WITHERBRANC

Chapter 2:Will Come For Her

It's 4 a.m. and I can't sleep.

I go downstairs for a glass of milk when I hear something in the backyard.

I look out the window. There's a figure crouched in the grass. At first, I think it's just an animal. Then I see it clearly.

It's eating. No—it's devouring. An animal. A f*****g animal.

I freeze. It looks up and stares right at me.

I hide behind the wall, my heart pounding. What the f**k was that?

I run to my room, cover myself with the blanket and whisper to myself, "This is a nightmare. This has to be a nightmare."

I don't sleep. At 7 a.m. my alarm rings. I haven't slept at all.

Shit.

I wash my face fast, throw on my clothes. I'm going to be late. When I go down the stairs, yesterday's fight with my parents hits me and for a second I don't want to go down at all. But I do.

I walk fast to the door. I hear my mom call, "Eat breakfast!" I just keep walking.

At the taxi stop, Derek is already there. He looks at me, confused.

"What happened to you? You look like a mummy with those eye bags," he says.

"Ha ha, so funny," I say, rubbing my eyes.

He says, "What time did you leave yesterday? I was looking for you to give you a ride. It was raining."

I almost tell him Ezra took me home. I stop myself.

"My dad picked me up," I lie.

He stares at me for a second, like he doesn't believe me. "Okay... I see."

Our taxi arrives. We get in and I see a mark on his neck.

"Can I ask you something? That mark on your neck, what happened?" I ask.

"Oh... this? Long story. I was playing with my dog and he scratched me."

I stare at him. I don't believe that lie for a second, but only he knows what really happened.

We get to school and we split up. "See you later, Derek."

"See you later, Thea."

I go to my classroom and sit down. Ezra is already there.

"I'm lucky you didn't get sick from the rain," he says.

"Thanks to you. Thanks for taking me home," I say.

He looks out the window at the sky. "Looks like it's going to rain again today. The wet girl thanking me. That's surprising."

"Shut up, i***t," I laugh a little.

"Wow... you have a beautiful smile. You should smile more, wet girl."

I stop smiling. Before I can answer, Mr. Gornit walks in.

"Everyone, take out your notebooks. Today you're picking partners for a project. To be fair, you'll draw a popsicle stick."

Everyone goes up. Of course.

I get him.

"Looks like you'll be seeing me more often, wet girl," he says.

"Screw you, i***t," I say, and I go sit down smiling inside without knowing why.

Later, in Derek's class. I walk in and there she is.

Tiffany. Just what I needed.

She sees me and says loud enough for everyone to hear, "Oh look, the scholarship girl is here." Her friends laugh.

"Leave me alone, Tiffany. Go bother someone else. Or are you just desperate for attention because your parents don't love you and you're always alone? That's why you're so ignorant?"

She just stares at me, shocked, her mouth open. She was going to say something, then she closed it and left, her face red, with her friends.

Derek looked surprised. "Wow... Thea, you never stop surprising me."

"Well, I'm not going to let some immature girl humiliate me."

I look at him for a few seconds. "Hey, Derek, you never told me if you have siblings."

"Oh. It's complicated, but yeah, I have a little sister. She's 18. What about you, do you have siblings?"

When Derek said those words, Thea's heart broke.

Because she did.

"Uh... I don't really want to talk about that."

I get up to go to the bathroom and Derek grabs my arm. "Did I say something wrong? If I made you uncomfortable, I'm sorry."

I just stare at him. "It's complicated. Can you let go of my arm, Derek?"

"Yeah, sorry. I don't know what came over me."

I go to the bathroom, look in the mirror. "Why does everything have to be so complicated?" I start to cry. "It's my fault. It always was. I should have tried harder to save him... damn it..."

A girl walks in, a little shorter than me, with glasses. She goes to wash her hands and notices me.

"Hey... are you okay? Do you need anything?"

I try to swallow my tears even though my throat closes up. "Yeah... I'm... thanks for asking. I just have a cold..." I force a laugh to hide it.

She doesn't believe me, but she doesn't push. "Oh, okay. Hey, by the way, the fair opens today. Do you want to come? I'd like to be your friend."

That surprised me. "I don't know if it's a good idea."

"Come on, I promise you won't regret it. You'll have fun."

I hesitate, but I say yes.

"Good! Then I'll see you there at 6 p.m.," she says.

"Yeah, okay. By the way, what's your name?"

"Oh, I'm so forgetful, I didn't introduce myself. Sorry," she laughs a little. "I'm Rebekah. And you?"

"I'm Thea. Nice to meet you."

"Well... see you at 6. Oh, by the way, is it okay if some friends of mine come too?"

"Not at all."

In physics class, I see Ezra again. I try to ignore him, but knowing him, he comes over to bother me. We're talking when behind us some guys are playing soccer and the ball comes flying full speed at me. I just freeze.

Ezra stops it. So fast I almost didn't see him move.

How the hell can someone move that fast? I look around to see if anyone else saw it. It seems like only I did.

"Hey, wet girl, are you okay? It would be a shame if they ruined that pretty face of yours," he says.

"S-Shut up, i***t," I say, looking away, blushing a little.

School ends and I decide to walk home to clear my head. I still have that doubt about how a person can be that fast. And I feel like someone has been following me since I left school. I walk faster because panic hits me, but I finally get home safe.

"I'm home," I say. As always, my parents don't care. I whisper, "I don't know why I still hope that one day we'll be a family again..." and go up to my room to get ready. Only an hour left for the fair with Rebekah.

---

Ezra's POV

I was about to leave on my bike when I saw Thea leave. I was going to ask if she wanted a ride home, but I stopped. I don't even know why. Maybe because I've annoyed her enough today.

Then I noticed a little further ahead, someone in a hoodie was following her.

Just in case, I followed them. I saw that stranger was about to do something to Thea, so I moved fast. I grabbed him and dragged him into the woods. I already knew he wasn't human and threw him against a tree.

"What the f**k do you want with her?" I said.

The guy smiled. "Even if you kill me, more will come for her. We won't let her become something dangerous."

I was about to ask what he meant when he attacked me and sent me flying, breaking branches. He didn't give me a chance to talk. I had no choice but to turn. My yellow eyes changed completely. I became the wolf. And we started to fight.

---

Back to Thea

I take a shower, go to my room, and when I look out the window, I see a wounded wolf passing by. We stare at each other for a few seconds, him and me, and then he runs away.

"Weird," I say. I can't get his stare out of my head, but I try. I change. Black pants, red shirt, white jacket. I just need to fix my hair. 20 minutes later I'm ready. I go downstairs. My parents are in the kitchen and see me dressed up.

"Where are you going?" they ask.

"Save your fake concern," I say and walk out.

I'm on my way to the fair to meet Rebekah, to see if I can clear my head and try to have fun for once.