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

Authors:note: There are different P.O.V.'s in this chapter. i'm sure y'all can figure out who is who. XD

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He ran from the room. Fast.

He felt the change coming. It ran though his spine, overtaking ever nerve and sense.

He had hoped that tonight he could hold it off, but he was wrong. He had barely left her back in the room when his mind started to twist.

It took the form of the half animal he was.

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I sit on the bed, quietly listening to the sounds in and around the house. I hear the back door slam shut and feet running from the house.

"This is ridiculous!" I get up out of bed and open the curtains. The moon shines down into a bright silver square on the floor. I only see the forest illuminated by the moonlight.

I turn from the window and Ghost is sitting in the doorway. The dog resembles a wolf more then ever, it's face framed by fur and two tuft ears.

"Do you know whats going on?" I ask it before turning back to the window.

Then the see something that the light casts a long shadow on.

"Oh..." I whisper. "No."

A dark shadow slinks through the forest around the house. Only one person would slink, Lyris. He had followed me and he was coming fast, melding to the next shadow, coming closer and closer to the house.

The fabric of the curtain made a violent ripping sound as I yank it back over the window, covering myself from the prowler outside.

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I will have her again. I will, I tell you. You all mocked me when I let her get away, but tonight I will get her back. Even if i have to take her lifeless body from his lifeless arms.

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There was a smell that shouldn't be in his woods. The noise... it is from a stranger... he shouldn't be sneaking about.

There might be something in the woods.

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Ghost sits at the door frame and simply watches me as a pace back and forth. I wait for something, anything to happen.

GAHH

The muffled noise from outside and in the forest makes me scream at the top of my lungs and launch myself at the bed. As a child I would always hide from the monster under the covers. It worked back then, so why not now?

Ghost, in fluid motions, crosses the room and bounds onto the bed. Curling up at my feet, the massive head faces the door; A sentry while I tremble.

Slam

"shoot." The whisper escapes my lungs before I can stop it.

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Mmm... she's here. Alone, too. How convenient. That half-breed mutt never should have met her.

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... ... ...

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Why did the house have to be so quiet? Why did everything have to seem so dead still?

Bad choice of words...

"Ghost?" I whisper, peeking out from the covers.

There he was, still curled in a delicate circle. Only now the head was lifted. Ghost is listening to something downstairs. The something that had made the door slam.

The great head turns from the door and the brown eyes watch me, measuring me somehow.

Creak

The sound of the creaky step causes a chain reaction. Ghost stands, pulling every muscle taunt. The half-wolf pins it's ears back, preparing. I dart under the covers, hoping at some form of safety.

Creeeeeeak

My body trembles. A low growl shakes the air as Ghost crouches at the foot of the bed.

I knew he would follow me. I knew it.

The steps in the hall grow louder, and then the air ripples intensely from growls. Then the air freezes with a little chuckle.

"So, you still think that hiding under covers..." The voice slides though the air like water over ice, "...protects you from monsters?"

"At least you're not in denial about what you are." My voice presses against the ice.

The small chuckle breaks the air. Movement ripples the air, and Lyris moves into the room. Ghost becomes louder, rumbles shakes the bed, making my trembling increase.

"Shut up, breast."

Any movement within the room chills over with that. Then in a burst of defiance, Ghost launches himself from the bed, with all the deadly silence of a beast and hunter.

There is a soft thud that only flesh against flesh makes. Then an even softer sounds that is flesh against fangs. After that, within a second of Ghost leaving the bed, a horrid crunching sound of flesh against a wall.

I hear heavy breathing, coming from the far side of the room, across from the door. I don't want to look. Ido not want to look. ... I have to look. With this thought I tug at the covers till they slide off on their own, slipping to a bundle at my waist.

"Oh. My. -" Breath leaves my body as I look at the room. My lungs stop gathering oxygen from the icy air.

Ghost lays limp, smashed against the wall. Blood starts to seep from a small gash on his side. The wall is crumbles a bit, baring the vague imprint of the wolf.

My eyes dart to the door and there stands Lyris. His arm is bleeding and there is a slash mark across his right cheek bone. The blood oxidizes and darkens as it slides down his cheek and along his jaw.

"Well. Looks like you came out." He says, his eyes slipping down my body. "Did you miss me?"

