Wolf Sirens: Forbidden: Discover The Legend Read online

  “Yesterday,” I admitted.

  “What did she say? Why?” he said, suddenly intently interested.

  “Nothing, one minute I was in the hall on my way back from the loo, and the next I was gagged and bound and locked in a store room.” My words came out flat, but he could see in my eyes I was serious.

  He was quiet. “Did you tell anyone?” he asked concerned.

  “I know it sounds nuts, but I was grabbed and locked in a store room by someone strong, in last period.” My eyes were wide, I knew it wasn’t believable and that’s partly why I hadn’t told; that and mum couldn’t cope.

  “You didn’t see them?”

  “No.”

  “It could have been anyone,” he suggested too quickly.

  I knew that it was Cresida but the momentary thought that it was an unknown terrified me, more. But at least he seemed to take me seriously.

  “Yeah, but they let me out after practice!”

  “So you suspect her?”

  “She said she didn’t want me to go.” I neglected to mention the video - I wanted to hear what he would say.

  “Oh, were you hurt?” He glanced into my eyes as if to check.

  “No just bruised and frightened, well, I don’t know, I am a little freaked out. I mean what if she does it again.” I now had claustrophobia.

  “Hey, it’s okay, you’re with us now, and I’ll make sure you’re okay. Look, please don’t tell anyone what she did?” he asked. “They’ll drag her off to a mental hospital.”

  I knew he believed me and it wasn’t him who had helped her; otherwise he was the world’s best actor. He seemed too honest for that.

  “Maybe she would be better off?” I suggested gritting my teeth.

  “No, it’s just more trouble. She’s been through hell. It’s a miracle she even functions after all the shit she’s been through, just leave it, I promise I’ve got your back, she won’t touch you again.” I marvelled at the fact that he was certain she had been my assailant and that he was sad rather than angered.

  “It was her, wasn’t it?” I confirmed.

  “Yeah, I’d say.” He glanced at me and trailed off thinking.

  “I mean, you said she doesn’t have any friends, anyone to help her?”

  “Yeah it was her.” Alone, he meant. “She won’t do it again, I’ll see to it,” he said quietly. I doubted making trouble over it would help.

  “Don’t approach her about it,” I said, feeling suddenly sympathetic. “I wasn’t hurt, just scared, and afterward she said I should hang with you.” I swallowed. “She said I could hang out with you now, she said she would be watching,” I added worried.

  “That’s Cres, alright,” he said looking about. “She won’t do it again,” he said calmly; probably glad he wouldn’t have to engage her.

  “She wouldn’t…like, come into my house and do anything scary would she?” As if what she had done wasn’t frightening enough - “or try it again?”

  “No.” He sounded sure, but I wasn’t convinced. I pulled out the creased note.

  He read it.

  “She was really strong. She bound my hands, my face, she gagged me,” I divulged, glad to be able to say the things that had been swirling in my head. “It’s so surreal, but that’s what happened.” My lip quivered.

  He hugged me. “I’m glad you didn’t tell, you were really brave.” He reminded me of a soothing parent.

  He didn’t ask why I hadn’t told. “I didn’t think anyone would believe me,” I offered. I was emotional but I didn’t cry. I now realized it probably was Cresida by herself, who had kidnapped me. I wiped the single tear, which welled. “Does she work out?”

  “Yeah, a bit, I suppose. It’s good for her…stress and all.”

  “And you?”

  “Me? My muscles are all natural.” He nudged me. I ignored the jest.

  “You guys have never toyed with her, have you?”

  “No,” he answered soundly and he shook his head as if to confirm it.

  “You haven’t taken part in hazing?”

  He continued to shake his head. “Hazing? No, we’re good kids. Cres became how she is maybe ‘cos of Sam, but mostly she just had fate deal her a bad card.” He looked agitated.

  “How did Sam cause her to go nuts?”

  “She didn’t. I don’t want to get into it, but it’s nothing. I guess there was a conflict between them when Cres took Sky away from her and when he went back to Sam and Cres’s olds died she was changed, she got more into drugs – she’s damaged.” He was right, it sounded like she’d been through a lot.

