The next morning I woke up full of dread. Lucas and Amanda had invited me to go on a hiking trip with the rest of the senior class. Something about tradition.

I didn't like the outdoors. I'd much rather stay inside, where there weren't any bugs and it was warm. I felt safe inside.

I needed to get my mind off of things, though. Ever since the incident with Caleb in the coffee shop, and now with his brother suspiciously eyeing me around school, I could never shake the chill that always made its way up my back.

I never felt alone anymore. I was so much more cautious about what I was doing, or where I was going. I had started keeping my blinds closed in my room, grasping for the slightest amount of comfort. However, when I didn't feel like someone was watching me, that was when I felt the pain in my chest. It felt like someone had tied a rope of my lungs and the further they walked the tighter the rope became.

I subconsciously tugged at the sleeve of my shirt, making sure the bruise on my wrist wasn't showing.

Luckily, Luke and Amanda hadn't told anyone else about the day at the coffee house. The last thing I wanted was to be involved in town gossip my first week here.

My phone caught my attention as it buzzed on my night stand. I picked it up as I saw Amanda's name flash across the screen.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Hey, we're on our way to pick you up. Are you ready?" She yelled into the phone, causing me to pull it away from my ear. I could hear the loud music in the background, followed by the chatter of the other passengers in the car.

"Yeah, give me, like, ten minutes," I said, hanging up the phone.

I grabbed my bag, that I packed the night before, off of my desk chair and headed down stairs.

"Nana?" I called as I reached the bottom of the steps.

"In the kitchen!"

I walked past the dining room and into the kitchen where my grandmother stood in front of the sink washing the dishes. She was adorable with her little step stool. She could reach the sink on her own, but she liked to use it for mobility purposes, she'd told me.

"I'm going hiking with some friends," I said, kissing her cheek. As I began to turn away and walk out of the kitchen, she stopped me. She grabbed my elbow with her soapy hand, sloshing water onto the floor.

"Be careful," she said, "there have been some reports of animal attacks. A few hikers were found dead in the woods."

"Oh..." is all I could think to say. I'd never been good at keeping up with the news.

"Just stick to the trails, please," she asked, her eyes worried. She walked away from the sink and dug in one of the drawers. She pulled out a large black tube, that looked like mace you'd buy at a bulk store. "Take this," she handed it to me, "it's bear mace. Just to be safe."

"Um, thank you," I said, awkwardly, shoving it in a side pocket of my bag. I looked towards the window as Amanda pulled her car in the driveway. "I have to go," I said, giving her a hug and rushing out the door.

I pulled open the car door to Amanda's beat up corola, and hopped in. Next to me were two girls that I had seen around school, along with another who was sitting in the front, next to Amanda.

"Ladies, this is Birdie," Amanda introduced me.

The two girls next to me wave.

The one sitting in the middle spoke first.

"I'm Stacey," she greets.

Stacey had long sandy blond hair that she tied in two braids that were laying across each shoulder. She had dark brown eyes and light freckles all over her face.

"And this," she gestured to the red headed girl next to her, "is Hayleigh."

Hayleigh's hair was braided in the same way as Stacey's. Hayleigh had brown eyes as well, but her large rimmed glasses took up most of her face.

I waved to both of them. The girl in the passenger seat didn't bother to greet me as she was absorbed in her phone. I didn't mind, though, it was something that even I did from time to time, even though I wasn't so rude about it.

As we drove the tress became denser and denser around us. Amanda pulled her car into a clearing where we were met with four other cars. The majority of the senior class stood around, talking, most likely waiting for everyone to get there before we started up the trail. As we came to a stop, every one grabbed their bags and got out of the car.

The sun hurt my eyes, so I set my bag on the trunk of Amanda's car. I couldn't remember, but I was sure I had packed some sunglasses.

"Do you have any bug spray?" Lucas asked, as he saw me shuffling through my bag. His sudden presence made me jump.

I moved some things around until I found the bug spray and pulled it out to hand it to him.

"So," I asked, "is this hike very long?"

Lucas shrugged, "Almost five miles."

He took a step back and began to spray himself with the repellant.

I took a deep breath, wondering if I should take a minute to stretch. There was a good chance I'd trip or twist my ankle, becoming a burden to everyone else.

"It's totally worth it, though," he said, noticing the look on my face. "The view is beautiful at the end, and we're all going to get burgers after."

"Well, if burgers are involved," I said, pulling on my book bag and forcing an enthusiastic smile. Lucas laughed at my attempt and shrugged his own bag on. "Do you have a pair of sunglasses I could borrow?" I asked, shielding my eyes from the bright sun.

He gestured for me to follow him as he unlocked his pick up truck. It looked fairly new. From what I gathered Luca's father owned one of the few gas stations in town, making his family pretty well off. So, I wouldn't have been surprised if the truck was new.

