With a heavy sigh, I brushed the loose curls from my face with the crook of my elbow and gathered all the empty drinks left behind on the bar top. The Cragtooth diner was busy this evening, out-of-towners came after a day up at the ski slopes looking to warm up and fill their bellies. Sierra was across the expanse taking an order from a rowdy bunch of snowboarders from Switzerland. I grabbed the leftover plates, piling the glasses on top before taking it to the dish-washing station. Calvin was a column of ice by the grill and his eyes flicked to me as I entered, always assessing. "Table four's order is ready," he deadpanned, nodding his head towards the order window. I acknowledged him with a weak smile before edging around his frightening figure to gather the orders onto the tray.
As I wove my way through the crowd I glanced at the door, hoping to see a pair of burning eyes walking through it. Since the last kiss, Django had made himself scarce. And that pissed me off. So many questions whirled in my head and for over a week I had to keep them to myself. The occupants at table four smiled blandly as I set their food in front of them. "Can I get you anything else?" I asked, fingering the pen and notebook in my apron pocket. When they shook their heads, I headed back to the order window with a sigh, wishing the day was over so I could curl up in front of the couch and devour a tub of ice cream.
Calvin was waiting for me at the counter, muscular, tanned arms folded across his chest and my spine tensed up immediately. With his deep voice he intoned, "as you know we had an agreement that upon your first week here we'd decide at the end if you were fit to work or not." I paused in the middle of grabbing a tray, my heart in my throat as he gazed at me emotionlessly, "after assessing your work ethic I've decided that you may stay miss Harper."
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and smiled at him tentatively. "T-Thanks!" I replied, as he stood there silently, looking over me with a calculating look in his eye. Hunching my shoulders, I quickly grabbed the tray and scurried away from him, feeling my muscles relax and my heart beat slow the further I got.
By the time I finished cleaning and clocked out, the sun was beginning to lower between the mountains, like a dying lantern. My boots crunched in the snow as I trekked across the parking lot to my car. The sky overhead began to darken as another cold front swept in and fell like a cloak over the stars that shone brightly - like diamonds studded in a sea of velvet. I riffled through my bag to find my key, opening the car door and sliding in, setting my purse on the passenger seat. The vehicle sputtered to life and I peeled from the lot, tearing off my gloves with my teeth and holding my white fingers up to the heating vents to warm them. Fading light still managed to peek through the clouds as I left the ski resort behind me and began to make my way back down the mountain.
The highway was empty of cars and dusted with a fine layer of snow as the clouds drew in closer and the sun began to sink further below the jagged peaks of the mountain range. I wasn't able to turn on the radio due to the interference from the cliffs and the quiet let me stew about Django. I couldn't believe he'd just kissed me then left without a word. Again. Helpless to deny me? He was the one who was always kissing me! Watching him turn around and leave without a word had ripped pulsing little tears in my heart and I withheld the silly urge to cry again, refusing to give myself into emotion over that insufferable man.
Outside the heat of the car, snow was falling like the sky was crying for me and wind whipped the branches of the icy trees. The speedometer on the dashboard was climbing steadily higher, when I was making the bend in the road and I hit the patch of ice. The back wheels spun correctly for a moment as the chains grappled for grip against the slick highway before, with a deafening screech, the rear end of the vehicle jerked sharply to the left. My breath was punched from my lungs in a panicked rush as I slammed on the brakes, grappling with the wheel for control. With a grunt, my body was thrown against the seat belt as the car spun further to the left, the smell of burning rubber permeating the air.
I jerked my head around to look over my shoulder at the nearing drop at the side, my eyes widening, breaths whistling out of my mouth in terror. With a thump that rattled my bones, the trunk hit the railing on the side, tearing through it with scraping metal as the car's wheels dangled over the edge of the slope studded with trees. Between the chains wrapped around the front tires and the crumpled railing that caged the car on each side, I teetered precariously on the edge of the road, to filled with terror to move. My headlights shone onto the opposite side of the narrow road, highlighting the side of mountain and the snow that still fell peacefully. The car stunk of burned brakes and my heart thundered in my chest as I carefully turned and peered over the edge.
