Chapter 3 - That’s not a dog.

Libby POV

I don’t wait, I tear the package open with one hand and reach behind with the other to take my water bottle out of my backpack.

Her eyes don’t leave me once as I take not 2 but 4 tablets.

“That’s a lot…”

“I’m fine, I know what I am doing.” I mutter back as I swallow 4 little green pills in one hit. These were different, not as strong as before.

However, they start to work immediately.

I rejoice internally as my tensed muscles start to relax, that inner voice slowly disappearing again back into the abyss. Just where I like to keep it.

I take a long deep breath in, cracking my neck to the side before returning my attention to the female in front of me.

She takes a long drag on her cigarette before blowing it out towards my face.

She’s not the warmest of characters.

“Thanks for coming so quickly, how have you been?”

“Yes, yes all fine. I can’t stay…” She’s not as talkative as she normally is. Usually it was me trying to get away from her, not her trying to get away from me.

“Oh…yes okay. I’ll let you go…wait, this isn’t enough.” I actually now check the parcel, now my mind is calmer to let me thinking more clearly.

“That’s all I could manage this time…it’s getting harder to get hold of them. It’s not like they are readily available in local shops. But I’ll see if I can get more for next time.” She flicks her used cigarette bud to the ground, the farmer in me wanting to lash out at her for ruining nature’s beauty.

Then she has the audacity to click her fingers at me, signalling for me to throw the money to her.

I have to bite down on my tongue to keep back what I want to say back to her.

Instead I throw her the money, it is sealed in a small white envelope. My hard owned cash lining her pocket. She probably hasn’t had a hard day’s work in her life.

For as long as I have known her, she has been a privileged high maintenance bitch. But I need her right now and she is my only connection to the outside world.

“Are you staying close by?” Her eyes gaze out onto the luscious green landscape around us, before going back to counting the money I have given her.

Every time we meet, she tries to press me for information on where I am staying, but I wasn’t as stupid as she may once have thought I had been.

I’ve walked miles to be here and have miles to walk back in time for dinner.

Having been slowed down from my pain I will be cutting it fine to get back before my friends return from town.

“Here, take this phone, it will be easier to get hold of you with the lack of signal around here.” She throws me brand new top of the range mobile phone box, which I catch. However, I don’t intend to keep it.

“That’s great, I need a new phone…thank you.” I smile sweetly, playing dumb. With this phone she could trace my every movement.

I need her, I’ll have to come up with an excuse for next time I see her.

I wait until her car speeds out of the car park, sending dust and loose stones flying towards me. As soon as her car is out of sight I drop the mobile phone box into the closest hedge.

I place my tablets into the bottom of my backpack, making sure they are secure before I climb back over the fence and head towards the direction I came from.

A couple of hours later and my stomach is rumbling for food, my legs ache from walking on uneven farm ground but I know I am close by. Maybe 1 mile or 2 to go.

I’m deep within a woodland area, miles from a main road when I hear an odd noise.

Some kind of wild animal in pain.

A lot of the farmers put animal traps in the surrounding areas to deter larger animals from killing their live stock. It was cruel but so was waking to find all the farming animals dead. Following the noise I find a male kneeling on the ground, his hands pulling at his hair as he seems distressed. I walk closer to offer some kind of aid when I realise I recognise the back of the male…it’s Ben.

What is he doing out here?

As I close the gap between us, a gasp escapes me as I finally see what he is shielding with his frame. Some kind of wild dog laying on the ground, whimpering and gnawing at a trap around its ankle.

“Ben?” I call out to him, now running towards him. But as I look to the ground the dog was a lot larger than usual, it’s grey colour giving off a blueish tone to its fur.

“Libby…what are you doing here?” He looks behind me, surprised to find me alone in the woods. I might ask him the same question, he was supposed to be in town.

“I just found this dog, it’s in pain...” He continues, his eyes looking fearful for the animal at our feet. I look down at the animal, it’s snout long…it’s teeth sharp…its ankle covers in blood…it’s eyes telling me it was in pain.

I’ve seen animals like this before.

“That’s not a dog...that’s a wolf.”