Forbidden

Chapter 2

As I continued to look behind us, I couldn’t believe how well Leslie and Bethany were keeping up. The other girls stopped shortly after we left the school, but Leslie and Bethany were still coming after us. I wasn’t sure why they felt the need to go after me like this, I mean Damon was just a guy. It wasn’t like he was Leslie’s boyfriend. Damon was the new guy in school, and no one had a claim to him yet. I mean, I knew that the popular crowd disliked me, but this was a bit extreme.

“We can’t lead them straight to your house,” I shouted at Ophelia.

I wasn’t sure if she heard me because she kept running in the direction of her house. My lungs were starting to burn, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to run for much longer. I wasn’t in shape at all, and I never worked out. This was the most running I had done in my entire life.

I was shocked that I was holding out as well as I was. Ophelia no longer held onto my arm, so I was able to slow down a bit, but that was just giving the girls room to catch up to me. I watched as Ophelia charged ahead of me, and I watched her in awe. She must run track to be this fast and not even show a sign of struggling. I made the dumb mistake of looking back again because I was colliding with something before I knew it. I didn’t need to look at what I hit, and I knew it was most certainly Ophelia since she was ahead of me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “They are getting closer. We should at least try to hide somewhere.”

“Don’t move,” Ophelia whispered.

Ophelia hadn’t made a single movement, and she just whispered for me not to move. I couldn’t help but look around to see what she had seen. I couldn’t see anything, though! We were out in the open on the road, but the woods weren’t too far ahead. Then a growl from in front of us had me clenching my hand around Ophelia’s arm.

Ophelia didn’t budge, even though I knew my nails dug into her skin. Soon Leslie and Bethany had reached up to us. I was grabbed by the shoulder and forced to turn around. I was faced with Leslie, and before I could move, she raised her hand and slapped me across the face. My face turned to the side after her hand made contact with my cheek. I didn’t say a word, I just touched my cheek and looked back at Leslie with my mouth open. I was in shock that she actually hit me! I had never been hit before, and man did it burn like a b***h! Another tremendous growl sounded, but this time it came from behind me, and I saw the girl’s eyes widen as they looked past me. I turned to see if anything had submerged from the woods but didn’t see anything. I also noticed that Ophelia was still standing there frozen, she must not have realized what just happened. My eyes widened as I saw a pair of blue eyes in the tree line. I assumed it was a wolf making the growling noises, but I didn’t know they had different color eyes. I guess I just expected to see browns eyes in all wolves.

An ear-piercing scream came from behind me, and I turned to see Leslie and Bethany running in the other direction. Ophelia had told me not to move, so I thought the wolf would come charging out of the woods after the two girls. I was conflicted if that would be a good thing or not, but right now, all I cared about was not getting eaten myself. I turned back and noticed that the pair of eyes were focused on me and my heart rate started to pick up. Crap! The only word that would come to mind. My mind started to race, and I wondered if I should turn and run away as well. I didn’t have a chance to process my thought to flea because the eyes slowly started to disappear.

My shoulders dropped as the tension slowly left my body. I could finally take a deep breath and try to slow my racing heartbeat.

“Are you okay?”

I turned and saw Ophelia staring at me. She took a step towards me and lifted her hand towards my face. I flinched without meaning to, but I couldn’t help myself. Ophelia paused once I hesitated and then slowly moved her hand back towards my face. She lightly touched my cheek, and the cool touch of her hand felt terrific. My cheek was still on fire, but I had forgotten about it once I saw those blue eyes.

“Um, yeah, I guess. Who knew that it would hurt so much to get hit?” I snickered.

I didn’t know why I was giggling, but I couldn’t seem to help myself. Maybe I was in shock over everything that had happened from last night until this moment.

“Yeah, well, wait till you get punched.” Ophelia was laughing, “Talk about something that hurts.” She continued to laugh.

Yeah, I didn’t have any desire to get hit, but with the way, my life was going. I was sure that it would happen eventually.

“I would have done something, but I told you not to move,” Ophelia said once she stopped laughing.

“Yeah, well, not like I had much of a choice,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Come on, and we can go to my house for the night,” Ophelia said.

