I was so cold and the pain in my leg so intense, I shook slightly.
My head fell back away from the warmth of his chest and soothing heartbeat. I closed my eyes.
5
I woke up slowly just as the sky was turning a roseate shade from the rising sun. At first, I wasn’t sure where I was. The room was dark and I was hot due to the amount of blankets on top of me. But slowly, as I blinked and rubbed my eyes, I recognized that I was in my bedroom and on the little white wooden bench with floral cushions in front of the open window, slept Kristen in a sitting up position.
My eyes moved away from her and fell onto a large glass bowl on the floor beside my bed filled with a reddish foamy water and rags. That was weird.
My head was killing me and my throat was so dry. I licked my lips and when I did I noticed my bottom lip not only felt twice its size, but was also incrusted in dried, cakey blood. Confused, I slowly touched my fingers to my lip and felt a small gash. Exploring the rest of my sensitive face with my fingers, I discovered that left cheek was also swollen.
What the heck?
Closing my eyes, I tried to remember last night. I was at the abandoned house and alone in the basement then the snarling, a bright light, and the last thing I remembered was being jumped and dragged then carried by someone and my leg hurt.
My leg.
I sat up in bed quickly and pulled the blankets off of me to survey my upper thigh. I wasn’t wearing pants. Someone had changed me into my dark green summer night gown. I stared down at my legs, and gently lifted the hem of the night gown; exposing my upper leg wrapped in bandages stained with blood.
A soundless scream caught in my throat and escaped in raspy breathes. I was stunned with fear.
Kristen rustled and opened her eyes slowly. When noticing me awake, she jumped up, clumsily, and ran over to the bed. Hugging me, and holding me tightly, Kristen cried wither her head resting on my shoulder. Her warm tears melted into my nightgown.
“You’re okay,” she said.
“What happened?” I asked.
She wouldn’t let go of me, but I needed her to fill in the blanks from last night, so I pushed her away. Dragging her fingers under her eyes as she cried a little with relief and concern, she climbed on to the bed and crossed her legs.
“It was like crazy,” she said. “I knew we shouldn’t have left the party.”
“The party,” I said, I looked at my open bedroom door half expecting to hear the crowd from last night still downstairs.
As if reading my thoughts, Kristen shook her head and said, “It’s okay. After we got you home, Sydney made everyone leave and some people stayed behind to clean up.”
“Max?” I asked, thinking of the mysterious guy who carried through the woods.
“I don’t know what happened to him. It was kind of chaotic for a little while,” Kristen said, suddenly overcome with emotion again as she cried into her hands. “I thought you died and then I thought—I thought it had ruined your face and wouldn’t that have been awful. To have a scar right down your face for everyone to see, but then I saw that it was just your leg so—”
“Just my leg?” I threw back the blankets to show her the bloody bandages on my upper thigh.
“Yeah, it was really gross. Your skin was . . . and the blood . . . and,” Kristen shuddered, “I passed out. I couldn’t handle it and then when I unpassed out . . .”
“Unpassed out?” I interrupted.
“Regained conscious, whatever. I’m distraught, Mickey.”
“You’re distraught? Hello? You’re talking to a girl who was attacked by a Cujo wanna be last night.” I pointed to my leg.
“That movie is so scary.”
“Actually it’s based off of a book by Stephen—wait, Kristen focus: When you unpassed out . . .”
“You were all bandaged up, so I cut off your jeans—I feel terrible about that they were adorable and I know your favorite pair,” Kristen said, frowning.
“Wait, stop. Start from the beginning. What happened?”
Kristen sighed. Her face was a blotchy red from crying and her eyes were puffy. She rubbed her nose with the back of her hand and began.
