by Noelle Marie
“Are you sure?” he asked imploringly. “Mallory made what happened sound really bad, like, I don’t know, your eyes had been clawed out or something.”
Katherine fought the urge to roll her supposedly clawed out eyes. “Nope. Both still here and accounted for.”
Brad laughed a little at that, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Yeah, I can see that.”
Either not noticing or choosing to ignore the brunette’s obvious discomfort, Brad trailed her all the way to her locker. He seemed nervous for some reason. Maybe because Katherine was refusing to make eye contact with him. But she didn’t want to encourage him, she reasoned with herself.
“So, uh, Katherine,” Brad began when it became clear she wasn’t going to say anything more on the subject. He was leaning against the locker next to hers as she put away her books and grabbed her lunch money – stubbornly ignoring the object on the locker’s top shelf as she did so. “I know that we don’t really know each other all that well, but, uh, do you want to sit with me and my friends at lunch today?”
She was surprised at the strange request, but recovered quickly and responded in a firm voice. “Look Brad, I’m sure you’re a nice guy and all, but you’re Mallory’s boyfriend and, no offense, but I have no desire to make my life any more difficult than it already is.”
Brad looked a little uncomfortable at the mention of the blonde girl. “Actually, uh, Mallory and I broke up this weekend.”
Katherine couldn't say she was shocked. Brad and Mallory had been dating for years, but their relationship had been notoriously on-again-and-off-again.
At least now she knew why the popular boy was talking to her. Everyone in the school knew that she and Mallory didn’t get along and what better way to get the blonde girl fuming with anger than to ask Katherine to sit with him at lunch? Well, too bad for Brad that she had better things to do than be a pawn in some immature bid for revenge.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Katherine eventually replied, her tone still unyielding, “but I don’t think it’s a good idea to upset her and I’m sure we both know that me sitting with you at lunch would do just that.”
Brad looked genuinely surprised at those implications. “But that’s not-”
Katherine interrupted him before he could say anymore. “I’ve got to go. I’m meeting up with Abby and I’m sure she’s wondering where I am.”
Refusing to let Brad get another word in, Katherine hurried down the hallway, leaving the boy to watch her as she left, completely flabbergasted at what had just occurred.
Katherine told Abby what had happened as soon as they found a secluded area in the cafeteria where they could privately eat their lunches. Abby was astonished to say the least and had instantly demanded why she hadn’t taken Brad up on his offer. “Have you gone ‘round the bend?” she asked hysterically. “Refusing Brad is, like, committing social suicide. He’s the Edward Cullen of Middletown High.”
Katherine couldn’t help but be entertained by her friend’s antics, but quickly explained herself nonetheless. “No amount of popularity is worth Mallory’s scorn. She already hates me. I can only imagine what she’d do if she thought I was moving in on her ex-boyfriend.” She rolled her eyes, emphasizing the silliness of that notion.
Abby begrudgingly conceded the point. “I guess.”
“Besides,” Katherine continued, smiling amusedly at her friend, “the look on Brad’s face when I refused him was totally worth it.”
Abby let out a surprised bark of laughter at that and shook her head incredulously. “Only you would think something like that.”
The rest of the school day passed basically uneventfully for Katherine. She still received some odd looks, no doubt due to the circulating rumors, but Brad didn’t approach her again. And she had even managed to successfully keep the mystery of the shoe still sitting in her locker banished from her mind. Katherine would go as far as to say that her afternoon had been positively dull until the final school bell of the day rang and cheerleading try-outs began.
She picked up on the negative energy as soon as she entered the locker room to change into her work-out clothes.
Mallory, Jacqueline, and Heather, who were whispering conspiringly to each other in one corner of the room, immediately stopped when they spotted her. Katherine could feel the blonde’s glare directed at her as she quickly tugged on her shorts and loose-fitting t-shirt. Abby, who had entered the locker room with Katherine, was looking nervously between the two girls. Katherine could only assume that someone had told Mallory about Brad inviting her to sit with him at lunch and that’s what had the girl so aggravated.
Mallory’s anger became more and more obvious throughout the try-outs. She had to have purposefully bumped into Katherine half a dozen times while they were being taught routines to memorize, and she was fairly certain her toes were bruised from being stomped on. The blonde had even completely knocked her off her feet once, immediately offering a falsely sweet apology after doing so, more for Couch Benson’s sake than anything else.
Just as Katherine had expected would happen, everyone made the squad and the coach let them go after announcing that voting for team captain would take place at the end of the week.
It was only after try-outs were over that Mallory finally confronted her.
Katherine was one of the last girls left in the locker room, having opted to wait to use one of the more private stalled showers rather than the large communal one. She had just tugged on her shirt and was about to pull her gym bag out of her locker when the metal contraption was slammed shut. Startled, Katherine turned around only to come face to face with the furious Mallory.
“I always knew you were pathetic Katherine, but I didn’t think you’d stoop so low as to go after someone else’s boyfriend.”
Katherine sighed. She just knew something like this was coming. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mallory.”
