High School Bites

by Rachael Alcobia

  “Kodi?” I called out. Various bird calls and the swishing of the trees were my only response. I heard noises again but this time when I looked, I could just barely make out the shape of a person. Taking a few steps forward, I called out again.

  “Kodi?”

  “Guess again.” I knew that voice, but it definitely didn’t belong to Kodi. It was female. As the figure came closer, it wasn’t long before I was standing a few feet away from Simone. The smug look on her face made me sick to my stomach.

  “What are you doing out here?” I asked warily.

  She laughed and it made me angry and a little fearful. She looked different tonight, a little more…intense? Were her eyes glowing? For some reason they looked gold.

  “You’re dumber than I thought. Did you actually think Kodi would ever want to meet you anywhere?” She sneered at me. Something told me to remain quiet, but I stubbornly ignored it.

  “Actually, yes. He asked me to be his Homecoming date.” There it was again. That eerie flash of glowing gold in her eyes. Her face became something brutal.

  “A shame you won’t be able to make it.”

  Before I could contemplate her words, she launched at me, but I sidestepped the attack and pushed her in the same direction that her momentum had already been carrying her. If we were caught by chaperones, at least I could still say I wasn’t the aggressor. She crashed into the dirt but when she came to a standing position, she was…wrong. Her face was contorted in fury and in the next minute, I was looking at a wolf. It was nothing like my wolf. This one looked like it had reddish fur, but it was difficult to tell in the dark. It growled angrily at me and saliva dripped from its teeth-bearing mouth onto the ground. Its eyes were gold like Simone’s had been. Where had she gone and where had this wolf come from? Where was Kodi? My brain was on overload and I could barely swallow through the fear that paralyzed me. I wanted so badly to run back to camp but two things stopped me. Fear kept me still, and I couldn’t allow myself to lead this danger to the camp where several students were, possibly to Kodi. Was this the death that Maggie spoke of? Had she been warning me about tonight? She’d said a new death was chasing me. If I ran, this beast would chase me. I knew that. In that moment, it didn’t matter that I was already dying. I was going to fight. I backed up a step and the wolf growled and snapped its jaws at me. Taking a deep breath to focus, I listened to the world around me. I could hear the rushing river northeast of me, and a plan began to form. If the river was deep and the current strong enough, I could swim to the other side and lose the wolf in the water, if it even decided to jump in after me. Before I could even poise to take off running, the wolf pounced on me. I cried out as I landed facedown and I turned enough so that after two attempts, I kicked the wolf in the face. A whine and a growl later, teeth clamped down onto my right shoulder and white-hot pain flared throughout my being. I barely felt the jaws release me before smashing down even harder than before. Through the fog of agony, I realized that the creature was trying to gnaw through my arm. If I didn’t do something soon, the wolf would succeed. Pulling my left arm around, I punched the face latched onto my arm and the pain of the wolf letting go mixed with the sound of my clothes made me positive I was going to throw up. In my attempt to stand, my hand found a tree branch and I swung with all of my dwindling strength.

  The solid thud told me that I connected but instead of confirming the hit, I took off as fast as my feet could carry me as I clutched my useless arm to the front of me. Luckily, I didn’t have to go far until I reached the river’s edge and I paused when I realized it was the same part of the river that I had almost drowned in during my nightmare. The angry snarling behind me made the pause brief and I didn’t think anymore as I plunged into the icy waters. I swam as fast as I could with one arm and the effort made my lungs burn. My legs grew tired and I suspected loss of blood may have been a factor. Everything except my mangled shoulder felt the same as it had before, I’d drowned only this time there was a bank on the other side that I had to reach if I wanted to live. I turned back to look for the wolf and found it making angry whines at the water, but it refused to jump in. Just when my limbs could take no more, I reached land. I crawled onto the dirt and as soon as I pulled myself out, I vomited. My vision swam before fading away completely. So, this was what it felt like to die. Pain, searing pain brought me gasping to consciousness. I screamed and clutched my shoulder. I was so cold, yet my body felt like it was on fire at the same time. I heard voices and I forced my breathing to calm enough so that I could hear them.

