Chapter 11: What Hell Sent My Way

I felt a wave of exhaustion, which was not unusual. Since I began spending my days in bed, laziness hit me more and more frequently.

When I woke, the sun was setting and it was near time to put our plan into action. I called Leena and she went to the barn to bring in more wood for the fire. As she did, I went to bring Erich to my bedroom, and opened the window so he’d be ready to jump.

After setting him up, I went to the kitchen determined to sample the fresh bread and cheese she’d spent the afternoon baking while I slept before they were charged by our arson.

I sank my teeth into the warm crispy, cheesy morsel and tried to swallow, only to feel myself choking. But I wasn’t just choking, I realized as I tried to swallow again and felt a strong male form pressed up behind me.

I was being choked.

I spit the food in my mouth out as I bucked against the man with his hands over my throat. I scratched and clawed at the fingers knowing he only had to squeeze a little harder and my neck would snap.

Taking one hand from my throat, I clawed at the counter for a weapon that might help me. Tears were streaming down my face as my hand found the handle of a paring knife. As my vision began to darken, I gripped the handle as hard as I could and stabbed back into the man’s upper thigh.

His high pitched scream rang in my ear before he released me. I coughed and wheezed as I ran towards the door for the guards that were supposed to be protecting me. That is when I took a good look at him and realized he was a guard, the one who’d promised to choke me if he ever got the chance.

I coughed and sputtered, squeaking out Erich’s name as the guard pulled the knife from his thigh and hollard again.

Leena rushed through the back door to the kitchen to investigate the commotion. Her tan face turned pale and she screamed at the sight of the blood as she dropped the wood intended for our fire. I paused, grabbing her by the arm as I ran for the bedroom.

“Erich,” I croaked as I reached the door. “The guard—

I stopped short to see that the room was empty. Erich was gone.

I thought about jumping from the window as well, but decided to run for the guard at the front door. As I reached for the door, it opened and he stepped in. I felt a wash of relief until I noticed it was the other guard I’d drugged that night.

“Sh*te!” I cursed and pulled Leena in the opposite direction, narrowly missing the first guard. Working to compress his bloody wound, he released one hand to swipe at me.

I opened the back door and my heart jumped into my throat, nearly choking me again as I came face-to-face with a giant white wolf fangs bared, growling murderously and charging right for me. I froze ready to give into whatever hell sent my way that night. But the wolf rushed past me and jumped directly onto the guard right behind us. I pulled Leena to the side as I watched the white wolf’s fur stain in blood as he mercilessly ripped the guard in two.

The first guard released his gushing wound completely to run out of the front door, only to be clawed and then torn apart by another wolf.

“What the hell is going on!?!” Leena screamed my exact thoughts and I realized that we needed to get out of there.

“Erich!” I called for him in case he was still in the house, but he did not answer. I pulled Leena past the dead bodies out the back door towards the barn. Running for the fastest horse I owned, I mounted pulling Leena up behind me in the next instance.

“Erich,” I called out once again desperately but there was no answer. He’d just vanished.

Shaking off my disappointment, I decided to head to my mother in law for shelter, but as I rode towards the square, it became evident those giant white wolves overran the entire village, attacking guards and soldiers mercilessly.

I rode back towards the house looking for Erich along the way in case he came back.

Unable to cut through to Caystance, I turned towards the path away from the village, hoping the next town would be a refuge.

High pitched howls chased us along the way and I could hear the beating paws as they pounded the ground beside and behind us. From the periphery of my sight, I could make out the shadows of wolves running in the woods alongside the road.

The next village was at least an hour away. I knew there was no way we’d make it, but I pressed the horse further and faster. Leena clung to me for dear life as I leaned into the horse and squeezed my thighs to push him onwards.

For a long time, I listened to the howls and chasing paws and then all I could hear was the thunder of my blood in my ears. I don’t know how long after they stopped chasing us it took for me to notice the growing silence all around. I chanced a look to the left and then to the right to find nothing.

“There’s nothing behind us,” Leena confirmed for me.

I pulled back on the horse, allowing him to slow down, but I didn’t risk stopping altogether until we made it to the next village.

***

TWO MONTHS LATER

I hurried to the back of the tavern to dump the afternoon waste in the refuse pile. Never in my life did I see myself becoming a tavern girl. But, when news of what carnage happened in the Hampstead Village reached Leena and I, we knew there would be nothing for us to go back to.

“We can start over here,” I had suggested. Leena looked at me curiously.

“Aren’t you rich?” she had asked and I smiled with a shrug.

“No, I’m not rich. My in-laws were…” I had trailed off feeling saddened at the thought they’d become victims to the rampaging wolves. No survivors had been found. “If I went back, it could lead to me going back to my father,” I finished explaining to her

She had nodded as if she understood exactly what that might mean.

“It’s best for me if he thinks I’m dead.”

“Well then we have to find work and a place to stay,” Leena suggested. “That is… if you care to stick together.”

“I do,” I assured her. She was the only person I knew I could trust.

After thinking on that conversation, I dumped the trash, I took a moment to walk around the outside of the tavern and take in the Village of Wrythe, which was beginning to feel like more of a home than I’d ever had. I worked for a meager wage to live and eat, but with Leena we managed to make it a life worth living.

Many people, knew we’d escaped Hamstead the night of the carnage and gave as much as they could to help us out. And we’d been invited to community gatherings and public meals as well. The guards of Wrythe doubled in the time we’d been there after the reports of Hamstead. But it seemed that was the only village touched and the wolves just disappeared.

Every now and then, vivid memories of staring down the wolf that charged toward me only to attack the guard behind me would invade my mind. Why hadn’t it killed me? Why had the others stopped chasing us?

I took several breaths in reminding myself that I was fortunate to be alive and I shouldn’t ask questions that could remedy that fact.

As the memories of that night faded, I couldn’t help feeling as if a pair of eyes were on me. I felt that way from time to time and placed a hand over my stomach to steady myself before going back into the safety of the tavern.