“So we were all really freaked out after being in that house. We didn’t stop running until we hit the clearing in the middle of the trail. That’s when we noticed you weren’t with us. Max wanted to go back, and then we heard you screaming. That’s when things got chaotic. Everyone ran in different directions. The guys ran away, Sydney ran back to the house, I ran toward you. When I got to you,” she paused and cried a little before continuing, “You were on your back in the front yard and your leg was a mess. It looked like ground beef, ew—great now I can never eat a hamburger again—I tried moving you, but you were out of it and I knew I couldn’t carry you on my own so I left to get help.”
“You left me all by myself?” I couldn’t hide my shock and disapproval.
“I said, I couldn’t carry you. I didn’t know what else to do, so I ran back to the house. The party was pretty much cleared out. I finally got a few people to agree to come back with me, but as soon as we left, some guy was running up to the house, carrying you.”
I sat up a little more. “Max?” I asked again.
“No, I told you, I don’t know what happened to him and I don’t know who the guy was, but he carried you right into the house and set you on the table, and that’s when it was just too much for me and I fainted.”
“Did you see a woman?” I asked, thinking back to the glowing woman with red hair and white robes.
“No, there wasn’t anyone else around for miles,” she said. “If I had seen a woman, I would’ve asked her to help me move you.”
“But I saw her,” I said. She was so real.
“You lost a lot of blood, Mickey. You were in shock and probably hallucinating,” Kristen said as tears filled her eyes again.
“Why didn’t you take me to the emergency room?”
“I swear wanted to. I did, but Sydney said we’d get in trouble for breaking into the house and she had been drinking. We could’ve got into a lot of trouble, and you live so far from the hospital anyway—who ever bandaged you up seemed to know what he was doing, right? He cleaned the wound and everything.” She pointed to the bowl of soapy water next to the bed.
I looked down at my upper thigh, which pained me only a little. For how bad of a wound I thought it was, I expected to be in gut-wrenching pain like I was the night before. “I should probably have it looked as though. I mean, I don’t even know what bit me.”
Kristen agreed and said she would drive me, but our conversation was soon interrupted by my little brothers who stood in the doorway rubbing their eyes and asking for pancakes. They were completely oblivious of the night before having been safely shut up in the sound proof attic.
I looked at Kristen for help. I felt okay except for my swollen face and the dull pain in my leg, but I knew I probably couldn’t walk around on my leg and should keep it elevated in bed instead.
Kristen stood and ushered my brothers out of my room. Turning her head on her way through the doorway she said, “I’ll bring you breakfast in bed and then we can go to the hospital. Unless, you think we should go now?”
“No, feed my brothers. They are unmanageable hungry,” I replied.
Once I was alone in my room, I propped my head up with my three pillows and watched the fan slowly rotate above me. Feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, I turned my head to see out of the window, the sun was higher and brighter in the sky and highlighted the patch of woods I could see from where I lay. My eyes opened and closed slowly as my eye lids became heavy, and right before I could fight them no longer, I saw staring up at me and sitting at the base of a sparse spruce tree, a massive black animal with a white face. It sat, fixated on me, with its white nose in the air, and a tail softly beating the soil up and down, and then I was asleep.
A warm breeze blew through the screen of the open window and the high pitch sound of chirping birds
drew me out of my dreams. I woke to find myself in a cool sweat. Feeling my forehead, I worried that I had a little fever which probably wasn’t good considering my wounded leg. I slowly drew my hand down my face and was shocked to find my cheek no longer swollen, I pressed my fingers to my lip and not only could I feel no gash but my bottom lip was back to its normal size. I sat up in bed. Maybe I had dreamed my injuries.
I felt a lot better than when I first woke up that morning. I was energized and no longer felt any pain in my leg. I lifted my nightgown again to survey my thigh. The bandages were still in place, but my leg itched and felt sweaty under the warm cloth. Mostly, however, I was curious. Kristen said my leg looked like ground beef. That’s disgusting, but there was a part of me that still wanted to see the damage for myself.
