Chapter Five

I had finally managed to fall asleep after hours of tossing and turning, the image of the wolf standing over me kept appearing every time I closed my eyes. I had been asleep for around an hour, when a voice wakes me up suddenly.

I frantically look around the room to find the owner of this voice but found no one, Justin was fast asleep on the blow up mattress on the floor. But beside him was his walkie-talkie which calms me down a little, there is no intruder it's just that thing!

"I just hit another one, taking these down one after another" the voice says again through the walkie-talkie, what a lovely thing to hear when you've just woken up right?!

I sit up straight rubbing eyes as I went, I look over at the clock to see it was almost 4am! These wolf and police officers don't sleep it feels like, I get up to get a glass of water in hopes that would somehow help me get back to sleep.

Once I walk back into my bedroom, the window becomes very intriguing, don't ask me why because I couldn't tell you. I had this urge to walk over and look outside, I listened to the urge and made my way over to the window. It was still quite dark so I couldn't really see much at first glance, but something starts to catch my attention after a few seconds. My house was located at the bottom of this hill, either side of the hill was thick woods and I had no idea what was on the opposite side of the hill. My dad always told me that's one place that I wasn't allowed to explore, even with how tempting it was throughout the years I've never actually gone.

Right at the very top of the hill was what looked like an outline of a person, at first I thought it was just my eyes playing tricks on me due to how dark and late it was. I rub my eyes a few times but the person never disappeared, but they were slowly making their way down the hall. The way in which they were walking also stood out to me, it looked as though they were limping while holding their side. They looked injured if I'm being honest, once again this urge came over to me go to them to see if they were okay.

I run to my wardrobe taking a coat out before leaving my room, lucky for me Justin was a deep sleeper and I know my dad and Ethan wasn't home. I run down the stairs of my house and towards the back door, it was freezing cold outside which just made me even more worried for this guy. Why would someone be wondering around in the pitch black and freezing night?

I reach my garden gate to see the guy was now maybe a few feet from me, he hadn't looked up yet but still held tightly onto his side.

"Excuse me, are you okay?" I ask which causes him look up, I have to stop myself from gasping when I realise, it's the guy I locked eyes with the night of the raid or whatever we're calling it.

He doesn't answer me but crouches down on his knees, this just tells me how hurt he actually is. I jump my garden gate which luckily, wasn't that high or I would have probably fell on my face and would have been no help to the guy. I run over knelling down beside him, I was still unclear on what happened but I knew it was bad. Without warning he falls to the ground groaning holding his side, oh I'm not equipped to deal with this alone!

"Wait here, I'll go get help" I say beginning to get up to call Justin, but he grabs hold of my arm stopping me from moving.

This next part is going to sound crazy, when his hand came in contact with my arm what felt like sparks started to spread up my arm. It wasn't painful at all, it was such a weird feeling, a feeling that I don't think I could describe.

"No please, I just need you to help me" he manages to say through the pain, just with the way he spoke I could tell he was in so much pain, something inside me changed and all that was on my mind was helping this perfect stranger.

"You just want me to help you?" I ask not sure if he really understood how unqualified I was for this task, some people know basic first-aid but I wasn't in when they were giving everyone a first aid class, I was clueless on what I should be doing to help this man!

"No one can know what happened, please" he moans in pain, I could have just said no and shouted Justin but that thought never even crossed my mind.

"Okay, but we can't stay out here or we'll both catch hypothermia" I say taking a hold of his arm, this was not going to be easy "I know you're in so much pain but I need you to work with me, we're gonna stand up and walk into my house, don't worry no one is home" I say adjusting the way I was standing to be able to hold him, he nods slowly getting to his feet but I could see how weak he was.

I take his arm and wrap it around my shoulders so I could keep him up, I wasn't that physically strong so it took me all my might to help him walk into the house.

We slowly make our way in where I have to decide on where to take him, it definitely wouldn't be wise to take him to my room where Justin was. But I also couldn't take him into the living room or kitchen just in case my dad walked in, this left the basement but I knew how difficult it would be to take him down there.

"You're doing great, now we just need to walk down these stairs" I say as we reach the top of the basement, what normally takes seconds to walk down was now taking a few minutes.