Mallory twisted her face into a mocking smile. “Really?” she questioned sarcastically. “Cause Heather told me you were talking to Brad today before lunch.”
“So?”
The blonde looked positively indignant. “So? So what makes you think you’re allowed to try to seduce my boyfriend?”
“I’m not trying to seduce anyone’s boyfriend!” Katherine immediately retorted, starting to get a little offended.
“Then why were you talking to him?” the blonde demanded, not looking like she believed the brunette for a moment.
“He was talking to me. He invited me to sit with him at lunch! And he said you two broke up, so don’t start in on me about going after your boyfriend.”
Mallory’s face paled at that, her angry expression deflating a little. Her infuriated snarl was quickly back in place, however, and she looked twice as livid. “Don’t think that just because he’s talked to you means he’s interested,” she bit out cruelly. “Why would he want someone like you, a pathetic little nobody, when he could have someone like me?”
Katherine’s shoulders slumped a little at the hurtful comment despite the voice in her head telling her that the blonde was just lashing out at her due to her own insecurity. “Look, Mallory-”
“No, you look,” the blonde rudely interrupted. “If I find out you talk to, or even look at Brad again, you’ll regret it. Keep your grubby paws to yourself.” With that warning given, Mallory stomped furiously out of the locker room.
Katherine sighed. Why did Mallory have to be so dramatic? She tried to shake off the confrontation, choosing instead to concentrate solely on packing up her gym bag.
It wasn’t until Katherine left the locker room and began walking back toward her hallway locker to grab her homework that she finally allowed her mind to return to the shoe. She had almost been able to forget about it what with all the Brad and Mallory drama.
Almost.
Making the quick trip to her locker after try-outs was forcing her to once again confront that particular issue, however.
After packing her
books and homework into her book bag, she finally forced herself to take a real good look at the shoe. The sneaker, which had been white not more than three days ago, was now a dingy-looking grey and covered with filth.
Cautiously picking up the shoe, Katherine could see that the tongue was in tatters and that the sole of the shoe and its red laces were missing.
Katherine startled and almost dropped the grimy sneaker when she saw what appeared to be a crumpled piece of paper shoved deep into the toe of the shoe.
What in the world?
Taking a moment to remind herself to breathe, Katherine immediately recognized the feeling rapidly growing in her gut. It was the same feeling that had plagued her three nights ago at the old, abandoned house on Miller Road and again this morning when she had first seen the shoe.
Forcing herself to push past the horrible feeling of apprehension, she carefully slid her trembling fingers inside the decrepit sneaker. Taking out the small, crumpled ball, she slowly straightened out the shabby piece of paper. Sloppy cursive stained the paper in a red ink.
You are in danger. If you value your life, meet me tonight at the house at the end of Miller Road. I’ll be waiting.
CHAPTER THREE
Blue eyes were staring at her again. They were more passionate than ever, almost urgent in their intensity. The eyes were begging her to listen, to do as she was told. But what do you want, she felt like screaming. What could you possibly want?
Katherine woke with a start, gasping for air and drenched in a cold sweat. After taking a moment to calm her erratic breathing, she slowly relaxed her fingers from where they were clenching her bed sheets in tight fists. Untangling herself from the blankets that she had managed to twist around herself, she sat up tiredly.
Katherine blearily looked at the alarm clock on her nightstand. It informed her that it was barely past five in the morning and she sighed, knowing there was no way she’d be able to fall back asleep.
Ignoring how stiff her body felt, she pulled herself out of bed, intending on going for a brisk morning run. She hoped the exhilaration she usually experienced while running would serve to relax her frayed nerves.
However, even as she prepared herself for the planned run – changing out of her pajamas and throwing on a tank top and a pair of loose athletics shorts – she couldn’t stop her mind from drifting back to her dream.
It had happened again.
Every night since the events of the Friday last, the stubborn wolf – or the animal’s penetrating eyes at least – had haunted her dreams, and every night the eyes were getting more and more insistent. But she still had no idea what they wanted.
The dreams were slowly wearing on her and she often woke up feeling more tired than she did before falling asleep. As a result, she felt more exhausted than she had in a long time and didn’t need to look in the bathroom mirror to know that there were dark circles under her eyes.
A suppressed shudder wracked her body as she thought of the intensity at which the blue orbs had stared at her. The dreams didn’t frighten her, per say, but she was becoming increasingly unsettled as they grew in both frequency and intensity. They were distracting her from her daily life and she was spending more and more time daydreaming about what they could mean.
She had gotten so desperate for answers that she had even checked out a book – The Hidden Meaning Behind Your Dreams by Stephanie Crown – that had been tucked away in a secluded corner of the school library. Upon reading it, however, she quickly realized it would be little use to her. The only thing she could find about eyes appearing in dreams were interpretations of what it meant when dreamers dreamed of their own eyes.
According to the book, seeing one’s eyes in a dream represented unconscious or repressed thoughts, often hidden desires of the soul, that were breaking through the surface of consciousness.
It sounded like a load of tripe to Katherine.
Not that it mattered.
