The Wolves

Thomas felt the cool wind of the evening dash through his hair. It was eerily cloudy as he approached the forest, anxious to get home.

The forest seemed hideously dark inside, which caused him to shiver briskly. But this was the quickest way home, he knew, and if he didn’t get home before sundown, he would be good as dead.

The autumn leaves crunched under his feet as he dashed through the woods. Thomas shivered. He could have sworn that the temperature had plummeted by several degrees as his goose bumps prickled up. He shook his head as he bundled on. Maybe it was just his imagination.

A shrill, howling noise pierced his ears. Thomas froze, paralysed with fear.

“What the fuck was that?” he screamed, terrified by now. The dense forest was growing darker still, and he was sure it would only be a matter of minutes before he faced pitch darkness.

Suddenly, to his sheer horror, he noticed a pair of eyes staring at him through the foliage. The eyes were shimmering in the pale moonlight, as he noticed the full moon break through the clouds.

A warm, sticky sensation ran down his leg as the wolf jumped out the bush and lunged at him. He heard his flesh viciously tear apart as the ravenous beast sunk its brutal fangs into his arm, madly shaking its head from side to side. The terrible pain was so excruciating that Thomas sunk to his knees, his arm by now hanging limp by his side, flesh and bone exposed to the cold air as the animal continued its feed.

Through his awful pain, Thomas noticed another presence brush behind him. He saw, in final, despairing horror, the face of another wolf, jaws opened wide, readily poised to attack. As he thrashed his body in agony, the second creature lunged at his neck, sinking its teeth into his jugular. The burning pain seemed to sink away as the sensation of blood and fur trickling down his neck merged with a spinning dizziness, a confused yet oh so peaceful dizziness, as Thomas’s body slumped forward, gasping his last, tortured breath as the starving pair continued to noisily and ravenously tear apart and devour their pathetic kill.