A Wolves World

Erica Another day of school has come and gone and I am thankful that it is finally winter break. Now I can head over to the only children’s hospital in the area where I volunteer to keep the kids' company and do small things around the building. I love it. I stay at the hospital practically all night as I don’t have to rush home to do homework and by the time I am leaving it is getting close to being pitch black outside, but nevertheless, I begin walking in the direction of my house. Maybe it is not the best choice to walk alone, especially at night when I have to walk through the woods to get home. I can’t drive yet and my parents work early mornings, and they are usually in bed at this time, so they wouldn't be able to pick me up. I have never had any problems walking through these woods and it is actually quite peaceful. It gives me some time to think. I am about a mile or so away from the clearing where my house sits when I notice movement in front of me. I stop dead in my tracks as I realize that it is an almost fully black wolf. What am I supposed to do? I try not to freak out and make any noise, but I am not doing a good job at that as the wolf stops and turns to look at me. Should I play dead, or just run? Do I throw something at it? I have no clue. After a minute of both of us standing still, it takes a step closer to me sniffing the air. “You’re not going to hurt me are you, you would have done it already if you were, right?” it c***s its head at the sound of my voice and takes another step towards me. “I don’t want any trouble but you are in my way and I need to get home.” He makes a move to hopefully get out of my way but only lays down in my path. I crouch down next to him and put my hand out for him to smell. “You seem like you're not a wild wolf, did you escape from somewhere?” he smells my hand and then moves to let me touch him so I gently pet him. His fur feels like that of a husky soft and smooth. “You know you are not like I initially thought when I first saw you.” I sat with the wolf in silence for probably a minute. For some reason, I wasn’t afraid or nervous that it would try to attack me. “You know you have it easy.” The wolf picks its head up to look at me. “You are out here only having to worry about surviving and not about what others think of you not having to keep to yourself because nobody likes you.” I look down at the wolf, “Maybe it would be nice, not having to go through what I go through all day at school just being able to run through the woods all day I wish I had something like that. Anyway, I should go. It has been a pleasure talking to you, Mr. Wolf." I stand up to leave and the wolf gets up as well. Before I walk off, I pet the wolf’s head one last time, but as I am pulling my hand back, the wolf moves his head up and opens his mouth before quickly closing it around my lower right arm. He holds it down for a few seconds before releasing my arm and running off deeper into the woods. At that moment, I realized that I hadn’t made much of any noise when he bit me, even though it hurt. I looked down at the wound to see blood dripping down to the forest floor. I grab the bite mark with my left hand to apply pressure and walk as fast as I can home. After a while of run-walking, I made it to my house quickly and, as quietly as I could with my injured arm, I opened and closed the door before heading up the stairs to my room. I head into my attached bathroom to inspect the wound. There is still blood slowly flowing from the marks where the teeth of the wolf sank into my skin. I grab a washcloth and begin to gently wipe as much blood away as I could before grabbing some medical wrap to get the wound bandaged. Once I had taken care of the bite, I looked down at my clothes only to see a mix of dirt and drying blood. ‘That is going to be hard to get out. It is a good thing I hated this outfit anyway.’ I thought to myself. I changed into my pj's and threw the clothes I was wearing into the trash before climbing into bed. My last thought before falling asleep was about the wolf and why he randomly decided to bite me and then just run away. In the morning, I got up and, as usual, my parents were already at work, so it being a Friday, and the first day of winter break, I will head over to the children’s hospital. I roll out of bed and make my way to the bathroom. When I look into the mirror, I hardly recognize myself as there is not a single blemish on my face, when there is usually not a single spot without it. I shrug it off as me just being tired and finish getting ready for the day. I take my usual route through the woods, though this time I am being extra careful and watching out for the wolf to show up. I make it to the hospital with no problems and I check in with the guy who runs the volunteer program. Before my first stop, I ran into one of the nurses, Addi. I asked her about the wolf bite and if I would need a rabies shot or something, when I took off the bandage the bite was not as bad as it had been the night before, it looked like it had already started healing. She said it should be fine as it didn't look bad, so I went on with the rest of my day. At the end of the day, I was relieved that I had to leave as I was on my feet for a good portion of the day today, but now I would have to walk home through the woods where I had the encounter with the wolf yesterday. I decided that it would be faster to walk through the woods than take the road, so I started on my way. About halfway through my walk from the hospital to my house, I just about run into something or more someone who walked right in front of me. “Oh my gosh, I am so sorry I did not see you there,” I say looking up to meet the eyes of a boy that appears to be about my age who was wearing all dark clothes, the only source of color being his lighter blonde hair and his bright icy blue eyes. “No, it is not your fault, I should watch where I am going and it doesn’t really help that I am wearing dark clothes at night while creepily walking through the woods.” “Yeah, I guess it is all your fault.” He lets out a light laugh at my words, “So what are you doing walking in the woods alone at night? Isn’t that kinda dangerous?” “I could ask you the same thing,” I shot back at him. “Touche.” “But if you must know I am walking home from volunteering at the children’s hospital and cutting through the woods is quicker than taking the road.” I don't know why I decided to tell this stranger all of this, maybe because I never really talk to anyone other than my parents. “Do you volunteer at the children’s hospital often?” “Yeah, actually I spend a lot of afternoons there after school, seen as I have nothing else to do, at least if I don't have too much homework. But no changing the subject. Why are you out in the woods?” “Well, if you must know,” he began, copying what I had said. “I was walking through to clear my head. I quite like it here in the woods. It’s quite peaceful.” “So I assume you are new around here because you don’t go to the same school as me and I haven’t seen you around