Cursed with an Alpha Soul | Werewolf Romance

Chapter VII - Nightmares

A thick fog began to roll through the town, covering the ground, leaving a foot of mist everywhere you went. Dark clouds covered the sky, leaving no room for the sun to peak out. The entire day it would seem like it was past six in the evening, even at 9AM. A soft wind came with the fog, moisture stuck to car windows and tall blades of grass in the meadows. The weather wasn’t unusual for this wet, northern state. It was more common than days of sunshine and warm breezes. Wet footprints and dripping jackets left the halls of high school slippery. Every few minutes, you would hear the squeak of a shoe sliding through the puddle followed by the crash of a body hitting the ground. Laughter would erupt in the halls; every student would wait to see who the next victim would be each passing period. As rain began to pour, no amount of wet floor signs could prevent the s*******r of falls.

Ella’s return to campus had brought her some unwanted attention. She had hoped that she would still be the girl in the shadows, that everyone would continue to ignore her, but stories and rumors spread quickly. Some rumored that she was drugged, and someone was trying to r**e her in the woods, but they let her slip down a hill and ran off. Others thought she got too drunk and slipped while she went for a walk in the woods. Students wouldn’t crowd around her and ask questions, but instead stare and talk amongst themselves as she passed. The large adhesive band-aid on Ella’s forehead made her stick out like a sore thumb. She would wear long sleeve shirts with jeans or sweatpants, so she only had to apply one band-aid each morning. Ben was sent back home once Ella decided to return to school, which made it easier for her to hide her healed injuries from him.

Although she didn’t want to return to high school, her only other option was to see the doctor who would want to check on her stitches. That wasn’t an option, so she knew she had to go back. But part of her wanted to go back. She knew that it would be the best place for her to find them. The one like her, the only one who possibly had some answers about what was happening to her. They went to this school; they wore this year's letterman jacket. She just had to keep her eye out for number 37, but she wasn’t going to go around to every locker room asking who had number 37. Ella figured she would go to school like normal and keep an eye out for every varsity athlete's jacket she saw until she found number 37. Going to sports practices wouldn’t help; all varsity athlete jackets were identical from the back, so she couldn’t tell which sport they would play.

Ella groaned as she felt a tight pair of arms squeeze her from behind and lift her feet off the floor. “Hey!” Ella said, caught off guard. “God am I happy to see you alive!” Ash said, placing Ella back on her feet. She turned her around, scanning her up and down. “Ashlin, I am fine! I have to wait for the stitches to dissolve and I’ll be back to normal. Don’t freak out.” Ella laughed as she began to enter her locker combination. Ash leaned up against the locker beside her, “Well, maybe I wouldn’t be so worried if you had answered your phone occasionally. I had to get updates from Ben and we both know how bad at texting he is.” Ash joked; Ella laughed in agreement. Ben wasn’t the best texter, which was funny compared to the amount of technology he knew how to work. He always preferred calling, so he would call for any question you had that couldn’t be answered in less than five words. “He’s really bad”, Ella laughed, shaking her head as she pulled out her second half binder.

“Seriously though,” Ash said in a soft tone, “I’m sorry for not sticking around you. I know you didn’t want to go in the first place and I kind of just ditched you.” It wasn’t common for her to apologize, most of her apologies would be around the bush without saying the word ‘sorry’. Ella knew she meant this one. “Honestly, Ash, I’m not mad at you. It was just a few stitches, no lost limbs.” She smiled towards her best friend. Ash grinned in response, knowing there were no sour feelings between them. “Good because you’ll never guess who I hooked up with!” Ash shook her eyebrows grinning at Ella. “Oh, come on Ash, we both know who.” Ella laughed as she closed the metal locker and began walking down the hall towards the cafeteria for lunch. “Oh yeah? How so?” she asked smartly.

