7 Elements of Horror

The Wolf

Diana swallowed nervously as she made her way home. Although she usually enjoyed living far out in the countryside, it was becoming increasingly difficult to get home. That was because, every day, she would cross paths with a large, black wolf. Typically, it would only leer at her from the trees, growling and showing its fangs. But sometimes, it would be bold enough to emerge from the trees and almost chase her.

The reason it felt like an "almost" was because there were a few times when she'd needed to sprint to avoid the wolf's snapping jaws, but it was wolf! Surely if it wanted to catch her, it could! So the implication was that the wolf was toying with her, consciously letting her go every time.

"Oh god, oh god, ohgodohgodohgod!" Diana panicked as the wolf suddenly came sprinting out of the trees. She turned tail and fled as fast as she could. But the savage, sadistic creature easily kept pace with her. It would even snarl and nip at her heels, as if trying to remind her that no matter how fast she ran, it was always right there, and it could easily kill her if it wished.

"No, no, nononono! Come on, come on, comeoncomeon!" she continued to run, casting her bag aside, except for her keys. She finally reached her property, but rather than beeline for the door, she tried to maneuver around the house to see if she could put enough distance between herself and the wolf that she would be able to get inside without it following after.

She darted and weaved through her own property like a criminal trying to break in. As faithfully as always, the wolf gave chase, mirroring every step she took. For a brief moment, Diana wondered why the beast didn't just jump and end things quickly, but she wasn't going to complain. Instead, while the wolf zigzagged through her yard the same way she had, sometimes getting caught on tripwires she'd intentionally laid out for this very purpose, she returned to her porch.

"Comeoncomeoncomeon!" she panted and panicked, shaking hands fumbling with her keys as she struggled to get the correct one positioned. The other keys jangled loudly as she, after missing the lock several times, finally managed to shove the key messily into the door.

Through shaking hands, she twisted the key and managed to open the door right as the wolf rounded the corner. The moment it saw what she was trying to do, it finally lunged. Diana gave one scream before simply darting inside and slamming the door shut as hard as she could.

Yeah, her keys were still in the lock, but oh well! She wasted no time in locking the door from the inside, but the wolf continued to snarl and claw at her door. She could see its wild, desperate, hungry face leering at her through the glass windows surrounding the door. Its eyes were wild, its nostrils flared, its lips were pulled back to expose very long, thin, sharp fangs. It continued to bark at her, loud and threatening. She whimpered and backed away, but she didn't dare take her eyes off the door in case something happened.

The wolf stared her down, clawing at the door and glass, leaving terrifying scratches in both. It continued to snarl and snap, sometimes butting its head against the door and windows, too. What terrified Diana most of all, though, was how hateful the wolf seemed to be. Maybe she was just crazy, but the wolf genuinely looked angry at her, like it wanted to kill her, not just because it was hungry or anything, but because it held some sort of personal hatred for her. But that was impossible, right? It was a wolf!

But one look in those savage eyes and Diana couldn't help but feel as if the wolf was staring into her very soul, condemning her. Those eyes wanted to kill, and not for survival or territory, but for pure spite. What she'd done to deserve this ire, she had no idea! All she knew was that this wolf had been tormenting her for months now. But every time she tried to call people out to help her, they found nothing! Even people trained to hunt and kill wolves bothering local communities never managed to find a trace, even though a wolf that big surely must've left something!