“Just go away,” Erin hissed the words to herself.
She’d become so distraught about the noises at night that she’d even approached her neighbors about it, and their responses troubled her.
“Have you heard all that howling at night?” Erin asked her neighbor, Frank, one morning when she went to retrieve her mail.
Frank was divorced and in his mid-forties. His three children came to stay with him on alternate weekends. He was pleasant with a bright smile, crinkled eyes and a receding hairline. When Erin had first moved in, he’d invited her out for a drink and she’d politely declined. Not that Frank wasn’t handsome for his age, but perhaps he was too safe. As her mother would say, there was no darkness in Frank. He was a wholesome, decent guy. He worked in accounts, paid his mortgage on time and tried to be the best father he could be to his children.
For Erin, Frank would have been a decent dating prospect, which was precisely the reason she turned him down.
Gazing at him in the pale morning light, Erin wished she could yearn for someone free of darkness and danger. Frank was a good man. Why couldn’t Erin have fallen for him?
“Howling?” Frank looked puzzled as he stood beside his mailbox in his sweats and white tee. Erin couldn’t help but notice that for his age he was in decent shape. She wished the same could be said for herself. With her swollen stomach, her entire body looked bloated and disproportionate. She missed her pre-pregnancy svelte physique.
“Yeah, at night I keep getting woken up by howling.” Erin blushed as she explained, already feeling foolish for having brought it up.
Frank looked at her and shook his head. “I’ve not heard anything. Perhaps there are some stray dogs about. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”
He went to leave, to return to his house and his new girlfriend. While she wasn’t nearly as attractive as Erin, she was close to Frank’s age, also divorced and most importantly, available. Frank wasn’t the sort of man to pine after a woman who wasn’t interested in him.
Erin sometimes wondered what he thought of her; pregnant and abandoned by the father. She wondered if Frank judged her, but he seemed too kind for that. She imaged he perhaps pitied her for ending up in such an unenviable position.
“Your children haven’t heard anything?” Erin called after him, desperate for some acknowledgement that someone else had heard the infernal howling.
“They’ve not mentioned anything,” Frank replied, sadness pinching at the edge of his eyes. He did pity Erin; she saw it then. He pitied her because she was alone in a house without anyone to make her feel safe.
“Okay.” Erin smiled thinly, wishing she’d never brought it up.
“It’s a difficult time, being pregnant,” Frank commented sympathetically. “You just need to rest and take it easy. If I hear anything strange at night, I’ll make sure to check it out.”
Erin’s smile broadened. “Thank you.”
“Anytime.” Frank waved at her before disappearing back in to his house. Erin watched him leave as a sinking feeling avalanched through her.
Frank was kind and chivalrous. He wouldn’t just leave the woman who was carrying his child. Not like Sean.
Erin’s hands bunched at her sides. Every time she thought about Sean, her blood almost boiled over in rage. This tended to coincide with her baby kicking her, as though mirroring the agitation in her thoughts.
***
In her bed, Erin tried to wish the howling away but it seemed to only grow louder. There were multiple voices now, all howling in unison. It felt like they were on every side of her house. How could Frank possibly sleep through it all? It was almost deafening.
As the pitch within the howl intensified, Erin fearfully crept from her bed, desperate to peek from a window and catch a glimpse of one of the canine callers. She’d never yet actually seen anything around her house, which made her feel as though she were losing her mind. From the level of sound, she was certain that as soon as she peered from behind her curtains she’d see a circle of wolves all neatly arranged around her home, their heads bent back to the moon as they released their high, drawn out cry.
Taking careful, quiet steps, Erin approached her bedroom window and the howling seemed even louder. Keeping one hand protectively wrapped around her stomach, she carefully peeled back her curtain and looked out in to the night.
To her surprise, the world appeared as it should. There were cars neatly parked on driveways, currently dark and idle. Homes were cast in shadow as the occupants soundly slept. There seemed to be no one or nothing outside, yet the howling persisted.
Erin strained to focus her attention closer to her house, to the wall directly beneath her bedroom window. As she lowered her eyes, she heard something move in the bushes by her front door. She caught a fleeting glimpse of something silver and then the howling suddenly ceased.
Desperately, her eyes searched the point below her bedroom window, trying to find what she had seen, but now there was only darkness. At least the howling had stopped. Sighing wearily, Erin considered going back to bed. She yearned to creep back in beneath the covers and just sleep. But she knew that the moment she dared to close her eyes again, the howling would resume, it always did.
“Dammit.” Erin moaned in frustration at her sudden desire to urinate. She felt that she spent half her life on the toilet now that her baby was pressing down on her bladder. Reluctantly, she stood up and walked over to her en suite bathroom, grateful for its proximity to her bed. Since seeing the glimpse of something silver, she didn’t fancy venturing out beyond her bedroom while it was still dark.
Sat on the toilet and grateful for the relief, Erin tried to bring the brief image she’d seen outside to the forefront of her mind. Had it just been a trick of the light or had she actually seen something? The howling had certainly stopped, which made her believe that she’d spooked whatever it was that was so determined to keep a vigil beneath her bedroom window. But what was it? Surely it wasn’t a wolf? It all made no sense. Erin refused to believe Sean’s mad theories, even in her fragile state.
