Secrets of the Willow

Chapter 18 - Always watching.

“Well at least the Sheriff is finally pulling his finger out of his ass!” Yas commented as we walked across campus toward our dorm.

“I don’t think he was given much of a choice”. Natalie added as we looked on at several officers standing by their patrol cars monitoring the campus grounds. They were only here after several phone calls from our campus president to Sheriff Burke about how little they have done to ensure the safety of college students.

Even though no other students had gone missing or been attacked since the night of the carnival, we had noticed that we weren’t the only ones on edge. Some students had even returned to town to do their classwork out of fear of nearby colleges being under threat. Whether anyone else believed these attacks were because of a wolf, bear or something else, no one felt safe, including all the professors.

“It shouldn’t take them being forced to do something. Why are they so reluctant to do their job?” I questioned as the campus grounds suddenly became swarmed with students rushing to get to the dorm buildings in time for the curfew. We only had two hours until the sun would begin to set and even before it was complete darkness outside, no one wanted to be outside after their classes had finished for the day.

“So what’s everyone doing tonight? Another evening stuck in our rooms with nothing to do”. Natalie asked with a sigh.

“Actually, my roommate is staying in town so Darius will be sneaking in. I’ve only got an hour to quickly refresh myself and shave, but a night of hot s*x will definitely make this curfew worthwhile”. Yas grinned as we glanced at her amusingly.

“I guess I could just get my studying done”. Natalie said thoughtfully. “Although it won’t be as entertaining as hot s*x!” She chuckled.

“What about you, Eva? Anything exciting planned?”

“No, unfortunately Yas, I don’t have a horny guy sneaking into my room later, but I do have an essay to finish”. I answered with little enthusiasm.

“Not even Conall?” Yas questioned with a teasing smile.

“Conall?” Natalie quizzed with confusion. “Why would Conall go to her room?”

“Oh, our secretive friend here has failed to tell us about her and Conall snuggling up together the night in the library”. She replied in a cooing tone.

“What!” Natalie exclaimed with an intrigued brow raise. “Well how do you know about it?” She asked, looking at Yas.

“Because me and Darius saw them when we came back from the bathrooms. They were all cosy, cuddling and sleeping together”.

“What?”! Natalie gasped excitedly. “Why didn’t you tell us?” She asked, turning her attention onto me.

“Because we’re just friends”. I answered with a shrug.

“Hmmm, I’m not too sure. I do catch him looking at you a lot”. Yas chimed.

“No you don’t” I tutted with dismissal.

“I really do. Even Darius said he thinks Conall’s got a little crush on you”. She replied with a wide smile.

“He did?” I asked with interest.

“Oooh, she does like him!” Natalie chimed.

“I didn’t say that!” I rebuffed bashfully.

“If you didn’t like him then you wouldn’t care if Darius said that or not”. She retorted.

“Why don’t you just admit you like him?” Yas questioned. “It’s not like we’ll tell any of the boys. He’s a good looking guy and he seems to like you, so what’s the problem?”

I don’t know”. I huffed. “We’re just getting to know each other as friends. I’ll admit, I do really like him, but he’s good friends with the rest of the boys. If we rush things and it doesn’t work out, it’ll just be awkward when we all hang out”.

“Hmm, fair enough”. Yas said in acceptance. “But for what it’s worth, I think you two would be great together”.

“We’ll see”. I chuckled as we blew each other a kiss before separating into our own rooms.

It was just gone midnight by the time I finally looked up from my laptop and stretched up my arms as my bottom felt numb from being sat on my bed for hours. I looked over at Kate with a smile to see her sleeping soundly and realising I hadn’t even noticed her turn off the bedroom lights, leaving just my bedside lamp on so I could see my paperwork.

I got up from the bed to stretch out the rest of my body with a yawn, blinking rapidly through the sudden sleepiness in my eyes. I grabbed a biscuit from our shared cookie jar we always stocked up together and casually walked over to the window to see if the moon was shining as brightly as it had been the last few nights. But tonight it was mostly hidden by the clouds and just as I looked down at the cluster of trees just outside the bedroom window, my breath hitched, and my heart almost thumped out of my chest as I jumped back with fright. My chest was pounding as I saw the monster standing just before the trees staring up at me. It bared it’s teeth and ran it’s long tongue across it’s thin lips, it’s eyes glowing red in the dark as it watched me. I quickly blinked and shook my head, hoping I had just imagined it from being so tired, but when I looked again, it was still there, slightly tilting it’s head over one shoulder to the other as if it was planning it’s attack or sniffing out my weaknesses.

I suddenly backed away, my legs shaking until I could no longer see the ground from my window and the backs of my feet hit my bed. I fumbled to get onto it, pulling a blanket over my shoulders and clutching it in front of my face.

For a moment, I contemplated calling the Sheriff’s department, but we all knew it would be pointless and they’d just assume it was another attempt for attention. That’s when the idea struck me, and I quickly grabbed my phone and crawled across the floor over to the window. I angled my phone at the window without looking out of it as I tried to take a picture, but when I looked to see if I snapped a clear shot of the monster, there was nothing but a faint and dark picture of the trees and the grass.

I hesitantly perched myself up on my knees until I could just about peep through the glass, but just like the picture I took, there was nothing there. I flopped back down onto my bottom, sitting against the wall as I wondered to myself whether I did imagine it this time.. did I really see it standing out there watching me, or was I tired enough to think I did. But as my heart still pounded in my chest, that alone felt real enough.