“Jack! How can you let them do this?”
Jack turned his face toward me; his eye revealed no remorse at all.
“I’ve known you for a long time.” If I expected that to touch a chord inside of him I was dead wrong, because he looked at me as if he didn’t even know me.
“I have no choice, Marjorie.”
Even as they spoke, my mind refused to accept what was happening. A crazy rogue werewolf, who was going to either rape or eat me—or both—really was dragging me into the middle of the woods. Not only that but they were planning on killing innocent people before my very eyes. Jesus! No! Don’t let this happen!
We stepped into the clearing and to my horror, I noticed a group of people sitting on a log around a campfire, drinking beer and chatting with each other. Behind them, I noticed at least four more men; these were werewolves, I was absolutely sure of it. The minute we stepped inside the clearing, they turned to look at me and practically devoured me with their gazes, making me positive that they were werewolves.
The five innocent human victims were completely unaware of what was about to take place. What made things worse was that one girl look no older than me.
“Well, hello there…it sure took you guys long enough.” One of the men sitting on the log smiled warmly at us as we stepped closer. “Where’s the food you guys said you were going to bring?”
“Sorry about that, but my girlfriend here made a big fuss about not wanting to get her new shoes dirty.” Santos’s icy tone struck more fear into my already frantic heart. These people were going to die!
“Run! Go! Run! Get out of here!”
The man looked at me with a stunned expression as I yelled at them and tried running in their direction.
Santos pulled me back and shoved me against a nearby tree. He was so angry his grip on my arms was brutal. He placed one hand over my mouth with so much force I thought my jaw would break if he applied any more pressure to it.
“Now, Marjorie. Why would you go and spoil the surprise like that?”
Tears of pain and fear fell down my cheeks.
“What the hell is going on?” The man was now standing, a look of concern crossing his features.
I tried to speak, even with Santos’s hand still in place, but the only sound that came out was just a few muffled and unidentifiable words.
“Why are you hurting that girl like that?”
The man obviously saw my tears and the level of stress I was in, but for some reason he didn’t take the hint to take his companions and leave.
“Nothing is amiss, sir, it’s just that my lovely girlfriend here doesn’t agree with our choice of food.” Santos let go of me and shoved me toward Jack, who held an iron-clad grip around my midsection. “You see, she’s a little squeamish.”
The other man stood and watched us closely. Something about my demeanor must have warned him that something was wrong.
“Earl, maybe we should leave.”
“Now Tom, why would you do that? We’re just going to have our dinner.”
The man called Tom took one good look around him then turned his attention back to Santos.
“I…don’t see any food around here except for what we brought.”
“Really? We do.” The eight unoccupied werewolves zeroed in on the five campers. Santos nodded once and the youngest-looking werewolves started to shift before our eyes.
“You see, my good friend Tom, I’m about to receive a promotion and, well, my friends and I are in the mood for a little celebration.” Santos’s tone of voice was cold and calculating. “We would like to play a game tonight.”
The men gasped and the two women squeaked in horror as they stared at the young man changing into a beast-like creature.
“My friends and I are hungry, and you…” Santos pointed at them with his index finger. “…are our food.”
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
One of the women started to cry hysterically while the other screamed. One of Santos’s minions took a step forward and slapped her hard, sending her face first onto the ground. Earl rushed forward to help, but another werewolf stepped in front of him, preventing him from advancing further.
“Let me explain the rules of the game. They are simple, really. We’re going to hunt you.”
“We can’t compete against you. Look at you! You’re…” Earl couldn’t finish the sentence because it was obvious he didn’t quite understand what they were.
“Werewolves.” Santos smiled when their eyes widened in horror. This was one werewolf that obviously enjoyed other people’s misery. “To be fair, I’ll give you two opportunities to get out of here alive.”
The now frantically frightened group listened intently.
“First, we will give you a five minute head start. Second, if you make it to the road safely, we will let you go unhurt.”
It was obvious they didn’t believe Santos and neither did I. He had no intention of letting them out of the woods alive and we all knew it.
The campers huddled together for several seconds, holding each other in a tight embrace. I could see their legs shaking and tears running down their cheeks and my heart went out to them. They murmured words of love and encouragement to each other as the werewolves looked on in amusement.
Santos nodded again and soon the other seven werewolves shifted to their werewolf forms. The campers took advantage of this to start for the woods. They started out together but within seconds they split, each heading in a different direction. They ran until I could no longer see them because of the thickness and darkness beyond the nearby trees. But I knew the werewolves could see them even if I couldn’t.
Every werewolf remained poised and perfectly still. I could tell they were anxious to begin the hunt, but apparently Santos had every intention of allowing the campers their five minute start, which was still unfair. The campers were slightly buzzed by the beer they’d consumed and they were no match for ten werewolves. The least these animals could do was provide them with some type of weapon to give them a sporting chance.
Santos took out a rope and handed it to Jack, who let go of my midsection but kept a firm grip on my arm. He shoved me against the tree Santos had pushed me against moments earlier. He took out a big knife from behind his back and flashed it before my eyes to emphasize an unspoken threat.
