The Three Bears: Part One (special preview)

His thick brows pinch together and he scowls. “These uniforms wick heat away! I’m boiling alright. Boiling alive.”

Luis then points to the counter. “You have people waiting.” 

Novikov flenches and quickly comes up to the counter, he has pure white hair but thick black eyebrows. He’s older, but he’s built like a brick house. White hair coats his arms and knuckles, but his face is clean shaven. He adjusts his glasses and looks down between us.

“I rented a cabin for the week,” my boyfriend huffs. He then gives his information to the white haired man.

The white haired man looks at me first then down to the computer. “We have you in cabin thirteen, it’s closer to the lake as you requested.” The computer squaks and his brow pinches. He pushes the same button over and over getting the same squaking noise each time. 

“Novikov, stop!” The man minding the radio jumps up and races over. “You can’t keep doing that.” He’s much younger and looks to have vitiligo. His dark skin contains patches of white that make almost a mask around his eyes than down around his mouth and neck. His arms are speckled as well, mostly around the fingers. His hair is extremely fluffy and wavy too.

“Thank you, Luis,” Novikov huffs. He then takes out a set of keys and hands them to my boyfriend. “The trail marks everything clearly, but I will have Yuan guide you to the cabin.” 

My boyfriend then turns to me. “Just one night? Ok. If you don’t like it, we’ll leave in the morning.”

I glare at him, fully planning to break up with him after we get home. “Fine.”

Out from the back comes a stocking ranger with a long, pitch black ponytail, and thick stubble. He looks up at us, his sharp eyes are piercing and his expression reads as ‘just woken from a nap I was enjoying’. 

“I’m Yuan Fang, follow me and don’t be stupid.” He grabs a radio from the desk and then stomps out the door with us in tow. He waits a moment while we get our bags, then he leads us into the forest.

I stick close to Yuan, trusting him to protect me more than my boyfriend. At this point, I know this is all a joke to him, but surely Yuan would take this seriously. We get to the cabin which, I hate to admit, is adorable, and the view of the lake is breathtaking. I almost let that lull me into a false sense of security as we get inside.

“See, it's not so bad, right? If we stay sequestered here, you won’t have to worry about anything, unless there is a monster living in the lake.” He comes up to me, putting his hands on my hips and trying to get all kissy and cute. I give him a few smooches, but I’m still livid about the situation.

“Look, let’s unpack before we really unpack.” I take my suitcase and go to the bedroom. “Good, there’s a dresser. I’ll take this row, you can have the others.” I open my suitcase and inside is not what I would have packed. The anger comes back, much more vicious than before.