The Days Before 16

Chapter 8

Wednesday, 7 January 2015

Chapter 8-
I must have fallen asleep because I was under the covers of my bed, all warm. How did I get under them? I sat up too fast because I felt dizzy once I was upright. I looked around and saw that Todd was still asleep on the floor. The clock on the bedside table showed in big, blue numbers that it was seven in the morning. I have two choices, I thought. The first one being to roll over and pretend that I never saw the time or wake Todd up and get ready for school being Wednesday and all. He'd kill me if I just let him sleep on a school day. I got out of bed, knelt down and shook him gently. I had to shake him three times before he woke up- partly.
"What? What?" He was so tried because of patrol, which I should start helping him with now that I knew about it. I had made my decision.
"Nothing. Go back to sleep." He didn't need me to tell him, he had already fallen back asleep. Oh crap. An envelope caught my eye. It was under Todd's blanket, just the corner on the envelope showing. I grabbed the corner and slid it out slowly. I opened it. It was me at the bookstore yesterday, looking at the new arrivals. I put it back in the envelope and put it on the bedside table. And then I saw another envelope on my pillow. Two at once? That was new. He was speeding up his time frame too. That was bad. I opened it as well. I gasped. It was of last night when Todd was telling his story. It even had the tear tracks on our faces; and there was a tear half way down my check. I shoved it back inside its envelope and traded the letter for my book, 'Tenth Grade Bleeds'.

It must have been two hours later when Todd finally woke up. I'd had breakfast and was on the last page of my book. As soon as I'd finished I put it back on my bookshelf and grabbed the next one, 'Eleventh Grade Burns'. I chucked it on my bed. I leaned over Todd, my hair falling into my line of vision. I tucked it behind my ear.
"Hey. You awake yet?" I asked. He rubbed his eyes.
"Yeah. What's the time? And why aren't you dressed for school?" he asked. Are you kidding me? School? He's asking about school now? That's the first question he asks me and it involves school? Wow, he already took care of me before mum and dad passed but now it went from ten to eleven.
"It's nine and I don't want to go."
"Well you're missing out on a lot of school and it's not good. Hurry up, get dressed. We're going." He said. If he thinks that I'm going then he's an idiot.
"Uh, no. I don't think so."
"Um yes. Now hurry up." he was getting angry, it showed in his voice.
"What's wrong?" I asked because something was up. I could feel it.
"It's nothing ok? Nothing." I knew he was lying. Just like he knew when I was lying. It was like a sixth sense to us. I also knew he was lying as he replied to quickly and he was facing toward the door when he answered. I placed my hand on his shoulder. He shook it off. I sighed and asked again.
"What's wrong Todd? Tell me." Minutes passed by before he answered.
"Have you gotten any letters today?"
"Yes." What was so important about today's though?
"Where? Where are they? Where?" he said as he held my upper arms and shook. His eyes scared me as they were pitch black as he spoke.
"Let go. Let go. Please you're scaring me." I whispered a little panicked. He blinked a couple of times and his eyes turned from pitch black back to his normal brown as he realised what he was doing.
"Sorry, I'm so sorry. But I need those letters right now." He whispered.
"Why did your eyes turn pitch black?" I asked; a little scared as I walked over and got them for him.
"My eyes were black?"
"Yes."
"I'm sorry I scared you. See, when you're in your human form you can obviously get mad or threatened so because your wolf is, for a lack of better term, your stronger half as your wolf is obviously an animal; so when you're mad or threatened your wolf can sometimes change your human eyes into their own eyes to show the person what you are, either to scare them or show them that you're in charge, so that's why I believe my eyes changed just then, to show you that I was in charge, sorry."
"That's alright." I said.
"Or, the other reason why your eyes can change to black is because your wolf obviously has other feelings as well but their feelings are much stronger than your human side. One of the most common feelings that make a Werewolf's human eyes change colour, is love because it is one of the most strongest feelings a wolf can have towards another person, Werewolf or human. But other human feelings can make a Werewolf show their eyes in their human form, if the feeling is felt strongly. But it happens very very rarely as your wolf has to overpower you and take control of your body, which is extremely difficult, but not impossible, if the wolf's feeling is so strong and the wolf is so determined to show the person their eyes. Does that make sense?" he said as if he just read it out of a book. Obviously he had been doing a lot of research about Werewolves.
"Yes it does. So if I feel mad, threatened or if my wolf feels something so strong towards another person, my eyes could turn black to show the other person what I am or how I feel? But it is very rare, yes?"
"Yes."
