What on earth was Rylan doing naked in the middle of the forest?

Norah touched his arm, surprised at how warm he still was. “Rylan, can you hear me? My name is Norah, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to help you, okay?”

He moaned and she took that as consent to help him. She had to get him to a hospital, in the dark she couldn’t determine the full extent of his injuries but she knew it was bad. She didn’t have a phone to call for help and he obviously didn’t have one either. Her next plan would have to be carrying him back to her car but that was still going to be a problem. “All right, Rylan, I’m going to help you, but you need to help me as well.”

She pulled him up to a sitting position and frowned. The guy was heavy. “Okay buddy, I need you to stand up. Come on,” she groaned as she tried to pull him to his feet.

He hissed, struggling to stand as he tried to help her and she winced, knowing she must have been hurting him. But she couldn’t leave him in the forest while she went to get help. What if the wolf came back? She shifted, trying to put most of his weight on her back as he finally got to his feet and her own legs threatened to buckle. His head and arms hung over her shoulders but his feet were still dragging on the ground. The metallic scent of blood, combined with dirt filled her senses and she breathed through her mouth.

“Okay,” she gritted her teeth. “You better stay awake or we’re both screwed.”

She walked slowly through the forest, her torch tucked tightly under one arm. With each step, her legs wanted to collapse but she kept a steady pace, knowing if she stopped she wouldn’t be able to start again. Rylan’s laboured breathing sounded in her ears and her back started to feel damp from the blood coming from his chest. It took her nearly ten minutes to find the path again and with each step, his weight grew heavier.

“Come on, Rylan, help me even a little bit here.”

“Sorry,” he murmured lightly and she felt a stab of guilt.

“Just focus on staying awake, please.” It felt like forever before she saw the outline of her car. Relief swept through her and she struggled over to the passenger door. She cursed as the torch dropped and she fumbled with the key in the dark before finding the keyhole. In an awkward manoeuvre, she somehow managed to get him sitting in the passenger seat, shoving her notebook onto the floor in the process.

Picking up the torch, she rushed around the other side and froze, turning to look at his bike. A small pile of clothes were on the ground, on the other side, his keys and wallet buried in them. She hadn’t looked on the other side of the bike earlier so she hadn’t seen them. She picked up the small bundle and put them in the backseat of her car before climbing in. Quickly starting the car, she turned to look at him in the dark, secretly glad so she couldn’t focus on the fact that he was very naked. “Where is the hospital around here?”

“No hospital,” he breathed, eyes closed.

“You need a hospital,” she demanded, “and I don’t know where it is –“

She jumped as his hand grabbed her arm and his eyes flew open, staring at her in pain. “No hospitals, please, Norah.”

His eyes closed again and she wanted to ask why, but the need to attend to his wounds took priority.

“Stubborn man,” she cursed, banging the steering wheel as she shifted into reverse. Spinning around, she headed back for home. She didn’t know where Olivia lived and had never bothered to ask for her phone number. She thought of checking the address on his license, but she still wasn’t familiar with the streets here and he needed attention now.

She tried to drive carefully, every bump made him hiss in pain and she bit her lip in worry. She wished he’d just tell her where the damn hospital was. She couldn’t believe that it was him she had seen every time she saw that motorcycle. She wondered if he would be annoyed that his motorcycle had been left out near the forest. Someone could steal it. At least she had thought to grab the keys, and unless it was possible to hotwire a motorcycle, she felt it would be safe for the night.

She turned down her driveway and her next problem arose; how was she going to get him in the house?

Coming to a stop, she rushed out of the car and unlocked the front door before going back for Rylan. His skin was pale and she kept her eyes on his face as the car light came on. “Rylan, we’re getting out of the car now, I need you to help me again.”

He seemed to understand and was able to twist his body so she could pull him out. He fell into her and she stumbled back. “Whoa, stand up, Rylan.”

With one arm draped around her shoulders, he was able to take slow steps into the house. They reached the couch and she placed him on it as gently as possible. His legs hung over the edge and she grabbed a blanket to place over his lower half. Her mind was in overdrive as she tried to think of what to do first.

“I’m going to call an ambulance –“

“No,” he breathed. “I’ll be fine but no ambulance and no hospitals.”

“I’m not qualified to do this, Rylan. I’m calling an ambulance.”

“Then I’m leaving.” He tried to sit up on the couch, face scrunched in pain as he grabbed at his chest. Norah watched him for a second before shrieking in annoyance. Grabbing his shoulders, she gently pushed him back down.

“Fine, but if you get an infection and die, don’t blame me.” She looked at his wounds, wondering what she should do. “Clean,” she murmured, staring the blood all over his chest. “Clean the wounds.”

Grabbing a large mixing bowl from the kitchen, she filled it with hot water and grabbed some towels and her first aid kit from the bathroom. It only had gauze and bandages but she would use whatever she could at this point. Bringing everything over to the coffee table, she placed it down in a rush. His chest was sticky from the blood and she bit down her nausea. Even after helping Adam clean up, the sight of so much blood made her feel ill.

