Bitten

  BITTEN

  BY NOELLE MARIE

  Copyright © 2014 by Noelle Marie

  All rights reserved.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER ONE

  Middletown, for all intents and purposes, was just as dull as its namesake implied.

  In fact, located on the northern edge of Iowa and surrounded almost completely by corn fields, it wasn’t unusual for passersby to completely miss the tiny town on their way to more grandiose cities.

  And honestly, they weren’t missing much.

  The extent of Middletown’s attractions included a modest-looking school, a meager city hall, a bank that doubled as a post office, two bars, a church, a small grocer, and a decrepit, worn bowling alley in which half of the lanes didn’t even work properly.

  Perhaps the only place of true interest in the entirety of Middletown was the old, abandoned house on Miller Road.

  The house was located on the very fringe of the minuscule town, at the end of an otherwise forsaken dirt road, and was subject to many a ghost story. Terrifying tales of ghouls and malevolent spirits were passed down from generation to generation as not even the oldest residents of Middletown had any memories of the house ever being anything but empty – at least of the living.

  With nothing else to do on the weekends – especially on Sundays, as the bowling alley was closed – it was common for the youth of Middletown to disregard their parents’ cautionary warnings and pay a visit to the broken down house in hopes of an adventure.

  This was exactly where Katherine Mayes found herself.

  In the midst of a small cluster of other teenagers – no one was as brave alone as in a group after all – she was walking along the winding dirt road that lead to the house in question. The full moon was out, its natural glow acting as her guide in the otherwise dark of night.

  Even as she hiked the pothole-filled road, face sent into a mask of indifference, she couldn’t help the awful feeling of foreboding from rising up in her gut. Why, oh why, had she allowed herself to be talked into doing this?

  Truth was, Katherine had always been just a little bit uncomfortable with the presence of the house at the end of Miller Road. That’s not to say she believed the numerous horror stories about the place – not in the least. It was something else. Some strange, deep-rooted feeling of something – uneasiness maybe – filled her whenever she thought of the old, decaying house and as such, she had always adamantly refused to go whenever her best friend had tried to nag her into tagging along with the rest of the neighborhood gang. She honestly couldn’t explain why she had agreed this time. After all, she had made it sixteen years living in Middletown without visiting the run-down house once.

  She was already regretting her senseless decision when the house finally came into view and the terrible feeling in her gut grew in intensity. It was much worse up close than the glimpses she had caught of it at the other end of Miller Road. From there, the house was barely visible, nearly completely hidden by the overgrown trees and bushes that surrounded it. Up close, Katherine could see the rotting rafters sticking out in spots where the roof had caved in, the twisting vines creeping up the walls, and the shutter or two that still managed to hang crookedly from glassless window frames.

  More terrifying than all of this, however, was the faint light that seemed to be peeking through one of the main floor windows.

  When Katherine saw it, she immediately jerked to a stop and tried, without any luck, to prevent a shiver of apprehension from running through her. The others in the group, her best friend Abigail Gallagher – or Abby, as the redhead preferred – and three other girls her age that Katherine didn’t particularly care for, but that Abby got along with, seemed to have also seen the eerie light and stopped their movements as well.

  Katherine heard Abby shift next to her and couldn’t prevent a surprised flinch when the animated girl grabbed her left wrist in a tight, excited grip. “This has never happened before,” she whispered eagerly.

  Katherine couldn’t help but to inwardly curse her bad luck.

  Before the group could continue onto the property, she quickly made her opinion known. “I think we should leave.”

  Mallory Flanders, the blonde girl who had stopped directly in front of the two friends, smirked over her shoulder at the hurried comment. Jacqueline Smith and Heather Nelson, the other two girls that made up their small group, copied her actions. “You’re not scared, are you, Katherine?”

  “No,” Katherine immediately bit back. And it was mostly true. She wasn’t scared, per say. It was just that the terrible feeling that had originated from the bottom of her belly had grown and spread to the rest of her body, making her feel positively heavy with tension. “I just don’t think it was a good idea to come here.”

  “Then I don’t know why you came,” Mallory replied scathingly.

  “We certainly didn’t invite you,” Jacqueline added.

  While Katherine remained unaffected by their comments, only too used to the other girls’ cattiness after having put up with it for years, Abby bristled angrily, her grip on her friend’s wrist tightening. “I invited her,” she protested heatedly, “as you all very well know.”

  Her angry words merely earned rolled eyes and sneers from the other three girls.

  “Whatever,” Jacqueline retorted dismissively.

  An uncomfortable silence descended after that. Whether the discomfort stemmed from the small disagreement or the light still eerily peeking out at them through the window of the abandoned house, Katherine didn’t know. Eventually, Abby hesitantly broke the uneasy silence. “Well, are we going to check it out or not?”

  Despite the forced casualness of the question, Katherine could still detect the slight anxiety in her best friend’s voice. The other girls were not hiding their nerves very well either. While their expressions remained nonchalant, Katherine could easily see the hidden tension in the rigid way they held themselves. Heather seemed to be the worst off, fidgeting restlessly with her long hair.

