23 Prelude to Danger

When Ash woke up the next morning, Celia was already gone.

Ash wasn't surprised. Celia liked to go for a morning run every so often so she did sometimes leave at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning to get a good workout.

Ash didn't make too much of it. She knew that Celia was probably mad at her for lying about not seeing Hunter, so she figured Celia was just letting off steam with an early morning run.

Ash thought about going back to sleep since it was only 6:00am. Lying in her bed, listening to the sound of the quiet morning, she realized that she was finally alone after so many days of being around other people.

She thought about sending a text message to Hunter, asking him to meet up for breakfast or something just to talk.

[Are you sure you just want to talk to him? You only really talk about half of the time that you're together.]

Ash shuddered at her own inner voice. On one hand, she was positively ecstatic that Hunter liked her back---REALLY liked her, if the way he kissed her and held her was any indication.

On the other hand, she wasn't exactly sure about Hunter just yet. The attraction was definitely there, but she needed more than just that to form a relationship with anyone, especially a serious romantic relationship.

Friendships were easier to navigate. And much less stressful.

At 6:28am, Ash reached for her phone to press snooze on her alarm for another 30 minutes. As her bleary eyes focused on the phone screen, she nearly dropped it on her face when she saw it was a text message from an unsaved number.

"Can u do breakfast at 7? Meet u at the caf," the message said.

Ash felt her heart skip in her chest. She didn't even know human hearts could do that.

Hunter had sent her a message, asking her to meet with him.

[Maybe this is a werewolf thing I'm feeling? I don't know. Have I always been different from other people? Was I never human at all?]

Ash's thoughts started to spiral out.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Aaaaaaah!" Ash screamed.

Her 6:30am alarm went off while her phone was in her hand and she was so out of her head that she yelled in surprise at the noise. Ash's phone clattered to the floor and she had to reach down into the gap between the bunk bed and the wall just to shut off her phone alarm. It was a tight gap and Ash felt the pinch in her arm as she reached down to grab her still beeping phone.

Ash finally managed to fish her phone out from beneath the bed and tapped at the screen. The beeping stopped.

"Owwww, come on!" Ash muttered, rubbing the sore spot on her arm. She could tell that it was definitely going to bruise.

The morning was already off to a painful start.

***

Celia sat alone by the bleachers at the track. She had gone for a run to let off steam, but she couldn't go very fast because of the unusual fog that seemed to surround the track. At first she thought her eyes were just blurry, but the more she moved, the more the fog seemed to close in on her. She finally gave up after 2 laps and sat down at the bleachers.

Even as she sat down, she could still see the fog in front of her. Suddenly, Celia began to feel very tired. She slumped down in the bleachers, rubbing her eyes and trying to stay awake. In the end, she set her hands down and curled up to sleep on the bleachers.

The gray mist circled around Celia as she fell asleep, forming a gray cloud around her.

"Serve the Master. Bring him blood. Serve the Master. Bring him blood. Serve the Master. Bring him blood."

Disembodied voices whispered from inside the swirling gray cloud. Celia yawned and a gray mist slipped inside her open mouth. And just like that, the gray cloud disappeared, leaving the sleeping girl behind.