by Sky Winters
Stuart took the paper and neatly folded it before placing it into the front pouch of his hoodie as well. “Thanks,” he said. “What time will be good for you?”
“Afternoon?” she replied. “We can solidify the plan closer to the day?”
“So… tomorrow?” he asked, smiling at her.
She smiled back. “Tomorrow.”
CHAPTER TWO
Everybody’s Staring
Vicky had a few hours between her class and her shift. She took advantage of the free time by sleeping as soon as she got home. She would need to be well-rested if she had any hope of working from four to midnight. Sometimes she wondered why she had ever agreed to eight hours of the late night shift ‘whenever available.’ But then she remembered her rent plus utilities plus left over tuition that the scholarship didn’t cover, and she felt like crying.
This is just temporary, she reminded herself blearily as she lay on her bed, trying to will her brain into sleep.
Before long, the bears were back, this time they were in her apartment, and growling something as if she was supposed to understand.
The alarm at three thirty saved her. She snapped awake and felt relief flow through her. Then she exchanged her jeans and blouse for short shorts, and another neon Zydeco shirt. This time, she’d be wearing bright pink.
She hobbled into work and started serving drinks at the bar, all the while imagining Stuart Barkley and what he would look like in hiking gear. Would he look the same plus boots? She smirked a little.
At one point, she glanced over and realized that a guy was staring at her from a nearby table. He was wearing a black leather jacket that perfectly matched his black hair. His eyes appeared to be green and he looked familiar to Vicky.
Then she realized where she knew him from. He was the guy from the night before. Amos Steele. A strange sensation of fear vibrated through her spine.
Suddenly, the glass she was filling from the tap overflowed onto the floor.
“Shit!” she shouted, letting go of the tap. She hadn’t been paying attention. “That was stupid,” she said, grabbed a roll of paper towels and getting to work cleaning up as soon as possible.
Ben, the head bartender and the boss, stared at her as if she’d gone mental. “Are you all right, Vicky?” he asked her, his annoyance making it hard for him to also sound concerned.
She nodded, dumping a pile of sopping towels into the trash. “Yeah. I’m sorry. I guess I’m a little out of it tonight.”
As soon as the spot was clean, she made sure the glassful of beer was okay before serving it to the waiting customer. “Sorry for the delay,” she said, strolling back up to the bar from the tables.
When she turned and looked back in the direction where she thought she’d seen Amos, there was no sight of him. Either he was gone now or he’d never been there in the first place.
It doesn’t matter now that I didn’t want him to be a distraction, she thought. It looks like he’s a distraction anyway.
The following morning, Vicky felt like she may as well not have even tried to sleep. The bears were relentless, and she tossed and turned all night. “I’m wondering if I ought to see a counselor about this,” she said out loud to herself as she stared at her alarm clock, wishing it did not say nine thirty.
After a few moments spent cursing the time, she got out of bed and started her morning routine. As she placed her bag onto her back, she wondered if Stuart would be sitting beside her in class again. The seats were not assigned, but still she hoped so. She thought they’d struck up a pretty good rapport. And she could not wait to see the final product of his drawing.
When she got to class, she realized, chagrined, that she was wearing the short shorts that she usually reserved for work. Ah well, she thought. At least it will make changing easier.
Stuart entered the classroom shortly before the professor. Sure enough, he sat beside Vicky as though that was his assigned seat. “Good morning,” he said to her.
Unless she was imagining things, he sounded a bit gruffer than before. Maybe he’d been out partying late last night. He didn’t seem like a partier, but then she did not really know him. He could have been completely wild. She blushed a little, just thinking about that.
The class handed in their completed shading exercises. Vicky glanced over at Stuart’s as he passed it up to the professor. He had made her appear so flawless. It was artistic license. She knew that she did not quite look that good. She had the odd blemish here, an old scar there. But she appreciated that he had chosen her as his subject.
“Your assignment over the weekend is to go out somewhere and draw something that you see. Take a moment, find a bench and draw your surroundings,” their professor said. “I will be choosing the top three drawings and they will be submitted to this month’s edition of The Fly.”
The Fly was the academy’s publication that showcased the best and brightest students. It was named after a park that was a short walk away from the school. That gave Vicky an idea. She had a pretty good feeling that she wouldn’t be alone in thinking it, but it would still be good.
She would go to The Fly that weekend during her time off from work!
As she packed up her things at the end of class that day, she smiled over at Stuart. “See you tomorrow for a hike?” she asked him. “If you don’t see me at Zydeco, look for me at The Fly.”
“Oh, I’ll find you,” he said.
She believed that he meant that to be said in a joking way, but there was something about his tone that was somewhat off. He was different that day. Quiet, moody. Maybe he really had had a bad night last night…
When Vicky got home, she wrote down her tentative plans for the weekend on her whiteboard calendar that she kept in her kitchen. It was the sort of thing that was usually found in a college dorm room. That was what she’d bought it for, initially.
She did not usually use it anymore. She did not usually have much in the way of plans.
Visit The Fly
Go Hiking
She threw off her shirt and took a nap in her shorts and bra, allowing herself a little extra time for sleeping since all she’d need to do was put on another neon work shirt. Her alarm went off so cruelly when she felt she’d only just fallen asleep.
