Chapter 2

Chapter 2

>outside on the street<

As I walk to my car, I can´t help but feel like somebody is watching me. I look up and down the street but there´s nobody there. That´s when I hear a rustling of leaves among the bushes. And as I strain to see through the darkness, I see a pair of red, glowing eyes. It´s definitely not human, and it disappears as soon as I see it.

What the heck was that? A burst of cold wind sends shivers down my spine. I can literally feel the hairs at the back of my neck stand on end. I need to find out.

BEEEEEP

I´m about to cross the street when a car, honking its horns, speeds past me. I let out a shriek of surprise.

“Asshole!”

I stare again in the direction where I´ve seen the glowing eyes. No, maybe that´s just an optical illusion or something.

I just shrug it off and decided to hit Knox Bar before heading home. If night gets any weirder, I´m going to need a lot of alcohol.

>Knox Bar<

Knox Bar is owned and run by my friend Lucas Knox. He´s one of my first friends I made when I moved here to Wolf Springs. He´s actually the only friend here that I can trust.

“So what is up with you, Lady?” Lucas asked with a worried face.

“Just got off of a36-hour shift. I need a drink.” 

With a snap of his fingers, the bartender gives me my drink of choice: Tequila.

“Work-related problems?”

“More like a Robert-related problem.”

“Let me guess. He wants you back?”

“Bingo. What am I going to do?”

“Just dodge him, ditch him, run as fast in the opposite direction as possible. He´s bad news.”

“He´s quite persistent.”

“Are you still attracted to that nerd?”

“You know me so well. You´re like my gay best friend, only you´re straight.” I giggled.

“Well, as hard as it is to believe, I understand why you´re so attracted to him.”

“Really? Why? Cause I think I´m the only one who hasn´t figured out why I´m so taken by him.”

Lucas seems to hesitate for a moment. “Because - I mean, he is your first boyfriend ever since you moved here. That´s got to count for something. All that history. Right?”

“I don´t know. It´s something else. It´s like that feeling that I can´t explain. I just don´t know what it is.” “I´m sure you´ll figure it out one of these days.”

Suddenly Lucas´ eyes dart to the side and his expression becomes suddenly dark.

“What´s wrong? You have that look.”

“What look?”

“Like you´re a guard dog sensing danger.”

“That´s ridiculous -”

“Laura. Hi.”

I turn to see Dr. White standing there in his civilian clothes. His shift obviously just ended.

“Dr. Wh – Patrick, hello! What a pleasant surprise!”

“I´m just checking the place out. I didn´t know you come here.”

“My friend here owns the bar, so this has become my watering hole of choice. By the way, this is Lucas Knox. Lucas, this is Dr. Patrick White, our newest resident at the hospital.”

“Call me Patrick. Pleased to meet you.”

Lucas gives him a measuring look, and offers Patrick his hand. Patrick takes it in a handshake. I can tell that Lucas is giving it a firm squeeze as the veins in his hands bulge.

“Lucas Knox. Nice to meet you.”

I hear bones crunching together. Patrick stares at Lucas, unflinching.

“Okay! So, we´re making friends.” I say sarcasticly. What is up with these two?

The two men let go of each other´s hands. Lucas can sometimes be like an overprotective brother to me. But I don´t need that right now.

“Lucas, don´t you have a bar to run?”

“Right. I´ll see you around.”

Lucas leaves the two of us alone.

“Sorry about that. I´m like a sister to him, so he sometimes acts like an overprotective brother.”

“I can tell the men in your life don´t like me very much. Are you sure he´s not an ex-boyfriend?” “Believe me, he´s not.” “I´m just kidding.”

“Why don´t we get a booth, so we can have a little privacy and get to know each other better?” Wait, what did I just say?

“That would be a good idea.”

We seat ourselves in a booth, with Patrick sliding in next to me. He´s so close that I can smell his musky scent. I surreptitiously breathe it in. My breasts instantly perk up at his masculine scent. He smells so damn good.

“I'm pleased I found you here. Back at the hospital I was actually going to invite you for drinks, but your ex arrived.”

“Well, we´re here now. So how do you like Wolf Springs so far?”

“It´s amazing. I like it here. I think I might decide to put down roots here.”

I notice his ring-less finger. So, he´s single?

“Did you move here with your family?”

“Oh, no, I live alone. My parents are divorced. My father lives in Arizona am my mom lives in Nevada.” “I see. So, no wife or children?”

“No wife. No children. At least, none that I know of.” He smiles, drawing my attention to his lips.

I wonder what his lips taste like.

“Very funny.”

“But seriously, I have no one.” I detect a hint of sadness in his eyes as he says this, although it´s only for a fleeting moment.

“What about you? Do you live here with family?”

“Mom lives in New York. I never knew my dad. I live in a house with a supermodel for a roommate.” “Interesting. A supermodel and a doctor in one house. How´s that going for you?”

