A Wolf-Girls Tale

A/N: This is the rest of chapter one--Finaly!! Tell me what you think!

We had walked in silence for about three blocks; I had stopped watching Kuzon near the first road we had crossed. I had, instead, been concentrating on the coat. It felt like wool and the design of it reminded me of what I had imagined the British coats looked like in the American Revolution. But this one was black, not red. It fit me surprisingly well.                                  “So what’s your story?” Kuzon asked me.                                                                                “What do you mean?” I asked.                                                                                                            “What was your life like before? What’s your story?” he rephrased. I felt myself smile, but I wasn’t entirely sure why.                                                                                                                 “A story like mine has never been told.” I said.                                                                             “Tell me.” He whispered it so softly it sounded like wind.                                                      “It’s a long story.” I warned.                                                                                                   “We have all day.” He reminded me.                                                                                      We had reached the park, sidewalks laid in circular patterns around sections of dying grass; Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles were taking little kids here to play; most likely trying to get it in before the storm hit. Kuzon and I sat on a stone bench on the edge of one of the walkways. I took a deep breath; I had never told anyone anything about my life for two reasons, (a) no one ever seemed interested and (b) I couldn’t remember most of it. But if I was going to tell him, I might as well tell him everything I could.                                                     “I was dismissed from the hospital three hours after I was born. Two days later, I was found in a trashcan outside of a bar. The person who found me took me to the hospital to see if something major was wrong with me. Miraculously, they didn’t find anything wrong with me. And through some legal something, I was adopted not long after by the nurse that helped deliver me. About a year later she died.” I stopped and looked at Kuzon. His elbows were resting on his knees and his hands were in fists, he was watching me.                                        “How did she die?” He asked slowly. I looked away from him and to the ground.                       “Murdered. In her sleep, I like to think she didn’t feel anything.” I answered.                                   “I’m sorry.” He apologized.                                                                                                    “It’s not your fault. They caught the one who did it, but sometimes I can feel him watching me. I know he wants to kill me, but he never does.” I was whispering and I found myself pulling the pocket knife from my pocket. “I keep this with me in case he ever tries anything.” I slid it back into my pocket.                                                                                         “What happened next?” Kuzon asked. This was when it started to get blurry.                                    “Well, I was in an orphanage for a few months before a man named Mishloto came. I was with him for about three years before he sort of sold me to Luna. And that’s how I met Demetri and had the first motherly figure I really remembered; she wasn’t much of one, though and I ran away on two separate occasions.” I paused. “You know what happened this last one.”                                                                                                                                                “And the first…?”                                                                                                                    “I need to say something else first.” I looked directly at him. “You can say I’m paranoid or just plain crazy, I don’t care, but I know what I saw that night was real.” I paused before continuing. “I don’t know what you could call her, but she wasn’t human. She looked human, but not exactly; she had sickly pale skin, white blonde hair down past her waist. Her eyes had a hint of light blue, but they were nearly white. She was wearing a grey dress and she appeared out of nowhere. She grabbed my neck, not like she was trying to choke me, but like she wanted my full attention. Her hand was wet, but super hot and she said in a cold little voice that she would kill anyone I loved slowly and painfully; that if I cared for them at all, I would do it before she could and save them the suffering. And then she was gone, it was like she turned to smoke and dissolved.”                                                                                                      “White Demon. Did you tell anyone else about this? Like Luna?” He asked. I shook my head and looked up at him. His face was twisted in concern and shock, or at least that’s what it looked like to me. “Did she ever do it?” He asked finally.                                                      “I was getting to that.” I took a breath and blew it out slowly. “I was eleven and I was tired of Luna’s ‘parenting methods’ so I took off. I was staying with a friend from school, Violet was her name. I had been with them for a few days and one day I, she, and her parents were driving on a road approaching a river. Her dad was driving, but the car just…it started to spin out of control. I was thrown out of the car and I hit my back o the railing on the side of the road. The car went over the side and into the river; they all drowned.” I sucked in a shaky breath. “She was standing in the middle of the road a few feet ahead of me, looking at the place where the railing had broken. She looked at me, her mouth didn’t move but I heard her say ‘I warned you.’ Then she disappeared the same way she had before and Luna parked her car on the other side of the road. She stuffed me in the back seat and then drove off. That’s my story.”                                                                                                                                                           “And now you’re afraid that will happen to us?” He asked.                                                         “I’m afraid your deaths will be my fault as well.” I said.                                                                      “Her death wasn’t your fault, you didn’t know-“                                                                   “I should have known.” I looked at him, looked away, and stood. I turned to my left and began walking in the direction we would have gone if we hadn’t stopped.                                      “Wait.” Kuzon said. I didn’t look back at him and I didn’t stop; he ran after me. “Stop.” He wrapped his left hand around my right arm. I stopped and turned to him, he released my arm and I folded them across my chest.                                                                         “Why did you want to know all that?” I demanded. He hesitated slightly before answering.                                                                                                                                                “Why not?”                                                                                                                 “Why not? Why do you ask?”                                                                                                 “Why do you keep running away?” My eyes widened, I was in the spotlight, and I didn’t like it.                                                                                                                            “What do I keep running away from?”                                                                                        “You tell me.”                                                                                                                          