Hidden Dangers of Love

The trees flew past the truck window as they travelled closer and closer to their destination. A girl with dirty blonde hair watched as the houses began to pass slower. Maybe it will be different... The girl thought to herself. Today was the day she finally left the orphanage, after years of switching houses and being sent back she hoped that this would be the final home change. She hoped that she could finally settle down, with people who didn't think she was crazy and send her back. The girl narrowed her dark blue eyes as they came to a stop in a parking lot of a large store. She lifted her head from her hand and looked around outside. There was a sign across the road that was slightly taken over by the forest, it read: "Welcome to Proudfoot" She let out a small huff, what a good first impression of a town. "Well Astrid, here we are. Your foster parents are waiting, are you ready to go?" The girl turned her focus from the sign and looked to the woman, Francine, who was driving. Her short brown hair was curled into her face, looking at the girl with a wiry smile. "Yeah, I'm ready." Astrid said with a small sigh. She unbuckled her seat-belt and opened the truck door, she glanced down to make sure her dark blue jeans were smoothed out and her burgundy tee shirt was in place before she hopped out. The girl took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She had to admit, she liked the forest surroundings. She took in the smell of the spruce trees, and the faint smell of rain. She turned back around to grab her black back-pack from the seat and put both straps on her shoulders. "You can do this, a start to a new life." She told herself encouragingly and gave herself a slight nod before spinning on her running shoes and closing the door of the large red truck. She looked at the sky and took another deep breath, it was sunny but she knew there was a chance of rain, she could smell it. But it was very warm and nice for now. The girl looked back down then began to walk across the old pavement toward a small silver car where Francine was standing, talking to a shorter, light brown haired woman. Her hair was long and straight, her hazel eyes sparkled with what Astrid hoped was happiness. She had to deal with enough people wanting to foster her for the money they got and not for the actual child. Astrid looked her up and down quickly. she was wearing a silky, tie-dyed dress that blew to the side from the small breeze. She let out a small smile as Francine waved her over, she stood across from them and stiffened as the other woman took a step over and gave her a tight hug. "Hello dear!" The woman said enthusiastically, backing off when Astrid didn't move. Relaxing a little once the woman stepped back, Astrid gave a small smile. "Hi." She replied, looking at her feet. "Astrid, this is Dawn, she will be your foster mother." Francine's bubbly voice interrupted the silence that took over. Astrid looked up, and nodded without making eye contact with either of them. Francine nodded as if agreeing with herself, "Well, we have been over everything, Dawn. You have my number, just give me a call if you need anything or have questions." She said with a smile, turning to Astrid she added, "and you have my number of you need to talk." Francine gave them one more nod before going back to her truck and driving off like she was in a hurry. "Well, we had better get going! School starts on Monday and you need to be all settled in!" Dawn piped up after a moment, opening the car door. Astrid gave a small smile and nodded, before walking to the other side of the car. She glanced up at the line of stores, about to get in when she caught a glance of reddish-blond boy, a little older than her, standing in the forest, his sharp green eyes fixed on her. She felt a shiver run down her spine but shrugged it off as she ducked to get into the car. She quickly put her back-pack by her feet and slipped on her seat-belt before looking back up to see he was gone. "Something wrong?" Astrid jumped a little when the woman spoke. "Nope." Astrid answered and took a deep breath. She leaned her head on the window as they pulled out of the parking lot and closed her eyes. It was just her nerves, she convinced herself before they headed down the road. Astrid was surprised that the little car could make it as far as it did, and they drove for less than 20 minutes, the car was like driving a tin can with wheels, that smelled of lavender car-freshener. When they pulled up the driveway, the first impression on the house was that it was a decent size. The red-brick sides were slightly covered by ivy vines, the front yard was small and there were houses on either side, all the way down the street as far as she could see. Astrid got out of the