I slammed my hands over my mouth, stopping the scream as soon as it had left my lips. Shaking, I lent against the tree, begging that the sounds of dogs howling had drowned me out.

A few minutes passed and nothing happened. I allowed myself to drop my hands, taking in a shaky breath.

More minutes later, I gathered enough courage to look behind the tree, at the clearing again. My stomach dropped when I saw they had all left, and the fire was out. All that remained was a smoky pile of half burned branches.

Oh my god.

No way in hell had those guys turned into wolves?!

But there was no doubting what I had seen. Boy runs, boy leaps, boy becomes animal...

Maybe this was all a dream. A nightmare.

Feeling like hyperventilating, I knew I had to pull myself together. I hated to think what else was in this forest, let alone the man-wolves that were running around.

A thousand thoughts were racing through my brain, each as dominant as the other. The one thing I kept coming back to was Levi. What was he doing there?

He couldn't be... He wasn't. No. No way.... Right?

How is that even possible? Of course I knew of mythical creatures; vampires, werewolves, mermaids, dragons... I wasn't raised under a rock. Besides, I totally loved Twilight when I was like 13.

But to see that it could actually exist, in front of my own eyes... That was a whole different level of crazy.

My brain-panic was interrupted by the haunting sound of a howl in the distance, and that was when I knew I definitely had to get out of there.

Stupid sleepwalking me couldn't even have picked up a phone on my way out.

Early rays of light began to poke through the thick canopy, making the forest an inch less scary. I felt like a zombie, and probably looked like one too. Vacant, shocked look on my face, dirty, ripped clothes, scratches and cuts all over my legs, possible frostbite in my toes...

It was as if I shut down - forget the inhumane thing I'd just seen happen, the one priority I had was to get out of the forest alive.

Surprisingly, it was a lot easier that I had anticipated. Soon enough, the trees cleared and I emerged onto a road.

Almost whimpering in relief, I collapsed onto my knees, exhausted. My watch told me it was 6.40am.

I couldn't tell which road I'd come out on - it was long, with forest either side. I was just glad to be out in the open.

Brushing the mud off my knees, I got up and began walking. About an hour later, I saw the first signs of my town.

Any other day, I would have been impressed with my navigation skills, but that day, I couldn't feel anything. I think I was in shock.

I finally reached my house at about 9am.

Alex yelled in shock when I walked in, dropping a cup of coffee all over the kitchen floor.

"Danielle, what the hell?!"

I blinked at him, shaking and exhausted. "I woke up in the forest." Was all I could get out. I'd been walking for hours in flimsy pajamas and was frozen to my core.

Alex ripped his jumper off and wrapped it around me, leading me to the sofa and covering me with the throw.

"You what?" He looked aghast. I must have looked terrible.

I shook my head. Do I tell him? He would think I was insane. Absolutely out of my mind. He'd probably send me to live with mom in France.

"I thought you were in your room! Oh my God, I'm calling the doctor," he felt my forehead, wincing.

"Don't," I croaked. "I'm okay. Just a long walk. I got lost."

He looked at me apprehensively. "Why were you in the forest?"

"I must have sleep walked. Please don't call the doctor."

He looked torn. "I'm running you a bath, then we'll see."

He left me alone while he ran to the bathroom. I was slowly starting to warm up, and my mind was clearing up a bit. I didn't want to think about what I'd seen, the secret I was now carrying. I had no idea how to deal with that, what to do with it.

An hour of fussing later, I was clean (yes, I did look absolutely terrible), warm and wrapped in a cocoon of blankets on the sofa, sipping tea. I'd almost had to smash Alex's phone to stop him from calling the doctor, but he'd agreed to letting me be.

Feeling only semi safe, I somehow managed to let the exhaustion catch up to me, and fell asleep for the next 19 hours.

I woke up the next morning, feeling so much better.

Well, that was until I remembered that we actually have people roaming our town who are capable of turning into wolves, and that they potentially use this for evil, but I can't be sure.

Nothing in that is much of a burden. Right.

Alex said I didn't have to go to school, but I knew that if I sat around at home all day I would probably go insane. It was highly likely I'd go insane at school too, but that was just a risk I was going to have to take.

I felt like I was in a bubble of shock. I walked into about five people, all of whom started yelling at me, made eye contact and then scurried away. I probably still looked like crap. Or maybe I looked insane and they thought it best to not push an insane person.

I jumped about a mile into the air when Cara began talking to me in biology.

"Woah there, you look like you've seen a ghost," she gave me crazy eyes.

I sighed and smiled at her. "Sorry. Not much sleep last night." Lies. I slept for almost a whole day.

"So like, are you feeling better after your incident in the gym?" I winced. I'd forgotten all about that. God, this was a stressful two days.

"Uh yeah, the doctor said it was uh some kind of..." I struggled, realising that I'd never actually figured out what that was.

"Daniels told us your appendix burst. Ouch! Did you have to have surgery? Is that why you weren't at school yesterday?" Cara's enthusiasm over my medical crisis was very strong, and she seemed very well informed.

"Uh yes," I answered, but it sounded more like a question. Why had our principal lied to the school about my weird outburst? Did I have my appendix out? To be honest, with the amount of blacking out I was doing these days, I wouldn't be surprised.

I didn't think Cara should be taking biology. If i'd had emergency surgery yesterday, there was no way I would be at school the next day. Silly girl. Although I guess her silliness was to my advantage.

The day went on, slowly. The one thing I hadn't factored in was the fact that three of the human-wolf-shapeshifter-freak-of-nature things I'd supposedly seen the other night were at my school.

Let's just say I didn't handle it all that smoothly.

I locked eyes with them as I was heading down the hallway between classes. As soon as I saw their eyes my brain flashed to the bright yellow eyes I'd seen coming from the massive wolves. I froze as they got closer, my heart racing.

They nodded at me, solemn and serious as always, and the taller of the group said my name in a type of greeting as they got closer.

So I did the best thing anyone could do, and let my flight mode kick in. I ducked back a few steps, slamming into a locker so hard that I knew that would leave a bruise. Then, without stopping to look at the confused expressions on their faces, I ran the other way so fast that I was surprised I didn't crash into anything or anyone.

That plan would have gone brilliantly, if I hadn't run right to the admin building and straight into none other than Levi.