Wolf Whitetail had been missing for five years. The town still searched for him. Each year, the reward for information leading to Wolf went up another $500.
The year Wolf was found, the reward had gone up to $3000. No one ever collected the reward.
Wolf’s parents were strangely unaffected by their son’s disappearance. When the town held a memorial for Wolf, they did not cry.
December 4th. The most magical month of the year.
Megan and Jordan Whitetail sat alone in their house when the phone’s shrill ring cut through the air. Jordan made a gesture toward it, and Megan rushed to answer it.
“Hello?” she asked.
“Mother.”
The voice made Megan tremble. “How can you be speaking? You’re gone!”
“You may have killed me but I will never be gone.”
“What are you talking about?!” Megan shrieked, her voice growing increasingly shrill with each word that she said. “I never killed you!”
“LIES!” Wolf roared. “You killed me! You and father both dragged me from my bed those five years ago, and you took me to the woods. There, you bound my wrists and ankles and gagged my mouth. When I tried to fight, tried to get away, you held me down while father slit my throat. You killed me. And you will pay.”
With that, Wolf hung up.
December 25th. The most magical day of the year.
Megan and Jordan hadn’t heard from Wolf since his call, all those weeks ago. Megan told Jordan about Wolf’s call, and they had both gone out to where they had buried their son in the woods, all those years ago.
The makeshift grave stood open. Wolf Whitetail was gone.
December 31st. The longest night of the year
There was a loud, hard knock at the door. Megan, curled up next to her husband on the couch, jumped.
When she opened it, Wolf stood there. His face was decayed and rotting, and she screamed in spite of herself when she saw him.
“Mother. I’ve come home.”
“No! You can’t be here! We killed you! We buried you!”
Wolf smiled, half of his face flopping open at the movement, and Megan shuddered. “I know you did. Which is why I am going to make you pay for what you did.”
“What do you want?” Megan asked.
“JUSTICE!”
With the last word, Wolf disappeared from sight, until all that remained was his voice: “Turn yourselves in. Only then will I rest.”
January 1st. An ordinary day
Megan and Jordan turned themselves in. Wolf got his justice. The town could rest, knowing Wolf was in a better place.
They buried Wolf in the graveyard next to his sister, Grace-Marie Whitetail, who had been murdered exactly six years earlier.
However, that murder was not the fault of Megan and Jordan. That murder was another story entirely.