Cole
"Uurrgghh," I huffed in frustration after waiting on the gravel for about 15 minutes.
My backside was starting to feel a strange combination of bruised and numb from sitting on such an uncomfortable surface.
I stood up and brushed off the small bits of gravel from the back of my shorts while glancing round to see if I could see any sign of Emily or Nathan.
I couldn't see anyone, and it was eerily silent. I couldn't even hear any birds, which was a little odd.
I started pacing around, eyeing up the woodland that was in front of me. I couldn't help but wonder what possible ecological delights I might find in there.
Surely a quick peek wouldn't hurt?
I started edging into the trees, looking around to see what species I could see. There were some sycamore, horse chestnut, and beech trees as well as a variety of bush species, some native, some imported. It would definitely be an interesting ecosystem to study and I wondered whether Nathan would let me visit more often in the future.
A loud piercing scream tore me out of my thoughts and I froze on the spot, my senses on full alert.
"Emily?" I whisper-shouted, afraid of what might be out there.
It was definitely the scream of a woman.
Suddenly I heard scuffling noises, like the bushes in the forest were being shaken, and then I heard the unmistakable growl and snapping bark of a large canine.
I couldn't tell exactly where the noise was coming from, or even if it was coming from just one creature.
There could be more than one of them.
I braced myself to run back to the manor when I noticed that the noises seemed to be getting further away, not closer, and soon I could no longer hear any rustling, only the occasional bark somewhere in the distance.
I slowly made my way forward, in the direction I thought the scream came from.
Emily could be hurt somewhere close by, so I couldn't just leave her.
I edged my way through the trees, as quietly as possible, constantly on the lookout.
I stopped as I heard some more rustling directly in front of me, behind some bushes.
I stood perfectly still listening, and I could hear the sound of a soft whimper. It was the sound of an animal in pain or afraid.
I took a few deep breaths then edged forward, pushing my small body between two bushes and out the other side.
I couldn't see anything at first, then a sudden movement made me glance to the right where I could see something in a dip in the undergrowth.
I peered over and was shocked to see a grey wolf trapped in some sort of net.
"Fuck," I whispered.
The wolf's head shot round to face me and it growled and snapped it's teeth at me, making me jump back in fear.
Before my body had time to flee, my brain kicked in and I realised that the wolf was trapped and so couldn't rip me apart limb by limb.
The wolf stared hard at me for a few seconds, before it stopped growling and went back to thrashing around, clearly trying to get out of the net.
"Hey," I said gently, "hey there wolf, I can help if you like?"
I edged a foot closer, but froze when it turned to look at me again.
This time it didn't growl, but just looked at me, as if it was sizing me up.
"Ok," I said, still in a quiet tone, "let's see if I can see how this works, then I can get you out."
I held my breath as I edged closer to the wolf, my hands out in front of me, instinctively ready to protect me if it suddenly lept in my direction.
I inched closer and closer, and the wolf stopped moving and held still, it's nose to the ground.
It obviously knew I wasn't a threat and I felt relieved that it was no longer looking like it wanted to kill me.
I was close enough to touch it, so I slowly reached out my hand to touch the net, and my fingers grazed along the wolf's grey fur.
It was unbelievably soft, and I couldn't help the smile spread across my face knowing that I'd managed to touch one of these magnificent creatures.
I began to pull at the netting, seeing if there were any loose or damaged sections that I might be able to exploit.
The wolf was lying so stationary that I almost forgot that this giant monster was right next to me. That was until it suddenly jumped up and lunged at me, snapping and barking like I'd just attacked it.
"Woah!" I shouted, falling over onto my back as I scrambled like a crab away from the psycho wolf.
The wolf continued to bark and snap, thrashing around wildly in the net, as I scrambled back onto my feet.
"What the hell?" I said to the wolf, "What was that ab..."
I didn't finish my sentence as I was suddenly grabbed firmly from behind, a cloth placed over my mouth.
I squirmed around trying to get out of the grip of the man behind me, but he was much bigger and stronger than me. I managed to kick his shins but he didn't even flinch.
The cloth over my mouth smelt funny and I found myself feeling dizzy and my vision started to blur round the edges.
I stopped fighting, purely concentrating on staying upright before everything became heavy and my limbs just turned to jelly under me.
I landed with a thud on the floor, but for some reason it didn't hurt. My eyelids felt heavy, and I blinked, once, twice, then everything went dark.
*****************************************
I woke up with a pounding head and an aching shoulder.
"Oh shitting hell," I moaned as I stretched my body out slowly, only to discover I was lying on a concrete floor.
No wonder I was in so much pain.
I blinked my eyes, squinting against the sunlight that was shining in through a small window that was high up on the wall opposite.
Where was I?
"Hello sleepyhead," came a voice from behind me, and I jumped round in fright, then promptly winced in pain at the sudden movement.
"What are you doing here? And where are we?" I asked Emily who was sat on the floor next to me.
"We've been kidnapped," she said, matter of factly, like this was an everyday occurance.
"What?" I managed to croak out, waiting for the punchline, or for Nathan to come strolling in.
