 
# Chapter 1 – Rising Sun

Sitting up in my lime-green colored bed, I wiped away the first tears of the morning. I found myself unable to stay asleep any longer, and this was a sure sign that I was completely rested, even though part of me still wanted to be asleep just to be able to block out the world and dream about bunnies in a flower patch awhile longer. But, after getting ten hours of sleep all of the new thoughts and crisp morning air can keep anyone from doing anything but what the morning calls out to you to do: Smell the flowers, see the sun rise, and admire the dew-covered poinsettias in Mom's beautifully tended garden. Still, I was determined to rid myself of the happiness that this morning called for.

Rising from bed and stretching my stiff body, I lifted my arms toward the ceiling letting out another yawn. I enjoyed the feeling of waking my body, so it could move in unison along with my mind. Then I stumbled over to my closet dragging my feet along with me. Randomly, I reached my hands into my closet picking out two items of clothing, taking a quick glance at both of them to make sure they matched well. If there was anything I hated more than my life, it was mismatched clothes. So, I threw the clothes onto my bed and removed my pink pajamas, getting upset when my hair kept falling into my face obstructing the view of what I was doing.

I stood in front of the large mirror as I slipped my feet into the closest pair of shoes I could find. Looking at myself up and down, I poked the places that were completely imperfect, the places that couldn't be immediately fixed: my thighs, my arms, my stomach. The only thing that was perfect about me was what couldn't gain weight: my golden hair, my stunning blue eyes, my pale pink lips, and long, smooth nails. I grabbed some make-up off of the dresser applying it quickly. Then, letting out a sigh, I grabbed my backpack just thinking of excuses to get out of eating breakfast. One thing I did learn at school: food is evil. It's unnecessary, just like any video game, completely unnecessary. I turned the knob of my bedroom door knowing it was too late to just roll over in bed and claim I've fallen ill.

"Nice of you to finally join the land of the living, Halle." Logan, my older brother sat on the kitchen counter munching on a piece of bread. He has always been the favorite child, great values, perfect body, straight A's.

I simply grunted in response not having an excuse that any other person in the world would understand besides me. Every part of me hated the smell of breakfast and I refused to welcome it and did all in my power to deprive myself of my fifth sense.

"Are you alright?" Dad patted my shoulder.

I quickly straightened up realizing I let my weakness towards the food to show, "Yeah." I refused to offer up any more information. No one ever notices how I actually feel, except Dad on occasion, but when he notices, it's more of a pestering than any concern I will accept.

Dad shot me a quick glance of disbelief then continued on to pick up his breakfast plate.

"I'm leaving for school early today," I said hoping to brush off any comments about not eating breakfast.

"Okay, Sweetheart, have fun," Mom said as she flipped over a piece of bacon.

"Ugh," I coughed from deep within the back of my throat. "Don't call me that."

Mom didn't hear what I said, so I grabbed my jacket and slammed the door behind myself.

The air was crisp and cold, the sky clear as far as the eye could see. It was the cold weather that I enjoyed, the stuff cold enough to seep through a turtleneck sweater, but not so cold you could feel it through a well-made jacket. People around Montana hate the cold so much, which is funny since it's one of the coldest places in the US. It makes me angry when people over-dress or complain that it's too cold to sustain human life—which they do often. I always ask, why not move to Nevada or Arizona, but they always say they like it here. I think it's hilarious.

I observed the animal-like qualities of the neighbors next door, Rex and Fawn were the kids' names—who names their kids like that anyways? The weird part was, their names actually suited their attitudes, Rex could always be found doing something obnoxious like chasing his little sister around until she—or he—fell and got hurt; always acting like a big, scary monster. Fawn was really a quiet child and got into mischief quietly—chewing on plants and eating dirt—whenever her parents weren't watching.

I turned my head up towards the horizon in front of me, watching the trees pass as I made my way down the sidewalk. It's too bad my school was so close; otherwise I might have actually been able to work off my extra pounds by now. The walk there didn't burn more than a few hundred calories, and it certainly wasn't enough to warm up muscles.

Soon, the school came into view, Wolf Point High, and almost as if she had a bright red arrow pointing to her, I spotted Scarlet, my best friend until further notice. Like everyone else I surrounded myself with, her body had an athletic build and everything about her was enough to make anyone—male or female—look directly over my head and at her. Why I surrounded myself with these people, I had no idea.

"Good morning, Halle!" Scarlet cheerfully gave me a bow.

"Hello, Scar." I patted her on the back, wishing she would stop drawing so much attention.

Scarlet wrinkled her nose, "Are you alright? You look like crap."

I shrugged not knowing what to say. "I had a really late night last night."

I knew she was wondering what kept me awake late last night, but I had no answer for this lie of mine, so she would have to ask or wonder. The two jocks at the entrance glanced at us and snickered. Pushing past them, I followed Scarlet into the school, noticing the vast change between the sunlight and the fluorescents. They have been bothering me lately, the lights, every time I see them I just get this awful headache and my eyes hurt unrealistically. What's strange is the sunlight doesn't bother me at all; it's just the "fake" lights that get to me.

I've felt this way since the camping trip that Dad, Logan, I took a few weeks ago. That was when an animal found its way into the tent and attacked me. I was asleep, so I didn't see much, but I'm pretty sure it was some sort of snake. To say the least, I woke up the next morning in the hospital with my arm swelled at least three times its normal size. What was especially amazing was how the bite was located on my foot and the swelling was everywhere else. No one saw more than the tail of the animal, so it's impossible to tell what species it was. The swelling went down a few days later and I was able to go home, but, like I noted before, I just don't feel right.

Students and teachers filled the halls, hustling and bustling about. Locker doors slammed and the constant sound of chatter filled my ears. All of this added to my previous headache from the lights.

"Head off to class, I'll be there in a moment," I said, dashing off into the bathroom before Scarlet could say anything to me.

The bathroom was quite a difference from the noisy halls, no one else was in there, and the only thing left to fuel my headache was the lights. With any hopes, by the time I quit procrastinating in the bathroom, the halls would be empty. After that, my only problem would be the classroom.

I leaned against the sink cradling my body with my abnormally, large arms. I let out a sigh and stared at myself in the mirror. Yes, I certainly was a mess. No wonder people kept asking. The color in my face was completely absent and my eyes were bloodshot. I closed my eyes realizing I look how I felt. My stomach started churning, and the overall odor of the bathroom made me nauseated. I ran into a bathroom stall closing the door behind myself, and vomited. I couldn't believe the suddenness in which this came on. I never had an illness like this one before.

Finally, I stood up to my full height, feeling decent enough to make it to the nurse's office. I opened the latch on the bathroom stall and pulled the door back to allow myself to get out. Just as suddenly as before, I felt the familiar churning and ran to the toilet's side again. Looking up from the toilet bowl I saw Scarlet, standing over me looking concerned. "Are you alright, Halle? Should I get the nurse?" Scarlet asked. My mouth didn't allow myself to respond as I began feeling dizzy and hurled once more. The world around me appeared disillusioned and discolored—in fact things weren't colored at all, everything was black and white. Feeling my every limb go weak, I fell back onto the floor. I heard Scarlet's footsteps running out of the bathroom and the door slamming behind her. All I could see was the lights on the ceiling up above, and soon my entire vision turned white.

# Chapter 2 – Eyes of Blue

I opened my eyes, startled by unfamiliar hard, white sheets surrounding my body. I didn't feel any better. My head still hurt, and my body ached like never before. I sat up in the bed and realized I was in the nurse's office.

"How are you feeling?" I heard the familiar voice of the nurse.

"I-I," I stuttered looking at the nurse.

I blinked, blinked again, and rubbed my eyes; I still saw everything in black and white. The world appeared like an old movie, the plant sitting in the corner was a grey shade, and the nurse's skin was a light grey, the ceiling was white, the walls—white. My breathing quickened panicked at the thought of being color-blind for the rest of my life.

"I-I can't see," I said. "I can't see color."

"Calm down, you're alright," she soothed.

"I'm not alright, I-I can't see color, it's all black and white. Everything! The walls, you, me, the plant. It's black and white. I can't see!" I climbed to my feet, a little unsteadily.

"Calm down, Halle, let me have a look." I stopped fidgeting and throwing my hands around wildly, but my heart remained at it's quickened pace. The nurse peered into my eyes with a little flashlight, looking for what I knew not, and then stepped back a moment later. "I don't see anything wrong or out of the ordinary, but you should still have your eyes checked out by a specialist. Your parents are on their way to pick you up, so get some rest until then." The nurse turned the light off leaving just enough barely to see, and closed the door behind her.

I sat back down on the little flimsy bed. What if I never got my vision back properly—or at all? I would never be the same again; and the nurse acted like it was nothing, like this kind of thing happened everyday! But, I knew better, you don't just go color blind from nothing, especially when you're not even born with it, and you have no trace of it in your family. It's not some kind of disease that just pops up out of nowhere.

I lay back closing my eyes. At least the lack of lighting helped my headache. This kind of stuff doesn't just happen to me. It doesn't happen to this kind of person. Bad health doesn't run in my family, nor does bad luck, then again, good luck didn't exactly run in my family either. I just wasn't graced with luck's presence—ever. So, you could basically call me "on my own in life" when it came to that.

My breathing calmed a bit, but I knew I would not be able to relax until this problem was properly taken care of. And I pray to God, Mom and Dad won't just make an appointment for me to go to, I want—no, need to go now. Waiting here, in this smelly place was killing me as it was, and staying home "resting" would not just cure this. I brushed my hair back out of my face, obvious to the smeared mascara—which I could feel greasy and powdery at the same time, all over my hand. The smells of the nurse's office were really beginning to get to me now. The smell of the plastic gloves was the strongest, and I could smell it so vibrantly you would think I would have one shoved down my throat. I opened my eyes and stared up at the ceiling, I dared not look away, for the ceiling always was white and seeing things any other way terrified me. Not only that, but the white ceiling was the only thing familiar for my eyes now, and I recognized nothing, not my surroundings or anything. Noticing my breathing quickening again I closed my eyes trying to calm myself. If I just stay calm, it'll be alright, I soothed in my mind. But the more I repeated this, the more I went in depth thinking about that, if I "just stay calm" it won't fix anything. Focusing on "staying calm" would not fix anything except my nerves. If I can't see again, it won't "be alright". Soon, the words didn't even sooth me, but they caused for more worry than anything else.

"Halle?"

"Mom?" I sat up instantly, so happy to hear Mom's voice, but for that split second I realized I could only see her in black and white. She didn't look familiar.

"What happened?" Mom asked sternly, by the tone of her voice, I couldn't tell if she was angry, upset, or worried.

"I-I don't know, one minute I was fine, and then I just got this massive headache and the next thing I knew I ended up here, and I can't see, Mom," I said with a trembling voice.

Mom sighed. I knew she was upset. "Halle, your eyes are fine, if you wanted to get out of school so bad today, you could have just told me—"

"Mom—Mom," I tried to cut in while she spoke, but she continued over my voice. "—instead of causing such a scene in this entire school. It's embarrassing!"

"Why do you think I'm lying to you, Mom? I can't see. Everything is black and white—everything!" Mom folded her arms. "The nurse told me, Halle, there is nothing wrong with you."

"I would not lie about this, the plant is grey, my arm is grey, you are grey, everything is grey, Mom." She remained silent for a moment and I just let her be. She avoided my eyes, and I let her. "Fine if you don't believe me. Bottom line is, I need to see a doctor, and I need one now. If you are not going to take me, I'll take myself." I took another glance at my uncolored surroundings. "There is something wrong with me," I said with as much power as I could.

Mom rolled her sad doe eyes up at me. "Fine, I'll take you; just get in the car, now." After her speaking to me like a little child getting her way, part of me wanted to go alone anyways. I'm not a liar, and no one in my family believed me to be one, so why she assumed that I lied to get out of school was more than beyond me. It was just another something to add to the million other problems in my life.

Maybe my family does believe I am liar, after all, I don't know what they say about me behind my back—besides what I've overheard. Oh yeah, that's another spectacular thing about my life, my family is always talking about me behind my back. Usually I do overhear their conversations, but there are those that do get over me, or ones that I make a point to block out. Yep, I'm rude, inconsiderate, an eavesdropper, a failure, and now apparently a liar. Add it to my list.

I got in the car seeing the blue sky I saw only earlier this morning through different eyes—though grey eyes. The green trees were a dark shade of grey and I couldn't stand seeing these colors. Of all of the colors, why grey? Why black and white? I recognized none of my classmates without staring carefully at them.

***

Seeing the Trinity Hospital sign pop up. It was a very large building with a road all the way around the main building. Parking was often atrocious, and a lot of times people didn't even park in the main parking lot. At any rate, I was glad that Mom was driving so I didn't have to focus on that. The hospital and school weren't really too near each other, but in a town this small there's only one of everything so you don't really have a choice of where to go.

Mom was the first to step out of the car, and I followed promptly. I slammed the door to the car and collected the "evil-eye" from Mom. Just as I went to take a single step, I tripped over something hard and fell face first into the concrete sidewalk. Mom rushed over to my side to help peel me up off of the concrete. I looked back down barley noticing where the asphalt parking lot met with the cement sidewalk. I wanted to burst into tears, but not because of the fall, because of my eyes. It could always be like this.

I followed Mom into the hospital and she walked over to the front desk. "Good afternoon, Miss, can I help you?" The woman asked.

Mom leaned close to the desk, "Yes, my daughter claims she can't see, that she is seeing everything in," Mom put her fingers up using "air quotes", "black and white."

I rolled my eyes at the ridiculousness Mom turned this into. But, I wasn't about to say nothing was wrong when something was. Besides, after the doctor has a look, it'll prove I wasn't lying. Then Mom will have something to apologize about.

"Alright Ma'am, have a seat and the doctor will call you—what was her name?"

"Uh, Halle Fletcher," Mom said folding her arms.

The woman wrote something down and looked back up smiling only to be polite, "Alright, the doctor will be with you in a moment, have a seat until then." Mom walked over to the nearest seat, and I sat down next to her.

"Sorry to embarrass you, Mom," I shot out in a cruel voice. Mom shifted in her chair turning her back on my completely and wearing a big, fake frown. I almost wished she would talk to me, it was much better than turning her back and ignoring me. I leaned my head back against the wall, noticing the headache from the lights again. What was wrong with me? Could it be cancer, or a brain tumor, or something? I sat there for at least 45 minutes thinking of all of the possibilities that would cause my symptoms—the Hantavirus, Pink Eye—but nothing matched perfectly. As far as I was concerned, it could have been anything, or a combination of everything.

"Halle Fletcher," I heard my name called and jumped up out of my seat. I probably looked utterly strange with my quickened pace as I ran into the door the nurse held open, but I was eager to get the diagnosis. I don't remember wanting anything more than I wanted to know what was happening.

Behind the door there was a long hall with many, many doors—all with numbers on them, 3392, 3394, 3396, 3398, the nurse opened the door to the left, room 3397. There were two beds in the room, but none were occupied. The nurse handed me one of those creepy patent outfits with the backs open. "Put this on, and the doctor will be around to see you in a moment."

I walked into the room and the nurse turned to leave, Mom walked in the door right away, and closed it behind herself. I stepped around the side of the bed and pulled the curtain half-way around and began undressing, which I did in record time. When I pushed the curtain back to its usual resting place, Mom walked over to me and tied the strings in the back, and I sat down in the bed. "Why are you doing this?" Mom asked folding her arms.

"It's not school, okay—"

"Then what; is it boys? Your friends? Do you hate me? Do you hate your family? What? What is it, Halle—"

"It's not boys, my friends, you, or anyone else in the family—"

"Is it our living conditions? A car? A cell-phone? Why are you rebelling?"

"I'm not rebelling, Mom—"

"Halle, you can't have us living like this—"

"If you would shut-up I could tell you what's wrong!" I yelled. "I don't feel well, I love you, I love my family, and our living conditions are fine, but I can't see right. I am not fine. There is no other excuse for it. I have never lied to you, and I don't plan on starting now. I just want to know what's wrong me."

I slouched back in the bed. I wanted so badly for her to believe me so I could share my worries and she would tell me it will be alright.

The doctor walked into the room causing me to jump. "Halle... Fletcher." He studied the clipboard in his hands. "What seems to be the problem?"

I glanced at Mom who just looked away. "I don't know, I was fine going to school this morning, and after I got there I just started feeling completely terrible, and I started vomiting. The next thing I knew I was laying on the bathroom floor, and then I passed out. I woke up in the nurse's office and I couldn't see anything in color, and I haven't been able to since, everything looks grey, they are all different shades of grey." I paused for a moment taking a breath. "Also, every time I walk into a lighted room I get a terrible headache, if that has anything to do with it."

The doctor raised his eyebrows. "And you're still having vision problems now?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Have you ever experienced anything like this before?"

"Only once or twice since the snake bite, I mean I passed out a few times, but I never lost my vision or vomited."

"Snake bite?"

"Yeah, I was out camping with my dad and I was bitten by a snake, but that was a few weeks ago." I wrung my hands feeling my palms sweat.

He nodded. "And how old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"Let's have a look than, shall we?" The doctor approached taking out a little flashlight and examining my eyes the same way the school nurse did. Next he put his hands on top of my head. "Tell me if it hurts," he said and began pushing in different places on my head, but it didn't hurt at all.

The doctor took a step back. "I don't see anything out of the ordinary." He took a quick glance at Mom. "There is this flu going around, and you might have a touch of it. It matches your symptoms almost to a T. It's called Hyperglyocious. It's not fatal, but it is a pain in the neck. The average duration of the flu is around a month. You should begin to regain your eye-sight gradually, having it back completely in a couple of weeks." He let loose a small cough.

I felt more relieved than I had in months knowing my eyes would not be like this for long, and I would recover. My life would return to normal. The snake bite and the flu were simply coincidental.

"As for the headaches, they are a part of the flu as well, if they get too unbearable take some aspirin, it should help enough to allow you to continue with your daily activities. Otherwise, just use the common procedure for the flu—plenty of rest, plenty of water." I nodded not being able to contain the wide smile spread across my face. I was going to be okay. "Thank you, Doctor..."

"Doctor David Lawrence."

"Doctor David Lawrence," I repeated like a bird.

Doctor Lawrence patted my shoulder. "You are free to go now." He left the room, and I glanced back over at Mom, she still kept the same expression as before. I wanted to say "I told you so" but I refrained from saying anything else as not to make the entire situation any worse as it already was. I already felt bad for telling her to shut-up, but it was necessary. She wouldn't listen to me, which is so unlike her.

I rose from the bed, pulled the curtain, and dressed into my ordinary clothes again. When I pulled the curtain back, Mom stood near the door waiting for me. She opened the door, and I followed her through the halls and back out into the parking lot.

Mom opened the car door and sat down roughly without saying anything, I followed but kept calmer and softer movements. "Mom?" I tested to see just how angry she was.

"Halle," she said with plainness, which showed her annoyance with me. I leaned my head back against the seat. "I was just scared, I'm sorry."

Mom said nothing. Why is she holding this grudge? Why is she still blaming me? The doctor said I am ill, just like I said; it proved I wasn't lying. It proved it.

***

After arriving back home, Mom went straight into the kitchen with Dad. Logan sat on the couch watching TV. "Someone pissed Mom off." Logan looked up at me sideways.

"You pissed Mom off, Dumb Head." I patted him on the head.

"What?" he exclaimed, taking his feet off the coffee table and sitting rigid.

I laughed at him, always trying to keep his standing with Mom and Dad on the up and up. "Calm down, your status is fine."

Indistinguishable voices came from the opposite side of the kitchen door; I approached and rested my ear on the door.

"She did all of that for the flu, Richard, the flu. She is completely out of control," Mom yelled.

"Maybe she's just—"

"Maybe she's just what? Maybe she's a rebellious teenager."

"Maybe something is really wrong with her," Dad said with a worried tone.

"We just got back from the hospital."

"Maybe something is wrong with her head, Lisa."

My mouth parted as I stole a gasp from the air. I didn't listen anymore; I turned my back, and walked upstairs.

# Chapter 3 – Party with Me

For the rest of the week—and far into the next, things didn't improve very much with family matters, and the conditions with the flu didn't get too much better either. Mom did break her silence and decided to talk to me, but we didn't speak of the hospital visit; in fact, she pretended as though it never even happened. I took aspirin every morning before I felt any sort of discomfort, because I knew I would desperately need it, and it did help me to get through school. But, after that, I stayed at home, in my room with all of the lights turned off. Even at night, I kept the lights off.

Scarlet did show a bit of concern for me; she was the only one. I welcomed the sympathy figuring it would make up for whatever part of it my family deprived me of. I told Scarlet everything, and like the good friend she is, nodded and listened intently, she didn't judge me like my own creators—my parents. I couldn't remember an occasion like this occurring where they didn't believe anything I had to say, or anytime that they would not listen to what I had to say. I had no explanation for their strange behavior, but I accepted it as what it would be like from now on.

Dad started dropping me off at school, and it was so awkward. I'd been walking since 5th grade, now it was like they didn't trust me enough to let me walk. Even still, Mom was always the one who ran the errands and drove me to places I needed to go. I just wasn't in Dad's job description. As if Mom wouldn't think that I noticed her absence from my life, but I did. She was such a big part of it before, but that woman could certainly hold a grudge.

Scarlet did a super corny little dance. "Hey, Halle, we're all going over to the forest south of here to have a bonfire party."

I sniffled. "Who's going?"

"Dean, Drake, Rafael, Justin, Selena, Alisha, Evelyn, and her brother, Christopher... and of course me."

I tilted my head from side to side. "I'm not sure my mom will let me go," I said honestly.

"It's going to be awesome though, you have to come. Everyone's going to be there."

"It won't be everyone if I can't make it." I stood up from the grassy school grounds, and steadied myself against the big tree that I just sat under.

Scarlet placed her hands on my shoulders. "Sneak. Out." She shook me with each word.

I pushed her hands away and rolled my eyes. "I wouldn't do something like that."

"Then lie, you're going over to my house for a sleepover with me."

I gasped. "Scarlet!"

"Fine, twist the truth, go to the bonfire with me and then come over to my house for a sleepover." She pushed out her lower lip and formed a cute, little doggy pout.

I gave a sigh. It had been awhile since I'd been to a party, and I really wanted to go. I just wasn't sure if it was worth begging my parents. "If my mom says it's okay, I'll go. End of story." I looked into her disappointed face, and it guilted me into lightening my tone. "I'll just be very convincing."

Scarlet tilted her head down and peered up at me with her smoldering grey-eyed gaze. "You better come."

I shrugged, picking up my backpack and books out of the grass. When Scarlet wants something she gets it, she is a very persuasive person. At times, I loved that about her, and others I hated it—it depended on if she was using it against me or not. If I wanted something, Scar would be the first person I would call for backup, but I wasn't quite certain that I would be feeling up to going to the bonfire to party. I mean, my eyes hadn't even returned to normal yet. It had been a real pain in the neck. I must have tripped about a thousand times in the past week, and Logan just loves to stick his foot out at will to add to my suffering.

Scar and the small circle of friends we shared were party animals. I still don't know why I hung out with them; none of them were at all like me. But I guess that's why they say opposites attract. They're good though, I mean, no drugs can be found around us, but if there was any reason to party—or no reason at all—there would be a party.

I walked back up to the school with Scarlet collecting stares from the other students who had nothing better to do. I didn't really pay attention to where we were going, so I just followed Scar and thanked God we had the same classes.

"You've never met Christopher, have you?" Scar asked.

I raised my eyebrows. "Who?"

She shook her head and glared at me making me wish I would have paid attention. "Christopher is Evelyn's brother."

"Oh, no I haven't. He doesn't go to school here, why would I know him?"

Scarlet's soulful laughter filled my ears. "He didn't used to go to school here, you mean."

As far as I was concerned he could have been homeschooled, really, I couldn't have cared less. At this point, I was only humoring her to make up for me not paying attention earlier... which I suppose isn't really any better than me not paying attention now. "Oh, so he's attending now?" Scar knew everyone at school—and it wasn't necessarily just as acquaintances. She called nearly everyone her friends and she worked hard to maintain her relations... and as such she was officially recognized by our peers as the welcoming committee. She always paid extra attention to the new meat.

"Yep, he is officially a student today." Scarlet nodded her head towards a respectable looking student.

His form-fitting shirt displayed his muscular arms wonderfully. He stood perfectly straight. Chest puffed up like a beautiful frigatebird's mating call. Selena, Rafael, and Drake surrounded him. Drake was talking about football—of course he would be joining the football team—and that's exactly what he looked like: a dumb, self-centered jock. "So that's him then?"

"Christopher Vallone." The words dripped off Scarlet's lips. That was the only thing sexy about him. It was a disgusting sight. He looked like he owned the place. I hate people like that, who think they own everything, everyone, and every place they set foot in—pure arrogance. Just waiting for the girls to swoon over him and his team of men. They all wanted him or wanted to be him.

He flexed his muscles when he reached for his book, closed his locker, and then ran his fingers through his hair with his left hand—as if such a small feat like grabbing your books is actually going to ruin your hair enough to need to fix it.

Christopher glanced toward Scarlet. I wasn't anything worth looking at when she was standing near—plus I may have been glaring... a little. I turned on my heel to proceed on my path down the hall; completely done with his pompousness.

"Hey, Scar." It was his voice right behind me.

My feet tangled with each other when I went to step, but my body kept moving forward towards the hard floor. Two arms reached around me and stopped me from falling any farther. They pulled me back up into a standing position. I pushed my hair back into place, and I realized who my savior was—Christopher. After seeing this feat, I immediately scratched off him as being a jock—normal jocks would just let me fall and then laugh.

"Are you alright?" He asked. His hands still grasped my upper arms. I nodded vigorously, completely at a loss for words. He let go slowly acting like I was some kind of ceramic decoration.

I peeked at Scarlet. She smiled satisfactorily. I thought she would be angry that her big, hunky jock heroically caught me.

"Are you going to the party tonight, Halle?" As if it wasn't a surprise enough that Christopher actually caught me, but he knew my name too. And... was he asking me to a party?

I stopped my excitement short, if he knew my name, it meant people were talking about me to him, and I wondered what they told him. I reassured myself that the impression I would make would overrule anything anyone else would say about me. And if he needed confirmation on any rumors he could just ask and I'd tell him right... unless he's one of those people who don't ask, in that case—

"Halle—" Scarlet elbowed me in the ribs. "—And I will definitely be going to the party tonight. The real question is, are you gonna be at the party?"

"Oh heck yeah. I'll be going too." He tilted his head down and smirked up at me. "Can't have you falling with no one to catch you, can we?" He gave a casual wink.

"Yeah—I mean, no, I can take care of myself," I retorted.

The bell rang for the next class. Christopher chuckled. "I'll see you later tonight, Halle."

Scarlet grabbed my arm and pulled me down the hall in the opposite direction Christopher was headed. No sooner than he was out of earshot, she stopped me in the middle of the hall and placed her hands on my shoulders. "You're in like with him!" she exclaimed.

I gasped. "I am not. I think he's a pompous, self-centered jerk."

She sighed deeply. "Ouch. Those are some strong feelings for someone who just caught you before you made yourself look like an idiot. Plus, all of that can easily be over-looked, especially with a hottie like him." She jumped in front of me and started walking backwards. "Did you see his eyes?"

I started walking again. "Nope. I didn't. But I see yours, Scar, you're taken, put your eyes back in your head."

"But you're not! Someone has to look for you, since you won't. Besides, you're the one who has the hots for him, not me."

I laughed dubiously. "No. I do not."

***

The rest of the day went by ordinarily only to be made interesting by this strange new guy that kept popping up in the strangest of places. He didn't actually speak to me, but just him being present through me off in a way that I had never been before. It wasn't necessarily a sexy attraction like Scar thought, it was more of an interest—a need to find out more about this person who broke the social boundaries. Christopher actually shared a class with me, and that class was totally and completely awkward as he kept staring at me—and Scarlet kept pointing it out.

"Bye, Halle, can't wait to see you tonight!" Scarlet called as she climbed into the car with her mom.

Scarlet's mom drove away from the curb. Right on time as always, my dad pulled up in the dark grey Fusion and I walked around to the passenger side of the car. The minute her mom pulled away from the curb, Dad pulled up in the car. I pulled open the car door and climbed in the passenger seat. Dad took off almost before I could even close the door. I gave him a questioning glance. He never was a "happy" driver, but I did sense something was troubling him. I sighed remembering Mom's continued grudge against me.

"Your mother isn't too pleased with your actions you know," Dad said, steering the car out of the parking lot.

I noticed a space to fall back into the graces with my parents, and I wasn't about to pass it up. "I know, Dad, but I was scared." The sad, little girl routine worked well with Dad.

He sighed, glancing out his window. "But, you still should not have acted disrespectful towards us. We're here for you; we're not fighting against you."

"I know..." I said sweetly. Agreeing with the parents always puts the fire out.

"I've been scared before too, so I don't blame you for wanting everything to be fixed, but it was still wrong to go off on your mother like that." Dad was trying to lecture me, I knew it, but he had a soft spot for me, he always has with me being his "only little girl".

"I really am sorry for what I said to her." I wasn't, she was out of line, not me. "I didn't mean it, and I actually don't even know what possessed me to act like that. Maybe I was delirious from passing out earlier."

"You passed out again?" He glanced at me, his eyes wide.

"Mom didn't tell you? I passed out, and when I woke back up I was like, totally color blind."

He shook his head, but kept his eyes on the road. It was a good couple of minutes before he spoke again. "Well, Jesus, you've been through a rough patch, Sweetheart."

"Yeah, I was just really concerned, I've never heard of a flu that can turn you color blind, I was just happy that it was diagnosed and I knew it wasn't something—" I inhaled deeply. "—worse."

Dad turned the car into our driveway. "I've never heard of a flu like that either."

When he turned the engine off, I got out of the car slowly.

He got out of the car on his side and twirled the keys around his finger as he walked to the front door. I took a few steps forward and placed my hands on the hood of the car. "Hey, Dad?"

Dad stopped and turned around. "Yes, Sweety?"

"There's this party that Scarlet and her friends are having tonight..."

"Yeah?"

"And they invited me to join them."

"Oh, I don't—"

"There won't be any drugs or anything, just a good clean party." He exhaled sharply. "Where?" I shook my head, looking down at a fleck of dirt on the windshield. He wouldn't let me go. I wouldn't get permission from him or Mom. "It's down by the river, we won't be swimming in it or anything, it's just a nice view there; you know, the forest, the water..." Dad nodded his head with an agreeable smile. "If your mom agrees, it's fine with me. You could use to get out of the house a bit." Dad turned and headed back into the house.

Now I'll have leverage with Mom if she insists on denying me my party privileges. I took a step toward the house when I heard a familiar voice, causing me to almost lose my footing again.

"Hey!"

I flipped around towards the end of the driveway to see Christopher walking up the sidewalk. "Are you following me?" I narrowed my eyebrows.

Christopher shook his head. "No, I live right up the street here. Although, now that I know we live so close, I might have to start following you."

"That's creepy." I didn't know what else to say. I felt tempted to follow him and walk him home just to see what his deal was. But at the same time I felt it best to leave him be. I'd find out anyways with time.

"See you later tonight, Halle." Christopher waved his hand and continuing down the street. I couldn't believe Christopher lived right around the corner from me. This guy just comes and takes the best of everything. I watched him walk all the way down the street to one of the last houses on the street, wishing I could see him in color rather than in black and white.

I walked through the front door and closed it behind me, happy for the warmth of the house. Though it was only October, it was freezing outside. Logan sat on the couch watching TV, his feet propped up on the coffee table. How was he so successful when I never, ever saw him studying? But, whatever, I was so done with thinking and wondering about his success. My A's and B's were just fine for me—more than a passing grade. I didn't need or desire honors.

Heading off towards the kitchen, I knew I'd find Mom cooking dinner, I thought I might be able to sweeten her up easier there. I opened up the kitchen door to find a sour-looking Mom stirring a pot of wonderful-smelling mystery food. I approached slowly, wiping my sweating palms on my jeans.

"Anything I can help with?" My voice shook.

"What do you want?" Mom knew I was up to something.

