by Gayle Riley
I could now see him clearly. He had long legs and a lean but muscular upper torso. His legs and chest were covered in thick brown hair. As he was about to pass me, I raised my hand and said hi to him. He grunted and nodded his head as he continued his run. I was struck by how hairy his face was. He had a full beard and a full head of long hair.
I couldn’t remember ever seeing such a hairy man. In this town, most of the men were clean-shaven with neatly trimmed hair. He didn’t seem to fit into the place at all. But he had to be from around here if he was jogging through the trails. As beautiful as this area was, people generally didn’t come from very far away to enjoy it.
The thought passed through my mind that maybe he was homeless. But that didn’t make any sense. Homeless people didn’t jog on the trails. And there really weren’t homeless people around here anyway. The only one I had ever seen was the mute who used to walk through the trails alone. But that was in my childhood, almost twenty years ago.
Chapter 3
When I got home, I went straight to the fridge and grabbed another cold bottle of water. While I sipped on it, the image of the mysterious, hairy jogger came surging back into my mind. I desperately wanted to see him again. But who was he? What did he do? If he wasn’t homeless, and I didn’t think he was, then why wasn’t he at work? None of that made sense to me. And I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about him until I got some answers.
The sound of the doorbell ringing snapped me back to the present. I had no idea who it could be. I hadn’t told anyone that I was coming back into town. I never did. As I walked to the door, I sighed in frustration. When I opened it, my mood only got worse.
It was my childhood bully, Melissa. When we were young she had made my life hell. She was the last person I wanted to see.
She smiled and opened her arms. “Emily, how are you?” she screeched.
I plastered on my best fake smile and tried to hide my dislike for her.
We sat down on the couch and reminisced for a bit. We talked about our former classmates—marriages, divorces, children. But the whole time I kept thinking about how mean she had been to me growing up.
She was part of the skinny girls’ club. All the hottest guys followed them everywhere they went.
Skinny girls were very popular and they were also cruel, especially if they were in a pack. They would never pass up an opportunity to tease any girl who wasn’t part of their club. And their favorite targets were the fat girls. I definitely fit into that category so I was always afraid of running into them.
I tried to push those thoughts from my mind. I didn’t want to be angry with her. That was the past and it was time to move on. I figured that it would be a good idea to find out if Melissa knew anything about the man who I’d seen jogging earlier in the day.
“I was walking on the trails this morning,” I said, “and I saw this man jogging.”
Melissa smiled lustily. Her green eyes lit up. “Was he hot?” she asked.
“Hold on a second,” I said. “I’m getting to that. “And yes, from the little that I saw of him I could definitely say that he was hot.”
“Did you talk to him?” she asked.
“As he ran towards me, I waved and said hi. But he didn’t respond. I mean he did respond but it was sort of with a head nod and a grunt.”
“So why are you bringing him up now?”
“Because there was something about him that seemed so different from most of the men around here.”
“Do you mean the out of shape dad bodies that most of the men here have?”
We both covered our mouths and giggled. That’s exactly what I meant.
“He was tall and lean with a ripped chest,” I said. “But what really caught my attention was how hairy he was.”
“Hairy?” Melissa said with a frown. “Like with a beard hairy?”
“Yes, he had a beard. But there was a lot more hair on him than that.”
“How much?” Melissa asked. Her eyes were full of curiosity.
“I didn’t get the best look at him because he ran by me pretty fast. But from what I could see he had hair on his legs, arms, chest, face and head. Thick brown hair.”
“Are you sure you didn’t see a homeless guy?” she asked.
I shook my head vigorously from side to side. “No, he definitely wasn’t homeless,” I said. “He was a jogger. A very hairy jogger.”
Melissa frowned and shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve never seen anyone fitting that description around town.”
I was more confused than ever. I’d really been hoping that she would be able to give me some answers that would help me figure out who he was. But it seemed like I would have to do the digging on my own. I wouldn’t be able to enjoy myself on this month long vacation if I didn’t figure who that man was.
“Emily, I have something that I really want to talk to you about,” Melissa said, putting her hand on my arm.
She had a very odd look on her face. And I wasn’t sure how to respond. I didn’t know what to say so I kept my mouth shut.
“I know it was a long time ago,” she said. “And maybe it’s silly to talk about it now. But I’ve always felt bad about how I took Jason from you.”
I stared at her with my mouth open. Just when I thought that we were getting along well, she had to go and bring up Jason.
“He really liked you,” Melissa said. “He thought you were a good person. But you know boys tend to prefer the skinny girls.”
She covered her mouth and began giggling. I felt like a complete fool sitting there listening to her talk about the high school boyfriend that she had stolen from me. He was the one guy who would actually pay attention me. He was a jock and ran with some of the popular crowds, but he was also extremely kind and sensitive.
We’d been dating for months and were eagerly anticipating going to the senior prom together. Well, at least, I was. He had other plans. Those plans included taking skinny Melissa to the prom instead of me. And he didn’t even have the guts to tell me himself. He sent some of his friends to deliver the message.
