Nothing is worst than a starless Thanksgiving night, right? Well what about a starless Thanksgiving night, it's below zero, there's a blizzard, your phone and car won't start (even when you know the batteries were just fine when you left), and you're out in God-Knows-Where-County in a ditch. Yeah, something could top that, but I'm too frikken cold to think of anything else. The pounding in my bleeding head was the only reason I knew I was still alive; it proved my heart was still beating, at least. I was numb from the pain and somehow I knew my arm was broken.
What had I done? I had been looking straight at the road. My eyes never left it once, not even when my phone kept on ringing and ringing and... had I looked down just for a second to see who it was calling. Jenna. Jenna had been calling. My sister. Probably wondering where I was since I wasn't there yet. Would they bother to send out a search party, or will they think I played hooky from the damn holiday. They won't send anyone. I know them, and they know me. If I don't show up on time or call, I'm not coming. Damn it.
I'll freeze and no one will find me until the snow melts or I'll be Captain America, frozen for years, except I won't wake up. You never know if the snow will ever melt in Canada. Why did I even want to leave my sunny Tampa house just to get a thumbs-up from the family? I didn't need to go. But I did, and it seemed like all my cousins and brother-in-law's wishes came true. I wasn't coming.
What's that? I thought I said, but my blue lips never parted. In the corner of my eye there sat a creature that I had only seen in zoos. It was a big, black wolf. The beating in my ears grew louder and louder as the beast came closer. The car was flipped. The window was smashed in. I was trapped. 'Wolves are harmless.' Now who had said that? One of my DNR brother-in-laws or one of their wives? Doesn't matter. I knew they were lying then, and I knew they're lying now. My heart was going faster than I ever thought possible as it got to the window. I could smell its foul breath, and hear its panting, like it had been running for a long, long time.
Suddenly, it through its head up and started to howl, at first like a puppy would and then it got shill and almost human, like someone burning in Hell. My heart couldn't take anymore, and it abruptly stopped. I felt my pain go and my vision grew as dark as the wolf's fur and the night sky.
