We both wheeled our heads around in panic, where a person I was all too familiar with just jumped out of his bedroom window like it was a normal thing to do.
Julian's face was full of shock, as if he had just been in the middle of this chase.
Larissa eyed him with suspicion until she recognized him.
“You must be Bay's neighbor. The one who got into a fight with Nash Copeland...” she realized and continued to scrutinize him. “And you just jumped out of the second floor...” she continued.
Julian ignored her and looked at me.
“You're shaking, what happened?” When I didn't answer because I was simply in shock, Julian looked at Larissa. “Where have you been?”
“Somewhere in the woods. I don't know...”
His expression darkened.
“What happened?” he repeated his question, which no one seemed to want to answer.
Larissa didn't seem to understand anything. And I understood even less, because how did Julian know that anything had happened at all?
“There was some crazy guy with completely black eyes in the middle of the forest, and he and his friend wanted to do something to us... But we managed to get away,” Larissa groaned, running a hand over her forehead.
Julian's jaw was clenching hard. He seemed to be struggling for composure.
“What the... What were you looking for in Fogs Forest?!” He gave me an intense look, his olive-green eyes sparkling, then looked back at Larissa.
She was silent, probably because she didn't want to reveal that we had been looking for something that was none of our business.
“I don't want you to ever set foot in there again!” he said harshly. But more to Larissa, who raised her eyebrows.
“Whatever's wrong with you, we barely escaped two very nasty men, and I don't think I want to go back there any time soon.”
Only then did I realize how much I was actually shaking. My knees had gone weak and the headache that had disappeared after the blueberry milkshake earlier had returned. And for the first time, I considered taking Mum's stupid pills again. By choice. I wanted the throbbing behind my temples to stop.
“Good!” Julian grumbled.
He looked tense.
Little did he know Larissa. I knew that she had convinced me to go there for the last time. But did that also apply to her? Her curiosity was bigger than her fear. This trait powered her into every adrenaline rush.
“I'll take you inside,” Julian said, addressing me.
I just nodded, because I felt too weak to argue now. I just wanted to go to bed, with the unrealistic hope of being woken up by Mum's vacuum cleaner in Sacramento in the morning. I never thought I'd miss that stupid thing so much.
“And you should go home now, too.”
He glanced over at Larissa, who snorted and put her helmet back on.
“We're texting, Bay!”
I nodded.
Then, she disappeared on her motorcycle along the lantern-lit street. Into the night.
I jumped up and realized with relief that I had only been dreaming that Amara Blair had taken off her hood and suddenly turned into that psychopath from yesterday who had tried to shove a blood-soaked dagger into my heart.
I was going mad in this town!
Julian had simply picked me up after the upsetting events of yesterday and carried me through the whole house to my bed.
I must have been in such a state of shock that I'd allowed something like that to happen.
He had sat me on my bed, told me that I should sleep now and also that I was safe here in the house. A werewolf had told me that I was safe here, and I had believed him.
Somehow, I must have fallen asleep.
The memories of yesterday seemed like a surreal dream.
How had Mum not noticed?
Reflecting, I got up, texted Larissa that I was okay, and went to make my bed, which rarely happened. But I dropped the pillow, in shock.
I grabbed my head and when I looked at my hand again, it looked like the pillow: Full of brown hair?
I jumped up in horror and rushed to my standing mirror. Examining my head, I came closer to look at my scalp.
I felt sick to my stomach.
It looked like I had less hair. My freckles seemed paler, like the rest of my skin.