"I'm sorry about the other day," I said, we hadn't talked much since I snapped at him, and I felt guilty for taking this long to apologize.

"It's okay," he said, still digging around in his truck, "I was being kind of an ass anyway."

His casualness on the topic made me feel more relaxed. He pulled out a pair of dark sunglasses and handed them to me. I thanked him, putting them on, but he chuckles.

"What?" I asked.

"You just kind of look like a dork," he laughed.

I looked at myself in one of his rearview mirrors. I did look odd, these sunglasses definitely looked like they belonged on a man, and they didn't look like they belonged with my outfit.

"What about this," Lucas said, pulling out an old beat up Mets hat.

I handed him the sunglasses back and traded them for the hat, putting it over my hair and pulling my pony tail through the hole in the back. "Much better," I said, looking back at him. He nodded his head in agreement.

The group started to walk into the trees together, catching our attention. Lucas put his hand on my back pack, where he would be touching the small of my back if my pack wasn't there, leading the way.

"So what was up with Jack Gardner yesterday?" Lucas asked me, catching me off guard, "First Caleb and now his brother?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "He just kept staring at me, the whole class he wasn't even paying attention to what Mrs. Cherry was saying."

"You should probably just stay away from them," he said, looking down on me with those intimidating crystal blue eyes. I nodded my head, not wanting to talk about it anymore, in fear of another outburst from me.

I gasped suddenly as a warmness took over my body.

"Are you okay?" Lucas asked, holding me by my arm for support.

I recovered, quickly, "Yeah, sorry," I cleared my throat, "I just choked for a second."

He furrowed his brows at me, giving me a suspicious look. He seemed to let it go as he continued to walk towards the group.

I let him get a bit ahead of me before I gave my surroundings a good inspection. I knew what that feeling was, it was comfort, it was friendship, I had suddenly felt the presence of a protector. The feeling I had been dealing with for days now, someone's eyes on me. But as I look around I am, once again, only met with the dark forest.

I sighed and caught up to Lucas. I started up a small conversation, trying to keep my mind off of whatever was happening to me.

"So, before I left, my grandmother told me about some hikers that died?" I asked Lucas, as we started up a steep hill.

"Yeah, it was a few tourists-"

"I hear they were ripped to pieces," Amanda interrupted him, she raised her eyebrows at us and wiggled her fingers like she's telling a scary story.

"I heard it was a bear attack," another one said, I looked up to see Liam looking back at us.

"No, my bet is on wolves," Lucas said back to him. They laughed like they had some inside joke.

After that the conversation was dropped. We continued with meaningless chatter and heavy breathing as we walked the twist and turns of the trail.

After reaching the one mile mark we all stopped to get a snack and some water. I walked over to a large rock right before a thick layer of trees and pulled out my water bottle. Lucas does the same and sits next to me on the ground.

"At some point, before we go off to college," Lucas started, taking a drink from his bottle, "you should get the chance to go see the Northern Lights."

"That sounds cool," I said, not very interested in the conversation as I suddenly felt the strong pull in my chest again. It dulled for a bit during the hike, but it was back, pulling my attention away from Lucas.

I wanted to hate this feeling, I wanted to be annoyed at it's constant presence, but I couldn't bring myself to. All that ever came over me when I felt the strange pulling, was relief and comfort.

"I could take you," Lucas said, moving from the ground and sitting next to me on the rock. "If you'd like that," he seemed nervous as he struggled to open his package of trail mix.

"Sure," I said, "we could make it a group thing."

I saw the look on his face, confirming my earlier thoughts.

I liked Lucas, just not in that way, but he'd made little effort in hiding his interest in me. He'd practically been attached to my hip the entire week except for the few classes I had that he wasn't in.

He shifted closer to me in the rock and set his arm behind me.

"Actually-"

Suddenly both of our eyes go wide as we heard a deep rumble behind us.

Directly behind us.

The rumble got louder and turned into a snarl, letting it be known that there was a creature near.

Lucas jumped up from beside me. Everyone in our group had the same face, wide eyes and opened mouths.

A loud, ground shuttering, growl came from the trees behind me, and I watched in shock as the group I was with darts in the opposite direction. They run back down the path we've already taken, running back to their cars.

I found myself still sitting on the rock. Not frozen out of fear, but because the pull in my chest sent a warmness through my body, more intense than I had felt before. It made me feel like I was not in danger, but the opposite. I was being protected.

I stood from the rock and turned around, looking at the dense forest in front of me now. I didn't see anything. Then, suddenly, as quickly as it came, the warmness I felt was gone. I felt the now familiar pull in my chest as I understood that my protector had retreated.

"Wait..." I said, it came out quiet and desperate.

