zg_shadows | Old Fears

She runs through the undergrowth, brambles tugging and ripping at her fur and the howls of her pursuers echoing on the wind behind her. It feels like she’s been running forever, all thoughts of hiding her trail long since abandoned to desperate flight. The rain pours down, washing away the blood from the cuts on her paws, each step sends jolts of pain through her but she cannot stop. She dare not, she is too afraid of what hunts her. No matter how far or fast she runs they still hound her. In the flash of lightning she sees them crest the ridge behind her, twisted shapes with black fur and bat-like ears. Demons from her past that will not let her rest.

She wakes abruptly. The room is dark but not pitch black and her eyes adjust slowly to the dim light cast by the flickering green flame. She looks up at the figure before her, neither wolf nor human but a combination of both, with the glint of madness in its eyes.
“Welcome home child,” it snarls, claws reaching for her.

She tears her way free of the bed sheets with a soundless scream. In panic her eyes dart around the room and slowly her fear subsides as she recognises her surroundings. Lucy’s house. She looks at the tattered fabric tangled in her claws and sighs, another ruined sheet, this was starting to be a habit. Quietly she sneaks out to the garden to sit by the pond. She watches the wind send ripples across the surface of the water, distorting the reflection of the moon and allows herself to relax. This doesn’t feel like home, not yet, but it’s close and for now that’s good enough.