Abby screamed. Then her mind went crazy.
Josh! Oh my god, Josh! Oh my god, where is he? Did I…? Did I really see what I saw? Did a bird pick him up and fly away? What happened to him? Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, what’s happening? What’s…am I dreaming? Am I—
The dog, the absolutely huge, massive, muscular-beyond-belief dog turned and looked at her. When she saw the blue glow of its eyes, Abby screamed again.
Every muscle, every nerve-ending in her body froze, and not from the blast of arctic air and snow that was rushing into the car through the open driver’s door. Abby stopped screaming. The monster dog exhaled a stream of vapors from its mouth, and that was when Abby remembered. The silhouette that had startled her on the street. It was here. Inches from her. Though not a silhouette. A black, hulking mass of fur and muscle. Staring at her.
The door! Open the door! Abby’s hand flinched toward the door handle, her entire body ready to turn away from the animal staring at her, when she caught herself. No sudden movements. That would only provoke the animal. She looked out the windshield, afraid of staring at it, challenging it. Her pulse quickened. Her hands clenched into fists. Sudden movement might indeed spook the animal, but she couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. She flexed her fingers and slowly turned toward the animal. Its lips parted in what appeared to be…a grin? A mocking grin? But that couldn’t be true. It just could not be true.
A car. She needed a car to go by, to stop, for someone to stop and help her, to get out and help her and scare this animal away. Certainly if the animal—was it even a dog? It was too big to be a dog…a wolf?—certainly if this wolf saw another car pull up it would leave. Right? But there were no other cars. None. She needed to do something. Josh was gone, raptured up into the sky by…by a bird, and this dog/wolf/who-knows-what was standing there, showing no inclination of going anywhere.
It was cold, and it was getting colder. Abby’s hands were going numb, which scared and confused her. It was cold outside and the driver’s door was open, but her hands shouldn’t be feeling this cold this fast. The car’s heater was still on and blasting hot air but her hands were still—
The car’s heater was on. Josh hadn’t turned off the car when he’d gotten out. The car was still running. The car was still running! Abby looked to the animal. It hadn’t moved. The blue eyes stared at her, boring into her as if probing deep inside, as if…. No. No, she could not accept that thought. She couldn’t accept any of this.
It winked. The animal. The dog. The wolf. Whatever the hell it was winked at her. Its right eye in slow motion like it was exaggerating the act, like it was…like it was conveying a message to her. Like it was trying to communicate with her.
“No!” Abby screamed at herself as she started crying, not caring anymore about startling or provoking the beast. She hugged herself, squeezed herself to gain control of her thoughts. “No. This isn’t happening. This is not happening. Animals do not wink. Animals don’t do that.”
Not giving a damn anymore about what the creature’s reaction would be, Abby whipped her head around to look for cars approaching from either direction. There were none. Cold Spring Road was not a well-travelled road even in normal weather. Josh was gone. No cars. No one to help her.
She was on her own.
Then she would have to act on her own. If no one was coming to her rescue, she would rescue herself. Slowly, calmly, she reached behind her for the army knapsack. She could use it as weapon. She reached for it, felt it, grabbed hold of one strap and pulled it between the seats while keeping her eyes on the animal. It did not move. It watched her. Its eyes followed her movements, but it did not move.
Outside the vehicle the snow fell and the wind blew. If Abby didn’t get out of here soon she was going to be stranded in a blizzard. It wouldn’t take long for Cold Spring Road to become completely impassable. What then? What then is the simple fact that you’re lunch meat for this thing staring at you, so get your rear end in gear!
Abby had the knapsack on her lap. She could get out of the car, try running into the forest, using the knapsack as a weapon if she—
Wait! What am I thinking? The car’s still running. A minute ago I was going to reach over and put it in gear. What made me stop thinking that? The wink. It distracted me. I’ll drive away. It’s that simple. I’ll drive away.
Abby inched her body toward the shifter with the idea of sliding her foot over the console hump and onto the gas pedal. She would simultaneously shift into drive and stomp on the gas. She didn’t have a driver’s permit—hadn’t even taken the test yet—but she knew enough about driving from watching her father and Josh that she was confident she could master the act of giving it gas, shifting, and steering, even if it was going to be done from the passenger seat. All she had to do was put enough distance between her and the animal and she could then…and she could…and she….
