The Evil Within

In centuries past, stories of the wolf-demon were told in attempt to scare young mischievous children into good behavior. That was all it seemed to be—a tale, a myth. My tale reveals the truth, but many believe it to be as absurd as the wolf-demon.

The secluded village of Aerno within the Immael Forest was a beautiful place, even though I’ve only recently realized it. Cut off from the southern regions of Haeridor by the Aeyir Range, news and rumors very seldom reached or left the village. We boys never worried about the news when we were that young anyway—playing games was our priority. One of our favorite games always started with the telling of the wolf-demon.

It was the year that my friends and I began to feel that thirteen was too old to be seen with children, but Davien—the entertainer of the group—always enjoyed making them laugh The story of the wolf-demon was always told best by him, and I remember one particular recitation when the leaves had begun falling and winter was descending upon Aerno. The pack of children sat in a half circle near the center of town, with the older in the back and younger in front. My friends always stood behind the group.

Davien had started before I arrived, and I smirked at how ridiculous he looked from a distance as he acted out the story. His voice echoed in the cold air.

“…she saw the gleam through the trees once again, heard the rustling in the bushes—oh, hey, Nohvai! You made it just in time to hear the brainless girl get possessed!” Davien cackled as he stood erect from the dramatic crouched position that he used during this part of the story. I was able to mirror every position he used while telling the story, me being Davien’s best comrade. Davien motioned me over to the group he was telling the story to: Thaiele, Kohdean, Rakael, and some younger kids that were always there to hear the story. Thaiele, the only girl present who was the same age as I, was glaring at Davien for the “brainless girl” comment. Thaiele sniffed in magnificent imitation of her mother at Davien’s mocking smile. He continued the story as I moved behind Rakael and Kohdean.

“Okay,” Davien said, lowering back to a crouch. “She saw the gleam through the trees once again, heard the rustling in the bushes, and then…AAHHHH!” he shrieked and jumped around in a very bad imitation of a girl, bringing gales of laughter from the little children and chuckles from the older. Davien grinned pompously as one of the young boys rolled across the ground in a fit of giggles. Thaiele shushed the children when it seemed they would never cease, and Davien carried on once more.

“And you all know what happens next,” he presumed. With anxious headshakes from wide-eyed younglings and an expectant smirk from Kohdean, Davien sighed and his arms fell to his sides; he was good at feigning exasperation. But an instant later a dangerous gleam leapt into his eyes, his voice dropped to a whisper and he said, “The girl awakens in the strange house of the wolf demon and before she can glimpse the beast’s form, it possesses her. With time she would become an insane, mind-controlled killer…a monster that needed to be slaughtered before it could cause harm to anyone…” A wry grin crossed his face and with an air fully opposite from a moment ago he added, “Of course, she’d always been an insane monster, seeing as she’s a girl!”

Thaiele jumped from her seated position and shouted, “Davien Tulhein, you are the monster!” as she stomped over to Davien to point a very admonishing finger right in his face. Davien sputtered, trying to find words to counter the finger at his nose, and I laughed as his face reddened in anger and embarrassment. Thaiele’s brown eyes flashed and she continued, “My mother told me that the story of that poor girl is true! She says the wolf-demon”—she spat out the name with utmost disgust—“was only put into the actual story after it was told so many times, consequently making the myth. If you would grow up, Davien, your mother might find you capable enough to comprehend that the ‘wolf-demon’ is just a fairy tale!” Thaiele turned away from Davien with such briskness that her auburn braid, which fell to about her mid-back, flicked Davien on the nose. I didn’t think his face could get any redder, but it did as he gave me a fierce look and strode in the other direction. Kohdean and Rakael looked toward me questioningly and I gestured in the direction to where Thaiele ran off. As they stood to go after Thaiele, I ran to catch up to Davien.

I slowed to his pace when I reached him and found that I was unable to find the right words to say to Davien. I was just as shocked as he. When a woman finds a piece of knowledge it can be no different than shrapnel, as my father says. I had just witnessed good evidence of that.

I said, “Davien, you should stop—”

“Just shut up about it,” Davien snapped at me. He frowned at his feet and shoved his hands into his trouser pockets, and I had to lengthen my stride as he sped up.

