In the Land of Creatures, the Dark Woods was a forbidden place; for it held creatures such as werewolves, vampires and goblins; creatures that were not meant to interact with humans.
However, there are always exceptions to that rule, and the lone girl standing at the edge of the woods was one of them.
For you see, this girl was in love with a werewolf. She didn’t know it yet, but this is why she always felt safe going deep into the depths of the woods. Unknown to her, she would never be harmed in the woods. This was because her love, the werewolf, was one of the kings of the wood, and therefore had commanded safe passage for his love; no vampire or goblin would ever get to her.
As the girl started running into the woods, her feet padding softly onto the moss ridden pathway, she heard howls and snarls. The sounds did not frighten her. Instead they comforted her, made her feel safe, welcome. She found herself running towards the howls and snarls, rather than away from them. They seemed so familiar to her, yet she could not place why.
The girl with the midnight black hair and piercing blue eyes was not stupid. She had heard of the tales of the Dark Wood and knew how dangerous it could be. Her mother used to tell them to her everynight before bed, and when she was little she would marvel in them. Her mother had told her of the vampires that roam at night, hoping for some pray; pray exactly like her. ‘You know, darling, the Land of Creatures didn’t always used to be like this.’ Her mother had told her once ago. ‘This place used to be called Earth, and it was only us who ran it. No creatures of the night or woods to be scared of back then. But as humans began to become more obsessed with power and becoming all knowing, the consequences of their exploration, curiousity and stupidity, became worse. In the late 2000s, the first ever clone was designed from a man named James Fierborne. At first the clone seemed fine, was like any other human. However, things aren’t always as they seem and soon things started to go down hill fast. Instead of craving human food, the clone started craving humans. The clone started to drink blood, making the first living vampire. the scienists then discovered that the clone held a special kind of antibody; one that multiplied when mixed with blood. These antibodies were found in the teeth; resulting in the creation of vampires. In just little then 10 years, half of the population were vampires, all thanks to the scientists who clonded James Fierborne. It is said that James now lives in the depths of the Dark Wood, and that he, as the creator of the Vampire, created over half of the total population of vampires today; the other half created by other vampires. As you see, Sandra, our human fault and curiousity led to our world crumbling around us. Remember this story when you’re ever tempted to enter the forest. Curiousity killed the cat, Sandra.’
Sandra was repeating this story over and over in her head as she ran deeper into the woods. The woods were getting darker, more sinister, now and as she looked around she could sense eyes on her. Sandra remembered the day after her mother had told her the story of the vampires. She had been standing at the edge of the woods, looking in. She had only been staring, and was still in the full blaze of the sun, not the shadows. However, curiousity got the best of her, as it had done with many others, and she had carefully stepped into the shadows. As soon as she had done that, Sandra had heard a low snarl sending her running back to the safety of her own home. This had lead her to asking her mother the question; ‘how were werewolves made, Mother?’. Her mother had stroked her hair and told her that a little while after the clone and its apparant success, dog breeders were tempted to try and relive that success. They had bred several huskies and hyenas together, hoping to make the perfect breed. However, the blood thirstiness of the hyena and the strength of the husky had a negative affect on the half breed, and it had ended up, once again, craving human flesh and blood. ‘But, werewolves can turn into humans, can’t they?. The answer had been yes. According to her mother, when the first husky and hyena mated, the hyena had bitten a human, meaning all three bloods were mingled together during the breeding; resulting in a werewolf.
Sandra stopped against a tree to catch her breath; she had been running so fast. As she did that, she remembered her first time in the woods. It had been scary, and every owl hooting or crack of a tree bark had her screaming in terror and clutching her heart. She hadn’t felt calm there until she spotted a man a few steps in front of her. The man was very handsome. He had green eyes so bright they nearly made her eyes squint and hair so blonde it shown like a star in the dark. He had just stared at her. She had felt sweat drip off her hands and her heart had started a violent drumming rhythm.
‘Who are you? she asked, cocking her head elegantly to the side in wonder.
‘I should be asking you that same question. You’re not meant to be here, girl.’ His voice was as rough as knives, and it made her stomach twist pleasantly.
‘And you are?’ she cocked a brow.
The man laughed. ‘Come.’ He held his hand out to her.
No! Run! Run! Run! her body screamed at her, but her mind had other plans. She walked gingerly over to the man and grabbed his hand.
He had smiled gently at her before raising it up to his lips and laying a soft kiss there.
‘You’re beautiful.’ He had murmured lightly.
A crack in the overhead tree startled Sandra back to reality. She smiled happily. That had been a spectacular night, and had made Sandra realise that none of the tales were true. They had all been lies; scary old wives tales to keep children out of the wood.
Over the last few weeks, Sandra had visited the mysterious man in the woods. They always kept their conversations light, and joined hands were their only physical contact.
‘My love.’ Sandra heard from behind her. She spun around and was greeted with the smiling face of her mystery man….the unknown werewolf.
‘My love.’ She murmured in return, smiling fondly at him.
‘I want to show you something today, love.’ He said, holding his hand out to her.