  It occurred to me to ask if she was right, if they were werewolves, but I felt silly asking if they were monsters, so I asked, “Were you close?”

  He pinched up his mouth. “No, just her and Sky. Do me a favour and don’t mention her, especially when he’s around, please?” I could see he was bothered himself and he was glad I hadn’t implicated her in assaulting me.

  “I’m sorry…I’ll stay away from her, as long as you’ve got my back I won’t tell.” I didn’t want trouble either, with anybody. I was glad to have their confidence and I believed him when he said he would protect me. And I believed Cresida when she gave me permission to join them, so she wouldn’t try and stop me again. Though I had no idea why she had this sudden change of heart, perhaps she regretted what she had done to me.

  “Thanks.” He threw an arm around me and gave a gentle squeeze.

  “Heavy stuff, huh?” I offered, attempting to lighten the mood. He slipped the paper in his pocket and I pretended not to notice.

  “You have no idea, beautiful.” He still didn’t ask why I hadn’t told when she let me out, but I felt I had said too much and left it. I knew the reason I hadn’t told was that I had no one to tell.

  I touched his arm, sympathetically. He winced at the coldness of my fingertips on his skin and then wrapped his huge hot fingers in mine to remedy the problem with a reassuring smirk.

  He hugged me then and I gladly let him, and I melted into his taught warm body and inhaled the smell of his t- shirt, the smell of warm washing powder and that odour that a well-used iron steams into cotton. My mother had never ironed my clothes but I knew the smell, I knew this meant his mother lovingly toiled over his shirts.

  No one wanted to talk about Cresida’s parents or her for long. Under the new feelings Reid induced in me I didn’t feel the urge to prod for any more answers. I wondered deep inside me if it was still part of a hazing prank, that Cresida’s stunt was part of it that had gone wrong, somehow. But I didn’t want to go home or be cautious any longer, not when I could be with Reid.

  Was Cresida lurking around spying somewhere? I believed Reid, they weren’t friends with her now, but she had once been in with them, until her parents were killed and she was traumatized, maybe damaged. I felt sorry for her. I agreed to stay away from her from now on, though I didn’t need Reid to tell me that was a good idea. But she haunted me, as she had when we first met outside my house.

  I felt Reid was more emotionally involved than the group made him seem over the circumstances surrounding Cresida. I wasn’t sure about the others.

  “You’ll be fine, you’re with us now,” he soothed. He held me. God knows I needed someone to hold me. He smelt of deodorant and I nuzzled my face into his chest.

  After a while I asked him what had been puzzling me, since Sam said he liked me this morning.

  “Did you notice me, the first day of school?” I teased nudging him back softly.

  “Yeah, I noticed you, everyone did.”

  “Why? Was it because I was new? No one spoke to me?” I said amazed.

  I wondered if I was pretty but didn’t ask, as I knew he would tease me. If I was, it wasn’t the obvious gleaming beauty he and his friends obtained. I was decidedly more like Giny, maybe slightly better looking than her I supposed, otherwise he would date her, although he wasn’t with Lily or Bianca either, and as far as I could tell they weren’t otherwise taken. Perha
ps I’d underestimated myself and I liked that thought.

  “They’re shy.” He smirked offering an excuse for the other students at school.

  “They are, or you are?” I retorted.

  “Both,” he decided.

  “So new girls with hoodies intimidate you?” I teased back.

  “Huh?” He smirked. “Yeah and baggy jeans.” He tugged on my pant leg raising his eyebrows.

  “Oh, well, I’ll wear my Calisthenics uniform on Monday,” I joked.

  “So you’ll join?” he asked, suddenly curious.

  “I don’t know,” I breathed looking into his eyes. I wanted to ask him a million things from ‘why me?’ to whether he noticed how the entire student body ignored me, to crazy things like whether he was a freaky half animal – I decided it was too weird and the other things I felt he would avoid answering.

  He smiled wide and deep then and helped me up off the rock with two hot hands, which he reached out to pull me up gently. I winced.

  “Sorry,” he blurted, “too rough?”