The railing impaled the end of the car in such a way that if I opened my door carefully, I might be able to crawl out and onto the asphalt. It took me several moments to peel my fingers away from the wheel, knuckles cracking I had been clenching it so hard. With trembling hands, I carefully reached for the handle of the door and opened it slowly, the dented metal groaning in the silence of the night. Freezing air rushed into the compartment, my breaths immediately frosting. I was just beginning to reach for my seatbelt when the car jerked backward, grinding against the gravel. I yelped and my hands flew back to the wheel, tears spilling down my cheeks as the car, with me in it, quickly began to slip back.
Metal screamed as the railing tore my side of the vehicle, ripping the door right off its hinges as we shot past and I threw myself toward the middle to avoid the shattering glass. There was a moment of weightlessness, as the front tires tilted up and left the road before we hit dirt and rolled. I screamed as the car tumbled, wrapping my arms around my head as best as possible while the world tilted upside down over and over. The side of my neck stung hot as glass exploded from the sides. The air smelled of winter and pine and my own blood as the side of the vehicle hit the trunk of a tree. I was thrown to the right, with groaning metal and tinkling glass . . . before silence reigned.
My head felt heavy and I slowly opened my eyes my vision swimming and blurry, glasses lost as I realized the car was resting on its top like an overturned beetle, wheels spinning uselessly in the air. Sweat or maybe blood dripped into my eyes as I reached up, or was it down? To support my weight against the seatbelt that was slicing into my shoulder. My hands sliced against the glass that littered the ceiling and I gasped, pulling them away quickly as I dangled helplessly. My legs were jammed above the wheel, one of my boots lost in the chaos, and the leg of my pants pushed up to reveal bruised, tender skin. Through the daze, I knew the pain would come later, as it always did from past experiences. Right now my body was too filled with adrenaline and shock to feel anything but dizziness.
Around me the world was dark and blurry, but I could vaguely make out the shape of trees to my right and the slope I'd tumbled down to the left. Through the haze in my mind I realized the latter was the way I needed to go. I needed to get out of the car and up to the road to signal for help. With hands that were shaking so badly they barely functioned, I reached up and felt for the buckle. I located it after a moment and pressed down hard. The belt snaked from my body with a slither and I hit the roof of the car with a groan. Next were my legs, that I carefully tugged from their twisted position above the wheel, rolling my pant leg down against the cold.
After that I lay there for a moment, the world tilting around me as I tried to gain my bearings. Get up to the road. Signal for help. You can do this Bonnie you've had worse. Placing my hands carefully to avoid the glass, I leveled myself up against the roof of the car, searching for a way out of the wreck. Liquid dripped into my eyes and I reached up to wipe it from my forehead, my hand coming away dark in the gloom of night. The side of the car, where the door had been torn away rested against the tree, which meant I'd have to crawl to the other side and get the opposite one open.
The edges of my vision were going dark and pain slowly began to seep into my body, as the adrenaline faded and the cold soaked deep into my bones. The torn arm of my coat was leaking feathers as I shrugged it off and wrapped the bulk of it around my arm to carefully brush glass out of the way of my body, as I inched over to the other side of the car and the door. My hand weakly reached for the handle and pushed, uselessly. Cracks had appeared all along the sides of it and I realized the metal on the outside had been dented in, making it almost impossible to open with my bare hands. I need to kick it open, I reasoned sluggishly, dropping my hand and turning my head to dismally stare down at my feet with their missing boot.
