I'm really sorry for the delays lately. I promise to have chapters up more often cause I have to get this story done before July 2!! Oh, review please!! and thanks
Okay, okay… just open the door- and really do it this time. My hand wavered, hovering just over the doorknob in the same position it had been in for the past ten minutes. No amount of pep-talk could force my shaking hand to open it though. I was frozen in place, torn and confused and, admittedly, afraid. It had taken almost an hour to even get to this stage.
I'd fallen asleep. Sitting in a limousine, next to the woman who had instructed my kidnapping- and happened to be my mom- while being driven away from home with no chance of escape had apparently been a perfect time for me to fall asleep. When my eyes had blearily opened, blinking away the last bits of sleep, I'd tried to think back on my last conscience moments and cringed when my memory line just ended, picking back up when I had woken up, lost and confused and full of self-loathing. How could I have let myself fall asleep?!
Waking up disoriented is one thing, but waking up in a dusty, ancient old room straight out of an American Girl book is another. Tattered lace curtains, flowered wall-paper, a big vanity in one corner. It didn't take much imagination to picture what the room had originally looked like. It felt like a ghost town, made me feel alone and eerily watched. That's how I'd ended up at the door, eager to leave the deserted bedroom, but not eager enough to actually open the door.
Just do it, what's the worst that could happen? I thought, trying to ignore all the actual possibilities. The knob was cold under my quivering hand, chilling me to the bone. Slowly, so it wouldn't creak, I turned the handle and eased open the door a fraction of an inch, peaking through the crack between the frame and actual door.
My heart was pounding, blood rushing in my ears, nervous butterflies fluttered in my chest. But there was nobody out there, nobody and nothing- just darkness, interrupted at intervals by dim candles mounted on the walls. I opened the door all the way and stepped out into the hall wondering why they would leave their captive all alone. Not that I was complaining.
There was a sound to my left, a faint echo of voices. Low and murmuring, their words were indistinguishable but I found my legs carrying me toward the sound. My feet brushed against rough, worn down carpet, my hand trailed along peeling wall-paper as shadows flickered along the walls. I could barely swallow because of the anxious lump in my throat.
I passed door after door, the voices steadily growing louder. I wondered who was in those rooms, behind the ancient wooden doors. More kidnapped people? Or the people who had kidnapped me? My hand dropped from the wall at that thought, hands balled into fists at my side as a fresh wave of anger washed through me.
Eventually, the confused murmuring turned into pitches and tones, I could pick out men and women speaking. But still their words made no sense. I followed the sound for I don't know how long until finally, the narrow, dark halls opened up onto a wide staircase, facing an identical set of halls way across the wide, open space. The ceiling was domed, like a church's, a big chandelier lit up the room. The sound of movement came now with the voices, turning the nervous lump into a nervous planet.
Laughter erupted from downstairs when my foot touched the first step. I froze, waited for the laughter to die down. Cups and plates clattered, chairs scraped against wooden floors. How many were down there? Why had I left that room? Slowly, taking a deep breath with each step, I forced myself to walk down the wide steps, trying to virtually turn myself into an invisible feather.
Another dark hallway waited at the bottom stretching from left to right, this time an eruption of yellow light broke through the shadows on my left. The voices came from there- that room lit from within. With a nervous glance over my shoulder and down the darkening hall, I crept forward, pressing my back against the wall, keeping as much to the shadows as possible.
"Hey!" My heart stopped, literally. My entire body went rigid and only until I heard more laughter did I breathe. It wasn't me, nobody had seen me. So far so good.
Beyond the lit up room, and way at the end of the dark hall, was the door. Not just any door to another old room, but the door. The front door. I could see the pale blue sky of twilight through the stained glass. If I could just get past my captors would be great.
When I could just see inside the room I stopped, calculating my plan of escape without really being spotted on the way out. Inside, the room was more modern than the rest of the house, no dust, no cobwebs. Nice stained wood table and cabinets. An impressionist painting hung on the bit of wall I could see and if I craned my neck, I could just make out the straight hair and wide shoulders of the man closet to the door. My heart pounded at the thought of them being so close.
Okay, okay. My breathing came faster as I tried to convince myself that this would not end in disaster, that I could easily just slip past the loud room unnoticed and be out the door. I could save myself and be home in not time! I crouched my legs, pushed off from the wall ready to run and-
"What the…?" This time, it was directed at me. I whipped around and spotted him, the person who had ruined my plan by coming down the grand staircase a minute too soon. He stared at me with wide dark eyes, as stunned to see me as I was to see him. I was just one second ahead in the reaction rate.
Because I didn't have another plan or another chance, I just ran for it. Bolted for the door, darting past the crowded room, ignoring surprised faces and the sudden clamor as chairs scraped back in unison and feet pounded after me. Adrenaline and panic coursed through me but the door was getting closer.
"Get back here!" They called. More shouts joined in, more pounding footsteps. Without actually doing so, an alarm had gone off, calling every werewolf in the immediate area to come after me. This was the complete opposite of how I'd invisioned my plan, but I was almost there.
I bowed my head and pushed myself the last few extra feet, my hand already reaching and couldn't help but smile when my hand clasped the doorknob, almost laughed when the door swung open and-
Froze. All laughter, all smiles vanished. Replaced, instead, by a cold, dreadful pang.
