Escaping Duty

Chapter 1 Pt. 2

Valentina jumped in the air stifling a shriek, as lightning flashed blinding her for a moment. When she blinked those golden eyes were a lot closer to her; right in her face as a matter of fact. With that flash, she saw a lot more than she needed to know. This was no person, but there was no way this was an animal either. Its eyes were above her head, and no animal would be this big, or as quick as this one.

Would more of these animals appear if she ran, she thought with panic. Adrenaline flooded her body warming her for the moment and making her tense. She couldn't outrun this thing, but she still looked off to her side to see which way she could run. Her heart pounded when she didn't see a viable escape route.

Moving one foot she yelped when the creature walked closer to her standing less than an inch away from her face. She could make out the flecks of brown in its golden eye and saw something deep within them. From its calmness, and the way it studied her face she would almost think the animal was intelligent. If she moved out her hand she would be able to stroke its dark hair, that's how close it was, and she could even feel its warm breath on her face.

Valentina didn't know what she could do, the creature wasn't letting her move but then again it wasn't making any move to attack her either. It only continued staring at her unblinking. Could she really touch it if she wanted? She had a dog at home, so she wasn't scared of animals, but this was nothing like a pet dog.

'This is a dumb idea' she thought to herself.

Slowly she began reaching her hand towards the animals feeling compelled to touch it. Would it be as soft as it looked? Did it want her to touch it? The rain continued pelting them, but it felt like its eyes were drawing her into another space where nothing else mattered. For a moment she forgot her fear. The sudden desire to be closer to this animal was beginning to overtake her mind especially as her hand neared its head.

The whole time the animal only watched her with those large eyes. She imagined it almost asking for her touch. It didn't cross her mind how she knew he'd be soft or how she even knew the creature was a 'he' to begin with. As her finger just barely grazed the animal multiples things simultaneously happened.

She felt something shock her causing her to pull her hand back, just as thunder and lightning sounded. When the light cleared the animal's eyes were narrowed into slits, and it was growling. It was a deep menacing sound that sent her stumbling backward, heart wildly beating. It bared fangs the size of her hand alone dipping its head.

Had her touch angered the animal into finally attacking her? She kept moving backward in the rain slipping in her converses as the creature continued growling in her direction. It was then she knew she was prepared to run no matter what happened.

"Get out of the way!" a voice yelled behind her making her turn quickly.

Not too far away Valentina could just barely make him out, but it was a figure. And he held something that glinted in the moonlight in his hands.

"Move before I shoot" he warned voice annoyed and Valentina scrambled out of the way of his weapon as he stayed focused on the animal.

He walked forward towards Valentina, but she continued backing up quickly and shook her head. She needed to get out of here but as she backed up she remembered the animal to her back growling and stopped. In the time she stopped the man reached her grabbing her arm forcefully.

"I have business with you girl" he hissed.

Behind them, the growls grew louder but Valentina focused on trying to push the man's arms off her. He was the same man from inside the shop, she could see the silver scar in the moonlight.