Origin

CHAPTER 2

Lightning flashed across the sky and a loud bang disturbed the peaceful atmosphere. The ground shook reminding me of an earthquake. Someone called for help from afar with desperation on their voice. I knew I should have run and gotten help. But, at that moment, my instinct was to go there myself.

My feet moved in their own as I run towards the source of the shouting. The branches were in the way and scratched my knees and arms. Suddenly, a cold wind sent chills down my spine. What the hell? It was the middle of August and the weather shouldn't be this cold. I picked up the pace and stopped at a clearing of the forest.

And then I saw it. A man's body lying around on the dry leaves. It was similar to the one from my dream. No, it was the same. A spell of dizziness hit me as I stared to his split-open head. The blood that I had seen coming out of the corpse looked drier and now there was a terrible smell, something similar to rotten fish.

The insects had stopped humming and the cold wind had stopped blowing. It seemed like a scene from a horror movie. Something that looked like a dog was above the body smelling it. As I approached, the animal got scared and ran off.

"Hey there, buddy. You dead?" I asked.

Okay, I knew that he would probably be dead but I still had a hope that he was alive. I never got a response. I sat down next to the corpse and poked it.

"Please don't be dead. I don't want to be the primary suspect for murderer," I said in an attempt to lighten the mood. It was either that or I would freak out completely.

What was I supposed to do? Call an ambulance? Well, he was already dead so they wouldn't be able to do anything to save him.

The sudden movement on my left snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked and tried to distinguish what was there. Dark gray fur and two green piercing eyes looking at me. No, it was too big to be a dog... It was a wolf.

As I got up, a different growl was heard. I turned around. A second wolf. This one had black fur and green eyes and was just as scary as the other one. I was trapped. Both wolves began approaching me. I had to do something. I didn't have any weapons with me so I couldn't fight back. And I wasn't faster than them so if I ran away, they would catch me.

My eyes searched around for a way to get out of this situation. And then I noticed something. I was at a forest surrounded by trees...and wolves couldn't climb trees. This was it! I slowly made my way to the closest tree and climbed to the top. Thank God I was good at sports and so had the strength and stamina to make it there. I looked down and saw the wolves circling the tree. I was safe for now but I would have to wait until they left to get down. They couldn't stay here all night, right?

***

I must have been here for a while because now I could see the sun rising. I checked to see if the wolves had left but no such luck. They were now stretched out next to my tree watching me closely.

I had to get them to leave. My parents would soon wake up and notice I was gone. But what could I do? I couldn't jump to the next tree like Tarzan and leave the forest like that. And I certainly couldn't just get down and face the beasts without a gun or something like that. What if I threw my shoe down there to distract them? Then, I would run and hope they stayed distracted. It was the best thing I could do.

I took off my right shoe and aimed far enough to get me some time but also close enough so they would see it. And I threw it. I waited to see if I would indeed get a reaction from them. They saw the shoe and looked back to me calmly, as if declaring that they wouldn't be leaving me alone.

A deafening whistle spread in the forest and the wolves' ears shot up. They turned their head almost immediately. Their glassy eyes looked my way hesitantly before they got up and ran the direction from where the sound had come. I took advantage of the situation and climbed down. Once my feet hit the ground, I took off my other shoe so it wouldn't interfere with my running.