched the back of his head, ”Ah….well, it’s…nevermind”

 

The two men fell into silence once more. There wasn’t much to be gained from having this conversation. Collins cleaned up the kitchen before grabbing his coat from the hanger and preparing to leave. Elliot was taken aback by his sudden exit and scrambled out alongside him. 

 

Outside, the sun was shining but it didn’t do much to warm them up. It was colder than yesterday, the air fogging up when they would let out a breath. 

   The town was ”bustling” if you could call it that; people had begun working, a child was selling flowers in the corner of the street, there was a line of three people in front of the community well. You could almost call this a crowd.

 

Elliot strutted next to Collins, clearly not taking the hint that he could leave at any moment. From the way he was fidgeting it was quite clear that he had something he needed to say but couldn’t find a good moment to break the silence. 

   Collins stopped. He turned to face Elliot, who he now noticed, wasn’t much shorter than him. Last night the drunkard had been leaning on him and holding his body in a bad posture so he had appeared a lot shorter then. Not that this mattered. 

 

“If you have something you need to say, I’m all ears”, he said to the nervously swaying man. The swaying stopped then and Elliot cleared his throat,

 

“I just wanted to thank you, for helping me last night…and…I was wondering if-“, he stopped and leaned closer so he could lower his voice, “if you had an ulterior motive or something? Which would be fair, totally. Just uh, I don’t have, you know, money or anything to repay you but I’m open to suggestions-“

 

“Let me stop you there”, Collins cut him off and held a hand in the air, “I helped you, because I would have felt guilty if I didn’t. And guilt is the only feeling I cannot stand. That’s all. You don’t need to repay me, just don’t get in my way and don’t bother me while I’m trying to do my job” His voice was calm yet firm, showing his slowly increasing annoyance. 

   This time it seemed that Elliot was finally on the same page, “Got it”

 

“Good”

 

There was a moment where neither of them spoke but Elliot truly could not handle not speaking for too long. Collins had intended for their conversation to lead to Elliot walking away and leaving him alone but to his dismay this wasn’t the case. 

   Elliot started playing with the collar of his shirt, “So hypothetically, if I would want to maybe help you with your investigation, you wouldn't be interested at all?”

 

One might consider such a proposition ridiculous, and Collins did. It wasn’t often that people acted this unpredictably and with too much confidence in skills that they didn’t have. That was a lie, they did that all the time.

 

“And how would you help me exactly?” He asked the fool, who took it as an invitation to boast about himself rather than take it as an insult.  

 

“Well, I might be the ‘black sheep’ but I still am a Hemmingway. I have access to knowledge many others don't, people respect me(sometimes), and-“, he pointed to his nose, “I can provide you with a sense of smell better than any other hounddog’s”

 

Hounddog nose, huh? This person was insane, he really thought he was a werewolf. A delusional fool, maybe.

 

“Right. That’s a part of your ‘wolf’ thing?”, Collins asked with heavy sarcasm.

 

Elliot stared at him, now appearing a little upset. Different emotions ran through his face; confusion, understanding, irritation. He sighed and rubbed his temples. Suddenly, he looked up and grabbed Collins by his hand. 

 

“Here, you can try my ears and see that they are literally attached to my head”, he placed the hand on top of his head, despite Collins trying to pull it away. 

 

The ears really were attached to the man’s head. They grew out of it, and they felt…real But they couldn’t be.

 

”I have to say, they’re really well made. A bit over the top for a skit but-”, Collins trailed off, soon shocked by Elliots angry response.

 

”They’re not fake, they’re my real ears!”

 

A few people passing by slowed down to look at the scene, though they pretended not to. Elliot realized his loudness and apologized quitely. He stepped closer to Collins, leaning into his space, ”Look, I know it’s hard to believe something like this when you’ve never seen anything like it before, I get it. However-”, he grabbed a handful of Collins’ jacket to pull him even closer, ”If you refuse to acknowledge what you see with your eyes, you will not solve this case”

 

Was the situation crazy? Yes. Was it hard to accept? Definitely. Was the proof right in front of his eyes? Undoubtedly. 

   So why was it so hard to admit to himself that this man in front of him was a werewolf? That he truly possessed the characteristics of a wolf like he claimed? Collins had always been an atheist. He had never once believed in anything supernatural. Not even as a child was he afraid of any monster under his bed or a ghost in his closet. He was more afraid of real people and his own helplessness. 

   Still, it was true. If he refused to accept the things he witnessed with his own eyes, how could he ever hope to solve this case that seemed to be so very intertwined with these Hemmingways and their secrets? And surely, though this man easily got on his nerves, Elliot Hemmingway could be the key for him to move forward. Elliot himself was a suspect too, of course, though Collins found it unlikely. Intuition was also important as a detective but it was never good to cross out someone solely based on how they appeared. Thus, it would be best to keep this man in his sights.

 

Collins sighed as he took Elliots hand that was grabbing his jacket and gently removed it. ”Alright, I guess I don’t have a choice here. I believe you”

 

”Oh….good”, Elliot seemed like he had expected to have to fight about this matter for much longer. He was baffled that the detective surrendered so easily. ”So, I can help with the investigation?”, he asked carefully.

 

”…sure”, Collins said. Though he only agreed so he could keep an eye on him rather than to get help from him. 

 

”Yes!” Elliot shouted excitedly. 

 

So he just wanted to play detective? Collins should have seen this one coming, especially after the way Ms. Peach had acted last night in the bar. The people in this town, whether werewolves were real or not, seemed to be ”not all there”.