Ophelia walked past me and started to giggle again, and I knew she was still laughing about everything that had happened. I still couldn’t believe what had happened, and I wasn’t sure how she was taking it so well.

I didn’t know if I should laugh with her or be upset that she found my drama so amusing. It, however, was a huge relief to have someone to talk to. If it weren’t for Ophelia, I wasn’t sure that I would have made it through the remainder of the school year. I wasn’t sure how tomorrow was going to go for me, either. Leslie and Bethany weren’t going to let me go so easily, and after I got away, Leslie would surely think of something awful for me. I needed to find a way to avoid her altogether so I could graduate and move on with my life.

“So, why weren’t you afraid?” I asked Ophelia.

She didn’t respond to me, and I thought that maybe she hadn’t heard me. Then once I fell in line with her steps, I noticed that she was looking down at her phone. I didn’t want to be rude, but I couldn’t stop myself from looking over her shoulder, trying to see what she was looking intently at. I couldn’t see anything on the phone because she had one of those privacy screen protectors. I nudged her shoulder to get her attention.

“Sorry! I have lived around the woods my whole life. Wolves are just a part of my life, I guess,” she said as she shrugged her shoulders.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about the answer she just gave me. However, I had this feeling like Ophelia just lied to me.

This knot started to form in the pit of my stomach when I thought more about what she had said. I didn’t know Ophelia very well, but she seemed like an extremely nice girl. I couldn’t see her growing up in the woods. I giggled when the movie, “Jungle Book” came to my mind. Thinking about someone being raised by wolves as if that was something that could ever happen! I suddenly stopped laughing when I got an eerie feeling of someone watching me. I slowly looked around, and when Ophelia’s brown eyes met me. I could see that she was unhappy, but I wasn’t sure as to why.

“What?” I finally asked.

“What’s so funny?”

I bit my lip when I thought back to the giggling I had just done and the reason behind it. I didn’t want her to think I was making fun of her. I also didn’t want her to think I was losing my mind either. I decided the worst of those two would be the latter and told her why I was giggling.

“When you said wolves are just a part of your life. It made me think of a movie about a boy who was raised by wolves. Then the thought that maybe you were raised by wolves,” I started to giggle again. “It was just such a crazy thought, and I couldn’t help but laugh.”

“That is funny. I would rather die than be raised by dogs!” Ophelia said.

I wasn’t sure why she had so much hostility in her voice then, and I wasn’t sure why she said dogs. I mean, we were clearly talking about wolves! Dogs and wolves weren’t completely different, but they definitely aren’t the same either!

I thought about asking her why she seemed so annoyed, but we had already made it to her house. She opened the door, and I followed her through the door. There was something about this house that gave me the creeps, but Ophelia was a friend. I wasn’t about to tell her that her house creeped me out when I didn’t even have a home. Then I started to think about my parents and realized that they hadn’t even come to the school asking about me. This didn’t shock me in the least, though, because I knew I was a mistake they were happy to get rid of.

“Are you coming?”

I was brought out of my self-pity party when Ophelia stood halfway up the stairs talking to me.

“Yeah, sorry,” I replied simply.

I started to follow her up the stairs, and I was in awe over the whole house. Even though I didn’t feel welcome, the house itself was very welcoming. The walls were beautiful country colors that fit together perfectly. The stairs had very old detailed work to it, and I couldn’t help but run my fingers lightly across it. This house was so beautiful with an old century feel as if it had been around since the early eighteenth century. I was still in awe because, in all my fifteen years, I had never seen it before!

We finally made it to Ophelia’s room, and when she opened the door, I couldn’t believe my eyes! She had a huge what looked to be king-size bed placed in the left corner of her room. It was decorated in a black and white bed set but had four posts around it, which held sheer curtains that flowed towards the floor and had beautiful white lights intertwined with them. It felt like I had walked from reality to a fantasy world! I walked over to a window placed in the middle of the room and looked out to see a beautiful tree that had a branch reaching to the window. In the left corner, she had a white desk that held all her personal belongings and a matching white chair pushed in. Ophelia’s parents must be loaded! I wanted to ask her where the hell they lived before and what her parents did for a living. I didn’t want to make my new friend uncomfortable as she was just inviting me into her home. Knowing that I had just run away from my home and that I had been sleeping in the woods.