“Now, my dear Marjorie, you can’t join the hunt because I don’t want you getting hurt. So you will stay here…” Santos pushed me against the tree, took my chin in his hand, and kissed me. I fought to release my lips from being battered by his. I kicked and shoved, slapped and pushed, but it was as effective as hitting a wall. After a few seconds, he finally let go of me and stepped back. My lips were aching and bruised. “You will wait for me here. I have plans for you, but I need to be well fed first lest I kill you in the process.”
“You might as well kill me right now because I have every intention of fighting you until the end.” I said venomously.
Santos merely smiled as if I had related a joke to him. “Believe me, I know.”
Jack used the rope to tie me tightly against the tree trunk and I immediately started to feel a shortness of breath.
“Not too tight, Jack!” Santos ordered.
Jack nodded and loosened the rope somewhat. In order to tie my legs to the tree he kneeled over, placing his knife on the ground next to my feet, and secured another knot in front of my knees. That task completed, Santos and Jack took several steps back then turned to the waiting group of hungry werewolves.
“Not yet,” Santos murmured as he began to change along with Jack.
If I’d thought Santos couldn’t possibly get any bigger or more menacing, I was sadly mistaken. As a werewolf he was even more massive; his girth was unbelievably big and, compared to the others, he was a giant. The remaining werewolves were minuscule in comparison. I noticed that aside from his massive size Santos was somewhat differently built compared to the others. He wasn’t only taller but bulkier, his snout was longer, his claws lar
ger, and he had considerably longer hair around his neck and head. Once Jack and Santos changed, the pack of werewolves took off into woods.
Feeling the heaviness of my horrific situation weighing heavily on my shoulders, the sob I had been holding back finally wrenched loose from within me and fresh tears rolled down my cheeks. I scanned the campsite and felt a rush of emotions run through me. This was another campsite that was going to be empty when the police came in search of the missing campers. So far I hadn’t heard any screams, but knowing how fast werewolves could run, I had no doubt the fleeing campers would be found soon. And when they were…
By the time the Rousseau’s figured out that something bad had happened to me, it would be too late. I would already be either dead or Santos’s mate—and a man-eater like him. God! This can’t be happening! I wanted to scream but I knew no one would hear me. We were too deep in the woods for anyone to hear even from the road. Glancing down, I saw the four-inch knife lying just inches from my right foot. If I could only pull free from the cord keeping me anchored to the trunk…
After attempting to pull myself free from the ropes and failing, I leaned my head back against the tree and closed my eyes. I wasn’t going anywhere, and soon I would be condemned to a life of misery with a male I hated because Santos had every intention of making me his mate.
A sudden noise to my right jolted me into awareness and I opened my eyes to catch a lone figure making its way toward me. Alone and frightened, I immediately started to panic, thinking it was one of the man-eaters coming back to the campsite. But as the figure continued to approach I noticed it was the young girl from before. I couldn’t quite see her eyes but I could perceive just how scared she was even from where I stood. Slowly, as if approaching me would cause her physical harm, she crept over to me.
“Are you one of them?” Fear was very audible in her quivering voice.
“If I was one of them, they wouldn’t have bothered with leaving me tied to the tree,” I responded. “How did they not find you?”
“I climbed a tree.” She jumped at the sound of the fire cracking. “They ran right by me.”
“Untie me.”
She hesitated. “Can I trust you?”
“Can I trust you?” I replied.
Understanding that we were both in the same bloody predicament, she cautiously approached and began to unknot the rope. Once all the knots were undone, the rope slid right down to my feet. The girl then moved down to my legs and finished untying the last knot just below my knees. Free at last, I dashed for the knife and ran toward the burning fire.
No sooner had I approached it than I heard a horrible scream coming from within the woods. The girl and I both jumped and turned to face the trees. The werewolves apparently had found one of the victims, and judging by the disturbing screams of that person, it was suffering a horrible death. The very sound of someone dying in such a morbid way nearly pushed me over the edge. My eyes closed as I tried to block out the horrendous shrieks that seemed to last forever. Something needed to be done, but what?
“Do you have a cell phone?”
The girl was stunned into silence by what she’d heard and wasn’t responding at all. I walked over to her, grabbed her by the shoulders, and shook her.
“Phone? Do you have one?”
She nodded.
“Where?”
“In the tent.” Her voice was so low I was barely able to hear it.
Not knowing whether it would make a difference or not but aware that every move I made could be crucial, I ran to the first of the three erect tents just a few paces away. I searched everywhere, hoping I would find a weapon, but I found nothing. Next, I searched for any cell phones they might have left behind, but if there were any phones there before, they certainly weren’t there now. Realizing that time was of the essence, I immediately made my way to the other two tents but once again came up empty-handed.
“There isn’t a thing in here,” I said as I stepped out of the last tent.
The girl was shaking so badly I could hear her teeth rattling. “We…had…them. They…must’ve taken…them.” She began to sob softly.