Once we were at the bottom I direct him towards the sofas, but I mentally had to decide which one I liked least. I mean he was bleeding which is gonna stain, I decide on the brown one off to the side, it was old so I probably won't miss it that much. I help lay down where he moans once again holding his side, now I could see his side I discover the whole side of his top was red with blood.

"I'll go get the first aid kit, don't move" I say pointing to him before running up the stairs, once I reach the top I bolt over the kitchen where we keep the first aid kit.

We never use to keep one before my mum went missing, but after she left my dad went into over protective mode and brought the best one on the market. I mean it is coming in handy right now, I take it from the cupboard before running back down the stairs. He lay in the same spot clutching onto his side, I did feel so bad for him but knew I needed to keep my head in the game to be able to help him.

"You need to tell me what happened" I say as I start to take things out the kit, I couldn't help him if I didn't know what happened.

"I'm from another village around here and was taking a walk, these people just began unloading their guns in my direction" he manages to explain through the pain, wait he was shot?! "I stumbled around until I saw your house" he says before laying his head back in pain, that must have been so horrible.

"Okay, can I take look?" I was looking over at his face, he closes his eyes nodding his head at me, I take a deep breath knowing I was about to see something I wasn't going to like.

I take ahold of the blood soaked top and pull it up, a huge gash ran down his side which looked rather deep. I knew the first thing I had to check was if the bullet was still in, I take a closer look and couldn't see anything that resembled a bullet.

"Good news, it looks as though the bullet just grazed your skin and never actually went in, so now I just need to clean it so you don't get an infection and wrap it up" I smile but was basically telling myself what to do, if I'm being honest I was guessing.

He nods as I pick up the antiseptic solution and start to pour it over his wound, he moves around in pain taking a hold of my coat holding it tightly. I kept apologising but made sure I got it all, I didn't want him to catch any sort of infection down to me not cleaning it fully. Once I was done I place that bottle on the side before checking to see if it was still bleeding, honestly, in my mind I thought it would be but it seemed to have slowed dramatically. I grab hold of this huge bandaged while asking him to sit up, I hold his hands pulling him up to sit.

As like in the garden as soon as our hands touched, sparks just flow down my arms. Due to the situation we're in, I had to put that to the side and start concentrating on wrapping this guy up. Once he was fully up I start to wrap the biggest bandage around his stomach, I knew it had to he tight but I kept checking if it was indeed tight. Once I was finished wrapping it I went to pull his top down but stop when I see the blood again, he can't walk around in a top like that.

I left him again while running up to Ethan's room, thankfully, he still wasn't home. I had no idea where he actually was but I had more things important things to worry about, like looking after this poor guy in the basement. I find a plain black top that I knew Ethan wouldn't miss before running back down stairs, once I get down he didn't have his blooded top on anymore which showed me is very toned body. Not the time Erika! I snap myself out the trance before handing him the top, he thanks me slowly putting it on covering the bandage.

"You're not in anymore pain are you....?" I ask but pause, I was going to say his name but than realise I didn't know his name "I actually don't know your name" I laugh looking over at him, I was just like his nurse for a second and didn't even get his name!

"No, the pain has got much better thanks to you and my name is Cody" he laughs at me which makes me smile, one because he wasn't in much pain and two, because I made him laugh.

"Well Cody, I'm very glad you're not in any pain anymore and I'm Erika" I smile over at him, he smiles right back at me as I turn to look at the clock, 5:20am "it's getting late and it's not safe for you to leave like that, so you can stay down here for tonight don't worry, my dad never comes down here as he's much too sophisticated for that and I'll make sure Justin doesn't come down here" I smile standing up walking over to the side of the room where we keep a heap of blankets, we have a ton of movie nights down here so you wanna be comfy.

I take the softest blanket I could find and walk back over to him, he smiles laying down where I place the blanket over him. I check if he's okay before taking a seat on the other sofa, as soon as I sit down a yawn escapes my lips.

"Who knew playing a nurse for awhile would be so tiring?" I laugh a little as my eyes begin to drop close on their own, without warning I fall to sleep on the sofa.

With a guy I didn't know well at the time, but that was all going to change very soon.