I was heart-broken. No one had ever deceived me so cruelly. It took me a long time to recover from that betrayal. I was too humiliated to go to my senior prom. I’d always felt like I had missed out on something.
“That was a really long time ago,” I said. “It’s nothing. Really.”
Melissa shook her head from side to side. “What I did was wrong,” she said. “I could have had any boy I wanted. But a girl like you—”
She covered her mouth and looked away. I was doing my best to contain my emotions, but I could feel the anger bubbling up inside of me. I didn’t know how much more of this I could take.
“A girl on the heavy side, Melissa continued, “You didn’t have many options.”
Not only had she taken my boyfriend and ruined my prom, but every time we passed in the hallway, she would snicker at me—like she took some kind of sadistic pleasure in watching me suffer.
“Let’s just move on from that,” I said, taking hold of her hands. I might have squeezed them a bit too tightly. She grimaced slightly but did her best to hide her discomfort.
“You’re such a forgiving person,” she said. “I don’t think I would be able to forgive another woman if she took my man away from me.”
I sighed and looked away from her. She was determined to push me to the edge of my patience. I took a deep breath and smiled at her.
“Hopefully, we’ll get to spend some time together while I’m back in town, “I said.
Melissa’s face lit up. If I didn’t know her better, I would have actually believed that thought I was being sincere.
“That would be fantastic,” she said.
I was relieved when Melissa finally left. I couldn’t stand being around her but I was proud of the way I had behaved. I’d managed to keep my cool. Getting angry with her would have only made things worse. And that’s exactly what she wanted.
She had destroyed a relationship that
had meant a lot to me. And the way it ended made me mistrustful of both guys and girls for many years. There was no way that I could forgive her for that.
But I did hope that she would one day feel exactly what she caused me to feel. That would only be right. That would only be karma. That thought calmed me down and allowed me to turn my mind to other things.
I tossed and turned in the bed for almost forty-five minutes without being able to get a bit of sleep. I kept seeing the hairy jogger coming toward me. But this time, in my imagination, he didn’t run past me with a grunt and a nod. Instead, he slowed down as he approached me, smiled and said hi. And I turned to look at him as he jogged away down the path. When he was about twenty feet away from me, he turned around and smiled. His warmth sent shivers of excitement through my body.
After about an hour of struggling to get to sleep, I was able to close my eyes and drift off into dreamland.
When I woke up hours later, I was startled. Everything was dark. I looked at the clock. It read 8:30 p.m. I couldn’t believe that I’d been asleep for almost six hours. I wouldn’t be able to go back on the trails until the next day. A feeling of deep disappointment flooded my body. I didn’t think that I would be able to wait that long to see him.
I never slept that much during the day. I tried to keep my naps brief so they wouldn’t throw off my sleep schedule.
Before going to sleep, I had considered going back onto the trails. I thought that maybe there was a chance that I would see my mystery man. But clearly that would have to wait till tomorrow. There was no way that I would venture onto the trails in this darkness.
When I got down to the kitchen, I searched through the fridge for something to eat. It was more instinct than anything else. I hated skipping meals. But for some reason, I had no appetite.
Suddenly I heard something rustling in the bushes. I assumed that it was a deer. I stood up and peered into the darkness. The sounds were coming towards me closer and closer, but I still couldn’t see anything yet. And then I saw something low to the ground emerging from a clump of bushes.
I couldn’t tell what it was. But through the darkness, I could see two eyes gleaming. Whatever it was continued approaching and fixed its eyes on me. I got up from my chair and prepared to go inside. I didn’t want to have any sort of encounter with a wild animal.
A few moments later the animal strolled into the middle of my backyard. I wanted to go inside but I was frozen. Its eyes were still locked on me but I couldn’t tell what it was. A dog? A fox? A coyote?
No. It was a wolf!
As it moved through my backyard and continued approaching, I tried to scream, but the words were stuck in my mouth. When it got to about ten feet away from me, it stopped.
Its eyes were so intense. There was something so wild in them. But there was also something human in the way it stared at me.
After staring at me without moving for several minutes, the wolf turned around and began trotting away. When it got to the edge of my backyard, it turned around and looked at me. Shivers passed through me.
Chapter 4
Colin
Who was she? It couldn't be…That was so long ago, so many years ago. She was just a girl. Was it her? When we were both teenagers, I would often see her walking through the woods. I was very shy at the time and whenever I heard human footsteps I would quickly hide behind bushes and trees. She was a bit on the plump side but very cute. My face was flushed red when I saw her. At night I would often dream about her, imagining all the fun that we could have had together, just the two of us alone in the forest. But that would never be possible, I thought. We were too different.
I'd heard stories from older members of the clan, men who had tried to form romantic relationships with human women, only to be deeply disappointed when they revealed themselves.
It wasn't safe. They'll have you killed. They’ll send the FBI, the CIA. You’ll be destroyed along with the rest of the clan.
