The Girl and the Wolf

by Nicole Yek

  The frog was staring at something in front of them and everyone else followed his line of vision to find a small clearing a few feet away and an opening between a few trees slightly further on. Through the opening, there was a wooden house visible and the windows were lit up with life inside it, and beyond the little house, they could see glimpses of the kingdom's grand castle. They had finally found their escape from the Wood.

  Mathis was ready to burst into fits of joyful tears when Garnet suddenly exclaimed, "That's my Grandma's house!"

  "Oh really? Do you think she would mind us staying over for the night? It's getting quite late and I don't think we can do much traveling in the darkness." Atticus said.

  "I'm sure she wouldn't mind, she's a lovely person, I can promise that you'll all love her!" the brunette grinned.

  "Alright, now that we have everything settled, what are we sitting here on our bums for?" Mathis said and slapped Button's back. "Come on, Button! Let's ride like the wind and get out of this dreaded prison!"

  Button let out another scornful huff but started hopping towards the opening. It was then when Garnet had set foot in the small clearing that a gunshot sounded and a bullet was sent flying towards the tree beside her, barely missing her foot. She froze in her spot and so did Button who had begun trembling a few inches from her, staring wide-eyed in the direction of where the bullet was shot. With great fear and reluctance, the brunette slowly turned to her side to see Mr. William Jenkins standing on the opposite end of the clearing with his black rifle in his hand and an ugly, wicked grin plastered on his face.

  He eyed the girl with significant interest. "Looks like I've got quite a bit of killing to do tonight."

  Chapter Thirteen

  The old man began to walk towards her and Garnet desperately willed her legs to move, to run, anything, but they remained rooted to the ground beneath her. Her hold around the tortoise tightened and she was certain that she was doomed when Mathis suddenly launched himself onto the old man, crawling all over him at lightning speed and biting him where his flesh was uncovered by his torn and dirty clothes. Mr. Jenkins let out groans and winces in pain as the squirrel continuously bit down on him.

  "Miss Garnet, run!" Mathis paused from his incessant biting to cry out to the girl. But the old man took this opportunity and snatched the squirrel off of his thick neck and tossed it to the side as though he was a piece of trash.

  "Mathis!" Garnet cried out. Her legs could move again and she wasted no time rushing to the squirrel's side. "Mathis, are you hurt?"

  The squirrel weakly lifted his head from the ground only for it to drop back down barely a second later. "Get… out… now." He mumbled with his hazel eyes wide open but his furry body weak and limp.

  The brunette was about to pull him into her arms when the old man suddenly appeared behind her, swinging his rifle down with brute force. Luckily, the girl had seen his shadow on the ground looming behind her own and ducked away from the attack in time. The hard metal head of the rifle connected to the ground and Mr. Jenkins grumbled in dissatisfaction before lifting it up again. Garnet landed on the ground beside him after having avoided his assault and she quickly scrambled onto her feet.

  But before she could take a step forward, the old man was in front of her, slipping around her surroundings as silently and stealthily as though he was made of nothing more than shadows. He had her path blocked and Garnet was contemplating whether or not she should turn around and head back into the Wood. In the end, she decided against the idea. She had been trapped in that forest for days, desperately searching for a way out, she wasn't going to run back into that frustrating maze just because she was too much of a coward to fight for what she'd wanted.

  Her green eyes watched the old man intently, attempting to distract him with her gaze and focus while she dug a hand into her weaved basket, taking out the knife and immediately hiding it beneath her cloak so he wouldn't see. She was planning to lunge at him with it when all of a sudden, the old man's burly hands reached out and grabbed her neck, strangling her. She choked and her hold on Rutherford loosened instantly, making the tortoise slip out of her weakening grasp and fall down to the ground with a ‘thump'.

  She had desperately wanted to look down, to see if the tortoise was alright after the fall, but she couldn't. Mr. Jenkins might have been old, but there was a reason why he was a well-known hunter back in their village, his strength was nearly inhuman and she had heard that he killed a bear with those hands that were around her thin neck. Beads of sweat trickled down her forehead as fear and panic rose within the girl. It was becoming extremely difficult for her to breathe and she knew that he could've killed her, snapped her neck like a twig if he had wanted to, so why was he stalling? What was he waiting for?

