Infatuated

“ I struck the glass and broke the bones inside my fist but I’m okay” the earphones screamed at me. I sighed, tapping my pencil on the side of the table along with the beat. I shut my eyes, thinking hard about what had happened on the grass. It was now Monday. Back at school, and things still weren’t becoming any clearer. I’d had people coming up to me all day asking if I was okay and how I wasn’t dead. Yeah I was okay, what I didn’t know was why, and I couldn’t answer the second question. Something definitely wasn’t right in my answer, and I think he was as scared to answer as I was.

A shrill noise entered my ear. I hastily shoved my belongings in my bag and made my way from the room.

“Hey Autumn wait up!” I heard Alex’s voice. I didn’t listen to him, just kept on walking.

“Autumn?” I heard his voice, quieter now. I didn’t want to speak to him, he was gonna bring up yesterday and it was one thing I didn’t want to talk about. I carried on walking, picking up the pace as I jogged through the crowd of people. When I got through them I started running, to the doors and out the side of school. I was one of those people who didn’t want to talk about anything unless they figured it out for themselves first, and I was far from figuring this out.

I turned the last corner and ran the last part before reaching home. I got in, throwing my bag at the bottom of the stairs before running my fingers through my hair. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my long breaths. I let my arms fall to my side. I was scared. It was what happened yesterday that had made me realise that what had happened two months ago was reality. I hadn’t thought it. It was real. And I wasn’t scared.

Later that night I was sat doing homework to help take my mind off things. History down, I had one homework left to complete, biology. We had to study one specific animal and write a report on how it’s adapted to survive. Mine was clear in my head as soon as the task was set, so I opened my laptop and typed ‘wolf’ into the search bar. I sighed, waiting for the page to load. When it finally opened I copied down the basics, how long they were expected to live, what they eat, all kinds of things before I finally got down to the more important things.
The average wolf has striking yellow eyes.

Upon reading the simple sentence images flew through my head of being pinned to the lockers staring into the piercing eyes of my neighbour. I shuddered at the thought, deciding not to take notes on that one and moving on.

The fur of a wolf changes depending on its surroundings. When around members of a pack the wolf feels at ease, the fur lays flat and soft. In comparison, when a wolf is faced with opposition or is defending its territory the fur stands on end, appears more coarse and brittle.

Once again images flew through my mind. I remembered how rough Taylor’s hair had made him look, strands flew out in different angles and it looked badly kept. I shook my head, it was just a coincidence, but his eyes. How could I explain that?

Another one of their adaptations is that they have very good hearing. They can hear another wolf howl from five miles away. They can also hear their prey, like caribou, coming from far away. Wolves howl and bark to get other wolves that aren't in the pack away from their food, or out of their territory.

It was then that everything flew through my head. The memory of the deep growl he’d given right before he disappeared. When such a small sound had woke him up. The way he’d been able to move me out the way without even having to look at the scaffold. I shook my head, I was being ridiculous.

The average wolf’s hearing enhances their reflexes. Although quick already the wolf’s reflexes are incredibly fast. A wolf’s strength, in many cases depending on age, can overpower that of a human.

I got thinking. The way he’d been able to move me out of the way so fast, without taking his eyes off me. The way he had me pinned down unable to move. There was no logical way of explaining what I had witnessed Taylor do since I met him.

When faced with intense situations wolves can not only turn on pack members but go so far as to kill them. They go through drastic, as you might wish to describe it, “mood changes” and can turn against pack members no matter their relation.

I thought back to how anti-social he had been to me on our first encounter, then the night me and Taylor had truly gotten to know each other and how much we’d learnt about each other. We’d both revealed how neither of us had fathers. I’d told him how I’d never known who my father was and he’d told me how his father had been killed when they’d been on a hunting trip together. He didn’t say much other than they were out in the forest. When I asked how it had happened he’d simply winced and changed the topic. I shook my head once again then thought once more about how close we had become before what had happened the next time I’d seen him. Was I being ridiculous?

Curiosity getting the best of me I typed ‘wolf’ in the search bar once again. The familiar results flooded the screen and I scrolled through the list. I finally reached a link that for some reason made my heart race.

Werewolf.

I clicked the link, reading the page intently, my breath catching in my throat every now and again.

The werewolf, a supposed myth, descends from ancient legends about a tribe of men. The men were each supposed to have piercing blue eyes and sheet white skin. The legend says the men all met up once every full moon. Around about these times there were more frequent sightings of gray wolves. The men had appeared to have superhuman senses. Sensitive hearing, superhuman strength, and incredibly fast reflexes were amongst the list of things. The men were described as anti-social and isolated themselves from the rest of the townsfolk. The men’s temperament would change frequently, a characteristic of bipolar disorder. The men were often described as ‘missing’ at intervals in both the day and night. Fights often broke out between the tribe and many of the villagers were afraid to approach them. It was soon discovered that the men had found a way to change from their human form into that resembling a wolf and villagers became frightened to approach the group. Various other parts of the world including Rome - Italy, Toronto – Canada, Atlanta and Ohio.