“Okay, Rylan,” she said hesitantly. “I’m going to clean the wounds now.”

Wetting a face washer, she started wiping the blood away. The bleeding appeared to have slowed and she did her best to clean the wounds without pressing too hard. His face was twisted in pain but he didn’t make a noise. “Nearly done,” she tried to assure him.

The puckered flesh looked bad and she knew he probably needed stitches, but there was no way she was doing that. Her mind was going through how people cleaned wounds in the movies since it was her only reference point for this sort of thing. “Sterilize with alcohol.”

Getting up, she grabbed her bottle of vodka from the top cupboard in the kitchen. It would have to do. Kneeling on the floor beside him, she touched his arm. “Rylan? I need to sterilize the wounds now. It’s probably going to hurt a little bit.”

He didn’t respond and she dabbed a piece of gauze in the alcohol before gently wiping it across the edges of the wound. She gasped as Rylan’s eyes shot open, his body tensing up. “Fuck!”

His hands shot out and gripped her biceps painfully. His chest rose and fell heavily as his eyes closed and she found her own breathing was erratic, hands trembling.

“Sorry,” she said repeatedly, her voice squeaking. His hold on her arms didn’t loosen and she hurried to finish cleaning the wounds. The circulation in her arms was being cut off but she didn’t say anything. He was probably in more pain at this moment than she was.

When she was done, she tended to his eye and his body started to relax as her fingers gently applied an ointment she had found in her first aid kit which helped relieve bruising. His grip loosened and pins and needles tingled up her arms. With the remaining gauze, she covered the wounds and sat back feeling exhausted.

There was nothing more she could do until he was coherent enough to let her take him to a hospital. His breathing evened out and he fell asleep. Norah stared at him; his face gentled in sleep but the hard lines around his eyes and mouth told her he was still in pain. The thought of waking him to give him pain relief crossed her mind but she was hesitant to wake him. His hair was plastered to his forehead and not thinking, she brushed it aside, the dark strands cold and damp against her skin.

She saw the arm band tattoo around his bicep and brushed some dirt smudges underneath it. Even now, his skin was warm to the touch and she wondered if maybe he had a fever. Getting up, she grabbed a washer and some ice from the fridge before placing it on his forehead. He moved slightly when she placed it on but quickly resettled.  

The bleeding appeared to have stopped and she sighed, resting her head on the coffee table. She stared at his face, still curious as to what he had been doing out in the forest with no clothes on. She was still trying to think of a reason as she drifted off to sleep, her hand stroking his arm gently in reassurance.

*                             *                             *                             *                             *

Ring ring.

The sound of the phone drifted through Norah's ears and she squinted as she glanced out the small front window towards the beach. Her body ached and she for a moment, she forgot why she had fallen asleep on the coffee table.

The phone clicked through to the answering machine and memories of last night came rushing back in. Head whipping around, she looked at the couch and froze. Rylan was gone. Glancing around, she saw the pile of clothes she'd grabbed were missing as well and a flash of annoyance coursed through her.

The bastard had left without as much as a thank you.

The answering machine beeped. Norah, you better pick up this phone right now before I come down there and –

“Hey Alice.” She rushed over, tripping over her feet and picked up the phone before her friend got too carried away. She looked around for Rylan. “What's going on?”

“Norah Jacobs!” she screeched. “You don't talk to me for nearly two weeks and all you have to say is, what's going on?”

“Hey, I answered the phone, which says I'm alive.” She stretched the phone cord, trying to see in her bedroom. “Although, I could have been killed and come back as a zombie, but then I probably wouldn't be able to talk –“

“Shut up!” Alice sighed heavily into the phone, knowing Norah hated the sound. “Tell me about Bellvale. Has everything been okay?”

Norah proceeded to tell Alice about her time there so far and the people she'd met, leaving out her discovery of a naked man and his subsequent disappearance this morning. She continued to pause as she looked around, expecting Rylan to suddenly appear from the bathroom or something.

“Norah?”

“Hmm?” She tuned back in after looking out the window to see if he had gone outside.

“I'm sorry, am I boring you?”

“What? No, I'm sorry, you just caught me at a bad time...”

A strange noise erupted from Alice's side of the phone and Norah winced. “Are you with a guy right now? Is he hot?”

“I'm with no one right now.”

“Ah, but last you were with a guy, right?”

Norah rolled her eyes. “Alice...”

“Details!” she demanded.

“Not right now, I have to go.”

“But I haven't even got to tell you about –“

“I'm sorry Alice, I really am. I just can't concentrate right now. I promise to call you back though. Tonight?” There was silence on the other end and Norah yanked the cord, knowing Alice would be dying to know what was wrong. “Please?”

“All right,” she finally said. “But if I don't get a phone call tonight, I'm going to come down there and make you listen to my boring stories.”

“It's a date. Love you.”

