No more freedom

It was dark and windy, the moon shone bright towards them and the trees rustled from the strong winds of the night.

Michael hugged his jacket more, shivering from the cold wind aiming at him and his group of friends. It was night, the only light were the flashlights they held and the bright moon lighting their way.

He wanted to leave this forest, it was known to be haunted, filled with creatures of the night who wouldn’t hesitate to rip them to shreds, but he couldn’t. His friends wanted him to be there and he couldn’t help but go with them, worried they would do something that would endanger them.

He sighed again and sniffled, aiming his flashlight towards the path filled with trees. 

They were lost, the forest was big and somehow they ventured away from the path, it was hopeless and he blamed it all on the one who gave them the idea of going into the forest, Davine Williams, basically the leader of the group, was a bright girl with messy unkept dark brown hair, hazelnut eyes and tan skin, who loved adventure and wouldn’t hesitate to drag them down with her if it meant having the adventure she’d always hoped to have when she was little.

They had met because of a mutual friend of theirs, Leone Oran, a social butterfly who brought their little group together. He was handsome with his short blonde hair and smooth brown skin, the clothes he wore were always expensive, and he was nice to everyone. He was basically perfect and he couldn’t help but envy how he had his life together.

Michael sighed again, ignoring how his jacket did nothing to protect himself from the cold. He was freezing and afraid, his friends though, were having the time of their life.

Davine and Leone were just a part of his friend group, his other friends were taking pictures of the forest and joking about stuff, trying to calm themselves from how scared they were. It wasn’t doing them much though as he could see how they huddled together in a group and kept looking behind themselves, pointing their flashlights all over the place. 

He looked at the person next to him, Alex Chen, who wasn’t doing much better compared to him. He was his best friend and really average with nothing much for him to stand out in. His grades were good, but nothing special, but his looks were like Leone, Handsome and magnificent. He would’ve became a ladies man if it wasn’t for his insecurities in the way. 

His hair was smooth and dark against the night sky, his pale, porcelain skin shined opposed to the bright moon lighting their way and he was lean with his muscles hidden behind the sleeves of his hoody. His eyes were a dark brown, shiny and warm and he was shaking, out of fear or because of the cold, he didn’t know. 

He was looking around and walking closer and closer towards him and that made him nervous as his friend never really liked any form of touching.

”Do you know where we are?” His friend asked, exasperation and fear showing in his voice “I’m cold and if I don’t go back to my house in a few hours then my parents are gonna worry and the last time I was late by at least half an hour, they called the cops” 

Davine sighed, rolling her eyes at him “I can’t get any signal” she said “and you complaining isn’t helping anyone”

”Guys, shut up and look” Tracy Adams, another one of his friends in his group, intercepted “look, there’s a river, we could try and follow it, it might lead us back to town” 

The rest of his group of friends followed him, looking at the river Tracy pointed at with a bright face.

Michael brightened up, looking at Tracy and admiring how he could always find the small details during the times they were always in trouble.

He was a smart person with dyed black hair and streaks of red all over it, he was really skinny and always hid part of his face behind his long hair, which was weird cause he was the one with the best eyes in the group, always able to see the small things. 

Unlike him though, Michael was average, he had hazelnut eyes and dirty dark blonde hair. He was lean and known as the mother of the group, which made him mad but proud at the same time. His grades weren’t exactly good, but at least he wasn’t failing like his other friend, Kory Lake, who was the stereotypical jock with his dark brown hair and green eyes. He was a basketball player and really popular, his grades sucked but he always looked on the bright side of things which everyone needed.

Kory wasn’t lean like him, instead he was all muscles, as he exercised and lifted weights daily. He was really tan because he was always outside and exploring with Davine.

Michael sneezed and rubbed his nose, he walked behind his friends and stood besides Alex and Tracy, together they looked at Kory, Davine, and Leone running to the rivers with vivid eyes.

Hope bloomed in his chest when he saw and heard the excitement in his friends by the river. A nice and warm feeling settled over him and he wrapped an arm around his two friends standing next to him on both sides with a warm grin.

”Come one, let’s loosen up and play a bit” he said, guiding them to the river where the rest of their friends were

Alex sighed and rolled his eyes in annoyance, but didn’t say anything and Tracy just followed him, it could’ve been awkward to any outsider but they were friends for a long time and he knew they just didn’t wanna talk or anything.

Together they played with Davine, Leone, and Kory, splashing water at each other with wide grins and loud laughs.

A few minutes passed and they were all sat near a large rock beside the river. It was calm and serene, the wind moving to a warmer temperature which they desperately needed as the water from their water fight was still there. They sat in a circle, all huddled up together, and getting warmth from each other. 

