The first drop of blood landed in the fire, and with a hissing pop, flames roared up in a geyser from the embers and coals. It was like they were coming from beneath the earth itself—a volcano erupting.
I yelped, leaping back as the heat of the flare singed the tiny hairs on my arm. The blood in my hand boiled, immediately vaporizing as it hit the air.
"Did it work?" I heard Veronica's hushed voice, but it sounded distorted, like it was coming from the end of a tunnel. Like she was shouting from hundreds of feet away.
"Wait," someone else whispered, but I couldn't tell who.
My lungs burned. I gasped, trying to pull in air, but everything around me was on fire. The entire world was engulfed in flames, devouring every ounce of oxygen to feed the inferno. I tried to scream, but nothing came out.
Then, with a gust of wind, an icy silence descended on the woods. The trees bowed in the gale, stilling like they were petrified. The fire dimmed as the dancing flames withdrew into the earth—the cursed forest contemplating the offering I had given her. The glowing coals froze.
A sharp pang jolted through my heart. Something pounded against my rib cage from the inside, like someone caught in a house on fire. An intruder begging to be let back out. A buzz traveled through my veins like they were electrified.
I screamed, pain tearing through my body. It felt like my insides were exploding.
Before I knew what was happening, I was on my knees in front of the dead fire, gagging as my numb hands raked through dirt.
"Oh my fucking God!" I cried. Dirt piled into the cut on my hand, but I could barely feel it, and I didn't care. All I wanted was for the pain raging through my body to stop. It was blinding. Everything flashed from blaring white to black like strobes at a rock show.
"Allison!" A voice shouted, but I couldn't place it. It came from every direction at once.
"What the fuck is happening?" another voice yelled, the sound piercing my eardrums like knives.
"Shut the fuck up!" I rasped. Everything was too loud! Each sound sent a jolt of pain through my brain like lightning.
My back arched, and with a heaving gag, thick, black blood spewed from my mouth. I tasted metal on my tongue. Bugs squirmed in the dark, wet splatter in front of me, writhing and burning. Their fat, bloated bodies crawled over my fingers. They oozed goo as they climb up my arms, trying to leech into my body again.
I shook them off with a muted scream. When they hit the ground, they burst into flames, sizzling until they became charred embers. I felt them still hanging from the goo dripping from my lips and chin, crawling their way back up to my face. Frantically, I pulled at the strands, trying to get them off.
The entire night buzzed and hummed, like feedback from a broken microphone—distorted riffs blaring from an electric guitar possessed by the devil. I pinched my eyes shut, like that might somehow drown out the nauseating noise.
"Oh my God!" someone screamed.
"Shit!"
Like a wave receding from the shore, the paralyzing pain suddenly ebbed. I gasped, pulling as much oxygen into my lungs as I could.
The sound of something crunching and cracking echoed through the entire forest. Like tree limbs snapping—something big was breaking.
And then a scream: "Allison, run!"
I snapped my head around, my eyes flashing open.
In a split second, I leapt to my feet. A tunnel of teeth roared towards me like a train on a roller coaster. The ridges on the roof of the creature's enormous mouth were ink-black, glistening with saliva. Globs of boiling spit flew at me, stinging as they hit my skin.
At the bottom of the monster's throat, I saw darkness. I saw agony—the pits of Hell.
The pain in my ankle didn't even register as I put all of my weight onto it, leaping out of the collision course. I tumbled to the ground, hitting my shoulder hard and rolling. My skin scrapped across the ground.
"Stop!" a desperate voice cried.
I skidded to a halt and shot my gaze over to where the voice had come from. Liz stood next to Reggie and Veronica, tears streaming down her face as she screamed at the enormous monster.
"Stop it, please!"
My entire body shook as I looked back to the creature that had nearly crushed me. It whipped its head around to face me once again. Its eyes were two glowing balls of fire. Red, bloody tears like lava dripped from them, disappearing into the black patches of surrounding fur and reemerging when they reached the pure white beneath.
The creature looked like a wolf, but twice the size and skeletal, like it had mutated and grown to a point nature shouldn't have allowed. Its hackles stood up like spikes across its bony back, and a long tail twitched like a whip at the end of its spine.
| | |
"Do you know how it is passed?" Veronica asked, twirling a strand of lavender hair in her finger.
I narrowed my eyes at her. What was she getting at?
| | |
"Run!" Liz screamed to me, her voice distant. "Allison!"
I shook myself, my feet kicking up pine needles and dust as I sprinted toward Liz. I stretched my arms out to her. My bad ankle slammed into the ground too hard and buckled. I stumbled, scraping my knees across the dirt and landing sprawled on my face.
"Get up!" Liz's voice was hoarse and desperate.
I pressed my hands into the earth, but my arms were too weak. One of them was still numb, and the other palm was sliced open like a grinning mouth. They slipped out from under me as I turned back to face the mutated wolf as it charged me.
| | |
"When they perform the ritual," Veronica continued, "the werewolf passes to a new body in one of two ways . . ."
| | |
My eyes caught the puncture wounds on the wolf's neck.
A bite.
Like the bite I'd given Alex.
Oh my God.
I wasn't sure if the scream came from my throat or someone else's. Maybe we were all screaming.
The monster's claws extended as it dove at me, mouth agape.
I threw my arms up in front of my face, bracing for the impact.
