The Days Before 16

Chapter 5

Hey guys, how's it going??
Well, anywho...
Wednesday, 3 December 2014

Chapter 5-
All of a sudden I heard someone yell 'Clear' and then felt something cold and hard on my chest, then it electrocuted me. I felt my chest arch and my arms lift into the air, then fall. I felt the electricity run through my body before it happened again. Was it real? And all I could think about was that I may be a... werewolf. My eyes snapped open and I bolted upright. I heard gasps and people shouting, "Oh my God! Willow? Willow? Are you ok? Stay calm! Don't try to move! You'll be alright!"
"Where's Todd?" I whispered. It was the only thing I could think about. They were all silent for a second, and then a nurse said, "I'm sorry, but he thought you were dead so he left." Dead? Why would he think that?
"Where did he go?" I questioned the nurses and doctor. Wait nurses and a doctor? I'm in the hospital again. I groaned internally.
"I'm not sure, but he was headed to the forest- the one outside of town." A different nurse said. I ripped the tubes out- again. Carefully of course making sure I don't hurt myself.
"What are you doing?" different nurses screamed hysterically. "You can't leave yet! You were literally dead for twenty minutes!" I froze in the act of pulling the last tube out. Twenty minutes. For twenty minutes I was... dead. The nurses tried to hold me down when I went to jump out of bed, but I surprised them and got free. I surprised myself as well. I just got free of six nurses and a doctor. As soon as I was out the front doors, I started running toward the forest, which was right next to the hospital of course. When I reached the edge of the forest I noticed that I was shaking. I skidded to a holt and felt my face go white. I watched my hand shake for a moment. What was happening to me? Why now? I had a feeling it could be because of my birthday coming up, but why did I feel that way?

Was the dream real? Was I turning into a werewolf? What about Todd? Did he know? What if he was hiding because he didn't know what was happening? I started running, running faster every time my feet touched the ground. Then I was in the scene from the dream. I was in the forest, I was shaking and I was scared.

I found him on a trail, walking absentmindedly. He had his hands in his pockets and had his head down. Was he just going to leave? Didn't he think maybe I could be revived- that I wasn't dead for real?
"Todd? Todd! Where are you going? How could you leave me in a hospital? You know I hate hospitals." I yelled at him. He stopped and turned around; his eyes were red and puffy from crying.
"Ah. I knew I was dreaming- seeing, hearing you." He said as if he was in a dream. He started to turn back around as if he couldn't bear to even see an image of me.
"What? No, no, no you're not dreaming! Look! Look I'm here! I'm alive!" How could I make him see? Oh I got it! I ran to him and knocked him to the ground, I tackled him footy style. Man I must be strong to bring him down. That or he was surprised and lost his balance. He blinked and tears ran down his face.
"Willow? Is that you- the real you?" he whispered like he didn't want himself to hope.
"Duh. Who else would it be?" I said. "Now you have to answer my questions." His lips slightly curved upwards as he knew what I'd ask him. We were so close and that's why it hurt so much that he left me at the hospital.
"Questions? Oh no." he said and my lips curved upwards as well. He continued, "Let me guess- 'how could you leave me in the hospital? You know how much I hate them!' and 'where are you going?'- am I right?" he asked. We were sitting up. When did that happen? I sighed. It was strange, I'd just been revived from death and we were having a joke. Man, we're messed up. I didn't feel different though. People who have near-death experiences always say they feel different, like a new person, but I don't, I feel like me, strange.
"You know me too well. Answer the questions."
"Well you were literally dead for twenty minutes and I couldn't stand it. Knowing that I had lost you-so I left. I was going to go leave, actually." He mumbled the last part. Just because I was dead he was going to leave? Leave? For real? He was just going to leave home? His friends? His life? No. I was off the ground in seconds. I wasn't facing him. I was shaking, shaking from rage. I turned around. I didn't care anymore because I'd figured it out. Todd already knew what he was. That's why he was the way he was when it came to me. Why he was so nice and caring and loving. He didn't want me to know. How could he keep this from me? It wouldn't have changed the way I looked at him. Not one bit. This is the bigger betrayal. This is the ultimate betrayal. He thought keeping that letter a secret was bad but this is ten times worse. But I had to be sure.
"Is it true?" I said accusingly.
"What?" he asked confused but I was sure he was lying to make it seem like he didn't know what I was talking about. Coward, I thought.
"Is it why you loved me that little bit more? Because you thought I'd hate you or worse- I'd be like you?" I was shaking so hard I couldn't see straight, my eye sight wavered so much that I could see the trees around us shaking like there was this really big wind. I couldn't see Todd properly, I could only see his outline but that wavered too.
"I'm human. Always have been. Didn't you like me caring for you that little bit more? You could have asked me to stop!" he yelled. He was shaking too, harder than me. Why would he say that if it wasn't true? No one says 'I'm human. Always have been' if they actually weren't. It's something a non-human thing would say. I saw a picture of me in my mind. In the picture I jumped into the air and exploded into all my wolf-self-glory.

