Marked by Moonlight, page 2
Once my cup was completely empty and Leah was engrossed in a conversation about Sawyer and Sean and the pros and cons of pursuing either, I decided to get up and get myself another drink before it would be time to head home. We did have a 1 a.m. curfew if we ended up going home that night, and if we didn’t, I knew we’d be stuck sleeping on the floor at Taylor or Ana’s, which wasn’t ideal.
On my way back over to the keg, I glanced around the party, mostly hoping that I didn’t see Morgan or Dan anywhere around and that they’d be out doing something somewhere else. While I knew that Dan hadn’t been the love of my life, it had been fun to hang out with him for a couple of months, and I didn’t want to see the girl who had taken that away from me. He hadn’t cheated on me with her, since we hadn’t actually been together, but it still hurt to know that he thought someone else was more worth his time than I was especially since that person was Morgan.
Though I’d forgotten about the spookiness I’d felt earlier in the night when I was solidly with the group of girls, I started to feel uneasy again as soon as I walked away. It was going on 11:30 and the party was in full swing. There were people following the trail down to the river and the infamous “make-out rock” that was down that way, and then there were people standing around by the fire and the keg, but I noticed that there were still no people around the wood line that had freaked me out earlier.
Chapter Two
Elliot was still standing next to the keg near the cups, talking to some guys that I recognized as other football players.
“I need a refill, Elliot,” I told him, ignoring the feeling of unease deep in my stomach.
“Already, Chloe? That’s a little unlike you,” he said, grabbing my cup and filling it obligingly, though he didn’t hand it back to me immediately.
“Well, Elliot, I’ve had a pretty crappy day, and I’d like to forget about it if I could,” I said, taking the cup back, taking a long drink and then wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. I shivered; the beer was colder than I’d expected, and the goosebumps on my exposed arms were back again, though this time it was a lot more about the cold than it was about being scared of anything hiding in the woods.
“Cold?” Elliot asked me, leaning on the top of the keg. It felt strange to see him getting comfortable to have an actual conversation with me without Leah around. She was the charming and charismatic twin; I was more of the shy, socially anxious type.
“A little. I probably should have worn more clothes. I didn’t expect it to be this cold out here though. No one warned me!”
“You’re right, Leah should have told you. You could always go stand by the fire to warm up,” Elliot said, nodding toward the other football guys that were all standing around it and still “cheers”ing to their win.
“I’d rather not accidentally be knocked into the flames by some drunk idiot,” I said. It didn’t occur to me that that might be offensive to him until after I said it; those drunk idiots were his friends. He laughed, though, so I supposed it was okay. My confidence in talking to him was growing by the minute, and I’d already stopped thinking about Dan.
“Well,” he said hesitantly, “I know of another way that you could be warmed up.”
It took me a minute to gather that Elliot could actually be hitting on me. It could have just been my insecurities talking, but I’d really thought that he’d been ignoring me earlier to talk to Leah and get closer to her. It may have been the alcohol, or it could have been the bad day I’d had, but I was more receptive to his flirtation than I might have been another night. Of course he was extremely attractive, but everyone wanted to be with Elliot, which made him not my type. I was too jealous of a person, and I just wanted something uncomplicated for my senior year.
“Oh yeah?” I asked, moving a little closer to him, “and how’s that?”
To be fair, I had always had what I called a weird little crush on Elliot even though he wasn’t my type. I blamed his cute smile and longish blonde hair that flowed down, stopping right above his eyebrows. His blue eyes looked clear, and it didn’t occur to me that he was probably at least as intoxicated as I was, having been standing directly next to the keg all night. There was also the fact that the guy was also insanely smart, single (as far as I knew), and an extremely talented football player, so there was really no reason for me not to flirt with him. When I was close enough, I felt an attraction that was almost animal-like. I didn’t want to keep my hands off him, and I could honestly say that I had never felt that way before in my life, not even with Dan.
“Come with me,” he said, taking my hand and leading me away from the party. Coincidentally, he was also leading me away from the river and the so-called make-out rock, which is where I’d been assuming that he’d take me.
Instead, he led me to his truck in the makeshift parking lot, where he pulled out a sweatshirt and then lowered the tailgate. He handed me the sweatshirt, which I gladly accepted because now we were even further away from the fire and it was a lot colder out here in the dark. The sweatshirt was, of course, way too big for me, but it smelled good and warmed me up instantly. Then, he invited me to sit down on his tailgate with him, which I also did gratefully.
“You look really good in my sweatshirt,” he said, laughing and reaching over to play with the fingers of my left hand.
I still couldn’t believe that this was happening to me. Elliot was playing with my hand in a secluded lot in the middle of the woods and I was wearing his sweatshirt. I couldn’t remember any other situation where I’d felt so at ease and so out of my element at the same time. The day was looking up for sure, but I definitely had a couple of questions about my current situation.
“You know I’m Chloe, right? I’m not Leah,” I said, a little self-consciously. This is the kind of situation that my sister would be in, not me. I’m the girl that doesn’t get noticed when she’s around and I’m absolutely not the kind of girl that Elliot would pick out of a crowd and decide he wanted to hang out with.
