Asher
My breath comes out in white clouds in the cold, drafty November air. Running a hand through my hair briefly, I inhale the crisp smell of autumn. My dog, Heaven, is bounding alongside me happily.
Suddenly, I feel as if someone… or something is watching me. I whip around, scanning the bushes and trees, as well as the trail behind me. There’s nothing there. The hairs on the back of my neck lift, and I whirl back around to face the trail, picking up my pace.
There. Again.
I feel as if something is staring at me, and shivers run down my spine. My breath begins to come out in quicker puffs, my heart rate beginning to pick up. When I pause, Heaven comes up to my side, sensing my apprehension, brushing her head against my hand comfortingly.
I pick up the sound of footsteps. They’re light, barely there, but audible. My breath hitches, and Heaven emits a low growling whine, her tail sagging in a sign of submission.
“Come, girl.” I whisper. I clench my hands, and start to walk faster. The footsteps I hear begin to speed up, along with my strides, and my heartbeat. My breath hitches in my throat, and I find myself sprinting down the path.
Why did I go out today?
The wind begins to bite at my face, and a strange whistling rises above the noises of my footfalls, the pounding of Heaven’s paws, and the noises of the footsteps following us.
The air around me suddenly chills, and to my confusion, fluffy snowflakes are beginning to fall to the ground, blanketing the path and the forest around me. I want to slow, but I don’t know what those footsteps are.
When I listen for them again, over the frantic thumping of my heart, and the erratic pattern of my breathing, I realize… I can’t hear them. They’re just stopped completely.
I slow to a complete halt, straining my ears to hear. However, the only thing I hear is my heavy breathing, and Heaven’s panting.
“Heaven, stay close.” I whisper. Heaven inches closer, keeping her head bowed, and ears flattened against her head. She’s nervous, and so am I.
The snowflakes are falling in a thicker blanket, and the cold begins to nip at my ears and nose. I shudder, shaking the snow from my head, and rub my hands together.
Everything is quiet. Eerily quiet.
As if someone heard my thoughts, there’s the distant howling of wolves, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and I shift uncomfortably, the snow and ice beneath my feet crackling loudly.
I swallow hard, and turn, before I realize; I have no idea which way I came from. The snow has swallowed all of my previous tracks, and it doesn’t help that the snow is falling down in thicker sheets, and larger flakes. Heaven shakes her coat out furiously, before pressing her nose into my palm, whimpering softly.
Suddenly, in the undergrowth, a pair of red eyes flash at me. Heaven lets out a yelp and a shocked scream tears from my throat.
I stumble back, nearly losing my balance, my eyes fixated on the spot where those red eyes were only moments ago. I get that same feeling, that someone is watching me, and when I hold my breath, I can hear the sounds of heavy breathing.
It isn’t Heaven.
My body feels like it’s burning up, but I feel like I’m freezing at the same time. Alarm bells are ringing in my head, and I know that this is not right, that this is unusual. My heart it pounding, as if trying to tear itself from my chest.
Heaven whines loudly, and butts her head against my hip, urging me to move. However, I’m frozen in place, staring at the spot where those blood-red eyes stared at us, the sound of someone, or something breathing filling my ears.
Suddenly, something brushes against the back of my neck, and I immediately flinch, jolting forward and whirling around. From my peripheral vision, I see a dark shadow dart back into the tree line.
“Wh-Who’s there?” I demand, struggling to keep my voice steady. The breathing stops. There’s the sound of a cracking branch, and my heart leaps. I’m not used to the feeling of uneasiness. I’m not used to the feelings of terror. When I hear another twig crack, I choose to run forward on the path, hoping, praying that it will lead me home. Heaven barks, and flounces after me, pushing through the rapidly deepening snow.
The sounds of snapping twigs and branches follow us, the sounds crisp and loud in my ears. However, what really startles me is when lightning flashes across the sky, accompanied by a loud rumble of thunder.
I end up losing my footing for a moment, and trip, falling forward into the snow. I push myself back up and get back to my feet. My jeans are soaked from the knee down, and my toes and fingers are frozen.
