night

The night had deepened into more shadows by the time I found myself before the vacant house once more. But let me not hasten ahead of myself for this venture had begun not in the dead of night, but in the crisp clarity of morning when I resolved, most prudently, to suspend my investigation in favor of knowledge.

What, after all, is deduction without foundation? It was with this conviction that I made my way to the library at the earliest opportunity, seeking wisdom in the pages of timeworn tomes. I scoured volumes on natural history, folklore, and the peculiarities of foxes, those enigmatic creatures that have, across cultures, been ascribed an intelligence beyond mere instinct. My readings unveiled accounts of foxes as spectral harbingers. Was it a mere beast that had led me here, or something more?

Pondering these mysteries, I took my afternoon tea in silence, the riddle now coiled tightly around my mind. The evening fell heavy upon my shoulders, and I retired to bed, but sleep was a fickle visitor. I tossed and turned, the unanswered questions gnawing at the edges of my mind like some unseen specter. At last, some invisible force roused me at the ungodly hour of two in the morning, compelling me once more into the night.

The city lay in hushed repose, its gaslights flickering like lonely sentinels. I moved with measured steps, my course unerring as though dictated by some unseen hand. The mist clung to the alleyways, curling in ghostly tendrils around my feet as I approached the house. I had taken this path instinctively, drawn not to the front door but to the side, where a shattered window yawned like the mouth of a long-forgotten crypt.

Carefully, I raised myself to the ledge and peered within.

A figure stood in the gloom, his presence an unearthly silhouette against the meager light filtering through the fractured woodwork. His posture was one of quiet deliberation, his hands working with meticulous precision. And there, before him, was  Hello hello hello it is indeed a great fox. The fox unnaturally still, save for the flicker of intelligence in its luminous eyes. My breath caught as I watched his fingers unfasten a collar from the creature’s neck. A curious thing, that collar it gleamed faintly in the dimness, as though woven with relief. The instant it was removed, the very air within the house shifted, thickening with an inexplicable presence, like the breath of something ancient stirring in the dark.

I remained motionless, scarcely daring to exhale. Who was this man? And what unfathomable purpose was at work here? I had sought answers, but in that moment, I found only more questions and the distinct and unsettling notion that I was standing upon the precipice.