Nina has been avoiding Léon, Eloise, and Blanche for a week now. But Nina can't keep that up forever, for Blanche and Eloise it was even harder because they were always around each other at the orphanage. It was a miracle that Nina was able to avoid them for so long, but Léon just kept going after her even if she ran away. He was like a lost dog at this point, looking for his owner. Nina didn't know if it was sweet or annoying, no one cared before and she was not used to it. It was just Nina and that was all there ever was, friends or not, Nina would always be the outcast that didn't belong.
"Nina seriously, stop avoiding us," Léon yelled and ran after her through the courtyard.
"Stop pressuring me!" She yelled back at him.
"I'm not." It made Nina so angry when she heard those words coming out of his mouth, that they wouldn't leave it alone, and even more when they said that they were not into her business when they were.
"Then what the hell do you want?" Nina shouted and stopped right there where she was standing when Léon almost bumped into her because of the sudden stop.
"I still need to help you with your studies. And last time you were there you remembered a house, maybe you'll remember more."
"I already told you, it's a dead end."
Léon ran into the school building shouting after Nina, "You did remember something when
you were at my house. I'll wait for you at the school gate!" What could she say to him to make him stop? Hey Léon, I'm the dog you had and ran away from you ten years ago, remember me? Only thinking about it made Nina laugh. Like he would even believe that, he would freak out. I guess Nina didn't have any other choice to go to his house after school, because if she didn't, then Principal Gaugin would complain to both of them. After school, Nina was back at Léon's house. Yup, still the same house and he was the little boy. If Nina looked at his face a little closer, she could see the little boy in him who had grown into a teenager. Same dark hair, maybe even darker than eleven years ago but still, those intriguing eyes as before that were sucking Nina in. Nina's eyes gazed down at his neck for a second, not even noticing that he was staring at her. There was just something about him and Nina didn't understand why, she never felt this way before. She never had the urge to sink her teeth into someone's skin, she never wanted someone so badly that she felt like she was going to rip him apart in seconds. Was she as a wolf changing, was she in some kind of stage right now, was this the end for her being a human, was she completely changing into a monster and no human was safe? What the hell was going on with her? Was this the time when she had to lock herself up so she couldn't hurt someone before the animal could come out? Léon just stood there looking at her, like Nina couldn't be any weirder than she already was. Looking at him like she wanted something from him, but what did she want exactly? "Are you okay, you've been staring for a while now?" Léon asked.
"Yeah sorry, with what did you want to start?" Nina said and grabbed her books out of her bag and spread them across the floor.
"We can study later," He said while Nina just stared at him not knowing what he meant by that. "I just thought that maybe being here again will make something come out from in your memories because that's what happened last time you were here."
Léon put his bag aside next to his desk and sat down on his bed. So, he just wanted to know the answers to the questions Nina had been asking herself for as long as she could remember. Why did he want Nina to know, why did he care so much? Nina stood up from the floor and walked around the room until she stopped in front of the glass door. Léon has the most amazing view of the woods. The trees and the mountains, were even better at night when the stars sparkled above. Nina looked at her reflection in the glass and remembered that there was her scary reflection as a wolf yesterday. She quickly opened the door as the vision of the wolf disappeared from the glass. Nina sat her foot down on the balcony and stepped closer to the railing, putting her two hands on the black steel. Nina's eyes never looked back from the sky; the stars were sparkling underneath a half-full moon. The smell of pine trees, oak, grass, flowers, and even the river, all of Mother Nature's smells was filling her nose. Just by the small she could tell where each flower bloomed, hear the droplets that fell from the waterfall into the river. Nina took one deep breath and smelled the grass, trees, and flowers that grew close to the river.
"Beautiful right," Léon said and stood next to her on the balcony. And just like that, all the smells from Mother Nature disappeared when he came onto the balcony with his overwhelming scent. That sweet toxication scent stood out from all the other people she'd ever met and there weren't a lot. Considering that Nina didn't remember half of her life. It was indeed very beautiful, why else would Nina like the trees so much? The trees were the only thing that made her feel at home while all the buildings and people in this village never had. If only he would make it easier on her nowadays. Nina tried to block the scent from Léon and focused on the smells in the woods but even that was pretty hard when all she could hear was his heartbeat. A lovely symphony that danced in her ears and she didn't even want to block that out of her head. She wanted to hear what was lying beyond his rhythm. It was not that she could ask him to stop breathing when he needed to, to stay alive but it was just so hard with him there. Just focus a little more while she closes her eyes. She could hear the wind brushing gently against the trees and the stream of the waterfall. Animals like a rabbit, chipmunks, owls, and deer. They did smell delicious and Nina was even getting hungry. She had to keep that part to herself, no one needed to know that she ate wild animals. Nina could hear footsteps, the smell of leather boots, and gunpowder that fell on the ground. she could envision it before her eyes, the strong paw marks of a creature that was running through the woods. Softly Nina heard the howling from that creature as it cried into her ears. The cries seemed to multiply, with voices whispered to each other, a man and a woman. "Where are you, where is she?" "Come back to us." But when Nina looked back, scanning every tree, the voices disappeared along with the paw marks.