Dozens of pairs of eyes gleamed at me, fangs snarling up at me as sleek fur caught what little light was left. My eyes darted around, counting breathlessly as an empty feeling filled every crevice of my body. A hand clamped down on my shoulder but I couldn't even make a sound, I was too shell-shocked and numb.
"Gotcha" A deep, gravely voice huffed in my ear.
On either side of me, ahead and behind, the Other Pack surrounded me. Humans inside, wolves outside. I really was trapped, there was no way out. They'd barricaded the entire area with guards, the best you could ever find. What was one girl against forty werewolves? I backed against the doorframe as they gathered closer, faces leering at me, ears pointed and jaws snapping. My hands were shaking, my heart fluttered almost sputtering to a stop. This was it, I'd almost convinced myself.
"Stop" Just one word and it was like Moses parting Red Sea. The hand dropped from my shoulder, men and wolves backed off instantly. The command echoed in the air so that even the most stubborn of them couldn't disobey.
I wanted to hug the person who had spared me even a few extra minutes though I couldn't actually get myself to move- or even exhale. I looked from face to face, returning taunting stares with a blank one of my own. It was so quiet, you could have heard a pin drop. Footsteps echoed in the silence and my eyes flickered immediately to the sound, darted away then instantly back.
He stood there, like a king, arms folded over his chest, curly black hair framing piercing green eyes that looked at me with an emotion I couldn't name. For a minute all time stood still as my blue eyes locked on his green.
David.
Jake:
Frustrated. Anxious. I couldn't take this anymore, not one more second. If it was up to me, I'd be gone already, not caring about technicalities like actually knowing where she was, getting in to get her out and not getting killed in the process. All my mind knew was that she was gone, and getting farther each minute.
The Pack's voices were just murmurs in the background, my thoughts zoning in and out while I worked on the Rabbit's engine, a nervous habit. My hands worked without me actually having to think about it, picking up a wrench here, checking the oil there. I kept my hands busy so I wouldn't break something.
"-right Jake?" Paul's voice cut through the sound of metal clanking, above the faint echo of the other voices. I glanced up at six pairs of expectant eyes all waiting for my answer to a question I hadn't actually heard.
"What?" I asked, my voice low. Leah rolled her eyes and shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest.
"God, Jake. It's your girlfriend we're trying to save, you could at least pretend to be helping" She said, acting like this was the single most annoying thing in the world I could have asked her to do. My jaw clenched, anger spiked through my entire body- I was impatient enough as it is- and before I could stop myself I was marching over to her, slamming my palms down on the table. Leah jumped, so did Paul and Quil, and stared at me, shocked.
"It's not my fault you can't get over-" Thank god what happened next happened, because in my state of seething anger I had almost been about to say something I would have regretted, and Leah knew it too. But something had interrupted me, a crash just outside the garage, twigs snapping and leaves crunching under someone's shoe.
All of us were on feet faster than you could say Great Gatsby, bodies tensed and ready. Sam nodded to me, took one side of the double doors, I took the other, the Pack falling in behind. Another snap and pop of a branch bending under too heavy a weight and the doors flew open. We rushed out, I could already feel a shape phase coming on, rippling through my bones. Out of the darkness came a startled yelp, we rounded on the sound. Jared ran into the shadowed trees, seconds later we heard a grunt then a pain filled groan. Embry went in after while the rest of us waited, listening to the struggle as the tension built, heavy in the air. A shout then silence….
My gaze flickered to Quil who shrugged and took a step closer at the same time as something came flying out of the woods, followed by Embry who burst out of the trees, one long cut on his neck. Jared struggled on the ground to pin down whoever had been creeping around the garage. My entire body buzzed with the adrenaline of this distraction, the wolf part of me anticipating a fight.
"Wait! Wait, I'm cool, don't- hey! Watch your hands!" We froze. It was just a… Jared shot to his feet, eyes wide, and we saw clearly… just a girl. A little frantic and frenzied, but a girl, maybe fifteen, none the less. It was dead silent until Quil snorted and bit back a laugh.
"What are you laughing at?" She shot at him as she stood. Not just a girl, we could smell the wolf on her. Her eyes flared when she noticed a tear in her sleeve, brushed dirt and leaves off her clothes.
"Who are you?" asked Sam after a second of awkward, stunned silence.
It was dark out, the wind coming off the cliffs was pretty strong, whipping the girl's hair into her face. I crossed my arms over my chest and stood next to Sam, taller by about two inches. Together we looked pretty intimidating, the Pack backing us made us seem like a teenage mafia. The girl looked at us and shrugged, totally not impressed.
"What's it to you?" She asked, taking up the same stance, arms over her chest. I stared at her, debating than shrugged my own shoulders.
"Fine. You can have her" I said, nodded to the Pack who went right with the act. They grinned, grouped around her, looming over her. Her dark hair, just past her shoulders, and small, almost fragile frame reminded me of Cara. I clenched my fists and turned away before I could think about it too much.
"Wait!" She called. I stopped a few feet away, didn't bother turning around. Quil let out a half-manic laugh, a little over done, like the hyenas in the Lion King. I rolled my eyes, wishing he could see. It worked though, her voice went up to octaves.
"What?" I said, still without looking at her. After a minute of silence I continued back toward the garage, feeling my heart sink lower in my chest with each step. I was almost at the door when I heard the most amazing words I think I've ever heard.
"I can help you get your girlfriend back!"