Amy was exhausted. All weekend long, she had been compelled to work from open to close at the grocery store. It turned out that Eric was also very busy on the weekends, and in her haste to make up for her absences, she had bitten off more than she could chew by eagerly agreeing to help Eric out now that she was feeling a little bit better. However, she could begin to sense that her illness was about to act up again. It always had a tendency to do so at the worst possible times. For example, when she was extra busy at work or overwhelmed by stress from one thing or another.
The worst part about it was that Richard wasn’t anywhere nearby. If she couldn’t manage it without him, she was going to have to rely on the one person she was trying to give a break to. The weekend couldn’t be over fast enough.
But she would get through it. She always did. As she scanned out the last person of the night, Amy sighed heavily. Her body had been holding up well enough so far. All she had to do was wait another few days until her day off. Then, she could let herself rest and hopefully, recover before it got too bad. She could only hope that would be the case.
“Have a great night,” Amy said to her customer, who nodded briskly and walked out. She sighed quietly to herself. A lot of the people here didn’t think very highly of her. She wished she could leave or at least find a position that suited her better somewhere else. But this was the best it was ever going to get for her. Unless her disease was mysteriously cured, she would always be bound to this place and these people. She would always be a burden to everybody else. And she would never be able to hold down a man like Carter.
Amy frowned, shaking her head in disgust. No, Carter wasn’t a good man. She shouldn’t be trying to measure up to his standards. They were clearly skewed. And he was an asshole. He had ghosted her right away. She hadn’t heard from him at all since that night, and not only that, but he hadn’t even parted ways with her in a way that was respectful or decent. He had been a total jerk about it. Why should she want any more attention from a man like that? She didn’t. He was a piece of shit.
And yet, she couldn’t help but feel incredibly hurt by his behavior. What had she done wrong? Had he lost respect for her because she had allowed him to take her so quickly and abruptly that way? Was he worried that maybe she was promiscuous? But if that was the case, maybe he shouldn’t have pursued her in the first place. What was all of this about? What had he been thinking when he had turned away like that and walked off on his own? She would never be able to read his mind, that much was certain, but at the very least, he should have given her some explanation as to why he didn’t want to see her again.
Had it felt bad for him? Was he married or something? Either way, she tried to reassure herself that the fault wasn’t her own. It had everything to do with Carter. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She was just living her life the best way that she knew how. And yet, the sting of his rejection followed her everywhere she went, and if her mind wandered back to him for even a moment, she could feel hot tears burning in her eyes.
Why did it hurt her so badly to be turned down by this man? It wasn’t as if this had never happened before. She had always been kind of an outcast in this area. She had steeled herself to the harsh ways of horny men who only wanted to be with her for a brief time without the responsibilities of a relationship or even a genuine connection.
Amy shuffled through the grocery store as she closed it out, doing her best not to think about Carter at all. But he was haunting her thoughts tonight. Why had she allowed herself to become vulnerable to this man? It was obvious that he didn’t care for her at all. Maybe it had always been obvious. Everybody could tell he was weird. Just the way they had been looking at him in the bank, maybe she should have been looking at him the same way. Instead, she had allowed herself to look even worse in the eyes of her community and lowered their expectations of her even further. Not that it really mattered. She didn’t need any of their approval anyway.
She headed outside, digging in her pockets for the keys to her car. Before she found them, an icy chill surged through her and she stood up straight, suddenly aware of the faint sound of heavy breathing from behind her.
Amy knew she should be afraid, but for some reason, rather than being scared, she was angry. Whether she was angry because she was tired of being inconvenienced and had a lot of unresolved feelings about the previous attack, or if she was just feeling some residual anger from dealing with her complicated emotions about Carter, she wasn’t afraid. She wanted revenge.
The logical step to take would’ve been to run to her car and never look back. But Amy wasn’t in the mood to take anybody’s crap. Instead, she whipped around and faced whatever the danger was that was lurking behind her. Unsurprisingly, she saw the grotesque face of a man who looked very similar to the two men that had attacked her previously. However, she was certain he was a different person, and quickly summoned the dark energies that she tried so hard to keep under wraps and immediately punched him in the face.
He let out a cry of surprise and stumbled backward, nearly collapsing onto the ground. He managed to regain his balance, however, and two more of the vicious -looking wolves stepped forward as if to protect the man. Amy could feel her energy surge with fury and once again found herself battling these dogs with a strange assertiveness that was very much atypical of her usual self. The man was afraid for now, and stayed still, hanging back behind the walls and watching as they fought.
“We are going to get you, Golden One. We are going to get you whether you like it or not.”
“Why do you keep calling me that? I don’t understand why this is happening,” Amy growled, kicking away one of the wolves and smacking at the other with the ball of her fist. “None of this makes any sense. Why don’t you just leave me alone?”
“Oh, we would if we could, but that isn’t an option, girl. It is more crucial, than you will ever know, to achieve this goal. And you are the only means we have with which to do it. So, you are coming with us.”
“Like hell I am,” Amy exclaimed, giving a final, aggressive kick to the wolf that was in pursuit of her and running toward her vehicle. She had her key ready, and unlocked the door quickly, getting inside.
Before she had a chance to close the door, however, one of the wolves lunged at her, trying to drag her back out. Amy gouged her key into the wolf’s eye and then slammed the door against its head. She began driving backward before the wolf was completely out of the car, until it finally dropped and she felt the huge bump as her car rolled over its body.
She had no idea where to go or what to do. For some reason, all she could think of was Carter. Carter would be able to help her. She was certain of that. But how would she even find him? And did she even want to?
Amy pursed her lips and set her eyes forward in determination. No, she was going to deal with this herself. She didn’t need any man to protect her. Especially not a man who treated her with such careless disrespect. Carter was an asshole, not a hero. She wasn’t going to rely on him any more than she had to. In fact, she was going to take care of this on her own without anybody else’s intervention. It was clear that the police had nothing to do with this type of case and would probably have her committed if she tried to speak out about it. That was probably Carter’s reason for not having her speak with the police personally. Still, whether he wanted to protect her or not at the time, she was never going to deal with him again. She was going to do what was best for her and her alone. Even if that meant she spent the rest of the night in her car avoiding strange men and dogs that seemed strangely human.