Shortie Stories

                                                                         Wolf House

Howls erupted everywhere, Jenny’s hand shook in mine as we ducked behind an old tatter, well-used couch as three black wolves scampered past breaking the furniture in their path and destroying the already crumbling walls. When the wolves had passed and were far enough down the corridor connecting to the room, I peeked out from behind the couch, noticing the break in the wall that dropped out over a stair case to the upper floor. Jenny’s hand tightened in mine, knowing what I was thinking.

‘Kimmy,’ she whispered, shaking her head, ‘don’t,’ but it was too late, I was already dragging her to the jagged hole in the wall and shoved her through it. A small squeak escaped her lips, I dropped down beside her lightly and we ran up the stairs looking for a possible exit or hiding place.

We came across a frayed cord that was hanging from the ceiling, looking up there was a trap door leading to the attic. Quickly I pulled the rickety old ladder down with a small creak and we quickly scaled the ladder into the attic with a few groans of protest as if the ladder were hundreds of years old. Pulling the ladder up behind us as possible and ducked behind a few card-bored boxes in the corner of the attic. Paws and growls were heard from the level below and wolves rushed past but what really got me was when the growls turned to shouts and skittering paws turned to stamping feet running along the floor in hopes to find us.

Wide eyed I turned to Jenny who’s eyes were also and we listen to a familiar call out. ‘Find them,’ the voice sounded angry, ‘find Jenny and Kimmy and kill them, we can’t let our secret get out!’

We gulped; they knew we were here but not that we don’t know their secret. I had a strange feeling that the men downstairs, along with the familiar voices that popped up every now and the then, were associated with the wolves running around the old house. Jenny turned to me and whispered, ‘Hunter, that was Hunter that called that order,’ I stared at her like she was crazy.

‘Can’t be, ‘I stammered, ‘he told me that he was out of town for a few weeks.’

Jenny shook her head, no, and then I realized, we weren’t the ones to discover their secret, she dragged me into this, a death trap. She had basically killed me. I had only just realized how secretive she had been the past week, showing up to school just as the bell had gone and disappearing around lunch time, not telling me anything she hadn’t texted me, called me, nothing! Jenny was the one to discover their secret.

I stood up, pulling the loose strands of my red hair out of my purple eyes in the mirror leaning against an opened box and walked over to the ladder, pushing it down. The ladder groaned in protest as it smacked onto the floor, as I tried to climb down the ladder, not caring how much noise I made. Two huge black wolves slinked out from the shadows and crouched down to a position to pounce on me if I made a wrong move.

‘Take me to Hunter,’ I asked confidently, not showing weakness and hoping they would understand what I was asking. When they nodded their huge black furry heads in understanding and nudged me in the direction of Hunter, taking me deeper into the wolf house. I was flicking my head from side to side trying to remember the turns and doors we went through so that if I needed a quick escape, I would be able to.

When the barrel of a gun was pressed to the spine of my back and a hand pulled me to the person’s chest to prevent me from going anywhere, I let out a squeal and froze and the person holding me from behind let out a loud laugh that echoed loudly through the house.

‘I-I d-don’t know a-anything,’ I cried.

‘Jenny must have told you something,’ Hunter pressed the gun further into my back, making me arch my back, ‘she must have said something about Monday afternoon,’ he shouted.

‘N-no, s-s-she h-hasn’t,’ I stammered, now sobbing,’ I honestly don’t know, I have no idea what your secret is, she’s been acting strangely since Monday,’ I cried loudly.

‘How do you know about the secret,’ he asked, now oddly calm.

‘Because you were shouting out that we can’t let your secret out,’ I said, try to calm myself down, taking in breathes of air as Hunter tightened his hold on my waist. ‘We were hiding in the attic. I’m sure the order echoed through the house,’ I was trying not to get him angry again. He removed the gun from my back and tucked it into my pocket and grabbed my hand, dragging me to a nearby room, locking the door behind him.

‘Are you working with the wolves?’ I blurted out but he remained quiet for a minute before answering.

‘Yes, I am,’ he answered, calmly, not a hint of anger, ‘you can’t let anyone know though.’ I just nodded my head.

‘O-ok, but how did you gain control over the wolves, they understand English,’ I asked cautiously.

‘That’s not for you to know and no they don’t understand English, you’re talking Latin,’ he replied straight faced.

‘H-how…’ was all I could get out.

‘I had a curse placed over this house,’ he replied straight faced, ‘no one outside of it can understand anything. It was the first…’ he pause trying to think of the right word.

I cut him off, ‘first what?’ I asked curiously, ‘wolf house?’

‘Yes,’ he answered, ‘if that’s how you want to put it, wolf house,’ and smiled thinking about what I had called the house.

‘Am…Am I allowed to live?’ I asked carefully.

‘Yes,’ he nodded, ‘because you clearly don’t know anything but Jenny,’ he paused, ‘Jenny she’ll be killed, I’m sorry.’ I nodded my head sadly.

Not wanting to stay much longer to watch my best friend be killed by wolves, I went to leave but he held his grip on my hand tightly as I tried to yank it from his grip causing me to end up crashing into his hard chest which sent us flying onto the rickety old bed behind him. He landed on top of me and I scrunched my eyes shut waiting for the impact and weight that never came, I peeked out of my eyes to find that Hunter had a hand on either side of my head, holding himself up above me. He smirked down at me with amusement clear in his eyes. He sat up and I followed suit and sat up next to him, not looking at him.

‘Can’t I leave,’ I asked quietly and felt him sigh deeply next to me, ‘not to be rude but no one wants to see their best friend die.’

‘I can’t just yet,’ I looked up at him confused, ‘you were never meant to be here, Jenny dragged you hear and you’ve seen the wolves.’ I nodded.

‘Oh,’ was all I could say.

‘I have been told to wipe your memory,’ he said a little sad, ‘I have to wipe your memory of tonight and of Jenny,’ I looked downward to my hands folded in my lap. I felt two light fingers under my chin that tilted my face upwards to meet Hunter’s gray eyes. He murmured something under his breath before leaning forward to kissed me.

‘I’m a werewolf,’ he said quietly and I felt sleepy, ‘that’s what you could never know,’ Slowly, I fell asleep in Hunter’s arms and slowly forgot about tonight and my best friend. But before I could completely go unconscious I heard a distant scream and Hunter whisper, ‘I’m sorry, so sorry,’ I felt a kiss on my forehead and everything went dark.