I stared at him, unable to do anything else. I had no idea what he was talking about; I wasn’t running away from anything or anyone…was I? I didn’t want to think about this, it hurt my head too much. I continued in the direction I was headed; Kuzon didn’t stop me, but I heard the tap of him shoes on the pavement; he was two, maybe three steps behind me.                  I knew I was probably overreacting, but I had been betrayed before, and I didn’t want it to happen again. Why had he wanted to know all of those things about me? What was the point? I was going to leave soon, I was going to disappear. The money Layla had given me I was going to use to get a bus ticket or plane; go somewhere where no one knew me. Start a new life away from the memories of this place; maybe I would leave the country. Change my name to something more exotic, like Jasmine or something. Maybe move to Italy and meet my Romeo. Who knows?                                                                                                                  I was so focused on my insane plans to listen to anything, so I had just enough time to lean back and bump into Kuzon when the dart passed in front of me. It passed harmlessly in front of my face, but hit the ground so hard that it could have shattered my scull. Kuzon was looking in the direction it had come from, but trees blocked the vision line. His arms were wrapped under mine, holding me up.                                                                            “Make no sudden movements.” He whispered. His mouth was next to my ear and I felt his breath on my cheek.                                                                                                                    I did as he said and remained still; my heart was racing. In the next instant, Kuzon had moved me between himself and the trees, like I was a human shield to him. I turned my head toward him and saw the flash before I felt the heat; the dart that had hit the ground exploded. A half second later Kuzon was pushing me forward, his right arm around my waist. He began pulling me when I didn’t move. Another dart hit the walk where I had been standing, dust and chunks’ of concrete floated into the air.                                                                         Kuzon had carried me about three meters on the walk before I came out of my daze; but once I had my feet began pounding the white-grey stone of the walk. Another dart hit the spout of a water fountain and ripped it away from the sandstone base; water rose from it like a geyser.                                                                                                                                          Kuzon unwound his arm from my waist and remained two steps ahead of me; I followed listening to the sound of darts cutting through the cold air and hitting either the walk or the dirt that framed it. I followed him across two streets, through the ally him and Layla had found me in, past the school, across the half-metal-half-wood bridge, and stopped in the cover of the trees on the other side; the wood side.                                                                    I leaned my back against the trunk of a huge tree; watching my breath become white clouds and evaporate. Kuzon stood a couple of feet in front of me, one hand on a nearby tree, the other clutching his side; the side that had bled the other night; his breathing was steady but through clenched teeth. He stood like that for a few minutes before taking out a black cell phone; he punched three buttons and held it to his ear.                                                 “Pick up.” He said under his breath, “pick up, pick up; pick up.”                                                          “Hello?” It was Nicola’s voice.                                                                                                 “Where are you?” Kuzon asked quietly, like he was afraid someone was listening in on the conversation; someone that wasn’t me.                                                                                              “The mall, why?” Nicola sounded nervous, like she sensed something in Kuzon’s voice.                                                                                                                                              “What store?”                                                                                                                          “Layla wants to talk to you.” Nicola said quickly. Kuzon sighed.                                           “Layla-“                                                                                                                                   “What happened?” Layla sounded frantic.                                                                         “Don’t wor-“                                                                                                                           “I’m already worried!” It sounded like Layla was screaming into the phone. “What the freak happened?”                                                                                                                           “I’ll explain when we get there. What store are you in?”                                                               “Put Cassie on.” Layla demanded. I hadn’t realized my head was down until I brought it up to look at Kuzon.                                                                                                                              “Lay-“                                                                                                                                      “Put Cassie on!”                                                                                                                       “Here she is.” Kuzon said quickly and extended the phone to me.                                         “Layla?” I asked. I heard her breathe a sigh of relief.                                                                    “You’re alive! How are you feeling?” Concern was thick in her voice.                                               “Umm, okay, I guess.”                                                                                                                        “Did any of the darts hit you or Kuzon?”                                                                                “None that I know of.” Another sigh of relief.                                                                                   “Nicola will meet you guys at the south east entrance. Kuzon will most likely try to get here as fast as he can, so I need your help.”                                                                                       “My help?”                                                                                                                   “Your hearing abilities. If you hear anyone following you, try to get a visual. Like the color of their hair, the hair style, eye color, height, the material of their clothes, if they are male or female, stuff like that. If you can’t get that, try to get something about their walk pattern. Like a limp or something.”                                                                                                            “Okay, I’ll try. But no promises.”                                                                                “I can respect that. See you both soon.” She ended the connection, I handed the phone to Kuzon.                                                                                                                                 “Nicola’s meeting us at the south east entrance.” I told him.                                           He nodded and began walking toward the bridge. I hesitated and followed; Kuzon took hold of my wrist when I caught up to him. When we were ten steps away from the bridge, footsteps followed. I didn’t want to risk turning around to look for fear that the person would actually kill me, or Kuzon, or both of us. The follower placed more pressure on the right foot, and there was the unmistakable sound of leather rubbing leather.
A/N: There is the rest of chapter one. Chapter two will be in Layla's point of view and be shorter. Tell me what you think of chapter one. Peace!!