Winter Prey

Chapter 48

Chapter 48

It stared down from the mouth of the lair as She climbed the hill. Her snowshoes rode atop the drifts as though she were weightless. It tried to remember the feeling from a few days ago, standing here on the first day of this season's wakening. Tried to recall that long-lost emotion of hope. Instead, hunger tore at It.

No! This cannot be. This will not be. She is not prey. She is the answer to all these seasons of punishment and torment. The release I need. I have paid the price for what I did. I lost the woman I loved, the life we could have had, missed out on seeing our son that she carried. It is time for this to end.

But the closer the woman came, the stronger the two sensations raged inside and tortured It. Hope and hunger both vied for dominance. When hope reigned briefly, It struggled to keep that in the forefront. But hunger would growl upwards as the sensations of satisfaction after a meal and heightened powers battled for notice.

It hadn't fulfilled the number of prey for this season. Could this existence end without that?

The figure moving up the hill held the promise of satiation, the fat and lean meat, the warm red blood, sinew and marrow, which renewed the power each season. Power that grew until It was able to forget the pain and regrets of this existence. Power also fed by the revenge exacted from the descendants of the man who had exposed Its cannibalism and led It to this existence.

By the time She was close enough for It to see the dark brown depths of her eyes through the slits in the facemask, hope dominated. The need for vengeance paled when compared to the thought of finding Nimiwin in the land of their ancestors. Her death might satisfy It for a while, but only until hunger surfaced again. Hope, if fed correctly, would culminate in the greatest satisfaction of all.

She halted when It stepped out the entrance to the lair. Horror, fear and determination warred in her eyes. It hesitated, waiting. A mistake, It realized at once. Her smell carried on a slight uphill wind. Hunger gained victory, and in the blink of an eye in time, It had the woman in Its paws back inside the lair. She screamed in terror and clawed, barely missing Its eyes. Enraged, It flung her against the wall, and She crumbled. Hunger roared in triumph.