  “The blood trail ends here.”

  “She has to be here. I have to find her, Stephen.”

  Kodi! I sobbed with relief but couldn’t find the strength to call out to them. My throat burned with dryness and I briefly panicked that they’d never find me. No. I hadn’t come this far to bleed to death alone on a riverbank in the middle of the woods. Using my left hand, I reached into my pocket and prayed that I’d put my iPod in my left pocket. Tears of relief fled from my eyes and I wriggled the music device from my pants and pressed the menu button. The light didn’t turn on and I lost all hope. It must have been under the water too long. Wait! I always put my iPod on hold. My hand was shaking so it took me a few tries but as soon as I clicked the switch over, the screen lit up. Hope renewed; I waved the screen toward where the voices had come from across the water. Just as my arm collapsed, I heard it.

  “What is that? Do you see that?” Kodi asked urgently. I vaguely made out someone jumping into the river and the last ounce of fight in me fled and I fell into darkness once more, this time while being gathered into strong arms.

  I was in the woods. The warmth from the fire I was approaching grew warmer as I walked. Maggie was there. I knew who she was, but that was about it. It was like a fog enveloped my brain and through it, I knew I’d find vital information. The need I felt to talk to her was great, but I couldn’t remember what was so important. She sat on her log and looked at me. The fire reflected across her green eyes and for a moment, they blazed gold. A wisp of a memory began to stream from the fog. Gold eyes. The wolf’s eyes.

  “There was a wolf,” I told her dumbly.

  “Indeed.” She said nothing else and seemed to watch me as if waiting for something. A twinge of pain struck my shoulder and upon inspection, I found my favorite sweatshirt had ripped. Why was it wet? I touched the fingers of my left hand to the wetness and they came away sticky. And red.

  “Meghan,” Maggie called. No words emerged from me.

  “Meghan! Stay with me!”

  I woke to horrific, pain-filled screams and the looks on the faces of those surrounding me told me that the horrible sounds were my own. I was laying on something hard and didn’t know where I was but was lucid enough to know it wasn’t the hospital. I recognized Kodi and his mother, Stephen as well. There were two people, a man and a woman, that I’d never seen before. For some reason, I couldn’t keep my body still and I found that Stephen and the male stranger were holding me down while I convulsed. Kodi was holding my hand with both of his own and had a devastating expression of anger that I never wanted to see mar his perfect face. Whatever was wrong with me, it must be bad.

  “Mom, please! You have to do something!” Kodi cried out.

  Mrs. Barrett looked helplessly at her son. “All we can do is wait for James and your father.”

  I wanted to comfort him then but after realizing that I wasn’t breathing normally, I settled for squeezing his hand as hard as I could. His eyes settled on mine.

  “You’re going to be alright. Stay with me, Meghan.”

  I wanted to tell him that I’d stay with him forever if I could. His gaze strayed back to the right of me and I looked to see what he kept staring at. Shit. My sweatshirt was long-gone, and the top right section of my shirt was ripped open, exposing mangled flesh. Mrs. Barrett and the female stranger were each using both hands in an attempt to staunch the blood, which was everywhere. It was a wonder that I couldn’t feel anything but cold.
My body shook harder and the men got a better grip in restraining me, making it look effortless all the while. I heard a door open and several things seemed to happen at once. The five faces were suddenly replaced by Kodi’s father, Jack Barrett. He was accompanied by…Dr. Thomas? Was I in another dream?

  “She’s in shock. Jack, can you do anything?” said Dr. Thomas. Do anything? Wasn’t Kodi’s dad a lawyer or something? Suddenly, a face that resembled an older version of Kodi with five o’clock shadow was hovering over me. He held my face still in his hands and his brown eyes bore into my dazed amber ones. I was mesmerized as I watched those eyes begin to lighten until they looked so close to the wolf’s eyes, I began to panic. My arms fought for freedom, but Jack Barrett held my face more firmly.

