by Ellis Marie
But nothing comes out. Just silence.
The harsh mask that she’s wearing slips away and she puts down the pot of tea on the table before wrapping her arms around me, sinking onto the sofa next to me.
I wince a little at the pain but ignore it. I need this.
“Oh, my sweet Elle, you brave girl.”
Her words bring tears to my eyes and my throat constricts, the airflow already damaged and now convulsing as I try to take a deep breath in, not wanting to pass out again.
Mrs. Grenway rubs my back but lets me go, a concerned gaze running over my coughing figure. I try to give her an easy smile but if anything, it just makes her even more upset.
I hate pity eyes.
She slowly lifts her hand and touches my cheek so lightly I would think she isn’t doing it at all if I wasn’t watching.
“Such a strong, beautiful, young woman.”
I can’t even begin to explain the gratefulness that I feel for this old woman or all the things she has done for me in my life, but in that moment, it’s as if we both know exactly what the other is saying—the strength she has given me and the love I have for her.
Obi lifts his head up and growls quietly, breaking the silence. He watches the door and my entire body tenses, even my bones seem to go rigid in panic.
Has he come back for me?
“Shush, Obi,” Mrs. Grenway scolds. “You know who that is.”
A door opens.
The dog immediately stops growling and, instead, wags his tail. The fear in my body subsides as the familiar voice wafts through the house.
“I managed to get everything from the house that I think she’ll need,” the voice shouts as the front door slams. “But I didn’t really want to go into her underwear drawer or anything because she’d kill me, so I figured she could just buy some new ones.”
A body of bags and belongings appear in the doorway, huffing and puffing under the weight of it all. They dump them right at the door, wheezing in progress.
“I didn’t want to be gone for too long, so I just ran like crazy, but, man, am I definitely the runt of the litter, my fitness is fuc—” Cam freezes as he finally looks into the room and sees that Mrs. Grenway is no longer alone, and I am no longer unconscious.
“Elle.”
The name is like a prayer across his lips. He leaps forward, wrapping his arms around me before I even get the chance to breathe, enveloping me in my favourite feeling of all.
Comfort.
“Oh my God, Elle, you’re alright,” he whispers into my hair, his breath tickling my neck. I squirm a little bit but cling onto him, the tears still flowing down my cheeks, now with even more vigour. This is all I could ask for, safety and love from the people who have looked after me my entire life.
“I’m so sorry, Elle. I came as soon as I realised he was heading home.”
The confession leaves me confused. I pull back, looking up at him with questions in my eyes.
“H-how—”
“Kristie came back to school, and I was trying to find you and she said you’d left and gone home alone and she was worried.” Cam winces. “She saw your dad passing her on his way home.”
Dread washes over me at the mere mention of that man, but the shiver that passes through me is at the thought of what could have happened if she hadn’t seen him, or Cam hadn’t found her.
“I’m sorry we argued earlier. I’m sorry I wasn’t quicker. I ran as fast as I could—”
“Let’s not put too much on Elle right now, Cameron,” Mrs. Grenway interrupts with a cough while standing up to pour us all tea, cutting off his apologetic rambling. “She can barely speak. I’m sure she has a lot of questions, and she needs rest.”
Cam looks like a kicked puppy but nods, moving back from me and helping her pour the hot drinks for us. The smell engulfs my senses and it seems to make my whole body relax.
“Cameron found you outside,” the old woman states softly, handing me a mug with a comforting smile. “You’d been out there for a little while, I had no idea what was going on. Obi just couldn’t sit still though.”
I sip the tea, and immediately, the burning sensation in my throat increases, making me almost spit it out.
“Keep drinking,” Mrs. Grenway assures. “It feels bad at first but it’s just doing its job.
If the job is to scold my insides forever and rip my throat apart, then sure, I could see how it’s doing its job. It’s not exactly like there is a tea with healing powers to it, so maybe she’s right. Maybe it is doing some good.
