Chapter 15:
Cara:
It had never taken so long for twilight to come. Ever, in my entire lifetime. Of course the one time I really needed the sun to set, it takes forever. But that's the way of world apparently.
I sat on my bed, ignoring David as usual when he came in, and just stared out the window, waiting. I was antsy and anxious just sitting there. For understandable reasons, I couldn't wait for another chance to escape. The plan was perfect in my mind, completely fool proof. I'd done the research, like any good student.
At around the same time each night, the wolves outside switched shifts- wolves coming in phasing in the forest, wolves going out phasing around the side of the house. Which evidently left nobody on guard for about five minutes. Which meant I had five minutes to get out and run. Run fast. Across the front lawn, dodging any possible sightings, keeping to shadows, and making it into the darkened trees right outside my window.
In the fading sunlight coming through said window, I grinned, imagining the look on David's face when he came in and found me gone. But I wouldn't miss it too much, not enough to stay and see it myself. I'd be going home, getting a supernatural restraining order and trying to put this whole thing behind me. Hopefully.
A floorboard creaked right outside my door and I could see the shadow of a foot under the crack. It paused for a minute, forcing my heart to stop then start at a faster pace. I sighed when whoever it was moved on, footsteps echoing further down the hall.
I was so sick of this place and these weird people. The desire to be home was so intense it was like a visible force around me. But what if it didn't work? I shot down the thought before it could make me nervous, make me panic before I'd even started. There would be enough panicking going on while I was running, just sitting here and stressing out would do me no amount of good.
For a while, I was absorbed in my own thoughts which had been a jumbled mess to begin with and when I finally blinked and became aware of the world again, it was dark. Not just in the room, but outside the window too.
I jumped up, afraid that I had missed my chance but when I saw the same brown wolf pacing down below my window I sighed, hand on my racing heart. There wasn't time to wonder about whether I'd fallen asleep or not, it didn't really matter anyway. I'd be outside soon, feeling real fresh air on my skin, through my hair.
Looking out at the starry sky, the moon nowhere in sight, I realized how much I'd missed being outside in the however many days I'd been stuck in that shabby old room. With closed eyes, I imagined the cliffs and the smell of the sea, running on the sands at First Beach. My heart ached just thinking about home.
But not for long, I thought and opened my eyes.
As always, it was eerily silent. The only sound was my own breathing and movements until a door slammed open, I heard the muffled voices of men down outside my window. I ran over and threw it open, but kept myself safely hidden from view behind the tattered curtain.
Seven men came into my line of vision and seven wolves came out of their hidden lookouts. My heart started pounding in my throat as my plan started to come into action. This was it. My hands curled around the edges of the curtain, holding tightly as I watched the men run around to the back of the house, the wolves dash for the shaded trees.
I waited five seconds, wondering if this was a good idea and decided it was the best I was going to come up with.
"Okay, okay" I whispered. I glanced nervously at the door before easing one leg, then the other out the window. It wasn't a far drop, maybe ten feet at most, funny because it had taken me forever to find my way out of the hallways, but it took five seconds for me to drop to freedom. I silently thanked their lack of planning and dropped without any hesitation.
My feet hit the hard packed ground but I managed to stay upright. I crouched behind a bush, momentarily wishing I'd made rope out of my sheets or something. Outside, I could hear voices, laughter, coming through the window right above me, the room two floors under mine. Light leaked out and over onto the lawn in front of me. My entire body was almost shaking with adrenaline.
Slowly, so I wouldn't make a sound, I crept along the house, ducking under the window and behind the bushes, trying to keep mainly to the shadows. It seemed like suddenly my breathing was on surround sound audio, way too loud. I tried to get my breathing under control as I crept, ignoring the sharp rocks digging into my bare foot.
There was a loud slam, like a screen door closing, and a sigh. I froze, blinded by the railing of the small porch of this old house surrounded by forestry and shadows. In the middle of nowhere. My chest hurt because of my pounding heart, slamming against my breastbone.
I'm wasting time, I thought, cringing at the thought of being found again. It was not something I wanted to repeat anytime soon.
With my eyes fixed toward where the front door had to be, I slunk even further into the shadows, feeling with my hand as I went. I felt the hard concrete base of the house, the wooden paneling. Felt leaves and branches and…
My hand brushed against something soft and warm. I brought my hand up, then down and it moved, like a jump. The breath literally died in my lungs, my eyes widened and the beating of my heart completely stopped. I probably would have appeared dead to an EMT.
