To Dust

The Accident

Robin

The wind blew in and moved my long, reddish blonde hair and made me close my eyes cause they watered when autumn wind blew in them. I flipped up my black coat's collar and tightened the tie of the red scarf around my neck, hopelessly trying to warm myself.

I must be crazy for coming to this area of town, specially at this time. I was told that I was crazy by many people but now I was believing it myself. not only I decided to come to Hilltop during in a windy evening, but I was also trespassing a private property. And not just any private property, everyone in Maine knew the Hilltop Mansion's family were not the people to mess with.

But now I had to come and start drawing. my right hand which was holding the drawing notebook pressed to my coat on my chest was getting colder and colder by the minute. starting to think I can't even draw anymore. I wish instead of my tight jeans and black converse shoes I had chosen something warmer or at least grabbed a glove.

I found the mansion incredibly beautiful, specially during autumn and I couldn't fight the urge to make a sketch so I took the chance before I head to cafe to do it.

I stopped as I finally saw it. it really was a beautiful mansion. built during the 1800's it was still good as new. of course a lot had been done to it. the mansion was never used after the first world war when it's owners died in Europe. years later in 1954 it was bought by a man called Sir Isaac Bradford. the repairs took a year but finally his family moved in in 1955 and has lived there ever since. he died of course but his grandson still lives there with his family.

The mansion itself was a masterpiece and with all the repairs it was a dream come true. the walls were made of red brick with long ivy growing on them. the gable roof was a dark green and made of tiles. the window frames were white Victorian style. the whole mansion and the garden was protected by a 2 meter metal fence and gate that barely ever opened except for guests.

Still, the mansion in that autumn with red and gold autumn leaves among ever green pine cone tress and the setting set created an extraordinary beauty that I needed for my sketch book.

I found the perfect angle and sat down on the rock and placed the notebook on my laps and started drawing. the basics turned out ok but with the fences and the whole trying to keep the distance thing I couldn't get a good view of the details, so I did the dumbest thing possible. I got up and walked closer to the mansion. now I was already trespassing but nobody cared cause it was the forest but now I was getting way too close to the mansion.

The next thing that happened started an entire chain of accidents that changed my entire life. many times I wonder where I was now if someone had called me then, I would have been seen from the window and ran way, it had rained or I had just decided to stay home. but none of those happened and everything went exactly how it would and lead here.

A wolf attacked.

It was so intense that I didn't even notice the direction it came from but in the blink of an eye, a huge ball of fur was growling on me while I screamed my head off. I wondered why no one heard it at the mansion or what the wolf was doing there in the first place.

I couldn't ask any of those question as it tackled me down and pinned me down and I saw it's features for the first time. first of all it was huge. I don't know if it was because of my point of view or are wolves really that big but it was. it's body was covered in reddish brown fur and his white, sharp teeth were bared just inches away from my face. but what caught my attention was his eyes. Shining Emerald Green. I didn't know if that was a normal color for wolves' eyes but it was mesmerizing.

There was another thing though. as soon as he tackled me I felt something like an electric shock in me. and it didn't even hurt. it was... actually a pretty good feeling. I could tell it noticed it too because his eyes widened looking at me while it had me pinned down. I was panting heavily out of fear. I could feel his paws holding tight against my shoulders and I knew he could kill me any second...But he didn't.

He just looked down at me, his emerald green eyes staring straight into my light blue ones. even at that time of fear I could tell there was something about this wolf by his eyes. this went on for a couple of second until he slowly got off me, taking a few steps back. I immediately crawled back while keeping my eyes on him. my notebook was thrown about two feet away from me but I only looked at the wolf with fear.

He kept his eyes on me too while he slowly panted. but then with a single growl, I jumped up and ran. I couldn't tell if he was giving me a sign to get out of there with that growl or he was changing his mind about his prey but I didn't stick around to find out. I left my notebook in there but I didn't care. I just ran and ran away from that mansion and headed to town.