Howl

Chapter Nine

CHAPTER NINE
Saturday, September 12th

EVERYTHING ABOUT THE PLACE SAID 'off limits'.

Alex had followed Amara through a door behind the ball room, it lead to a sort of sitting room with stuffed animal heads and hunting guns hanging from the red walls, there was a tiger skin rug and a fire place with red cushioned seats positioned to face it.

He heard a sound like a door closing, and Alex saw red hair just before the door was shut, he ran across the room to the door.

The first thing Alex realised when he opened it was that it was dark, but that didn't matter he ran as fast as he could to the door on the other side of the corridor, paintings hung from the walls but he didn't take his time to admire them, vases with beautiful flowers were placed along the way but he didn't wait to absorb their fresh scents.

Alex opened the door and found himself back in the dining room nothing was different the chairs and the table hadn't shifted, the chandelier was still there but this time a female figure was at the other end of the table, running to the door.

"Hold on. Stop!" Alex said but she kept moving, "Amara... wait."

That seemed to catch her attention. She stopped, her hair coming to rest just above her hips, she didn't face him, she wasn't even breathing hard all that running should have made her tired, it certainly made him tired and he was a regular jogger.

She turned ever so slightly so that he only saw a portion of her face,she had on a sheepish smile, the kind you have when you've been caught, like 'Oh, you got me.'

"Amara..."

"Hey Alex,"
"I don't remember telling you my name," she said with a knowing smile, Alex's heart was beating frantically, had she somehow detected him yesterday or had Sid said something about their meeting.

He realised that he hadn't said his name either when they met at Blue Lake, his arm throbbed like a reopened wound, he unconsciously looked down at it,

"How's your hand holding up?" she asked, she turned fully and walked right up to him holding his hand delicately in hers.
It was just like that first day they met; she had been concerned about him as she was now and he had also been as red as a fresh tomato.

Quickly he looked to his feet then back up at her, this time she was staring directly at him, her eyes were multicoloured like a kaleidoscope, her lips were a subtle pink and her skin was flawless. Her red hair hung around her like a curtain, Amara was impossibly beautiful, more so than every person he had met that night. She said something but he was too stunned to understand,

"Huh"

Amara giggled, "I said your arm, how does it feel,"

"Not bad, just a little pain here and there," he said "Where did you go?"

"What?" Her voice was melodical,

"Sorry, I just meant.." he said blushing again, "I just meant after the attack where did you go? Where you safe?"

"Wow, you worry a lot, and yes I was. I came back here to the mansion."

"You live here?"

She scrunched up her face making a thinking face "You could say that, I stay here most of the time."

Alex ran his hand through his hair, and looked down to where she held onto his hand. She followed his eyes and let go blushing. He took this time to admire her dress, a yellow gown that stopped at her thighs, she wore black, ankle high, boots.
To top it off, her hair was let loose in waves that framed her face perfectly, the dress hugged her curves in all the right places. Elegant and mature. She was perfect.

She smiled and spun on the spot,
"Like what you see?"

"I... Amara I didn't mean to..." he stammered.

She walked over to a seat and sat down, at that moment a bell chimed and the room was flooded with guests from the ball room.

Mark came up from behind him and patted his back, "Ah, Alex good. You're here."

Alex was so confused he just watched as people took seats until Randy walked up to him, "It's dinner time, I thought I told you." he said pushing him towards a seat, he then took the one next to Alex.

Frank sat at the head of the table with Martha to his right and Mark and Chantal to his left. Amara was at the other end, she was talking to another girl about the same age as them.

Alex watched her speak, she was perfect sure but she even managed to make speaking look graceful. Her lips were pink and glossed, the kind that would be good to kiss... Alex shook his head, he really shouldn't be thinking of that. Amara looked over and gave him a genuine smile before going back to her conversation, he immediately became flustered.

The sound of cutlery hitting glass filled the room as Frank Ludrick tapped his knife against his glass. He stopped when everyone had become silent, he was smiling but it was like his presence demanded everyone's undivided attention.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, it's good to see you've all been doing well since the last time we met." I believe we have a guest amongst us, Alex, our local hero and only survivor of the Blue Lake beast."

Alex was sure he was bright red, he stood as the crowd clapped. The clapping dissipated before Alex sat.

"Very soon, we hope he might be joining us at our meetings regularly," this time not everyone clapped, even those that did, looked at him, assessing. Like, him...joining us?

"We would see about that in the near future but for now let us eat."

He almost felt challenged, you don't think I'm good enough? Almost. What did Frank mean by that? He'd only gotten to know them why would they want him to attend their family gatherings. Only because people were focused on him, Alex didn't ask Randy but as the meal went on he succumbed to his curiosity.

"What does your dad mean?"

"Mean by what?" Randy was playing dumb, he was trying to avoid the question.

"Your dad, what did he mean by I'll be joining you guys?" At this point people seemed to be looking at them and Randy refused to address him directly. There was no way the people around could here their conversation because they were practically whispering

"Exactly what he said. Who knows?" He said shrugging his shoulders.

Later, dinner was over and people began to leave, he had to shake hands with everyone all over again apart from one guy who didn't want to.

Sid came by with the black car to pick him up. He said goodbye to the Ludricks and left, he hadn't been able to talk to Amara, she had disappeared after dinner.

In minutes he was back home, his mum asked him about everything that happened and he narrated it to her and his sister.

Sleep came easy that night but it was filled with partial dreams and nightmares. He'd been having a nice dream of Amara and all of a sudden the wolf would come back to finish the job.

~

The next day, he woke up covered in sweat. The spot were the wolf bit him was bleeding, there were scratch marks on his arm...

That had never happened before.
What in the world had the Ludricks done... ?

A/N
Two weeks I think. Sorry for the late update.

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