  “What, no, I just have a few bruises from moving…and…”

  “What?” he asked and as I looked into his gentle waiting amber eyes, I realized I didn’t want to mention it again, so I pretended “It’s just your hands were so warm?”

  “Men are physically warmer than women.”

  “So you’re just naturally hot then?” I teased.

  “Yeah,” he laughed, “I’m very warm.” And I knew he was.

  9. Predestine

  I pondered momentarily as we walked in the yellow winter sun, why Cresida had hated them all so much. Why Sky had left Sam for Cresida and then made up with Sam? They seemed to me, like one of those couples that were made for each other. Why did he date Cres? Maybe Sky was to blame for her condition.

  Reid held my hand so softly in his as he lead me back to the spot on the river bank, I wanted to believe he couldn’t have been the one to kidnap me and he seemed pleased when he thought I was joining the troupe. Equally he seemed pained when we discussed Cresida briefly. That was the last time I thought about her that day. When we arrived back at the fire patches, the others were collecting kindling. We ran through the forest collecting sticks and wood from the undergrowth. Jackson the smaller of the trio of boys chased Lily and Bianca. They screamed and laughed as he grabbed and tickled them. The play was infectious and my cheeks began to hurt from smiling, not accustomed to being used. Sky carried a huge log into the sand clearing and threw it down and the other boys began to bring in bigger logs.

  “Hold up,” said Sam, “we want a camp fire not a bonfire,” she ordered. The logs were dragged to the perimeter.“We’ll use them another day,”Jackson suggested. Sky didn’t speak. I noticed he didn’t say much.

  “Do other kids come here?”

  “Here?”

  I waited for a reply.

  “No this is our spot,” Reid stated confidently as

  the fire highlighted his exotic features.

  Later I learnt a local boy had hung himself years ago from the tree, which overhung the water hole with the rope on it. So the rope was all theirs. Small towns like Shade don’t forget recent tragedy and parents were reluctant to let children roam a landscape with a history of disappearances.

  That first night was like a dream. The afternoon winter clouds seeped in on the unseasonably warm day and as the sunlight pierced the grey and white clouds like rays from heaven, the sun began to retreat slowly and the grey turned to a soft pink. I stopped asking questions, letting the tension out of my shoulders. We started the fire early, before sundown, and beers were passed around. Sky handed me one. I looked into his eyes as his hand touched mine. It was burning warm in contrast to the wet cold beer pulled from the ice cooler. I made a decision not to drink too much, so I could keep a clear head and not say anything stupid. I knew from past experience I could get a little mouthy under the influence. God forbid I should say something about werewolves or Cresida again. I let the setting sun sink away leaving the sky for the crescent moon. A pink and grey-clouded sunset crept in as the clouds rolled over us, and the night made the fire sparkle fluorescent. We nibbled on cold pizza, I pulled my hood up to keep me warm, slid down into a wedge in the coarse sand and let the licking flames warm me. There was little breeze and the smoke mostly drifted up to the stars. The guys were talking equipment when a voice rang across the fire.

  “Didn’t you say you had to be home by 3.30?” Sam said through the flames.

  I’d wondered where she’d been as she had frequently disappeared, for more than just a few minutes.I remembered what I had said then, but I didn’t care tonight and my mum hadn’t called regardless. I didn’t want to offer an explanation. I felt silly for thinking they would haze me.

  “Oh, no, don’t worry, it’ll be fine,” I assured her yawning. “She hasn’t called.” I sighed calmly, watching the licking flames that heated my face.“Unless you want me to go?” I looked up at her from where I lay on the coarse sand, the heat of the fire like a furnace on my skin.

  Reid intervened. “I can take you home, when you’re ready,”he said with a friendly grin, in the darkness. After a moment a panic suddenly wrenched through my gut - the curfew. I looked about at them. They all seemed calm, relaxed, even, unconcerned with the terror which made my heart pulse. How could I forget? I felt a hand on my back.“Are you okay, Lila?” a voice asked. I looked up at Reid’s calm eyes and soft face. “What is it?” he smiled, concerned.

  “What about the curfew?” I squeaked.

  “What? Oh.” He laughed and the rest of the group joined him. I felt silly and I started to relax as their collective ease and various postures of complete relaxation surrounded the firelight. I glanced at all of them.