“Of course I know that. Can I tell you a secret?” He asked, also sounding just a little self-conscious.
“Sure,” I replied nervously. He looked down at our hands and bumped my knee with his.
“I heard about what happened at the game, and I just wanted to make sure that you’re okay,” he told me. I had a feeling that that isn’t the secret that he’d originally wanted to tell me. “Morgan and I used to have a thing, so I know how she is.”
“Yeah. I’m fine,” I said, sighing. “I don’t really want to talk about it anymore. Dan was dumb and Morgan’s had it out for me since the eighth-grade cheerleading tryouts incident.”
“What incident? I hadn’t heard about any incident.”
“I forgot you transferred here when we were already in high school,” I started. “Morgan and I used to be inseparable, but in eighth grade, she wanted to be captain of the cheerleading squad. She’d never wanted anything more. I was still cheering because Leah and I had been doing it forever, and we had to vote on who we wanted to be the leader. I voted for Leah instead of Morgan, and Morgan lost by one vote. The next day in school, she completely ignored me and started spreading awful rumors about me. Eventually I couldn’t handle her cold shoulder anymore and I quit cheerleading before the season even ended.”
“All the animosity over who was the eighth-grade cheerleading captain?” he asked me incredulously.
“I know. It’s ridiculous, but she did some awful things continuously after that. And now she stole my kind-of boyfriend, so I doubt the feud will ever end.”
“Have you ever thought about getting back into cheerleading?”
“No,” I answered honestly. “Not while she’s on the squad.”
We fell into a comfortable silence; I took a drink and looked around me. It was a lot quieter away from the chaos of the bonfire and the river. There were tall pine and oak trees surrounding us and a two-track leading away from the party site.
“Let’s take a walk,” Elliot said suddenly, standing up and holding out his hand. I gladly took it, though I was a little confused about why he’d want to walk around when we could just sit comfortably on the tailgate and have nearly as much privacy.
We walked, and I noticed he was leading me into the woods, though we were heading away from the party rather than towards it. In fact, we were heading toward the same wood line that had been freaking me out earlier that night.
“So what was the secret that you really wanted to tell me?” I asked him, looking up at him from under my eyelashes. It was a trick that I’d learned while reading Cosmopolitan; you were supposed to flutter your eyelashes too, but I never really got the hang of that. I figured if I couldn’t get him to tell me the secret, he’d at least kiss me or something. He was standing close enough to me that I could smell his cologne.
“Uh,” he hesitated, “I was wondering if you wanted to go to homecoming with me. I guess that’s not really a secret, it’s more of a question, but I’ve been thinking about it and I’ve been really nervous about asking you.” We had stopped just a few feet into the woods, but it was darker there, and I felt less sure of myself than I had on his tailgate. Plus, I could have sworn I heard branches snapping around me as if someone was lurking in the dark.
I hesitated. Again, Elliot asking me to homecoming didn’t seem like the kind of thing that would happen to me. I felt weird about answering him since we were both at least a tad bit intoxicated and probably not thinking straight. The last couple of homecoming dances that I’d been to hadn’t been the best. My freshman year, I’d gone alone with Leah and her date. The year after that, I went with a boy who spent the whole time trying to kiss me and rub on me in such a sleazy way. I had to admit that going with Elliot was a lot better than going with either of those two boys. If Leah were here, she’d be telling me to say yes.
“Are you sure you want to go with me?” I asked self-consciously. There seemed to be a lot of that going around in my mind that night.
“Of course I’m sure. Chloe, you’re beautiful and so smart. I’d like to spend some more time with you and see how it goes.”
I couldn’t stop myself from smiling at that point. My back was up against a tree, and Elliot’s hands were on either side of my head, caging me in. I looked up at him, hoping that he’d lean in even closer.
“Do you really think I’m beautiful?” I asked, leaning just a little closer to him.
“Of course I do. Please come to our senior homecoming with me,” he said, smiling but still looking nervous.
I didn’t want him to look nervous anymore; I just wanted him to look happy, so I moved my hand around his neck and pulled him closer to me. The butterflies erupted in my stomach; I wasn’t the kind of girl that made the first move, I never had been. Since he’d asked me to the dance, I figured it was fair game, though. I was still processing the fact that it was possible he really wanted to be around me and to spend time with me. Spending more time with him sounded like a great idea, especially if we ended up being this alone together again.
I was in the middle of deciding to go in all the way when he made the decision for me, moving his arm around my waist and pulling a little while dipping his face toward mine. Elliot wasn’t my first kiss by any means but kissing him for the first time felt so different than kissing anyone else. His lips were so soft and gentle. The way he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer made me feel so secure and so genuinely happy; I never wanted it to end. When he pulled away, he put his forehead on mine, smiling.
“Is that a yes?” he asked playfully.
“Yes,” I said breathlessly, pulling his face back down toward mine, connecting our lips once again. I could feel him smiling, and I never wanted that moment to end.
I didn’t get my way.
