Beth leaned heavily against the ancient oak tree. Her heart pounded, and her breath was labored from running. Her eyes were wide with fear. Beth skirted the tree, never relinquishing the security holding its massive trunk provided, and faced the direction from which she had fled. Summoning the courage to peep around the trunk, she looked to see if there was any sign of the demon pursuing her. Nothing!
"It's there! God, I know it's there!" Beth thought to herself. "It's watching me! Where is it?" Her eyes focused on the darkness, trying to discern a tell--tale shape among the trees and foliage of the forest into which she had fled.
"Nothing! But its got to be there!" Beth thought. The pounding of her heart sounded like a base drum in her ears. Her breath seemed to roar like a storm.
"Surely it can hear me!" She thought. She dared not even whisper to herself. Beth cursed her decision to flee into the woods rather than retreat to her home. She cursed her decision to go into her garden that evening. She knew there had been attacks in the countryside. She never should have gone, but she couldn't sleep. The garden is so peaceful and beautiful in the full moon.
When she first saw the creature, Beth seemed frozen in her footsteps. She stood steadfast in horror and amazement. It was a wolf, but not an ordinary wolf. It was larger than any wolf she had ever seen or heard of. Beth stood five feet and seven inches tall, and she guessed this monster measured five feet or more at its shoulder. Its head was larger than a basketball. Its supernaturally white fangs appeared to be as long as Beth's pinkie finger. When its lips pulled back in a snarl, its gums were red, blood red.
It noticed her immediately after it broke the cover of the forest at the edge of her garden. Without knowing why, it seemed to Beth it expected to find her there among her roses, calla--lilies and the other flowers she lovingly planted. The garden was her sanctuary. And now her sanctuary had been invaded by this beast.
Beth had to force herself to stop looking at the creature and consider her escape. She needed to flee, to run for her life. Although the animal was not directly between her and the house, it could easily intercept her by running across the perimeter of the garden. The wolf would be too fast for her to give it any advantage. Her only chance was to run away and make the wolf run as far as possible. Only then could she get far enough ahead of it to find some hiding place, some make--shift sanctuary, in the woods.
Now she stood trembling, clinging to the scant protection of the oak's trunk and wondering where the beast lurked. Beth knew she couldn't have lost her fleet preditor during her flight.
"Where is it? It's watching me, stalking me. It can smell me. It can smell my fear! God, why won't my heart be silent?" The thoughts tumbled through Beth's mind. She looked around the trunk again. Nothing! Could she have escaped? Is it over? Then her blood ran cold.
"My god, the wolf circled me. Its waiting in ambush for me to come to it!" Beth turned suddenly, her back against the tree and her arms splayed behind her, still clinging to the bark of her only protector. She tried to see through the darkness and the forest itself. Nothing!
Beth tuned back toward the tree. She once again peered around the trunk in the direction from which she had fled. She then looked to her left and turned to look in all directions. Nothing! Her heartbeat slowed and her labored breathing was less pronounced.
"Is it gone?" Beth permitted herself a small measure of hope. Gone or not, she thought, she could not stay in the forest all night. If it was not gone, it would find her. If it was gone, she needed to return home.
"But which way to go?" Beth looked around again. The path on which she fled was the most direct route home, but she risked running into the wolf. It could be lingering along the path, sniffing, tracking her. The thought panicked Beth. If she took a more circuitous route, it would take her longer to get to safety. It also would give the monster more time to find her.
Beth startled. Her eyes wide with fear, she looked in the direction of the sound. It was a sound like a twig cracking when it is stepped upon. Nothing! She peered into the darkness, desperately wishing she had the wolf's eyes. She dared not move. She just stared, trying to discern the slightest movement. Nothing.
Suddenly panic gripped Beth. She had to move. She had to leave the cover of her oak protector and run home. Which way? Beth ran. She ran to her left. It would take her longer but she didn't have to think about running into the wolf while it hunted her along the path she had fled. Before she had ran thirty yards, she heard the crunching of dead leaves and twigs on the forest floor.
"It can hear me! It knows where I am!" Beth's last thought was a breathless whisper from her lips. She ran faster. She needed to escape the dense foliage and get to one of the more worn paths back to her garden, and then to home. The path was ahead. She could see the moonlight illuminating the intersection where a path forked. Beth stopped only briefly to glance over her shoulder, first back into the woods and then down the left fork before she turned to left down the main path. Her chest was hurting. She was winded, but fear propelled her toward her garden and home.
Beth felt relief as she saw a clearing she knew to be only fifty feet from the far edge of her garden. Immediately the promised calm was torn from her heart. The beast -- her pursuer -- pounced suddenly from the cover of brush to her left. Beth stopped immediately and backed several steps away. The wolf menaced, its head lowered, ears folded back, fangs bared, a long string of saliva dripping from the right side of its mouth to the forest floor. But the monstrous beast did not attack. It stood there threatening. Beth stood frozen with her hands at shoulder level in an instinctive defensive posture.
But an effective defense was impossible. Flight was vain. Beth could only await her inevitable death. Strangely the panic she felt dissipated. She was keenly aware of everything around her and she was more aware of her senses than she could ever remember, but the panic was gone.
"Is this what its like to confront and accept the certainty of one's death?" Beth wondered in her thoughts. She dared not speak.
Beth stared back into the eyes of the beast. Surely now she was becoming giddy because she thought she recognized them. They were not human. Dark green. Its eyes were a dark green with a fire in them. Do wolves have green eyes? She didn't know, but she knew without doubt she had never seen the terrible predator that soon would end her life, but there was something, something she could not place, familiar about its eyes.
The wolf took a step forward and stopped. Beth was jolted back to reality. She did not move. The wolf took another step forward. Should she accept her death, Beth wondered? Another step. Beth turned and ran. She was not going to die without a fight.
No more than five steps into her flight, Beth felt the large paws of the wolf's forelegs strike her back and knock her to the ground just shy of the edge of the clearing. Beth smelled the damp decay of the forest floor in her nostrils as she struck the ground and dust billowed up around her head. Immediately she felt a pain in her right breast. The speed of the attack offered her no chance to protect it from the force of her fall.
The wolf stood with its left paw in the center of Beth's back. She could feel the dampness and heat of the wolf's breath as it bent its nose to the nape of her neck. The monster closed its mouth and sniffed. Beth let out a desperate cry as she tried to raise herself from the ground. She could move only a few inches, and the wolf easily pushed her back to the ground with only slight effort from the paw resting on her back. Beth felt its saliva wet the back of her neck. Panic returned.
The wolf brought its mouth to her neck and Beth tensed in anticipation of the bite that would sever her spinal cord and put an end to her life. She felt a forceful tug at the back of her gown and felt it ripping away from her body. It had been a gift from her husband.
