Something Of A Kind (16 page)

“No worries,” he smiled, relieved. “We’ve all got baggage. My
parents are insane, too. Hell, you know. You saw what happened to
my sister.” Noah grimaced. “My dad’s problems are the only ones
that matter, but at the same time, they don’t exist. Nothing is
acceptable to him except his own messedup… -ness.”

“I know exactly what you mean. I know I’m not good enough. I
know I’m not what he wants me to be.” Aly admitted, biting her lip.
“I just wish he would get over it so I can.”

They fell silent, mulling over her words. In an instant, he knew
there was an unspoken awareness between them. What she didn’t
know, she would understand. Why Owen and Luke were the closest
thing he would have to brothers, why his sister needed to be
protected, why he needed to get out and as far away from this hell of
a town as possible. Their pain was totally different and exactly the
same. He loved her for it, and hated himself for that.

Noah grabbed her wrists, pinning them to her chest, leaning in.
Her breath grazed his, their eyes locked. Suddenly, he guided her
arms out, stretched like she stood on the stern of The Titanic.
Moving away, he motioned to hold still, and circled her, coming to a
stop as he completed a 360, absorbing every detail. Ivory skin, dark
hair cascading down her back. The pale freckle to the right of her
blue eyes, the exposed indents of her clavicles, a shamrock-shaped
birthmark on her wrist. Every curve, every feature. She shivered,
biting her lip beneath his scrutiny. He cupped her chin in one hand,
gently turning her face to each side.

“Do you know what I see, Aly Glass?” Noah whispered, his
thumb brushing across her cheek. She closed her eyes, trembling
beneath his touch. “I see perfect, literally everywhere. I see Aly, not
how-dare-you-Alyson-Mackenzie: this beautiful person, amazing as
she is – someone who doesn’t need to change for anyone, especially
her anal-retentive father that everyone hates anyway.”
CHAPTER 11 | ALYSON

The blue of his hoodie disappeared in the woods ahead. He
moved beneath a low canopy, sprinting behind the thickest parts of
the brush to circle her. Reentering the path, he held his breath,
sneaking behind her.

Aly stood on the tips of her toes, inclining her head as though it
would help her searching eyes dart through the trees. She jumped as
he wrapped his arms around her waist, leaving a kiss on her cheek
before resting his chin on the crown of her head.

She laughed. “That was kind of evil.”

 

“Maybe,” he agreed, pleased.

 

Impressed, Aly inquired, “How’d you do that?”

 

“Magic,” Noah teased.

“Hey love
-birds, come see!” Owen shouted, sounding like a
child showing his mother a Lego creation. Aly grabbed Noah’s hand,
sprinting ahead until he met her pace, surpassing until she struggled
to keep up. "Right where my dad said it would be!"

A footprint burrowed into the ground. Surrounding wet dirt was
a clay-like consistency, the dip filled with water from last night’s
rain. It was nearly twice the length of Aly’s sandal. Distinct toes, no
claws, no balls of human feet. Whatever it was, it was flat footed –
and the size of Goliath.

“Wow,” Aly commented, raising an eyebrow.

 

“Maybe the big man here was sleepwalking,” Luke snickered.

 

“Maybe your fellow pigmies dug you a watering hole.” Owen
snapped.

 

“Young, your mom’s a hunter,” Noah said. “What does this look
like to you?”

“Bigfoot,” Luke snickered. Bending to his knees for a better
look, he stared for a moment, squinting with scrutiny. He blanched.
“Well, yeah. I guess it’s… It looks like the freaking wood beast.”

“I’ve got my phone. We can take pictures,” Aly offered.

 

“We really should cast it.” Luke rolled his shoulders as he stood.
“I don’t have the stuff for that kind of thing though.”

 

“Don’t some people dig it out of the ground?” Owen asked,
fingers outstretch, miming where they could cut.

 

Noah shook his head. “You’d probably just crush it anyway.”

 

“Pictures it is,” Aly decided, digging her phone from her pocket.
“So, who’s playing foot model?”

 

“What?”
“This thing is huge. We need something to scale it with so they
can figure out how big in case these get ruined while we're gone.”

They hesitated, exchanging glances. Luke raised his hands in a
silent refusal. Owen scratched his head, sighing. “Look, I’m really
sorry Alyson. We can’t be on camera if you show those to your dad.”

