Revenge

Not a sound could be heard despite how hard Terri strained her ears. It was as if the world had somehow disappeared. Darkness encompassed her as well. She couldn't see anything. She couldn't hear anything. She might have thought herself dead if not for the faint smell of gardenia in the cold air that pressed against her naked body.

She tried to remember how she'd gotten where she was on the icy ground. She curled herself into a fetal position to try and warm her chilled bones.

She couldn't make her mind work. She couldn't conjure a single memory. If anyone had asked her name at that moment she wouldn't have been able to give it.

The silence was deafening and far more frightening than the cold. Had she gone deaf? Was she blind? She didn't know. But suddenly her smell became more acute. She smelled pine trees around her in every direction. There was also a musty hint, although she couldn't quite place it. Then there was the scent of gardenia, jasmine, honeysuckle and wild rose. Every smell was distinct and clear.

Terri finally rolled over on her back to look up at the dark sky. The moon had disappeared behind the clouds, which were thick and oppressing. She wasn't blind at all. There just wasn't any light.

Slowly, however, her eyes began to pick up dark shapes. The more she blinked, the clearer they became. She was in the woods that backed up to her parents' estate. She wasn't sure how she knew that, but she did. It comforted her because now she knew how to get back home.

Sitting up, she was surprised when everything began spinning around her. It was an unpleasant feeling. She put her head between her knees and waited for it to stop. It seemed to take minutes, but in truth it was just a few seconds.

More confident now, Terri rose to her feet balancing her weight against a nearby tree lest the dizziness return. It did not.

As thoughts came streaming back, she stood there wondering how she was going to explain to her parents that she apparently had gone sleep walking in the nude. They were ultra conservative and would be shocked to say the least.

Then it occurred to her that she didn't sleep in the nude. She always slept in shorts and a tank top. Where had her clothes gone?

Now that she could see better, Terri tried to get her bearings. She knew the woods like the back of her hand but at that moment, they seemed unfamiliar. She leaned against the tree and tried to remember what had happened.

Little blips of memory began popping back into her head. Jeremy. She'd been with her boyfriend, Jeremy. Of that she was suddenly certain. But where was he now?

She remembered throwing her jeans over her shorts and meeting him outside of her bedroom's French door. They were swing on the deck swing and making out when a sound had gotten their attention. Jeremy had gone to check it out near the edge of the woods. That was all she could remember.

Finally getting her bearings, Terri turned and began walking back toward her home. At least, she hoped she was moving in the right direction. She went several yards before she noticed something barring her pathway. Whatever it was, it wasn't moving. She assumed it might be some kind of animal, but as she got closer she could see it was not.

Terri recognized the blue shirt, although it was now covered in dirt and blood. "Jeremy!" she screamed; terror racking through her body. She ran forward to pull her beloved into her arms. But when she turned him over and saw his face, she crouched away from him, dragging herself through the leaves and dust.

Terri screamed and screamed until she couldn't get another sound to come out of her dry throat. Then she sat there whimpering like a kicked puppy dog.

She knew he was dead. She also knew that meant she was in trouble. Whatever had killed Jeremy would be back to kill her too. Strangely, at that moment, she didn't care.

At long last all of the sounds of the forest began streaming into Terri's brain. But they were so loud she thought they would drive her mad. She could hear the icy wind whistling through the trees. She heard animals scurrying in the woods. She could even hear the sound of insects as they moved across the ground. How was that even possible?

Every sight, every smell and every sound seemed magnified a hundred time. Although Terri knew not how, her senses were ridiculously acute. It was almost too much to bear.

Standing up once again, she began moving toward her home. She had to get help for herself and for her dead lover; although she knew he was beyond all help now.

A howl cut through the air. It was close by. Of that she was certain. She knew, however, that it couldn't have been what killed Jeremy. The claw marks she'd seen on his face were too large for any wolf she knew about.

Terri began running. She was cold, scared and hungry. She just wanted to get home.

Hungry. The word hit her hard it the gut, stopping her in her tracks. She was more than hungry. She was starved. She needed to find something to eat right away. The craving for food was driving her mad. That's when everything came flashing back.

She'd watched Jeremy enter the woods and followed behind him. It had been animal sounds that had attracted their attention. Wolves, as a matter of fact. She remembered thinking that strange given that none had been located in their area for decades.

Jeremy had gotten a ways ahead of her when she saw something jump at him in the dark. Fearing it was a wolf, she had scrambled backward while calling out her boyfriend's name.

It felled her lover within seconds and then turned its strange blue eyes in her direction. She remembered thinking its eyes were the same color as her fathers; a light powdery blue. It was the last memory she had before the animal's weight bore down on top of her.

It bit her. She remembered that now. It bit her throat. Reaching up to touch the spot, however, she found no wound. But blood came back with her hand. It had bit her. She knew it. But how could the bite have healed so quickly.

"We heal fast," a voice came from behind her. Terri turned to look into the eyes of her father. She tried to cover her body as best she could but then noticed that he, too, was naked.

Images began racing into her mind. After the wolf bit her, it moved away. Just as the moon disappeared into the clouds, its form changed from wolf to man. But not just any man. It was her father.

Running furiously at him she began pounding on her father's chest with her tiny fists; calling him every dirty name that came to mind. He held her at bay with a single hand.

"This is your destiny," he said. "This is what you were meant to be. You are no mere human, child. You are something stronger; something better."

"Better?" She screamed. "You killed a human being. You call that better?"

"I've killed many humans, child," he boasted. "So will you."

"Never!" Terri screamed, before another thought came into her mind. One she was unable to stop and one she immediately acted upon. "Except maybe YOU!"

At that moment the moon was released from its cloudy prison. A burning sensation shot through Terri's body and her bones began to crackle and pop. Before her mind gave into the wolf, she thought of only one thing. "Revenge."

It took only seconds for their human frames to disappear, leaving behind only the animal. One larger black wolf and one smaller white one. They circled one another snarling and marking their territory. But before long the two lunged together in a fight for supremacy.

The black wolf was stronger and cagier. The white was one more athletic and tricky. Plus she had hatred on her side.

They fought for hours; both wounded badly. In the end, however, only one walked away; turning into human form just as daylight began to show on the horizon. A slight lone form jumped in the pool to cleanse itself before entering the house.