The Ties that Bind

Chapter 4 | Stay Woke

During the night she dreamed of stars and wolves, surrounded by the warm comfort of the forest. The air was crisp and clean, and smelt of pine trees and earth. It was the perfect Summer night. An eerie wave of familiarity washed over her. The sense that she had been here before startled her, she couldn't remember ever being allowed this far into the woods. The faint memory of walking on warm days with her mother close beside her lingered only for a moment before it was gone.

Something moved in the forest behind her.

Her head swung around. An instinctual kick in the gut told her that he was here. Selene scanned the trees around her but spotted no one. He was here but he was watching, analyzing. She caught him in the corner of her eye and she looked at him. He looked at her, eyes like fire glowing from amidst the trees.

--

When she opened her eyes it was as if the world shifted.

The first thing she registered was that her head throbbed and the room around her spun. Her hand came up limply to her face to rub her head. When she managed to gain enough consciousness to move her head she looked down at her printed tee-shirt and shorts and realised she had passed out before she had the chance to shower. She barely remembered finishing her dinner but her plate was empty on her desk. Her stomach twisted at the thought of food.

Yellow morning sunlight warmed the hard wooden floors, and the windows were frosted with a cold Spring chill.

Her memory was hazy but she remembered the important details; the accident, the wolf, Mr. Levi. Grimacing, she brought her hand up to rub her forehead. The scent of warm food had reached her bedroom from the bottom of the stairs and rolling over, she grabbed a towel on her way to the shower.

"There's breakfast down here!" Aunt Ruth called from the bottom of the stairs, seeing her pass.

Selene waved dismissively. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and winced at the mess that looked back at her. She'd forgotten to take her makeup off before she slept and it smeared around her eyes. She peeled the bandage off her forehead to reveal a small cut above her temple wasn't as bad as it was last night. It was a little purple and the cut was red but not so bad that she couldn't hide it with the proper hair style. Her eyes, that had been hazel before, looked washed out and grey. "You're a hot mess," she said to herself and flicked on the shower.

A hot shower was all she needed to wash away the horror of the night before. She wondered absently how the wolf was and wondered where he was now. The image of him looking at her, really looking at her, haunted her even when she stepped out of the tub, dressed and walked downstairs.

On her way down she Googled normal wolf behaviour but she couldn't find anything about the way it had stared at her. Shouldn't he have just bitten off her hand? He was incapacitated, she told herself bitterly. You're making it something it wasn't. Perhaps it had been the dream that had shaken her - her throat still tightened, her pulse still raced, it was like she'd actually been there. God it had been a crazy night.

Aunt Ruth was sitting at the table eating eggs and toast while Thomas read the morning paper and drank a coffee, black. "Morning," Selene said, sitting down at the table and poured herself a large cup of black sugar.

"Morning," her father replied and looked over his newspaper, "The truck still at the clinic?"

"I'm gonna pick it up today." she reached over, hoping Mr. Levi followed on his word and picked a piece of toast from the middle of the table, wincing when Aunt Ruth reached out to have a look at her head. She swatted away her hands, "I'll need someone to drop me off, if that's cool."

"I can drive you," Aunt Ruth said, taking a bite out of her toast. "Someone's gonna need to bring old Bessy back."

"No."