It became clear how much Davien hated and loved this change in Thaiele. All of the sudden she acted all-knowing all the time and trailed her mother as she did her housewife duties. When Davien, Kohdean, Rakael and I had first witnessed this, we did not know what to think—Thaiele just didn’t do housework, she threw mud and wrestled with the boys, and even dressed in trousers and a coat. She despised dresses, but when we first saw her in one we laughed and told her to stop playing around and change back. She had told us that she wasn’t playing, that she was helping her mother, and then she went as far as to say we were “covered in filth.” I remember looking at Rakael, whose mouth was hanging open in shock. That had been a month ago.

I knew Davien had had his eye on Thaiele for as long as I can remember, and I knew it from the way he tried to make her mad. I found his methods stupid, but he was my friend. His most recent attempts all backfired and Thaiele was succeeding in showing the younger children that Davien could eventually be tamed and led like a horse. If this carried on, eight year-olds would take their turn with Davien. I was not about to let that happen.

“Davien, just let me talk. You know Thaiele is…different…now so you have to stop trying to get her attention by making her angry.” I sighed and knew I was going to regret what I said next. I shifted out of his reach as I firmly said, “She made a complete fool of you just now.” Recalling that sentence now, I see how utterly dense I was.

Davien rounded on me, and I did my best not to flinch at the feral look on his face. “A fool?” he replied dangerously quiet. “I will not be made a fool by her again. She will be the fool tomorrow.” He spun again and marched away.

I caught up with him and asked, “What are you planning?”

Davien looked at me in askance and sighed irritably before answering, “The wolf-demon could very well be a fairy tale as she says, but I’m going to believe it to be true until she shows me proof that it isn’t. You know the tale as well as I do, Nohvai. When the girl first wakes up after being kidnapped within the northern region of the Immael Forest, she is in the wolf-demon’s house. So…if we can get kidnapped…”

“That is madness, Davien! Say we do get kidnapped. What do we do then? You are letting this get too far under your skin. You know, I think Thaiele might even be ri—”

“Don’t you dare say that she is right! You say that word and—and…!” Davien had poked his finger into my chest as he tried to find a consequence for me. When he couldn’t think of anything he yelled in frustration and walked in a different direction.

I stood in my spot as he tramped away. I had realized that he was actually going to try to be kidnapped, and he would wait out in the forest until it happened or until he starved and was driven back to Aerno. I also knew that somehow he would get Thaiele to go with him. I ran a hand through my hair in aggravation. One way or the other, some one would hear “I told you so” and the person who heard it would not be happy.

The role of the peacemaker seemed to fall on my shoulders every time Thaiele got the better of Davien, and the weight on my shoulders rose with each step Davien took. “Davien, wait!” I called after him.

----

The crescent moon hung low in the east when Davien, Thaiele, Kohdean, Rakael and I snuck into the Immael Forest from northern Aerno. Night bugs chirped rhythmically until one of us snapped a twig underfoot, and owls could be heard overhead in the trees when they took flight.

Davien and Thaiele walked side by side as they led the small party. Every now and then they would glare openly at each other. Davien even sneered at her once. I followed behind Davien and Thaiele, and Kohdean and Rakael were behind me. Each of us had a pack filled with food and bedding for the night.

We walked deeper into the forest and eventually the canopy obscured the moon and stars from continuous visibility, consequently blanketing everything in dark shades of blue-green. Tripping over tree roots occurred often until finally Davien called a halt.

“This is far enough I think,” he stated. He swung his pack from his shoulders and dropped it on the ground. The rest of us did the same, Thaiele only more gracefully.

We sat in a circle on the ground in silence. For long moments the night bugs filled my hearing, the rhythm began to make me drowsy. Rakael had already fallen asleep where he sat, his chin resting limply on his chest. Kohdean wasn’t far behind Rakael. Only Davien and Thaiele seemed wide awake. I forced my eyelids to remain open.

I don’t know how much time had passed, but Rakael and Kohdean had slipped from sleeping in a sitting position to lying across the forest floor. Thaiele was curled up between two tree roots and was using her pack as a pillow, and Davien sat still as a rock with his elbows propped on his knees and his hands clasped together in front of him. The chirps of the bugs had stopped, and now all I could hear was the deep steady breathing emitted from Kohdean and Rakael.

My burning, sleep-deprived eyes were focused on a spot in between two small bushes as I began drifting to sleep. My vision blurred as my eyelids slowly began shutting, but I remember vividly the gleam of eyes in the shadows where my sight was aimed. The instant my eyes closed the clearing erupted in chaos.