Ella grinned, turning towards her friend, stopping in front of her. Students rushed around them, sneaker squeaks echoing through the halls with chatter. “At the Willis house? Who else would you hook up with other than your number one fling?” Ella smirked towards her. They both knew the answer. Ashlin had a common on-again-off-again relationship with Valerie Willis. Ella was pretty sure they would be in a relationship if it wasn’t for Valerie's constant claim that she wasn’t gay. In her own words, she was only a ‘party-explorer’. This meant she would have relationships with Ash or other women only at parties or one-night stands, but had no romantic interest in women at all. Ash continued to push that one day she would get Valerie to break and have her on her knees. Ella had been listening to the same story since Ella had introduced Ash to Valerie back when she dated the Willis brother. “I’m serious E. one day I’ll make her fall in love with me and she won’t be able to get over me.” Ash boldly claimed, pushing her long black hair over her shoulder. Ella laughed, rolling her eyes as they continued to the lunch hall.

Ben always had a table saved for them, he had a third period for individual study since he was ahead on his credits. He would either study by himself in the library or get his homework finished so after school he wouldn’t have to worry about it. As Ella and Ashlin walked up, Ben stood from his seat, breaking his eyes off the television that was mounted on the cement wall. There were many throughout the cafeteria. It was often too loud to hear anything, so you would have to read the subtitles across the screen instead. “Hey,” Ben smiled towards her, giving her a simple hug before sitting down beside her. “How are you feeling? Your first day back.” Ella took a big sigh, shrugging. “I mean I still hate school, that hasn’t changed, but I feel fine.” Ella smiled at him., she didn’t want him to worry any more than needed. Ben wouldn’t hesitate to come back to her place and take care of her again if she told him that she felt weak or in pain at all. Other than a little confusion sometimes, she felt better than normal. She could breathe clearer than before, no allergies or stuffy nose. She could hear what she wanted to do or zone everything else out. She felt stronger and powerful in a way.

“It’s crazy what happened, huh?” Ben asked, his eyes were glued on the television monitor on the wall. “What?” She asked. Ben glanced at Ella, “Oh right you wouldn’t have heard anything. I guess you weren’t the only one that had a crazy night at the party.” He sighed. Ella was confused. Did this have something to do with that other person? Were they okay? Ella couldn’t understand the worry she felt for someone she didn’t even know. “What happened?”. “Well, a freshman here, named Beckham Alexander was found dead in the woods just behind the football field. They don’t really know when he died but they found his body a few days ago.” Ben said, looking up at the screen again. A photo of the young red-headed boy flashed on the screen. “I had seen him around but didn’t know him much. He was in the astrology club though; I do know that.” Ben explained, dipping his French fry in his mustard.

“D-do they know how he died?” Ella asked, staring at the boy's photo. Ella had never seen him before, but she wasn’t a social person either. She didn’t stick around school more than she had to and, since he was a freshman, she wouldn’t have had any classes with him either. “No, well- they probably do but they haven’t said anything on the news yet.” Ben said. He continued to read the screen. Ash was deep in her phone, going back and forth about delivery options and texting away. There wasn’t any debate about who she was likely to be texting with the smirk she had on her face. Ella scooted her seat back, opening her backpack she had placed under the seat. Since Ella had woken up before five, she had time to make breakfast and a packed lunch before class.

As Ella was pulling her lunch bag out of her backpack, she froze. A shivering chill rushed through her body and the hair on the back of her neck stood tall. Ella shut her eyes; she could smell them. The familiar warm scent hit her nose. They were here. Slowly Ella sat back up in her seat. Ben and Ash continued to talk to one another, but Ella paid zero attention to them. Ella stood up, her eyes scanning the large room of high school students. ‘Where are you?’ She thought to herself. Ella watched as a large group of men with letterman jackets entered the cafeteria. Her eyes danced over their backs as they walked in, reading each number. 42. 09. 78. 18. There were at least ten people on the ground as they walked across the cafeteria, laughing about matters that weren’t important to Ella. As the boys lined up for their food and slid their trays along the metal rack, Ella finally saw him. The number 37. Zooming in her vision she could see the small, frayed strands of fabric from where she had ripped off the tag. Her eyes followed as he moved down the food line, laughing and chatting with his team mates on either side. Anger began to boil in her chest from the anticipation of seeing who this was. The man who led her on a chase through the forest, keeping his identity from her when all she had was questions.

