Frostbitten (10 page)

“We’re almost there,”
Kate remained steadfast, although Anastasia was certain that she heard a quiver
in her voice.

Within minutes, the
comforting glow of lights appeared nearby, illuminating a medium-sized house.
Under Kate’s command, they crept closer until they were outside a window at the
back of the house. A light flickered in the room, and the curtains were parted
ever so slightly, probably making it difficult but not impossible to see
inside.

Kate gestured for the
three girls to stay back, before leaning closer to the window and peering in.
She was silent for several moments, even though something had definitely caught
her attention. “Frost is in there,” she finally spoke in a hushed tone.

Unable to control her
curiosity, Anastasia stepped forward and looked over Kate’s shoulder. Her pulse
raced as she saw Frost sitting in front of a fireplace, topless and tuning his
guitar. The flickering glow from the fire danced over Frost’s body,
highlighting his muscular build. When he put his guitar down and stood up, both
Anastasia and Kate ducked. However, they continued to watch as Frost stretched
his upper body before reaching for a notebook that lay upon the mantle. He then
sat back down, interchanging between writing in his notebook and strumming on
his guitar.

“Damn,” Kate muttered,
most definitely unintentionally.

“Let me see,” Marissa
demanded impatiently.

“Shhh...” Chloe warned
sternly, despite pushing forward in an attempt to peek in the window.

Knowing how wrong this
was, Anastasia backed away. Frost had gone from being talked about because
people thought he was a freak, to being spied upon because of his hot,
unbelievably toned body. Either way, he was constantly being dehumanized.
Anastasia was disgusted by her friends’ treatment of him, but she was also
ashamed that she’d stooped to their level.

“Wow,” Marissa
muttered, almost pressing her face against the glass.

“This isn’t right,”
Anastasia began to say. However, she was interrupted by the sound of heavy
footsteps fast approaching.

“Hey!” a loud voice
suddenly echoed throughout the woods.

Spinning around,
Anastasia saw a man hurrying toward them. As he came closer, she felt her heart
leap into her throat – it was Mr. Stone. She blushed deeply, mortified that
he’d caught them spying on Frost.

“It’s okay,” Mr. Stone
assured Anastasia as he slowed his pace. He was now only a few feet away from
her.

“Move,” Chloe said
desperately, while pulling Anastasia away from Mr. Stone.

Anastasia turned around
to see that Kate and Marissa had left the window and were already running
deeper into the woods. Not thinking twice, Anastasia and Chloe followed their
lead and began to run.

“Come back!” Mr. Stone
called after them. “It’s dangerous out there!”

Ignoring Mr. Stone’s
warning, the four girls continued running and didn’t stop until their lungs
ached and they had stitches in their sides. Several times, Anastasia had called
out to Kate, begging her to stop, but she’d just kept on going. Now shivering
in the cold, unforgiving night, they were far from their car and likely lost in
the middle of nowhere. The prospects did nothing to instill confidence in
Anastasia.

“We need help,” Chloe
said breathlessly, confirming Anastasia’s fear.

Quickly, Anastasia
retrieved her cell phone and was disappointed, although not surprised, to find
that she had no reception. One by one, Kate, Chloe and Marissa discovered that
their cell phones also didn’t work.

“What are we going to
do?” Marissa moaned, almost in tears. “I’m cold and scared and...”

“Shut the hell up,”
Kate scolded harshly. “I can’t think with you whining.”

Marissa started to sob
and, instinctively, Anastasia hugged her. She’d always hated to see anyone
upset or hurt, especially when that person was as nice as Marissa. Kate’s
abusive attitude was getting out-of-control, and Anastasia was about to speak
up when Chloe beat her to it.

“You’re not helping the
situation,” Chloe bravely told Kate, while stepping forward.

“I don’t see you doing
anything!” Kate retorted.

“It’s your fault we’re
out here!” she shot back.

