Don't Go Out in the Woods Tonight...

"Honey? How are you?"

Mom's voice sounds thick with worry. Troy had tossed me the phone to call home with after I had finished eating.

"I'm good. Good and safe." I reply

A heavy sigh escapes over the phone and I smile. Troy sits across the living room, three of the four half-wolves-half-irish wolfhounds. The fourth, the largest, seems to favor me and sits curled up next to me where I sit on the couch.

Her big white and grey head sifts and comes to rest on my lap. I stroke one ear, talking to Mom on the phone. I stare into the dogs eyes. One is a deep brown, and the other...half blue...half green.

"Okay honey, I love you. Stay safe." Mom finishes the conversation and I toss the phone back to Troy.

"Well?" Troy asks me.

"What?" I stop stroking the soft white ear and look up at him.

"Are you safe?" A smirk covers the words.

I roll my eyes. "Am I?"

Troy gets up from his chair, causing the three animals at his feet to leap up and scatter about the room.

As they scatter, the one beside me also goes, leaving me feeling very exsoped and lonely on the couch. Troy sets himself down gracefully on the arm of the couch, siting next to me.

Looking at me...

Watching me...

Calculation something...

Then movement...

I would like to say I was ready. I would like to say that when Troy leaned over, shoving me off the couch and pushing his way into the place I was sitting that I was ready. But....

"Why did you do that?" I ask calmy from my new place on the floor.

No answer...

I stand up and perpare to sit back on the couch, further away from Troy. He shoves me forward, smirking and not allowing me to sit.

My eyes dart around then settle. My hand snakes out and drabs a pillow. My body leaps forward.

In the end, Troy won the pillow fight, but I got my spot on the couch back. Troy sits behind me holding me softly as we watch T.V.

I look away from the T.V. and see that the sun has set and that the dogs are settled in various spots around the room. Each one curls in a deicate circle.

One is white, one is a solid black and the other is a patchwork mix of white and black. The one with a green-blue eye is white and grey. All the others have a set of big beautiful brown eyes.

Troy leans his head against my shoulder and sighs. I lean my own head back and blow a puff of air into his face.

He looks at me, and then he gently places a kiss on my cheek. I chuckle, cause we're such an odd couple. Fighting, making up, cuddling on the couch and then maybe more fighting afterwards. I look back around at the dogs and look back up at Troy.

"Will you please tell me their names...now?" I almost whine. Troy chuckles a little.

"The black and white one is called Ghost, the black one is named Jack. The white one with two brown eyes is called Creep, and the one with wierd eyes is called Mist." Troy took a breath in and relleases, "But don't expect them to come when you call. They are still part wolf."

"Ghost, Jack, Creep, Mist" I relay back to him, pointing to each of the dogs as I say thier name.

Troy nods and kisses my cheek again. I lean against him, and Mist looks up at me, her blue-green eye winking at us.

~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~

"You want me to sleep where?!?" I look up at Troy.

He's half way up the stairs, with me standing at bottom of the flight. He looks down at me and rolls his eyes: the silver shimmers in the low light of the living room.

"It's not like you haven't shared a room with me before." He says softly, referring to the drunken party my sister threw.

"But... But..." I stumble over the words as Troy comes back down the stairs.

"You don't have to," He whispers, "But I would feel safer if I... had you close by."

His eyes flick around the room, displaying a very rare moment of . . . unsureness. I watch his silver eyes sweep over the room and then come to rest on my own face.

I lace my fingers between his. Troy squeezes my hand and let's a small little half smile tug at the corner of his lips.

"You'd feel safer, huh?" I ask, a playful tone spikes my voice, "Well... I guess we'll have to make that happen. We'll give you a night light, too."

Troy laughs, turns, and bounces up the stairs two at a time. I hop up after him and walk with him to where we dumped my bags.

His room.

~ + ~ + ~ + ~

Surprisingly, the room is...clean.

I mean, not that I suspected Troy to be a slob, but still; a basket of dirty clothes should have been in the general area. The room looks like it came right out of a picture in a magazine. Clean and tidy.

"I love it!" I squeal and take a flying leap onto the bed. It's a dusty steel blue and soft and I don't want to move.

Troy shakes his head in defeat as he watches me curl around a pillow. I hear him sink into a chair and turn on the computer that is on the desk.

After a moment a pillow, similar to the one I had been holding, flew across the room and hit Troy on the head. Now I'm not going to say I threw it. . . but I won't deny that I laughed.

He looks at me, his silver eyes dancing. The corner of his mouth turns up in a half smile as he picks up the pillow from the floor.

Troy walks over to the bed and flops next to me, putting the pillow under his head as he falls. I stare at the ceiling, and watch him out of the corner of my eye. After a second or two his fingers run down my arm and lace through my own.

"Don't throw pillows around," His whisper rumbles from his throat. "They don't like it."

I hear him chuckle a little and a smile tugs at my lips. My body turns and curls against him, my lungs taking in a deep breath of air.

Then a thought strikes me.

"Where is your mother?" I ask, my eyes lift up to see Troy.

He flinches and his eyes smolder gold for a moment then regain control. I question this silently, in my mind, and wait for an answer.

"She's..." Troy chokes on the words. "Not around. Ever."

The tone of his voice put off any option of a question for explanation. I twist onto my stomach and prop myself up onto my elbows. My feet swing lazily over my back.

"Mhmm." My eyes glaze over a little as I start thinking. "What time is it?"

"Time for you to get a watch." Troy whispers under his breath before taking out his phone and giving me a real answer. "It's pretty late."

"Oh, wow." My reply drips with sarcasm. "Thanks for that. I would never have guessed. With the windows being all dark and the moon full overhead."

At that Troy sits up straight and looks out the window. Again he flinches. Then rising slowly from the bed, he moves to the window and draws the curtain closed. The heavy fabric shuts out the moonlight and makes the room a little darker.

"And the point of that... was?" The question hangs in the air.

It stays there a moment, unanswered, and then dies out. Troy just turns from the window and stands still.

His eyes storm and twist, twirling from silver to gold and every combination in-between, until I become dizzy watching. Till my eyes can no longer watch his silent emotions rage in his ever-changing eyes.

I look away and my eyes drift to the open door where one of the dogs stands stone still, its head tilted to the side. It's the grey and white one with a brown eye and a half blue-half green eye; Mist.

Out of the corner of my eye I see Troy lift his arm, in a gesture that seems to beckon the dog into the room. Mist moves in settling into the space of the room.

I watch. Her long leg, typically of an Irish wolfhound, are wound and sprung with muscles that only a wild animal would have. The movement is slow and calculated, like the wolf inside is holding back.

Mist walks over to Troy and circles him. She sniffs at the curtain and pokes her nose through, looking outside. It seems awfully strange.

There is a growl, low and angry, that fills the room as the dog looks out the window. My eyes snap to focus as Troy whirls around, glancing out the window and then rushes to my side.

"Stay. Here" His words hammer me and he darts out the room, the wolf-dog flowing after.

I look out the window, and my brain take off with wild "what if"s. Logical takes a back seat to my imagination and what it's projecting outside.

"No. No, no no." I mouth the words as the thoughts seem to overpower me. "That's not possible..."