Yvonne's scream tore through the silence of the night. Disoriented, she struggled to catch her breath. Something had struck her, but what?
She stumbled backward. Her heart beat like a pounding hammer inside of her chest. "Who… who are you?"
The moonlight silhouetted a dark, brooding figure. Yvonne squinted, trying to get a better look at the figure. "Oh, let me guess, Riley sent you to kill me."
The man grunted. Riley and his crew typically left Yvonne unfazed. But something was different. In the shadow of the forest, the figure appeared to be more beast than man. I hope Alex noticed I was gone, but I hope he isn't going to find me dead, she thought.
Yvonne inched forward. "Maybe the question isn't who are you. It's what you are."
Before she took another step, BAM! The man punched her in the jaw.
"Gah!" her vision went black. Without mercy, the man lunged toward her. In an attempt to protect herself, she ducked down, but it was no use. The man kicked her, relentless until she toppled onto the ground. "If I were you, I'd stay down."
It took a Herculean effort for her to pull herself back to her feet. She balled her fumbling hands into weak fists. She was a Wheeler, after all, and Wheelers don't get killed by creepy stalkers in the middle of the forest. She wasn't going down without a fight.
The man scoffed. "You insolent, brainless fool. You stand no chance against me."
She gulped, swallowing the lump in her throat. She knew he was correct. The man was triple her size. Still, she couldn't accept defeat lying down. "Bring it on."
In a flash, the man grabbed her. His fingernails dug into her shoulders.
"Get off of me, scumbag!" She attempted to push him away, but her efforts were fruitless. He didn't even flinch.
The man flung her down to the ground with immense force. She almost mistook the snapping of twigs underneath her body for the cracking of her own bones.
The man loomed over her. There was no life in his sinister eyes. It looked like the man had been cut up and stitched back together again. Yvonne noticed his muscles, but she also noticed the hump on his back that made his torso disproportionately large compared to the rest of his deformed body. Still, the man looked familiar. She couldn't place where she had seen him before.
She was nearly out of options. Maybe she could reason with him. "If you kill me, it will end badly for you. If you let me go, I can see to it that you're generously compensated."
The man shook his head. "I'm not here to kill you. Quite the opposite. I'm here to give you new life."
What kind of cult did this guy sign up for? Yvonne thought as she stared at the man. Suddenly, something jogged her memory. "Oh, my god. It's you. Ethan! We can help you."
Ethan shook his head. "The past is behind me. For, you see, now, I'm a masterpiece."
She looked the man up and down. "Maybe a Picasso."
Ethan outright ignored her attempt at a joke. "I can achieve the unthinkable. I'm stronger than I ever was. And now, you will become one of us."
She raised her eyebrow. "Us? Who the hell is us?"
"The super soldiers. We are the only way to achieve total world domination." As Ethan continued with his spiel, he sounded more and more like a madman, and he paid no attention to Yvonne.
Her eyes lit up with a flash of insight. She knew this was her moment. Slowly, she scooted forward, inching closer to him.
Ethan, so lost in his speech, didn't even notice. "We are the chosen few, those who are stronger than the rest."
She nodded while she positioned herself perfectly. "Mhm, sure."
Ethan beamed. "Now, we become the Gods of the Earth!"
With one swift movement, Yvonne kicked Ethan's legs out from under him. Then she jumped up.
Ethan fell hard. As his thick body tipped over into the brush of the forest, he let out a deep, harsh groan which died off in the distance as his body tumbled farther away.
Yvonne decided not to stick around. Instead, she booked it out of there. She needed to get to Alex.
After running up a mossy hill, she finally reached a dirt road that led to Alex's house. It wasn't the way most people got to the residence. It was a rocky backroad overgrown with vegetation. She figured it would be the perfect way to get to the house unseen by prying, super-soldier eyes.
After running, she found it harder to ignore all the pain. She winced as a sharp cramp shot through her legs. She slowed down, limping a bit. "Ouch!"
Yvonne couldn't tell if the night was growing darker or if she was getting weaker. She was suddenly hyper aware of her surroundings, ready for something to jump out and grab her at any moment. "Okay, this is just my anxiety. I am not my fear. My therapist has told me I am not my fear. I'm… on a cloud. I'm on the nice, comfy cloud."
