MidNightmare

The moon shone in the starless night sky, and I was walking home from a friend’s house. The streets were damp from a small downpour, and the old streetlamps flickered from dim to dimmer, so I relied on the waxing moon to guide me home.

Looking for any method of shortcut available, I turned sharply into an alley way. It was small, so small that if I stretched out my arms, I would be able to touch each brick wall. This was like any typical alleyway, trashcans abundant, making it hard for me to make my way through.

Eventually, I shuffled out of the alley, to another street, and across this street was an old playground. If I were to cut through the untrimmed bushes that surrounded it, I would come out at another park, which was right across the street from my house.

I was often home alone at night, because my mom was always on business trips, and my father worked night shifts. Needless to say, being sixteen, I could handle myself. I had no siblings, and was left to do whatever a sixteen year old boy with no car could possibly do.

I quickly jogged across the carless street, stepped up onto the sidewalk, and crossed into the park. Just as my sneaker touched the woodchips, I felt a slight vibration in the back pocket of my jeans. I withdrew my foot, and stood on the sidewalk as I read the text. The number of the sender was blocked, and it only read one word:

Beware.

I closed the text, and put my phone back in my pocket. It had to be one of my idiotic friends prank-texting me, trying to scare me. I looked at my watch, it was almost midnight. If I wasn’t home by the time Dad was…I was screwed.

So, I made my way onto the woodchips, and, only a few steps in, I heard a barking sound. I pivoted to my left, to see what the racket was, and I saw a large dog limp out of the bushes. Another four-legged animal bolted out after it, and pounced on it. Instinctively, I sprinted toward the fight, and threw myself into it. I pulled the dog away, blood oozing all over me. The unknown animal was sitting there, gnawing of what it had pulled from the dog, which was quite a bit. The animal had ripped the dogs throat out, and some of his paws were missing. The tail was only a small nub, and chunks of its back and stomach were gushing blood and ooze.

I felt that the poor dog was gone, and that there was nothing I could do to save it. I held it in my lap for a few minutes, and proceeded to glance up, to maybe see its killer.

The animal that had torn apart the dog, which I saw to be a wolf of some kind, was standing. It had finished off what it had been consuming, and was staring at me with golden eyes. It wasn’t angry, it simply wanted the rest of its meal back. It took a step closer, and right when it did, I hugged the dog closer to me.

“No. You’ve already killed him. What else do you want?” I whispered. I’m not sure why I was keeping it from the dog, for it was long gone. Maybe I just didn’t want to see an innocent animal torn and then mercilessly eaten. It just seemed cruel, and the dog deserved peace, not for its corpse to be savagely ripped apart, and then used for a wolf’s meal.

Well, bottom line, it pissed the wolf off. Teeth bared, and eyes flashing, it stepped closer and closer, and I scooted away. Sometime was telling me this wasn’t a normal wolf. It’s gold eyes sent shivers up and down my spine, and its pearly white fangs made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

“No, no, no!” I shouted, “Leave us alone!” Then, the wolf howled, and pounced at the dog, which was laid in my arms. I chucked the dog aside, and the wolf landed right on me.

It started ripping away my clothing, and clawing my bare skin. I raised my arm to punch it, but it caught my palm in its jaws, and clamped its fangs down.

An immediate, searing pain spread throughout my whole body, and I wailed. I felt like every single piece of me was slowly being peeled off, like someone was sawing through me with a dull blade. The pain was unimaginable, and I felt myself convulsing on the ground.

Everything was blurry, but I could just barely make out the wolf sauntering away from me, and sitting down right beside the dog, then proceeding to tear of a bit of it, and chew. It was watching me, like I was entertaining it.

I slowly stopped convulsing, and the pain was replaced with a numb. I was paralyzed, unable to lift a limb. I could only hear a trickle of blood rushing through my ears, and my heart beating every so often. Minutes turned into hours as I laid in the moonlight, unmoving and limp. My eyes were lazily watching the wolf, who was watching me with a calm expression. It had long ago finished off the poor dog, and was content on watching the frenzied panic in my eyes as I limply laid out.

And the, oh so slowly, did things begin to black out. I felt energy being drained from me, and a prominent sleepiness fall upon me. I fought to stay awake, but ever so sluggishly, my eyes began to close.

My last memory was the wolf howling at the moon, which hung dully in the starless night sky.