Vargulf Bitten

Chapter One: Something Important

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I asked as I heard the sound of gravel underneath the wheels of the car. It was dark outside and the full moon hung high above us. Castle Godfrey was straight ahead of us. In only the light of the moon, something felt extremely eerie about it. This feeling, that something very important was about to happen, hung over my neck like a noose. My best friend, Lisa, was driving, her green eyes looking out at the dark, barely there road. She'd curled her hair -- had taken hours upon hours to get ready for this. She'd received an invitation to a party that was supposed to be here tonight, but I didn't see a single soul in sight. Of course, Lisa thought this was all apart of the thing. Whatever that meant.

"Aren't you curious? I mean, what if it's from Roman?" Lisa questioned, pulling up the front of her dress for a second before turning the car slightly. I scrunched my nose at that notion. Freshman year, I had had a bit of a crush on Rich Boy Roman Godfrey, but after seeing his true colors, aka the list of girls he'd slept with, I realized rather quickly that being interested in that kind of guy was probably bad news. That didn't stop Lisa from encouraging it though whenever she could. Always saying that he had glanced at me whenever I walked by, but I saw the way she over analyzed all the boys at school that she liked. To put it lightly, she was pretty much delusional. I mean that in the nicest way possible.

"If it's Roman, he can kiss my ass for asking us to come out here this late. He's a big guy. What if he's the one killing all the girls and we're his next victims?" It wasn't a totally illogical guess either, to be quite frank. He'd been pretty close to Brooke Bluebell and he hadn't shown up to the vigil for her. Why wouldn't he? Besides the fact that he had an ego the size of a humpback whale? Either way, I was sure he could push that aside to light a fucking candle and let it go up into the sky, but then again, I'd never actually had a serious conversation with the guy, so who knows what his brain might have been thinking that night.

"That's-" Lisa stopped the car suddenly and I nearly flung onto the dash, despite having a seatbelt on. She didn't finish her sentence and when my gaze followed hers, I understood why. There was...a dog? It seemed so big and you couldn't see all too much of it considering the darkness that surrounded us suddenly. Lisa kept the car running and got out of the car. Causing it to ding in response to it staying open as she tried to get a closer look at it.

"Lisa..." I wanted to warn her. There was that feeling, but she wouldn't turn around. It was like I wasn't even there. I opened my door. Ding. Ding. Ding. I unbuckled myself and got out. I didn't know what else to do. If anything, I could pull her away before she got too close or if it started showing signs of aggression. As she got closer, she held her hand out to it. It seemed...almost shy. From here, I could even see an expression on it's face. Yellow eyes full of...confusion and...sadness. Like the helpless way a dog looks at you when it can't tell you what it needs...

"Come 'ere, boy." Lisa whistled and suddenly, something inside of it snapped. Lisa screamed and so did I, even though I was further from it than her. A part of me wanted to run for the car again, climb in and drive as far away as possible. My flight sense. Another part of me wanted to run towards it, tackle it, get it away from her. My fight sense. I did neither for what seemed like hours but was only a few seconds -- long enough for the creature to rip her dress, jaws digging into her gut. The sound of yet another scream and the wet, vile sound of blood brought me back to reality and I found myself moving forward.

"Get off of her!" I shouted and that was enough to get it to look at me, teeth bared and a growl before I pushed through my fear and charged it. We rolled downwards, the small rocks digging into my flesh each time that I found myself underneath the wolf, but I wouldn't give up the fight just yet. Even as I could feel my new wounds burning as sand and grass got into them. Some part of me had realized earlier on that this was a setup, but I hadn't wanted to believe it. I'd wanted to believe that Lisa was invited to a cool party and that she was going to take me and that we were going to have fun and forget the dark cloud that was looming over Hemlock Grove and the monster that seemed to be fast asleep in it's hills, but ready to pounce any moment.

"Fuck!" I heard Lisa yell, but I couldn't see her. Large black paws pinned me to the ground, making our tumble come to an abrupt end. My head banged against the ground and my eyes rolled back for a second. The wolf growled, repositioned itself before it bit into my shoulder with vigor. A blood curdling scream left my lips then. The pain of all those teeth digging into my flesh was unbearable, my legs shifted to kick the wolf upwards and I heard the rip of my shirt and what felt like a large chunk of my flesh to go with it.

"Lisa!" I yelled as I crawled onto my feet, jogging as fast as I could to get to her, but the wolf was faster. Lisa was weaker, hadn't fought back and the wolf knew this. We both knew this. The wolf grabbed her by the foot with his teeth, having spit out whatever of me he'd had in his mouth to do so. I felt my knees go weak as I tried to catch up, but he was so quick, pulling her out into the darkness even as she screamed.

"Help! Please help me! Please he-" and suddenly it was silent. My cheeks were stained with dirt and tears. Blood covered my whole entire body, seeping through my shirt and the pair of jeans I had worn. Some part of me glad I hadn't worn a dress as Lisa had. My whole body quivered, a throbbing ache filling me as I shuffled over to the car. Maybe Lisa was lost. Maybe she was another victim, but would the wolf come back for me if I stayed here and laid defenseless? I was sure he would. As if on queue, I heard the growl of the wolf. His head peaking out from the bushes and what he held between his teeth almost made me vomit.

Part of her intestines hung from his mouth like a chew toy and it made me hobble a little bit faster. He charged and I found myself full out running the short distance to the driver's side. I slammed the door shut as the wolf rammed into it. I quickly realized though that I had left my side open as well. He seemed to notice this too as I painfully crawled over the gear shift, forcing the door closed just as it snout came into view. It let out a pained yelp, but ran off.

"Shit! Fuck! Shit!" I shouted as the pain shot through me like a bullet. I put the car in reverse despite myself and slammed on the gas. My eye sight was going blurry, but I focused as best as I could, knowing I just needed to get as far away from the wolf as possible. Moments likes this reminded me though why it was a damn good idea to live in a big city. Shit like this didn't happen in New York or Los Angeles! If I survived this, I would dedicate the rest of it to getting the fuck out of here as soon as possible. I made that promise to myself that night, driving down a swerving country road to the best of my ability.

The tires screeched on the asphalt suddenly, loud and ringing in my ears as the car suddenly went tumbling down the side of a hill and into the woods. My body jerked, head hit the ceiling as I hadn't put my seat belt on in my hurry. A few more rolls and I was practically flung out of the car, the passenger side door having popped open on it's own. The smell of blood mixed with the smell of the woods. Pine trees and animal shit. It felt like every part of me was broken. My eyelids felt heavy and I was sure that this was how I was going to die. With the last bit of my strength, I looked up as I heard a rustle of leaves. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was a pair of yellow eyes.