How long was I outside before Cam got here?
It’s a least a twenty-minute drive to school from here. Kristie would’ve had to get there, tell Cam, and he would’ve had to come all the way back. Unless I was out cold for almost an hour, there was no way—
Wait, did he say he ran?
“Cam,” I manage to say with more power than before, my throat becoming almost numb. “How did you get here?”
The boy stills in front of me, looking at the lady across from us instead of at me and he lets out a laugh.
“I just borrowed Kristie’s car,” he states as though it’s nothing. I nod, taking another sip of my tea and sinking back into the sofa. I tilt my head as I peer out the window.
“But the car is not there,” I comment nonchalantly. He chokes a little while he rubs his chest as he puts the cup down, my suspicions beginning to rise.
“I already drove it back,” he explains, his voice an octave higher than usual.
He’s lying.
“When?” My voice is now coming out without any pain at all. I sit up, placing my own cup down on the table beside his.
“Because you wouldn’t leave me alone for five minutes to get things from my house, let alone the time it would take to get Kristie’s car back and walk here.”
Mrs. Grenway’s eyes dart between the two of us as the silence draws out, neither of us moving or speaking, until it seems like she can’t take it anymore and stands up, clearing her throat as she walks out the room.
“Come on, Obi. Toilet time.”
Out the corner of my eye, I see the obedient dog jump up and follow her out of the room, pushing his nose against my leg as he does, but my stare doesn’t move from the boy in front of me. His leg jumps as though it is a pile of jelly.
Or a washing machine. Or how someone’s leg would bounce if they are lying.
“Cam,” I begin, my mind trying to figure out what exactly is going on with my best friend and why he’s refusing to tell me the truth, but he still won’t look at me. “Cam, how did you get here so quickly?”
He sighs, curling his body forward while his head falls into his hands. I wait for him to continue, but he doesn’t, his breathing turns ragged.
“Cam, talk to me. You know there isn’t anything you can’t tell me—”
“How do you know that?” he retorts. “Like you couldn’t tell me about your father? I had to figure that out all on my own, and it was only then that you confided at all.”
My breath catches and a pit forms in my stomach as he stands and begins to pace the room, his muscles twitching with every step.
“So what? I need to figure this out and then you’ll tell me?” I half shout, forgetting for a moment that my throat is meant to be in agony. “Is this a game to you?”
“No, it’s not a—”
“You pushing me away, or acting weird, some part of it?”
“I’m not trying to push you away—”
“So what then? Do I not deserve to know?”
“Of course, you’re do!” he yells, a growl-like sound emitting from him. “But there are some things that you just can’t explain.”
The words make the pit in my stomach turn into a black hole. I feel myself sinking into it, my voice swirling through my head and my memory comes back to me like a tidal wave.
Some things you can’t explain. The necklace. Cam wasn’t the first one there. The wolf.
“You saw it,” I whispe
r, realisation falling over me as he stops walking and pauses, his breath held in anticipation. “You saw the wolf.”
Tingles fly over my skin as the words rush through me.
The chuckle that leaves him is unexpected. I rise up carefully, unsure of what exactly is going through his head as he leans back and chortles, his whole body shaking, but it doesn’t sound pleasant. It sounds almost sarcastic.
Remember why you left school in the first place. Something was off with cam. Something wasn’t right.
“Oh yeah, I saw the wolf, alright,” he finally tells me, turning around to face me with his head bent low.
For some reason, he almost looked bigger than usual.
“I don’t know what it is,” I explain in a rush, slowly inching towards the door as I try to keep my voice even and calm. “But I do understand why you didn’t come over to me if you saw it.”
Is he upset? Or angry? Is he embarrassed that he hid from the animal?
Whatever he is, he isn’t Cam.
He laughs again and shakes his head, disbelief ringing through thoughts. “You really see me in such a good light that you’re not putting two and two together?”