She wasn’t dreaming about her own eyes. She was dreaming about someone – something – else’s.
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Katherine snatched a hair band from her night stand so she could quickly pull back her wavy hair – made even more unruly after having slept on it – into a messy ponytail. She grabbed her MP3 player on her way out of her bedroom before quietly tiptoeing down the stairs, not wanting to wake her parents. She made quick work of tugging on her sneakers – their stark whiteness a constant reminder of their newness – before quietly letting herself out the front door.
After finding an energetic song to run to, Katherine plugged the MP3 player’s buds into her ears and started up the driveway. Soon she was jogging at a comfortable pace, the slight morning breeze cooling her face as she ran.
It was still rather dark out, the sun just barely peeking through the horizon, but Katherine knew Middletown like the back or her hand and could have easily navigate the small town even if it had been completely black out.
The brunette was slowly able to unwind as the run had the invigorating effect she had hoped it would. Unfortunately, as her body relaxed, her mind began to wander, the music blaring in her ears gradually becoming more like background noise.
As was typical of late, when Katherine’s mind wasn’t preoccupied with thoughts of the strange dreams she’d been having, it’d turned to thinking about the note she had found in her tattered shoe.
She still didn’t understand it. Not only did Katherine have no idea how whoever had planted the shoe had managed to get into her locked locker, she had no idea why they would want to do it. The only explanation she could come up with was that it had been some sort of prank – a prank that had failed when she didn’t show up on Miller Road that Monday night.
It had been five days since then – it was Saturday morning – and nothing had ever come of her not going.
But that didn’t mean that strange things weren’t happening.
Katherine was sure that her body was changing in weird ways that had nothing to do with puberty, but she was the only one who seemed to notice it.
When she had brought it up with her mom earlier in the week, Elaine had been quick to assure her daughter that she was merely experiencing the natural changes that all teenagers went through.
Katherine severely doubted that all teenagers went from being able to run a mile in about six and a half minutes to running it in about five and a half. She didn’t know anyone who could increase their speed and endurance that quickly without some serious training. She hadn’t even felt winded after she had finished that mile either.
It wasn’t just that.
In cheerleading practice, she was more flexible and graceful than she had ever been before. She was doing handstands and toe-touches as she had never been able to do them. She thought puberty was supposed to make teenagers awkward and clumsy, not whatever this was.
Katherine supposed most people would be grateful for the changes, not questioning them as she was, but her sudden aptitude in athletics was not the only thing the girl was concerned about. Her body temperature had been inexplicably warm lately – like she was running a fever without the other symptoms of illness. It seemed that no matter what she did, she couldn’t stay cool for long. This, unfortunately, had gotten her into quite a bit of trouble in the past few days.
In an effort to keep herself as cool as possible, Katherine had taken to wearing as little as possible. She never wore anything vulgar, but for someone like Katherine, who rarely wore revealing clothing, showing up at school in short shorts and tank tops was apparently enough to cause a scandal.
The resulting confrontation with Mallory was still at the forefront of her mind.
She had been sitting with Abby in the cafeteria on Thursday when the blonde and her gaggle of impersonators had approached their table.
Mallory sneered at Katherine before grabbing the edge of the tabletop and leaning toward the unimpressed brunette in an intimidating manner. “I sure hope it’s not Brad you’re trying to impress with that appal
ling outfit,” she bit out snidely, “because I happen to know that he doesn’t go for desperate little girls.”
The blonde spoke loud enough for her sidekicks to hear and they snickered at the comment.
“Funny how he ended up with you then,” Katherine retorted before she could think better of it. Abby, startled by the unexpected comeback, began choking on her laughter.
Mallory immediately flushed at the retort and glared at the redhead until she managed to get herself under control, looking a little sheepish as she finally did. Then the blonde trained her eyes back on Katherine. “I’d watch yourself if I were you,” she warned before stomping off.
Katherine snorted as she pulled herself out of the memory. What was is exactly that the blonde was threatening to do? Spread rumors? Pull her hair?
She had much more important things to worry about. Like her sudden improvement in athletic ability. Like her sudden spike in body temperature. Like the strange cravings she’d been having for red meat.
It was perhaps the oddest of the changes she had been going through and the sudden cravings had come completely unexpectedly. It had first hit her on Tuesday evening.
She had gotten back from cheerleading practice and was working on her biology homework – explaining the difference between mitosis and meiosis – when she smelled the steaks cooking in the kitchen. The aroma had been so enticing that she abandoned her homework halfway through a sentence and followed her nose to the kitchen where her dad was cooking up a half dozen steaks over the stovetop. Before Katherine was even aware that she intended to speak, she had opened her mouth and blurted, “Can you make mine rare?”
Looking back, she was fairly certain that she’d looked as surprised as her father had at the request. She had never asked for her meat to be anything but well done in the past. Nonetheless, the man had agreed and half an hour later she had devoured the best steak of her life. It was so tender and pink – not to mention juicy – that she had managed to polish off the entire steak in record time, finishing her meal well before her parents.
