I am Not Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf

“You what?!”, Lilly exclaimed making almost everyone in the hallway look at us.

“Shh! Be quiet!” I scowled at her with a finger in her lips.

We were by the lockers in the hallway and was about to go to the cafeteria for lunch. I decided to tell Lilly about the incident yesterday but as expected, she gets things out of proportion.

She brushed off my hand away and continued, “Well, what do you expect me say? Besides, can’t you hear what you’re telling me now? Wolves! In our town! That must have been so cool to be actually close not only to one but maybe a dozen of them.”

I rolled my eyes as Lilly dozed off daydreaming about her favourite animal: wolves. What does she thinks about this situation anyway –a fantasy movie?

“Well, stop making it look like it’s such a big thing. At least be worried about me having that kind of experience. It was terrifying, you know.”, I retorted as we started walking to the cafeteria.

“Of course, I was worried. But you can’t change the fact how cool it was to be able to be close to such a marvellous creature. Oh man, I should have been there. It would be so incredible!”, she exclaimed again making almost half of the people inside the cafeteria look at our direction again.

I sighed heavily and started to get food while contemplating about what happened last night.
I got back into the house before my Dad got home but still the feeling of being watched didn’t go away even as I fell asleep. That was the first time I have dreams of being in the forest and I know it wasn’t an ordinary dream.

I was there just walking around until I felt something walking up with me. I didn’t see it clearly but I could tell from its shape that it was wolf. Its snout and tail are pretty recognizable but still its whole body is like a shadow to me. We stopped in an open space with very tall trees that are almost as tall as a building, surrounding us.

I stopped just at the center while the wolf circled around me as though he’s contemplating about something. With a pause, he stared at my direction willing me not to move as it backed away slowly into the darkness of the trees. It seemed like moments when I heard a lone howl then I heard footfalls nearby. Dead leaves and twigs crunched into the ground as I sensed something approaching where I am. Finally, a figure of a man started forming through the shadows.

He didn’t step up towards me but only stayed within the shadows of the forest. He was tall with an amazing body, though how I could tell from the darkness is strange to me, but in my dreams he was. I noticed that he was only wearing shorts and nothing more making me breathless for a moment. Suddenly, he outstretched his arm with his hand beckoning me to come to him. I suddenly remembered the black wolf in the forest. The feeling of being called to him was the same way this man does to me.

I took a step towards him then another, and another until I was only about a foot away from him. He reached out to me with his hand, making me lift mine towards his. Suddenly, I felt uncertain about what I was about to do with a sudden urge to scream for help.

I think the man caught my expression when he said in a low and dark voice, “Don’t be afraid of me, Noelle.”

His voice stunned me to my place as it reminded me of something –of someone. Who is this man?

I knew that the only way I could find the answer is to hold his outstretched hand. And I was about to reach it when a shake to my shoulder suddenly woke me up from my daze.

I noticed Lilly across from me with a half-eaten sandwich, staring at me.

“Hey, Noelle? Are you okay? You’ve been staring at your food for a long time.”

I blinked and shakily ran my hands through my hair and answered, “I-I’m fine. Just a bit tired, I guess.”

Lilly narrowed her eyes at me but didn’t ask any further. I would be asking my own questions as well, if I wasn’t feeling drained and sick. That dream was so vivid that I can’t help but think that it should mean something. But what? What should I understand about it?

Suddenly, a wild ruckus started just outside of the cafeteria. People were shouting and running towards outside the building saying something about a fight.

Lilly looked at me with a grin and without further explanation, dragged me out as well with the other people as a crowd started forming just by the doors leading outside. We tried to squeeze past them as bangs, shouts, thuds and smacks can be heard not too far away.

We managed to go by the front because of our rather small stature but was struck by what we saw. There was a fight with Lance and his friends in it.

I also saw other guys who I have no idea who they are, fighting them. They outnumbered Lance and his friends by more than a half but it doesn’t seem to matter since Lance is already winning. One had a jacket with a logo of the school just a few miles from us. But why are they here?

“Fucking bastards! You dare challenge us?!”, I heard Jaren’s voice us he punched some unlucky guy in the face making him fall down unconscious.

Somebody came up behind him but then I saw Jason turning him around to face him and kicked him in the gut then with a punch to his face also making him fall unconscious. Derrick was also there fighting with an unusual grin in his face making him a bit scary that time. It continued on with Lance seeming to be having no trouble at all defending himself as he took on 2 or 3 people at once.

Words and punches were exchanged when I noticed Sylvia cheering as well by the corner. I ran to her and when she saw me gave a grin.

“Hey, what are you doing here?”, she asked.

“I could ask the same thing about you. What’s going on?”

She has her eyes narrowed and with a sneer, she said, “Those idiots think that they could hurt someone from our pack. He was young, only around 14 years old but still they hurt him bad. Lance was furious when he found out about it and stated a challenge to the leader of the group. They did accept but what we didn’t know is that they’re cheaters as well. They thought they could ambush us here in our school with a much larger group. I bet they have the shock of their lives.”

I blinked at her words but was again distracted with the violence of the fight. I know I shouldn’t be worried about Lance and his friends but the thought of them hurt in any way struck me like a stab to the heart.

The fight was brutal with only a handful of the other guys still standing until a guy that seems to be the leader stepped up and faced Lance one-on-one.

“You’re gonna pay for this!”, he yelled at Lance with a sneer.

Lance only stood with his eyes piercing at the guy. That seemed to make the leader angry as he charged at Lance with an arm raised to punch.

I gasp in surprise making Lance look at me for a second until I heard a low growl from him as he grabbed the guy’s neck and slammed him down the pavement without so much as breaking a sweat. It was quite amazing and even the crowd think it so.

There was silence until Lance grumbled words only for the guy’s ears to hear. It was actually amusing to see how the guy trembled as he lay in the ground paralyzed in fear and shock.

Finally, Lance stood up and walked away with the other guys following with him. The leader was still in shock as his group dragged him along with them outside of the campus grounds. It was obvious how most of them are limping with some heavy bruising and bleeding while Lance and his group barely had a scratch on them. Weird…

They approached the crowd as cheers and yells greeted them. Sylvia ran to them as she hugged Derrick tightly. Jaren and Jason were discussing a few things –something about someone whom I didn’t hear the name. Then finally Lance with his eyes staring right at me even as the people swarmed towards them.

I shivered a bit at his gaze. Something about how he looked at me feels strange yet very familiar. It was like he was trying to tell me something through his eyes but I can never seem to understand it nor could I take my gaze from him. I was trapped in his mesmerizing gaze.

Suddenly, Lilly gripped my hand making me pay attention to her as she told me how cool that was and all that. Finally, the bell rang and everyone was forced to go back to their classes.

I managed to look back to Lance when he mouthed words that made me nervous even as I got back to my own classroom.

See you after class.

What does he want from me now?