My feet can’t move, the floor has swallowed me whole and is keeping me as it’s prisoner, pinned to the very spot that I stand. Cam walks towards me, his hands clenched tight.
“You maybe don’t understand what it is, but I do.” My heartbeat thumps in my ears and the ringing begins as he slowly lifts his head up to meet mine.
“I would be scared if I saw it for the first time too.”
Brown eyes. Such familiar brown eyes.
“But I see him every day.”
As if a crowbar has been whacked into my side, the air leaves my lungs. I fly backwards in panic, my hand scrabbling for the door frame.
He has the wolf’s eyes.
A gargled scream leaves my throat as I run into the hallway and head for the back door. My eyes focus in on Mrs. Grenway and Obi in the garden, totally oblivious to the monster that’s inside.
“Mrs. Grenway!” I yell at the top of my lungs, launching myself through the kitchen and dodging ornaments and decorations as I go. My sore body screeches me to a halt.
I’m going crazy.
“Elle!” I hear Cam shout after me. I scream again as he reaches me, grabbing my arm in a vice-like grip. I begin to struggle, my body twisting and turning in any attempt to get out of the predator’s hold. “Would you stop? You’re going to injure yourself more than you already have.”
The concern that the laces his voice is almost believable. I laugh wildly at the thought.
“I’m going to injure myself? Me!”
Cam grunts as I kick my leg out and aim for his shin, trying to use as much force as I possibly can with the injured limbs I’ve got.
“Hey! You know that’s a weak spot for me,” he whines, sounding so much like my best friend that it makes me pause and look at him.
Is he still Cam?
There’s a light tap on my shoulder. I spin around to see Mrs. Grenway smiling at me comfortingly as she raises her palm and opens it below my nose with a dark powder sitting in it, nestled nicely on her skin.
“What is—”
I don’t get to finish my question as she blows. It flies into every orifice I have on my face, clogging up my throat and sifting through my nose. I cough and stumble back into Cam’s waiting arms.
Now, my legs feel like jelly.
“We’re just going to have a nice sit-down and a cup of tea,” the old lady says sweetly, motioning for him to take me through to the living room and then I look at her in confusion as my world spins around me.
Am I in a yo-yo?
“What did you . . . did you—”
“It’s just a herbal remedy, dear.” She smiles at me as I’m lifted through the house, Obi following after my trailing fingers. I frown as he turns three different colours of purple.
“You . . . drugged . . . me.”
Cam sits me down on the softest sofa I have ever known. I fold myself into it, melting into the featherlike cushions surrounding me.
“You may have used something a little too strong,” he offers, turning to look at Mrs. Grenway as she sits down on her chair, her arms waving him away.
“She’s injured. Did you want to try and fight her if she was capable?”
Everything around me just keeps spinning. I look at Cam. Cam’s hair is such a lovely colour of rust.
“Hey!” Cam chastises, glancing at me. “It’s auburn, okay? It is not rust.”
I giggle at his words and shake my head, enjoying my joke as I watch my arms turn into feathers.
“Nooo, like a chain, like a rusty chain on a bike,” I gasp and point to Obi. “Or like a dog’s chain . . . like a dog . . .”
My hand hovers as I point from Obi to Cam. Slowly, the colours around me fade a little, but the relaxed feeling doesn’t, even though my heart is beginning to accelerate again.
“You’re like a dog.”
Cam’s mouth drops open as he looks at me, shock evident on his expression. Behind him, I hear muffled laughter coming from the quilted arm of a certain chair.
“I am not a dog.”
“Yes, you are.” I nod, slowly standing up. My legs shake as I do, and Cam takes a step back from my pointing finger as though he’s scared of me touching him. “You’re like a big orange fluffy dog.”
Cam’s embarrassed blush coats his cheeks as he continues to move away from me, but I follow him carefully with a slight grin on my face as I watch how annoyed he gets.
“A fluffy puppy dog.”
