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Listen to emotionally charged novels for free, one chapter at a time.
I’m Stephanie Chamberlain, an indie author writing about the raw experience of being human. Stories of survival, profound change, and the occasional inadvertent comedy of living through it all.
I believe the written word offers an irreplaceable way of encountering ourselves, one another, and the world. Something so powerful should remain within reach, regardless of what a reader can afford. That is why I serialize my novels in both text and audio for free.
Season 1 is The Wolf That Hunts Me, a haunting YA psychological and supernatural thriller about mental illness, fear, control, and a creature that pushes a fifteen-year-old boy to the edge of both body and mind. The danger stalking him is terrifyingly real.
Read along at Letters from the Bone on Substack, the public home of the serialization:
https://lettersfromthebone.substack.com/
You can also read through Inkitt:
https://www.inkitt.com/stories/1846993
Keeping these books free requires support. Patreon is the space for readers who want to stand beside the work and help sustain the writing, narration, and continued free serialization. Support any paid tier while The Wolf That Hunts Me is being serialized, and you’ll receive the complete digital reading edition when it becomes available to the public:
https://www.patreon.com/StephanieChamberlain
Production note: The audio narration is produced using an ElevenLabs digital voice.
Asher’s eyes fluttered open slowly. Looking around, he discovered that he was on the bathroom floor inside his room in the cabin. For a couple of seconds, Asher didn’t know what he was doing there or what had happened. His head was lying against the bathtub wall. His body felt achy, and he felt incredibly drained. Was he sick?
When he stood up, something that took him quite the effort, a flood of information bombarded his mind. He almost lost his balance when everything that had happened came back to him.
The wolf at the dining table, his words about Asher killing his parents, the wolf and him in the bathroom, the tortuous mental battle between the two of them… And finally, the physical part of the battle… But he couldn’t remember anything after that. The only thing that was absolutely clear to Asher is how incredibly exhausted the whole encounter with the wolf had left him. Tackling the wolf had taken every bit of energy remaining in him.
By how his body had been positioned when he opened his eyes, Asher couldn’t think of any other explanation. He concluded that he had fallen asleep out of sheer exhaustion after the tackle, and that he had unconsciously looked for a more comfortable position to sleep, ending up laying against the bathtub.
Asher stood up and stretched. After leaving the bathroom, he sat down slowly on his bed, trying to take in all the things that had happened with the wolf and everything that he had felt that morning, including his current feelings.
It was a lot, and thinking about it just made Asher feel even more overwhelmed and tired. He really wanted to close his eyes and sleep for hours and hours.
“Sleep…” Asher thought out loud. In the middle of all the mess in his head, he saw the smallest of lights shining through the threads of what felt like a big ball of tangled yarn.
He had fallen asleep in the middle of an encounter with the wolf and this had made the animal go away. The wolf couldn’t get to him if he was sleeping.
This was an amazing revelation. Asher had just discovered what seemed to be the first effective and decent way of preventing the wolf from appearing. Gaining some momentum from this newfound sense of hope, Asher stood up again and started packing all his things.
Asher and his parents started to put all the bags in the car while Noah took his last nap before hitting the road. As their departure grew closer, Asher began to feel anxious. He was realizing that driving back home meant being stuck with his mom, dad, and brother in a small space for around two hours and without having a single way to escape. That was like the perfect invitation for the wolf, and Asher wanted to avoid him at all costs.
After a couple of minutes, Asher decided that the best thing he could do was to sleep through the drive. But he was getting increasingly anxious. It didn’t really feel like he would be able to sleep at all. He needed to force himself to sleep.
Asher’s mom walked past him, carrying several items, one of which, Asher thought, could be the perfect solution to his problem.
“H-hey, Mom. Can you pass me the cough syrup please? My throat feels kind of sore.”
“Oh, sure, honey,” she replied as she opened the first aid kit and took the bottle out. “Here you go,” she added, giving Asher the medicine. “Thanks, Mom.”
Asher knew that cold syrup usually made him drowsy. But this time, he needed certainty. In the kitchen, he doubled his usual dose and went back to the car to put the bottle away. He began to feel a little less anxious. The syrup’s effect just needed to kick in soon and last long enough, he thought.
“All right! Let’s get moving!” Asher’s dad said.
Asher sat in the back next to Noah, who was sitting in his car seat. The engine started humming, and a couple of seconds later, they were already on their way.