Putting on a green Zydeco shirt, she brushed her short hair and put it up into small pigtails. Her hair’s length did not allow for much in the way of styling, but there was something about tiny pigtails that made her happy. Maybe it was the fact that they reminded her of a cartoon character from the 90s.
Ready to go, she left her apartment, locking her door behind her. Vicky was excited to go to work today, but she couldn’t say why. She supposed it was because it would be her last day before a full weekend off. That was a rarity, and it was a rarity that she aimed to take advantage of.
Everything at work was the normal sort of thing she found there. It was muggy and loud and full of big, brawny men who were drinking together or separately and carrying on loud conversations with each other. A little young lady like Vicky could easily get lost in there. Hence the bright t-shirts.
The sexy young biker guy was there again. She saw him sitting by himself at practically the same table where she’d first seen him. He was staring right at her and didn’t look away when she looked.
Vicky blushed and looked away. She needed to focus on her job. Last time they had had a staring contest like that, she’d ended up spilling Coors Light all over the floor and counter. Ben had his eye on her and would most likely send her home early if that happened again. She couldn’t spare the tip money for something so stupid.
Instead, she filled her mind with thoughts of Stuart Barkley. He was out of it in class today, but they had plans to go on a… Was it a date? A hiking date. Vicky smiled again as she imagined him hiking in his blue hoodie, jeans and big brown boots. She didn’t know why the image was so funny to her. He just didn’t seem like the sort of guy who went hiking. He was tall and spindly looking.
Unlike Am
os Steele. She cast a glance his way and noted how big he was. He was built more like a mountaineer. He looked like he could knock down a tree with his bare hands. She realized that, although he’d introduced himself as a biker, she’d never actually seen him on a motorcycle. She wondered how he managed that. His bike must be a monster.
Thinking about the two young men who frequently occupied her thoughts helped make the time pass. It wasn’t long before she was clearing and cleaning up the bar after hours. Vicky yawned and put her little pocketed apron away in the back.
“See you Monday,” she announced to everyone.
There were grumbles of assent. The workers there got one weekend off a month and no one else that night was getting their weekend free. Vicky would have felt bad if she hadn’t been in there shoes for three weeks prior. Everyone there learned to live with the schedule, or went somewhere else.
Vicky left Zydeco and started walking the short distance between work and her apartment building. She felt like someone was following her, but then she was always a little paranoid when walking the streets of New Orleans at night. Although she had lived there for months now, she was still surrounded by strangers. Doing her best to ignore the odd feeling and just walk faster, she turned a corner and climbed the concrete steps to her building’s front door, where she was suddenly face to face with Stuart from art class.
“Hey,” she said with a slightly confused smile. It was surprising but also kind of nice to randomly find him there. “What are you doing out so late?”
Just then, Stuart pulled out a knife and pressed against her, holding the knife to her neck. “Get inside,” he said. “Now.”
Eyes widening, Vicky did as he told her to do. She could feel the cool metal of the knife through her t-shirt. He was holding it against her, but not pressing it in to hurt her.
At least not yet.
She wanted to cry out for help, but she knew that if she did that he definitely would hurt her.
Now she felt horribly guilty and stupid for thinking about him all night, as though just thinking of him had summoned him there.
What was Stuart going to do to her? He’d seemed annoyed during class, and she was starting to wonder if she had done something to upset him.
She slowly led him inside her building and towards the elevator, careful to walk at a pace that kept the knife from puncturing her.
CHAPTER THREE
Don’t Feed The Bears
Vicky pressed the elevator’s up button with a shaky hand. “Why are you doing this?” she asked him now that they were alone inside.
“I noticed something about you as soon as I met you,” Stuart said in a deep, growling voice. “You’re not like other girls. And I don’t mean that as a compliment.”
She did not know what he meant by that. Fortunately, she did not have to ask him.
The doors of her building burst open right as the elevator opened its doors and Amos Steele came running towards them. “Let her go!” he yelled.
“Get in the elevator,” Stuart shouted to Vicky, who obeyed.
“What the hell is happening?” she asked, shaking and scared.
Stuart rounded on Amos, and started pointing the knife at him instead. Vicky stood in the elevator and watched as they began to fight each other. She could have slipped away and gone up to her apartment, but she was afraid that she would just be followed upstairs. Stuart did not know her apartment number, but she was not thinking clearly. Anything seemed to be possible right now.
Particularly when Amos morphed into a large, snarling brown and black bear right before Vicky’s eyes.
She let out a blood-curdling scream that more than likely would awaken some of her neighbors, as well as alert the building’s security.
Then, Stuart let go of the knife. “Oh, it’s on,” he barked. He shifted into a massive white and light gray wolf. He lunged towards Amos’s throat, but the bear was bigger and stronger. He smacked Wolf Stuart away with one mighty, sharp-clawed paw.
The two animals bit and swatted at each other while Vicky looked on, not entirely sure who to cheer for. She did not know Amos’s story. She’d only met him once. Stuart, on the other hand, had seemed so nice and had ended up threatening her… So she felt like the way the night was going was in Amos’s favor.