"I need to go in the woods," Nina yelled. And tried to climb over the railing of his balcony, but Léon grabbed her hand and stared at her like what was this crazy girl doing again. She saw his mouth moving but the words were delayed when Nina only heard them seconds later, "Why?" He asked.
"Something is out there."
"Yeah, animals!" He laughed at Nina and he pulled her away from the railing before he continued. "Don't jump from the balcony again, you know there are stairs in this house."
Nina looked at him, but still, he hadn't even seen the strangest thing about her and still, he didn't treat her like all the other students in the school did. He wanted to help her and didn't want to see her jump down a balcony and get hurt as normal humans would. Nina headed back inside his room and ran down the stairs as Léon followed behind her. She suddenly stopped in the doorway and turned around. Why did he come down as well, I
did take the stairs?
"What are you doing?" Nina Asked.
"I'm coming with you!" No, you're not! What would she even do in there anyway? There were animals out there like he said himself, she couldn't tell him that she just heard it and he wouldn't believe it anyway. Nina, Nina would be just fine in there, Léon, not so much. And Nina didn't plan for him to slow her down so she would miss them.
"I'll be faster if I go alone," Nina said with confidence but Léon didn't believe it, better yet, he didn't understand.
"How, are you going to run all the way there?"
"Yes!" He started laughing and he mumbled to her. "I'll get my bike." But why would she ride his bike when she was faster on foot? "You may run fast but this is just crazy thinking that you'll make it there in one minute," Léon said and walked to the back of his house towards the garage to get his bike. He opened the steel doors and returned with the dark green bike. The bike had a silver medallion with blue and red on the sides, in black letters it said Armee de Terre.
"Fine, I'll take the bike," Nina said and grabbed the bike from his hands.
"What no, I'm not going to let a girl ride my bike with me behind it." He quickly snatched it back from Nina's fingers. I was thinking of leaving you behind and taking the bike with me. Nina laughed a bit at her thoughts but looked at her, staring back at those eyes, those puppy eyes. It drove her crazy. And yet there was that thing about him that she didn't understand.
"Stay here or sit behind me, what's your choice?" Nina asked with a straight face.
"Fine." He let out a deep breath and he gave his bike. Clearly, Nina wanted to ride because she was faster, well faster than any human. She also wouldn't lose side of him this way, or his mother was going to kill her. Nina sat down on the bike while Léon quickly jumped behind her before she was going to leave without him. The woods weren't far away from his house and you could easily get there on foot but it was more for how deep she had to go to find the notices she heard before and if they didn't leave already by the time she got there. As soon as they entered the woods, the ride was getting a little hubbly. They were almost flying through the woods with how fast Nina was going. following the noises, as the dirt flew around from the wheel tracks and branches cracked into a thousand pieces. The ride was starting to look dangerous in the way that Nina was riding it, while Léon was holding on for dear life, so he wasn't going to fall somewhere in the dirt and Nina would probably not even turn back. Nina was too focused on the notices that she wouldn't even notice that he would have fallen. It was his fault for coming along when she told him it would have been better without him there because something may have happened to him and not her.
"So, how much further do we have to go?" Léon asked.
"A little further, I think." Léon looked at her even though she wasn't looking back and only focused on the road ahead of her, but Nina felt his eyes on her.
"Do you even know where you're going?" She didn't even hear him anymore when she suddenly held the brakes tightly and stopped. The voices have disappeared. Nina looked around but it was only then that she realized that there weren't any paw marks on the ground. Nina didn't even know if she was following them, she just went into the woods blindly. Did she follow the voices in her head and were there even ever voices out there? Nina got off the bike and looked around, but the space was empty apart from the trees and grass. There were no animals, not even a birth or a squirrel. Only the noises of the wind lingered by her ear. Had she just lost her mind, was that what those dreams had done to her, making her go insane? Léon got off the bike and stood next to her in the grass.
"Okay, what are we doing here?"
"I thought I heard someone calling for me," She answered.
"You heard someone from my balcony over here?" Léon looked at her like she completely lost it. No one could hear that far from the village all the way deep in the woods.
"I don't know anymore, maybe they are all in my head."
"Well, it could be, Blanche and Eloise did find you in the woods." He walked a little further and stood before her looking at the sky. It could be but that didn't explain that there were two voices instead of three and it was a man and a woman, there were no men in the orphanage. Nina sat down in the grass to think. Why did she hear howling, what was so important about this small place in the woods, what was she looking for wasn't going insanwasn'tn't she? That was why she lost control and hurt people, that was why everyone was afraid of her.
"Nina, look." He pointed with one finger at something that was standing in the distance and the finger he held over mouth to stay quiet. Nina stood up and walked slowly towards Léon, his finger was pointing at a deep that was eating grass a little further away from them. Nina looked at the deer, her eyshimmeringmer from color when the deer suddenly looked her in the eye. His eyes were widening in fear. He knew she was he just a human and she wasn't even armed none of them were. But the deer could sense the danger she brought with her, he saw what she was and what she could The last thing he would see was her red eyes before saving her life. It was the aroma tugged around her, that made him fear his own life. Humans may not sense it but the animal could. The deer ran for its life while the birds flew through the trees towards Nina and Léon. They both ducked to the ground as the birds circled around them before they flew higher than the top of the tree and disappeared in the night sky.