Chapter 8
Ali awoke with Cal’s bright green eyes smiling down at her. It was hard for her to meet his gaze and she wondered how long he’d been looking at her like that. It was hard for her to tell and when she tried to close them again, she felt his hands move off her.
“Glad to see you’re awake. You slept a long time.”
She stretched and apologized before she sat up. The warmth of his body was gone, and she already missed it in the chilly morning air. She wanted him to pull her back to him, but it was embarrassing now that Ali was awake in bed with him. She’d gotten a little scared the night before with all the strange sounds and had gone to Cal. That information wasn’t lost on her.
Ali didn’t like the idea that she had gone to him. She was afraid of him but more afraid of what else was out there in the woods at night. It became clear and real to her what had happened earlier the night before. She also realized that she was surrounded by not one, but tons of the beasts that Cal turned into. She had no real numbers, but by the sounds of it last night, there was a lot of them walking around the village.
Then her mind got to thinking about other things and wondered what all was real? Were there fairies and all the other tales that were told at night as a child? Where did the real and the fake end or did they just blend all together until it was hard to tell which was which? Ali’s mind whirled with the ideas of it all.
“What time is it?”
“Around noon.”
“How do you know without looking at a clock?”
“The sun is almost perfectly high in the sky. I’m usually fairly accurate. Do you want me to find out what the exact time is for you?”
Ali shrugged. It wasn’t like she had anywhere to go. All she was trying to do was get her bearings about her. The time and the place. It was hard to do when she was so close to Cal. Ali got up and thanked him for letting her lay with him the night before. She was trying to put some distance between them, so her mind would work, and she could breathe again. Being around him quickly turned into symptoms that she should tell a doctor about.
“You’re always welcome in my bed, Ali: always.”
His comment and the way he emphasized always made her blush. The man was not a man. She had to remind herself of that often because it seemed to be something that she was constantly forgetting. Ali was finding it hard to remember why she was there. Now she could think about what that meant for her, and it was becoming clear that none of this was thought through very well.
“What bothers you?”
“Don’t you already know?”
“I try not to listen. I really do. I only do it when I have to because I don’t like it when it’s done to me.”
Ali liked that answer, but some things were harder to describe than others. She had to say something though.
“It just isn’t going to work.”
“What?”
“Me, here. I mean, I have a job and family. I can’t just disappear out of nowhere and think that no one is going to look for me.”
“This is a college town. There are two universities here, and that means that girls like you disappear all the time. Many times, it’s assumed that they took off with a boyfriend or something, but the truth is usually far more sinister than that. There are usually several missing person flyers up around town at any given moment, so while you may be missed, no one will truly bat an eye.”
That didn’t make Ali feel any better. She knew that there was a reason he was telling her, but now she was afraid that no one would look for her. She was not very ditzy though. Ali figured that at least her family and friends would look for her. Maybe the school and the diner she worked at wouldn’t say anything, but someone would notice. She was out with a bunch of girlfriends the night before, and someone was going to wonder where she was.
“My friends are different. They are going to look. We were all out together. They are going to think that something has happened to me.”
“It’s probably best that way. It will get them to stop looking for a while.”
Ali was confused by him, and she didn’t know what to say to the man. He was making it seem like she was stuck there and maybe she was.
“It won’t be so bad.”
“I thought you don’t read minds unless you have to?”
“I just read your face. You should see it right now, your brain just a turning. Are you thinking of escaping?”
She shrugged and told him that it wouldn’t do her any good. “If those things are after me, I guess there is no better place than here to wait it out. I don’t want them around the people I care about.”
“I’m glad to hear that you’re on board.”
