It's Dark Within

Run With Me

            Lunch time at Ridge Hill was just as typical as any other high school. Clicks, fighting, eating, relaxing, and even some sports playing. Me and Janelle were out in the field eating and talking. After explaining what happened in the hall earlier, Janelle began her freak out.

            “Holy hell, Ell! It’s been all of three hours and the new guy in school has taken a liking to you.” Janelle nearly yelled as she smiled big.

            “Hush!” I scolded while I looked around to make sure Jack wasn’t going to hear. “He was just being nice.”

            Janelle rolled her eyes. “Yeah, what he did in first period wasn’t at all because he likes you. He did it just because he felt like fixing your hair and nearly holding your hand. Sometimes you’re so dense, Ell.”

            I sighed. “It’s…I’m going to stop talking now.”

            “Yep, like usual. For once I would like to see you with a guy. You don’t even think about them, what teenager doesn’t think about being with a guy?” Janelle said, laying back in the grass.

            I shrugged. “Me. I’m just not interested.”

            Janelle shook her head. “You should be. I would hate for you to end up alone forever because you never take the chance to get out there and meet men.”

            “Janelle, we’re seventeen, I have plenty of time.” I rolled my eyes. My best friend just didn’t get it. Janelle didn’t and couldn’t understand the fact that I can’t just date whoever. There was no way I could be with a human, I wasn’t human. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to date, to feel like someone cared about me that wasn’t one of my brothers or mother. With my ‘heat’ coming up when I turn eighteen I will finally be able to sense my life-mate, making all this much more stressful. My kind had to be with another of our kind, that was just how it had to be.

            Eventually the bell rang, sending all the students back to class. Janelle headed off to English while I went to biology. Before I even opened the door, I shook my head, I could smell ash from outside the room. With a huff, I pulled the door open and went inside. Within two seconds my eyes found him. Jack was sitting at the table next to mine, his eyes following me across the room and to my seat.

            “I was wondering when you were coming to class.” He sarcastically said while he tilted his head.

            I smiled, then shook it off my face. “Is that right? Keeping tabs on me now?”

            “Someone has to make sure you’re not being jumped by five guys.” Jack said with a wink. “What are you doing after school?”

            I shrugged. “Nothing, why?”

            He smiled, leaning over to whisper. “Come running with me.”

            I raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you asking me out?”

            “Rain, if I was, you would definitely not have to ask.” Jack said as a sly smile slid onto his lips. “I know you want to. I can feel all your wolfy pent up energy.”

            “Wow, your confident in yourself.” I said while I couldn’t stop the smile I had.

            He shrugged. “I know. It’s one of my better traits. So? Are you going to meet up with me or not, rain?”

            I rolled my eyes teasingly. “Fine. I’ll go with you.”

            Jack nodded as he turned back to face the front of the classroom, and I did the same. Then I was picking something up, low, my exquisite hearing almost didn’t catch it.

            “See, was that so hard, rain?”

            I shook my head. “People are going to think we’re crazy if they see us talking to no one.”

            He cracked his neck out of boredom. “Who cares what the humans think of us?”

            I ignored him as class started. The whole period Jack’s new lab partner Andy, talked him up about what sports he liked, while I dealt with Missy hounding me about Jack. Apparently, Missy heard him ask me what I was doing after school, and thinks it’s a date. I did my best to keep calm, but Jack’s persistent laughing over the whole situation wasn’t helping. So, after an hour of grinding my teeth out of frustration, the bell finally rang.

            Without hesitation, I grabbed my stuff and rushed out of the room like it was burning down. When I was out in the hall, my eyes spotted Janelle. I was already walking towards me, so, I moved to the side to wait. The rest of the students left out of the room and kept on walking, but Missy stopped to shake her head at me. I rolled my eyes as Janelle came up next to me.

            “Who deserved that look?” Janelle asked with a smile on her face.

            “Missy.” I looked over to Janelle. “She wouldn’t stop talking.”