  "Where's the wolf?" Mr. Jenkins demanded.

  That was it, the answer that she was looking for.

  "What- what wolf…?" Garnet gasped, one hand clawing at the man's hands that were coiled around her neck.

  "I know you're lying," the old man said with a malicious glint in his dark eyes. "The silver wolf, that stupid wolf that I came into this cursed forest to hunt down! I know you've seen it!"

  Garnet tried to speak, but she couldn't, his grip on her was too tight. She didn't think that she could last much longer. So without another thought, the hand which held the knife sprang out from beneath her crimson cloak and plunged the sharp tip of it in the old man's wrist. He let out a deafening cry of pain just as she pulled the knife out with as much force as she had used to stab it in. The old man's hold on her was immediately released and she let out a faint groan as her back collided with the hard earth.

  Mr. Jenkins stared wide-eyed down at the wound which she had inflicted upon him, it was small but vibrant red blood spurted from his wrist. It didn't take him long to realize that she had punctured one of his arteries and the bleeding wouldn't stop anytime soon. Fury blazed in his cold, dark eyes and he was about to lunge at the brunette who had just managed to get air into her lungs and get back onto her feet when a piercing howl ripped through the eerie silence of the night. The old man halted in place, and Garnet felt an evil chill run down her spine as a psychotic grin made its way across his face.

  "Looks like someone has come to your rescue, miss little red riding hood." He cackled and Garnet felt sick to her stomach at the disturbing sound.

  The girl's eyes went wide when she caught a glimpse of gleaming silver in the darkness of the Wood's trees. Noticing this, the old man turned around and what he saw made the grin on his face grow wide enough to almost reach his wrinkled eyes. The silver wolf that had drawn him into the cursed forest and he had been hunting for months was standing only a few feet away from him, walking steadily into his trap. The old man was overjoyed and grinning like a maniac.

  "So you finally came!" he said aloud, twirling the black rifle in his hands. "I knew from the first moment that I laid my eyes on you that you would fetch an excellent price at the market! I've been hunting you for months and now, finally, you've shown yourself to me! You have no idea how happy I am!"

  The way he spoke, the way he was grinning, the way his dark eyes didn't blink, everything about him screamed insanity, and Garnet had never felt more frightened of anyone or anything in her entire life. Hywel was right, humans could become the most terrifying monsters if they allowed their emotions to control them and in this case, William Jenkins was controlled by greed, and it had made him into a deranged and dangerous creature.

  "Hywel!" the girl blurted out without thinking. "Get out of here! Run now! Or else he'll-"

  "Oh…" her actions attracted the old hunter's attention. He slowly craned his neck around to look at her with his wide, mad eyes and twisted grin. "You named it," he said, turning his whole body around to face her. "So you're quite close to that monster, huh?" he took a step towards her.

  But he wasn't able to take another, because upon catching sight of the old man advancing towards her again, Hywel came out from the comfort of the shadows a
nd lunged at the hunter, tackling him to the ground with immense force. Mr. Jenkins still had his rifle in his hands and he was using it as a shield to block the wolf's attacks. However, it didn't work very well as he did earn quite a few scratches on his arms and face. Blood trickled down from the scratches on his wounded skin but he wasn't fazed even a bit, and with one strong shove, he managed to push the wolf off of him and swiftly assumed a firing position on one knee.

  Hywel fell back onto the ground with a loud ‘thump', and the hunter's grin remained intact on his bloody face throughout the whole attack. Garnet watched in terror as the man's finger pulled the trigger of his rifle and fired it, the bullet came shooting straight at the silver wolf. Hywel had predicted that he would use the weapon but his reflexes reacted a moment too late and the bullet struck his back. He let out a deafening cry of agony and crumpled back onto the ground. The girl felt tears spring into her eyes at the awful scene.

