Chapter 4,
“Is she awake?” Tristan’s voice soothed my ears and triggered a reaction in my eyelids to open. As the sun blinded me I shielded my face with my hand. Sitting up, I realised I was lying on the front lawn of Tristan’s house. Had I been out that long I’d skipped the rest of school?
“It looks like it.” A velvet voice rang from behind me. I spun around to see who could produce a voice so silky, so … irresistible.
It was my hero. Sitting a few metres away from me. I held my breath while my eyes helplessly skimmed his perfect appearance, I could even smell the perfection from here. My hero grinned.
He was real! I knew it!
My mouth had been hanging open for the last few seconds and it took me a while to realise to shut it. My hero stood up and turned to leave, but I leaped onto my feet and grabbed his shoulder.
“Wait!” I said, my voice hoarse. He turned around cautiously and raised his oh so perfect eyebrow. “W-what’s your name?” I asked. He grinned mischievously and the word ‘Leo’ escaped his lips before his body vanished into thin air.
Leo.
Even his name rung with absolute amazingness.
“And you don’t seem freaked about him just vanishing?” A rather pissed off Tristan said from behind me. Spinning around on my feet to see him I nearly tripped over but he stood up and held my balance for me. I sighed, having no answer, I was freaked out… just too enchanted to know so. But why wasn’t Tristan freaked out? Going mad and calling him some sort of wizard?
He obviously knew something I didn’t.
An irritated expression invaded his face and he stormed inside his house. I was sure the whole house shook as the door slammed behind him. Had I done something wrong?
Now irritated myself, I dragged my feet all the way back to my house, it was quite far to walk but the strides passed quicker than I’d thought. As the cars whizzed passed my side I thought of the day when I’d almost died in a car crash, three years ago.
No one had cared but Tristan. Not even my parents, they had laughed and said I’d be fine in a few weeks. But Tristan came to pick me up from the hospital; he came to my house every day to make sure my dislocated shoulder was on the mend. And right now I was pushing him away because of some dude who could vanish.
I’d lost my sense of direction and turned down a wrong street. Realising this I went into panicked mode and quickly ran across the road to the one I was meant to be on.
But I hadn’t looked; I hadn’t even been listening out for cars. And this was a very busy road. As headlights rushed towards me and car horns set my ears ablaze I couldn’t help thinking how pathetic dying this way was.
I wasn’t even freaked out by the thought of dying; no fear came across my body. Just shame.
“I swear you’re trying to kill yourself” Leo laughed, literally snatching me away and onto the pavement at the last second. Overwhelmed and completely shocked I laughed in relief. As I desperately held onto him, still shocked he didn’t seem bothered.
“Why do you always save me?” the words had escaped out of my mouth before I had even thought them. It was true though, he always seemed to show up when I was about to die…
I loosened my grip around his neck and placed my feet back on the ground. As I looked up into his eyes I saw nothing but the enchanting red waves and mysterious pools of lovable swirls.
“Why do you always need saving?” He replied, chuckling as he backed away.
“No wait! Don’t go!” I Pleaded, tugging on his arm like a child. The thought of him going and probably only coming back when I was nearly dead, who knows when that would be, was somehow disheartening.
He held onto my hand that was attached to his arm and gently brushed it off. “I’ll be back, Anna.” He whispered as our hands parted and his body yet again vanished into the air, leaving me with nothing, not even a goodbye.
I crossed my arms and let out an annoyed sigh. As I dragged my feet back to my house I realised I hadn’t brought my key to school, I didn’t know what time it was so I didn’t know whether or not my parents or my sister would be home.
Pressing the doorbell about ten times, I pouted and banged my fist at the door. But no one was in so there was no point.
I heard a shuffling sound from my right and spun on my heel to face the noise. But nothing was there, just the forest that was placed directly next to our house.
The forest was 5 miles thick and 5 miles long. One of the only rules my parents had given me was to never enter the dense arms of the forest.
…But right now it didn’t seem like I had anything more to do.
I looked around me to check no one was watching but… who would care to watch me?
As soon as the trees engulfed me I felt a sudden warm feeling in my heart. It felt like… I belonged here. Letting out a burst out happiness and relief I stroked my palm against a tree trunk. It felt so rough, but so soft and caring at the same time. Closing my eyes I let this warm feeling take over all of me.
I ventured further into the woods, letting every tree welcome me, letting every bird chirp make me want to sing. The grin that was invading my face was unstoppable, it was growing bigger and bigger the further I went into the forest. I didn’t know how I’d get back home but that wasn’t important right now.
Living in the moment never felt so relevant.
That’s when I suddenly realised how dark it had gotten in the last few minutes.
And that’s when I heard a deep snarl from behind me.
Spinning on my heel, I stumbled and had to grab a tree to get my balance back. My eyes widened as a pair of shining eyes came from out the darkness. They belonged to a wolf, a wolf that had multiple scars on its skull, making it look even more sinister.
My body kicked into to panic mode and started to shake helplessly. More wolves came from the darkness, making me completely outnumbered.
Where was Leo! Shouldn’t he be saving me?
“LEO!” I screamed. Bad decision, the wolves were taken by surprise by my scream. Surprising a wolf while it was about to attack you was probably the worst thing you could do.
I took deep breathes and the wolf at the front, the one with jet black fur and vibrant crimson eyes, prowled further towards me. Growling, he showed a very sharp set of teeth that look like they could rip me apart with one bite. I clung onto the tree to my right and hoped they’d disappear and run off into the woods.
When they edged closer I stumbled backwards in an effort to escape them. But my foot snapped a twig placed on the floor.
The wolves were shocked by the sudden noise and without anything else they all snarled and leapt off their back feet, coming at a scary speed towards me with their teeth ready to pierce my skin.