FSE

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I lay in bed that night listening to a pack of wolves that lived close to our house. Every time one howled, a shiver was sent up my spine and I would turn onto my side and cover my ears with my pillow. After years of living there, I still wasn't used to those howls.

The next day wasn't much better. I sat alone on the bus (Bree wasn't there.) I got ran over a few times in the halls. In gym someone hit me right in the head with a volley ball and another girl screamed at me because I was scared of the ball. In Home Ec., I accidentally blew up the muffins we were cooking and had to stay after school to clean it up. I didn't see Drake at all at lunch time. He was nowhere to be seen.

I didn't live too far away from the school like I said, so I just walked home that day even though the cold bit through my layers. Finally it was Christmas vacation. Finally, I'd be away from all the loonies at school. I threw open the door and took my backpack upstairs to my room. I didn't bother doing my homework so I just went upstairs and plopped down on my bed. It was so unexciting here. I reached for the phone and dialed Bree's number.

"How are you feeling?" I asked as she answered.

"Fine now. It didn't last long."

"What was the matter with you?" I asked.

"I threw up once. But then I was fine."

"Oh. Hey, you wanna come over?"

"I can't, sorry, I'm going to pick up my contacts and then I'm getting a haircut." "Lucky you." "I know. I gotta go."

I sighed.

"Don't be sad, Sadie. Something important will happen to you very soon. I can sense it. You'll see. See ya!" "Om, bye." I hung up. What was that supposed to mean? Bree was always pretty weird. She claimed she saw a unicorn in the forest behind my house. A unicorn.

I rolled my eyes. Oh well. She had been my friend forever, and we were a lot alike. Both weirdos that no one cared about. Suddenly Dad cracked the door open and looked in.

"Get up, we're going out," he said smiling. Dad made me come everywhere with him. I didn't care though. It was something to do that was usually safe for me.

"I have to unload that wood in the truck," he said as we walked downstairs, "Just over at Grandpa's." That wasn't so bad. We went out the front door and got into the truck.

"You excited for Amy to come?" he asked when he started the truck and pulled out onto the road.

"Yeah," I replied shortly. To be honest, I wasn't really. It was the night before my cousins, Amy and Britt and her boyfriend, Nick, came all the way from Pennsylvania to Alaska. I didn't know why Britt was bringing her stupid boyfriend. This year my mother insisted that Nick came to see the Alaskan wilderness. I didn't like him much. He was so strange.

I was also worried Amy would want to go out into the snow all the time and explore. She was the outdoors girl. I wasn't. Something about Amy just made me sort of shiver and twitch at random times. She loved animals so much. She was normal when we were littler, but the years had done something odd to her. She was weirder than Bree and I combined. Amy and Britt came over Christmas vacation to Alaska. We switched every year. We went to Pennsylvania the year before now they came to Alaska. Next year we would go back to her state. What I really wanted was to see PA in the summer. Our summers were warm, but never hot. I wanted to be able to go outside without having to wear a sweatshirt and jeans. To not always get some sort of chill.

Dad parked the truck at the garage and got out. I leaned back, peered out at the moon, and sighed. It was so bright and big. I only saw it for a moment, because heavy clouds clawed over it. Flurries surrounded the truck. "Ugh, go away," I mumbled. I stepped out of the truck. "Need any help?"

"Feeling daring today?" my father teased. "Sure. Could you get that small log that rolled into that bush?" He gestured towards the woods. It didn't even hit me until I was there. I was going in the woods...in the dark. This was the time that scary animals were most active. "Just go, Sadie, it's just right there. All you have to do is step in, grab it, and step out. Don't be a wimp."

"I like being a wimp for your information," I whispered. I turned back to the bush and pulled the branches apart and stepped in.

It was dark and really cold here. My eyes darted around for the stupid log. It had rolled from the safety of the driveway to about five yards into the forest. That didn't seem right. How could it have rolled that far? The wind howled. I pulled my hat down over my ears and crawled my way to the log. The clouds suddenly faded and the moon showed brightly. Something caught my eye. Movement.

