I Heard The Wolves Howl

Joanna

The spring sun had melted the ice from the tree trunks and the roof of the outhouse. Pearl-like-droplets fell down to the lingering snow, creating tiny holes in it. In the air, there was a smell of sandy ground of the driveway peeking through the melting snow, and the smell of water gathering in its potholes. The sun was shining low in the orange morning sky and it warmed up the light-green walls of the house. The dark-green paint on the window frames was pattering. I put a thermos bottle filled with hot coffee in my backpack alongside the red stripes of cloth, I could tie those to the trees so I would find my way back home. The kitchen smelled of bacon I had made for breakfast, oranges and peaches and fresh coffee. I put on my light-brown quilted overalls, a red scarf and a knit cap and after that I jumped into my old, discolored ski boots. The skis themselves were waiting outside, leaning against the wall.

The snow in the field was too soft and fragile. However, in the thick pine forest the trees covered the snow from sunlight and I would still be able to ski there. My breath was warm and swirled in to the cold air in circles. I looked straight at the sun and squinted my eyes. I would have no more than couple of hours before the sunset and the dark. After that the temperature would drop quickly and I should get back immediately.

We had moved into the estate recently. I had not had the time to get familiar with the surrounding nature yet. I had read though, that there were ancient caves from the time before the ice age as well as some stone age caverns just nearby the house. John was in the city with the children so I had free-time to myself. I was planning to find the caves. I was satisfied with myself for I had remembered to take the red cloths with me, that way I could not get lost. I had taken a hammer and some nails too, to attach them to the trees with.

After some time, the sun started to set behind the tree trunks and it got colder. The freezing wind from the north started to rise and I turned around. I had not found anything and felt bad about it. During the last kilometer the forest had gotten thicker and darker. I tried to make out the red piece of cloth I had lastly nailed to a tree but it was too dark. I pushed myself with the ski poles and rushed forward. Suddenly, I felt the snow under me caving in. I screamed in panic as I fell, the skis scraped against the stone. It felt like a long fall before I got painfully stuck in a narrowing shaft between two rocks.

The skis had broken into pieces, my other leg was twisted so that I could see the bone sticking out from my knee. I was hyperventilating and it only made me sink deeper into the tight gap. I cried and screamed but no one could hear me. Eventually, my voice was only a raspy whisper and I tried to calm down. A sharp pain was cutting through my sides and my shoulder.

Oh dear God, I thought. There would be no one coming after me for days since no one knew about my little trip and John and the kids would not be home before Sunday. The crippling panic made the hot tears run into my cheeks again and again. How could I ever survive. I looked up as much as I could move my neck and saw how the huge rock grew above me towards the night sky and its stars. I was cold, so cold. I would not make it with my injuries, I knew that, and I could not climb up, I had fell at least couple of meters.

I lowered my head. I was shaking. I did not know whether it was due to the fear or the cold. My breath turned white around me and I felt a pressure against my sides. What about my intestines? I was sure, I had broken a few ribs. How long I would last in this condition? I had nothing to eat or drink as my backpack had fallen even further down and I could not reach it.

Then I heard something: a rustling, a crack. I breathed quietly and listened. Was it a human or an animal? Suddenly, dark figures emerged above me. Wolves? I was trembling and staring at them. The animals circled around the shaft, they could smell my scent. Luckily, I was too far down for them to reach me. I started sobbing softly.

“Oh, if only you could help me.” I got only a low growl for an answer.

After a while, the animals gave up and left. I felt even more lonesome. My head was throbbing and I feared that I was losing consciousness. It started snowing. Soft snowflakes fell on my face. I heard noises again. This time, they sounded like footsteps.

“Is there someone? Help!”

No answer. Then a shadow appeared above me. I sighed in disbelief.

“HELP! HELP ME, PLEASE!”

John

Joanna had not called me since Friday and I was worried. After we got home, I immediately noticed that something was not right. The skis were missing. From that I figured out that Joanna had gone to the forest to find those ancient caves she had talked to me about several days earlier.

My instinct was telling me something was wrong. I called to my parents who came to watch the children, and then I left to look for my wife. Joanna’s trail was easy to follow as she had nailed pieces of red cloth in to the trees to mark the way. My clever girl.

Time went by and the sun was setting. The red cloths stopped. After that, I picked a direction and walked forward for 15 minutes. I found nothing. Then I got back to the last red mark and picked another direction, repeated the procedure but nothing again. The third time would be the last as I should already be getting back to the house.

My feet were getting tired of walking in the snow. I had frostbites on my face. Suddenly, I stopped. I could see something ahead. A figure? I started making towards it in a fast pace but as I got closer my eyes grew lager. I sighed in terror. Between two big pine trees was a woman tied up in an x-position.

“Joan...”

Joanna was covered in blood, her clothes were torn, her skin white as the snow. Along the lifeless body there were huge cut marks as if an animal had clawed her stomach open. The intestines were missing. The snow under her had turned red. I felt like I was going to faint. I dropped to my knees.

I was breathing rapidly and the air turned white around me. I did not know where the sky was and were the ground, everything was spinning. I tried to calm down, to look up, to hold my breath. Above the trees a pale full moon was shining and somewhere far away wolves begun to howl.