As she was trying to calm her frayed nerves herself, the leaves of the shrubs next to her rustled. Out of the corner of her eye, she could swear she saw something move. Her body froze. She slowly turned her head. When she looked over, nothing. "Am I starting to imagine things? Am I going crazy?"
She stalked forward until the glowing light of Alex's house finally came into view. A sense of relief fell over her body. She figured if she were attacked now, Alex might be able to hear her blood-curdling screams.
BANG! A noise from off the path made Yvonne jump, and as she did, a figure emerged from the woods in front of her. Yvonne screamed. Although it was dark, she could tell from the silhouette that this was a woman. She was ghostly and tall.
She shuffled back. "Stay away from me! I'm warning you! I just beat up your buddy Quasimodo over there!"
With deliberate steps, the eerie woman reached out a hand and approached Yvonne. Yvonne made a run for it. "GET AWAY!"
***
Back at his house, Alex sunk into the couch. It had been a long week, so he enthusiastically welcomed a much-needed moment of peace.
His peace was interrupted by the sound of screams. He shot up off the couch and left so fast that he forgot to put on his shoes. He ran outside.
Alex frantically looked around. He quickly paced behind his house, peering out onto the road that led up to his backyard.
That's when he saw her, Yvonne, racing toward him. Alex's mouth dropped open. "Yvonne?"
Yvonne slowed down at the sight of Alex. When he got to her, she collapsed, and he scooped her up in his arms. He held her as she sobbed uncontrollably.
"Shh, shhh. It's okay. It's okay. We'll get this figured out. Just breathe." Alex stroked her hair, trying to suppress the urge to run into the woods and kill whoever did this. "It's gonna be okay. Hey, hey…"
Alex cradled Yvonne's face in his hands. "What was that thing your therapist told you?"
She gazed up at him. She managed to squeak out, "I… am not my fear."
Yvonne clung to his strong arm as he helped her hobble into the house.
Alex guided her onto the couch. "Anything broken?"
She gave herself a once-over. "No, I think it just hurts."
Leaning over, he examined her. "Where?"
When he put his hand on her shoulder, she pulled back, wincing in pain. "There. Actually, it hurts everywhere."
Alex carefully inspected the scratches on her face. "Okay, I'm going to get the first-aid kit and something to clean you up."
As Alex turned on his heels and left the room, Yvonne's eyes followed him. She often forgot how fiercely he protected the people he loved. She missed that feeling, and she was grateful that she got to experience it again. She was, however, less than grateful to experience being beaten to a pulp.
With the first-aid kit in hand, Alex jogged back into the room. He leaned down next to her and pulled out an alcohol pad. Her body was covered in an abundance of bruises, scrapes and cuts.
Alex picked up her arm. "God, Yvonne. This is worse than I thought."
Yvonne pulled her arm away. "You should see the other guy."
He tightened his jaw. "God help him if I did. Give me a second. I'm going to get one more thing."
He walked away, and as he did, Yvonne felt her heart drop. This heartache, however, was not a symptom of the attack she had endured earlier. This was a symptom of one thing and one thing only. Alex Ambrose. She sighed. Being so close to Alex, knowing he's with someone else, may be the worst form of torture I've ever endured.
She glanced down at her blood-stained clothes. Okay, maybe I'm being a tad dramatic.
She noticed one scratch that went all the way up her arm. She grimaced as her eyes followed it all the way up and underneath her shirt. "Yikes."
Alex walked back in, holding a cup of tea. "Yeah, you might need to take your shirt off so we can clean that one."
As Alex handed her the hot drink, she felt the blood rush to her cheeks. "You have to be joking." She took the tea out of his hand and slowly sipped it. "You're a lifesaver."
"It's the least I can do." He bit the inside of his lip. "You know, Yvonne, I'm not kidding. You have to get these clothes off. They're filthy, and we can't risk you getting an infection."
She looked at him with a pained expression. He grabbed her hand. "Come on, Yvonne. I'm just trying to help."
Yvonne was painfully aware that Alex was fixated on her. She shuddered under his gaze. Although she knew this would only lead to trouble, she lifted her shirt over her head and shimmied out of her skirt all in one motion.
He bent down on the floor at the edge of her knee "May I?"
