Chapter Five
It was Monday. On the news last night, the weatherman said we had a thirty percent chance of freezing rain. He's a liar. We didn't get much freezing rain, but we got enough to slow everyone down who was driving today. I however, was tempted to do a hundred miles an hour to get to school before Bella did today. Today had to be when my dream was going to come true if it decided to. Nothing's going to happen to Bella, I thought to myself, you'll stick to her like glue all day if you have to just to be sure that you can get her out of the way. I knew that if my dreams were coming true, that I would probably get hit by the van too if I didn't get the heck out of the way in time, but here's to taking chances and getting messy.
I didn't even eat anything for breakfast – I was too scared I was going to throw it back up because of my nerves. I took a coffee in a travel mug and headed out the door. Aunt Connie watched me through the window to make sure I got out of the drive way safe, but I didn't even make it to the end of the walk way. My shoe hit the ice the wrong way and I slipped. My face didn't go red, though, but my butt sure did.
"That's going to hurt in the morning..." I said to myself.
I could hear Aunt Connie roaring with laughter from inside the house. She was just like me, if she saw somebody slip and fall onto their bottom, she laughed about it. I slowly got up and waved to Aunt Connie. She was still laughing, but she waved back and blew me a kiss. I blew one back and continued for my van.
Lucky for me, the ice on the windshield wasn't too thick, but I still wasn't taking my chances on my way to school. I drove very slow, and very cautiously. I made it to school and the parking lot was nearly empty. Bella wasn't there yet, but she would be soon.
I stayed in my van with the heat going to keep my blood flow going to I could push her out of the way if I had to. I looked out my window and realized more cars had pulled in, including Bella.
She parked beside me as normal and I turned my van off and got out. I walked over to her truck and we both leaned on the side of it.
"It's pretty slippery out." Bella said. She was bracing the side of her truck like it was her life-line.
"Tell me about it... We get this about four or five times a year back in Ontario." I told her. "I slipped on my way to my van this morning. Aunt Connie laughed at me from inside the house. She was watching me from the window and saw me go down."
Bella laughed and shook her head. "Yeah, I slipped too, but Charlie was there to help me up. He even put winter tires on my truck for me."
"That's good. Winter tires are very good." I replied.
I could feel my body burning like someone was watching me. I looked all around the parking lot until I finally found the culprit. It was Edward Cullen. He had a very smug look on his face. What the hell is his deal? I thought to myself.
Just as I thought that, I heard the most terrifying sound in the world – squealing tires. My whole body froze. My dream was coming true. It was actually coming true. I could see the blue van now, and it was headed right for us. My eyes got big and I was guessing Bella's were the size of saucers. Just as I went to push her out of the way, this cold force hit me and when I opened my eyes, I was on the ground beside Bella, with a very scared looking Edward Cullen leaning over top of us. I looked to my right and saw that there was a big dent in the van's passenger side door and the glass was shattered. I looked over at Bella and she looked just as terrified as I did.
I put my head back down on the ground and noticed that the ice that was on the pavement didn't seem as cold as it should have. I lifted my hand up and touched the back of my head. When I looked at my hand, it was covered in red.
"I've already called 9-1-1!" I heard somebody shout.
My eyes were getting heavy and I could hear everybody shouting. I could hear the driver of the van apologizing over and over again. It was Tyler Crowley.
The voices were fading and I could just barely hear sirens now. Was I going deaf? I tried to sit up or do any movement, but I couldn't. I was going unconscious.
Only one face appeared in my mind, and everything else faded away... Jacob.
I opened my eyes slowly and looked around at where I was. I was in the hospital. I looked down at my hand and noticed that someone was holding it. It was my Aunt Connie.
"Aunt Connie..." I whispered.
She smiled a million smiles and gave me a gentle hug. "Kaylin!"
"What happened?" I asked her. I could remember up until I saw the blood on my hand... I was guessing that was why I was here.