It was either that or chance kicking the cracked glass out which could result in more injury. I turned my gaze to the front windshield and the jagged bits that remained in the frame. Perhaps I could haul myself out that way, then crawl from beneath the smoking hood to safety. The world spun dangerously as I began my aching crawl from the interior of the car. I tried my best to scrape shards out of the way of my body but it cut through the sleeves of my jacket and into my arms, seeping warm blood across my flesh. The heat of the engine that was still running was beginning to melt the snow and I began to shiver as more and more freezing slush began to seep into the inside. I stopped at the shattered shield of glass, sluggishly raising up the upper half of my body as far as I could so I could fix my coat. I unwound it from my forearm, shoulders aching,
Without the jacket, my shirt slipped off one side and I could detect where the seat belt had cut into it upon impact. There was a sizable slash and the skin around it was already bruising. Donning the parka with agonizing care, needing it against the chill, I lay back so my head was jammed against one of the upside-down headrests. With as much force as I could muster I began to kick the glass with my one boot from its frame, the jagged shards looking like teeth in the dark of the night. Cloud cover hid the light of the moon so my work was done by the flickering warmth of the headlights that illuminated only a few short feet ahead.
I finally managed to make a space wide enough for my body to fit through and I made the slow creep out from under the windshield, shaking hands clawing at the muddy snow as I pulled myself from the wreckage. The heat from the hood had obscured most of the cold from my senses, but as I emerged into the wilderness that surrounded me, from that crumpled piece of metal, an involuntary gasp escaped my throat as the icy powder stung my exposed skin with its frigidness and a chill wind tore through the trees and into my very bones. I lay panting amongst the drifts, blinking blood from my eyes. The treacherous slope to the road seemed to rear like an angry snake above me, an impossibility in its steepness, as I wondered how I would ever be able to make it up that incline.
Melting sludge began to sink into my clothes, stinging the cuts that spattered over my pale skin as I began to shiver violently in the nightfall. Just for a moment, I'll rest, I thought wearily, laying my head against a beaten hand. I listened carefully for any signs of cars on the road far above, but either the wind masked their noise, or it was too late at night for anyone to be making the pass. All I truly wanted to do was sleep, my upper body was such a mess of cuts and bruises that tears began to leak out of my eyes and down my cut cheeks without my consent. I was fairly certain my left shoulder was either sprained or dislocated and I could feel open cuts reacting to the harshness of the cold, making me cry harder. It's okay everything will just match the rest of your body, I thought miserably. You need to get up at some point, the best way out of this situation will be to get to the road.
With a groan I heaved my body to its hands and knees, vision blinking in and out of focus as I began to crawl towards the incline, shaking my head to clear my sight of the encroaching black dots. My temples were pounding terribly, strained muscles screaming for rest in my neck as I stumbled onward, hitting my knees and scraping up the palms of my hands upon roots and rocks buried in the snow. The icy cold was so strong that my body became one big sting as I made it to the base of the hill and tried to crawl up. An impossible task seeing as how the dirt was either muddy and provided no surface, or frozen in patches, providing even less hold than an oiled surface. What little way I had made, I slid right back down, a weary sob tearing its way from my throat.
I collapsed into a drift and laid there, unable to move. My form was an orchestra of agony, something that I'd grown unaccustomed to in the past three years and I gritted my teeth to cage in the next sob that was rising in my throat. Tears swept in like the tide and I let me eyes slip close, dazedly thinking of how angry my mother would be with me now that I was going to be late. We just need to sleep for a moment before we try again, I reasoned.
I'm not sure what woke me, or for how long I lingered in that dazed haze of pain. My eyes were glued shut with fallen tears, as I peeled my lids back and stared into the night. I stirred stiffly, my body so frozen and weak I no longer felt any pain as I slowly began to focus on my surroundings. The headlights of my car still flickered dismally as the engine sputtered to stay alive, the keys remaining in the ignition. Another sound rose above the whine of the machine. Rustling in the darkness of the forest that sparked a murky alertness of danger. I thought of the dark shape I'd seen in the woods before. God, please don't let it be that bear, I pleaded, icy fear cooling my body further. More rustling, then the heave of an animal's breathing.