Before my eyes unclosed I remember feeling a great wind rushing through the clearing, sending leaves flying into the air. Then my eyes jerked open and I saw Davien’s mouth form a word that was muted by the roar of the wind as he leapt to his feet. I scrambled to my feet and saw Thaiele doing the same, strands of auburn flailing out of her braid from the wind. I looked to where Kohdean and Rakael were sleeping and—they were not there. I began to frantically—desperately—look into the shadows surrounding the clearing, and as I did this I thought I heard shrieks over the howl of the wind.

Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the raging wind ceased as if it had never existed. But to my horror, the sound of the wind was replaced by a guttural rumble. Something struck the side of my head, and I fell into blackness.

----

When I woke, a massive headache seemed to be splitting my skull in two. Dimly I remembered the clearing but…something had knocked me out. That was all I could remember. I tried to sit up and a wave of nausea overcame me; before I could stop myself I vomited on the ground beside me. I started to lift my hand to wipe my mouth and found that both my hands were bound behind me back. I immediately began working the rope, loosening it as much as I could.

A moan to my right startled me and sent a throb of pain from my head to my hands, which had fallen asleep from the tight cords that held my wrists. The person to my right had come to, for a shocked gasp and a high squeal cut through the dark silence.

“Thaiele?” I managed to ask in a mumble.

“Nohvai!” she whispered back. Her voice became almost hysterical as she began to sob, but she managed to shriek in a whisper, “Nohvai we are going to die—Davien has led us to our deaths—oohhhhh I never wanted this to happen—” Her sentences were blended together and almost incomprehensible, but a coughing fit took her and cut off her frenzied voice.

It was then that I realized Davien was not in the room. I was about to voice this to Thaiele, but a door opened somewhere—I couldn’t see it, so the open door was in the direction my head was pointing. A woman’s voice filled my hearing.

“A great find…three young pretties…” the woman’s accent was strange—I can remember it as if it was being spoken directly into my ear this very instant and it makes me recoil—it was slurred and…suggestive. Her voice seemed to wrap around me and it caused a static to buzz in my head, blocking out everything but her voice. “We will have a fun bit of sport with the three of you.”

I was finally able to see the woman as she walked around by my feet. She was beautiful; her face was perfectly proportioned and her olive colored skin shone. The odd features were her pointed seven-inch long ears and her dark gold eyes. Her hair was silvery gray, but she was not an old woman. She smiled warmly at me but it did not reach her golden eyes. They were voracious and wild.

Before I even asked this question I knew the answer. “Who are you?”

“My given name is long forgotten…but your friend—Davien was it?—called me ‘wolf-demon.’ I am intrigued by this name…” she smiled wickedly.

Thaiele uttered a loud moan of despair and the wolf-demon’s smile faltered with annoyance. She breathed deeply and said, “We cannot have any of that…Davien…” The way she curled his name off her tongue made honey seem sour.

I heard footsteps come through the door and when my body position allowed it, I saw Davien as he walked to the wolf-demon’s side. She smiled at him like a master would a pet. Davien only stared ahead, his glossy eyes unfocused.

“Davien, I do not think your friend will enjoy our game,” she said boredly. “Take care of her…” Her golden eyes flashed excitedly as Davien unsheathed the small hunting knife he always kept in his boot. He started towards Thaiele.

My dry throat made my voice croaky and it hurt to talk, but I shouted, “Davien! Davien, stop, she’s Thaiele! Davien!” But he had already knelt beside Thaiele, who was screaming herself hoarse. Davien raised the knife and as he brought it down I clamped my eyes shut.

I dully heard the tip of the knife strike the floor—for an instant I thought he had dropped the knife, disobeying the wolf-demon’s order—but the gasp and gurgle emitted from Thaiele proved that a hopeful fantasy. She must have passed out or died then, for she didn’t scream any more.

Anger and adrenaline coursed through me now, fear was just small point in the back of my mind. I opened my eyes and looked at Davien standing over Thaiele. His face was streaked with blood; the knife in his right hand was dripping red.

I do not know how I gained the strength and courage to do what I did next, and it happened so fast that I’m not sure exactly what occurred within the short moments. I had been working the rope that bound my wrists this whole time and I was amazed that the wolf-demon did not notice. The rope was finally loose enough. I ground my teeth together, bracing myself for what was waiting for me after I made my move. I extended my arms as far as they could reach, pulled my knees up to my chin, and swung my hands underneath my feet.