I took a few steps closer. "Peace on earth, goodwill towards man, and you not to be angry with me." I fluttered my eyelashes and hoped my playful demeanor would lighten her up and earn a peaceful conversation. The way I figured, this would either make her angrier or help the situation. But, I didn't know what else to do, so it was a chance that I had to take. When she held her silence for a while, I knew I had to say something else, I just hoped whatever came out of my mouth would not offend her more. "I'm really sorry for what I said before."

Mom turned around, and then leaned her back against the counter. I didn't know if she was going to scold me or accept the apology, it was always hard to tell with her. "Halle, I'm not angry with you; I just wished you handled the situation better."

"I know, and I'm sure I could come up with a million excuses, but none of them really suffice for what I did. I never should have spoken to you like that."

I craned my neck to see what Mom was cooking, but in black and white I couldn't really tell, it could have been some kind of beans, but it could have also been a number of other things as well. With my wonderful vision I couldn't really tell, I really had to rely on the shape of objects rather than their details; which annoyed the hell out of me.

"It's pinto beans, we're going to have burritos for dinner today," Mom said almost as if she forgot her anger completely, or maybe she pushed it behind us just for the moment being. This woman had a passion for food and cooking and was a sure way to lighten any conversation.

"I love burritos; do you need any help making them?" I asked.

"You can help me roll them, I just heated up the tortillas, and everything else is on the kitchen table." Mom motioned towards the kitchen table as she stirred the pot of beans one last time, flipped the stove off, and then carried the beans to the table.

I grabbed a tortilla off the plate and sprinkled a line of shredded cheese and beef down the center. Next I grabbed a ladle full of beans and added that to the tortilla. Mom reached over me and grabbed a bag of shredded lettuce and sprinkled some on my tortilla and then some on hers. I flashed her a smile, and began rolling up the tortilla. It was times like these that I spent with Mom that I missed. We hadn't cooked together in such a long time, cooking with her almost made me want to open up a restaurant and her and I could become the chefs.

"Hey, Mom?" I said casually.

"Yeah?" she questioned not looking away from the task at hand.

"Scarlet is having this party tonight. I told her I couldn't go though."

"You can go," Mom said suddenly. I couldn't stop my jaw from dropping. "It's not too late to tell her you'll go is it?"

"Uh, no, it isn't, I can just show up." Yes, things were finally adjusting nicely and the rough path was over. I succeeded in charming my parents back to their normal state, and whatever was causing them to act as they did before didn't matter anymore. Even if I didn't agree, and everything that I told them was a lie, it didn't matter and I knew I would not win anyways. They would not find out, and my words made them happy anyways.

"When and where is it?" Mom asked. I was waiting for this question, so I had a good answer to it.

"It's near the river south of here, and it's directly after dinner."

"Oh, so you will get to eat the burritos."

I let out a laugh. "Yeah, I'd rather miss the party!" Another lie, but it made her feel better and I knew she caught it. But, it was one of those lies that was okay to tell. Even though I wasn't eating breakfast or lunch, I couldn't get out of eating dinner, as Mom and Dad thought it was a good idea to get the family involved to eat dinner together. I thought it was a stupid idea, but that was just my opinion. "Scarlet is having a sleep over afterwards too," I said just to cover my butt if we stayed out too late.

"Oh, okay," Mom said.

***

After dinner, I went straight up to my bedroom. The burritos tasted better than the last time we had them. Maybe it was because I made them special with Mom. She was such an excellent chef, I always thought she should have sold her recipes, or opened up a restaurant, or something. Either way, her cooking was just too good to be contained in one household.

I didn't know what to wear, I found that my clothes were plain and the items I wanted to wear didn't match well. I wanted to wear something black, something flattering, something fancy—but not too fancy—I wanted something I would look good in and something I would feel good in. But, I found this type of clothing didn't exist in my closet. So, instead, I came up with a flowing, brown halter top and decided to wear it with a simple pair of dark-wash jeans. I slipped on a pair of comfortable, easy-to-walk-in high heeled shoes.

With regards to makeup, I put on some of my darker shades of eye shadow and lipstick, which I didn't wear too often. I wanted to be able to stand out in the dark, and I certainly wanted to make an impression. Though my hair already fell in natural curls, I curled it with a curling iron and the entire thing came out perfectly. The perfection of my look even surprised me; I actually looked half-way decent, like those models with their makeup all-done-up in the magazines. I let out a satisfied sigh and headed downstairs very carefully watching my steps.

"Someone's all dressed up." Logan leaned coolly on the banister at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at me, his lips curled into a smug grin.

"And I see you've kept your usual couch potato attire," I sneered.

"That's a horrible comeback, you know." He smiled mischievously, and then jumped in my way. "Where are you sneaking off too?"

"I'm not sneaking anywhere, they know I'm going." I motioned with my head towards the kitchen where Mom and Dad was.

Logan turned around towards the kitchen and cupped around his mouth with his free hand. "Mom, Halle is leaving the house!" He turned back towards me, wearing a smug grin thinking he was going to get me in trouble. I folded my arms, mimicked Logan's grin, and raised an eyebrow.

Mom peeked her head out of the kitchen glancing at Logan and me. "You don't have to shout, Baby, but thanks for letting us know." Mom closed the kitchen door.

"Yeah, you don't have to shout, BAY-BEE." I hopped over the side of the banister and ran for the door, all the while trying to control my fit of giggles.

Logan chased me down, grabbing my arm as I reached the door. I pulled my arm out of his hand almost too easily. In the surprise of him losing his grip on me, I slide out the doorway, and kicked the door with my shoe, just in time to slam the door on his wrist. I continued my clumsy shuffle away from the door a few feet before I felt sure he wouldn't pursue me further. I threw up a hand giving him a taunting wave, but after I turned around, I didn't look back. The image of the hateful look on his face in my mind provided plenty of satisfaction to me. It wasn't often I had the upper hand in any situation with him.

I was out of the house, and I was free. I never felt more alive than I did tonight, I guess I was getting over that flu after all, and just in time for the party. No longer would this be one of my friend's random ideas for a party, but it would be a party with a reason.

My vision wasn't any better, but I sure felt good physically. It almost felt too good, like I should not have been doing this. Like I was doing something wrong—but it was an exciting kind of wrong, the kind that gives you a nice adrenaline rush. The forest was almost a straight shot from my house, I just had to walk down the street and then turn the corner and it was completely straight after that.

With my good spirits, it didn't take me long for me to cover the small walk and get well into the forest. It was a nice bonus that my friends picked a place with a well-carved trail leading to it, otherwise I'm sure I would have gotten lost. The trail was dusty, and I was sure I'd have to dust off my shoes after I got home for them to even look even a smidge decent, and I probably wouldn't even be able to wear them again. But that was okay, my shoes were just a piece of my current look.

The deep bass of pounding music soon filled my ears, and I followed the sound eagerly getting more pumped with each step. I pushed past a couple of overgrown branches and emerged into a clearing that couldn't have been more than 20 feet wide. Not far on the side of the clearing opposite me, was the rushing river.

"Halle!" Scarlet shouted and ran over. "You made it, I didn't think you'd come."

I tilted my head to the side. "Of course I came, you gave me the sad puppy eyes, remember?" I slowed my pace as walked into the center of the party. Scar took her place standing next to her boyfriend, Rafael. He had his arm around her shoulder like she was a small bird under his wing. I glanced around at the rest of the group. Everyone was scattered here and there, just enjoying the music and having a good time. Drake sat by the ice chest, guarding it just to give everyone a hard time that grabbed a drink out. Rachel and Dean were further from the party than anyone else, leaning against a tree, making out like it was their own private forest.

I quickly changed my view to the river, and I stopped suddenly. Christopher sat upon a large rock partially in the river. The moonlight hit him carefully, illuminating his light hair, but casting a dark shadow across his face. He appeared to be watching me, but I couldn't really tell.

"You look gorgeous, Halle." Scar grabbed both of my upper arms and turned my gaze towards her. She lowered her voice. "He's watching you. Don't stare."

I kept my tone low. "I really couldn't care less who he's staring at."

Her lips curled into a sultry, devious smile as her head lowered slightly. "You know you do."

Rafael put his head down between us and whispered loudly, "I can hear everything you guys are saying."

Scar slapped his shoulder, but with his big jock build, it didn't even faze him. "Halle, why don't you just go talk to him?"

"Because, I don't want to. He's weird and he's not my type and I have no interest in him. Why are you gonna sit on a rock instead of—" Two arms grabbed me around my waist and pulled be backwards. I let out a yell before I was thrown into the river and the rushing water the water invaded my open mouth and flooded over my face obstruction my airways and my vision. The taste of dirt and water engulfed my tongue. The current pulled my body as I flailed my hands for anything sturdy to grasp on to. I felt something hard brush my side and I grabbed for it with both hands. I pulled myself up and out of the water. Air rushed into my mouth and I coughed up the water. My throat burned fiercely. I wiped the water from my eyes trying to see properly again.

I wasn't too far down the river from where I started. Christopher stood at the edge of the river staring down at me with a mischievous smile. Everyone else was staring at me severely and obviously. They all stopped and stared. I clutched myself close to the rock so I wouldn't lose my footing and waded out of the water and onto the sand. "You jerk!" I rushed over to Christopher and shoved him hard with both hands leaving wet hand prints on the front of his shirt. He looked a little taken aback, but didn't say anything.

I shook my head at him and then I turned away from him sharply. I walked away from the party and back toward the edge of the forest path, and then I stopped. I wanted to leave. I could still feel the eyes on me and I could hear the light chatter of the party returning to its previous vigor. My clothes were ruined. My hair—that I spent so much time on—was ruined. My shoes were definitely ruined now. My makeup probably looked like a piece of melted tar. I swiped a finger under my eye and looked at it. It was all full of black mascara.

"Okay, who's going to volunteer to get firewood? It's starting to get dark." Scarlet's voice echoed through the party and over the music. No one made a motion to offer.

"I'll get it," I said quickly. I needed an excuse to disappear for a little bit and give me time to decide if I was actually going to stay for the rest of the party or not.

"I'll help," Christopher said.

I rolled my eyes toward him and scoffed. We disappeared into the forest, and Christopher began picking up sticks along the way. "You can pick out the wood and I'll carry it for you."

"Oh, okay..." was all that came out, I didn't know how to answer in any way that was polite; I had nothing nice to say to him. I picked up the wood that he pointed out. Really, I didn't know what wood was burnable and what wasn't. There was a period of awkward silence, between him telling me which pieces of wood to pick up.

"So, what's your deal?" I finally mustered up the courage to spit out.

"What's my deal?" He narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously. "With what?" he asked, but I figured he knew exactly what I meant.

"What's the deal with you? You're the mysterious new person at school that just moved in down my street. And what? You're Evelyn's brother and yet you don't live with her? Let's start with your family, how about that?"

I thought I might be too forward in asking, but to my relief, he just chuckled. "My and Evelyn's birth parents split up quite a while ago. She went with my mom and I stayed with my dad. Eventually my mom remarried, and within the past few months, my dad remarried too. And to say the least, I decided to stay out here with my mom. My dad bought the house for me—kind of—it was supposed to be college funds, but I decided not to go just yet, so... yeah." Christopher looked over to the left away from my eye contact. I guess I asked the wrong question.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear," I said quickly. "It's great that you get a house all to yourself though."

Christopher shrugged. "Actually, it's kind of lonely." He looked up at me smiling much too friendly and it made me uneasy.

"I can imagine." I tripped over a large root from one of the trees, but regained my balance before I could fall.

Christopher turned his head towards me. "What about you?"

I raised my eyebrows and then shook my head. "There isn't much to tell." I gave a lazy one-shoulder shrug. "I've been living here in Wolf Point forever and that's basically all. I'm just... here."

"That isn't a very good attitude to have."

It took me a minute to figure out if he was serious or just being sarcastic, but the subtle look on his face told me he actually was serious. "Well it's true, there isn't anything to tell, I haven't accomplished anything out of the ordinary. I got past 9th grade with my limbs still attached. My parents have always been together, and that's basically all."

His lips curled into a mischievous smile. "I'll find out more."

"Good luck." I slammed down another piece of wood in the large stack he was carrying.

"Ooh," he purred. "Feisty!"

I giggled.

There came a clearing in the treetops. The sky was dark now, and the stars were clearly visible. Christopher led the way down a small trail where we had to walk single file and the vegetation still brushed the sides of my arms. Suddenly he darted off to the left and stopped to allow me to pass, I was just about to ask why when I saw what was ahead of us. In front of me was a huge, oblong shaped clearing with the trees tightly pressed together. It was like nothing I'd seen before.

I looked to my left to see a long sharp claw mark in the tree. I glanced at Chris, but he kept a plain expression. Chris led the way into the clearing and I followed hesitantly. Thick, green grass covered the area. The moon was out and it cast a beautiful lustrous glow on the landscape. It looked like it was full, or almost full, I couldn't quite tell.

"Isn't this place amazing?" Chris asked turning a full circle.

"It's weird. I don't think trees are even supposed to grow like that." I was caught up in the beauty of the field before I actually stopped to look at the trees. "Are those scratches?" I moved closer to the trees. From left to right, and on a good amount of trees, deep, large marks covered them. Maybe from knives, but I was leaning more towards bear claws as the source of this creation. "I'm just waiting for the monster who created all of this to jump out."

Chris laughed. "You're not saying you're scared are you?"

Now it was my turn to give a half-hearted laugh. This place was cool until I saw the marks. It seemed odd for the trees to grow together that closely, I'd never seen or heard of anything like this occurring before. I raised my hand to the tree in front of me examining the scratch on it. It was large and deep, it almost looked like a human could have made it, but I wasn't sure. I raised my hand and mimicked how it could have been made, the strange thing was my hand fit in it almost perfectly.

Suddenly pain shot through my head, it was so powerful I fell to the ground and I was sure I yelled. I heard Chris drop the pile of wood and his footsteps sounded as he ran towards me. As sudden as it was there, it was gone. But it left my head aching with the memory of that intense pain. I closed my eyes and buried my head in my hands pressing hard on my temples as if I was holding my head together. Why did this have to happen in front of him? I knew I would pass out eventually. I thought this flu ended, but I guess I was wrong. I turned my head to see him crouching down beside me.

"It's going to be alright," he comforted.

Another pain shot through me, but this time it wasn't just my head it was my entire body, and I curled into a ball. As it subsided, my vision returned to normal. Chris placed a hand on my shoulder; I turned my head towards him as if pleading silently for help but I couldn't get any words out because I was afraid all that would come out would be screams. He grasped my other arm and pulled me into his lap. I clutched his waist as another pain shot through my body. It didn't disappear this time though. I opened my eyes and saw everything in blood red. Chris moved a strand of hair from my face.

When I thought the pain couldn't increase, it did, but when I opened my mouth to yell it wasn't my voice that sounded, and it wasn't a yell, it was a vicious growl. I felt Chris push me aside in the grass, and I looked up to see him running across the field. Looking to my left, I saw a large, orange flower—or it looked orange. I looked up at the moon. Feeling my limbs tremble, I realized I was shaking violently. My vision turned white again, and I saw no more.

# Chapter 4 – See Grey No More

My body had a dull ache and I didn't want to open my eyes. Feeling the grass under myself I snapped my eyes open returning to reality. Above me was Christopher, peering down into my eyes. And the sunlight behind his head was so incredibly strong, it actually hurt to have my eyes open. "Morning, sleeping beauty," Chris's smile was peaceful and utterly calm.

The memory of last night flooded into my mind suddenly, and I remembered clutching Chris and then him running away. "You—" I coughed. My voice was surprisingly gruff as if I'd been screaming at the top of my lungs—and who knows I might have. "You came back."

Chris sat with one leg bent and the other straight beside me. He leaned back on both his hands to prop himself up. "I wouldn't leave."

I lifted my head carefully feeling it throb.

I moaned. "I feel like I have a hangover."

"And you would know how that feels?" Chris teased.

"What happened to Scarlet? What about my mom? She's going to kill me," I kept my serious tone.

Chris patted my shoulder. "Relax, it's all taken care of."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What are you talking about?" Realization was starting to set in. "Why did you leave me here all night? There's something wrong with me, I need to go home or to the hospital. And why are you so happy?" I hugged myself. "What did you do to me?"

Chris sighed. "Halle, I'm not going to beat around the bush with you." He was totally serious now, and that scared me even more. "But, you have to listen to everything I say, and you have to listen carefully."

I shook my head, giving him my best what-the-hell look.

"You do not have the flu. You are a werewolf."

"What?" I sat up quickly, despite my aching body. "Christopher, what the hell are you talking about?" My stomach burned. I lifted my shirt halfway to reveal a large scratch; it was exactly like the ones on the trees surrounding me. "You're full of it."

He brushed his hair back out of his face. "Don't you think it's just a little bit ironic that last night was a full moon?"

I glared at him unhappy that he actually came up with a reason why I could be a werewolf. He was annoying me with his stupidity that I didn't have time for.

"And you passed out and can't remember a thing. You howled last night—inhumanly." His eyes narrowed accusingly at me. "Do you need more proof?"

"Right now you're not making sense, so if you have proof then go ahead, Christopher." I refused to believe him. It was something I couldn't comprehend and I just wanted to go home. His accusations were frightening and crazy. I didn't know him enough to know if he was actually going to say he was joking or if he actually was just a crazy lunatic... either way he was going too far.

"Let me guess..." He let out a long sigh and hugged his knee. "About one month ago, you were bitten or scratched by _something_." He rolled his eyes. "Since then, things have taken a turn for the worse. Your muscles swelled, your head has been pounding every second. You've been passing out—getting ill—and you've been seeing in black and white..." He his silver eyes turned to slits and his voice lowered. "All of these things happened because you were making the transition from human to werewolf."

I looked away from him so I could assess if there were any way possible he could know that so that his gaze didn't distract my already flighty mind. Everything he said was right on target. How could he know these things? I told no one of the swelling following the animal attack, not even Scarlet. The only ones who knew were my parents and Logan—which to my knowledge he hasn't been around them. Otherwise, I would have just passed the other information as being rumor someone else told him. But this was something more, and I needed to find out more before I believed him. All of the pieces fit. I turned my pounding head back toward him. "So I'm always going to be ill?"

Chris shook his head. "No, you should be completely fine by now. Nevertheless, you'll still ache until that heals up." He motioned towards my stomach.

"What happened to Scarlet?" I asked again.

"I'll get to that in one minute." He picked a flower from the field and twirled it between his fingers. "Halle, I didn't come here exactly like I said before." His gaze shifted from the flower to me. "I came here to watch over you."

My lips parted as I sucked in a breath of air and let it out again. "So you lied?" I accused.

"Not really, I just left out some parts." He was so sure of himself, like he thought I would let it slide. "My parents are split up and my dad did buy me the house and all of that what-not. But I came here for you." He paused and his expression softened slightly. "We don't leave our own kind to transform by themselves and then wake up in the morning lost, scared, and alone—"

"So you think you're a werewolf?" I realized.

"I know I am." Chris nodded his head. "I don't know who bit you originally, but I assure you, it was pure accident. It really is a curse... a poor, unfortunate curse." He raised a hand lazily and shook his head. "But there is so much to say about it, I'll answer some of your questions now."

I stared down at my trembling hands trying to regain my thoughts. Absolutely overwhelmed by everything. "What happened to Scarlet and the others?"

"They're fine. They are continuing their day like they normally would. Here's how I set it up—" He flashed a dazzling smile. "—You made it easier on me by going to this party tonight, you were already out in the forest—where you should be—and all was fine. When I left you, I brought the firewood back and told Scarlet that you weren't feeling well, which you haven't been for ages so of course she believed me."

"What about my parents?"

"You already took care of that, telling them you're going for a sleepover at Scarlet's."

I narrowed my eyes. "There's no way you could know that?"

Chris chuckled. "Werewolves have great hearing, especially after you learn to use it. I was kind of—I guess you could say I was spying on you... watching over you. Yeah, I was standing outside your house for most of the night listening to your conversions." I opened my mouth to speak, but he spoke right over my voice. "It was necessary for your safety."

"How do I even know that anything you're saying is true? It's even more likely that I just got sick and passed out here last night and you're some kind of psychotic weirdo who injured me—" I motioned towards my stomach. "—and then proceeded to freak me out with weirdo tales. " I was worried, scared and he didn't do anything to help with that feeling. Everything about this whole situation made me feel so uneasy. Part of me wanted to believe what he was saying, because it really did make sense. But the other part of me was sickened by the probability of what most likely happened. "Wait. If you're a werewolf, why didn't you transform?"

Chris sighed. "And this is the only thing I can't prove. You can't resist becoming a werewolf all night long, but it is possible to delay this. It takes a lot of will and a lot of practice, but it can be accomplished. I did transform last night too, just not as early as you, and to be honest you lasted longer than I thought. And the pain during the transformation process gets easier to tolerate."

Oh boy was he ever a sly talker. "You said you don't let your kind transform alone, why did you run from me?"

"I could only stay so long. While you are in your werewolf form, you attack all but your own kind. I was still in my human form, so if I stayed around any longer you would have killed me."

That was stupid, as if I'd kill anyone. "But you could have just let yourself transform right there, no one would have been hurt then."

"No one was hurt, Halle!" he seemed frustrated by my logic. "That's why we transform in the middle of nowhere. And plus I still had to tell Scarlet what happened to you."

"Oh, yeah, that's right." I felt the grass beside me with a free hand. It was still early, early morning, I could tell by the delicate, golden color of the sunlight. "How long was I a werewolf then?"

"Typically werewolves transform for five hours. It's the full moon that does it to you, and the moon doesn't stay out all night long, it usually makes its full transition from east to west by midnight."

I hugged my knees with my arms and rested my head on them. I was so tired, physically and mentally. Chris watched me with his beautiful eyes, completely analyzing me and making me feel even more uncomfortable. "You don't believe a word I say, do you?" He asked.

I shook my head. "Honestly? I feel like you could have drugged me and you probably took advantage of me or something."

His face flashed severely. "Really, Halle? First of all, I would never do that. Second of all, you didn't drink anything and you didn't eat anything and I didn't even touch you, so how could I have?"

I sighed. "Right." So what now then? I was out of questions and just wanted to get out of here. "What time is it?"

"Uh..." Chris looked up into the sky. "It's about four or five in the morning give or take a little..." I closed my eyes for a moment, this couldn't be happening to me. Out of all of the people in the world, why me?

Suddenly, Chris stood. He looked really tall towering above me; he had a lot of muscle, which I guess was the reason why I mistook him for the jock type. Who would have guessed he was actually the "werewolf" type. I was so glad to finally see him completely in color and to have my vision back. His eyes were a grey-green color, but I think they were greyer than anything else. His hair was a soft, feathered dark blonde that was long enough to look just barely over being perfectly kempt. "There's still more to learn, and there's plenty to do today, so we should get ourselves cleaned up before school starts. We don't want people asking questions."

I gave Chris a quizzical look as to what he meant by "get ourselves cleaned up", but now that he mentioned it, he did have a few cuts, and appeared as though he had been rolling around in the dirt. I figured I must have looked about the same—If not worse. He extended his hand towards me as to help me get up, which I thought I would not need, but when I tried to push myself up off the ground, I failed. My muscles were incredibly stiff and even painful. I put on a strong face so he wouldn't see me as weak. This particular part of the forest was especially dense and I had no idea how to get out from here, so I was glad Chris was leading the way. If there was anything to make my life any worse than it already was, it would be to get lost in this forest.

"It's a good idea to remember where this place is. You'll want to come back here for the next full moon, that way you don't hurt anyone." Chris held a branch back for me to walk past.

"Oh, because you're so much better?" I questioned.

Chris raised his eyebrows. "I transformed here too, Halle, it's not just you."

"That just sounds inappropriate," I said under my breath.

Chris flashed me a knowing smile. "You have a dirty mind."

"No, I just had the guts to say what you were thinking," I teased.

"Yeah, sure," Chris said in a sarcastic tone.

There was a moment of awkward silence between us. I searched my mind for something to say to him, but couldn't find anything logical. I wanted to trust him, but at the same time nothing seemed right. I hoped that he had something to say, but I had a feeling he had the same problem I did. I spotted the familiar dirt path in front of me, the one I used to get to the party last night, and was relieved at the familiar sight. Even though my eyes were cured, I still had myself trained to look down and watch my every step carefully, which I was sure I'd get over eventually.

"How did you find me?" I paused thinking of a way to reword that. "I mean, how did you _know_ I was a werewolf, how did you... _find me?_ Do werewolves have some sort of top secret lab place or something that tracks down all werewolves?"

Christopher laughed. "Well, kinda sorta, but nothing too fancy or high tech. Word of mouth usually spreads when something so out of the ordinary occurs. You know, Wolf Point has a... uh, history with werewolves, hence why it's called 'Wolf Point'."

"I've heard so many stories and not one of them mentioned anything about werewolves," I said honestly.

"Well, the very first werewolf to ever come to be lived right here—I forget his name, it was some Indian name, I could never pronounce it properly. You can search the story online for him later. But, anyways, to answer your question, about 98 percent of the time, the victim goes to the hospital, and us werewolves have connections with the hospitals to look for those diagnosed with, uh, _Hyperglyocious_."

"So the hospitals knew I was a werewolf then?"

Chris smiled. "Nope, they don't, actually humans are so stupid it almost makes you ashamed to call yourself one, to them Hyperglyocious is a name for a virus strain—just like they told you—and you get over it eventually. But we have them keeping the records for us, we call in every month to check and see if anyone has that flu, and if they do, we head on over to them."

"That is stalker-ish."

"But, it's better than transforming alone, like I said earlier, waking up lost, alone, and confused. Anyways, a friend of mine works at the Trinity Hospital here—"

"By friend you mean werewolf or actual friend?"

"I mean werewolf, David Lawrence is his name. He informed me about you, and that's how the information got to me. If that answers your question."

"Yeah, it does, mostly." It was more like Christopher was telling me a well put together fictional story rather than fact. I was still waiting for him to shout, "The End!" but somehow I knew this would not happen. I almost pushed last night from my mind completely, and it wasn't even reality at all. I replaced the real story with "I'm just walking in the middle of the woods with a great story teller". If anything else it would keep me sane.

By now we were nearly half way up the street, and I noticed Christopher looking slightly shiftier than he was when we were back in the forest. He peeked around each corner before we walked by, and he kept checking behind himself. At first I thought he was looking at me, but then I realized his gaze went beyond me, but I still didn't know what he was looking for.

We turned the corner onto the street we both lived on. I could see the edge of my property from here. It was so great to be able to see the glorious orange leaved trees again in full color. I loved how the leaves changed colors in autumn, it has always been my favorite season just for that reason.

"Where are you going?" Chris yelled to me suddenly.

I turned around to see Christopher already halfway up a driveway. Looking closer I realized it was his driveway, his property, and his house. I didn't recognize it at first. It was a very large building, almost larger than my own house, the house its self was an off white color, and the trim was a hunter green color.

"Halle?" Chris questioned. His voice was hurried and uneasy.

"Uh, yeah," I responded. "Why are we going to your house again?" I folded my arms in front of myself, but I didn't move. I wasn't exactly comfortable with the idea of going to his house alone with him. After all, we just met a few days ago. I barely knew anything about him. He could still be some sort of pedophile for all I knew.

"To get cleaned up." Chris took a step towards me, flailing his filthy arm dramatically. "Halle, look at it this way, if we go anywhere else it definitely will raise questions. No offense, but you look like you've killed someone in the forest, and I'm sure I look about the same," he said glancing down at himself.

I stood my ground, I really didn't feel safe going into a house all alone with a boy who claims him and I are werewolves, it just doesn't make any sense.

"Halle, I'm not going to harm you. You don't have to worry about that. My only focus right now is that you and I look half-way decent. I give you my word."

"I barely know you, your word means nothing to me."

Chris sighed deeply. "Please just come inside, Halle. Get cleaned up and then you can go wherever you want."

"You're not asking me, are you? You're telling me." I didn't like his tone. I didn't like how adamant he was.

He shook his head. "I'm strongly suggesting."

But he was right, I did need to get cleaned up. I started walking towards the house with Chris. "I swear if you lay so much as a hand on me..." My guard was up; he wasn't to be trusted.

The yard was covered with orange leaves, which crunched under my feet as I walked on them. There weren't too many of them, just enough to cover the ground. The place wasn't exactly what I'd call well-tended, but it wasn't completely abandoned-looking either. It was just untended enough that it was still easy on the eyes. We reached the front door and Chris opened it right away stepping aside for me to enter first.

"You don't lock your door?" I questioned thinking it was odd.

"Not really," Chris said leaning on the door, which I thought was an odd position.

I scratched my head and stepped into the house just far enough to allow Chris into the house as well. The floor was made up of a light hardwood, and the walls were white. It really looked like a bright and welcoming house—not dark and grimy as I expected. Chris stepped around me, took off his jacket, and threw it onto the couch where it landed in a crumpled heap.

"Make yourself at home," Chris said opening his arms wide. "There are two bathrooms, three bedrooms, a living room, a study, a kitchen, and—" He gave a mischievous grin. "—a game room. How's that for a tour?"

I couldn't help laughing. "Sounds like you've made yourself at home here."

I could tell he just moved in; the walls were absolutely barren—except for one single portrait that hung perfectly straight on the south side of the wall. It was a portrait of a man I did not recognize, but figured it must be of importance.

"I'm going to take a shower in upstairs bathroom." he pointed over his shoulder to the staircase. "You can take dibs on downstairs bathroom."

I waited for him to give me further instructions as to where it was located, but he just stared back at me, his expression unreadable.

"Which would be... where?"

"Which would be straight this way; the last door before the staircase." Christopher pointed down a hall which was exactly across from the front door, then he walked down the hall himself, but stopped in front of the staircase. "Feel free to poke around; I don't have anything to hide." Chris continued up the staircase.

Under normal circumstances I would have taken advantage of that, but I wanted to hurry up and get into the shower and get out before he could even have a second thought. I still didn't trust him completely. I opened the door slowly to find a blue themed bathroom, and then I closed the door behind myself being sure to twist the lock and then pulled on the door handle to make sure it was secure. There was a small stack of grey full-sized towels sitting on the corner of the sink, a couple of blue hand towels hanging on the rack on the wall, and the shower curtain was a basic royal blue.

I quickly disrobed. I let my shirt fall to the floor and caught my reflection in the mirror above the sink. I saw what Christopher meant, I was a mess. I had a streak of blood down my face—yet there were no visible scratches—my arms looked similar. I had a huge, deep scratch on my stomach and a couple of other scratches on my back. My face and body was full of dirt and my hair was full of leaves and tangled horribly. I looked as tired as I felt. My eyes were a grey/blue, and I didn't remember them being that way before, then again, this was the first time I actually looked at myself in full color in weeks.

I turned the single knob in the shower and watched the water flow hard and abundant from the shower head. The running water poured over my hand as I waited for it to warm up to an acceptable temperature. When it was warm enough and steam began to rise, I stepped in and let the hot water ooze over my body sending shivers up my spine. The water into the cut on my stomach and I whimpered as it stung, but I tolerated it in order to clean out the dirt.

# Chapter 5 – Never Felt So Alive

Getting out of the shower, I was reluctant to put my old clothes back on, but they actually weren't that bad. It made me wonder how they didn't even have a single tear in them yet my body was torn up under them so badly. I was hesitant to ask Christopher right away for fear of what he might say. I didn't like the idea of this werewolf thing at all. If what he said was true, I guess I'd be lucky though, because this was like a disease, but other people would have to endure pain and suffering every day, and I just once a month. It made it easier to endure knowing how predictable it was.

I turned the doorknob slowly and quietly, and tiptoed out into the hall. I didn't know why I was tiptoeing, since Chris already gave me permission to go wherever I pleased, but it still felt like I shouldn't be snooping around in other people's belongings. I opened the door across the hall careful not to make it creek, and peeked my head in. This was definitely Christopher's game room; right in the middle of the room was a foosball game. To the right were board games stacked up on a shelf, in the far left corner of the room were sports equipment, and an overabundance of cards stacked up on a card table.

There had to be at least ten decks of cards—most of them in new packaging—and all different sizes. There was only one small window in the room, and it made it seem dreary—that, combined with the deep, red walls. On the wall hung a small, round clock with a red edge, which matched the walls perfectly.

"How did I know I'd find you here?"

I turned around towards the door slightly startled at Christopher breaking the sudden silence. He looked neater now and in his usual state with stylishly wild hair and clean clothes.