Looking through the rearview mirror, Asher saw how the cabin became smaller and smaller as they drove farther away from it. He couldn’t believe how that pretty and innocent looking little house now represented so much to him.
It was the place where he had first seen a wolf up close, a gorgeous creature with mesmerizing eyes. It was also the place where he had first been attacked by a wolf, one who had turned out to be the cruelest animal Asher had ever met. He had torn his flesh and his mind.
That cabin now represented extreme fear and despair to Asher. It was the place where he had discovered what anxiety felt like. The place where he had experienced the most horrible emotions and sensations in his whole life. It had only been a weekend, but at times it had felt like an eternity, with every suffocating and painful second lasting for what seemed like hours.
Asher kept looking back at the cabin through the mirror until the trees and the turns in the road hid it from sight. At the same time, he began to feel groggy. Sleep was probably just around the corner, Asher realized. This thought helped him feel much calmer. Closing his eyes, he got ready to fall into a deep slumber.
* * *
The never-ending beeps emitted by his smartphone’s alarm finally woke Asher up. He grabbed the phone and stopped the alarm. Still feeling very sleepy, Asher sat up and looked at the time: Monday, 6:30 a.m. A vague memory of him getting out of the car the night before sailed through his mind. Slightly staggering, he had walked straight to his room. Then he had fallen asleep immediately. That cough syrup had really worked wonderfully, Asher thought to himself.
There was just enough time for him to get ready for school. Asher also noticed that Chris had texted him the day before, asking how things had gone back at the cabin. He replied, saying that it was a long story. Asher suggested meeting at the park before school to catch up, to which Chris quickly agreed.
After a couple of minutes, Asher was finally feeling fully awake. It was Monday and he would have soccer practice, so he packed all his soccer stuff before getting in the shower. As he continued to get ready, Asher began to feel kind of hopeful again, thinking that he would be going to school where the wolf certainly wouldn’t come because his family never really went inside, they just took him there and picked him up later, and this didn’t even happen every day.
Asher opened his bedroom door and made his way downstairs to the kitchen. As he walked, he had his eyes on his phone. Some people had sent Asher text messages wishing him a happy belated birthday, and he was gladly replying to say thanks. Even if these congratulations had arrived late, he still appreciated them.
Once in the kitchen, Asher checked the time before putting the phone back in his pocket. It was already 7:03 a.m., and school started at 8:00
a.m. He needed to hurry if he wanted to meet Chris before classes began.
“Morning, guys,” Asher said to his parents as he approached the dining table to take a seat. Right when he pulled out his chair, his left foot stepped on something.
“Careful, boy.”
Asher didn’t even need to look around. That manner of speaking and that cold, cavernous voice were unmistakable to him by now. Asher swallowed hard as he lifted his foot from the wolf’s fluffy tail.
The creature was sitting next to Asher’s usual spot at the table. He looked harmless for a second. That all ended when he spoke again in Asher’s mind.
“Asher, I am everywhere. I told you that you could not escape me.”
Adrenaline and fear started taking hold of Asher’s body, especially when he remembered his harrowing previous experience with the wolf.
“Look at your lovely parents. Killed by their perfect eldest son.”
A swirl of images invaded Asher’s mind. He was killing his mother, his father, Noah. Asher shut his eyes tightly in a failed attempt to stop seeing himself doing these things. He shook his head and opened his eyes. “I already told you, wolf!” Asher said in his mind, which was becoming increasingly slower and foggier. “I will not kill my mom, or my dad, or Noah! Ever!”
“You will kill Noah. You will kill your mother. You will kill your father. You will kill your family!”
The wolf kept repeating these words in Asher’s mind, quickly destroying any shred of energy left in his brain to fight back. Asher’s anxiety was rising rapidly, and he felt like the floor had turned into quicksand. He was stuck. He was sinking. But he couldn’t drown here in the presence of his parents. They couldn’t know anything about this. This had to stop.
The wolf kept repeating the same words, accompanied now by the horrible images, but in the middle of all the noise, a thought crossed Asher’s mind like an arrow.
The wolf hadn’t appeared right away when Asher left the cabin. He hadn’t chased the car. The wolf had only arrived much later at his house. So there was a chance that if he got on his bike right now and rode quickly towards the park, he would be able to leave the wolf behind for a little while at least. Then, if he hurried with Chris to school, he could probably get away with escaping the wolf for the rest of the day. As long as he remained inside the school building, Asher thought, he would be safe.
