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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.
After checking that the wolf wasn’t anywhere near, Asher closed his eyes for a moment, trying to catch his breath. The shakiness gradually left his body as he kept repeating to himself that the wolf had vanished and that he was sitting safely on the sidewalk now.
A couple of seconds later, the sound of his phone’s ringtone startled him, making him open his eyes abruptly.
It was Chris.
“Hey, Asher, where are you? Did something happen? I called you because you were taking longer than usual, man.”
“Things really got out of control this time, Chris… He came after me. He chased me. He bit me, my ankle… I’m close to the park.”
“Stay there. Just send me your location, and I’ll go find you.”
After the call ended, Asher sent Chris his location. Less than a minute had gone by when his friend appeared around the corner riding his bike. At the sight of Asher, he dropped it on the ground.
“Bro, you don’t look well at all. What happened?” Chris sat down on the sidewalk next to Asher, eyes searching his face.
Asher told Chris all the details about how the wolf had come running after him, calling his name. He explained how the animal had first grabbed his jeans and how Asher had tried to shake him off and how the wolf had finally resorted to biting him when he had tried to kick him in the face.
“And he kept pulling me to his side, digging his teeth into my skin. I couldn’t control the bike. It was all over the place with him pulling to the left and me trying to bring it back up to the right… I really tried to steady the bike, but he’s so strong... That thing just beat me. We fell to the ground, and I fell on top of him. The wolf was knocked out. I tried to stand up and then I almost got run over…”
“What?”
“Yes… Apparently, the whole struggle had made us move from the bike lane into the normal lane. I hadn’t noticed until I saw this car driving straight in my direction. I tried to get out of the way, limping, but the car was driving fast, so I jumped to the right and tried to land on the bike lane. The driver only saw me then and swerved to the left.”
“Asher, that’s messed up. I never would’ve thought that the wolf would go that far!”
“Yeah,” Asher agreed. A sharp pain surrounding his ankle made him grimace and put his hands around the bite.
“Your foot! We have to do something about it.” Chris took a closer look at the ankle area. “Uh, it’s not looking great, bro.”
Asher’s best friend was normally a very calm and unexaggerated person. If he had said this, it meant that things must be very bad.
Drawing a deep breath to brace himself, Asher took a careful look at the skin under his sock. The sight of his left foot was pure horror. There were holes in his skin, and what was even more gruesome, there were little pieces of torn flesh hanging from them.
“This is bad, Chris. There’s no way that I’ll be able to hide this from my parents. Wha-wha-what am I gonna tell them? And h-how will I stop this pain? And look at it, Chris, it’s still bleeding. And my sock and my shoe, they have blood on them. My mom’s gonna see them, and they’re gonna start asking questions, and I… I… What will I say? They’re gonna think that I’m crazy. I’m crazy… A wolf… The thoughts, the images… They’re gonna be scared of me! They’ll think that I really want to kill them! All of them! Oh, God! They’ll kick me out of my house and—”
“Asher! Asher! Look at me!”
Asher was shaking and breathing as if he wasn’t getting enough oxygen. Making a huge effort, he managed to face Chris.
“Asher, buddy, that’s not true. That’s not gonna happen. We can handle this in a way that doesn’t make your parents find out about the wolf. It’s gonna be all right.”
Chris’s voice sounded very calm. Asher tried to focus on his best friend’s words and to trust him.
“We’re gonna have to go to the hospital. You’re most definitely getting some stitches. They’re gonna ask you how you got that injury. But it’s gonna be okay! You’re gonna tell them that a dog bit you, and I will be the witness to that. We’ll even stick to the true events: the dog bit you when you were riding your bike, and everything that follows. They will fix you up and no one will know about the wolf!”
Chris talked slowly and clearly. He squeezed Asher’s right shoulder and looked him calmly in the eye as he spoke.
“And then we’ll get an Uber to your place. We’ll tell your parents that we didn’t make it to school because of everything that happened. If they ask you why you didn’t call them immediately or something, well, we just say that it all happened so fast and you were in pain and you were really only thinking about going straight to the hospital. And I’ll be there all the time, Asher. It’s gonna be okay, bro. I’ll make sure that everything goes smoothly until you can go and rest your foot in your room in peace. How does that sound?”
Chris smiled as he waited for Asher’s reply, an encouraging expression on his face.
“I guess not too bad, bro... Thanks,” Asher said, with a hint of relief in his voice.
Since Asher wasn’t able to walk very fast and the hospital wasn’t that close by foot, the boys got an Uber. For safety reasons, Chris’s parents preferred him taking Ubers or taxis as opposed to public transport. They were also kind enough to always invite Asher to these rides whenever he was going somewhere with Chris. As for the bikes, they were left parked on the sidewalk.
* * *
Maybe it was because of the time—it was still pretty early in the morning, after all—but the hospital wasn’t very busy. Asher had expected to have at least a moment to mentally prepare himself before getting checked by the doctor, but they were sent into a cubicle practically right after they had approached the counter.
The environment was slightly quiet, and when Asher had to sit down on the hospital bed and remove his left shoe and sock, he was already feeling anxious about other people being able to listen to the things that he would say to the doctor.
“It doesn’t matter if anyone hears you talking, Asher. Remember that it’s just a dog! Your everyday, crazy neighborhood dog! Nothing out of the ordinary. It’s gonna be okay!” Chris whispered with reassurance.
A woman walked into the cubicle. She wore a white coat with a rectangular name tag that read “Dr. Foster”. Just looking at her made Asher feel a little less anxious because she reminded him of his mother.
