Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? (Granite Hills)

Chapter 10

        After taking me home yesterday Rhys text me to ask if I could go over to the pack house to check on Caleb as a daily thing. I don't really know how to handle someone's life being in my hands. This little boy needs medical attention, but Rhys says he won't go for it. He hasn't reacted to any forms of therapeutic intervention or anything, he'd said. I find it very hard to believe that I've actually found a place in this weird new world. I'm glad that my life has turned into a story where the female protagonist is special, and not one of those shitty ones where she's just stumbling around, trying to find her footing. That'd be awkward.

        I told Rhys that I would get Cam to bring me to the pack house after we've had our lunch. Of course lunch was great and Cam was all I could think about as I hopped out of his truck laughing. It was worth waking up for. Cam keeps me laughing. The tears in my eyes blur out the reality that even in a new place with a new start and setting we can't be together. When I'm laughing, I can forget that I'll probably be just as wistful as I was back home.

        My bad ass senior year is going to only be sightly bad ass, because the rest, meaning my social life, will consist of hanging out with a toddler, studying demonology, and maybe writing an autobiography titled "He Huffed and Puffed and Blew My Life Down". It'll probably be put in the YA Paranormal section because it wouldn't be taken seriously as am autobio. I can see Rhys shelving it and Gloria giving me the thumbs up. It's a silly mental image, but one that seems way more possible than the ones that've been running through my head since my talk with Rhys.

        I've been seeing animal like humanoid creatures with obsidian eyes and unearthly voices. They gurgle and sputter obscenities at me from the darkness, and their threats crawl into my conscience. I see awesome superhero-like people with vines growing up their arms and trees exploding from the ground at their command, and Aang doing some crazy ass air bending, and for some strange reason, I picture Casters as Yu-Gi-Oh characters, wielding cards with pictures of the creatures they command on them. My mind is a strange place sometimes.

        I'm wearing my sweats and a tank, because it's particularly warm today, but a little chilly. The sun is smiling and so am I. I can't help but be happy today. My smile falters, like the rays that are stuck behind the trees' leaves, when I remember that halfway through our lunch Cam's attention became glued to his cell phone while he text Jas. Love stinks...yeah yeah.

        My feet crunched on the leaves as I made my way to the pack house front doors with the bitter memory curdeling in my brain. I rang the bell and turned to wave to Cam as he backed out. I walked into the house when the door was thrown open, watching his truck disappear, to my legs being attacked by a tiny body. I looked down to see a mop of short, curly, brown hair, and a giant gap toothed grin.

        "Caleb?" I asked.

        He shook his head with a bright smile. I leaned down to give him a proper hug and smiled as he squeezed me affectionately. I put him at arms length to get a view of his tiny body. My heart broke at the sight. Despite his cheeriness he's really skinny with hallowed in cheeks, really deep bags, bloodshot eyes and an almost skeletal figure. I felt my mouth go dry as I tried to swallow watching his clothes hang loosely from his famished body.

        I scooped him up into my arms and he wrapped himself around me, with his head in the crook of my neck. I walked into the kitchen to see Rhys at the stove with a spatula in his hand. I stared at his broad back as his muscles worked to skillfully flip burgers.

        "Hey Kay, want one?" He asked turning to greet me.

        "Nah, I just ate, but thanks. Has he eaten?" I asked