Almost Full

The Stranger

  I awoke with a thick sweat all over my body, relief sweeping through me. I was safe. Nothing had happened to me. Except that it had. I sat up on a strange bed, and in a strange house. I went to rub the fog out of my eyes, but I was stopped short by a sharp pain in my shoulder. A quiet groan escaped me as I looked down to see that it had been patched up tight, and all the way around.

  "Oh hey," a brown haired woman walked in. "You're awake. Awesome." She looked to be in her early thirties, and sat down on a stool next to the bed. It wasn't a real bed, more a futon unfolded from her living room couch.

  "Here, have some chocolate," she handed me a piece.

  "What, is it supposed to calm me down?" I asked, a little sarcastically.

  "Well Harry, it's supposed to taste good, but yeah, sure."

  I gave in and took the piece of chocolate. I was kind of suspicious but man was I hungry too.

  "So," she started, "what's your name..?"

  "Uhm... Alan," I answered, still chewing the chocolate.

  "Alright Alan, so- what happened to you last night? It looked like a bite, but I want you to tell me exactly what it was so I don't have to send you to the hospital or anything like that."

  It took me a moment to think about my answer. It was definitely some kind of wolf breed, but I knew she wouldn't believe me. Wolves had never turned up around here.

  "It was just some wild dog, looking for food I guess."

  She looked like she was trying not to laugh. "You're saying a dog did this to you?"

  "Hey, it was a big dog okay? It was just hungry. And it didn't have rabies or anything."

  She didn't look convinced, but seemed to take it anyway. "Fine Alan, I won't question you anymore, 'cause believe me buddy, I know what that's like. My dad could think up questions for anything. Difficult ones too," she seemed to get lost in thought for just a second, but then brought her attention back to me. "Can you get up?"

  "Yeah, I think I'll be alright," I waved her off a bit as I swung my legs off the side of the futon. I seemed to be fine enough. "Yeah, I'm good," I finally said. "You got my clothes?"

  "Uh... yes. But. Not sure you're gonna want 'em back," she held up my jacket and t-shirt, which were both soaked with blood, and had gigantic holes in them. I stared in disbelief. "Yeah... on second thought, you can keep those. I don't wanna have to explain this to my parents."

  "You're not going to tell them?" she asked, but didn't seem surprised.

  "My mom worries too much, and I don't think this would exactly help anything."

  She didn't answer but had a been-there-done-that expression on her face. "The bite, on your shoulder. It was pretty deep. Lucky your collarbone didn't break. That 'dog' must have had some jaw power," she remarked, "I'd recommend no sports or anything demanding like that for a while."

  "Well, you don't have to worry about that. I've never really been into sports."

  Curiosity trickled into her expression. "Oh yeah? Why's that?"

  "Just wasn't ever any good at 'em. I've tried a few times, and if I wasn't cut from the team first, other players would practically eat me alive."

  She didn't say anything, so there was an awkward silence for a moment until I finally spoke up again. "So, what's the time?"

  She checked her wristwatch. "A quarter till seven."

  "Sweet, so I can go home, get ready, and still get to school on time."

  She grabbed me by the shoulder, which made me wince a bit. "Sorry," she said, letting go and grabbing my other shoulder instead. "Alan, are you sure it was just some dog?"

  I had a conflict in my mind during those next few seconds. She seemed particularly worried about what exactly had attacked me the night before, and I was a terrible liar.

  "Does it matter? Look, I'm fine. It was nothing. It even ran away immediately afterward," I tried to convince her.

  "I don't know," she said, like I had struck a blow at her. "It's just... some things are more than what they seem..." she trailed off. I don't know why I didn't listen to her. Yes she was a stranger, but she was trying to help, and the least I could have done was tell her the truth. But I didn't.

  "Listen, I've got to get back home, and I appreciate everything you did for me, I really do, but I have two brothers at home alone. I need to make sure everything's okay," I said, wanting to get away from the subject. She seemed to understand and reached down to grab something at her feet. "Okay, well I've got a shirt here that you can take," she handed it to me. "It's my husband's. He won't even notice it's gone."

  I looked at it a little nervously, but decided to take it anyway. "Uh... yeah, okay. Thanks."

  "No problem."

  When I walked out the door, she came out after me to say something else. "Hey, I assume you live close, yes?"

  The wind was picking up so we had to practically yell at each other to hear. "Yeah, just a couple streets down, I think."

  She nodded in response, then added, "If anything... weird like this comes up again, you know where to find me. I'll help you."

  "What do you mean?"

  "You'll know," she nodded at me again before going back inside and closing her front door.