Souls' Collision | ✔

T W O F O R O N E

~ Chapter Eight ~

Liz staggered through the door, tumbled into the hallway.

As fast as her dizzy mind would allow she turned around and shut the apartment door, locking and re-locking it just to make sure nobody would be able to follow her. Especially him.

Feeling overwhelmed, Liz threw off her coat and hat and drew a few deep breaths. Her shoulder was unnervingly tingly. Perhaps Red had been right when he insisted on her to follow him back inside and take it easy for a second or two.

She'd refused. Of course. How could she possibly calm down knowing werewolves existed? And that one had caught her scent, nonetheless? And she wasn't entirely sure what to do about the situation either since she didn't know why he was following her in the first place. He'd refused to explain -- or, hadn't had much chance to. Liz was terrified she was playing a part in some sacrificial ceremony and wanted to stay as far away from the woods of Bern as possible. Maybe she should move all together.

After all, Red was most likely below her kitchen window right then, watching her. She knew he was. She could feel it. Like chains keeping her body in place, keeping it from exploding -- she'd mistake it for feeling safe if her shoulder wasn't bleeding and her head turning.

"Liz!" Hannah's voice sliced through her mind like a saber. "What's happened?"

Liz shrugged off her hand from her shoulder and began heading for the kitchen. "Do we have a first aid kit?"

"Shit, don't think so," Hannah said while fuzzing around, scared to touch her roommate but also not wanting her to topple over.

"You sure?"

"Yeah," she insisted once again when Liz was sat down. "What's happened to you?"

She was fumbling with what to say when a clear ring interrupted the conversation. Hannah immediately hurried to open the door, completely missing Liz's panicked attempts at stopping her.

Liz cowered back, ready for all hell to break loose. But, surprisingly, Hannah returned to the kitchen without a werewolf in tow.

"What's that?" Liz asked, nodding to Hannah's arms.

Hannah looked as befuddled as her when she held up a small, red box. "A first aid kit. It was just out in the hall. Did you order it or something?"

Liz could hardly believe her eyes. Just to be sure she blinked some moisture into them. Then turned her gaze out the window.

She couldn't see him. But her back tingled with the promise of his presence.

"Whatever," she mumbled and clumsily pulled the much too thin curtains closed. "Just patch me up, please."

×

Class was boring.

Everything seemed pretty boring after learning the existence of werewolves — of Red.

Liz tapped her pen against the book spread out in front of her while the professor a few rows below her talked avidly about Econ. She could tell he was passionate and wanted to humor him — after all, it was her first time in the class — but couldn't bring herself to. All she could manage to wonder was if they'd really go through all 546 pages of the book.

And then her mind wandered back to werewolves.

She'd done some research the past week. Found a few articles. Most were the result of crazies having access to a laptop but some seemed more legit; she'd read one where the author claimed most werewolves performed rituals each full moon where they sacrificed something to the goddess of the moon. Mostly hares or deers but also, in the more orthodox packs, humans.

The thought was terrifying.

"Hey!" The girl in front of her had turned around, gave a nasty glare. "Would you shut up already? Some of us are trying to learn."

A few students scattered around her let out agreeing mumbles.

Liz stopped her tapping and gave a sweet smile, rewarded with an irritated eye-roll.

As the girl turned around, she took the opportunity to flip the back of her head off.

"That's not really nice, is it?"

The voice belonged to the guy next to her delivering a cute smile. He raised a suggestive eyebrow. His eyes grazed over to the girl. Liz immediately felt embarassed. She put some hair behind her ear and delivered a tight smile before returning to her book.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

"Are you listening to anything he's saying?" the boy persisted, lowered his head a little.

Liz sighed and leant back, grimacing. "Not for the last ten minutes. God. It's that obvious?"

"No, I just had to know if I could copy your notes because... well, it's a bit hard to concentrate." He moved his arm to show a notebook as blank as hers.

Liz chuckled. Then lowered her head too. "I feel so bad but, I don't know — I've got a lot of things on my mind."

"Me too," he said with a coy smile.

Liz paused for a second as the professor jotted something down on the whiteboard, then released a breath as he picked up the subject. She kept an eye on the girl in front. "And what's that?"

"Nah, not much — just this cute girl next to me. Haven't been able to focus on much else than her."

She scoffed, leant back in her seat and picked up her pencil again. "Yeah, okay."

"What?" he laughed.

"Nothing. I'm just not interested."

"In what? Dinner?"

"A relationship."

"You're dating someone," he concluded.

"No, I'm not," Liz argued faster than she had meant to. She cleared her throat. "I'm not."

"Then what's wrong? I mean, it's Friday. Know what that means."

Liz shook her head.

"Two for one tacos at the UNI bar in town! Come on, how can you not know that?"

"I'm new... to Bern in general. Moved here from the Big Apple."

He let out a low whistle, making the professor stumble on his words. "That's pretty cool. But that means you need to learn the ropes. Who better than a born and raised Berniac?"

Liz couldn't help but laugh. "Berniac? Christ. What's your real name?"

"Chris Baldwin," he answered with an, unfortunately, charming grin. "You?"

"Liz Samson. And you have a point."

Chris seemed happy. He nodded, satisfied. "So tacos then? Tonight."

"Yeah. You're paying then?"

He seemed a little caught off-guard.

"I'm kidding! And I have to go."

"Why?"

She gave him an odd look. "Because class is over."

Chris blinked, looked around and realized she was right. He'd been paying too much attention to her to notice the people that had begun clearing. He closed his books with a toasty face, avoiding Liz's amused grin. "So," he drawled. "I'm mortified. And I'm gonna go before I embarrass myself even more. But tonight, alright?"

Liz watched his receeding back with a strange feeling in her gut. She couldn't decide if she liked it or not but one thing was for certain...

She had a date tonight.

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