DARK SOUL

Chapter Nineteen

The severed head of John Williams slowly tumbled to an undignified stop just before Greg and Emma making a slight wet squelching sound as it came to its final resting spot on the floor in front of them. The unseeing eyes of Chief Inspector John Williams stared up at them their fate perhaps reflected in his eyes. Slowly they edged back but every inch they took towards the door behind them the wolf pack took a step towards them and it was only a matter of time before they finished playing cat and mouse with their food and attacked.

Emma gripped Greg's arm and leaned in close to whisper in his ear as they moved slowly backwards.

"The lamps!" She said and cast a glance at the flickering objects hanging from the walls.

Greg glanced at the old fashioned oil burning lamps hung on the walls and nodded to Emma as he realized what she had in mind. The werewolf from the centre alcove appeared to be the dominant one of the group; it stopped and let out a low guttural growl as it looked at its siblings. They in turn both curled their lips back displaying their razor sharp teeth as they dropped lower into an attack stance akin to a wolf pack stalking its prey would do naturally in the wild. The flanking werewolves suddenly lunged forward from either side while the dominant male remained standing a few feet behind them observing its siblings rushing in to make the kill.

"Now!" screamed Emma as she grabbed the base of the lamp from the wall and hurled it as hard as she could at the werewolf bearing down upon her.

The lamp struck the beast and the glass casing shattered. As the lamp tipped up the oil within spilled out over the beast and flowed around the flickering flame causing the oil to ignite as it did so which created a fountain of flame covering the werewolf; within moments it became immolated in fire. The creature howled in agony as it began to reel back; its arms flailing wildly as it fought in vain to free itself from its fiery hell. The creature stumbled, blinded by pain and the all consuming flames, and slammed into one of the walls knocking free another lamp which exploded. The larger dominant male that had been watching and waiting in anticipation of the easy kill before its siblings began to retreat to the rear of the room as its sibling writhed in burning agony in front of it.

The small enclosed room was soon filling with the acrid smell of burning flesh and fur and Emma started to choke on the smoke that had already begun to fill the room.

At the same time as she had cast her fiery weapon at one of the beasts Greg had scooped the opposite lamp from the other wall and hurled it into the face of the other werewolf that had been advancing upon them. In much the same way it too shattered creating a similar fireball erupting over the creature and it too now writhed in burning agony next to its sibling. The writhing wolves had unintentionally created a wall of flame between Emma and Greg and the final werewolf. It was this creature, the more dominant of the three, who had dealt the death blow to John Williams and had been the one to toss his severed head across the room. It was however at least temporarily trapped at the rear of the room by the blazing inferno that had been created by the deaths of its kindred.

Slightly stunned by what they were seeing Greg and Emma stood gazing on in awe and disbelief. Through the flaming wall they could see the largest of the three werewolves shielding itself with its arms from the intense heat unwilling to approach the flames.

"Let's go!" shouted Greg as he grabbed Emma by the hand and led her back towards the door behind them.

They raced through the doorway gasping for air as the room they left behind filled with toxic fumes slamming the door firmly shut behind them in their escape.

Looking through the wall of flames ahead of it the werewolf let out an angry howl as it saw its prey escaping from its lair. Enraged and emboldened by its fury it snarled as it flung itself through the burning wall to the other side rolling along the floor to smother the flames once it had passed through. Once more rising to its feet with its skin tingling from the many exposed wounds seared upon its body from the flames the beast steadied itself as it prepared to give pursuit to its prey.