August Taylor moves to rainy Willow Creek to take a teaching job. A place where death looms in dark corners and wolves roam at night. The young teacher questions himself when a student takes a liking to him. And the more time he spends in the town...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Dec. 17
-
When I finally woke up I felt like I had died and come back to life. Throughout the period of unconsciousness there was only dark. The first thing I noticed was an ache in my chest, but other than that my body felt as it did usually. I sat up suddenly, my head spinning at the sudden movement.
"Shit." I spoke quietly, it felt like my voice had went unused for a while. The sound dragging against my rough throat.
I could hear rain pelting on the roof of wherever I was, but the sound was a tad too loud.
I attempted to open my eyes, the action taking me a few tries. It took me a moment to make out where I was. The room was close to a normal bedroom except for the the hospital bed I was sitting in and the medical equipment set to my side. An i.v. was deeply injected into my arm.
Strange.
"He's awake." A voice spoke quietly, I could tell it was coming from outside of the room but the words were clear as day.
"I know. We need to get the alpha."
Alpha?
The voices went starkly silent, and in just a few minutes footsteps were trailing down the hallway, closer to the door. I couldn't tell how I felt in this moment, everything simply felt blank. The door opened slowly revealing partially what I expected.
Ms. Underwood entered the room quietly, seeming surprised as she found me staring directly at her. Her golden eyes widened, her blank expression wavering. Following close behind her was Sierra and Alex. Their smiles quickly faltered.
"I'm so glad you're awake August." Ms. Underwood spoke slowly, her eyes watching me closely.
I stayed silent. It was almost as if I could sense their nervousness through the masks of calm they put on for me.
"How long have a been out." I asked, my voice coming out quiet and rough.
"A week." Ms. Underwood took a deep breathe as the words slipped from her lips.
A week?
I repeated the words in my head, my chest tightening. What did my parents think?
"We can not apologize enough for what happened, the school is undergoing security adjustments to keep wild animals from breaching our campus." Ms. Underwood assured.
"Wild animals?" I laughed bitterly.
Ms. Underwood, Sierra, and Alex blanched, their eyes widening.
"Even now, you lie to me. My life was seconds from gone, and you still-" I cut off my own words, the anger bellowing throughout the room.
Sierra and Alex flinched at my voice. Ms. Underwood's changed to something of realization, she went to say something but I was already getting out of the bed. When I placed my feet on the ground I caught sight of my leg. It was completely healed. I ignored the shaking of my hands, reaching over to take the i.v. out of my arm. The needle slid out, a stinging pain replacing it.
