Souls' Collision | ✔

T R O U B L E

~ Chapter Thirteen ~

It was dark again.

It felt like it'd been dark for days by then, even though the minor group had only been on the road for five hours. Paws thudding, muscles dancing underneath fur and breaths escaping in short, rough bursts. It was a scary, yet impressive, sight. They were predators at the top of the food chain, fearlessly traveling between the trees. Almost invisible.

Almost.

Something stood out from between the dark bodies, a creature different from the wolf kin. She was keeping close to the others, hunched and silent, but didn't fool anyone. Wolves didn't ride other wolves. Everyone knew that. But it was still strange; not many were let into a wolf pack. Less faced one on the prowl and lived to tell the tale.

But this female was seemingly breaking all laws of nature.

And hated every second of it.

"Do you hear that?" she whispered. Liz was laying flat on the largest wolf's back with her hands interlocked around his neck. Her eyes were like a doe's, worriedly seeing to the trees blurring past. She knew that, even though she traveled with them, she wasn't a predator this deep into the Bern woods — she was prey. "I hear something."

A smaller ledge appeared and the wolves leaped off, landing softly in the snow.

As they continued, Liz heard it again. The noise. It sounded like rustling, but it wasn't from the group. They didn't make that much rattle. And it wasn't her; her legs were pressed against Red's rib cage.

"Red," she whispered, this time a little more urgently. His steps didn't falter, neither did the ones of the wolves flanking them, but his ears ticked, showing he was hearing her. Liz wasn't sure he understood but still continued by saying, "I hear something. I think someone's following us."

His speed picked up, his ears flattened.

Liz didn't speak wolf, but she understood that she was getting dismissed.

With a frustrating fear gnawing at her gut she put her left cheek back between Red's shoulder blades, watched nature rush past behind the other wolves in the group. Maybe she was paranoid. After all, who would be brave enough to attack them?

But the noise wasn't gone and she couldn't convince herself to close her eyes. If anything she focused harder, tried to differentiate the trees from possible enemies. She could've sworn... Wasn't something moving in there, around them?

Yes, it was.

Liz squinted.

And it was getting closer.

Could it be...? No. There was no way.

And yet...

She finally saw what had been following them — her eyes widened and her pupils enlarged with fear. Adrenaline made chills push their way through her muscles and freeze her solid. She just had time to raise her hand to cover her face. "RED, WATCH OUT—"

Liz was ruthlessly knocked off her wolf's back, sent flying through the air.

She hit a trunk with incredible force, felt her spine take the hit, before crashing to the ground. In a painful daze she managed to catch herself with her hands and push herself to her knees. She could tell something was moving around her but knew it wasn't Red and his pack.

Something grabbed ahold of her sleeve, threw her onto her back. Meanwhile her duffel bag was pulled off her shoulder, disappearing somewhere.

She opened her eyes to realize she was staring into a sharp maw — saliva dripped onto her cheek and the walls of the mouth vibrated with a terrifying growl.