            Janelle looked interested. “About what?”

            “About me.”

            I instantly let out a physical sigh, Jack spoke over my head as he exited the biology classroom. “Yeah, him.”

            Janelle was too shocked to really say anything as I watched Jack laugh.

            “See you later, rain.” He said casually over his shoulder before going down the hall.

            When he was gone Janelle came back to reality. “What? He? I’m so confused with my life right now.”

            I shrugged. “Me too. At least you’re not the only one.”

            The next class went by fine, and then two were off to the last class of the day. Science Fiction studies. A new elective class that the we actually enjoyed, we study famous books and movies dealing with myths and tall tales.

            We got in and Janelle nearly gasped. “How was he able to get into the class? I thought it was full?”

            “I have no idea. Why don’t you ask him?” I said before I let out a sigh.

            Over in the corner was none other than Jack, sitting on his desk with his back to everyone and staring out the window at the trees. He almost seemed normal, but the air around him most definitely wasn’t. I assumed he knew I was there as I went to our usual seats. Mariana strode in with her head high and a glint to her brown eyes as she locked onto Jack. I did my best to try and not listen to their conversation, but having extremely good hearing made it pretty hard.

            “Hey there, Jack. How’s it going?” Mariana said smiling and looked him over like he was a piece of meat she was about to cook.

            He shrugged. “Fine enough.”

            She licked her lips as she moved in a little closer. “That’s great. I was wondering, if you’re not doing anything after school, why don’t you come out with me? I’ll show you around town and to all the perfect places.”

            Jack glanced over his shoulder at me. “I have plans, but thanks anyways.”

            I put my head down, trying to be completely invisible as I listened in.

            Mariana sighed. “Oh, what are you doing? If you don’t mind me asking.”

            “I don’t.” He said as he looked back out the window. “I asked Christelle out with me after school.”

            At the mere mention of me, Mariana snorted in disbelief. “You have to be joking.”

            “No, no I’m not.” Jack said as he smiled back at me. “Isn’t that right, Ell?”

            “I don’t want to be in this conversation.” I let out a deep breath as I spoke.

            Mariana rolled her eyes. “What is with all the guys in this school? What do you even see in her?”  

            Jack laughed as he spun around to be face to face with Mariana. “Something that you will never have. Sorry, love.”

            “Screw you, Jack.” She said before going to walk away.

            “I bet you wish I was.” He said with a wink.

            He laughed when she flipped him off before sitting down at her desk.

            I glanced over to him and shook my head disapprovingly. In a low voice for only Jack to hear, “Seriously? Now she’ll hate me even more. Have you no shame?”

            Jack smiled as he looked over to me. “Shame? Yeah, I have none. As for that human girl, who cares. She’s nothing special.”

            The class went by fast, the subject was the sightings of the Loch Ness monster and what could have caused the myth in the first place. All throughout class Jack cracked jokes with me or made fun of the interview videos we were watching. I did my best to hide it from Janelle and the rest of the class, hoping no one saw the way I tried to not laugh and ignore him. Or the way Jack would laugh and look over to me. Eventually someone was bound to notice.

            “Who are you whispering to like that?”

            I looked over to the girl on my right, a sweet quiet girl named Lisa Waters. I smiled and shrugged. “I’m sorry, I was talking to myself. Was I bothering you?”

            Lisa shook her head. “No. Honestly, I thought you were talking with someone. I was hoping it wasn’t me, no offense.”

            “Oh, yeah. No, I wasn’t…forget I said anything at all.” I said before hiding my face with my hands.

            To my left, Jack stifled a laugh as he leaned back in his chair. I rolled my eyes and ignored him for the rest of the class.

            Finally done with school, Janelle and I went out front. To my surprise I didn’t have to make up an excuse to not go over to Janelle’s today as she had a doctor’s appointment in the next town over. So, after Janelle left with her mom, I sniffed out Jack.

