Rejected

Chapter 2 - Eyes In The Dark

It's already been more than an hour since she started climbing down, and still could not find a trace of a clear strait trail. She looked at her phone and realized that she's losing battery.

Something's wrong, she thought to herself. She must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. The trees around her were too close for comfort. It's not like that when she was climbing up.

She was sure that even with both her hand outstretched she still would not be able to touch any trees if she was walking in the right trail.

She looked back contemplating whether to go back where she started but even that seemed impossible. It looked liked all the trail disappeared and was replaced by bushes and trees.

And then she heard it, a distant howl, just like that in her dream, or maybe it was not a dream.

*Awhoooooo

That was a closer one, she thought. Or maybe her mind was just playing tricks on her, thinking that it was the case she took in a deep breath and started walking again.

Then she stopped dead on her tracks, she heard something again. No longer a distant howl but a sound just a few feet behind her. She looked back and tried to look beyond the darkness with just the light her phone provides.

Nothing.

And then that sound again.

The sound of snapping branches, and rustling leaves. Getting closer and closer.

She didn't know what possessed her to stood her ground and wait with her phone in her hand for whatever that was to come to the light. But there's no way she'll turn her back from it, scared that if she does, it'll be the death of her.

*Snap

Again...but still nothing.

"Hello?" she called out.

*Snap

"Whose there?" she asked.

................nothing...............

"Hel---" Gasped!

She could not continue what she was about to say and just gasped her eyes as wide as saucers at the darkness infront of her. Whatever it was that was making that noise finally made it's presence shown. But not all of it. As the light on Belle's phone could only reflect that piercing eyes of what it is before her.

A dog...she thought.

No.

Something bigger. She watched it stepped closer into the light and to her horror...it was bigger than the worst possible thing she could come up with.

A wolf...it does look like one. But it's huge, getting bigger as it stepped into the light.

Belle stood frozen on the spot, unable to move or breath. She looked at it wide eyed as it took another step closer to her.

*Snap

She heard as the gigantic wolf stepped into a fallen branch. That seemed to wake Belle out of her trance and without wasting another second, she turned away and ran.

= 0 =

Running blindly into the dark she could hear the beast chasing after her. Turning into every direction uncaring whether she gets deeper into the woods as long as she lost her pursuer.

She could hear the sound of a river nearby and she ran towards it thinking that if she gets wet the wolf will lose her smell and won't be able to follow her. Running faster than her feet could carry her the closer the sound of the river gets, she couldn't even feel how the thick bushes and sharp branches are cutting into her skin, it doesn't matter how heavy her backpack is or how sweaty she is. All she cares about is reaching the river and losing the predator behind her so she kept running and running and then it ended and all she could do is scream and fall. Not expecting the dirt road to suddenly dissappear she could not do anything as the gravity itself pulled her down and closer to her death.

She would've never known that what she thought was the beginning of her new life, would be the end of it, literally, how could she.

She also wouldn't have known that the river she could hear is way down the hill and the direction she was running to led to a cliff, not until she felt gravity pulling her straight down to a raging freezing river.

She was falling, with her back to the river and her eyes directly facing the beautifully shaped moon.

What irony, she thought, that the most beautiful thing she could see was also gonna be the last. She always believed that old saying that when you die your whole life flashes before your very eyes.

But no.

Everything was like in a slow motion, her falling, the moon beaming down on her, the clouds passing by. So slow she also could no longer hear the sounds of the raging river awaiting her below. Everything was moving so slow that she saw clearly how the gigantic wolf jumped from the cliff after her and just like magic transformed right before her eyes into a human, a man naked as the day he was born.

The man looked at her and she could see the determined looked in his eyes as he reached out, grabbed her arm, pull her into himself, covered her with his whole body and maneuvered himself so he would be the one to first hit the surface of the river.

All she could feel was the freezing cold of the water and the tight embrace of the man as they get taken by the cold raging waves...

And then...darkness.