In the Span of a Breath

Chapter 9

After the attack Paige came around more often and stayed longer. He sat closer and slight touches occurred more frequently. Looking back at it now the change in behavior started when Erin woke in the hospital and had only gotten more apparent. If the conversation he overheard on the phone was about him then Paige had said Erin belonged to him. His face superheated at the thought and the inconvenient memory of the night Paige slept with him.

"Erin are you alright?" His mom opened his door after a warning knock. "Did you have another attack?" A note of concern colored the question.

He shook his head. "No, I just need a minute."

"Are you sure honey? Your face is bright red."

"Mom! I'm fine. Just-" he felt as if he had been caught doing something he shouldn't have been and his face burned even hotter. He covered it with his hand and looked away from his mom.

"Auntie, he is probably having "alone time" don't bother him! You know how teenage boys are!" Arissa called.

His other hand came up to cover his face in mortification of what his cousin was implying. "Andwae!" A string of curses streamed out of his mouth in Korean. He hadn't even been doing anything and he was so embarrassed he couldn't English.

"Oh. Ohhh! Honey. I'm so sorry! I'll leave you to it." He couldn't bring himself to look back at his mother as she left his room but he was sure there was a hint of embarrassment in her exit. He heard his cousin cackle through his door. He was going to get her back for that but he was grateful he wouldn't be bothered.

He huffed a breath and smirked a bit. He dropped one of his hands and the other combed through his messy hair and down his neck. Erin froze with his hand cuffing the back of his neck. Paige always seemed to be touching there lately. It was another weird thing Erin hadn't really noticed until now. Paige's touch was always so hot that he was unsure how he never noticed how often his neck was touched. Erin bit his lip.

"So what? A pack is- is indicative of a cult?" He tried to stop thinking what he was thinking. It was too ridiculous, monster weren't real− except that was the exact opposite of what he told himself after he was attacked. He took in a sudden gulp of air unknowingly triggering a panic attack. Well it wasn't quite a panic attack he was still able to think and breath but he was in a weird head space and suddenly the movies he and Paige had been watching before everything went to crap ran through his mind. One of those movies was The Wolfpack, it was about werewolves. Erin had avoided watching anything the least bit scary since then and monster animals was totally out. He rushed to his lap top and typed "werewolf" into the search bar. He shook his head as he took in a deep breath annoyed with himself for doing it, for even having the idea that it was possible. The first site he clicked on wasn't as stupid as he would have thought. By the fourth website he had found several things that were just straight up ridiculous but others... others not so much. There were a lot more things than Erin wanted to admit, that Paige had in common with some of the things he found. The most obvious one was that physical contact was a way to communicate within wolf packs; werewolf packs were not an exception. The seventh website said it was called "scent marking" and it likened werewolves very closely to wolves. It was weird how knowledgeable the author sounded; it made Erin uncomfortable. He glanced at the lower right of his screen and realized how much time had passed. He gasped exited out of the web browser after clearing his search history and making his way to dinner.

"Ah, I'm sorry Mom! Ari-" He stopped in his tracks when he saw his mom and Arissa talking to Paige in the door way.

Erin's mouth dried up but what really set his fight or flight reflexes off was the man standing directly behind Erin. He seemed to take up the whole of the door way and once inside he seemed to take up all the space in the house including the air Erin tried to breath. Erin stepped back but stumbled and fell into the wall. His eyes jumped from the man, to Erin, and then his cousin and mom. He saw Paige move towards him and in an effort to avoid something, because he knew something dangerous was happening, he ran. To his bedroom would have made too much sense and he ran to his back door and out into the night. The night air rushed into his lungs and he felt better until he realized someone was staring at him. His posture stiffened and slowly he turned around to see the man staring at him. Something about the look he was being given reminded him of that monster from that night and his breath was stolen in a rush of dread. Distantly he was aware that he began shaking and breathing shallowly. He couldn't bring himself to break eye contact with the man so when there was a glint in his eye, one that Erin might have made up but knew he didn't, he was running. He took off as fast as his legs would take him and didn't think twice about the fence surrounding his house. He cleared it not willing to listen to the protest of his back and shoulder.