Dichotomy

THE BEAR

Charlotte woke up shivering in the freezing cold in the basement. A snowstorm hit last night and the cold wind had battered the basement windows relentlessly until they were buried in snow.

She had gone to bed, as usual, wearing all of her clothes in layers. It was often cold in the basement. However, she didn't own enough clothes to chase away snowstorm kind of cold.

Between the freezing cold and the howling wind, she had not slept well.

Charlotte rubbed her eyes and tiredly rolled out of bed. She stopped at the make-shift half bath to brush her teeth and change before trudging upstairs.

Glancing out of the kitchen window, she tried to see through the snow-covered glass. The sky was dark and other than the snow swirling outside she could see nothing.

How was she going to get to school in this mess? Charlotte wondered.

Walter had the T.V. on in the living room. Charlotte overheard the weatherman talking about the storm, so she stopped at the threshold to listen. He was saying that the storm wouldn't let up until the late afternoon and school was not canceled.

Greeaaat, she thought sarcastically. What was wrong with this town? Did they not believe in snow days?

Charlotte did not want to be thrust out into the cold again. She was just now warming up after spending the night in that frigid basement.

She quietly lingered inside the house for as long as possible.

Fortunately, it seemed Walter either didn't notice or didn't care, but it was clear if she didn't leave soon she wouldn't make it.

Sighing, Charlotte steeled herself as she crossed the distance to the front door.

The cold air hit her like a brick wall as she stepped out, into the storm. The wind was so strong, Charlotte struggled to pull it closed while Walter angrily shouted at her for letting snow in.

The snow outside was thick, making it hard to see as well as walk. It was almost knee-deep in some places.

It felt as if Charlotte had been treading through deep snow for hours, but she was probably only half a mile down the road when an old brown truck pulled up next to her.

Was this it? Was she about to be kidnapped and murdered in the middle of a snowstorm? Maybe that would be better than freezing to death.

The window of the truck slowly rolled down, but she still couldn't see through all of the snow. She did however recognize the voice.

"Get in you idiot."

It was Danny.

Charlotte hurried to pry the door open and jump in. Her stiff frozen fingers made it a bit tougher than usual.

"Thanks!" She said, teeth chattering as she tried to defrost in front of the heater.

Danny grunted in response, a chip off the old block, Charlotte thought, and they fell into an awkward silence.

"Crazy they're making us go to school in this." She commented.

Danny mumbled something unintelligible.

More awkward silence.

"Are you looking forward to the weekend?" Charlotte asked.

"Look, we're not friends. Especially at school. I don't know you, you don't know me." Danny snapped.

"Got it," Charlotte answered. She didn't expect them to be friends. Danny had made it pretty clear that they weren't. She was just trying to be polite.

Danny pulled the truck into the school parking lot. It was a much quicker trip than Charlotte was used to. She started to jump out as soon as the truck stopped.

"Wait," Danny ordered. Charlotte turned back to look at him just in time to catch what he threw at her.

"It's one of my old coats. You can keep it." He said before taking off toward the school.

"Thank you," Charlotte responded in surprise, even though she knew he was too far away to hear her.

She stared down at the fabric between her hands. It was a simple grey coat but it was made with warm wool and well-insulated. Maybe Danny wasn't as heartless as he tried to appear, Charlotte thought, smiling.

Charlotte was surprised to see that despite the storm, all or most of the students showed up to school today. It seemed that the students weren't at all bothered by the weather.

Not a single student was missing in her first three classes.

"What are you doing this weekend?" Madison asked her at lunch.

"Oh, I don't know, probably nothing," Charlotte shrugged.

"Aw, I would say we should go shopping but I'm visiting my aunt and uncle this weekend." Madison sighed.

"That's ok, shopping isn't really my thing. Anything you want you can buy online anyway," Charlotte answered.

Also, Charlotte didn't have money to go shopping but she didn't want to tell them that. She didn't want them to feel sorry for her.

"Nonsense! You have to celebrate surviving your first week of school somehow!" Amelia argued.

Charlotte laughed. Amelia was fiery and tended to get her way. It was entertaining, to say the least. Although less so when it was directed at her.

"Maybe we can celebrate my first week of school next week." She suggested teasingly, as she finished her sandwich.

"Don't be absurd" Amelia said, rolling her eyes as Charlotte and Madison laughed.

Amelia was relentless.

Charlotte did her best to dodge her plans and quickly scurried off to her next class as soon as the bell rang.

She had gotten better at finding her way around, so it didn't take her long to locate the correct room.

Charlotte took her seat and tried her best to appear interested but the teacher drolled on about topics she had already learned.

Her next class followed similarly. That was the problem with switching schools so much... the curriculum didn't follow the same schedule, so she missed some topics and was forced to learn other topics twice.

Another way the state had failed her.

