A Wolfs Soul

Chapter Four

*The border lands*

Its morning and Josh has been running all night, he's about to approach the border lands. Once he reaches them he's safe from his parents, but not whats inside them. The border lands are rumored to be deadly only few have ever made it through them. There are also stories that there are people who live inside them, that they are ruthless killers, that they eat children. Overall the border lands are not a great place to be passing through.

"Well here goes nothing" Josh says quietly to himself as he steps past the border lands threshold

Josh walks through some bushes into a dark gloomy forest, the trees look like they have faces of their own. Angry, tortured faces that would love to tear Josh apart piece by piece, but they don't move. Josh starts to hurry, bringing his pace to a jog. Eventually he reaches the end of the forest with no problems shockingly enough, but what he sees next shocks him even more. Josh lifts his head to see a village, a beautiful village with kids running around and playing in the streets, the sun shining on their remarkably happy faces. The sweet aroma of fresh baked bread floats past his nose producing a smile on his face. Josh changes back to his human form and walks into the village, he sees a small old beaten up diner and decides to stop for a bite to eat since he ate all the food he had packed already. He didn't really think about how much food he would need, luckily he took some of the money he had in the pocket of his worn out dark blue jeans. Josh walks into the diner and looks at the menu.

"What can I do ya for?" the person behind the counter asks Josh

"Umm can I get some pancakes with extra sausage?" Josh asks politely 

"Sure can, that'll be two silver coins please."

Josh reaches into his pocket pulling out two silver coins and hands them to the man behind the counter.

"It should be about five minutes you can take a seat and someone will bring you your food."

Josh makes his way over to a booth in the right corner of the diner. He thinks to himself

'Weird all the rumors about this place seem to be wrong, I mean yeah that forest was pretty creepy but that was all it was just creepy. I guess someone made the rumors up to keep people from crossing through to the other side. It's worked pretty well too-'

Josh's thoughts are interrupted by the waitress setting his food down on the table in front of him. Josh scarfs the food down as fast as his mouth will allow him too.

'Guess I was hungrier than I thought.' Josh thinks to himself cracking a small smile

He makes his way out of the diner when he has finished and continues on his way. There is even a path leading to where he is heading... but something seems fishy but Josh can't quite put his finger on it. Josh looks over and standing beside him is his mother,

"W-w-what the? Mom?" Josh questions the woman standing beside him still with her facing strait ahead. She slowly turns with a small smile on her face

"Josh... Honey you need to wake up" she says to him warmly.

"W-what are you talking about  mom I am awake?" Josh asks confused

"Sweetheart you need to wake up now" His mom just repeats herself to him while Josh stands confused beside her

"Mom how did you find me? I-" The woman cut him off

"Josh wake up" she says to him slightly louder "Wake up Josh! You need to wake up!" Her voice growing louder each time she speaks with a tinge of panic in it. "JOSH WAKE UP, THEY'RE COMING!"

Josh is now aware something is very wrong as he looks around him at the peaceful village he had just been in moments ago it seems to be melting away like candle wax. What's happening? Where am I?  He begins thinking to himself but his panicked thoughts are interrupted by the woman yelling at him again.

"JOSH WAKE UP NOW, THEY'RE CLOSING IN" The woman no longer looks like his mother but someone he's never met before. Josh decides to try and take the woman's advice as the world around him seems to be melting and becoming a darkness that grows nearer and nearer with every second. Josh slaps himself hard in the face, gasping as his body fly's up, he is now sitting up in the very same dark and creepy forest he entered earlier that day. He looks around confused but he can hear noises and creaking of branches as a sudden thought occurs to him.

*Flashback*

His mother Ana is tucking Josh into bed when Josh asks for her to tell him a bedtime story. Ana hesitantly agrees.

"Okay what kind of story do you want to hear?' Ana questions Josh

"Tell a story about the Border Lands" Josh tells his mother with enthusiasm

"Okayy... but don't say I didn't warn you. The Border Lands are a very dark and dangerous place, filled with many deadly obstacles, like quick sand and sleeping gas that leaks from the purple flowers in the forest, but most deadly of all is the trees."

"The trees?"

Ana nods her head at the boy "The  trees are rumored to come alive at night, those who have survive the treacherous journey through the forest say that they follow you waiting until the sleeping gas from the flowers gets you and then they pounce. The trees eat them alive while they dream" Ana explains with a glimmer of evil in her eyes "The trees are very hungry and they eat anything an everything living that dares enter the Border Lands"

*Back to present time*

"The trees" He says in panicked realization "The trees, they're alive" 'Shit shit shit, guess I should have listened to moms warnings' Josh mentally scolds himself for not being more careful 'Okay so what now? I could try running, no what if they're fast.' Josh is trying to think of a way out when he hears another crunch, a louder crunch when he finally decides 'Running and zigzagging, if I zigzag it will be harder for them to catch me, right?' Josh says to himself trying to convince himself that there's a way out of this "No time like the present" Josh says to himself quickly grabbing his bag and starting to run transforming into his wolf as he does so that he can run faster. He runs faster than he's ever ran before daring not to look back because he can hear the crunch of branches and swift movements only pushing him to run harder and faster.

Authors Notes~ Sorry for the cliffhanger. Haha just kidding I'm not sorry. Leave some comments telling me what you think so far? Please?