2
Although John would tell everyone he started the campfires he and I sat around when we were alone, he actually sat around while I collected the wood and started the fires. The only difference tonight was that John was nowhere around. Lucky me.
I took my salad and drink outside, and pulled a chair up next to the fire, and watched the flames while I ate, occasionally glancing back at the flat tire I had no idea how to change. John drove a Toyota Highlander his parents bought for him late last year. Number one on my list—slice one of his tires.
Tomorrow morning would consist of breakfast and then the long four-mile walk back to the highway, looking for some help. Hopefully, a state trooper would drive by. But the way my luck was heading, a serial killer was more likely.
The tears began again before I could try and stop them. In reality, I knew what was waiting for me back home. John would no doubt head straight to our house and take everything he could. An empty house awaited me. And then there was my mother to deal with. She and my father divorced a year ago. She said I needed to disown my father despite me knowing he did nothing wrong. When I didn’t disown him, she decided John was the greatest thing since cheesecake. Once she found out what happened between us, hell and judgment would rain down from her mouth. Yeah, exactly what I wanted to hear when I returned home.
But I also needed to figure out a way to keep this all from my father and brother. Dak, my brother, worked for the local police department. Growing up, he never stood by and let anyone treat me bad. If he found out John had left me stranded, he would pay John a little visit. Or maybe pull John over late one night along some dark side street. My father would waste no time in pummeling John. John had left her dad’s little girl in danger, and dad was not one to standby and let that go unpunished. John knew I wouldn’t get them involved, however. I never wanted to cause my family any problems. When you’re an adopted teenager, you don’t ever give your adoptive parents a reason to regret their decision. No, I would take care of all this by myself. John totally relied on his parents for everything. Not me. I was going to show that asshole I was stronger than him.
I tossed the empty paper plate into the fire and noticed the bushes twenty feet away on the other side of the fire move.
“John, quit screwing around. I’m not afraid of you!” The bushes moved again, and I stood. John was afraid of his own shadow. No way in hell would he be out in the dark, walking around alone in the forest. “Who’s there?”
Backing away from the fire, I stepped around the chair, moving slowly, reaching back for the side RV door. My hand found metal, and I stopped. The bushes parted, and I froze.
The wolf was larger than most I’d seen at the zoo or even on tv. Its paws were larger than my hands, and its blue eyes were the size of ping-pong balls. As it padded back and forth, watching me, its mouth opened, showing me sparkling white canines. I reached for the door handle, and the wolf moved around the fire.
I eased the door open and backed my way up the stairs. I moved to the passenger seat with the door closed and lowered the window a couple of inches, watching the magnificent creature.
“Get out of here!”
The wolf snarled, and drool dripped from its teeth. It sat next to the chair, and that’s when I noticed I’d placed my keys in the chair’s cupholder. I needed the keys to start the RV’s generator.
I checked the drawer for the pistol my father suggested I always have onboard, and just like the rest of my luck, it was gone. The wolf laid next to the chair and watched me, only mildly interested in me as his next meal.
“If you’re here to fuck up my day, you’re a little late because it was fucked earlier in the day. I can wait all night if that’s your plan.”
Of course, the wolf said nothing.
I grabbed a blanket from the small bedroom and returned to the passenger seat, wrapping up, not bothering to change clothes. I didn’t want to sleep where I couldn’t keep an eye on my new friend. I studied the bushes and the trees within my view.
“I thought you guys traveled in packs. You have friends out there?”
The wolf rested its chin between its paws. The moon made its black fur glow almost silver. We stared at each other. Neither of us was going anywhere.
Why didn’t he attack? He could have had me in his jaws before I opened the RV door. He closed his eyes, and when he did, I closed mine, only to open them when someone screamed from deep within the forest.
I threw the blanket back and thought I recognized the scream. The man screamed again, and I couldn’t decide whether to be terrified or happy. A woman’s scream followed the man’s.
The wolf moved to his haunches and glanced at the trees. He whimpered and then disappeared into the bushes.
John screamed again, the woman’s cries following shortly after.
“Damnit.” There was nothing John couldn’t screw up.
They both screamed at the same time, and that’s when I threw the blanket aside and slipped on my shoes. John would have let me scream all night long before he lifted a finger to help me. I wasn’t like that, so I grabbed a knife from the kitchen drawer and stepped from the RV.
The fire flickered but was quickly dying out. I grabbed a flashlight from the RV and started toward the trees, thinking I was as dumb as John thought I was.
I found a path just past the first grouping of trees and followed the thin trail, trying to talk myself into turning around. John screamed again, erasing any thought I had of saving myself. I still hated the man. Still wanted him gone from my life. But the humane part of me still wanted to help him. Humans spent their entire lives afraid of something.
As the trees started to thin, I saw a roaring fire in the distance. Around that fire, three animals paced.
I switched off the flashlight and continued toward the fire, staying behind trees, peeking only when necessary. When I managed to close within fifty yards of the fire, I saw the animals were not only pacing around a fire, but they were also pacing around John and the woman who had saved him earlier in the day.
“I should leave your ass.”