Burly Amos was a bear. Somehow this was connected to her dreams.
Was he the bear who had been coming to her in the night recently, storming through her apartment as if he lived there?
She thought the dreams had been a bad omen, but maybe… Maybe they meant he was looking out for her?
Finally, battered and bloodied, Stuart gave up the fight. He shifted back into his human form. His blue hoodie was all ripped up, revealing the bites and scratches all over his arms, chest and neck.
“You win this round, Bear,” he spat. “But I’ll be back.”
With that, he leaned down and took his knife back, putting it away in his pocket and limping out of Vicky’s building.
Amos looked at her for a moment, still in his bear form. He let out a low moan and sniffed the air.
Her eyes widened and she started to reach for the buttons on the elevator. Maybe she wasn’t safe with him after all. Maybe Bear Amos wanted to eat her.
“Wait,” he said. He shifted back into his normal, human form. He had a huge wound on his lower neck and clavicle. It was harder to see when he was a bear and covered with fur, but now it peeked out of his shirt collar and black jacket, bright red and glistening with blood.
Vicky’s gaze softened as she looked at him. “You’re hurt,” she said. “Because of me… Do you want to come up to my place and clean yourself up?”
Now that Amos was back in his human form, she was not afraid of him. He was so handsome and heroic. She had briefly forgotten how hot this guy was. It was easy to forget when he was all fuzzy and howling as he tore at another beast.
She smiled at him.
He smiled back. “Nah,” he said. “I’ll be fine. But you can’t stay here. You’re no longer safe here. The werewolf has imprinted this place, and he’ll just be here to attack you again when you least expect it.”
Furrowing her brow, Vicky looked at Amos. She could tell all of a sudden that he knew something about her that she did not, and it bothered her. “But why?”
Amos shook his head. “Come with me. I’ll explain when we’re a safe distance away.”
As they stepped outside of the building, Vicky at last caught sight of Amos’s motorcycle. She had been right after all. It was a massive black Harley that was the perfect size for her gargantuan hero. Head still reeling from the ordeal she had just had, the bizarre species fight she’d just witnessed, she did not notice as Amos lifted her into his beefy arms and carefully placed her onto the back of the bike’s seat.
“So the werewolf wanted to kill me and the… bear wants to kidnap me?” she asked, smirking slightly to show him that she was joking. Mostly.
Amos smiled right back at her and got onto the bike, in front. “The correct term is werebear, but I don’t really like it. It makes me sound too much like a Care Bear, and I ain’t one of those motherfuckers.”
He revved the engine and they were off.
Speed limits apparently did not apply to Amos Steele.
“Where are we going?” Vicky yelled over the engine. “I only have the weekend off!”
Amos laughed. “You may not be going back to Zydeco!”
He drove his bike far away from all of the parts of New Orleans that she was used to and familiar with. He drove her away from her home.
Suddenly, a massive stretch of bayou lay before them. Vicky had of course seen the swamplands of Louisiana before, but they had always been seen from a distance. Now, she was in one. And she thought her workplace was muggy.
“Welcome to Lafourche,” Amos introduced. “I have a cabin here. I rent it out mostly for those times I can’t quite bear to be around people.”
She knew what he meant. She couldn’t believe that he was abl
e to be so silly about the fact that he could literally morph into a bear. Apparently at will.
He parked his motorcycle outside of a small, wood cabin that must be his. In the front, a black flag waved. It was decorated with an outline of a large gold paw. A bear paw.
“Unbelievable,” she said.
Amos helped her off the motorcycle and led her into his cabin. It was decorated with framed paintings of fish, and it also contained a wide variety of fishing supplies for someone who she was pretty sure didn’t need supplies.
There was a large bed in the center of the living room. There was no question what Amos came here to do most often. The room was surrounded by wide windows and all of the blinds were not only open but up. “It must be hard to sleep here when the blinds are like that.”
The bayou was dark right now. The only light she could see out there was fireflies and the occasional plane flying across the sky. And stars. Through the low-hanging treetops, Vicky could see a sky completely filled with stars.
“I can see why you come here.”
The cabin had a small kitchen and one bathroom down a short hall from the living/bedroom. Amos had a television set and she assumed, based on all the different types of video game systems hooked up to it, that it was not used for watching cable shows.
This man greatly confused her. But there was something so sexy about his mysterious, sometimes seemingly oxymoronic personality.
Vicky took a seat on the large bed. There was nowhere else to sit. Meanwhile, Amos went around the room, lowering all of the blinds and closing them. She kicked off her sneakers in order to get more comfortable as Amos shrugged out of his leather jacket, and placed it on the floor by the front door.
Once all of the blinds had been adjusted, he came to the bed and sat beside her. “Would you like a drink?”
She shook her head a little. “Thank you for saving my life back there.”
“Of course,” he replied.
All at once, their lips were on each other’s. They slipped their tongues into each other’s mouths, feeling around, getting a sense of who they were now with… Vicky grabbed hold of the bottom of Amos’s shirt and lifted it off of him. Then she ran her fingertips over his hairy chest, kissing him more.
