Hunger of the Wolf (17 page)

She must have drifted off because when Amb
er opened her eyes again it was
pitch black
,
and it took a moment
for
her vision to adjust
.
S
he got up to turn the light
on
,
but
a noise from out
side caused her to stop just before
she flicked
the switch
. As she crept
to
wards
the window she heard it again, the unmistakable sound of footsteps on the front porch. At first she thought Kat must have returned
,
and she w
as about to open the door when her
sixth sense told her not to. She parted the curtains
slightly so she could look out
side,
but
the porch
was empty
,
an
d
Kat’s car was not in the driveway
.

She remained frozen for what seemed like an eternit
y with her ears strained
for mo
re sounds, but she heard nothing except the slight whistle of the wind through the trees
.
Telling herself it had
just
been
an
other
animal
looking for food
, Amber
switched the li
ght on and filled the kettle to make
a cup of tea.
She was standing
near the window
waiting for it to boil
when
the silence
was shattered by an explosion of breaking glass. Amber felt something fly past her head as
s
plinters
of
razor sharp
glass landed all over her.
Someone was screaming hysterically
,
and it took Amber a mome
nt to realize the screams were coming from her.

When
he
r
initial shock had worn off
she was
still
unable
to move
for several seconds as she tried to come to terms with the fact that
someone had hurled
a
rock
large enough to kill her
through the kitchen window. It had come dangerously close to hittin
g her
,
so whoever it was out there
meant business.
They
were
clearly
not going to be held back by doors or windows
,
and Amber real
ized
she had to do something to save herself
.

S
pringing into action s
he picked up h
er cell phone and tried to call the police
,
but
as usual it had
reception.
“You useless thing,” she yelled, throwing it on the floor
in her panic
.
She
had no choice but to
bide her time and
try to get to her car
as soon as she could. S
he
moved into t
he living room and was searching
frantically for
her car keys
in her handbag
when
of the
windows at the front of the house shattered
. Again the rock came very close to hitting her.

Through the jagged hole in the glass Amber
saw a figure running into the woods on
the far side of the cabin
. She knew this might be the only chance she got
to ma
ke a dash for the car
on the other side
of the house
.
It was a big risk but she h
ad no choice. S
he was nothing more than
a sitting duc
k if she stayed inside
.
Before she lost her nerve
she
armed herself with a kitchen knife and then
opened the front door
. She
quickly
made her way down the stairs and
around the side
of the cabin
so she could keep her back to the wall while she scanned the trees for any movement. When she saw nothing she took a deep breath
and raced
towards her car.

No one tr
ied to stop her
,
and despite her shaking hands she managed to get
the key into the igni
tion. T
o her horror
t
he car
would not start
when she turned it
. In her panic she had not even considered the
possibili
t
y
that the engine
had been tampered with. N
ow she was trapped
with only the fragile glass of the
car
windows between her and the psychopath who was stalking her.
She h
ad no idea what to do next
,
and s
he didn’t have much time to think before
another
rock hit the windscreen
.
Thankfully the
Jeep’s
glass was shatter-proof, but it did not provide much protection for her against a person who seemed intent on killing her.

Wrenching open the car door,
Amber
ran back towards the house
. She
had just
slammed and locked the front door behind her when the remaining window in the living room exploded. This time her tormentor
stayed
out in the
open
,
and she could see a
figure
dressed all i
n black with
a mask on
advancing towards t
he house. The cabin offered no more protection than the car
,
and s
he
knew she
had to get out
of there
fast if she was going to survive. As s
he slipped
out the back door
she
hear
d
the sound of crunching glass as someone stepped through the broken
front
window. She
had
locked and
closed the
back
door
quietly
behind her
hoping her tormentor
wou
ld think she had gone upstairs to hide
.
If she was lucky they would look for her up there, giving her time to get a good distance away before they realized she was gone.

