Pain

I heard a loud snarl from directly behind me, so I turned sharply, but nothing was there. The same noise came again from the opposite direction. I turned. Nothing. The third time I heard it, I slowly rotated until I finally saw it. A white-furred, red-eyed wolf stood before me in a menacing position, baring its long, bloody fangs. Despite my trepidation, I couldn't help but notice that it was a very beautiful creature.

My admiration of the beast ceased abruptly when it lunged at me and dragged me down onto the cold, hard soil. With me, its prey, pinned to the ground, the wolf let out a long howl. Then it lowered its open jaws onto my throat to savagely rip me apart. My eyes wide, I screamed...

"Yet another sweet dream?" my friend Livy asked, hovering over me with a big fake smile on her face. "I'm glad." She then lifted my head up by my hair and scowled at me. "Now get off my lap."

I sat up, rubbing my head where several hairs had been pulled out, and looked out the window of the car. It was snowing now, perhaps a bit heavier than it had been before I'd fallen asleep. Telling by the dark color of the sky, I guessed that it was six thirty, putting us within half an hour of our destination. Glancing at the clock on the dash, I found that my guess was only four minutes short of the actual time. This happened to me a lot. As long as I could see outside, I could guess the time fairly accurately.

"Do you need some caffeine to help you stay awake?" Stacy called from the passenger's seat. She held out a bottle of soda, and I reached out to take it, but Livy snatched it before I could.

She hit me playfully on the head with it and said to her boyfriend, who was driving, "What do you think, Adrian? She doesn't even have to drink it; I'll just hit her with it whenever she starts nodding off."

"Yeah," Adrian replied sarcastically. "If you want to give her a concussion."

"A concussion?" Livy repeated. "From a half-full bottle of soda?"

He shrugged. "Wouldn't surprise me. Her head's really messed up as it is."

"I'm still awake," I pointed out, shutting off Adrian's cute comments for a while.

Livy held up the bottle of soda, a fierce look in her light hazel eyes. "Drool on these jeans again, and I'll hit you with it," she said, tossing the bottle at me. I tried to catch it, but I missed, and it bounced off the window and dropped onto the floor of the car. When I picked it up, it was too shaken to open without it pouring all over the car.

"Nice move, Tali," Livy said.

"You threw it at me!" I protested.

"Hey, don't blame your handicaps on me!"

"Please stop," Adrian said. "You're distracting me. Just don't open that in my car, and Stacy will buy you another once we're in Billings. Right, Stacy?"

"No problem," Stacy said. We took these trips a lot, and each time, Stacy paid for everything. Ever since her grandparents passed away, she was loaded. We three girls had been best friends for as long as I could remember, and none of us were ever really wealthy. But three years ago, everything that could possibly destroy a friendship happened all at once, and our lives were changed forever. Because Stacy had acquired so much money, she could have whatever friends she wanted, so she ditched us outcasts for the shallow people that supposedly everyone wanted to be. That's when we met Adrian. He moved to Forsyth, Montana, during the summer that Stacy's grandparents died, and Livy fell in love with him at first sight. Adrian was a quite influential person to begin with, having showed me who I really was, but Livy was so influenced by him that she started to act more like him and spend more time with him and ultimately like him more than me. That summer was my hardest ever. Since then, we'd returned to something relatively normal, but I never saw Livy without Adrian around, and I never saw Stacy without her new friends. I grew tired of spending so much time alone, of not having someone to talk to, so it was like fate when I reconnected with my childhood friend Jack. He was a wonderful listener, and he was interested in everything I had to say. Unfortunately, he was currently in Los Angeles on a week-long vacation with his family. I'd begged to go with, but my parents were too protective of me. They hardly trusted me on my way to Billings, two and a half hours away from home, to see a band. I was sixteen, and still they kept in place the rules I'd had to conform to since I was thirteen. Sometimes I really wanted my mother to...

"Come on, Tal," I heard Adrian say. "It's seven. They're about to start."

We walked in and made our way to the center of the crowd, but I was only there for fifteen minutes before I decided I was too drowsy to dance safely. Sneaking away from my friends, I bought myself an iced coffee and took a seat toward the back of the room. Sipping from my cup, I fought to stay awake, but I knew I would have to give in to sleep eventually. Over the past year, I'd been having explicit nightmares, and it's only gotten worse, to the point where I can't stay awake for more than an hour. I had no idea what was wrong with me, and my parents, whether they didn't believe me or were just ignoring it, were no help. The only person who seemed to take an interest in my nightmares was Jack, and not just because he felt obligated as my boyfriend to care about me, but also because he studied dreams as a hobby and enjoyed trying to decipher mine. The first few were rather dull, but the more time passed, the more gruesome my dreams got, and the more fun Jack could have with them. Not to say that Jack took pleasure in my terror; on the contrary, he was just as fearful as I was. I often worried that it was me he was afraid of...

I opened my eyes and I was back in the car. We were on our way home? Already? I hadn't seen any of the show. I didn't even remember leaving the venue. My damn dreams must have gotten worse. I'd have to call Jack as soon as I got home. I took a look out the window to see how close we were and was confused when I saw a road I didn't recognize. How curious. Adrian wouldn't take a new route; he was too consistent. Where were we going?

Suddenly, we pulled over in where I assumed was the middle of nowhere. Everyone got out of the car, so I followed. Observing my surroundings, I noticed that there was no pavement before, behind, or on either side of the car. Just grass, and forest in the near distance. We were in the center of a clearing.

"What is this about?" I asked. My voice echoed, which startled me, and I turned swiftly to find that I was now all alone. The car was still right there behind me, but my friends were nowhere to be found. Part of me wanted to get back in the car, drive away out of fear and panic, and never look back. Another part wanted to dart into the forest and heroically save my friends. Yet another part of me wanted to stay right where I was and imagine all of the horrible things that could be lurking in the shadows, just waiting to attack.

I had to take the second option. Rather than live as a coward without my friends, I would die trying to find them.

After a while, I saw a blur of bleach-blonde hair far ahead of me. "Stacy!" I ran after her, yelling her name, and it was as if she couldn't hear me. She continued to run, at a bizarrely fast speed, and I was unable to catch up to her. Aside from her hair color, she was unrecognizable.

Stacy stopped running suddenly, and when I saw her turn around, I understood why she hadn't answered to her own name. The grey wolf before me, carrying Stacy's head in its mouth, watched me for five seconds, then turned and ran off.

I tried to run after it, but I couldn't. Instead, I lost control of my legs and collapsed to the ground. I cried softly, trying not to be heard by that man-eating beast, but my whimpers soon evolved into wails and I could care less. If the wolf never came for me, I would lie there and scream myself to death.

I was distracted from my mourning by a series of growls and grunts. I traced the familiar sounds to a small, fiery-red-haired girl alongside a fervent, dark-haired male engaged in a battle with a grey wolf. As soon as I got to my feet, the wolf focused all its attention on me. Standing there in awe, Livy and Adrian faded into the background as the creature sprinted toward me at full speed. It collided with me in the next instant and knocked all the wind out of me. Paralyzed and helpless, I could do little but watch as the wolf leaned in for the kill.