Charlotte let her mind wander as she doodled in her notebooks, pretending to take notes. Three whole pages were filled by the end of the day, most of them featuring wolves.

As her teacher was finishing up her lecture, she closed her book and glanced outside.

The weatherman's prediction had been correct. The snow had almost completely let up.

Charlotte looked for Danny after school to tell him that she would walk home and didn't need a ride, but he was nowhere to be found.

He had probably already come to the same conclusion, Charlotte decided.

Shrugging, she took off toward the woods. This time Charlotte decided to take a shortcut home.

Instead of following the road, Charlotte cut straight through the forest. She was a little nervous about running into the wolf again, but if it had wanted to kill her surely it would have done so by now, she assured herself.

Charlotte hummed to herself as she walked along. The crisp air and fresh pine seemed to clear her head.

Her first week of school hadn't been nearly as bad as she thought it would be. She was really starting to enjoy Amelia and Madison's company. Even Danny had been somewhat nice to her today. She was still wearing the coat he gave her, and it was keeping her quite warm.

Charlotte was lost in thought, somewhere between school and the house when she heard a branch snap.

Gasping, she turned toward the noise. A dark hulking figure stood just a couple of yards away. The creature glared at her and rose up even higher when it saw it had her attention as well.

The deep, guttural roar was unmistakable and sent her heartbeat into chaos.

Grizzley bear.

"Go away!" Charlotte shouted fearfully.

The bear took a couple of steps toward her, roaring again. Warm air turned to mist as it exited the bear's mouth and saliva dripped from its teeth.

Charlotte shouted at the bear, picking up a palm-sized rock and chunking it at the beast, trying to scare it away. That turned out to be a mistake.

The bear landed on its four paws, charging toward her.

Charlotte screamed as the brown beast barrelled toward her.

She urged her legs to move quickly, sprinting away from the approaching bear.

The bear was faster though, it had already almost caught up to her when she tripped over her own shoelaces and landed in the snow.

Charlotte cringed, bracing herself for the worst.

Hot tears escaped her eyes, her lip trembled as she waited for the dreadful sting of claws that were no doubt about to tear into her. She wasn't afraid of death, she just hoped the pain wouldn't last long.

Charlotte could feel the bear's hot breath inches away when suddenly a flash of black fur slammed into it, knocking the bear away and off its feet.

*** GIO ***

His mate was an i***t, Gio thought as he watched her throw a rock at the angry bear. He had already been on his way to intervene when she provoked it.

It was unusual for a grizzly to be awake this early in the season and the ones that woke up early like this were usually hungry and pissed.

Sure enough, Gio watched as the bear started charging toward his mate.

A fatal mistake.

Gio snarled, crashing into the bear at full speed. The grizzly was similar to him in size but not in strength.

The two animals crashed into the ground, a mess of teeth and fur and claws.

Gio quickly freed himself from the bear, avoiding its snapping teeth and flailing claws. Neither of them had a good angle of attack while on the ground.

The grizzly tried to turn and get to its feet but Gio was much quicker. Before the bear could get it's hind legs up, Gio had him pinned to the forest floor.

The beast roared again, trying to get the wolf off, but the sound soon turned to gurgles. Gio latched onto its throat, crushing the grizzly's neck between his jaws. Hot blood gushed into his mouth as the animal went still in his grasp.

Charlotte sat frozen, watching in horror as the wolf mercilessly crushed the bear's throat. Th sound of bones snapping was rather sickening.

Even after the bear went limp, the wolf shook the animal by its neck to make sure it was dead. In doing so, he sprayed bright red blood all over the white snow. It was a terrifying scene.

Then the wolf slowly turned its head to her.

She gasped. Its silver eyes blazing and its muzzle still dripping blood. Silver? Was this a different wolf? For some reason, she didn't think it was.

"Good wolfy" She whispered nervously, pressing herself into the trunk of the pine tree that stood behind her. She tried to make herself as small and non-threatening as possible.

Gio looked at his mate sadly, realizing that she was afraid of him. He could hear her heart pounding wildly.

How could he show her that he wasn't going to hurt her? If only he could speak to her, he lamented.

Gio approached the small brunette slowly. She was sitting close to where she fell when she tripped.

It was not the first time she had tripped trying to get away.

His mate was clumsy.

"Good wolfy" Charlotte whispered nervously. Gio's ear twitched in agitation at being called wolfy.

"Please don't hurt me," Charlotte pleaded as he got close to her, hiding her face behind her scrunched-up knees.

Hearing her plead like that made Gio feel awful. His mate shouldn't be afraid of him.

Gio lay down in the snow and crawled on his belly until Charlotte was just out of reach. Then, he tucked his back legs underneath him and stretched his front legs out.

Charlotte watched him nervously.

The wolf whined sadly, crawling a little closer before resting his head down on top of his outstretched front paws.

Charlotte might have found it cute had his muzzle and paws not been covered in blood.