Bitten (Jaiden)

9:38pm (Waxing Gibbous Moon)

26/7/18

"Why do we have to do this at night!?" Lukas asked, accidentally splashing through a puddle of water that he didn't see and just his luck, it soaked his new shoes. Great.

An owl fluttered overhead, but other than that, everything was quiet. "Because it's fun to be out in the woods at night. I wanted to show you the fireflies anyway!" Jesse said cheerfully, breaking the silence as Petra rolled her eyes at Lukas. It was Jesse's idea to trek through the woods at this time.

And it had rained the night before, making everything muddy. With puddles everywhere, it didn't seem like a regular forest. This was like a intense game of parkour. Petra grinned at him and kicked a puddle of muddy water, making it splash right onto Lukas.

He scowled but didn't do anything. Knowing Petra, she would probably hit him over the head with a stick or something. Suddenly, Jesse froze, making Lukas crash right into him.

"What? Why'd you stop?" Lukas groaned, rubbing his head where he had accidentally hit. "Didn't you hear that?" Jesse asked worriedly, looking around the clearing.

There was a lake in front of them, with a gentle stream of water between some rocks. With some crickets chirping nearby, and the random gusts of wind, there was nothing else.

"Are you hearing things?" Lukas asked the brunette boy.

But the other boy just shrugged. "I definitely heard something. You guys wait here, I'll check it out."

Lukas glanced at Petra who had somehow made her way to a rock and was nonchalantly emptying the water from her boots. Typical Petra. "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Lukas asked his best friend.

Jesse winked, "I'll be fine, besides, I know the woods like the back of my hand."

With that, he vanished into the leaves of a bush, leaving Lukas with Petra, who didn't look at him. Lukas sighed and waited for Jesse to come back.

*✧:｡ஐ｡:✧**✧:｡ஐ｡:✧**✧:｡ஐ｡:✧*

Jesse's PoV

There it was again, that whine, like an animal in pain. Jesse held up his silver compass and made sure that he knew where he was going... another low whine made Jesse speed up, making him almost trip over some roots of the towering oak trees and vines.

"Help!" someone cried, almost animal sounding, but very much human. Jesse pushed aside some bushes and came to a man, who seemed to have caught his hand in a bear trap.

Jesse gasped a little and ran to the man, who looked up at him. "Thank goodness! I thought no one would hear me!" he said quickly, trying to tug his arm from the trap but Jesse could tell that it was stuck.

"Don't worry sir, I'll help you." Jesse said. His father had once taught him how to open bear traps a long time ago... a painful memory, to be honest. But now he had to help this man.

After a minute, Jesse managed to pry the trap open and the man immediately pulled his injured hand away from the metal. "Thank you so much." he said gratefully, looking at Jesse with solemn black eyes.

Jesse smiled, "It's okay, I help animals all the time if they get stuck in traps like this... but why was your hand trapped in there anyway?" he asked curiously.

The man suddenly smiled, making Jesse frown a little. "You're not gonna suddenly kidnap me, right?" Jesse asked, starting to back away.

The man didn't say anything, he just smiled at Jesse. "Well... bye now." Jesse said, heading back to his friends.

Suddenly, there was a loud growl from behind him, making him turn just in time for a fully grown wolf to leap at him. Jesse gasped as the wolf pinned him down. What the heck?

The eyes of the wolf matched the ones the man had... the wolf howled, making Jesse scream. The only word in his head was: werewolf. This man was a werewolf.

Jesse used all his strength and pushed the wolf away. He quickly swung his bag at the wolf, hitting it away.

He couldn't get bitten.

The wolf growled again, glaring at Jesse. With its dark grey fur and glowing black eyes, he looked ready to pounce. Werewolves... what did Jesse know about them? Nothing.. since he didn't believe in them in the first place.

Jesse glared back at the wolf, making it growl louder. Silver.. was that one of the ways to defeat a werewolf? He was pretty sure he read that somewhere.

The wolf leapt at Jesse nearly clawing at his face.

Once again, the werewolf pinned him to the ground. Then there was a burning pain in his shoulder as the wolf bit at it, drawing blood. Jesse clenched his teeth as the pain nearly made him black out.

Thinking quickly, he pulled off his silver compass necklace that his father gave to him and pressed it against the wolf's chest, making it yelp in pain as it seemed to 'burn' it.

It stumbled away, shaking, its ears back and teeth showing. The compass worked!

A sudden shout startled the both of them. "Jesse! Where are you?" he heard Lukas call. The wolf snarled at Jesse and ran away, slipping away into the darkness.

Jesse slowly sank to his knees, shaking as he gripped his arm, which had long bleeding scratches and...

a single bite mark.

"Jesse! Are you okay?" Lukas crashed through the leaves and ran over to Jesse, who was feeling lightheaded. He couldn't show him. Jesse had enough strength to pull his sleeve over the bite mark, but after that he held his head in his hands.

"Lukas... I.." Jesse's vision blurred, making Lukas hold him up but it was no use.

Jesse closed his eyes, falling into a deep sleep.

-End