Cry of Wolves Chapter 5

= Chapter 5

Patch and I walk up the stairs and into the bar. My stomach ties up into knots. What if that man is still here? What if he tries to follow me home? No, Patch wouldn't let someone hurt me, I'm positive. We creek open the old wooden door, the bar tender and two people playing poker are the only living things in the place. I look back at the corner where the man was expecting to see black cold eyes staring at me but now its just an empty black space. My stomach unclenches and my heartbeat returns to normal. I scan the the other side of the room but there is no sign of him. We exit the door and head back to the car as we munch on cotton candy. The toy whale Patch won for me is tucked under my arm and a cold wind blows candy wrappers around my feet. Patch's black Jeep Commander is one of the only cars in the parking lot. My small frame shakes with cold as I get into the car. We're half way home before Patch brings it up.

"Are you going to tell me what happened to your arm?" Patch asks in a calm voice. From the corner of my eye I see him look at my wounded arm. I look down. The scratches aren't deep. They are hardly visible. "I scratched myself on the bathroom stall, thats all."

"I can tell your lying. Your not very good at it." Patch's voice is calm and soothing. The mans eyes pop into my head again. His sharp pointed teeth follow.

I sigh. "Well..When I came out of the bathroom there was this guy. He was sitting in the corner when we first arrived and he wasn't moving. I thought… I thought maybe he was dead, or hurt so I went over to him and i asked him what was wrong. "

"What did he say?" Patch rolls his Jeep Commander up my driveway and parks it but he locks the doors and turns off the car. His eyes focus on me.

"Well he didn't say anything." I heave a breath. "So I put my hand on his shoulder so see if he was okay, and when I went to pull my hand away he grabbed me by the arm. I panicked, I pulled my arm away causing him to scratch me."

Patch looks at me for a moment before he says anything. "There is something your not telling me Luna."

I look down again. "His eyes."

"What about them?" Patch leans closer to me.

"They were all black. And…And he smiled at me. His teeth were all pointy and sharp. He just stared at me with large black alien eyes." I look up at Patch who now has a hard look on his face.

"What was he wearing?"

"Um.. A pair of jeans and a white dark blue shirt. There was a bandage on his neck, so I thought he might of gotten hurt, or else I wouldn't of gone near him." I say.

Patch stiffens quickly at my words and looks at the forest behind me. He knows something I don't.

"What? Whats wrong?." He doesn't answer me. He just gets out of the car and opens my passenger door.

"Come on, lets get you inside before your mom comes home." Patch's words are sharp like knives. Darkness creeps beneath them, a secret that i'm not suppose to know.

"Are you going to tell me whats wrong? Did I do something?"

"No, no you didn't do anything." He looks towards the woods that surround my house. This time I follow his gaze.

"You know him don't you. And you know what happened to him, why he was like that." I didn't know how I knew that but I just knew. Patch doesn't respond to me. He walks me silently up to the door, occasionally looking at the woods. I dig in my pockets for my key.

"Oh crap." I smack my forehead and shake the door handle angrily.

"Whats wrong?" Patch's voice finally surfaces after a few moments.

"My key. I must of left it in the house." A cold wind blows through the trees. I shiver.
I slump down on the front steps. Patch walks down and stands in front of me.

"You don't have to stay here, i'll be fine."

"No, I'm not leaving you here by yourself, Something might-" Loud rustling sounds cut off his sentence. Both our heads snap up in the direction of the noises. The night falls quiet again.

"What was that?" I whisper.

"I'm not sure." Patch whispers back.

Loud snapping noises break the silence once more, bushes rustle, and a low moan echos over the frozen snow. A man wearing a dark blue shirt and dirty jeans comes out of the forest. His shirt is torn, his short blond hair a mess with dirt. His eyes are the color of liquid night and his smile reveals rows of sharp K-9's. The man from the bar stands yards away from Patch and I. A noise that sounds almost like a growl comes from Patch who steps in front of me protectively.

"Don't move." Patch whispers to me. I nod, my eyes frozen on the man's.

"Jack, we meet again." Patch steps forwards a few steps and into a calmer posisiton. I stand from my place on the stairs.