“I barely ever see her. She´s always away for days on photo shoots in various cities.”

“Must be nice. So, do you really not remember me from college?”

“I told you. With a face like yours, I´m sure I´d remember you.”

Damn, he´s so hot, I just can´t help myself. I hesitated to lean into him. I shouldn´t be doing this. He´s my boss.

As he moves in closer, his scent seems to overwhelm me. What´s happening to me?

Suddenly something in me snaps.

“This is wrong.” I quickly pull away from Patrick, who looks confused.

“What happened? What did I do?”

“I need to go.”

I stand up, and Patrick does the same to give way to me. As I move past him, he touches my arm, but my reaction is to shove his hand aside. But I did more than that. Patrick yelps in pain as I inadvertently scratch his arm, which is now bleeding.

“I´m sorry.” I look down at my hands in horror. It appears that I don´t even know my own strength.

“Laura! What´s going on?” Lucas rushed to my side.

“I don´t know! Something´s wrong. I can´t explain.”

“Okay, calm down, Laura.”

“I gotta go!”

“Laura, wait!”

I run out of the bar, leaving them behind.

>On the street<

I approach my car and fumble for my keys. My heart is pounding so hard against my chest that I drop the keys. As I kneel down to scoop them up, I hear clicking sounds, like claws against the pavement. “Who´s there?” I yelled. As I peer around, I´m certain that my eyes catch something darting into the shadows of a dark alley. Something big, and hairy, like an animal. A dog?

Suddenly, my phone vibrates in my pocket. I check to see who´s calling and it´s my attending, Lydia Wilde. I take a deep breath to calm myself before answering.

“Fuller.”

“We´re about to get an influx of trauma patients at the ER.”

“What happened?”

“Animal attack. I need you back here. We´re going to need all hands on deck tonight.”

“I´m on my way, Dr. Wilde.”

“I´m counting on you.”

Lydia terminates the call abruptly.

Animal attack? That´s strange even for Wolf Springs standards. But then, this night has been really strange so far.

I get into my car and I am about to drive off, when my phone buzzes again. This time it´s my mom. I ignore the call. I can´t talk to my mom right now. Not like this. I don´t want her to worry.

I bet she´s calling because it´s the full moon. My mom has this superstition that the full moon foments danger. Before of her weird fears of the full moon, my mom had given me this ornate knife to protect myself when I was in my teen years.

>back in the hospital<

I reach the hospital that night and it´s pandemonium. The screams of pain of the victims fill the whole ER.

What kind of animal could have done this?

“Fuller! I need you at room 104.” Lydia strictly approached me.

“That´s Elises´ room. What happened?”

“She´s having some kind of seizure. Go! We got this covered.”

I hurry to Elises´ room where Nurse Abbey is trying to pin her down to her bed. She´s thrashing uncontrollably. I try to help the nurse.

“I´ll take it from here. Get me a sedative. Stat!” I struggle to restrain Elise as she flails in a frenzy. “Elise! It´s me, Laura. Calm down. Calm down.”

With one flick of her arm, she sends me flying across the room and against the wall. There´s blood on my fingers when I touch the back of my head. I start to become dizzy. My vision blurs. But before my sight fades, I see Elise turn into something else. A Wolf?! Then evening goes black.

>Lounge<

Later, the police are is questioning me about Elises´ disappearance.

“I told you, she didn´t attack me. She was having this convulsion and she accidentally threw me off-balance and I hit my head. I lost consciousness for a moment, and by the time Nurse Abbey found me and I came to, the girl was gone."

What do you want to hear from me? That the girl turned into a wolf?

I know what I saw. But at the moment, I´m not even sure what to believe anymore. I need someone to tell me I´m not going crazy.

“All right, Dr. Fuller. We´ll contact you if we have more questions.”

“Thank you, officer.”

The police officer leaves.

“Laura, what happened? Are you ok?” Patrick approaches me, wearing his scrubs. Apparently, he´s been called in as well because of the animal attack.

“I´m all right.” Seeing the concern in his eyes, somehow, I feel better. Being in his presence makes me feel safe. But can I trust him? I remain silent but Patrick notices.

“I can tell something´s up. What´s wrong, Laura?”

“It´s nothing really. I´m just tired -” I notice his arm and grab it to take a closer look.

“Your arm. It´s completely healed.”

Patrick takes his arm back, trying to hide from view. “I heal fast. Listen Laura, you´ve had a really rough night. You just got off of a 36-hour shift, you´ve been drinking. That´s got to take a toll.”

“I didn´t even get to drink at the bar because you arrived!”

“Regardless. I want you to go home and rest.”

Am I really just seeing things? I know what I saw. I´m not crazy.

“All right, Patrick. I´ll see you tomorrow.”

“I´d drive you but they need me here. I can call you a cab.”

“I´m good, trust me. Good-bye.”