Trapped

4.

My body started to tremble and fear took over my body. I could feel my heart beating faster as the creature came closer to the entrance of the stump where I crawled in. After a few seconds, the creature's black nose emerged at the entrance and then the rest of its face appeared. Its blood red eyes stared right into my blue ones. That's when reality hit me, I was face to face with a giant, wolf-like creature that could easily kill me with one snap of his jaw. I let out a blood-curdling scream out of the pure terror that was coursing through my veins and then I mentally slapped myself when I realized that wolves usually travelled in packs and I may have just let this alpha's pack know where I was.

I could only think of two things to do in this situation; I could either crawl out of the other side of the trunk as fast as my body would allow me and run for my life or I could stay there and fight for my life with two flashlights and a backpack to use as weapons. Both options came with the possibility to be eaten by that monster but I was more likely to die if I picked the latter, so I chose the first option.

In the blink of an eye, I shoved my body out of the other end of the trunk, got to my feet and ran like my life depended on it, because it did. I heard the creature growling behind me and when I looked back it was running after me. I screamed at the top of my lungs when my previous assumption came true and two more of those creatures came out of the woods and chased after me, but my screams only seemed to anger the beasts even more. I looked ahead and realized that I had no idea where I was going. Fear had me looking back and forth every now and again just to make sure I was still ahead of the wolf pack. I looked back one last time and when I looked ahead of me again and ran straight into something, I didn't know what, but it was hard.

I fell straight onto my back and hit the back of my head on the ground. In that second the world around me was blurry. I felt disorientated and didn't really know what was happening until a hand wrapped itself around my arm and pulled me to my feet. The blurry figure came into focus and it was Jason. A sigh of relief left my mouth when I saw him, never before had I been so grateful to see him. Then he turned around and started running while still holding onto my arm, so I had no choice but to follow him. It wasn't easy to keep up with Jason since he had really long legs and he's an athlete, whereas I'm short and I'm a professional couch potato. I was on the swim team, but that didn't make me better at running on dry land. But I was so relieved that I had found Jason, at least I had one friend to help me find the others and- my thoughts were interrupted by something heavy falling onto my back. Sharp claws dug into my flesh and I was unable to stand with this weight on my back. I tumbled to the ground and the force of my fall ripped my arm out of Jason's hand.

The minute my body hit the ground a stinging pain in my right leg followed. I winched in pain and a yelp escaped my dry lips. I looked over my shoulder and found that I was being pinned to the ground by this awful creature. His razor-sharp teeth were right above my head and his red eyes were staring into the darkest depths of my soul.

I looked to Jason for help but he had disappeared. How could he just leave me here like this? What a jerk. As much as I wanted to curse him in my mind, there just simply wasn't time, I had to escape the jaws of this creature so that I could go and save the rest of my friends. I had to do whatever it takes.

I was reluctant for a moment but finally, I got myself together. I twisted my body into an awkward position and then I jammed my finger into the creature's eye. He jumped back, whining like a lost puppy. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor monster, but I had to push the thought away, there was no time to feel guilty. I attempted to start running but immediately fell to the floor because of the pain I felt surging through my leg. I looked down and found that a thorn branch was stuck into my leg. I wanted to sit down for a moment to carefully take out the thorns that were penetrating my flesh, but I had to get away from these animals before they would devour me. The other two wolves were further away from me than the one that attacked me, which gave me time to scramble away, so I got up and dealt with the pain. I was limping with every step and the pain was almost unbearable. Every step sent another wave of pain through my leg and eventually, I had to start hopping on one leg because the stinging sensation was driving me nuts, but I had to get away.

After what felt like hours of running and hopping, the ground in front of me disappeared. Before me there was a cliff overlooking a waterfall and a rocky valley. The water at the bottom of the waterfall looked deep and dark and I was at a dead end of sorts. To make matters worse, when I looked over my shoulder I saw the wolves running towards me at a very quick pace. They were far enough away to give me time to think of a plan, but the alpha was definitely more determined this time around. Once again I had a choice, I could choose to be eaten or to take another leap of faith and jump into the water a few feet below me. And again both options could have led to my death, I just had to pick the lesser of two evils. In this case, the water was hope and the wolf was certain death. I took a big gulp and shut my eyes before I took a deep breath and jumped over the edge and into the water.