Wolf Force

Chapter 1

Boring, boring, boring.
That's all I could come up with to describe myself. Students were asked by our English teacher to write a 5 paragraph essay about ourselves. I had nothing. My parents were very strict and isolated me from the world. In retaliation, I became a very sneaky child. It wasn't fair to disallow me to have my own life.

I groaned and fell back on the couch. Looking up at the ceiling, I began to wonder how my older sister, Kala, was doing. She hasn't called in at least 2 weeks. She was away at some fancy university and acts like someone she's not. I miss when Kala was home, though. She was my only friend and all I really had.

Just as I was about to retreat back up the stairs, I heard 3 loud knocks on the front door. I rolled my eyes. My parents weren't home and whoever it was obviously wasn't knocking for me. I ignored the knocks and continued to walk towards the stairs. Then the annoying person suddenly knocked 3 times more, this time even harder. This must've been urgent. The beating of my heart had sped up now. I quickly walked to the door and opened it. In front of me was my new neighbor, Darla. She had moved in a few weeks ago and worked at the same company as my Aunt. It's strange though because my Aunt talks about all of her coworkers and she never once mentioned Darla.

Darla had very dry, curly hair that reached the middle of her back. She was a dark skinned woman who always managed to glisten in the sun. She was a bit lanky but well proportioned. I wouldn't call her very tall, but she was slightly tall for a woman.

"Hello, Mr. Mai." Darla smiled widely and extended her hand for me to shake.

"Hi." I said while awkwardly shaking her hand.

"May I come in?" She asked.

I cleared my throat. "Uh, sure." I flashed a quick smile before widening the door so she could step in.

I closed the door behind her and watched her walk over to the couch. What was she doing here? Were my parents supposed to come home early to have a talk with her? I muttered a few swear words under my breath.

"So.. How's school? You're like a sophomore, right?" She said, obviously trying to make small talk.

"School's stressful but fine. And no ma'am, I'm a junior."

She laughed. "Please, just call me Darla. I'm literally 20."

My jaw dropped. "But.. You look, like, 30 or something." I said, trying not to be offensive but failing.

"Nope," Darla shook her head and furrowed her eyebrows. "I'm pretty sure I'm 20."

"Wow." I said in disbelief. Then I realized that I sounded like a dumb person who just told someone who can't even drink that they basically look ancient. "Hey, 30 is still kinda young so it doesn't matter if you.. You know, look that age." I said awkwardly as an attempt to correct myself.

"Thanks. So, how come I never see you leave the house? I only see you drive to school." She asked in a concerned tone.

Why was she worried about my whereabouts? I tried to pretend like this wasn't awkward at all, but I'm failing.

"My parents are uh, sorta strict.. I guess. They don't like when I'm too social. And that brings me to ask, what are you doing here?" I furrowed my eyebrows together, staring at Darla quizzically.

"Oh.. Uh," she began to scratch the back of her head. "I was trying to get to know all of my neighbors. If you want me to leave then I will." She said with a sad facial expression.

A pang of guilt struck me in the heart. I was being unnecessarily rude to this woman while she was being nice. This was my chance to have a friend.

"No, don't go. I'm sorry." I sighed. "I wasn't trying to come off as an assh- a jerk."

Darla grinned at the apology. "You know, I was an isolated kid as well. Usually when our parents isolate us, they have a good reason for it. There's a lot you don't know about yourself yet, youngblood."

"Youngblood?" I laughed. "What is this, a movie about supernatural creatures?"

I opened my mouth to make another statement, but my tongue suddenly went numb. Saliva started to flood out of my mouth. I looked up at Darla who had a concerned expression on her face. My vision blurred up and I grew dizzy. I tried to walk over to Darla, but I tripped over my own feet and fell. I wanted to scream out in agony. What was happening to me?! I tried to fight these weird symptoms. I tried to stand back up, but my knees were weak. I could hardly bend my fingers. It felt like I was being pulled into an imaginary portal. It felt like I had no air to breathe. I weakly placed a hand over my chest, gasping for air.

"D-Darla.." I said in a raspy voice.

Darla hovered over me and grabbed my hand. A tear traveled down her cheek and landed on the tip of my nose. The palm of her hand was so comfortably warm. I tightened my grip around her soft, soothing skin. Then my eyes shut.