Free Dead Wolf by Tim O'Rourke

That’s a dumb question, right? But you have no idea how many times I have started this letter, then ripped it up and started all over again. So, I’m just going to write everything down. So here goes...
    ...Sorry it has taken me so long (seven years? Has it really been that long?)to get in touch but things haven’t been easy for me since we last saw each other that night.
    Firstly, I want you to know that I’m well, happy, and safe and I miss you – always have – how could I forget you? My father had somehow found out about my friendship with you. So he sent me away. Remember I told you about his brother – the one who was imprisoned by the Vampyrus for a crime he didn’t commit, well he got out and my father sent me to live with him. My father just dumped me on him. I don’t think he was expecting me.
    Uncle John was pretty cool about everything.
    He was a pretty cool guy all round, really, and I think that perhaps he was innocent. Whatever he might have or not done, he just took me in and gave me a home. I saw very little of my father, and like most Lycanthrope, he seemed to struggle with the curse. So John became more of a father to me than an uncle, and I loved him as one.
    However, two years ago John died. He came home late one night with a fatal injury. I don’t know what had happened – a fight perhaps? I never really knew what he got up to and there is a part of me that never wants to know. But he died in my arms in a pool of his own blood on the kitchen floor. It was a very difficult time for me as I had grown to love him very much. Although life has sometimes been tough, what so often got me through, was remembering that night we spent together in The Hollows. I often think back to that world you took me to – not just The Hollows – but Oz. Although I don’t think I could ever return to my world beyond the Fountain of Souls, I have created a little piece of Oz in the human world!
    My uncle left me a sum of money – I do not know how he came by it and I think it is best not to know. But with it I have invested the money and opened a little café and bar, which I have named the ‘Wizard of Ooze.’
    Why don’t you come and stay? I’m desperate to see you again. We could hang out like we did before. It’ll be just like the old times, me and you.
    Write back (the address is at the top of the letter) would love to hear from you!
     
    Miss you Jim!
    Your friend, Pen With my heart thumping in my chest, I read the letter over and over and was so pleased to know that Pen was safe and well. I then folded it, placed it back into the envelope, and tucked it into my trouser pocket. I couldn’t risk Chloe reading it. Not just because it was from another woman, but because it spoke of The Hollows, the Fountain of Souls, and what Pen and I really were – a Vampyrus and a Lycanthrope. I wrote back at once and told her everything. I explained how much I had missed her, and spent so much of the last seven years wondering what had happened to her. I wrote about my mother and brother, then told her I had joined the police force. With the pen poised over the paper, I looked up at where Chloe still lay asleep above me. Then, taking a deep breath, I wrote that I had met a girl called Chloe and how much I loved her. I hoped that Pen would understand and still want to see me. Once dressed, I left the tiny house I shared with Chloe, and posted the letter to Pen. As I walked back to the house, all of those feelings I had once felt for Pen came rushing back through me. I could vividly remember all those lazy afternoons we had spent together, the night we had spent in The Hollows, and that kiss we had shared. It was that kiss I kept playing over and over in my mind as I tried to crush the feelings it had woken inside of me.
    Back at the house, I found Chloe wearing her night dress and sitting at the kitchen table. She had a steaming mug of coffee in one hand.
    “Okay, honey?” she smiled. “You don’t look well –