Shadowed Strength: Shadowed Series Book One (6 page)

BOOK: Shadowed Strength: Shadowed Series Book One
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Chapter 7

After dinner,
Melanie kissed her mom goodnight and went to her room to study. She had a hard
time concentrating because thoughts of Jeremy swirled through her mind on a
repeated loop. His eyes, his hands, his mouth…

She jumped up from
her small corner desk and went to her bedroom window. Darkness had overtaken
the day, which suited her mood. She decided to stop torturing herself. Jeremy
was her friend. That’s it. Whatever she and Tara were reading into it wasn’t
real. It was make believe. A fantasy. Melanie knew she needed to live in the
real world and not screw up her friendship with him.

Just as Melanie
was resolving to accept things as they were and not how she wanted them to be,
a movement to the left of the yard caught her eye. She reached over and quickly
snapped off the desk lamp. Her room was now shrouded in darkness, so whoever
was out there could not see her. Her pounding heart almost sent her running
downstairs to tell her mom when she saw the movement again.

“Oh, God. It’s
him,” she murmured between rapid breaths. “He’s found me. Oh, no. Oh, God. Oh,
no. Oh, no. Oh, no. What do I do?”

Just as her world
started to spin, the figure moved into the yard. Her breath stopped short and
she leaned forward to rest her forehead against the glass.

It was the dog! At
least, it was
a
dog. She couldn’t be completely sure it was
the
dog without a closer look. She left the window and darted out of her room and
down the stairs. She grabbed her sweater off the hook by the back door, yelled
something to her mom about getting some fresh air and ran out into the night.

Melanie raced to
the middle of the yard, where she stopped dead in her tracks as common sense
finally caught up to her. She realized that running hell-bent toward a strange
dog was not the greatest idea she ever had. She held her breath and scanned the
perimeter. Her backyard met the woods on two sides, so the dog could have run
off through the trees and disappeared. Or it could be hiding just out of sight,
ready to pounce.

Melanie wasn’t sure
what to do. She wanted to see the animal up close. She needed to know that he
was real and not some figment of her traumatized imagination. Of course, even
if her dog was real, this dog might not be the same one. This dog could be a
mangy, rabies carrying mongrel intent on taking a bite out of her.

Movement to her
left caught her eye. Melanie jerked her head in that direction and scanned the
tree line until she saw it: a dark shadow with two eyes gleaming softly in the
light of the moon.

She held out a hand
and softly whispered “Come here, boy.”

She heard a soft
whimper before the animal slowly crept out of the woods and into her yard,
keeping his belly low to the ground. She stood completely still as the dog
moved forward and stopped several feet away from her. He kept his head lowered,
as if showing submission would make her more at ease. It did.

Melanie held out
her hand, palm down, and made kissing noises. The dog slowly straightened his
legs and raised his head. He was huge! He looked kind of like a German
shepherd, only solid black and with longer hair. He slowly edged closer and
reached out his nose to sniff her fingertips. Melanie didn’t move until he
licked her fingers and came closer. She rubbed his head and gave him a scratch
behind the ears.

“I’m so glad
you’re being friendly,” she said quietly. “And I’m so glad you’re
real!
I thought I was going crazy there for a while.”

The dog huffed and
moved in to rub his sides against her legs. He almost knocked her over with his
enormous size and weight. His back reached up nearly to her hips and he had to
be at least 150 pounds. He stopped rubbing against her and sat down on his
haunches in front of her.

Melanie bent over
to take a closer look at the dog’s face. He had dark, almost black, eyes. His
snout was long and narrow and his ears stood up at attention. She reached down
and felt around his neck for a collar, but there was none.

“Huh,” she said,
“No collar, no tags, nothing. I wonder if you’re microchipped. I should take
you to the vet to have you scanned.”

He let out a
whine. “What?” she asked. “No vet?” He huffed in response. “You’re a smart
boy,” she said and hugged him around the neck. “Thank you for saving me.” Tears
pricked at her eyes.

Just then she
heard the back door to her house open and her mom’s voice call out, “Melanie,
are you out here?”

She stood up and
turned to call out “Yes, mom. I found the…” She looked back as she spoke and
the dog was gone. “…dog,” she trailed off with a whisper.

“Come on in,
honey. It’s getting late.”

Her mom must not
have heard her declaration. Melanie headed toward the house with one last
glance at the woods. She decided not to tell her mom about the dog. For now, he
was her little secret.

 
Cedarwood
Street was pitch black. Broken streetlights. Glass everywhere. Her heart
started pounding and her mind was screaming for her to run, but her feet
started walking forward of their own volition. The cracks on the sidewalk
passed in a blur. Knowing there was danger ahead, she tried to turn around, but
her body would not obey.