Suddenly, up ahead, I see a large, medieval looking castle. I reach the end of the path, and I’m finally out of the forest. Heaven skids to a halt next to me, her flanks heaving, and a wild look in her eyes.
I hold my breath, and start to see if I can still hear the breathing, and the snapping of twigs and branches.
Nothing.
Biting my lower lip, I turn around to face the path that I had just run out of. The path suddenly seems much darker, and it doesn’t help that the wind has picked up, and the snow is falling so thickly.
My breath catches as I see something approaching on the path. Heaven growls, and presses her flank against my legs. I reach down, and grip the soft fur on the scruff of her neck, seeking warmth, or comfort.
My heart is beating an erratic pattern against my chest, and my breathing involuntarily speeds up as something… no, someone emerges from the darkness, their figure dimly outlined.
It’s a girl.
She seems to be about my age, eighteen, with wavy auburn hair, and delicate, soft features. Heaven sniffs the air, and growls lowly in her throat, baring her teeth.
“Heaven.” I hiss. But, there’s something about this approaching girl that makes me nervous and apprehensive. Her blue eyes seem vacant, but… I can’t help but to find her alarmingly attractive.
“Hello.” The girl says, lifting a hand in an elegant manner. The moment she does, the whirlwind of snow stops, everything frozen in mid-air. A small smile graces her mouth, as she stops a few feet away from me. I find myself fighting the urge to run, and the urge to return her smile.
How did she stop the snow and wind? How are the snowflakes suspended in mid-air?
“Um, hi.” I mumble, my eyes flickering back and forth. Was she the one following us earlier? The feeling of dread creeps down my spine.
No. That can’t be possible. That heavy breathing sounded animalistic. This girl is dressed in a simple, white dress, and she’s even barefoot.
“Can you help me? I seem to be lost.” The girl says, tilting her head to the side. Before I can respond and tell her “no”, her blue eyes flash a bright red, menacing.
I stumble back in shock, nearly falling over backwards. Heaven’s scruff bristles, and she barks loudly, baring her teeth.
Before I can whirl around to run away, towards the castle, away, I no longer know what’s going on, and my mind blanks.
“Can you help me? I seem to be lost.” The girl repeats, a scary smile crossing her delicate features. I find myself nodding in agreement, almost robotically. Heaven whines, and nips at my fingers.
Wh…what’s going on? Why don’t I have control over my body?
“Sure. Where do you live?” I hear myself respond mechanically. The girl steps forward, and takes a limp wrist in one of her hands. Feeling floods back into my body, and I have the sudden urge to tear my hand from her grip, but before I can, her grip tightens significantly, and a swift, predatory smirk crosses her features.
“There,” the girl lifts a hand and points up past me, towards the castle.
Oh, there’s no way in hell I’m going in there-
“Ok.” I find myself responding, all feeling and awareness in my body is drained, so I don’t have control over my body, my mind, let alone my voice.
What is going on? Who is this girl? What is this girl?
I remember her eyes flashing a blood-red, and I suddenly wonder if those eyes were the eyes I saw earlier in the bushes. That predatory grin she just gave me, how her grip tightened like a vice, how I’m talking without me realizing it, that’s not normal.
Dread and the feeling of apprehension creeps down my neck, down my spine and settles deep into my bones. I need to get away from this girl. I have to. But… she’s… but she’s so cute.
Dammit!
She’s messing with my head, with my mind, bending me to her will.
“W-wait,” I stutter. The girl’s eyes narrow, and her eyes simmer from blue to red, and back again. “I-I can’t. I need to find my way home.”
“Your home isn’t a place anymore.” The girl says, and her voice shifts to a more seductive tone. “Your home is with me.”
“What?” My eyes go wide. “No, I can’t stay. I need to go.” I try to pull my wrist from her grip, but her grip tightens again, and when she smiles at me this time, I can see that her teeth are sharp, just like Heaven’s.