  Although Abby had aimed the question at all of them, it was Mallory who eventually answered. After glancing once more at the faint light and smirking spitefully in Katherine’s direction, the blonde responded. “Why doesn’t Katherine go? She says she isn’t scared after all.”

  She stiffened slightly at the taunt. It was true. She had said she wasn’t scared. And, honestly, she still wasn’t. The anxious feeling was still there in her gut, but she wouldn’t describe it as fear. Trepidation, she supposed, was a more fitting word for it.

  “Fine,” she retorted curtly, before she had the chance to change her mind, “I’ll go.” If that’s what it would take to convince them to leave, she would sneak a quick look in the light-filled window.

  “I’ll go with you,” Abby assured quickly, finally letting go of Katherine’s wrist so they could comfortably walk together.

  The girls had spotted the light a good twenty yards from the house so it took a moment for them to reach the property and even longer to quietly navigate through the overgrown greenery that thickly surrounded the place. Eventually, Katherine found herself crouched securely below the intended window, Abby right beside her.

 
After sharing a quick glance with her friend, during which the redhead nodded encouragingly, Katherine carefully straightened up, trying desperately to ignore the tension in her stomach. Her eyes peeked over the sill and… nothing.

  Katherine saw nothing more interesting than a dirty floor made of rotting wood and cement walls coated with grime and dust. There were two lumps – undoubtedly pieces of furniture – covered by sheets that may have been white at some point, but that was it.

  The light was coming from further within the house, shining through an open entryway leading into some other room. “Abby, I don’t see anything.” Katherine whispered.

  There was no response.

  “Abby?” she tried again.

  Silence greeted her.

  Frantically trying to calm the awful feeling now crescendoing within her, Katherine cautiously glanced down at her friend, who was staring, wide-eyed, at a patch of bushes directly behind them. Goosebumps forming on her taunt arms, Katherine forced herself to look too. She felt her breath catch.

  There, not five feet away, two intense blue eyes peered out at her from within the undergrowth. When their gazes met, Katherine froze. She didn’t dare move. Her stiff friend beside her seemed to be suffering the same problem.

  Neither moved a muscle when the large figure emerged, but Katherine certainly felt her heart rate pick up when it stepped into the faint light still exuding from the window and she caught her first real look at it.

  The creature was massive – all dark fur and sharp teeth. Its strong jaw was easily capable of tearing her small body into pieces. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to move. It wasn’t until Abby jerkily grabbed her hand and the wolf – for that’s what the large animal in front of her was – gave a dangerous growl, that she felt her senses return to her.

  “What do we do?” Abby whispered fervently into her ear.

  Katherine, her eyes still locked with the blue ones in front of her, breathed back softly, “Run.”

  Not giving her friend a chance to react to the command, Katherine took off, dragging Abby roughly by the hand as she desperately searched for a way out of the overgrown greenery that suddenly seemed more like a vicious trap than innocent shrubbery. In her zealous bid for escape, she violently swatted away branches, not caring as the course bark dug into her hands. Abby joined her, both girls frantically trying to make their way through the thick underbrush.

  She had heard the beast’s enraged howl when they’d run and knew it had to be following them. Somehow – and Katherine had no idea how, for an animal like that had to be dreadfully fast – the two girls made it out of the cruel foliage without it catching them and raced madly towards the three girls still waiting for them a short distance up the dirt road.

  “Run!” Katherine yelled to them, repeating what she had earlier whispered to Abby. Her friend screamed warnings along with her.

  At first, the three girls ignored their frantic calls. Quite suddenly, however, they were screaming and running too. Mallory managed an impressively high shriek before turning tail and Katherine just knew that the monstrous wolf had burst out of the trees behind them. Knowing that looking behind her would cost her precious speed, however, she resisted the temptation and instead, concentrated solely on the sound of her feet rapidly hitting the ground as she ran, urging her aching legs to somehow carry her faster.

  The only warning she got before hitting the ground hard was an infuriated snarl.

  The pain hit her immediately.

  It wasn’t the fall that had hurt her, though she knew she had banged her elbow rather badly. No, the sharp sting was coming from her right ankle and rapidly spreading up her leg. Ignoring the pain, she whipped her head around only to once again come face to face with dark blue eyes. They were frightening in their intensity, but what truly alarmed Katherine was the wolf’s jaw clamped tightly around her ankle.

  She heard a terrified scream and for a second thought it had emerged from her own throat. She was quickly proven wrong, however, when she caught sight of the horror-stricken Abby who had stopped running as soon as she had heard her friend hit the ground.

  In an act of reckless bravery, the girl began racing back towards her fallen friend. She didn’t make it more than a foot, however, before Katherine felt an agonizing tug on her ankle, and before she knew what was happening, her body was being dragged backwards, the wolf’s jaw still clenched around her, and its eyes still intent on her face.

