Omegas Fate

The Escape & Strangers in the Forest

Once I left the office, the headteacher had entered it, closing the door firmly behind him. Bradley had given me the code for my locker. He kept giving me long lingering looks, directing them at my face rather than my body for a change, walking next to me, his arm occasionally brushing against mine. He looked like he wanted to ask me something, but every time he got close to saying it, he stopped himself suddenly, shaking his head.

“I can manage on my own Bradley.” I said trying to dismiss him.

“Caleb asked me to keep an eye on you.” He mumbled in return.

“Well tell him I’m perfectly capable of keeping an eye on myself.” I said haughtily. We had reached the lockers and I bent down carefully tucking the jacket under me so I wouldn’t accidentally expose too much skin. I turned the dials and the locker opened with a satisfying click. I peered inside trying to see if anything else had been taken when I felt Bradley’s hand on my back, making me flinch. I moved away not wanting him to touch me and he thankfully got the picture, removing his hand and standing back.

“Sorry.” He said shortly. “Just wanted to help.”

“You’ve helped enough,” I replied, grabbing my PE kit which had been stuffed at the back of my locker. A sketch pad and some pencils had also been left in there too so I picked them up as well.

“He really wants me to watch out for you,” Bradley whined.

“Why? Why would you even be doing what he tells you anyway?” I stood up, pushing the locker door shut with my feet turning around to peering up at Bradley’s face.

He just looked down at his feet, not wanting to make eye contact. “Can’t you just let me do this?”

“You’ve treated me like crap for years, if I need to be kept safe from anyone, it’s you,” I glared at him as he awkwardly shuffled his feet, the stupid grin that he usually had plastered on his handsome face had vanished. I turned on my heels making my way towards the girls bathroom. “Don’t even think about following me.”

“Eloise!” He called out.” Come on, don’t be so stupid!”

I ignored him, slamming the bathroom door behind me and leaning against it momentarily in case he did decide to follow me in.

“I’m just going to wait outside then.” I heard him shout, his voice muffled as it came through the closed bathroom door. “Awkward b***h” he grumbled, under his breath, but I still heard it.

“Go f**k yourselves Bradley!” I retorted.

I went over to the cubicle in the far corner, it was in front of a narrow horizontal window with frosted glass, that had been slightly propped open, giving me an idea. I grinned to myself triumphantly. If I’m quick enough he won’t even notice I’ve gone.

I reluctantly removed Caleb's jacket, holding it in both hands I brought it up to my nose and inhaled deeply, thankful that he had let me keep it. He really did smell amazing, I was going to miss that about him. I found myself sub consciously nuzzling against the material as i thought about him, as if I was trying to get his scent all over my skin.

Man, I had it bad! I had definitely developed a school girl crush but it was so inappropriate and he was so utterly unobtainable it was barely worth thinking about.

I sighed heavily, carefully rolling the jacket up and placing it in my bag.

I changed quickly into my PE kit, which, like my uniform, was also slightly too small, but as it was elasticated it had slightly more stretch to the material. The white top looked almost like it had been cropped, showing off the smooth expanse of skin on my tummy whenever I lifted my arms too high. I pulled up the navy blue shorts that were so short they barely covered the cheeks of my bum, revealing long, slim but slightly too pale legs. Even I had to admit I had a great figure, I would show it off more if I could avoid the negative attention that came with it. I slipped on some scruffy trainers, and tossed my ruined shirt in the floor, it was no good to me now.

I carefully climbed up onto the toilet seat, pushing the window open as quietly as I could. I glanced back towards the door to the bathroom, afraid Bradley would burst through any second. Almost like he could sense I was up to no good I heard him call out, “what’s taking so long?”

“I’m just getting changed!” I shouted back, “Give me a minute.”

He went quiet again. I flushed the toilet, hoping the sound of running water would disguise the noise I would make clambering out of the window. I grabbed my bag, lowering it out of the window and letting it drop, there was grass outside and it landed with a muffled thump. I clung to the ledge of the window sill and with a jump managed to push myself up on to it, manoeuvring myself so my feet went out the window first. Luckily I was on the ground floor, so I wouldn’t have to drop too far down. The wooden frame of the window pressed against my skin as I carefully shimmied my way through. It was a tight squeeze and I had a brief moment of panic when I got stuck, my head and shoulders still in the bathroom. I breathed in, flattening my chest as much as I could and pushing myself back, waiting for gravity to do its job, before sliding all the way through and landing on the ground outside. The window frame had scraped the skin on my back causing it to bleed slightly but it was only a graze and totally worth it to avoid being stalked around town by Bradlley.

