Tides Of Fear

"What the...?" I mutter. "Where did they go...?"

"I bet they've gone hunting. That's what wolves do as a pack, right?" says Kira.

We hear more howls in the distance. I get up from where I was crouching and head in the direction of the howls.

"And where the heck are you going, Alex?" William asks.

"To see what they're doing, obviously. Where else would I be going?" I reply. "Did you not see the size of those wolves? Do you seriously want to become dinner for those guys?"

"Aww, come on, we just had dinner. I bet they're still full; we'll be fine."

"Listen, Alex, you wanted to see them shift, there you saw them shift. Now let's go before something really bad happens."

"Pfffftt," I sigh. I guess they're right. I guess it really is too dangerous to be out here. Besides, I already saw what I wanted to. As I'm about to tell them we should head back, I hear something that freezes me in my spot.

A deafening growl that, judging by the look on everyone’s faces, is coming from right behind me.

I slowly turn around to come face to face with a silver-furred she-wolf. Up close, these wolves looked like trucks. Her mouth dripped with spit as she bared her fangs at us. With each step I took back, her eyes seemed to glow with excitement. I knew that look; it was that of a predator when it got excited about a hunt.

"RUN!!" is all I hear, and I bolt. As we run, the wolf howls.

"Great, she just alerted the rest of the pack," Kira says.

As we continue to run for our lives, I don’t see Sara anywhere. "Guys, where the hell is Sara?" I ask.

"She vampire-bolted out of there; that's where she is," Sean replies.

Moments later, we hear the rustling of bushes on our left, so we try to turn right, but we hear the same sound on our right. Great, they're flanking us, so we can only go straight. After five minutes of running, we come to a dead end. In front of us is a barricade of boulders, and on both our sides…

"We're trapped," I say. "This is all your fault, Alex," Sean starts.

"My fault?! How is this my fault?" I reply. "If only you hadn't persuaded us into coming here, then we wouldn't be about to die right now." I'm about to throw back a retort, but then it dawns on me that he's right. It is my fault.

I got my friends into this mess, and here we are, trapped and ready to be turned into wolf kebabs. I wonder how I taste. I hope it's as good as fried chicken. It would suck if I tasted bad.

A growl is heard behind us, and we turn. The she-wolf advances slowly, as if wanting us to put up a fight. She stops a couple of feet away from us and then sidesteps. Behind her advance three wolves, with a grey one between them.

The Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, I presume. The rest of the pack emerges, surrounding us. Most are on top of the boulders, while the rest block the entrance behind their leaders.

The Alpha advances and starts circling us as if contemplating what to do to us. He comes up to each of us and sniffs us, maybe taking in our scents, trying to tell what we are.

He stops when he gets to me, then looks at me, his eyes glowing even more. Then he releases a low growl and bares his fangs.

I don't like where this is going, and why me? Do I smell bad or something?

I thought he would at least eat Kira first, considering she's a cat and all. Then, out of nowhere, a sickening sound of bone cracking is heard. In front of us stands Sara, with an unconscious Alpha beneath her and a tree branch dripping with blood in her hand.

It takes several seconds for everyone to assess what just happened. Once it finally dawns on everyone what just happened, the Beta and Gamma charge at Sara.

She dodges the first wolf, the Beta, who has a reddish-brown coat, but fails to dodge the Gamma, with a brownish coat. The Gamma sinks his teeth into Sara's shoulder, and she lets out a cry.

He lifts her up with his jaws and throws her in our direction. William manages to catch her, and all I feel is anger. If it's because of the situation I'm in or the fact that Sara was hurt and in William's arms…

"Sean, you're a witch. Can't you whip up some magic that can help us?" I ask.

"No," he says. "We're not taught defense and offense magic until second year. We're only taught healing magic."

"Well, can you heal Sara?" I ask.

"I'm not sure, but I'll try." The rest of the pack begins to advance on us, but the Beta and Gamma warn them off. I guess they want to have the honor of killing the ones who just knocked their Alpha out.

They pounce on us, and we dodge. The three of us try our best to keep their attention on us while Sean heals Sara.

Every time they pounce, we dodge and sometimes even make them knock into each other. I guess they can't move quite effectively in tight spots, considering their size. It's either that, or they were just toying with us.

As we're playing our cat and mouse game, I hear chanting. I look over my shoulder and see Sean with his hands on Sara's shoulder. His eyes are glazed with the slight glow of lime green.

This grabs the wolves' attention from us and toward Sean and Sara. I try to regain their attention by running in front of the Beta, only to be knocked by his paw into a tree.

William and Kira get knocked out as they too try to get their attention off of Sean and Sara. As the Beta and Gamma draw closer to Sean and Sara, they bare their fangs, ready to make their kill.

The sight of the situation and the thought of my friends dying because of me angers me beyond words.

I hear a voice—no, a mixture of two—but this voice seems to be coming from inside my head. "Give me control," is all it says. In my moment of desperation and without a care nor worry in the world as to who or what the voice belongs to, I give in, and everything goes black.