Her lips were
not moving, but she heard her own voice; “Eight, nine, ten.” Counting the
steps. A cat jumped out of the bushes, but it didn’t scare her this time. She
knew it was coming, and she knew what came next. The end of the hedge grew
closer and her heartbeat grew more erratic.

Suddenly she
was off the sidewalk and on the ground. Soft grass was being crushed beneath
her while she was being crushed by a heavy body. She fought. Scratching,
pushing, punching. All to no avail. She couldn’t budge the man atop her.

Hands ripped
her shirt. Eyes glinted through slits in a black knit mask. She ripped it off
his head and stared at it. Blood pounded against her eardrums so loudly, she
couldn’t hear anything. A knife shone in the faint moonlight. Raised above her
heart.

I need to look
at his face, she thought.

Her eyes left
the knife and moved to his wrist, his elbow, his shoulder, all encased in
black. She took a deep breath and prepared to jerk her eyes to his face…

Melanie jolted awake
and sat up straight in her bed, her chest heaving. Tears were streaming down
her face and her hands were shaking. She looked at her clock through blurry
eyes. It read 3:09 am.  She took deep breaths through her nose and tried
to relax.

“It was just a
dream. Only a dream.”

Once Melanie was
able to breathe normally, she got up and went downstairs to the kitchen for a
glass of water. She stood at the sink and stared out the window at her back
yard while recounting the dream in her head. Deep in thought, she almost didn’t
see it. Something caught her eye near the tree line. In the shadow of a big
pine, she saw movement. She stared until a shape formed in the shadows. It was
her dog.

My dog?

She realized that’s
how she’d come to think of him. He had rescued her, saved her life and her
sanity, and now he was hers.

As she watched, he
stood up and looked toward the window. He let out a slight yelp, wagged his
tail and disappeared back into the shadowy woods.

“He’s watching
over me,” Melanie whispered, and suddenly felt much better. She went back to
bed and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep the second her head hit the pillow.

As she was getting
ready for school the next morning, her thoughts continued to dwell on her dog.

“Maybe I should
name him,”
she thought.
“Blackie? No. Shep? No.”
She
shook her head at herself in the mirror.

“I wonder why he’s
decided to be my protector?” she mumbled aloud. “Because, you are beautiful.
You are a beautiful girl.” She stopped her daily mantra and groaned. “I’m so
stupid,” she whispered. “The dog doesn’t care if I’m beautiful or not. He was
just in the right place at the right time and his instincts kicked in. It’s not
really about me.”

If that were
really true
, she wondered,
why was he lurking
around the woods in my backyard?

Chapter 8

Tara picked her up
for school as usual and talked excitedly about a party Chris had decided to
throw at his apartment Saturday night. Melanie was really quiet and when Tara
noticed, she stopped talking.

“Oh God, Mel, I’m
so sorry,” she said quietly.

“For what?”

“I didn’t even
think. I’m so stupid. Another party is probably the last thing you want to
think about.”

“You are stupid.”
Tara got a hurt look on her face. Melanie slapped her shoulder. “You have
nothing to be sorry for. A party at Chris’s sounds awesome and I hope you have
a great time. I won’t be going to this one, but I’m not mad at you for talking
about it.”

“Then why are you
being so quiet?”

“I was just
thinking about my dog.”

“What? What dog?
You got a dog?”

“No, not exactly.
I meant
the
dog,”

Tara had a
confused look on her face for a few seconds, then understanding dawned on her.
“The
dog, as in
the
dog? The one that saved you?” At Melanie’s
nod, she asked “Why are you thinking about him? Did something happen?”

“Yes. I saw him
last night.”

“You did? Where?”

“In my backyard.”

“What?!?”

“Yep. I looked out
the window and there he was, right at the edge of the woods.” She left out the part
about the near panic attack she had, thinking it was the man who attacked her.

“What did you do?”

“What any other
mentally stable person would do.”

“You went out
there, didn’t you? God, Mel, that thing could be dangerous. I know he saved
you, but he did so by viciously attacking a person.”

“I know. I know.
 Ah hell, Tara, I can’t explain it. He makes me feel safe. I went out and
coaxed him into the yard. I pet him and he rubbed against my leg like a normal
house pet. I checked for a collar, but there wasn’t one. Then mom called out to
me from the back door and he took off.”

She decided not to
tell Tara about seeing him again in the middle of the night. That would require
explaining the nightmare and Tara was already worried enough. Melanie
especially didn’t want to tell Tara about her list of possible names for him.