before?” “Even if I wasn’t new you wouldn’t have seen me at your school because I was homeschooled. But to answer your question, yes, I am new to the area.” “You said that you were homeschooled in the past tense, so does that mean you are not going to be homeschooled anymore?” “You could say that. I guess my parents got tired of trying to teach me so I am going to go to a regular public school.” For some reason, I get the feeling that he is not telling the whole truth but I ignored it as it was probably just the fact that I was talking to a stranger in the woods at night. “Really what one? There aren’t that many around in this relatively small town.” “Riverside High School.” “Oh really that’s where I go, but just to warn you, the people there are terrible,” I tell him, not really wanting him to go there and end up being like everybody else who ignores me as if their lives depend on it. “You go there and you’re not terrible. At least you don’t seem terrible.” “Well, I’m not terrible, but everybody else there, they definitely are.” “At least I know there is one good person there.” He smiled down at me and I smiled back, maybe he wouldn’t be a jerk like everybody else and I would finally have a friend. “I think we have arrived at your destination.” I turned to look in front of us and see that we were outside my house. I hadn’t even realized we had started walking. “Yes, it appears we have.” I walked closer to my house and turned back to face the guy that had walked and talked with me. “Hey, you never told me your name.” “Well, you didn’t tell me yours either.” “Erica.” “Brett.” “Thank you, Brett.” “For what?” “Being nice, talking to me, and also walking me home though it is probably out of your way.” “Of course,” he slightly bowed his head as he spoke. I walk into my house and go to my room to grab a change of clothes before hopping into the shower. I unwrap the bandage from around the wound where I had been bitten the night before, only to see the injury had completely disappeared, not even leaving a scratch, or bruise, no mark to indicate it was ever there. The only evidence of it was the little bit of blood on the bandage I had just taken off. Putting that aside, for the moment, I get into the shower which is needed. When I get out, I take the time to thoroughly look at my arm to make sure I am actually seeing what I am seeing, and after a minute of prodding the skin on my arm, I decided that what I am seeing or more what I'm not seeing is real and that somehow I miraculously healed in the span of twenty-four hours. I go to bed as I am too tired to think about what that could possibly mean. Maybe I can look at it with fresh eyes and a clear mind in the morning. I fall asleep reminiscing on meeting Brett and how nice he was to me and the hope that when he starts school after the break that won't change. Brett I felt bad about lying to Erica. She seems like such a nice person and I should tell her that I know what happened to her and that I was the wolf that bit her. Though she probably wouldn’t believe it, she doesn’t seem like the type to believe in the supernatural. Then there is also the fact that we just met today or technically yesterday and she would think I'm crazy, because who would believe a stranger when they tell you that they are a werewolf and not only that but that they also bit you in their wolf form. Maybe if I “accidentally” run into her a few more times, maybe then she will believe me because she will know me a little better. Who am I kidding? I wouldn’t believe me if I were her. I pulled my broken flip phone out and check the calendar, only 2 more days till the full moon. I have less than two days to get her to believe me. I put my phone away and rushed out of the den. Yes, I live in a cave in the woods. I can barely afford to pay for school, so no, I don’t have an apartment or anything and, for a werewolf, the woods are much safer. I went to the path through the woods that Erica said she walked through every day. I didn’t find her at the spot where we met but her scent is strong, so she must have just been through here. I take a few steps away from the path and use my speed to catch up with where Erica is. I slowed down and then walked up the path to her. “I thought I heard someone walking.” Erica I had gotten up and ready and was heading to the Hospital to start my day of volunteering. I had been walking for a while when I heard something approaching and then a male voice spoke up, scaring me a little. “I thought I heard someone walking.” I jumped slightly and turned to face the person the voice belonged to. “Brett, what are you doing here,” I say relieved it was only him. “Just walking through the woods, I have spent a lot of time out here in the woods since I moved into town.” “Really?” I asked, wondering if in his time he had ever seen the wolf I saw the other day that randomly bit me and ran off. “Yeah, like I said last night, I find it peaceful. And my parents aren’t always the best people to be around.” “I'm sorry to hear that.” I paused, wondering if I should ask him about the wolf. After a few seconds of debate, I decided that I needed to know. “I know you just moved here and all, but since you say that you have spent a lot of time in the woods, have you ever seen a wolf?” “You saw a wolf?” I heard the curiosity in his voice as he spoke. “Yeah, it was mostly black with a little white on it,” I say trying to recall what the wolf looked like exactly. “That’s weird. Wolves in the wild never really go near people. They usually stay away from humans.” he pauses “You must be pretty special for the wolf to have allowed you to see it .” “If I was so special, then why did it bite me and then run off?” “It bit you? Are you okay?” he doesn’t seem as worried as I would expect someone to be when I told them I had been bit by a wolf. “Yeah, I am fine. I bandaged it and everything.” “But it is kinda crazy that you got close enough to it for it to be able to bite you.” “Actually it came to me. I didn’t approach it.” “Really? That’s actually pretty cool if you think about it.” Why is he acting like this is no big deal and that it is cool and not scary in the slightest, and why do I have the gut feeling that he is lying to me or not telling me something? There is definitely something off with this boy and I am bound to find out what it is. We walk and talk for a while and my feeling that there is something strange about him only grows. When we emerge from the woods and come to the parking lot, Brett stops. I turn to say bye to him but he speaks before I got the chance. “How about I meet you here when you're done.” “Why.” “Well, you did run into a wolf the other day and I assume you wouldn’t want to get bit by it again if you happened to see it again.” “Thanks, I usually am done around ten, ten thirty ish.” I paused before adding “But I won’t wait for you if you are not here when I get out. I am walking with or without you.” “Understood I will see you tonight.” “See you then.” I walked into the hospital and started my day, my mind still thinking about how weird Brett seemed to be.