Fighting Faith

2

A wolf.

A giant, big, black wolf right in front of me.

I could be hallucinating. Jake saw it too, didn’t he? He even ran away with not even a glance back, or was it for something else and I was really hallucinating?

The wolf was growling and looking at me with those bright red eyes right into my soul, yet for some reason I was not scared. I think it was the drug acting on me or that I didn’t entirely believe there was a two feet ‘or more’ tall wolf in front of me. I don’t think it was real.

Time felt slow or stopped completely. I was in a haze thinking I was Alice in Wonderland. Yup, there you go Faith, falling into the rabbit hole.

I extended my hand to try and reach out to it but I heard another howl at the distance. I couldn’t tell but I felt it was not far from here.

My heart was beating against my chest like there was no tomorrow. I felt some kind of electricity extending throughout my skin making me feel sick and hot while our eyes crossed, I couldn’t avoid feeling my cheeks flushing, what was going on with me? Was I flushing because a wolf wanted to eat me or was it the drugs’ fault?

The black wolf in front of me took its tongue out to lick its canines, they were directed towards me. I think it was eager to taste, it looks as it was already tasting me like a four course menu. As soon as the howl stopped, the black wolf sprinted out of my sight just as fast as it came.

I sighed. I wanted to know if it was real or not by touching it.

Suddenly, I felt a smack on the back of my head and everything went black.

…

When I opened my eyes again I was surprised to see my room’s ceiling, I don’t think I was conscious just yet. My head hurt like never before, it was like a throbbing pain constantly reminding me that Jake was a d**k and I’m never trusting any other guy in my life.

Who hit me? Was I conscious enough to walked back home? What the heck happened?

I drank the whole glass of water in my bedside table. I was so thirsty; it was like flames were burning my insides. I was on my pjs which meant grams put me to bed and that she would be extremely mad at me for drinking and trusting stupid guys, douchebag as she called him before we left.

Lesson learned. College, parties and guys were so out of question for me, I will be forever single and partner in crime with my grams.

I stood up from my bed. It was already half ten, grams is probably cleaning Ms. Roberts’ house and she wouldn’t be back up until seven. I have a shift today at the gas station at noon up until seven as well, she would pick me up so we could come back home and start our birthday night with popcorns and scary movies, we had a whole itinerary.

Today’s my last shift at the Roberts’ station, I was just a cashier there but I also had to help Joe filling up the stands, at least there was not a lot of movements on Thursdays.

I went to take a shower while exploring my body making sure nothing besides my head was in pain or red when I saw a bite mark on my neck. It could pass as a mosquito bite because I’m not sure I should tell grams the whole story of what went on yesterday.

The clothes I wore yesterday were already in the laundry basket, but I didn’t see my jacket. Where is my jacket? Probably was left back at the forest where I saw the massive black wolf.

Was it real or was I just imagining it all?

I’ll just blame it on the alcohol and whatever drug the ‘douchebag’ aka Jake put on my drink last night. I’m sure he had to drug me so I could be that useless.

I knew personal defense. Grams always made sure we both knew how to fight for ourselves in the event we needed to fight back, yesterday was a perfect example. Though drugged, I don’t think I would be able to do much. I don’t think I could have done much if Jake didn’t stop, was he also on drugs? We couldn’t have had the same hallucination right? It didn’t make much sense.

After taking a shower, I dressed with my usual blue uniform and headed out, I think I will have breakfast at the Starbucks across from the gas station before arriving. I’m dying with hunger and grams didn’t left me any food. Another reason why I knew she was pissed, she normally prepared breakfast for me before leaving.

I sighed arriving at the Starbucks. It was a good fifteen minutes’ walk in this summer heat. I could walk back at night but grams wouldn’t let me because ‘it’s dangerous at night’ and I was on her way after work from the Roberts’ so it was not big trouble.

I asked for my regular bacon, cheddar and egg sandwich along with a frozen cappuccino. It was just too hot to be drinking hot coffee and I definitely needed coffee today. I was still feeling the throbbing on my head and was feeling feverish, I don’t know if it was due to the drug or the smack I received.