She took it graciously before trailing along beside him. As Sandra looked up at her love she realised she didn’t even know his name. ‘My love, what is your name?’
‘I cannot tell you that as of yet, my love. For now, we will just be each other’s love.’
Something inside of Sandra twisted in dread.
Her love brought her to a grand opening in the trees, and from the light all around, it seemed to be a small village situated in the middle of the woods. Sandra laughed, gleefully. How wonderful, she thought.
The trees surrounding the opening were all covered in thousands of small candles and fairylights, giving the opening a dull glow of light. In the opening, there must have been around a hundred small tents, all different colours ranging from gold to pink to green. There were bonfires set around everywhere with people laughing, eating and drinking merrily. Some people were even dancing to silent music. Sandra was overwhelmed.
One thing that did seem odd, something Sandra didn’t realise until too late, was that everyone was wearing the same outfit; fitted brown leather trousers and an oversized golden t-shirt with a big symbol on it. The symbol was a star with a line going half way through it.
Her love stered her down the pathway, leading her right into the middle of the opening. As soon as they saw her, the laughter, eating, drinking and dancing came to an immediate halt. They were all just staring, until smiles appeared on their faces; and not nice smiles either.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. The girl we’ve been waiting for!’ her love shouted out at the crowd. There was a loud cheer from the crowd, clapping and screeching. But, it was the comment from the man sitting nearest her that caught her attention. ‘Oh, he says that everytime’ was what he said when her love had made his announcement. Everytime? What does that mean? Sandra was completely at a loss.
She looked up at her love and smiled. He didn’t smile back.
‘Come with me, love.’ He said, gently, taking her by her hand.
He roughly tugged her into the biggest tent and closed the flap. ‘This is the moment in our relationship I have been waiting for.’ He sighed.
‘Oh?’ Sandra said, looking down nervously.
All of a sudden, instead of her love’s warm, soft hands lifting her chin up as they usually did. Furry, rough paws were replaced; they felt odd on her skin and Sandra couldn’t help the scream that ripped from her throat.
She looked up at her love, instead it was no longer him. In his place was a massive werewolf, and he was pratically drooling with hunger.
‘We’ve been waiting for so long for you, my love.’ He cooed at Sandra. At this moment, she was just shocked that werewolves could talk. She idly wondered if anyone knew. ‘My family out there are so hungry for fresh meat. We’ve been waiting for so long.’
As the werewolf branded its teeth and snarled, Sandra couldn’t believe how stupid she’d been. If only she’d listened to those stupid wives tales and her mother.
‘Wait,’ she said, ‘what’s your name?’
‘Bane.’
And that was all that was spoken between the two before the werewolf ripped the young girl with midnight black hair and piercing blue eyes to pieces. She hadn’t even screamed. The only thing going through her head was that curiousity really did kill the cat.
**All my own thoughts and words. Hope you enjoyed it.**
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First you say "In the land of creatures, the Dark Woods was a forbidden place". Then you say 'For it held creatures such as..."
It would have been more effective if you had used words like 'abominations' or 'beasts' instead of 'creatures' to describe what lurked in the woods.
Its 'prey', not 'pray'.
The story is quite nice, and I must say, I did enjoy it. Hope you're not thinking of quittig anytime soon
wow, she is an idiot but i do feel for her, i am so useed to long novels so i just expected some kind of rescue operation but i realised that was not going to happen. Strangely i don't know who to hate more, Bane for tricking her and then eating her or her for being so recklessly stupid. Honestly i always and watch and read the inevitables and it ticks me off when some idiot walks right into trouble. I just sit there and say if i was in that situation i wouldn't do what she did or what he did. I neever get it.
Anyhow i liked the way the story was structured. There was good descriptiona dn just the right amount. There was enough said i think to answer any questions the reader might have although i do have one. where is this mother of hers, do they not realise that she has been making such visits?
I like how you took mythical beasts and turned them into modern concepts. Underlying this fairytailish novel is actually a lesson that can teach a few idiots something in the modern world. Curiosity really can kill a cat. if only people listen. I like how there is this ominous feeling throughout, at least thats what i felt anyway. There was something sinister to this story. As i was reading it i always imagined a dark setting, all gloomy. It certainly kept that way.
I am glad you kept the ending simple rather than try and make it all dramatic, that may have ruined the whole build up till then. Instead you made this simple entry and exit method of killing her where it was just done and there was nothing to do about it.
I am so pleased with myself for clicking on this, well done
Thank you so much.
The thing with her mother; I wanted her mother not to be involved and not know about her daughter's visits simply because I was always taught from a young age that once i'm told something it is my decision, and mine alone, whether I listen to that advice or whether I don't. Sandra's curiousity got the best of her and that is what killed her.
I totally agree with you; everytime I watch a horror film i'm always shouting at the character who decides to go towards the freaky noise or whatever.
xx
WOW. Of course I enjoyed this
Amazingly written. Wow... just wow. Poor Sandra... it akes you want to go find Bane and stop him.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate your feedback
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