WOLVES DON'T TALK

Chapter 4. ASHLEY WILL NEVER BELIEVE THIS

My friend Ashley always claimed that what you didn't know couldn't hurt you. That was her main excuse for not studying. She said books gave her headaches. I never really appreciated her theory until they put me in the gifted class. After that happened, I admired her lack of knowledge and her idea held out a lot of hope for me when that icy cold hand tapped me on the shoulder. Here's what I did: I stopped solid and shut my eyes and sat down with a very hard plop in the middle of a mud puddle. I figured the best way to stay safe was to stay ignorant.

"I'm not here," I said out loud, hoping the wolf and that creature with the stone-cold hand would leave me alone. I'd had enough: Enough of the forest, enough of the cold, enough of the fog, and too much of that wretched wolf with its glaring orange eyes barking orders at me with such a familiar voice even though I couldn't say why or how I knew it. That was a major part of the reason why I'd followed the stupid creature to start with. It was just so totally strange.

Of course, they didn't leave me alone.

"Come, Car," the creature whispered softly in my ear as it wrapped a set of bony fingers around my arm and gently pulled me to my feet.

A shiver brought on by the coolness of its touch slithered through my entire being.

"You are not here," I choked out, wanting desperately to believe in its non-existence as I rose unwillingly and blindly with my eyes still plastered shut.

"I am here," came the cool reply. "If you come with me, I'll give you something to eat and we'll build a fire to warm you up. Now come on."

The bony fingers tugged on me again, pulling me onward. I stumbled and opened my eyes. The hand released its hold on me and its owner, an eerie white figure, began to fade away into the heavy fog.

"Come," it beckoned, waving a thin arm covered with a silky material in my direction. Then it disappeared altogether.

My left foot rose. My right foot followed it, forcing me forward. Even though my brain tried to tell them to stop, they just kept trotting on and on and moving faster and faster, chasing after the figure in the fog. Before long, I stumbled furiously through the forest, tripping over underbrush and tree roots sticking up through the dirt and even falling at times but always jumping back up and racing ever on – until my old friend, the wolf, blocked my path and flashed its toothy grin at me.

"We're here," it said.

The fog cleared and a beautiful lady with empty white slits for eyes and a mass of silver hair piled on top of her head appeared. A pale silk toga clung to her slender body and a thin gold cord wrapped loosely around her waist. Her pure white skin reminded me of the marble statutes I'd seen in museums. She smiled and called to me to join her next to a warm fire in the middle of a clearing in the woods.

"I'm here," I said, echoing the wolf as I moved toward the fire and all its wonderful warmth.

"And you're safe," the lady replied, helping me settle on a pile of dried up tree debris next to the blaze.

She smiled at me with a gentle grin and a very strange feeling came over me as I slouched onto the dead needles and leaves and I actually started to feel safe, just like she said. I couldn't find the energy to talk, so I gazed into the lady's empty eyes and nodded in agreement. I wanted her to know I felt okay but couldn't unglue my eyes from her gaze or even manage to mumble a reply to her assurance of safety.

So I just sat there staring at the woman for what seemed like the longest time, feeling oddly at peace. After a few eons slid by, she wrapped one of her cool slender arms comfortingly around my shoulders and I shifted my stare toward the fire. The flames burned bright orange, just like the color of the wolf's eyes, and people I knew flickered and faded in their light.

I saw my friends sitting around their own fire back at Camp Sequoia. Brock Baldwin was there with his arm surrounding Ana Maria's gorgeous brown shoulders. Her pitch-black pony tail brushed the side of his face as she leaned against him. Daphne Devine perched just behind the happy couple, firelight bouncing off her freckled face and curly red hair. Her blue-green eyes stared longingly at Brock from beneath her long red lashes. Ashley crouched nearby, resting comfortably on a huge soft cushion. Her dark fuzzy mop of a hairdo swished back and forth as she laughed at her own jokes and her brown eyes sparkled behind the old-fashioned granny glasses perched on her nose. Brock's best friend, Jaden, squeezed her hand in his. The fire light shone on the little bit of fuzz topping his upper lip.

I saw my friends laughing and carrying on. They didn't seem to miss me at all. Ashley seemed especially happy. Jaden grinned and grinned at her as he caressed her hand.

Watching it all made me feel totally sad. I wasn't like the rest of them anymore. The gifted class had ruined me for them. And now all this strange business: Wolves talking and weird ladies in the woods.

"Ashley will never believe this," I said to the fire as it flickered and my best friend faded from its light.