"You hit your head pretty hard on the pavement at school when the Cullen boy pushed you and Bella out of the way from the van. "You had a concussion and your head was split open a little bit from when you hit it. You're lucky he was so close, you could be in a lot worse of a condition than you are now." She explained.
But he wasn't close, I thought to myself. He was all the way across the damn parking lot.
There was a knock at the door and a big bajumble of flowers came walking up to the bed. I couldn't see who was behind them until the person spoke.
"Delivery for Kaylin Hartford."
I smiled from ear to ear. "Jake!"
He set the flowers down on the window sill and walked over to the bed. "You look terrible."
I laughed. "Thanks. I know I'm in a hospital gown and hooked up to an IV, but you could at least say that I look a little pretty." I joked.
"You look absolutely beautiful." He said.
Aunt Connie looked at me, then up at Jake. "I'll leave you two alone, I wanted to talk to Dr. Cullen anyway to see when I could bring you home."
"Wait... Dr. Cullen? Is he any relation to Edward Cullen?" I asked.
"Yes. Dr. Cullen's son is the one who pushed you out of the way, honey. I'll be right back." She walked out of the room.
I looked at Jake who was now sitting in the chair beside the bed. His brows were furrowed and he looked very worried.
"Jacob..." I touched his face gently with my hand.
He took my hand and gave it a soft kiss, then put it on the bed, his hand never letting go of mine.
"What's wrong?" I asked him.
He shook his head a little bit and looked at me with his puppy-dog eyes. "When your Aunt Connie called my dad to let him know what happened, my heart sank. She didn't know what happened to you until she got to the hospital and the medics told her."
I knew what I had to tell him. He had to know about my dream. Right now it was looking more like a night mare to me.
"Jake... Remember how I told you that the dream I had came true when I was in the woods?"
He nodded. "Yeah... What does that have to do with why you're here?"
"You're going to think I'm crazy or something..." I whispered.
"Tell me..."
"The night before we went to the beach, I had a dream that Bella was standing beside her truck at school. In my dream, a blue van came squealing across the parking lot and was headed right for Bella." I sighed. "I was going to stick to her like glue today to make sure she didn't get hurt or run over by the smurf van, but it kind of back fired..."
"What do you mean it 'kind of' back fired? You're here because of a Cullen." His hands were hotter all of a sudden. "Nothing good ever comes of them."
"Jake... You're really hot..."
He let go of my hand. "I'm sorry, Kaylin... I have to go."
He walked out of the room and I was left there with my mouth open, not knowing what to say to make him turn around and come back. I just looked out the window at the ugly clouds that were in the sky. I wanted answers. I wanted answers for why Edward's skin was so cold and hard, and why Jacob's skin was so hot it felt like an electric blanket cranked up to high.
Aunt Connie walked back in the room and Dr. Cullen was with her. He looked just like son - pale skin and all. He even had the same golden eyes.
"Can I go home now?" I asked.
"Kaylin –" Aunt Connie said. "Listen to what Dr. Cullen has to say!"
The pale faced doctor laughed and looked through a clipboard of papers. "Well, Miss Hartford. Everything seems to be okay here on your charts. The stitches that are in the back of your head are dissolving ones, so you don't need to come back for suture removal. You're free to leave whenever you please."
"Great." I said.
"I'll find your nurse to come and take out your IV." Dr. Cullen left the room.
Just as he left, Bella walked in. She was all smiles.
"Hey." She said. "How's your head?"
"Hurts like hell, but I get to go home." I looked at my aunt. "Aunt Connie, do you think I could have a minute with Bella?"
She nodded. "Of course." She walked out of the room and closed the door behind her.
"You saw what I saw, didn't you?" Bella asked.
"You mean Edward standing by his car, then pushing us to the ground in 2 seconds flat? Yeah, I saw it, Bells."
