Night Bound

The Bite

Chapter 5

James woke up with a start when Bryce yelled and swerved his car off-road. Bryce ended up hitting a tree pretty badly and it made James slam his head on the dashboard of the beautiful car. James lurched from the pain and felt blood dripping from his forehead and looked over to see if Bryce was okay only to see his car door open and Bryce nowhere to be seen. James got out of the car and limped over to the road to see if Bryce had somehow jumped out before hitting the tree. But no such luck. Eventually, James got scared and started to head back down the road to see if he could reach civilization looking at his phone he had only been asleep for fifteen minutes so he couldn't be that far from something. As James was walking along the road he heard howling, just like his dreams. He turned in the direction of the noise only to see a bigger and a lot more scary of a beast looming over him. The beast had the same blood-red eyes as the creature in his dream but something told him that this one was a lot less friendly, so James tried to run away, the operative word being tried, his leg was still pretty hurt, it could be broken but James didn't want to check while being chased by what he could only describe as a giant man-like wolf. 

James didn't get very far and was tackled to the ground by the beast, it bared its teeth and dripped its saliva onto James' head. James would have thought his life was over by now when he heard the beast growl out in Bryce's voice: "Jamie boy, you thought I would show up just to watch a movie with you? I hate you! Always with your optimism. It's time someone took you down a peg or two. The next thing James remembered was the beast -that he guessed was Bryce- had clamped his jaws onto his shoulder and torn into the limb making sure to almost rip the limb from his body. James woke up in extreme pain his shoulder was torn to shreds and he had three claw scratches in his right forearm. James tried his best to get up and limp to a rock so he could get his bearings. When he reached a big enough rock he pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Tommy. 

All James said on the phone was: "You were right...I'm sending you my location...help." and he hung up. Tommy raced to get to his green jeep. Once James had hung up, Tommy gave a half-cocked lie to give to his parents so he could leave and save his friend. He ran out of the door and jumped into his jeep. According to James' location, he is in the middle of the woods. "Ahh, James why are you there?" Tommy shook off all of the weird conspiracies that popped into his mind and just started to drive. James was tired, he was in pain, and he just wanted this nightmare to end. James knew all of the things about not closing his eyes after serious trauma but James couldn't help it. He closed his eyes and hoped he could escape to anywhere but here. When James opened his eyes again, however, he was on the floor of the foggy forest. His pain had left him and the trees were silent no howling or gnashing of teeth. James didn't know what this place was but every time he visited he felt more and more at peace. James sat down on the cold ground and just listened to his surroundings. Eventually, James heard a noise coming from behind him so he turned and saw a wolf cub with sea-green eyes just like his own. With his experience so far, James moved away from the wolf cub as if it would hurt him. But when he ran away it ran away as well. The whole encounter was by far the weirdest. But as James sat back down and the beast he saw last night came back out again,  The beast ran up to him and morphed into James' father, and slowly said to James: "I know your confused for right now but you have to realize what is going on with you right now. I don't have enough time, however, your friend is about to wake you up and take you to a hospital. Whatever you do James don't go to a hospital, just go home and take a couple of sick days off from school. I promise everything will make sense soon." With that, the man got back up and said: "This is your destiny, my son use your new gifts for the right purpose. I love you and your mother both." 

The next thing James knew, he was on the ground being shaken by Tommy. "Come on James you can't be dead yet. How am I supposed to ace chemistry without you." James opened his eyes and coughed up some black viscous liquid. Tommy smiled and said: "welcome back to the land of the living." James gave out a strained laugh and coughed out: "Help me up, you loser." Tommy smiled and grabbed hold of James' uninjured shoulder and arm. He then put James in the passenger seat of the jeep. Tommy started to drive back to the town and made a turn to go to the hospital, but James noticed: "We can't go to the hospital dude, they won't help me there as well as they won't believe me when I tell them I was attacked by a man who transformed into a wolf." Tommy looked at James like he had grown seven heads and replied: "What do you mean no hospital? You're bleeding out in my car!" James rolled his eyes and said: "Just take me home so I can just sleep this thing off and I'll probably be 'sick' for a little bit." Tommy shook his head of the thoughts that came to his mind and decided to take James home but after a quick stop at the local pharmacy to get some gauze and bandages. After pulling over, and getting James all fixed up with the bandages and gauze. Tommy took him home and dropped him off. When James got out of the car he looked sickly and looked as if the wind could knock him over. Tommy drove off hoping that James was right in saying that he could fight whatever this was that was eating away at him.