I gave an unsure smile. "Just wandering around like you told me to do."

Chris gave a hearty laugh.

"What's so funny?" I asked getting annoyed with his laughing, "You've been doing that all morning."

"What, you've never seen someone happy before?" He crossed his arms, readjusted his stance, and smirked. "Life can't suck that much."

I was offended. "My life doesn't suck at all. What would you know about my life? Don't judge me."

Chris didn't seem disturbed at all by my reaction. He maintained his smile without wavering. "Things are getting better now."

I couldn't help giving a sarcastic, mumbled laugh. I seriously doubted things would be able to go back to the way they were before. Ever. Things were changing—things changed—and I had no control over it. I had no say in anything that was happening to me, it was all completely beyond my control with no way out.

"Okay, I thought of something," I announced. "Aren't werewolves supposed to live extraordinarily long lives?" I continued before he could answer. "You're not some kind of creepy, old pervert, are you?"

Chris was trying hard not to laugh. He bit his lip and leaned against the doorframe. "You have been brushing up on your fiction, haven't you?" Chris shook his head. "No, werewolves don't live extraordinarily long lives. You can expect to live the average human lifespan—and no, I'm not old, I'm nineteen... but I guess creepy is open to interpretation, isn't it?"

"I guess so," I said turning my back on him and searching about the room.

I could feel his eyes watching me from behind, and my mind wanted it to bother me more than it really did. I began to relax a little bit; I thought if he was going to do something, he would have done it by now. Looking around the house, I found the house of an ordinary teen boy—things were out of place and messy, but you could tell there was some effort here and there. There wasn't anything that set an alarm off in my mind.

"Follow me; I wanted to show you something." Chris turned around and strode out of the room not even waiting for me to follow. I dashed around the corner of card table to follow him. By the time I peeked out of the doorway, the only sign of him was an open door. I walked over to the open door and looked inside, and low-and-behold Chris stood there. But that wasn't what caught my attention; it was the computer in front of him which was so old that it made whirring machine sounds. Chris stood over it waiting for it to start up. He turned towards me when he noticed that I entered the room. "It takes about five minutes to start up, but after that it's good to go. Just click on the little internet icon on the desktop—it's the one that looks like the world—"

"I am computer savvy, you know."

"Oh, well, anyways, you need to search 'The First Werewolf'. Oh, and I have dial-up, so if the computer starts speaking, don't freak out."

"Isn't it speaking already?"

Chris shrugged. "That's what happens when you get a free computer."

I cocked my head to the side. "True."

"You do that, and I'm going to make breakfast."

I lifted a hand as to wave him away. "Okay." I sat down in the computer chair. The computer chair was quite comfortable. The desk and chair were quite a contrast from the computer; both looked to be newly bought with the house, perhaps slightly worn, but not by much. Not long afterwards, the computer loaded completely and I moved the mouse icon over towards the internet icon and clicked on it. A little screen popped up on the computer and the computer began making phone-like dialing noises.

Soon, the noise stopped and the internet search popped up on the screen. I typed in "The First Werewolf". It took a little longer than it would have had I been using a better computer, but it loaded eventually and a bunch of different pages popped up. The very first page read "Legends of Werewolves". I clicked on that link and opened it in a new window, then I clicked the next link, which I was sure was what I was supposed to be looking at.

The legends of werewolves loaded first, so I started reading that one. They were all categorized in little sections, werewolf appearances, defenses, offenses, symptoms, even what werewolves do while in their werewolf stage. The information I read on the page shocked me, "werewolves like to eat freshly buried bodies" and "they can be killed by silver weapons". All of the information on that page scared me, so I quickly clicked onto the other page.

The very first werewolf to start the chain of werewolves was Fredrick LaBruce, 1883 – 1967 though he lived an extraordinarily long life it was not under ordinary circumstances. Born in England in the spring of 1883, Fredrick was an ordinary child; he was the youngest of three siblings. By the summer of 1885 Fredrick and his family moved to Plymouth, Massachusetts. During his life there he encountered a wolf which mauled him he was hospitalized for a number of months before being released. No one has the exact dates, but they are estimated to be between 1890 and 1895.

After Fredrick's release from the hospital he never was the same, he ate raw meat and basically became the wolf. People began calling him "Wolf Man". Soon he disappeared into the forest every couple of weeks and his condition only worsened. When a terrible creature began terrorizing the local farms the resident's owned they began calling him "Werewolf" coming from "weir" meaning "to wear" and it translating into "to wear a wolf's skin" or "one who wears wolf's skin".

With Fredrick's family becoming ashamed of him, they moved out to the new found "Montana" in 1910. When his parents' curiosity grew they followed him into the forest one night, they never returned though, and more of these "werewolves" appeared. Eventually Fredrick's three siblings mysteriously disappeared. The rest of the town quickly disappeared from civilization as well .The new found town in northern Montana was named "Wolf Point" for its dangerous sightings of these werewolves. But, eventually the locals from a town down south tamed the city back again.

Since then, there has been many werewolf sightings starting there and spreading about the world. Fredrick was found dead in the forest in "Wolf Point" May 2nd1967. To date, Wolf Point has had the most "werewolf" sightings in history, which causes great alarm. Wolf Point is certainly a place to be avoided, many times people have tried to lock the place up and cut off whatever is there from the civilized world.

"That is one of the only true stories about werewolves."

I turned towards the door to see Chris standing there wearing a cute little apron. "Adorable attire," I teased.

"Hey, don't bite the hand that feeds you, I just made you breakfast!" Chris moved towards me and glanced over at the computer screen. "Did you see who wrote that?"

I looked back at the screen. At the bottom of the article was the name: Garret Benson.

"It's a shame the only true article about us is written by such evil," Chris said.

I shook my head curious about what he meant. "Such evil? What is this, a cheesy, 1930s horror film?"

"Halle, let's just put it this way, this guy is dangerous, and it's really important that you stay away from him." Chris's voice dropped to a severe one.

"Okay..." I clicked on the other window that I had open: The Legends of Werewolves. "So, does that mean these aren't true? We don't eat dead bodies... do we?"

"No, we don't, and thank God for that... Breakfast is ready, by the way."

I saluted him. "Yes, Sir."

I rose from the computer chair and followed him out of the room. I made sure to be a good guest and close the door behind myself. I always tried to be a good person, do as I was told, and make a good impression on others. If there was anything I couldn't stand it was other people hating me for something I didn't do. From time to time there are those people that hate you just for being you, and those people I didn't care about, but if I did something it would be on my conscious forever and I would not be able to live with myself.

The passageway to the kitchen was actually an archway decorated with gold and royal blue tiles. We walked through and Chris walked over to the kitchen counter where sat two plates full of food. By the time I reached the center of the kitchen the smell of both food and flowers filled my nostrils. Take a quick glance around the kitchen I noticed various bouquets of flowers around the room, including one in the center of the table.

Chris turned towards me holding both plates in his hands "Have a seat."

I sat down in the nearest chair, scooted closer to the table, and crossed my legs properly. Chris sat a plate down in front of me and the other at the other end of the table. A glass of orange juice was positioned to my left on the table and the silverware to my right. Chris sat at the opposite end of the table. I had never seen a breakfast more luxurious, bacon, eggs, waffles, and pancakes covered the plate. There were two pieces of bacon, two eggs, one scrambled and one poached, and one waffle and one pancake, the pancake was crumbled into little pieces and the waffle was neatly cut into six small pieces.

I tilted my head to the side in thanks, grabbing my fork, "You certainly are the chef."

"Well, I've have had practice." Chris shrugged and drizzled pancake syrup over his waffle and pancake. The syrup oozed over the edges and pooled onto the plate before he righted the syrup bottle.

I raised my eyebrows. "Someone has a sweet tooth this morning."

Chris returned the raised eyebrows. "Are you commenting on my eating habits?"

"If I am?" I asked taking the pancake syrup from him and making a point to put a small bit on my pancake and waffle.

"Then that would have to be fixed." Chris shoved a piece of the pancake in his mouth.

We were quiet for most of the breakfast, and we didn't really say anything to each other. I just glanced up at Chris every once in awhile, but he always caught my gaze and I looked away quickly. He had a certain charm about him, I couldn't quite place it, but it was one of those charms that just made you want to keep looking at him and never stop until you take in every detail. Maybe it was the flawless way that he moved, or his immaculate appearance. Even when he just came out of the forest fresh from transforming from a werewolf he looked perfect.

Chris was the first one done eating; he grabbed his plate and set it in the sink. I watched him innocently. "I'm going to go dress my wounds, we have about an hour—give or take a little—until school, so as soon as you're done eating we'll take care of your wounds, we don't want them to get infected." His eyes flickered toward my stomach. "Looks like you got it pretty good." With that, he walked out of the kitchen.

I sunk lower in my chair; did he think the scratch was that bad? It didn't look that deep. Then again, I didn't really inspect it that much; after all, it wasn't exactly what I'd call "eye candy".

I finished up breakfast and put my empty dishes in the sink—Chris certainly was a good cook, he might have even rivaled my cooking abilities. I wondered where he got it from; someone had to teach it to him. I walked out of the kitchen and into the living room, where I found Chris sitting on the couch with his feet propped up on the coffee table reading some sort of novel. He was wearing reading glasses, which surprised me even more than the fact that he even owned a novel to read. I leaned on the back of the couch and attempted to read over his shoulder. But, he laid the book down on his knee and looked up at me. "I didn't see you," he said closing the book and setting it down on the table. Now I saw the title, _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ , it was a classic.

"You read?"

Chris laughed. "Yes, I do read, I went to school for a reason, I'm not about to sit around and let my brain cells fry..." He blue eyes started down at me. "Is that a problem?"

"No, definitely not, I think it's great," I said sitting on the couch next to him.

"Are you ready to get your cuts fixed up now?" Chris nodded towards the first aid kit sitting on the table; I just noticed it.

"Might as well," I said with distaste, slightly apprehensive about anything that burned, I didn't want to seem weak and defenseless to him.

Chris left his glasses on making him look smart, which was another reason why I trusted him. He rummaged about the first aid kit pulling out a small bottle of something, bandages, and bandage tape. He pulled out a single cotton swab from the first aid kit and dipped it in the small bottle, and then he paused and looked up at me. "You don't mind if I do it, do you? I am going to medical school next year."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" I scoffed. "If you haven't gotten training yet, you really should refrain from saying that to people until you can say you _completed_ to medical school'." I teased him.

Chris raised an eyebrow. "You don't mind if I do it then?"

"Go ahead," I said and lifted up the front of my shirt just enough for the wound to be exposed. Chris dabbed the cotton swab gently on the wound, it did sting a little bit, but I managed to suppress the pain. He grabbed a bandage off of the table and pressed it to the wound then grabbed the bandage tape and taped around the bandage carefully.

"There, all set," Chris said and started putting the items he used back into the first aid kit.

I lowered my shirt back down and watched Chris with great interest. He wasn't so bad after all. I loved that he was a bookworm. People who read books were more intelligent than others, or I should say, they matched my IQ better than those who hated reading. It really made me angry when people acted like reading wasn't a cool thing to do. There were plenty of those types of people at Wolf Point High.

Chris closed the tin first aid kit, walked over towards the edge of the room, and picked up a backpack swinging it over his shoulder. "Come on, it's time for school," he said motioning for me to follow.

"I don't have my backpack," I said just realizing that.

He reached into the side pocket of his backpack and then tossed me something. "Here." It was a pen.

"Yeah, but—"

"You'll be fine. 99 percent of the time you don't need half of the school supplies they make you bring," Chris said as he made it was to the front door.

I got up off the couch and followed after him not wanting to be left behind. "But I need my notebook—I always take notes."

He held the door open for me like a gentleman. "You'll be survive."

# Chapter 6 – Stones and Sticks

I saw the Wolf Point High coming into view and began walking a little bit faster, happy for a familiar scene. Right away I noticed a few of my friends standing around in the school parking lot. Christopher and I turned the corner and Scarlet came running up to me wearing her usual huge smile. "Halle!" Scarlet reached us and came to a jumping stop.

Both Chris and I stopped; he leaned over towards me and said, "I'll see you later." Then he walked away.

"Yeah, you too." I quickly threw up my hand to give him a lazy wave.

Scarlet turned towards me taking on a serious and concerned tone, "How are you feeling?"

I nodded dramatically, avoiding eye contact. "Better. I'm sorry for leaving so suddenly last night, I really wanted to stay." The images from last night flew through my mind, arriving there perfectly unknowing, seeing everyone there having fun and talking, then disappearing into the forest with Chris and never coming back the same way.

"It's alright, thanks for trying to come anyways. We all admire your spirit." Scarlet turned around and started to walk back, but quickly turned back to me. "Where's your backpack?"

"Oh." I looked back as if just now noticing I didn't have my backpack. "I must have forgotten it. I'm so tired; I was up really late last night."

"Oh well, just stay close to me and you'll survive."

I started walking towards the school. I felt a slight bit over dressed for school with my party clothes still on. But, I was just happy that I decided to wear jeans.

"So, how's Chris? You guys walked to school together." Scarlet walked a little bit quicker.

"Yeah, apparently he lives right down the street."

"Lucky you," she said with her little "valley girl" accent. "I don't have any cuties down my road, just old fogies."

I gave a weak titter. "Well you can come over sometime, maybe he'll do yard work and we'll sit in the street inconspicuously and watch him."

Scarlet snorted with a fit of laughter, doubling over slightly before regaining herself. "Can you see his property from yours?"

"Only at the very, very end," I said honestly. "Oh, I got my vision back." I grabbed Scarlet's arm and shook it jokingly. "You're in color!"

Scarlet let loose an un-entertained laugh. "That's good news."

"Yeah—" the school bell rang startling me.

"Time for class," Scarlet said dragging me into a classroom; I didn't realize we made it there already.

The classroom was already mostly filled by the time we entered except for a few seats near the back of the class, looks like that would be where we would be sitting today. English class, it wasn't one of the worst ones, but it certainly wasn't one of the best. I did excel at English, but I found it lame and I knew I would end up doodling in my notebook by the end of the class out of desperation for trying to keep my brain cells fully intact. Then I remembered, I didn't have my notebook with me, which meant I would have to resort to letting those brain cells fry after all.

Just as Scarlet and I took a seat the teacher came through the door and the class began. I leaned over towards Scarlet and whispered, "I should have just taken today off."

"Yeah, I think I caught what you had." Scarlet gave a couple of fake coughs.

I snickered and sunk down lower in my chair.

***

The school day turned out to be even more boring than I originally though. I felt very restless, and was only too glad when lunch came around, that way I could interact with the other students and do something at least a little bit amusing. Chris wasn't really around very much, I did notice him from time to time, but he mostly hung around with other crowds of students and left me alone for the most part. It was almost like he was someone completely different than what he was earlier this morning.

"So, you never answered me earlier," Scarlet said. We both stood out in the parking lot really just killing time before we had to leave school and go back home. Chris stood out at the other end of the parking lot.

"I never answered you about what?" I asked more interested in other things than Scarlet's ranting.

"How do you like Chris? You guys seem to be getting along very well."

I looked at Scarlet a little shocked that she was still going on about him. "I would hardly call staring at him getting along very well."

"Halle, he walked you here that must have been a good fifteen minutes...alone... with him!" She walked in front of me and stopped to block my view and get me to pay more attention to her.

"Scar, we just talked, it was no big deal." I stared down at my black converse shoes.

"Oh, yeah, sure, you just talked. That was it. Nothing else happened."

Scar's dark brown eyes glared at me. "We just talked about each other and random things." I hurried to gather my thoughts, I hadn't even really thought about it much or attempted to gain perspective on the situation. "It was basically two acquaintances keeping each other company on a short walk to school." But I knew we were quite a bit more than acquaintances. We were already good friends, and he was that good friend I needed, but at the same time, someone I wanted to get rid of.

Scarlet lowered her head and looked up at me with accusing doe eyes. "Halle... acquaintances, seriously? You have nothing better than that."

I gave a cheesy smile. "I'm ill, it's the best I've got."

Scarlet tilted her head to the side. "You do look a little sick." She looked down at her watch. "My mom is late."

"Maybe traffic is bad or something..." I shrugged. "Ah well, you get to spend more time with me."

"Yeah, but she usually isn't late." Scarlet's dramatic features crumpled and pressed together, as her eyes shimmered with worry.

"Call her," I said logically. "You have your phone, don't you?"

"Yeah." Scarlet reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone, quickly dialing some numbers. I listened carefully to Scarlet's phone call, noticing that I could hear the thing ringing and she didn't even have it on speaker phone. I remembered Chris saying that werewolves had great hearing. I started thinking about the disadvantages of that more than the advantages. I mean, what if I didn't want to hear what people were saying? I knew this could be a big disadvantage for me, and I didn't really like the idea. I snapped back to reality when Scarlet shut her phone.

"She didn't answer," Scarlet said.

I shoved my hands in my pockets, "I'm sure she's fine. Maybe she got caught up at work, she does work for the newspaper doesn't she?"

"Yeah, but she always answers the phone," Scarlet crossed her arms. I noticed my dad's car pulling into the parking lot.

"Is your phone working?" I resisted the urge to grab the phone out of her hands to see for myself.

"Yeah, I just got a text from Rafael a few minutes ago."

"My dad can take you home if you want," I suggested.

Scarlet stared toward my dad's car, his expression far away. "It might be a good idea," she agreed finally.

Scarlet followed me out to Dad's car, and I leaned in the passenger-side window. "Dad, we have to drop off Scarlet at her house, her mom didn't come pick her up."

I opened up the back door and allowed Scarlet to climb into the back seat, and then I shut the door and sat in the front seat next to my dad. He seemed slightly more cheerful than he usually was. Then again, Dad was almost always jovial.

No one said very much on the way there, and I was kind of happy for it, it was dangerous having the two people I shared lies with in the vehicle at the same time. It would have been so easy for Dad just to ask "so how was the sleepover?" but he didn't. I think Scarlet was worried about her mother, and I'm sure Dad was just as uncomfortable as he always was around my friends. He's just not that type of person, not really the "cool" type of parent. He was a good father anyways.

A short while later we turned on Scarlet's street. It really was a shame we lived so far apart, she lived in the middle of town, and I lived basically as far south as you can go. I jerked my head up when I noticed flashing police lights; the police car was sitting stationary. Looking up in the rear-view mirror I saw Scarlet's face, it turned ghost white and looked similar to mine earlier this morning. The police car was in front of her house.

Dad pulled the car to a slow stop. I jumped out of the car quicker than I normally would have and held the door open for Scarlet, but she didn't move. She sat still in the car staring at her house. I followed her gaze and noticed two police officers standing at her doorstep watching us. My throat became dry for fear of the unknown. They were there for a reason, but I really didn't want to stick around to find out. I grabbed Scarlet's arm softly and pulled her out of the vehicle. I don't ever remember seeing her eyes with such fear before.

Scarlet approached the officers. I shut the car door and peeked in the car window. "Dad, I think I'm going to stick around here for awhile, Scar needs me, I'll walk home. Don't let Mom worry, 'K?" I glanced back at Scarlet.

"Call me if you need me, Sweetheart," Dad said.

I nodded and stepped back so he could drive away. The officers surrounded Scarlet both looking high, mighty, and intimidating like they always did. I walked over towards Scarlet, attempting to listen to their words, but everything was like I was watching some kind of movie, like I wasn't really there.

"Where is your dad?" the female officer asked.

"H-He's at work," Scarlet stuttered. I never heard her stutter before.

The female officer looked at the male officer. "Scarlet... Stutton is your name? Correct?"

"Yes."

"Scarlet, any idea when your dad will get home from work?"

"He works afternoons." Scarlet hugged herself. "He won't be back until around eight tonight."

"Who is this?" the male officer asked referring to me.

"Halle Fletcher, my friend."

"Halle, could we have a moment alone with your friend?"

"Yeah, of course." I unwillingly walked to the end of the property, but it didn't matter, I could still hear everything.

"Miss Stutton, we have some bad news..." the male officer said.

I turned my head away unable to watch the terror that I knew would happen unfold.

"Your mother was in a car accident, she passed at the scene."

I heard Scarlet gasping for air. I bounded over to her and grabbed her in an embrace I didn't care that I wasn't supposed to hear. I didn't care that it wasn't any of my business according to the officers. She didn't moan like most would, she gasped for air and tears fell very slowly. They weren't supposed to fall from her eyes, of all people, she wasn't one to cry about anything. Then again, I would cry too.

The police both stood there, I hated them for the news they brought, it was never, ever anything good.

The police woman put her hand on my shoulder. "We'll come back later."

I shook my head in disgust. Scarlet's gasps turned into wails. I put my arm around her shoulder and edged her towards the front door. I turned the knob but it was locked. "Where's the key?" I asked Scarlet.

"I-I don't h-have one," Scarlet said though her tears, I could hardly understand her. I looked down on the ground to see if I could find anything pointy and flat, but I didn't. Looking back at Scarlet I noticed she had a bobby pin in her hair, I took it out gently and opened the front door with ease. I grabbed Scarlet's hand and led her into the house. I was sure her vision was blurred by her massive outflow of tears. I had only been in Scarlet's house a few times before, but it never ceased to amaze me how beautiful and well-kept it actually was. Walking in there was a fireplace—which was still lit, which I found odd being in the middle of the day—a couch to the right, and massive amounts of books and a computer to the left. Straight ahead was a hall, and I knew, the kitchen.

Escorting Scarlet with my arm, I moved her over to the couched sitting her down on an open seat. I sat next to her. She clung to me still crying and sobbing. Her body shook violently. My throat burned and I tried my best not to cry along with her. I don't ever remember being in such a sad situation before, I didn't really know what to do. I was never the one to console another person. My shirt was wet with her tears, but I didn't really care, I was just happy I could do something—anything. But, even with that I still felt helpless.

I stared into the flickering fire. I found it odd that the police didn't just call Scarlet's dad right away, I thought someone would call him if there was an emergency.

It felt like hours passed, and with every moment I felt Scarlet's pain, I could just imagine the things that were going through her mind. With nothing to compare it to, I compared it to how I would feel if my parents died. Lost, alone, and like no place you were, was home, even though you sat there now. Scarlet's wails and cries eventually reduced to sobs. I still held her tight, and she still clung to me in the same way she had when we first sat down. I hadn't swallowed in ages, or even uttered a single word or sound, for I knew that doing anything other than breathing would trigger tears, and I needed to be strong, for Scarlet's sake.

"She l-left me," Scarlet sobbed. "I-I'm here and s-she left me." Scarlet had a relationship with her mother like no other person I had seen before, they were best friends. They both had something that I knew I would never have with either of my parents. They were even better friends than her and I were. "She p-promised s-she would not leave me."

"Scarlet, anyone can promise that, but no one can keep that promise. Circumstances pulled her away, she didn't go willingly," I managed to choke out.

Scarlet sobbed harder, and I knew I didn't say the right thing. She needed someone to agree with everything she said, not words of wisdom.

"You've probably heard this a million times, but I'm going to say it again because it's true: she will always be with you in a way. What did she always tell you?"

Scarlet tried to stop her sobs, she looked up at me wiping away tears, "Big girls don't cry."

I gave a careful laugh, knowing it could easily turn into a sob.

"There are m-millions of g-girls out t-there who don't give a damn a-about their mother—why m-mine?"

"It's not about who deserves it or who doesn't, because you, of all people, definitely don't deserve this. It's about whose time it is, and it was her time to go. There is no other explanation for that, and don't you forget it."

"But, she left me, a-alone. All alone, h-here. I want to go with her!" Scarlet yelled and stood up, she searched around the room for what I didn't know, but I knew it wasn't anything good. I jumped up after her, I saw her grab a pencil. She stabbed at her wrist, but I was only too glad when I saw that it didn't break the skin.

"Scarlet!" I yelled and grabbed the pencil from her before she knew what was happening. Scarlet slid down the edge of the bookshelf with such force it knocked a few books out on top of her. I sat down in front of her taking her hands.

"You have too much to live for!"

"What? Should I become a lawyer like Mom wanted? Should I become a fashion designer like Mom suggested? Everything in the world is about her." Scarlet picked up a fallen book, "This book is written by her."

I sat back on my heels, "No, there are things in this world you don't even know about, things that are worth living for. What about your dad, he needs you. What about me? I need you, what do you think I would do without you?"

"You have your parents, you'll be fine. Dad is Dad, he'll get over it, he never wanted me anyways."

I gasped, "What makes you say that, he loves you. You are his flesh and blood!"

"He said so!" Scarlet said, she was hardly sobbing anymore and I knew she was in her anger stage.

"I'm sure he said that when he was angry. People say these things, Scar, and they don't mean them. Your dad loves you more than anything in this world."

"Yeah, now that Mom is dead he really doesn't have a choice."

"I need you, Scar."

"You don't! No one does!" Scarlet yelled hiding her face away under her hands.

I took a deep breath, "Scarlet, I need you—"

"Will you shut-up already?"

"Listen," I took another breath, "I need you—there are things in this world, you couldn't begin to imagine. Scarlet, I am a werewolf."

Scarlet stood, "Oh, that's low, that is so low."

I scowled; I had no proof, why did I tell her this? Then I remembered the one werewolf feature I had even when I wasn't transformed.

"I can prove it, and you have to believe me, give me a chance to prove it. That is why I was ill before. And I wasn't ill last night at the party, I never left the woods. Christopher covered for me. Give me one chance to show you proof."

Scarlet folded her arms, "I really don't need this now, Halle."

I held up a finger to her face, "One chance. I'm not messing with you. You wanted to know what me and Chris have been talking about? I'll tell you. "

Scarlet looked away, "Fine."

I stood up to Scarlet's height now, "I have wolf-like hearing abilities, I can hear nearly everything in this house from the end of the street. Stand here, say one sentence, and I will come back into this house and repeat it to you, word for word."

I turned around without waiting for Scarlet's response. I opened the door, closed it behind me, and walked all the way to the end of the property, so far that if I were to take another step I would be in the street. I saw Scarlet peeking out of the window at me, then she walked back away from the window. I listened and I listened hard. I heard her footsteps. She snuffled, then silence... more footsteps and the door opening.

"Well?" Scarlet said.

I walked back over towards Scarlet. I stood near her.

"Well?" she repeated forcefully.

"You said nothing."

"Clever of you, that's easy to say when you can't hear anything isn't it?"

"Oh, I heard, I heard you walking away from the window, I heard you snuffle, and I heard you walk to the door. You said nothing."

Scarlet adverted her gaze in a cold hearted way. Surely she would believe me after that demonstration.

"If you're still not satisfied, I can demonstrate that again."

"Fine," Scarlet said and closed the front door behind herself.

I walked to the end of the property again; the sun was almost set in the sky by now. I listened just as closely as I did before. "The reason for living is dying," I heard Scarlet say faintly.

The door opened again and Scarlet peeked her head out. I walked towards her. "The reason for living is dying," I said giving her a hard look. "Believe me now?"

Scarlet swung the front door open, and I knew she believed me. I felt a sudden relief that I wasn't the only one that knew about my condition, I mean, Christopher was fine, but he really was just an acquaintance. Scar was someone who knew me, whom I could talk to and trust for a reality check. It benefited me and her, since this insane information distracted her from the news of her mother passing.

I stepped back into the house.

"How long have you known?" Scarlet asked.

"Since I first turned last night," I said. "But, you can ask questions later, know that I am here for you now. Not only do I need you, but I'm quite sure you need me too and I can't live without you. No one else knows and no one else would believe me anyways, and it's hard and scary and difficult."

Scarlet suddenly looked grimmer than she did a moment ago; I think I reminded her about her mother. "I'm going to puke," Scarlet announced running down the hall and into the bathroom.

I heard her vomit as if I was standing right next to her; this was definitely one of those disadvantages of being able to hear so well. I walked slowly down the hall. I was never really good at cheering people up or making situations better, I always had the knack of knowing just the wrong thing to say at the wrong time. Silence served me better about 90% of the time. I walked into the bathroom; she draped her body carefully over the toilet seat. I grabbed a wash cloth and bent down to her level. She turned her head towards me. I handed her the wash cloth wearing a forced smile.

I heard the front door open; both Scarlet and I jumped up from the floor and bounded out of the bathroom. I let Scarlet take the lead and stopped just past the end of the hall. Scarlet's dad was home from work, he sat down his lunch box. His eyes were bloodshot; it appeared as though he already got the news after all.

Scarlet took slow steps towards her father. He embraced her letting out another round of tears; her dad did too, but not quite as much. It was such a sad sight, seeing two people whom have shed so little tears in their lifetimes to be making up for lost time now. I suddenly felt out of place and knew it was about time for me to leave. A few moments passed and they finally released each other's embrace. I approached Scarlet.

"Call me, if you need anything, anything at all," I said, and hugged her.

I took a step back, "My deepest sympathies go to the both of you."

Neither of them said anything. Scarlet's dad stepped out of my way, it felt awkward for a moment, but I should have known they would not have said anything anyways. I opened the door taking one last look at the unfixable faces, and closed the door behind myself.

# Chapter 7 – Far From Heaven

During the next few months it didn't seem like anything improved, Scarlet didn't attend school it seemed like nine times out of ten. She barely spoke to me anymore except for the occasional text message. I didn't know if it was because she was in mourning, or because she was totally freaked out that I was a werewolf. Either way, life was harder without her in it, and I hadn't even seen her smile since the incident. I couldn't blame her though; I'd probably be acting the same way, if not worse if the conditions were the same for me. At each full moon Christopher and I would go into the forest to transform, the first time I saw him transform it amazed me how gracefully he did it. Without even a second thought it was almost as if he willed it to happen, and it didn't even appear as though he felt the pain. I still felt the pain, but I got better at handling it knowing what to expect. It always was exceedingly hard to find an excuse to sneak away from my parents before nightfall, one time I said I was going to go to bed early, and I snuck out the window in a final attempt to escape. I never knew what a tight hold they had on me until then.

I still didn't tell Chris that I told Scar about my being a werewolf. He never failed to remind me to keep tight-lipped about us. It frustrated me that I couldn't tell anyone at all, but I had to remind myself to be grateful that I did have Chris and that I wasn't going through this whole ordeal alone. That it could be worse... but yet, I still felt entirely alone and completely suffocated by my parents. But here it was, three months later, the middle of December and I was off on my way to school, yet again like nothing ever happened and pretending it was all the same. The trees didn't have any leaves, and the icy, cold wind was the kind that went through whatever you were wearing, no matter how many layers, nor the thickness. It was just plain cold. The only sign of warmth was Chris walking beside me; I knew he must have been warmer than I was with his black, leather jacket.

Chris breathed out producing a large puff of steam in the freezing air. "I assume you've heard about the Christmas Eve Dance."

I looked sideways at him. In the whole three months he's been around me, he's always kept it playful between us, but never flirty, never willing to take it to the next level. There was always something there, but the way he acted it was almost like he was ignoring it... I couldn't blame him though... I was ignoring it too. "Yeah, I have, but it's on a full moon, so I've already scratched it off my list of things to do," I said bluntly.

"Why? It starts early."

"You are calling six o'clock at night _early?_ It's dark by then."

"Yep," he turned towards me, "What, you think you can't resist it?"

I let out a laugh seeing my breath in front of my face. "No, I can resist turning, I just thought it was too risky. Plus, I've just already turned everyone that wanted to go with me down."

"I guess everyone else doesn't know how to persuade you like I do then."

I paused speaking for a moment to ponder on it. "Are you asking me?" He was definitely asking me.

"What if I am?" Chris gave a knowing smile.

I gave another pause, I needed my cleverness now, which was always miles away for me. "I'd ask if you were going to take care of me... just in case."

"And I'd say certainly."

"But, that's only if you were asking me," I said giving a wink.

Chris nodded as if considering it, "So you're going to play Cinderella and run away at midnight?"

I laughed at the ironical situation. "Not quite, I'll leave before midnight."

"Okay, then I'll take Cinderella to her to ball."

I nodded, "Your fairytale character gives you permission."

He raised his eyebrows, "Oh, does she?"

"Well, you couldn't take me without my permission."

Chris tilted his head from side to side doing a poor imitation of myself. "True."