She blinked. “Why?”

 

Noah’s jaw set. “It’s because they’re scared of the elders.”

“We’re considering our parents, Noah. You know we’re
not
supposed to mess with this stuff. We were raised to respect this
thing,” Owen defended, his voice both offended and apologetic.

“A God-fearing respect,” Luke added.

“So that it didn’t steal your wife and force her to have its
mutated baby spawn.” Noah threw up his hands. “Those legends are
outdated, most aren’t even from this area. I don’t know if you’ve
noticed, but people can’t breed with animals, no one here is married,
and the idea of displeasing the big scary sasquatch is like saying it’s
going to run out of the woods and burn the place down. The people
who are telling you to freak are the same ones who thought bigfoot
could breathe fire. I’m not saying we can’t respect the stories and
the elders, but this has got to stop.”

“No, you have to stop,” Owen retorted, crossing his arms. “We
shouldn’t have come up here.”

 

“Then why did you?” Noah demanded.

 

“It just doesn’t feel right, okay?” Owen yelled, blushing beat-
red. “Get over it.”

“Guys,” Aly intervened, exchanging a look with Noah. “It’s
totallyokay. I respect that, Noah respects that. No one’s going to
force you to do anything. I’m just as capable as sticking my leg out,
figuratively or not.”

They looked to Noah, expressions commanding agreement. He
nodded.

“It’s not a big deal.” She smiled to
dissipate
the tension.
Stepping beside it, she snapped a picture, and another, holding it to
different angles. Backing up to gouge the shadows, she noticed
another in front of it, a smudge after that. By the time she was
finished, it was documented like a crime scene. The boys watched,
occasionally pacing, taking interest in a tree here or a flower there. It
took a few minutes for her to realize they were on high-alert, Noah
included.

Suddenly, Luke jerked his chin in the air. “You know, if you
want to geta perfect picture, you’ve got to get the beast out here.”

 

“What are you talking about? I thought you were freaked,” Noah
smirked. Owen’s brows knitted in suspicion.

“I won’t be a coward,” Luke insisted, reaching down to lift a
fallen branch jutting into the path. Stepping on one end, he broke
most of the leaves off, struggling to hold it at shoulder level. With a
quick thud, he cracked it against the tree, once, twice, until it was in
pieces. Despite being thin and rotten, the sounds rang, reverberating.
He flexed his hands, covered in dirt and wet bark fragments, palms
red with skin irritation. Ignoring Owen’s ruthless glare, Luke
instructed, “Now listen for knocks. They knock back and forth,
Rolland said so.”

The forest fell silent.

 

Noah sighed.

 

Aly held her breath.

 

Luke glanced at her, a slow smile flooding his face. His gray
eyes flashed, expressive and devious.

 

“Don’t,” Owen warned, suddenly looking small, despite his
brawn. “It’s not funny, man.”

 

He looks terrified.

Cupping his hands around his mouth, Luke let out a howl. It was
more high-pitched than wolves or dogs, practically hooting, but still
throaty, straight from the gullet.

Pitching screeches erupted from the brush, sending a chill down
her back. Noah’s hand tensed around her wrist.

 

“Luke,” Owen whispered angrily, punching his friend in the
arm.

“Oh come on,” Luke groaned, rubbing the spot. “I was just
messing with you. You went on and on, so damn sure of yourself. I
thought I’d humble you. I was doing you a favor. Don’t give me that
look. Come on, man, it was a joke! Nothing”

Turning her head towards another knock, Aly expected Luke to
have continued his harassment with sticks. Instead, a flash of motion
shuffled in the trees. She lifted her phone, taking as many serial
photographs as the loading would allow, hoping to catch something.

She fell to the ground, screaming and pulling a knee to her chest
before she realized what happened. Noah was at her side, warm
arms curling beneath her knees and around her waist. He lifted her
from the ground, speed-walking to a bench further down on the trail.
He set her down with a squeak, her face twisted in pain.

Blood slid down her ankle, scrapes covering most of her shin.
The area around it was reddened, quickly purpling. Catching the
words slipping out of her mouth, something garbled, she shut her
lips, looking back to where it happened. A massive rock sat in the
middle of the trail next to the phone she had dropped, Owen and
Luke staring at it, skin ashen, faces deadpanned.

