Monsters

A week had already passed by and again had become a moment, where Afriel needs to get more firewood. He hated it as much as he ever did, but it was the only choice to survive.

He grabbed the saw, put on some warm clothes, and began walking towards the edge of the forest. As he was walking in the large layer of snow, he thought that the forest felt weird.

It was gloomy and he could feel weird energy coming from there. However, he just ignored it as getting wood was more important.

He began sawing, the wood was a bit thicker than before because he didn't want to come back to get more next week. He was sure, that Julius could carry them both back.

Maybe he even got tired enough to not bully him after that. Cutting the tree down took a lot longer than he expected. The sun was already going down so he had to hurry up.

He couldn't leave the tree here for the night because they had no wood left for the night and warming the house up. He ran back into the village to look for Julius.

He soon found him near the center of the village. There was a large tree with its leaves still on and they were white. It was the most beautiful place in the village and lovers liked to spend their time here.

So did Julius and Lily. They were making out but Afriel didn't want to wait for a long time. He noticed Anna a bit further away from them reading her book.

She hadn't noticed him yet and Afriel didn't try to get her attention. He just walked closer to Julius so he could notice him on his own. And so, happened.

Julius pulled his face away from Lily. He was clearly annoyed and that could be seen and heard while he asked Afirel.

"What do you want?"

"I need firewood."

"So?"

"Can you pull it into my home?"

"No."

This happened every now and then. Julius was in a bad mood or wanted to play with Afriel, so he would refuse to bring back the log.

However today Afriel seemed to be lucky. Because Lily asked him to do it so I would stop bothering them.

Julius stood up to follow Afriel while Lily was following him and Anna was behind them all, she had just noticed Afriel and it took her some time to gather her stuff and start following.

The forest felt as weird as before. Afriel could swear, that he saw something glowing inside and he became a little scared of it.

However, something unexpected happened. Julius seemed to notice the larger size of the tree and commented on it.

"What does this mean Afriel?"

"What do you mean?"

"The tree is almost twice as big as before."

"So?"

"Before I was so nice to pull them for free but this does not sit right with me. Do you think that you can use me like this?"

Julius seemed to be on a worse mood than before. Afriel did not know how to respond.

"You know that I cannot pay you."

"Yeah, you can't, but someone you know can."

Afriel started to turn red. Julius had already started his trash talking. He then continued. He wanted Afriel to tell her the prize they had to pay for the tree and at the same time pay for everything else he had done for free.

Afriel tried to hold his anger inside.

While Julius was bullying Afriel, Anna noticed something weird. She also noticed the weird energy of the forest and also how bright it was. She looked up and her eyes started to reflect horror.

"Shhhh, stop."

However, Julius did not stop, he didn't seem to even hear her.

"Please stop."

Still no reaction.

"Let's leave, it's full moon."

At the same time, as Anna warned everyone, Afriel was ready holding his anger back. It was all because of Julius.

"FUCK YOU, IF YOU DON'T WANNA DO SOMETHING, STOP BEING A BITCH ABOUT IT AND JUST LEAVE!"

A silence followed right after. No one had heard Anna's warning and only Afriel's curse.

Julius was not incredibly happy about it and was slowly walking towards Afriel but they soon heard something from the bushes.

It was loud rustling and made everyone had shivers on their backs. The girls were already taking steps back, Afriel was too scared to move and Julius pretended to not be scared.

Soon a figure appeared from the bushed. It was a man; he was sweating a lot. It was one of the people who provided food for the village with fishing so it was weird to see him here.

The kids were already getting relieved but then the man started shouting.

"RUN, THEY ARE COMING!"

The kids did not understand what he was saying but soon they hear it. Wolf howling. It was a large pack and soon the man let out a scream. He was trying to grab something but could not stop his fate as he was pulled back into the bushes.

Afriel could hear limbs being torn off the man, the sound of it would hunt him for a long time. The screams of the man being eaten alive did not make it any easier.

He looked back and could already see the others running away and soon he realized what an idiot he was for standing there. He too started running. He had to get his mom and run across the lake into the count's house.

It was the village's safe place, and they had run there once before, when a large bear attacked the village. However, this was a lot more dangerous.

He could hear the wolfs howling and bushes rustling. He wanted to run faster and faster but his legs could not do that. He was getting left behind; he was too tired from cutting the tree.

He could only hope to get back fast enough because he could hear the wolfs already approaching. The gates were not too far away and from there he could hide on alleys that led to his house.

The rumbling behind him was scaring him to death before he could be eaten. He had to run just a bit faster. Now he could hear the panting of them. He could imagine their sweat dribbling and his limbs being teared off.

Just a few meters and then he would be safe for the time being. Just a few...

He crossed the gate and jumped left into the trash. He then put his hands to cover his mouth to hold breath and then watched the wolfs jump into the village. At the same time the danger bells started ringing. It meant immediate evacuation.

Lights were starting to shine from everyone's windows and Afriel could hear some unlucky people who came outside to investigate getting eaten and their screams.

He soon realized that he forgot, what he was supposed to do and got up and started running again on his secret routes to reach home. He entered thorough the back door and went to wake his mom up. Today could possibly be his most dangerous day.