We rounded the corner of the street and our school came into view. From this far down the street anyone who wasn't familiar with it could have easily mistaken it for an insane asylum... or so I thought. You could just hear kids laughing, screaming, yelling, but I knew better, it was just the teens in the parking lot. I was just happy that I wasn't one of those monkeys that did that. Or was I? After all, I did hang out with them.

When I saw Scarlet in the parking lot I got excited. She stood there next to Rafael looking grimmer than she normally did. Everyone around her seemed quite the same, and I realized that she was the life of the party, and without her cheer, no one else had cheer.

"You're looking a lot thinner than you did a couple of months ago," Chris mentioned looking me up and down.

"Oh, thanks?" I did notice a change in my weight. My muscles became more defined and my clothes fit a little bit looser than they did before, and I was happy. I hadn't looked so good since I was a little girl. And I could finally fit into all those clothes the skinny, little girls wore.

"It wasn't a compliment," Chris said suddenly, "Don't take it as an offense, take it as a warning. You've lost a lot of weight scary fast. It does take some time to adjust to—you know—but when you're a werewolf you are running around and stuff, and you do have to increase your food intake slightly."

I couldn't believe he was saying this. I heard him speaking, but I refused to comprehend his words. Was he seriously trying to control what I eat? As if it's any of his business.

"I noticed you don't eat lunch," he said when I didn't respond; "You might start."

I let out a dry cough. "So, let me get this straight, you ask me to the dance and then compliment-insult me?"

"No, I'm not insulting you," Chris said quickly. "I'm just concerned for your wellbeing."

"Uh!" I spat out walking faster than him towards Scarlet.

I was glad that Chris knew better than to follow me around, and he let me be. He walked by me, not rudely, and towards the school keeping up the same pace that he used from his house to school. The way he walked so slow like nothing in the world could interrupt his stride annoyed me, but I just looked away.

"Hey, Scarlet," I said walking up behind her, "It's good to see you today." Scarlet turned around and looked at me. Her eyes had dark circles under them as if she hadn't slept a wink since losing her mother. Her skin was pale and I noticed, her makeup was applied differently—darker and gothic like.

"Morning, Halle," Scarlet said cracking a little, forced smile. She jerked her head over towards Christopher then back again, "You guys aren't together yet?"

I couldn't help letting out a snorting laugh, "Why are you surprised? I said from day one I didn't like him—" Rafael turned towards Scarlet planting a kiss on her cheek—that was one thing that surprised me about him, he wasn't afraid to show his affection towards Scarlet in front of his friends and since the incident, he had been fawning over her every second. She was lucky to have him to lean on. He walked towards the entrance of the school with a couple of his friends. "And get this," I continued, "He asked me to the dance, waited until I said yes, and then insulted me."

"He insulted you? You sure you just didn't take it the wrong way? It wouldn't be the first time, you know."

"He said I looked _too thin_." I rolled my eyes.

Scar frowned. "I hardly see where that's an insult." She patted her own pot belly. "And it's true, you are looking really thin."

"So you agree with him then?" I raised my eyebrows. How could she agree with him over me—her best friend?

"I'm not agreeing with either of you," Scarlet let her mouth fly wordlessly as if searching for the right word on the tip of her tongue, "Lover's quarrel."

I narrowed my eyes, "How dare you?" I said more teasingly than seriously.

"I dare," she said stalking off into the school along with the rest of the students.

***

Most of the day, Christopher avoided me. He must have known I was angry at him. I still didn't know if I was going to go to the dance with him. To be honest, he was the only one that actually asked me to go. But even still, it wouldn't have bothered me if I didn't go at all—it wasn't necessary. But I knew it was necessary to Chris, just the way he talked about being a high school student and the excitement that he had just getting to go to class every day. I think it was the break from the abnormal, the distraction from being a werewolf that motivated him. What I couldn't understand was why he wanted to go with me. I definitely wasn't the prettiest choice in the school, he could have easily asked many other girls in the school and they would have told him yes, and here I am giving him a hard time and not saying yes, and there he was just waiting on me. I decided I would give him another chance and go to the dance with him, but just _one_ other chance—any other insults or anything and I would refuse to go with him.

Evelyn leaned over the front of her desk trying to get my attention. I saw her out of the corner of my eye, but I was hoping if I continued to ignore her then she would just leave me alone. Unlike her, I actually liked to pay attention.

"Hey, Halle!" Evelyn whispered hoarsely. I turned my head more obviously towards her. She moved her orange hair out of her face and leaned back in her chair slightly.

"What?" I exclaimed in a whisper.

"I heard you and Christopher are going to the dance together."

I furrowed my eyebrows. I couldn't tell her reasoning for saying this right away, her expression was friendly and neutral, and so I chose my words carefully. "He asked me." I didn't want to necessarily say yes or no.

"Just wanted to confirm the rumor," she turned back to the teacher ending our conversation. People were talking about us and I didn't even know how to feel about it. What was the relationship between us? I knew we were just friends and he was only there to help me, but I couldn't help but feel like there was something more. I shook my head. I couldn't let the rumors get to me and let myself mistake their rumors for my truth. I had to hold on to the reality of the situation, and be completely honest with myself, the only reason he asked was likely just because he valued me as his friend, and only his friend and nothing more. There wasn't a good chance that he would see me as anything more than that, we were more like two people with the same issue, almost like colleagues.

A voice sounded on the loud speaker and the teacher, as well as the students, fell silent. Something about remaining calm—my brain refused to process the information. Students looked from side to side, they were all either scared or shocked. When the voice on the loud speaker subsided, the teacher turned towards the class. Fearful and panicked chatter erupted in the room. Desk chairs slid out in a hurry as students began gathering their belongings.

"Alright," Mrs. Hayes yelled over the chaos. "Everyone, this is not a drill! The school is under evacuation, gather your things and we will continue out of the school in a calm manner."

I didn't need telling twice, I grabbed my pen and pencil and swept them into my backpack with one swift movement of my arm, and slung my backpack over my left shoulder. I was one of the first standing behind Mrs. Hayes by the door ready to go. I didn't know why the school was being evacuated and I didn't care, I just wanted to get out. I started to feel lightheaded as panic washed over me. Scarlet stood beside me, her eyes were focused on the teacher and face was drawn. The rest of the students filed in line shortly after.

Mrs. Hayes opened the door slowly looking right and then left, and then she headed down the hall to the entrance, it was a short hall, but it felt like it was taking forever just to get to the door. The light poured in through the half-glass doors that led to the outside of the building.

"Whoa—" I started to yell, but someone's thick hand slapped over my mouth and yanked me to the right. The other large hand held my arm painfully tight. I tilted my head back catching a glimpse of a complete stranger. His skin was dark, his lips were large just like his hands, and his eye were hidden behind large, black Ray-Bans. I'd never seen this person before in my life. How could he grab me out of the front of the line without being seen? How could Scarlet not have seen? Or the other fifteen students behind me? How could they just keep walking?

The man turned me around and pressed me roughly against the wall of the empty, open hallway. He removed his hand from my mouth and placed it on my other arm pinning me helplessly to wall.

"Halle Fletcher?" He asked, his voice was so deep and low and threatening.

"I-I," I stuttered. I couldn't find my voice to speak. What would happen if I told him that I was not Halle Fletcher, would he release me? He must have been looking directly for me for some reason. But, I didn't know why.

He grabbed me by the shoulders roughly and thrust me into the wall, trying to get his answer. "Are you Halle Fletcher?" He repeated.

I let out a squeak. My entire body was trembling as I was staring at the face of this madman. "N-no."

He looked to his left and to his right and took a hand away from me to scratch his grizzly, white beard. Then he grabbed my arm and pulled me down the hall. He was walking so quickly, I couldn't get my footing so I could at least try to resist. I clawed at his massive hands trying to break myself free. I screamed, and he let go of my right arm and grabbed my face again roughly over my mouth. He was dragging me like a rag doll with just the strength of his hands. I was too weak to even waver him in the slightest. We came to a doorway, and I put my feet on the wall to the side to get better leverage. The force of my sudden movement pulled my arm painfully out of his hand and I fell to the floor. As soon as my butt hit the floor, I dragged myself backwards so I would be out of his grasp.

I rotated to my hands and knees so I could jump up, but before I was able, I heard a snarl and he lifted me up from behind. I screamed again, and again his hand went over my face with a loud smacking sound. I kicked at him and flailed my limbs in desperation. My foot found his chin. As my foot came back down his grip faltered enough to drop me. He quickly reached down, still dazed from the hit, and snatched my shirt, pulling the collar painfully against the back of my neck and ripping the front.

Suddenly, a loud crack sounded with the flash of a dark object and the man fell forward, his head landing on my chest. His unconscious body was heavy as hell. Christopher stood above me moving quickly to shove the man off me. The man's body still covered my legs, but Chris grabbed my arms and pulled me up into a standing position. "Come on, run!" Christopher shouted at me.

I took off toward the back exit of the school, running past the cafeteria. Chris lagged behind me, and I didn't even care. If anyone could handle themselves, it would be him. I was disgusted and scared and angry and all I wanted to do was get away from the situation. My arms ached with the feeling of his massive hands still in the memory of my skin. My face still burned with the way he held it. I turned the corner almost falling and slipping on the smooth floor, but my right foot caught on the tips of my toes and I continued down another hall. I really wasn't keeping track of where I was going. All I could hear was the sound of my own breathing and feeling of my heart pounding in my chest. I ran faster trying to get away from the scene when suddenly Chris yelled breaking my concentration, "Halle, this way!"

I ceased running suddenly and adverted myself back to him, ran through the door, and slammed it behind myself. I leaned my back against the door, my chest burning. I lifted my hand to tuck the hair behind my ear, and tremors went through my whole arm with fear I was feeling. The door lead outside—I was standing outside. Chris turned around and grabbed my arm roughly pulling me forward to continue on. We were in a parking lot. We were in the staff's parking lot behind the school. I had only seen it a few times before, but I knew it as soon as I looked around.

Chris let go of my arm as we reached a royal blue Buick. Chris pulled keys out of his pocket and opened the driver's side door hurriedly, and then slid into the seat. "Get in!" he growled, before slamming the door and starting the engine.

I hesitated before getting into the vehicle. The police were right in front of the building, and I thought about going directly to them where I knew I would be safe. I opened up the passenger side door and got in, before I could even get it closed properly, Chris whipped the vehicle out of the parking lot, I held my breath as we sped past the many emergency vehicles scattered around the school. He headed off east through the neighborhood. The engine of the car roared as he pressured it to go faster. He looked angry and agitated like I had never seen him before. I couldn't even speak. There was so many questions flooding my mind, but my fears kept my mouth shut. I'd never seen a car parked anywhere near his house before, I didn't even know if he had a driver's license or not—and judging by the way he drove it was certainly questionable.

We made a sharp turn north on 3rd street, and then I knew where we were headed... Highway 2. He was taking me out of town. If I didn't already know where all of the cops were, I would have been wondering why they weren't trailing us yet. But, no, all of them had to be at the school. My fears started to fade as his driving relaxed, but with my mind beginning to clear, I began to put the pieces together. Chris came out of nowhere to get away from the bomber... then I realized, he had to be in with the bomber, and I got in the vehicle willingly with him. They've probably been plotting it out all along. What didn't fit was what they wanted with me. Maybe they wanted me for my werewolf abilities—but then again, he's one too. Unless he wasn't even a werewolf at all; he probably lied to me from day one. He probably wasn't even Evelyn's brother!

I glanced over at Chris trying my best to not show that terrible feeling in the pit of my gut that something was terribly wrong. How my parents must be so worried waiting outside of the school with the rest of the parents. What will they do when the police discover that I'm missing? Someone would notice me missing eventually.

The Buick was a nice and smooth ride, and judging by the interior, it was fairly new and updated too. Chris slowed down significantly, but didn't even come to a complete stop when he turned onto Highway 2. He headed west—actually going the speed limit now. He eyebrows were pressed together hard, and his grip on the steering wheel was so hard that his knuckles were white. The entirety of his body was rigid. Unable to look at him anymore, I turned my head away and stared out the side window watching my town pass by before my eyes. Past the motels, past the RV park, past the fields and farms... and finally past Wolf Creek, and I knew there was no turning back. This might be the last time I saw it. I tried not to think about the particulars of the situation, but fighting the thoughts of what was going on right now was nearly impossible when the roaring of the car on the road was a constant reminder.

I had never really been out of this tiny town before. Just once or twice and it wasn't even that far. It made the situation even more alarming. Wolf Point was my little world, and I didn't know what lay beyond it, and I wasn't comfortable with that. I was completely out of my elements.

"Are you okay?" Chris asked quietly.

I looked at him. His face relaxed a little from when I last looked at him, but you could tell it was forced. The rest of his body was still stiff. He glanced between me and the road, keeping his eyes on the road more than myself.

"Halle, talk to me. Are you okay?" he repeated when I didn't answer.

I stared at him and blinked. I didn't know what to say.

He looked at me full on this time, ignoring the empty road ahead of us, his anger and rage returned to his features. " _Answer me_ ," he growled.

I flinched. "Christopher," I managed to gag out with much distaste, and I knew he felt it. "I've been kidnapped..." was all I could say.

He returned his gaze to the road and laughed bitterly. "You think I—" He shook his head. "I didn't kidnap you—well..." He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. "I kind of would have if you didn't come willingly. But, that's just until we get far enough out of town. I have a lot to explain to you, and after you hear it you are free to go—but I'm completely anti-Anthony Dawson."

"You don't have to tell me anything. What's the point? It's all lies anyways." I narrowed my eyes into slits staring into his evil soul."

"I'm not lying to you, Halle." He seemed mad that I would even suggest such a thing about his perfect self. Did he really think he was so innocent?

"Do you honestly think what you're doing to me is okay?" I took a deep breath trying to calm my shaking voice. "You can't just hold someone against their will, it's not right."

He gazed over at me. "You'll understand... I'm doing the wrong thing for the right reasons."

I was quiet for a long time after that. Just watching the wilderness pass by and trying desperately to not think of the inevitable. The silence in the car was deafening. There was a nice looking radio system in the car, but I didn't dare touch it, and Chris seemed as if he was so into his own thoughts that he didn't even notice the silence, or at the very least, it didn't faze him in the slightest.

Finally I spoke up, "Is Anthony Darwin—"

"Dawson," Chris snapped. "Yes. He was the one at the school trying to kill you."

His words hit me hard. Trying to _kill_ me? He wasn't trying to kidnap me, that guy was actually trying to kill me? But then again, how did Chris know that? Was it just an assumption? "Oh, I doubt he was trying to kill me. He was definitely trying to kidnap—"

Chris looked at me with his steely, cold hard eyes. "Halle. He was trying to _kill_ you."

"You don't know that," I snapped.

"YES, Halle. I do." He closed his eyes as if he was trying to control his rage. "You listen to me... You _stay away from him._ " He didn't even look at me as he was talking, and I felt that it was deliberate. "When you see him—if you ever see him again—and, God, I hope you never do—" His eyes locked onto mine. "You run."

He was serious. He was so incredibly serious there was no denying it. "Why?" I nearly whispered.

He shook his head. "I can't tell you that yet."

"Damnit!" I hit the dashboard in front of me with my fist. Dust particles floated up into the air. "You make it so hard to believe anything you say!"

"Werewolves are complicated creatures, and the circumstances surrounding them are... not believable."

"Werewolves, werewolves, werewolves, all of these stupid stories that you've spun about creatures!" I said throwing my hands up.

Chris started chewing his nails, "There isn't a lot that I can do about you not trusting me, I can just continue being honest with you. It's up to you if you choose to trust me or not."

I held my hand up toward his face. "Don't talk to me, until you tell me what you have to say," I shot at him, turning away from him as much as I could with the seatbelt on.

I noticed the sign on the side of the road Now Leaving Wolf Point and my heart sunk. How far was he going to take me?

"How did you get this car?" I asked softly, still spitting out my spitefulness.

He didn't even look away from the road. "This is Principal Falwk's car."

I buried my face in my hands and did my best to stifle a moan. Not only did this guy kidnap me, but he stole a car as well—and not just any car, the principal's car! I couldn't believe the things that he had done, and to think that I would be blamed as an accomplice to the entire thing—I just knew I would. There wasn't anything I could do to change Christopher's mind, whatever his intentions were, they were set and I gave in.

# Chapter 8 – A Guy to Hate

We must have driven for hours and Christopher didn't even pull over once. By now, we had been driving for over 6 hours straight, we stopped for gas once, and when Chris went inside to pay, he made me go with him. When I asked to use the bathroom, he stood right outside the door only letting me out of his sight for the short time that was necessary. Not that I would have tried to escape anyways, I was already miles away from home and wouldn't begin to know how to get back. The scenery had changed, and the weather grew colder too. Chris adjusted the temperature in the vehicle a few times already. I finally did sit back in my seat properly, but only out of desperation for sitting in a different position to try to stretch my legs. Chris and I didn't say anything else to each other, and I had to admit the silence was getting to me.

There was absolute nothingness out of the window of the car, just open fields, occasionally fields full of trees, but mostly just open fields. The lack of proper scenery annoyed me. And what was even more annoying was the lack of people on the road. It seemed like Christopher and I were completely alone in this world, and just when I became convinced of that theory, another car passed by. Chris cleared his throat after 5 hours of pure silence. "So... are you still going to the dance with me?"

I gave a sarcastic laugh, "Hell no."

Chris grunted. "I really don't understand why you're so mad at me... at any rate, we're stopping right down the road, next hotel."

That wasn't enough information to keep me happy. I hated not knowing what was going to happen, and these past months it seemed like that's all that my life was—completely unaware of what was going on right around me, and trying to grasp concepts that I couldn't even begin to make sense of. I didn't know what was going to happen, and to say the very least, it wasn't a pleasant feeling. I wanted to know more than anything what would happen. I wanted to know what Chris would say, I wanted to know if I would go back with my family, and I wanted to know what happened to this Dawson dude, and what happened to my school. The worst part was, deep down, I _wanted_ Chris to put my mind at ease for at least most of these questions. Even though I hated the way he was acting, I wanted comfort from him, but I knew he wasn't going to until we got to our destination.

I spotted a couple of lights and buildings in the distance. It was already well beyond midnight. I let out a yawn; I didn't realize how tired I actually was. Surely enough, a small town began to appear before my eyes. Not long later, Chris pulled the car into the parking lot of the nice-looking Lincoln Hotel. I was only too glad when the car came to a stop and I could open the door and actually stand up. Closing the car door, I stretched and let out another yawn. Chris got out of the vehicle too, I noticed he had a close eye on me. He was scared that I might attempt to make a run for it. But, honestly, I had no intentions of doing that. I was too tired, too confused, and too lost to even think about that. The hope that I clung to was he would bring me back after he was done talking to me—just like he said.

Taking a quick look around the place, I followed Chris into the building. It was so quiet, there weren't any cars going down the road, and there were no people in the distance. But, judging by how late it was—or how late it felt anyways—there should not have been a lot of people around anyways. But, I still found the entire situation eerie like one of those horror movies, and I half expected Chris to turn around wielding a knife and stabbing me to death or something. But he didn't... yet, anyways.

I didn't do anything to make it look like Chris and I were together—or even make it look like we were acquaintances, I let my anger radiate out for the world to see only humoring him enough to stand in the same building that he stood in. He walked over to the concierge and I let him mind his own business as I stood in the middle of the lobby surveying the entire place. It wasn't very large, and it wasn't very notable either. The lobby couldn't have been more than a 40 foot square, and the decorations were far from expensive, most appearing as though they were donated or something of the like, all of them mismatching.

Not a moment later, Chris walked over towards me.

"Come on," he said leading the way down a hall.

We didn't walk long before Chris stopped in front of a room—room 208. He unlocked it with the card key he got from the concierge. He held out a hand offering me entrance first. Throwing a glair his way, I entered the room. It was a decent room; it had two single person beds in it, and a small television set—just enough for a person or two. I thought it was kind of odd that he got only one room for the two of us, and to be honest, it kind of bothered me. I didn't like the idea of sleeping in the same room with someone whom I didn't trust, though I suppose he didn't trust me either.

Chris took off his jacket and threw it on a bed, which missed and fell to the floor.

"Make yourself at home; I'm going to go take a shower," he said heading towards the bathroom. My jaw dropped. "The hell if you are!" I yelled grabbing his shoulder and yanked him around towards me, "I want some answers and I want them now!"

Chris ran his hands through his hair, appearing lost at what to do for the moment, and then he sat down on the edge of the bed. I stood in the middle of the room waiting patiently for an answer. He opened his mouth, and then closed it again as if trying to find the right words to say what he needed to say.

"Being a werewolf is hard enough without—"

"Why can't you just tell it to me like it is? You have to weave these entire long stories and comparisons that no one really needs. Just cut to the chase," I shot at him.

Christopher looked up at me completely annoyed, "I can cut to the chase, Halle, but you won't like it, at all, you won't believe me—take my word for it."

"What makes you think I won't believe you?" I asked slightly offended.

Chris raised his eyebrows questioningly, "Being a werewolf is hard enough without the added problems that humans cause." He stared down at the floor. "Quite a few years ago—I should say decades—a werewolf decided to reveal himself to his best friend." He gave a weak laugh. "I remember this story so well, my dad told it to me so many times—"

"Your dad is a werewolf?" I just made sense of what he said.

He looked up at me, "Now really isn't the time for that story. But, yes, he's a werewolf that is why my parents are not still together." He cleared his throat, and I felt my own become dry. "It was 1954 and this guy—he had been a werewolf for quite a few years now, and he decided the share the secret with his best friend Luke Donavon."

"What was the guy's name?" I wiped my sweaty hands on the sides of my jeans.

"No one knew, he never lived 'till morning. Luke Donavon killed him—they say as he was getting ready to rip him to shreds," Christopher paused, "But I think Mr. Donavon killed him when he was in the process of transforming, when he was most weak and most vulnerable. Anyways, he learned enough to know that there were more werewolves in the world, and so he developed a small following. The Gregottas, is what they called themselves, which somehow translates into 'The White-Pain Chasers'. They are werewolf chasers—destroyers. They are still around today—you saw the leader, Anthony Dawson."

I gave a small nod, it didn't seem quite so bad, so what they were just werewolf chasers, like the police or something... my stomach lurched as I made that comparison, they were the police and I was the convict that did something wrong and here Chris and I were, the convicts, hiding away in this hotel.

"They found out you were a werewolf and came after you. All they want is to kill you. Their job is to kill you. The only thing any of them think about is killing you. They will stop at nothing until you, and everyone around you is dead." My breathing began to quicken, this kind of stuff didn't happen to me. "They will murder your parents, they will murder your friends, and they will kill any person or thing that gets in their way."

I took in a shallow breath, "How did they find me? How do they know I'm a werewolf?"

"When you went to the hospital, they got a hold of the records, I'm sure of it. They're nearly the only people in the world that know about werewolves."

I wiped away the perspiration on my forehead; the scary thing was it wasn't even hot in the room, "Then we have to go back to Wolf Point."

"No—"

"They know where I live, they know where my parents are, and they know who my friends are." I shook my hands back in forth in front of myself to emphasize my words.

"Halle—"

"We have to go back. Why did you take me away? They could be dead by now!" My eyes started filling up with tears thinking of all they different ways they could have murdered my family—and no one gave them warning, no one was there to give them warning. Worst still was the thought of being alone. The thought of not having them in this world with me... I wanted to be home. I wanted to be in the comfort of my house that my parents built and provided for me. More than anything right now, I just wanted to zap myself and instantly be home and no other option would satisfy me at this moment. I _needed_ to see they were okay.

I felt tears of frustration welling up in my eyes. Christopher stood up from the bed and wrapped his arms around me. I wanted to resist, but his safe arms were the security blanket I needed. I wrapped my arms around his waist. "They're dead!" I whined hardly able to speak due to the burning in my throat.

"They're not," Chris whispered above my ear. He stood there holding me for several minutes rubbing my back soothingly. I couldn't stop the tears flowing from my eyes, the entire situation was entirely out of control and there was nothing I could do about it stuck here. I was so mad at Chris and I wished he would have told me earlier, because I never would have left that town, I would have gone kicking and screaming. At the same time, he was the only comfort that I had right now.

