Eyes of Emerald

Chapter 2 - The Attack

           The alley was dark, as dark as the grave, and the high walls around cut off the silver moonlight. It was a full moon, sending bright light all across the sky like the sun, but none managed to get through the barriers that the old brick walls formed. Shadows lurked at the corners of my vision, and I shivered. Anything could be hiding in there. I followed Keira through the alley, guided by her gleaming white jacket, and clutched my bag closer to me. This was far too creepy for me, but Keira seemed confident (as always), and I trusted her.

                I shouldn't have. I should have refused, told her that we should go the other way, even if it took longer and involved taking the bus with creepy old men leering at us all the way.

                I hugged my bag close to me, looking around, my imagination running wild. An overturned dustbin turned into some sort of psycho killer, knife ready to plunge deep into my flesh. Shadows played against the walls, huge and looming like escaped animals from the zoo, ready to stampede and crush us underfoot.

                "Kei..." I whispered, biting at my thumb like I always did when I was nervous. She looked back, a confident smile on her face.

                "Don't worry, Otto. It's fine, it's only an alley. Look." she lit up her phone, and shone it around the area. Black binbags were piled in a corner next to a broken TV, the screen cracked, glass fragments lying next to it. Metal bins stood proud in a cluster, dark shadows hiding behind them -   oh my God what was that?

                I looked into the shadows and saw...a pair of eyes, shining in the darkness. I froze. They were huge, and brown, with a ring of gold around the pupil. Slowly, I turned to Keira, my eyes wide. I could guess that I looked liked I'd seen a ghost.

                "What...is that?" I whispered, my fear getting the better of me again. Keira furrowed her eyebrows.

                "What is what?" she frowned, staring at the shadows to which I was pointing. "There's nothing there, Otto," she put a hand on my shoulder comfortingly. "You're tired." she told me. "C'mon, let's get you home."

                I looked back to the shadows, Keira pulling me away. The eyes were gone - like they had never existed.

                I must have been hallucinating. She was right, I was tired and I had a headache. It was all my imagination. It did tend to run wild now and again.

                I was cold in my thin cardigan. The type of cold that seems to chill you to your bones, digging deep into you like a wound that refuses to heal, demanding to be felt at all times. My teeth began to chatter loudly in the silent night, a small breeze feeling like a blast of air from the glaciers, like I was being plunged into icy water.

                I heard something, a scrabble and a screech...almost like nails down a blackboard. I froze once again, but Keira didn't seem fazed at all. It was like she hadn't heard it, so I didn't do anything. I was imagining things again.

                It all happened too fast for me to make sense of it all, I don't really remember much. The memories I do have are fractured and confused. The darkness didn't help, the shadows played about on the walls, making it seem like we were surrounded by dark giants.

                 I saw Keira fall, a dark shape on top of her and her jacket being stained with red. I was too surprised to scream.

                But Keira wasn't. She screamed louder than I'd have thought possible. It chilled my blood and rattled my bones. I backed away, fear making me change from a girl to a mouse. I couldn't help it. My heart was thumping louder than I could have thought possible, and I was almost certain Keira could hear me, even while she was on the floor under a shape that seemed to be more canine than human.

                I stumbled, my foot clattering on an aluminium can, thrown carelessly on the cobbled floor. It made a noise like a thunderclap in the enclosed space, echoing on and on. I froze, along with the thing that was on top of Keira. All I could think of was rapists, or murderers, their knives or guns ready and just waiting for the time to come when their bullets or shafts of steel could bury their way into human flesh...

                Oh my God... I thought. My clumsiness was always going to be my downfall.

                The thing on top of Keira got up, slowly, and it stood smaller than I thought it would. It stood on four legs, like a dog, and it growled like a wolf. I swore under my breath, as it leaped at me, claws extended, and I knew I was about to die.

                It landed on top of me, a heavy weight on my chest sending me flying backwards. My head snapped back against the stone, making my headache worse. I cried out in pain, and the creature growled again, a deep, guttural noise that came from its throat. I gazed up at it, and the moonlight illuminated it, and I saw it at last.

               It was a wolf, with brown eyes and silver-grey fur. Its muzzle was stained with blood, and some of it dripped onto my face, warm and thick. Keira's blood. I turned my face away instinctively, closing my eyes. I couldn't help it. I screamed. I screamed loud enough to shake the world.

                It looked at me, right in the eye, and I felt some sort of warmth, some kind of power, behind my eyes, and the wolf reared back as if he had been shot. It skittered back across the cobbles, nails screeching. I wondered what had happened - had something hurt it? Were we about to be attacked by something worse, if that was even possible?

And what even was it? Wolves weren't in the UK, they were hunted to extinction in the country hundreds, possibly even thousands of years ago! So what was one doing here, now? And why was it attacking us? My adoptive father had told me that animals would very rarely attack humans out of will, and it was extremely unlikely that they would hunt us for food!

All this ran through my head in the space of a second. I was frozen to the spot in terror. It was like iron bands were around me, holding my wrists to the wet cobblestones and restricting my lungs, so I couldn't breathe.

                My breath was coming fast now, short and shallow, my heart pumping blood all around my body. Adrenaline was ruling me now. I didn't have control over my emotions.

I pushed myself up, shakily, after a moment of shock, and took one last look at the wolf thing lying on the ground, whining to itself, before I ran over to Keira. She lay on the floor, her once white jacket now stained a dark crimson. She had a wound on her shoulder, a deep wound, still leaking blood. Her lips were pale, almost grey, and for a moment I thought I was too late. Then, she took a great, shuddering breath and opened her eyes.

At first I thought I was hallucinating. Her eyes, they were her usual brown colour, but they were sharper somehow, and the pupils weren't round, they were like cats eyes, ringed with gold. I gasped, and she began to shake.

 "Kei!" I screamed. She didn't stop shaking, it only got more vigorous. Somewhere, distantly, I heard running footsteps and voices, but I took no notice of them. Keira was my priority. I couldn't leave her for the wolf to get again. She needed medicine, hospital...anything to stop the bleeding.

I felt strong hands pulling me away from Keira, but I struggled. I kicked and screamed and bit, but the person holding me was too strong.

"NO!" I screamed, tears flowing freely down my face in rivers of silver. They managed to take me away from Keira. I carried on kicking and screaming, feeling my feet connecting with a fleshy object. Someone cried out in pain.

"Stop struggling, idiot, or I'll have to knock you out!" came a deep voice from behind me. I still didn't stop, I had to get to Keira, I had to help her -

                I was still shouting her name when something hard came down on my head and my world went black.