Well, now what? With no weapons, except for the four-inch blade I already carried, we didn’t have much of a chance. All right, Marjorie, forget weapons, just help someone before it’s too late.
The only thing on my mind from then on was to help these people in any way I could—or die trying. I walked over to the girl, took her hand, and started pulling her into the woods. She resisted and yanked her hand away.
“Come on, we have to leave this place.” I extended my hand toward her.
She shook her head from side to side. “Where are we going to go? Those things will find us. They already got one of my friends.” Her eyes frantically roamed the area behind me as if searching for the lost campers.
“Let’s try to find the road. It must be nearby… Come on. If we find the road they’ll let us live.” I regretted saying those words to her. I knew they had no intention of letting anyone live past that night. But if we could somehow manage to find the road, we could flag down a car or something. Maybe, just maybe, we could get help. Maybe someone would let me borrow a phone so I could call the Rousseau’s. It was the last bit of hope I was clinging to.
After about a minute, she seemed to think better of it and took my hand in hers. “What direction should we take?”
“Let’s just follow the moonlight.”
We started running as fast as our legs would carry us, holding each other’s hand as we followed the direction of the full moon, hoping it would guide us to safety. The woods were dense, and running around with no flashlight really didn’t help much. But I hadn’t found any flashlights either, which led me to believe that the werewolves keeping watch over the campers probably snuck into the tents while the group was too busy getting drunk and made all the items magically disappear.
My feet were surprisingly steady despite the fact that I could barely make out any clear shapes or forms in front of me, but my determination carried us far. For all I knew one or more werewolves could already be following us, so our options were limited. If I was going to die, and I was pretty sure I was, I wasn’t going down without a fight.
Another horrifying shriek resounded from somewhere nearby. This time it was the unmistakable voice of a woman. My heart raced as I turned from one side to the other trying to determine which way the scream came from. However, the task was nearly impossible; the voice seemed to echo from everywhere.
“My mother! Oh God! My mother!” the girl cried, desperately clutching her top as if it would bring her mother safely to her.
Loud growls accompanied the blood-chilling screams and I knew they were rumbles of celebration. Their hunt had been successful. Loud chomping and slurping sounds could be heard nearby, bringing a flow of revulsion and nausea to me. I had to fight to push away the uninvited images that flooded my mind. I couldn’t let those images take over my head lest I break down right where I stood.
Not wanting to delay our attempts at either getting some help or making it to safety, I grabbed the girl’s hand and began sprinting forward. She didn’t put up a fight. Instead, she followed me as I followed the soft light of the full moon illuminating the path before me.
Our hopes of making it out alive were abruptly shattered when we heard a crashing sound from behind us. As soon as we turned, we saw a massive, bulky, furry form running full speed toward us, advancing quickly and with deadly intent. The girl screamed but didn’t let go of my hand as we increased our pace. Terrified of what I would see, I refused to look back. Instead I directed the girl to an incline to our right.
“Climb! Come on!”
She hesitated as she looked back. “I can’t! I’m too scared!”
“You can! Come on!” I shoved her at the incline and her reaction was immediate.
The girl surprised me completely when with astonishing speed she started to climb the incline, and I struggled a bit to keep up with her. I managed
to follow as closely behind as possible. The incline was harder to climb than it looked, since most of the soil was a little loose, and we had to grab onto trees to aid our climb up. We needed to keep up a steady pace in order to keep the werewolf behind us. Chancing a glance back, I noticed the werewolf lose his footing twice and slip down the incline and I felt confident that because he was heavier he was doing a lot worse than we were. He seemed to have trouble climbing, too, and that gave me some hope. I figured as long as we kept dashing in between the trees, using them for cover, it would slow the werewolf’s advance at least a little.
Because I had a knife and she didn’t, I made sure that the girl kept climbing in front of me. In case the werewolf got too close I could stab him or at least prevent him from getting to her.
“We’re almost there!” the girl exclaimed with obvious gratification. “Do you hear that?”
Because of all the noise we were making as we climbed, I couldn’t make out any sounds aside from those we were making. “No…”
“It’s the sound of a car. Listen.”
I took the very stupid risk of stopping for a second to listen and that’s when I heard the unmistakable sound of a car somewhere up the incline. Judging from how far the car sounded I knew we were still a good distance away from the road, but the sheer joy of actually hearing a car brought another rush of adrenaline pumping through me. We had to get up the incline and cross what was left of the woods as fast as possible.
“Keep going, we’re almost there!” I pushed her to remind her we were still being chased and she complied by turning and climbing. As I looked back, I noticed the werewolf had fallen back considerably, although he was still determined to chase us anywhere we went.
The girl reached the top of the incline before I did but she waited at the top for me. I was having a little trouble climbing the rest of the hill because I kept losing my footing. In order to actually help myself out of my predicament, I dug the knife into the ground and used it to push myself up and over the top of the incline. As I was struggling to stand, I saw the girl heading deeper into the woods.
Secrets of the Moon Page 36