Okay, so there's more to this story, more in the beginning, but I didn't want to post it because it's literally pages long.
I was laughing when we pulled into the Kresimir driveway. Something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye, and I glanced at my house. I saw movement in the window. Frozen, I perused the front windows of our new home. I saw it again. Something dark was moving behind the semi-sheer curtains Mom put up last night in the living room. And Mom’s car wasn't here. I knew she was working normal hours today. She had told me this morning that she wanted to cook dinner for the two of us tonight, so she would be working all day. Usually, she worked in small spurts at the hospital. She was a nurse, a very good one. She would work extra hours if the hospital was backed up. But today she wasn't doing that. So that meant it wasn't her in our house. A chill ran down my spine that had nothing to do with three open car doors.
“Someone is in my house,” I whispered, unable to raise my voice. I’d hoped one of the guys had seen what I had. Immediately, Branko was at my car door, opening it up. The cold air hit my face, and it was like waking up from a dream. I unbuckled my seatbelt and exited the car, bumping into Branko. He had been about to unbuckle my belt for me, I guess.
“Get inside,” Branko said, gently pushing me in the direction of his home. Trent and Ander started toward Branko, but came to a halt when he said, “All of you. Go. I’m going to see what it is,” In the back of my mind, a little question surfaced about why he didn’t even look at the house before he had made a plan to rid it of any bad guys. I ignored it for the much more ever-present one.
“No,” I said with the most force I had ever spoken to anyone in my life up to that point in time. It surprised me, but it surprised Branko and the others a lot more. “It’s my house, and I’m going with you,” I set my jaw, waiting for his answer. Every second we wait is just more time for the person to escape, I thought. Seeing how determined I was, Branko nodded once. He turned his attention toward his friends.
“Go to the house,” he ordered. “Tell my mother that something is in Naomi Draga’s house,” I didn’t bother to ponder Branko’s choice of words, I was just content to go.
“But–” Ander began, starting toward Branko and me, only to be stopped by one of Trent’s giant arm. This time, when the silent conversation took place, I understood. Glancing at Branko, I saw he was clueless, surveying my home. Trent caught my eye, and there seemed to be a question in his gaze. I nodded my head minutely, and turned my attention back to Branko.
“Let’s go,” I said, knowing he would insist on being the first to enter the house. As I followed, I started motioning behind my back to the boys to go to the door on the left side of the house. I really hoped they knew sign language.
The house stunk. I’m not talking about a little left-on-the-counter-to-rot-for-three-days tomato stink; I’m talking about trash dumpster odor. A dumpster in the middle of summer on a scorching hot day. It made me want to vomit. Then my surroundings hit me. Branko and I had gone around back, voting to go for a sneak attack. Where we were now was once the laundry room. But not anymore. Now, the cords of the washer and dryer were lying on the floor, torn from the walls. The machines themselves looked like they’d been chewed up and spit out by a giant. There were pieces of gnarled metal lying all over the floor, and the detergent and other things were strewn about. The blue liquid of what I hoped was some kind of cleaning supply was sliding down the walls. Both mine and my mother’s clothes were ripped literally to shreds and laid in a heap on top of the shards of metal. I picked up a piece of fabric. So much for my favorite blue shirt.
Branko put a hand on my back, a queue to drop the shirt from my hands and go with him. He didn’t appear to want to speak. Slowly, we moved throughout the house, witnessing torn up scene after torn up scene. My house had been destroyed. When Branko had said something was in the house, he’d been right. Nothing human could have done this. Maybe it was a pack of rabid wolves or something, I thought. Are there rabid wolves in Maine? I didn’t know. I hoped they’d left already.
We were traveling to the side door, just where Trent and Ander were supposed to be. I hoped that they hadn’t come into contact with whatever did this to the house. The smell only strengthened as we moved closer to the other side of the house, and the sight of my destroyed house was only making my urge to vomit worse. That’s when I heard the snarl. I spun towards the sound, and reflexively put up my fists even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to take on a wolf. But what I saw wasn't a wolf. At least, not any kind I’d ever seen. It was absolutely huge and menacing and scary. It just seemed to be saying, “Haha, there’s nothing you can do but what I say,”
“Back down,” Branko commanded, stepping between the giant wolf and I. The longer I stared at the animal, the more human-like it became. It no longer looked like a wolf, but like an odd human-wolf half-breed. I was scared. Very, very scared. The wolf-thing growled once more.
“I said, back down,” Branko reiterated. What is he doing? I thought. There’s some kind of mutant right in front of him, and he’s expecting it to just back –
It did. Right then and there, it did. It backed down. And that’s when I ran. I didn’t want to see what it was going to do. It certainly didn’t understand Branko. That would have been impossible. But it backed away. I’d watched enough nature documentaries to know that it should have leaped at him. Then I felt bad for running away from him. He was trying to save me. He was stupid about it – we should have just run in the first place – but he was still trying to save me. And I’d run away. I’d been running toward the side door, and I swirled around to return to Branko. I hit a hard body. This body wasn't hard like Trent’s would be, it was hard like stone. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly felt muscle. But it wasn't the kind I was used to feeling. It felt too much like a rock. I’d run into a person’s chest, making him at least a foot taller than me. Slowly, I looked up.
I stared into the white, transparent face of a man with eyes as black as coal and lips the color of blood. There were fangs protruding behind those lips. I screamed at the top of my lungs and stepped back, stumbling and falling. The last thing I saw was a dark-faced man standing over me. It looked like he was smiling, but I wasn't sure. My vision was blurry. Then I passed out.