 

Safe

Regina Adams

The dark silence of the night surrounded me, threatening. Only thing breaking it was the ticking of an old oakwood grandfather clock on the wall above my bed. It was a family treasure. However, it had not chimed once in the past few decades even though it was seemingly working as it should and I kept winding it. I did not want to pay a fortune to someone so they would come and look at it, fix it maybe, so I was completely fine with it staying silent. Actually, I was already sleeping light, so I needed no more noises to keep me on my toes at night. Not even sleeping pills worked anymore. I stayed up mainly because of the fear. You see, years ago I was told that this would be the age I die at and so, I was terrified that the prediction could come true.

 “When you turn 83, that is when you will die.” That was what the gypsy woman had assured me. It had been five months now since my 83th birthday. Five months that I had lived in fear. But even though I waited for my demise, at the same time I had been readying myself for the battle. I was not going to die, that I had decided. I was in good medical condition, both physically and mentally, regardless of the fact that I was currently living in a one-room apartment of a row-house meant for elderly and on my kitchen counter there was a plastic container full of all kinds of prescription medication, vitamins, lactic acid bacteria and so on. I had no idea which one should be taken when and what pills were for what, I just took something if I ever felt bad somehow. But I never had any severe illnesses or disorders. However, I feared death anyway, it was almost a phobia to me. I was not sure why. 

So, I had stopped going out or even opening the door for anyone else but the housekeepers and food service workers who visited me regularly and even with them I had agreed on precise days and times they needed to come at. Out of those times, I opened my door to no one. I had no family alive and no friends, I had never kept many anyway. And I had heard that there were thieves going around from door to door, robbing helpless, elderly people who invited them in. The old man next-door had been robbed twice but well, he had a bad memory anyway, so he probably forgot to be more careful after the first time.

I never opened the curtains covering the view from my only window, either. The view was not worth it as I did not care to stare at the house facing this one and the muddy, plain yard between the two. Also, I felt a lot safer when I was hiding from everything and everyone. I had put rugs all over my bathroom floor, you see, many old people died when they slipped while taking a shower and I wanted to eliminate that possibility. I also used slippers everywhere in the apartment so I would not slip anywhere else either. Food came to me from the food service as I dared not to use my oven or the stove in order to cook. I might cause a fire, after all. So I just microwaved all my food, even though I was not too keen on using that either. Then, I smashed or diced all the food so there were no possibility for me to choke on it. Hard candy and such, I did not eat at all.

I used any electronics carefully. I had a television, that I sometimes watched the news on, but normally I kept that unplugged. I had also an old radio I loved to listen to, and a mobile phone in case of an emergency but that was all. All the pointy corners of tables and other furniture I had covered with cloths, so I could not hurt myself on them if I somehow were to fall. By the years, I had hunched over, losing height, so I asked the janitor to lower down my hat rack and some cabinets so that I never had to reach too high as that could be dangerous too. I was prepared in every possible way and saw no chance for the gypsy’s prediction to come true. Unless, I would have a stroke of some kind, and that was the very reason why I could not sleep at nights. I had called an ambulance so many times the medics were getting fed up with me.

“I think you are just having some digestion problems,” they said. Maybe, but you can never be too careful, I thought.

The smell of cigarettes and lilac perfume haunted me at nights. Something had convinced me years ago that the prediction was not to be taken lightly. Perhaps, it had been the alcohol or the dim lighting in the caravan and all the golden linen around me. I had felt dizzy, I remembered, scared. Last week I asked the janitor to put another lock on my door, just in case. All the silverware I had hidden under my mattress and I used only dispensable cutlery as I could not accidentally cut myself with those. In addition to all that, I kept a mug full of water on a counter all times so I remembered to drink enough. The summer had been dry and hot, after all. The mug was at least 50-years-old and had painted lilies on it.

Five months later

I was dreaming that a cold wind was brushing against my face and the evening sun was setting. Suddenly, I woke up and realized, I was standing in the middle of the room. It was dark, the curtains were closed and it was winter, so I could not tell if it was day or night. I had an unexplainable feeling that I had dreamed of the old grandfather clock. In my dream it had been chiming. I blinked my eyes and waited for them to adjust to the darkness. I did not have my glasses on.

Then I saw something. Right in front of me, there was a tall man dressed in black. He stood there with his fingers crossed. His face was unmoving. I was frightened. He had broken in, I thought.

“Hello Regina, I'm here for you.”

“What do you mean? Go away or I will call the police!”

“Regina… Look behind you”, the man said inside my head. He did not open his mouth. I turned and faced my bed. To my horror, there was someone lying in it. It was me. The oakwood grandfather clock on the wall above my bed had fallen on me. It had crushed my head and face, I was bleeding.

“It's not possible...” I whispered.

“Regina, we all have our time, it is predestined. Your time is up. Come with me”, the man said and offered his hand to me. I shook my head.

“I was so careful. I thought of everything, there was nothing that could happen in the safety of my own home. The clock… I never thought of that, though.”

“When you refused to give up, I had to be more creative. I am sorry, Regina, but we need to leave now. It's gonna be three days before the food service comes, your body will have to wait before it is found.”

I stared at my face that had caved into my broken skull and was covered in blood and pieces of wood. I was scared. I felt pain and terror like never before. There was no white light. I did not know where I was going. Slowly, the room around me disappeared. In my dream, the grandfather clock chimed but had it been a dream or reality?