She watched as he turned to face her, their eyes locking from across the room. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t recognized him before. Even just from seeing him from behind. The scent and confusion of it all had hidden his identity from her better than anything could have. A smirk curled at the end of his lips as he knew she had found him. She watched as he brought a bright red apple to his lips, biting out a chuck. The sweet juice ran down his lips and dripped from his chin, he wiped it away on his sleeve, not breaking their eye contact. His bushy, chestnut hair and blonde highlights should have been a dead giveaway for her. Or even the mole just below his hairline on the back of his neck that she hadn’t realized was there yesterday. He winked in her direction, continuing his conversation with his teammates while staring at Ella. One of his buddies looked in the same direction as him, but through the crowd of people, he couldn’t see that he was staring right at Ella. “Come on man, let's take a seat,” number 78 said as he nudged him and began walking away. After a few steps, he turned back around, “Carlos, come on!” They yelled. Carlos Willis.

Ella was filled with thousands of different emotions. Anger steamed from the fact that he knew her on a deep level and continued to keep her in the dark. Confusion about why he had left her in the dark and questioning if he had somehow done this to her. Some feelings she didn’t want to admit or even try to understand. Out of all the feelings, the one that hit her the hardest was the lingering pain that she felt every time she saw his face. A pain she had never been able to shake from the day she stormed out of his house years ago. Ella grabbed her bag and stormed out of the room, she knocked different students aside as she walked. “Hey!”. “Watch it!” were only some of the nice things she heard. Ella could hear Ash and Ben calling for her from behind as she pushed through the crowd. She made her way down the empty hall, her flannel shirt blowing in the wind behind her as she walked. “Ella, stop!” Ben called out from behind her as he ran after her. Ella wanted to get away, she needed to clear her mind, she needed to go somewhere she could think. Ben’s hand grabbed onto Ella’s wrist, trying to stop her. She didn’t look at him but stared at the floor. She could feel her eyes shifting and didn’t want him to see. “Holy s**t you’re burning” he said. Her skin was hot to the touch and caught him off guard.

“Ben, leave me alone.” she demanded, pulling her arm out of his grasp. “Hey, what’s wrong with you?” Ben asked, confused by her reaction. He didn’t understand what caused her to act like that. He had never seen her so angry before. “Leave me alone.” She demanded in a low tone. Ben backed away from her a few steps. Ella turned and walked as fast as she could towards the door. “And don’t follow me!” She shouted back to him as she slammed the door open. Ella tightened her backpack straps and took off running into the forest. There were a few loner students who sat outside to eat their lunch that had noticed her, but thought it was someone ditching class. Ella kept running, her backpack bouncing on her shoulders as she ran. Tears of anger began streaming down her face, and after a few miles of running she dropped her bag on the ground. Her heart was pounding in her chest, she could feel her skin boiling hot and breathing fast. The icy rain soaked into her clothes as she ran, puddles of water splashed up onto her pants. She could see her breath come past her lips in a fog as she ran. She didn’t know what to do, she didn’t know what to think. She spent the last year trying to move on and forget what happened between her and Carlos and now something new tied them together.

Ben watched as his girlfriend stormed out of school. She stood there until the door shut. He wanted to follow her, but he didn’t want to upset her any more than she already was. He had never seen her act this way. He didn’t understand it. He knew she had been through a lot, so he thought maybe that was causing her strange behavior, but he doubted it. It still wouldn’t understand her hot skin. Maybe she had an infection from her fall which was causing her fever. That was the only explanation he could make of it. He would go by her house after school to check on her, talk to her about what happened. For now, he wanted to give her room to cool off. Ben walked back into the cafeteria and made his way to the table where Ash sat with her Chipotle order. “What’s up with her?” she asked, putting a glass Coca-Cola bottle to her lips. “I uh- I'm not sure.” Ben replied as he sat across from her. “She just ran off and told me not to follow her.” “Well, she went through a lot,” Ash shrugged as she unwrapped her burrito, “Just give her time, she’ll come around” Ash reassured him. Ben nodded his head, trying to forget the matter. He turned his head around trying to find what had upset her so much. As his eyes scanned, he saw Carlos Willis sitting at a table in a corner, munching on an apple. He now understood. ‘Asshole.’ Ben mumbled under his breath. Carlos had been laughing at something one of the men at his table had said to him when he glanced in Ben’s direction. Instantly, his smile turned to a look of anger towards Ben before turning back to his group. The two had never shared more than a few sentences with each other, but they shared one thing in common. One was Ella’s first boyfriend while the other was her current boyfriend.