  “Calm, Meghan Carter.” Only when his eyes began to glow gold did my struggles cease. In the back of my mind, I knew that they looked more now like the wolf’s eyes than they had before, yet my body ignored the observation. It felt like heat was coming from the glow and it slowly began to drive away the cold that enveloped my body. But with the heat, came the pain.

  My screams resumed, for the fire in my shoulder was the most intense pain I’d ever experienced. Dying of cancer could never have felt this bad. My vision blurred with tears and I begged Kodi’s father to stop.

  “I cannot stop, Meghan, not yet” he said through gritted teeth. His strong voice, though stressed, began to calm me. “Alright, you’re up,” said Jack. The face of Dr. Thomas came into view and I experienced a small wave of relief at seeing a more familiar face.

  “Hello, Meghan. We are all going to do the best we can to help you, Sweetheart,” he said with sad eyes. I’d seen those eyes before. It was the same look he got when someone brought in an animal that had been hit by a car or something and Dr. Thomas wasn’t sure if the animal would survive the night. This time, I was the wounded animal.

  “Kodi, did you find her?” Mr. Barrett asked his son. I was already on the table so they couldn’t have been talking about me.

  “No. We followed the blood trail to the river’s edge, but when we got there, she was gone,” replied Kodi. Jack’s brow furrowed and he shook his head.

  “This makes no sense. She knows the laws, her grandfather helped write them. Are you positive it was her?” Jack sounded like he already knew the answer to the question he had asked, just didn’t like it.

  “We’re sure. Stephen and I both smelled her. Getting to Meghan was my first priority.” I might have smiled at that had I not been writhing in pain. Who were they talking about? Simone? Stephen had super-smell too? My head spun with all of my questions and I didn’t notice Dr. Thomas holding a syringe until he was pushing the clear substance into my arm. My nightmares where I euthanized myself flashed in my mind’s eye and I panicked.

  “What is that?” I asked frantically.

  Dr. Thomas patted my arm, “No worries, Meghan, it was just a sedative. You should begin to feel a bit more comfortable.”

  Kodi squeezed my hand and when I looked at him, my anxiety dissipated. His strong features were lined with worry and my heart warmed at his concern for me.

  “You don’t have to do that,” I stuttered through the agony.

  “Do what?” he asked.

  “Hold my hand.”

  At my answer, Kodi squeezed my hand and said, “I’m holding it for my benefit as much as yours. To assure myself that you’re alive and to let you know that I’m here.”

  My tears ran hot and fresh but from which emotion they stemmed from, I didn’t know. Kodi’s thumb brushed the back of my hand and the sensation was so comforting that mixed with the sedative, my pain had dulled enough for me to fall asleep. The last thing I felt was a kiss to my brow and I knew without a doubt, I greeted unconsciousness with a smile.

  The next time I opened my eyes, it was daylight. Once they adjusted to the light, I could see that I was in a bedroom and the sun was shining through the window. There was also a rocking chair made of a dark wood that sat next to the comfortable bed I was laying in. Kodi was fast asleep in the chair and looked horrible. He was still perfect to me, but I did note the dark circles around his eyes and his mussed hair. He had most likely sat in that chair all night watching over me. I had been inexplicably drawn to Kodi for years. Why was this year so different? Why did he suddenly seem to care about me? My attraction to him lately was so much stronger, like when I saw him that first day of the school year. School! Today was Monday and I had spent the night here, wherever here was. I was going to be in so much trouble at the group home. I threw the blue covers off of me only to find that I was wearing a plain white t-shirt that was very snug in the chest and a pair of green basketball shorts that certainly didn’t belong to me. Where the hell were my clothes? I panicked. Please don’t let Kodi be the one that had changed me or even been in the same room. I moved and gasped as a stab of pain radiated through my shoulder. I’d almost forgotten about being attacked by a wolf. There were spots of blood staining the right shoulder of the white shirt. No amount of bleach would fix that. I looked up to find Kodi and his calculating eyes watching me.

  “Good morning,” I said, not quite knowing what else to say.

  “Hey,” he replied softly while leaning forward in his chair. “How are you feeling?”

