Inhumane

003

PAIGE

Eyes alert and watchful, scanned the forest from my position on a rocky outcrop far, far above. I was looking for life, movement, my targets. They roamed the forest in happy harmony, and I prowled the outskirts. Just beyond their strong scented marking places where they trampled a path from running the perimeter so often.

I always stayed out of reach, out of scenting range, but I wondered if they knew anyways. It seemed like they might.

Lately, I had deliberately forgotten my sketchbook at home, there were only two pages left to fill, and instead brought a bow with me. A knife hitched to the belt of my pants as well, and a tripwire I could set up if I wanted. I never felt like it, though.

It wasn't until a significant misstep that I ever encountered any trouble with these creatures. It was the Alpha I came in contact with. He was a large, black wolf. His ruff was always puffed out along the upper ridge of his spinal column, always alert and aggressive in the forest.

He noticed me moving down to head home one evening as the sun was setting and his eyes followed. Those eyes held intelligence, dark grey, almost black from my distance. They weren't the typical lupine color most wolves possessed. Then again none of these wolves really fit that look.

Except one.

The Beta of the pack, almost larger than the Alpha due to his protective nature, his coat was a blue-gray color. He had the most beautiful yellow toned eyes I had ever seen. I would dream of them often, finding them slipping into my subconscious and appearing in the trees or the golden clay. Or, occasionally on the face of a man... The features always blurred out and distorted. Though I'd never tell anyone of this.

Who would I tell anyways?

I had stared at the Alpha for too long, and he let out a growl I could detect even from my standpoint further above. Letting my gaze drop with a shiver of my shoulders, I began the descent again. Each time I looked back however, he was following at distance, and he knew that I was watching.

When I hit the flat ground beneath the ridge, I was sprinting, my backpack knocking against my shoulder blades and tailbone. I pulled out my knife and ran with it, despite all warnings of danger. It was flee until I had to fight. But, we never fought, he gave me a wide berth of area around, consciously trotting at a slower pace. Teasing. I felt like prey.

Alpha wolf didn't stop either, not until I threw myself through the back slider and locked the door. My breath clouded the cold glass as I watched him dance along the tree line, piss on a bush, and then prance back on his way. As if he had won.

I suppose he did.

The next day, Dad and I set out traps. Spiked leg-holds, old conibears, and heavy duty snares. Conibears had been illegal for years by then, dad didn't care. Devices littered our property for acres upon acres, and my father pointed every one out to me. Made me take notes, promise I would remember where these killing machines were. I imagined it was because he thought if I was stupid enough to lead one home once, I would do it again.

The contraptions were well camouflaged and looked severe in their hidden states. It sent a jolt of unease through me whenever I looked at them or came across one.

Twice daily, we would check the traps, but I didn't think the wolves would be so stupid to venture that far again. My father, however, wasn't so convinced. He started leaving a loaded gun by the back door. Ready to blow one up at anytime.

A week later, I was perched on a rock, lower down by the gray brook that fed into the mountain river that would soon begin to rage with winter. My camera sat beside me but I hadn't touched it in awhile. In fact, it was as if nearly all the old aspects of my life dissipated when Death's contraptions met my hands only six years earlier. Pictures were not given my time anymore, neither was the act of drawing or writing. Every waking minute was handed to the hunt, every aspect of my life. My childhood, wonder, and curiousity in tow. I watched them wave goodbye at the door, they stood outside the windows like a puppy left out in the rain. Waiting for my previous self to let them back in.