Wolverton Falls

04. A Fear of Wolves

After drying herself from the long shower and finishing her nightly necessities, Maggie checked the time on her phone. It was nine o'clock. She continued to gaze at the numbers, a grim frown began to form.

Max was still not back yet. Several, horrid circumstances came to mind the more Maggie thought about it

She immediately stood up from her bed and clicked his contact. She skimmed through messages, e-mails and missed calls but there was absolutely nothing. It was unusual for Max; he would always check in. He was mindful of Maggie's skittish and paranoid traits and understood why.

Maggie decided to dial his number, but a shrill snarl echoed interrupted the task.

Her head snapped to the direction, hair flickering over her face as her doe-like eyes examined the area beyond the glass window.

In the dim light, two impeccably large, muscular wolves circled each other. Their hackles raised and bodies crouched low in attack positions. Their ears flattened against their skulls as they let out deep, threatening growls.

They were right near the fence line of the backyard, only twenty metres away from the house.

Maggie flinched when the considerably larger patchy brown wolf wrapped its strong jaws around the grey wolf's thick neck. The former creature's body was littered in gruesome scars.

She gasped when she realised the grey wolf was identical to the one she saw last night.

The snarls and shouts of pain and aggression echoed; the grisly noises hauntingly familiar.

With her body finally snapping out of its shaken state, Maggie ran up to the window and pulled the blinds shut.

Just what she needed.

She scoffed to herself, but the thought dissipated when a piercing whimper erupted from one the wolves.

Her bottom lip began to tremble as she crawled into her bed and pulled the thick covers over her head. She felt like a small child when she pushed the pillows against her ears. The pillows drowned out the feral snarls and thuds of muscular bodies colliding against one another.

Fast, flickering images of the attack when she was little appeared once again. Witnessing the wolves in their brutal, formidable state had triggered the memories.

Panicking, she pressed the call button and pressed the phone against her ear. Her breathing began to quicken, her body felt flushed and hot.

"Pick up, pick up..." Maggie chanted in a pleading tone.

"Maggie?" Max picked up on the third ring; his voice settled her for a moment.

"Oh my god," She let out a breath of relief. "Max, where – where have you been? I've been so worried –" Her choppy, panicked sentences got worse as Maggie continued stuttering from the lack of air reaching her lungs, "It's night and you never texted me. I'm sorry, I know you said you'd be late but it's nearly ten and today was a really bad day. There are these wolves outside fighting a–"

Max could barely register his sister's mumbling ramble of words, "Maggs, please stop. I'm fine. I'm really sorry that I didn't call you earlier, they have bad service here and I was held up in some interviews."

"Y-You got a job?"

"Yeah I did," He answered slowly, making sure Maggie's breath was under control. "It's just on the other side of town. I'm going to be working at the local bar; it'll be good pay –"

Another menacing, animalistic growl reached Maggie's ears; the sound sent chilled shivers down her spine, "– hold on – holy sh –," Max swore furiously at the ferocious sounds coming through his phone's speaker. "Maggie did you say there are wolves fighting outside?!"