  Not knowing what else to do, Katherine frantically thrashed her body about, trying to wrench herself free. Not only did this not help, but it intensified the pain in her ankle tenfold.

  She could hear her friend yelling her name behind her and didn’t think the situation could get any worse when another enormous wolf materialized out of the looming foliage and began sprinting towards them. While not as large as the massive animal dragging her, it was menacing in its own right. No longer able to contain her fright, she clenched her eyes shut tightly, fully expecting the creature to attack her as the other held her down.

  She was shocked when instead of feeling sharp claws or teeth dig into her body, she heard a surprised grunt and furious cry before her ankle was freed. Snapping her eyes open, she was stunned to discover the two wolves brutally fighting each other. She watched as the larger wolf – the one that had been dragging her – delivered a particularly violent swipe to the other’s face before she remembered that she could move.

  Ignoring the excruciating throb of her ankle, she forced herself to her feet and hobbled as fast as she could towards her best friend, who had stopped running and was staring in shock at the warring wolves.

  By the time Katherine reached her, Abby had come back to her senses and quickly moved to help her. Within a few minutes, the two had managed to travel up the length of Miller Road – Katherine leaning heavily on her friend – and were back into the relative safety of town.

  Looking behind her and seeing nothing but darkness, Katherine finally collapsed to the ground. She could hear her heart beating loudly in her ears as she tried to calm herself. Abby throw herself down next to her. The other girls were nowhere in sight.

  For a while, neither could do anything but catch their breath. Eventually, Abby spoke. “Are you alright?” she inquired, looking at the bloodied ankle Katherine had stretched out in front of her.

  Wondering the same thing herself, Katherine finally looked at the aching injury. The first thing she noticed was that her sneaker was gone – probably completely torn off her foot by the animal. The second was that it didn’t look nearly as bad as it felt. Her sock hadn’t even bled all the way through. Taking a deep breath, she brought the foot up closer to herself and carefully pulled off the ruined sock.

  It was hard to inspect in the dark of the night, even with the bright moon still gleaming above them, but she could still clearly see the four puncture marks around her ankle, two on the left side of her foot and two on the right. They were slowly oozing blood.

  She carefully rotated her ankle, trying to determine if it was broken or even sprained, but quickly realized it wasn’t. Surprised, but not ungrateful, she answered her friend. “Actually, I think I’m okay.”

  Abby heaved a sigh of relief and Katherine managed a small smile when she was pulled into a tight hug. After a few seconds of basking in the knowledge of each other’s safety, they pulled away. Abby stood up and offered a hand to Katherine. “You say you’re okay now, but wait ‘til your parents see you,” she joked, voice still trembling a bit from the ordeal they had been through. “After lecturing you for hours, they’ll probably take you straight to the hospital the town over and get you tested for rabies or whatever.”

  Katherine groaned at that very likely possibility, but grasped the proffered hand. Once she was on her feet, the two girls slowly made their way towards Katherine’s house. “The lectures I could do without,” she agreed quietly, “but the doctor is probably a good idea.” She grinned in a self-depreciating manner. “Knowing my luck, I’ve probably caught
something.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  From out of the darkness, two piercing blue eyes stared. Their azure color was just as striking as she remembered. She could feel the intensity exuding from the passionate stare, the sensation causing her skin to tingle. The eyes were demanding – almost begging – something of her.

  But she didn’t know what.

  She was lost in the captivating stare and could only gaze back blankly, her own eyes silently asking the other pair what it was she was supposed to be doing. But she didn’t receive an answer. The blue eyes just continued to stare at her, their intensity never wavering.

  “Katherine.”

  She was becoming more and more frustrated with the demanding eyes. Wasn’t it obvious that she didn’t know what it was they wanted from her? Even if she desired to do what they begged of her – and to be able to softly assure the hard eyes – she couldn’t. She had no idea what they wanted.

  “Katherine.”

  Frustration and helplessness nearly overwhelming her, she silently pleaded with the azure gaze to give her a hint, a clue, anything.

  “Katherine!”

  Katherine woke with a start, her heart pounding loudly in her ears as she snapped her eyes open. It took a moment for her green orbs to settle on the figure in front of her and she was flooded with relief when she recognized her mother.

  Elaine Mayes, in appearance anyway, was perhaps the complete opposite of her teenage daughter. Although well into her forties, the woman didn’t look a day older than thirty-five. She was tall, regal and the epitome of aged beauty with long, blonde hair and soft grey eyes. Perhaps the only physical trait that the mother and daughter shared was a pale, smooth complexion.

  “Are you alright, Katherine?”

  Pulled out of her reverie by her mother’s concerned inquiry, Katherine realized she’d been staring and quickly averted her gaze. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  Elaine didn’t look convinced, a deep frown marring her otherwise pretty features, but wisely chose to let the matter drop. “Alright, but it’s already past seven. You should probably be getting ready for school.”