  Mr. Jenkins cackled and threw his rifle onto the ground before racing to the where Hywel lied helpless and unmoving. He bent down, beaming madly at him. "Can you feel it? The special poison in those bullets? Feel it coursing through your veins? Numbing your senses? You should feel grateful, I've saved them all for you, big fella. You'd be dead within ten minutes!"

  Tears ran down Garnet's face as she forced her weak legs to move forward, to move towards the rifle that the old man had abandoned on the ground behind him. More tears swelled up in her green eyes as her mind registered the man's mocking words to Hywel, causing her vision to blur. Her hand touched the handle of the weapon and she immediately retracted her hand in fear and panic when the old man suddenly spoke again.

  "You know what? I'm not a patient man, never have been and never will be, so I'll bestow on you the honor of being killed by yours truly." Mr. Jenkins said, taking out the dagger that he had tucked away under his belt. He used his bare foot to kick the limp wolf over so that his chest was facing upward, making it easier for the hunter to stab his heart. The old man raised the dagger high up in his hand and right when he was about to plunge it down into the wolf, he felt something cold, hard, and familiar touch his back. The beaming old man slowly twisted his neck around to find the brunette holding his rifle in her hands with its muzzle right against his back.

  "D-drop the dagger, or else I-I'll shoot!" Garnet attempted to threaten him but her weak and stuttering voice betrayed her completely.

  "No you won't," Mr. Jenkins continued to smile at her, a twisted smile that disgusted her so. "I know you, little miss red riding hood, and you aren't bold enough to kill someone."

  The girl gulped, her trembling hands tightened their grip on the handle of the rifle.

  "And even if you were, it wouldn't matter, there aren't any bullets left inside." The old man said, taunting her. Garnet felt her heart sink at his words but she still kept her hold on the rifle. Even if it was empty inside, she could still use it to hit him or knock him unconscious. Mr. Jenkins stared at her for several moments longer before giving her one last smile, and without any warning, he turned back to the wolf and stabbed the dagger down into his chest.

  Two sounds occurred in that single moment, one was the heart-wrenching howl that escaped from Hywel's lips as the dagger ripped into his flesh and his heart, and the other was the ear-splitting ‘bang' of a gunshot as Garnet's finger pulled the rifle's trigger and sent a forgotten bullet flying directly into and through the old hunter's back. The girl watched in utter horror as the old man's body wavered and then fell back onto the ground beside Hywel. Her hands dropped the rifle and she stared down at them with wide, shocked eyes. She had just murdered someone, she was a murderer.

  But she didn't have much time for her mind to process what had happened because the whimper from the silver wolf dragged her back to reality and she immediately rushed to his side. Collapsing onto her knees, she looked down at the damage done to the poor wolf and swiftly grabbed the hilt of the dagger which still protruded out from his chest and pulled it out. She thrust the bloody dagger onto the side and brought the wolf's head onto her lap.

  "Hywel," she called out to him, tears sliding down her face and a few even landing onto the wolf's silver coat, but neither of them paid any attention to that. "Hywel, don't close your eyes, alright? Stay awake, look at me! Y-you're not going to die," she said, her voice cracking. "I won't let you d-die!"

  Despite her words and demands, the silver wolf's vaguely moving chest was quickly coming to a halt and his beautiful sapphire-blue eyes were drooping to a close. "No!" Garnet screamed, shaking the lifeless wolf in her arms. "No! Open your eyes, Hywel! Come back! Hywel!"

  Sobs bubbled up her throat and racked her body when she felt the warmth gradually fading away from his body and she could no longer feel his heartbeat within his bloody chest. She had no memory of how much she had wept and screamed in grief and agony that night, but she could remember that was all she had done before everything went pitch-black.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Garnet’s green eyes opened to find herself lying down on a familiar and warm bed with faint rays of sunlight hitting against the white wall beside her. She was looking directly up at a blank, colorless ceiling and blinked her eyes. Her head felt muzzy from sleep and she couldn't remember when she had even fallen asleep. This thought triggered the hazy memories from the night before to come rushing into her mind, clearing away the thick fog that separated her self-consciousness from these past events. She remembered finding the way out of the Wood along with Mathis and the others, she remembered the deranged Mr. Jenkins appearing with his black rifle and started to attack them, she remembered Hywel in his wolf form lunging and tackling the old man to the ground, she remembered him being shot by the old hunter, she remembered killing Mr. Jenkins, and most importantly, she remembered how the silver wolf's heart had stopped beating in her arms.

