Wolf

Old Rivals

Chapter 6

            The sound of a howl woke me up. I opened my eyes and tried to adjust to the darkness. It was pitched black with nothing but a slim moon light. Wiping my eyes to help them adjust, I could’ve sworn I saw something move in my arm. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I grabbed my phone and searched quickly for the flashlight. There was a wolf with black hair in my room.

            I woke up for the second time, but this time it was for real. Outside my window was gloomy and dark. Rain clouds hovered over the house. The outside was depressing for it to be a Saturday. I stared at the ceiling and thought about my life ever since I moved to Schenectady. I learned that werewolves were real and school stuff, but other than that, nothing else. My mind started to think about Raleigh, I was going to try to avoid him as much as I could. There was no way I was going near a werewolf. Nope, I was not going to get myself killed. I prayed that he would stay away from me but then I reminded myself that life never worked out the way people wanted it to. It was good at throwing curveballs though, I’ll give it that. I picked up my phone and unlocked the screen, I had a text. Sitting up, I slid the lock screen and opened the message, it was from Raleigh. “Speaking of curveball,” I said to myself. It was a simple text, asking what I was doing today. I locked the phone and ignored the text; he was way too dangerous for my liking. The occasional bad boy was nice, but not killer status. As I got up out of my bed, there was a knock on my door. “Yes?” My grandfather stepped into the bedroom.

            “Elle, what are you doing today?” he asked, sitting on my bed. I walked over to my closet and started making an outfit for myself.

            “I’m not doing anything actually,” I replied. He smiled and clapped his hands together.

            “Wonderful! We should do something today!” I looked at him and crossed my arms. “Oh don’t give me that look, you look like your mother!” I laughed and sat on the bed in front of him.

            “What did you have in mind?”

            “I know how much you love nature, so let’s go on one of the trails.” I sat and pondered it for a minute. It did look like it was going to rain but that was the reason I had a rain jacket and boots.

            “Okay, let’s do it.”

            “Alright, I’ll let you get dressed.” He got up and left the room. I quickly dressed, not forgetting my rain jacket and phone. When I arrived downstairs I noticed the house was empty and my grandfather was waiting for me at the door. He was dressed in overalls and boots.

            “You look like a farmer,” I joked. He laughed and opened the door. We climbed into his pickup truck and headed into town.

            “I just gotta make a stop.” He pulled into a convenience store and exited the truck. As he was in there, I started to look around. There were people walking around, families sitting at cafes, the usual. Still, with all these people around, I felt on edge. What if they were werewolves? I kept hoping I wouldn’t see Raleigh, because if I did, I honestly think I would pass out. Seeing him transform from the boy I know into a killing monster, it was frightening. My foot started to tap while I was sitting in the truck, my grandfather just could not move faster. I didn’t want to rush him, but being out in the open like this made me extremely fearful. About a few seconds later to my relief my grandfather came out carrying two bottles of Arizona tea. He climbed into the truck and handed me the bottle, it was my favorite, pomegranate. We pulled out of the parking lot and then started on our way to the park. About halfway there it started to look familiar to me. I then realized that this was the trail I saw Raleigh transform. I swallowed a gulp as we pulled into the parking lot. The tire tracks from my bike were still fresh, so was the imprint in the dirt.