CARLOS
"I'm so sorry." I step into the open clearing. "I didn't mean to scare you."
Ashley eyes me from head to toe.
"So, apart from a weirdo, you're also a stalker now?" Regardless, she raises her glass toward me, offering a drink.
A white flag, perhaps.
I move toward her and take a seat on a log close to hers.
She looks at me again, lets out a puff of air, then mutters something I can't hear.
"What?"
"I said you didn't scare me. Stranger." Her sharp grey eyes lock mine, and she emphasizes the last word.
A smile tugs at the corners of my lips for whatever reason. She's certainly confident.
Suddenly, Ashley stiffens, then looks at me again, eyes perplexed.
"You followed me all the way here."
I itch the back of my head. Did I think we were past that?
"Yeah, I'm really sor-"
She cuts me off.
"How the hell hadn't I noticed you were following me until now?" She sounds genuinely amazed.
"Well, it's dark, and I was pretty quiet, so... you know_"
"I have pretty sharp senses." Ashley hurls the bottle into the woods. It shatters with a sharp crack.
"Whatever, I guess."
Her eyes linger on me, the question ebbing away. Silence stretches as a cloud slides across the half-moon overhead.
"Not much of a party animal, are you?" I say, trying to break it.
"I'm not," Ashley replies flatly. "Neither are you." She resumes her drinking.
Crickets answer for us.
Well. This is going great.
How do I even approach this?
"Ashley..." I say as softly as I can manage.
Her eyes whip toward me, startled, like I've crossed a line.
"I need to know if what I saw that night was real."
Her gaze sharpens-studying, calculating.
"I told you before, didn't I. No idea what you're talking about." Came her dismissive answer.
My jaw tightens.
"But I think you're lying."
A sigh of annoyance follows from her.
"And what do you think, Hernandez?" she asks quietly, "If I confirm you're not going crazy-if I tell you that you did see a monster-would that really give you peace of mind? Or would it leave you in turbulence?"
My breath catches. I look away.
I hadn't thought about what it would mean if the animal behind those red eyes was real. Loose in our town.
I feel her gaze on me. I take a breath.
"Then at least I'll know," I answer in resolution, hardening my fists.
This feeling of being hunted that I've had since that day in the woods. The day I saw that dark figure in Mr. Sweetly's, I've been fucking losing my mind.
It's just been a few days, but I can't seem to forget about it for whatever reason. Like that encounter was meant to mean something. The same feeling I got when Ashley passed me in the hallway the day she came.
Something I'm meant to know, understand, not just fear.
Cause that's all I've felt this week, fucking afraid.
"At least I'll know." An owl is hooting on the beach of a dead tree not too far from us. It sticks out like a sour thump in the dark, twisted branches. Its head twisted in our direction. Watching, like it has some kind of consciousness.
I see Ashley's lips part, like she's about to speak-
A sound erupts from deep in the woods. It steals our attention instantly.
Human.
Wrong.
Then silence...
I jump to my feet. Ashley does the same.
"That sounded like-" she starts.
The sound comes again. Closer.
Desperate.
"Screams," I finish, locking eyes with her
A pain blooms in my head-low at first, then crushing. My vision blurs. I stumble.
Ashley moves to steady me, then stops short.
The world shifts.
A mind replace my own.
I'm on all fours, tearing through the woods. Paws slick with blood. Claws heavy with flesh.
My prey screams, stumbling over roots, shirt soaked red.
He won't make it.
He will die.
I snap back to myself, gasping. Ashley's hand grips my arm.
"Breathe," she says. "Carlos-breathe."
I can't.
"What happened?" she urges.
"He's not going to make it." The words fall out of me, her eyes mirroring my own confusion.
"Who's not going to make it?" Her face is close to mine. Voice, demanding.
I turn and run into the trees.
She calls after me. I ignore her. She follows anyway.
Branches lash my face. Thorns claw at my jacket like the woods are trying to stop me. My heart pounds. Somewhere ahead, someone is screaming.
Red eyes follow me through the mist. I don't look at them.
Too slow.
What?
Too slow....
I swear I hear a voice whisper in the fog.
Laughter ripples through the dark-cold, ancient.
Too slow.
The world dissolves into black.
For a split second, a shape looms ahead: a beast made of fog and malice. Blood-red eyes lock onto mine. I'm caught like a deer in headlights.
Then it's gone, as suddenly as it had appeared.
"Carl!" I hear Ashley's voice calling me.
I'm back in the forest, tripping, hands slamming into dirt. My palms come away slick with blood.
My blood?
Ahead, a body thrashes beneath a towering shape-solid now. Real.
The Black Wolf lifts its head. Its eyes meet mine.
This time, it's unmistakable. A massive wolf with thick, black fur and muscles spanning its limbs. A teen boy caught underneath its paws.
The guy beneath it looks at me, too. Blood trails from his mouth. Intense fear fills his eyes, along with hopelessness. But yet, I think I catch something else lingering on his lips. Relief perhaps.
The wolf looks back down.
I see the boy mouth something as he dies. Maybe, help me, or someone's name perhaps. I may never know.
The wolf raises a claw and plunges it into the boy's stomach.
There is no sound, no scream.
Only death.
I see the light fade completely from his eyes.
"Carlos?"
No.
Ashley's voice-too close.
"Stay back," I gasp, spreading my arms in front of her, shielding her.
The wolf is now moving towards us. Slowly, its bloody red eyes fixed on me.
She pushes me away, and I watch as the unthinkable happens.
Her fingers flex-bones shifting, nails lengthening into claws. Her ears stretch, sharp and inhuman.
The pain in my head intensifies, back with a vengeance for undermining it.
Ashley turns to face me.
Not the girl from moments ago... Different.
Changed into something that should not exist.
She lunges at the wolf.
It swats her aside like nothing.
The beast turns to me, stepping closer until its snout and glowing eyes fill my vision.
I stare back at it... And suddenly I know. Everything.
Everything that it wants me to know. The information appears in my head like a broken dam.
Too much.
Then I forget it. All at once, all but an echo.
The monster makes a sound low in it's chest, its snout spread open before it bites.
Agony explodes through my abdomen. I feel myself scream.
Once again, I fall into darkness.