Property Of Daddy

River Mess

Back in middle school, I had a gym teacher who'd always tried to put me on blast for not running the mile every Friday with the rest of the class. Instead, I'd always chilled on the bleachers underneath the section with the sunshade so as not to soak up too much Vitamin D and develop premature wrinkles— it'd pissed her off to no end. 

"How are you ever going to improve your mile time, Winters?" she'd roared at me, a flock of kids running on the newly paved track behind her.

"Why do I need to run fast?" I had scoffed at her, turning my attention back to my iphone. "My dad will buy me a car while you can use your feet."

She'd given me an F that year, but whatever; Dad had convinced the principal to give me a passing grade after his donation which had funded the school's new library... which I'd never bothered to visit.

Well, I know that she's laughing at me from Hell as I'm running through the forest surrounding Caleb's smallish house in the middle of Sabine County, Texas.

My chest was in immense pain as my heart jackhammered behind my ribs, beating them with such force that I was even struggling to breathe. I gasped at the hot, humid air, wheezing as sweat began to pour my face in the incredibly warm forest which was filled to the brim with trees which all seemed to look the same, giving me no sense of where I was going at all. Although said trees were a hell of a lot smaller than the ones in California, they still hovered tens of feet above my head, effectively blocking my view of the sun which had originally been my makeshift compass.

However, at this point of time, I couldn't give two shots where I headed as long as it was fast away from psycho Caleb!

The freak truly intended to bite me, which would thereby mark me as his piece of meat. Granted I'll be a really hot, steamin' piece of meat like mouthwatering lobster, I don't wanna be his!

Caleb is a werewolf and werewolves all have larger than normal canine teeth; so even though Caleb isn't in his Anti-Caleb, psycho killer form right now, his fangs are still hella sharp and will hurt like a bitch if he manages to catch me! Therefore, I need to keep on pumping my not-so-toned legs as fast as I can so that I can get as far away from him as possible. I have no clue where I'm going nor what I'm gonna do once I get there, but I can figure it out. I'm very resourceful and I can just ask someone to borrow their phone so I can call Dad and have him get me out of here. 

He'll save me, I just know it!

"Dakota!" Caleb roared, his usually peaceful, chipper voice dripping in rage. That wasn't the worst part tho; no, the horrible part was that he sounded incredibly close behind me.

Oh no!

Why didn't I think this through!? I know for a fact that werewolves are significantly faster than humans, and yet I took the idiotic risk in trying to run away from one. Sometimes I don't believe I'm too intelligent. I mean, I'm on the smart side of the spectrum, but more like in the ninety-ninth percentile.

I was gasping for breath at this point, whipping my head around in all directions to see where I should go. The forest looked so similar all around, making me fear that I've been rushing in circles. I leapt over a fallen log, shoving my way through some dead bushes that scratched at my skin, stumbling when I saw a river in front of me.

Caleb had mentioned that he lived on some sort of waterfront property, and I could see the muddy-looking water slowly running by over a large swath of land. I've never seen a river before, but I'd foolishly believed that they were small. However, as I looked over at the one in front of me, I was unnerved to discover that the Sabine River was apparently like some sort of super river which held the width of fifteen rivers combined or something. I could see the rest of the land on the other side, making me freeze in place and seriously think it through.