Predator | 11

UNEDITED

Sorry for the long wait, I had a writers block (again) but I'm finally over it, I think. I'll update the next chapter this weekend since it's been over 20 day since the last update.

Filled with utter silence was the living room, once April returned to Eric's apartment. Barely twenty minutes had passed since she'd learned that Shawn lived just across the floor, making him and Eric neighbors for god knows how many years.

But finding out that Shawn lived in the exact same building was one the last things she was wasting her mind on and worrying about.

She was sure she would've even considered this as funny. In a normal circumstance, that is.

But her current situation didn't leave any space for amusement. Her situation simply didn't allow her to feel humored.

Life could be fücking unpredictable, sometimes. One minute you are sitting in your car and driving home and the next moment you find yourself being nibbled by a wolf.

Her mind was swirling and spinning around on the thoughts of the monsters lurking in the dark and running freely around in this god damn town.

Then, there was her injured arm that caused her great worry. It was the pulsing sensation of ache that came along with the wound she got from that ... monster.

Shawn already cleaned her wound and neatly wrapped a bandage all around her arm, but the picture of scratch was still imprinted in her mind very freshly.

The long and deep scratch, that begun just above her wrist and ended just a little under her elbow.

She was sure as hell that the damn scratch would leave a scar of eternity. A scar, which would with no doubt get her tons of questions about how the fück she managed to get a nasty scar like this.

A scar which would remember her about the incident for the rest of her life.

Life could be a fücking sick joke sometimes, she thought bitterly, her gaze still resting on her bandaged arm.

April couldn't even move her fingers without getting a stupid sting of pain stretching all over her wounded arm. She silently hissed in pain and clenched her teeth.

For the briefest of moments, she actually wondered why the hell she was so calm. She wasn't shaking in fear or running away, like a normal human would do.

That was it. She lost her mind. She finally lost her sanity.

She remained keeping silent for another few long moments, before she silently started to laugh.

She couldn't even explain which part of the recent events could be considered as funny, but the laughs didn't stop. Her body trembled as she continued to snicker silently.

Eric strolled into the living room, clearly confused when seeing April silently laughing to herself.

He furrowed his eyebrows together, before asking, "Are you alright?" His spoke slowly as if he was afraid his voice could startle her.

After long seconds April finally got herself under control again and lifted her gaze. A heavy sigh fell from her lips.

"Everything's alright," she spoke with a surprisingly even voice and snickered.

Eric narrowed his eyes on her, clearly not believing the words that fell from her lips so easily. "You sure?" Eric prompted. "I understand that everything can get .. to much to handle," he continued.

Eric walked towards her in a slow space, as if he was afraid of startling her with too sudden and fast movements. He silently took a seat on the couch next to her.

"Don't pretend you know how I feel," she spoke dryly without lifting her gaze from her feet. She switched her gaze to the windows and noticed that the sun was in the slowly going down. Colors of red and orange were stretched over the sky.

The day flew by in a blur.

"I know how you feel," Eric spoke in his soothingly voice. "I felt the same as you are right now, when I found out about the whole sh!t that was going on in this town."

His attempt to soothe her, however, turned into the wrong direction. April was anything but calm, she was burning with fury.

"So you knew," she begun angrily. "You knew and yet you wanted me to visit you. Are you out of your mind?" April asked breathlessly.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, you have no idea," he apologized. "Something like this, never happened before. I swear." He briefly nodded towards her injured arm.

"I don't care. There's always a first time for everything and I'm clearly the first fücking time as you can see." She held her bandaged arm up to make her statement more clear.

Eric's eyes softened with a clear edge of guilt in them. "I know this is too much, but you have to calm down. You will only strain your nerves if you-,"

"Oh, please, don't act like my therapist right now," she cut him off, waving with her hand dismissively.

April leaned her head on her uninjured arm, in an attempt to sort her messed up mind out.

It was slowly beginning to rain outside. The soft sound of the drops crashing against the windows broke through the silence around them.

Another few moments passed before Eric let out a heavy breath. "April, I-,"

"No," she cut him off once again. "Don't start it again. I don't want to talk right now. I think I should rest, I'm pretty tired."

April got off the couch, leaving Eric in the living room with nothing more than silence. She tiredly strolled into her bedroom and was quick to let herself fall on her bed.

Her body wasn't suffering from fatigue. It was her mind that was endlessly tired, that was in the need of a desperate rest.

April remembered Shawn's words. Would a wound like this truly be the end of her? It hurt like hell and looked gruesome, but not like something that would make her suffer to death.

