Hunted

Alone, finally. Christine Mylfaen shivered in the autumn air as she trudged toward the north end of the campus. Clutching her red jacket closer to her body, she silently prayed that no one would see her. Tortured by day through her classmates’ constant torments and haunted at night by foreign dreams, Christine had little energy remaining to sustain her wild fears. Was it normal to be so obsessed with a wolf? Shaking in her hand was a flashlight whose wavering beam now shone upon a figure of a wolf cast in cement. There it was- once adorning Greek Row as a fraternity’s mascot, now abandoned to a small barren plot.

How real it looked. She placed her warm fingertips to the icy stone. Her breath was a visible vapor in the cold air, but hers was not the only one present. Within the faltering light of mortal making, the wolf leapt from its dusty pilaster and faced her. His florescent green eyes glistened like fireflies.

A low inhuman voice resounded in the dead stillness, “Hide, or hunt if you must, but you will be found by me.”

“Not if I find you first,” she replied unable to remove her eyes from his.

“So is it now a chase?”

“If it must,” the young woman said trembling beneath her padded crimson coat.
____________________________________________

A mist of rain shimmered down from the ebony clouded sky. The half hidden moon gave off little light in which the falling droplets eerily reflected. Leaving the library, the only institution open after nine, she bravely held her books as she spotted the clock tower displaying the time: quarter after ten.
Walking along the outside of the building with her shoulder inches from scraping the mortared walls, Christine cautiously moved homewards. A feeling of being watched overcame her and in shock, she dropped her notebooks.
Turning around, she noticed a pair of slanted lights-the visual orbs of Wolf. The scent of her perfume gave her away for the beast was sniffing the wafting air. The air within her own chest was expelled prematurely as she forcefully was pushed against the brick wall. He was standing now on his hind legs with his front paws upon her quaking abdomen. Christine felt her body tingle with numbness for she could not move; she was paralyzed in fear.

Claws dug deep into her fragile skin, sharp biting pain stung upon the bloody welts
that now lay across her whole midsection. Wolf returned to his normal position and jumped back onto all fours for his hind legs were sapped of strength. Instinctively, she turned her torn chest to the wall for protection. Before she could move along the wall away from her attacker, Wolf pounced against her backside tearing and nipping at her shirt with his teeth and claws. Christine closed her eyes to breathlessly pray. Moments after she did this, the pain stopped- for the mysterious creature had vanished.

She stumbled to remove herself from the site. Which way was Quinton Hall? The shock of pain and fear had scrambled her mind. Frightened and confused, Christine wandered into the dormitory with her shivering arms around her chest. “What’s wrong with you?” someone had spoken up, but she was too preoccupied to respond as she numbly fumbled with her keys. When the correct one was finally inserted into the lock, she discovered the door had been previously left open.

Pansy, with hair striped in pink and blue, sat on the edge of the bed intently focused on the latest installment of a brooding vampire novel series.

“Have you ever heard of dancing with wolves?” Christine breathlessly asked her roommate.

Pansy murmured with a nod.

“Well, I have had that chance. Apparently.” The girl looked up from the paperback and quickly cringed as Christine lifted up her shirt displaying the crosshatch pattern of fine lines across her torso.

“A Kappa Chi Delt did that to you? Does it hurt? Well… I didn’t think you were that type of girl,” a shocked Pansy rambled twirling a braid of pink with her finger.

At Tri State University, the fraternity Kappa Chi Delta was synonymous with hard core binge parties and even wilder orgy fests. Their mascot of the wolf had been a fitting choice, since many of the members had declared themselves untamed woman hunters always on the prowl for more action. Girls on campus had now begun referring to the Kappa Chi Delts as “the big bad wolves”.


“It was not a man, Pansy. It was a wolf, and yes- it does hurt.”

“So he was a werewolf?” she asked agog.

“No, this was a real wolf, not some kind of fantasy from those books of yours.
Is this normal, Pansy?”

“Nothing about you, Christine, is normal.”

‘And that coming from a punk rock dance major that can gargle the national anthem’, the troubled sophomore thought.

“You got to carry a weapon to protect yourself. I wonder if they sell guns that fire silver bullets,” Pansy mused pressing a blue painted fingernail to her bottom lip.

She dug out a vial of mace from under her mattress and handed it to her roommate.
“You got to be careful, Christine.”

Backing away from the offensive item, Christine shook her head. “I will be okay. No need to worry.” The brunette gave a falsely weak smile.

“Yeah, with werewolves on the prowl. If you meet any handsome vampires looking for a cute dancer to love, let me be the first to know.”