Something stepped into the quivering ray of light, a huge paw, larger than my face with long curving talons. Not. A. Bear. Terror quickened my heart as I lay there like bait, fingers scrabbling in the snow in panic, trying to drag myself away. Short black fur lined the muscled foot, tendons flexing as it padded closer, something so large and monstrous never breaking the crust of ice that lay over the drifts of snowfall. A smell rose above the scent of gasoline and burned rubber, heavy and musky and animal that clogged my nostrils. My hands were trembling. I fought to stay awake as the beast's snuffling pants ruffled my hair when it slunk to stand over me. Nausea boiled in my stomach, whimpering as the creature's wet nose trailed along my exposed neck, a long slick tongue lolling out to taste my wounds, breath meaty and ichorous.
Peering from the corner of my eye I surveyed the creature's narrow, pointed muzzle, gleaming teeth and gums encrusted in blood. It's eyes blinked back at me like two harvest moons, filled with animalistic intent. A small cry left my lips, my body curling in on itself on basic instinct to make myself less visible to the predator. Snarling, the beast's gigantic paw pressed against my side, claws catching on my torn jacket, its velveteen pelt worked against the corded muscles of its throat with the growing growls. I was going to die.
Suddenly a howl spilled from the animal's throat and I realized with a bolt of horror that this was a wolf. How on earth could a wolf be that big? It's carnal cry was nothing like in the wildlife documentaries my mother enjoyed watching. It was low, yet shrill, shuddering and primal, like the clarion of a hunter's horn. I choked on my sobs as it lowered its great, shaggy head, monstrous muzzle locking around my waist and sharp fangs pressing into my flesh. It's jaw easily spanned my rib cage, nearly crushing the breath from my lungs as it bore me into the air. The thickness of my jacket prevented the teeth from breaking my skin.
The wolf, if you could even call it that, carried me like a mother would carry its pups as it turned and entered the treeline with thudding, steady strides. The wolf's heavy breath dampened the side of my coat and I faintly realized my blood was littering the forest floor with droplets of rubies as it carried me further and further away from the wreckage.
Shadow bore down on us like the cloak of death, the only light came from the wolf's eyes that shone like two moons, illuminating the unblemished snow that lay between the spindly trees. My heartbeat was roaring in my ears and the coarse fur of the beast's chest scraped against my face. Out of the gloom ahead rose the root of a mountain and studded in the granite was the entrance to a small cave. I began to struggle to the best of my ability as we drew nearer and the wolf's jaws clamped down; squeezing my ribs, a warning growl shaking my spine. No doubt a hungry pack was waiting inside, maws salivating to tear me apart. That yawning mouth grew closer and I twisted my hands in the thing's pelt in silent protest, as there was one last kiss of snow on my face before we entered the cave and my fear took me – darkness fell like a pall over my eyes and I saw no more.
The first thing that registered when I woke was warmth. It encased my entire being and I snuggled closer to the source, my muscles zinging in agony. The second was that whatever was causing the warmth was breathing, great gusts that blew the damp curls off my forehead and I stilled, heart skipping a beat beneath my collarbone. My eyelids were stuck together with either tears or blood as I peeled them open and tried to focus on my surroundings, my breathing growing harsher. As far as I could detect there was no frenzied pack waiting to rip me limb from limb. The alcove in the rock was shrouded in night and I let my eyes adjust to the light, attempting to make out what little I could without my glasses.
The cave was cramped with the hulking brute next to me, barely an alcove of stone that had been carved out from the weather. Small icicles studded the ceiling and I realized I was pressed up against the hollow's wall and the wolf, my right arm bent at an awkward angle beneath its belly. I swallowed loudly, a lump of horror growing in my throat as I fixated on the animal's face. It was gigantic, the size of a grizzly with a wider head and a long, pointed snout, beset with pearly fangs. I came to the conclusion that it must have been male due to his enormity. His eyes had no discernible color, at least that I could see, without my glasses it was like trying to see a reflection in a clouded mirror.
