Wolves among men

by penelope sweet

  I took too long reveling in my victory as I sat watching with some small sense of self-satisfaction I was knocked down by the one I had forgotten. I fell onto my stomach, gasping for breath as it grabbed my leg and began pulling me toward the edge. I tried to cry out, to grab onto anything that might keep me from falling as it pulled me back, snarling at my heels as he tugged against my grip. I was helpless as he pulled me from the roof but by some grace of whatever God it was that watched over things like me I managed to grab on to what was left of an old rusted gutter and pull myself back onto the black shingles as it turned its attention back to my sister who had shaken off her shock long enough to take aim. She fired, landing a shot right between the creature’s eyes and for a moment I smiled. I never had been so proud of her.

  As our eyes met I smiled brightly. It’s funny the things your mind can think in times like these, instead of fighting for my life or paying even the smallest amount of attention to the battle below me, I caught myself thinking of grade school. Smiling down at my baby sister as she tore through the house with an A on her report card and somehow the pride I felt now and the pride I felt then were no different. I looked to her, bright eyed and grinning just in time to see her lift her rifle to her eyes and fire a shot over my shoulder, sending me to my knees. I looked behind me just in time to see a black wolf fall onto his side and roll off of the roof onto the grass below.

  “Nice shot!” I tried to say but Cordillia laughed lightly as I moaned and yipped lightly in her direction.

  “I’m not sure what you just said but thank you.” She smiled. I turned behind me as she lifted the gun to her eyes once again and scanned the ground below, firing off a shot or two as she saw fit. My stomach dropped as I looked out over the courtyard to see my friends falling like flies in the middle of battle. There was nothing I could do to stop it and believe me when I say that being helpless is the worst feeling of all.

  I watched Matt pick up his attacker by its heels and swing it into an oncoming group of black wolves with an excited grin on his face. I watched as Sam struggled to grab the wounded and move them to safer places, I watched Mack as he and Logan made a team of themselves and energetically began to take their attackers two by two. I was beginning to feel hope for my friends, a sense of excitement as they fought with passion and vigor and for a slim moment I began to feel as if everything would be okay. But as it so happens, moments like these never last the way you want them to and my daze was broken by the sound of a deep deafening growl just behind me.

  Before I could turn I felt its claw rip at the side of my face, blinding me and sending me flying back. I gripped the edge of the roof once again pulling myself to my feet as it knocked the rifled from her hands and gripped her around the waist.

  Cordillia cried out, reaching for me as it took one last look back before leaping to the ground below and landing with the loud crack of thunder above us. I ran to the edge and peered over as it began to run down the tiny dirt road, Cordillia screaming in its grip and reaching out for me. I jumped down, landing on my feet and ignoring the sting in my ankles as I centered myself and began to chase after it. My legs ached and my lungs burned as I ran as fast as I could, never able to catch up with the creature but never letting it slip from my sights as we barreled down the narrow dirt road and toward a waiting van parked just at the gate.

  “No!” I cried out, a roar escaping my chest as she screamed for me. “Wait!” I shouted again, a loud yelp escaping my chest. To my surprise and sudden shock the creature stopped and I skidded to a halt at its feet, close enough to grab my sister but not stupid enough to test the theory that I would be strong enough to pull her from its grip. The enormous black wolf stood still, holding her in its grip as it kept its back to me. I cried out again, a small shrill yelp filling the air around me. There was only one person I knew of that would even care to take her, only one person who wouldn’t just kill her where she stood and in that revelation I knew that this had gone from all-out war to the final fight between Jonathan and me.

  I did the only thing my rational mind could think of to do and lunged toward it, pushing into it with all I had and digging my claws into its back. He bellowed into the night and dropped Cordillia onto her side as he flipped around and knocked me to the side. I stood and stared the creature down as he reared back and filled the air with an ear piercing roar like nothing I had ever heard before.