She was pacing the room. "It doesn't make sense, Kaylin. Nobody can run that fast. He was nowhere near us when Tyler's van came around that corner. He was on the other side of the lot."
"I know... Something isn't right with that boy. Him and his whole family just seem different, you know?"
"Yeah..."
The nurse came into the room and Bella left. She told me she would call me later, but I had a feeling I wasn't going to answer the phone. I had some research to do. I needed to look up Quileute legends.
I got my clothes on and was barely into my second shoe when I was going out the door and into the hallway.
"Let's go, Aunt Connie." I was almost running down the hall now.
"Kaylin, wait for me." She shouted. "I filled out your discharge forms and your friend Jessica drove your van home from the school. She's such a nice girl."
"Yeah, she's the best." I said as we walked out the hospital doors.
"Where'd Jacob go so fast?" She asked me.
I came to a stop and looked her in the eyes. "Honestly, I don't know."
When we got home, I bolted through the door and up the stairs to my room. My computer was already on and I didn't even take my coat off before I sat in the chair.
I must have been sitting there for hours, because I could smell Aunt Connie's famous pot roast cooking. The aroma made my mouth water. Food, I thought. My eyes were fixed on the screen when I could hear Jacob's voice in my head. I had to call him to see if he got home okay.
I picked up my phone and dialled his number. It went to his answering machine.
"Jacob, it's Kaylin. I just wanted to see if you got home okay. I'm home now. Call me back..."
I focused back on the computer screen and saw only one word. Wolf. My whole body froze. It was like I was in a trance. I could see Jake and I walking on the beach and him telling me the story of the 'cold ones'. It was all coming back to me now. I could remember him saying "Did you know that Quileute's are supposedly descendents from wolves?"
"Oh my God..." I was still frozen. I started thinking back to one of my first nights here, when I went out for a walk in the woods. When I tripped and never got back up. When Sam Uley carried me home, he was shirtless. He didn't need the shirt because was hot... He was hot to the touch. That was it.
Wolf was the only word that was in my mind. It was the only picture I could see. The giant animal that I saw in the woods – the one the size of a horse – it had to have been a super-sized wolf.
I came out of my dream deprived sleep when I heard what sounded like something hitting my window. To be honest, I was a little scared to go and see what it was, but I sucked it up and turned the lamp on that was on the bedside table.
I slowly walked over to the window, opened it and poked my head out. My heart stopped.
"Jacob? What are you doing here?" I asked him.
"Stand back. I'm coming up."
He put no effort into bouncing off the side of my aunt's house and climbing a monster maple tree with no sound at all. He slid into my bedroom through my window and I stepped away from him. I wasn't scared of him, but he looked so different, he looked more chiselled than he was before.
"I'm sorry I left so fast at the hospital." He apologized.
I shook my head. "That apology would have been great a week ago." I took another step back and managed to hit my bed and fall on it in a sitting position. "What did you do to your hair?" I took another look over him and realized that he was shirtless. Containing my drool was more difficult than being mad at him. My eyes grazed over his chest and I noticed something on his arm. "You got a tattoo?"
I looked down at my floor and it was like I was in a trance again. I could see Sam Uley the night he brought me out of the forest. He had the same tattoo...
"Sam put you up to this, didn't he?" I asked him.
Jake sat on the bed beside me. I could literally feel the heat being radiated off of his body.
"No, Kaylin. Sam didn't put me up to this. He's trying to help me right now. Things have gotten... Complicated."
I stood up and walked over to my window and looked up at the moon. "I know what you are." I whispered.
I could hear him stand up. "What?"
I turned and looked at him. "I know what you are, Jake. I figured it out."
He walked over to me. "How?" He was confused.
"Research... I looked online when I got home from the hospital. I looked up Quileute legends, and I even saw a picture of your tattoo. Sam has the same one." I paused and pulled his face down to mine. I leaned up to his ear. "You're a werewolf, Jacob Black." I whispered.