The Wolves

Chapter 9

If you know what ice feels like then you are lucky. I trudge through the ice, the hot, sweet, frozen feel of ice. The knife in my hand the trap door just ahead. My breathe snaps and crackles in front of me and frost burns the leaves like I have never seen. I don't know where the ice came from but it has taken everyone in the town by surprise. The trapdoor sits right where I left it, but it no longer looks old and forgotten, it looks cleaner and fresher...

I push some of the snow off the huge black door, but what I find extremely alarming is that the door is warm and there is actually not much snow around it...

Slowly I pull my necklace off my neck, It's a new necklace that I found whilst hunting around Leila's room for a nice warm jacket, it was in the pocket of her favourite knitted cardigan, the same cardigan that I wear now. The necklace is a huge gold key on the end of a long, thin and dangly gold chain. The gold key and chain looks beautiful until you look a little closer...

Rust devours the shiny gold.

Sickly brown rust that is eating away at the precious metal and lowly enveloping the key in horrible brown stuff.

I tried cleaning the rust off... it didn't work.

I take a deep breath and plunge my key deep into the key hole.

It fits.

I turn the key slowly and feel my heart flutter as the key makes something in the lock turn...

There is a soft click.

I pull the key out and kiss the end of it triumphantly.

There is a soft rustle behind me.

"Hello, it's me again. What do you have there?"

I turn around quickly and lean over the door, "You..."

The girl in the red satin dress stands before me.

 "You... you... why are you here?" I snap, she smiles.

"Are you not yet tired of asking me this same simple question darling? Have you not asked me this enough?"

She has a good point.

 I look up at her and pull a sour face.

"Listen, you always follow me, so like, for once would you just stop?" 

The girl looks at the ground still smiling wickedly, "But if I stop following you then you will run away, I am always following you, but, I guess you could call me more of a stalker."

I peer up at her and shrug, "Fine just leave me alone, I don't care if you watch me... just...I don't want to see you so... I don't know, fuck off?" 

She ponders the thought for a while.

"Okay, but just this once, I have other things to... deal with."

I nod quickly, I didn't expect it to be that easy.