Ella couldn’t do anything but drop to her knees and scream. A blood curdling scream echoed through the woods, disturbing all creatures. Hundreds of birds flew from the treetops, leaving large groups of black birds flying through the sky in different directions. She screamed so loud her voice went silent, so sound came out, but tears continued to stream down her face. Ella fell to her side continuing to cry, part of her thought that somehow finding the person would give her answers, tell her how to reverse this or undo it. Let her get back to the life she knew without all these changes forced upon her. Crying to herself, Ella’s body could no longer take it. Slowly she drifted off to sleep, tears still streaming down her cheeks and dripping onto the grass blades under her.

The sound of crickets chirping awoke Ella. She squeezed her eyes tightly before opening them. Her eyes stared at the starry sky above her. The tree branches swayed in the gentle wind, waving at her. Her cheeks felt tight from where tears once ran. Rubbing her face, Ella took a deep breath before sitting up. She knew she must have been there for hours for it to be this late. Ella looked around for her backpack she had dropped near her. Her phone was in there and she could check what time it was and contact people who were likely worried about her. She wanted to call Ben the most, apologize for the way she shouted at him at that moment and meet up with him, but her bag was gone. Standing at her feet, she looked around again. She knew she must not be looking hard enough because she put it right next to her.

A low growl erupted from behind her. Ella froze in her spot, terrified of what was behind her. There weren’t any bears or dangerous animals reported in her town for years, plus Ella hadn’t run very far from the school. She wasn’t deep within the mountains where she would possibly be at risk. Slowly Ella turned around. Standing only a few feet away from her stood a large brown and black wolf. It stood as tall as her, staring right at her. A low growl rumbled out from its lips, baring its teeth at Ella. She watched fresh, red blood drip from its fangs. Ella stood in fear, trying not to move, praying that the beast would lose interest in her and turn away. The wolf took a step towards her. The wolf was large, carrying pounds of muscle. It could kill any bear or wolf or animal it comes across without even having to try. The wolf took another step towards her, lowering its head slightly. The animal stared right into Ella’s eyes, watching her closely. She tried taking a step back, but only got a loud growl demanding she didn’t move.

Ella watched as someone came out from the trees behind the wolf. It was Carlos. He stood with his hands in his pockets watching Ella with his bright red eyes. Ella looked at him in fear, her eyes darting between the wolf and Carlos. ‘Help’ she mouthed towards him, but only received a smirk in return. “Please,” her voice cracked out to him. She didn’t know how he could help, but she was scared. Carlos didn’t move, he only continued to grin at her behind the large beast. The wolf growled loudly, taking another step, closing the distance between them. “Carlos please!” Ella screamed out to him. The wolf growled, it leaned back and pounced towards Ella. The ground vibrated as its large paws pushed off. Ella screamed; she saw the wolf leap into the air. Its mouth opened wide, fangs gleaming in the moonlight above. Raising her arms over her face, the wolf’s claws came down on her.

Ella sat up trying to catch her breath. Frantically, she looked around her. She was still in the woods. It was still bright outside. Her backpack was right beside her. There was no wolf and no Carlos to be seen. Ella swallowed a lump in her throat, catching her breath. She wiped her face of old and new tears from the dream. A sharp pain came from her arm, she could feel it was hot and her skin ached. Ella looked to her left forearm to see the sleeve stained in a black liquid. Slowly Ella pulled the sleeve up her arm, hissing at the sting she felt. There were three large lacerations on her forearm ripping down her skin. Black blood dripped from the wound, falling onto the grass below. The cuts were in the exact area where the giant wolf’s claws landed on her before she woke up. Ella watched as the blood slowly stopped dripping and her skin began to close. It felt like a stretch as it pulled back together until it was back to normal. Her skin was untouched with no marks or sign it was ever cut. The only evidence was dried black blood that had run down her arm.

Ella got to her feet, brushing off the grass and grabbing her bag. She checked her phone. There were two missed calls and three texts from Ben and Ash. The time was 4:52PM. Ella pushed the phone into her pocket and threw her bag over her shoulders. She knew what she needed to do, she needed answers. There was only one person who could help her, and it was time she paid him a visit.