She shuddered slightly at the thought and pressed her eyes tightly together to clear her blurry vision from the unshed tears.

Without bothering to change into more casual and comfortable clothes, she crawled under the sheets, seeking some warmth.

It was difficult to get some sleep when her mind was - despite the tiredness - not ready to rest.

Then there was the pain on her arm, that didn't allow her to rest. April was sure that it would deprive her from her sleep for the next few days.

She could hear the sounds of the rain outside thinning. Her eyelids became impossible heavy after a stretch of long moments, before falling asleep for good.

* * * * *

When April woke up, it wasn't the morning sun that welcomed her, but the heavy pain on her arm. The sky was still dark, when she woke up, but she was surprised that she could sleep through the night at all.

April hissed in pain and suppressed a sound of ache falling from her lips, when she tried to rise from the bed.

Not only did she have her arm that was constantly stinging in utter pain, but the bruises on her back as well.

Eric was gone, not to her surprise.

She didn't even know what day it was.

Friday, I believe.

She strolled into the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of juice and stuffing some toast into her mouth. She was careful not to move her injured arm, trying to avoid the pain.

If she thought the past days in this town were already unbearable, then she was sadly mistaken.

This day - out of all - seemed to be the worst.

April waltzed into the living room but stopped mid-step when the sound of a loud knock erupted through the apartment.

Still chewing on her toast, she wondered who it could be. She had an idea though, and it confirmed when she opened the door and came face to face with a grinning Shawn.

He was casually leaning against the door frame, wearing simple dark jeans and a hoodie, that made him look younger than he actually was.

"What are you doing here?" April asked, champing on the piece of bread.

"Checking on you," he answered matter of factly and strolled past her into the apartment, without asking for entry first.

With a frown of confusion settled in between Aprils eyebrows, she quickly closed the door behind her and followed him into the living room.

Shawn already made himself comfortable. He was sprawled all over the couch, his body relaxing as he kept his eyes closed.

"Let me see your arm," he muttered, his eyes still being closed.

April silently cursed under her breath and quickly threw the rest of the bread inside her mouth before pushing her sleeve up.

Shawn opened his eyes when April took a seat next to him. With much care, he slowly unwrapped her injured arm from the bandage.

There were traces of dried blood around the wound. April frowned once again, she didn't notice her wound bleeding again.

But maybe, this was the reason her arm hurt like bítch.

"Hold still, this will hurt a bit," Shawn whispered lowly and cleaned the wound once again.

April couldn't suppress a hiss of pain falling from her lips. Her grip on the couch tightened as Shawn kept cleaning her arm from the dried blood.

After painfully long moments, he was finally done and wrapped another clean bandage around the wound.

"It looks good," he spoke into the silence. He saw the look of irritation on her face when he lifted his eyes. "Your wound, I mean. It doesn't look like the poison infected your blood system. Consider yourself as a lucky girl." He smiled at her.

"How lucky I am," she spoke dryly with a sarcastic smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

Shawn rubbed his chin, watching her carefully. He seemed to be lost in deep thoughts. "Let's go out."

"Huh?" She asked clearly surprised. "Where to?"

"Grab a coffee or something," he spoke. "It's better than you sitting here alone and sulking. You will rot in here."

"I don't sulk."

"Of course not," he answered. "Come on, get up. Hurry," he sounded impatient.

She groaned briefly before getting from the couch and following him outside to his car.

* * * * *

The drive was unexpectedly quick before they reached the coffee shop. She recognized the place; it was the same coffee shop she visited days before.

"This coffee shop again?" April asked rather out of curiosity.

"What? You don't like it here?" Shawn asked, his eyebrows arching up.

April shook her head, too tired to answer verbally.

"It's the only place where you can grab a cup of decent coffee, if you exclude the shítty ones they offer at the petrol station," Shawn spoke.

April inwardly agreed with him, remembering the day and the bitter taste of coffee on the tip of her tongue perfectly. The coffee truly made her throat burn in utter disgust. She pulled her face into a look of disgust.

Shawn pulled over to the rather small parking space, barely enough space for five cars. She doubted more space would be useful, because in all honesty, everything seemed to be just around the corner. Driving with the car - like they did - was simply unnecessary, to put it simply.

Once getting off the car, cold winter wind welcomed her instantly. April hid her uninjured hand in one of her pockets, while her other hand had to endure the skin-biting cold.

She didn't even want to think about all the things her damn damaged arm would restrict her to do.

Shawn quickly hurried to the coffee shop, knowing how April was effected by the cold and held the door open for her.

