i.
It's stupid.
Really stupid.
Y/N should be in bed, snug beneath her thick wool comfortor, scrolling through some weird spooky forum that would aid in giving her a loitered unease, enough so that she's too frightened to leave her bed and every movement her pup made beside her nearly had her jumping from her skin. Should have just taken a hot bath, shaved herself nice and soft, moisturized like someone else might be feeling her legs that night, and pulled on that thin knitted sleep sweatshirt she got about three sizes too big. Ought to have just finished off the remnants of her chamomile tea, warming her insides and bringing comfort to her weary bones.
The week had been a hard one, full of tests and assignments and speeches that drew her towards mental exhaustion. All that, plus tacking on at least sixteen hours at the bakery creaming cupcakes and brewing coffee – Y/N deserved such pleasantries as she'd described. Deserved to feel content and moments from being lulled to sleep by the crooning rattle of her ceiling fan. To wake up tomorrow morning feeling refreshed, replenished, and with thick knitted socks covering her perpetually cold toes, not needing to leave her apartment for anything other than maybe the mail and a small walk for her pup Grandpa. Should even be able to begin a binge of a show and fuck around for her entire Saturday just relaxing, one of the few days that she was actually able to.
But no! Of course not. Of course, Y/N would have gotten a call from Marcie, begging and pleading for some Pot Roast and Y/N couldn't find it in herself to say no, considering Marcie had just gone through the messiest break up known to man (her boyfriend was having an affair with Marcie's friend who was also her math tutor, coupling as his math tutor, and she walked in because the tutor had double booked and now Marcie was down one boyfriend and worried she would drop a letter grade because, "M'shit at calc! There's no way m'gonna make it with more than a D, unless Dr. Davies wants to have a whirl around with me"). So Y/N took her a bowl of pot roast, even though it meant walking to and fro in the dark, along the lining of a forest that always feels like something is looming behind the thick trunks. Which is doable during the day, but at night – at night, she'd never realized how fucking creepy it actually was. Especially on the way back, where nobody was expecting her so if she went missing it wasn't an immediate alarm.
To add to all of this, it's freezing. Like the blood in her veins had all but iced over, body trembling with each burst of wind that worms its way beneath the fabric of her jacket, and causes her loose pajama pants to billow around her legs like waves after a storm. Damn her tender heart for her friend! If she could become cold as stone and say no to Marcie every once in a while, then she wouldn't be doing things like this, but Marcie is so sweet and gentle and gets hurt all too often by people she's close with. Y/N doesn't want to be one of those people, even if it means sacrificing the comfort of her home and risking harrowing nightmares about something dragging her into the forest.
So that bit, for all intents and purposes, wasn't stupid.
What was stupid, was the fact that she heard the pained cry of what sounded to be a dog coming from within the trees and she almost immediately headed towards it.
That was really stupid.
But she couldn't help it! The thought of a poor animal being hurt and alone in the cold makes her heart shatter, so Y/N is pushing through the thicket of leaves still clinging onto the branches to emerge herself inward to the forest. The cry didn't sound all too far off so she wasn't worried about not finding her way back as she turns on her phone's flashlight and uses it to guide her. Despite the moon's fullness, glittery white rays of light are subject to obstruction by the overly tall trees looming overhead so she was peering through a shroud of darkness while repeating to herself that most scary movies aren't real, like a mantra in her head to keep her from turning around and booking it out. She could call animal control, but they'd merely take forever – if they were even open (everything sort of shuts down around 10PM here, the only exceptions being hospitals, a diner here and there, one McDonalds and three Taco Bells. Everything else they presume can wait for a little while). Maybe it'd only be a sprained paw or a scratch or something easy, but debilitating enough that it couldn't try to kill her.