I slowly began to unravel the bandage and I kept my eyes tightly shut as I did until there was no more bandage to unwrap. Squinting, I took a deep breath, held it, and looked down at smooth, normal skin.
What?
No blood, or gashes, or flaps of flesh. Just my upper leg that I noticed I needed to shave actually, but looking closer I saw what resembled a four inch scar, faded, and sensitive to the touch, but there was no wound or any indication that there ever was one that looked like raw meat.
“Kristen,” I called. Despite freaking out, I tried to keep my voice steady.
When there was no reply, I called for her again, but still my calls were unanswered. Swinging my legs over the side of my bed, I placed my bare feet on the wooden floor, and slowly I stood being careful not to put a lot of pressure on my leg, but I found that my leg was working fine.
I walked out of my room. From down the hall, I could hear my brothers in their room. I followed their laughter until I came to a stop outside of their bedroom. They were sitting on top of a striped, oval rug playing Phase 10.
“Where’s Kristen?” I asked them.
They looked up at me briefly then went back to their game. “Were hungry,” Eric said.
“You just had breakfast,” I replied.
“That was hours ago,” Josh said.
I glanced at the digital clock on a stand next to the bunk beds in the room. It was one in the afternoon.
“Oh, I’ll make you something,” I said. Before turning from the room, however, I said, “Wait, where’s Kristen.”
“She left,” Eric said.
“Hours ago,” Josh added.
I frowned. Why would she leave, especially when I was wounded? Well, I guess I was okay, but she didn’t know that. Before I went back to sleep, didn’t we agree I should go to the hospital?
I walked down the stairs and as I did, I forgot about Kristen completely. The living room was a mess. I thought Kristen had mentioned people straightened up after the party, but if they did then I’m glad I was mortally wounded and couldn’t see the state it was in because it still looked like a wreck.
There were spills on the floor, pizza boxes on the coffee table, the couch was moved back, one pillow was torn in half, a lamp was knocked over and then as I got to the kitchen it was worse: the trash was over flowing, dishes in the sink, and trash on the counter. Left over from this morning, were half eaten pancakes on round plates pooled in syrup on the kitchen table.
The phone rang. I lunged at it and answered.
“Kristen?” I asked.
“No, it’s Mom.”
“Hi, Mom,” I said, deflating a little.
“Well, gee I miss you too,” she said.
“Sorry, what’s up?”
“Just wanted to check in and let you know that I’m on my way home.”
“You are?” I said, wearily, as I stared at the garbage surrounding the full trash can.
“Yup, just passing through Lansing so you have about three hours to clean up after your party,” Mom laughed.
“Oh,” I said.
“I’m just kidding. I know you were responsible. See you soon, okay. Tell the boys we’ll go out for Chinese tonight, love you,” Mom said then hung up the phone.
I set the phone on the counter and mentally screamed. My brothers were hungry, my friend left me, the house was a mess, and I had gone through a crazy ordeal in the past day that I didn’t have time to sit down and process.
I ran back through the living room to the foot of the stairs and yelled up at my brothers. They appeared, holding their cards, at the top of the stairs, looking down at me with annoyed expressions.
“You have to help me clean,” I said.
“No way,” Josh said.
“It was your party,” Eric added.
“I know, but please. Mom’s gonna be home soon and I owe you guys, please,” I folded my hands under my chin and frowned up at them.
They looked at one another.
“We’re hungry,” they said.
“Okay, okay. Start cleaning and I will make some Mac and Cheese,” I said.
“The spiral kind?” Eric asked.
“You bet,” I replied.
They dropped their cards to the floor and trudged down the stairs. Relieved, I hugged both of them in my arms and then ran back to the kitchen to start boiling water for our lunch. They followed me into the kitchen, and after setting a pot of water on the stove, I handed them each a white garbage bag, and instructed them to start filling up the bags with trash which neither was pleased about, but I made it a competition and whoever was able to collect the most trash got a prize.
“What’s the prize?” Eric asked, skeptical.