Once in the woods Amber
ran as fast as she could until she was sure she was
a
long way
from the house. On
ly then did she
stop and catch her breath.
She listened intently but could hear no footsteps behind her
.
It took forever for her heart rate to slow down, but o
nce
her breathing was back to normal and her
heart had stopped pounding she
was forced
to face the reality
that
she
was completely lost
.
She had
tried to follow the paths
she knew
,
but in the dark it was impossible. She had
also dropped the knife
when she’d stumbled on a rock
, and
now she had nothing to defend herself with.
She knew it
was pointless to try to find her way back to the road in the dark
,
so she had no choice but to bunker down and wait
it out
until daybreak.

She found a spot beneath a tree and sat d
own with her back against the trunk. S
he was wear
ing a lightweight shirt
and jeans,
and before long he
r teeth be
gan to chatter. She tried hard not to think
about the vicious wolv
es that roamed these mountains
at night,
but
every time
a twig snapped or a leaf moved in the breeze
she believed it was
either
her at
tacker
or a
wolf sneaking up on her. Although Amber was aware that f
inding someone in the woods in the middle of the night would be like finding a needle in a haystack
, this knowledge
did not help to calm her much
.
T
ime seemed to pass excruciatingly slowly
while she waited for the sun to come up
, and
she had ample tim
e to think about who
had attacked her.

The most obvious person was
Jesse
Davidson
. S
he figured
the police had probably been in contact with him
about the clothes
she had seen
in his closet,
and this was his
way
of gettin
g revenge on her. There was also a possibility
he had been planning to terrorize her
all along
and he’
d only been nice
to lure her in
.
It was hard to predict
exactly what went on in a
twisted mind
like his
.
She prayed that Kat had not turned up while he was st
ill there
.

Amber
was rubbing her arms to keep warm when
the leaves
around her
b
egan to rustle more insistently and the cr
eatures of the night grew silent. She
was on her feet in a second and ready to run again
. The only problem was s
he could not decide which way to go because w
hatever it was out there in the darknes
s seemed to be circling her. T
hen the bizarre
heavy breathing sound she had encountered
when she was lost in the woods the first time
filled her ears. I must be lo
sing my mi
nd, she thought before
she saw the glint of an animal’s pelt
through the trees and
she knew she wasn’t crazy
at all
. It
was
definitely
a wolf
out there.

Amber had a strong feeling of de
ja
vu as she looked around for some kind of w
eapon
to defend herself with. S
he didn’t have time
to pick
anything up
before
the
animal
mov
ed in
to the clearing
. Her eyes had adjusted
completely
to the darkness
by now
,
and
she could see
it
cle
arly. I
t did not look friendly
at all
. Its hackles were raised
and its teeth were bared as it crept towards her. If she tried to run it would just come after her
,
and she didn’t stand a chance against it. Her best course of action
,
she decided
,
was to stand completely still and pray that it left her alone. She had used this tactic before when confronted with a
dangerous
snake
,
and it had slithered right across her foot and then gone on its way.

She closed her eyes as the wolf got closer
,
and she had to stifle her screams when
she felt it sniffing
her. Then to her
surprise
it buried its wet nose in her hand and when she looked down it was wagging its tail. It wasn’t a
wolf at all, it was a dog.
On closer inspection she saw
it was wearing a
collar that
had the name Shadow engraved into it. It was
Jesse
Davidson
’s
dog.

Her first
thought
was
that
Jesse had sent the dog in sear
ch of her
,
and she expecte
d
him to emerge from the darknes
s
at any second
, but after a long moment had passed she relaxed
a little
and
sank
back down onto the ground.
From what he’d told her,
Shadow spent much time wandering through the woods alone
,
so it was not unusual for him to be out here tonight.
The dog began licking her face, causing her to smile despite her badly strained nerves.
He
was still breathing strangely
,
like he had some kind of asthma condition
,
but it w
as obvious that the greatest threat
she faced from him was being licked
to death.