He had to take this chance.
“Hey, guys, I’m supposed to meet Chris before school. So I’ll take some food to go, and I’ll be leaving on my bike so you don’t have to leave this early, Mom,” Asher said as he grabbed all his stuff. He tried to act as casual as he could.
“All right, birthday boy!” his mom said. “Have a good day!”
Gabriel barely nodded at this. Asher could only wonder what was going through his father’s zombie mind.
After having said goodbye, Asher rushed to the garage. He grabbed his bike and arranged all his things. As soon as he was done, he left his house.
Asher started pedaling fast to make it to the park as soon as he could. Less than fifty feet away from his house, though, Asher heard a faint voice calling his name.
It was such a quiet sound at first that he didn’t make much of it. He tried to focus and keep his eyes on the road, but the voice started to become louder and louder.
“Asher! Asher!” the voice kept yelling, sounding dangerously close now. It was only then that he could tell that the voice wasn’t coming from the outside.
It was in his mind... The wolf was close.
Asher glanced around anxiously as he kept riding his bike, but there was nothing. The feeling of being chased grew rapidly inside of him, making his feet pedal even faster.
Just after having made a right turn at the end of the first block, a new sound pierced Asher’s ears. It was different. It was not in Asher’s mind, but very much outside in the physical world. It resembled the rapid gallop of a wild horse.
Out of the corner of his left eye, Asher saw a gray blur that was approaching him at a high speed. His heart skipped a beat.
“Asher! Boy, do not run away from me when I am talking to you!”
The wolf’s voice was like thunder. He seemed angrier and more aggressive than ever. Just keep going until you get to the park, Asher thought to himself, trying to remain calm. But his hands had already started shaking, and then his whole body, too. Keeping the bike steady was turning into a difficult task. Against his will, Asher’s trembling legs began to move slower.
Suddenly, he felt a strong tug at his left leg. Something had gotten a hold of his jeans. Asher quickly looked to his side and saw that the wolf’s teeth were grabbing his pants. Horrified, he started shaking his leg vigorously, trying to break free. But the wolf’s grip was incredibly strong. The bike swerved from side to side as Asher continued to move his left leg around.
Not getting any results, Asher decided to try to land a kick on the wolf’s head. This only made controlling the bike more complicated. Asher needed to not lose sight of the road, but he also needed to take quick glances to his left side to attempt to kick the wolf that was hunting him.
Asher tried his best to keep the bike in balance at the same time that he coordinated all his shaky movements. It was hard, and he was becoming increasingly tired. The only thing that kept him from giving up was that he was very close to the park now. A tiny sliver of hope flashed before Asher’s eyes.
“Aaaaah!”
The sting of the wolf’s teeth perforating the skin and flesh around his left ankle and the pain that followed immediately destroyed any traces of hope. Asher had screamed in agony.
His eyes closed for a split second and he completely lost control of the bike as the wolf’s bite pulled him downwards, causing the bike to tip to the left.
Asher tried to put his left foot down to stop himself from falling to the ground, but the wolf wouldn’t let go of him. The animal was out of control and kept tugging at Asher’s ankle, digging his teeth deeper into his skin.
Failing to gain control of the bike, Asher’s body fell to the ground with a loud thud. He had landed on top of the wolf, who seemed to be temporarily unconscious and had finally let go of Asher.
Bright red streams poured from his ankle, and a throbbing pain wrapped around his foot and lower calf. Asher was feeling so weak that he wanted to stay there, sitting on the road for a minute. But he had to seize this opportunity to escape from the wolf.
With a lot of effort, Asher began to stand up. Just as he was steadying himself, he lifted his head and saw a white sedan zooming in his direction. Asher’s eyes widened. The struggle with the wolf had taken them out of the bike lane and onto the road. The car wasn’t slowing down. Asher was about to be run over.
He started to limp out of the way as fast as he could, heart beat racing, body shaking uncontrollably. The white car kept getting closer and Asher feared that he really wouldn’t be able to make it. Clenching his jaw, he jumped to the right side of the road and rolled once he hit the ground. It was until then that the sedan seemed to notice him and quickly swerved to the left, leaving Asher untouched but terrified. Immediately, he got up and limped a little further to the right until he reached the sidewalk. He sat next to a tree, leaning his body against the trunk. Breathing rapidly, trembling, Asher couldn’t believe what had just happened.
He was alive. For now.