She looked younger than his mom, but her face was also covered in a multitude of tiny freckles. Her green eyes made them look like the sand that wrapped around a vast lake. The image of small waves lapping a green lake’s shoreline had a calming effect on Asher.
“Hi, Asher. I’m Doctor Amanda Foster. Let’s see what we have here, shall we?” the doctor asked warmly. Asher nodded in silence.
Dr. Foster proceeded to do a visual examination of Asher’s ankle. Then, she used her hands to feel the surrounding area while she asked Asher questions regarding the pain and sensations that he felt. Since the amount of pain had increased in the time that it had taken the boys to get to the hospital, Asher’s eyes watered at the touch of the doctor’s hands. He was very honest about this, too, making it completely clear that this was the worst injury that he had ever suffered.
“So, you say that this was a dog bite?” Dr. Foster asked, tilting her head sideways and slightly squinting her eyes.
“Yes,” Asher answered uncomfortably, wondering nervously why she was asking about this again when he had already given her the full dog version of the events.
“I saw my friend from the sidewalk, Doctor Foster. Like he told you, the dog just grabbed on to his ankle when he was riding his bike and then wouldn’t let go,” Chris said. For once, Asher was thankful that lying came so easily to his best friend.
“Hmm… I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a deep bite from a dog… It must have been quite a big and strong dog…”
Asher was becoming more anxious, but thankfully, Chris intervened again.
“You’re right, doctor! Now that you mention it, the dog was indeed pretty big and muscular. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a dog in my life.”
That seemed to have settled it for Dr. Foster, since she finally began to explain what would follow. Because this was an unknown dog, Asher might have been exposed to rabies. Therefore, he would need to undergo the according treatment, which included a total of four rabies vaccines spread throughout approximately four weeks. He would receive the first shot that same day. Additionally, and just as important, she would need to treat the wound and stitch it up with sutures right away.
Asher was definitely not looking forward to having to come back to the hospital three more times or to getting four shots. And the idea of Dr. Foster having to “treat” his wound, which likely meant cleaning it thoroughly and probably painfully, did not sound enticing, either. On the bright side, though, Asher was feeling relieved that the doctor had apparently already left the whole dog subject behind.
“I know all this doesn’t sound great, Asher, but you need to know that you’re actually really lucky. This bite is so bad that you could have actually ended up with permanent damage to your ankle, foot and even your calf. Do you play any sports?” Dr. Foster asked.
“I really like soccer,” Asher replied.
“Well, you could be saying goodbye to soccer or any sport for that matter, and to normal walking, obviously. Like I said, you’ve been very lucky! Oh, and be thankful that you don’t have to get twenty-one injections into your stomach! That’s how it worked with rabies in the past! So all in all, I would say that you’re in a pretty good spot, given the circumstances,” the doctor said brightly.
She looked at Asher with a gentle smile on her face and then asked him to lie down. Chris sat down on a chair next to the hospital bed. He didn’t speak a word.
Asher stared intently at the white ceiling, waiting nervously for the pain to start and wondering at the same time why Chris had suddenly become so quiet. Then he sensed Dr. Foster’s hands touching his foot. A particular stinging sensation began to take over his ankle. Asher grimaced. Strangely, this was followed by a long yawn. It had been an intense morning and, despite the pain, Asher found himself falling asleep on the hospital bed.
* * *
Asher felt a hand touching his shoulder lightly. He opened his eyes in a confused state. For a moment, he didn’t understand where he was or what he was doing there. A couple of seconds later, Asher remembered that he was in the hospital with Chris and Dr. Foster. It was her hand that had woken him up.
“You’re all done, Asher!” Dr. Foster said, handing him a slip of paper. “These are the medicines that you need to take to treat the pain. I’ve also added the dates when you need to come back for your rabies vaccines to your prescription. You’ll also have your stitches checked when you come back.”
“Thanks so much for your help, doctor,” Asher said as he got out of the hospital bed.
The boys waved goodbye and exited the cubicle while Dr. Foster remained inside, taking some notes.
“Wow, I’ve never had so many stitches in my life,” Asher said. “Actually, I’ve only received stitches once before when I cut my knee that time that we were playing soccer after school. It was like three years ago if I’m not mistaken. Do you remember? Just a couple of stitches and that was all. But this was pretty nasty.”
“Yes. I remember that time,” Chris answered curtly.
A long silence followed as they walked out of the hospital and waited for their Uber. This made Asher feel weird. It wasn’t like Chris to allow for long pauses like that one to happen. He usually always kept the conversation going once it had begun. In fact, pretty much everything simply tended to flow smoothly between Chris and Asher, be it conversations, video games, playing soccer; anything, really.
The Uber arrived, and the boys got inside. They were both sitting in the back, but Asher felt like they couldn’t be further apart in reality.
Chris’s silence had stretched so long, it continued to fill the space between them throughout the whole car ride.
A few minutes later, Asher and Chris were dropped off at the location where they had left their bikes. They got off the car and slowly walked along the sidewalk. Asher glanced at Chris’s face, and he was surprised at how serious his friend looked.
“Hey, bro, are you okay?” Asher asked.
A pause followed. Chris didn’t even look back at him. He didn’t react in any way at all.
“Chris, what’s wrong, man?”
Chris stopped walking all of a sudden. He met Asher’s eyes. Taking a better look at his expression, Asher could see that Chris wasn’t just serious, he was angry.