Davien moved a split second after me, raising his knife to a slashing position. As he brought the knife down, I flung my hands out in front of me and pulled the rope between them taught—the knife severed the rope cleanly and continued downward. With a strangled yelp I rolled to my right and bent my left arm behind my back in one smooth action. I did not fully evade the knife, however. Its blade punctured my shoulder and, because of my rolling motion, produced a curved laceration from my shoulder to the back of my elbow.

I jumped to my feet and clutched my right hand to my left arm. Blood was flowing freely from my wound, and I panted and winced from the pain. Davien was slowly rising to his feet; I had tripped him as I rolled. There was a mound in between us, and I realized with disgust that I had rolled right over Thaiele’s body. The acrid stench drifting in the room and clinging to my clothes—which were soaked and actually clung to me—made me want to vomit again, but I swallowed hard and made myself look at Davien.

“Well…” crooned the wolf-demon, “quite impressive.” I glanced at her, and she smiled maliciously. I made a quick note of the room as she continued to speak: she leaned on a small table on which rested the five packs that had belonged to my group. A hammock made of strange material was suspended to the left of the table from one of the small logs holding up the ceiling. Logs of many sizes held together with rope were crudely set up to form walls which were five paces from each other. There were no windows, and the doorframe stood open, revealing a fire in a clearing and freedom. My face must have shown a sign of hope, for Davien laughed evilly. My face snapped to his and my eyes widened as I looked into his—their irises had turned golden.

“If you attempt to escape you will die,” Davien said in an undertone. He laughed again and a twisted smile split his face. “Death will seize you before the night is over, but my mistress wishes for a competition.” Davien advanced toward me and I braced myself, but all he did was heave Thaiele’s corpse to the wall of the hut wit his foot. Bits of her littered the floor, and he kicked the larger of them out of the way too. His smile flickered on the brink of madness.

I looked at the wolf-demon again and noticed her eyes were no longer golden; they had become Davien’s dark eyes. She leaned against the table and stared at the center of the fire. I stood straight and let my right hand drop to my side as I began to understand what was going on. Waves of anger and fatigue caused me to shiver, and fear began tickling the back of my mind—Davien had a knife and I had nothing.

To my surprise, Davien dropped the knife with a strange look. He seemed afraid, like he was backed into a corner and trapped. “My mistress thinks you deserve to die in a more…interesting way.” As he spoke his voice grew deeper and raspier. I watched in shock as his body changed and grew a thin layer of fur; his face grew a muzzle lined with pointed teeth, his eye sockets shifted upward—his eyes were flickering from golden to dark brown—and all the while he screamed in agony. I had no idea how this transformation had happened, but Davien was too absorbed in his pain to pay any mind to me.

I rushed over to grab the knife lying on the dirt floor and turned to the immobile wolf-demon, and saw that her eyes were flickering, too. I can remember myself hoping that by killing the wolf-demon I would kill Davien as well, for that was all he deserved after what he did to Thaiele. With that grim thought, I raised my knife to slit her throat. Before I could bring it across, her hand shot to my neck and squeezed, causing my hand that held the knife to drop to my side. My skull felt like it was going to explode.

Her eyes continued to flicker as she worked her mouth in an attempt to speak. I didn’t wait to hear whatever she said; I raised the knife again and brought it across her neck.

The wolf-demon’s eyes widened and her mouth stopped moving as a deep green liquid—her blood—cascaded down her front, pulsating from the wound with every last heartbeat. Her grip on my neck loosened as she fell to the floor, and I breathed in the night air.

I turned to look at Davien. The creature lying in front of me resembled a wolf, but it body structure was that of a human. Self-inflicted gashes across his face, neck and chest and the large pool of blood he lay in told me he had bled to death. I sighed weakly and made myself stand straight and walk from the hut.
I wandered through the dim forest blindly. Exhaustion finally took me and I fell to the forest floor, asleep before I hit the ground.

----

When I woke, I found that I was in a feather bed. My surroundings were that of my home in Aerno and when I lifted my head from the pillow I saw my mother sitting by the fire. I sat up in the bed a little too quickly; my mother looked at me and smiled with relief.

Not many people believed my tale. I doubt that my parents believe me, even though they tried very hard to show that they did. The wolf-demon was real and I had to live with the guilt and angry glares from the families of my friends every passing day. For four years I resided among the people who hated me, but I finally left the village. I have spent two years now, traveling throughout the lands of Haeridor, and I do not plan on returning to my home.