But the werewolf didn't hit me.
With a bang followed by a crunch, another wolf slammed into the side of the mutated monster. The smaller wolf's claws tore through the creature's fur as he slammed it to the ground.
A yelp and snarl echoed through the night at the larger wolf rolled on its back. It clawed at the smaller wolf with all four paws. Claws stretched like knives, it batted the smaller wolf's head, knocking him to the side and sending him rolling across the dirt.
"Jake!" Reggie shouted.
I whipped my head around as Reggie and Liz ran towards me. In unison, they leapt into the air. Their bodies shifted and contorted mid-flight, fur growing across them as their bones snapped into new places.
Two wolves landed next to me, the earth shaking beneath their feet as they flanked me on either side.
As Jake regained his footing, the enormous werewolf turned its focus from him to Liz, Reggie, and me. It was twice the size of the other wolves, like the two werewolves inside it had somehow combined and mutated into this monster, like how a liger is twice as big as the lion and tiger that made it.
Its red, burning eyes were haunting. When I looked into the eyes of any of the other wolves, I saw a flash of something human. I saw a soul. But, when I looked into the eyes of the monster Alex had become, I didn't see even a flicker of humanity. I saw infinity, but at the same time, I saw nothing.
Reggie and Liz prowled out in front of me, forming a protective shield between me and the werewolf. A foam of saliva boiled in his mouth as he growled at the two of them.
From behind, Jake charged in and leapt at him, clawing at the monster's back and drawing blood. The creature let out a pained yelp as Jake's teeth dug into his side. They scraped along his spine and ribs, goring and tearing the flesh.
The werewolf barked and bucked his hind legs as he wiped his head around. Jake was flung from him. He crashed to the ground with a whimper.
Speckles of blood flew through the air when the werewolf shook his body. Red leaked from the wounds Jake had carved, matting down his fur in wet tufts. Small, shredded strips of skin and fur hung loose where they had been partially torn off, but it didn't faze him. It only fueled his rage and aggression. He bowed his head, crouching to his elbows in threat as he snarled at Liz and Reggie.
Without even looking at each other for confirmation, Reggie and Liz charged the werewolf Alex had become. He bared his teeth in return, opening his mouth to its full extent as he pounced.
They collided mid-air like the wall of death in a mosh pit. Liz bit down on Alex's neck, but he shook her off with a growl. His paw smacked into Reggie as he tried to bite at his side. Reggie was knocked to the ground immediately.
While Liz and Reggie regained their footing, Alex's head shot over to look at me. Vengeance and hate boiled in his empty, burning eyes. His feet kicked up dust and tore up weeds as he charged at me.
There was no one to protect me this time. The enormous monster crashed into me. My head smacked the ground with a bang, and my vision went black for a second. Paws the size of dinner plates pinned me to the ground as pain pulsed through my entire body. I felt like the bones in my shoulders were going to crush under the pressure.
"Stop! Help!"
Hot, foaming saliva flew from Alex's mouth, landing on my face. I swung my foot up and slammed my combat boot into his gut as hard as I could. The monster barely even flinched. Teeth flew down towards my head.
I threw my hands up to protect my face. Teeth scrapped across my arms, but they didn't get past the fabric of my sweatshirt. Something tugged at my ankles, sliding me across the ground and out of the line of fire.
"Allison, get up!" Veronica yelled as she dropped my ankles.
Her hand shot out, and I grabbed it. She yanked me out from under the wolf's rear legs and to my feet.
"Run, run, run!" she screamed, her tiny fist closed around my bloody hand. I tripped, but she didn't stop dragging me across the ground, even though she couldn't have weighted more than ninety pounds. "You can't stop, Allison!"
Veronica yanked me to my feet when we reached the other side of the clearing. My heart raced as cold sweat and hot blood stung my skin. We glanced at each, our hands still clasped together, both of us panting. Her hazel eyes were wide with fear, but everything about her looked electrified.
A growl followed by a yelp pulled me back to the fight in front of me. The cold embers of the fire had taken life again, and flames shot out of them, popping and spitting like gunfire.
Reggie had his jaws clamped around the monster's hind leg. Thick blood leaked between his teeth, soaking into the light brown fur around his mouth.
With a bark, Alex kicked his leg back, lifting the smaller wolf into the air and flinging him.
Reggie flew a few feet before slamming into the ground on his side. The momentum flipped him upside down as he skidded across the dirt. With a gut-wrenching crack and a shrill yelp, his back right leg contorted under his weight as he tumbled.
Reggie immediately tried to right himself to stand and fight, but his leg buckled beneath him, and he bowed forward with a howling whimper. The leg bent at a painful and unnatural angle right where it should have connected to his back foot. Instead of supporting his weight, his paw hung limp and dead.
"Reggie!" Veronica cried. "Oh my God!"
I clutched her hand in mine, holding her back as she pulled against me.
"Reggie!" She yanked at my hand, trying to get to her soulmate as the monster closed in on him.
Her hand slipped half an inch between my blood fingers, but I squeezed tighter, refusing to let her go. "Stay with me," I begged, salty tears burning the scratches on my face. "Veronica, please!"
"I can't, Allison!" She whipped her hand down, breaking out of my grip and charging right into the brawl.
"Veronica! No!" I ran in after her. I didn't know what I could do, all I knew was I couldn't let the monster that had come from within me kill them all.