“So, what do you want to wear?”

I turned to face Ophelia, who stood in front of a walk-in closet. My mouth dropped open when I saw the size of her closet! It was the size of my bedroom at my parents’ home.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

I wouldn’t be able to tell her what I wanted to wear if I didn’t have an idea of where we would be going. Then a thought occurred to me that maybe she had to get dressed nicely for dinner.

In movies, when people lived in homes like this, they would have dinner attire. I looked down at my clothes, and they weren’t ratty by any means. However, I knew why the popular kids always made fun of me. My family didn’t have a lot of money, and my lack of style didn’t help matters either.

“Earth to Tal!” Ophelia said.

“Oh, sorry. Did you say something?” I asked.

I wasn’t sure how much talking Ophelia had been doing. I just knew that I wasn’t paying a lick of attention.

“Your date. Girl, you need to get your head on straight.”

“No, I can’t. It had to be a joke.” I stammered. “There is no way that he was serious. No one would choose me for any reason.”

Ophelia was rummaging through her clothes as if she didn’t hear a word that I had said. I walked towards her and then grabbed ahold of her shoulder. I turned her to face me, and she just raised an eyebrow at me.

“Are you listening to me?” I asked.

“No! I have looked at you. Tal, you are gorgeous, and the only reason you don’t believe that is because of those sluts in your school. I know what it is like when you don’t put out, or when you are different. I promise things will be better soon!”

I wasn’t sure what she meant by things will be better soon. I did understand everything else that she had said, though! I did have low self-esteem because of the life I had lived.

Parents who didn’t want you and kids in school who were continually bullying you. Those popular girls were always spreading rumors about me, and they always contradicted themselves. Some stories would state how I was a slut and sleeping with any boy who gave me attention. Other rumors would say how I was still a virgin and that no boy would ever touch me. This town and these people had made me feel worthless my whole life. How was I supposed to change all my insecurities just because the new girl said too? Maybe she knew what it was like because she lived a similar life, and now she is in a new town and can be whoever she wants! How I longed to finally leave this damn town and make a happy life for myself.

“Alright, go try this on!” Ophelia said, handing me a small piece of purple fabric.

“Um. No. There is. I mean.”

“Just try it on,” Ophelia said, cutting me off.

I sighed as she hurried me towards her bathroom and shoved me in before closing the door. I looked at the piece of fabric and gulped. There was no way that this little piece of material would cover anything.

Plus, Damon wanted to meet at the beach. Why the hell would I wear a dress to the beach? I knew Ophelia wouldn’t let me out of this bathroom unless I at least tried this on. So, with one last deep breath, I started to undress. Once I stood in a foreign bathroom and only in my underwear, I got a chill. I quickly pull the dress up my thighs, and once it got to my hips, I had to shimmy it up past my butt. I rolled my eyes once the fabric finally pulled into place, and then I finished pulling it up past my boobs. The romper wasn’t very thick, to begin with, and not to mention there wasn’t much material all at. It was a beautiful midnight purple look that complimented my eyes and skin color nicely. It didn’t wash my skin out like some darker colors or make me look like a depressed teenager.

“Come on already,” Ophelia grumbled.

I rolled my eyes as I looked in the bathroom mirror one last time. I loved the way I looked in this romper, but who the heck wore a romper to the beach? I opened the door and slowly walked into the bedroom. Ophelia was standing right outside the door, waiting. The minute she saw me, she threw her hands over her mouth.

“Does it look that bad?” I clinched.

“Are you kicking me! You look hot!” Ophelia said, jumping up and down.

I shook my head as I watched my new friend bounce around like a giggly schoolgirl. I knew I was younger, but I never had the urge to act as such. I was far beyond ready to be an adult.

I smiled back at my friend, not wanting to crush her hopes so soon. I didn’t want to upset her because she seemed to love playing dress-up, but there was no way that I was wearing this to the beach. What the heck kind of shoes was I going to wear?

“Ophelia besides the fact that going on a date with this guy is a bad idea. I can’t wear this to the beach.” I said, holding out the fabric.

“You are going to wear it. I will give you some sandals, and then it will look perfect for the beach.”