I looked over to my right and almost screamed. Oh, just a snowshoe hare. I clutched my heart and waited for my breathing to slow. The cute bunny stared at me with unblinking black eyes. The air was silent and empty. Something wasn't right. I snatched the log. A twig snapped behind me. I spun around. A rattling sound echoed in my eardrums. Growling. Suddenly a figure burst out of the shrubbery. It was huge and broad shouldered. It hit the hare before either of us could move. Its hand wrapped around its throat easily. I slapped my hand over my mouth to muffle the scream. It had a wolf head and body. But it had hands. Hands. I stared at its piercing red eyes and squeaked out a gasp. The thing's head jerked toward me. My heart stopped as it examined me. The rabbit struggled in its grip. The creature unclenched its fist, and the hare fell limp. Broken neck. The monster looked around and edged its way closer to me.

"You," came a voice. I stared at the creature. Did it just...talk? No. I was imagining it. "You 're it. You're the one." It crawled over and sniffed. I opened my mouth to scream, but the thing's hand closed around my own throat. I couldn't scream even if I wanted to. My eyes were huge as I stared into the wolf's blood colored ones.

"You are the one. You are. I smell wolf all over you. You are ready. Take care of the species. The female survival just may lie in your...hands." He gazed at me for a moment. "I almost hate doing this to you." His nose wrinkled, pulling his lip up and revealing sparkling fangs three inches long. I kicked in his grip. He lifted my one hand up and sunk his fangs slowly into my wrist, letting go of my neck. I fell over as it released almost instantly and my back hit the ground, knocking the air out of me. I gave a sudden great shove against the wolf's chest. It stepped off me slowly. It threw its head back and howled.

"Be careful," it choked. Its legs started shaking. It whimpered a little before its back legs gave out completely. It tried to howl again, but it only choked out a small sound. Then it collapsed. My arm was pulsing with pain. I wanted to scream, but I heard dad slide the last board off of his truck. I had to get back so I could tell him. Tell him...no, I couldn't tell him, not now, he wouldn't believe me until I showed him my arm, then he'd flip out and I'd have to go to the hospital. I defiantly didn't want to do that.

I've heard stories of the hospital in town. Rumor had it that it was haunted. I heard that one boy was in the hospital to have his tonsils taken out, when he saw the spirit of a grizzly at night. Rumor says the spirit drove the boy mad, and the boy cut off his own foot when nobody was looking. Nobody wanted to go there. There were scarier stories than that, so I didn't take any chances. I had to get back before he knew I was gone.

I covered my bleeding arm up with my coat sleeve and walked back out to the truck, trying not to shake too much. I stopped and took a quick look over my shoulder. Through the trees, I could see the creature's glowing red eyes fade to green. It looked at me and sort of...grinned. Then its eyes drifted back into its head. My spine shivered. I looked up at my dad to see if he saw or anything. He was in the garage talking to my grandpa. I looked back one more time, but the creature was gone.

I breathed in and hurried into the truck, locking the door and curling into a ball. When Dad got in, we drove home in silence. Then dad spoke. "So, you didn't get the log did ya? Too scared?"

Something inside me sort of snapped. I never felt such a sudden burst of anger. "I did too go in there! I couldn't find it!"

"Geez, calm down!" he exclaimed. "I was just kidding."

I glanced down at my sparkly shirt. It was hideous. What was I wearing? It had a rearing horse on it. I seriously was in second grade wasn't I? Why did I wear this thing? And these pants: too dressy and way too short. My shoes were just embarrassing. Shiny flats with white socks. I was seriously disgusting myself. Did I always look this bad? I pulled down the mirror. My face was covered with ugly sparkling eye shadow and blush. We drove home silently as I picked at my clothing.

That night I couldn't think. I couldn't sleep and I couldn't eat. I felt my whole insides were just moving around; growing and shrinking. I could not stop the terrible shaking either. I wasn't ready for Amy to come over. What was happening? I wanted to tell my mom, but the spirit of the bear and the lone foot popped into my head and I thought different.

I threw open my closet after supper. It was filled with ugly clothe. Except...A cute black top hidden in the shadows. Then a cute striped gray shirt. I liked that dark orange low cut t-shirt. A black camie would look good underneath it. A red top. I had a lot of nice things I never wore. But the things I did wear were just scary. I tore them all down off the hangers and replaced them with the things I liked.

Later on I tossed and turned in bed all night. I was tired, but I couldn't get my eyes to close. It felt like wolves all around me were howling. They always howled. But never like this before. Did I imagine the creature in the woods? The memory was so vivid, though, that it couldn't be a dream. It had to be real. The complete wolf features. But the hands. Hands. Maybe it was a mutation. Things could've happened and its DNA could've been screwed up. I tried to convince myself it wasn't real. But it was huge and...real...