Petty Little Monsters (Little Monsters Series, Book 1)

39

He was about to come with a rebuttal when something cracked loudly. I felt this terrible feeling between my shoulder blades. I immediately recognised it at something bad.

"Liam, go inside."

"What? Fuck you."

"I mean it. Go inside." I was staring into the darkness of the terribly lit campus but could see nothing. "Please, lend me your eyes," I whispered to the wolf.

I felt it stirring around my spine. The wolf woke up and I blinked, suddenly being able to see clearly, although a little blurry. Like I was missing glasses. Colours became a lot duller too, but it also became less 'noisy' to look around.

Something moved and I immediately saw it. I took a couple of steps forward, my vision clearing a little. I inhaled sharply, realising the wolf had lent me all of his senses. Sense of smell, his hearing, his eyes, I could even feel things I had never felt before. Like there was a light breeze I hadn't felt earlier, but now felt it as if there was an actual wind here.

And there was definitely something moving in the darkness. Liam said something but I had cued in on whatever was moving.

I felt claws grow out of my fingers. The wolf was arming me with whatever I needed. He was terrified.

In between the trees... A tree was moving. Or it looked like a tree but also some kind of... living thing? Like a tree person. It was entirely impossible to determine what kind of person it was. It was just... Bark. A tree with legs and some kind of face.

"Holy shit, a dryad," Liam said from right next to me.

I glanced up at him before looking back at the tree-thing. "What's a dryad?"

"A protector of the forest. I've never seen one venturing outside of the forest though..."

I couldn't hold back a growl pushed by the wolf. That was the thing that spurred the weird feeling. The sense of absolute dread.

"I think we've found our serial killer," I said and took a step towards it.

"Oi, you can't take that thing on! Especially not here. What if someone saw you?"

"What exactly do you suggest? It doesn't look like it wants to talk or have a cuddle."

"Run?" Liam shrugged and stepped backwards. Then he turned around and hauled ass real fast.

I growled and rolled my shoulders, before launching against the tree-thing. It shrieked and started towards me. I shed the last of my humanity, letting the wolf take over. He knew better how to deal with something like this, I reckoned. But I was in the driver's seat with him. We were both sharing our body for once.

He jumped and I braced our claws for maximum impact. We slammed into the wooden monster, landing om top of it. It immediately raised what I assumed to be its arm and slammed it into my body, flinging me halfway across the quad. It also punched the air straight out of my lungs. One hit from this thing and I was grasping at the grass, desperately trying to breathe.

I was not gonna win here. Liam had had the right idea. I was gonna go with Plan B and run.

I started towards the woods surrounding the campus, at least wanting this monster away from all the other students. I wasn't sure what I'd do once I was alone with this thing, but now was not the time to doubt myself. Or my super halfassed plan.

I ran as fast as I could. At least the wolf loved running and was in much better shape than I had ever been.

The stomping behind me was a sure way to know the monster was on our tail. And then it was literally on our tail. Branches and twigs wrapped around it, yanking me back. I slammed my jaws down on a branch but got a mouthful full of bark. Splinters dug into my tongue.