Empty

Kara sat at the edge of her bed, nerves shot. For about the umpteenth time that night, she got to her feet and paced the room. The memories of the afternoon's events ran through her mind like a broken record.

She'd just rounded the corner on the trek that cut through the woods to their home when the sound of crashing trees caught her attention. At first she'd assumed that it was thunder, storms like those were a usual occurrence here, but when she heard the growls, Kara knew that this was different.

Something tells me I should be running the other way.

A few steps further found her facing three gigantic wolves; two of them on the ground. Bright crimson drops of blood spattered the blades of grass beneath their large paws, and their growls echoed through the forest like beating drums. Kara froze.

She didn't know what to do. She'd heard somewhere, far away, that the best thing to do when confronted with a dog was to stand as still as a rock. Inadvertently, this told the animal that you meant no harm - that you were just passing through.

Digging through her memories of her National Geographic marathons, Kara tried to remember. The best way to deal with an attacking bear was to play dead - arms over your head to protect your face, thank you - and a wolf, well, she hadn't really paid much attention to that part.

Maybe if she combined both the bear and dog survival tips?

The wolves were too busy fighting to notice her though. First it was the black and gray one, then the dark brown one intervened but it all happened so fast that she couldn't really remember much of that. Cross with herself, Kara reached for the Mickey mouse on her bedside table and sipped the coffee it held. It had grown cold.

Resisting the urge to spit the liquid back out, Kara swallowed and continued her trail of thought.

Suddenly, the brown wolf got up and walked slowly away from the black and gray pair. It turned it's nose to the air though, just as it had reached the other edge of the clearing, and sniffed once. When the brown wolf tore it's eyes away from the others to look around the clearing, Kara was overcome with a sudden urge to run.

Oh, shit.

Sure enough, by the time their eyes collided, Kara's heart leapt out of her chest and and into her throat. She was hyperventilating; fear taking over almost every facet of control and logical thought she had in her body.

I'm going to die and this thing is going to eat me and no one is going to find my body until it starts stinking - if there's a body to find at all - and my mother's never going to know how much I love her.

When the other two wolves turned to notice her, Kara was sure that that was it. Sucking in a deep breath, she focussed all her remaining attention on to not peeing. She'd wanted to go to the bathroom when she'd stepped off the bus, just a few minutes before, and decided to wait until she got home. Didn't seem like a very good idea, now that she thought about it.

The brown wolf took one step towards her, then stopped. It looked uneasy. After what seemed like a long second, the black one growled low, met eyes with her and bowed it's head. It seemed like it was telling her that it was okay, that they weren't going to hurt her.

Kara couldn't really know for certain though, she didn't speak Gigantic Wolf.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her - she'd effectively split her attention between the three four legged creatures - she saw the gray wolf get to its' feet and shake itself off. She didn't know if the other two saw it yet but she didn't dare move.

Feeling as if she needed to defend herself, Kara's mind pushed forward the first thing it could.

"You know, I'd probably taste really bad if you ate me."

Wolves Brown and Black blinked at this.

"I mean, I'm all skin and bones. And I don't exercise or anything, which would mean that, you know, all I have underneath is probably just fat."

Brown wolf made a sound - was that a chuckle? - and shook it's head.

Kara popped her lips, more to moisten them than anything else. "Yep, all disgusting and yucky fat. Definitely not something you'd want to feed your cubs, or uhm..." she cleared the bump that had lodged in her throat, "...yourself."

Black wolf turned to Brown and made a sound. It seemed as if they were communicating. Kara glanced at the closest thing she had to an escape route - the path from which she'd just emerged, and counted three Mississippi in her head. Before she could finish two, her feet pounded gravel and forest soil like a well tuned bass set.

Flinging her backpack and jacket off, the sixteen year old gathered everything she had and mentally pushed them down to her legs.

She didn't stop to look back until she was by the roadside, running towards Forks with her dark hair flying behind her.

Now, almost five hours after that, she was in her room again - unable to sleep, eat or do anything that wasn't reliving the memory or drinking coffee.

Uncle Sol asked her what the matter was on her second trip to the kitchen.

"Kara, is everything alright?"

The girl had to pinch herself to keep her voice from wavering.

"Yep. I'm just really, really thirsty."

Sol raised an eyebrow but didn't pursue the topic. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."

And that had been the end of her coffee making routines. Not that it mattered. Kara was already so buzzed on the caffeine, she felt like a hyped up kitten on drugs.

When she stepped into her room to discover the open window though, Kara's nerves and heart almost gave out at what she saw.

Under the fluttering curtain, a little muddy and wet from the rain, was her backpack and jacket.