Finally stifling my sobs, I took a step back from Chris and looked up at him waiting for him to say something else. He just looked back showing a great amount of sympathy for me. "Halle..." Chris started to say slowly. "It's your decision whether to go back or not—" I tried to interrupt him, but he put up a finger to silence me. "But, I know you will automatically think let's go back, but you have to look at all of the facts, is that really the best thing to do? It's best to be tactful with the Gregottas. I'm going to go take a shower, while I'm in there, you think about everything, let it rot in your mind, and then think over it again. When I come out of the shower, I want your answer. Then I will tell you my thinking on the matter." Chris turned around and walked into the bathroom. I let him go even though I had a lot I wanted to say to him. As soon as the door creaked closed it was pure silence. I wiped away some half dried tears from face attempting to make myself look presentable, even though I could only guess what I looked like. I heard the shower start up, and the peaceful sound of running water sounded in a muffled like way in the distance, filling up the background with nice sounds. It almost made it feel like everything was okay—but I knew very well it wasn't. I didn't know where to begin contemplating things. Yet again, Chris didn't give me enough information, then again, I couldn't quite place what part of the necessary information that he left out. I scurried over to the bed, and threw myself onto it. Looking above my head I looked out the window which was positioned between the beds. The night was so peaceful, I could have easily laid there and fallen off to sleep, but thinking of the reasons why I couldn't was enough to keep me awake. I wanted to call my parents, to see if they were alright, they would know what to do; they would protect me just like they always did. I was so young, I didn't deserve to die, I couldn't make these decisions either. More importantly what were my choices? If I didn't choose to go back, what were my choices? Running my hands through my smooth hair I kicked off my shoes listening to them as both of them thumped as they hit the floor. I wanted to see my parents more than anything. I smiled, how ironic, you have your parents perfectly in place and you don't want to be anywhere near them, but then something happens and you want them to be there for you to pull you out of the mess. If they even still wanted me. If I told them I was a werewolf would they even still want me? After all, they already had the perfect child, Logan, they never actually needed me. The only thing I would be worried about is they probably already sent out search parties for me, or at the very least have the police looking for me—I just realized that would be another obstacle for me, staying away from the police and the Gregottas. But, my parents would not miss me; they would be fine without me. Scarlet has Rafael and the entire school; she didn't even come to school and hang out with me half the time anyways. If someone turned me into a werewolf, and this has been happening for centuries, and if the Gregottas have been after them for almost just as long, then there must have been millions like me before—and probably millions after me, like some kind of never ending cycle. Thinking about that just disturbed me. I didn't like the idea that, the Gregottas harming innocent people. It was like the flu. Being a werewolf could have been like the flu—anyone can catch it. If the Gregottas wanted to start getting rid of "dangerous" things then they should start locking away every person that has the flu, or even a disease. The idea of the entire thing was just completely and absolutely ridiculous. There was only one thing I could do, and I knew it was going to be hard, but I knew it was necessary. Wherever this path my lead, I had to go with Chris, my parents would miss me beyond anything, but I had to go, it was the best route for the entire situation. Really the best way would just be to make the entire situation disappear, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. This was my decision. Even though I didn't trust him completely, he was right, he hadn't done anything to make me think he was a liar, and maybe that was what scared me the most. I'd seen movies where plenty of bad guys sweet talk gullible girls like me and they don't even realize it until the big, red danger sign starts flashing. I didn't want to be one of those girls, but at the same time, I didn't want to not believe anything he said and be caught off guard. I wanted to be safe rather than sorry, but my only problem was I didn't know which way was safe and I had this feeling that no matter which way I choose I would end up sorry. Any way I chose, I would end up the loser, just like I always did. Growing tired of lying in the same position I sat up on the edge of the bed, I didn't want things to be like this. I inhaled deeply attempting to clear my thoughts, rather than just think good ones, because I knew that all of the thoughts in my mind were not good ones. I heard the water turn off in the bathroom and it snapped me back to reality, I had almost forgotten that Chris was here with me. There were so many other things I could have been doing rather than sitting here in the middle of the night choosing between forks in the road. Part of me even blamed myself for being in this situation, but I knew the werewolf that bit me was really to be blamed... or maybe even my dad for insisting on taking me there in the first place. I really didn't know who was to be blamed, there were a lot of people involved, but I did know I was not one of those people to be blamed. Certainly not me. The bathroom door creaked open and Christopher came sauntering out. He was definitely cleaner now—the man certainly did like to take his showers, which didn't bother me at all, if there was one boy in the entire universe that actually liked to take baths, smell nice, and be clean, I definitely would not be the one to be complaining about it. He was dressed in different clothing now, sweat pants and a baggy black T-shirt. It was too bad I didn't have any fresh clothes to change into. Chris sat down on the edge of the other bed. He fluffed his wet hair with his hand, and then he looked up at me noticing that I was watching him carefully. Suddenly, he wore this huge stupid grin. "You're so serious," he said giving a dumb lug laugh. I shook my head; yep he was a typical boy alright. I couldn't help smiling in spite of myself. I think he knew I would, and I think that's why he said that. "So, you're still not going to the dance with me then?" he asked out of the blue. I laughed quietly, he certainly was determined; I made my face more serious, "No, I'm not going to the dance with you, Dude." Chris raised his eyebrows, "So now I'm a dude?" I nodded, "Alright then, Dudette." He held up a hand, "Okay, okay, I'll take Dude." "That's what I thought," I said staring down at my hands. The fingernail polish was chipped, and my nails were chewed, I think I chewed them all on the way to the hotel. Another of those glorious habits of mine. My hands looked like I had put them to work, they were thin and I could easily make out the bones in my fingers. To top it all off they had calluses on them and my skin was rough and dry to say the least. They didn't always look like this though; they used to be among the smoothest of all of my friends, or anyone that I knew—even Mom's, but since becoming a werewolf, there wasn't really anything I could do to keep them that way. "What exactly are my options?" I asked knowing Chris was waiting for me to speak about it first. Chris shook his head, "I thought it was obvious." I raised an eyebrow. "Obviously not." Chris nodded. "You have basically two options. You can go back to Wolf Point, pretend this never happened, hope you don't get killed—or anyone else for that matter. Or, you can leave Wolf Point and hopefully throw the Gregottas off track." I gave a frustrated sigh. Was this really what I wanted to do? Did I want to leave Wolf Point? No. I didn't. I really didn't want to, but it was something that I needed to do. "Okay, we'll go with option two... we'll leave." Chris let out a large breath, apparently he had been holding his breath; I guess I chose the right answer to please him. I shook my head, and pulling me knees up on the bed in front of me to hug, I rested my chin on them. "Now what?" I asked in more of a 'talking to myself' way. "There's a lot of things we could do. We know we're leaving. We know we're going far away. We know we're hiding from them. But, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do—I think it's the best way to explain this. I'm going to take you to a safe place, make sure you're alright, and leave to go find the Gregottas warren. With Anthony being gone looking for you, it'll be only too easy to sneak in under security and weaken the Gregottas." "How's that going to work?" I said skeptically. It sounded like a stupid half-baked plan that he came up with on spot. Christopher scurried over to the edge of my bed, squatting down to my height in front of me. "Look at it this way: if someone were to jump through that window right there at you—" He pointed at the window. I turned around to attempt to create a rough image of what he was talking about in my mind. "—you would be totally shocked, probably stand before fighting." Christopher turned in the opposite direction, "If someone were to come through that door, you would see them, and you would not need to move to fight them. First reaction would be to fight them before even moving an inch. Do you see what I mean?" Chris stood. I looked up at him like I thought he was crazy. "Uh, yeah?" "Well, you have a better picture than you did before," Chris said, putting his hands on his hips. "Anyways..." He sat back down on his bed. "After weakening the Gregottas I'll go straight for Anthony, and if I get him, there won't be any more Gregottas." I nodded agreeably. "I like the sound of that." Chris nodded too. "So do I." After a moments pause he continued, "Halle, you can come with me if you want." I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could, Chris continued, "I would love it if you came with me. Instead of staying put at wherever, you could come with me. There is power in numbers. If you could help me destroy the Gregottas, I would be in your debt." I blinked a couple of times attempting to rid myself of my current shocked expression. Come with him and what—did he plan on killing Anthony Dawson? I didn't want to be a part of that—well I did, I wanted the Gregottas gone, but I didn't want to be a murderer. "You don't have to decide now, just let me know when you do," Chris said standing. He walked to the other side of the bed, pulled down the covers, and got in. I think he knew that I had no idea what to do. There was no way I could have given him an answer on something like that right then and there. It was impossible. I was simply too tired to think about anything else, and I knew by forcing myself to would only cause me to pick the wrong decision. On that note, it made me wonder if I was doing the right thing by choosing to leave Wolf Point. "What about the Principal's car?" I asked suddenly remembering our mode of transportation. Chris shrugged. "He'll understand." I nodded, I knew what that meant. The Principal probably would not understand, and Chris really didn't care at all. That's exactly what that meant. Chapter 9 – I Need a Sign Please tell me I'm doing the right thing! I begged myself silently in my mind as I stared up into the running water coming from the showerhead. Please don't let me regret this! Last night felt like a vaguely remembered dream, but it was the only reason I could remember for being here in this hotel. No other reason came to mind. So I accepted it as truth. I slept a short while last night, but upon waking a single time I couldn't get back to sleep, which led me to being here, taking a shower, waiting for Christopher to wake up—lucky him, he could actually sleep. I had no idea what time it was, there were no clocks in the room—none what so ever. It was still mostly dark though, so I assumed it was around four or five in the morning, but I couldn't be sure. I was inclined to go and leave the hotel to explore the perimeter, but to be honest; I really didn't want to put myself in any more danger. I half expected the Gregottas to jump out behind me, and that's why I stayed put. One thing I didn't need any more of was drama. Turning the knob on the shower, the flowing water ceased. I opened the shower door and grabbed a towel off the rack as I walked by. It was a shame I had to put the same clothes back on again. I wondered where Chris got all of his money at. He buys a house; he gets a nice hotel room. It would not have been strange but, he doesn't work, and he's only 17, which is what made it weird. Maybe he just stole it too, like the principal's car. After dressing, I opened up the bathroom door quietly and slid out. "Ready to go?" Christopher's voice startled me. "Not running away are you?" Christopher teased. "I thought you were sleeping." I edged my way around him and over to my shoes. "I was, but I'm not anymore." I noticed Chris was now dressed in some sort of preppy, striped shirt, paired with dark wash jeans. He looked different from what I was used to him looking like. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it was just different. I did find it slightly unfair that he had several changes of clothing, but I had none. He was standing in the corner of the room messing with his hair in the mirror. "Where did you get all those from?" I said motioning towards his clothes. Chris looked down at himself. "What the clothes? I'm always prepared; I knew the Gregottas would come eventually." I nodded my head. That would explain it. "You could have warned me you know. I might be decently dressed then." He turned away from the mirror and looked me up and down. "You look decently dressed to me." Then he turned back to the mirror. "The bigger question is how you smell." My eyes grew big. Did he really just say that? Yes, he did. He turned towards me wearing a huge smile. "I'm just kidding. You smell fine," he said upon seeing my face. After tying the final shoe lace on my tennis shoes, I stood and walked over towards the window in between the two beds, and I looked out it. It certainly looked like a small town. It seemed more pleasant than it did in the day time, but it still certainly was a small town indeed. There were a few houses, a few buildings, and a road one way; other than that it was trees and open fields—nothing else really. It seemed even smaller than Wolf Point. "Ready to go?" I turned my head towards Christopher. "Yeah." It really was a nice little town though; it was too bad we had to leave so soon. Chris walked out of the room and into the open hall way. Taking one last glance around the room, I followed. I couldn't get the images out of my mind of what could be going on in Wolf Point with my parents and my school. I thought of the best possible outcome—they forgot about me completely. I also thought of the worst possible outcome—my parents and friends are all dead. I was almost sure that nothing bad had come to my parents, and I had a feeling that the entire situation's after effects were somewhere in between my guesses. I headed out to the car while Chris returned the keys to the concierge. The doors were locked so I couldn't get in until Chris came to unlock it. The air smelled fresh and clean—like early, early morning air should smell. The only difference I noticed was the heavy scent of pine mixed in with the crisp air. Taking a look around I noticed where the scent came from. The entire area was surrounded with pine trees, even more than in Wolf Point. Glancing over towards the hotel I saw Chris heading over towards me, his stride was something to be admired for. He walked like he was sure of himself, but at the same time he looked conservative. I was clueless as to how he pulled it off. Even I had to admit, he was exceedingly good looking, and I was sure it wasn't just because he changed his style of clothing and hair. "Are you read to go?" I had to snap myself back to reality when Chris reached the other side of the vehicle. "Yeah," I said as if it was obvious. "Open the door." Christopher didn't make any motion to open the door, but he did have the key in his hand. "You're sure you want to do this? After you get in the vehicle there's no turning back." Without waiting to see my response he climbed into the vehicle and all of the locks popped up. I looked towards the sky but closed my eyes as I found the sunlight too bright. No turning back, I told myself and swung open the car door and threw myself in. Chapter 10 – On the Road Again "Where are we going anyways?" I asked attempting to avoid the bright sun which glared in through the windshield. It was late now, we had been driving all day, unlike last night though, he actually did stop a few times. Which made it a pretty decent road trip overall. "New Mexico," Christopher said in a dreading sort of way. "New Mexico?" I questioned. He glanced at me. "Yes." "Why on God's green earth are we going to New Mexico?" I asked shocked at the destination. I never actually thought of New Mexico as a travel destination before, it might have been one of the last places I'd ever go on the earth. "What is there in New Mexico, Aliens?" I continued the list in my head, Aliens, sharp plants called "cacti", and barren land. That is what there was in New Mexico. Christopher chuckled. "You would be referring to Roswell, New Mexico." "Uh, yeah, any other place with aliens?" I said as if it was obvious. I didn't want to go to New Mexico. If he would have told me this back at the hotel I might have actually decided to stay. "Can't we go somewhere else?" "No," he said, seriously. "New Mexico has a lot of art, it's a cool place, I've been there a few times. Not only is it a great place to hide out, but it's safe. You have Texas to the east, Colorado to the north and Arizona to the west." I narrowed my eyes. "And a list of bordering states are supposed to make New Mexico good... why?" "Well, Arizona really doesn't have a purpose, they're just... there. But, my dad's in Colorado, so if there's any trouble, with the Gregottas, he can be down there quick." I rested my head on the back of the seat. "So, what, I'm under this type of werewolf protection or something?" Chris glanced towards me nodding. "Uh, yeah, basically." "Great," I said sarcastically. I looked out the window, everything looked so different, the plants and the trees, it was really starting to get to me. "What's the farthest you've ever been from home?" Chris asked suddenly. "Uh," I muttered, thinking back. "I went to California when I was like three or something, but I don't remember it." Chris nodded. "So you don't get around often." I brushed the hair from my face. "No, not particularly." "Well..." Chris gave a dry cough. "Consider this your adventure then." "Great comparison," I said with sarcasm. Chris turned the car into a gas station. "I'm going to fill up the tank. You go inside and grab some snackage." "Snackage?" I questioned, it was definitely one of the strangest words I've ever heard. "Oh, I forgot, you don't get around much, that translates into snacks." The car came to a stop and Chris pulled a leather wallet out of his jeans pocket. "Here." He handed me a wad of money. "Don't forget to buy food for me too." I snickered. "Would I do that?" He looked at me skeptically. "Would you?" I opened up the car door, and counted the cash, 20, 20, 20—60 dollars—60 dollars for food. Again, I wondered where he got all the money from. I would find out later, that's what I told myself, and I continued into the convenience store. I saw a bunch of bananas and thought about grabbing them, but decided against it. I turned down a row and headed straight for the soda machine—perfect, a big oversized soda for the trip. I got two of those, and filled both of them up with your basic soda wondering what Chris might like. I headed down another row, grabbed a loaf of white bread—then I needed something to put on it, so I searched around. I found peanut butter and a jar of jam, but the thought of eating nothing more than sweet food after sweet food annoyed me, so I searched for something salty. I turned the corner and headed down the next row. I didn't really like the idea of shopping for food, every time I looked at something all I could think about was how many calories it had in it. But, I managed to surpass the calories and just think about what Chris might like to eat. I was going to head down the very last row, when I found a large snack bar hidden in the back, pizza, hot dogs, and nachos. Hot dogs and nachos do tend to become all soggy after awhile—and though pizza did too, it could last for a couple of days. I approached. "Can I help you?" The worker behind the snack bar asked. "Yeah, I'll take three large pizzas," I said. The worker looked at me strangely before complying. A moment later I had three pizzas all boxed in my hands, and I was almost unable to carry everything—a sure sign it was time to checkout. I headed towards the checkout almost dropping one of the sodas, and completely dropping the jar of peanut butter. It rolled all the way to the front counter. I was glad the store was almost empty and there was no one in line at the check out. I put the stuff down on the counter and picked up the strayed jar of peanut butter. Upon standing I noticed a display with candy bars. I grabbed a couple of them randomly and put them up on the counter too. The cashier started ringing the things up. I took a second glance around the place just to be sure nothing else caught my eye that we might need. I did a double take as I noticed Chris standing in the parking lot talking to some guy. I noticed right away that the guy wasn't very well kempt; his grizzly, black hair was overdue for a trim, and, on that note, overdue for a brush as well. I turned my attention back to the cashier who just rang up the last of the items. I handed two of the twenties to the cashier. He slowly put them into the cash register and reached for a five and pulled it out, but not without great difficulty pulling it away from the rest of the rest of the money in there. It seemed like he was taking so long, but maybe it was just because of my curiosity to go and see what Chris was up to. Grabbing the now bagged, and easier to carry items—and the sodas, off of the counter, I walked out the door and over towards Chris. Getting a better look, the guy talking to Chris seemed to be around his age, but I still didn't like the look of him. The guy nodded towards me in either acknowledgement or as a warning to Chris for whatever they were talking about. "That your girlfriend?" I heard him ask Chris. Chris glanced nervously at me. "No, this is Halle," he corrected quickly. "Ah..." The guy took a step closer to me. "I'm Evan." He stuck out his hand for me to shake.

I passed the soda that I was holding to my other hand, and my left hand now held everything. I shook his hand, he had a firm grip making my own seem weak and feeble. I always thought shaking people's hands were a weird way to meet new people. Often times if it was left up to me, shaking the person's hand was one of the last things I would think of doing. I just thought it was weird; I did humor those who want to shake my hand though. "Nice to meet you, Evan," I said taking my hand back. "Cool," he said stepping back, "Well, I'm just going to go get a soda—Halle made it look good—then we can get going." He took off walking at a semi-quick pace towards the store. I opened my mouth to speak to Chris, but before I could say anything he spoke as if reading my mind, "Evan is coming with us, he's headed over to my dad's house, so we'll stop by there on the way." I dropped my jaw and glared at Chris. I was just thinking how relaxing the trip was, it wasn't really like a getaway at all, it was more like a road trip. But now I was sure things were going to be terrible. Who was this guy anyways? "I've known him for awhile," Chris said almost as though he read my mind. "He knows about werewolves." It surprised me that he didn't even check to see if anyone was listening before he said that. "We've been friends since I was a kid." I nodded. "Oh." I handed the soda to him. "Here." I grabbed whatever was left from the previous purchase in my pocket and handed it to him. "No," he said. "You keep it. You'll need it more than I will." I shrugged and shoved the money back into my pocket. Walking around to the other side of the car I set the food in between the front seats careful not to mess up the pizza, and then I sat down in the seat closing the door. I wanted to go home. I wanted to go home more than I could have ever remembered wanting to go home before. I reached in my jeans pocket pulling out my cell phone. I held down the on/off button attempting to revive it from its dead-battery grave, to be able to squeeze out a little, tiny bit of battery life—just enough for the phone to dial through to show on my parent's answering machine that I called, to let them know that I was okay. The cell phone flickered to life; I cursed myself for not taking off the start up sound. Chris turned around and looked at me, suddenly I felt like someone who had been kidnapped attempting to make a phone call for help. He looked at me, but made no motion to stop me, and then he turned back around as Evan approached. Before I could even get to the main screen, the phone flickered off again and died. I scowled and shoved the phone back into my pocket and put my seat belt on. "Road trip!" I heard Evan yell; he slammed his hand down on the top of car and jumped up in the air. Oh, God, what did I get myself into? He was like a college boy—but worse! He was loud, annoying, obnoxious, and I knew when he found the pizza—which I knew that would be the first the he would go for—it would be devoured in two seconds flat. I didn't want to go anymore; at this point I would have rather walked all the way to New Mexico rather than ride in the same vehicle with Evan. Evan opened up the back car door and threw himself in, the car shook as a result. The moment the car door closed I smelt a raunchy scent and realized it was coming from the back seat—it was coming from Evan. It was a cross between old, soured milk, and body odor. Chris opened up the driver's side door and paused as he saw the nasty look on my face, and then proceeded to climb into the car slowly. He started up the vehicle and headed out of the parking lot. "Dude!" Evan yelled. "Is that pizza? This is gonna be the bomb!" Chris let out a small laugh finding amusement with Evan and shook his head. I tilted my head back and hit it on the back of the headrest a few times—hopefully I'd knock myself out so I would not have to deal with the two of them. He was just too much of everything for me to handle—too loud, too happy, too stinky. We traveled for the rest of the day, and there wasn't a moment of silence since Evan entered the vehicle. He was a never ending fountain of stupid questions; the worst part was 99% of them were all directed at me, so I had to find an answer to give him. I knew I would not be able to humor him long on this trip.

Evan finally fell asleep after what seemed like hours. Chris planned on driving all night without stopping and the idea didn't really appeal to me. I didn't trust him enough to let him drive when I knew he was tired, and when I couldn't even hardly keep my eyes open. But, I did manage to keep my eyes open; I really refused to sleep so I could keep an eye on him. I waited for him to fall asleep at the wheel; I knew he would do it at any second. "Why aren't we stopping again?" I let out a yawn as if proving a point. Chris didn't take his eyes off the road. "Quite a few reasons, mainly because money doesn't grow on trees." I sat up a little straighter in the seat attempting to force myself to stay awake. "Yeah, but is that really a reason? I have twenty bucks!" I offered. Chris chuckled quietly. "You're going to need it. Just hold onto it and go to sleep, you'll see, it's not so bad, the car is pretty cushy." I didn't say anything; I didn't want to go to sleep. I couldn't go to sleep. Suddenly the thoughts of my mom flooded my mind. She would not approve of what I chose to do. She would not approve of who I'm riding in a car with. She certainly would not approve of the destination, let alone what we've done to get where we are. Everything we did was unreal. All we have been though and it all happened just yesterday. Here we were in the middle of the United States. Where? I had no idea. With two people whom I hardly knew, and my biggest concern was staying awake. How ridiculous. I knew I would not have been thinking about any of this had I been asleep by now and well rested. But it was all I had to do to keep myself awake—mentally and physically. The car started slowing down and the change in pace made me more awake. I looked ahead and noticed a small rest stop ahead. It looked totally abandoned, no one was around it anywhere—no cars, no people. There was a cute little Ramada with a couple of tables under it, but it wasn't anything too fancy. It looked more like a little park than a rest stop with all of the grass surrounding it, but that made it more peaceful looking. The car came too a stop and Chris turned off the engine. Everything was so quiet all of a sudden, except for Evan's obnoxious snoring—too bad that had to ruin perfectly good silence. Christopher got out of the vehicle and headed straight for the bathrooms. I got out of the vehicle slowly, careful not to slam the door too hard and wake up Evan. That was the last thing I needed. I walked slowly across the grass, and over to the tables under the Ramada. It felt good to get out and stretch my legs, it felt like I hadn't used them in ages. It was such a nice night. The stars were out and the sky was clear. It was a lot warmer than what I was used to at this time of year, so I found that strange, but that made the night only better. The grass felt like it had been freshly watered; as I walked water droplets sunk into my shoes. The air was fresh and nice though, so it didn't really matter. Soon my feet found the pavement under the Ramada, and I found the sturdy cement tables to lean up against—the last thing I wanted was to sit, which I knew I would have to do eventually. There was a nice eucalyptus tree to the left of the Ramada which was nice, I could imagine that it would allow for a block to the sunlight in the daytime, as well as allow for a small bit of privacy from those traveling down the road. A few moments later, Chris walked out of the bathroom and over to me. He didn't look as tired as I thought he should have, he barely showed any weariness at all. It annoyed me that I couldn't be more like him. I knew I probably looked like I was going to fall over and go to sleep on the pavement at any given second. I stepped aside a few steps as Chris climbed up on the table and sat down on the edge next to me. "Nice night," he commented. "Yeah, sure is," I said in agreement. "Would be better with pizza." Chris chuckled climbing down from the table, "It certainly would." I watched him walk all the way over to the car and back again. The moonlight shown in his hair giving a blue-grey tinge to it. Blue was definitely one of his good colors—not saying that his hair should have been blue or anything, it's just to say that he looked good is all. I took in a deep breath and filled my lungs up with the cool night air. Chris slammed the car door closed a little bit harder than I would have dared, and then he turned around and headed back towards me carrying a box of pizza. "No fear of Pizza Monster waking up and devouring the pizza like he did erlier—eh?" I yelled to Chris referring to Evan. I could see Chris smile even from a distance, "You could move a mountain while he was sleeping on top of it and he would not even stir," Chris said. Chris set the pizza down on the table. I turned around only too glad to open up the box and grab a slice. I knew I wasn't really hungry—more tired than hungry, and I had a feeling he felt the same way too. "So in other words he's like my brother," I said thinking of him, I actually started to miss him and the way he charmed my parents with his perfect ways. Chris nodded nibbling the tip off his pizza, "Yeah, basically." He devoured his entire slice of pizza in almost two bites. He couldn't take his eyes off me as always, the only difference between now and before was I actually pretended not to notice now. I finished off my slice of pizza now, and seeing that Chris was done eating the pizza too, I closed the box to save the remainder for later. I let out a yawn that I was attempting to hold back. "Not tired are you?" Chris teased knowing very well that I was. Sometimes I thought he did it on purpose—keeping me up all night worrying about his driving skills. I hopped up on the edge of the table scooting to the edge, "Me tired? Werewolves don't get tired when there's plenty of moonlight to waste time in." Chris nodded obviously humoring me, "This is true." Christopher moved in front of me, and before I knew what was happening, he planted a kiss on my lips. His lips were soft, unlike mine which had been chapped from the cold, dry weather Wolf Point had been having in the previous weeks. I rested my hand on his strong shoulder, and he held me close with his free arm. It was almost like the kiss that had been burning up inside of the both of us, building and growing, was finally released. It felt like seconds, but I knew it was minutes later that we finally ceased. Chris looked into my eyes as if trying to read my reaction, I think he knew I accepted the kiss and along with that his heart. I only hoped that he would hold my heart in the same regard.

I searched in my mind for something to say, but everything I could think of was cheesy and awkward. I hoped Chris would say something—anything, even if it was awkward, but after continued moments of silence he said nothing. I realized there was nothing to say. The kiss had said it all. Chris still stood opposite me; it looked like he was trying to figure out if he had done something wrong or not. Without thinking, I approached kissing him again. I wrapped one arm around his neck and the other around his waist. He wrapped both arms around me.

I pulled away and looked up into his face feeling comforted for the first time in a long time. I laid my head down on his shoulder, he was so warm and strong it felt like he was there to protect me and only me, but there to harm everyone else that got in our way.

Chris looked down at me, "Still not going to the dance with me?"

I let out a laugh, "No," I teased.

Chris let out a sarcastic frustrated sigh, "What will I ever have to do with you then?"

"I'll leave that for you to figure out," I said mischievously. I took a step back, grabbed his hand, and headed towards the car.

Chapter 11 – A Boy Named Evan

I woke up in the car with the warm sunlight shining through the window heating up my skin. Suddenly the memories of last night flooded my mind. I vaguely remembered them, and the events seemed more like a dream rather than reality. I questioned if last nights events were actually a dream, but upon seeing the smile on Christopher's face when he saw that I was awake, I knew it wasn't a dream—we actually did kiss.

I stretched my body out as much as I could, being in the cramped confinements of the car. I yawned and attempted to make myself more awake quicker. Looking around at everything, I noticed the scenery changed drastically, as it always did. In fact I was getting slightly tired of the changing scenery, I would fall asleep in one place and wake up in an entirely different state and the idea of that more than frustrated me. I wanted nothing more than to be able to sleep peacefully in my own bed and wake up there in the morning. But I knew that wasn't about to happen.

Twisting around in my seat I saw that Evan was awake and sitting up appearing exceedingly bored.

"Ah, good morning, Halle!" Evan said in his usual English accent.

I flipped back around in my seat. That was one nightmare that was still here.

"Good morning," I said humoring him. I stared at him in the rearview mirror. He saw me watching him through the mirror, I knew he did. He turned his head towards Chris now.

"Permission to eat pizza now?" Evan questioned.

Chris let out a small chuckle, "Go for it."

Evan reached for the pizza box in the center of the car, set it on the seat beside him, and opened it.

Chris spoke softly to me, "He had strict orders this morning not to wake you."

I nodded, "Oh."

Evan let out a gasp, "Dude, someone ate my pizza!" I figured he must have gotten the pizza box that Chris and I stole the pizza slices from last night. He counted the missing slices with pointing at the empty space in the box. He looked up at both of us; I wore a little triumphant smile on my face. "Dudes, have some respect for the pizza man! You can't just randomly eat pizza while I'm sleeping. Those were the best slices in the box."

Chris glanced at him in the rearview mirror, "Then eat the pizza from the other box."

Evan pointed at Chris as if coming to a realization, "Dude, you're genius." He lurched for the other box of pizza across the car, and then sat back in his seat. I noticed he wasn't even wearing a seat belt, which caused my annoyance for him only to increase. I would not go anywhere without wearing a seat belt. I was surprised that Chris didn't make him wear a seat belt; if I were driving everyone in the vehicle would be wearing a seat belt. Then again, that was just me.

I tried my best not to stare at Evan sitting in the back munching on pizza—one slice in each hand—but it was hard. I was sure he was one of the most precarious creatures I'd ever seen.

"So," Evan swallowed a mouth full of pizza, "Halle, how long have you been a werewolf?"

I glanced over at Chris, "He knows about that?" I asked not caring about my loudness.

Chris glanced at me probably to get a feel to see if I was angry or not, "Yeah, he knows just about everything."

Was did that mean? Did Chris tell Evan about our kiss last night? I kind of hoped that he didn't, it was like our special kiss, and I wanted to lock it away in my heart forever. Not only that, but he had his friends to tell about it, but I had no one. It didn't seem fair on top of everything else. But, I tried to calm myself down at the thought, it hasn't been proven. We're currently a couple now, I'll just talk to him about it at the next stop, I told myself.

"About three months now," I said honestly. It seemed like such a long time that I've been a werewolf, to think that it was only three months ago that this happened simply amazed me. Being a werewolf didn't seem like something new to me anymore, it was actually quite easy to grasp. It was the equivalent of someone saying "Oh, I am a teen," easy to grasp, it was just what I was—it was a part of me now.

"Ah, a newbie," Evan said shoving another piece of pizza in his mouth.

"You could say that," I said turning my attention towards the passing scenery. The skies were really blue, and mountains were all over the place in the distance. Not that I didn't see mountains everyday in Montana, it was just something about these ones that seemed more spectacular than the ones back home. Noticing the sunlight shining and the lack of shadows I realized it wasn't early morning.

"What time is it?" I asked Chris ignoring the animalistic sounds coming from Evan eating the pizza in the back seat.

Chris craned his neck towards the side window looking for the sun—exactly the thing I didn't want him to do, "It's around noon."

I shook my head. "Shouldn't you get a watch or something?"

Evan broke the silence before Chris had the chance. "Christopher doesn't use watches. Werewolves are basically attracted to shiny things, and the last—what was it five?" Chris nodded. "Five watches he had, he ended up destroying before morning. So he reads the sun instead."

I nodded. "Oh—"

"Didn't you know that?" Evan stopped chewing the pizza and questioned.

I raised my eyebrows. "I had an information download upon waking up from the effects of the full moon. I think I forgot to ask why Chris didn't have any way of telling time."

"Huh, really? I asked him about it the first conversation we had about him turning into a werewolf," Evan said. That was so out of the blue, he sounded like he was the one that had an information download.

Chris wore a vague smile and his eyes seemed far away. For a second, he looked much older than he was. "You remembered that? That was years ago."

"Well yeah, would I forget about you telling me you're a werewolf? That has to be the best conversion I've ever had with anyone before. Ask me what the coolest thing I know is... go on ask!" Evan directed at me.

I glanced at Chris, he gave me an approving nod. "Okay, what's the coolest thing you know?" I stared at Evan in the rearview mirror.

He smiled, put down the piece of pizza he held in his hands, and took in a deep breath to start his rant. "The coolest thing I know is that we all live in a world of werewolves." Evan grabbed the edge of both of the front seats in the vehicle placing his body in the center of the car where the pizzas were before. "And I am the only one that knows it." He turned his head toward me, he had nasty pizza breath. "You know, I've been trying to get him to tell me Superman exists too, but he won't say it."

Chris glanced at Evan. "That's because he doesn't exist."

"Can you believe him? Absolutely crazy this guy." Evan smacked Chris's arm before returning to the back seat, sitting opposite the now empty boxes of pizza. "That's alright; I'll believe you until Superman comes and tells me that he actually exists!"

"Suit yourself," Chris said.

"So, there aren't any other supernatural beings?" I picked absently at the rip on my jeans.

"Besides werewolves? No. No other creatures. We don't have fairies, we don't have dragons, vampires, ogres, unicorns, or anything else out of the ordinary—for now all of that is just that: out of the ordinary," Chris confirmed.

Evan broke in, "So, you're saying that when I went to Germany, learned to speak German, and searched through the forests for ogres _it was all for nothing?"_ Evan laid one hand flat in the air like a cutting board, and made chopping motions with his other hand. "The legends said that the ogres were in Germany!"

Chris laughed. "No, Dude, you were just being an idiot."

Evan gave a sour looking expression. "Why didn't you tell me? Dude that took up three years of my life... One of those years spent in a forest, Dude, a forest!"

Dude, Dude, Dude, I repeated in my mind. Evan was so repetitive; I could feel my brain cells receding.

"No TV, no cell phone reception. I came back to a world of smart phones and crappy presidents."

I propped my feet up on the dashboard tired of sitting—I wanted to get up and move around. "Where are we?" I asked hoping to get an answer out of him. I swore I was riding in a car with a bunch of idiots.

"We are in Colorado," Evan answered with a meaningless Spanish accent, he was staring at something up ahead. I turned my head around, it was a sign: Welcome to Colorado. Now I felt like the idiot. I sunk down in the seat—in a few minutes I was sure I'd start beating my head on the window in a desperate attempt to escape the insanity. Of all of the people in the world I could be trapped in a vehicle with, they had to be the most annoying. That was for sure—of everything else I was completely unsure.

Chapter 12 – Thoughts to Delve

We pulled our money together that night and we did manage to check into a motel. It was the cause of mine and Evan's repeated complaints about our tiredness and wanting to stretch out. Chris was worried that we would not have enough money left to get gas to reach our destination, but I was so tired that I just told him we'd figure it out in the morning—we'd steal it when the concierge wasn't looking or something. Yeah, I was desperate. We only managed to get one hotel room, so Evan took the floor, and Chris and I took the two beds. I felt kind of bad for him having to sleep on the floor, but the way I looked at it, Chris and I had been traveling much longer, so naturally we deserved it more.

When we checked into the motel, according to Chris we were somewhere in the middle of Colorado, he said the name of the town, but it was something weird so I forgot what it was before I even remembered it in my mind. This had to be one of the hardest things I'd ever done before, and not knowing when I'd see my parents again made it even worse. I didn't know where I was going or what I would find when Chris dropped me off there. More importantly, where would it be that he dropped me off? Somewhere in New Mexico, that's all I knew.

I was completely and utterly sick of cars, I didn't want to have anything to do with them. I didn't want to climb back into one to finish the journey to New Mexico, even though I knew it would only be a day or so more. I really would have rather walked, but I knew Chris would not let me. After all, we were on the run. It really amazed me though; no one pulled us over for stealing the car or anything. No one at any of the hotels, rest stops, or gas stations that we visited stopped to say "Hey, look it's that missing girl, Halle Fletcher." This made me think that maybe my parents didn't look for me at all. Maybe they didn't even tell the authorities that I was missing. Maybe they really didn't care less where I went or what I did.

After getting back on the road again, we finished off the rest of the pizza, and started on the bread and peanut butter and jam. I should say, Evan finished off the pizza and left the peanut butter, jam, and bread for Christopher and me to eat. Having a lack of everything made me realize just how luxurious things were at the start of the trip. Shows how fast plenty of money can go down the drain. Guess Mom and Dad were right when they said "Money doesn't grow on trees".

I didn't care what anyone said; 70 degree heat in the middle of January was too hot, just plain hot. It was supposed to be mid winter, and it felt like the middle of summer. I had already shed my jacket, and wished that I had cooler clothes to wear, but I didn't. Seemed like Chris was prepared for anything though, every day he came out wearing a new outfit. Evan wore your basic tee-shirt and jeans, so he didn't need a better outfit. But, mine was... to say the least, enough to complain about.

I wanted to go back to Wolf Point, and I would have said something to Chris, I would have complained or something—even though I knew he would not take me back—if it wasn't for the fear of him saying "I told you so" that was the last thing that I needed. So here we all were, on the road again, in the car... driving... to where I didn't know. We drove down a road in the middle of nowhere—I was actually thinking that it would be slightly less inconspicuous if we drove down a road that was more often used, but no one wanted to listen to that suggestion. Chris just said that this was where we needed to be. So, I basically shut my mouth for the rest of the trip. Evan was basically the only one who spoke, and Chris only answered when he needed to in order to humor Evan.

The car slowed down, and turned onto a bumpy dirt road. I couldn't see anything in the distance so I wondered why on earth; Chris would be taking us that way. If I wasn't a werewolf I would have been thinking, this is it, I am going to be thrown in the middle of the desert to die. But, now, I trusted him enough that he would not do something like that. I knew that if we were going out in the middle of the desert it was for a good reason.

I watched the strange looking trees pass by along with the cacti. If this area was in Montana it would not have had any cacti, and trees would not look anything like the ones here did. I didn't even know what kind they were. If I were to get lost out here, I would get lost, starve, and die, I would not know which plants were safe to eat, and it appeared as though there was no water anywhere... yep, a sure sign we were in fact in the desert.

Seeing a house come into view, I sat up a little bit straighter in my seat. It was a decent looking house, nothing too fancy, but it was much more than any ordinary person would have had anyways. Painted fairly recently, I could tell from the distance the yard was well kempt. When the car started slowing, I knew that was our destination. I was a little bit apprehensive to go into that house; it seemed a little bit creepy. I just told myself that I'd hide behind Evan and Chris and everything would be fine—they could handle it.

Chris turned off the engine and Evan was the first to get out. Chris followed shortly after, and I did too wishing my cell phone was charged up so that I could call for help if need be. It was too bad my cell phone didn't hold a charge longer, otherwise I'd be alright. I could have called my parents, and I probably would not even have had to go here right now.

I walked in front of the vehicle near Chris. He put his arm around my shoulder; I hoped he wasn't planning on parading me around like some kind of prize like I had seen so many men do to women. I wasn't a prize, and I was prepared to tell him I would not have it, as well.

We approached the house slowly, Evan led the way running cheerfully up to the front door and ringing the door bell. By the time Chris and I reached the porch, there was a man standing behind the door welcoming us all in. He appeared as though he spent a lot of time in the sunlight as his skin was darkly colored, and I could tell it wasn't from his natural coloring. Walking in the house it was quite dark, there wasn't much light except for the small amount of light that the lamp on the coffee table provided. It annoyed me that the room was so dark.

Evan seemed right at home, without saying anything to anyone he grabbed the TV remote on the coffee table, threw himself down on the couch, and flipped on the TV.

"Turn it down," Chris demanded walking over to him, grabbing the remote, and forcefully turning it down. I stood near the doorway hoping to blend in with the wall. I probably looked as out of place as I felt, but I tried not to let it show. The house wasn't particularly clean; a lot of random stuff lie around in piles on tables and on the floor predominantly around the couch. Evan and Chris were now wrestling for the remote, Chris having the upper hand in the situation.