They pulled into
the parking lot and found a spot near the back of the lot. Melanie leaned down
to grab her backpack off the floorboard, then squealed in panic as her door was
yanked open from the outside. Her eyes flew wide with terror until they
recognized a familiar handsome face.

“Oh, Mel, I’m so
sorry.”

The grin on
Jeremy’s face fell and he looked instantly contrite. He slapped his forehead
with his palm and muttered something that sounded like “stupid, stupid idiot.”
He looked back at her and apologized again.

“I just wanted to
open your door for you,
like a gentleman,
and instead I almost gave you
a heart attack. I wasn’t thinking. After everything that…happened…I should’ve
known better. I’m sorry.”

“Jeremy, stop!”
Melanie replied when she got her breath back. “You startled me, is all. I would
have reacted the same way even if everything that happened hadn’t happened.
Please stop apologizing. I’m fine.”

She got out of the
car and punched him playfully on the shoulder. “A gentleman, huh? Maybe you
should carry my books for me.” She threw her backpack into his chest and
started walking away.

I can do this,
she thought.
I can be his
friend,
and not think about…other
things.
She heard footsteps running up behind her and felt hands grab her
sides and squeeze.

“Don’t do that!”
she yelled.

“I’m sorry. I was
just playing with you.” Jeremy’s face fell again.

She put her hand on
his arm. “I know. I’m just…really ticklish and I don’t like it. Sorry I
yelled.” She wouldn’t look him in the eye, because he would know she was lying.

Melanie dropped
her arm and they walked silently through the front doors of the school. She was
so embarrassed. She was ticklish, but that’s not why she yelled. It was a
knee-jerk reaction because she knew he would feel the pudginess around her
middle. She knew if he felt it, he would be disgusted. She tried to change the
subject.

“So, I saw that
dog last night,” she stated when they got to her locker and he handed her
backpack back to her.

“You did?” he
asked. “Where?”

“In my backyard.”

“Huh.”

“Really, that’s
all you got is ‘huh’? I was under the impression you thought I made him up in
my head and that he wasn’t real.”

“That’s not true.
I said that I didn’t see him, not that you didn’t see him. I always believe
you.”

Now she felt
really crappy about the “ticklish” lie. “Listen Jeremy, I really am sorry I
yelled at you. I didn’t mean it.”

He smiled and flipped
his head back to get the hair out of his face. “It’s ok,” he replied. Then gave
her a hug and walked her to first period.

At lunch, Jeremy
sat with Mel, Tara and Chris again. Mel silently scolded herself for being so
nervous.
Friends
are not nervous around friends.

“How’s that salad,
Mel?” Jeremy asked her. She’d been stirring it with her fork for at least five
minutes without taking a bite.

She took a huge
bite and replied with her mouth full, “Ish reawy goot.”

Oh, God. Did I really
just talk with my mouth full? Did I spit salad on him? Oh my God, kill me now.

Melanie plopped
her forehead down on the table. The word “embarrassing” didn’t even begin to
cover what she was feeling. She kept her head down and swallowed what was in
her mouth. She felt a kick on her foot from across the table, and kicked Tara
back without even looking up. Maybe she could just stay here until school was
over. Or run out now and go straight home and die there.

 She was
still contemplating her choices when she felt a big, warm hand on her knee. She
sat up quickly, eyes trained on that hand, with a loud intake of breath.

“Sorry,” Jeremy
sad quietly as he pulled his hand away. “I didn’t mean to…just, sorry.” He
focused back on his lunch and picked up what was left of his pizza slice.

Melanie stared at
her knee for a few more seconds, then looked up across the table at Tara
incredulously. Tara had a smug look on her face that said “I told you so.”
Melanie looked back at her knee again, then sneaked a peek at Jeremy from the
corner of her eye. He looked all red, like he was blushing, and he was staring
holes into his pizza. She noticed that his lips were moving, just barely, like
he was swearing to, or at, himself.

What is going
on?
Melanie thought to herself.
It’s like I’m in
some parallel universe and I have no idea what’s going to happen next.

 
She really,
really
wanted to believe that what it looked like
was happening was
actually
happening. It looked like Jeremy was blushing
because he showed her affection and thought she rejected him.

As if!
But that couldn’t really be what was going on.
Could it?
Her
thoughts were all jumbled.