She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
He smirked. "Don't get shy on me. You know it's nothing I haven't seen before."
She nodded bashfully. "Uh, yeah, knock yourself out."
He delicately cleaned up her wounds. As much as it hurt, there was also a part of her that was reveling in how intimate the moment was. Even though she knew it was all very clinical, nothing romantic about it whatsoever, she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to be with him again. As Alex vigorously cleaned one of Yvonne's deeper scratches, the pain brought her back to reality.
Alex hummed to himself. He looked so natural and at ease helping her, as if they did this every day. He moved further up her body, closer to her chest. She silently prayed that Alex couldn't see her heart beating. "Okay, you have to tell me. What happened, Yvonne?"
She sighed as he tended to her shoulder. "Well, I went for my walk, then wham, I got hit. Then I just kept getting hit."
Still focused, Alex shook his head. "Hit by what? A bear?"
Yvonne frowned. "No, by the hunchback of Notre Dame."
Alex pulled away from her. Yvonne threw her head back and sighed. "Ugh, it's complex. He was this guy who looked like a jacked surfer dude had a baby with Frankenstein's monster. He kept saying he was a super soldier and that he wanted to make me a super soldier to take over the world."
Alex gawked at Yvonne. "Huh, is that all?"
Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to recall everything she had experienced in such a short amount of time. "Oh, wait! There is more! Remember Ethan? It was Ethan."
Alex stared at Yvonne, puzzled. "Wait, the guy who went missing is now a monster who tried to make you a super soldier?" She nodded.
Shifting toward her, Alex returned to cleaning up her shoulder. She winced as he dabbed at a wound. "Well, that wasn't even the worst part. So, I distracted the missing-man-turned-monster. Technically, I guess I didn't distract him. He basically distracted himself. Anyway, I kicked his legs out from under him, and he toppled over."
Impressed, he nodded. "That's my girl. Can you turn your shoulder?"
Yvonne agreed, shifting over slightly. "I ran for my life. I guess he never caught up, but then, right before I got to your house, I saw this woman. She had to be with him or something. She was, like, stalking over the backroad, just watching me. And her eyes were black. I've never seen anything like it."
With a tap on her back, Alex finished cleaning up her shoulder. "So, what do you think they wanted from you?"
She repositioned herself on the couch. Once she was comfortable, he kneeled back down in front of her. Slowly, he dragged his finger along her collarbone. He lightly traced a long, purple bruise. Her breath hitched in her throat. She tried to extinguish the fire that was burning at her core. "Um, what?"
He wiped up a splatter of blood just above her breast. His smile twisted into a smug smirk. "I asked if you knew what they wanted from you. Piss anyone off recently?"
"Piss anyone off? I mean, only Riley. And, that's what I thought at first. It was, uh, Riley," she sputtered out.
Focused on cleaning her chest, he didn't look up. "Makes sense."
Yvonne couldn't pull her eyes away from Alex. "Yeah, but I'm not sure. I've never heard Riley talk about any super soldiers. I'm sure he'd brag about that if he had the chance."
Alex shrugged. "Well, we'll send Christopher and Louis into the forest to look for anything out of the ordinary. You need to take it easy." Alex looked up at Yvonne. "You need to take a break?"
She blinked rapidly, taken aback by the question. "Uh, no, why?"
Shrugging his shoulders, he grinned. "You're practically shaking."
She cursed her body for giving her away. "It's just been a long day."
He slid his pointer finger under her chin, tilting her head up ever until her gaze met his. "Yes, it has been."
She smiled sheepishly. She hoped that he didn't notice how flushed her cheeks were. Slowly, he brought his other hand to her face, and he brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Thankfully, he didn't scratch up this beautiful face. It's like you were sculpted to perfection. I can't bear to think about someone bruising such a gorgeous woman."
Yvonne pushed Alex's hand away. "You don't mean that."
Alex turned away. "I do."
She shivered as the room suddenly grew cold. "Can you hand me my clothes?"
Sighing, he put his hands on his hips. "I'll grab you some clean clothes of mine. Then, I'll throw these in the wash."
after some time, he returned with an oversized shirt and jogging pants. yvonne took them. as she changed, they heard a loud crash outside.
both yvonne and alex froze.