"They're always rude to guests, don't take a personally." I turned my head towards the voice, it was the old man who stood in the door way to the kitchen holding a cup of what appeared to be coffee, but I could have been wrong. "Come have a sit down in the kitchen, Sweetheart."

I glanced at Chris him being the only one in the room I half trusted. He didn't look up at me, he just continued wrestling with Evan. I followed the man into the kitchen slowly.

"Make your self at home," he said as he poured more coffee into his cup. I sat down at the kitchen table, it wasn't too big of a kitchen and there was only one way in and one way out. The lay out of everything annoyed me. The kitchen was equally as messy as the living room; the counter was filled with papers, pots, pans, and other items which I couldn't begin to name.

"Do you drink coffee?" the old man asked turning around and staring at me.

"Yeah," I said quietly trying not to be rude but really not wanting to accept the coffee from the stranger.

The old man grabbed another cup out of the cupboard above the coffee pot, and then poured another pot of coffee. He brought both his cup and my cup over towards the table and set them both down. Walking back over to the coffee pot he grabbed the jar of creamer and a couple of spoons and put them on the table. He sat down in the chair opposite me, poured a little bit of creamer in his coffee cup and stirred it slowly while watching me do the same with mine. I was only too aware of him watching me so closely, and of course it made me uncomfortable like I had been since entering the house.

"So, Halle... Frasier?" He said painfully slowly.

"Fletcher," I corrected eager for him to say what he needed to say.

"Fletcher, that's right," he said as if remembering something long ago told to him. "It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance; I am Henry Stanton, founder of the Werewolf Defense Plan or WDP as we call it."

My jaw dropped—I couldn't stop it. A man of power was speaking to me, he was my savior and my soul reason for currently living, and I just realized that. It was to him that I owed my life. "It's a pleasure to meet your acquaintance as well," I said attempting to play it cool.

Henry let out a dry cough, "So, you are off to New Mexico then?"

I nodded, "Apparently."

He cocked his head to the side, "You don't sound very... thrilled about that."

I shrugged innocently, "Well, I'm not particularly happy about it—don't get me wrong, I'm thankful to be alive, it's just..."

"It's just?" Henry encouraged.

I shook my head thinking the truth was rather cheesy, "It's just my parents and my family..." I said slowly hoping he would catch on, but his blank expression told me that I needed to continue, "They're all the way over there in Montana, I have no idea if they're alright or not, and I need them to be here for me, but they're not."

Henry sighed as if he was annoyed, "Thing is, Mallory—"

"Halle," I corrected.

He just continued right over my words, "Your parents aren't werewolves. They don't know about werewolves and if you were to tell them you were a werewolf what would they do?"

"They'd—"

"That's right, they'd laugh in your face, take you to a psychologist, or—in other words—disown you."

I sat back in my chair, I didn't like him. I didn't like him one bit. "They would believe me. They know strange things have been happening to me." I wasn't so sure about this myself; I remembered how Mom didn't even believe me when I said I could only see in black and white. They weren't the type of people to believe such nonsense, and what he said was probably right. But, I would have much rather taken my chances, gone through a psychologist and them disowning me rather than escaping to New Mexico alone. At the very least I would have known how they felt; it would have made it easier.

He looked at me like I was a stupid little girl who believed in fairy tales. "Even if they did believe you, is it fair to your parents to uproot their lives just for you? They would forget about you completely and continue living their lives without another problem. Imagine, they would be uprooted completely, and if the Gregottas find you again, you will have to be uprooted again. It's no place for your brother to shine and flourish—and don't start telling me he'd thank you for it. Either route you take, you will be hated by them."

I took that last word harshly. Jumping up from my chair there were so many words that came to my mind that I would have loved to use against him, but I kept my lips zippered and ran out of the kitchen. It wasn't true, I could calmly explain to my parents what happened, and then they would not be hurting not knowing why their daughter was gone. I proceeded running through the living room and outside, I knew both Chris and Evan noticed. They would know why I left, and it would be their choice whether to be around me or not. There could be a good outcome out of all of this. I knew there could. If they would just let me call.

The tears started falling from my eyes, a great water work from them, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop them. The only person in the world that might be able to cease the tears was my mom, and the thought that I knew she would not be coming only made the tears flow more. My legs were weak and shaking, but I managed to run out to the car—as always, Chris had locked it. Unable to hold up my body anymore I shrunk down against the side of the car facing the road. I couldn't see anything clearly, so I just closed my eyes, buried my head in my hands, and cried.

There wasn't anything I would not have given up just to be able to be able to speak to my mother again. They couldn't just separate child from parent. It had to be illegal. I thought about the police. I wiped the tears from my eyes and forced myself up onto my feet. Looking around, I saw nothing but cacti and dirt. No buildings, no highways, nothing. No place to run and nothing to hide behind. It was exactly like a horror movie, and I fell for it. No, Christopher would not kill me, Henry would, and if he didn't I would. All of these people were absolute lunatics; each and every one of them. It made me wonder if the Gregottas were any better.

"You know those women and their emotions!" I heard Henry yell from inside. I turned around, Chris was coming out the door, "Don't be—" he slammed the door and headed off the porch towards me. I attempted to wipe away the tears from eyes and at least make myself look halfway decent. I leaned against the car turning my head away from him, wishing he would not have to see me so torn up and weak looking. Did he think like Henry? Did he think I was nothing more than a typical woman with overactive emotions?

"Halle?" Chris questioned.

"What?" I snapped, being harsher than I intended.

"Are you okay?" Wasn't it obvious? I had tears rolling off of my face, and I was sure my eyes were red and bloodshot by now. "Look, my dad has a way of being insensitive when he's trying to show he actually cares." Chris wrapped his arms around me, but I shoved him away with my hand.

I turned to face him and pointed my finger at him like a mother scolding a child, "Your father is an asshole. I'm sorry, Christopher, but I refuse to be around that man."

Christopher looked at me seriously, he didn't seem angry by my remark, and not in the least bit surprised either. I could just imagine the many other times he had to defend his farther before.

"Halle," he said placing both hands on both of my shoulders. He looked deep into my eyes, and I remembered why I first fell for him. I knew I would not know how I really felt about Chris until I got away from him for awhile to clear my mind. "As a person, a friend, and a mentor he isn't particularly patent or kind hearted, he's quick to anger and hard to please. But, he is one hell of a business man, and he's definitely a person to have on your side."

"I would rather throw myself into the middle of that desert," I pointed out to the lonely desert beyond, "And watch the buzzards peck off every inch of my flesh, than go back and even lay an eye on him." I turned back towards Chris showing off my fury with my eyes, "Not only is he a cruel person, but he's sexist as well!"

He crossed his arms looking even more grave than before, which I didn't know was possible. Even now I could say I admired how he showed his anger with a serious face. "I've known that man all my life and he has never done one thing to be sexist."

I couldn't help but laugh, he was taking the defense thing too far, he would have to agree with me eventually, "Oh, so I was mistaken? He didn't yell out the door, 'you know those women and their emotions,'" I said doing a pretty good imitation of Henry earlier, "I didn't hear that, it was something else that came out of his mouth, right?" I took a step closer to Chris in attempt to make my point very clear, "He thinks women should be in their place washing his dishes and cleaning up after his dirty laundry AND they only exist to serve him!"

Chris placed a hand on the top of the car leaning against it coolly, "He's just an old fashioned guy, he doesn't like to make many changes about things and he certainly won't change his mind for how his parents raised him."

I scowled, everything I would say he would have a defense for. There would be no winning for me in this battle, I turned my nose up in the air like I had seen Scarlet do so many times to Rafael, "So, he can make a huge change in the world and rescue werewolves, but he can't accept that women could possibly be his equals?" I paused letting him stew on my words for a moment, then continued before he could say anything else, "I just hope you're not thinking the same way your dad taught you to."

"No way, Halle," he said almost instinctually. He grabbed my hands taking them in his, "I would not have asked you to come along with me to fight the Gregottas if I thought you should be doing your womanly duties."

I paused, he had me there that definitely made sense, "You just asked b-because I was a werewolf and when placed strategically I'm like a bomb waiting to go off..." I pulled my hands from him and stepped unnaturally close to him, "What if I was human, would you have asked me then?" I really knew he would not have, after all it was a werewolf's war and he would not have asked any human, male or female.

"Why do you insist on resisting so much? No one is trying to hurt or harm you," Chris said.

"Why do I resist? Why? Oh, jeeze, I don't know, maybe it could be that I was taken from home, without my permission, kidnapped, and dropped somewhere in the middle of nowhere with an idiot and some kind of old-man-lunatic!" I yelled referring to Evan and Henry.

Chris bit his lip; I could tell he was frustrated, "But things aren't as bad as you make them out to be. You're just caught up in bad circumstances, but you aren't the only one. None of them are bad people... I'm not a bad person..." He sighed, "Things will get better, they're just a little bit hard right now... Trust me."

Christopher pulled me close in a tight embrace and I clutched him unable to hold back more tears, "I'm going crazy!" I sobbed feeling just so. Maybe things weren't as bad as I thought. Was I paranoid? Have I been paranoid this entire time?

"You are certainly not crazy!" Chris consoled. The problem was I didn't have a reliable source to tell me if I was crazy or not. Strangers would lie so they would not have to deal with the problem. But friends and family would tell you straight out if you were insane or if your shoe was untied or something. Chris was an acquaintance, not a trustworthy friend, or a stranger, but an acquaintance. Maybe it wasn't the right word, but it was the one I used for now.

Bending slightly, Chris planted a sweet kiss on my head. For now, his words would have to suffice. Pulling away from the embrace, I tried to wipe away the sobbing mess yet again. I looked over towards the house noticing the dark screen door and all of the windows wondering who—if anyone was watching us—or more importantly me. Did Henry stand there watching just to be able to say "I told you so" to Chris. I didn't want to show him that I was that weak emotion-filled girl that he thought I was. With increased haste I attempted to suck it up.

Looking back at Chris he flashed a cheery smile at me. He was probably the best one here at cheering people up, but that wasn't to say he was the best one at cheering people up in the world. I would have easily taken Scarlet's consoling to Christopher's, and that was saying a lot since her consoling was very, very minimal. Chris placed his hand under my chin and lifted my head up towards his.

"Halle," he said, "I know it's hard, but you have to go back in there, he is funding our entire trip to New Mexico. Without it, we will end up walking the entire way there. Just put on a happy face long enough to get the money from him, and then we will go. I promise."

"I would rather sit on the highway and beg it from a stranger," I said looking away. It was hard to turn him down, but this was something I felt strongly about.

"It takes a great amount of courage that few people have to be able to go back in there and face someone that you hate, and to bite your tongue, but by going back in there you will be showing a great amount of courage. You'll be showing him that you are different—he'll be seeing what I see in you," Chris said shoving a stray strand of hair off of my face and tucking it behind my ear.

How could I deny him that? After what he just said I couldn't not go back in there. I just had to tell myself that it was for Chris that I was entering the house. Taking in a deep breath, I walked around the front of the car and started slowly for the house. He didn't follow immediately; I guess he thought I would need more convincing. Popping back to reality, he followed after me.

"You don't have to talk to him, just stand in the corner and act polite," Chris said obviously happy that I was coming along with him. But something inside of me still made me feel like a prisoner. After all, I didn't have a choice; I hadn't since leaving Wolf Point.

Chris led me back into the house, holding my hand. I still felt like his little doll to parade around. Maybe it was just because I felt so suffocated by the current human contact that I received. Either way, my emotions for him felt somewhat cold, and I couldn't figure out why—I didn't want to figure out why. I didn't want to figure out anything, I just wanted to go back home, and that was all I knew.

I tried my best not to let my embarrassment show as I entered the room. Though I knew very well my acts were completely rational under the circumstances that were currently surrounding my life. How could I let things get so messed up? Mom and Dad would have kept things under control if they were here, I knew they would have.

Evan continued watching TV; apparently he won the war over the remote control. Henry stood in the door way to the kitchen watching both me and Christopher closely. I did my best to hide behind Chris, but I knew I couldn't really hide behind him completely, though he had a muscular frame, it wasn't large enough to hide a complete human behind.

Chris still held onto my hand tightly, and I was glad for it. Now I knew what he meant by how much bravery it would take to walk back into the house and face everyone again. Having a hand there to hold onto made the entire situation a little bit better than it would have been entering the house again alone.

Though I loved holding that hand more than anything at that moment, I let go and walked over towards Evan, leaning on the back of the couch. This way Chris and Henry could talk alone and we could leave that much sooner. Chris glanced at me and leaned towards Henry whispering something in his ear, but I couldn't hear what they were saying. The entire image annoyed me; it wasn't that they were whispering, and it wasn't the way he glanced at me, but it was the combination of both of the two together.

I shrugged off my annoyance mentally knowing my interrupting things anymore would only cause more of a slow down in things than they were already; which was the last thing that I wanted.

"What are you watching?" I asked Evan seeing some stupid sitcom on the television.

Evan shrugged, "Whatever is on. Don't know what it's called."

"And yet, you're watching it?"

Evan looked up at me and away from the television, "Uh, yeah," he said slowly.

I saw Christopher and Henry slither into the kitchen as silently as two snakes would. I walked around the side of the couch and threw myself down on the seat of the couch farthest from Evan.

"So, what are you going to do with yourself when we leave and you stay?" I asked trying to get the details of Evan's life. Thought he was annoying I found him to be a curious creature and I wanted to know more about him. There was something about him that made me curious. I didn't know a lot about him... actually I didn't know anything about him, other than his name and his obsession with werewolves and other magical creatures that didn't actually exist in the first place.

"I don't know," he shrugged again, "Guess I'll just hang around for awhile."

I scooted back a little further in my seat to make my self a little bit more comfortable than I was before.

"Why come here in the first place if you don't know what you're going to do when you get here?" I asked not seeing the sense in it. What was he here for? I was determined to get the answer out of him.

He turned away from his television program and towards me," No place better to go but go home when you have nothing else to do."

It took a moment for his words to register in my mind, "You live here?"

Evan gave me a look suggesting I was weird for thinking otherwise, "Uh, yeah, Henry is my father."

My eyes bulged slightly, "You and Chris are brothers?"

Evan raised his eyebrows, "I was adopted a couple of years ago... so, yeah."

I narrowed my eyes, "You were adopted by..."

"By Henry..." Evan said as if it was obvious, "You don't catch on to easy, do you?"

I folded my arms, "Well, you're not exactly clear about things. I understand full sentences, not half sentence gerbil-talk," I teased.

"Sorry, Miss Particular," he said turning back to his television program. He reminded me of Logan, the way we used to fight all of the time about nothing in particular. I missed that. I missed him teasing me all of the time, and his foul comments, his perfection, and having to come up with a quick sly answer. Now everything was told to me, and I had to think of nothing. Occasionally I would win with Logan, I would come out on top and get my way, but now, it didn't matter how much I fought or fussed, I would never get what I wanted... I wanted to go home.

Chris came out of the kitchen much more suddenly than he and Henry slipped in there. Henry followed him slowly. Leaning towards him, Chris gave a manly hug and a pat on the back. I walked over towards them, keeping my distance from the old man, feeling as though Chris was getting ready to leave.

Henry looked up at me, I half hid behind Chris, "It was nice meeting you," he said to me. I didn't know what to say, I wasn't sure if he was sincere or not.

"You too," I said quietly.

Henry approached stretching both arms open wide, I thought he was going to give Christopher another hug, but he bypassed him and went straight for me. He wrapped both arms around me in a crushing embrace. I felt his lips brush across my neck, and then he kissed it for a brief moment. I was officially creped out. If I had disinfectant spray I would have used it on him. I was only too glad when he finally let go of me and took a few footsteps back towards the living room. I took a few steps back myself wanting so much to leave.

"I usually don't get to meet the rescued, so it was good finally getting to meet one of you," he said as if I were in contact with the many others he "rescued".

"Yeah," I said not knowing what else to say. What was scary was he would know exactly where I would be—he was sending me there. I didn't like him, I didn't trust him, and I never again wanted to be in contact with him.

Chris started heading for the door, but I dashed in front of him, being slightly more obvious than I intended, I opened up the door and started walking out to the car at a pace that was quicker than the one that I used most often.

"Bye, Dad!" I heard Chris yell, and then I heard the front door close. I let out my breath realizing I had been holding it for the first time. I reached the car remembering that it was locked. I turned back towards the house making it a point to look at Chris and not the house. I wasn't going to dwell on the past, I was going to look at my future—Chris.

"Yo, keys!" I yelled at Chris. I wasn't going to wait any longer. Without even hesitating he took the keys out of his pocket and threw them over towards me. I caught them expertly as this was my key out of here, and I would not be missing it even if he threw it hundreds of yards away from where I stood. Taking the keys and unlocking the passenger door, I threw myself and in and locked my door again, being sure to open up Chris' door with extra haste.

Chapter 13 – Caught in Between

With Evan gone it seemed like Christopher was more open towards me. He conversed much more, but it wasn't about business or what had to be done, or facts about werewolves, it was about nothing in particular; setting me more at ease than I had been practically the entire trip. Knowing that we made it farther than we would have to travel to New Mexico made the rest of the trip that much more easy to take. I was happy for Christopher's company though, he certainly liked to talk a lot. Maybe it was because he was warming up to me, or maybe it was just because he wasn't sure how I felt before, and was able to talk now that Evan was gone.

Perhaps things became less like a mission to him, and more like a trip for pleasure. I know it seemed more that way to me. Especially since there wasn't really anything to worry about, if the police were looking for us they would have caught us by now... at least this was my thinking. We passed by plenty of police cars, but not a one stopped us or even thought we were in the slightest bit suspicious. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, and Chris didn't tell me anything to make me believe that anything was out of the ordinary.

We traveled all the way through the night, yet again, but it didn't bother me as much as it normally would have. Before drifting off into sleep Chris informed me we were entering New Mexico. I guess that information contributed to it not bothering me as much as it normally would have with the knowing that that would be the last time I would have to sleep in the vehicle for a long time. Our destination was close.

"Halle!" I awoke with a start. What's going on? Someone was shaking my shoulder. I brushed the hair out of my face and rubbed my eyes in attempt to clear my blurred vision. Chris stood over me in the doorway of the car. He bent down and kissed me on the forehead. "We're here."

Forcing myself upright in my seat, I looked around. In front was a grey wall—no, a building; a big, tall, grey building. The car was parked in front of the building. Chris took a few steps back, I rose from my seat bracing myself against the door and the headrest of the seat—I was still half asleep. I stood, blinking in attempt to force my eyes to wake up faster than they wanted. All that registered in my mind was we were here. Finally, we made it to our destination. Wrapping my arms around Christopher's neck, gently, my lips brushed his and then both locked together.

My feet shifted position and I heard a crunch under my feet. Feeling more awake, I analyzed my surroundings more thoroughly. I stood in dirt. We were in the middle of nowhere. There was a small area of cleared land—which was where we stood, but everywhere else was nothing more than cacti and other dry, desert foliage. It felt like we were back at Henry's house, but I knew we weren't, and having Chris right beside me—especially with the time we bonded, soothed my mind knowing everything would be all right with him by my side.

Now that we were here, I wondered what would happen next. Chris didn't seem quite so thrilled. He even looked a little cumbersome. The smile I wore faded when the feeling in the pit of my gut took over and curiosity overwhelmed me. I didn't say anything though. I would not be the first to speak. I refused to speak.

"Halle," Chris started. I looked up into his deep grey eyes and he looked back into mine. It felt like he was reading my every thought. "It's you're choice what you want to do, but you have to choose what you want to do now." He paused again and placed a hand on my shoulder soothingly. I was frozen to the spot. "This is a place to help you get your life as a werewolf started, to help you cope, and help to train you so that you can protect yourself against all who try to harm you." I couldn't blink, I couldn't breathe. I knew what was coming. I knew it. "Either stay here or go with me." He said it, and I knew he would.

After all of this time with Chris, I didn't just want to walk away. I couldn't walk away. I was completely attracted to him, and he became the other part of my soul, I couldn't chop myself in half and part from him. It would be impossible, and it would tear me up. He was my life—my heart—and without him I would slowly wither away and die. Without my parents, he was all that I had. My throat burned and I attempted to choke down my saliva but only managed to gag down air.

"No," I managed. "I'm coming with you."

Chris removed his hand from my shoulder and I backed against the car. He wouldn't be leaving without me.

"I went here when I was first turned. I think it would be best if you stayed here." I'd never seen him so emotionless before—never. "Think it over carefully."

First my parents were taken away from me, the creators of my existence, and then Christopher who grew into my other half. He was the growth that was irrevocably attached to me. You can't remove something that is meant to be there. My breaths came in short gasps and my heart pounded, I felt like I was going to faint. I probably looked like I was hyperventilating—for all I knew I was hyperventilating.

"I'm coming with you," I repeated.

Chris gulped. "If you were smart, you would stay here and learn something before following me around like a dog."

My jaw dropped. Did he just say that?

"I-I," I stuttered, but stopped before I said anything else. I did my best not to let the tears fall from my eyes, they were right there waiting for even a tiny, little blink. I would not let it happen though. I shoved my thoughts to the back of my mind that told me to go with him. Every inch of me wanted to get right back into that car and go with him, but I forced myself to think about the bad things about that. I couldn't fight the Gregottas—I thought Chris was foolish for even trying... foolish, but brave. I would need to learn to cope with being a werewolf and I would need to get on my feet, and since I would not be able to learn to cope with my parents, I would need someone. I couldn't just rely on myself with this.

Christopher could help me, I told myself. But I quickly vetoed that idea, he was going to fight the Gregottas, there was no way he could help me by the time we got there. My breathing increased, and my heart thudded painfully in my chest. Chris just stood there in front of me, watching me, waiting for my answer. I couldn't give him an answer. I refused to give him an answer. I couldn't decide something like that. Why did he build up a relationship with me if he knew we would have to break it off? He knew it was going to come to this.

"Halle?" Chris questioned shoving his hands in his pockets. I drew in a deep breath attempting to calm myself. We must have been standing there for at least 15 minutes.

"I," I said with a shaking voice as I drew in a breath, "have," I let out the breath, "to," I drew in another breath, "stay," I squeaked out in such a high pitch voice I sounded like an animal. That word didn't want to come out. Why didn't I say go? I want to go! I screamed in my mind.

Chris moved in calm delicate motions, but his express was still severe. He was more serious than any other person I'd seen in my life and the sight killed me. I made the decision, but I wanted to go, I wanted to run into his arms and receive a hug from his strong arms, but I knew that would only make it harder to go.

"There's no turning back," Chris mumbled taking the keys out of his pocket.

I breathed out. I didn't know what to say. I'll come with you! My feet still refused to move. I didn't respond for a few minutes, we both stood there staring into each others' eyes, but that trance was broken when Chris began to walk around the other side of the vehicle towards the driver's seat. Mentally, I stepped into the vehicle along with him. He slammed the door shut and slowly started up the engine of the vehicle. I saw him glance at me—but only for a brief moment. The car backed out of its previous parked space with expert skills, and headed out towards the long, winding dirt road beyond. The wheels spun kicking up dirt at me. Was he angry? Did he hate me for my decision? Good. It would be easier that way.

Taking in another deep breath I let it out again and along with it my purse fell from the clutch of my hand onto the dirt covered ground below. My lower jaw hung loosely below my upper jaw, like it was broken. I couldn't close it. My arms felt like rubber and my entire body trembled.

So this is reality.

Chapter 14 – A World So Mean

I couldn't have said how long I stood out in that parking lot, it could have been seconds, or minutes, or days. The time didn't matter to me anymore. There wasn't a such thing as time anymore, a minute was a minute, and an hour was a minute. It was all the same to me. What difference did it all make anyways? A lifetime could have been a minute, so in the next minute I would be dead anyways—right? Or maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. I don't know anything. I don't even know where I am. I'd tell you which state I was in, but I forgot when I pushed the memory of that boy out of my mind... what was his name?

Which led to: why was I here again? I think they said I was a mental case when they brought me into the building, but I don't remember. I hadn't spoken to anyone, I may have even lost my voice completely—I would not know. I hadn't uttered a sound since. Ironic how the last person I spoke to was the last person I had been speaking to for days. I was clutching this blanket covering me, and that was all I knew—its grey colors, the hard thing I was laying on, it could have been a giant rock for all I knew.

His eyes were etched into my mind, and every time I closed them—every time I blinked they were right there staring at me—staring into my soul. A couple of ladies kept walking into my room—or maybe it was the same lady, but they kept asking what my name was. I couldn't remember what it was, so I didn't say anything—or I should say I didn't want to remember, not that I couldn't. Like I said before, everything that reminded me of—what's his name—was pushed out of my mind, far, far, far, out of my mind.

I don't know how long I've been lying down, I suppose I must have passed out eventually... either that or I was barely conscious, because I didn't remember much—at all, and what I did remember was like a dream. Being able to move for the first time all day, I turned over onto my back. The ceiling was white. I followed the center of the room with my eyes all the way to the edges of the room, where white met blue and then down to the brown oak door. It was an elegant door. Wherever I was, they had plenty of funds, I could tell just by a quick glance around the room.

Taking my blanket and moving it to the side, I sat up on the edge of the bed. I was tired of lying down, I was tired of sitting, and I was tired of living. Craning my head away from the door I looked behind myself, there was one very small window. The sun was low in the sky, which either meant it was early morning or late afternoon, I couldn't tell which, because I couldn't tell which direction was east or west. I stood and walked over towards that window placing my hands on either side of the windowsill and peered out.

There were pure nothingness, cacti, cacti, and more cacti. Clouds streaked the sky, and with the sun as low as it was, it cast brilliant hues of purple and gold. But, other than that, there wasn't much of anything else to make a fuss over. This was it, just me and the sunset; there wasn't anything else in the world... or anyone else. I tapped the window sill with my fingers, all of them either tapping in haste or rhythm, I couldn't tell which just yet. I turned around and headed towards the door eager to find out what was on the other side of it—I was obviously supposed to be here for some reason. Even if I was abandoned, there was a reason for me to be here, and what better time to find out than now. The sooner I let them know I'm not completely loony, the better—then again, it didn't really matter. After all what did I have left to live for? Nothing.

I turned the knob of the door and pushed it away, it didn't budge. I gave it a harder shove, but still, it didn't move. I could have slapped myself; I was being stupid, the door opened inward. I pulled the door towards myself slowly until there was just enough light peeking through for me to shove an eye through the door and look out at the world beyond. I saw a hall... a white hall. It was completely deserted. It all felt like a ghost town where the entire town had been deserted, but the only difference was it wasn't a town, it was a building.

With the tip of my toe, I shoved the door open the rest of the way. Everyone was gone—or they weren't there in the first place, I didn't know. I stepped out into the hall and closed the door behind myself. Checking the door for any distinctive markings so that I could find my way back if need be; I noticed a few golden numbers on the door, 104. Satisfied that the numbers were etched into whatever part of my mind was left, I looked up and down the hall contemplating which way to go.

"Miss?" I noticed a woman dressed in odd attire peek her head through a door at the end of the hall. She opened the door completely and walked over towards me her small cloak swaying behind herself. She wore leather pants, which I thought was strange among other things. "Are you alright?" she asked.

I gave a slight nod. Physically? Yes, I was alright. I was perfectly fine and there was nothing wrong with me. Mentally? I wasn't sure if I had lost my mind or not. I could have been in an insane asylum for all I knew—the place certainly looked like an insane asylum.

"Do you have a name?" I liked her; she chose her words differently than the others had.

I hesitated for a moment. "Lynn," I lied and gave her my middle name. The first and last name had too many emotions tied to it, for now, this was all they needed to know.

The woman smiled even larger than she was before. Apparently she was satisfied with the answer she received from me. "Great, Lynn. Are you a—how did you get here? Did someone bring you?"

I paused. Did she not know what I was? Didn't she know what I was here for? If she didn't have the answer, and I didn't, did I have a reason to be here? "Someone brought me; I am a wolf if that's what you wanted to know." Even if it wasn't, who cares? They already thought I was crazy anyways. Why not add to it?

"Alright then, do you feel up to signing in?"

I grunted. Signing in? I hardly knew where I was; let alone what I would be signing in for.

The woman extended her hand, "My name is Bethany Martinez, but everyone calls me Bethy. I am the fight coordinator and tutor of this place."

"What exactly is this place?" I asked, "Looks like an insane asylum."

Bethy laughed. "No, it's not an insane asylum. You're welcome to leave whenever you like. It's a safe house. A lot of werewolves come here for defensive training, that way you can defend yourself while in your human form. Others come here just while they're learning to cope with being a werewolf. We're located in the middle of nowhere—basically—that way we have plenty of space to transform. But, like I said before, you can leave whenever you like."

Not much of that registered in my mind, most of it I didn't catch. It all sounded more like gibberish talk to me—nothing important that I would need to know for my non-existent future. "Oh," I replied not knowing what else to say.

"We'll take you over to Gloria; she'll explain things better than I can. I've probably confused you even more than you were before, Darling, I'm sorry," Bethy said sweetly starting down the hall. I followed.

"I must look pretty confused," I said mostly thinking outloud.

"Ah, I've seen some real nutcases walk into here, Lynn, trust me, you're taking things well."

"Doesn't feel like it," I said softly. It didn't feel like it, I was convinced I had gone insane.

"You'll get used to it, you'll see." Yeah, she thought I was talking about the entire becoming a werewolf thing, it wasn't that. I could have walked in here a decent human being before... but that was before.

Bethy took me around a corner that I hadn't noticed before, but then again, there were a lot of things I hadn't noticed. It was a short walk, I had walked longer before, she pulled open a door and I walked in without a second glance. Before I knew it, the door was closed behind me and she was gone.

"Ah! I was waiting for you to wake up. How are you feeling?" A woman with puffy blond hair sat behind a red wood desk.

"Fine," I lied.

The woman wore a fake smile, "That's good to hear, I heard you were quite a mess earlier. What is your name?"

"Lynn." These lies flowed so easily from my mouth. But if I was going to start anew, they were necessary.

"You don't have a last name?"

I shook my head. What did she know about me? She couldn't prove anything.

"Alright then, have a seat if you wish," she motioned towards the chair. I sat down hesitantly. "If it sounds like a good idea to you, I'd like to enroll you in all of the programs we have here until you get a little bit more acquainted with things. It might serve you well to be able to experience everything before making any decisions."

I nodded, "Yeah, whatever."

"We work hard, and we train hard, Lynn, there won't be any tardiness or foul language used... I'll send someone in the morning to accompany you to all of the programs." The woman paused writing down some thing on pieces of paper which were not blank. She looked up at me again as if analyzing me carefully, "Any questions?"

"No," I said. How nice of her to rush me along so much.

She nodded, "Everyone is eating dinner in the dining room, located to the right of your room, you can't miss it, and it's at the very end of the hall. You may join them if you wish," she finished folding her hands properly in front of herself on the desk. I rose from the chair taking that as a dismissal. "Oh, by the way, I'm Gloria, head of operations here."

I turned towards her keeping one hand on the doorknob. "Don't you have a last name?" I questioned smartly.

"Do you?" she asked refusing to give an answer.

Twisting the doorknob, I pulled the door open and slithered out. No one else was around; the halls were still just as empty as they were before. I thought how ironic, they matched myself, all alone with only one person traveling through. Walking through the halls I listened to the sounds of my boots clicking on the smooth, hard floors. I reached the end of the hall, I heard the sound of voices coming from the other side of the door, laughter and talking—a sure sign of high spirits. I was at a complete stop in front of the door, my hand was out I was going to go through the door, but my feet would not allow that to happen.

I wasn't that hungry and I really didn't want to be around people. I didn't want to talk to anyone, I didn't want anyone to look at me—I knew they would, I was a mess. Looking down at my outstretched hand I noticed it trembling, and there was nothing I could do to stop it from trembling. I quickly lowered my arm.

"Are you coming to dinner?" Turning around I saw a young man with curly, sand colored hair.

My voice caught in my throat. Was he talking to me? Don't look like an idiot. "Uh," I managed, "Yeah." He glanced down at my attire.

"You must be new," he extended his hand; "You can call me Max."

I grabbed his hand and shook it. "Lynn," I said.

Max smiled a small friendly smile. "Good to meet you, Lynn. It really isn't that bad here when you get used to it, everyone here works like clockwork; we are all a team, so it's really kind of nice."