"I said, we've been kidnapped," she repeated again.
"No," I said, shaking my head and laughing at her, "I heard you the first time, I meant, what are you going on about? What do you mean kidnapped? Is this some sort of game?"
Emily sighed, and I saw an expression flash across her face. It seemed like pity.
My smile fell off my face and I began to take a proper look at where I was.
I was sat on a concrete floor with a brick wall in front of me, with two small windows high up, too high to be able to see through them. I slowly turned round and saw that we were in fact in some sort of cell, and that there were metal bars running from the floor to ceiling stopping us from getting to the door.
I jumped up and ran over to the gate, rattling the bars in the hope that it would just open.
"Cole, sshhhh!" Emily said frantically, and I turned to see her eyes wide with fear.
I hear a noise outside, and I quickly shrank back, away from the bars, and sat back down on the floor beside Emily.
The door to the room opened and a rather large and ugly man walked up to the bars and peered through at me.
"You're awake then?" the man asked gruffly.
"Y-Yeah," I stuttered back.
The man rubbed his stubbled chin with his hand and the movement drew my attention to a large scar that ran down his cheek. When my dad warned me about strangers as a child, this man was exactly what I would have pictured. He was the kind of guy you would cross the street to avoid.
"So you're not one of them then," he said, nodding his head towards Emily.
I frowned at him, looking briefly at Emily, whose eyes were fixed onto the man in front of us.
"You mean a woman? No I'm not."
The man let out a snort of laughter, but then glared back at me.
"No, you prick, I meant you're not a werewolf."
My eyes widened in understanding, but also in fear. He knew about werewolves?
I looked across at Emily for guidance, but she was still staring straight ahead at the man.
"W-What are you talking about?" I said, feigning ignorance.
"Really?" he said shaking his head. "We're going to do this are we?"
He then turned around and walked with purpose back out of the room.
I turned to Emily.
"What the fuck is going on?" I asked her, but she never moved. She was sat staring at the door, her jaw clenched tight.
"Emily, what are..."
I snapped my mouth shut when the guy walked back in pulling what looked like a hose pipe. The type that firefighters used.
I tilted my head to my side in confusion before suddenly there was a whooshing noise and water squirted out of the hose pipe at a tremendous force, hitting me straight in the chest.
The force of the water was enough to knock me backwards onto the floor, and leave me spluttering for air.
He kept spraying me, the icy cold water stinging against my bare skin. I tried to turn my back on the spray, only for it to push me back over, over and over again.
I was wet, cold and exhausted when the spray finally left me, and I realised he must have moved onto Emily.
I lifted my soggy head and looked over to her, and gasped.
Instead of Emily being sat next to me, there was a large grey wolf. The same grey wolf that was trapped in the net back at Worthington Manor.
The wolf was standing its ground against the spray, it's large body able to resist the force of the water better than my scrawny form.
The man moved the hose pipe back in my direction, and I braced myself for impact, but was surprised when nothing came.
I looked up to see that the wolf had stood in front of me, taking the force of the blast.
The hose suddenly switched off and the wolf wandered over to the far side of the cell, before shaking its body energetically, making beads of water fly all over the already soaked room.
"Now do you see what I'm talking about?" the man snarled, and I felt myself start to shiver. Whether it was from the cold water, or from the man's glare, I didn't know.
"I'll leave you be now," he said, "but when I come back, I expect answers, or next time it'll be something much worse than water."
He then threw down the hose dramatically before leaving the room.
As soon as he left, my eyes immediately moved to the large wolf in the room.
The wolf was now lying down, licking at its fur, but to be honest, it already looked mostly dry, whereas I was sat in a puddle of water looking like a drowned rat.
"E-Emily?" I asked nervously.
The wolf briefly stopped licking itself to look at me, before carrying on where it left off.
I sat in silence, watching the wolf, my arms wrapped around my body trying to stop myself from shivering.
Eventually the wolf stood up, stretched, and then in a blink of an eye it had vanished and Emily was stood in front of me again.
"Holy shit!" I said, standing up quickly.
"Are you ok?" Emily asked, and I could see genuine concern in her eyes.
"What do you mean, am I ok, you just changed into a wolf for crying out loud!"
I knew werewolves existed, and I knew that logically Emily must be one too, but until I actually saw it, I suppose a part of me was still reluctant to believe it was true.
Emily ignored my comment and came over to me and put her hand on my arm.
"Look at you, you can't stop shivering," she said. "Take your t-shirt and shorts off."
"What?" I said, a slight blush creeping onto my cheeks. It would have been more if it wasn't for the fact my blood was probably frozen right now.
"You need to get your wet clothes off," she said, and it was only then that I noticed she was bone dry.
"Here," she said, pointing to the small patch of sun on the floor that was coming in through the windows. "Put your clothes here and they will dry quicker. You can sit in that other patch of sun."
Despite my reluctance to strip off, I knew she was right, so I did as she asked, before curling myself up into a ball on the second small patch of sunlight.
"If you don't start warming up soon, I'll turn back into my wolf and you can cuddle into my fur."