Was it Jake? Even when he couldn’t rape me, he still hit me. Was it the wolf?

No. There was no wolf, that was just the drug in my system.

The Starbucks was extremely empty, besides the two weird guys sitting all the way to the back all dressed with black suits and shades there was no one else. Weird given the fact that is almost 90 degrees outside. It was already late, everyone who was supposed to work should have already eaten their breakfast.

After having my breakfast and feeling satisfied for the next couple of hours. I crossed the street to the gas station. It was a simple job, just tend to the customers and read magazines when there was no one to give service to.

This town was mostly quiet. No accidents, no big news like the big cities, everything felt homey and cozy.

That’s what I used to feel every time we moved. I don’t think grams likes big cities. This is the first time we’re moving to something “big” and we don’t know yet where we’ll live, it was hotels for the first two weeks and then getting a house, I think she worked to buy houses. She always had the money to purchase them even before selling the previous house, but we always sold them, real state is a good business.

While the hours passed with no customers, I remembered I had a new phone I could download some books into it, but grams didn’t want me to get online without being at home, so that was a bummer.

I don’t really know much of my parents, grams only said they died in an accident when I was almost 2. That’s why she made sure I could have everything possible and within range of security, at least I had a good education. I don’t complain and never felt bad about the life grams was able to give me, only when I reached puberty we fought a lot but that was pretty much it.

We all argue for everything when we reach certain age.

Around four, the gas store started crowding with people buying gas, snacks and even lottery tickets, we all wanted to be rich the easy way I guess.

After helping them out and emptying the station again, I felt someone was watching me but there was no one at the store anymore.

I looked outside and noticed it just started raining, weird because it was not even cloudy. I was feeling even worse than I was this morning, the headache wouldn’t stop and my skin felt burning even when I set the AC to the lowest temperature, even my limps were aching as if I just ran a marathon.

Was I running yesterday? Was that how I arrived home?

I got a ping on my phone from a text message, grams texted me to see how I was.

‘I have a headache, but the biz’s going slow. How about you?’

‘Jake told me you fell and hit your head. You didn’t look out of place when I was changing you, was that what really happened?’

So that was the story he went along with, that means that he really hit my head afterwards just to cover his ass.

Dick.

‘Yeah, you know how clumsy I am sometimes. Thanks Jake for that’

I heard the bell at the door chiming. The two guys from before using shades and suits were here this time, were they still around? They didn’t look from around here.

“Is there anything I can help you guys with?” I asked politely but I had my hand below the counter in case I needed to sound the alarm and call the police, even if I was going to be dead before they arrived.

These guys looked extremely suspicious, maybe it was with the way they walked but something didn’t sit right.

They didn’t answer yet they moved around like they owned the place, one of them was quietly looking at me while the other one moved around, were they trying to steal something? They didn’t look like robbers or mug people, if so they looked like the mafia and the mafia was not stealing small gas stations in an old town.

I heard a growl from the guy that stood closed to the entrance looking at me while I was looking at the other guy. I looked back at the guy near the entrance, I couldn’t see his eyes but something about him was starting to feel familiar.

He had good facial features but what was most surprising is his tall stature, he was almost two feet tall so even when I was behind the register I still needed to raise my head to see him. I couldn’t see his eyes though, was he famous?

The bell chimed again breaking the enchantment I had over the customer and the three of us looked at the door at the same time as if we were caught doing something bad. Jake was coming inside the store. He looked sick and nervous, too pale for his tanned skin.

“Hey” he just said as a hello. So this was mutual, we were both sick due to the drug he tried to use against me to commit something awful.

The other two guys got close together while adding stuff to a cart, it looked like they were pretending mostly instead of attempting to purchase anything in particular. Jake, on the other hand, was nervously moving around the medicine area and taking everything in his hands, he didn’t take a cart like the other guys.

He looked nervous and wary, like if something could come close at any moment and kill him, did he really see the wolf as well? Were we both under the same drug?

He moved closer to the register and handed me all the medicine he had; flu medicine and stuff for the stomach. I was feverish so we were definitely having different symptoms.

“About yesterday…”

We both heard it, he froze on the spot.