The Immortal Design (7 page)

   I got into my battered Audi and headed for home as well. I wasn’t sure how I would explain this to my father. He would definitely call Kelly’s parents and they would probably tell him about me talking to Willa, which would set him off even more because I had disobeyed a directed order from him. Well, what my dad don’t know won’t hurt him. The chances he wouldn’t see the damage were slim but I was going to pray that he didn’t and I could just play it off that I hit a dear or something on my home.

    I pulled into my drive way to find my father outside giving the gardeners instructions for our well-manicured lawn. Great, here it comes. He turned to see me pull in. He waved to me as I parked the car. Of course he was all smiles at first; that is until he began to walk over to the car to greet me. “What the hell happened to the car John?” He was fuming. His face had already turned three different shades of red by the time I had managed to get out the driver’s side and grab my bag from the back seat.

   “Were you in a wreck? Or was this some sort of vandalism? Either way someone is going to pay for this!”

   “No dad nothing like that. I hit a dear on the way home. I took the scenic route and the thing just jumped out in front of me. I didn’t hardly have time to stop. I’m sorry. If you want I’ll get a job and pay to have it fixed myself.” The explanation was plausible. My father was too busy examining the damage to the car to notice that I had been injured, not that I had actually expected him to notice me in the first place. “Did you hear what I said dad? I’ll pay to fix it ok?”

  My father finally looked up at me. He seemed surprised to see me still standing there. “What? Oh. Oh yes, well no there’s no need for that. We have insurance to pay for the damage. I’ll call my guy and they can come pick it up and have it worked on. Until then you can use the jeep.”

   My father kept checking the damage and paid no further attention to me, so I took that as me being dismissed. I went up to my room and placed my things on the bed. It was getting late and I still hadn’t went out for my daily run. My head was pounding still so I decided against the run and instead laid down to rest. 

   I soon realized that I was a lot more tired than I had thought. I closed my eyes briefly and before I knew what happened I was dreaming of Willa.

   The dream started out great. We were on our first date and I had taken her to the lookout. The stars were shining brightly in the dark sky and the moon looked as though it had tripled in size. Her hair glistened in the light of the full moon. Her snow white skin glowed and her beautiful rose pink lips beckoned for one simple touch of mine.

   Slowly the dream began to change.  We walked along the densely wooded path to get a better view of the valley below. A branch snapped somewhere off in the distance. It was of no concern to me as I was only interested in watching the beautiful girl who had captured my heart so easily. She turned to me smiling and beckoned me to follow her further along the path.

   A low growl came from in front of my beauty, she stopped where she stood, frozen solid as if she had become a beautiful marble statue. I wanted to keep walking hand in hand with her as the moon shone through the low branches of the mountain forest. She held me firmly in place, she turned slowly and placed a slender finger to her lips in a sign for me to be silent.

   Another growl approached us.  I could hear the animal now, it was much closer to us then I had liked. I pulled at her to come away from the approaching danger. She shook her head slightly, she was not going to leave. I heard heavy padded foot falls approaching just ahead of Willa.  It was definitely time to run, and yet she refused to budge. I attempted to shout to her that we needed to leave right now, that danger was approaching.

   The giant black wolf appeared from the low mist that covered the nettled floor of the forest. The beast stood half of my height. Its eyes glowed as brightly as the moon, a blue eyed wolf stood before us. Willa held her hand out for it. The frightening creature walked right to her and began to lick her palm. She released my hand and knelt before it. She laughed as the beast licked her face and she spoke to it in a loving way. The thing seemed to understand her foreign tongue.

  Together as one they nodded and turned to me. Willa stood and released her hold on the wolf’s mane “Yes
Ce Rau,
It must be done, I agree I should have never come here and yes he must be destroyed. Had I known that he was one of The Order, I would have not allowed this to continue any further.” She walked slowly backwards not taking her eyes from mine and then she commanded the unimaginable happen “Kill him
Ce Rau”.
I woke up screaming just as the massive jaws of the wolf had clamped around my throat.

   Not in my lifetime had I ever experienced a dream that seemed so real. I could literally feel the hot breath from the wolf breathing down my neck. I had to keep reminding myself that it was only a dream and it wasn’t real. Over and over again I told myself it had only been a very bad dream.

   I looked over to the clock that sat on the bed side table, it was already seven. I was going to be late. I rushed into my private bathroom and showered. I decided I wanted to be as casual ass possible around Willa so I opted for a relaxed pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I was having a hard time shaking the after effects of the nightmare as I got ready for our first official date. I grabbed my jacket and made my way down the stairs to the garage. I noticed that my dad’s “guys” had come and picked up my Audi already so I took the jeep keys from the key hook and took off to pick up Willa.

9.

   The night air was warm since it was still technically summer. Even this high up in mountains the weather was always warm in the summer months. I drove through the winding streets to the Eckles house to pick up Willa for our first date. This would be the first chance I had since we met to be completely alone with her. I looked forward to getting to know her better. I wanted to get to know everything about her. I wanted to know her likes her dislikes, what her home country was like and I especially wanted to know more about her brother and why he was angry with her for being here.

   I parked the jeep next to the curb and went up to the door to knock, but before I could knock on the door it had opened. Willa stood before me wearing dark jeans knee high leather boots and a peasant style white blouse that showed the top of her shoulders. Her hair was tied back in a loose bun with stray strands curling around her ears. My God she was beautiful. She smiled brightly and I could feel my heart start to race once again. Her perfect white skin shone brightly as the moon’s rays of light reflected upon her skin.  I caught myself holding my breath. It was like I was living in a dream.