I watched as Ophelia darted to her closet and started rummaging through things on the ground. I wasn’t sure what she had in mind with sandals, but I wished they would be flat. When she brought the shoes over to me, they were a cute pair of flat black sandals. They had a few straps that went over my foot, then a strap around my ankle. With a zipper in the back to go up to my heel. I still wanted to protest against this ordeal, but the doorbell rang, and I had no such time.

I realized we had agreed to meet on the beach at the same place he found me just the other night. How in the world did he know where Ophelia lived?

“Ophelia, that can’t be him, right? We agreed to meet at the beach!”

She didn’t respond to me. Ophelia turned and darted out of her bedroom. I could hear her rushing down the stairs, and I slowly walked to the top of them. I had this feeling that something was off and that I shouldn’t go anywhere with this guy tonight! I leaned over the railing and tried to see downstairs, but I couldn’t see anything. I heard talking, but I wasn’t able to make out what was being said. I just knew that it was a boy and a girl’s face. That meant that the person at the door was definitely Damon, and then the uneasy feeling intensified.

“Tahlia, come on! You don’t want to keep your date waiting.” I could hear the excitement in her voice.

I reluctantly headed down the stairs and saw Damon standing in the doorway. He was in a pair of dark jeans and flat shoes that I really couldn’t make out as a brand. Not a surprise there, Tahlia, not like I have any fashion knowledge. I noticed then that he was wearing a dark purple button-up shirt with a sports coat over the top.

I furrowed my eyebrows when I realized that his button-up shirt matched the color of my romper. I also noticed that he was exceptionally overdressed to be going to the beach as well. I finally made it to the bottom of the steps, and Damon started to walk towards me.

“You look beautiful,” Damon said.

I stood frozen as Damon grabbed hold of one of my hands. Bring it up to his mouth and placing a small kiss on the back of my hand.

“Are you all ready to go?” Damon asked.

“I thought we were going to meet at the beach?” I questioned.

“I thought you would like it better if I picked you up. We will still be going to the beach, though.” Damon finished.

Damon took the hand he was still holding and wrapped it around the inside of his arm. He held it there in the crook of his elbow. I flushed when he looked at me with those blue eyes, and I had to turn my face away from his attention.

Damon walked us out of the house, but I noticed that he looked at Ophelia as we left. Apart from I felt like they knew each other. I just knew something was going on that I had been missing, but I would do my best to find that out. As we headed towards the beach, we silently walked along the road. It was beautiful out as the sun was just starting to set. No stars had made it out yet, but the moon already rose in the sky. It was a full moon just again, however it was large and beautiful. I wished I had my sketchbook with me. This would be a perfect scene to capture for my portfolio.

“So, how long have you lived in York?” Damon asked.

“Um, I have lived here my whole life,” I answered while staring at the ground.

“Do you plan to stay in York your whole life?”

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at his question.

“No! I plan to leave as soon as I graduate.”

I slowly tried to steal a look at his face without any success. Damon was staring intently at my face. As if there was something that he was trying to figure out.

“What about your family?” Damon asked.

It almost seemed like he was concerned by the tone of his voice. I am sure he has a great and loving family. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be so confused by my curt response.

“I am not close to my family.”

I wanted to liberate, but I also didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t even know this guy and telling him that my parents didn’t want me. It wasn’t a topic that I wanted to discuss, especially if this was a date.

I mean, who wants to hear about the loner’s unfortunate and sad, lonely life. Most people don’t understand it because they have parents who care about them. Even children who have parents who beat them still get love some of the time. I, on the other hand, didn’t get love or affection ever. I was a ghost floating through my own life, and I didn’t want to live like this. I mattered, right?

“Sorry, it isn’t my business. I just wondered if anything was holding you to this town.”

I now looked at Damon with confusion on my face.

“Why would it matter if I had strings to this town or not? It isn’t as if most of the kids from our school will talk to each other after graduation.” I said before looking away. “Not like any of them talk to me anyway,” I whispered to myself.

“I talk to you!” Damon said as he turned me towards him.

Dammit, I didn’t think he would hear that. Wow, what an i***t I must sound like to him. Damon stood there, holding onto my arms and just kept searching over my face.

“Come on. We are here.”