As the arguing
continued, another sound coming from nearby caught Anastasia’s attention. She
sensed that someone was in the woods, creeping around them as if they didn’t
want to be seen or heard. Anastasia’s heart pounded as a feeling of dread
washed over her. When she heard a branch snap, she knew for certain that
someone was out there.

Suddenly, a shrill cry
ripped through the woods, mere seconds before a cougar pounced on Chloe and
tackled her to the ground. It happened so fast that no one had a chance to
move. Instead, they watched in horror as the cougar sunk his teeth into Chloe’s
arm, causing her to cry out in pain. Then he started to drag her away.

Kate and Marissa
screamed, while running in the direction they had come. This startled the
cougar and made him retreat slightly, giving Anastasia a chance to run to
Chloe’s side. She was shocked that Kate and Marissa had left, but thankfully
the commotion they made while fleeing, along with Chloe’s ongoing cries of
pain, were enough to make the cougar turn around and disappear into the woods.

“Help me!” Chloe
screamed in agony as she lay on the ground, clutching her arm just above where
the cougar had bitten.

Desperate to help Chloe
but unsure of what to do, Anastasia crouched beside her and touched her
shoulder, hoping to provide some sort of comfort. It obviously didn’t help.
Chloe was shaking, probably from a combination of pain, shock and lying on the
freezing ground. Anastasia’s eyes traveled to Chloe’s arm, her stomach churning
as she saw the damage that the cougar had done. The sleeve of her coat had been
ripped off, and it looked like she was bleeding heavily, although it was
impossible to see the depth of the wound due to the lack of light.

“It’s going to be
okay,” Anastasia promised Chloe. “I’ll get you out of here, but first we need
to find Kate and Marissa.”

“Please stay!” Chloe
cried, grabbing onto Anastasia as if to prevent her from leaving. She then
whimpered, proving just how painful it was to move.

“I’d never leave...”

“Kate and Marissa did,”
Chloe interrupted, her grasp on Anastasia tightening as she looked up at her
with wide, terrified eyes.

“I’m not them,”
Anastasia said firmly. “We’re leaving together.”

Ever so gently, she
began to lift Chloe up, causing her to cry out in agony yet again. Anastasia
winced at the sight and sound of her friend’s pain, feeling utterly powerless
to help her. She knew that they had to get back to the car, but it was clear
that Chloe wouldn’t be able to walk such a distance, even if they could find
their way.

“Everything hurts,”
Chloe moaned, while being incompliant with Anastasia’s ongoing efforts to pull
her up.

“Please, Chloe,”
Anastasia begged. “We can’t stay here in case the cougar comes...”

An angry growl came
from somewhere in the woods, cutting Anastasia off mid-sentence. It seemed so
close, but despite her best efforts, she couldn’t see anything. Both she and
Chloe became deathly quiet, listening as the cougar paced noisily around them.

“Where...where is he?”
Chloe whispered breathlessly.

“Everywhere but
nowhere,” Anastasia whispered back, noting how every time she thought she’d
pinpointed the cougar’s location, it quickly changed. It didn’t take her long
to realize that they were being circled.

Hurriedly, Anastasia
rose to her feet and made herself as tall and large as possible. She remembered
what Frost had done the last time they’d encountered the cougar; he’d portrayed
himself as the predator instead of the prey, and that was exactly what she had
to do.

“Get out of here!”
Anastasia yelled as loudly as she could, while waving her arms in the air.

“What are you doing?”
Chloe asked fretfully, in between gasps of pain as she hardly managed to sit
up. “Don’t make him angry.”

“Get lost! Leave!”
Anastasia continued to shout, ignoring Chloe in the process.

As the cougar sounded
closer, Anastasia knew that her defense mechanisms weren’t working – she just
didn’t know why. When Chloe’s whimper drew Anastasia’s attention back to her,
she finally understood the cougar’s behavior; he had tasted Chloe’s blood and
wasn’t going to leave without some more. She had been marked as the prey.

“You have to get up
now!” Anastasia cried as she pulled Chloe onto her feet and then struggled to
support her.

