Shift | Complete ✔️

6 | Butterfly Wings

I don't know how long I laid there for, if I was even really there at all. My only focus was the ringing in my ears that throbbed the sharpest of shrills in a state of hypnotic rhythm.

I was too scared to breathe. But like every animal, one's instinct is to survive, so tentatively, and as if barely registering, I stayed in my cocooned form on the snow trying desperately to pretend I was dead.

Were they toying with me? Had they decided to draw it out, was my death not satisfaction enough?

And then I heard him. The first of an echo of symphonic gnarling snarls that hovered from above. The heat of him seeping into my exposed cheek as I yearned for a quick end.

"Please..."

I didn't know who I was pleading to. Barely audible but to myself, I dared not move as I felt his monstrous form atop me.

Darting and turning, dizziness encased me as I watched four black paws spin around my vision, growls erupting with each turn as snow spat across my face with each sudden movement from the beast.

Wisps of fur stroked my exposed skin as he moved from above. Each stroke sliced like a knife, my body in a state of hyper-arousal as he refused to get off of me.

Was he protecting me from the others?

And as quickly as I realized he was atop of me, the bitter cold of the terrain slapped me to my senses as he lurched off of my body, and into the neck of an oncoming wolf.

Struck my momentary madness I tried to push myself upright as I watched aghast at the scene before me.

He. The wolf. The leader, lunged at another, before hastily throwing it down into the snow. Its whimpers whistled through the trees as the behemoth form above it held onto its neck until a sickening snap silenced all others.

The rawness of my hands left me numb as I clawed to anything behind me. Blindly feeling for a tree root, a stick, a rock- anything to defend myself.

I watched in horror as the leader's display of ferocity bent the others to his will, as the pack that was chasing me before scattering into the distance like flecks of ash against the lace covered backdrop.

Until... until it was just he, and I.

Refusing to take my eyes off the beast, he kept his back to me as he stood still. Too still.

This was it. Him versus me.

Scampering backwards, my hand brushed the base of a tree as I dragged myself against it. I wasn't naive enough to believe it could shield me from him. It had the opposite effect as it forced me to stay upright, baring witness to the display before me.

Sweeps of the lilac sunset patterned the snow. I was thankful that before I died, I would witness something beautiful. It was a odd focus of course, but it brought me a split second of tranquility before he turned to face me.

Keeping my vision on the sunset sky, I took my time closing my eyes, knowing it would be last time I'd ever do so. I didn't want my final moments marred by the beast. I had accepted that he would take me, but I was going to at least choose to face it without fear, without granting him the pleasure of seeing my face etched with terror before he gripped my neck like the wolf before me. No.