Captivated (11 page)

“It was all right.” I wanted to tell her everything. But I couldn’t do that. She would worry too much and wouldn’t let me out of the house for my own safety. “Nothing interesting happened,” I regrettably lied.

“How’s Markus doing? He usually comes in when he drops you off…” she commented.

“Oh. He had the same curfew as me tonight so he had to hurry home.” I explained.

“Are you going to go with me tomorrow?” she asked.

“Where?” I asked. Inviting myself in, I plopped on her bed.

“To the pound. I want a dog.” she said. “First, I want to go to your aunt’s house and then to the pet store to get some supplies.”

“Okay.” I said. “What time?”

“Early afternoon.” she said. My mom placed the book on her night stand and took off her reading glasses.

“Do you think we’ll be back in time for my run?” I asked.

“I think so. We can try.” She insisted.

“Ok. Good night, mom.” I walked back to the door and closed it behind me.

“Good night!” she called out before I could completely shut it.

As I turned around to head to my room, the light from my mom’s room went out. The only light I had to guide me to my room was the night light in the hallway. When I got there, I turned on the light switch and kicked off my shoes. Just looking at my bed was making me sleepy so I hastily grabbed my pajamas from the drawer and slipped them on. I was too tired to shower, so I just washed my face and brushed my teeth. I leaped into my sheets, bringing them up so high that only my face was exposed. As soon as I closed my eyes, I was out.

“Mindy! Wake up! Your alarm is going off.” My mom opened the door and turned off the buzzing alarm beside it. “I still don’t understand why you have it by the door instead of by your bed,” she muttered.

“Cause if it’s by my bed I’ll just hit the snooze button and go back to sleep…” I croaked.

“But I’m always the one turning it off for you,” she complained.

“You hear it before I do.” I mumbled while shoving my face in the pillow.

“Well get ready cause we’re leaving as soon as you’re done.” she announced.

“Blaaahhhh.” I wailed out. I wasn’t ready to get up. I wanted to sleep in some more. But my body started moving off the bed, eyes still closed. I
zombied
my way to the hall bathroom and shut the door behind me. The warm water falling on me woke me up a little. Just a little.

My mom knocked on the door.

“You want some coffee?” she yelled out.

“YES!” Excitement filled my voice. That’s precisely what I needed.

After my shower, I put my wet hair up in a ponytail and did my makeup. I wrapped the towel around myself and went to my room to dress. We would probably make it home just in time for me to go running before it got dark. I threw on some workout clothes so I wouldn’t have to come home and change.

We brought home a boxer. A great looking one. It had to be around ninety pounds of pure muscle. I’ve seen dogs like him on TV. He looked like one of the studs that pranced around on the dog shows. He had a dark mask and the rest of his body was fawn. The only white on him was his huge chest and front paws. We fell in love with him as soon as we saw him through the cage they kept him in.

The sun was sinking into the ground in front of us as we pulled up to the house. We got home just in time. I jumped out of the car and opened the door for the dog, grabbing the leash before he took off. I wasn’t sure if he was trained to stay close off of a leash or not so I tied him to the tree in front of the house and ran inside to grab my mp3 player, time passed by faster when I had it playing during my jog.

Upon entering my room, I heard a soft beeping sound. I thought maybe I had received a text message or something. I wasn’t sure where I had left my phone so I stayed quiet and followed the beeping. It was on the floor in front of my night stand, though that’s not where I had left it. The vibrating must have moved it off the edge. I picked it up to check the message and found it was a voicemail alert. I had several missed calls from Markus. I called my voicemail to see what he wanted.

“Mindy. I need you to call me as soon as possible. Hurry and call me when you get this. Bye.” His voice sounded shaky. What was also strange to me was that he actually said bye. He never said bye, especially to a voicemail.

I hung up and went to his name under contacts and pressed the send button. To prepare myself for whatever he was going to tell me, I sat down on my bed and took in a deep breath as the phone rang.

“
H
ello? Hey…what’s up!” Markus said.

“
Hey you, what’s-”

“
Oh I can’t come to the phone right now so leave a message,” Markus’ voice interrupted me. I couldn’t believe I fell for another one of his voicemail pranks. He made it seem like he was actually on the phone.

*Beep*

“Hey, Markus. I got your voicemail. I’m going to go for a run right now so call me later cause I’m not going to have my phone on me.” I flipped my phone shut and threw it on the bed. Looking out the window, I saw that the sun was already going down. I hurriedly ran downstairs and through the front door. The dog was still in the front yard sitting where I left him, his tail wagging as he saw me coming from the house. The dog stood on all fours and shook his whole body. I leaned down to pet him when he jumped up and put one paw on each one of my shoulders. It was as if he was hugging me and I took notice that his head was much bigger than mine! He could tear my whole face off with his jaw if he wanted to. But all the gentle giant did was give me a big lick. Ewww!

I untied him and we headed for the trail I usually ran. It was in the forest, almost a mile away from the neighborhood. I didn’t like running when there were people around as it was very awkward for me.