  I took a deep breath. “I don’t know. I don’t know how to deal with any of this.” Last night’s events began to take their toll on me, and I shook. Suddenly Kodi was there, strong arms wrapped around me and I did the only thing I could. I cried. Tears of relief that Kodi and Stephen had found me, and of fear of the wolf with gold eyes. Kodi rubbed my back soothingly and my tears slowly faded. I drew back from him and took him in.

  His hair was still out of whack, but his face looked better, less stressed. His black t-shirt was rumpled but the gym shorts he wore were clean. I stiffened. How had I known that? Because I could smell the fresh scent of laundry detergent along with the smell of herbal shampoo. Maybe it’s a side-effect from some medications that Dr. Thomas had given me. Was Kodi taking the same drugs? Is that how his sense of smell became so exceptional? Probably not. I looked around the room and found masculine colors, mostly blues and greys. Things like the guitar in the corner, the school binder on the floor, and Kodi’s scent all over the bed made me aware that I was in his room. In his bed. I fought an on-coming blush and asked a question to distract myself.

  “Where is everyone?” I must have screamed more than I could remember because my voice came out raw and worn. Earlier I’d figured it was because I’d just woken up. Kodi cleared his throat before answering.

  “They’re out hunting Simone. I promise you she’ll pay for this, Meghan,” he said, face hard and serious. I licked my dry lips and his eyes darted to watch the movement.

  “Hunting?” I asked cautiously.

  “Searching.”

  “You said hunting.”

  “Did I?”

  His expression remained stone still, and it was a bit unsettling. I let it go.

  “You never wrote me a note, did you?” It was barely a question, for I already knew the answer. This time his face changed, and he leaned forward with intensity.

  “What note?”

  I sighed, not sure I wanted to convey the humiliating experience that had been followed by the attack.

  “After you left my tent, I went to the main camp to get the water bottles. A girl, a friend of Simone’s I think, handed me a note with my name on it. It said to meet you in the woods past our tents and your name was signed on the bottom of it. I went, gullible as I am, and there was no one there but Simone. She tried to attack me and failed. Then she got pissed and I guess she ran away because there was suddenly a huge wolf there. Apparently, the wolf hadn’t liked me anymore than Simone does.”

  Kodi grimaced, “Of course it hadn’t.” He frowned for a moment. “Wait, you said she failed at first?” He asked with the hint of a smile and pride in his eyes.

  I gave him a shy smile. “I didn’t hit her or anything. Sh
e tried to charge at me, and I pushed her past me. I don’t think she liked the dirt ruining her make-up. She left after that, so there wasn’t really any “at first”. The wolf however, succeeded just fine.”

  Kodi’s frown returned. “If she had, you’d be dead.”

  I raised an eyebrow, “What makes you so sure it was a female?”

  He stared at me several moments and I began to think he wasn’t going to answer. “You don’t remember how the wolf got there?” he asked carefully, his gaze locked on mine. I shook my head and he closed his eyes before taking a deep breath.

  “Meghan, I’m sorry. I need you to concentrate. Try to remember where Simone went before the wolf came. Closing your eyes might help.”

  I did as he asked but Simone was just simply gone, leaving a snarling beast in her wake. I opened my eyes, shrugged and shook my head apologetically.

  “I’m sorry, there’s nothing.” He exhaled and looked disappointed. The memory caused my shoulder to throb and I suddenly felt drained. Kodi must have noticed because he was suddenly just there with a small glass of orange juice and a pill. “What is that?”

  He smiled, “A horse tranquilizer.” At my look, he laughed and said, “It’s a pain pill for your shoulder. The OJ is for the sugar. It will help you replenish some of that blood you lost.” I took the pill and downed the juice. He held his hand out for the glass and set it on a dark dresser. I settled back against the pillows and my heart melted when he pulled the covers up and tucked them in around me. I fought the ridiculous urge to pat the blank space next to me and invite him to lay with me. It was his bed after all but in truth, it would have made me feel safer. He was probably just being nice because he felt sorry for me. He closed the green curtains and went to leave, only to stop in the doorway.