And There Were Wolves

twenty eight | invisible string

In that dream, I was only ten years old and Eros was slightly older. We both were running around the neighborhood, I was holding a kite as Eros chased me. I kept looking over my shoulder, afraid that Eros would catch up with me, that I didn't pay attention to where I was heading. Sure enough, I bumped into someone and since I was smaller and weaker, my behind ended up hitting the concrete quite hard that I cried. A woman came into my view as she kneeled down beside me. "Hello, my child, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you. Please don't cry. It won't be painful after a while." She helped me get up and put her hand on my behind. I felt that warm, tingling sensation and when she moved her hand away, I no longer felt sore. "See, just like brand new."

I tried to look up to meet the woman's face but her face was shielded from the sun and I couldn't look up for so long. Thus I ended up thanking her, then running back to find Eros. But there was something vaguely familiar about that woman which made me wonder why my mind decided to bring this specific memory to light.

The car came to a stop and my eyes fluttered open. I realized that I was still inside Ryker's car. I was about to stretch my body when I realized that both of my hands were holding on to something so tightly. Looking down, I realized that I'd been hugging Ryker's arm. I quickly dropped it and he groaned. "I'm sorry," I muttered, glancing at him. "How long did I sleep?"

"About two hours." He massaged his hand, the one I hadn't realized I'd been holding. "My arm is numb now."

I blushed, sparing a look at the scenery outside the window. "Why didn't you take your hand then?" I told him in a chastised tone.

"And risk waking you up?" He asked incredulously as if that was not even a question. "Don't think so. You've been through a lot today, Xyrra. You need your rest."

By the time we had reached the Center and arrived at my house, it was already six in the afternoon. I quickly got out of the car as soon as it was parked. I was grateful that my dad always kept a key underneath one of the wooden planks in case of emergency because I hadn't brought my spare keys with me and went to unlock the door for us.

Ryker walked beside me, his eyes scanning the room as if he was trying to identify any threat. I shook my head and nudged his arm. "Come on. It's just my house."

We walked to the second floor and headed straight to my parent's bedroom. I always had that odd feeling coming in, it was almost intrusive. Remembering that the key had been in the second drawer, I opened it and started to dig through my mother's stuff.

To my dismay, I couldn't find the damned key even though the last time Eros and I had been here, the key was there. We had left it there. "It's not here," I said with a sigh as I rose to my feet. "I don't know how but it's gone."

"Are you sure?" He peered into the drawer from his lofty height.

"Yes." I let out a frustrated sigh and raked my hands through my hair. After our meeting with Adelina, I couldn't help but become more discouraged than ever. Then an idea came to mind. "Let's go." I turned towards the door and he followed me closely.

"Where?" he asked.

"The basement. As cliché as this must sound, I think my parents have a bad habit of hiding skeletons in the basement." After going through two flights of stairs, we finally arrived at the basement. Everything looked exactly the same as it had been a few days ago when Eros and I had come here.

We started rummaging around. Ryker was going to enter my dad's chamber but I assured him that there was nothing inside — mainly because I didn't want him to see all the horrible things my dad had done to his wolf. I still refused to show him the dark taint in my family. I only knew the guy for three weeks after all.