I stumble back, but the girl’s grip keeps me from falling onto the ground. I feel sharp nails digging into my wrist, and a cold sweat breaks out on the back of my neck and forehead.
I wrench my arm back, and the girl’s nails elongate, turning into claws, digging into my skin. They draw blood, and Heaven immediately snarls, her fur bristling as she steps before me protectively.
The girl tilts her head, clacking her fangs once before growling back at Heaven. Heaven’s ears falter, but she stands her ground.
What is this girl?
“Come, help me home.” The girl says.
“You said your home was right there. Go back yourself,” I insist, avoiding her gaze. It pulls me in; making me lose my nerve and my mind. The girl grips my chin in a frighteningly strong grip and forces me to look up. I avert my eyes, and the girl digs her nails… no, claws, into my wrist.
Wincing in pain, I steel myself and meet her blue gaze. Immediately, I can feel the strength leaving my body, leaving me a puppet for this thing to control.
However, unlike before when I could tear my gaze away, I find that this time, it’s impossible. Heaven’s growling becomes white noise in my ears, and all that I can hear is her voice. When I blink, I forget where I am, what’s happening, and each thought I have consists of only helping this girl.
“What’s your name?” I ask. The girl smiles an angelic smile, releasing my bloodied wrist, and my chin, before stepping forward slightly.
The hairs on the back of my neck lift, but I can’t really understand why. The answer is on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t form it into words. I shrug off the feeling of unease at the girl’s close proximity.
“Nikita.” The girl says, flashing me a dangerous smile. “Yours?” A sudden pain on my uninjured wrist tears my attention from her to my German Shepherd at my side. My wrist is gripped in her jaws, and she’s biting down.
“Heaven!” I snap. Heaven immediately drops my wrist, and flattens her ears, not used to me yelling at her. “Sorry,” I apologize. The girl crouches, and peers at Heaven. Heaven pricks her ears and gets in a defensive stance, baring her teeth.
The girl peels her lips back over her teeth, and to my horror and amazement, her teeth elongate and sharpen in to fangs, and her eyes seem to change shape. A low growl emits from her throat, and Heaven barks, snapping her jaws close to Nikita’s face.
For some reason, I feel as if I’ve seen the girl bare canine-like teeth before. I don’t remember why, or how.
“It’s okay. I have two dogs as well. Would you like to see them?” The way she talks has my nerves standing on end, and alarm bells flash through my head. Her voice is soft, monotonous, enunciating her words quietly. She tilts her head to the side slowly as she speaks, and her face gives away no emotions.
Heaven barks loudly, and her voice rings out through the air, and echoes into the forest.
That’s never happened before.
Before long, I hear a low growling, and the sound of something heavy being dragged across the ground. My breath hitches, and when I shift my gaze back to where Nikita is…
She’s gone.
Heaven growls, and presses herself to my side, and this time, when I blink, my senses come flooding back to me.
The girl. The fangs, the claws and the red eyes. The noise of growling and whatever is dragging against the ground…
My breath hitches in my throat, and I look around, only to find that… the path has completely disappeared, and I’m standing in a snow-covered clearing, the snowflakes still frozen in the air, as if time has been stopped, but I can still move.
“You know,” the sudden voice startles me, and I whip around to see Nikita, standing at the edge of the clearing, her figure cast in half shadows from the trees. My heart is pounding at an incredible rate, frantic and anxious. “I have a story. Would you like to listen?”
Don’t look into her eyes. Don’t look at her.
The sounds of growling and dragging gradually become louder, setting me on edge even more. When I try to back away, and out of the clearing, Nikita lifts a hand, and tsks.
To my horror, her nails have been replaced by wickedly sharp claws, and her teeth sharpen again, and she bares her teeth at me. I stumble backwards, falling into the snow. Heaven immediately tries to nose me back up to my feet, her fur bristling as her eyes dart around the clearing.
Keeping my eyes focused on Nikita, I almost fail to notice two huge dogs emerge from the shadows and sit down on either side of Nikita. Their eyes are glowing, a blood red and a fiery orange. Their eyes look like the pits of hell. Nikita steps forward, and so do the dogs.
