Davion instantly thought of the video his friends had shown him earlier that day.


    No way. Could they have really encountered the rumored wolf?


    He quickly disregarded the idea as soon as he thought of it.


    There was no way. It was just a coincidence that the description of the dog sounded and looked like the wolf in the rumors. If it had really been a wolf, then his grandparents wouldn''t have been so calm about it. Encountering a wolf was nothing like encountering a dog.


    "What happened?" one of his cousins asked.


    "It suddenly disappeared," one of the cousins who had been there said as he motioned with his hands. "Gone."


    One of his uncles frowned and turned to look at her grandparents. "Why didn''t you mention this earlier?"


    "We didn''t see the animal," Davion''s grandma said. "We just heard the kids shouting about a dog, but when we looked, it wasn''t there."


    "It probably got scared off by so many people," his grandpa said with a wave of his hand. "It wasn''t a big deal."


    The conversation quickly changed to another topic, but Davion couldn''t focus on what was being said. His mind kept lingering on what they had just discussed. Even though he was certain it was just a big dog, like his cousins said, his mind conjured up images of them facing a snarling wolf.


    "So what are your plans for tonight? Will you be heading back, or are you going to be trick-or-treating with us?" his mother said, her voice cutting through his thoughts.


    "Since we''re all here, we might as well," one of his aunts said.


    "We didn''t bring any costumes, though," one of his uncles pointed out.


    "We can just go buy one from the store."


    Instantly, there was a chorus of voices discussing whether the store was open and if they had any costumes available. Several of his cousins were throwing out ideas of what costumes they wanted to wear.


    Davion was glad that he had gotten his costume a week in advance. He couldn''t imagine trying to shop for one right at that moment.


    He glanced at his twin sister, whose expression reflected his thoughts. She seemed to notice his stare and stared right back at him. Her face took on a fierce expression before she abruptly looked away.


    She must still be angry that I took her red cloak before. I hope she doesn''t try something while we trick-or-treat.


    Someone loudly cleared their throat, quieting the group down. Davion watched as his father lowered his raised fist and scanned the crowd without saying a single word.


    Just as Davion wondered what his father was doing, his father said, "I have a suggestion. Since lunch is basically over, how about we let everyone decide for themselves what they want to do? For those who want to go shopping for costumes, you should head out now. Everyone else can either stay here, head back, or do whatever."


    "Sounds good to me," one of his uncles said.


    "We should go now," one of his aunts said as she stood up with her finished plate.


    There were murmured agreements as several people stood up from the different tables. Davion silently observed everyone going into the kitchen to place their dirty plates in the sink before heading their separate ways. Many of them headed out intent on buying costumes for his cousins to go trick-or-treating. Some sat back down at the tables to chat with who was left. A few wandered off to some other part of the house.


    "Davion." He snapped his head in the direction of his mother''s voice. "Don''t play with your food. Finish it before it gets too cold."


    "Yes, Mom," he said before taking another bite.


    After shoveling the food into his mouth, he walked into the kitchen to wash his plate. He grimaced at the stack of plates filling the sink. With a grumble, he washed some of the plates, including his own, before putting them into the rack. Leaving a couple of dirty plates for his twin sister to wash, he hurried away to find something to do.


    There wasn''t a lot he could do. He wasn''t interested in hanging out with his cousins, and the adults were just talking about boring stuff, so he didn''t want to stick around either.


    After some thought, he locked himself in his room and pulled out his laptop from its place in its bag on the desk. Davion set it down on the floor to open it and stared at the screen where it asked for the password. He took a moment to glance at the locked door before logging into his laptop. Once he was in, he opened the web browser to search about the wolf rumors to learn more about it.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Most of what he found was the same as what he had found earlier on his phone and his friend''s phone.


    This looks so fake. How many of these videos are edited to make it look like a wolf? I could do better.


    Davion scrolled through several websites and videos before resting his head on the floor.


    He couldn''t find anything new about the wolf. All the information he found basically parroted the same thing over again. However, he did notice that there wasn''t a new article or video for the day. Without fail, there had always been something about the wolf every day, whether it was some random post talking about another wolf sighting or someone rehashing the same old stuff. Maybe someone would post something later.


    A knock on the door startled him. Davion instantly shut his laptop and scurried to put it back into place.


    There was another knock on the door followed by his mother''s voice. "Davion, are you in there? You shouldn''t be hiding out in your room while everyone''s here. Come out."


    "Coming, Mom," he said as he rushed to unlock the door and open it.


    His mother gave him a look before shooing him away to hang out with his cousins.


    <hr noshade="noshade" size="1">


    When Davion stumbled upon one of his baby cousins drooling over one of his old toys in the living room, he wrinkled his face in disgust.


