That Fateful Night
Emily was running fiercely through the woods, the wind whipping at her face harshly and her heart beating throughout her ears. It was dark, and the moonlight could only do so much to light up her path – she’d had a few close calls with branches that had come down from the storm a couple weeks ago, only missing them by inches. A rather large rock which was hidden out of sight by the leaves on the ground caught her foot, sending her tumbling forward, grazing her hands as she put them out to steady her fall. The thud reverberated through her as she fell to the ground.
Panic erupted through her veins, and she swore she could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. She scrambled to get up but pain shot through her body as she did so, she looked back at her ankle which had been injured during the fall, the tell-tale signs of a wound seeped through her jeans. Even if she could pick herself up – which in this moment Emily didn’t think was possible because her arms and hands were shaking violently – she didn’t think she’d make it very far.
And then she heard it again.
The growling, which was now turning into a vicious snarl, one that sent chills through your entire body.
Glancing over her shoulder she looked at the creature who was lowering its front body closer to the ground, moving into a position which was ready to attack. Terrified beyond words, she tried to move again, trying to commando crawl forward, but a sharp pain shooting through her leg stopped her and released a strained cry into the night.
This was it. This was how Emily Fields was going to die. A freak encounter with a lone vicious wolf, and she’d be helpless to do anything about.
Emily registered the tears streaming down her face, some of them from the pain in her arms and ankle, and some from the fact that this was it. This was going to be the end.
Without a warning the wolf made a lunge for her and at the same time, seemingly out of nowhere a white blur erupted from the bushes, its own growl piercing the night as it collided with the other wolf knocking both of them away from Emily.
She watched the fight, too terrified to try moving again. The two wolves – if she really could call them that, they were much larger than your ordinary wolf – clashed against each other, teeth and claws extended. For a moment it seemed that her saviour wolf was going to lose as it got slammed to the ground, and grief ran through Emily. That didn’t last long as the other wolf stalked back over to her, snagging the opportunity to get back to his feast. Emily.
Yet again, just as the wolf got within metres of her, the white wolf leapt between her and the other snarling beast, Emily caught a glimpse of the wolf’s front leg, blood caking the otherwise perfect white fur. The fight erupted again, much more vicious this time.
Snarling, growling and the snapping of jaws were exchanged between them. Dirt flying everywhere as they ripped up the ground, and then in the blink of an eye the fighting stopped. The wolf who was going to attack Emily, was defeated its neck clutched in between the white wolf’s jaw.
She watched with widened eyes as the wolf turned to look at her, and it was silent for a moment, before a bone crushing crack reverberated throughout the woods. The wolf had bitten down with such force to break the others neck, Emily clamped shaking hands over her mouth as a gasp escaped her body. And then another thundering thud echoed as the white wolf dropped the other wolf, blood seeping from between both their teeth.
Feeling overwhelmed with emotion and the constant pain that rumbled throughout her body, Emily lowered her head and tried to calm herself down, deep shuddering intakes of air desperately trying to calm her racing heartbeat. She also couldn’t bear to look at the slowly pooling blood, she had almost been killed, that could’ve very well been her blood pooling on the forest floor instead of the wolf’s.
She would be dead. She would’ve never gotten married. Would’ve never seen her mum again, nor her friends, and she never would’ve gotten the chance to tell Ali how she felt about her.
Emily thought that A had been the worst thing to ever happen in her life, dealing with the constant life threatening situations, but she’s pretty damn sure that this is going to take the cake.
The brunette slowly brought her head back up, letting her gaze land on the wolf, who was surprisingly still there and had moved closer to her, now only a few feet away. Its head was bent, licking at its front leg, soothing the injury that Emily had seen earlier.
It was difficult to explain but she felt indebted to this wolf, after all it had saved her life, risking its own life and limb. Wouldn’t that be a story to rock Rosewood? Emily could see it now, printed in bold: Former Rosewood High’s star swimmer Emily Fields put away at Radley claiming that a wolf saved her life.
Emily couldn’t stop the shaky – humourless – chuckle that escaped her mouth at the thought, the wolf lifted its head at the sound, eyes meeting Emily’s with a piercing gaze.
The brunette was brought, very quickly, back to the reality of the situation, and she remembered that she wasn’t out of the woods yet, this wolf could have easy saved her for its own selfish want. They stared at each other for a long time, almost sizing each other up. As Emily stared into the blue orbs, the fear started to slip away instead being replaced by a safer feeling. Her heartbeat stopped hammering in her ears, and her breathing became even.
The wolf must have sensed her calming down, and decided this was a perfect moment to rip away the safety net that had fallen over Emily. It slowly stood up and padded the short distance to her, once in front of her Emily could take in just how tall the creature was. If she was to stand up the wolf would be as tall as her, easily. Her heart was back to pounding away in her ears, but she ignored it as she saw the powerful muscles move underneath its fur as the wolf padded from foot to foot.
She forced her eyes to close, fearing that the safe feeling was a lie, and that she was probably going to die. Goodbyes fluttered quickly through her head.
I’m so sorry mum, I’m sorry Aria, Spencer and Hanna. I love you guys. Ali, I loved you forever and I’m sorry I never got to tell you.
And then she waited. She waited for the eternal darkness to take over her body. For the blinding pain that would inevitably come when she felt the sharp bloodstained fangs sink into her skin, ripping the flesh off her bones.
She waited.
But, the darkness never came.
The blinding pain never came.
All she felt was the warm panting breath being blown across her face.
Snapping her eyes open and casting them upwards, Emily gasped. Staring down at her were the bluest eyes she’d ever seen, almost on par with Ali’s. Emily felt the warmth radiating off the wolf from their closeness, wondering for a short moment what that fur would feel like under her hands. Her mind started to blur at the edges, and her vision also blurred, the wolf coming in and out of focus. She was sure that her body would succumb to some type of darkness tonight, and it was probably going to happen soon. It was a darkness that she was going to welcome with open arms, anything to get her out of this very real, and very traumatic situation.
Unable to stop the inevitable, she allowed the darkness to take over her as her body slumped to the ground. As her eyes were closing she managed to see a flash of blonde curls and feebly hear a feminine voice quietly murmur, “Shit.”