"What do you need these letters for?" I asked as I handed them to him a moment after our little chat about feelings. When I thought about it though, it made perfect sense. What was so important about these letters? I didn't understand.
"I saw who left them. You were right, he's a vampire. He told me to look closely at them when he saw I was awake." He said then looked a centimetre away from the paper. I thought for a minute. Wait, vampires are night creatures so wouldn't it be dark when this was written? I walked over to the bedside table and grabbed the other letters. I walked back to Todd who had the look on his face asking me- what are you doing?
"All of them have come overnight right? By a vampire right? So then their done in the dark." I said just before I switched off the light and continued, "So then we have to look at them in the dark as well. It's just a thought. Oh my God." I gasped and beside me Todd did the exact same thing. We both looked at the letters. Even though it was nine in the morning turning off the lights made it a bit darker and something was happening. When had my lights been turned on? Oh yeah, I turned them on when I came in from breakfast.
"Todd, do you see that?" I asked amazed and terrified at the same time.
"Yeah. What the hell?" he whispered back. The paper was glowing. Glowing!
"Are those words forming on the page?" I said in disbelief. What was going on?
"Yeah they are! What are they written in? How come we couldn't see them before?"
"Oh! You know how you have those pens that write in clear ink then you turn the lights on and see the writing? What if it's like that but in reverse?"
"I guess, maybe." He said. I looked back at the pages in his hands.
"Todd in order! In order!" I said as I realised the words were messages. I flicked the light back on. I looked for the first one which was of me sleeping; and when I found it I said, "Here. Here's the first one. Oh look! This one already has a message on it. So does the second one. And the third." I continued after I showed him the drawing of him and the one with me in the hospital bed. "God that's scary. Number five already has a message on it but flick the lights off just to be sure nothing else is there."
"Ok." It went dark. "I've never seen this one before. Did you keep it from me?"
"Not intentionally. I was supposed to tell you last night but didn't get the chance." I lied. The words glowed yellow on the page when I looked down. Oh crap. 'I know you' was the message. The words were under the last line and the heart.
"Todd? Todd? I'm scared." I whispered. What was this? A game? Who was doing this? Why were they doing this? If they know me, do I know them? Are they someone from school? In the street? Were they someone from this neighbourhood? Could someone from this neighbourhood be capable of doing something like this? I thought about all the people who I thought may be cable for this, I could count them on one hand. There were people I thought that could be capable of doing something like this. Wow, that scared me even more.
"Me too Willow. Me too." He flicked the light on again. I grabbed number six which was of me yesterday at the bookstore. The lights went out.
"Well really? Thanks Captain Obvious!" I said sarcastically. The letter's message was 'I'm watching you'. Well duh. I'd hate to think about what might be happening if they weren't watching me. Wow, creep factor just went from eleven to twelve. Creep-o-meter had officially broken as it was a scale from one to ten. It had been blown out of the park.
"Don't say that Willow." Todd said kind of angry. He turned the light on. I found number seven; it went dark. The message was 'We miss you'.
"Who the hell are we?" Todd asked.
"I don't know!" I said getting angry, "If I knew, they'd be in a hospital." Again, when I'm scared I can be mean, even if Todd was scared too.
"Ok. It was the last one so far anyway." I said. I almost forgot. Todd was going to kill me when I told him. But he figured it out before I could tell him. He must have been thinking about it before I realised what I had done.
"Hold up. You never showed a number four." His eyes narrowed as he realised what that meant. He said, "Did you hide a letter from me?" His eyes narrowed even further when I started to deny it but he cut me off. "I can't believe you did this to me! Where is it? I told you you could trust me! Do you still not believe me?"
"Close your eyes." I told him, ignoring his comments.
"This is stupid. Just show me the damn letter. Now. I seriously cannot believe you did this to me." He said through clenched teeth.
"Close your eyes and I'll show you." I said quietly. This wasn't going to be good. This was not going to end well. He was going to freak. He didn't like it but he closed his eyes. I ran to the palomino painting and took it off the wall. I opened the secret door and looked over my shoulder. Todd's eyes were still closed. I grabbed the letter, shut the door and put the painting back on the wall. I cleared my throat and his eyes opened. They expressed his emotions well. His eyes looked furious even through his face didn't show it. Much. He unfolded the letter and took in the drawing of me in the wedding dress. His hands started to shake and he nearly dropped the paper. Nearly. When his eyes focused on me they were full of hurt and anger but most of all-and the one that hurt the most because he never felt this way with me-betrayal. This drawing didn't have a message so he flicked the lights off. The words glowed from the sudden darkness when the lights went out. This one was the creepiest because the message was 'It's time to come home now Willow'. I started to feel tears prick at my eyes. I was scared and I hoped they wouldn't take drastic measures to get me to do what they want, I thought suddenly. I looked up at Todd. He was all I had and if they were watching me, they'd know that and they'd go after him. They'd target him to get to me. My heart dropped at the thought. I couldn't think of that right now, I had to focus on what was happening right now. Where's home? Aren't I in mine? Who is we? Who's sending these to me? The lights turn on and I dropped all the letters when Todd hugged me. Again, I felt safe with him around me. We were both shaky from what we had just discovered and we were both trying to figure out what on Earth was going on.
