And where they would be killed nine years later.
After they had told me, I remembered crying and screaming, telling them I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay. Then I had “run away,” dashing out the door before either could stop me and racing down the street to my grandmother’s house. My safe place. But on my way there, I had decided not to go inside. I had run out back, past the tire swing and the shed, and into the forest itself until dinnertime.
My grandmother had taken my side. She pleaded with my dad, begging him to let me stay, that she would raise me. But my father wanted nothing to do with that. He’d gotten angry over it.
Then we left and never come back. I hadn’t returned until their funeral. Nine years of absence.
“I hope you can all make nice up there,” I said, glancing at the bits of sky visible through the thick leafy treetops, the branches from various trees all coming together to intertwine. “Maybe watch over me? When I join you, I’d love if we could all be a happy family again.”
Silence greeted my request. I sighed, though what had I expected? A hologram of all three of them to appear above a bonfire and nod at me like they had sorted out their differences and were all good now?
“Ha.”
My sarcastic laugh echoed eerily in the forest, bouncing off the trees and becoming distorted. The sound was twisted, unpleasant.
All at once, I’d gone far enough into the forest.
At the same time, the warmth fell away, replaced by that same cool breeze from before. Prickles ran down my neck, joined by a sudden tightness in my stomach.
Danger was close.
I had definitely come far enough. Looking around for any obvious signs, I turned to go. A twig snapped underfoot, cracking like a gunshot in the silence. Nails tracked down my spine, digging in around each vertebra like a vise.
Shadows around the trees grew deeper as the silence became more profound. No chirping of birds, no rustle of leaves. No signs oflife. It was empty.
“Hello?” I called nervously, trying to watch my every step so I didn’t trip and fall. The ground was far more uneven than I remembered upon entry. I hadn’t been watching where I went. The forest had guided me.
Now it was an obstacle course, preventing me from getting out.
Deep in the forest, something screamed. Deep and throaty, it was not the dying cry of an animal. It was the hunting call of a predator. I took off. Leaves crunched, twigs broke, but I didn’t care. I had to get out of there. The forest wasn’t welcoming. My grandmother was right. It was-
I came skidding to a halt as a giant black shape shuffled out from behind a tree twenty yards in front of me. I froze, looking down and away as the black bear reacted to my presence. Maybe if I did nothing menacing, if I just stood there, it would go away.
But when it lifted its head, and I saw the redness to its eyes and the saliva dripping down its jowls, I had a brand-new fear.
It’s rabid. The damn thing is rabid. Is that even possible?
Possible or not, I was confronted with the reality that I was at its mercy.
I am so fucking dead.
A momentary spike of irony reminded me of my talk to the heavens about reuniting with my parents and grandmother. I hadn’t meant for it to be this soon, but fate was funny like that sometimes.
The bear growled deeper, rising up on its hind legs and letting loose its bellow at full blast. I braced myself, looking around, unsure of where to run. I couldn’t outpace it. I knew that. I would have to dodge, somehow. There was no other way. Use the trees to my advantage maybe?
Dropping down onto all fours again, the bear charged, its eyes red with madness and focused entirely on me. All my plans went out the window, and I screamed, sure that death had caught me.
The ground shook as the bear closed the gap fast. I squeezed my eyes shut, fear rooting me to the spot against my wishes.
And at the last second, something hit me in the side, tackling me out of the way. My eyes snapped open as I flew through the air. All I could see was gray fur as I landed on top of it.
Gray. Not black. It wasn’t the bear.
We rolled, hard and fast, and I was tossed free, bouncing roughly before coming to a stop facing away from the bear. I could hear it making noises as it crashed to a stop. Closer by, something answered it back.
Something deep and powerful.
Spinning over, I could only watch as a giant wolf challenged the bear, standing between it and me, its dark gray fur rippling in the cool wind that now made its way through the forest. Crouching low on its front legs, the massive beast jumped. It was far larger than any wolf I’d ever seen, and when it hit the bear, it bounced off, landing on its feet with impossible agility.
The bear fell backward, and I saw matted fur where the wolfs claws had sunk in deeply. Unfortunately, all the attack did was enrage the thing. It charged again, wildly fast, but the wolf darted away, easily evading the attack. Again it played out, this time the wolf leaped up and over the charging bear, landing on its back to tear at the fur there before jumping free and waiting for the bear to gather itself yet again.
While it waited, it swung its head toward me. I stared back. It had mismatched eyes-one a bright blue, the other vibrant amber-yellow. Both of them locked on me, unmoving.
Time slowed and came to a standstill. The wind moved so slowly I could have stepped around it. The distance between the wolf and me seemed to stretch, colors blurring and mixing. Stars flashed past my eyes, and somewhere in the periphery, purple clouds closed in.
And then, just like that, it was past. Reality snapped back into focus, and I drew in a sharp, needed breath that I had been holding.
The wolf blinked and shook its head with a weird-sounding growl. Then, in a very humanlike motion, it jerked its snout to the side. In the direction of the house.
Was it telling me to leave? How could it …
The bear was charging again, and the wolf played matador. With the beast distracted, I got to my feet.
“T-thank you,” I said to the wolf as it risked a glance at me again.
It dipped its head.
My jaw dropped and I stopped moving, despite the bear roaring. “Can you understand me?” It was a stupid question. Of course it couldn’t. It was a wolf.
The mighty gray hunter blinked its multicolored eyes slowly, and then, in a blur, it sprang at the bear, clawing its face and further enraging the thing before leading it deeper into the forest, away from me.
Leaving me alone.
Leaving me safe.
Lincoln
Cold wetness instantly matted the fur on the sides of my neck as I plunged my entire snout deep into the fresh waters of the river. After giving my head a shake while submerged, I came up for air. The fast-moving water was already ridding itself of all traces of the blood that had covered me. I repeated the maneuver, again and again, until the water ran clear.
But the taste remained on my tongue. It never seemed to go away as fast, leaving a sharp acrid tang that was impossible to get rid of. Food and drink would be ruined for at least the rest of the day. A lime, raw and fresh would sometimes help. But not always. I doubted I would be so lucky today. The bear’s blood had been vile and rancid.
I studied the corpse where it lay on the banks of the river with much of its throat gone, the sands of the riverbank stained dark nearby.
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