Blinded

As Jacob walked me home I stayed silent and listened to the distant cry of a wolf, then another, and another. I heard Jacob stop every now and again, mostly when the wolves would howl. Soon there was no end to the wolf calls, and I even heard Jacob twitching while he asked me to hurry up. To humor the guy and give him a break from the ants in his pants I quickened my pace. That resulted in me tripping over a tree root that seemed to come out of nowhere and I heard the ripping of my jeans and soon after my knee began to sting.

“You all right?” Jacob asked, and I felt his hand’s warmth through my jacket. He heaved me up and I heard the disgust in his voice when he said, “You‘re bleeding on your knee.”

“Yeah, and I wouldn‘t be if you would just be patient,” I told him. “If you‘re in such a hurry then just go already. I can make it back to my house in one piece; I can figure it out from here.”

“No, it‘s not - oh, crap.” He sounded anxious, nervous, and I heard him shuffling around in the leaves and twigs. “Look, I‘m just going to carry you home. I think I can see it from here.”

“That makes one of us,” I said under my breath.

I heard him make a throaty laugh. “Don‘t scream, okay? I just really need to get you home, and fast.”

I was going to ask why until I was scooped up into his arms. My whole body was instantaneously surrounded by warmth. My heart was pounding and I heard him mutter something angry before the wind caught my face and blew my hair behind me. I quickly wrapped my arms around his neck held on tight for fear of falling or him not being able to hold my weight (which was the same as falling), but he seemed fine. I felt his hair tickle my hands and forearm, some places more covered in hair than others. His hair was reaching down to his neck in the back, and it must have been choppy.

My hand slid down his neck, to his chest, and I realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt (and that he was muscular). “Are you crazy? It‘s freezing cold out here and you‘re freaking running around shirtless and -”

“Don‘t forget the shorts and lack of shoes,” he added, and I heard the smugness in his voice.

I muttered in Italian how insane he was, how he was going to die and I would be held responsible for being near a dead, shirtless, shoeless boy in the wilderness - if the search party found me before I too died of the cold. Maybe since this guy was so inhumanly warm, I would be able to use him as a space heater until the heat faded from his body - after he died of hypothermia or becoming an icicle! I could feel raindrops hitting my face!

“Is that Italian?” he asked curiously.

“Yes, I‘m fluent,” I answered. I felt him come to a stop and he gently set me down on the ground. “We here?”

“Yup. Oh!” I heard him step onto the porch and he was silent for a few moments until I heard gulping and an exhale. “Excellent.”

I gasped. “Did you just drink my lemonade?!”

“I needed it more than you did,” he told me, and his footsteps came closer. “Get under here before you catch a cold.”

“What about you, shirtless wonder?” I asked, tripping up the porch. Darn that step. “At least let me get you a poncho or something if you intend on returning to your hunting trip.”

We both heard something crack in the distance, a twig maybe, and we both froze. “You heard that?” he asked me.

“When you lose one sense, the others become stronger,” I explained. “So yeah.”

“Interesting,” he breathed. “See you, Mariabella. I gotta get back out there. Cover up that cut before. . . . Just get a band-aid on it once you get inside.”

“Oh, so you‘re either a germo-phobe or squeamish. Got it. Excuse me while I get more lemonade since someone stole mine.” I walked inside the house, listening to the leaves rustling around outside. I heard a grunt, a snort, then more leaves and twigs being moved around.

Well, that will be an interesting story to tell Angela.

I grabbed a paper towel and wiped my face to get some of the water off. The door unlocked and I heard keys jingling, a man and a woman’s voice, and plastic bags rustling around. Cara and Steve were home.

“Hi Mariabella,” Cara said, putting her hand on my shoulders and giving me a kiss on the cheek. “ Love, you’re all wet. How was your day? You weren‘t too bored here by yourself, were you?”