car when it was parked in the driveway and looked across the road. Houses were lined up on that side too. Although most of the houses looked different. She took a deep breath and smiled when the scent of trees and blooming flowered surrounded her. "If you like the forest, you should check out the back yard." Dawn laughed lightly and led her to a red gate, they went through it and the gravel turned to soft grass under her feet. She looked around and her jaw dropped. The yard was well taken care of, many flower bed that were blooming, the smells almost overwhelming but the thing she loved most, was beyond the fence that was about thirty feet away, was a forest. It was huge, she could tell. It went on for a long time. She itched to go explore it, she wanted to go out there so bad but she didn't want to look weird or come off as crazy so she just smiled. "It is beautiful!" She said quietly. Breathing in deeply, she could smell water. She wasn't sure where it was from but she would find out eventually. The views and scents she already had, made her want to stay here. "What do you say we go inside and meet your foster father, and cat." Dawn gave a polite smile and led Astrid back through the gate before closing it and heading around to the door. The girl walked up the three steps and onto the large deck, the tall oak doors at the front loomed over her. She waited until the thin woman walked in before following her. As soon as she stepped in, an overwhelming smell of cookies made her mouth water. The first thing when she walked in, was a living room on the left and the kitchen on the right. There was a soft, light grey carpet that covered the living-room and stairs that went up the left side of the house, stopping on a small balcony at the top. Astrid took off her shoes and placed them to the side, looking around more, the hallway straight ahead had a few rooms farther down and a large window at the end. And around the side of the black and white tile flooring of the small kitchen there was another room, she assumed it lead to the back deck that circled around half of the house. "What do you think?" Astrid turned her gaze back to her foster mother, "It is very nice." She replied quietly. The woman walked toward the kitchen, "Your room is the only one upstairs if you want to go and unpack." She added as she took a tray from the oven and placed it on the table. Astrid didn't need to hear it twice, no offence to her foster mother, but she wanted to be alone right now. She - as quickly as she could without being rude - walked toward the stairs, stopping to admire the photo of some wolves that was hanging above them. She smiled as she slowly walked up the remaining stairs, pausing when she got to the top to look down at the Living room area, it was high up, but it wouldn't seriously injure her if she jumped, though she wouldn't ever do that. She grinned when the woman looked up at her and smiled. "When you are finished you can come back down and have some lunch and we can have a chat." Dawn called up to her, before returning to cleaning up the dishes that were in the sink. Astrid nodded, more to herself than anyone, she walked across the carpeted floor and got to a half closed, green door. It was nicely painted a dark, forest green color and was very inviting. She turned the gold colored handle, even if she didn't have to, and opened it up all the way. As soon as she took a few steps in, she flipped the light switch that was on the side of the wall and it lit up a light that was on the center of the ceiling. It was very bright, and reflected off of the bright yellow walls. Astrid walked into the room slowly, taking in the room. There was a blue floral design on the white, wood panel flooring. The bed was in the corner, under the slanted wall, but it wasn't a very big room. She was okay with that though, she didn't need a huge bedroom, the small bedroom would help her feel more comfortable. Astrid frowned when she saw a cat, laying on the fluffy, wolf-printed blanket that was on her bed. For some strange reason cats never got along with her... Actually no animal seems to like her. She walked across the fluffy brown carpet, to the bed, placing her back-pack beside the cat. But it didn't take long for the cat to jump up hissing. Its white pelt all fluffed out, it took off out of the room. "Stupid cat." She mumbled to herself, she let out a sigh and dumped her bag out. She wasn't allowed much at the orphanage, so what she had in the back-pack was all she had. She had three pairs of pants, shorts, tank tops, shirts, blue, fluffy pajamas, socks, underwear, bra's and two nice thick sweaters. Plus what she had on. She could thank Francine for almost all of it, she took Astrid shopping before she was dropped off and got her all of