Horrible, depressing, hope-stealing realization sank into Abby’s heart, punching it with a cold fist of fear. She couldn’t drive anywhere. The car, the almighty powerful Beast, was stuck in the snow. Josh hadn’t been able to get it out, and neither would she be able to. Why hadn’t she thought of that? Why hadn’t she remembered that?
Up until this point, Abby had been too scared, too confused and dazed to cry. Now she wasn’t too anything. The tears formed, she feebly fought them, but they overwhelmed her and flowed down her cheeks. Stop it, she told herself. Get it together. You’ve got the knapsack, you’re a runner, maybe, just maybe you can outrun this thing and make it to safety. Abby shook her head and laughed at herself. What was she thinking? Outrun a wolf in the snow?
The animal moved. It’s massive, thick-furred head bobbed once. A wink. A head bob. Something was not right. Not right as in not normal. As in this animal, there was something about it—other than its massive size—that made it not normal…made it not…animal-like. It was ridiculous to think such a thing, but there it was. Staring at her, winking, nodding, and Abby was faced with something that she realized may not be what it appears to be. Why hadn’t it attacked her yet? Why hadn’t it left? Why was it standing there, not moving, just staring at her? And what about Josh? How could a bird appear out of nowhere and lift Josh into the air and fly away like that?
With no warning, without any kind of foreshadowing or preamble whatsoever, the script of Abby’s life had been changed. She woke up this morning planning on going to Albany, New York no matter what it would take. Now, she found herself face-to-face with this animal terror, with Josh being swept away before her eyes, with this storm that came out of nowhere, all of it surreal, and yet…all of it, she sensed, somehow fitting together. Abby felt like a character in a novel that had been going about her business, doing and saying what the author wrote her to do and say, and on a whim the author had decided to change the storyline, change the setting, change everything, and plop her in the middle of this fantastical new story and setting just to see what would happen.
Abby looked at the animal. It stared back at her. The icy fist that had gripped her heart reluctantly loosened its hold on her. That was the best way she could explain it, because that’s what it felt like—a cold fist letting go of her heart, releasing her from the fear that had enveloped her only moments ago. Abby looked to the animal again. Terror that was there moments ago was now replaced with relief. But that’s impossible. How…what’s happening to me? Why am I feeling this way? I should be afraid. I should—
Abby’s right hand moved toward the door handle. Her hand took hold of it, opened the door, and her left hand gently took hold of the knapsack. Why am I doing this? This is crazy! I can’t do this. What am I thinking? Her body slid out of the car, not bothering to turn the car off, her mind not caring that it was still running; that point of fact simply did not matter right now. Her feet found purchase on the snowy embankment that the car had settled on. Her right hand closed the door while her left arm hoisted the knapsack up and over her shoulder. Her right arm put itself through the other strap of the knapsack. Her feet transported her body around the back end of the car, careful not to slip and fall underneath it. On the other side of the car, Abby’s eyes focused on the blue orbs staring back at her. Her mouth said, “Thank you,” and she did not know why her mouth said that. Her feet moved her toward the animal. Her right hand extended itself toward the animal and stroked its black, furry head.
The animal grinned, winked, and nodded once.
Abby’s body hitched up to get the knapsack in a better position on her back. Her feet positioned themselves next to the wolf—her mind had determined, once and for all, that it was a wolf—so that her hands could do what they needed to do, which was to grab hold of the wolf’s fur around its neck. Then her left leg lifted itself up, her right leg pushed off from the snowbank, her left leg hoisted itself over the wolf’s back. Her right hand stroked the fur under the wolf’s neck. Her left leg gently prodded the wolf’s hindquarters. Her entire body lay itself along the back of the wolf. Her head lowered itself to rest atop the wolf’s neck.
Her eyelids closed.
In the next instant, she felt the wolf back away from the car and turn around.
Then the wolf, with Abby riding atop it, was running, a black blade slicing through the curtain of white that fell from the sky.