"Yeah," I said with softness in my voice.

Max scooted around me and held the door open to the dining room for me to enter, it was almost like he knew I needed that extra push to get going, otherwise I probably would have turned in the other direction and ran all the way back to my own room and locked myself in there for the rest of my life.

I entered the dining room; they were all dressed in an almost identical style of clothing as Bethy was wearing. They looked like some kind of cult or something; I thought it was really creepy. At least most of the clothing they wore was different colors, otherwise I'd be really freaked out—at least they had that sort of individuality.

Max pointed towards a table full of plates. "You'll just go get your plate off the table and then go sit down, they just put the already finished plates like that for convenience, I work in the kitchen though, so you can always sneak more." I caught Max's wink at me. Was he flirting, or just being nice? I couldn't tell.

"Okay," I said, starting over towards the table. Max followed quickly, grabbed a plate off the table along with a soda from under the table—there was a big bin full of sodas and drinks that I hadn't noticed before—and headed down the many rows of tables. I grabbed a plate and managed to dig a bottle of water out of the bin below the table, obvious to all of the eyes that I knew were watching me. If they would have let me, I would have taken the plate back to my room to eat it alone. These people were completely and utterly creepy.

It was like I entered a new school with new students. Max's saying how every thing worked like clock work had to yet to be proven, the people didn't look very friendly. Or maybe it was just because I didn't want to even think about friendliness or happiness. Either way, I wasn't particularly a fan of this place. It was just weird.

I followed Max's path through the tables collecting obvious stares from those I passed. I noticed he sat down at a table filled with other students, I wasn't sure if I would have been imposing to sit next to him or not, but I followed anyways. There were hardly any other tables open anyways. What did I have to lose? I had lost everything already.

Seeing me heading for the table, Max turned to the other people at the table. "Guys, this is Lynn, she's new here." He pulled out a chair for me to sit down. I sat my plate and drink down on the table and sat down in the seat attempting to disappear from sight—but that didn't happen, and I knew it wasn't about to either.

"Hello, Lynn, welcome!" Some girl sitting across from me said cheerfully. "I'm Elisa. This is Bernie, William, and Georgia." Elisa motioned towards the others at the table. They made different "hello" gestures. It looked like Elisa and Max were the most outgoing ones at the table, everyone else seemed unsociable. But that was fine, the less talk the better.

I grabbed a fork and shoved a small piece of food in my mouth. I couldn't exactly identify what it was. It looked like it might be some sort of rice or something. I really couldn't be sure what exactly was on my plate, it looked slimy, and fried.

Max let out a cough to clear his throat. "So, where are you from?"

I waited a moment before replying. I thought about lying and saying I was from somewhere else but I didn't see where telling them where I actually lived would harm me or anyone in anyway.

"Montana," I said picking up the bottle of water and taking a swig from it.

"Ah, from the north!" Bernie said, which I thought was weird him being so silent and then loud suddenly.

I gave a slight nod of my head.

Elisa pointed with her thumb towards Bernie, "He's from Idaho."

I nodded giving a sheepish grin. "Ah, the potato state."

Bernie grinned with a mouth full of food. I raised my eyebrows before turning my head back towards my plate of food.

"Max and I are both from Texas," Elisa said with a matter of fact tone. I wasn't sure if she was saying that as a way of claiming him as hers, or just saying that for a fact. It was hard to tell, she was not an easy person to read or understand. She came off as a quiet individual and one who kept to herself mostly, but I knew her for about one half of the ten seconds that I've been here and she could have been one of those catty people for all I knew.

"Oh, Texas is cool," I said not knowing what else to say about that.

"Have you been there?" I gave a small scowl. Uh-oh, I gave the wrong impression already, I'm such an idiot.

"Uh, no..." Max and Elisa both looked at me as if waiting for more of an explanation of why I said I thought Texas was cool, but they weren't going to get one.

"Oh," Elisa said when she discovered that I wasn't going to give any details about that.

I couldn't eat anymore; there was no reason to stuff myself. I tried to force myself to talk to other people, I tried to humor them, I tried to force myself to eat, and I couldn't do it anymore. My life officially sucked more than I could have ever imagined it sucking. Rising from my seat suddenly, I grabbed my half-full plate and barely drank water and started heading out.

"It was nice meeting you, Lynn!" Elisa called after me. Whatever, I replied back silently in my mind.

I was glad that my room was so close to the dining room, the last thing I needed was an even farther way to travel with my weak limbs. Mentally, I felt like I had been run over by a semi... twice! I was only too glad when I reached the door to my room I threw myself onto the hard bed landing a little bit more roughly than I meant to, but it didn't make a difference anyways.

Hanging my head over the edge of my bed I began to sob. The tears flowed freely from my eyes and I let them. Through my now blurred eyes, I saw the large tears fall from my eyes to the ground quickly sopped up by the Berber carpet. They flowed as quickly as blood from a freshly cut wrist. I wiped my eyes quickly pushing that comparison out of my mind.

Chapter 15 – Training

"Halle!" My body shook. "We're here!" I looked up out of the car seeing the bright sun beaming down at me.

"Christopher!" I called out jumping up out of the vehicle. He had to be here, I turned in a full circle, there wasn't anything. Turning back around the vehicle disappeared as well. I backed against the walls of the building beside me. I looked up towards the sky again, why wasn't he there? He just woke me up and told me we arrived at the destination. I raised my fist and hit the wall behind myself.

"Ouch, shit!"

I blinked. It was just a dream. I turned over in my bed, I was still half hanging off the bed, I must have cried myself to sleep. I wiped the sleep from my eyes, opening them again, I saw Bernie standing above me.

"Dang, Girl, you sleep like a rock!" he exclaimed.

"I was dreaming," I said with a husky and tired voice.

"Great excuse. Oh, and thanks for hitting me." Bernie took a few steps back until he stood right in front of the door. "Come on, we have to get going, we're late."

I pushed myself up into a sitting position. My neck was stiff from sleeping in the position that I did all night last night, I knew it would be affecting me through the entire day; it always did when I slept in awkward positions. I stretched my arms up towards the ceiling in an attempt to stretch my sleeping muscles.

"Come on, let's go, we're late!" Bernie crossed his arms and gave me a look full of his impatience.

I looked at him crossly. "You don't like to be late, do you?"

Bernie gave a fake laugh. "They don't tolerate tardiness around here, Girly, you're not on time they lock you out of the program for the day. You'll see. It's not pleasant."

I gave a small "yeah right" laugh. "Something worse than school? I can't imagine that."

He shook his head. "Yeah, well you don't have to imagine that, you get to live it. Now up, up, up," he said clapping his hands together.

I rolled out of bed without any enthusiasm and stood in front of Bernie waiting for further instructions. If he wasn't going to leave me alone, I might as well go and see what was out there for me.

"Now that's what I like to see!"

Bernie turned and headed out the door, I followed not even caring what I looked like or anything. My hair could have looked like a clown's hair and I would not have known or cared. It was just me, there for everyone to look at, I didn't care.

I ran into Bernie as he stopped suddenly. I started to fall back from the unexpected force of it all. He turned and grabbed my shoulders to keep me from toppling over.

"Whoa, Girl, watch where you're walking." I regained my balance and he let go of me slowly like I was some sort of glass doll. He pointed down the hall to the left, "That is the indoor training room. Usually we just train outside, but when the weather is bad we just come in here to train—but training is never, ever cancelled."

I nodded. Okay, to my left was the training room, to my right was the dining room; I took that information and stored it in my mind mentally. I was glad for the simple layout.

Bernie continued to the right down the hall, and then to the left, where he pointed to a door without even stopping, "That's Gloria's office, but you probably already know all about that."

"Yeah," I said quietly paying attention. "Is she always so rude?"

Bernie glanced at me while continuing down the hall. "Why, was she rude to you?"

I replayed the meeting with her again in my mind and chose my words carefully. "She wasn't particularly nice."

Bernie clicked his tongue. "Gloria likes her position of authority, and she has a reason to be the way she is: she is the only werewolf here who actually had to learn from her own experiences. She transformed alone." He looked at me, I think he wanted to see my reaction, but I just kept a straight face.

"But, I thought we didn't let our kind transform alone."

He let out a chuckle, which surprised me. "Christopher tell you that?" We turned another corner and at the very end of the hall was a miniature lobby type of place. "Fact is, it is impossible to know which person got bitten by a werewolf and who didn't, even if you do find their hospital records that say they have Hyperglyocious it doesn't mean their address is listed, or even the patent's last name—you'd be amazed at how sloppy doctors' work is getting. This isn't even to talk about those who don't even go into the hospital when they feel ill thinking they'll recover—no way to trace those dudes."

This bit of information shocked me, if what Chris told me was a lie, what else did he say that was false? I shook the thoughts of him out of my mind and focused on the task at hand. I noticed this place was practically built out of doors there were so many of them.

Bernie stopped. I almost ran into him again, but this time I managed keep myself from doing that. He pulled open a door near the end of the hall. "This is the lounge, most of us go here to hang out like ninety-nine percent of the free time that we have. You got your cable TV, couch, fridge, books, you don't need anything else." He continued walking but stopped short again. "Oh yeah, we have a library, but I never go to the place, so I don't know where it is... you might ask Max though, he goes there all the time..." he continued walking. "No idea what he sees in the place," he said with a shrug.

We continued down the hall and into the miniature lobby type of place. It was L shaped. It was nicely decorated and had a little bench against a wall, and at the end of the room was a door. Bernie pulled the door open. I threw my hand up in front of my eyes as bright sun light burst through the open doors, it would not have been such a big deal, but it was so unexpected.

Stepping out into the grassy field beyond, Bernie raised his hands towards the sky, and turned in a full circle. "This is outside." He lowered his arms. "Definitely has to be one of the best parts about this place." I stumbled outside closing the door behind myself and feeling the cool grass beneath my feet.

"Where'd all this grass come from?" I asked. It was the middle of the desert, grass wasn't supposed to grow there.

"Good question," Bernie said. I expected him to continue, but he kept walking towards a bunch of bushes. He stopped and pointed to some bushes and plants in the distance. "That's the farm, that's where you'll be working."

"Working?" I wasn't going to work out in a field like some sort of pilgrim, that was just outrageous.

Bernie looked at me to be sure I was questioning the word seriously. "Uh, yeah, you have to earn your stay somehow. You do get paid for your hard labor though."

I hugged myself softly rubbing my shoulder. I was beside myself with anger, but I made sure not to show it. "I suppose that's good," I said biting my tongue.

I stared out into the torturous field beyond. Was it even possible for anyone in their right mind to have a farm in New Mexico? Could the soil even sustain any sort of life forms? I would not even call it soil; it was more like tiny chips of rock.

"Where do you work?" I asked knowing the answer would be some thing better than where I was going to work.

Bernie laughed. "I'm in the DID."

I cocked my head and stared at him strangely. "The did?"

He jumped up with great enthusiasm. "I love it when people ask me that!" Turning towards me completely and away from the field. "It stands for the Department of Illness Discovery. Which would be the process of searching for those infected with Hyperglyocious," Bernie said with fervor covering his voice.

"So..." I said choosing my words carefully. "You get to work in the DID, and I get to work in... a field?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Uh, yeah, you're a newbie. Newbies work in the field. After a little while, you can work somewhere else if you want. But that will be Gloria's call if you're ready or not."

"Oh... then I could be here for ever." I let out a long sigh.

"Nah, Gloria doesn't judge by whom she doesn't like or even by rudeness or anything, she's a fair woman. She keeps her feelings to herself and doesn't mix them with business."

I nodded. "Oh." Sounded great to me. Hopefully Bernie was right about that. I had confidence that he was, I didn't know why, but I trusted these people. They felt like family to me. Maybe even more like family than my own. It was almost like this little sanctuary of nice, trustworthy people... or should I say werewolves.

Maybe it was the knowing that all of these people had been through the same thing that I had been through and being taken care of here and not abandoned had allowed their kindness to show through, rather than reluctance towards the world. I couldn't say for sure, but I was determined to be like these kind hearted people. To say the least, they certainly were an inspiration, all of them were.

Bernie wore a stud's smile as his started walking around the corner of the building. Beyond was a large grassy area. Plenty of people both sat and stood around, some talking to each other simply enjoying the view. Most of the grassy area was shaded by the building blocking the sun. I thought it was a brilliant area; it was positioned just perfectly to get a good amount of shade. Plus with how sunny it was here the shade was more than welcome to help cool down the area.

We both stopped in the middle of the area, Bernie motioned towards some girl with short caramel brown colored hair. Before he caught her attention, she was talking to a group of people. She came running over faithfully.

Bernie turned towards me. "Lynn, this is Rachael. She is going to help you get your uniforms fitted." He turned and walked back the way we just came from.

Rachael stuck out her hand towards me. I shook it without hesitating. "Nice to meet you, Lynn," she said confidently.

"You as well," I said lowering my hand.

"Follow me," Rachael said motioning over her shoulder for me to follow. She seemed like more of a down to business type of person rather than how Bernie was, he struck me as the type of person to have fun and work later, and it seemed as if he only followed the rules because he had no other choice.

I followed Rachael through another door besides the one that Bernie and I walked through.

"Typically you can mostly wear what you want to wear, but Bethy requires that we wear uniforms for our battle training. But, a tip for the newbie," Rachael turned around towards me and walked backwards. "If you think you're going to be a smart ass and wear your uniform all day—don't. You'll be working in the field and any speck of dirt on it and Bethy will be on your tail like a piranha."

I let out a little laugh at the mental picture that her words gave me. She turned back around walking the proper way again and headed through an already gapped door.

"This is where all of the clothes and uniforms are made; we have a cotton field so all of the clothing is one hundred percent cotton." She pointed towards a sketch on the wall. "This gives you the basic gist of what the uniforms look like, you can basically pick your colors, mix and match—you know that type of thing." Rachael handed me a large bundle of different colored cloths. "These are all you have to choose from. After you pick you can head out to the field and... we'll put you on cotton duty for now. So just head on out there and I'll have your uniform delivered to your room so it'll be ready for later today."

I nodded. Looking down at the clothes, I saw black... that was classic, it was a classic color. Then I found a light baby pink color. I picked out those two. "How about these?" I asked handing those two to Rachael.

"Good colors, I'll have them made for you then," she said taking them from me and walking over to a desk.

I took that as a dismissal and headed back down the hall where I came from before. This was going to be a long day, I could tell already. But I was glad to be kept busy; I figured it would be good for me. I didn't regret my decision to stay here and not go with Chris, the way I looked at it, all of them were probably better off without me anyways. My family had probably forgotten about me completely, and Christopher would eventually too, I was probably nothing more than another mission to him anyways.

Going back outside, I had to blink a couple of times to get my eyes adjusted to the major change in lighting. I didn't know how it could be so dark inside and so bright outside, a cloudy day would have been nice. Although I had the feeling that even if it was cloudy it would still be too bright for my likings. I stopped suddenly as I looked around for a clear path through to the fields. I found an exceedingly small foot path and headed that way careful not to touch any cacti or other sharp plants.

I stumbled and almost fell head first into a cactus due to the downward slope of the land, but I caught myself just before hitting it and continued on. Soon enough, I reached the bottom of the slope and was able to walk in cleared land. The type of dirt changed dramatically from stones and pebbles to actual dirt. I did have faith that some thing could actually be grown in this dry, deserted land after all.

Spotting the white cotton stalks, I headed over towards them passing by small gardens filled with various vegetables and other plants that I couldn't even begin to figure out what type of plant species they were.

When I reached the cotton fields, there were many people there collecting cotton. I stopped, trying to figure out what the hell I was supposed to be doing here.

"A newbie!" An airy voice squealed behind me.

I turned toward the voice to see a lively red head. I forced a smile and nodded. "Yeah, that would be me."

She patted my arm. "Welcome. Just pick up a bag over there—" She pointed toward a pile of potato-sack type bags lying on the ground. "—and you can put the cotton there." Her voice was so light and airy; I wonder if it portrayed what was going on inside her mind. Judging by her instructions, which somehow managed to be both vague and overly instructive, I would say she was a bit of an idealist.

"Okay," I muttered, and snatched the bag off the ground. It felt dusty and dirty in my hands. I hated it.

I stood beside a woman who looked to be in her early 30s. She looked like she knew what she was doing, so I watched for a moment, and then got busy collecting the cotton. All the while, my mind flooded with thoughts of thoughts of when I used to play Oregon Trail on the computer with my brother and reading the Little House on the Prairie books. I never thought I'd be actually doing things like this, and especially not at seventeen-years-old.

When lunchtime rolled around, we all headed into the cafeteria for a brief meal, and then I followed Bernie to training. I was the first to sit down, glad to have something supporting me besides my sore feet. My table quickly filled up with familiar faces, including Bernie, Max, and Elisa.

I poked a lettuce leaf and lifted the fork to my mouth, noticing my spoon shaking in front of my face. Every single muscle in my body was physically spent from today's rough activities that I wasn't used to doing. Part of me was glad for the physical challenge, the other part of me was tired and just wanted to go to sleep right here in the middle of the dining room.

Looking around the table I stole a silent glance at Elisa, Max, Bernie all of whom were present on the training grounds. I couldn't believe that all of them looked as perky and lively as they did while I felt so physically spent. None of them showed the slightest sign of fatigue or wear. They all acted as if they didn't even do all of that work. Then again, I guess they did this type of activity every day for however long they had been here, which could have been years—or like Bethy decades. Most of them appeared as though they had only been there a couple of years.

A lot of the people were around their early twenties, though there was the occasional teen—like myself—or that occasional person that never actually left this place and was in his or her late thirties.

"So, Lynn, how's your first day?" Elisa asked playfully.

I stabbed at my salad absently. "You know the answer to that."

"Don't get too tired," Bernie picked up on the conversation. "We get to do this all over again tomorrow."

I shoved a lettuce leaf into my mouth, and was reminded of the leaves of the cotton plants. I'd seen so many today I think I had the image of the white, puffy things embedded into my eye sockets. "I'm not tired," I lied.

"No?" Elisa curled a lock of her pale hair around her right index finger. "You aren't dying to roll to your room so you can pass out on your bed?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Roll to my room?"

Elisa nodded. "Yeah, roll, 'cause your limbs are too busy trying to regain consciousness." She tilted her head sharply. "Can't crawl if your limbs aren't working."

Max leaned left, toward me. "Don't listen to them, they just think exercise for them is the equivalent of throwing water on the wicked witch." He sat straight up in his seat again.

Some form of a smile touched the left corner of my lips.

Chapter 16 - Dream

I wanted to lie around in my room all day. I wanted to sleep in. At this point, I would have rather lied in the cotton fields and slept until my skin blistered, or until I dehydrated, starved, and died... whichever came first. I was tired, and busy. The only free time I had, I spent sleeping. The only good thing I could say was that I didn't actually have any time to think. That was the only beauty of my insanity.

"Lynn!" Two hands collided together in front of my face, making a loud snapping sound. "Up!"

I inhaled deeply and lifted my torso off the hard floor, and let it fall onto the ground again. Today, for training, we were supposed to run laps around the gymnasium. After several laps, I had to stop. My lungs felt like they would burst and my bones felt like they were going to fall out of my skin. Since I failed so miserably, Bethy had me doing crunches instead.

"Lynn!" Bethy stood by my feet. "Pay attention!"

I wanted so much to complain, but I knew better than to do that. I'd tried it before and received threats and warnings and a bunch of what ifs after that day's training. Even after two weeks of training, it hadn't gotten any easier. Bethy used a technique where we all do different exercises everyday to keep all of our muscles developed, which also meant that we would always be improving our bodies in some way.

Lifting my torso again, I continued with a series of crunches. I knew training had to end soon. It felt like we'd all been working out for hours. That was my stimulation; otherwise, I'm sure I would have passed out right there.

"Finish the lap and then head to the eatery!" Bethy yelled to those running laps.

I watched everyone finish their lap carefully, knowing that the moment they finished, I would also be free to leave. The last person finished the lap and everyone headed toward the exit. I ceased the crunches and stayed down for a moment, just trying to regain myself enough to get up.

"Did you pass out? It wouldn't be the first time that happened here."

I looked up above my head, Elisa stood there with her hand planted on her hip, sporting a taunting smile.

"No," I sat up slowly. "Just attempting to catch my breath."

"And who did the running?" She turned sharply and headed toward the exit.

I rubbed my forehead, suddenly feeling angry and pathetic for not being able to persevere with the group.

Max emerged from the group and headed toward me. He was sweaty like everyone else, and that increased my guilt. He stopped in front of me and extended his hand toward me.

I took it and he helped pull me to my feet. "Thanks," I mumbled.

"Yeah. It'll get easier." He started toward the exit, and I followed eager to get out of this gray, windowless room.

"Lynn!"

I stopped quickly. Well, I almost got out of the gymnasium. I turned back toward Bethy.

"We'll be heading to the lounge after dinner, Lynn, you should join us," Max said from the doorway.

I glanced over my shoulder at him. "Yeah, I'll see you there."

He smiled and walked out the door, leaving Bethy and me entirely alone. I stared back at Bethy. She grabbed a makeshift, wooden step that she used for days we did step aerobics, and sat on it in the very center of the room. Resting her arms on the top of her knees, she stared at me.

I gazed back at her waiting, but she didn't make a sound. Moving slowly across the concrete floor, I stopped a few feet away from her. "What is it?"

She looked up at me, her eyebrows pressed together, and for a moment, she looked much older than her thirty-five years. "Sweetie..." I knew I was in for it when she used names like that. "I know you're not doing your best. You have been doing this for over two weeks and everyday you only do seventy percent. Muscles are resilient. You'd be amazed at what you can do." She stretched her left leg out in front of herself.

"I'll try harder," I whispered. I inhaled deeply, my breathing was just now returning to normal and my body temperature was cooling. Bethy was embarking on a long conversation, so I lowered myself to the hard floor and crossed my legs Indian-style.

She tilted her head to the side. "That's what you said last time." She stood, and I regretted my decision to sit. Maybe it wasn't going to be a long conversation at all. "I know that you've had a rough time this past month, and I just want to make sure you know that I'm here for you. If you need guidance, or just want to talk." She stared toward the door. I glanced back at it, but saw an empty hall. "I know there's something bothering you—maybe even you don't know what it is. But if you can clear out that blockage and move on, you'll be better for it."

I shook my head. "I don't have a-a blockage."

She raised her eyebrows. "Yes, you do."

I steadied myself on my hands as I pushed myself into a standing position. "I don't."

Bethy stepped directly in front of me and set her hands on my shoulders. "Lynn, you need to find a reason why you're doing this. You need to focus."

I stared up into her dark brown eyes. "You don't know anything about me."

She let her hands fall off my shoulder. "Then tell me something about you. Tell me what your plans for the future are."

I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn't think of an answer anything short of I don't know. There wasn't anything that I wanted to do with my life. At one time, I wanted to finish high school and then go to college and study theatre. But now I knew that was an impossibility. How could I even think about my future with everything going on?

Bethy shook her head. "Wow. You have no idea."

"All I want is to go home with my family."

"You can't go home," she snapped. "You need to stop thinking that is a possibility."

I folded my arms. "So you tell me that you want me to talk to you, to open up to you, and then you tell me there is no hope?"

"No, Lynn, that's not what I'm saying. That is why you're here. Because there is hope." She rubbed my shoulder.

I shrugged her hand away.

"Being a werewolf is like a disease, it limits what you can do. Backtracking is something you can't do. You can't see your family again."

There were so many words swarming through my mind. It was almost too much to keep my mouth shut. I started toward the door. I wasn't obligated to listen to her.

"Lynn, I'm just trying to help you."

"Stop helping me!"

"Don't let your life fall apart."

I flipped toward her. "It all ready has!" I growled.

She stepped cautiously toward me. Her face was soft and full of pity. "You can't go back to your family." Her voice was soft and caring, but her words stung.

"I'm not going give up." I stared at her hard, making sure she knew I meant what I said. "I'm going to fight."

I stormed out of the room and down the hall to my room. The hall was deserted. Everyone was on their oh-so-particular dinner schedule. I was too upset to eat. I couldn't stand to be around anyone anymore. It was late in the evening. I'd been picking cotton for days and tiring out my body before I had time to recover from the last day.

Fighting back tears, I pulled off my sweaty clothes and shuffled through my dresser trying to find something fresh to wear. Neatly folded in the top drawer, were the clothes I'd worn when I came in here. The same clothes I left Wolf Point wearing. I lifted the raspberry shirt out of the drawer and pressed it to my nose, inhaling deeply. It still smelled like my mother's laundry detergent.

Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes down my cheeks. My throat burned, and my insides ached so much that the release of tears didn't even fix the hardcore emotions coursing through my soul. I shoved my old shirt back into its drawer and pulled out a dress that Georgia insisted I should have. I pulled it on over my head and shoved the drawer back into its proper place.

I ran my right hand through my limp hair and attempted to smooth out the frizzy mess it had become. After several run-throughs, I finally gave up and departed my room. I was so annoyed by the lack of windows anywhere. Like a framed picture here and there could cover up the gray walls. I needed to view the outside skies, I felt like I was suffocating as it was, but now I felt like I was hyperventilating.

I stopped in the middle of the hall and rested my hand on the wall, breathing in slow, deep breaths to calm myself. I stared down at my feet and tried my best to clear my mind, but I still couldn't hide away the feelings behind the thoughts that crept into my mind. They were the ones that I had inadvertently been avoiding since I came here.

Suddenly everything was rushing around me and I wasn't able to stop it. I had been stolen from home and then left to rot in the middle of the desert like a forgotten corpse. I couldn't understand why I was left here alive. The only reason I could think of was that Chris hated me. That these people were right in what they said about Chris. He wasn't really all that I thought he was. Perhaps he was even the enemy.

There was the underlying thought that I couldn't get out of my mind. It was like a boulder blocking my path, I couldn't get around it. I couldn't even begin to fathom how to remove it and I refused to go searching for another path. It was my family and I couldn't think about anything else. Nothing else mattered.

My head shot up suddenly as voices carried to my ears. It was a sound that seemed so ordinary that it was addictive to me. I took in another calming breath, though it did little good, and I followed the sound. I didn't realize how the quiet had drowned me and how my thoughts consumed me until there was something to break that silence. I heard the familiar sound of Bernie's deep-throated laughter and almost threw myself through the door.

Faces turned to stare at me as I entered the lounge so suddenly. I straightened myself slowly and forced a slight smile in Bernie and Elisa's direction. Clearly they had been talking before I stumbled in and silenced the room.

Elisa stood up from the arm of the couch where she was sitting. "What's the matter?"

I shook my head. "Nothing, I just tripped."

Bernie walked toward the door and leaned toward me on his way out. "I told you so."

I turned toward him. "Wait, what?"

"I said you'd be tired at the end of today, and look at you." He gave a half nod and continued out the door.

I scoffed and moved further into the room so I didn't seem like any more of an outcast that I already was. Being in the room surround by these people already made me feel a little better. There was still that underlying itch that made me want to just run and not stop, but it was more tolerable with distractions.

"You look like you need some air."

I turned toward the voice. I didn't even notice Max sitting in a chair in the corner of the room with a book propped open on his lap.

"I'm going outside if you wanted to join me," he elaborated.

Just the idea of going outside was enough to excite me. Subtly I wondered why I didn't think of that idea first. I needed the air. I was going crazy and itching to jump out of my skin. "Sure."

He closed his book softly, arose from his seat, and tossed the book down in his place. I followed him closely as he led the way outside. The air was crisp and slightly chilled with a barely autumn feel. I allowed my lungs to expand breathing in the coolness that seemed to finally calm my entire body.

We walked a few paces away from the school and stood at the top of the hill overlooking the cotton fields and just stopped. I stared disgustedly at the cotton and looked down at the cuts on my hand just barely able to see the cuts I acquired in the scant moonlight. The cotton fields were so vast I couldn't see the end of them. We just began to harvest, but I knew we'd soon be walking further into the dusty, dry wastelands to get to the cotton. "Why did we stop here?" I complained.

"You're not even looking at the right thing."

I turned slightly so I could look at him. He unfolded his arms and let them dangle loosely at his sides. His smile was cheesy and his hair was slightly displaced.

I looked slightly to the left and right and then shook my head. "There isn't anywhere else to look."

He shook his head very slowly. "Look up."

I looked up feeling like an idiot for moment and then complied and looked up. Thousands of bright, glorious stars filled the sky, glowing brighter than I had ever seen them before. The heavens above were crystal clear, with the constellations easily visible.

There was a flurry of motion in front of me, disturbing my viewing. Max sat down on the grass, and then laid back, resting his hands behind his head. I shook my head. "What are you doing?"

He gave a strained shrug. "I'm stargazing." He took in a deep breath and then exhaled just the same. "It's a much better view from here."

I cocked my right eyebrow skeptical of how anything could be seen better by getting further away from it. It just seemed that it would be a better view the closer you were to whatever it was you were trying to view, and lying down while staring at the stars – to me – it seemed you couldn't get any further away from the sky.

Max propped himself up on his right arm halfway between sitting and laying. "Have you never stargazed before?"

I took in a breath ready to say "of course", but stopped short to rethink my answer. "Not like _that_." I made sure to relay how foreign of a concept stargazing while lying on the ground seemed to me. Like eating a dish from another country, this was something I wanted to say "no thank you" to.

"Then maybe you should try it, rather than standing there arguing with me about it." The moon sparkled in his eyes as he watched me carefully. I shrugged it off uncomfortably.

"I wasn't arguing with you about it."

He raised his eyebrows, as if to prove a point.

I let my lip pout slightly, as I lowered myself carefully onto the ground. I moved slowly since it didn't seem like the best idea in the word to be sitting on the ground—let alone lying on it. But I guess that was fine, at least I was in the fresh air. I leaned back on both of my arms to support myself, refusing to lie down completely. "Hey, don't they have like scorpions and snakes out here in the middle of the desert?"

Max turned his head slightly to hide his laugh, but I still heard it. He turned back toward me. "There's none in this area. Scorpions don't really do grass and snakes usually stay out in the fields."

I nodded. Was that supposed to reassure me? Because it didn't. "Is it really safe for them to have us working out in the fields with snakes?" I stared hatefully out at the moonlit plants that made up the fields in front of me.

"Snakes don't come out in direct sunlight." He tilted his head back up toward the sky.

"Oh..." I felt like an idiot for not knowing any of this. The way he talked, it seemed like all of that should be common knowledge, but I didn't know.

I stared up at the stars again, letting my head fall back easily. The cool breeze caught my hair and twirled it across my face. With a slight hesitation, I reached up and tucked the stray strands behind my right ear.

"It's starting to feel like autumn," Max said aloud what I was thinking.

I glanced toward him. He was already staring at me, and when I looked toward him he quickly looked up at the sky. "Yeah, it is."

He opened his mouth and sucked in a breath like he was going to speak, but then closed it again. Finally, he pointed toward the sky. "See Orion's belt, just to the south there?"

I gazed into the sky until my eyes locked on to the mentioned target. "Yeah, what about it?"

"Well..." He cleared his throat. "Just east of it, is the constellation Canis Major. According to mythology, it's supposed to be Orion's hunting dog—along with Canis Minor—and it's supposed to be a very powerful hunter... so fast that a deer couldn't escape it."

"Wow..." I watched him intently as he told the story, eager to know if there was actually a point to anything that he was saying, or if he was just trying to make conversation.

"Anyways, the story goes on that the dog was brought to a city with a fox problem. I forget the details, but it turns out that this wonderful hunting dog who could catch anything, couldn't catch this one small creature. This chase went on for awhile, but finally Zeus turned them both to stone."

I contemplated that for a minute, and then I stared back up at the set of stars that he mentioned. "I always thought that some mythology made people seem harsh. Like Zeus, for instance, he's just turns two poor creatures into stone for no reason."

He chuckled softly. "It wasn't really for no reason, I mean, they would have chased each other for eternity if he hadn't intervened. Eternity is a long time when all you're doing is chasing another creature... pointless really."

"That's like saying that their lives were pointless. Zeus just took the poor dog and killed him. Like putting him in the stars would justify his life as a great hunter." I shook my head softly, suddenly feeling overly emotional towards a constellation.

I heard Max shift positions to lie flatter on the ground. "Sometimes when you are a hero, and you've done great things, it's okay to die early because you've already made your mark. It's a warrior's death."