I could detect that they shone eerily with tapetum lucidum, as he gazed endlessly into the forest. Long, pointed ears were set strangely far back against his immense skull and they flicked back and forth, listening to things my own human ears couldn't possibly pick up. His fur was dark, possibly black and thick and heavy with musk. My eyes traveled further down, past his corded neck and flexing shoulders. Something about the wolf's anatomy was amiss, besides his boggling size. The torso was too long, backbone arched like an angry cat, as were the hind-legs, tangled and muscly, sporting two gigantic paws with curving talons. Deformed, perhaps? The wolf was alone, possibly exiled from a pack in Wyoming as a pup, maybe somehow managed to make its way down here to flourish in the environment?
It let off an unbelievable amount of warmth and I slowly felt my blinding terror begin to melt away, though my heart rate refused to slow. Caution dared not leave me when my side still ached from its teeth, so I remained perfectly still, wondering how I was going to get out of this. My leg with the missing boot throbbed nearly unbearably and I knew from past injuries I wouldn't be putting any weight on it soon. The blood that dripped from my temple still resumed its sluggish descent down the side of my face and my head was spiked with pain.
Like it read my mind, the wolf suddenly turned and a long tongue rolled out to lick the blood from my temples. I squeaked and froze, my heart beating so hard against the cage of my chest that it hurt. Fear slowly crept back in with its canines so close to my face, my throat. He nipped almost playfully at my nose, spiking my pulse, before turning to stare back at the night. Mayhap he'd just finished hunting and I was an unexpected late night snack? Why did it seem like he was trying to keep me warm? I shook my head, you're crazy Bonnie.
Without warning the wolf tensed, ears flicking forward as it listened to something intently. It rose, claws scraping against the stone floor and showering sparks, his back cracking the icicles hanging from the ceiling. He hurled himself out of the alcove and into the snowy night, without a glance back. Chasing after more prey? Another predator on his territory? He left me with the distinct feeling that I was missing something very important. With the wolf gone, the cold slunk into my bones and not long after I began to shiver, cupping my bare hands around my mouth and striving to heat them with my breath as my body curled in on itself. Exhaustion sank its teeth into my body as the adrenaline finally left my system and my eyelids drooped. I was nearly asleep when I heard the shout.
"She's over here!"
I struggled to stay awake, anything to force the slightest sound for help from my frozen vocal chords.
"Ah, Bonnie," came the quiet rasp of a familiar voice. I slowly raised my head to see Django crouched at the entrance to the alcove, flashlight in hand. Never before had I been so glad to see his face. Django's mouth was set in a grim line, the bottom of his pant legs and boots were covered in mud and snow. I watched, dazedly, as he crawled inside and my body jerked as he laid a searing hot hand on my shoulder and smoothed it all the way down to my hipbone.
"How'd you find me?" I mumbled, as his muscular arms circled my battered form and Django lifted me into his embrace. With little effort, he carried me out of the cave and out into the open, before turning and heading in a certain direction through the woods.
"Your mother called the police when you failed to return home, there have been people looking for you for hours with the aid of your friend the marshal," he rumbled, holding me tighter against him as he rubbed the scruff of his chin against the top of my head affectionately.
"How'd you know he was a marshal?" I questioned sleepily, knowing that Hanson would never let that information slip. Django didn't answer and fatigue drew me into its silken grasp, now that I was safe.
"How'd you find me?" I asked again, realizing sluggishly that he hadn't answered.
"I'll always find you," I thought he murmured, but I'd let slumber steal me and I was adrift.
I'm sorry for my absence, if you go to my profile there will be a brief explanation why. Thank you for sticking with me guys, I love you all.