these, plus a two piece swim-suit that she loved. Astrid was shy, but when she swam alone she was okay with her medium build and 5'6 tanned body. Now she had a frilly, bright yellow bikini that was very similar to the color of the room walls. She smiled as she walked over to put away all of her clothes, Francine was a nice lady and probably spend close to three-hundred dollars on getting the girls clothes for her. Astrid was lost in thought for a while, putting away the few books she had and a few other things. She sighed and walked to the window, opening it up all the way. Glancing down, she realized it wasn't that far. And there was a white, wooden ladder-like thing going up the wall for plants, if she needed to, she could use it as a ladder for an escape route. Astrid took a deep breath when she walked out of her new room. She would need to see if she could get a few more things to make the room look better than it does right now, but it could wait. She had two days, including the rest of today, to get used to this place so she had a lot to do. Snapping from her thoughts, she headed back down the stairs where she saw Dawn, sitting with a tall, dark brown- almost black haired man with glasses, on the couch. They both got up when she walked down the last few steps, and waved her over. "Astrid, this is your foster father-" Dawn started, placing her hand on the girls shoulder, making her tense up. Astrid gritted her teeth as she tried to relax, she didn't really like being touched. "My name is Johnathan, you can call me John though if you would like." The guy spoke in an unexpectedly deep voice. Now that she looked him over, he wasn't one of those tall, lanky guys. He had a lot of muscle under the long-sleeve shirt and sweat pants. "Hi, Johnathan." She mumbled quietly, meeting his gaze. She felt the hair on her neck stand when his pale yellow eyes flashed red for a moment. She felt a shiver travel down her back as she blinked, it was gone. She convinced herself that she was just tired and was seeing things. Astrid just gave a small smile and sat in one of the chairs, across from where the couple sat back down. The three of them all looked at each other for a moment before Dawn spoke up. "So, we welcome you to our home, we are so glad you agreed to come here and I am sure we will have lots of fun!" She hesitated for a moment, and it made Astrid fidget with her fingers a little. "But, we need to discuss a few rules. They are simple and mostly common sense though." Dawn continued. Johnathan nodded and took a short breath, "First of all, you will be starting a new school. And it doesn't work the same way that most schools do." He said smoothly, not taking his eyes off of hers. Astrid gave them a puzzled look. She assumed they meant it went to a later or earlier hour. It was Dawn's turn to nod and talk. "The school you will be going to, is on the outskirts of town. And you go to the school on Monday, and don't come back until Friday. Sometimes you stay the weekend too. So you will be living at school more than here." The woman gave her an innocent smile but anger flared up in Astrid. Why wouldn't they tell her this before? Why couldn't she go to the school in town instead? Questions fluttered around her head but she kept silent. All she wanted was the chance at a normal life. But this is what she gets from it. To stay at school for almost the whole week. She took a deep breath and blinked, remembering she was trying to stay positive. It couldn't be that bad, could it? She snapped from her thoughts and focused back on this couple. They were both staring at her, which made her feel slightly uncomfortable. "Anything else?" She asked, with a slightly sarcastic tone. They both nodded at the same time. "You need to be home on weekends, at the latest, 12:30am. There is exception." Dawn said boldly, her glare, piercing through Astrid. "Or you will be sorry." Johnathan said quietly under his breath. Astrid didn't think she was supposed to hear it. Suddenly she didn't feel very comfortable here anymore. "Anyways, there will be no running around the house, no being loud, no boys here, no friends here, homework always needs to be done." Dawn's gaze followed Johnathan as he got up and walked away when she listed off a few more rules. Jonathan turned back toward her and frowned. "Oh yes. One more thing. Never hang out with the kids at your new school that park on the left side. Or take the right side of the bus. Never. That is one thing we will not tolerate. If we catch you with any of them, and trust me. We have eyes in that school, if we catch you talking or hanging out with any of them you will be punished." Jonathan spoke deeply as Astrid watched his gaze, his eyes flicking red again, making a shiver go down her spine. What kind of