This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Trudging through the dried up fall leaves, I kept my eyes focused on the orange flames of the campfire. Everywhere else around me was dark and dead, as I would be if I was found red handed.
A few crickets sounded around me, and the whistling and swaying of the trees threw me off. I paused, checking around. Wrapping my arms around my body, I continued on.
Where are they? Oliver and Theo wanted to meet me, to do what we usually do: drink and chat. As long as we weren’t caught, it didn’t matter what we did. At least according to us, that is.
CRACK!
Gasping, I turned on my heels, facing absolutely no one. I thought I was beginning to hear things, but the noise was too abrupt to be a figment of my imagination. Someone was out there.
Mom and Dad would so use this against me when they caught me this time. My hands gripped my cell phone tightly. I was prepared to turn myself in. Especially if it meant that I wouldn’t die in the middle of the night, all alone.
Stepping carefully forward, I kept my ears wide open and my eyes scanning the area around me. It was hard to make out anything other than the pillar-like trees and the cut out etches of the skies above from the branches overhead. After watching all the murder mystery shows that I did, this seemed too good of a set up for a serial killer.
CRACK! My heart skipped a beat and I did the dumbest thing someone could do.
“Who is out there?”
There was no response. Not even a little echo of the wind or the brushing of the leaves falling to the forest floor. Not a single sound.
“GOTCHA!” A pair of hands gripped me from behind. Whipping around, I whacked whoever was grabbing me right in the face. “OUCH!”
Catching my breath, I stared at my attacker. The luscious curls bounced on his head and his hands gripped his nose. A little bit of red dripped from his nostrils. Then he glanced up at me in horror.
“Jesus Christ, Amanda, I didn’t mean to scare you that bad!” Theo winced as he pressed against his nose and wiped it clean with the edge of his shirt. I shook my head at him, glaring.
“Well maybe next time here’s a bright idea: just don’t even do it,” I spat at him, crossing my arms. I was blushing from the adrenaline, but it was difficult to even make out Theo in the darkness, so I doubted he could even tell. Turning back to the campfire, I pointed ahead of us. “Is Oliver there?”
“Oh yeah, he’s been there waiting for us. I came to find you,” Theo explained. I rolled my eyes as we both walked in step towards the fire.
“Correction: you came to terrify me,” I corrected him. Theo let out a laugh that echoed in circles around us. He put an arm over my shoulders, nudging me with his fist.
“Oh come on, it is all fun and games.”
“Until someone gets hurt,” I added, seeing Theo give me a look I could make out even in the dark, one that said not to push it.
CRACK!
My defenses went up and my entire body tensed. Theo froze, gulping. Both of us turned around, silent as a mouse as we scanned the area. Was it Oliver?
“Oliver?” Theo called out to the empty woods. Nothing but wind returned.
I grabbed onto Theo’s wrist, wanting so badly to turn around and head back to my car, back towards my house, and to forget that this even happened. I didn’t care if I ran into my parents. Anything was better than being this terrified.
A low growl sounded from behind us. I wanted to cry. I knew that growl. My father worked with wolves, for years, and tended to them at the local shelter. Theo and I twisted around, finding ourselves face to face with a grey wolf, one with glowing yellow eyes that stared us down.
“What do we do?” Theo whispered, not even making eye contact with me. I shook my head, clutching onto his wrist even tighter. If I was hurting him, he didn’t make any indication. We both were too fixated on the animal that was probably going to kill us.
I couldn’t find the words. After one last look at the yellow eyes, I dragged Theo along with me, sprinting through the woods. The wolf was right behind us. And I knew how this was going to end.
All I saw was the fire, the light at the end of the tunnel, and then I felt it. Sharp stabbing pain straight into my ankle.
I screamed bloody murder, tripping down to the floor. And then the initial pain disappeared. Theo bent down next to me. Ahead of me, through the leaves on the ground, I saw the wolf sprinting towards the fire, like a bat out of hell.
More footsteps approached. A boy stood in front of us and dropped to his knees.
“Amanda, oh my God! What happened?”
“Some wolf attacked her,” Theo told Oliver, who offered me a hand. I blinked, feeling tears trickle down my cheeks. My entire body shook in fear and my ankle throbbed. Theo and Oliver put their arms around me, helping me onto my feet. Or my one good foot.
“Wisconsin is weird ,” Oliver muttered as the boys hurried with me out of the woods. All I wanted was their reassurance that everything would be okay.
“What about the fire?” Theo thought out loud as the three of us turned to check on the fire. But there was not a single flame in the distance. Someone had put it out, and the smoke rose into the sky in a thin trail. All that remained were the embers, and the wolf standing there staring back out at us, as if to plot his next move.