Everything was good until they heard a loud howl resonate throughout the whole forest. Michael instantly sat up, along with his friends, in alarm. He looked around in panic, quickly pulling up his backup and flashing his flashlight around the area, but saw nothing.

”Come on guys” Kory said, no fear in his voice at all but an unsure expression on his face “Let’s leave, follow the river downhill, the town uses this for their water supply and we can use it to find our way back”

Michael shakily nodded “Got it” he said, quickly following his friends back to the town.

They heard more howls, it seemed like whatever that made the sounds were somehow surrounding him and his friends, which made him panic and pick up his pace. He started sweating, his heart jumped in his chest and his hazelnut eyes widened in fear of the creatures of the night.

It wasn’t until a large wolf, bigger than any animal he had ever seen, jump from the large bushes and in front of him and his friends with a growl.

His friends all screamed in terror save for him, he was frozen, he couldn’t move, his foot stayed onto the dirt ground and his mouth opened in a silent scream, the giant wolf’s deep blue eyes seemed like it was fixated on him and he couldn’t help but shiver in horror.

A rough hand shook him out of his stupor and he became aware of the dangers surrounding him and his friends.

There were now giant wolf’s surrounding them, their mouths opened in a loud growl and disgusting drool falling out their mouths.

It didn’t take them long before someone, he didn’t know who, yelled out to run and the whole group started taking action.

Michael didn’t hesitate to run, Alex in front of him running at a fast pace from the wolves. He looked back and saw the group of wolves following them, mainly the largest wolf out of all of them leading them, the seemingly leader of the pack was looking at him with dark blue eyes and he paled at the sight.

He didn’t look back anymore, instead he focused on his friends who were quickly running away in front of him and dodging the trees blocking their ways.

He looked over them making sure they weren’t left behind, but saw that Tracy was missing. He stopped running and looked around, seeing Tracy with his leg stuck under a large branch.

He quickly ran over to him and they both worked together trying to get his leg out.

Michael kept looking at his surroundings, making sure the wolves weren’t surrounding them. A few minutes of struggling and Tracy trying to get him to leave him, they finally got his leg out from under the branch.

Some scrapes were on his friends leg, but he ignored it in favor of running away from the wolves catching up to them.

He was surprised he had survived for so long as it took a long enough time for the group of wolves to catch up to him and Tracy.

”Tracy” Michael said, catching his friends attention “You run away and I’ll distract them, it’ll be alright, I’m pretty fast on my feet and we’ll never make it back alive if one of us can’t distract them”

“Wha- no way in hell am I letting you do that” Tracy incredulously said “w-why’re the wolves even chasing us, we didn’t do anything to anger them and y-you know what, let’s just hide, we can’t out chase them and hiding is our best chance of surviving”

Michael shook his head and without saying anything, he ran the other way, close to the group of wolves but not close enough.

Tracy was running towards him with a panicked face, but he was limping from the wounds on his leg. Their other friends were no where to be seen and that was good since they wouldn’t get caught by the wolves.

His heart bumped, the feeling of fear crawled up to him and he couldn’t move once he stood at a near distance against the growling wolves. They surrounded him and Tracy was, thankfully, no where to be seen.

He couldn’t speak at all, the fear prickled at his skin and he felt like he had no oxygen, he tried to get as much air as he could but it still felt like he couldn’t breath, like he had no oxygen.

The wolves, the largest of them all, walked forward to him, he tried to back off but the other wolves surrounding him prevented him from doing it.

“N-nice doggy” Michael said in a panic, holding up his hands in warning and caution “p-please don’t eat me, I don’t really taste so good, if y-you want some food I can give you some b-but you c-can’t eat me, o-okay?”

The wolf growled and took another step forward, it’s saliva falling out of their mouth and it’s eyes gazing at him like he was it’s food.

Michael started crying, tears fell out of his eyes like a waterfall and snot was everywhere. It wasn’t a pretty cry, it was an ugly one and he couldn’t help it.

He didn’t easily cry but the fear of death by getting mauled by wolves would be a good excuse to cry.

The wolf looked at him and instantly, without even being able to comprehend it, attacked him, biting into his neck with a rough growl.

He screamed in pain, his hands trying to get the wolf off him but unable too. The other wolves were just standing, surrounding them and looking at them with hard eyes. 

He screamed again until his throat felt raw, he felt frozen and unable to do anything, he felt weak, and he felt faint. It was the most painful thing he had ever felt in his life, the bite of a wolf was an unimaginable pain that he never knew could be that bad.

His eyes started blurring, the wolf wasn’t getting off him, and he felt himself getting weaker than ever. The last thought he had before closing his eyes and meeting the fearful darkness was his friends.

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