punishment are they talking about? Surely they can't do anything to harm her right? "Now who wants cookies?" Dawn's squeaky voice split through the creepy silence. Astrid could feel her heart beating in her chest, it was almost loud enough for them to hear. "Sure." She replied, trying to be polite. She snatched one from the tray that was on the coffee table and began to eat it, it wasn't that bad actually, the sweet chocolate chips melted on her tongue. "These are really good." She complimented, meeting Dawn's gaze with a fake smile. Right now she just wanted to escape to the room and be alone. Dawn nodded a thank you and smiled. "Well, if you don't mind, I am going back to the room to decorate a little, then go to sleep." Astrid spoke up after she sat and watched the television with Dawn for a few hours. It was getting dark now and she was almost desperate to escape to her solitude. And for some reason she is itching to go explore the forest. She would sneak out the window tonight when her foster parents went to sleep. "Okay dear, get some rest. We will see you in the morning!" Dawn said cheerfully, as if nothing odd went on a few hours earlier. Astrid finally made it to her room after she brushed her teeth and hair in the bathroom. After shutting the door behind her, she flopped down on the wolf blanket that covered her twin-sized bed and she began to get lost in her thoughts of the day. She closed her eyes as the day skimmed through her head. Between all of the sad goodbyes that she said today at the orphanage, to the shopping spree with Francine, and the odd occurrence with the boy at the edge of the forest, Astrid was exhausted. She was excited for tomorrow, becuase she would be able to get out of this house and explore the town, hopefully it would only be Dawn who took her, Johnathan made her uneasy and she didn't like him very much. She remembered the red glint he got in his eyes when he spoke strongly toward her. Astrid blinked open her eyes and look over the bright yellow walls. The moonlight from outside made the color shine without the light being on. She longed to go out into the forest, for some reason the longing made her skin crawl excitedly and she had a weird feeling inside when she thought about it. The moon was full tonight, so she would be able to see clearly, plus she had unusually strong senses when it came to smell and hearing so she wouldn't be in any danger. She glanced at her alarm clock, it was only 7:00pm so Astrid decided to roll over and maybe sleep for a few hours. So she would be ready to run. She smiled with excitement, but her exhaustion kicked in, making her pass out quickly. Astrid jolted awake quickly when she heard howling in the distance. Lot's of it. She felt her body sweating, like she had developed a fever. She quickly turned over. It was 11:37pm. She had fallen asleep for over 4 hours and now felt like she had a mild fever. Should she still go into the forest? She didn't need to answer that, knowing she would go even if her temperature was off. She was very stubborn, but she was slightly surprised when she felt perfectly fine only a few hours ago. Its probably just my nerves. She quietly got up from her bed, she was lucky the floor wasn't creaky. She stumbled sleepily to the window and carefully lowered herself down the white fence-like binding until she reached the ground. She felt the groggy feeling of sleep disappear instantly, the moment her bare feet touched the soft, cool grass. The dew made it wet, but it was nice on her overly-warm skin. She remembered that she was only in loose jean shorts and a lime green tank top. Astrid shrugged, she wasn't going back up just to get changed. She looked around, the howling faded, but not completely. For some reason it tugged on her, something inside told her to follow it. Her dark blue eyes sparkled in the moonlight as she sprinted quietly across the yard, she leaped over the low fence, but stopped as soon as she was a few feet into the forest. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. The scent of the forest rushed her, along with the wild, soothing smell of water. Astrid flicked open her eyes when a different scent filled her nostrils. What is that? She needed to figure it out. She felt her skin grow warmer as she sprinted quickly through the forest, barely making a sound. The howling grew louder once again. Astrid shook her head when she started to feel a little dizzy. She knew her fever was getting worse. Maybe it was time to go home? She shook her head at her own thoughts, there was no way. She needed to continue on, like something was pulling her forward. Astrid began to pick up enough speed, she didn't even know what happened when she crashed into something. That something, had fur. She felt her small body bounce