  He came at me, teeth bared and claws outstretched knocking me quickly to the ground and biting down onto my arm. I shrieked as he bit down and struggled to get away but he was stronger than any creature I had encountered. I pulled and fought, clawing at the side of his face as I squirmed and writhed under his grip. It wasn’t until the sound of gunshot rang through the air that he finally let go and rolled to the side with a yelp.

  I looked up to see Cordillia on her knees behind us, her gun poised and ready as her body shook with each labored breath. She got to her feet and scrambled to move as the beast charged her, reaching for the gun as she fired another shot into the creatures shoulder.

  I jumped to my feet and pounced, landing on the beast’s back and pinning him onto his stomach with a victorious cry. I held him there as Cordillia smiled, lifting her gun to her sights and aiming for the kill shot. As the beast writhed underneath me, I did my best to hold him still, hoping like hell that she wouldn’t miss but just as I looked up, silently begging her to take the shot my stomach dropped and everything around me went silent.

  A figure moved in behind her almost too quick to see as he reached around her and grabbed the rifle, lifting her arms into the air. The beast beneath me shot up and knocked me off of its back as Cordillia fired into the air and turned around just a second before he ripped the gun from her fingers and slammed the butt of the rifle into the side of her head.

  I reached out to grab her as her body fell to the ground only to feel a pair of massive arms as they reached around me, pulling me to the ground. There was nothing I could do as Jonathan lifted her into his arms and carried her motionless body toward the van.

  Without a thought of my own safety and without a care for the beast behind me I stilled as my body began to shift, cracking and popping as it I scrambled to my feet.

  “Wait!” I called breathlessly as the creature moved around me and caught up in stride with Jonathan. “Don’t take her!” I didn’t want to fight, I didn’t want this to end here I just wanted her and I couldn’t understand. My thoughts trailed off as the creature stopped in front of me. There were no words, I tried to speak but nothing came out as it glanced back at me. “Please,” was all I said, all I could say before it began walking again. I scrambled for words as it moved away from me, I scrambled for that one phrase that would stop it in its tracks and change its mind, something so profound that it had no choice but to let her go and see things my way but all I could think of and all I could say was, “I thought you said she wasn’t important to you.”

  The creature stopped and shook its head as Jonathan handed my sister to a dark skinned man and slammed the door of the van behind them. I hardly noticed as the beast between us began to shift and my attention held on the van even as it turned to face me.

  “Don’t whine, Ethan, it’s unbecoming.” He sneered as he took a step toward me.

  “Let her go.” He sighed heavily and a slight chuckle escaped him.

  “What did I just say?” his voice was deep, raspy and somewhere within it I could hear the edge of a thousand accents once used, a thousand lives once lived and I struggled to place him as he stared into me, past me and through me.

  “Please.” I begged, ignoring his request and instead following my own need and desire for her release. He stepped toward me, a condescending sense of righteousness burned behind his yellow eyes and in a flash and instant I saw a hundred sneering faces staring back at me. The monster in my dreams the man in a thousand photographs and for a moment I thought I would be sick at the knowledge of it all. He towered over me and smiled down as though my pain gave hi
m some sick form of satisfaction. I stared up at him, determined not to show any sign of weakness as the air stilled around us. I jumped at the sound of thunderclap around us, his face illuminated by a flash of lightning as I reached up to wipe the rain from my eyes.

  “There is something you have yet to learn, Ethan. I don’t take well to beggars and I hate, I hate,” He growled. “seeing a creature such as you kowtowing to the needs of beings such as those.” He growled as he pointed toward the van.

  “She hasn’t done anything wrong.”

  “Let me ask you something,” He sneered. “I know you and your friends have been studying me so to speak so tell me, Ethan, of everything you have learned how is it that you still believe that that matters even the slightest bit to me?” I shook my head and sighed. He was a monster, a man that took great pleasure in the pain of others and at that moment it hit me like a sickening revelation, I was lucky he didn’t tear her apart in front of me just to see the look in my eyes as she took her last breath. She was lucky to be alive.

  “Take me instead.” He laughed loudly at my offer, shaking his head stepping back.

