Chapter 3

With a thud, the car door closed, and Helios locked it before he took a few steps into the forest and allowed himself to take a deep breath. He had missed that. The fresh, earthy smell in the air, the sounds of animals and leaves in the wind and at the same time this unbelievable peace, for which he was driving, sometimes up to an hour, through the area to find a patch of nature, where he could be sure that there were no other people.
It was Sunday, three days after his visit to the hospital and Jaime was at a friend's place. The boy's mother had invited him too, at least for lunch, but he had politely declined. Since the next test is scheduled for in two weeks, and he had finished all his duties yesterday, he wanted to spend his day off out in the nature.
It had been too long since he simply marched off into the wild the last time and today, he wanted to sit down on a beautiful glade and let his mind drift. Dick hadn't even noticed that his sons and the car were gone, he was probably still asleep or was already drinking again.

The black haired boy shook his head, he didn't want to think about this man now. He shouldered his small black backpack with a bottle of water, a snack and the book that he had to read for school and began to walk into the woods.
It took him a quite while until he was certain in which direction he wanted to go, but if his sense of orientation was not mistaken around here was running a small river, which also flowed through Forks and the thought of sitting at the shore and just watch as the waves sounded very tempting.

Helios tried to go as quiet as possible while dodging roots and bushes, since he was there because of the calm, and the animals would surely be grateful if he would not disturb them more as he already did. After some time, about an hour away from the car, he heard the noise of running water, just a bit further to the left than expected.
The direction in which he walked was quickly corrected and frankly, the boy was looking forward to the sight, but when he broke through the line of trees and landed in a clearing, the picture before him was anything but pleasant. On the grass were several deer, motionless and probably pretty dead, if he wasn't mistaken.
Slowly, cautiously, yet curiously he went on, as he looked around carefully. The animals did not seem to have been killed by an animal, since the wounds they showed were way too small and there were too many cadavers. Wolves and bears would chase one, maybe two of them, but not five. Hadn't he seen the little blood-stained spots on their bodies, the teenager would have thought that all of them had eaten a poisonous plant and died. What the hell was going on?

His head whipped around at a little cracking sound in the woods and he felt his heart leap into his throat, even as he tried to convince himself that there was nothing around, that that, what had killed the animals would have caught him long ago when it still was close. The next crack was not far away, and his body tensed up without his conscious, ready for a fight-or-flight response.
But what he had in no way expected, was the man who just emerged from the bushes. "Dr. Cullen? What are you doing here?" He asked more than baffled and the doctor seemed be just as surprised as he heard the question. "I could ask you the same, Helios." The blonde said with a smile, but his smile disappeared when he discovered the animals. "What's going on here?"
The boy shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "I have no idea ... But I'm not sure if I want to know," he muttered. "And I just like taking a walk in the woods, do you have a problem with that?"

After a last, thoughtful glance at the carcasses Carlisle smiled at him and shook his head. "Of course not, I was just wondering why you drive all the way out here when you could simply walk out the door at home and would be in the woods," the man explained and took a few steps in Helios direction.
"Simply because I thought I would be on my own here. I don't like having people around when I try to relax." This all-too-honest answer caused his opposite to chuckle with a small shake of his head. "Well this is a logical explanation. Still, I'd feel more comfortable if I could escort you back to your car. Something out here seems more than strange."

With that the doctor nodded in the direction of the dead animals and looked at Helios expectantly, who was busy trying to keep himself from whining and crossed his arms across his chest. "But I don't want to go back yet," said the black haired boy like a stubborn child.
But then he looked over his shoulder and a shiver ran down his spine. Even if he normally wanted to be alone, it would be quite scary if he would go on alone. "But ... if you want to, you could just come with me." he suggested instead, which was accepted, to his surprise, with a smile and a nod.

A little hesitant he shuffled on his feet, until he realized how stupid that probably looked and he pulled himself together, stammered a "Um ... then let's go" and ran with shame reddened cheeks in the direction in which he was going before, back into the forest.
A part of him was hoping that the man changed his mind, that he perhaps didn't mean it that way or thought Helios would back down, but shortly afterwards he heard footsteps right beside him and as he glanced to his side, he met the eyes of a smiling Carlisle.
Quickly and highly embarrassed Helios snapped his eyes forward again, the blush on his cheeks somehow getting even darker, especially after a small, hardly restrained laughter was heard.

Probably to help the boy out of his misery, his companion cleared his throat and asked, "How's the injury? Do the painkillers help?" Too embarrassed to respond verbally, Helios nodded and was silent for a moment before he said, "You know, I'm fine by my own, you really don't have to come with me, Dr. Cullen."
Surprised, he stopped when the man beside him had and had put a hand on his shoulder. "Helios, I said, I want to go with you. You really don't have worry because if it would bother me, I wouldn't have offered it, but simply let you go. And please, call me Carlisle, we are not at the hospital."
A bit embarrassed, the boy pouted and hesitated for a moment, uncertain how he should respond to that before he said, almost defiantly: "Only if you drop that stupid formal way you talk to me, I'm younger than you."
Chuckling, the doctor dropped his hand and started walking again, which forced Helios to move again. "Courtesy is not a question of age, which many unfortunately forget. Just because someone is older or younger than you, it doesn't mean that you should be more or less polite." He said, then nodded ahead. "Look, over there is the river."