My experience in the woods that night was immediately changed from something sweet to something more sour and sinister. The noises I’d been hearing on and off all night had come closer, and it felt as though the howls were right behind us. I wanted to look around me, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Elliot for some reason. I was terrified when I heard the fast, quiet footsteps coming up behind me and felt the hairs on my arms and neck stand up out of pure, animalistic fear. I tried to pull away to look around and figure out what was happening, but Elliot obviously hadn’t been affected; because he took my chin in his hand and leaned down to kiss me again.
That was when it happened. I felt something extremely painful near the ankle on my left leg, and I shrieked, pulling my leg forward and feeling flesh tear away, instantly buckling against the tree in agony. I turned away from Elliot quickly, looking around me as I sat on the ground and held my leg. I heard the noise of something running away, but I couldn’t tell what it was and all I could see was a large shape retreating further into the woods. Holding back tears, I looked down at my leg and realized I couldn’t see anything in the dark. My head was exploding with the pain coming from my leg, my vision was blurring, and I wasn’t sure what I should do next. Though the moon was full, there wasn’t enough light filtering the trees for my eyes to make out what had happened to my leg or how bad the damage was.
“What the heck just happened?” I said, more loudly than I’d wanted to, reaching down to grab my left calf where I felt the pain ebbing on and off, flowing from my ankle up to my thigh and then back again. When I felt for the wound, I was instantly met with the sensation of my hand filling up with what I could only assume was blood through my now-torn leggings. “I swear something just bit me or I cut my leg on the tree or something.”
“What are you talking about?” Elliot said, looking around, much less troubled than I was. “I didn’t see anything. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, well, something freaking bit me, a dog or something,” I said, still holding back tears and taking deep breaths. I could feel my anxiety ramping up, and I didn’t want to have a full-on panic attack in the woods when my leg was quite possibly causing me to bleed out. All I could think was that I didn’t want to have to get stitches or rabies shots. I’d been bitten by wild animals before, and that was something I would not go through again. The pain was absolutely excruciating, though it was fading slightly, and I was surprised to realize that I felt okay enough to put weight on it when I tried to stand, which I hadn’t expected.
“Let’s go back to my truck,” Elliot said, taking my hand and pulling me along. It didn’t seem like he realized quite how serious the bite was, and I realized that he might think that I was exaggerating what had bitten me. “We can look at it in the light and I think I have some bandages.” Okay, yeah, he definitely didn’t realize how bad it was.
I hobbled along behind him, wincing whenever I had to put weight on my left leg. I was already out of breath and feeling nauseous by the time we reached the tailgate, where the light of the full moon illuminated what looked like a large dog bite on my leg when I pulled up my leggings to get a closer look. It wasn’t as bad as I had thought it would be, and if I didn’t know that it had just happened, I would have maybe thought that the bite was at least a few hours old. I could have sworn that it was already healing somehow, though that was impossible.
“What the hell?” I said again. Elliot looked pale, almost like he was sick.
“I don’t… I didn’t hear any animals out there,” he said, wiping off the wound with a towel he’d found in his truck and wet down with some water from a bottle. The bleeding had already slowed down, and the individual teeth marks were more apparent now. It had obviously been a large animal because the bite seemed to cover my entire calf. “I have a first aid kit. Hold on,” Elliot said, reaching into his truck to pull out a small kit with ointment and bandages.
“It doesn’t look like it needs stitches, at least,” I said, leaning closer to the wound. I had a decent pain tolerance, but I wasn’t a fan of blood, and there was a lot of it. Plus, my leggings were completely ruined and they were my favorite pair, which was disappointing but not something I could focus on in that moment. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened. It must have been those wild dogs Tyler was talking about.”
“Wild dogs? Why would a wild dog just bite you and run away quietly?” Elliot asked, wiping my leg down again and then rubbing some ointment over it once the blood was mostly gone. If I didn’t know better, I would think his tone was almost condescending. “Where would a wild dog have even come from?”
“I don’t know,” I answered. “But what else could it be?”
We were both silent for some time as he finished rubbing ointment and putting bandages on my leg, but I could have sworn that I heard more howling coming from the woods. I pulled my phone out to check the time, slightly panicking when I realized it was already past midnight and I needed to get home. I had already internally decided I was not going to the hospital. I knew it might be a dumb idea, but I didn’t want my parents to worry and I definitely didn’t want them to know I’d been out this late at a party in the woods. My dad, who worked as a police officer in the town over, would not have been happy with my decisions.
“Crap,” I said, opening my group chat thread with Leah and Mike. They’d asked if I had a ride home and both had said they were heading to their friend’s houses. The fact that neither of them had waited for me to respond was not lost on me. How was I supposed to get home if neither of them were there? Mike said he’d come pick me up if I needed a ride, but the fact that I’d been missing for over an hour and they hadn’t heard from me maybe should have rung some alarm bells, especially with the news about the missing women from around the community that had come out recently. I sighed, trying to think of what to do next. I definitely needed to get home, and I was starting to feel exhausted from everything that had happened that day.