She looked back up
at Tara helplessly and gave a slight shrug. Tara narrowed her eyes and nodded
in Jeremy’s direction. Melanie gave a slight, almost imperceptible shake of her
head, but Tara got it. She narrowed her eyes even more and nodded a little
harder at him. Melanie took a deep breath and let it out on a sigh. Tara was
never going to shut up about this, and it was driving Melanie crazy, so she
might as well put an end to her torment and just talk to him.

“Hey,” she said
quietly as she nudged his knee with hers. “Can we talk alone? Like, now?”

He took a deep
breath and dragged his eyes off his pizza crust for the first time since he
apologized about the knee thing. She saw dread in his eyes. It wasn’t
encouraging.

“Sure,” he replied
just as quietly. “Out in the courtyard?”

 She looked
out the windows into the courtyard. There were way too many students out there,
including Sissy Woods.

“No, too crowded,”
she said. “Library?”

He nodded and
stood. He took both their plates to the trash bins and dumped them. He held the
cafeteria door open for her and followed her into the main hallway toward the
library. She could feel him behind her and was starting to freak out.

What am I
doing? What am I doing?!

She walked into
the library and led the way to the back, behind the stacks. There was a seating
area with couches and chairs where students could read and study comfortably.
Melanie sat down on a love seat and Jeremy sat down right next to her, even
though there were several other options for him to choose from. The thoughts
flew out of Melanie’s head for a minute and she just stared dumbly at the empty
chair on her other side.

Why didn’t he
sit there?
she thought. If he didn’t like her as more
than a friend, than why sit so close? Why touch her knee? Why kiss her
forehead?

No,
she chastised herself.
He is only concerned about what happened to
me because he feels responsible. He brought Sissy to that party, I left because
of her and got attacked. That’s it. Stop it with the wishful thinking. Get it
together, Mel.

“Mel?”

“Huh? What?”

“You were off in
la-la land for a minute. You ok?”

“Yeah, sorry. I
got sidetracked. I just wanted to talk to you ab…”

“Mel, I’m sorry,”
he interrupted. “I shouldn’t expect anything out of you right now. You just had
a horrible thing happen to you, and here I am, pushing myself on you. I can’t
expect you to want to be with me or anyone right now. I’m sorry. I just really
like you and I thought… I don’t know what I thought, really,” he said all in a
rush.

“Wait. Wait.
What?”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, not that
part.”

“Something
horrible just happened?”

“Nope, not that
either.”

The corner of his lips
curved up just a bit. “I really like you?”

“Bingo. What
exactly does that mean?”

“What do you mean
‘What does that mean?’”

“Well, I know you
like me. We’ve been friends a long time. You’re always there for me, and I try
to be there for you. Is that what you meant?”

He looked down at
his lap, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It came back out in a whoosh.

 “No, that’s
not what I meant. Even though that’s all true, that is most definitely
not
what I meant.”

He opened his eyes
and looked back up at her. Her heart was beating so fast, she thought it might
pound right out of her chest. Her hands started to shake as he pushed himself
up slightly and scooted closer to her.

“It’s not?” she
asked shakily.

“No, it’s not,” he
said, leaning even closer and staring right into her eyes. He was definitely
invading her personal space enough now that it could no longer be defined as
“friendly.”

“Wha…” She cleared
her throat lightly. “What did you mean, then?” She was whispering by this
point. He was leaning in so close that their noses were almost touching.

“What I meant,” he
whispered back, “is that I like you so much that I want to do this.”

He tilted his head
and kissed her lightly on the cheek. Her eyes fluttered closed and she stopped
breathing.

“And this.” This
time the kiss landed on her chin. Her breath came back all ragged, but her eyes
stayed closed.

“And this.” She
felt his hands cup her face and his lips touch hers, ever so lightly.

Melanie felt him
pull back, but his hands stayed on her cheeks. She blinked her eyes open and
realized he had only pulled back a couple of inches. He was even more beautiful
this close up.

“Did that answer
your question?”

He was still
whispering. She gave a slight nod. He started to lean in again and the bell
signaling the end of lunch rang. Jeremy sighed quietly and rested his forehead
against hers with his eyes closed.

“I’m sorry. I told
you I wasn’t going to push myself on you and here I am, doing just that.” He
pulled away again and dropped his hands.

“Jeremy.”

“Yeah?”

“You like me.”

“Yeah.”

“You kissed me.”

“Yeah.”

“You liked kissing
me?”

He smiled. “Yeah.”

She smiled back.
“Me too. I mean, I liked it too.”

His smile grew bigger and he started to lean again when suddenly there
was someone next to them clearing her throat. “Excuse me, Ms. Johnson. Mr.
Stevens.”

BOOK: Shadowed Strength: Shadowed Series Book One
10.33Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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