When they step into the light, I immediately notice that these are no normal dogs. These are hellhounds. Dark furred with gaping jaws, fiery eyes, burning with hellfire, and chains fastened to their paws and neck, they growl lowly in their throats, threatening Heaven and I.
I scramble to my feet, turning on my heel to flee. Before I can even make it into the cover of the trees, Nikita’s freakishly soft voice can be heard.
“You can run, but you can’t hide forever. You’ve met your destiny, and you should accept your fate.” I ignore her, and dash into the woods, Heaven racing after me.
“Go.” Even though she speaks softly, I can hear Nikita’s voice; loud and clear in the air. There’s the sound of two vicious barks, and I know that Nikita has released those two hellhounds on us.
They can’t move that fast… right?
However, I find myself mistaken as only moments later, the two hellhounds leap out before me. Gasping, I skid to a stop, nearly smashing into a tree. The hounds tilt their heads back, and a ghoulish sounding howl emits from their jaws.
Shivers run down my spine, and I find myself cowering, covering my ears with my hands in a vain effort to escape the shrieking howls. I squeeze my eyes shut and bow my head, pressing my forehead against the soaked material of my jeans.
The piercing howling continues, until it’s abruptly cut off. Slowly, I lift my head up just in time to see Nikita materialize from the shadows.
“I told you.” Nikita says, a smirk gracing her features. “Do you want to hear a story before you meet your fate?” My heart stutters to a stop at those last few words Nikita speaks.
“I-I…” I stammer. I can’t rip my gaze from her terrifying red eyes, her dogs moving forward with her, their eyes flickering with flames, their chains effortlessly moving across the snow and frost.
“You know, the townspeople down in those villagers thought that my family and I were werewolves. We lived in that castle up there.” Nikita lifts a delicate finger, and I twist around to see the same castle from before; even though the trees around us had seemed to swallow the sky only moments before.
“The forest we’re in now are full of wolves. Their deluded ideas that being bitten by a wolf under a full moon would transform a human to a werewolf was what brought my family to their deaths.”
Werewolf? Is that was this girl is? But… that’s impossible. She basically said that it was a deluded illusion.
“They came on a night with no moon. They believed that that’s when werewolves were the weakest. My family and I had been sleeping, Bones and Blade both in my room.” Nikita pauses, before stroking the hellhounds, their fur glimmering like obsidian.
Nikita approaches, and to my horror, I see that she doesn’t only have claws and fangs, but her eyes are changing shape, becoming rounder, and claws beginning to grow on her feet.
“You see, they killed us. They tore my mother and father apart, burnt my younger brother alive, stabbed both my dogs through the heart, and slit my throat.” Nikita reaches up and rubs her throat, almost thoughtfully, as if remembering where she had been slit.
Heaven is whimpering, pressing against me, as I sit in the snow, stunned. Bones and Blade are growling lowly, and when Nikita flicks a wrist, they begin to circle us.
“However, I survived, but just barely.” Nikita looks at me, her red eyes blazing with fury. “Your people killed my family. My innocent family. My mother, my father, Blade, Bones and Gabriel are all gone. It’s no thanks to you.” Nikita spits the last words out.
“B-but how did you survive…?” I stutter, scrambling to my feet. Nikita is before me in a flash, gripping my chin in a frighteningly strong grip. She leans close, too close for me to be comfortable, and flashes me a wicked grin.
“That’s for me to know, and for you to find out.” Before I can ask what she means, she steps back, and throws her head back.
An eerie howl pulses forth from her mouth, and all the hairs on my arms and neck stand on end, shudders running throughout my entire body. Bones and Blade throw their heads back, the same ghoulish sounding howl bursting forth. Heaven covers her head with her paws, sticking her head into the snow, and I flinch, covering my ears, but keeping my eyes wide open.