   “Hello John. I am glad to see that you made it on time. I worried that maybe you would not want to come after all the fuss earlier today.”

   “Fuss? What fuss?” I asked. I had momentarily forgotten all about crazy Kelly and Willa’s older brother.

   “Oh you mean the Kelly thing? And let’s not forget your brother. He seemed like a real treat. Not to worry, neither one of them can scare me away from spending time with the most beautiful girl in Castle Rock” I spoke with confidence, but her brother did seem to be a little on the intimidating side. Regardless of that, I still wasn’t about to let either one of them ruin our evening. “Where would you like to go? Are you hungry at all? We can go grab a bite to eat or something, or we can drive around and I could show you the sites? I’ll leave it up to you. You are my guest for the evening and I plan on being the perfect host, so let’s call it ladies choice.”

   Willa giggled softly and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “I would love to see this lookout, I hear the other teen kids speak of so often.”

   Oh boy, I wasn’t planning on that. The lookout was Castle Rock’s equivalent to make out central. I really didn’t want to take her there and have her think that I was like the rest of the guys in our school.  Willa picked up on my hesitation at her suggestion “Is there something wrong with the lookout? I have heard it is a beautiful place to star gaze. I love to watch the stars at night and gaze upon the full moon as well as pick out the constellations.”

   “Oh, um no. It’s fine. But I will warn you that some kids go up there to do other things that don’t involve looking at the stars. I don’t want you to think I am one of those guys.” Willa looked at me as if I had gone insane.

   “Johnathan do you not think that we have the same concept where I am from? We do. I assure you I do not think you are one of those guys, and although those places do draw attention for lovers it is usually because of the beauty of the night. It is how you would say romantic, to be kissed passionately by one’s love under a full moon with all the heavens looking down upon you and witnessing your hearts desires.”

   “I guess I never thought of it like that before. I did say it was ladies choice, so off we go to the lookout. There is a great view of the mountains from the point overlooking the valley, and tonight it would look spectacular seeing as it is a full moon.” I turned the ignition and set off for the lookout with Willa, the most beautiful girl in the entire world sitting next to me. This night couldn’t be any more perfect than it already was.

   The drive up the mountain didn’t take long. I found a great spot to park and so far there were no other people here. I silently thanked God for that. I didn’t need nosey bodies watching me and Willa as we sat on the blanket I had brought and gazed up at the stars. I wasn’t very familiar with the constellations so Willa pointed them out to me as she found them with ease.

   “Is that the little dipper or the big one, because I can never remember which one is which?” I asked as I pointed to a small cluster of stars that to me looked like they were in a row. Willa laughed out loud at my question.

   “No silly that is Orion’s belt. Many ancient people built temples to honor those three stars. They believed they were most holy and thought if they built their own temples to mirror those above, that they too would be redeemed in the afterlife. Now if you look just over there, you can see the Dragon, or Draco.”

  “Where? I don’t see anything but a bunch twinkling stars.” I laughed. I seriously couldn’t see the shapes that Willa saw in the night sky, but it was interesting to hear her tell their stories.

   “You see, what looks like a box, and then sort of an S shape ending right there? That is The Dragon. It is supposedly the protector of lost treasures or High Temples.” Willa turned to face me as she finished her story. Our faces were barely two inches apart. I could see the different shades of blue shimmering in her eyes as the bright moonlight reflected off of her stormy irises. I could see myself getting lost in those eyes for an eternity and never caring for one second that I had been lost to the world as long as I was alive in her eyes.

   “What are you thinking Johnathan?” she whispered.

   “That I am with the most beautiful girl I have ever met, and I really don’t want this night to end because I really want to know more about the girl who is five seconds away from stealing my heart forever.”

   “There is too much to tell in a mere five seconds, so your heart will be safe for a bit longer than you wish.” She leaned closer and kissed me gently on the lips. I felt every nerve ending in my body firing off all at once.

  As she leaned over me staring back into my eyes, her body stiffened. It was as if she was on high alert all of the sudden. “What is it...what’s” I couldn’t finish the sentence because Willa had clamped her hand down over my mouth roughly to silence me. She listened intently. A few moments passed and I had heard nothing other than an owl hooting off in the distance.

  A low menacing growl off to the right of us sounded throughout the night. “Quickly Johnathan get to your jeep.” Willa spoke in a rush as she scrambled to her feet and dragged me back to where we had parked the Jeep. The top was still off. Together we snapped the plastic covering in place, I was just about to snap the last few in place as I was pushed into the Jeep and the door slammed behind me.

   Before I could figure out what had happened, I noticed that Willa was not in the Jeep with me. I heard more growling coming from outside of the Jeep. Frantically I tried to open my door to get to Willa. I couldn’t stand it if she were to get hurt because I was locked in my own Jeep. The door was jammed shut. Then I saw it. A monster come to life. We have wolves here in the Rockies, but non that compared to the giant black beast that had appeared from behind the tree line. The wolf began to snarl viciously, it was readying for an attack. I scrambled over the center console of the jeep and pushed the passenger door open. I fell head first onto the ground, hitting my head in the same spot as I had received the blow from crazy Kelly’s back pack. Instantly I grabbed the tender spot on my head and crawled forward to see where the wolf was and where Willa could be hiding. Instead of seeing Willa hiding I saw the unimaginable. That hit on the head must have done more damage than I had thought.

   I rubbed my eyes to make sure I was seeing what I was seeing. I was surely watching a scene out of a horror movie, or at least a nightmare. I tried to get to my feet to warn her to get away, but my legs gave out and I crashed back to the ground. My head was splitting with pain, and fresh blood poured freely down my face.