Eventually, she made her way back to her bed. Still, the world outside remained quiet and peaceful. Erin felt relieved that the howling was now gone, at least for the time being. She looked eagerly at her bed. It looked so comfortable and inviting.
As she lowered herself down and pulled the sheets tightly around her, she glanced uncertainly at her bedside light. She considered turning it off. A part of her thought that it signaled to whatever it was outside that she was still awake. If the house was plunged into darkness, the howling might not resume.
But the thought of being alone in the darkness filled Erin with terror. Considering her mother was so certain that she desired the dark, Erin now cowered in its presence, unable to tolerate it even for a second. She yearned for the safe glow of light, to have no shadows to conceal any potential dangers. Within the light, Erin felt safe. The lamp would remain on.
“Werewolves aren’t real,” Erin told the empty space around her. She was trying to console her worried mind. She kept fretting over what she had potentially seen. That flash of silver, it could have been the fur of something, the fur of a wolf.
“Werewolves aren’t real,” she said again, like a child at bedtime repeating the mantra about there being no monsters in the closet or beneath the bed. She needed to reassure her fears, to remind herself of how ludicrous it all was.
“You’re just tired,” she told herself, rolling over on to her side, which took her a couple of attempts to achieve.
She lay awake, waiting for the return of the howling but everything remained silent and still. A peaceful atmosphere fell over her bedroom, which was a welcome respite from the feelings of terror and unease she’d been experiencing. Erin allowed herself to relax. Glancing at her bedside clock, she saw that it was only two in the morning. She dared to believe that she could actually get some sleep. The prospect was too delicious for words. Erin longed for sleep like a man wandering the desert longs for water.
Just as Erin was on the cusp of sleep, her body jolted her back to a state of high alert. This time it wasn’t the howling beyond her window that had woken her but a sharp, persistent stabbing pain that fanned out from her stomach and consumed the lower half of her body.
***
“Argh!” Erin called out to the emptiness in agony as the fire of pain burnt through her body.
“Argh!” she cried again as a second surge of pain swept over her.
Managing to sit up, Erin curled herself in to a ball, protectively running her hands over her baby bump. She had no idea what was happening, only that it was excruciatingly painful.
She cried out again as a fresh batch of stabbing sensations ballooned within her. If the howling hadn’t managed to wake her neighbors, she had no doubt that her screaming would.
Perspiration prickled on her forehead as Erin rocked back and forth on her bed, taking long, deep breaths, trying not to let the pain overwhelm her. A persistent, worried voice at the back of her head questioned if she was going in to labor, but she dismissed it. If she were going in to labor, her waters would have broken. Besides, she wasn’t due for another week yet.
“Argh.” She winced in pain, squeezing her eyes shut. When she opened them again she fixated on the phone, still atop her spare pillow. As she eyed it, she considered calling her mother. But what good would that do? Her mother lived several hours away. Erin needed more than soothing words spoken through a telephone, she needed actual, physical help. The pain pulsating through her was so great that she doubted she could even make it off the bed unaided.
She wished for Sean. In spite of everything, she wished he was there to offer a hand for her to hold if nothing else. If only she hadn’t been so quick to judge and send him away.
***
“You’re going to be a single mom?” the nurse had asked, raising an eyebrow, pity coating each word.
Laid out on the bed in a most inelegant position, Erin could only nod.
“You’re so brave, I can’t imagine how tough that would be,” the young blonde nurse continued.
“I’ll be fine,” Erin replied curtly. She didn’t enjoy discussing the finer details of her personal life with strangers. But each time she attended a hospital appointment alone, she felt dozens of pairs of judgmental eyes upon her. She could just imagine what they were saying; wondering why she was alone and why the father wasn’t there.
Throughout her life, Erin had felt strong and independent. She’d never felt like she needed a man to complete her. But there, in the hospital, carrying Sean’s baby, she suddenly felt like only one half of a whole and that she was inexplicably incomplete. It was a feeling that made her feel weak and vulnerable. She hated feeling that way.
“What happened to the father?” the nurse dared to ask, not picking up on Erin’s cold demeanor.
Erin never knew how to answer when presented with his question. Saying that he left painted her to be some poor, defenseless victim who had made some bad choices in life. Erin didn’t like being seen as a victim. As much as she felt weak and vulnerable in her present state, she didn’t want other people to view her that way too, else it risked sticking long after her baby had been born. No, she still wanted people to perceive her as strong and independent, even if she no longer did.
“We broke up.” Erin kept her answer as vague as possible.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” The nurse sounded genuinely dismayed to hear this. “I’m sure you’ll be a great mom though.”
Erin smiled at this. Throughout the drama of her pregnancy, she’d not taken the time to stop and query just how ready for motherhood she really was, but she felt comforted to know that even a complete stranger had faith in her capabilities to raise a child.