    Even if he didn''t play with them anymore—Davion couldn''t even remember the last time he touched the toy blocks—they were still his toys. He didn''t want anyone playing with them, much less have his baby cousin cover them in saliva.


    Davion stormed over and tugged the toy block out of his baby cousin''s grip. Unfortunately, this caused his baby cousin to promptly burst into tears. His baby cousin wailed, reaching out for the toy block just out of his reach. He, on the other hand, took this chance to snatch up the other toy blocks nearby. Suddenly, several people showed up to see what the commotion was. One look was enough for everyone to figure out what happened.


    "Davion, why are you picking on your cousin?" one of his aunts demanded, snatching his crying baby cousin off from the ground. "He''s just a baby."


    He didn''t get a chance to defend himself as one of his cousins said, "Just give the toy back to him. "His crying is making my ears bleed."


    You want me to give my toys to my baby cousin? No way.


    "Auntie, it''s not safe for the baby to play with," his twin sister chimed in from behind the crowd. "The baby is going to hurt himself if he keeps playing with Davion''s old toys."


    His aunt, holding his sobbing baby cousin, frowned. "He was just fine earlier. He only started crying when Davion took the toy away from him."


    "I think she has a point. These don''t look like one of those soft baby toys," one of his uncles pointed out.


    Everyone stared at the wooden toy blocks in Davion''s hands.


    "He''s right. Those don''t look safe for a baby to play with," someone muttered.


    "Who was supposed to be watching the baby?" another asked.


    All eyes turned to his aunt cradling his whimpering baby cousin.


    Flustered, she said, "I just set him down for a moment. His other cousins are playing in the same room as him. Nothing was going to happen to him."


    "Well, the baby somehow got into the toy box to get his hands on the toy blocks," someone dryly said.


    At the mention of his toy box, Davion glanced at the opened box sitting in the middle of the living room.


    Wasn''t it supposed to be on one of the shelves? There''s no way a baby could reach it and pull it down on his own. How did it get down here?


    Davion quickly got his answer when he spotted one of his cousins hiding in the corner holding something. His eyes widened as he realized it was one of his toy cars that had also been in the toy box. With a stormy expression, he marched over.


    "Where did you get that?" he demanded as he pointed at the toy car.


    His cousin glanced up and said, "I grabbed it from the shelf. Why? No one was playing with it."


    "It''s mine. Give it back."


    "Why? You aren''t playing with it. Why can''t I play with it?"


    "You didn''t ask. Give it back now."


    Instead of listening to Davion, his cousin kept the toy car out of reach. Davion scowled as he reached out to take it back. They ended up sprawled on the ground fighting over the toy car.


    The adults instantly swarmed to break them up. "Knock it off, you two."


    The two were pried apart, and Davion glared at his cousin, who was still holding onto his toy car.


    "What''s going on?" Davion''s mother''s voice cut through the air as she made her way through the crowd. As soon as she saw the scene, her expression turned serious. "Davion, what are you doing? Didn''t I ask you to play with your cousins?"


    Keeping his gaze fixed on his cousin, Davion said, "He took my toys without asking me and shared them."


    "Aren''t these your old toys? You haven''t played with them in years. What''s wrong with letting them play with them?"


    "They didn''t ask. They just took them."


    His mother didn''t speak right away. She pursed her lips as if thinking about something.


    Then she said, "Davion, you still shouldn''t fight with them. They just wanted to play. You weren''t here to play with them, so they couldn''t ask you to borrow your toys. I''m sure they would have asked you if you were here."


    His cousin, holding the toy car, nodded along. Davion grimaced, feeling betrayed that his mom wouldn''t side with him.


    "What do you say, you two?" his mother asked.


    Crossing his arms, Davion refused to say a word.


    On the other hand, his cousin said, "Sorry, Davion. Can we play with your toys?"


    Even though Davion wanted to tell him no, he knew that would only upset his mom and relatives. They clearly were on his cousin''s side, so nothing he said would make them back off for him.


    He huffed. "Fine."


    "Davion, did you forget something else?" his mother asked.


    "...Sorry for pushing you to the ground."


    His cousin just nodded before going right back to playing with the toy car.


    "See. You don''t have to make it such a big deal. Now be good," his mother said before she walked away.


    The rest of his relatives dispersed, with some sticking around to chat. Davion scanned his surroundings before crashing onto one of the couches. He got himself comfortable before pulling out his phone.


    Luckily, he brought his headphones so no one would complain about the noise.


    After pulling up some videos to watch, he ignored everyone else and let the sounds from the video drown everything else out. He didn''t know how long he had been watching random videos when he felt something nudge his shoulder. Davion tried to ignore it, but the person was persistent, and he was forced to remove his headphones.