Chapter Six

I jolt awake to my name being called, it takes me a few seconds to process what was happening before I jump up. Cody was slowly sitting up from the other sofa, in the same moment Justin begins to shout my name once again, this time it was closer than before. I run up to the door of the basement locking it as I went, I knew this would just confirm to Justin that I was down here but it would at least give me a few more seconds to think of an excuse. Cody was already on his feet as I make it to the bottom of the staircase, he didn't look as though he was in any pain which was kind of shocking, he literally got shot yesterday!

"What are we gonna do? Justin is gonna come down here and see you and-" I start to ramble as my name continues to be shouted, I could tell by his tone he was getting worried and a little annoyed.

"Calm down I have a plan, you could distracted your friend, while I climb out the window" Cody says walking over to the little basement window pushing it open, that would be a good plan if he wasn't injured.

"But you're hurt, climbing out the window could make it worse" I say walking over taking his arm to stop him, he looks down at me with a smile climbing down a little taking my hand in his.

You probably already know what I felt when we touched hands right? But this time we make eye contact where, as like before I'm lost in his bright blue eyes. I've never had this with anyone else before, but it seems as though as soon as our eyes meet that's it, it's lost time for Erika!

"I'll be fine thanks to you, you quite literally saved my life last night and I will never forget that" he says finally speaking after the whole minute of silence we had going on, by this time I hear Justin trying the door "I will come back to see you as soon as I can, you just concentrate on being the incredible person I see you are" he smiles placing a kiss on my cheek, my whole face this time burst in sparks, Justin banging on the door ruins the moment though.

I take steps backwards our hand still interlocked with each other's, most of me didn't want to actually let go. Once our hands finally break apart I turn to climb the basement stairs, once I reach the top I turn to look where he was to see he was gone. The basement window was still wide open, whoa that was quick!

Justin bangs on the door snaps me out of my thoughts once again, I take a deep breath in and make it seem like he just woke me up, technically I had anyway. I unlock the door where it flies open nearly knocking me down the stairs, an arm is wrapped around my waist thankfully, preventing me from falling down the stairs.

"What are you doing in the basement?" Justin asks pulling me in the door and away from the stairs, oh right I should have thought of an excuse beforehand, in my defence I was a little preoccupied with getting Cody out.

"Your walkie-talkie kept waking me up, the sofa's in the living room are much too uncomfortable to sleep on, so I went to the basement" I say totally making the story up as I was going along, somehow the whole story was actually making sense! "I locked the door as my dad keeps the front door open and I was scared some random would walk in" I explain also having to justify why the door was just locked, honestly I'm such a good liar!

"You could have woken me up and I would have come with you" Justin says as Reece rounds the corner, Martha hanging back in the living room "I'll help you clean all the blankets away" Justin offers which would have been a nice gesture, if there wasn't blood everywhere!

"No, it's totally fine I can do it myself" I say moving in front of the door stopping him, I couldn't let him see what was down there "you stay up here and make breakfas-" I start to say but I'm pushed out the way by Justin who races down the stairs, I take a worried look to Reece before following Justin down the stairs, Reece close behind.

Once I reach the bottom I see Justin just scanning the basement, he hadn't looked over at the sofas but I knew when he does, he's gonna be beyond shocked. It takes him a few more seconds before his eyes land on the sofa, total shock and surprise fills his face, time to think on your feet again Erika.

"Reece had a major nose bleed last night, didn't you Reece?" I ask looking over at Reece, I knew he'd always have my back but would ask me what really happened later.

"Yeah it was bad, Erika knew how much you liked that sofa so she wanted to get it cleaned before you saw it" Reece says backing me up, I smile looking back over at Justin with a smile.

"But I was with you the whole night, I didn't see you having a nose bleed" Justin says crossing his arms suspiciously, lucky for me Reece was also a good lair.

"That's because you wasn't here when my nose started bleeding, if you remember when Martha ran out you and Erika followed, I bleed everywhere due to the stress" he explains which actually sounded so legit, if I didn't know what actually happened I would believe it myself "I had to go with Martha but told Erika what happened in passing, she told me it was fine and we'd clean it up in the morning so that's why I'm here" he smiles opening his arms up also wrapping the story up, which I hoped and prayed Justin brought.

Justin gives us both a look as though he was studying our faces, I kept the smile on my face while linking arms with Reece. After a few seconds he nods indicating that he believed our story, thankfully. I knew too well that if he didn't believe it, he would particularly force me to tell him and that's something I promised Cody I wouldn't do. I still have no clue why he only wanted me to help him and actually trusted me, I'm also more shocked that I was able to help him in the first place!

Justin excuses himself to sort breakfast while me and Reece clean the sofa, we watch him walk up the stairs closing the door behind him. I let out a sigh moving away from Reece and towards the sofa, I didn't know how we were meant to remove it but I knew I had to try. It's not only Justin I would have to try and explain it to if they saw it, but my dad and Ethan would go on and on until I told them and it's not so easy to lie to them.

I go to the cupboard pulling out cleaning stuff, that's the only thing that's our dads down here. Yes, he likes a clean house but doesn't like to have the cleaning stuff on show. Don't ask me how that works because I couldn't tell ya! Once I got the things I need I knell down to start cleaning.

"So are you gonna tell me what really happened down here?" Reece asks from behind me, I was hoping he would forget about it but I knew that was impossible.

"You know I reckon we can just get this out with this, it might not look exactly the same as it did before but at least it won't be covered in blood" I say starting to stub at the sofa, in my mind if I derailed the conversation and looked busy he wouldn't ask.

"Stop trying to change the subject Erika, you know I have your back 100% but I need to know what happened" he says walking over to me but I don't talk, I didn't know how I was going to explain it to him "Or I'll just get Justin down here and he can ask you" he says beginning to walk towards the stairs, I get up in a flash grabbing his hand to stop, I couldn't let him do that.

