Chapter 5: First Fear

Winter wind blanketed over me as I walked closer to the house that I once lived in. Blood trickled down my cheek from my head, but that wasn’t stopping me from getting closer to the nothingness of the house. The sound of Robin screaming in the house was drawing me closer. I wanted to help. I wanted to protect him, but there was nothing I could do. When I walked into the center of the house, I could see him cradled into a ball in a corner. A cloaked man was standing over him as he cried in his own arms. Ignoring my wound, I got closer and held Robin in my arms.

“You shouldn’t have come Riley. That’s what he wanted. I’M THE BAIT!” He scrambled out of my arms and tried to run, but the cloaked man grabbed him and slammed him onto the floor. Robin screamed in agony. I flinched and stood up to face the cloaked man. I couldn’t see his face, but I could hear his cold voice.

“Riley, I knew you would come. It is you that I need.”

Chills went up my spine as I backed up to see my brother’s still body behind him. He grabbed my neck and held me up. I could barely breathe with the cold skin of his hands gripped around my neck. Death seemed inevitable now. A bright light consumed the room and me as I heard Robin scream even louder. Robin was being tortured with nobody around to help him. Still in the air, I croaked Robin’s name and then I couldn’t see.

“Wake up! You’ll wake everybody!” My eyes quickly opened, and I jumped at the sight of Landon shaking me. His hands were ice, and his grip was starting to hurt. He let me go and I got my priorities straight. Tears were streaming down my face.

“God, what kind of dream were you having?” He really did look concerned.

I started to slow my breathing when I realized my head was killing me. Along with the tears, Blood was also running down my right cheek. I quickly started to scramble, but Landon pulled me down, back into my sleeping bag.

“Be still, let me bandage this. You must be a really rough sleeper,” Landon bandaged my head and finally let me go. When I was calm and settled, he started to talk to me again.

“I heard you screaming when I got back from…well, from hunting and I quickly came into your tent to see if everything was okay. I guess dreams can get a little extreme for you,” he finally sat next to me instead of kneeling.

“I-I’m fine. I’ve just had a difficult few days, so nightmares are inevitable. Is it still night?”

“It’s almost morning. Everybody will be waking soon.”

The dream lingered in my head and the thought of Robin’s scream made my head worse. Landon finally laughed and stood up. His laugh made me jump.

“The look on your face when you first saw me was priceless by the way,” he smiled, and it almost seemed cocky. Yes, he was very comely. His skin was pale, and he had those intriguing bright gray eyes. I assumed he was about my age, but his perfect structure made him look older. Everything about him was perfect, although, he didn’t need to be such a jerk about it. He was just like the other boys back at home, which make me dislike him even more. I gave him a gasp of disgust and walked out of the tent. Andrew was already by the fire that was once burning. He looked very drowsy but awake enough to see me angrily walking towards him. When he saw Landon come out of my tent, he stood up. He looked a little uneasy now. He pointed at my head and looked at him again. It must have been bleeding through.

“What the hell did you do to her? Strangle her and bite her head?!” Andrew started shaking, but Landon laughed and put his hand on my shoulder.

“She just had a bad dream, and I went to check on her. I didn’t do anything. She was already like that.”

“Bull Shit!”

I shook off his hand and walked towards Andrew.

“No, he’s telling the truth. He didn’t do anything but aggravate me.”

Landon chuckled and sat down. Andrew stopped shaking and began to stare at the ground where the fire would be.

“Why don’t you like him Andrew? What did he do that pissed you off?” I was sitting right next to him now and Landon was waiting in anticipation to hear this story. Andrew hesitated a little bit and still looked down.

“It’s not what he did, it’s who he is. It’s my nature to hate him.”

I was confused. He might have a cocky attitude, but that shouldn’t be enough to hate him. He’s only human.

“I’m a werewolf in case you didn’t notice before. Werewolves only have one enemy and that would be the leeches!” Landon stood up and looked at him.

“I told you before, I have a different diet! How many times do I have to tell you that?”

“No leech can be trusted!” Andrew stood up now. They were facing each other, and it looked like they were about to fight.

“Leech?” I said as I tried to get them to calm down. They both looked at me and sat back down. Landon smiled and explained.

“Proper word usage, I’m a vampire, but I’m different. I don’t drink human blood. That’s why I went hunting last night. I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”

Surprisingly, that didn’t scare me.

“Wow, that’s a lot to take in on one morning,” I laughed nervously.

I saw Jack and Marie walk out of their tent. When they got close enough, Jack looked at me and then he looked at Landon.

“I swear it wasn’t me. I already had this conversation with pup here.”

Andrew growled and looked down again.

“What happened!” Jack looked at me sternly. I forced a smile. Talking about the dream even hurt me.

“Bad dream? I didn’t know that I could hurt myself in my sleep.”

Jack looked at Marie and she nodded. Then, Jack grabbed my arm and knelt down.  

“What was the dream?”

I explained everything to him, and I then noticed that I started to cry again.

“First fear,” he whispered and then stood up. Before I could even ask what he meant, he stood up and shrugged.

“Bad dreams can do that sometimes. It’s no surprise with the trauma you just witnessed with your family. We’ll probably have Landon watch you from now on just to be sure.”

Landon nodded with a cocky smile and Andrew flinched. The dream really did scare me. I wanted Robin to be safe. I guess I feared that he will be hurt or dead, but I wasn’t going to let this dream consume me.