Cress

Chapter 58

She dreamed that she was being chased by an enormous white wolf, its

fangs crops thick with mud that sucked at her shoes, her breath form-

ing clouds of steam. Her throat stung. Her legs burned. 

She ran as fast as she could, but her body became heavier with 

 every step. 

 The shriveled leaves of sugar beets turned rotten and brittle under her.

 She spotted a house in the distance—her house. 

 The farmhouse her grandmother had raised her in, the windows 

beaming with warmth.

The house was safety. The house was home.

But it receded into the distance with each painful step.

 The air around her became thick with fog, and the house

 disappeared altogether swallowed whole by the encroaching

 shadows.

She tripped, landing on her hands and knees.

 She rolled over, scrambling and kicking at the ground.

 Mud clung to her clothes and hair.

The coldness from the ground soaked into her bones. 

 The wolf prowled closer.

 Its lean muscles moved gracefully  under the coat of fur.

 It snarled, eyes lit with hunger.

Her fingers fished around on the ground searching for a weapon,

anything they struck something smooth and hard. 

 She grasped it and pulled it from the squelching mud-an axe, 

 its sharp blade glistening with moonlight.

The wolf leaped, gaping jaws unhinged.

Scarlet lifted the axe. 

Braced herself.

 Swung.

The blade cut clean through the beast, cutting it into two pieces

 from head to tail. Warm blood splattered over Scarlet's faces the 

 two wolf halves landed on either side of her. 

 Her stomach rolled.

 She was going to throw up.

She dropped the axe and collapsed back on the ground. 

 The mud squished around her ears.

 Overhead, the moon filled up by the  whole sky.

Then the wolf halves began to rustle. 

 They gradually rose up, now only the soft outer pelt of the beast,

 shorn in two.

 Scarlet could make out vague human-like shapes standing

 over her,  each wearing half of the snow-white pelt.