“I am not a big fluffy dog. I am a wolf,” he snaps, his voice rising and stance turning fierce as he faces me. Those brown eyes of his are watching me, waiting for my next move.
I pause and look at him, my eyes focusing on the softness of his gaze and the scar right below his left eye that we got when we were young and went bike riding.
I had gone too fast and went straight across the road, not realising that there’s a car coming towards us, but Cam had seen it. He always sees so much better than me. He’s the one who got hit because he rode up beside me and shoved me out the way. Sure, the car isn’t going that fast. It wouldn’t have killed me, but I would still end up with a sprained wrist from the impact of falling off my bike, but . . . he protected me.
Like always.
My movements are slow, and whether it’s because of whatever that old woman blew at me (and I’m going to shout at her for) or because I’m afraid of scaring him off, I don’t know, but he doesn’t move.
He’s as still a statue as my hand rests on his jaw. I take a step forward, pulling myself towards him. My fear diminishes as the same emotion reflects in his eyes.
“A wolf,” I whisper, and his eyes widen. “And you saved me . . . like you always do.” I take another step towards him, and now, our bodies are almost touching. A look of panic flits across his face as I pull it towards me, our eyes not losing their connection for even a second.
“I love you,” I tell him groggily, pouring every feeling I have for him into it as I kiss his forehead gently. “And I’ll always love you, no matter what . . . even if you are a pet.”
Cam laughs as he pulls back from me, pushing me away from him gently only to bring his arms back around me as he yanks me into his body, the weight of him crushing me.
“You always surprise me, you know that,” he murmurs into my hair. I nod in response, making him chuckle. “You’re not scared of me?”
The question hangs in the air like a balloon waiting to be popped, and again, I’m taken aback by how afraid he looks of my answer.
“Out of everything in my life? And I know that’s not exactly a solid place to start,” I joke, making his mouth lift at one side as he gently pushes my hair away from where I know a bruise is forming. “But I could never be afraid of you, Cam, not for anything.”
The tension in his body is gone in a blink of an eye. He lets out a rush of air that soun
ds strangely like a howl.
“Thank fu—”
“Language!” Mrs. Grenway’s familiar tone rings through his celebration. He quickly spins around, jumping out the way of the small woman hitting his leg. “It may be a joyous time, but I’ll still rinse your canines out with soap.”
I giggle at her joke as Cam apologises, but then I catch up with her words.
“Wait, did you know?”
She rolls her eyes and sits back, sipping her tea slyly as Cam sits me down, her eyes sparkling with mischief.
“Of course, I knew, darling. I was married to one after all.”
I gasp, my mind turning over the hundreds of memories I have of Ernie and his warm and smiling face. “Ernie was a . . . was a—”
“You can say it, dear. Yes, a werewolf.”
Werewolf. Okay. So that’s a real thing.
Cam’s hand reaches out and takes mine, his heat soothing my shaking nerves. I shoot him a grateful smile as his own echoes back, so charming and sweet.
How is he meant to be a predator?
“They don’t all look like killers, you know,” Mrs. Grenway informs me. I panic quite visibly. “Oh dear, there’s quite a few of us around, you see. More common than you might think.”
There’s more than just Cam? There are other people? Other creatures? Can I breathe?
“Did you just say like us? Like you . . .” I frantically glance up and down her small and fragile body. “You’re not a werewolf too, are you?”
She throws her head back and laughs at my question, the bell-like sound making me sigh in relief as I lean into Cam, who has joined in chuckling along at my stupid question. She’s so tiny and stayed indoors far too often to be an animal.
“Of course, I’m not a werewolf,” she tuts, smoothing her hair down. “I’m a witch.”
It takes some time for me to really begin to wrap my head around everything that Cameron and Mrs. Grenway are telling me, but somehow, we manage. There’s a lot of confusion; I mean, I just found out that things I read about in fairy tales happened to be true, and furthermore, two of the most important people in my life are creatures that I don’t even know exists.