The Tiff Singularity (A Collection of Lake Wonder Fiction)

ZANE SHADE'S AUDIO FILES: WEREWOLF SPOTTING (TENNESSEE), RECORDING 1

[AUDIO BEGINS]

Hey, my trusty digital recorder. It's Zane Shade here-- but you knew that. I knew that. I'm the only one who's going to listen to this file, anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter.

I'm in Knoxville right now. I've been here for a few days, actually, and I have a few days to go until my bus leaves town for New York. Do you know how haunted that place is? It's insane.

Anyway, I came to Knoxville to take a look at that Farragut Hotel place, only I guess I didn't look into it nearly enough, because they're turning it into a Hyatt and I didn't even know. I figure I'm going to have to find something else to investigate. I'm just glad I didn't say anything on Twitter.

Mom won't stop calling me. I would think something was wrong if I didn't see her posting on Facebook like nothing's wrong. It's not my fault, or maybe it is.

[SIGH]

She just... She keeps calling me while I'm recording. I don't want to not talk to her. I just wish she would call me at some other time, you know? Maybe I should call her or something. I don't know. Things have been weird since Dad--

[SOMETHING FALLS; SOMETHING HOWLS]

The fuck was that?

[A CHAIR SCRAPES ACROSS THE GROUND; FOOTSTEPS; THE SOUND OF BLINDS OPENING PARTIALLY]

Holy shit.

[SHAKY BREATH]

Holy shit.

There's this huge wolf in the parking lot. This is insane. This is insane. That's not a normal wolf. Are--

[ZANE GULPS]

Are wolves even indigenous to Tennessee? I'm not looking that up. I'm not looking away. It's a giant-ass wolf in a-- Is that a University of Tennessee shirt? I don't know. And it's not, like, a wolf wolf, it's more like a wolf man, or like a wolf woman-- I don't know, it's too bulky and hairy to make out many other features. It's like a cross between the Wolfman and Ginger Fitzgerald and the Big Bad Wolf from that showing of Into The Woods I saw forever ago? Yeah, like that. It's wearing an orange shirt and jeans, like a person, and it's just standing there on the road, picking something out of its bare feet. This is-- this is insane. It's huge, it's like seven or eight feet tall, it's--

[SWALLOW]

It's gone.

[SHAKY BREATH]

Oh my god. Oh my god. I think I found the subject of my next video.

[AUDIO ENDS]