“I love me too. Bye!” Alice hung up first and Norah placed the receiver back in the cradle.

Doing a quick run through of the house, she decided that Rylan was either a hide and seek champion, or he had really left. She started to feel peeved off that he hadn't hung around to let her know he was alright. After all the work she had done last night to help him, she deserved that much.

The feeling only intensified when she realised that both her linen and the jumper she was wearing were ruined. “Should have left that ungrateful bastard out there,” she grumbled.

Clearing the coffee table, she noticed the blanked was folded neatly on the arm of the couch. Still ungrateful. There was a blood stain on the couch cushion and she scowled. “I need coffee before I can deal with this.”

Walking to the bathroom first, she had a shower and tried to think of ways to get blood out of leather. Adam had only had blood on his skin, which had been easier to clean. The couch would be another matter though. She wondered if she typed, 'how to get blood out leather' into Google, what answers would come up? For some reason her mind just went straight to dirty websites and serial killer blogs. Not something she really wanted to look up at this time of morning. In the end, she decided that bleach was the best answer and she would simply flip the cushion over so it wasn't visible. Or place a rug over the top so it wasn't noticeable. 

Her mood continued to darken when she saw the blood on her car seat. Sighing, she tilted the seat back so she wouldn’t lean on it and headed for town. It seemed as though her life was filled with blood these days. Her mind still harboured a million questions about Rylan and why he had been naked in the forest. Her current top thought was that he was a nudist hippie just getting in touch with Mother Nature but that just seemed ridiculous.

She saw her notebook on the car floor and realised she had forgotten about her main intention last night. Picking it up, she headed for the café once she stopped the car in town.

“Norah, there you are!” Olivia rushed over and gave her a hug.

“Yes, here I am.” Norah hugged her back awkwardly. “Did I miss something?”

“No, it's just I'm so used to you coming in at your usual time, I was worried something bad had happened to you! I've made your coffee four times while secretly hoping you weren't dead in a ditch somewhere.”

“I only hang out in ditches when I've had a rough night with Jose, so it's all good.”

“Jose?”

“Tequila!” Gail sang and hummed the tune as she took some empty plates back into the kitchen.

Norah smiled and nodded in approval before turning back to Olivia. “Sorry I worried you. I just had a rough night and needed a few extra z's.”

“That's okay.”

Norah grabbed her arm. “Actually, would it make you feel better if I gave you my phone number? I was just thinking about that last night.”

“Oh sure! I can't believe I haven’t gotten it yet.” They exchanged numbers and Olivia frowned. “This is a land line. Don't you have a mobile so I can text you, too?”

“I don't have a mobile.”

“You don't have a mobile?” she repeated.

“That's right. I don't think I really need one –“

“Of course you need one!” Olivia exclaimed. “What happens if you're out on a run and you get hurt? Who are you going to call with -?”

“Ghost busters!” Norah said before she could stop herself.

Olivia's frown deepened. “You have no idea how hard I want to laugh at that right now.”

“I can kind of tell, actually,” she poked Olivia between the eyes. “You're twitching.”

She swatted her hand away. “Seriously though, Norah. You need to get a mobile phone. It's not safe to be out on your own without a way to contact someone.”

“What if I use smoke signals? I'm not that good but I'm sure I can take an online class or something.”

Olivia sighed and Norah grinned in apology. “Sorry. I'll think about getting one. In the meantime, if you want to contact me, I suggest you stick to the old fashion land line.”

“Fine, but I'm not giving up on this.”

“I'm not giving up on smoke signals either. I think they could really make a comeback in the next five years?”

Olivia went behind the counter. “Why five years?”

“Have to think in the long run, Olivia. It won't just happen overnight.”

“You are being extra weird today,” she muttered. “Go and sit down, I'll bring your coffee over.”

“Thanks.” Norah took her usual seat, thinking Olivia was right. She was feeling extra weird today. The whole incident with Rylan last night and then his disappearance this morning really had her feeling out of sorts. Acting weird was her defence against all the crazy. 

The morning was getting on but the café was quiet save for a few tourists lingering. She scribbled a few notes from last night, crossing out Rylan’s name when it suddenly appeared from the tip of her pen. In the end, she had more than enough for the scene she was stuck on, so at least it hadn’t been a wasted effort. Every so often her mind kept drifting back to Rylan and she tried to push him from her thoughts, not wanting to deal with that right now. Olivia came over with her coffee and the aroma relaxed the tension from her body.

“Hey jerk,” Olivia bounced over to the door after delivering Norah’s coffee. Norah glanced up and her heart stopped.

Rylan stood in the doorway, grinning down at Olivia, his face fully healed. His white shirt was the same one she had collected last night and it held no traces of blood and no hint of any wounds or dressings beneath the thin cotton.

The cup in her hand trembled. What the hell?

_________________________________________________

A/N: I stopped procrastinating and managed to get the chapter done today! What do we all think of Rylan so far?