The woods became still,
as if even the wind was afraid to stir. Anastasia listened for the cougar but
heard nothing other than her racing heart and Chloe’s soft whimpering. Maybe he
had finally left. Maybe she and Chloe really would be alright.

Growl...

The startling noise
came from behind Anastasia and Chloe, making them turn around ever so slowly.
They now faced the cougar, who inched closer in a hunched position and
continued to growl in a menacing tone. Although he was a slender, medium-sized
animal, he still looked strong and very dangerous. The cougar’s ears, which lay
almost flat to his head, along with his bared fangs, perfectly conveyed an
aggressive disposition. Instantly, Anastasia knew that she and Chloe were in
serious trouble.

Upon hearing a hurried
rustling in the distance, Anastasia’s fear heightened – another cougar must be
entering the scene, preparing to devour her and Chloe equally. She felt her
knees weaken and her chest ache from all the panicking. Still, she wanted to
fight back, not only for her sake but for Chloe’s, too. She spotted a fallen branch
nearby, and after telling Chloe to steady herself, Anastasia grabbed for it.

The cougar hissed and
lowered his body, as if getting ready to attack. Then the strangest thing
happened – the cougar stumbled sideways and let out a painful whine. Turning around,
the cougar tried to slink away; however, he appeared so groggy that he just
collapsed. Several seconds passed, but the cougar remained on the ground,
motionless and quite possibly dead.

“Are you okay?” someone
suddenly shouted.

Turning in the direction
of the voice, Anastasia saw a guy hurrying toward them. As he drew closer, she
was surprised to discover that it was Frost. Even more shocking was the fact
that he carried a gun.

“Are you hurt?” Frost
asked, placing his hand on Anastasia’s shoulder and looking closely at her.

“I’m okay, but Chloe
was attacked by the cougar and she...”

“Anastasia,” Chloe
interrupted with a weak moan, right before she fainted.

Frost hurried to help
Chloe, while Anastasia stood on guard, holding her tree branch in one hand and
his gun in the other. Working quickly, he loosened the collar of Chloe’s coat
and checked for a pulse. Frost then unzipped his own coat and ripped a piece of
his shirt, tying the strip of fabric tightly around her wound.

“How bad is she?”
Anastasia asked, almost not wanting to know the answer.

“Her pulse is slow,”
Frost replied as he placed his arms under Chloe’s shoulders and legs and then
gently lifted her up. “She’s losing a lot of blood. We need to get her to the
hospital. Are you able to run?”

Anastasia took one last
look at the limp, stationary cougar and then threw her branch on the ground.
She nodded to Frost, before following him through the woods. Anastasia ran as
fast as possible, but she could tell that she was holding Frost back. Nevertheless,
he stayed by her side until they reached his house.

Immediately, Frost
guided Anastasia to his SUV. He placed Chloe in the back seat and instructed
Anastasia to keep a firm grip on her so she wouldn’t fall over. Frost then took
the gun from Anastasia and hurried to start the SUV. Seconds later, they were
speeding down a darkening road that she’d never seen before.

From the cougar attack
to rushing Chloe to Cedar Falls Hospital, everything had happened so fast that
it felt unreal. Anastasia now sat in the hospital’s waiting room with Frost,
anxiously anticipating an update on Chloe’s condition, while also obsessively
repeating the night’s events in her mind. However, all that currently mattered
was Chloe’s well-being.

Why is the doctor
taking so long? Is that a good sign or a bad one?
These questions tortured Anastasia as she fidgeted uncomfortably in her chair.
She’d always hated hospitals with all the ill people and strange machines which
sounded as scary as they looked. It seemed too artificial, as if life relied
solely on science and technology.

Frost placed his hand
on top of Anastasia’s, obviously sensing her inner turmoil and wanting to offer
her comfort. However, his hand was so warm that Anastasia immediately jerked
away from him. Curiously, she looked at Frost, noting his embarrassed
expression and sudden unease.

“Do you have a fever?”
Anastasia asked, while realizing how cold her own hands were due to the frigid
temperature she’d been exposed to as well as her current state of nervousness.