Drops of Crimson

Chapter Two

Iris and Thomas went home after dinner and left me to cash out and lockup.

Not too cold out tonight, I think to myself. I decide to sit on the bench just outside and relax a bit before I start driving. Work was pretty quiet today, but sometimes it's nice to just enjoy the outdoors. I look up to the sky and see that there is no moon tonight, making everything seem darker than usual.

I take in a deep breath of the air and let it fill my lungs completely before exhaling and I watch the small cloud that forms in the air from it.

The sound of a howl in the distance is enough to give me goosebumps, which seem to raise as more howls resonate with it. It seems like a sad-sounding chorus. It sounds like they are in mourning, almost.

I shiver from the slight cold, so I decide that it is time to head to my car to leave.

As I get up I look across the street and I see what I assume to be a middle-aged man leaning against the corner of a store. His disheveled hair and grisly beard is all can really make out from across the street, but it's enough to make me want to get in my car faster. His head jerks towards me at the sound of my keys jiggling; I can't see his eyes, but I know he's looking at me. He makes me nervous, but I nod my head at him in acknowledgement but he just stands there unmoving. Okay, time to leave now.

I unlock my door and hop in without another glance. Plugging in my music, I quickly lock in my seat belt and start my drive towards home. It's about a 30-minute drive from where I work to my house, but the drive is so worth it.

For one, I get to see Iris multiple times a week, and two, the view on the drive is so refreshing. The highway is encased by a forest on both sides of it, and it's so dense that you can't see much within it.

The road bends and I follow like a fish in a current. Not much traffic tonight, I think to myself.

Usually I meet quite a few vehicles on the road, but tonight is different. There's probably just something going on tonight.

Out of the corner of my eye I see my headlight's reflect off of something, and before I know it, it runs right in front of me. I pound on my breaks and the car skids to a stop right in front of the animal.

In that moment, I don't hear anything but the pounding in my ears as I stare straight into the eyes of something strange and beautiful all at once. The deathly, bright blue eyes seem reflective against my headlights. It's fur so black that it looks almost like a dark blue and a strangely shaped white patch on its front leg.

I swear we stare at each other for minutes upon minutes, unmoving, but I know it has only been seconds. Just like that, as quickly as it had came, it darts off across the highway and into the darkness of the forest.

Shaking my head, knuckles white against the steering wheel, I slowly start moving forward again. At least I am close to my house.

There have been reports of sightings 40 miles from here, but none that close to us. It's one thing to hear about it, but when you actually see it for yourself, that's when it becomes true and real. It just seems that you yourself will never see it.

I can't take my mind off of it and I keep thinking that it might jump out again, so I drive slowly for the last two miles.

I pull into my driveway and I don't waste a second getting into my house. No way am I getting eaten alive by that thing. If there is one around here, there might be more.

I take my jacket off, set my wallet down and head to my bedroom to sketch what I saw.

A few hours later I am done my sketch and have coloured in the eyes of the wolf. I couldn't perfectly get the colour of the eyes on paper, but I can still feel them burning into my mind. I stare at the drawing for as long as I can examining it and remembering everything... It was kind of a close call.