  “We don’t worry about the wolves,” he offered. The rest of the group chuckled. I thought how everyone had warned me. Was it all a lie? “I thought…”

  “No, hey look, don’t worry, you’re with us.” He rubbed my back as reassurance. I must have looked confused. “We’ll look after you, don’t worry, okay?”

  Jackson chuckled and then covered his mouth after Bianca nudged him with her hand and continued to chat with Sky and Lily.

  “It’s just, my mother will be worried.” She had warned me repeatedly about the curfew and here I was lying out in the woods past dark.

  “We’re in a group, it’s okay,” Sky’s calm voice assured me through the dark. They had been talking about netting for prawns when the moon disappeared and he had stopped mid sentence to address my concern. I listened as their conversation resumed. Some of the inlets along the coast yielded some good size prawns on a dark night. Reid was sitting on the sand, his legs bent, no doubt more than a few beers in his belly, and his eyes seemed to be squinted, his eyelashes jutted out. He still wore the black shirt, damp from being splashed by Jackson. His muscles bulged below the sleeves, his arms glinted a delicious warm russet colour in the firelight. I gazed at him dreamily. “She’s drunk,” someone laughed - one of the girls. “She’s only had one,” a male voice said in the dark.

  I ignored them.

  “Reid,” I said, crawling over to where he sat. “Tell me something,” I slurred and my eyes closed. I lay down in the sand near him. “Did you lock me in the closet?”

  He looked puzzled. He turned to face my direction, his free hand stroked my back. It was hot and the contact warmed through my clothes.

  “Mmmm,” I hummed drowsily. “This has been a really good day.” And it had been despite the earlier run-in with Cres. If only I had ignored her form the beginning, or known her tragic story.

  I could hear giggles across the fire and I felt a flutter of self-consciousness in my chest. I opened my eyes and Reid leant in and slowly but confidently laid a soft warm kiss on my lips. My eyes remained open to watch him as he did. He pulled away and gazed into my eyes, his face burningly close as he assessed my reaction. His eyes wavered from side to side, reading my expression. He smiled slightly and I must have done the sam
e. He put his hot fingertips gently against my chin between his forefinger and thumb, leaning in to kiss me again, more passionately but just as gentle. We lay looking across at each other and he shuffled over, closing the gap of sand between us but not pressing himself against me and wrapped his arm around me lightly. I felt warm and calm. My heart beat nervously. My side and neck stung a bit from the gravel and the muscle-ache from being assaulted and locked in the closet but I felt better than I had in many months.

  10. Dolphins

  We started with stretching. I realized quickly I wasn’t very flexible. A routine run-down followed when the other girls turned up. I was instructed to watch.

  “There’s a lot of things to be afraid of, this isn’t one of them Lila.” Sam put her manicured hand on my shoulder. I watched their performance. Discipline wasn’t one of my strong points. I considered if I should get up and leave now.

  “Shoulders down - stay with her stop- stop, stop, stop! – Look, position! - Use your stomach and your back!” Sam shouted. They were machines, in time and athletic. The run of abuse continued – “Don’t loosen your body up. Loose! Tighten up! Keep your eyes up!” she screamed. “Arms…fix your arms!” I felt someone’s hand push me.

  “Lily!” Sam boomed.

  Sam saw Lily rough me. She glared angrily at her as we continued to move. So this was ‘Coach Samantha’ in action. I breathed heavily, and I knew that most of the yelling was because of me, and not the people around me. I began to realize how unfit I was. I took note of their behaviour. I stood stiff like them and moved when they did, or so I thought. I nearly bumped into someone, Giny narrowly avoided my arm but managed to smile at me and we bounded and sweated, or at least I did. I turned out of time and gave up as the end came and I missed my position. “Good!” Sam shouted, “Again!” I had no idea what I was doing or what they saw in me.

  Afterwards Sam handed me a towel and threw her arm around me on the way out of the hall, rubbing my shoulder in comfort and I learnt she always left her coach voice in the hall. Pats softly tapped on my back from the rest of the group, all except Lily who marched to the side of us.