I grabbed my bag from the floor and sprinted across the school fields towards the forest.

It had rained the night before and the ground was wet and muddy, my feet kicked up the dirt as I ran, causing it to spatter up my legs. I slipped a few times but I kept on going, worried that Bradley had noticed and would start following me.

I charged into the forest, rejecting the designated pathway and creating my own path through the overgrowth. I ran until my legs started to wobble from exhaustion, gradually coming to a standstill in the middle of a small clearing. I leaned forward, hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath and listened carefully to see if anyone had followed me but the forest was eerily silent. I couldn’t even hear any birds or small animals scurrying in the undergrowth.

I regularly visited the forest after school rather than go home, but I usually stayed on the path. I had a good look around the clearing, large ancient looking trees surrounded me, their boughs heavy with deep green leaves. The once blue sky had darkened, dark grey clouds, the same colour as Caleb’s eyes, hung low in the sky, heavy with rain. I heard the tell tale pitter patter of the first few rain drops falling on to the leaves on the ground around me, before the heavens opened and it started to pour down. I held my face up to the sky eyes closed and spread my arms wide as if embracing the weather, enjoying the feeling of the rain on my skin. I smiled as I span around laughing out loud, I felt liberated, the stress of school, work and family temporarily forgotten.

“You’re going to catch your death!”

I stopped in my tracks, hands held over my racing heart, eyes flying open and scanning the area around me. The rain was heavy, dripping down my face, into my eyes making it difficult to see. I peered into the now gloomy forest from where I stood but I couldn’t see anybody.

“I’m behind you.” I heard a man whisper from directly behind me, making me jump. I span around and came face to face with a man I didn’t recognise. His hair was a pale ash blonde, long on the top and tied up into a messy bun, the hair underneath shaved short close to his scalp. A long thin scar ran down one side of his face, cutting a line through part of his eyebrow, his eye and cheek. This historic injury was probably also the reason his right eye was an alarming shade of red.

He was a handsome man but there was something ‘off’ about him, I couldn’t pin point it exactly but my intuition was telling me that he wasn’t really someone I would want to be alone in a forest with.

“Are you trying to give me a heart attack!” I said my voice unusually high pitched and shrill from the fright, I took a few paces backwards trying to get away. “Why’d you sneak up on me?”

He shrugged, staring at me curiously, “...because I could.” He grinned at me, showing white teeth, his canines looking unusually long and sharp.

“....right” I said, elongating the word and slowly stepping backwards, trying to get further away from him.

“What’s your name?” He asked, tilting his head to one side as if trying to figure something out.

I stayed silent, not wanting to give him any information about myself.

“You’re part of Hanlon's pack?” He asked, still watching me but making no attempt to get closer.

“Pack?” I asked, it triggered a memory but before I could focus on it, it slipped away. “You mean like work? Do I work for him?”

“No.” He replied not giving me any more clues as to what he meant.

We stood there in silence, him watching me and me trying to back away. “You have a very appealing scent.” He said, narrowing his eyes at me as if trying to figure me out.

Well if it wasn’t creepy before....

“Umm thanks,” I said uncertainly, “look I should probably get going...”

He grinned at me again displaying those sharp white teeth. “Yes, you probably should...”

“Eloise!!” I heard someone shouting my name but they sounded like they were a long way away.

The man smiled again, but it didn’t reach his eyes, it was cold and calculated. “Eloise” he murmured his mismatched eyes meeting mine. “It’s been a pleasure..”

Before I even had chance to blink he was standing directly in front of me, clasping my hand in his. I tried to jerk my hand out of his but he held onto it in a vice like grip raising it to his mouth. All I could think about were those sharp white teeth as his mouth descended towards it, I watched in horror as he dipped his head down but instead of the bite that I fully anticipated, he kissed it softly. He loosened his grip and my arm fell uselessly back down to my side. I resisted the urge to wipe the kiss away on my clothes, not wanting to trigger this strange and terrifying man.

“Until next time, my sweet Eloise.” His voice barely above a whisper.

I heard something crashing through the trees behind me and I turned away from the strange man to take a look, seeing nothing. By the time I turned back the man had disappeared, the only sign that he had ever been there was the ghost of the kiss I still felt on my hand.