            As I rounded the corner to the back of the school, my eyes found him leaning against the side of the building. I smiled when I observed him waiting patiently.

            “What are you thinking about so intensely?” I leaned against the wall next to him.

            Jack looked over with completely serious face. “I was thinking about how slow you are. You move like a sloth, love.”

            I shook my head. “Asshole. Are you ready to go run, or are you going to just stay here?”

            “Run then, rain.” He said with a smile, gesturing for me to start. “If you want to start us off.”

            I pushed myself off the wall, turning to wink over my shoulder. “I’m already moving, what about you, sugar?”

            The moment I hit the forest, I was running. Full speed, with the wind ripping by me. My eyes turned a bright yellow-green color as I jumped over a fallen log. I felt my nails extend and contort into claws as my k-9 teeth and the ones behind them shifted and molded into fangs. As I slowed up to a stop, I listened to the forest and for Jack. When I spun around I could see a massive beautiful unique black and white wolf walking in close behind me. In this form, his head reached to nearly five feet, making him nearly tower over me again. I smiled when I watched Jack tilt his wolfy head to the side in confusion.

            I knew exactly why he was confused and decided to answer him. “I can’t fully ‘turn’ like you can. I didn’t have a good time to explain this before we went out here, but ‘this’ is all my body will do. It’s disappointing, right?”

            I watched him trot over to begin to circle me. He looked over me like I was completely new, even leaning in to inhale my scent as it had changed too. I knew I smelled and felt like a wolf, I just didn’t walk on four paws. My eyes glowed into his as he barked playfully at me, moving quickly to nip me in the butt before taking off again.

            “Seriously?” I huffed as I took off after him.

            Just because I wasn’t in wolf form didn’t mean I couldn’t keep up with him. As we ran together I felt myself loosen up, and my heart gave into the run completely. Jack swerved right in front of me, and with a smile I twisted around a tree. He launched himself over a bush to my right, while I ducked around another trunk. With a laugh, I pushed him away as he came in to nip my leg playfully.

            Like this we could spend eternity together, just running, and before either of us realized it, darkness was falling over the sky.

             I finally stopped running in the middle of a wheat field, looking over my shoulder at Jack as he came up to me with his wolfy nose high in the air. He was smiling on the inside as he saw sweat dripping down my face and onto my chest, not being able to help himself as he looked me over. I lifted my hands to the sky and let out a deep breath, trailing my hand down my arm then across my chest. The act for me was stretching and releasing stress, but for Jack it looked entirely seductive.

            “Damn, it’s been forever since I’ve ran like that.” I giggled, looking over to Jack with a smile on my beautiful face. “Thank you, for asking me to join you. Running with my brothers is nothing compared to this. They go so slow because they don’t think I can keep up with them. They mean well, but they think I have a handicap.”

            Jack sneezed his disapproval as he nudged my hand with his snout.

            I bit down on my bottom lip. “Maybe we can do this regularly. I mean, if you want the company that is.”

            He nodded as he trotted off a little in front of me. I smiled as I ran the wheat through my hands, watching Jack stretch out his limbs before hopping up on the only rock in the field. His massive size made everything seem so small, even the boulder he propped himself up on.

            “What are you, king of the mountain now?” I joked before the smile fell off my face.

            He watched as I lifted my head to the sky and closed my eyes.

            “Gunpowder…” I whispered as my eyes shot open. “Jack! Run!”

            Jack didn’t even get the chance to move before I was running again. A gunshot rang through the field like a firecracker. The shot didn’t hit anything, but when Jack looked over he saw a hunter in the distance aiming his rifle at him. Instantly, his heart fell as he saw me launch myself at the man.

            “Stop shooting!” I screamed, tackling the man to the ground.

            “Get off me girl!” The man cursed at me. He elbowed me in the face twice, getting me to roll off him. The hunter grabbed his gun again and aimed for Jack as he was running towards them. “That trophy wolf is mine!”

            “No!” I screamed, not even realizing what I was doing as I did it.

