Chapter 13: XIII

Isabell

After I finished the dishes, I returned to my room, starved, horny and wanting more. But I forced myself to fall asleep . In all honesty it didn't seem much different from last night and yet there was something different that night.

I woke up to a faint whisper of my name. It wasn’t loud. I hung my head in anticipation of it, and soon I thought it was just a dream, but the voice called my name once more.

I glanced around the dark room, the soft, cool sheets clung to my skin, and the scent of Levi’s cologne lingered in the air, reminding me of the intense, almost surreal moment we had shared not too long ago.

But what had happened after that? I couldn’t remember. The fog in my mind was thick, leaving everything feeling fuzzy.

“Isabell…” the whisper came again, this time a little louder, as if it was coming from right outside the window. I sat up and rubbed my eyes to remove the sleep from them. The hair on my arms and back stood and goosebumps followed like tiny prickles running up my spine.

I tried to convince myself that none of it was real, that I was imagining things but that nagging feeling still lingered deep in my gut, telling me otherwise.

Still, I sat up on the bed, and threw a glance at the clock on my nightstand. It was just past midnight, the kind of hour that felt both eerie and peaceful at the same time. At that moment all the stories I had heard of the midnight hour came rushing into my mind space.

“Isabelle” the whisper was louder, the voice wasn’t just a whisper. It seemed almost urgent, louder, yet far away.

A cold shudder ran down my spine, making my entire body tingle. I wanted to run. It seemed almost urgent, louder, yet far away. My pulse quickened.

The voice seemed to beckon me, pulling me towards it. What was going on?

I swung my legs over the side of the bed, my bare feet meeting the cold floor. The air around me felt heavy and filled with an unfamiliar tension, like there was a storm brewing. I knew I should leave, find a way to wake Zoe and Jack up, maybe even Levi but my legs wouldn't budge.

Something was calling me. Something I couldn’t explain. There was something there, I just could not wrap my mind around it, but I knew almost certainly that I was not alone.

When my legs finally budged they led me to a window, I pulled away its curtain so I could see what was outside in view. I hesitated, staring out into the pitch-black darkness as a sudden even more intense fear took over me.

When I forced myself to look, In the distance, I saw what appeared to be two glowing eyes, staring back at me.

My heart froze. I blinked, with a strange thought that if I did so, it might possibly disappear the next time I opened my eyes, my breath caught in my throat.

I blinked again and those eyes were still there, watching me intensely. They seemed to pierce through the darkness, unblinking, focused solely on me.

I should’ve been scared, I knew that. But for some odd reason all the anxiety and pressure I had built within me, was gone, almost as though evaporated.

Not merely because they were a pair of eyes in the dark of the night, something else seemed oddly magnetic about them. A deep, unsettling pull urging me to move forward.

I found myself walking toward the door. Don't do this Isabell! stop! I yelled at myself but it felt like an alien had taken control of me, pushing away my logical thinking and my common sense.

The closer I got to the door handle the harder it was to stay inside. That voice had continued to echo in my head as though trying to get me to hurry up.

The cool night air hit me as soon as I stepped outside. It was heavy, carrying the scent of pine and earth. I looked around, and there it was again, those eyes, and I began following them instinctively, my feet moving faster now, my heart threatening to fall out my chest.

The woods behind the house were dark. Trees towered over me, their branches swaying gently in the cold wind. The path was barely visible, but I kept going, drawn deeper and deeper into the woods. My breath came in shallow gasps, but I couldn’t stop myself from moving, even when I thought that I really should try to.

Suddenly, a movement in the shadows caught my eye, right from the corner. I froze. Something large, something fast, darted between the trees. I could barely contain my emotions at the time. A fleeting figure, furry and looming, but it was enough to make my pulse spike.

I took off running after it without thinking, my body moving on its own. The pull I had been feeling before, began dissipating, and in its place, came fear. It started to grip me then, creeping up from the pit of my stomach.

What was I chasing? Why was I out here alone in the middle of the night, in the middle of a forest, following something I couldn’t understand? My thoughts returned, loud in my head and coherent. I could finally think.

And then I heard it, a howl. It echoed through the trees, sending a shiver down my spine. My heart skipped a beat, the sound too primal to ignore. It was a wolf’s howl.

I stumbled, my mind struggling to make sense of what was happening. I was deep in the woods now, farther than I ever should’ve gone. Panic ran through me and I stopped in my tracks, looking around frantically for an escape

But I was in the middle of nowhere. There was no way back now. I was lost.

A growl low, menacing growl filled the air, sweat ran around me like a waterfall.

I turned around, my breath catching in my throat. Three wolves appeared from the shadows, their glowing eyes fixated on me, dark fur, their jaws slightly parted to reveal sharp teeth.

Fear gripped me in an iron vice. My legs felt paralysed and I knew I couldn’t outrun them. I couldn’t move, couldn’t think anymore. My body was frozen in place, rooted to the spot.

Suddenly, another wolf, larger, more imposing, stepped out from the trees. Its fur was silver, its eyes sharp and intelligent, and the way it stood, its posture so regal, made my breath catch. It was the same wolf from earlier, the one with the glowing eyes.

It moved toward the pack, its growls low but commanding. For a moment, the three wolves hesitated, and the silver wolf locked eyes with me.

I don’t know what came over me then, but I felt a strange connection to it. A quiet understanding that somehow made me believe it was here to protect me. I could not say for certain why I believed that, but it seemed certain to me.

"Help me" I whispered to it, almost confident that it could understand what I was saying.

Almost as though it understood, before I could even react, the silver wolf lunged at the pack, its growls filling the air. It knocked one to the floor with an almost super grip, and then flung the other far away, both of their whimpers spreading through the air. The last one ran towards the forest, disappearing behind the leaves.

I breathed a sigh of relief, but my knees buckled, and I stumbled backward. My vision blurred, and I felt my head hit something hard, a tree trunk, I think.

And everything went black.