Painfully rubbing her tender wounds with her forearm, Christine went into the bathroom in search for a first-aid kit. ‘What just happened to you, Christine?’ She asked herself as she daubed ointment over her barren chest wincing with each application. ‘Why is this happening to me?’

Mania (recalling a lesson in her Psychology class) was defined as an excessive and extreme interest or compulsion. With these thoughts overcoming her life, she seemed to have developed an obsession for wolves or in other words: lykomania.

The next few days and nights grew to be grueling efforts to stay sane. The prey can never rest fully unless the hunter becomes extinct. Christine knew this all too well, for not only was she hunted herself, but she also was a zoology major specializing in animal behavior.

Pansy stared aimlessly at her roommate. “Christine, all you ever do is study and when you aren’t doing that, you’re walking around campus guarding yourself as if something’s going to jump out and attack. No wonder everyone pokes jokes at you. I’m saying this as a friend- Lighten up. The entire art department is throwing a party at the lakefront tonight. Why don’t you join me? A lot of cool people will be there.”

Lots of people? There was safety in numbers; going to the party might be her best bet of avoiding Wolf. With this thought, Christine nodded. “I’ll go.”

Clothed in a satin burgundy dress and wearing her favorite shoes, she joined Pansy on the sidewalk. Pansy, in what appeared to be a less starched version of a black tutu, daintily skipped beside to her trying to dab on the last bit of her glittery makeup. “Glad you’re coming, Chris. We’re gonna have a riot! Us girls livin’ it up on the party scene.”

A group of artists was up ahead of them chatting loudly with joyful laughter. Pansy squealed running in her canvas low tops waving her hands in greeting. “Hey, guys! Wait up!”

Christine attempted to follow suit, but her graceful attire restricted her marathon paced plans. “Pansy!” she shouted not wanting to fall or scuff her shoes.

Noticing the group ahead was gaining distance, she walked swiftly. The forested grove along the sides of the pathway grew more mysteriously dangerous with every step she made. Someone was following her; Christine bit her lip and bravely looked back. A dark figure of a long tailed canine was trotting along the pathway sniffing the air as he went. He was only several paces behind and she could sense his stride quickening. Frightened, the brunette fled off the pavement and clumsily into the thick brush. Branches scraped the sides of her legs and tugged at strands of her hair as she forced her way forward. Her heart pounded quickly into the drums of her ear while her lungs gasped the cold air in an old college try to keep up.

Staggering in the damp earth, Christine began to regret wearing her two inch heeled pumps. The heel of her right shoe became lodged between the risen roots of the massive trees. She attempted to move her foot aside in attempt to retrieve it, but feeling the hungered beast nearing her, she fled onwards barefoot. Her breaths became wheezes as her heart throbbed madly within her chest. With her hand hidden deep in her purse, she held onto the handle of a kitchen knife.

Should have taken Pansy’s pepper spray, she thought ruefully cringing at the thought of drawing blood with a blade.

He was adamantly chasing her, but to where? The wolf, as a hunter, always had a plan. Christine looked around breathlessly at the strip of dimly lit houses. She was on Greek Row next the Kappa Chi Delta house. Just then, it occurred to her- he was leading her into his den. She could hear the crunching of fallen leaves, the slight rustle of a swaying bush, and the inhuman growl of angered lust.

Reaching for the knife in her purse, the hunted prey called into the dark, “Stop right there or I’ll cut you!”

Brandishing the blade, she spun around attempting to detect his next move within this cloak of darkness. Christine squinted hoping to sight the faintest vaguest shadow of her attacker. Where could he be? Suddenly, she felt his soft fur rub against her legs and she shivered.

“I found you, Mylfaen.”

“How did you know my name?”

“Mulfaen, Christine. I know much about you: age twenty, Zoology major, resides at Quinton Hall with Pansy Dulton.”

“Pansy? What are you going to do to her?” the young woman protectively retorted.

“Nothing, I have only the taste for you.”

His warm body edged closer to her silky bodice, now cold and tense. She fell to the ground, both hearing and feeling his exhalations upon her neck. A slight morbid odor of musk resonated from his fanged mouth. Gripping the knife, Christine plunged it into flank of the hairy beast.

Sounds of shattering glass and howling peals of pain echoed from the house behind her. The lights, now gleaming brightly from the half open windows of the KXΔ house, had blinded the young brunette as she lay dazed upon the frost covered lawn. The back door opened revealing a figure of a man. With head facing against the grass, she peered weakly up to view the onlooker. Of all of his features, the only one she could distinguish off of his shadowed face was his bright green eyes.
_______________________________________________

Christine woke to the whirring sounds of a machine. She lay uncomfortably upon a bed with wires attached firmly to her skin. Her head ached and her vision had simply become a blurred fog of colors. A nurse entered into the room; noticing her patient was now awake and visibly confused she explained, “You had a blackout caused by an aneurysm in the brain. Blackouts are just one of the many symptoms. You might have died. Luckily, someone found you before it got any worse.”