“I will let you pick my birthday cake,” I said. My birthday was a week away and this seemed to be agreeable to them because they ran from me and started filling their bags with everything in sight. They grew so competitive that a couple times I had to remove non-trash items from their bags.
I moved quickly around the kitchen multitasking: tending to the water on the stove, soaking and scrubbing the stack of dishes, and cleaning off the counter. Pretty soon I forgot about my leg entirely. For the time being.
After we ate a quick of lunch of Macaroni, I found Kristen’s note to me which she had left on the kitchen table next to the open box of bisquick.
Sydney called and wanted to go shopping for school in Traverse City. I’ll be back tonight.
Love, me
Rolling my eyes, I crumpled the note and tossed it in a garbage bag. I was more than annoyed. I was mad and starting to feel light headed as I trembled and my eyesight went in and out of focus, which was weird because I’m not one to be that influenced by anger, but Kristen’s note was . . . unlike her. I was disappointed.
After how horrific last night was, how could my best friend abandon me? I didn’t even want to have the party. I was feeling pretty alone as I stood in the kitchen, but lifting my head I saw my brothers fast at work in the living room as they stacked the empty pizza boxes and carried them to garbage outside, and straightened the lamp up right, and vacuumed up the loose stuffing from the torn pillow that had to be tossed out with the five bags of garbage we had collected.
At least they helped me, but they were right. It wasn’t their responsibility to clean up after me and I felt like a pretty lousy sister. I promised myself, that once sixteen, I would make it up to them by taking them out to burgers and a movie just the three of us.
Josh came into the kitchen as I was mopping the floor, the last thing I had to do before the house was back to its normal state.
“We’ve got neighbors,” he said.
“Huh?” I asked, raising my head.
“There’s people moving in across the water,” he said, pointing behind him just as Eric walked in through the front door.
“No, that house is run down. Like really run down,” I said, and then shivered as I thought about the night before.
“There’s a bunch of people working on it,” Eric said as he joined us in the kitchen.
I looked at my little brothers who were identical in features with round brown eyes set apart by a flat nose. They didn’t have red hair like me. Their hair was a thin, b
londe shade the color of straw, like Moms and they liked to keep their hair buzzed in the summer and long in the winter. Right now their hair was buzzed and it made their oblong, freckled faces look longer. Their voices were beginning to crack which embarrassed them, and they were still a little chubby but their limbs were growing quickly. Mom often said they’d be taller than me by next summer.
They looked at me now with raised eyebrows so blonde they weren’t detectable, and waited for my reaction as they swung their arms back and forth and moved their little pink mouth from side to side.
“Alright, show me,” I said, setting the mop against the counter.
They each grabbed one of my hands and led me down the hall into Mom’s room and up to the French doors. We opened them and stepped onto the back deck.
“See?” they said, pointing to the house across from us.
Sure enough there were two pick-up trucks one white and the other red, parked beside the house. A group of men were working on the house.
A man was on the roof nailing shingles, and another person was on the ground yelling up to the man on the roof and another man walked around the house a couple times. I held my breath as he came to a stop in the back in front of the door we had kicked in the night before and opened to get in and out of the basement.
Men disappeared in and out of the house carrying planks of wood, tools, beams, etc.
“They’re fixing it up,” I said in disbelief.
“Duh,” Josh said.
I turned and playfully punched my brother in the shoulder for making fun of me. We laughed until we heard Mom behind us say, “Don’t hit your brother.”
Josh and Eric ran over and hugged Mom while I waited my turn. She told them to run inside and get ready to go eat.
“You should probably change out of that,” she said placing her arms around me into a hug.
I blushed. I forgot I was still in my green nightgown.
“The house looks great,” she said. “Did I give you plenty of warning?”
“Look,” I nodded toward the house.
Mom was silent for a couple minutes. I couldn’t read her reaction.
Memoirs of a Girl Wolf Page 4