So that's what I did. I looked Todd right in the eyes then turned on my heel and ran about two metres from where we stood and jumped into the air. I thought about becoming a wolf. There was the ripping sound, and then I was a wolf. I was breathing heavily and I was still shaking from the rage I felt toward my only brother. I turned to face Todd only to gaze at his white face.
"No! No! It was only supposed to be me! Me! That's what you said! You lied to me!" he yelled at the sky. His face crumbled in defeat, knowing he had to tell me the truth. "Ok. Ok. What you said was true. I didn't want you to know. Yes, I did care that little bit more about you because I thought if you found out you wouldn't love me anymore." He mumbled; his face looking pained and he dropped back to the ground. I remembered in the 'dream' when you changed back, you had no clothes on.

I looked around then ran into the trees, just far enough so Todd couldn't see. I stood on my back feet and I literally felt the change from wolf to human. I looked down. Hands, feet, fingers and toes. But where were my clothes? Literally. They weren't there. So obviously when you change back their not sitting there in a nice pile next to you. This is so embarrassing, I thought as I started to try to cover myself up with my arms. I hope no one's decided to take a nice peaceful walk in this part of the woods today. We'd both be scared for life.
"Your clothes are out here." Todd chuckled, amused. "They're at the start of the trees where you ran in." he continued.
"Oh um. Thanks. Can you turn away please?" I asked embarrassed. His chuckling got louder and turned into laughter.
"You need to get a leg-ban and tie it to your leg. You can tie your clothes to it so you don't forget them. Or when we leave home you just change there and don't worry about them." He suggested.
"Ok. Wait you think I'll be helping you with patrol?"
"Of course." He said. This time I laughed.

After I was dressed, I walked out of the trees and into the clearing. Todd looked over when he heard my feet touching the ground. Werewolf hearing, nice. Now I can hear what people are saying from a distance. I've always wanted to do that.
"Are you ok?" I asked him.
"I guess so." He said as I sat down next to him and leaned into him.
"It's going to be ok." I said reassuringly. Well I hope it would be.
"I'm not so sure." he replied back. What could stop it being ok?
"What? Why not?"
"The intruder at home. School. You have to adjust."
"Adjust?" I said in disbelief. What was there to adjust to? It sounded funny.
"If someone annoys you or makes you mad, you gotta calm down. Fast. You don't want anyone to know what you are."
"I don't think that will be a problem... unless you annoy me."- I got a laugh for that-"What if I do get mad? What do I do?"
"Just think of something that calms you down and walk away from the problem. If that doesn't work walk away and find me."
"Ok." It was strange because we didn't go near each other at school. I felt better. That weird bad mood was gone and I felt as if I was freed from a cage. I felt exactly like I did in the vision when I was in the hospital. "Let's go home." I continued. We started walking back toward the hospital parking lot. It was nice and quiet. The sun was setting and it looked amazing. All the blues and pinks and oranges just lit up the sky. There was Todd's black Ute and we hopped inside. He put it in reverse and reversed out of the park and left the parking lot. I hope I won't be back here again soon but I knew I would be with all this weird stuff happening, I thought as I watched the hospital get smaller and smaller in the mirror on my side. Who slammed me into the floor? Who was leaving those drawings for me? What did they want? Just to scare me or actually hurt me? Well they wouldn't have slammed you into the floor and killed you if they didn't want to hurt you, the little voice in my head said. Todd and I didn't speak the entire ride home.