“What are some of the other symptoms?”

“Well, dizziness, dementia, paralysis, hallucinations…”

My wolf -just a hallucination- so I am normal after all, she thought mindfully rubbing her bandaged head.

With the nurse gone, Christine drifted back to sleep.
Suddenly, the door broke open revealing a frantic Pansy with streams of glittered mascara dried over her cheeks. “I’m so so so sorry! It took me twenty minutes to notice you weren’t there. Will you ever forgive me? It’s all my fault! I’m such a horrible friend! Why didn’t I notice sooner? I’m such a dipwad. This is my fault!”

“Pansy, calm down. It’s not your fault.”

The pink and blue haired female threw her arms around Christine almost knocking over an IV bag with her elbow.

“Oh, by the way if any of the staff asks, I’m your sister. Only immediate family members are allowed to visit you this soon, so… for now.”

Weakly managing a smile, the blurry-eyed patient silently thanked her.

“Boy, you look like you’ve been mauled by a pack of dogs! Maybe I should let you rest. I’ll come back later. Bye-Bye, sis!” With this, she left dramatically blowing a kiss in Christine’s direction.

On her way out, Pansy noticed a young attractive man likely a senior at the university walking in her direction. “Well, hello, hello,” she replied flirtatiously. The girl looked at his bright green eyes, then when noticing wrapped around his left arm was a bloodied tourniquet; Pansy felt the coldest shiver run through her arms and down to her legs.

Amid the noisy purr of the metallic contraption at her side, Christine attempted to close her eyes once again. Feeling something gnawing on her sheets at the end of the bed, she looked up. Her vision was now entirely clear -for it was the dark furred outline of a large wolf bearing a pair of glowing eyes. “You found me, Wolf.” She painfully whispered into the empty room.


Pansy returned the next afternoon with a gift that was accompanied with a beaming smile.
In her hands was a small box and she opened the top to display its precious contents: Three gleaming bullets.
“Silver bullets,” the dancer whispered so softly that Christine had to read her lips.
“How did you get them?”
“Internet, of course. They sell anything on the Internet!”
Christine plucked one out of the carton and held it firmly between her fingers as she began to examine it.

Pansy prattled as she pushed Christine’s wheelchair towards the exit. “It’s so great to have you back, Sis. The last two days were so lame! And you’re just in time- for I got the DVD of the newest book in the MoonLust series; you’ll gonna just love it!”

Approaching the two was her dreaded hunter; she could never mistake those eyes. Reaching confidently for the satchel at her side, Christine withdrew a Reuger .36. Its chrome plated barrel reflected fiercely against the light of the sun.

“Stop!” Christine cocked the gun towards him.
He backed from her wheelchair in shock.

“Don’t act so surprised. You know so much about me; you would have known I own a concealed weapons license. Well, now you know how it feels to be the prey rather than the hunter. Just in case you weren’t informed, this pistol’s loaded with silver bullets. When one of these goes through you, it will be the end.”

“Yeah, Werewolf!” Pansy spat aiming to kick his shin.
“Werewolf? Is that what you two think I am?” He nervously laughed.
“I don’t know what or who you are. All I know is I don’t want to be your next victim. If this comes to the death of one of us, then so be it.”
“Name’s Jeremy Schmidt, just another student at the University, an average guy who wants to return these to you.” Christine’s notebooks noisily fell to the ground.
“He’s a wolf, can’t you see?” the brunette said confidently to Pansy.
“I see a man,” her friend responded back, “A Kappa Chi Delt.” She pointed to the insignia KXΔ emblazoned on his backpack, which he carried.
Christine squinted attempting to study the figures in front of her. Pansy, definitely human, stood now at the back of a dark beast with fur, tail and those piercing florescent eyes.
“Leave me alone, Wolf! I will shoot.”

The wolf cowered slightly, his tail and nose dropped towards the pavement. His soft hair seemed inviting enough to stroke and his downward eyes of jaded green had enlarged themselves so innocently. With body quavering, why would any fellow animal desire to destroy him?

His huntress lowered her pistol wistfully gazing at the beautiful creature standing in front of her. Now emotionally mute, she was at a loss for a spoken response.

“It’s over, if you want it to be,” was his reply as he carefully stepped backwards keeping his sight on Christine.
As he walked off, Christine noticed the wolf’s shadowed silhouette was that of a human.
(2749 words)