X-tras

Chapter 2: William

I get up and start walking again. As I walk, I trip a couple of times, thus making my dress dirty in various places and my hair a bit of a mess. I had to remove my hand from my head so I could regain my balance. As I put my hand on the nearest tree to help myself off the green patchy grass, I notice that my hand is covered in dry blood. "At least it stopped bleeding."

I continue to follow the flowing stream to my left. What seems like an hour later, I walk into a clearing. There's a lake, a farm house, and a barn next to the lake.

I walk only a few steps till a young man walks out from behind the barn with a gun and a cigarette hanging from his mouth.

"What are ya doin' here?", He questions.

I'm silent. I don't know what to say. I'm not so sure myself.

"Well? Ya gunna answer me?"

"I'm lost", is all I can manage. My throat burns and I realize I'm probably dehydrated. His brows knit together. I wonder what he thinks of me. A lost girl in a formal dress wondering around the woods with her blonde, matted hair everywhere. He must think I'm crazy and just escaped the asylum. Well, for all I know that could be right.

"Well, do ya need anything, or are ya gunna leave me alone?" How rude. I said I was lost and he practically told me to leave.

"Um, I said I was lost. Are you going to help me or not?"

It takes him a while to respond. He puts his gun in the holster strapped to his pants and gives me a look I don't quite understand. He walks up to me and looks me up and down. A hint of a smirk on his face. He picks my dress up off the floor and sees that I'm barefoot. He chuckles for a moment at that. He walks slowly around me, still looking at me. Judging me. He brushes some hair off of my shoulder. He gasps which probably means he saw the trail of dried blood in my hair. He grabs my wrist, the one with the strange writing on it, and starts pulling me towards his house.

He swings the door open and rushes into the kitchen.

"Take-a-squat on the couch in the living room." I do just as he says.

"Here", he hands me a piece of bread and a glass of water. It tastes so good in my mouth. "It seems ya got a little bang on ya head. What did ya do to it?" I watch him as he washes some dirt off his hands. He's not a bad looking guy. His broad shoulders show that he has done much work in his days. His tight fitting shirt shows that off nicely. He must spend many days in the sun based on his evenly toned tan. His hair fans out and moves on top of his head as he moves to grab a wash cloth off of the stove handle. His hair color is the perfect shade of hazelnut brown. He's quite impressing to look at. It makes you wonder if he was born like this. This attractive and... I have to shake my head some to get me thinking straight. I realize soon after that that wasn't a good idea. A sharp pain ran through my head and I wince at the pain. He looks over his shoulder to see if I'm alright. He goes back to what he was doing at the sink.

I swallow the last piece of bread before I speak. "I don't know. I woke up in the woods and it was there."

"That's a weird story." He walks up to me with a wash cloth in his hand. "Can ya move to this chair here?" He pulls up one of the wooden bar stools by his table. I move there and sit down. I feel awkward.

He goes around behind me and I feel his warm wash cloth on the back of my head, right were it hurts. The warmth feels good. He is actually pretty nice compared to the first impression he gave me. He fed me and now he is tending to my wound.

"So ya say ya lost, huh? What's ya name? I'm William." He starts rubbing the washcloth over the wound to get some of the blood off my hair.

"I'm actually not quite sure." The rubbing stops. "I woke up in the woods and I can't remember anything." I look at my wrist and realize that maybe I should ask him what it means. But he notices before I can say anything.

"What's that on ya wrist?" A bit of suspicion is in his voice.

"I don't know. That was there when I woke up. I was just about to ask you if-" I'm interrupted by him coming to my side and lifting my right wrist with his warm, calloused hands.

"Bea Harper..."

"Do you know who that is?" I sit up in the stool waiting for him to say something.

"It's you, but..." He goes over to the calendar on his wall and looks for something. He finds it. "How long ago did you wake up?"

"Um, about, maybe, 6-7 hours ago. Why? Is something wrong?"

"That was yesterday..." He mumbles. He's not answering me.

"What was?"

He looks me up and down again as he's leaning up against his fridge, but this time with a different look on his face. He is biting is lip like something was wrong. I hate being left in the dark.

"What?! Are you going to tell me anything? You can't keep me out of this." I'm in front of him now. I am pretty close too. I can barely feel his heavy breath on my face. "Please?"

"Turn around please." I slowly turn around. He gently lifts my tangled hair with his hand, brushing lightly on my back.

"Great, just great..." He let my hair fall back on my back. He walks away from me and looks out the only window in the room. He pulls his gun back out of his holster and shuts the blinds. He then turns off the lights and tells me to get down. I get behind his bar counter as he sits on the old recliner that faces the front door.

"What's wrong?" I ask as I poke my head out from behind the bar. "Or are you not going to tell me anything?"

"It's not a big deal."

"Well obviously it is if your acting this way."

"Your an X-tra."

"Excuse me?"

"An X-tra. Ya have an X on the back of your neck. It means your an X-tra."

I'm confused. What in the world is that.

He must have noticed the look on my face.

"Ya were supposed to die yesterday."