The girl who saves werewolves

10. Hey!

That night I woke up many times. Like every two hours. It felt like someone had shaken me, but when I opened my eyes, there was no one there. Well, there were eight other people who were sharing the hostel dorm with me, but they were fast asleep. Always just me, the snoring tourists, and the green light from the exit sign. But I still could've sworn someone had been there and touched me.

When I woke up at six, I decided not to even try to sleep after that. I touched my forehead and felt the ridiculously big bump. That's a funny thing about me, when I get an injury, it's never something normal like a bruise or a papercut. No, sir! I go big! A broken bone or a wound so deep I need to be rushed to the emergency room.

I was annoyed thinking about exploring the city with that monster on my forehead. But the annoyance disappeared when last night's events started to play on my mind like a video on repeat. Over and over again I saw the man leaping - or should I say flying over the gate. And the woman doing the same. I had to admit, that was impossible. My imagination must have photoshopped reality. I mean duh, my mind wasn't and isn't that logic.

I tried to be as quiet as possible when I climbed down from the bunk bed. I congratulated myself for being a bigger person than the group of three young backpackers who didn't even bother to lower their voices, let alone stay away from the light switch when they came back after a long night of enjoying the New York nightlife. I slipped my feet into my black Chucks because, in my opinion, there's nothing nastier than the floor of a shared bathroom. I left the laces untied and just tucked them inside the shoes. I tiptoed to the door with a toothbrush in my right hand and a toothpaste on the left. I pushed the door open with my elbow. As I stepped out to the corridor, I could see someone disappear behind the corner. First I didn't think much of it, but as stood in front of the sink, it hit me. A messy ponytail and a white t-shirt.

I dropped the toothbrush in the sink and rushed out of the shared bathroom. The corridor was empty and so was the kitchen and living area. I cursed under my breath as I opened the front door and the chilly morning wind made me fully aware I was in my pajama shorts and a t-shirt. But I pushed the discomfort from my mind when I saw the messy ponytail and white t-shirt walking away.

"Hey!" I yelled, but she didn't stop nor react in any way. Just kept walking.

I moaned. She was going to make me go after her! And since I had not tied my shoes, I looked like a drunk giraffe doing it.

"Hey! Stop!"  I yelled again. Before I took another step I found myself flying and hitting the pavement.

"Ow," I cried out as I felt the pain in both of my wrists. My hands were still under my torso, palms down.

I wiggled my body into a sitting position. I winced as I rolled my wrists. I figured they weren't broken, but it still hurt. I lifted my eyes from my wrists expecting to see nothing but an empty street.

But the woman had stopped. She had turned to face me but was far away from me. She had an uneasy look on her face. She closed her eyes for a short moment and wrinkled her nose. With a silent grown she opened her eyes and walked to me.

"Are you okay?" she asked when she stopped a couple of feet from me. I looked up to meet her dark blue eyes.

I lifted my wrists up and shrugged.

"Are they broken?" she asked. I think she had more pain in her eyes than I had in my wrists.

"No, they're fine."

The woman let out a small sigh.

"Ok, good." She was about to turn around.

"Why are you here?" I asked before she could.

Her eyes went down. She's avoiding me, I realized. I watched as she bit her lower lip.

"I stay at the hostel," she finally answered.

"You do?" I asked. I did not trust her. "In which dorm?"

"Um... The one on the second floor," she said.

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

"Did you get a discount?" I asked with a sweet smile.

"Wh-"

"I mean if you have to stay in a male dorm. And there are only male dorms on the second floor."

The woman chuckled and shook her head.

"Ok, fine... that's a lie. I was worried about you. You hit your head pretty bad last night."

She must have noticed my shock because she quickly continued: "I didn't want to seem like a stalker... That's why I lied."

She let out another nervous chuckle. I frowned. This was too big a coincidence.

"How... did you find me?"

"I called to different hotels and hostels. And the guy at the reception told me you were staying here."

"Huh. That's funny. There's no reception. We just get a check-in code via email. You see, all the locks work with a pin code There's no staff except the cleaners." 

Again she turned her eyes down.

"Maybe you are a crazy stalker," I laughed feeling a bit bad about putting her in the spot. She did not seem like a bad person, though the situation was strange.

"Yeah... I guess I am. Look... I um... I got really worried about you and felt bad leaving you like that. So once I got rid of that... guy, I came back, but you weren't there anymore. I started walking around and some people had seen you and told me where you had gone. I found you and followed you from afar. I should have come talk to you. I don't know, I guess I felt embarrassed so I just made sure you got here safely. But I felt so bad, that I had to come here to make sure you are ok. I got in and realized I had no idea what room or dorm you were staying in and even if I had to know, showing up at six AM, would have been really, really weird. So I left and here we are. But I'm glad you're ok," she spoke fast.

I pointed my forehead.

"Well if you forget this monster, I'm ok," I laughed. She laughed too. I could hear the relief in her voice. Maybe she thought I didn't understand how strange the last night's events had been.

"Who was that guy?" I popped her happy bubble. "And why were you running from him like a ninja?"