The Boy Next Door

Chapter Eighteen

Ten years later.

I'm alone now.

Now it's just the loner, Aaron Derek Thomas. The rest of the pack died off. Surprisingly, Jason died of a surprise attack. The ambushers were two middle aged bears. I still can see his limbs and meat everywhere.

Jamie got a disease. Hers was rare and didn't have a cure.

Wolf left and didn't return at all after Jamie died. I later found his body, half eaten and drowned in the creek.

Alyssa died as she was walking back to camp. A bee stung her, turned out she was deathly allergic.

Me. I left for the city. Now I work as a Psychologist. My wife and I have two kids. She is amazing. Turns out, she is a writer. She works with the New York Times. Our life isn't all good, but we manage in as a small apartment.

I awoke from my dream. I sit up and look around. Everyone is still here. Jason, Jamie, Wolf, Alyssa. Good. I look at the sky and see its just turning gray.

I guess my dream meant something. I guess I'm going to have kids and a wife. Hopefully no one will have to die to achieve that goal. I'll protect them with everything I've got.

I get up and start looking for food. I walk down to the creek and gather healing herbs. I kill three rabbits with my bow. On the walk back to camp, I hear a neigh. It sounded desperate. I crouch and half run half crawl towards it. I crouch behind a tree. Looking past it I see a horse, four wolves, and one dead man. I take out my bow, still crouching I shoot one dead. I shoot another in the head as he turns towards me. I shoot the next in the chest as he runs away. The last one I leave alone. The horse lays down, bleeding heavily from his side. I walk slowly towards it, putting my bow away so he won't be scared. Even laying down he's huge.

I take the man's money and arrows first since he's two feet away from the horse. I slowly walk towards the horse now. He is breathing heavily and sweating badly. His dark brown coat is blood stained. I swiftly take my shirt off and press it to his wound. Luckily it isn't deep nor wide. He bites at my hand as I get too close to his face. He makes a growling sound. A warning. I growl back, making him look worried. He quickly comes back with a bite on my arm. I screech and slap his nose. He lets go only to swing his head at my leg, making me fall. I take his muzzle and jerk it so he's looking into my eyes. I put all my anger into my eyes, showing him I'm boss. I'm in control. He cowers.

I take his reign and help him stand. I use my rope to tie my shirt to the wound, wrapping the rope around his middle. Putting my shoulder against his side a few inches away from the bite, I lead him to the cave.

I never knew horses were this fucking heavy. I don't know how their skinny legs can hold this much weight. Damn. At least I'm not carrying all of his weight.

We make it back. I help him lay down as Alyssa and Jason come running towards me.

"Where did you get him?!"

"Some wolves were attacking him. I took him home because his owner is dead. So now we have a horse."

Jason walks right up to him.

"Jason, don't!"

Too late, he reaches the horse and touches its head. The damned horse didn't even flinch, just looked into Jason's eyes and made a happy sound. I never knew he was good with horses. I watch dumbfounded as Jason pats his head and neck. The horse nuzzles his hand. Alyssa and I go into the cave and get healing supplies.

"Did you know he was good with horses?" I ask her.

"I barely know him, but anyone can earn a horse's trust."

I nod.

...

I lay against the horse's side, his good side. I'm half asleep as Aaron makes dinner. I'm glad he got this horse. He's nice. Aaron told me the horse was mean to him, why wasn't he mean to me? I've never met a real horse. I never knew they were this huge, the books made them look small.

I grunt at Jamie. She stops trying to pet the horse and sits in front of me. She's big, like huge. Bigger than me when she's on two legs. She's very strong. Very strong. I'm glad she's gentle or her hugs would've killed me ages ago.

Wolf comes over and lays behind Jamie. The horse is wary of him. I guess it's because he was attacked by wolves. I was attacked by a woman and I'm not scared of women. I guess it's because I know it was just Mother who was mean.

I pat the horse's side and snuggle into him until my head is on his back. I fall asleep like that.

I wake to something moving under my body. I look down and see a horse. Oh yeah, Aaron, horse, wound. Okay got it.

I sit up and check his wound. It isn't bleeding anymore. Good. I take the shirt off of him and put more wet herbs on him. He wakes from the coldness of it. I calm him quickly before he wakes everyone.

After I clean his wound I take Wolf and Jamie out to hunt. We caught three rabbits before going home. All in all it was a good day.

...

Sorry for the late update, but at least I've got the WiFi to work. I'm updating now. Yay!

I'm sorry that it's sucky and all, I haven't written in almost three months I think. It's been a while. They'll get better though. Bear with meh.