The Wild

-7- The Kidnapping

Copyright © 2014. All Rights Reserved.

I was hardly able to say her name to warn her when it rose up into the light of the campfire, its head nearly skimming the trimmed branches of the lodgepole pines. As it grew closer, the dark fur on its chest gave way to its two front paws that were now hooked due to the fact that it was on two legs, ready to pounce.

Amaya turned just in time to scream, "Holy shit what is that?!" She screamed bloody murder and made a frantic dash towards the house. I scrambled from my chair and lurched away from the fire as it snarled through sharp teeth meant to cut through meat. Hardly able to stand looking at the beast, I ran for the front door, stumbling when Amaya's foot caught on one of the rocks on the path going up to the house.

At that point the creature pounced for us. Unable to contain it any longer, I let out a wailing scream and grabbed for Amaya's hand, intending to drag her up the steps if I had to. On four legs, its hunches were raised and spiked with tall-standing bristles of fur, and its ears, which were perked and pointed, resembled that of a dog's.

It missed Amaya's leg by an inch, but its claw still latched onto her shoe and was probably long enough to score marks on her flesh inside. "L-Lily!" she shrieked, as terrified as I was.

My heart was pounding so hard in my chest I feared it might burst from my ribcage. The sobs that shook me inside and out made it impossible to breath, and eventually my grip on Amaya started to loosen.

She was kicking and screaming. Attack after attack she tried helplessly to detach the claw from her shoe, but unfortunately her laces were tied too tight. I was sure we were both goners. Even if it did get Amaya, and I was still somehow able to overcome my overwhelming guilt and horror, I would never be able to walk a few feet before it came for me next.

Its muzzle was wrinkled back into a chest-rumbling snarl that broke off suddenly into a gut-wrenching wail. It rose up to its two feet, easily lifting Amaya's leg off the ground before the claw unhooked itself. With a fatal cry, it turned towards the forest and swished its long, furry tail back at us. It had enough force to cause a tornado in my front yard.

Amaya dissolved into a fit of terror, unable to stop herself from sobbing hysterically and clinging onto my arm until her nails broke skin. She scrambled over to me as we both faced the animal as it fell, slowly but surly, into the path of a familiarly stout woman with a gun cradled in her arms.

Perhaps I blacked out and this is just some insanely weird dream. Everything felt wrong when Mary Karsten had a gun in her arms.

"M-Mary, I-" I started helplessly, feeling bent and broken as if someone had tore my soul right out of me.

She ran up to us, panting and even in the dark I could see her flushed face. I could vaguely hear the whining cries of the creature that sounded like a wounded puppy rather than a beast nearly twice as tall as myself when it stood on its hind legs. Hearing it reminded me that what happened actually did happen.

"Quick, I need rope. Someone get me rope," Mary ordered, mouth running a mile a minute as she frantically set the gun down against the porch railing and ran back to the creature. When she looked back at Amaya and I, both tumbled against each other with the most bizarre expressions on our faces, she shouted louder, "Now!"

Still in a foggy haze, I stumbled up the steps of my own house, avoiding the fallen gutter, and entering my domain that felt vaguely eerie after that entire scene. Out of all the people who could have saved us from a rabid dog-hybrid beast, Mary Karsten was the woman for the job. Mary. Karsten. How crazy could this day get?