Ouroboros (being rewritten)

Mr Wolfy ✔️

"Why do I get the feeling that half the reason you talk to me is for the way people look at you when you do?"  Every student was looking at our weird little trio and it was obvious Roman was getting a kick out of it as if he needed Peter to be noticed...

"Oh it's more than half," he smirked. He was blowing out the smoke of his cigarette, curating his look of the bad boy, slicking his hair back. "It's a boring town,". I followed everyone else in the school, Peter on my heels, the cogs in his minds turning, trying to figure out what he wanted from him while mine were trying to figure out if we wouldn't be better off without him. ---The house had been pretty quiet with only Donna reading in the living room while I was doing the same upstairs. She always enjoyed those quiet evenings where she could just snuggle up on the couch, have some downtime and get an early night. Knowing I would go get Tessa from the homecoming dance, she was asleep by 10, making me slightly worry when my sister called around that time.

"Can you come and get me ?

" It's a bit early for you to-"

She didn't let me finish and claimed she'd explain later before hanging up. It didn't enchant me but her panicked voice and the lack of music behind her made me hurry up.

When I pulled up in front of the gymnasium, all the students were there, girls shivering from their exposed shoulders and guys trying to act it off, having given their jackets to their dates. I didn't even get to park the car that Tessa was already getting in and turning the heating up a notch, putting her hands in front of it.

"What the hell happened ?"

"The Principal came in and said something about a snake so we all panicked." The very man himself was trying to calm down angry parents getting their children, probably asking how a snake could get loose in a school. From an outsider, the situation made me chuckle until I caught Roman getting in his car while we were driving out of the parking lot. He looked rather dapper from someone I didn't even expect to show up to an event like this. Probably just another opportunity for him to show off.

--

Tessa was telling me about Kevin taking Emma to the dance instead of Jessica or maybe it was the opposite; how she managed to make that many friends in such a short amount of time was beyond me and I would've told her just that if I hadn't caught something out of the corner of my eye, lurking in the woods, ready to walk out on the road, forcing us to stop. I slammed on the brakes, my sister screaming for the both of us as the car was coming to a stop. All we could do was stare at that man who needed to block the road so badly he was ready to get run over for it. Before I could think of what to do, the man bent over to vomit and collapsed on the ground. I remember the day I got my licence and my car, the first thing Donna told me was to be careful of schemes taking place around that time on roads exactly like these but we couldn't drive around him and he did truly look sick.

"Gross, gross, gross," Tessa said making sure her door was locked, the exact opposite to what I was doing, "Wait, where are you going?" As I got closer it was obvious the man wasn't faking it, blood on his chin and the road next to his face. "Rose! Please let's go," It's only after hearing the sound of my voice asking if he was alright that he groaned, curling up into a ball mumbling about needles, at least he's not dead ...

"Tessa, call 911," I told my sister while getting even closer to the man. With hindsight, it was incredibly naive and stupid to stop in the middle of nowhere and kneeling next to a man I didn't know and who was obviously unwell but at that moment, I just wanted to make sure he was alright.

"Sir, do you remember how you got here or what is your name maybe ..?"

"... ouroboros ..." was all I caught before my sister asked me where we were, on the phone with the dispatcher. I looked around, desperate to find a sign,

"Tell them we're on the road to town, close to the White Tower and-" I didn't get to finish my sentence as the man perked up, a lot faster than I thought him capable to and hold on to my arm as if his life depended on it. "Sir, you're hurting-"

"You've seen it! You've seen it, didn't you? " The weak man collapsing on the ground was gone and all was left was this rumbling and unstable guy, ready to snap my wrist. "You've seen the dragon!" I was yanking on my arm, trying to get away from him but it was to no use, he wasn't done just yet. Tears were starting to build up in my eyes, ready to spill out at the idea of what he could do to me when the honk of the car made us both jump and bring our hands to cover our ears, being so close to the hood. I fell backwards and started the crawled backwards, my eyes still on him to make sure he wouldn't try anything else but he got sick again and I took this opportunity to get back behind the wheel and drove away as quickly as possible. We probably left some marks on the road as we did but I wanted to put as much distance between him and us as I possibly could. Smoothing the skin where his hands were squeezing me were anchoring the memory of his face even deeper in my mind. How was I supposed to tell Donna what had happened without worrying her...