Wolf's Needs

Chapter Three

Jalyn Baker stepped outside to take out the garbage for two seconds. The sweet smell of his mother's crisp apple cobbler wafted outside with him, and he couldn't wait to get back inside to eat it. He and his father always gobbled it up in record time as if they were trying to find his mother at the bottom of the pan, and now that Mary could pick the apples fresh from the trees by the lake, the cobbler was to die for. It was so deliciously enticing that some of the neighboring-miles away-had mysteriously showed up on their doorsteps just "checking up" on the new farmers in town. "That's so kind of you," Jalyn's mother would say in that sweet southern voice of hers, "While you're here, why don't you stay for dessert." It wasn't a question, and she was NOT taking no for an answer.

She didn't have to worry about it anyways.

They had moved in around six years ago, taking over the farm after Jalyn's grandparents had died in a freak accident. People here in this part of California were nice enough, but he missed his old friends, his old home. And he was more of a city guy, from San Diego, but the outdoors were not so bad either. In fact, as soon as they got here he went to go take a hike around the bottom of the large hill-not quite big enough to be a mountain-and drove the boat around the lake. On the other side of the house, towards the east, a river wrapped around the whole farm on the mountain and lead down to the lake, and a swing hung down from the large apple that stood beside it. He and some new friends he had made had gone swimming there, and the water was actually pretty deep and relaxing.

Now, in the winter, the water was too cold to go swimming in, but he could still boat out there towards the center of the lake and play some tunes on his guitar and just relax.

He could still smell that dessert his mother was famous for making, and it mixed around with the chilly night air that seemed to soak through his dark gray long-sleeve like sweat through someone's pores. He walked around to the back of the house to where a large dumpster was placed and lifted the black lid to dump the garbage bag in.

And froze.

From back here he had prefect view of the lake. The water was still and calm, despite the storm that had rained down here for hours before now. The lake had risen a few inches, hopefully not enough to be alarmed about-the lake was large and Jalyn wasn't really sure if it could cause a minor flood or not-but his father wasn't worried so he didn't fret about it.

A large shape was rested on the shore of the lake, unnervingly still as if some beast was watching him. Was it a bear? No, it wasn't nearly as big as one. Well, what if it was a baby one? Would a mother really allow one to be this far away from her? Another thought slinked it slimy way into his mind that caused him to look around and back away from the lake. What if the mother wasn't far away? He didn't see it, and he was sure that he would instantly know if she were.

So was he safe?

He'd find out soon enough.

In the movies, the main character always walked toward the door that had just opened all by its self, and beyond you could only see a sliver of a vast darkness. And when they finally opened the door, a green slimy hand would reach out and pull them into that darkness and shut the audience out, leaving you wondering what had happened until the screams ring out. And then you never saw that person again until the end and he's drifting around the lake. That's what Jalyn felt like now, only reversed. And he decided that he didn't want to be found dead and half-eaten in a closet.

But the closer he got, he could clearly see that it was a body that had drifted up to the edge of the river. Half of its body was still in the water, and he or she was slim and unconscious. Before he could stop himself, he was running towards the dark lake, which at night looked as if it were just a dark endless pit of emptiness, sort of like a black hole. It was a girl, no older than he, maybe even a few years younger. He dropped down to his knees and scanned her face, which was turned to the side and was laying lightly on the semi-tall grass. Her dark skin looked darker in the pale moonlight, and she must be sick by now if not dead from the frigid winter. It's like forty degrees outside; it had to be freezing in that water. He bent over and grabbed her beneath her shoulders to drag her out of the lake, trying his hardest not to notice how stark naked she was.