"Like the plague." The sharpness of my voice surprises me.

Lyris too, it seems, for his eyes widen just a bit before he regains his composure. He takes a step towards me and stops by the side of the bed.

His movements are slow and steady. He's gearing up for something, I know it. Don't Move. Don't Run... Don't Scream I drill the words in my head, over and over. If I just hold still, he won't attack.

"Now now, my little Katherine" My name never sounded so vile, "What have you been doing? Running?" - He sits on the edge of the bed- "That'll never do. I can't" -He comes closer, his hand finds mine under the covers and closes on it. - "I can't have my little Katherine running away." - His face comes close and his breath huffs over me, swallowing me.- " Can I?"

The words dip low and come out like sweet poison. It sent shivers down my spine, down my arms, into my hands. Lyris feels my fingers twitch under his and gives my hand a little squeeze.

"I knew you missed me" His voice chills the room, the air, and my body freezes.

He comes closer, his free hand intertwining in my hair. He pulls me up to him and brushes my lips against his. Strangely. Softly.

I flinch away, which doesn't seem to make Lyris very happy. His eyes narrows to slits and then....

SLAP

My hand flies to my face, covering the red mark that his hand made. His eyes dance with fire and his grip on my arm pierces into the skin.

"HOW DARE YOU?!?" He screams at me, shaking me. "I ACCEPT YOU BACK AND YOU..."

He pauses, tilting his head to think over something that has caught his attention. Then his eyes find mine.

I shrink back inside myself. His eyes burn with a calm fire. It unfreezes the air. My body starts to burn and prickle as he closes the gap between us.

"It's okay. I understand." He swipes the covers away from me, letting them fall to the floor. "You're just overwhelmed. That's alright."

The hand griping my fingers travels up my arm, then down intertwining in my fingers once more. Lyris pulls me close, tucking me into his lap and wrapping his arms around me.

"It's alright. I'm here now." He whispers to me, like a spider to a fly.

Tears burn in my eyes and they start to blur my vision. I tell my brain to shut up so I don't feel his fingers trail up and down my side, but I still feel the cold shivers race up my back.

"Why?" My voice sounds small.

"You missed me. I could feel you missing me. So I came to you."

"No. I- I - I didn't miss you. I didn't want you. I don't want you he-"

He shoves me out of his lap and pins me down to the bed. Tears burn harder and sting my eyes.

"Shut up." His voice crushes my own, killing the air.

He crashes down on me. His hands, his voice, his body, it all presses me in. I feel the weight of him as his hands seek warm from me.

"This won't hurt, my little Katherine."

A small and pitiful whimper dies in my throat. I close my eyes, hoping that this will stop. Lyris keeps moving in, crushing me, keeping the air out of my lungs.

CRAAAASH

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He smelled her fear. Growing greater and larger, expanding till it was difficult for him to breath. But still he had come back to the house. He smelled blood, from the stranger and from the pack. He stood on the ground, listening.

"This won't hurt. My little Katherine."

He growled. He hated this stranger now. Hated him with all the hate a beast could have. He wouldn't just stand here and let that stranger hurt her. He headed to the door. The claws and fingers fumbling with the knob.

But he stopped. He heard that whimper die in her throat.

It pushed him into rage.

How dare that stranger touch her.

He lept for the window, his rage burning white and red dots in his vision.

CRAAAASH

The glass cut into his arms as he pounced onto windowsill. It cut into his feet as he stood there, staring at the stranger. He was blind to her, but not to her pain.

He launched for the stranger.

Claws, that he had once cursed, he blessed as they torn into flesh.

Fangs, that he had once loathed, he thanked has they bit into tissue.

But... He didn't smell death. No matter how much they torn and bit. The stranger wasn't dying.

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Stupid Mutt. Thinking you could stand against me. And using your jangly wolf man form, too. You'll lose her for sure. If I choose to let you live, you will still lose her.

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I watch as...this thing leaps at Lyris. It shoves him into the wall, and keeps shoving till the plaster gives way, They tumble into the hallway.

I'm alone in the room. My eyes. my brain, my body remain frozen. There's blood, blood, everywhere. On the floor, the wall, the sheets, everything is spatters and stained. It only adds to the shock. I'm trying to process, still trying to comprehend, what just burst into the room.

It can't be. That couldn't be...