  “Ethan!” Sam called from somewhere far away. I could hear the sound of her footsteps as she ran toward me calling out into the darkness for any sign of my existence.

  “Have you considered my offer then?” He asked curiously as I peered behind him toward the van. One word was all that was needed to save her, one word was all I had to utter and yet no matter how much I wanted to, something deep inside me clutched on to the fire of conviction that kept me strong.

  “When the time comes to make a choice, remember who you are,” Robert’s words echoed through my mind and in that moment I knew what I had to do.

  “I’m not a murderer.” I growled, my fists clenched at my sides.

  “Is that so?” He sneered. “Then what is all this?” He motioned toward the battle that waged without me as a sick smile twisted his lips.

  “You attacked us!” I roared. He scoffed and shook his head as Sam came to a stop at my side.

  “Is that what you think? Is that what this dog has told you?”

  “Malik.” She gasped as his eyes turned to her.

  “We’re not dogs,” I pulled his attention back to me. “And no that isn’t what I think that’s what I know.” He sneered as he took a step toward me. His face was inches from mine as he stared down at me with a fierceness that threatened to drop me where I stood.

  “Do you have any idea what you’re up against, dog?” He barked as I glared up at him.

  “Yeah,” I smiled. “You might have spent the last hundred years or so masquerading as the bogyman but you don’t scare me.”

  “You’re in far deeper than you think, boy.” He sneered as a deep growl escaped his chest. “You can end this, right now. Join me and I’ll call off this war.”

  “No you won’t.” I scoffed. “Why should I believe anything you say?”

  “You have my word.”

  “Only a fool would take the devil at his word.” I stared him down as he watched me carefully, his eyes burning with a kind of proud rage.

  “Spoken like a true imbecile.” He smirked as he stepped back. “Fine. Go back to your friends, Ethan,” He growled. “Fight your little war and when you’re ready to consider my offer we can talk about returning what is yours.” He sneered. “Until then.” He nodded before turning and quickly taking off down the little dirt road.

  “No!” I screamed as he crawled into the large silver van at the end of the drive. Sam grabbed my shoulders and held me back as the van came to life and Malik slammed the door behind him. “Let me go!” I growled, shifting in her arms and struggling against her.

  “Ethan, no!” She pleaded with me but it was no use. I knocked her away and took off after them running as fast as my legs would carry me past the gate and out onto the highway. They turned the corner and floored it, taking off into the distance and leaving me far behind. I could hear Sam behind me, I could feel her following close at my heels as I ran into the street and followed them as far as I could. Cars honked and screeched as I weaved through them, quickly losing sight of my target.

  I leapt over a black SUV as it swerved to avoid me and just as my feet touched the asphalt below me, I felt Sam’s massive frame as it connected with mine, knocking me out of the street and into the woods that surrounded it. We rolled down the steep hill coming to a stop at the rock bed below. Sam ran to my side, her body shifting back as she knelt next to me and rolled me onto my back. Stubborn as I was and lacking in all ability to care I simply lay there, staring at the night sky as it glowed above us.

  “Ethan, say something,” she begged as she checked me over for any sign of life. A slight whimper escaped my chest as I crawled to my feet and stared her down. “I know you’re pissed off but you can’t run into traffic like that.” I growled baring my teeth, the hairs on my body standing on end. “Ethan, you have to be smart about this.” I didn’t care, I couldn’t care. I should have killed him when I had the chance. Blind rage took over where reason and rationality once stood and I reared my body back throwing my head to the sky and howling into the moonlit night hoping like hell that he heard me and hoping like hell that he knew no matter what that I was coming for him and I would do everything in my power to make sure that the next time we met I would rip the black heart straight from his chest.

  Penelope Sweet is a lifelong believer in magic and monsters and it’s this belief that drives her to search within the shadows for the darkest of tales. A lover of all things horror and all things macabre, Penelope’s passion is to bring you the stories that send chills down your spine, keep you awake in the night and most of all keep you coming back for more.