The Wounds We Heal

Chapter twelve: Wild Night!!

Sleeping breaths filled the air, the occasional yipping or snoring kept the sounds fresh as the pattern varied. But even in the tender silence that remained otherwise, one soul still shifted uneasily..

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Stumbling around the darkness seemed far too normal.

'Why has this become so familiar?' he thought, but the words never made it to his lips.

"Let me go!" The voice echoed toward him and he looked immediately. And though it were his own, it's sound went blowing by and he wanted to think it was someone else's.

Suddenly a laugh filled the deafening silence, and up rose a figure far larger than what seemed natural, which immediately lunged down towards him in a big, toothy swoop. Pain shocked through him as the blow flashed by, but when he opened his eyes it was gone, and the pain subsided.

Then the ground cracked beneath him like the wood of a planked floor, then splintered before his eyes, dropping him down what felt like a long shaft. He cried out but no one seemed to hear,..

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His body tensed and shifted, light groans becoming soft murmurs of..

"No.." and "stop!.."

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"Ahhhh!!" He cried, finally finding the air to scream.

He soon hit rock bottom on the right shoulder, but was found to be immersed in water as it seemed. His skin crawled with a chilling bite and he immediately swam for the glowing surface. Bursting through the surface, a gulp of air met him. His vocal breaths rasped with the demand for more air and he tried his best to keep his head above water.

'Oof! I gotta get outta here.' His mind thought and he could swear he could hear it surround him, like some speaker was projecting it over him, even after his head dunked below the water's surface.

More water splashed up in his face, while he rode the gentle wave of the water's glassy face; and he continued to search for a way out of the freezing, cold water.

'So.. c-cold!' His mind shivered, yet still no words could be spoken. And even though he couldn't speak, it shocked him with how well he could see his own breath.

'It's gotta be, like, the polar vortex in here.' He groaned internally.

The more he paddled beneath the water's surface, the more he began to notice the difficulty in it. He dunked under a little and he fought to keep his head above water, but he could only struggle more. The pins and needles of his limbs began to make it hard to keep going, and the harder it was to move the more frantic he became to keep paddling.

"No!!-b-bg-g-g!!.." Chase's voice bubbled under as he found he could no longer move and with the growing chill he could swear his own body was becoming ice.. And even the panic of his heart couldn't empower him to stop his frozen body from sinking like a rock..

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"Hah!" The sudden sound, coupled with the disturbance of his mind, finally jump started his pounding heart to force his eyes open.

Now sitting up with his breaths slowly normalizing, he then heard the soft steady breaths of various voices as he stepped his forepaws up to sit up straight. He looked back at himself to find the bunched-up folds of the thick, blue blanket, which he recalled snuggling down with earlier.

What time is it? He wondered, glancing around and then up at the moon, as if expecting it to tell him the answer.

A snapping sound shot his glance down, flashing with the alarm of its coming. And he jumped up onto his paws in a bit of a prowl.