Eyes of Gold

Chapter 4

Isaac's POV:

"Are you sure you haven't secretly been practicing like 24/7?" Jared asks me once again.

"I swear, I don't know what happened today," I say, grabbing my bookbag from my locker.

"You don't think it's because of what happened last night, do you?" I shut the door and shush him.

"Firstly, let's keep this a little quieter, I don't need to let the whole swim team know I am going off in the woods getting attacked by wild animals. And secondly, I...I'm not sure."

"I mean you said a lot of weird shit is happening to you today and this is by far the weirdest."

"I don't know, okay? I'm already freaked out as it is, and I think I just need to go back and sleep it off." I sigh.

"Alright buddy, I'll walk you there."

The walk to the dorm building was fairly quiet with a couple of comments from Jared, proposing theories as to what this all meant. My head was spinning with what this could all mean. I mean it was just a few weird, dumb coincidences, right? We soon arrive to the large building that houses the boarding school's students.

"Alright, what's on your mind." Jared turns to me.

"I just...I'm scared. I felt like it wasn't me swimming, like something else was doing the legwork. I don't know how to describe it, but it wasn't me." Jared sets a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"I told you, on Saturday we'll figure it out. Before then, just take it easy." He tries to reassure me.

"Okay, yeah, I can do that." I nod quickly, I give him a quick hug and we head inside. When I get back to the room, Nathan is sitting on his side of the room at his desk, typing furiously away at something.

"Hey Nathan, I'm back from practice," I say as I throw my bag down and hop on my bed.

"How was everything today?" He asks over his shoulder not looking away from his screen.

"It was alright, school just seemed to drag on forever."

"I feel that. I'm going to finish my work at the library, but I have a pizza that I didn't get to so feel free to take as much as you need."

"Aww, thanks man, I hope you have a good study session."

"You know I always do." He nudges my shoulder as he heads out of the dorm.

I lay staring at the ceiling after cleaning up dinner and attempting and failing to do my homework. I look over at the small clock on my nightstand. 12:00 am. Nathan still isn't back yet. I try and will myself to sleep. My mind and body ache for some rest. I feel my eyes slowly start to close, my exhaustion catching up to me. I allow myself to fall into the void of sleep. Suddenly, my eyes spring open and I'm running through the darkened forest. However, I can see, hear and smell everything around me. Nothing is stopping me. The moon is almost full, and the wind passes wonderfully over me. My feet keep hitting the ground as the landscape rushes past me. I've never been so fast. I smell something foreign to me and I stop in my tracks. I look around to find the culprit. My eyes narrow in on a large hulking figure through the tree line. I start taking a step back when the figure looks at me with glowing red eyes. I start to freeze up. It's the thing that bit me. I feel anger boil in me, readying to pounce when everything goes dark.

My eyes slowly open again to stare up at the sunrise above. It's almost peaceful. My eyes wander as I start seeing endless trees surrounding me. I realize that I am lying on the forest floor and quickly get up, looking around panicked. A breeze passes by, and it chills me to my core. I go to hug myself to warm up when I realize I am not wearing a shirt. I look down at myself. I am not wearing anything at all. I am naked in the woods and by the look of the sunrise, I need to get to school.