I made it to the beginning of my trail. And I called it my trail because I mapped it out myself. Plus, I thought I was the only one that has run it.

As I stretched out my legs I realized they were still a little sore from ‘the incident,’ though not enough to interrupt my run. I started off slow so I could see how the dog would do. He stayed in front of me, running at my pace. I then ran a little faster-so did he. In fact, he started running a little too fast. I yanked on his leash a little to get his attention but I think he thought it meant to go faster because he started charging. I couldn’t keep up! I was practically flying because I started leaping to keep up with him. But it was impossible. The dog was like a machine and nothing interrupted him. He was focused, on a mission, and that mission was to run so fast that it was humanly impossible to keep up. But I was too scared to try to slow down. If I even tried, I was sure to fall forward and be dragged by him.

Faster he went. I finally lost my step and fell forward, dragged like a kite by this fast beast. My bare arms were skidding against the grass and twigs.

I had to let go. When I did, my body stopped completely. I looked up and scanned the area ahead of me. Unsurprisingly, the dog was totally out of sight. I laid there for a second and tried to catch my breath before rolling over onto my back to give my chest some room to expand. Examining the scratches on my arms, I found that it wasn’t as bad as it felt. There were a few bloody scrapes that ran down from my wrist to my elbows, but since I was dragged on grassy grounds instead of dirt and rock, I could have had much worse. Slowly, I picked myself up and brushed the twigs and grass off of my body and noted that I would have permanent green stains from the grass on the front of my clothes.

Stupid dog. I couldn’t believe he didn’t stop.

I searched around to see if I could find him but the towering trees that surrounded me were blocking any chance of seeing the dog.

Then I heard steps.

Like those of a galloping animal.

The dog popped out from behind a tree with a thick log in his mouth. It could be used for firewood it was so big. He ran happily towards me and threw the log up in the air with ease. It hit hard on the ground and he picked it up again like it was a twig. He trotted towards me and stopped a little ahead of me, a low growl coming from his chest. He lowered his head and dropped the log and his growl got louder as he bared his teeth. I was afraid to look behind me–where I knew he was looking. The dog started snarling then and I began to shake. Flashes of cold fear started coursing through my body.

I slowly turned my head.

It could be anything. A large animal maybe. I knew there were deer in the forest, even bears. I wasn’t prepared for a bear.

I slowly reached into my pocket and grabbed onto the mace. Placing my finger on the nozzle, I prepared the only protection I had and I was ready to use it.

I turned my head completely around. And still I saw nothing. Just a tree. The dog roared, his saliva started to foam around his lips. His eyes were fixated on the tree.

“He-hello?” I whimpered out.

Silence. No one answered. The dog stayed where he was, not taking a step closer.

“I don’t think your dog likes me,” said a smooth voice.

“Who are you?” I asked. I was hoping it was someone I knew.

“Come find out...” he dared.

“Sure. I’ll just skip on over there!” My sarcasm was thick. He didn’t sound familiar. So it certainly wasn’t Ayden. How I would have enjoyed my dog attacking him.

“I’d love to see that.” he said flirtingly.

“The only thing you’ll get a chance to see is my fist in your face!” I angrily called out. What a perv!

“Let’s play a game.” he suggested.

“What? I don’t even know you? Why won’t you show yourself?” I spat out.

“You’re wrong, Mindy.” He sang. “Are you ready for my game?” the voice uttered.

“I don’t want to play a game.” I took a step forward. “How do you know my name?” I questioned.

“Well if you don’t play the game you’ll never know who I am…” the voice replied calmly.

I couldn’t figure out who it belonged to, but I had heard it before. I looked back at the dog. He was pacing back and forth, growling and keeping his distance. It was getting so dark out. I should have been on my way back home by now. My vision was poor at night. And even though I knew everyone’s had to be worse at night, it was downright blurry for me.

The mystery person was in between me and my way back. At least I could make out that it was a young voice. Most likely someone from school.

“Tick tock, tick tock.” he sang out. “It’s getting dark out…”

His voice. Something about his voice was so soothing, so…alluring. I wanted to follow the sound of it just to be closer to it. Then I remembered. The only time I had ever felt drawn to a voice was with-

“Shane?” I asked. “Is that you?”

There was silence.

“It is you, isn’t it?” I asked.

I was no longer afraid. I was certain it was him. No one else I knew had a voice like that and he stayed quiet after I called out his name. Content that I knew who it was, I courageously walked over to the tree. I peeked over and sure enough, it was Shane. He was leaning his back against the tree with his thumbs hanging off his front pockets. He looked like a model, advertising designer jeans. And shirts. And shoes. Heck, he was the whole magazine in one page. He defined everything that could ever be perfect.

Slowly, he turned his head towards me. His eye color looked a little red. Strands of silver hair were nicely arranged over his face. It looked like elegant strips of moonlight cascading down his beautifully gentle face. The tree he was leaning on wasn’t good enough to be touched by him.