Damon finally let me go and walked us to the same spot I was just the other night. I stared at the bridge and was still in awe by its beauty.

It was even more beautiful now with the sunset reflecting in the water underneath it. Also, if I wasn’t with Damon, I was glad to be here soon. I didn’t even get to come out this far from home at night. Seeing the beach and the ocean at night was a different experience.

“What’s going on in that head of yours?”

I turned to face Damon, and he was standing there, staring up at the night sky. How did he know that I was thinking about anything? Especially since he wasn’t even looking at me!

“Just thinking about how beautiful the water looks right now. I never get to see it before dark like this.” I gulped when he turned to look at me. “What’s going on in your head?”

I felt stupid for asking, but he asked me. I thought it was only fair if he shared with me as well.

“Just thinking about how strong I feel once the night falls and the moon is highest,” Damon replied.

I took a step back, and I wasn’t sure why. However, I got this feeling like I shouldn’t be here right now. Something inside me was screaming for me to run, but my body seemed paralyzed.

I tried to take another step backward, but Damon took a step forward, and the sight made me stop. There was no way that I would ever be to overpower him. I wasn’t sure why I thought he was going to hurt me. He hasn’t given me any reason so far to believe he would do anything to me.

“What does that mean?” I asked shakily.

“That I am at my best at night. I live for the night, even though I can tolerate the daylight.”

“Oh,” I laughed. “You mean, like a night owl.” I quipped.

Damon took another step towards me and gave a grin that could kill. When he smiled at me, I knew in my whole body that he was going to kill me. There was no more being nice or acting like he was interested. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but I wanted to fight back. I started to look around for anything that I would be able to use as a weapon.

“What’s the matter, Tahlia?”

“Why are you walking so slowly?” I asked as my chin quivered.

He didn’t answer me. He just continued to walk slowly towards me. I was finally able to get my body to move backward. I was moving back for every step he took forward.

He was taller than me, and his strides were longer than mine. I would have to take multiple steps for his every one step. I would keep stepping away from him and hoping that I would be able to get to the street and yell for help before he could try anything.

“If I ran, then I would scare you. I don’t want to have to chase you, Tahlia.” Damon said, smiling.

“What does that even mean. What do you want from me?” I asked.

A single tear shed from my eye, and in a blur, Damon was directly in front of me. He had an arm wrapped around my back and the other on my cheek. He swiped the tear away as he pulled me into him.

“Please don’t hurt me!” I begged him.

“Tahlia, hurting you isn’t my intent. Giving you the life you deserve is and once you understand. I know that you will thank me for it.” Damon said as he pushed the hair off my neck.

I didn’t know what to do! He had an arm around my back that kept me close to his chest. I was only sixteen years old, and I had never been up against a guy like this before.

Besides, the fact that he was going to do God knows what to me. I didn’t like the fact of being this close to him. I needed space to breathe and gather my thoughts.

“This will only hurt for a moment. I will explain everything in the morning.” Damon whispered in my ear.

I wanted to ask him what the hell he was talking about. What was going to hurt only for a moment? If he hurt me, why in the world did he think that I would ever let him try to explain it to me in the morning! I didn’t have time to ask him anything because I got an excruciating pain at my neck. It felt like Damon had bitten me in the neck, and I could feel a pull against my skin. My vision started to blur, but all I could do was tell myself to stay awake. Don’t fall asleep with this crazy guy! I would never leave this beach alive if I lost conciseness. Then the pulling pain had finally subsided. Damon was fully standing in front of me again, and I screamed!

“What the hell are you?” I yelled at him.

“I promise you will understand in the morning. You need to rest now.”

I couldn’t rest! Don’t fall asleep, Tahlia, don’t fall asleep, Tahlia. I kept repeating to myself. Looking at Damon, I could see that he had two long white fangs, and there was blood covering them.

Blood dripped from his mouth, and he used his tongue to lick it up. I felt my whole body go limp at sight. I was falling to the sand beneath me, but then I felt a pair of arms come around me. Damon had picked me up in his arms, and I could feel him walking with me. I lightly bounced in his arms, with every step that he took. My head fell back as he held me, and I looked up at the night sky. The last thing I saw was the large bright moon above me.