"Please don't tell him you know what he's like, okay I will tell you but you can't tell anyone else" I tell him looking up at the basement door, I didn't need Justin walking down here and hearing this conversation.

Reece nods crossing his arms, he was trying to put up a tough exterior so I would tell him, but I saw through it. He was more worried about whatever happened down here, when he really doesn't have to.

"I wasn't lying when I said Justin's walkie-talkie woke me up because it did, I went downstairs to get a glass of water to help me fall back to sleep when I noticed someone" I say beginning the story of what happened last night, I myself hadn't had time to process what happened yet "I walk downstairs to find this man really injured, he looked bad and told me I needed to help him but I couldn't tell anyone, well I wasn't just gonna leave him out there so I took him down here" I explain but looking up at Reece I could see his rather shocked expression, I couldn't believe I was saying this either and that it was all true!

"You helped a random dude?! He could have done anything to you Erika!" Reece exclaims so loud I had to tell him to shush, he wasn't mad but was more worried than anything.

"You didn't see him, he wouldn't have been able to fight his way of a plastic bag" I chuckle a little but he didn't find it funny "I couldn't have left him there Reece, I could tell how injured he was and if I didn't help him he wouldn't have made it, at the time I wasn't thinking about that I was focusing on helping the dude" I say knowing what I did could have been potentially dangerous, but at the time and even now I didn't feel that way towards Cody at all.

I know I just met him and really only spent maybe an hour and a half with him awake, in that time I was just focusing on helping him. Looking back I got this vibe and feeling from him, one I've never felt before as like the sparks I was feeling. I feel safe and protected when I'm around Cody, I know nothing bad is gonna happen when he's stood beside me. Being around him is the safest I've ever felt, especially with all this going on. Trust me I know how delusional I sound, but it's the truth.

Reece studies my face for a second before wrapping me in a hug, I knew this was his way of telling me he was sorry for yelling. Even though I know he didn't mean it in a bad way, Reece has always been protective over me since his own sister passed. It was a few years ago, she was meeting a friend when she just vanished. People looked everywhere for years but found nothing, but Reece never gave up hope. Around two years ago, one of the local men where hunting when they came across bones, it was immediately said to be hers and that was it.

Reece never got closure for what happened to his sister, he always tells me he should have walked home with her instead of staying back for football. It's not his fault at all but he can't help but feel bad, his sister and I are so close in age that people always mistook us as twins rather than me and Ethan. Reece always tells me that it's his job to look after me as he never got to with his own sister, I honestly don't mind.

"You saved his life, that makes you a hero" Reece smiles as we pull away, I just roll my eyes going back over to the sofa to clean "my little sister a hero!" he shouts where I have to tell him to shush again, but I also have to laugh while shaking my head.

"I'm not a hero, I just did what should have been done" I sigh dumping a bunch of liquid onto the sofa, I didn't actually know what I was doing but was completely guessing.

"That's exactly what superhero's say" he laughs sitting beside me while also scrubbing the sofa, not sure if it was doing much though "so what actually happened to him?" He asks looking over at me for a second, my arms were growing tired so I lean against the wall to have a break for a second.

"He told me he was from another village and was taking a walk, well he ended up getting shot and stumbled all the way here before collapsing outside" I say rubbing the sweat off my forehead, who would have thought cleaning a sofa would entail such a hard workout?

"He got shot?! The police must have mistaken him for a wolf, that's why we don't go for late night walks!" He exclaims also leaning against the opposite wall, I actually never thought to ask why Cody was out walking at that time.

"So how's things with Martha?" I ask making conversation while the sofa dried, we put a lot of cleaning stuff on this thing, let's hope he doesn't stain.

"That's actually something I wanted to talk to you about, she's been acting so strange, stranger than usual" he says ripping his gloves off putting them beside him, I send him a questioning look telling him to carry on "she's barely spoke a word which in itself is abnormal for that girl, but she has a weird obsession with the woods" he explains confused which makes me concerned, that's where she ran in yesterday when it was all going down.

"She'll stare out the kitchen window into the woods for hours, when I ask her what she's doing all she says is thinking, than this morning when I was taking a shower I walk out and she's nowhere to be seen, I caught her at the bottom of the garden about to jump the fence into the woods" he says pointing to the window at the woods, that is crazy but does make my brain start to work.

Yesterday, she said no they can't hurt Scott than ran into the woods. Scott being the guy she hit with her car and than asked for her number, you'd think if you got hit with a car you'd be injured, but according to Martha he got up and walked it off. I grab Reece by the hand and start to drag him upstairs, Martha was sat on the window looking out at woods. Once we walk up she turns a little scared, I don't stop but lead Reece up the stairs and towards my bedroom.

Last night, after all the drama I rang the library to see if they had any books on mysterious creatures. They had loads and she kindly sent them to my house this morning, I close my bedroom door where books where stacked on my desk.

"We need to read these, I just have this feeling that if these things are real she's involved somehow" I say picking a book up placing it in Reece's lap who was sat on the bed, I also grab one beginning sitting next to him.

"I have to read? I haven't done that since school" he whines looking over at me, I send him a look where makes him nod opening him a book "well I'm starting today, but what am I actually looking for?" He asks looking at the words on the pages confused, I honestly didn't know what I was looking for at this point.

"Anything you can find on werewolves" I say getting up and grabbing two notebooks and pens, we need to get as much information as we can "write notes on whatever you find" I tell him handing him the notebook and pen, this makes him whine again.

"I also have to write notes?" He whines looking over at me once again, I send him another look which this time makes him nod and start reading.

Time to uncover the truth.