off of the larger body, flinging her into a parch of brambles. So much for being quiet. Was the first thought that came to her mind, until she realised what happened. She felt fear pierce through her, she wasn't in good enough shape to fight, or even scream right now for that matter! She felt the fever grow more intense as she laid on the ground, her back against the mossy forest floor. She could hear movement outside of the bushes, summoning enough strength she pulled herself up and out into the open to see what was there. She looked around, she had no idea where she was. Her head was spinning, her body was sweating, trying to fight off whatever was going on inside. She must have ran a long ways to get this far. The howling she heard had stopped. There was only howling going on a long ways away. Maybe she was safe? Maybe she ran into a mossy, rotten log? Astrid looked around to see if there was anything like that close by but there was only a small open area. She noticed that there were a few sets of eyes in the bushes around the outside of the clearing but they were gone when she blinked. Then she saw it. She saw what she ran into. Astrid tried to struggle to her feet but her own body wouldn't let her up, almost like it was frozen in place. What is going on with me? She froze when the shape moved. It was a very large wolf. Bigger than she had ever seen before. She felt her body shiver as it came closer to her, its eyes glared at her, pinning her down. But those eyes... She recognized them from somewhere... That color, it was on the tip of her mind but she couldn't remember, her mind was to fuzzy. Her head pounded as it came closer to her, the teeth out and snarling as drool dripped from its mouth. Its eyes filled with something that looked like anger but was also mixed with something else. Something bad. Astrid let out a shriek that sounded like nothing human-like, when her body convulsed violently, pain shook through her and her vision went blurry for a moment. This is when panic rose in her. She could feel the breath of the wolf against her neck as she curled into a ball. Her eyes squeezed shut when she felt her body shiver again. "What is happening to me!" She tried to say out loud but the words came out in a jumble. She could hear laughing. The laughing of people. But when she looked up she could only see the wolf, she was too late to move before it pinned her to the ground violently. She had a very bad feeling about this. Astrid struggled to get out of its grip, afraid to get ripped to pieces, but it was no use, it was way stronger than her. She gasped for air when one of its big paws were placed on her throat. She let out what sounded like a growl when she fidgeted in its grip. She felt her body convulse again and this time, it was strong enough it threw the wolf off balance. The wolf looked shocked, giving Astrid took that as her chance and tried to crawl away, the wolf growling and snarling behind her. She didn't get very far though when she convulsed again. This time something happened. She felt her fever getting to the point of dangerous. Her head was pounding so hard she felt like she was going to pass out. Astrid collapsed beside a tree, the moon faded behind a cloud, and through her fever, she could feel the rain coming. But worst of all, she could feel the presence of more wolves, She struggled to see, but everything was black now. She could only hear the mixed laughs of humans. Suddenly some howls broke out from around her. And even worse, she could feel the wolf come closer and closer. Suddenly it was on top of her. She could feel its fur against her skin. She let out a scream for help but it was silenced by a hand over her mouth. The fur against her was no longer there. Now it was skin. Human skin. She could sense this boy, he was different. They all were. That's why there were human laughs as well as howls. She struggled in the boys grasp, trying to scream out of his hand but it was no use. When Astrid looked up, her hateful gaze bored into his laughing green eyes. He was enjoying this? She felt another convulsion go through her body, this one almost knocking her out, her eyes glazed over and her eye-lids began to close. She felt herself drifting off, no matter how much she tried to fight it, the pain was overwhelming her body and clashing with the fever. Astrid felt her body jolt when some sort of fight broke out. It was all quieter, like she was moving away from everything but she was still by the tree, the boy was still pinning her down. She had no clue what he was doing. But she could smell his panic right before she shrieked in pain as his teeth dug into her shoulder before his weight lifted off. The last thing Astrid felt was his body being pushed off of her... And the taint scent of blood...