I smiled and shook my head, a light laugh escaping my lips. “It was, uh, interesting.”

|-*-|

Angela called me to ask if I wanted to do anything, like go to Seattle with her, but Cara objected right away. Apparently there has been countless murders going on in Seattle and Cara didn’t want me anywhere near that place until the whole thing clears up. I did not really want to go anyway because of the books I had to catch up on in English, and I had to go to Port Angeles with Steve.

I took Romeo with me and wore sunglasses. It was sunny and it was the perfect time to use them so I could hide my eyes. Romeo was good on a leash, thank goodness, and he helped guide me around. He wasn’t my seeing-eye dog, but he was close enough.

After our time at Port Angeles, which was a fairly nice place from what I could hear, Steve wanted to stop by the Newton Outfitters to get a new fishing rod so he could go fishing with Billy and Charlie tomorrow. I shrugged, trying to figure out where I heard the name Newton before.

It was answered when I walked in the store. “Hey, Italiana,” Mike said happily. “Hey Mr. Italiana.”

“Steve, I‘m her uncle,” Steve said and I heard two hands clasping together. “Aren‘t you a friend of Angela‘s?”

“Sure am,” Mike answered. “Too bad Bella‘s not here or we would have both Bellas here. It could be like a Bella party!”

“She works here? Where is she?” I asked

“She went to Florida with Edward to visit her mom. They left yesterday,” he explained, and I heard a slight bitterness in his voice when he mentioned Edward. I had a feeling Mike had feelings for Bella, just slight feelings, but he was mostly jealous of Edward. This is all just a guess and what I hear in his voice.

While Steve browsed the fishing rods, Mike and I talked. I just got an update on everyone (other than Angela) and, without my asking, he told me some of the gossip going around. Edward left for a while earlier this year, Bella went through a “crazy, depressed phase,” and was spending most of her time with a rude, bipolar Indian boy who looked twice his age. I wasn’t that interested to hear about Bella’s supposed depression when her boyfriend left, but Mike wanted to get some of this out of his system for some reason, and I let him. It was better than “looking” for a good fishing rod.

We left the store and Steve was very excited about the fishing rod and that I was making friends at school. Too bad most of them were seniors and would be graduating next month.

As explained, my day was not that exciting. Even if I was at the age where I could begin driving, I could not for obvious reasons. I was stuck at home catching up on the reading list for my English class, listening to the sound of the narrator and the sounds of the forest coming from outside my window. It was calming and I could have fallen asleep if it wasn’t for the sound of growling, running, and boulders crushing together.

Was this house near any mountain sides?! Is this a landslide?! There were the sounds of boulders crushing each other and it rang throughout my room, though it sounded like it was not at all close to my house. I shot up and ran to press the pause button on my radio to quiet things down then ran to my window and stood still to listen. No more rock-crushing, but there was the sounds of growling and wolf calls. Then trees being . . . knocked over?

I had to get outside. Maybe if I got outside I would get a better hearing radius. I wanted to know what the heck was going on outside. For some reason Cara was still sleeping even throughout the sounds of wolves, boulders, and falling trees. She was always a heavy sleeper. Steve was gone; he was on a last minute fishing trip with the guys, but I’m pretty sure he would hear it wherever he was.

I made it to the back porch, stumbling into the chair along the way, but I made it outside and the sound was much louder, especially with my good sense of hearing. It sounded like it was getting closer, too. Then everything went silent and I heard leaves falling to the ground. Something breathed in - someone - and gave a satisfied sigh.

I felt something cold touch me and I cringed, and as the cold gripped my arm I felt warmth and fur brushing my extended arm, the arm the cold thing drew towards it. I heard growling, something hitting nearby trees with great force, and dirt being upturned by something. It was frightening but I could not find the strength to get inside, to move one muscle other than my heart that was beating violently in my chest. Soon the things, whatever they were, became distant. I thought it ended, until something wet touched me. Air came from it. Fur tickled me. It felt like a nose and the nose - if it was that - pushed me. It wasn’t hard but it was enough to make me run into the back door.

I took that as a hint and hurried inside as I tried to figure out what in the world just happened.