shadows in the dark

Vesper · 12-02-2011, 11:21 PM

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Word Count :: 465
Tried several times to start a thread for you then gave up and joined this. :|

In her dreams, she bled.

Teeth ripped at her tawny fur from all sides, spilling crimson life out onto the earth. She whirled with lips wrinkled back and ears flattened, but the dark figure was always quicker than her, leaping at her bleeding hips. Her paws slipped on wet autumn leaves, causing her to lose balance and strike her chin on the ground. The jaws found her ear, tearing it, fangs scraping across her brow. She was thrown onto her back, thrashing her legs to keep them from tearing into her stomach.

Her father grinned his sneering grin. It was then that he’d speak to her, mocking her, asking her if she wanted to stand up for her sister again. Sparrow would meet her eyes timidly from the bush, too much of a coward as always to step in. She remembered Marcel’s slurred voice beckoning to the girl, his jaws tugging her scruff as they walked away. Those were her memories.

In her dreams, she died.

This time, however, Marcel changed when he lunged for her throat. His fur flashed to a lighter shade of grey, his eyes burning from orange to flame, transitioning through bronze. Vesper gasped for air when the jaws pressed her windpipe, knowing now how the coyote boy had felt dying in her jaws. Her paws scrabbled weakly in the leaves, and the last thing she saw were the eyes.

Vesper flipped over onto her stomach when she woke, startled not so much by the familiar death so much as the sight of earth surrounding her. She caught her breath when she realized she was in a burrow, not a grave, and with a flicker of disgust, she stood and shook out her coat, slipping out of the den into the fresh night air.

I really need to find a permanent place to sleep, she reflected, flattening her ears when she spooked at the sound of a cracking twig in the night. Her first thought that it was a deer, but then she remembered her close proximity to the borders and trotted uncertainly in that direction. There was a scent on the wind—something familiar enough to give her pause, yet with a darker edge to it, one that made her mind flash back to the dream and her heartbeat to race.

With as much stealth as any coyote could muster, she crept through the undergrowth, her tail low to avoid sweeping against the bare branches of a bush. Pupils dilated, she looked around, frozen until she saw a mass stepping through the darkness.

Vesper caught sight of that dusty color, those eyes like flame, the melded manifestation of her nightmares. Ears pinned tight against her slender skull, she remained crouched on all fours, at last letting out a quick snarl.

Image courtesy of venomxbaby@deviantart; Table by the Mentors!

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