Horrified, I watch as the Nikita’s body twists, distorting and deforming right before my eyes. Black fur sprouts from her flesh, her face elongating, and her nose shrinking, turning black and leathery. Her fangs seem to grow larger, becoming bloodstained. Her claws elongate even more, the tips gleaming against the snow. A tail bursts from her body, and Nikita rears up, shaking herself.
She’s a wolf. A werewolf. A beast. Monster.
“I’ve been searching for people to pick off, one by one. All in revenge for my family. They haven’t been avenged yet; as those who killed my family are cowards, and they can’t face up to me. They know what I am, but they are no match.” Nikita says, her jaws snapping at me.
Nikita’s wolf eyes flash with bloodlust, and she stalks forward, her paws barely making any prints in the snow. Nikita shakes her coat, and the moment she does, the snow and wind start blowing around viciously, despite the fact that we’re deep in a forest. I’m nearly knocked off my feet, but Nikita keeps her own, standing up tall and angry.
“You know, Bones and Blade came back as hellhounds. They were driven by my bloodlust to come back. Like me, they relish in a kill, the victim dying slowly before them. Their life bleeding out of them, as they try to make amends.” Nikita scoffs, her nose twitching irritably.
Nikita leaps forward, and I gasp in shock. I scramble back, falling backwards in the snow. The wolf doesn’t land on me. Instead, I hear vicious snarls, and I rush to sit up.
Heaven and Nikita are locked in a vicious battle, fangs and claws tearing at ears, eyes, noses and flesh. Blood sprays against the snow, the falling snowflakes making it almost impossible to see. Blade and Bones watch on, their fiery eyes glowing with anticipation, hunger and a maniacal light.
“Heaven!” I scream. I don’t know how to help her. Nikita will kill her. “Nikita, stop!” The wolf ignores me, and I see a final flash of claws before all goes silent.
She killed Heaven. She killed my baby.
Anger pulses through my veins, white-hot and powerful. Nikita lifts her muzzle and howls victoriously, her fangs stained with blood. Stumbling over my own feet, I scramble to get back up, running as fast as my legs can take me.
Terror is running through my veins, and it feels like as if it’ll be embedded in me, in my flesh and blood, and in my bones the for the rest of eternity. I don’t know where I’m going, and how long it’ll take me to get out of this hell of a forest, but I know that I can’t stop running. Although Nikita has already told me that it’s useless to run away from her, but I don’t want to believe her. I want to believe that I can forget this, and get out alive.
But, it seems that Nikita is dead set on taking my life. The black wolf jumps before me, blocking my path as her two hellhounds circle around me, trapping me in the middle.
“Any last words?” Nikita sneers, curling her upper lip slightly. I swallow thickly, and shift my stance so that I’m leaning away from Nikita. I’m sure my fear is pulsing off in waves, and my heart seems to be running a marathon. I can’t find it in me to breathe, to say something, anything. Nikita seems to take my silence for her answer, and prowls forward, making no prints as she lifts her paws from the snowy ground.
I try to back away, but Bones and Blade stop me, Bones gripping my right wrist, and Blade gripping my left wrist. I bite back a cry of pain, trying to pull free.
Nikita’s approaching at an agonizingly slow pace, as if she knows how apprehensive and hysterical, and wants to make it several times worse. As I tug my wrists in a vain effort to escape, I think back on earlier today.
I shouldn’t have left. I should’ve stayed home, and never even thought about what was up here in the mountains. I’d heard this legend before, I now realized… I was just too stupid to realize earlier.
I travelled too far from home, and now I wouldn’t ever be seen again. My body would disappeared, and no matter how hard anyone tried, they wouldn’t find me. I’d ignored my common sense and instincts, and where did that get me?
Nikita curls her lips over her fangs, and snarls loudly, before she lunges at me. I make no noise as she makes contact with me, bowling me over. No noise as her claws sink into my chest, my throat and face. Her fangs lacerate my body, ripping me apart. Bones and Blade clamp their jaws down ferociously, severing my hands from my arms. The hellhounds help Nikita tear me apart, leaving me mutilated and lifeless on the ground.