Jack makes a low growling sound in his throat. He turns his head to one side, his neck cracks and then to the other cracking it back. The bones in his face shift slightly under his skin. His black eyes burn into mine and his creepy smile frightens me.

"When I tell you to run, you run." Patch speaks low to me.

"Whats going on? Who is that?" I whisper to Patch.

"That's not important right now, just promise me you will run when I tell you to. Don't look back." He speaks low and he glances at me for a second. His voice is hard as rock, making me believe he really means it.

"I promise." A wave of fright washes over me. Something bad, very bad is going to happen. I can feel it in my gut.

A breeze brushes down through the trees again, and the full moon sheds its light through the clouds as their grey puffs uncover the bright circle. It brings me strength, its light bouncing off me and onto the snow. Jack looks up then back at me. His face twists with pain but the smile still stays. He screams, his jaw twisting in weird ways, his mouth widens and stretches. The sound of cracking bones shatters the night. Fur sprouts from his face and arms. His jeans tighten and rip as well as his shirt. Grunts and groans that are neither human or animal reach my ears.

"Run!' Patch yells at me, but I don't move. I'm too horrified by what I see, but strangely i want to see more. Jack's feet rip through his sneakers and his fingers sprout long sharp claws, and his legs buckle and change shape. The man that was once Jack is now a large muscular beast, its long wolflike snout lifts into the air smelling something that I can't. He tilts his head to the sky and a long erie howl echos through the night as the tall grey werewolf stands in the snow as the last pieces of cloths drop to the ground. It lowers its head and roars at Patch in anger. Fire in its coal black eyes it charges.

"RUN NOW!" Patch's voice bellows, waking me from my trance. I turn and run but only make it a few feet before I trip on the toy whale. Its small beaded eyes stare at me blankly. I flip onto my back and prop myself up onto my palms in time to see Patch run full speed at the charging werewolf.

"PATCH NO!" He jumps and stretches his arms forwards.  When they touch the ground again they are black paws and no longer human. My eyes must be lying. I'm seeing things, but part of me knew something was up all along. The black wolf is Patch. Patch is the black wolf, he stalked me and watched me. Never straying close, but why? For what reasons? The werewolf Jack swipes again and misses. Patch side jumps and sinks his fangs into the Jack's shoulder. The large grey monster is more angry then he is hurt. In a swift movement with its massive hand he rips Patch off of him and throws him into the side of my house. I gasp with horror. The werewolf faces me. Patch hurls himself into the werewolf's side knocking them sideways. Sounds of snarling and taring fill the air. Patch's black fur is covered with blood, he staggers and strikes again and again but has no affect on Jack. The werewolf catches Patch mid air, its claws sinking into his side. Jack slams him into the ground and a loud high pitched whine sounds in my ears. The werewolf goes in for the final blow.

"PATCH!" I scream. In a desperate attempt to save Patch, I grab a rock from next to me, get to my feet and hurl it at the werewolf's head. It knocks him between the ears and he turns his head to me in anger. It bares its sharp yellow fangs and charged at me.

I run.

I run full speed through the forest, snow kicking up in my tracks. The beast pounds behind me, alarms sound in my head. Run, Run faster! A voice screams. My legs work overtime.
Left, Right, Left, Right, Jump.
I'm running so fast that I almost fall into the rush of running water in front of me. The tips of my feet stop at the edge of a small cliff. I wobble as smaller stones fall into the running rapids below, ice cold water is a herd of white horses below me, Jumping and kicking over one another. Its large rapids spray water into the frozen night. I turn around quickly, the werewolf's head is low to the ground and ready to attack. Baring its large fangs, it pounces at me with the strength of a dozen men.

I throw myself off the rock's edge and into the swift moving river. My body freezes as shards of ice water puncture my skin. The werewolf flies in after me, its claws scrape at my back. The current pulls me under, my lungs fill with liquid ice. I kick at the bottom of the river tying to find a way up. My foot steps up on a small rock giving me a boost and my head breaks the surface, I gasp for breath. The roar of the river drowns out the sound of my screams as I call out for Patch. The full moon is the last thing I see before I get sucked under the freezing waves once more.