This is what they would tell us, warning us to stay as far away from human beings, especially women, as possible. But over the years those attitudes had begun to change. It was now acceptable to marry outside of the clan. For some, it was even desirable.
But maybe I'd been poisoned at too young an age. Maybe I would never be able to overcome my own fears and prejudice toward humans. But still, there was something about that one girl that seemed different. I had never talked to her, never made eye contact with her. Yet I had always felt a spiritual connection with her.
But no, this was crazy. I was just lying to myself. Maybe the loneliness was finally getting to me, finally eating in my brain, gnawing at my soul. Maybe I just needed to accept whoever the clan would present to me as a potential wife. Maybe that was the only way.
After my father's early and untimely demise, I'd been entrusted with great responsibility. If I let him down, if I let the clan down, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
The world was filled with so much hate, so much prejudice. I felt safer being alone, hiding out here deep in the woods on this isolated compounds waiting for my enemies to attack. For the last decade, we had lived in peace. But I knew that could last forever. The same people who had grabbed my young sister, the same people who had caused my father's death, would be back for me. I was sure of it. Others in the clan were complacent. I’d known for a while that there were whispers about my ability to lead, suggestions that I’d never gotten over my father's death.
During my reign, I’d had banished more than a handful of members. It felt good, that rush of power and adrenaline coursing through my veins, as I cast them off into the wilderness to die lonely, miserable deaths. But a few days after I performed such acts, the guilt would begin to set it. That wasn't in my nature. That's not how my father had ruled.
Maybe a woman's influence was exactly what I needed. A tight pain gripped my chest. I could feel a hunger deep in my loins.
My last relationship, one which I hadn't really wanted to get into the first place, had brought me nothing but drama. When we first began the relationship, Melissa had seemed so friendly and obedient. But as the weeks and months went on, her true nature began to show itself. She could be mean, vindictive, clingy, jealous and passive aggressive. I hated all those things. But I loved her body, loved the way that she moved in the bedroom, how she could either be on top or on the bottom, on the side or in any other conceivable position. I loved the way that she could take my member between her two hands, stroke it back and forth, swirl her tongue around the large head and up and down the shaft until she made me explode with excitement.
It was only lust, pure, animalistic lust. I didn’t need that anymore, at least I hoped that I didn’t. Since breaking things off with her almost a year ago, I had vowed to stay away from all women. No masturbation either. I would use the furnace of sexual energy and desired that burned within me for higher goals. And more importantly, I vowed that I would never open my heart to a woman. But this form of emotional and physical abstinence was beginning to weigh on me. How much longer could I go on like this?
Chapter 5
Emily
I woke up the next day refreshed and ready to begin my search. As I prepared a bacon and egg breakfast, I kept looking out the kitchen window into the backyard. I hoped that the wolf would emerge from the trail and saunter into my yard. But I knew how unlikely that was. I would probably have to wait until well after the sun went down before I saw him again.
The memory of the wolf turning around and staring at me kept flashing back in my mind. The wild animal had given off such a strong energy.
Once I finished breakfast, I showered and prepared to go out for my walk. I was usually very calm and relaxed before my walks, but that day I was really tense and anxious.
I walked through my backyard and down onto the trail.
For the first half an hour of my walk, I didn’t encounter anybody. I preferred it that way.
I stopped briefly and took a sip of water. I sat down on a rock and looked aroun
d the nature trail. I felt so cut off from the world in this place. It was like all of my worries and cares went away. So it felt weird to be so anxious about meeting someone, especially since I had no idea who this person was.
I thought for sure that Melissa would have known who he was. She knew everybody. But when she said that the description didn’t fit anybody that she knew from town, I knew that it was going to be difficult to figure out his true identity.
After sitting on the rock for about ten minutes, listening for the slightest sound of a jogger, I sighed deeply and prepared to go home.
My whole body felt tired and heavy. It was the disappointment of not seeing that mysterious man again that had me feeling so low.
As I was walking back home, I heard the sounds of branches breaking and leaves being trampled. I immediately stopped and looked at the trail. I couldn’t see anybody. I couldn’t tell where those sounds were coming from. But I was convinced that what I heard were footsteps. There was no time to waste.
I went off in the direction that I thought they were coming from. But I realized that if I continued walking there was no way that I would be able to keep up. So I started running, pumping my arms and legs, heading in the direction of the footsteps. It had been a long time since I had jogged, let alone sprinted.
It was a pretty ridiculous thing to do. But there I was in my sneakers and black spandex pants, huffing and puffing on the trail. I was doing pretty well for about the first five minutes, but then out of nowhere my whole world turned upside down and then toppled over. My foot must have caught on a rock or one of the many tree roots that reached out of the ground. Whatever it was brought me tumbling down on the dirt and jagged rocks.
As I went to the ground, I used my hands to soften the fall. This prevented me from landing face first but it scratched up my wrists, arm, and hands.
I howled in pain. I wasn’t sure whether or not I had broken any bones. I started crying and calling out for help. I could hear my voice echoing in the forest but I couldn’t hear anyone coming to my rescue.
