The Wolf of The Woods

Chapter Twenty Four: What's the matter freak?

Phil and Louise were still sat down on Louise's bedroom floor. Well, at least, Phil was. Louise had gone to check the bathroom. It wasn't that she was worried or anything, but surely no one took longer than fifteen minutes on the toilet.

Once she reached the end of the hallway she halted for a moment, shuffling her feet so as to delay the interaction. Luckily for her though she wasn't about to get an interaction of any sort. She knocked gently on the wooden door.

'Dan?'
After receiving no response whatsoever, she decided to knock again, more vigorously this time.
'Hey Dan, everything okay?'

Hovering her fist over the door she debated knocking for a third time. However, she didn't get a chance to as Phil came up behind her and gave a look that was equally as puzzled as hers.

'He's... er...'
'He's not in there is he...' Phil finished her sentence uneasily.
'I don't know Phil but, but where could he have possibly gone?'

Phil didn't respond. He was panicking. He pushed Louise to the side and began knocking on the door himself.
'Dan! Dan, are you in there?!'

He didn't stop knocking. Louise even began to join in, the two of them making an aimless racket that echoed throughout the house. It was surprising that Louise's mum didn't hear them actually.

Eventually after still no reply, the two accepted their defeat and Louise sunk down to the floor, leaning against the doorframe.

'It's no use' she sighed.
Phil stayed standing. He looked down worriedly at Louise as he thought deeply about what to do next.

'Wait Louise, get up!' He yelled, a little louder than intended. He dragged Louise back up to her feet again and took a few steps backwards.

'Phil... what are you?'
'I promise I'll pay for a new one okay?'
'Wait what!'
'One... two...'
'Phil!'
'Three!'

Phil charged forwards towards the door. He wasn't sure why he'd thought that it was a good idea really and he could only be grateful for the fact that Louise happened to have a very old and worn bathroom door.

The door flew off its hinges and fell to the tiled floor with a crash. Phil taking deep breathes, took no hesitation in stepping over it and into the bathroom. Louise, on the other hand, seemed a little too shocked to do anything but stare with her mouth wide open.

It didn't take long for Phil to realise that the room was empty. He walked around in the slight pitiful hope that Dan was in there and they just couldn't see him.

As he stepped towards the bath tub, he felt a sudden chill engulf his body. The window, it was open.

He approached the window as more and more realisation came over him. When he reached it, he was blinded by a bright light. Moonlight.

'The full moon!' He shrieked. 'I forgot! How could I... Dan! He's... gone! And he's all alone...'

'Shit' Louise remarked, finally stepping inside 'he must have climbed out through the window'

'Hey! now what's all this racket up here about?' An angry voice called from downstairs 'what are you...'

The fact that the voice was getting considerably louder indicated that it was getting closer and also that it's owner was too.

'What are you doing Louise?'
'I err...'
'Looks like it's time for us to climb out that window too' Phil exclaimed.
'What?!'
'Ready? Take my hand!'
'Phil no!'

Phil grabbed hold of her arm and began to help her up onto the ledge despite her being less than willing to do so.

'Listen, you'll be fine, just use the tree to gently climb down and I'll follow'
He was trying to sound calm and convincing but his inner panic definitely showed through.

He waited patiently as Louise manoeuvred herself onto the ledge and grabbed hold of a sturdy looking branch.

She took one last dreading look at Phil before sliding off the ledge and letting the branch support her fully. As soon as she started climbing down, Phil followed suit.

He couldn't hear Louise's mum anymore for some strange reason but he'd have to ignore that for now.

'What do we do now?' Louise panted.
'We run' Phil replied...

-

Far away in the forest, stood Dan. A furry, pain ridden, half asleep Dan. He had just awoken, dazed and disorientated. Above all though, he was afraid. That voice? Where had it gone? Had he just imagined it? Surely not... it had sounded so real.

He was fully werewolf now and still feeling the remains of the pain flowing through his body.

Everything seemed pretty normal (well as far as being a werewolf goes), he could open his eyes and he was pretty sure that he was alone. Something wasn't quite right though.

As Dan tried to move he found out exactly what that something was.

He couldn't move, not at all. He was bound, tied up, to something. How did he not realise sooner? As his eyes adjusted to the light, or rather the lack of, he saw that he was not actually alone at all.

He could only see shadows, mere ghosts of what seemed to be humans, but he knew that they were there. He began to struggle against the ropes that bound him to what appeared to be a large tree.

It was no use, whoever tied them had done a good job, Dan only succeeded in cutting himself.

It was certainly foolish to have tried. And Dan really should have been concentrating instead, on the figures that were now coming closer.

As one of them approached near enough, Dan could make out who it was. He could've slapped himself for not realising it sooner, it all made sense, this was obviously why he hasn't been in school today.

Of course Dan couldn't have slapped himself even if he'd actually wanted to and quite frankly he didn't. He couldn't speak either, so he just stood trembling in fear as he waited for Seamus to do something.

He felt utterly pathetic in that moment but it seemed he had no control over his movements.

A creature like a werewolf was supposed to be the one doing the intimidating, definitely not the other way round.

'Rise and shine sleepyhead' Seamus cooed in the most bittersweet evil tone.

Dan felt physically sick.

He couldn't bare looking Seamus in the eyes, so instead he gazed down at the ground and tried to ignore everything around him. Maybe if he closed his eyes again he could drown it all out. Maybe he could fall asleep and never wake up...

'What's the matter freak? Can't understand English?'

Dan snarled. He let out a low growling noise. It appeared his werewolf instincts were kicking in. And it was then that he remembered that he hadn't eaten a thing. He was hungry.

Suddenly he didn't feel afraid anymore. He looked up with the intention of looking at Seamus right in the eyes and challenging him. But it wasn't Seamus's eyes he was drawn to, it was what was behind them.

Could it be? Dan wasn't sure if he was crazy, but it almost looked like there were two more figures quickly approaching.