Curse of the Wolf: A Readers' Choice Adventure! Part 7

[mad_docs_of_lit]

You give the room one last desperate search, but you find your mind won't stay away from two facts: one, the mayor--and probably everyone else in this little town--is up to something; and two, Caleb should have been in this room, so he must have gotten out somehow.

You open up the entry with his photo and study his face, but trying to decide whether he's trustworthy or not from an amateur webcam shot feels vaguely ridiculous. You stare into his hazel eyes and you decide you have no choice. You rifle through the computer looking for some kind of contact information when at last you end up back at his livejournal profile. You slap your forehead--of course, he's got his "text this user" option turned on. You hit the link and start typing:

Help!

And then you stare at the text field. What do you say? You're trapped in his old bedroom? You're being held hostage by his crazy mum? You think you've been scratched by...

Your mind shies away from the word and you stare past the bars in the window at the gloating full moon above the trees. You scratch at the back of your hands, feeling odd.

When you look back down at the computer screen, you see you've typed something absently:

hungry

You hastily delete the word and then write, I'm locked in your room and I'm scared of what they're going to do to me. Please help me.

Before you can lose your nerve, you hit "send" and hope that this Caleb has his phone with him--and has turned it on.

With nothing else to do, you lie down on the bed. You doze off, and your dreams are weird, strange things, full of running and fleeing prey and lovely scents.

You awake to a scrabbling sound. Your heart races as you huddle up against the corner of the bed. The far end of it bumps up once, twice, three times. The bed is shunted over by at least a foot. You're getting ready to scream when a head peeks up past the mattress. You look into the hazel eyes--they're really more yellow than anything, in this light--and though the face is somewhat older than the photo you saw, you recognize him.

"Caleb?" you manage to whisper.

Caleb nods. He's really quite handsome. Though his hair is tousled and wild and there's dirt on his face, his eyes are impossibly kind, and you find yourself instantly trusting him.

His nostrils flare slightly, and his mouth tilts a little, towards a smile.

"Come with me," he says.

You are on your feet in a flash. He has come out of a trapdoor, you see, and you hurry towards it. He disappears down it, beckoning for you to follow. You drop down into a large space below. It's large enough for you and Caleb to sit up here, but farther in turns into a narrow tunnel you'll have to crawl through on all fours.

Caleb is waiting for you, and as he smiles you see the flash of his white teeth. Maybe it's just the shadows, but they look sharp. Suddenly your heart is hammering in your chest.

"What are you?" you gasp.

"Close that door behind you. Quickly, before mom sees."

"What are you?" you repeat.

"What are we, don't you mean?" he grins again, and now you see that he's definitely got elongated canines. "I've been waiting for you to come. For a long time." He reaches out and touches your hand. "Now, please, close the door and let's go!"

As he wriggles into the tunnel, you hesitate.


[Poll #1740134]