Journey into Night

What?

Her feet stung from running barefoot for so long, she tipped under a fallen tree, that just barely cleared her head. Maddison glanced back, and in doing so ended up smashing her nose against something hard but fleshy. She grunted in pain and pushed against the bridge of her nose in an attempt to ease the throbbing feeling bubbling in her head.

An arm reached down and grabbed her by the back of her shirt, hoisting her up, and off the ground. Her legs dangled in the air; toes reaching out in search of solid ground. "Stop running" a husky voice demanded from between shadows.

Maddison could just barely make out the shadow of a man. She could tell he was tall because of how far he'd yanked her from off the ground, but not much else was revealed in such a dark setting. It was evening, and the moon lit up clearings the forest, but where the pair now, half stood half dangled, thick trees blocked much of the moonlight. "I'm going to put you down now, don't run from me" the man said. Maddison's wolf growled at the stranger and began trying to claw at him.

The man dropped Maddison, causing fallen leaves to disperse around her on the forest floor. She looked up at where she guessed the man was standing and glared in that direction. He let out a raspy chortle at her response "you know, you're kinda cute when you're mad" he joked.

Maddison countered his statement with a kick in the shin. The man winced and bent down to clutch his leg. "Ha, you know, you're kinda cute when you're in pain" Maddison said mockingly.

The man's eyes flashed gold and reverted back to what looked like either a dark green or brown of some sort. Maddison got onto her feet and pushed past the man, who was still cradling his shin. She made it to the edge of the woods, her house was now partially visible from between a gathering of birch trees. Maddison looked behind her, expecting the man to still be tenderly nursing his leg, but a gray wolf now took his place. She rolled her eyes at his aggressive stare down and continued to make her way to the house.

Maddison hit the ground again as he pounced on her back. He'd made sure his claws weren't bared so as not to hurt her, he just wanted to talk. Maddison scowled and shoved his snout away from her face. "Douchebag!" She yelled, wiping mud and leaves off of her shirt. He shifted back and pinned her hands above her head.

"Stop fighting me, I just want to talk" he said.

"Well then stop fighting back, idiot" she replied while squirming underneath him. He huffed and released his grip on her.

He stood up, off his knees, and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm Sebastian, and you are?"

"Maddison" she replied, continuing to glare in his direction. They were now in full-light, giving Maddison the opportunity to look at Sebastian properly. He was clean-shaven, his hair was brown, curly, but neat, when he was nervous he'd scratch his jaw, which she didn't mind at all. She just now noticed he was shirtless, which she also did not mind at all.

Her face flushed a deep red and she forgot all about maintaining her tough exterior. Sebastian let a confused expression fall onto his face. "Are you hot? Your face looks sunburnt" he said cluelessly.

Maddison quickly drew her hands up to her face and held her cold palms against her cheeks, in an attempt to cool herself down. "I'm fine" she managed out in a sort of grunt. Sebastian laughed at how silly she sounded.

"...okayyy" he said and followed that remark with a nervous chuckle.

"I have things to do, so if you could hurry, whatever this is, up that'd be just peachy" Maddison said motioning swiftly between the two of them with her index finger, frustration clear in her tone.

"Oooh, what kinds of things?" Sebastian asked.

Without thinking twice Maddison began listing off on her fingers and responded casually by saying: "well my birthday's tomorrow, grandmother's coming into town for the second time in seven years and— wait I don't have to tell you anything. What do you want?" She asked.

"Well... umm" Sebastian considered his options for a moment and took a step forward, adjusting his shoulders and clearing his throat before croaking out "your digits babe". He paused and an expression of realization swept across his face "uh, well I mean yes that, but not like that" he said. "Sorry" he continued.

she cringed internally, without making an effort to mask her reaction through her facial expression. She reconsidered, he's awkward... a charming sort of awkward though. Her opinion of him seemed to quickly have changed from a menacing stranger chasing her through the woods, ready to kill her, to an awkward, sweaty teenage boy who obviously had no idea what he was doing.

This time it was Maddie who let out an awkward chuckle, pulling out a grocery list she'd shoved into her pocket that morning. "Pen?" She asked looking up at him, because she just couldn't resist the tall, dark, and handsome look. He leaned over, searching through his pants and pulled out a tiny pencil with characters from the movie frozen plastered on the sides. She gave him a concerned glance and motioned for him to turn around. He understood and did just that, crouching over to suit her height as she used his back as a makeshift table to scribble her phone number on.

"Thanks" Sebastian squawked.

"Yeah" she nodded before turning and running up to her house, and slipping inside.