"No." I laid back on the ground and rested my hands on my stomach. "Warriors die for a reason. The dog didn't die for a reason."

"He was a hunter. He was a killer and he was doomed to kill. Zeus stopped it."

"Maybe that dog would have been happier living a life of repetition rather than having no life to live."

Max turned his head and stared at me. The moonlight subtly lit his chiseled features. His eyes searched over me.

I waited, but it seemed he had nothing to say—or he was waiting for me to say something. I didn't know, but it was starting to creep me out. "What?" I finally said.

He smiled and stared at me with something that resembled wonderment. "You see the connection with the story too."

I shook my head slowly and let out a deep breath. "What are you talking about?"

He nodded toward the sky. "I used to be an astronomy geek before I became a werewolf, but afterwards—and after all that happened—I found that I couldn't relate to any of the other stories of the constellations any more than the story of Canis Major."

I stared at him sideways. I couldn't believe he actually understood my argument—seemingly better than I did. Only then, did I realize exactly how much he must have been thinking about being a werewolf. Blatantly, I realized, I wasn't the only one having a difficult time trying to adjust to werewolf life. I felt guilty for being so trapped in my own sorrow that I didn't even realize what anyone here was going through—and these were nice people! People whom have tried to help me since my arrival.

"Bethy told me today that I need to find something else to think about besides my past... that I should be moving on," I said more as a question. Like I was getting another opinion on what I should be doing. But somehow, I just couldn't take someone else's answer when I know what was going on wasn't right.

He nodded, and gave a half-hearted shrug. "If you think about it, we all have to move on at some point. We can't stay at home living with our parents forever. We're bound to start lives of our own." He tore his gaze away from me and stared straight up at the stars. "Maybe it isn't exactly how we expected to live our lives, but sometimes you just have to work with what you've got."

I plucked a blade of grass and twirled it between my fingers, watching as it bended and flexed easily without being broken. "If life is what you make it, maybe I want to make it with the people I grew up with. It's not fair to be taken away from all that for no reason."

"But see? It's like the story of Canis Major, it isn't for no reason. If you were left at home with your family, you'd all just have to keep being uprooted and moved to a different location as the Gregottas chase you down. It's a pointless life."

"But I'm still being chased anyways. What is the deal what that? Since apparently I'm going to be chased down no matter what I do." I rolled my eyes up at the stars, staring at the poor dog in the sky. "I can't make plans for a new life when there is no hope of..."

My arms grew tired of supporting my full weight, so I lowered myself onto the ground and folded my arms across my belly. "... getting my first job, going to prom—or going to college."

"You can still do those things." His voice was just above a whisper, and there some something about it that was just soothing to me. "Being a werewolf is like starting life with a clean slate. Anything is possible."

I shook my head feeling the grass poking me with its almost soft sprigs. "No. It's not. Maybe we can go to prom—for one night. Maybe we can go to college, but that doesn't mean we won't be uprooted in the middle of the semester. And we can get our first job, but there's no room for advancement." I rubbed the palm of my right hand with my left thumb feeling how cold my skin had become, matching the crisp night air around me. "I don't know about you, but working at _McDonald's_ for the rest of my life was never on the agenda."

I turned my head toward him. A slight smile touched his lips, but it was weighed down with the heaviness of the conversation we were having.

"Well, I was going to go for _Taco Bell_. You know, aim a little higher on the restaurant totem pole," a sarcastic voice broke into our conversation.

I glanced back toward the building at the source of the voice. It was Bernie.

"What are you love birds lying on the ground for?" Bernie walked closer to us until he towered over us.

I felt weird lying on the ground and staring up at Bernie. "Contemplating life." I shrugged. "Seems like the thing to do."

He placed his hand on his hip dramatically. "You can't seriously tell me you've always been this doom and gloom, Halle." He frowned theatrically.

"Well..." I sat up so quickly that I felt dizzy for a brief moment. Adjusting myself, I stared back up at him. "If you can tell me that there is a single werewolf in this world that is actually living a nice life somewhere with their families, I will stop being such a downer."

He folded his arms and looked down at me his eyebrows furrowing and casting a dark shadow over his eyes. I glanced at Max who laid there quietly, simply watching our conversation.

I shook my head and let my eyes fall away from Bernie. This wasn't right. This situation I was in, wasn't right and I didn't know how to get out of it. From what I hear, you can just walk out of this place whenever you want. I hadn't tried so hard to get away from here, because I didn't know where the right _situation_ was. I wanted to go back to Wolf Point with my family, but if what everyone says is true, and the Gregottas actually were going to come after me, I didn't want to put my family in danger. I'd already messed up enough, the last thing I needed was another mistake to add to my list.

Feeling the weight of my own problems, I arose to my full height in one fluid motion. I didn't so much as look back at Max or Bernie or the building as I walked toward the stupid cotton fields.

"Oh, come on, don't be like that. We're all in the same boat here," Bernie called after me. I could tell he meant that. If it wasn't sarcasm coming out of his mouth, I believed every word of it in my short time of knowing him.

Again, I wasn't comfortable in my own skin. I had to keep moving. There was some emotion inside of me, I paid attention to it enough to know that it was either anger or hate or fear or sadness, but I didn't know which one. If I left myself alone for too long with that feeling, it was going to burn my insides and deteriorate my heart.

"What are you doing?" Bernie yelled out to me.

I twisted my torso around toward them. Max was now standing beside Bernie, both of them were watching me with confusion like they were trying to figure out if they should stop me or not. "I'm walking. I feel like walking," I yelled back.

"Why didn't you just tell her werewolves are happy?" I heard Max say to Bernie.

"Why didn't you tell her? I'm not going to lie to her to please you," his tone was lighthearted, but I could tell there was a seriousness about his words.

"She asked you, not me."

"Maybe you should start practicing speaking up."

My foot slid into the dark, potholed dirt throwing me off balance. I expected the dirt to stop sliding, but before I knew it, my entire body was falling into the ground. A high-pitched scream escaped my throat as I reached out for anything to break my fall. I broke my fall on my back, and coughed as airborne dust filled the area.

"Lynn!" I heard Max yell, and the familiar pounding of heavy footfalls on the dirt path.

# Chapter 17 – Wolf Beam

I moaned as I tried to move. My limbs still worked, which meant my back wasn't broken to my relief. But it still hurt like hell. I felt like my body almost snapped in half with the awkward way I landed... I landed on top of something. Max appeared above the small ditch shortly followed by Bernie.

"Lynn! Are you okay? Can you move?" Max carefully tested the ground in front of him as he tried to get to me.

My entire body was trembling with the shock of what just happened. I tried to lean over to roll off of whatever I landed on. It was hard and sharp whatever it was. I was lucky I didn't stab myself. I managed to roll over, but instead of getting up gracefully onto my feet, I found they were like rubber and I actually fell to my knees.

I felt a hand grab my arm supportively and pull me upright slowly. "There you go," Bernie cooed as he scooped me up in his arms and handed me up to Max. Right away, he moved several feet back from the ditch and stared down at me. "Are you okay?"

I pulled my hands close to myself to try to get them to stop quivering, but it did little good. My back hurt badly, but I didn't think I broke anything, so I assumed I would be fine after the initial sting wore off. I nodded vigorously. "I think so."

He lowered my feet to the ground very slowly. I winced slightly as his hand touched my back. "Did you hurt anything?" He asked, searching me over with his eyes.

"I may have scratched my back, but it's fine." I tried to wave it off like it was nothing.

"Hey, what's this?" Bernie called back from the ditch.

I tried to look back toward the ditch to see what he was talking about, but Max was more concerned with making sure I was all right. He lifted the back of my shirt and I heard the breath escape his lips. I looked over my shoulder at him trying to gauge his expression, but he was just out of my eyesight. "Is it bad?" I asked quietly.

He replaced my shirt and walked around to face me. "No, it isn't that bad." He shook his head. "It's a bleeding wound and it will need to be taken care of, but it isn't that bad."

I stared at what little I could see of him with the scant moonlight, and I could tell his face was drawn.

"Come on. I'll help you fix it up." Max turned away from me and started out of the fields, but I wasn't about to follow him. I at least wanted to see what I fell on.

I tried to peer into the darkness at Bernie, but I couldn't see anything that he was doing. The half-moon light wasn't enough to see into a dark ditch. I edged my way closer to the edge of the ditch, using extra caution with the loose dirt. "What did you find?" I asked Bernie, though I could only vaguely make out the outline of his body. He was knelt down in the middle of the ditch where I had fallen.

"Lynn!" Max grabbed my arms quickly making me jump. "Careful!"

I turned to look at him. "I was being careful."

He moved me back several paces. "Stay here. I'll see what it is." Max moved toward the ditch and hopped down into it gracefully.

I didn't like this idea. I was standing so far back now that I couldn't even make out the faint outlines of the boys. More and more I had to know what was there. I knew it had to be good if Bernie was silent for so long. He always had an answer for everything and now he was quiet. The distinct sound of creaking wood filled the air, followed by dulled snap.

"What'd you find?" I asked into the darkness.

"Gimme—a—minute!" Max yelled back. His voice sounded strained, and shortly after, I heard the reason why. Another dulled snap reached my ears followed by a low squeaking sound, which sounded like a cross between a rocking chair and a door opening.

"What's going on?" I pressed.

"Lynn, he said a minute!" Bernie called back up to me.

"I'm the one that found it," I said softly to myself.

I folded my arms slowly in front of myself as to not injure my back anymore, and attempted to calm myself. I was still shaking a little bit, and the air around me was chilly. In the ditch, I saw a flame light up. For a moment I wondered what it was coming from, since it seemed to be floating in mid-air, then I saw the faintly lit outline of Bernie and realized he must have had a lighter to see what they were doing.

I stared at the tall stalks of cotton around me and my mind flickered back to the horror movies I'd seen. I was standing out in the open, in the middle of nowhere, where anything could see me. I could think of several horror movies off the top of my head that actually portrayed a field in some of their biggest scenes. Of course, most of the fields were filled with corn stocks, but did masked murderers really know the difference anyways?

It was one of those situations where I felt I was _damned if you do, damned if you don't_. If I were in a horror movie, I would be yelling at the character whether she were trying to hide in the corn or standing out in the open. Either way picks up the _I'm coming for you_ vibe. And standing out in the open also gave plenty of opportunity to be snuck up on since humans don't have the privilege of having eyes in the back of their heads.

Suddenly, it occurred to me, that I wasn't exactly human. I was a werewolf, and I could hear better than any masked murderer. I expanded my hearing and listened to the chilled wind as it blew through the cotton, rustling the leaves. That's when I realized my improved hearing actually did me little good. I wouldn't be able to hear if anyone was sneaking up on me, because it sounded like they were anyways thanks to the stupid wind.

There was a dull thud and I was getting ready to open my mouth to ask what the hell that was, when I heard Max's voice call out to me, "Lynn, you should probably come see this."

I gave one last glance around the eerie field and then I made my way carefully over to the ditch. Max stood right in front of me, motioning for me to come closer. When I got close enough, I swung my legs over the edge, and Max grabbed my waist with both hands and helped lower me down into the ditch.

Bernie stood in the middle of the ditch crouched down over something that just appeared black and shadowy too me. I walked toward him slowly. He glanced over his shoulder at me and then flicked his lighter. In front of him was a small, wooden doorway. It was elegant in its own right, with small floral designs carved into it. However, it was badly weathered and had to be at least several decades old.

Max grabbed the corroded door-handle and pulled it open. To my surprise, the hinges actually held. Beneath the door was a large, cavernous hole in the ground. I breathed out heavily. "What the hell is this?"

I grabbed for the lighter in Bernie's hand, but he pulled it away from me. I glared at him.

"You ain't touching this fire, girl." He leaned toward the black, massive opening and—to my surprise—entered, with only the scant flame to light his way. Judging by the way he moved, it looked like he was going down stairs. The civility of this whole discovery was frightening to me, like staring at some kind of alien crop circles. It made me wonder what or who created something like this and more importantly—why? Why did I fall into a hole in the ground that has been walked upon hundreds of times before? A well-walked on path?

"Come on, Lynn," Bernie called behind himself.

I glanced back at Max, who watched me with his eyebrows pressed together with worry. Stepping closer toward the dark hole, I lowered myself into the tunnel until I felt my feet make contact with the steep steps. I kept my hands on either side of the dirt-walls as I moved down the stairs. There couldn't have been more than seven steps before I reached an even floor. It was sleek and sturdy like marble or fine tile. The dirt on the walls turned into wood and the small bit of light coming from Bernie's lighter was soon overpowered by a brighter light coming from deeper in the tunnel.

I turned a corner, staying close to Bernie, and suddenly, I saw where the light was coming from. Who would have known that deep inside of the ground under a stupid cotton field was the most glorious room one could think of? The room did, in fact, have solid marble flooring. The walls weren't anything to stare at, but the room was quaint. There wasn't much to it, a desk, a chair—which I wouldn't trust sitting on—and the walls were lined with papers and journal-like books. The room was brightly lit up with lanterns, casting a golden glow all over the room.

Bernie let the flame die on his lighter and set it down roughly on the desk.

"Did you light the lanterns?" I asked him.

He turned toward me quickly and raised a mocking eyebrow. "No," he teased. "They were already lit."

I shook my head. "Tonight, I wouldn't doubt it." I moved further into the room, and searched the bookshelves with my eyes looking for any titles that stood out, but most of the spines of the books were empty.

"Bernie, why don't you go get some flashlights so we can take a look at these books?" Came Max's voice from the doorway.

I turned my head toward him. I didn't realize that he actually followed behind me to this room.

Bernie snatched his lighter off the desk quickly, and presented it to Max. "That is what this is for!"

Max shook his head and shoved the lighter back toward Bernie. "Books aren't fire resistant, you know." He pointed toward the door with his thumb. "Go get flashlights, please."

Bernie sighed. "Fine." He lit the lighter and started out of the room.

I turned my attention back to the books as I walked slowly by the shelves. I didn't understand exactly why Max sent Bernie out of the room for flashlights. I thought the light in the room was just enough to make out the words. It wasn't perfect lighting, but it was just enough.

Max stepped in front of my viewing and I narrowed my eyes at him. "What?"

He kept his eyes on me as he pulled a large book from the shelf. It kind of appeared like a folder the way there were free pages not evenly in the center, it was similar in width and height too, but it was definitely an actual bound book. He handed it to me and I pulled it from his hands slowly, studying his face, trying to figure out why he was actually handing me this book. He moved the hardbound cover from right to left, revealing the title page of the book, and a small paper tucked into the page.

I picked the paper up off the page and closed the book tucking it carefully under my arm. Unfolding the paper I realized this was a type of legal paper... a will. I scanned through searching for a name of who this belonged to, but my eyes stopped searching when they landed on my name in the body of the will: _Halle Lynn Fletcher._

I tried my best to hide my shock and stared back up at Max giving a one-shoulder shrug. "What's this?"

"Halle," he said and then stopped and stared at me. I tried to think of something to say to get to the point of what the hell was going on. He couldn't know that this was me. No one here knew what my real name was. I didn't even mention my last name that I could remember. "I know this is you."

I shook my head quickly. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't try to play dumb. I know you are Halle."

I slammed the book into his chest. "You don't know anything about me." I turned away from him and set the paper onto the desk, where I stared it down hoping it would disintegrate.

He returned the book to its place on the shelf. "I saw the name over Bernie's shoulder while he was marking off the list of rescued werewolves and I put two and two together." He smiled, as if taunting me further. "You could have been a little more creative though, and used something other than your middle name if you wanted to go all incognito."

I turned back toward him. "Fine! You got me, okay. Now, what the hell does this have to do with that?" I pointed toward the paper.

He walked forward and stopped when he reached the edge of the desk. "This is your grandfather's will."

"That isn't possible." I stared at the lit candle hanging from the wooden beam directly above the desk, watching it flicker and sway. "He died before I was born." I took in a deep breath of the musty air. "You can't put someone in your will if you don't know them."

"Maybe your parents told him about you and he put you in his will just before he died." He spread the paper out on the table, but I couldn't bring myself to look at it.

"No. According to my parents, he died years before I was born. This—" I pulled the paper from his hands. "—Isn't possible."

"Did you see the date on it?" Max poked the paper with his index finger.

I stared down at the indicated location. "April first, nineteen-ninety-five." I shook my head. This paperwork didn't make any sense. It was like it was meant for a different person. I looked up at Max and clicked my tongue in my mouth. "That is exactly two months after I was born." I folded my arms in front of me trying to keep myself from shaking. "Maybe it's someone else with my name. It's possible."

"And the same name as your grandfather too?" He raised his eyebrows. "I think that's just a little too coincidental."

I didn't want to believe a paper. This countered seemingly everything I knew, and I didn't have an answer to make this paper invalid. No one could have placed it there as a hoax. I just didn't have any answers, and to know that my life could possibly be more screwed up than I thought, freaked me out. Then again, my grandfather didn't really have anything to do with me. It was an entire other generation. "Does Bernie know about all this?"

He looked at me incredulously. "Of course. He's the one putting the info into the werewolf database."

I let my arms fall to my sides and walked toward the bookshelves again. "So what the hell is this place? Why is it here?" I touched the books in front of me, lightly shuffling through them, and looking briefly at the few titles on the spines that there were. Most were just dates.

"I have no idea—"

Bernie stumbled loudly into the room. I didn't notice how dim the lighting actually was in here, until he brought in the flashlights. He handed one to me and Max.

"Thanks," I muttered.

"I don't think we should tell anyone about this place." Max looked sharply at me and then at Bernie.

Bernie stared back at Max incredulously. "How the hell are we going to hide a hole in the middle of a path?"

I shrugged. "Put a piece of wood over the opening and cover it with dirt." Both boys turned to look at me. "We can just shove it aside when we need to get in here. People can walk over it, and they'll never suspect a thing."

Bernie sighed. "Care to elaborate on the whole _they'll never suspect a thing_ bit?"

Max shook his head. "They'll hear the hollow sound if they walk across it."

I raised my eyebrows. "Not if there's enough dirt on it."

Max contemplated it, then slowly shook his head again. "No... People are going to notice a pile of dirt in the middle of a walking path."

"Well we can't just bury it up." I glanced at the many books on the shelves, saddened by the thought of not being able to actually browse through this vast collection. "Who—working out there in that field—would actually care if they stepped on something that sounded slightly different?" I crossed my arms. "I know when I'm out there with the hot sun beating down on me, I could care less if I stepped on a freaking snake."

Max sighed. "If Gloria finds out that we've been keeping this to ourselves, she'll have our heads. It's her property."

I snatched the will off the desk. "Max, this could have something to do with me. If it does, then Gloria has no right to go through this stuff. I need to find out... We shouldn't tell anyone until we at least know what the purpose of this place is." I looked curiously at the bookshelf to my right. "Do you guys even know what this stuff is?"

Max pulled another book from the shelf and flipped through it quickly. "They're mostly journals, with non-fiction—or fiction mythology—books mixed in... this one looks like it has the earliest dates in it, so it's one of the first journals here."

I snatched the book from his hands and scanned the page quickly. It was entirely written in cursive, frustrating my quick reading skills. "Who wrote all these?"

"It doesn't visibly say who wrote it... anywhere logical." He quickly scanned the shelves with his eyes. "Which leads me to belief that this isn't the first journal."

"Aren't they in any kind of order?" I pulled out a book to the right of the empty slot on the shelf, and flipped it open quickly and looked at the date in the top right corner on the first page. It was dated 1921. I looked back at the one I took from Max, it was dated 1872. "No. Apparently not."

I replaced the 1921 book, but decided to keep the 1872 book. If I didn't take one of this with me to read, I would go insane. I couldn't stay out of this. I pointed my flashlight toward the exit to lead me out. "Come on, let's hide this place before it gets any later."

Bernie started out ahead of me, but Max didn't make any movement to leave. "Are you just going to take that with you?" Max's eyebrows rose accusingly.

I scoffed. "Yes, I am." Turning, I followed Bernie out through the dark, winding passage. When we emerged from the makeshift door, I saw the broken wood all around. I turned back toward Max. "Looks like whoever covered this place up last used wood."

Bernie jumped out of the ditch with ease. "I'm pretty sure we have some plywood sheets by the silo."

"We have a silo?" I walked toward the edge of the 3 foot ditch.

"Yeah." He nodded to the left. "We are pretty much entirely self-sustainable... I'll get the wood." He departed toward the location he motioned toward. I followed the direction with my eyes, but I didn't see anything except darkness and cotton.

I turned my attention back toward Max. He busied himself with shutting and securing the makeshift door. "You need to get your injuries tended to." He glanced over his shoulder very slightly.

"I will... in a minute." I opened the journal to the first page and glanced through the first few pages. I was never good at reading—or writing—cursive and the text in this book was sloppy and worn making it very difficult for me even comprehend a single sentence.

"You are bleeding you know," Max pressed as if to force me to do as he said.

"I have six pints of blood. Plus it's not that bad." I looked up from my book at him. "Any idea what a wolf beam is?"

He shook his head.

I tried to further decipher the words around it, but couldn't make out enough to understand. "It sounds like some kind of cheesy child's poem." I gave a weak laugh, and then put the book in front of Max's face and pointed to the sentence. "Any idea what this says?"

His eyes narrowed behind his glasses as he attempted to decipher the words. I figured I must have looked about the same as I was attempting to read it. " _My ancestors..."_ he started. "... _Were blessed in the soul by the wolf beam... but not I."_ He stopped reading and looked up at me.

I pressed my eyebrows together. "So it's a blessing then?" I moved to stand behind him and read over his shoulder even though it did me little good. "Keep reading."

"Uh..." He stared back down at the book. "It doesn't say anything else about the wolf beam. It just goes on to explain how miserable he is without being blessed and that he doesn't know much himself."

He handed the book back to me and proceeded to climb out of the ditch, where he stopped and stared at me for a moment.

"What?" I snapped.

He shook his head. "Just contemplating if it would have been easier to lift you out of the ditch if I were inside it."

I set the journal down on the dirt above the ditch, preparing to lift myself out of the ditch. "Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I'm incapable of climbing out of a ditch, you know." I pressed my hands down on the ground by the journal and steadied myself to swing my legs over.

"That wasn't what I meant." He grabbed my upper arms and helped to pull me up over the edge. "I meant you're hurt, and you could hurt yourself more."

I picked the journal up off the ground and hugged it loosely in my arms. "I'm not an idiot. I'm not going to hurt myself."

He let his head fall to the side slightly. "Seriously, Lynn?"

"Stop being a Barbie," came Bernie's sardonic voice.

I turned my head toward the cotton fields and sure enough, there he stood carrying a large piece of wood awkwardly on his back... well really more the back of his neck. He had it carefully balanced on his shoulders since it was too large and heavy to carry with his arms. Max rushed toward Bernie to help move around the wood.

I stepped back, making sure I was out of their way. "I can't believe you said that. I am not a Barbie."

Max took the wood from Bernie and worked to get it placed over the ditch, while Bernie stood beside me catching his breath. His skin was slick with sweat; I could see it shining even in the scant moonlight. "I said you are _acting_ like a Barbie." He patted my shoulder roughly. "The point was, don't act like something you're not." His dark brown eyes flittered up to my face. "You are blonde, aren't you?"

I smacked him playfully with the journal.

After getting the wood in place, Max walked toward us, but spoke directly to Bernie, "If you would, start getting the dirt onto the wood—"

"Oh, man, I forgot the shovels." Bernie shook his head and covered his face behind his hand dramatically.

"—I'm going to help Lynn with her wounds."

I started to open my mouth to protest, but Bernie waved a finger at me. "Don't be a Barbie."

I let out a frustrated sigh, and headed out of the cotton field.

# Chapter 18 - Reading

Inside, the building was deserted. Everyone was in bed on time the annoying way that they always were. All of the lights in the building had already been turned off, so the only light that illuminated the halls came from the few windows that there were.

"This way," Max said on my right.

I turned to look at him. He pulled open a door on the left side of the hall and held it open for me. I entered the darkened, windowless room. "I've never been here before," I said as I tried to make out impossible shapes in the dark.

Max flipped a switch on the wall, and the whole room lit up with a blindingly bright light. The room resembled the nurse's office at my school. But this one seemed less often used the way everything was so absolutely tidy and perfectly in place. The daily use of the one at Wolf Point High was used every day and it wasn't uncommon for items to be out of place.

"So, a first aid kit wouldn't have been enough?" I watched Max open and close drawers and pull out the occasional item. I saw gauze, medical tape, peroxide, and antibacterial.

"I don't know if you've noticed..." He closed the last drawer and turned toward me. "But werewolves are accident prone."

I nodded. "Yeah, I noticed."

"Now, come on." He motioned for me to move closer to him. "Let's get you fixed up so I can help Bernie."

I stood in front of him, and he began cleansing my wounds. "Something tells me you like to help people," I said, more as a distraction from the stinging on my back. "Seems to be a theme... at least tonight."

He was silent, and I wondered if he was even going to reply at all. He pressed the gauze on my back over my wound and carefully taped the edges. Then readjusted my shirt back to its proper position, put his hands on my shoulders and turned me toward him. "Helping people is great, it makes you feel good. You should try it."

His accusation stung a bit, but I did feel the truth in his words. "I did attempt it tonight; you just beat me to it."

He rolled his eyes.

I narrowed mine. "What?"

"Nothing," he said quickly. "Get some rest. Bernie and I will take care of the... thing."

"The lair?" I said with a horrible British accent. "Have we actually thought about what to call it?" I smiled mysteriously.

"The Library in the Ground?" he suggested.

"The Dirt Palace?"

"Old?"

I laughed softly. "Yeah, old..." My mind drifted into contemplation about how long that... creation... had actually been there. It was obviously created for the purpose of housing all of those books... or as someone's private, personal study. Judging by the journal in my hand, it could have been as old as the mid-1800s.

Max headed toward the door and I followed him out to the hall. "I'll see you tomorrow, Lynn. Go get some sleep."

"Yeah, okay." I turned from him and headed down the hall in the direction of my room. I was careful to keep my footsteps as silent as possibly. I didn't want to disturb anyone, I just wanted to get to my room so I could pry open the book.

This one journal felt like the bestseller that I had waited months upon months for, trolling the online fan forums, and finally waiting in line for hours the day before its release. This was something that I _needed_ to read. It contained a story that I needed to find out more about. In a way, a non-fiction book that gave me skills that I needed to acquire, like some kind of college textbook. It was both knowledge and curiosity that taunted me to read this journal. And it was the best kind of fiction, because it was real.

I pulled open the door to my room, and was sure to close it softly behind me. I shoved my shoes off my feet and laid belly down on my bed. I splayed out the book in front of me, skipping over the page that Max read and worked on the next entry.

_May 23_ rd _, 1879_

Today, I saw a dove with the most glorious wings and it reminded me to live freely. We must not be weighed down with what we cannot obtain. Life's requirements are not for us to presume. Young Lenore spoke to me today. She said I have been too hard on myself, and I must agree. If it were not for the desire to have what they do, I would be able to see that Lenore cares about my wellbeing. Rather, I should say, I see it... I acknowledge it, but it isn't long before my mind wanders away.

The next few entries were worn so badly, that I couldn't make out more than a few sentences, which shed no light on anything that was of importance.

_April 14_ th _, 1881_

Lenore married, and I know that I have missed the rose blooming. My father—the cursed man—reminds me of the mistakes I made. I cannot help but feel this is his fault. I realize it may make a horrible man of me to accuse for hypotheses, but I say so still.

_July 2_ nd _, 1887_

My son was born today—Gregory Brandon Fletcher.

That was my grandfather. That was his name, and I knew that will had to have been meant for me. This journal was written by my great-grandfather. I stared at the long-time dried ink and the aged pages thinking about his quill pen scattering over these pages.

I finally found that joy that I had been seeking. The feeling of holding the small child in my hands... an indescribable power that takes over and infiltrates even the darkest soul. The feeling did not reside long enough as my father entered the room and urged me out on a walk. He told me of what I had been fearing... Of what I always knew. He explained this to me, he said, in case he shall lay on his deathbed delirious, his grandson should know. The things he told me, I should not write here, but memorize myself. These are words of a depraved soul. Only I would believe the man's insane story, because of the way I feel. I know it to be true. I know.

_August 18_ th _, 1905_

Gregory married today. I feel keen to write about him as he lives the life I once desired. A life of knowledge and trust that he knew everything that was on this earth was visible to his eyes and his heart. The woman that he was meant for captured his interest and both are happily connected now. Gregory will leave for the army in the morning. I admire his bravery, and cannot help but see both my pride in having him as a son and my cowardice.

_December 29_ th _, 1909_

I can feel my heart freezing in my chest as the year moves closer to the end. Most will be starting anew with the year, but I can feel myself coming to the end. The grief that hangs over me is too much to bear, and I fear it makes me weary. This is not a fair trade that life has dealt me. Every moment life gives me to enjoy is disturbed with these emotions that swallow me. The smile fades away. I can only feel that I've made others miserable in my own misery.

I welcome death. Though I have never willingly embraced this fine creature, today, I feel I am ready to move on to something else. I need to experience something new. This old man, Brandon William Fletcher, concurs. I will call this the end of my journaling. Let us all live glory days without fear.

I flipped through the many blank pages left in the book feeling cheated by having that little to read. I couldn't believe it. These were the musings of my—apparently depressive—great-grandfather. I wished he hadn't been so vague in his stories. Focused less on his feelings and more on what was actually going on in his life. What drove him to insanity?

Rather than answering questions, this just raised more. The only thing I actually figured out was who wrote this, and who the people involved in this historical story was. I flipped through each blank page to make sure I didn't miss anything, any folded papers or hidden notes, but I didn't find anything. I turned back to the entries which were illegible, and stared at them trying to make out words and guess at the missing words.

My neck began to strain and I laid my head down, pressing my cheek against the page of the journal. I stared at the journal pages which was now so close to my eyes that I definitely couldn't make out the words. There was something comforting about the words in the journal knowing that they somehow tied to me. For now, it was the comfort of family that I had been missing for these past few weeks.

# Chapter 19 – Familiar Scene

I woke myself up before too long. The sun was still a deep golden color spilling into the room through the window. The sky was a deep, purple shade with clouds scattered only how I'd ever seen them in paintings before. I rolled out of bed, closed the journal, and pulled my blanket out from under the book and slung it over my shoulders. I peered outside at the golden sun shining over the sea of cacti covering the hills beyond. That was one thing about this place. The scenery was lush and – though how desert like it was – it was filled with a wide variety of different types of foliage.

The mountains in the far distance cast light shadows over some of the plants. I felt every second ticking by as I contemplated wandering out into the field to snatch another book from the burrow. Suddenly, it occurred to me that I couldn't just go out anytime I wanted to grab a book. Aside from Bernie and Max, no one else could be around to snoop. No one else could know that there were ancient books in the ground. It may even be awhile before I actually get the privilege of venturing into the place.

Every moment that passed, I wondered if anyone else was awake. If no one was around, I could actually sneak out and get another book. As the sunlight illuminated the sky more and more, I talked myself out of it. This would have to wait until tonight... which seemed like such a long way away. I didn't remember the last time I actually woke up this early before... if I ever have, and now I had no desire to actually go back to sleep. I couldn't. It was the first time since my arrival here that I actually wanted to do anything else besides sleep.

By the time I finished contemplating sneaking out, I decided it was too late. The sun had all ready risen in the sky considerably, and I knew at least someone had to be awake. It was the time I should have gotten up. If I had to guess, I'd say it were about six o'clock in the morning, but I could have been wrong. I wasn't any good at figuring out what time it was.

I heard the sound of footsteps patting growing louder and then getting softer in the hall outside my door. Someone else was definitely awake, which probably meant that I should start getting dressed and ready for breakfast.

I threw on some clean clothes and slipped on my shoes. I wished that I had some kind of makeup to put on. I actually felt like looking halfway decent today. Yes, there was still those underlying memories of the recent past. They didn't disappear entirely. But instead of fearing the unknown, I was embracing it. It was keeping me going. I wanted to run into it and entirely submerge myself into it. This newfound knowledge was addicting to me.

After dressing, I headed through the quiet halls into the breakfast room. There were a few people there all ready, the only one I actually noticed was Max sitting at a table alone. He looked tired and maybe even a little bit distressed.
