Through Thick and Thin

The Beginning

EMMETT

Wednesday, 4:45 pm

    I was walking home from school after detention, I had my headphones in so I couldn't hear the noise from the cars as they flew by. I hugged my hoodie closer to my body to shut out the cold air. "God it's freezing out here!" I complained aloud, though there wasn't anyone around to hear it. I felt my cheeks burn from the wind striking my face, I breath on my hands in an effort to warm my fingers. Today was quiet, it felt more off then most days and I hadn't seen anyone really walking around. I sigh and quit that boring, and slightly paranoid, train of though while I was ahead of myself. It's probably due to the cold. 

   It's when I'm crossing the street towards the back roads that lead to my neighborhood, that I heard an ear piercing scream. A scream so loud it broke through the loud music pounding in my headphones, I immediately turn around to face the direction of the scream. Ripping my headphones out of my ears I started running towards the loud sounds by instinct, What the hell is going on! Is someone being attacked!? I swear if its some creep assaulting someone I'm gonna send him to the hospital. I'm sick of the sickos around here! 

    I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, hoping that the direction was a correct one. My feet become numb as the scream repeated again, but only got louder. I round a corner to see the source of the scream. There on the ground was a woman, maybe in her mid-twenties, covered in blood as she cried out for help again while a swaying man hovered over her. I stomped over full of adrenaline from my run and yanked the guy off of her, the man snarled at me. His face a sickly gray color, his eyes were bleeding and the rest of his face was covered in a thick layer of both fresh and old blood. The distorted man staggered toward me, reaching for my neck as he got closer. I swung my arm hitting him in the side of the head, knocking him to the ground. He groaned, but didn't seem to be in any pain.  He slowly got up again. 

     I sneak a glance at the woman, she was shaken but didn't seem to be in shock. I  toss her my phone, "Call 911!" The guy came back over and reached out once again, "Man, this guy just doesn't know when to quit does he?" I curse to myself as I swung once more. He stepped back so he wouldn't fall. He didn't say anything, the man seemed to be in a strange daze. The sound of sirens could be heard in the distance, the guy looked where the sirens were coming from and started walking in that direction. To say I was confused would be an understatement. A whimper came from the woman's direction, I rushed over and slid to my knees as I took off my hoodie. Finally I was able to get a good look at the damage done. The woman's arm and shoulder were covered in marks and blood.

"What's your name miss?" I ask to distract her from the pain.

"L-Linda... yours?"

"Emmett, don't worry your gonna be fine- the ambulance is coming. Can you tell me what happened?" I lift up one of her arms to inspect the state of her cuts. Some of them were pretty deep and still bleeding, I'd need to use my hoodie to stop it.

"Well...I was walking home and this-this guy comes out of nowhere, and at first I thought he was just some drunk dude or something, but then he just-ju-attacked me out of nowhere." Linda whispered shakily, clearly trying to hold herself together and not panic. "The weirdest part was that he didn't threaten me or-or talk-or even ask for money..."

"Wait, what? Then how did this happen?" I asked, gesturing to the deep cuts and indents on her arm and shoulder. They weren't knife marks, I knew what those looked like due to the rough environment of my neighborhood. 

 "He just...he just bit me! Bit me? Yea-He bit my arm and just...he just..." She started to explain, but was both in disbelief and confusion. She glanced at her arm to confirm what she knew had happened. I could see her gag and hold the urge to vomit, it wasn't a pretty sight. "He licked at them after biting into my arm..." Linda winced and brought in a sharp breath as I applied more pressure on her wounds in hopes of stopping the bleeding.

I just blinked at her, what she just said finally registering in my brain. "What the hell!?" Complete confusion being my state of mind. I probably could've said something else, but what do you really say after hearing about that? Why someone would just bite into some random woman out of the blue like she was an apple? Was this completely random? Was there more to this?  We stayed silent after that, the only sound filling the silence was Linda's whimpers and my occasonal cursing.

    Once the ambulance got there, the paramedics jumped out and loaded Linda into the vehicle for inspection, only asking her simple questions about what had happened. Some cops questioned me on the ordeal and I told them the whole story. It flew by so quickly, it was a blur really. If the cops had been as shocked as me and Linda were, they didn't show it. The ambulance drove away, but not before giving my now bloodied hoodie back. How curtious.

Great, just what I wanted, a hoodie covered in blood when it's fifteen degrees out. I just love wednesdays. She even got my phone covered in blood! Meh, oh well.

   The rest of the way home was a daze as well. I remember walking slowly and brooding over the stained jacket, how the cold didn't really bother me as much, yet I still felt shivers down my spine. Thoughts on what had happened were blurred, but unfortunately they filled my ever breath. I remember being full of thoughts but I couldn't focus on a single individual one. It was weird, but nothing to be so worried about. It was just a simple perverted kinky guy attacking an innocent right? But this other, more erie side of my brain started to debate with me.

Then why was he bleeding everywhere?

"Maybe she'd defended herself before I got there."

Why was he grey and so liveless?

"Drugs?"

Why just bite her so aggressively without any motive?

"Maybe it's his kink, he could just be a pervert."

Why wasn't he effected by my attacks, he didn't seem to feel anything. 

"He could've been drunk or high and just didn't feel it."

Why didn't he respond, talk or acknowledge the situation?

"Maybe he was a mental patient."

Why did he just wander off towards the sirens instead of away?

"I don't know."

Why are you so shaken then?

"I don't know."

I managed to shrug off my unreadable cluster of thoughts and I put the headphones back in, blasting the music in an effort to tune myself out. A returning sense of paranoia hit and I just ran the rest of the way home. Just focus on breathing and running, stop thinking about it. The winds attacks and cold do their worst, but don't affect me with adrenaline and music pumping me up. I just go where my feet take me and I don't worry about anything else.

The neighborhood was quiet. Though I wouldn't have been able to hear anyone due to my music, I know I didn't have to check. I got back to my house and already knew that my dad wasn't home, then again he never is. Slowly I walk to the back of the house, to my room in all it's small and humble glory. I colapse on my bed and call my best friend, Warren, to tell him everything that had just happened.