            Everything happened so fast. The hunter had Jack’s head in his crosshairs, and I panicked. I didn’t even get the time to think anything out. My hand reached out and swiped across the man’s neck. I watched as gashes opened up on his skin and warm red blood spilled out like waterfalls. My claws had extended out of fear, and it was a killing blow to the human neck. I cried out as the man sunk to the dirt, withering and reaching out to grab my ankle.

            My tears streamed down my face as I tried to scoot away from the dying hunter, blood was all over my leg as his hand tried to get a grip on me. “No! f**k! Let me go!”

            Suddenly Jack was at my side, in human form, getting down to pull me out of reach from the man. Cradling me in his arms as he tried to comfort me.

            “Don’t look at him. Look at me, Ell.” He whispered into my hair as I clung to him. My sobs were breaking his heart, but there was only so much he could do. “Focus on me.”

            I gripped his shirt tightly in my fists. As I looked up into his eyes “I killed him! f**k! Jack…I killed him!”

            He nodded. “I know. I would have if you didn’t, Christelle. He was going to kill me.”

            “I can still hear him…” I cried out as I shook my head, trying to get the sounds of the man dying out of my head.

            Jack on the other hand was facing the man, watching as he died right in front of him. “It will be over soon. I’m right here. I’ll be with you for as long as you need me, I promise.”

            I nodded as I cried into his chest, my arms wrapped around his neck. Trying my best to block out the sounds of the man taking his last few breaths. Jacks hand covered my ear that wasn’t against his chest, keeping me from hearing as much as he could.

             For a while they both sat there together. Jack held me tightly as I cried myself to sleep in his arms. He lifted me up easily and began the walk to my property.

            “Jack…”

            Jack looked down to see I was still asleep and let out a slow breath. “Saying my name in your sleep now, eh? This is the start of my downfall…”

            As he walked he did his best to be as easy as he could to not wake me, but as if I sensed them going into my property line I opened my cloudy blue eyes. I leaned my head against his chest as I let out a sigh.

            “You can put me down now, Jack.” I said in a whisper.

            He listened and set my down on my feet without saying a word. When I was on my feet I glanced over and felt another tear fell from my eye.

            “Don’t cry again, rain.” Jack tilted my head back to look up to him. “I can’t stand it.”

            I tried my best to smile, but it didn’t happen. “I’m sorry…”

            He shook his head at me. “Never apologize to me. I don’t need it.”

            Before I could answer, Jack wrapped his arms around me again. My whole body relaxed as I wrapped my own arms around his waist. For a few minutes, they stayed there like that, until I was sure I wasn’t going to cry.

            “Are you going to be okay?” Jack asked as he looked down at me with concern filling his olive-green eyes. “I’ll walk you all the way to your front door if you need me too.”

            I smiled for a second. “My brothers would attack you on sight.”

            “Don’t care.” He said as he touched the side of my face to wipe the tear away. “Just tell me what you need from me.”

            I looked up to him and let out a deep breath. “Come walk me to school in the morning?”

            Jack nodded. “I’ll be right here waiting.”

            I nodded back as I turned to go to my house. “Hey, Jack?”

            He leaned against a tree as he watched me. “Yeah, love?”

            “Thank you. It means more to me than you think.” I said before waving and heading to my barn.

            As I walked out of his sight, Jack leaned his head back against the trunk as he sighed to the sky. “Your welcome…Ell.”

            To my surprise, none of my brothers showed up to hound me about why I was just coming home at two in the morning. My mother was probably already asleep, drowning in sleeping pills. Leaving me to head to my bathroom to take a quick shower before hitting my mattress face-first. The moment I closed my eyes I could see the man withering in pain as I felt his hand on my ankle again. My heart slammed in my chest as I started to freak out, but then I felt something else.

            I could feel warm strong arms surrounding me like a blanket. Jack. My whole body relaxed knowing he was there for me, and within a few minutes I was asleep thinking about him.