The Secret

Prologue

“I think we should go back now.” I nodded in agreement and we began walking back.

It was still as dark out but I didn’t feel as frightened as before. Now that I knew that there wasn’t some animal out there that wanted to kill me, I felt safer. I could actually appreciate the peace and quiet of the woods. I was surprised at how beautiful a bunch of trees mixed together looked. As I was admiring the landscape before me, Aidan suddenly stopped walking. 

“Aidan, why did you stop?”

“Shh!” He cocked his head to the side as if he was trying to hear something.

“Didn’t you hear that?” His eyes moved from side to side, searching.

“Um…no. I didn’t hear anything.” 

“There! Didn’t you hear that?”  

I shook my head. 

“Just listen…It’s kind of like a, like a growling sound.” 

“Ha, very funny Aidan…Rawr right? Cause that was so funny the first time…” I shook my head annoyed and began walking back without him. He caught up to me and grabbed my arm.

“No, Freya, I’m not- I’m not kidding.”  His voice trembled a bit with fear and I looked up at him concerned. 

“There’s something out there!” He whispered harshly as his eyes darted around with paranoia. 

“Okay, Aidan. Just-just breathe. There’s nothing out there.”

“But Freya, I’m telling you there is though! Just shh, shh…listen.”

I let out an annoyed breath and listened like he asked. At first there was just silence but then…I heard it. A growl. A low, menacing, ferocious, blood thirsty growl. I felt it rumble and echo through my ribs. My stomach turned to mush and I looked up at Aidan. 

“Aidan…” I whispered, tightly grasping his arm. He didn’t look at me. His eyes weren’t moving anymore, they were now fixated on something in the darkness before us.

“Aidan? What is it?”

“I see something…”He whispered and took a step forward.

“What? What do you see?”

“I’m not sure…” I let go of his arm and stayed behind him as he took a few more steps forward. 

“Eyes….Freya! I see eyes!” His voice cracked and as he took a step back, a dark figure jumped out from the shadows. My heart sunk and my breathing accelerated. A unnaturally large wolf stood on all fours, growling and snaring with his large canines. 

“Oh my god…” I heard Aidan say gaspingly.  

“Aidan? Aidan! Run!”

Aidan wasn’t moving, he was just standing there. So, I ran up to him and tugged on his arm. His face was full of shock and his mouth was hanging wide open.

“What the hell?” He whispered.

“Aidan! We need to go! Come on!” 

The beast looked like it was ready to pounce. Its paws were griping the ground and its muscles were tense as it snarled and bared its large teeth. It started to make its way toward us and Aidan finally unfroze. We bolted. We ran as fast as we could to get away from it. But as I looked back it was getting closer and closer. It was as if we weren’t even running at all…the beast was too big and fast. It was right on our tails in what felt like a few seconds. We yelled as loud as we could. We pleaded for help, for it not hurt us. We were both crying, scared for our lives and then…it jumped. It took Aidan down without a fight. He had no chance. It pounced on Aidan and since we were standing so close,the force of the wolfs’ body knocked me over. Aidan let out the most painful blood curling scream I’d ever heard in my life. I screamed so loud that my throat felt like it was on fire. My vision was blurred with tears but I could still see Aidan’s pain ridden face. The beast practically had its jaw wrapped around his torso. He kicked the wolf hard in the stomach and he was released from its grasp. But only for a second. As Aidan tried to crawl away, the wolf caught one of his legs between its teeth. His scream pierced my soul and I cried out in horror.