There wasn't one part of that sentence that I was ok with, but I kept my mouth shut and just nodded slightly.
We sat in silence for a few minutes before Emily asked, "what are you going to say when he comes back in?"
I looked at her blankly. "I haven't a clue, what should I say?"
She looked thoughtful for a moment before replying. "We need to keep as close to the truth as possible, but don't mention home, pretend you live near Worthington Manor and that we are doing the project there. Don't mention Nathan, and don't let on that you knew we were werewolves."
"Ok," I said, nodding my head, but I was already beginning to panic.
We went over our story a couple of times and when I heard the sound of voices getting closer, I quickly put my clothes back on, which were already considerably drier thanks to the warm sun.
"Right, are you ready to talk?" a gruff voice came from the door.
"Sure," I replied, "but I don't really have much to tell you."
"We'll see about that," he said with a smirk. "Let's start with your name."
I thought back to what Emily had said about staying as close to the truth as possible.
"Cole Dawson."
His eyes flickered at my name, but it was so quick it was possible I imagined it.
"And what were you doing at Worthington Manor?"
"I was with Emily, because I've been doing a college ecology project on the woods surrounding the manor."
I could see that he was a little surprised by my answer.
"And how did you meet Emily," he said, almost sneering at Emily's name.
"My college professor introduced us. He knew what I wanted to do for my dissertation and so he contacted Emily and asked if I could do some research in the woods. Today was the first day I had been there and Emily was about to show me round."
"Hmm," he said, scratching his chin with his grubby fingers. I couldn't help but stare at the scar running down his left cheek. I wondered whether it was a werewolf that had done that.
"So what do you know about werewolves then?" he asked.
"Absolutely nothing," I said, "I didn't even know they existed until today."
"You look a little calm for someone who has only just found out that they are sharing a cell with a werewolf."
I shrugged my shoulders acting nonplussed.
"I guess that's just my character. I believe in a lot of things, like aliens and vampires, so I guess I wasn't all that surprised. I just always had a feeling that there was something else out there, you know?"
"Yeah, I know what you mean," he said, and I felt my heart skip a beat in joy that he seemed to be falling for my routine.
"Right," he said, "I'm sorry that you've got caught up in all of this. I'll go and see if I can find you some food."
"Thanks," I replied, before he left the room.
"Oh my god Cole, that was amazing!" Emily said, staring at me as if she was seeing me for the first time.
"I guess I must have some of my dad's genes in me after all," I replied.
My dad used to do a lot of undercover work when I was younger.
The ugly, gruff guy returned shortly with a ham sandwich and handed it to me.
"What about Emily?" I asked.
"We don't feed the dogs," he said, and spat at her before walking back out of the room.
"Sorry about that," I said to Emily, before tearing up my sandwich and giving her half.
"Thanks," she said, then we both fell silent while we ate hungrily.
The rest of the day progressed in much the same manor. The same man would occasionally come in and talk to me, while ignoring Emily. He would give me food and water, but gave nothing to Emily. I would keep slipping as much as I could to her when he left the room. Then when night came, he brought me a pillow and a couple of blankets, giving me strict instructions that 'the dog' was not to go near them, or I would go without too.
When he left and the lights went out, I looked over at Emily apologetically.
"It's fine," she said, "I'll just sleep in my wolf form. My fur will keep me warm."
"So who are they and what do they want?" I asked.
Emily sighed and pulled her knees up under her chin.
"They're hunters. Their life's ambition is to prove to society that we exist and that we are a threat to humans and therefore should be killed."
"That's stupid," I said ineloquently .
"Stupid it may be, but they have killed many of our pack over the last couple of years."
"Oh my god, is there nothing we can do about it? Have you reported them to the police?"
Emily let out a snort of laughter, "And said what? 'Hey Mr Police Officer, can you please investigate the death of this wolf, as he was also my gardener and handyman?'"
I just stared at her, not quite sure what to say.
"I'm sorry you got caught up in all of this," she said, before letting out another sigh. "I should have never taken you there."
"It's not your fault. You didn't know," I said, trying to make her feel better.
"But I knew that hunters had been in the area. For heaven's sake, that's why we moved to Highfield! It was just really stupid of me, and I'm sorry."
"It's fine, honestly," I said, leaning over and patting her knee lightly, "I'm sure Nathan will figure out where we are and come and find us."
"Oh my god, Nathan!" Emily said, laughing. "Nathan is going to go batshit crazy when he figures out they've got you! When he finds them he's going to rip them to pieces!"
Even though the mental image was quite disturbing, I still couldn't help but smile at the thought of him being concerned about me. Was that wrong of me?
"We better try and get some sleep," Emily said, yawning next to me.
"Ok," I replied, wondering how the heck I was ever going to sleep in a place like this.
Once I'd settled down in my makeshift blanket bed, I turned to look at Emily and saw a big grey wolf curled up next to me, it's head lying on one of it's paws.
I chuckled lightly, still not quite believing what I was seeing, then lay back down and tried to go to sleep.
But with my mind whining, and my heart still pounding, I wasn't expecting to be getting much sleep at all.