"What is this? You didn't show me the worst of them? Why? How could you?" he said and stepped away from me.
"I couldn't show you. I knew you'd react like this. I didn't want you to do anything stupid." I said. He just shook his head then grabbed drawing number five.
"'You should've gone on that date with me Willow.' But you didn't go on either of them. So you know what you're going to do? You're going to stay away from Trevor and Daniel until we know who did this." He said very sternly. I was glad his eyes didn't shoot laser beams out of them when he was angry because I would have died. Oh no. Of course. This conversation was getting better and better. And it was about to get even better.
"Ha. Yeah about that... " I closed my eyes and when I opened them I had a little spark of courage. I didn't know why I was so nervous about telling him but I was. Was it maybe because I liked them for some unknown reason? I took a deep breath and continued, "I sit next to Trevor in Maths and I sit next to Daniel in English." I said and looked at his face. The expression on his face was hilarious. I smiled and the look I got from him was even funnier that I nearly laughed. I was glad he couldn't shoot mind bullets either otherwise I'd have also died. He started to fold up the letter.
"What are you-" he started but didn't finish. He grabbed the letters from the floor and stuffed them into his back pocket before I could blink. Cool, I thought, werewolf speed.
"Wha-" was all I could get out before Todd picked me up, threw me over his shoulder fireman style and ran out of my room and started down the stairs. I started to ask again about what was happening but he told me to shut up. I was so surprised at the anger and the hint of terror in his voice that I shut up. Something flashed upstairs. What was that? What just happened? Why are we running down the stairs? I looked over my shoulder at the door. Todd reached out for the front door handle but was stopped by a gloved hand. My eyes went wide and I froze. Whose hand was that?
"None of that now." the intruder said as he moved his pointer finger of his right hand from side to side. Todd put me down and stood in front of me, always protecting me. It was my turn to give back to him.
"I think the lady can handle herself. Don't you think Todd?" the intruder said. I leaned around Todd so I could see. How did this person know Todd's name? Duh, he's been watching you, of course he knows us. Threatening me, yeah ok, I can handle that; but threaten Todd or someone that I know and care about? You've got a whole different story. I would rip you apart. Hey, I can actually do that now being a werewolf and all. No more empty threats now. Ha! The person was all dressed in black and was wearing a ski mask. Oh crap, I hope this isn't the guy from my bathroom.
"You stay away from her." Todd said in an ice cold voice that I got goose bumps from. You could freeze the equator with that voice, I thought. I stepped out from behind Todd. He tried to keep me behind him by putting his arm out but I stepped out of his reach and then circled back so I was in front of him this time.
"What do you want? Are you the guy from my bathroom?" I asked stern and calm voiced. I wasn't afraid when I stared into his dark eyes. At least I was fully clothed this time we met. I knew it was him. Todd seemed to sense that as well. He grabbed hold of my hand. His hold was bone-crushing but I didn't let the hurt show. That would mean showing the intruder a weakness and I didn't want that. He looked at me. His eyes seemed to light up when I didn't look away as he stared back at me. I'm sure they seemed to get lighter and lighter the more I looked into them. When I was looking into his eyes I was cold hard staring but when he was staring at me his eyes were soft and loving towards me. Who was this person? What did they want?
"All we want is for you to come home Willow. Its time you remembered everything like you always do. Please come with me and let it be done." The intruder said in a kind voice. He held out his hand for me to take it. It scared me when I nearly did reach out and place my hand in his because I wanted him to hold my hand. Todd opened his mouth, most likely to yell and swear at the intruder. I squeezed his hand telling him not to speak. I beat him to it.
"Sorry, but I can't do that. Maybe another time though. Now please leave my house." I said in a fake happy voice. You could tell it was fake from a million miles away. I also had a forced smile on my face.
"We'll see and as you wish. Bye." he said before he walked out the front door. He shut the door behind him with a soft click. I stepped forward and opened the front door. I stuck my head out. No one was there. There was no car speeding away down the street. Nothing. I looked at Todd and he looked at me.