A sigh of relief fell from her lips once she stepped into the warmth. Involuntary, she waltzed to the table she sat at the previous times, making it something like her ownl table

Shawn followed her seconds after, taking the seat in front of her. He rested his chin on both of his hands, watching her intensely.

April was about to shrug her jacket off her shoulders, but hissed in pain when she put too much pressure on her arm.

"Careful, you're still in the healing process," he warned slowly.

April rolled her eyes before answering, "Sorry, but it doesn't get fúcking easier doing everything with an injury," she spoke rather harshly.

"You know, you should let your friends sign your arm," he spoke thoughtfully. "It's pretty popular nowadays Or so I've hurt. And maybe get some pretty drawings, a wolf or something."

April gave him a sarcastic grin, not finding it amusing at all. "Fúck you," she spat and continued to watch him with a blank expression. "If you're trying to loosen up my mood, then you failed miserably."

"It was a joke. Don't be such a stick-in-the-mud," he said, with a very amused expression crossing through his features.

"I'm not," she retorted quickly, even though what he said sounded quite .... familiar. "Maybe you should just work on your joking skills. They're pretty lacking, let me tell you."

He chuckled in response but didn't say anything else, leaving them in a nice atmosphere of silence, until the waitress approached them, taking their orders.

With her feet softly tapping to the low and gentle tune of music in the background of the shop, she waited for the waitress to bring them their drinks. She was in need of something hot in her body.

April took her time and drifted her gaze around. Like her previous visits, only a few people, apart from her and Shawn, were at the local coffee shop.

She figured that most people would be working at this time of day, but doubted that the coffee shop would be any more crowded on weekends.

"Do you miss your city?" Shawn asked when he noticed her watching absently out the window for long moments. "The crowded areas and constant noises around you?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "No," she answered after long seconds. "I hadn't had exactly the perfect live there, but compared to this town, I realize now, it was a life I should've value a little bit more."

He watched her for long moments before answering, "Once you get used to Rosewood, you'll like it," he promised with a smiled hovering over his lips.

* * * * *

It was late at night when Eric arrived. April was already busying herself with unpacking her clothes again.

She was about to walk into the living room to her brother, but then remembered their conversation from the morning.

April wasn't even sure if she was still mad at him or if it was just the tiredness. With a sigh she quickly threw all her clothes into the closet before leaving the bedroom.

She hurried through the narrow corridor, walking into the living room, where Eric was about to shrug his jacket off his shoulders and throwing it on the chair beside him.

Silently, she took a seat on the couch, thinking about the words to say, but Eric was quick to beat her to it.

"How are you? How is your arm?" He asked, worry lacing the tone of his voice. "You changed your bandage?" He frowned then his gaze dropped down to the new and clean bandage around her injured arm.

"It hurts a bit, but I'm okay," she admitted honestly. "Shawn actually changed it. He paid me an unexpected visit after you left this morning."

April saw him nodding, in what she thought was approval.

She closed her eyes and slowly rubbed her temples before speaking, "Sorry that I snapped at you this morning," she spoke slowly.

Eric smiled lightly. "No worries. You were always like that so I'm rather used to it," he joked. "But your really okay now?" He asked with a more serious expression now.

April smiled, even though she knew it looked kind of forced. "Yeah, I am. Don't worry." She tried to convince him.

He nodded in response and tipped something on his phone.

"How was work today? You were the whole day out," April asked curiously after long moments of silence.

"Nothing too exciting, sadly. Just doing some paperwork," he spoke absently.

"Paperwork?" She scoffed. "You're trying to tell me that all you did today was doing boring paperwork?"

"Yes? What else?" He asked rhetorically with a smile tugging at the corners of his lips, before dropping his gaze down to his phone once again.

April narrowed her eyes, but didn't bother asking more, even though she knew he was lying. Why he lied, she didn't know and coudn't figure it out. She saw his features twisting into a expression he always had when he was stressed or angered by something.

With a yawn falling from her lips, she raised from the couch "It's pretty late, I'm going to sleep now," she spoke tiredly.

Eric nodded briefly. "Goodnight."

"Night," she responded. "You should also go to sleep. You look pretty ugly when you're tired," she said and waltzed to her bedroom.

April didn't realize how tired she was, not until she threw herself in her bed. She quickly covered herself with the sheets, her body seeking warmth.

It didn't take long until sleep kicked in. Her eyelids fluttered close.

Absently, she begun to scratch her injured arm that begun to itch and sting, before finally falling asleep.

_____________

I'm not sure what to think of this chapter. But the next one will be far better, I have it already planned out and will begin to write it right after I upload this. The next chapter will most probably be up this weekend. Please vote and comment if you liked it!