“I’ll do my best,” Erin replied, her voice warmer than before. She had already vowed to love and care for her child unconditionally. She wouldn’t threaten them with ominous visions of darkness or deny them knowledge about their paternal father. Even though she knew very little about Sean, she would happily divulge all the information she had to her child. She owed her baby that at least. Even the more crazy parts about Sean’s belief that he was a werewolf. Her child wouldn’t be denied any aspect of truth.
Unlike Erin. Her lineage was shrouded in mystery, relayed to her through cryptic utterings from her mother. All Erin knew about her paternal father was that he was the harbinger of the darkness that supposedly engulfed her and cast a shadow over her life.
“Have you thought about any names yet?” the nurse inquired brightly.
Erin shook her head. Names were the last thing on her mind. All she could think about was the present. Once her baby arrived, she felt she’d instinctively know what to call it, or at least she hoped so.
“Do you have someone you can call? Someone who can bring you into the hospital when you go in to labor?” the nurse asked as she scanned through Erin’s chart. Her tone was more formal now, the friendly banter over and her brow furrowed with concern.
This was Erin’s final hospital appointment before her due date. The next time she came, she would be coming to give birth. It was a scary thought and one she’d not given much credence to until that point. A part of her kept hoping that her mother would change her mind and come and stay with her but sadly that never transpired.
“I have a friend I can call,” Erin lied. She didn’t want to reveal the terrible truth, that she was completely alone. She didn’t want the nurse to pity her, to regard her with sad eyes when she realized that the only person Erin would be calling as she went into labor was a cab.
“Good.” The nurse sounded relieved. “Because when the big moment comes, you’ll want someone there to comfort you. Labor can be a really scary time, especially for first time mothers.”
“I’ll be fine,” Erin reiterated her earlier statement. But she realized as she said it that perhaps fine wasn’t good enough. She deserved to be great, wonderful even. Fine was passable and Erin wanted more than that for both her and her child. She wanted Sean but he was long gone, now existing only in her memory.
***
Alone in her house, doubled over with pain, Erin tried in vain to focus her thoughts. The pain made everything in her mind appear black and displaced.
“Argh!” she screeched out again to the unfeeling night, stretching out her hands and grabbing the sheets as she did so.
Her hair was now wet and slick to her head. She was sweating profusely.
Panting, she tried to calm herself down but each new wave of pain only sent her into a further state of panic.
As the pain intensified, Erin became certain that the moment was here, that she was going into labor.
She grabbed the sheets in bunches, desperate to tear the bedding to shreds. She needed to do something, anything, to alleviate the pain.
Then Erin felt the wetness that was suddenly released from beneath her. It felt like she had just wet herself, even though she was certain she hadn’t. The sheets around her immediately darkened with the liquid she had released.
Looking down in disbelief, Erin tentatively touched the now wet sheets and shook her head sorrowfully. Her waters had just broken. There was now no doubt about it; she was in labor.
Erin screamed again in both frustration and pain. Her baby was on its way, and she was stuck alone in her house, in too much discomfort to even get off the bed. At least the phone was close at hand. Frantically, she reached out and grabbed it, prepared to dial 911 when a sound from downstairs made her stop dead.
The sound pierced through the silence of the night, crashing into Erin with deadly, horrifying purpose. It was the sound of breaking glass. A lot of it, as though one of her windows had just been broken in.
Erin’s blood instantly turned to ice, and she sat frozen on her bed. Pain rippled through her but she bit down on her lip, refusing to scream out. Someone had just broken in to her house, she was certain of it. However quickly the emergency services arrived at her home, she doubted they would be quick
enough to save her from whoever had just smashed their way in.
Holding her breath, Erin listened to try and make out more sounds. As she did so, she heard the unmistakable sound of someone ascending her staircase. Each step was well placed and purposeful.
Fearful tears silently soaked her cheeks as Erin waited on her bed, paralyzed from both terror and pain. Someone was coming for her.
Glancing around the room, Erin looked for something she could possibly defend herself with, but there was nothing. Again, Erin felt unbearably alone, like a part of her was missing.
A sound from outside grabbed her attention. A clattering noise, as if a garbage can had just been overturned. Erin glanced hopefully in the direction of the window. Perhaps her cries had awoken someone? Perhaps she needed to scream out again, to ask for help. But her cries would surely be misinterpreted as the result of labor pains and contractions. She wouldn’t be taken for the woman in mortal peril she clearly was.
Beyond her bedroom door, the footsteps from the staircase continued to approach, growing alarmingly closer.
Panicked, Erin pulled herself up in to ball as more pain knocked the air right out of her. As terrified as she was, she reminded herself that she must remain calm, for the sake of her baby. The last thing she wanted was for her child to become stressed. Whatever had broken in to her home, she wouldn’t let them jeopardize the safety of her baby.
But who was it? If it had been generic robbers, surely they would now be ransacking the downstairs? Fleeing with the plasma television and rooting through drawers and cupboards for other valuables and keepsakes?
Phases of Passions II (Trilogy Bundle) (Werewolf Romance - Paranormal Romance) Page 2