  "Hywel!" the brunette exclaimed, sitting up on the bed with eyes wide and limpid as the mist in her mind faded away completely.

  Panic began to rise within her and she was about to jump out of the bed and search for the wolf boy when she noticed that someone else was in the small room with her. She felt all the air leave her lungs when she met their unmistakable sapphire-blue eyes. Sitting on a wooden chair at the edge of her bed was the familiar silver-haired boy whom she remembered precisely had died the night before. "Hywel…?" she asked aloud in confusion and disbelief.

  His beautiful blue eyes blinked once and a smile made itself onto his pale face. "Yes, Garnet?" he answered, calmly as though it was any other morning and he hadn't died the night before.

  Her eyebrows knitted together and she squinted her eyes at him, carefully examining him. "Are… are you real?" she inquired and a thought came to her at that moment. "Wait, am I dead? Did I die and go to heaven with you? Is this heaven?"

  The boy let out a chuckle as the girl looked warily at her surroundings, taking in every single detail from the pastel floral curtains at the sides of a closed window to the vintage-looking mauve carpet on the wooden floor next to the small bed that she had woken up in. She realized then that she had been in that room before. She had been there quite a few times to be exact. An old image of her when she was a little girl sitting on the same bed flashed across her mind and Garnet turned to look at the amused boy.

  "This is my grandma's house," she said. "So this isn't heaven…"

  "Well, that's quite obvious." The boy smiled at her. He looked identical to the wolf boy who had rescued her from the wolves' attack on her first night upon entering the Wood, and yet, there was something different about him, something… missing.

  She stared at him, eyeing him suspiciously. "You haven't answered my question yet."

  "You've asked quite a few questions, which one are you referring to?" he said, still smiling but it had changed from a sincere smile to a sardonic smirk which Garnet hadn't realized that she had missed until she saw it again.

  She frowned at his unhelpful response and cleared her throat. "Are you Hywel? And are you
real?"

  "Those are two questions," he smirked and Garnet was torn between choosing to grin like an imbecile at the familiarity of his behavior or rip her hair from their roots at the exasperating replies that he was giving her.

  "Stop playing mind games with me and just answer my questions properly!" she cried out, tugging at the tangled ends of her brown hair.

  Seeing how frustrated he had made her, the silver-haired boy decided to cease his tormenting and provide appropriate answers to her inquiries. "Yes," he said with a light nod of his head. "I'm Hywel, and I am just as real as you are, Garnet."

  Without warning, the brunette shifted towards the edge of the bed and pulled the boy into a tight and abrupt embrace. She felt his body go tense beside her but he gradually relaxed and wrapped his own arms around her waist, returning the hug. This made her break out into a huge grin and she buried her face into the crook of his neck. When she began to nuzzle like a cat against his neck, the boy's face flushed crimson and he immediately grabbed her shoulders and removed herself off of him.

  "A-alright, I think that's e-enough." He stammered bashfully, causing Garnet's grin to widen.

  "And how…? I watched you die last night-" she started but the boy interrupted her.

  "Garnet," he said her name with such sincerity that it made her heart ache. "Please stop talking and listen to me for a second."

  The brunette looked at him for a moment and gave a nod for him to carry on speaking. Hywel released his hands from her shoulders and leaned back in his seat. "To clear any of your lingering confusion, I did die last night," he said. "But the curse was broken last night after I died, and it had miraculously brought me back from the dead. It's quite difficult to believe-"

  "Yes, it is incredulously difficult to believe," Garnet interjected and her eyes went wide when the realization struck her. "And… your ears are gone!" she exclaimed, staring at the empty space above his silver head of hair where his wolf ears had originally protruded out from. "It's no wonder that I thought something was missing!"