Oh… my…god.
"Oh my god" I jumped at the voice, saying out loud what I was thinking. It was soft, whispered but deep. Someone else not wanting to get caught? It made me sick thinking there were more kidnapped people around.
I turned and came face to face with a boy, probably twelve, with kind of messy hair and what seemed like dark eyes. He stared at me with about as much shock as I stared at him with. We both stayed crouched low, gawking at each other in the shadows obviously trying not to get noticed. The blood started rushing back through my veins, slowly.
"You're that girl they took, right?" He asked. I blinked at him and suddenly realized I'd wasted so much time. I looked at the trees, didn't see any movement and swallowed the lump in my throat.
"Depends, did they take other girls, too?" I replied.
"What are you doing out…oh" My shadow buddy froze, threw a nervous glance over his shoulder like he was afraid to be caught with me, the victim in this scenario. But when he turned back around, he was grinning. To my surprise.
"Need any help?" He asked. And just like that, my throat closed up, I felt tears begin to sting my eyes. It was stupid, but having this boy offer to help me, the person his pack had just kidnapped, made me want to cry, want to hug him. I almost did, too but he grabbed my hand and tugged me along after him without even waiting for an answer.
We slipped around the corner of the huge house, or mansion now that I'd seen part of the outside, and came around to the side where the distance between the woods and house was smaller, but barely. We crouched down and looked all around.
"So, you're going to run straight into the trees, got it? And I'm going to follow but keep them distracted if they see you. They'll just think I was alone" He looked at me for approval but he didn't need it. He was my momentary hero, this boy I'd met less than two minutes earlier.
"Thank you" I said, barely believing my luck. It crossed my mind that he could be a trick or a trap but the look on his face seemed genuine enough that I knew that was never a possibility.
"Aw, well…" He shrugged, if I'd been able to see his face, I'd bet he was blushing too. There was a loud laugh from somewhere in the house, the screen door slammed shut again. "Go, go"
And I went. Without another glance back, I jumped to my feet and ran faster than I'd ever run on two legs. My hair whipped out behind me, my arms pumped at my sides and in seconds I was passing under the first layers of leaves and branches.
Any possible light was consumed by shadow, the thick treetops blocking out the starry sky. But my superhuman eyes caught what little light there was, giving me enough to go by. I leapt over twisted roots jutting from the ground and I felt like laughing as I ran, feeling so free and fast that nothing could catch me.
Nothing except the arm locking around my waist, yanking me off my feet with a hand slapped over my mouth.
I kicked, I tried to scream, I hit but still those strong arms stayed locked. All at once, what little exhilaration I'd been feeling vanished replaced by disbelief, hatred, anger. Sorrow. Suddenly I wanted nothing more than to cry.
"Ssh… ssh, don't let them hear you" The voice was deep in my ear, lips brushed against my cheek in an attempt to keep as quiet as possible. For an unrealistic second I thought that maybe it was Jake and I whipped around in those arms praying it was really him.
But it wasn't. As expected. It was David. Of course.
"I told you not to leave that room" He growled. Anger radiated off of him so strongly I felt myself getting tanner by the second. His jaw clenched and the muscles jumped in his neck as he fought to control himself.
We stood, frozen in the forest, listening for anyone else. I was overly aware of the close proximity of our bodies. I didn't like it. It felt wrong, twisted, not natural. The only body I should ever be that close to was Jake's, not David's. My chest and stomach was almost completely touching his. It made me queasy just standing there.
"Okay, I think-" Just then, a body came hurling out of the trees, smacking into his back. I squeezed my eyes shut, knowing exactly who it would and silently willing him away.
"Oops! Sorry, sorry! Oh… uh, hi, David" My little hero stammered and stared at his feet, panting hard for breath. I almost smiled when I saw he'd kept his word, followed after me. I also wanted to cry because of the wasted effort.
I was caught… again.
"Go back to the Lodge, Scott" David told him and Scott nodded quickly, glanced at me with a grimaced before darting off again. Taking my last hope with him. What I really felt like was giving up all of a sudden, because what was the point?
"Let's go. Honestly, why can't you just listen to me?" He asked, more to himself as he dragged me all the way back the way I had come. My mental answer went something along the lines of "Because you are a kidnapping lunatic who thinks he's way more attractive than he is and comes off like a conceited pig for it?"
Either way, I couldn't stop myself from looking behind me as I stumbled along behind him, my eyes pleading with the dark trees to produce some miracle. Like a meteor...aim at his head.