I’m being such a big baby.

“It hit me?” she whispered, thankful she wasn’t crying. The pain
was starting, in floods, dull and throbbing where the heat of the cuts
weren’t searing. The wound was dirty, wide. In denim shorts, her
legs had no protection against the rough surface. She had never seen
a bruise blacken so fast.

Please don’t be broken.

“I think it was… it was trying to hit a tree. The knocking,” Noah
stuttered, hands fluttering, unsure what to do. She swallowed, lightly
probing the forming contusion. Hitting a tender spot, she sucked air
in through her teeth. He tensed.

“It’s okay. I’m okay,” she insisted, enunciating each word
slowly. She put a hand on his cheek, looking into his panicked eyes.
“Thank you for helping. Do you mind grabbing my phone?”

He nodded, running up the trail. By the time he returned, she
was frowning, unsure what to do with the bleeding. Her leg pounded
like a headache, stabs of pain rolling through the agonizing rawness.

This is so gross. I’ve got Band-Aids and tissues, but my bag’s in
the car.

Sighing, she forced herself to look away, accepting the cell. She
flipped through the pictures, a smile brightening her face. “It’s a
black blur, but it’s definitely something. The trees are too yellowish
to miss a thing like that.” Glancing up, she continued, “Did you see
it?”

His brows knitted. “I saw something –
movement, a shadow
maybe. You should get that looked at. We should probably get out of
here.”

She nodded, accepting his hand as she tried to stand. Wincing,
she said, “Fair warning, I’ll look like The Hunchback of Notre
Damefor a while.”

“Want me to carry you?”

 

Aly blushed, lips parting, shaking her head. “No, no, no. I’m
good.”

 

“I don’t mind. I lift frozen meat like wrestlers bench. It’s really
not a problem,” he offered.

“That’s an interesting mental imagine,” she teased. “But I insist
on hobbling with dignity.” Offering her arm, she added playfully,
“Be my crutch?”

Wrapping an arm around her waist, he promised, “Always.”

 

CHAPTER 12 | NOAH

 

“So you think your leg is okay to walk?”

Aly stretched it out in front of her, her shin covered in BandAids printed with various members of the Avengers. When Noah
commented, she snickered, insisting that he shouldn’t ask.

“It should be fine. It doesn’t even hurt at this point. Thank you,
by the way.”

 

He smiled. “Don’t mention it. So are you coming back to
Yazzie’s or am I bringing you home?”

Aly was silent, nibbling her lip in thought. Suddenly turning in
her seat, she blurted, “Do you know where he works – my dad –
where the facility is?”

He raised a brow. “This is Ashland. There’s not much to know.”

 

Geographically, anyway.

“We should go there, right?” she asked, turning her phone side to
side as though it could morph in the light. He couldn’t tell if she was
mentally outlining the cover – hard plastic, an cartoon image of the
Eiffel Tower and butterflies – or thinking of the pictures inside,
which, at first, had seemed to make her ecstatic. Now, she looked
concerned, on-edge, nerves rattled.

Wait– she wants to make a report?

 

“You said you don’t even believe he researches it – that you
don’t know what he does.”

She sighed. “I’ve been trying really hard not to think about it. It
seemed so crazy– he’s uptight and boring, the bigfoot-thing is
eccentric at best…”

“But you thought about it anyway,” he finished, frowning.

“A little,” Aly admitted, “It’s all over this town –
the woods, the
tunnels, even Luke and Owen are up to date, and they don’t seem to
listen to much of anything.”

“True,” he agreed, stifling a laugh. Sobering, he added, “Aly, I
think a report is a bit extreme.”

The idea of dragging Alyson defenseless into his father’s
territory, under the line of fire, was unacceptable. The Elders had
been making threats for months, and after whatever stirred the
embers the day Dr. Glass showed up with Aly in tow hadn’t been
good. If Lee were any more aware of how Noah spent his time with
Aly, everything would go south fast. There would be hell to pay.

But it hurt her.

“He’s researching it, though. He must be. Why else would he
cross the country for a little town? There’s not a whole lot here.
Nothing he couldn’t study out of a university in one of the cities,
Anchorage even. Think about it.”