I grabbed my bag and took a step into the forest, letting the feeling in my chest lead the way.

"Hello?" I called out as I walked deeper into the trees.

Normally, I would have ran back to safety as my friends had, but nothing seemed normal to me now. Not since my entire body had become foreign to me.

The tension of the pulling dulls down the slightest bit, hinting to me that I was on the right track.

The forest was so quiet around me that my body grew tense and the air around me thick.

"Hello..." I said again, hesitantly.

I jumped as I heard a twig snap behind me. I whipped my body around to see a giant wolf standing not even a foot away from me.

It was easily taller than me as it stood with it's chest puffed out. His coat shined ‪against the sun.

He looked like a timber wolf but three times the size‬.

I was nervous as his caramel eyes bored into me, and I couldn't help but think of how familiar those eyes seemed.

I tried to back up, to gain some distance, but my foot got caught on a root, causing me to lose my balance. I hit the ground with a thud, scraping my elbow, but I didn't check to see if it was bleeding as the wolf got closer to me. It's giant feet took slow steps, like he was trying not to scare me off.

The warmness filled my chest again. I wasn't scared. How could I be? I'd never felt more safe.

I sat up, the large wolf was leaning over me now, so I had to crane my neck to look up at him.

Slowly, and without much thought, I raised one of my hands to him.

My first instinct was to let him sniff me, like I would with a dog. The large wolf nudged my hand with his cold, wet nose, forcing me to open my palm to him. He moved his head so that my open hand rested on his muzzle. My hand looked tiny compared to the nose of this creature.

That's when I felt it, the electricity. Once my hand was flat against his fur I felt a shock course through my arm, causing me to jump and pull away. He'd seemed to feel it as well as he pulled his head away quickly.

I looked at my hand in awe. That moment, since the day at the coffee house, was the only moment that the pulling, the wanting, the constant need in my chest was gone. It was replaced with peace, but only for a moment.

I looked back up at the giant beast in front of me, who was looking back at me with his head lowered to the height of mine. He was watching me with such intensity.

"What-"

"Birdie!" Someone yelled. They were back on the path I'd come from.

The wolf backed away from me, then turned around and took off, it's long legs carrying it away at an alarming speed.

I stood to my feet quickly, wanting to run after him as the tension started to build in my chest.

"Wait!" I yelled, but he was already gone.

"Birdie, what the hell!" I turned to see Lucas making his way through the trees towards me, "What are you doing in here, you could've gotten hurt!"

"I..." I started, but I didn't have a good excuse. I didn't have any excuse at all really. I just stood in front of him, dumbfounded.

He rolled his eyes at me and grabbed my hand, leading me back towards the path.

We walked down the path until we reached the opening where we'd started. There everyone else stood, to my assumption, they were waiting for us. Their panicked chatter suddenly stopped as they saw me. Amanda ran forward, wrapping her arms around me.

"I thought it got you!" She exclaimed.

I patted her on the back gently, "I'm okay."

She dragged me by my hand back to her car, "Let's go home."

"Why didn't you run with us? Did you not hear that? You could've been eaten!" Amanda had been bombarding me with questions since we had gotten in the car. "You're so lucky that Lucas went back for you because literally no one else was."

I raised my eyebrows at her, even though I wasn't surprised. Amanda didn't seem like the kind of person who would stick her neck out for me, let alone come save me when she thought there was a monster.

I knew Lucas was only doing the right thing but I couldn't help being angry with him. He was the reason the wolf had ran off and the tense feeling in my chest was back because of it.

"Are you even listening to me?" Amanda raised her voice to grab my attention.

"Sorry," I said, looking at her, "what?"

"Why didn't you run?" She pushed.

I shrugged, not wanting to give her the real answer.

Oh, I just knew he wouldn't hurt me so I went into the woods looking for a giant wolf.

"I just froze," is all I said. She looked at me with curious eyes.

"You just froze?" She asked.

I nodded, just trying to get out of the conversation at that point. We pulled into my driveway and I grabbed my bag to quickly get out of her car.

"Wait," she said, grabbing my arm and pulling me into a tight hug, "I'm really glad you're okay."

I patted her on the back again. "Thanks," I said before getting out of the car.

Today was so tiring and it wasn't even lunch yet.

"Nana, I'm home!" I shouted, dropping my pack on the ground by the door and jogging up the stairs. I yawned as I reached my room, briefly thinking a nap would be a good idea, but deciding against it and grabbing my grandmother's book she gave me. I walked over to the window and sat on the bench in it.

That's when I felt it again. As I opened the book I felt the eyes on me and the tension in my chest ease up ever so slightly. I looked out the window, hopeful, but I didn't see the wolf, or anyone for that matter.

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair, when I'm stopped by an alarming sight.

The bruise on my hand.

It was gone.